Rise of the Notorious (26 page)

On instinct, Grant lifted the curious letter and tore it open while his mother continued to ramble on. What he saw inside sent a shiver of dread down his spine.

“Call them immediately. We’ve just received a ransom note.”

About an hour
later, Grant stood looking out his office window, focused on nothing in particular. Duke and Charlene had both contacted the police, leaving him to stew in his own fear, guilt, and grief.

He heard Quinn come in behind him and let out a long, strained breath as she ran her left hand up his back. She wrapped her arms around him and held on silently, having no words to say.

What could be said? Grant’s little sister had been kidnapped. Everything that had been happening to the family had just gotten a lot more real and dangerous.

“I barely even know her,” Grant murmured, dark grief thickening his voice. He gripped Quinn tighter, shutting his eyes against the fear licking at his insides. “My own sister, and she’s a stranger to me.”

“They will find her,” Quinn stated as confidently as she could, looking up at him. “Once she’s home safe, you can start fresh and be a bigger part of her life.”

“I should have protected her. She needed me, and I failed her.”

“Don’t blame yourself, Grant.” Her face was strained as she shook her head. “That won’t help her. You have to stay positive that the police will find her.”

“And if these people kill her?” he managed, his eyes filled with darkness and his voice cynical and cold. “How will I live with myself?”

“Stop it,” Quinn demanded, glaring at him. “You’re better than this. Take charge, take action, do whatever you have to do to get her back safely. Stop wallowing and do something, damnit.”

He stared at her for a long, haunted moment, his face unreadable. She wondered if she had crossed the line with him, but she didn’t care. She wasn’t going to let his guilt swallow him whole. He was capable of so much more than that, and she would risk whatever she had to in order to remind him of it.

She watched as the coldness in his gaze warmed and intensified, and before she could do more than blink, he leaned in and captured her mouth with his. He kissed her fiercely, possessively, until her knees felt weak and her mind blurred the lines of reason. Unable to do more, she grabbed his coat and held on for dear life while his bottled up emotions exploded out of him.

When he broke the kiss, her eyes flew open to stare at him. He met her gaze, filled with renewed vigor and purpose.

“Thank you,” he said simply, releasing her and stalking back to his desk to grab the phone.

She stared after him, stunned. “What are you doing?”

“Calling the family in for a meeting. We’re going to find her.”

S
he’s playing a silly, little prank on us,” Madison said disparagingly as she handed the ransom letter back to Grant. “She’s been feeling left out lately and she’s just trying to get our attention.”

Grant’s face hardened considerably at her callousness. “You’re suggesting that she staged her own kidnapping?”

“Yes,” Madison snapped, frustrated. She rose from the head chair of the conference table and walked to the wide windows, her arms crossed defiantly. “Isn’t it obvious by the foolish request written in the letter? That isn’t a real threat; it’s child’s play. She’s probably staying at a friend’s house, enjoying distracting us.”

Linc grabbed the letter from Grant and read the words out loud, “
The girl will be released only when Madison Vasser resigns and is charged with aiding and abetting a criminal. She deserves to be punished for her crimes. No one is above the law
.” He paused, sneering instinctually. “I don’t know, Mads. I don’t see Kennedy going this far.”

“You didn’t see her the other day,” Madison replied coldly, bristling at her brothers’ refusal to understand. “She hates me. She wants me dead for what I’ve done. Both to our father and for our grandfather.”

“She’s just a kid,” Linc began, frowning as Madison whirled around, heat flaring in her eyes.

“She
hates
me. Don’t you get that?” she snarled, losing her composure as the anger and uncertainty consumed her. She wanted to believe her own reasoning, and yet somehow there was a nagging possibility at the back of her mind that she could be dead wrong. And if she was…

Linc’s own temper rose up to combat her own. “This isn’t about you right now. This is about Kennedy and making sure she’s safe.”

“Of course it’s about
me
,” Madison fired back. “
All
of this has been about me. Don’t you see that? The people targeting us are after me, not either of you, not the rest of the family.”

“Shaw’s plans have nothing to do with you,” Grant put in coolly.

She shot him a dark look. “Maybe not, but he still used me to do his dirty work.”

