Lifestyles of the Witch & Famous (21 page)

Molly?

He leapt the six-foot drop to her side and was hovering over her, on the verge of a heart attack, when her eyes fluttered open. She couldn’t have been out very long – mere minutes, he estimated. Tyler wasn’t sure if that was a good sign or not.

She blinked.

Then frowned, regaining her wits fast, it seemed.

She recognized him.

He wasn’t sure if that was good or not either. She didn’t look happy to see him.

“Molly, what the hell happened? Are you hurt?”

He also wanted to ask
“Where’s Stevie?”
but couldn’t bring himself to put that particular fear into words yet. He had sinister visions of the kidnappers taking off with the boy – after having knocked Molly out and throwing her into the gully.

“Shh! Do you want them to hear you?” She climbed to her feet, waving him off when he tried to help, speaking quickly in a hoarse whisper, suddenly all grim determined business. “I’m fine. I fell. I bumped my head. But not bad. I’ve taken worse hits on the mats.”

The Karate mats, he assumed. Tyler hated to tell her that there didn’t appear to be any “them,” that the dugout looked dismally deserted, not a hint of movement from within or anywhere nearby. The angst in her eyes mirrored his own. It occurred to him that the kidnappers could have found her unconscious, riffled her pockets, and
then
taken off with Stevie and the loot both.

“You shouldn’t be here!” she hissed. “Just stay back and stay quiet, for godssake.
Please
let me do this. I can handle—”

“Do you still have the diamonds?” he interrupted.

“Yes.” She patted her pocket as though to make sure. Her eyes narrowed in warning. “And if you try to take them or stop me, I’ll lay you out cold.”

He believed her. But that wasn’t the point. If she still had the ransom, where were the ones who’d demanded it?
Where
was the boy? All sorts of scenarios played through his mind. None of them nice. What if the creeps had heard the dogs before, gotten scared and hightailed it out – making sure not to leave any living witnesses behind? Desperate people did desperate things. Tyler knew. He was pretty damned desperate himself right then.

“Molly…” He had to tell her. “I, um…I don’t think there’s anyone here but us.”
No one alive at least.
“I scouted the area just before I found you. It looks empty.”

Her brow furrowed. She was a fast thinker; she caught his drift. He could smell the fresh fear in her, but she kept her voice steady.

“Did you actually look
in
the dugout?”

“No, but—”

“Then you can’t be sure!”

Shit.

Before he could catch her, she’d scrambled up and out of the gully and made it to the dugout’s caved-in door. Tyler reached it two steps behind her, his heart in his mouth and hands poised to pull her back. If there was a…body in there, he did
not
want her to see it.

“Tyler, look!”

The words came out on a choked breath. Her shoulders started shaking with sobs.

His heart stopped.

Broke.

Cracked into a thousand wretched pieces.

Dear God… Stevie…

“He’s all right!”

He was?

Tyler sure wasn’t. He was trembling and drenched with cold sweat, his eyes squeezed shut against a salty flood. He had to pry them open to peer over Molly’s head down into the dugout’s single room.

There were, in fact, three bodies inside, curled together on the earthen floor. One softly panting, one purring, and the middle one sleeping like an angel, haloed by moonlight that spilled in through big holes in the roof.

Fluffy, Fang, and Stevie – not a mark on him except for a little dirt.

“Told ya,” Molly said. And suddenly she was in Tyler’s arms, laughing and crying and hugging him hard – and he was laughing and crying, too, and didn’t give a damn that he was.

A beautiful moment. Beautiful blessed relief. No time to figure out how it had happened, why the kid was here without a kidnapper in sight. Who cared why? He was safe!

Also groggily disgruntled, pulling to a sitting position and glaring at them. Their joyful noise had woken him.

“Fuck,” he cursed.

Molly winced. “Blame Admiral Byrd. He curses like a trooper, and the boys have been picking it up from him. But they usually only do it when they’re trying to be funny.”

Except Stevie didn’t look like he was joking. He looked fuming mad. Well, hell, it was way past his bedtime, and God only knew what he’d been through tonight. He must be tired and wired, and probably disoriented from waking in a strange place. He was only ten. Cut the kid some slack.

Tyler climbed down into the room with Molly close on his heels. She’d tried to climb in first, but he’d deftly pushed her behind – just in case there was a nasty surprise hiding in the corner shadows. Like an oddly missing kidnapper who maybe wasn’t missing after all? Now that the first rush of his relief had calmed, Tyler
was
starting to wonder about that. Frankly this scene didn’t make the least bit of sense. He scanned the room, searching for clues, while Molly scanned Stevie at close quarters, kneeling beside him, stroking tousled hair off his brow, making sure he was really okay. When certain, she wrapped him in a warm tight hug.

“My poor baby—”

“I’m not a baby.” He squirmed out of her hold. “You were
supposed
to come alone. Didn’t you read the ransom note? You’ve ruined everything! It’ll never work now.”

Molly stiffened, staring at him, then flashed a look at Tyler over her shoulder. “I smell a rat.”

“No you don’t,” Stevie grumbled. “There were some rats when we got here, but Fang chased them out because they were scaring Fluffy.”

“Uh-huh.” Slowly, Molly stood up and planted hands on her hips.

Stevie seemed to recognize something dangerous in her expression – might have realized he’d said too much. His own expression went wary, defensive, his mouth pressed into a stubborn line. He began inching away from her, scooting backward on heels and rump. Molly caught him by the upper arms and hauled him to his feet.

“Steven Tyler James” – she gave him a little shake – “you have a
lot
of explaining to do.”

Stevie flinched at her tone.

Tyler flinched at the name. “Steven
Tyler
?”

