Taking Jake Read online

  “Jack, honey, I told you that you’re too strong for Daddy. You have to be careful so you don’t hurt him.”

  She smiles and nods before sticking out her tongue at L.J.

  L.J. doesn’t like to be shown up. He crosses his arms over his chest. “She’s not stronger than Dad. She just hit him in the balls!”

  I bust out laughing, but Brooklyn gives me the death glare. “We don’t say that, buddy,” I tell him with the most serious tone I can muster, while a smile continues to play on my lips.

  Brooklyn places the kids’ plates in front of them, and I take ours and set them down on the table. We all sit to eat together. The kids are arguing back and forth about whatever it is they’re talking about, but Brook is quiet as she’s chewing slowly. I can tell she’s worried when all she does is pick at her food.

  “We’ll figure this out, I promise.” I reach over and place my hand on her free one.

  Her eyes meet mine, and for the first time since we’ve been together, I can tell she doesn’t believe me.

  “Easy for you to say. You’re not the one that has to discover an impossible cure. You know I’ve been working on this for years. How am I supposed to come up with the answer like that?” She snaps her fingers.

  “I don’t know, but if anyone can —”

  “I know, I know,” she interrupts me. “You have way too much confidence in my abilities.”

  We finish up breakfast, and the kids run off to play. “Why don’t you call the nanny and I’ll call Zoe,” I tell her as we’re cleaning up the kitchen.

  She dries her hands and picks up her cell phone to make the call. I’m digging through my jeans pocket to call Zoe when I hear the front door slam shut. I turn around to see Zoe barreling toward me.

  “I’m calling the police. He’s been gone too long. Something is wrong! I’ve been up all night pacing the floor, waiting for you to call me!”

  I place my hands on her shoulders. “Calm down, Zoe. Please, sit down.” I back up her a few steps, and she sits down in the kitchen chair. “Do you want some tea or coffee?”

  She reaches over and snags a piece of bacon from the center of the table. “No, but some chocolate milk would be amazing. Can I eat the rest of this?” She points to the leftover eggs, toast, and bacon on the table.

  “Help yourself,” I say as I spin around to pour her a glass of chocolate milk. If food keeps her calm, I’ll make her a feast.

  Brooklyn hangs up the phone and sits next to Zoe. “The nanny will be here soon. Did you tell her yet?”

  “Tell me what?” Zoe asks, crunching on a well-cooked piece of bacon.

  I cross my arms over my chest and lean against the counter. “I got a call last night.”

  “From Jake? Is he okay? Why didn’t he come home? And, why didn’t you tell me last night?” she asks in a rush.

  I hold up my hand. “Not from Jake. Jake is still missing, but I know who is behind his disappearance.”

  “Jake is being held for ransom.” I run my hand through my hair, trying to keep myself calm so that maybe Zoe will calm down.

  “Ransom? What do they want and who are they?’ She’s back to being frantic.

  “The impossible,” Brooklyn mumbles.

  Zoe quickly turns to look at her, then she slowly looks at me.

  I give Brooklyn an annoyed glance. I know she’s stressed and tired, but she should be trying to keep Zoe calm.

  “It’s the same man that put a hit out on Brooklyn, but he doesn’t want Jake dead. He’s hired men to do his dirty work. He wants some help, and Brooklyn and I are more than capable of giving them what he wants. We just need a little time is all.”

  “So did you ever go and check out his bike? What if he’s still there? And, what is it they want?”

  “He’s not,” I reply. “As far as what he wants, he wants to be released from prison and for Brooklyn to cure him.”

  “But what if someone there saw something?” I see the rest of my answer finally register on her face. “Prison? What cure?”

  I take a deep, calming breath. “If it makes you feel any better, I’ll go by today and check it out, but I doubt that I’ll find anything. The man that I used to work for wants his freedom.”

  “Yeah, he wants a cure that’s not been found yet,” Brooklyn adds, and I scowl at her.

