“He might not kill a woman, but I would. You have five seconds to give me the key,” Taylor said, a chilling look in her eyes. Shirleen didn’t think twice about arguing with her. She believed with all her heart the angel with eyes as cold as blue ice was about to kill her.
“One . . .”
Shirleen ran to the stack of boxes near the window, reached into the top one, and pulled out the key.
“I didn’t have anything to do with taking those brats. I only work here, that’s all. What Billy and Cyrus do doesn’t concern me.”
Lucas snatched the key out of her hand, motioned for Hunter to keep his eye on her, and then unlocked the door. He wouldn’t let Taylor go inside first. He wanted to make certain there wasn’t someone else in the bedroom with the children.
It was dark inside, too dark to see his way around the room. Lucas lit one of the lamps after first scanning the area for signs of shadows moving about.
He spotted the little girls across the room. His heart suddenly felt as though it was going to explode with relief. And with rage.
The two little ones were sound asleep on the floor in front of the closet door. They clung to each other. One was softly weeping with her dream. Lucas couldn’t see the other one’s face. She had her head tucked under her sister’s chin.
They were beautiful children. Babies, he silently corrected. They were so tiny, they couldn’t be three years old yet. The one he could see clearly had coloring identical to Taylor’s. Both twins had white blond hair. The resemblance was close enough to make anyone believe the twins were her daughters. No doubt about it, they belonged to her.
He motioned for Taylor to come inside, then put his gun away. He moved back to the doorway to watch from a distance. He knew he would frighten the little girls if he got too close to them. He wanted them to see Taylor first.
“They’re hers, aren’t they?” Lucas heard the woman ask Hunter.
Taylor wasn’t paying any attention to Shirleen. She hurried into the bedroom. She stopped just as suddenly when she spotted the babies. Her hand went to her mouth and she let out a low, pitiful moaning sound that tore at Lucas’s heart. She stared at the babies and slowly walked over to them.
She felt faint with relief and jubilation. She was crying by the time she reached the children. She knelt down on the floor in front of them but didn’t touch either one of them for a long minute. Her head was bowed and her hands were tightly folded together in front of her. Lucas thought she might be praying.
She then reached out and gently shook her babies awake. “It’s time to go home now,” she whispered.
One of the little girls opened her eyes. She sat up, rubbed the sleep from her eyes, and stared up at Taylor. She looked curious and only mildly afraid. When Taylor stroked the side of her face and smiled at her, she put her thumb in her mouth and leaned forward. Taylor gently lifted her onto her lap. She held her close and crooned to her, and when the baby at last relaxed against her, she reached for her sister.
The other twin woke up crying. She was quick to stop her tears when she saw Taylor. She seemed to recognize her. Taylor knew that wasn’t possible, of course, for the twins hadn’t even been crawling when she’d seen them last. The little girl put her arms out to be held. Taylor lifted her onto her lap next to her sister and hugged her tight.
Taylor couldn’t quit crying. She rocked her babies in her arms and told them over and over again that everything was going to be all right. She was taking them home.
One fell asleep in her arms and the other let herself be cuddled for several minutes, then began to squirm. She wanted to look up at Taylor, and after she’d wiggled her way around and could see Taylor’s face, she pulled her thumb out of her mouth and reached up to touch Taylor’s hair.
“Are you my mama?”
“Yes.”
“Are you Allie’s mama, too?”
“Yes.”
It was all Georganna wanted to know. She leaned back against Taylor, put her thumb in her mouth again, and closed her eyes.
Lucas walked over and hunkered down next to his wife. “Are they all right?” he asked in a whisper.
“I think so,” she answered. The babies were wearing wrinkled blue-colored day dresses. Their legs and arms and gowns were covered with dirt. They hadn’t been taken care of properly, but Taylor was relieved that she couldn’t see any bruises so far.
“Let’s get them out of here, Lucas.”
