“Daddy says you’re like a mama bear with cubs,” Adam replied dryly, his humor already so much like his father’s.
A burning knife twisted in her gut. She replied stoutly, “He’s right. Grrrr.”
Adam smiled reluctantly. But he wasn’t about to be diverted so easily. “You won’t let the bad man get you, too?”
“Never.”
“Promise?”
“I promise. Cross my heart, hope to die, alligator in my eye.”
“Alligator in your—” Adam giggled. “That’s silly.”
“Made you laugh, didn’t it?”
“Yes.” He waxed thoughtful once more. Impossible to distract, he was. Just like both of his parents on that score. “Where do you think the bad man is?”
“Hmm. I don’t know. But I’m really, really good at finding people. I found Daddy before, didn’t I? I’ll find the bad man, and I’ll find Daddy, again. I’d never let anything happen to anyone in our family. I’m a mama bear, and you and Ellie are my cubs. Don’t you ever forget that, okay?”
Adam nodded against her neck.
She closed her eyes and prayed for strength. She had to find Nick. Figure out what had gone so wrong so fast. And somehow, some way, put it right. Her children needed their father.
Laura was startled when Marta announced that Tatum Carter was at the house and waiting in the library to speak with her. Since when did lawyers make house calls? He must be panicked over Nick’s abrupt disappearance yesterday. Join the club.
She left her computer, which had been giving up a treasure trove of information on one Nikolas Spiros, and walked down the hall to the library. “Tatum. This is a pleasant surprise. What can I do for you today?”
“Tell me where Nick is. The feds are going to have my head on a platter if I lose their star witness for them. The trial starts next week.”
She replied quietly, “If I knew where he was, do you think I’d be standing here talking to you?”
“What the hell’s going on with him, Laura?”
She sighed. “I think we all underestimated the trauma he’s suffering from. And I think we all ignored the possible problems his memory loss could be concealing.”
“What’s your gut feel about him? Is he stable enough to put on a witness stand? If AbaCo skates on this kidnapping charge, it’ll be like letting Al Capone get off on the tax evasion charges that finally landed him in jail where he belonged.”
She wasn’t concerned about Nick’s stability as much as she was about the state of his heart. Had he already abandoned her and the kids and returned to his old life? Goodness knew, Nikolas Spiros had lived a life of glamorous excess that went well beyond even her wealth to provide.
She spoke with a conviction she was far from feeling. “If Nick goes on the witness stand, he’ll do what he has to do to put away his captors.” Even if it messes up his personal life? Costs him the Spiros fortune? She’d like to think he was that honorable, but at this point, she had no way of knowing.
“Where is he, Laura? What’s your best guess?”
“My best guess—” her best hope “—is that he’s gone away to deal with the fallout of his past and that he’ll be back when it’s resolved.”
“How long is that going to take? He’s got about a week to get his ducks in line.”
She shrugged. If only Nick had confided in her. Had let her help him. She had enormous resources, official and unofficial, at her fingertips with which to help him. She understood his impulse to protect her and the kids, to keep his new life far away from his old one. But she was still as frustrated as all get out at her current helplessness. If only she knew where he was!
“Tatum, if you were a wealthy man who’s been out of touch with his life for a while, where would you go to pick up the threads?”
“Easy. My stock broker and my lawyer.”
She nodded. “How do I go about finding out who Nick’s—Nikolas’s—personal attorney was six years ago?”
Tatum frowned. “Client lists are confidential. But I could make a few phone calls. Maybe find out something off the record. Where was Nick living prior to his kidnapping?”
“His shipping empire was headquartered in Athens and had offices all around the world.” Including Paris. “His North American headquarters was in Boston.”
Tatum called an attorney buddy of his from law school who practiced in Boston. That guy didn’t know anything, but referred Tatum to someone else. As the lawyer placed a second call, she reflected on the enormous power of good-old-boy networks.
The second lawyer knew something. She could tell by the way Tatum’s face lit up as he listened intently.
“Ward, MacIntosh and Howe,” Tatum announced as he disconnected the call. “Want me to contact them and see if Nick’s been in their offices recently?”
“Sure.”
If Nick had been to visit his lawyer, he might still be in the Boston area. During his incarceration, his shipping company had been sold out from under him, and he might very well be trying to reverse that sale. If not that, Nick was probably getting funds released into his hands to finance whatever he planned to do next. She had an alert set on their joint bank accounts to notify her the second Nick accessed any of them, but so far, he hadn’t. He was welcome to whatever he needed or wanted from her accounts.
Funny how love and family made something like money seem so trivial. Not that she’d ever been that hung up on wealth. She just wanted to have enough to do what she wanted to without having to worry about it. Case in point: It had been handy over the past five years to finance her own investigations as she helped women find the fathers of their children. Most of her clients had been in desperate financial straits and couldn’t have paid her a dime even if they’d known who she was.
Tatum was on hold with Nick’s law firm and muttering to himself as he waited. “… fly up to Boston and try to contact him before the federal prosecutors get wind of the fact that he’s fled.”
“I don’t think he’s fled,” she responded. “I think he’s taking care of personal business.”
“Yeah, well, he’d better take care of it fast—” He broke off and spoke into the phone. “This is Tatum Carter of Carter and Associates in Fairfax, Virginia. I represent Nick Cass—Nikolas Spiros—in an upcoming trial against the people who allegedly kidnapped him. I need to speak with Nick’s attorney at your firm.”
Laura frowned as Carter visibly paled.
“I’m so sorry,” he stammered. “I’ll be in touch in a few days. Of course. My sympathies.”
Alarmed, Laura blurted the second he hung up, “What happened? What’s wrong?”
“Nick’s lawyer is dead. Someone broke into the guy’s house last night. The police think William Ward startled the intruder and was murdered.”
Warning bells clanged wildly in Laura’s head. Home robbery, her foot. What were the odds that someone randomly broke into the lawyer’s house the day after his kidnapped billionaire client surfaced? Ohmigosh. Nick. How much danger was he in? Her gut yelled that he was the prime target on the hit list.
“I have to go, Carter. I’ll be in touch.” She raced out of the room and upstairs to pack. Somewhere in the next