  Zoe begins to cry while rubbing her swollen belly. I kneel down in front of her. “Jake will be fine. They won’t do anything to him because they need him for leverage. We’ll get them what they want, and they will let him go. It’s just going to take some time. Please have faith in us. We’ve taken on more than this before.”

  She sniffles and nods.

  I stand and look at Brooklyn. “Can I talk to you in private for a minute?”

  She nods and stands to follow me into the laundry room that’s off of the kitchen.

  “I’m going to go check out the location of the bike to make Zoe feel better.”

  “You won’t find anything there, you said so yourself. Why waste the time?”

  “Because it will ease Zoe’s mind. She needs some peace. Plus, I don’t have to be in front of a computer to put together a plan. Are you going to be okay while I’m gone?”

  She pushes her red hair away from her face. “I’ll be fine. I’m going to head to my office as soon as the kids are gone. Be careful.” I reach out and grab the front of her shirt, pulling her closer. Her lips find mine, and her tongue dips inside.

  I place my hand on either side of her face and kiss her deeply, wanting to assure her that we will make it through this. We have to. I will not let anything happen to my brother. He’s already been through hell and back for me.

  We pull away from one another, and I turn back toward the kitchen but pause. “I love you.”

  “I love you too. Say goodbye to the kids before you leave.”

  “I will. Try to get Zoe to go upstairs and lay down, would ya? The last thing she needs is exhaustion on top of all this stress. Jake will never forgive us if something happens to her or the baby because we were too busy to pay attention to her.”

  She nods as she takes my hand. “I will. Be careful.”

  It takes me a few hours to drive to where Jake’s bike’s GPS says it is. I pull into the parking lot of an apartment building. I park my truck and get out, walking through the lot, looking for his bike. I don’t see it in between the cars, but I do see it loaded up in the back of an El Camino. I walk over to the vehicle and look it over for any signs of a struggle. It has a shiny new exterior with no scratch marks on it.

  “Hey! Can I help you?” a man with dark hair asks as he comes running over to me.

  “Yeah. I was wondering who owns this car.”

  “I do. Is there a problem?” he asks.

  “That’s my brother’s bike, and he’s missing. Can you tell me anything about that?” I casually place my hand on the handle of my gun in the back of my jeans.

  “Oh, man. Jake’s missing?”

  I turn to face him. “You know him? Is this the car he delivered?”

  “Yeah, he brought it up yesterday.”

  “What happened?” I can feel the tension coming off me in waves. If it wasn’t for his sincere concern, I’d already have my finger wrapped around his throat for answers.

  “I don’t know.” He rubs his head while thinking it over. “I came home to find him waiting on me. I got in the car and was checking it out. When I turned back to face him, Jake was out cold, lying on the ground.” He takes a deep breath. “I jumped out of the car and ran over to him to check him out, and that’s when I was hit over the head. When I came to, he was gone.”

  “And you didn’t think to call the police?” I ask, not that they would’ve done a lot of good.

  “I mean, it crossed my mind, but I’m an ex-con. I didn’t want to be linked to that. I didn’t see anything, and I have no idea what happened…”

  Before he can process what I’m doing, I’m grabbing hold of him and throwing him up against the side of
his car. “If I find out you’re lying…”

  He holds his hands up. “I’m not, man. I swear. Jake’s my friend. I wouldn’t ever be involved in something like that. I just got out of prison, and I’m not trying to go back.”

  I can see the fear in his eyes. I was a hitman. I’m good at reading people and this man, he didn’t have anything to do with what happened to my brother.

  I release him and pull a card out of my pocket. “If you hear anything, or think of anything, give me a call.”

  He takes the card from me. “I will. Please let me know if there is anything I can do.”

  I’m walking to my truck but turn back around. “Actually, there is.” I move to the back of the vehicle and open the tailgate. “Give me a hand loading up his bike. No way am I leaving it here. It would be sold for parts.”

