“The only way I’ll take that advice is if you agree to do something for me.” Simon’s hard gaze slid to Jake.
“I have a feeling I’m not going to like this,” Jake said.
She had the exact same feeling as dread settled in her stomach.
“You won’t, but you’re not paid to like my decisions,” Simon said gruffly. “I’m not going to sit around and count out a million dollars to hand over to these people. When we make the exchange three days from now, I want to save my father and catch these criminals at the same time.”
A panicked weight crushed her shoulders. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that, with Jake’s help, I’m going to prevent these kidnappers from getting any ideas to keep this kind of extortion going.” Simon placed a hand on her shoulder. “I suspect that you were right about these kidnappers, Heather. One million dollars probably isn’t a large enough sum, which means they probably want to keep my father for as long as possible. With Jake’s help, I want to foil their plan. I’m done being at their mercy, and going along with what they say. This has to end. And I’m going to be the one to end it.”
Chapter 15
Heather’s alarm startled her awake the next morning. As she opened her bleary eyes, still exhausted, heart thumping from the lingering anxiety, she rolled over to the nightstand and shut off her cell phone alarm. Six in the morning. She must have gotten two hours of sleep at most.
She hauled herself out of bed and padded down to Finn’s room to wake him up for summer camp. Camp had only just started and was being held at his school, which was a Godsend as far as she was concerned. While Finn got ready, she went to the guest room to wake up her parents.
She made toast, and after breakfast waved goodbye as they took Finn to camp, with one of Dover’s security personnel going with them.
Now that Finn was on his way to camp, she had to check up on Simon. Last night had taken a turn that unsettled her, and the sooner she talked to him the better. After a quick shower she walked down the hall to Simon’s apartment.
“Good morning,” she said softly as he let her in.
He grunted a reply.
Concern for him made her reach out to touch his arm. His eyes were bloodshot, his hair disheveled, and he had stubble on his jaw which meant he hadn’t shaved. However, he was wearing fresh clothes, so he had at least tried to make himself look presentable. She didn’t blame him if he was too stressed out to care about his appearance.
“Have you eaten anything?” She suspected he hadn’t, so she motioned for him to follow her into the kitchen.
He shook his head. “No.”
She put on a pot of coffee and set a pair of mugs on the island for them. “How do eggs sound?”
“I’m not hungry.”
“I know, but you need to keep up your strength,” she said.
He sat on the stool at the island and buried his face in his hands.
“Did you get any sleep last night?” she continued.
“No.” He let out a loud, heavy sigh. “After you left last night to get some sleep, I went over a plan with Jake.”
“You mean a plan to get yourself hurt. Or worse.” She didn’t want to sound so upset. Last night, after Simon had recklessly decided to go after the kidnappers and put himself in danger, she hadn’t said anything. Arguing with him when emotions were still raw didn’t make sense, and it wouldn’t be fair to put him through something like that right after his father had been taken. But now that she had gotten time to think things through, she knew that she had to put a stop to this.
“Jake thinks we can catch these guys ourselves,” Simon said. “It’s a risk, but it’s better than letting the police handle it.”
“Why?”
“Because the police won’t care what happens to Dover,” he said. “They won’t care about the staff like we do. Besides, I don’t want to put even more people in danger. It’s obvious these kidnappers are sending a message to me, so I should be the one to fix this.”
“This is about making your father proud of you, isn’t it?” she asked.
He crossed his arms and glared at her. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You still want to impress him,” she accused. “That’s why you’re putting yourself at risk like this. You feel guilty about what happened to him, so you want to make amends in the most reckless way possible.”
His jaw clenched, giving away the fact that her words had hit their mark. “Don’t we all want our parents to be proud of us?”