Page 61 of Kidnapping of a Myth

“We can’t go through official channels, but will you look for his supplier?” Bel asked. “If he was consuming Pixie Dust in such high doses, I bet there’s a massive supply infrastructure surrounding the witch cooking this.”

“It’s possible. I’ll put feelers out, but if a witch is producing such volume, she’s clearly being protected. I might not be able to find her, and even if I do, she’ll be too dangerous to go up against… are you sure you don’t want to go to the hospital?” Eamon slipped his palm over her chest to rest against her heart, unable to focus on witches and criminal investigations when her heartbeat roared in his ears. “Your pulse is elevated, which sounds like an emergency broadcast for your pain to me, and the scent of your blood is overwhelming.”

“I hadn’t thought of that…”

“It’s fine.” He kissed her hair as he pressed his hand firmly against her breast, savoring the feeling of life beating below his palm. “I’m fully in control of myself since I’m no longer cursed. You have nothing to fear.”

“I know,” Bel said, weakly gripping his fingers to hold them in place. “But I can’t leave. Not until I see Henry didn’t escape. Not until I know this is over.” She paused for so long that Eamon wondered if she’d fallen asleep against his shoulder, but then her whisper finally broke the silence, her weak voice like a knife through his ancient heart. “Dale Croke isn’t involved.Tick Tock,Tick Tock.I don’t think a fancy wristwatch inspired those words. They’re from a drug-laced tattoo that became Pann’s entire personality. Henry is Hook, and Dale is just an arrogant man who believes women should be beautiful, not CEOs or homicide detectives.”

“Disrespecting you was his only crime, but it’s not one we can handcuff him for, unfortunately.” Eamon kissed her forehead. “But I agree. As a board member, Croke only gets the money if Henry dies as well, but since Henry seems to be the root of this evil, their partnership makes no sense. Their motives wouldn’t align, so the ticking of his wristwatch was merely the result of an expensive, if not somewhat garish, fashion statement.”

They fell silent, and Eamon wrapped her in his arms as if his embrace might ease her suffering. Her heart rate didn’t slow. If anything, her pain only worsened the longer she sat there in the fall air, but she was stubborn. There was no removing her from the scene if she didn’t wish it, so Eamon listened to her breathing and studied her pulse. The moment she took a turn for the worse, he would drive her to the emergency room, but in the meantime, he held her close. He kept her safe.

Eventually, the FBI’s boats returned from the yacht with Henry in handcuffs and Peter Pann in a body bag. The second Henry was shoved into a squad car and no longer free to harm the Darling siblings, Bel captured Eamon’s hand.

“Okay,” she whispered. “You can take me to the hospital now.”

“How’s our girl?”Agent Jameson Barry asked as he stepped into the hospital room. “I heard you got lucky. No broken ribs.”

“Just strained muscles, a horde of bruises, and some stitches,” Bel said as she accepted the flower bouquet he’d brought her. Eamon had called her father on their drive to the emergency room the day before, and Reese had dropped Cerberus off at her sister’s before rushing over. Eamon then called Dr. Frank Victors, and even though the stitches needed were minor, the plastic surgeon insisted on doing them free of charge to ensure Bel healed without scarring. The hospital had also kept her overnight for observation, but she wasn’t in any danger.

“Thank God,” Barry said. “You scared me at the marina.”

“She scared us all,” her father chimed in.

“Agent Barry, this is my dad, Reese.” Bel introduced the men. “He was a NYPD chief of police before he retired.”

“So that’s where she gets it.” Barry shook Reese’s hand. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Emerson. You have one impressive daughter.”

“I think so.” Her dad beamed with pride. “She likes to keep me on my toes, though.”

Eamon unceremoniously grunted his agreement, and Bel reached out to grab his hand. He slid his palm against hers and lifted her knuckles to his lips before settling deeper into his seat.

“Well, I wanted to stop by and check on you,” Barry said, “but you also deserve an update. I felt I should bring it to you personally.”

“I’ll go get a cup of coffee and a sandwich,” Reese said, understanding their need for privacy. “Text me when you’re done.”