  Chapter Six

  Brooklyn

  “I’ve been searching for the cure for Alzheimer’s for years now. I don’t know how he expects me to come up with one because he demands it,” I grumble to myself as I put my white lab coat on. The nanny is watching the kids while Zoe tries to get a nap. Most of the time, I love coming to my lab and doing research, but under these circumstances, I don’t want to be here. I sit down and push my reading glasses to the bridge of my nose.

  “All the tests I’ve done, and I’m not even close,” I continue to talk to myself. “Find the cure for Alzheimer’s, Brooklyn—like it’s as simple as baking cookies,” I mock. “Mmmm…cookies, now that would give me some brain power.” I rub my stomach as my mouth waters. “Focus, Brooklyn, get your mind off food for once.”

  I stand from the cold metal stool and flip the many labeled glass slides and place one under the microscope, staring at it like it’s going to tell me its secrets. “Damn it, if I can’t figure this out, we may never get Jake back.” I can’t lose him. He’s the closest thing I have to a brother. He stood by me and helped me raise L.J. when John was held captive. God, I swear I thought all this was behind us. We had four blissful years, and now it’s starting all over again. I don’t like the thought of John being out there alone again, but he’s right; I have to be here for our kids. Still, I want to be out there helping him.

  Reaching over to the shelf, I turn on some music. It always helps settle my mind and gets me to focus. It’s a soft melody that soothes me. I stretch my neck from side to side, relaxing the strain that has been building since Knox’s phone call.

  As I’m pulling out my latest journal of findings off the shelf, I hear the door open.

  “Hey, Brooklyn,” Zoe says with her hand splayed on her baby bump.

  “I thought you were getting a nap?”

  “I can’t sleep knowing Jake is out there somewhere going through God knows what. He told me bits and pieces of what these people did to John.” Her voice ends in a sob.

  I get up and hug her to me. “John will find him. He’s not going to let Jake suffer like he did. We didn’t know John was alive or we would have fought for him a lot sooner. He knows how these men operate. He’ll figure something out.” I let go, and she wipes a tear from her cheek.

  “I can’t sit around here and do nothing.”

  “Then bring that brilliant mind of yours over here and help me solve the puzzle of Alzheimer’s disease.” I roll my comfortable desk chair in her direction.

  “You and I have been researching this for months,” she says as she sits.

  “I know, but we are missing something. Let’s go over the very basics of what we know.” I start pacing the floor. “There are two abnormal structures when it comes down to damaging and killing nerve cells in our brains: plaques and tangles. We know that plaques are protein deposits that can build up in the space between the nerve cells, causing failure to communicate. The tangles are the twisted fibers of protein that block communication of the nerve cells. And, we know this is normal in aging, but an excessive amount of buildup of these two is what causes Alzheimer’s. It’s these nerve cells dying that cause memory loss and other symptoms.”

  Zoe is tapping her fingernails on the metal table as I continue my pacing. “We’ve tried a vaccine to get rid of the plaque. It failed. We’ve talked about coiling in the brain, and there are too many areas to have any real success. So, how do we break up the plaque and untangle the fibers at the same time?” I tap my fingers on my chin.

  “What if we didn’t have to do both?”

  I stop pacing. “What do you mean?”

  “If we could stop the production of plaque and remove it, the fibers would untangle themselves.”

  “We’ve tried a various mixture of drugs and nothing has worked.” I sit on the edge of the table.

  “When cardiologists remove plaque from the coronary arteries, they either stent through it, drill it, or suck it out. Or, a thoracic surgeon performs a bypass, creating a new passage for blood flow to feed the heart.”

  “We already know we can’t stent it or bypass it.” I blow a strand of hair out of my face and push my glasses back up.

  “We can’t suck it out either. Gah, this is getting us nowhere.” She lays her head on the table.

  “We don’t have a choice. Knox will not stop until he has what he wants, so unless we can find where they are keeping Jake, we have to keep working on this.” Her tears start to flow again, and she places her hands behind her back.