He was in full agreement. And yet he hesitated. He turned, bent lower, and looked under the bed. Then he stood up. Where was the boy they’d heard about?
He lifted one of the twins into his arms. She didn’t wake up. Her head dropped to rest on his shoulder. Taylor handed him the other baby, and then she also stood up.
Lucas wanted to question the woman about where the boy had been taken. He wouldn’t rest until he had all three of them. He led the way into the living room. Hunter held up three fingers. Lucas shook his head. Then Taylor drew his attention. She reached out and touched his arm.
“Wait,” she whispered. She turned around and went back into the bedroom. Something wasn’t quite right, but she was so exhausted with worry and relief over finally finding her babies, she couldn’t figure out what was wrong.
Lucas followed her. “What is it?” he asked in a whisper so he wouldn’t disturb the babies.
Taylor shook her head. She started to turn around again, then stopped. “Why were they sleeping on the floor in front of the closet?”
She didn’t give him time to speculate on the oddity. She hurried over to the closet door and tried to open it. The door was locked.
“Get the woman in here,” Lucas called out to Hunter.
A few seconds later, Shirleen appeared in the doorway. Hunter stood behind her.
“Why is this door locked?” Taylor asked. She could barely stand to look at the woman, so repulsed was she by the sight of such evil.
“No reason,” Shirleen blurted out. “Just is.” Her words were hurried when she added, “There aren’t any clothes in there for your girls. They’re all in a box by the front door. I’ll show you where they are,” she added. Hunter stopped her from moving.
“Open the closet door,” Taylor demanded.
“Whatever for? I told you already,” Shirleen muttered. “There’s nothing inside for you to want.”
She sounded agitated now and started rambling again to cover her nervousness. “The Borders thought your girls were orphans. With their curly white hair and their big blue eyes, why, they got to be yours. They’re your mirror image. Billy and Cyrus will still try to keep them. They already got themselves a buyer. I’d hightail it out of here if I were you.”
“Unlock this door,” Taylor ordered.
Shirleen forced a shrug of indifference. “I don’t know where the key is,” she said. She folded her arms across her middle and glared at Taylor.
“Want me to kill her?”
Hunter asked the question. His voice was devoid of all emotion, which made the inquiry all the more chilling. Shirleen let out a gasp, glanced up at Hunter, and then turned her full attention to Taylor. She held her breath while she waited for her answer.
She missed Hunter’s wink. Taylor didn’t. She understood he was bluffing. He wanted to rattle the woman. Taylor wanted to worry her. She waited several seconds so Shirleen could think about the possibility, then looked at Hunter.
“Yes, please,” she called out in an oh-so-polite tone of voice that sounded very like she was ordering a second cup of tea from a solicitous waiter.
Even though Shirleen’s face was covered with makeup, she still paled considerably. When she felt Hunter’s hand on the back of her neck, she cried out, “It’s the same key that opened the bedroom door. I’ll get it.”
Hunter ordered her to stay where she was. He removed the key from the lock. He didn’t want to leave the doorway. From where he stood, he could watch the front door. If one of the Border brothers came strolling in, he wanted to be prepared. For th
at reason, he didn’t hand the key to Taylor, he tossed it to her.
She caught the key in midair, turned around, and unlocked the door. She opened it only a fraction and started to move back so she could pull the door wide, when it suddenly seemed to explode in her hand.
Taylor was knocked backward by the force of the door being slammed against her. The doorknob caught her in her side. She was thrown against the wall behind her, righted herself as quickly as possible, and then grabbed hold of the door before it could hit her again.
Lucas shouted the warning for her to stay back. Hunter leveled his gun on the opening of the closet. It was so dark inside, he couldn’t see the threat. He wasn’t taking any chances. There could be a man inside, hiding there with his gun ready, waiting to get a few of them in his sights.
Lucas was having the same thought. He moved out of the way, then half turned so the twins would be better protected. If a gun were fired, the bullet would have to pass through his back before getting to one of the babies.