“Thanks, Dad,” Bel said as her father kissed her forehead, and when he’d left the room, Agent Barry eyed Eamon. The hulking man made no move to leave his post, though, his fingers tightening subtly around Bel’s, and she had to stifle a smirk at the man’s protectiveness. Clearly realizing he was outmatched, Barry sighed and dragged a chair closer to the bed.

“Henry won’t talk about what happened on the yacht, but seeing how every bone in his hand is broken, whatever transpired terrified him.” Barry glanced at Eamon as if to tell them he didn’t need Henry’s confession to guess the truth. “He sang like a bird when we interrogated him. Seems fear combined with the hopes that he could spin the tale in his favor since Pann is dead gave him a loose tongue… and Detective, before you panic, Pann’s death will have no bearing on Henry Knight’s prosecution. He isn’t getting away with this.”

Bel sagged against her pillows with relief, and Agent Barry continued his explanation. “Henry and Peter were workingtogether, but there’s a good reason why we never found the connection. The Knight family was incredibly wealthy, and Henry’s mother was a teen mom. Her parents helped raise her son, and for his formative years, Henry was the product of insane wealth. In his preteen years, his mother fell for a man with no money or status. Her parents believed he was only after her fortune, and to prove it, they threatened to write both Henry and their daughter out of their will, hoping that would stop the marriage. She married him anyway, so the Knights disowned Henry and his mom. Henry went from being a trust fund child to living in a two-bedroom apartment overnight, and he never forgave his mother for stealing his promising future.”

“They disowned their grandson?” Bel asked, disbelief coloring her tone. “He was just a child.”

“I can’t imagine being so heartless, but I had agents look into the Knights,” Barry said. “Seems they were known for their calloused wealth. And it doesn’t end there. When Henry was a young teenager, both his mom and stepdad died in a car accident. The Knights had severed all ties by this point, so without family to claim him, he was sent to a boy’s home. That’s where he met Peter.

“Henry was a smaller kid, and the other children tortured him relentlessly until Peter stepped in. Peter was a violent and feared teen, but he took a liking to Henry. A pair of lost boys, they stuck together and made a pact. If one of them ever got out and came into money, they would help the other.

“Henry spent a year under Pann’s influence, but his stepfather’s uncle learned about his predicament. He filed the proper paperwork and became the boy’s legal guardian. By all accounts, he was a good parental figure, but like his nephew, he wasn’t wealthy. He was also older, so when he passed, Henry tried to reconnect with his grandparents. They rejected him, though, and when they died, the only thing they left him was hisbirth certificate. Their wealth was willed to charity to spite their grandson. Henry was still penniless, and that’s when he set his sights on Wendy Darling. She was vulnerable after her parent’s passing, and Peter built a profile on her, allowing Henry to transform himself into her perfect man.”

“So that’s why there were no financial transactions between them,” Bel said. “He didn’t hire Pann. It was a childhood pact… but how did we miss that? How did we miss the boy’s home?”

“When Henry’s mother married, she took her husband’s name,” Barry said. “They’d fled after being cast out by her parents, meaning she’d left Henry’s birth certificate behind. Her husband never legally adopted him, so there was no official documentation tying Henry to his stepfather, but to distance herself from her family, his mother lied and enrolled him in school as Henry Cartwright after her husband. She didn’t want a reminder that they were Knights, and because they were penniless when they died, Henry slipped through the cracks. He entered the boy’s home as a Cartwright, and then he went on to live with his stepfather’s uncle as a Cartwright. It wasn’t until he received his birth certificate as an adult that he reclaimed the name Knight with government identification.”

“So the FBI was looking for a connection between Henry Knight and Peter Pann that never existed because a poor kid named Cartwright slipped through the system’s cracks, and we never knew,” Bel said.

“Looks like it,” Agent Barry said. “Peter left the boys’ home to make a career out of what he was good at, and Henry fought to regain the wealth he lost decades ago, but they never forgot their promise. They planned for Peter to kidnap the brothers and kill them and then Wendy after their secret elopement, leaving Henry as the sole heir of the Darling millions.”

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