All Due Respect (31 page)

Cornered rats attack.

Julia stared up at him. “Seth, we’ve got to do something.”

“I know.” He did know. But the U.S. had no operational missile-defense system and Congress wouldn’t fund his damn sensor system. So what exactly could they do? “Let’s talk to Colonel Kane.”

“NO.” Colonel Kane flatly refused, then sent Julia a sympathetic look. “I understand, okay? You love Jeff as if he were your own. I have kids, too, so I really do understand. But I can’t save one child and jeopardize a nation, and that’s what you’re asking me to do.”

Julia glanced down her mud-streaked arm to her wrist at her watch. Nine hours—that was how long they knew for certain Jeff had been buried. It could be longer. Karl had to have buried Jeff before coming to the cabin. It had to have taken him a couple of hours to wire the area with bricks of C-4, but he could have done that before burying Jeff. When, exactly, he had buried Jeff now became critical. Jeff could already be out of oxygen.

Think, Julia. Think!

She licked at her lips. “Colonel Kane, I suggested this before, and I understand why you didn’t do it then, but we’re out of time. Jeff could be out of time. You’we got to check the grounds around my apartment and Seth’s house in town.”

“Why would Hyde risk that?” Colonel Kane asked. “He’d be exposed in neighborhoods, Julia. Being seen burying a kid in your front yard just doesn’t fit his professional profile.”

“Oh, but it fits his personal one,” she countered. “Karl has always flaunted his superiority over others by dominating them. He builds his power by draining it from others.

He would risk it. He’d get a royal high out of burying Jeff alive right under everyone’s noses.”

Because that was true, and she once had married him, once even had loved him, venom filled her voice. “He’d see a poetic justice in it. Either place—my apartment, or Seth’s house. If Jeff’s near my apartment, then Karl’s rubbing my face in it. I love Jeff, and his death is my fault. If he’s near Seth’s, well, Karl always has believed Seth and I were lovers—which we’re not, although he still believed it. So it would be Karl’s way of punishing me for being unfaithful. He doesn’t recognize divorce, either.”

“I agree with her, Colonel.” Seth stepped to her side, put his arm around her waist. “Either place does fit Karl’s personal profile.”

Colonel Kane blew out a breath, looked off into the distance, and weighed the matter. “Okay. We’ll try it.”

Hope lifted in Julia and she gave Seth’s hand a squeeze. “Thank you.”

Kane nodded and adjusted his lip mike. “Paddy, scramble two teams. Send one to Dr. Warner’s apartment to nose around, and the other to Dr. Holt’s home in town.”

“Let’s go, Julia.” Seth guided her toward the Camry.

She followed but cast him a frown. “Where are we going?”

“To your apartment.” The car door opened with a squeak. “We learn what we can from our abuse and shut out the rest. It’s how we survive, right?” When she nodded, he went on. “Something you said about Karl struck one of my shut-outs. My father used to be just like Karl. He never eased up on my mother. Constantly, he proved to her that she deserved being ‘punished.’ He’d leave her little reminders that she’d forced him to do what he’d done to her. Karl would do that, too. And if he runs as true to form as my father did, he’ll do it at your place, not mine. Maximum guilt.”

WHEN Julia and Seth arrived at her apartment, the team was already on-site, scouring the grounds with electronic

equipment. Heat-seeking sensors, Julia supposed, and only God knew what else.

A dog handler arrived. He had the dog smell Jeff’s lunch box, and then turned him loose. Julia grimaced. So many people had handled the box. It would take a miracle for the dog to actually track Jeff from it.

“Dr. Holt?” A sergeant dressed in fatigues came up to Seth. “We’ve been over every inch of the yard.” His forehead filled with creases. “Nothing.”

Julia clasped Seth’s forearm, urging him to look at her. “He’s here, Seth. I feel it.”

Seth knew exactly what she meant. His own instincts were screaming it as loudly as if Jeff himself were shouting. “I know.”

“Check again,” Seth told the sergeant. ‘The guy who buried him is a trained professional with nothing left to lose. He might not have broken the sod or left the typical evidence. Look for the unusual.”

“Yes, sir.” The sergeant turned and issued orders to the rest of the team.

Seth looked over at Julia. “You start on the left. I’ll take the right. Look for anything, Julia. Anything at all.”

Already walking away, she nodded, and Seth watched her go. His heart felt heavy and full at the same time; a damn strange feeling. He had loved three people in his life. One was his mother, and she was dead. Julia was the second, and he had nearly lost her. The third was Jeff.

