Page 117 of Winter Vows

“How are you feeling?” he asked instead.

Bobby shrugged.

“Got a fever, maybe?”

“I guess,” he said and inched backward.

“It’s okay,” Dylan soothed. “I’m not here to hurt you. Your mom sent me.”

The boy’s eyes went wide. “You know Mommy?”

“I sure do.”

He uttered a tiny sigh and looked nervously toward the door. “Don’t tell my daddy, but I miss Mommy.”

Dylan grinned. “Want to talk to her? She’ll tell you it’s okay to come with me, all right?”

Bobby nodded eagerly.

Dylan took out his cell phone and placed the call to Kelsey.

“Paul?” she demanded, after snatching it up on the first ring.

“No, it’s me, darlin’. I have someone here who’d like to speak to you.” He handed the phone to Bobby.

“Mommy?” the boy said tentatively. At the sound of his mother’s voice, his little face brightened. “Mommy!”

Dylan heard Kelsey’s voice catch on a sob, then more of Bobby’s excited chatter. He found himself blinking back tears. He gave the two of them another minute to talk, then said, “Hey, sport, let me talk to her, okay?”

Bobby reluctantly handed him the phone. “Kelsey?”

“Oh, Dylan, where are you? Is he really okay? I was supposed to meet them in an hour on that old road west of Los Pinõs. When the phone rang, I thought it was Paul calling to cancel or change the meeting place. Where is he? Had he left Bobby behind?”

“No. He’s right outside the room. I decked him on the way in.”

“Oh, God,” she murmured, suddenly sounding panic-stricken. “Dylan, did you check for a gun?”

“A gun?”

“He told me if I showed up with the police he would shoot me, Bobby and then himself. He has to have a gun.”

“Well hell,” Dylan cursed, just in time to look up and straight into the barrel of the very gun in question.

“I’ll take the phone now,” Paul said with surprising calm for a man on drugs who’d just been leveled by a punch. His glass jaw didn’t seem to be affecting his ability to aim straight.

Keeping one eye on Bobby, Dylan gave Paul the phone. He couldn’t risk a confrontation with an armed man as long as Bobby was in range, not after the threat Paul had already made to kill Kelsey, his boy and himself if the police interfered.

“So, Kelsey, I guess you’ve heard there’s been a new wrinkle,” Paul said with what almost sounded like good cheer.

Dylan stared at him. Paul was enjoying this, which could only mean he was in a drug-induced fantasyland.

“This means we’ll have a little change in plans. I think I’ll bring your friend along with me, instead of Bobby. What’s he worth to you?”

“Nothing,” Dylan said, interrupting. “I barely even know your ex-wife. I’m just an investigator on the case. Nothing more.”

Paul looked skeptical. “He says you don’t give a damn about him, which could mean he’d be a lousy bargaining chip. What do you say?”

Dylan couldn’t hear what Kelsey replied, but Paul’s expression turned grim. “I’m not bringing them both. You choose, Kelsey. Your pal here or Bobby.”

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