Ann Voss Peterson - Vow To Protect

He spun around, expecting to see a cop coming back for a second try at strewing his belongings over every inch of floor. Instead a bookish man with a smart-ass smile and wire-rimmed glasses peered at him from the hallway.

“Who the hell are you?” Cord asked.

“Aidan Powell. I’m with the Capital Times.”

A reporter. Cord almost groaned out loud. “Why are you here?”

“I’ve heard from a reliable source that you are the son of Dryden Kane.”

Cord felt sick. He knew reporters would eventually unearth that fact. With the building media frenzy over the serial killer, it was inevitable. But he’d hoped it would take longer than this. “Who told you that?”

“Is it true?”

He grabbed the door. “If you insist on answering my question with a question, you can do it through a closed door.”

He held up a hand, blocking the door. “Wait.”

“You’re going to tell me who is spreading this crap?”

“I heard it the same place I heard that Kane also has a grandson. A kid by the name of Ethan Frist.”

Cord pushed the door aside. Reaching out, he grabbed the reporter by the shirt. “Where did you hear that?” Heat crept up his neck. Pressure built in his head.

“Does Kane know?”

“Tell me where you heard it.” He hadn’t even known he had a son until a few hours ago. But a reporter knew? A reporter who would write about it in his rag for Dryden Kane to see. If the monster didn’t already know he had a grandson, he would now. Cord gave the guy a shake.

The guy’s glasses flew, landing somewhere in the mess strewn over Cord’s apartment’s floor. His eyes widened, as if he had finally figured out he’d made a mistake. “Hold on.”

“I want an answer,” Cord demanded.

“Hey, back off.” Powell’s voice trembled along with his chin. “Everybody knows. Not just me.”

“Everybody?”

“The TV news crews have had it for the past half hour. I’m the only one who cared enough to get a confirmation.”

A half hour? After Cord had left the police department, he’d had to hop a bus back to Mel’s house to get his police-rummaged truck. He’d driven back to his apartment in silence, unable to stomach anything but the worries being broadcast in his own mind.

He tightened his grip on the reporter’s shirt, pulling the crisp cotton taut around the little worm’s throat. “Did you hear this from the police?”

The reporter’s eyes flared.

Bingo.

“Who in the police department gave you the information?”

“I can’t tell you that.”

“What do you mean you can’t tell me?”

“I promised confidentiality. I can’t reveal my source.”

The guy was scared to the point of pissing his pants. But he chose to protect his source instead of his hide?

Maybe there were idealists left in the world.

Cord released the reporter’s shirt, letting him fall back against the door like a sack of laundry. “This isn’t just some kid. This is my son. When this hits the airwaves and newspapers, Kane could see it. And if Kane knows about him…” What would the monster do? Cord didn’t know. But he sure as hell didn’t want to find out.

Aidan Powell picked himself up, straightened his shirt and put on his glasses, then swallowed a few times before meeting Cord’s eyes. “That’s not all Kane will find out.”

“What else?”

“The boy and his mother are staying at a hotel on the west side of town. The TV cameras are over there now.”

Staying in a hotel? They weren’t merely staying. They were hiding. Hiding from Kane.

And now the serial killer only had to switch on a television set to find out where they were?

As soon as Cord had seen Mel and his son, he knew he had to walk away. He wasn’t the kind of man who could be a father. A husband. He couldn’t do anything but drag Ethan and Mel down.

But he couldn’t walk away—not quite yet.

He might not be able to be part of the family, but neither was he going to sit by and let anyone hurt Ethan or Mel.

Especially not a sick bastard like Dryden Kane.

MELANIE WATCHED ETHAN cross the pool deck and jump cannonball style into the swimming pool. A splash of chlorine-scented water hit the deck in front of her and spattered her legs.

The water felt nice on her skin, cool, and for a moment she wished she were wearing her swimming suit instead of the T-shirt and shorts she’d changed into. The prospect of slipping into the pool, lounging in the hot tub that bubbled under fake palm trees or taking her son’s challenge and trying out the slide that curled around the circumference of the indoor water park beckoned on the edge of her mind like a seductive dream.

She rolled her shoulders, trying to relieve the tension aching in her back and arms. Her shirt stuck to her skin, damp with sweat.

If only this really were a vacation, a time to relax with her son instead of just a way to take Ethan’s mind off the fact that they were hiding from a serial killer. If only she could dial back time to yesterday, when she and Ethan had a normal life, a good life, filled with neither hair-raising excitement nor tragedy. But if-onlys accomplished nothing. The only real avenue she had was to pray the police would catch Dryden Kane, pray Ethan would never find out the monster was his grandfather, and pray that Cord would stay out of their lives.

She glanced at the police officer standing a few yards from her at the edge of the pool area. Reed McCaskey had assured her that an officer would stay with them until Kane was back behind bars or dead. She should feel safe. Secure. But the vague dread that had started with Cord’s appearance at her house continued to build.

She had to get her mind off Kane and off Cord if she was going to hold on to her sanity. She focused on Ethan, on the unbridled fun he and the other children were having. On the far side of the dome, kids crawled over a wrecked pirate ship and zipped down slides springing from the hull.

And beyond them, through the window, something moved. A face peered through the glass.

A gasp caught in Melanie’s throat. She stepped closer to get a better look.

A woman stared through the window, scanning the pools and water slides. A bright light turned on behind her, illuminating a van parked along the curb. A van with a cable-news logo emblazoned on the side.

The media?

She glanced back at the warehouse-size room. Ethan perched on top of the longest waterslide, getting into position to take its winding ride into the pool.

Could the media have found out Ethan was Dryden Kane’s grandson? Could they be planning to tell the world?

She inhaled a breath of humid, chlorinated air. She couldn’t let herself panic. If they knew, there wasn’t anything she could do to change it. But she’d be damned if they were going to get footage of her son to go along with the story.

She crossed the pebbled surface of the pool deck to where the cop was keeping watch. “A cable-news crew is outside.”

The cop gave her a surprised look and glanced around the pool area. “News crew? Where?”

She pointed at the news crew just as the reporter peered through the window.

He shrugged a shoulder. “They’re probably covering some event or something. Don’t worry.”

“An event? Do you see an event going on in here?”

“You think they’re taping you?”

“No, I think they’re taping my son.”

Pushing out his lower lip, he nodded in a glib way, as if the whole situation was nothing more than an interesting joke.

Didn’t he know what kind of monster he was protecting her and Ethan from? “You aren’t taking this seriously.”

“I’m taking it plenty seriously. You need to calm down, ma’am.”

Calm down? Not until she knew her son was safe. Not until this damn mess was over and her life and Ethan’s were back to normal. “Tell them to leave.”