Taylor started to walk forward. Lucas told her to stop. His voice was hard, abrupt. He turned to Hunter, gave him a quick nod, letting him know it was up to him to take care of the matter.
Hunter was going to do just that. He took a step to the side, thinking to approach the doorway from a safer angle, but he’d only moved a foot or two when he came to a sudden stop.
He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. A little boy, surely no older than six or seven, came flying out of his prison. He was so quick, he was almost a blur. It wasn’t until he stopped in the center of the room and frantically looked around him that Hunter and Lucas both got a good look at him. Taylor stood behind the boy and therefore couldn’t see his face.
He had dark black-brown hair that nearly reached his narrow shoulders in length. His eyes were the same color. They were wide with panic. His stance was rigid. He looked ready to spring into action.
No one said a word for several seconds. Lucas was so filled with rage on the boy’s behalf, he was shaking with it. God only knew how long the child had been locked inside the closet. Animals weren’t treated with such cruelty.
Hunter was just as outraged as Lucas was. He stared at the boy and saw himself as a child. The ache he felt inside made bile rush up into his throat. He burned with the fever of revenge.
Taylor was so astonished by the sight of the boy, she leaned back against the wall and tried to recover her breath. And then the enormity of the atrocity committed against the innocent child struck her full force. Her eyes filled with tears. Dear God in heaven, someone should pay for this sin.
Thoughts of revenge were fleeting. The little boy was obviously terrified. He needed to be comforted now. Taylor started toward the child with that single thought in mind.
He wasn’t paying any attention to her. He spotted the twins in Lucas’s arms, let out a howl of fury, and then lowered his head and went running at the man who dared to touch his charges.
Hunter put his gun away and intercepted the boy just as he was about to butt his head into Lucas’s hip.
The child was screaming and kicking and biting. Hunter held him around his waist and lifted him up off the ground. He quickly caught hold of his hand when he realized the boy was going after his gun.
He ordered the child to quit his struggle. The command was ignored. He didn’t know what he was supposed to do next. He wasn’t going to hurt the child, but he doubted the little one realized that. And so Hunter looked at Taylor for help.
She came running. “Put him down,” she told Hunter.
“He’s a little savage,” Shirleen called out. “You can see he’s a half-breed. He thinks he’s the girls’ protector. They had to lock him in the closet,” she added. “He wouldn’t let anyone near . . .”
She quit her explanation when Taylor looked at her. The fury in the angel’s eyes terrified her. Her hand went to the base of her neck and she caught a quick breath.
“He calls himself their brother,” she whispered. “He’s lying, of course. Just look at him and you can see they aren’t related,” she added with a snort.
“He is their brother.” Taylor made the statement in an emphatic tone of voice.
The boy stilled in Hunter’s arms and looked up at her.
She nodded. He didn’t understand what she was telling him. As soon as he was freed from Hunter’s hold, he tried to run past her to get to the little girls again.
Taylor grabbed hold of his hand and pulled him into her side. Dark hair hung down over his forehead. She gently brushed the hair away from his brow. He wouldn’t look up at her now but kept his attention fully directed on Lucas.
“We’re going home now,” she told the child.
He dared a quick look up at her. “You can’t take them away from me. I won’t let you.”
She could feel him trembling. She wrapped her arms around him and leaned down to whisper in his ear. Lucas couldn’t hear what she was saying to the child, but when she at last straightened away from him, he was looking up at her with tears in his eyes.
She put her hand out. He clasped hold of it. He was still afraid to trust her. She could see it in his eyes. She slowly nodded, telling him without words she meant what she had just promised him.
He tightened his hold on her hand. She wanted to weep.
“Where are your shoes?” she asked. Her voice shivered with emotion.
“I don’t have any. They threw them away.”
Taylor didn’t show any outward reaction to his remark. “We’ll get you a pair tomorrow.”