Jeff, who had chosen to trust Seth above everyone else. Who had hugged Seth, and had sounded so awed and surprised and so damn happy to see him. Jeff, who after being betrayed by his father had shown more courage than most adults, telling Seth the truth about the bruise, and then had shown still more courage by opening his heart and looking into Seth’s eyes, and saying, “I love you.”

He couldn’t lose the boy. He couldn’t… lose the boy.

Seth turned right, strode past the patio and down the lawn from the lot line to the row of azaleas. He backed into them, stepping between two bushes.

His feet sank down a good six inches.

Seth riveted his flashlight. Broken branches between the two bushes. He swept down to the ground. Wet soil, but freshly turned. Something red. His skin prickled, the little hairs on his neck lifted. Jeff’s BAMA key ring. “Jeff? Can you hear me, son?”

No answer.

“Jeff, hold on, buddy. Just hold on.” Seth dropped to his knees, began digging with his hands. “Julia!” he shouted. “Over here.”

Julia ran the width of the yard, clipped the corner of the house with her right shoulder. Pain streaked down her arm, across her back, but she kept running. “Where are you?”

“Under here.” Seth didn’t pause digging. Dirt flew out from his cupped hands. “Get help. Get a shovel. I think he’s down here.”

“You think!”

“Damn it, I know, okay?” Seth threw her an ornery look. “I know the same way I know I love you and you love me. Now would you get me a damn shovel?”

“Yeah.” A little stunned by his declaration, Julia turned, spotted the sergeant, and yelled her request.

Within half a minute, the dark side of the apartment between buildings was flooded with men and spotlights and the sounds of shovels scraping dirt.

One hit something metallic. “It’s here, Dr. Holt.”

On his knees, Seth shifted toward the spot. So did Julia. Standing behind Seth, she looked over his shoulder, elated and full of fear. What if it had been too long? What if Karl hadn’t left Jeff oxygen? What if… ?

“Open the damn thing.” Seth’s elevated voice proved his fears matched her own.

The lid opened.

And Jeff lay inside, tucked into a tight little ball.

Seth reached in, felt for a pulse. For a second, nothing registered. He swiped the mud caked to his fingertips away, then tried again, pressing his fingertips lightly against Jeff’s carotid.

“Seth?” Julia couldn’t stand it. Jeff lay so still. So utterly, lifelessly still.

The beat felt more like a flutter. But it was the most beautiful feeling Seth had ever felt. “He’s alive, honey.” Tears filmed Seth’s eyes, choked his voice.

The oxygen mask put out no air. It was only blocking Jeff’s breathing. Seth removed it, tossed it on the grass. “Get the medics in here—STAT.”

Seth lifted Jeff’s little body out of the box, laid him flat on the grass. Julia dropped to her knees at Jeff’s head, smoothed his hair back, her smile devastating and devastated.

Seth swiped a finger through the boy’s mouth, making sure nothing blocked his airway, gave him a few breaths to jump-start him, and then checked his pupils and his pulse.

It took only moments to see that Jeff was in trouble. Julia sniffed back tears. “Is he breathing okay?”

“A little shallow. Pulse’s weak and thready,” Seth whispered so only she could hear, then leaned forward, close to Jeff’s ear. “Come on, buddy. Come back to us. Dr. Julia’s going to have to fit if you go to heaven and leave us here.”

A little groan escaped Jeff’s mouth.

“That’s -it, honey,” Julia said. “Come on, Jeff. You’ve got to fight to come back to us.” She looked over at Seth. “CPR?”

“No, just a little time.” The oxygen canister was nearly empty. Jeff likely had been functioning on diminished oxygen for a short time. Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for symptoms to appear. He was slow to come around. But inside, Seth knew the reason wasn’t physical. “He needs to know—”

“He’s safe,” Julia finished, understanding perfectly. She bent low, pressed butterfly kisses to Jeff’s muddy forehead. “It’s okay, honey. Dr. Seth and I are here. We’re always going to be here for you.”

Jeff grunted and whispered something she couldn’t make out. “What did he say?”

Seth smiled at her, tears shining in his eyes. ” ‘Promise?’ “

She laughed. “I promise, honey.” She nuzzled him and reached for Seth’s hand. “We both do.”

Jeff wiggled his fingertips. They clasped his hands and held tight.

WHILE the paramedics were looking Jeff over, Colonel Kane arrived. “Is he okay?”

“Yeah,” Seth said. “They’re going to transport him to the hospital for observation, but everything looks fine.”

Julia glared at Kane. “When Seth found Jeff, he barely had a pulse.”

