Amanda Stevens - The Tempted

“What happened?” he asked again.

She drew a quivering breath and turned to face him. “I don’t know how much you remember about Eden, but Emily was kidnapped from the playground at Fair-haven Academy, a private school on the north side of town. Do you remember it?”

“A big, ivy-covered building, manicured grounds?”

Tess nodded, and Jared wondered if she had any idea that she’d just presented him another irony. Tess Granger, a fierce and proud member of the proletariat, sent her child to a private school, just as the Spencers had done for generations. Just as she’d once ridiculed them for doing. “Don’t try to change me,” she’d warned him over and over. He’d never tried to change her. All he’d ever wanted to do was love her, but that hadn’t been enough, he thought with an edge of bitterness.

“When I went to pick her up that afternoon, the teachers couldn’t find her. She’d been with a group of her classmates on the playground, but no one saw her wander off. No one saw anything. No cars, no strangers, nothing. It was as if she vanished into thin air.”

“The little girl who disappeared a long time ago,” Jared mused. “She went to Fairhaven, too, didn’t she?”

Tess nodded. “Her name was Sadie Cross. No trace of her was ever found. Emily disappeared on the anniversary of Sadie’s abduction.”

A chill crawled up Jared’s backbone. “What do the police make of that?”

“They think there’s a connection. Not only did Emily disappear on the anniversary of the abduction, but she also bears a resemblance to Sadie. Both have dark hair and brown eyes.” Her gaze settled briefly on Jared’s face before she glanced away again, as if she couldn’t quite meet his eyes. “A profiler was brought in. He thought that Sadie’s abductor might have taken her to replace someone in her life, a child who had died perhaps, and that ten years later, Emily might have been taken to replace Sadie.”

The chill inside Jared deepened. He had a sudden vision of the lake, of the secrets that could be hidden below the crystalline waters. “Is it possible that Emily was taken on the anniversary of Sadie’s disappearance just to throw off the police?”

She looked almost stricken by the idea. “I…guess it’s possible. The police have no real leads, no evidence, no clues except for a note that was found on a car in my driveway.”

“A ransom note?”

“No, a note from a child that said…she’ll be home soon. The police think it could be a hoax, but I know it was a message from Emily. I know she’s still alive, but the police have given up on her.”

“What do you mean, the police have given up on her?” Jared said with a frown.

“They’ve scaled down the search. Hundreds of volunteers came from all over the state to help in the initial ground search, but now, after so much time has passed…Emily could be anywhere.” Tess wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. “But I don’t care where she is. I don’t care what I have to do to find her. I’m not giving up. I’ll never give up.”

She was so close and she seemed so frail, so distraught. The desire to touch her was so strong that Jared rose and strode over to the window, putting distance between them. “You said you needed money.”

“I’ve offered a ten-thousand-dollar reward for information leading to her whereabouts, but that may not be enough. And I want to hire a private investigator, especially now that the police have cut back on their search. All that takes money, and I don’t have any,” she said simply. Once, there might have been a spark of defiance in her tone, but now she merely sounded…desperate.

Jared turned to face her. “How much do you need?”

She bit her lip. “I’ve been told the reward should be at least fifty thousand dollars. I don’t have any idea how much a private investigator will cost.”

He walked over to his desk, sat down, and pulled out his checkbook. “Do you have anyone in mind?” When she shook her head, he said, “We’ve used a firm here in Jackson on occasion. The guy in charge knows his stuff. I’ll be happy to give you his number.”

“Thank you.”

Jared filled in the check, scribbled his name, then handed it across the desk to her.

Her gaze lifted to his. “Just like that? No…questions asked?” The intense relief in her eyes was almost painful to witness.

“Your child is missing,” he said grimly. “I think that pretty much answers all my questions.” He nodded toward the check. “Will that be enough to start?”

She glanced at the amount and gasped. “I didn’t mean…that’s too much…”

“You said you didn’t know how much it would take. Will that get you started?”

She seemed overcome by emotion. “I don’t know how to thank you,” she finally managed to say. “I’ll pay you back. Every cent of it, no matter how long it takes me.”

He held up a hand in protest. “Don’t worry about that now. Just find your daughter. Will you keep me posted?”

Fear flickered across her features. “There’s one other thing.”

“Yes?”

She glanced down at the check in her hand. “I don’t know how to say this after you’ve been so generous.”

“Just say it.”

“Could this remain confidential?”

Annoyance darted through him. “If you think I’m going to issue a statement to the press—”

“That’s not what I meant,” she cut in. “I’d…rather your family not know.”

He gave her an exasperated look. “They’re not the ogres you’ve always made them out to be, Tess. Do you really think any one of them would have refused to help if you’d come to them? Even after what you did that night—”

Tess rose swiftly, as if she suddenly couldn’t wait to get out of his office. “Just promise me.”

“You’ve always been one for extracting a lot of promises, but it seems to me you’ve never been that great at keeping them.”

She gave him a hard, brittle look. “Only when I had good reason not to.”

“Is that so?” He stood and walked around the desk to face her. She still looked as if she wanted to flee, but to make sure she didn’t, he reached out and took her arm. Awareness shot through him. “Why did you do it, Tess?”

“What does it matter?” she asked. “It was a long time ago.”

“Really? Because it seems like yesterday to me.”

“Jared—”

It was the first time he’d heard her say his name in six years, and he couldn’t help but respond. The throaty quality of her voice…the way she gazed up at him…

“Just tell me why,” he said almost savagely.

A hint of the old rebellion glinted in her eyes. “I don’t want to talk about that night. What’s the point?”

“The point is—” He drew her slightly toward him. “You took something valuable that night, Tess. Something that didn’t belong to you. And then you just walked away. I’m not letting you leave here until you tell me why.”

Because your brother wanted me dead, Tess almost blurted.

She caught herself in time. She couldn’t tell Jared about the conversation she’d overheard that night between Royce and his wife, Ariel. She couldn’t tell him about the accident that had left her best friend in a wheelchair, because Royce Spencer was still a threat. His motives for wanting Tess and her daughter out of the way were as strong as ever.

He had his own children now, Tess had read somewhere. A boy and a girl. The perfect family. But Emily would always remain the first Spencer grandchild. The heir to a secret trust that only a handful of people had known about until Davis Spencer’s death.

And that was why Tess had left town. That was why she’d married Alan Campbell, a young man who had been just as lonely and scared as she was that summer. Alan had given Tess his name so that Emily could be born a Campbell. And in return, Tess had watched over him, remained by his side until he’d succumbed to the AIDS-related disease that had ravaged him.