His eyes widened in surprise over her promise.
She smiled at him and then turned to Hunter. She wasn’t about to let the child walk barefoot outside. “We’re ready to leave now,” she told him. “Will you carry him?”
Hunter nodded. The boy pulled back when Taylor tried to lead him across the room. He was obviously afraid of Hunter, and Lucas as well, she surmised, because he kept giving both giants fearful glances.
She wasn’t about to introduce the men. She didn’t want the horrible woman to hear their names. They had enough to contend with, and Shirleen would certainly give the Border brothers as many particulars as she could remember. If she had their names, trouble would follow.
Taylor drew the child into her arms again and leaned down to whisper to him. Both her husband and his friend patiently waited. It didn’t take long, and when Taylor was finished, the little boy was smiling.
Lucas and Hunter were both curious. The change that came over the child was startling. Whatever had Taylor said to him?
The boy let go of Taylor’s hand and walked across the room. He had a cocky bounce to his stride. He smiled up at Lucas as he passed him. He certainly wasn’t afraid of Hunter either, for when he reached his side, he reached out to clasp hold of his hand and stared up at him with wide eyes and a look of awe on his face.
Taylor looked at Lucas. He raised an eyebrow and motioned toward the child. She simply smiled at him, then suggested once again that they leave.
Shirleen followed them to the front door. Lucas was the last in the procession. Just as he was passing by the divan, the man resting there let out a low groan. Lucas shifted the babies so that he could hold them with one arm, then reached down with his right hand and slammed his fist into the man’s jaw. He knocked him out cold and never broke his stride.
Taylor requested a moment alone with Shirleen. Her husband denied her by shaking his head. Taylor turned to the obscene woman. “I’m going to make certain you spend the rest of your life in prison.”
“I didn’t have anything to do—”
Taylor didn’t let her finish her protest. “You knew what was happening. You could have helped the children. You didn’t.”
She started out the doorway when Shirleen turned and ran toward her bedroom.
“We’ll be back.”
Lucas made the comment. It wasn’t a threat. It was a promise.
They took the back steps. Taylor led the way. She kept her hand in her co
at pocket, her fingers curled around her gun.
They didn’t run into trouble. When they reached the street and started across, Taylor offered to take one of the babies. The cold air had awakened both the twins. Georganna had leaned away from Lucas and was staring at him. Alexandra also stared but not quite so blatantly. Both babies had their thumbs in their mouths. Georganna made a smacking sound when she sucked. Alexandra didn’t make any noise at all.
“They’re fine where they are,” Lucas told Taylor. “Take hold of my arm,” he ordered then.
Hunter moved up to Taylor’s other side. She reached up to pat the little boy’s arm, then turned to stroke one of the twins.
She wanted to hurry to the vehicle for it was chilly out and she didn’t want the children to catch cold. She worried about the possibility as she walked along.
Hunter wanted to get the hell out of the neighborhood before the Borders came home. He didn’t like the notion of killing the brothers with the boy in his arms. He thought about that possibility on their walk to the carriage.
Lucas’s mind was on another matter altogether—the twins’ father. George, she’d said, had been an orphan. He hadn’t had any relatives. Of course he hadn’t. Orphans never did.
And she’d known all along. The greater good. She’d told him that was why she’d married him. For the greater good. The cryptic remark finally made sense.
Madam’s master plan. Do you like children? Taylor had asked him the question. Oh, yes, the greater good.
“I’ll be damned.”
He whispered the remark so low only the twins heard him. Georganna pulled her thumb out of her mouth and smiled at him. Alexandra shyly smiled up at him as well, but she kept her thumb in her mouth.
They reached the vehicle a few minutes later. Taylor got inside first. Hunter put the little boy inside next. He sat next to Taylor.
Lucas handed Georganna to her. She put the baby on her lap and reached for the second twin. Alexandra was duly settled on her lap next to her sister.