“Kennedy could be dead right now and you just don’t give a shit, do you?” Linc shouted, rising to his feet to stare at her accusingly. “Even if she
did
stage this, which I don’t believe for one goddamn minute, we still need to get her back. She’s family, Mads. As much as you two may not get along, she’s blood. Your blood, my blood,
our
blood. We don’t leave Vassers out to die in the battlefield. We go and we get them.”

Madison sucked in a deep breath, fighting back her anger and her stubborn pride. She knew it was foolish, knew it wasn’t helping. Linc was right, even
if
Kennedy was playing them for fools, it was better to figure it out just in case she wasn’t.

The clock was ticking, after all, and she had been missing for fifteen hours.

Marshall and Charlene burst into the conference room, Duke and Cy trailing in behind them. Cy shut the door as the others all took seats.

Charlene’s face was red and puffy from crying, which she had tried unsuccessfully to cover with makeup. Her steely composure wavered as she stared at her other three children, unable to help thinking of the one who was missing.

Marshall sat beside her and carefully wrapped an arm over her shoulders in an attempt to comfort. He was still in shock over the news, in disbelief of this new horror to strike his family.

Though, he had a pretty good idea of who may be responsible.

Linc sat back down, still vibrating with anger, while Madison remained standing. She stayed by the window, arms crossed and her expression coolly distant.

Deciding no one else was going to speak first, Grant chose to begin. “The police are assigning a detective to the case. Given the publicity our family has experienced lately, they’re taking all precautions and wasting no time.”

He paused, shooting a glance at his sister. Her expression was cold and impossible to read.

Irritated with her, he continued. “We must consider the possibility that Kennedy is doing this as a prank, however unlikely that may seem.”

“I have a theory, Grant,” Marshall interrupted. All eyes turned to him. “I received the case file from my contact in the Army and reviewed it. While there were a number of things that disturbed me about the file, there was one bit of information included that I think pertains to our current situation.

“The man who covered up my father’s crimes was a man by the name of Paul Morgan. His wife was of Vasser lineage, and therefore he was blackmailed into hiding the truth. His son is now running in the senate race against Shaw. It is my belief that Shaw wants to use this information to hurt Morgan’s chances, and in preparation for that he may be doing all he can to dirty our name.”

Grant and Linc shot each other knowing looks before looking back to Marshall.

“We knew that already,” Linc began, watching as doubt and surprise contorted his uncle’s face. “Grant and I met with Shaw several days ago and he warned us about his plans to go public with that information.”

“Why would he warn you?” Cy asked, laughing at the thought. “That seems like a stupid move.”

“Because he thought he was doing the noble thing by letting us know beforehand. That way maybe we could prepare for the backlash likely to come from it,” Linc replied. “Either way, if we’re going to start assuming here that
he
kidnapped Kennedy, then I think we’re kidding ourselves.”

“He’s a sitting senator, this would ruin him,” Grant added, staring around the room. “I for one think this goes deeper than all of that.”

Madison immediately thought of the secret letters she had received and felt sick to her stomach. She turned toward the window to hide the startled realization on her face.

This was it. This was her courage blinding her to the blood at her feet. It
was
going to be her family’s blood. Kennedy’s blood.

She didn’t hear what else was said by her family as they continued to theorize behind her. Instead, she stared out the window at the city, the buildings shadowed by clouds that slowly blocked out the sun. Guilt crept into her heart, punching her viciously until her chest tightened with misery.

Someone out there wanted her gone.

If she held firm and refused to back down, her sister may die. If she gave in and relinquished her position, her family may crash and burn.

Her eyes shot to the sky, narrowing with fury. If this was God’s plan for her, then He clearly had a sick and twisted sense of humor.

Detective Tina Crawford
sat patiently in the alcove outside Grant’s office hours later, her hands folded over her notepad and her eyes curiously taking in her surroundings.

Her light hair and eyes spoke of her Swedish heritage, while her short stature and slim build had made her early years on the force a never-ending fight. She was composed, quietly serious, and stronger than she looked. When she’d been offered the promotion to detective five years earlier, her entire life had clicked happily into place.

She enjoyed puzzles and had a particularly good sense of other people and their motives. It was this skill that she used now as she analyzed the Vasser Hotel.

She’d never been inside before, but found it to be everything they said it would be. Luxurious, sophisticated, metropolitan…it perfectly suited the block of the city it resided in. People didn’t come to the Upper East Side for a cheap motel. They came for extravagance.