  “Are you okay?” I point to her belly.

  “My back has been bothering me since I got up this morning.”

  “Any contractions?”

  “No, it’s too soon. I’m not due for another six weeks.”

  “You know as well as I do that stress can bring on labor.”

  “I’m fine. I just had an ultrasound two days ago, and she’s perfect. Those things are amazing now. They are so clear I can see that she has Jake’s chin. The technology with ultrasound waves allows them to visualize all the major vessels in the body. They can see blood flowing through the brain, heart, and kidneys.”

  “Everything is good?”

  “She’s perfect. She just needs more time to grow.” She rubs her belly again.

  “I’m so happy for you and Jake. He’s been through so much with his own cancer, losing his twin brother, and having to deal with me. He deserves a crown.”

  “I don’t know how you survived all that you went through.”

  “I survived because of Jake and L.J. I wouldn’t have made it without them.”

  “Jake says the same thing about you. He wouldn’t have survived cancer without your cure. It’s too bad the pharmaceutical companies tried to destroy you for such noble work. You could be doing so many amazing things, and you’re here in this small lab that nobody knows about.” She points around the room.

  “I can’t risk my family again. If I happen to find the cure for Alzheimer’s, I was going to release it anonymously to one of my colleagues I worked with at a small research company.”

  “You wouldn’t even take credit for finding the cure?”

  “No. I don’t want credit. I only want to cure a disease that leaves a person and their families shattered and heartbroken watching the person they love become someone else. It’s a grueling disease, one that I wouldn’t wish on anyone.”

  “Not even Knox?”

  “Well, maybe him.” I start pacing again, and Zoe stands with her hands on her lower back and starts stretching. “Maybe you should go see your doctor. You could be in the early stages of labor.”

  “I’m fine. We have too much work to do.” Worry is etched on her face, and her silver-blue eyes look gray today. “Do you think he’s okay?”

  “I don’t think they’ll hurt him—he wants the cure too badly. If he kills him, he won’t get what he wants. Besides, if Jake is anything like his brother, they need to fear him. He’s probably plotting his escape as we speak.” I laugh.

  “I’m sure you’re right. I just wish…”

  “Wish what, Zoe?” I squat down in front of her.

  “I wish I would’ve married him when he
asked me to. It was silly of me to want to wait until the baby was born. I don’t need an elaborate wedding. All I need is him.” A tear falls.

  “The Remington boys are hard to live with and without,” I say, and she bursts out laughing through her tears. “They can be terribly sweet, pigheaded, charming, determined, and…” I continue.

  “Controlling in the bedroom,” she blurts out.

  “Oh my God, it’s not just John,” I say, laughing.

  “Nope. I think it must be an inherited trait.” She giggles more.

  “I let John think he’s in control. He may be the head of this family, but I’m the neck.”

  “I’ve never thought of it that way. I like it!” Her face is back to glowing with our banter.

  “Now that we know who is really in control, let’s get back to our research.”

  “Before we do that, I downloaded the ultrasound. Would you like to see your beautiful niece?” She stands and heads to the computer.

  “I would love to.” I join her. She pulls the files up, and the baby’s face appears. “She does have Jake’s chin.” She switches files to the entire body so that you can see every organ and the blood actually flowing.

  “Does my sweet little niece have a name yet?”

  “No, we can’t agree on one.” She closes the file and sits back down at the table and opens one of our many research books.

  I keep an eye on her for any signs of early labor. As I’m watching her, an idea hits me. “Zoe. What if we’ve been going about this the wrong way?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “A vaccine will never work, and we can’t go directly into the brain to cure it, but what if we used ultrasound waves to dissolve the plaque, which in return would straighten out the tangles with the plaque gone. By dissolving it with the waves, the plaque can’t travel to other places in the body.”

  “Oh my God! That just might work!” She’s up on her feet, reaching for the phone.

  “Who are you calling?”

  “I know a lab in California we can use to see if it will work.”