Molly heaved an aggravated sigh. She clearly thought this was way off topic. “Yes. Kara, his mother, wanted to name him after his father, but Steve wanted to name him Tyler – he never said why. They compromised by using both.”

“And I’ve never liked it,” Stevie spouted. “Tyler is a stupid name.”

“You hush.” Molly gave him another little shake. “You’re in enough hot water already, young man. Do you have any idea of the
trouble
you’ve caused? You scared us all half to death! The whole house is in an uproar because of you! You could’ve gotten yourself lost or
killed
wandering around out here alone at night.”

“I wasn’t alone,” he said sullenly. “Fluffy and Fang came with me.”

“
Grrr…
Goddess, give me strength.” Molly closed her eyes and drew a deep breath, obviously fighting for control.

Stevie’s lips quivered. He was fighting, too.

Tyler didn’t know whether to laugh or cry again. He understood Molly’s position, but he was starting to see Stevie’s as well, starting to put the pieces together. His heart ached for the boy. He couldn’t help it. Tyler had been through hell this night and come out the other side. He’d learned a lot – including the bittersweet fact that his brother had named his first child after him. The knowledge felt like a form of forgiveness coming from beyond the grave – Steve’s way of saying, “We had our differences, Ty, but I never stopped loving you.”

Thank you, little brother.

Tyler wanted to spread the forgiveness around – spread the love – wanted to buffer Molly’s motherly wrath. It wasn’t fair for Stevie to bear the brunt of it. He touched her shoulder, speaking softly. “Hey, ease up. He’s just a kid. He didn’t—”

She whirled on him. “You do realize he
kidnapped himself
, don’t you?”

“Yes, but not without help.” Tyler turned to Stevie. “Did a tall woman named Bambi help you? It was her room you sent the fax from.”

“It was? I didn’t know that. It was empty when I used it, and I was only there a few minutes.”

Tyler wasn’t entirely convinced. “But why did you pick that room in particular?”

“
Because
it was empty. All the other rooms I checked had people in them.”

Okay, okay, so Bambi wasn’t the culprit. But someone was.

“Who told you about the diamonds and this dugout?” Tyler asked gently.

Stevie studied his toes. “Barry. He told us all about the Ranch while you were with Aunt Molly this afternoon. I think he was trying to make it sound exciting so we’d like it better.”

Good old Barry, always so helpful.

Tyler gave Molly an anemic smile. “I’m sure he meant well. How could he have guessed how that info would be used?”

A rhetorical question, of course.

Molly dismissed it with an impatient nod.

“I’m not blaming Barry.” She glared at Stevie. “Just what did you think you were doing? You must have known I’d be angry when I discovered the truth.”

“Yeah. But I figured you’d get over it soon enough.” The boy shuffled his feet and shoved his hands in his pockets.

Tyler knew that pose. Like uncle, like nephew – in more ways than one.

“It was for your own good!” Stevie shouted at Molly, suddenly rousing out of his torpor. “I did it for you! And Jeremy and Josh. All of us. I thought you wanted to get away from here – get away from
him
.” He slanted a sharp glance at Tyler. “I wasn’t going to keep the diamonds. I was just going to hide them, and then promise to give them back
after
he promised to let us all go home.”

He swallowed, hard, battling back tears. He was a smart boy – and brave to grab a billionaire bull by the horns – but still a boy. To him a million in jewels had probably sounded like a fabulous treasure. He couldn’t have realized that to Tyler it was petty cash. Stevie had thought he was hitting the villain where it would hurt the most – in the wallet. He’d just been trying to protect his family from the “evil uncle.”

Desperate people did desperate things.

Molly stared at the kid, her own eyes moist. It seemed she didn’t know what to say. She looked at Tyler, as though looking for help.

Help? From
him
?

His heart warmed at the thought. They had, apparently, reached a new level of understanding. A place called Trust? Would that be hoping for too much too soon?

Tyler didn’t think so. The ecstatic relief they’d shared at finding Stevie safe and unhurt had broken the barriers between them. In that blessed instant, he’d felt the walls toppling and sensed that Molly had felt it, too. Hell, he’d recognized early how much she loved his nephews, and now it appeared she’d finally recognized the same thing in him. Whatever the differences in their lifestyles, their love of the kids gave them common ground to stand on – build on – and they both knew it.

Her eyes held his and looked deep. He felt her gaze clear down in the roots of his soul.

“I’ve got you pegged now, mister,”
that look told him,
“you roar like a lion, but inside you’re just a big purry pussycat.”

Witchy woman, casting a spell, reading his secret self. If he didn’t know better, he’d think she was magically speaking directly into his mind. Could Wiccans do things like that? Molly could, it seemed. Or maybe he and she were just
that
simpatico. Only time would tell. They had plenty of time, he realized.

Her brows quirked up a fraction, and she said in a whisper, “So…where do we go from here?”

She didn’t know?

Tyler did. He’d never been more certain of anything in his life.

“Disney World.”

“
What
?” Stevie’s eyes popped.

Molly’s narrowed. “It was a serious question.”

“And I gave you a serious answer. Disney World,” he repeated.

What better place to court a witch than the
Magic
Kingdom?

“Stevie…” He knelt before him on one knee, bringing them close to eyelevel; he didn’t want his height to intimidate the kid. “You did a dangerous and foolish thing, but I hope you’ve learned a lesson from it.” Tyler sure had. “It is very wrong to try to
force
someone into doing what you want them to.”

“You did. You forced us to come here,” Stevie said, meeting Tyler’s gaze man to man. The kid had balls.

Tyler suppressed a smile. “Yes, I did, and that was wrong of me. That’s why I can’t be angry with you now. Because I understand why you did this, and I know I’m the one who made you feel it was your only option. I’m very sorry about that.”