Though it wasn’t her intention, Colonel Kane’s tense expression proved he had taken her remark as a backhanded way of saying he should have listened to her earlier. And just scared enough by her own burial and by Jeff’s close call, Julia didn’t correct him. Maybe next time he would be more open to suggestions.

The medics put Jeff on the stretcher. He looked so tiny. She left Kane and Seth and went to Jeff, clasped his fingertips. “Hey, caught your breath yet?”

“Uh-huh.” He looked worried. “Dr. Julia, where’s Dr. Seth?”

“He’s talking to Colonel Kane, honey. He hasn’t left.”

“We’re ready to transport,” one of the medics told her.

Julia nodded.

“No, wait.” Jeff’s face was pinched with worry. “I need to talk to Dr. Seth first.”

“Just tell me, honey.”

“Uh-uh. I want Dr. Seth.”

Julia felt a twinge of jealousy, and chided herself for it. She hadn’t been replaced in his affections, merely dislocated by the man who had protected him from his father and had pulled him out of his intended grave. It was natural. “Seth!” she called out to him. “Come here. Jeff needs you.”

Seth ran over and smiled down at Jeff. “What is it, son?”

He crooked a finger, motioning Seth closer, then whis

pered. “I need to tell you something, but you gotta make Dr. Julia leave. She’ll worry.”

Seth nodded. “Tell me you’re thirsty.”

“Huh?”

“Trust me, Jeff.”

“I’m thirsty.”

Seth turned to Julia. “Honey, could you get Jeff a glass of water? He’s thirsty.”

One of the medics started to object. Seth silenced him with a glare he couldn’t misunderstand.

When Julia moved out of hearing range, he looked back to Jeff. “Okay, spill it, buddy.”

“My dad brought me to the mean man. He told me he was sending me to my mom.”

Seth felt the familiar rage stir and threaten to erupt. He swallowed it back down. “I’m sorry. But it wasn’t your fault, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Really, Jeff. It wasn’t your fault.” Seth clasped his hands. “I have something bad to tell you. I was going to wait, but I think it might be better that you know it now, so you can stop worrying.”

“The mean man killed my dad, didn’t he?”

Startled, Seth met Jeff’s gaze. “How did you know?”

“I just did. In here.” He thumped his chest. “Like I knew you’d find me.”

“I’m glad I did. Dr. Julia would have been really, really upset.”

“She loves me.” Jeff looked away, then back at Seth. “You do, too.”

“Yes, we do, Jeff.”

“Dr. Seth?”

“Mmm?”

Worry flooded Jeff’s eyes. “What’s gonna happen to me?”

“You’re going to go to the hospital, and they’re going to watch you for a while and make sure you’re okay.”

“No, after then?” Jeff blinked hard, wide-eyed and worried.

When it was time to come home. He had no other family. At least, not legally. “I’m not sure how it’ll all work out yet.”

“I got nobody.”

“Wrong.” Seth disputed him in no uncertain terms. “You’ll always have Dr. Julia and me.”

Julia passed the water glass to Jeff. “I’m going to adopt you. Actually, Dr. Seth and I are going to adopt you. You’ll live with us.”

How could she tell Jeff that? “Julia—”

Her chin set, she glared at Seth. “We’ll get a judge to let us adopt you, Jeff.”

“What if he won’t let you?”

“Now that would be ridiculous, wouldn’t it?” Julia grunted. “No one in the world could love you more than we do.”

And her tone made it pretty clear a judge would agree or wish to hell he had.

“Promise?”

“Yes, we do,” Julia said.

When Seth nodded his promise, too, the worry melted from Jeff’s face.

“We need to get him to the hospital.” The medic at the head of the stretcher began to move.

Seth backed away.

Julia stepped forward. “I’m coming with you.”

Colonel Kane intervened. “No you’re not, Julia.” He motioned for the medics to go on.

Julia stood, torn.

“Don’t even think about going anyway,” Colonel Kane warned her. “You could get Jeff killed.”

She turned to stare at him.

“Right now, you’re both listed MIA.”

Missing in action? “Why?”

“The plan calls for you both to stay missing in action,” Colonel Kane continued, ignoring her question. “Hyde

won’t want witnesses, Julia. He’ll eliminate them.”

The colonel made sense. She didn’t like it, but she had to agree with him. Still, she felt torn between being with Jeff and seeing him go to the hospital alone. He had just been buried alive and nearly murdered. And even though Camden had been a bastard, he had also been Jeff’s father. Jeff would mourn. Someone needed to be there to comfort him.