Merry With a Scrooge (The Love Beach Holiday Collection)

16. Laney

Laney

“Daddy!”

I grin as Kavan rushes out the front door and across the lawn of a modest house in the heart of the Hollywood Hills.

We haven’t even gotten out of the rental car yet and the look on the little boy’s face has my heart clenching, it’s a look I’ll never forget.

Vail is out of the passenger seat, knees dropping to the grass seconds before his son launches himself into the air.

My vision blurs, my nose stings. I knew Vail was desperate to see his son, but seeing Kavan reaction proves the little boy is just as desperate.

I smile at the woman on the porch. She’s in her mid-fifties, and from everything Vivi has told me, the perfect person to care for Kavan.

Bypassing Vail and his son, I head toward the house. “Hi, you must be Luna. I’m Laney. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you in person.”

“Laney.” She throws open her arms. “Come here and give me hug.”

I’m not at all surprised by her request. Every call I’ve had with this woman, plus what I’ve learned from Vivi, has painted a picture of the perfect grandmother. Although I know she has no children of her own.

“Thank you for taking care of him,” I whisper, emotion choking my throat.

“No thanks needed. He’s a joy to be around. I’m sad knowing I’ll have to say goodbye soon.”

“What?” I pull back, slip from her embrace. “Why? What’s going on?”

“Oh, nothing to do with his mother.” She tips her chin toward the two males behind me. “I figured now his Daddy knows where he is, he’ll be taking him home.”

“Oh.” I shake my head. “Um, we’re still working—” My words are cut off by the screech of tires.

I’m not sure what shocks me more. The sight of Vivi falling out of her car or that she immediately jumps to her feet shouting to get inside.

Vail has never met Vivi, but he must sense the danger because he scoops Kavan up and runs toward us. My very disheveled friend right on his heels.

I don’t get a chance to ask Vivi what the hell is going on before she’s pushing us inside. “Go to the basement. Luna, take them to the safe room.”

“What the fuck!” I yell only for Vivi to shove me.

“Go! You need to go. Everyone needs to go.”

“But—”

“No. No time. Go now.” She gives me another shove. “I’ll explain after.”

Vail glances my way, a brow arched in question. All I can do is shrug and shake my head. With Kavan in his arms, he turns and follows Luna deeper into the house.

“Vivi.”

“I’m serious. Get in the safe room.”

“Is this about Felicity?”

“No. Yes. Worse.”

When we arrive in the basement, Luna heads for the back corner and with the press of a button the wall opens.

What I see inside could be out of a movie. The small room is set up with monitors and a couple of camp beds. There’s also a shelf of non-perishable food. The second Luna steps inside the lights and monitors come on.

Vivi’s at the rear, ushering us inside far enough to close the door. After a series of clicks and rumbles the door locks.

“Tell me what the hell is going on!” I demand when my friend turns.

“Give me a minute.”

Short of beating the information out of her I can’t do anything except give her a minute. With a puffed out breath I face Vail only to find him staring at one of the screens.

When my gaze focuses on it too, I see a woman I barely recognize running toward the house. She’s got no shoes on and her hair is in bad need of a wash and her face is so gaunt her cheekbones could cut glass.

Vivi is on the phone, whispering to whoever is on the line. Luna has been busy setting up a small plate of food and a play area away from the monitors and with a gentle hand on Vails shoulder to get his attention, she holds out her arms.

“Give me Van for a bit. We’ll have a snack and play.”

He’s either in shock or realizes Kavan shouldn’t see what’s happening on the screens which I now understand are part of comprehension security system.

Moving behind Vivi, I watch over her shoulder while she gives instructions and details to the person on the phone.

When Vail steps up to my back and wraps his arms around me I lean into his strength. I have no idea what is going on, but I know it isn’t good.

After what seems like a lifetime, Vivi turns and says, “She’s running.”

“Who?”

“Felicity,” Vivi and Vail say together.

“Oh.”

“The cops raided her boyfriend’s house this morning. She somehow escaped and made her way here on foot. My contact at the LAPD let me know what was happening.”

“You came here to protect Kavan,” Vail says with some surprise.

“Yes. I don’t think she’ll try to take him, but I know she has a passport under a different name and some cash stashed here at the house.”

“And Kavan? Does she have a passport for him?” I ask.

“Yes. But I don’t think she’ll take him with her.”

Her words have me glancing back at the boy. He’s happily playing and eating and totally oblivious to what’s happening above our heads.

“Are they coming for her?” Vail asks.

Vivi nods. “Yes. It’s why we need to be in here. If they don’t arrive before she leaves”—she slaps a hand over her mouth and says—“Fuck!”

Spinning back around you grabs the phone again and quickly relays the fact she left her car running with the keys in the ignition out front. She’s rattling off the number plate and asking if they want her to have the vehicle disabled if Felicity gets into it before they arrive.

I’m staring at my friend like she’s a stranger. I look at the system surrounding us, at the way she’s tapping into her car and not only switching it off but disabling it with a few clicks of the keyboard in front of her.

I knew she was good at computers, knew she had ways of finding anyone or anything, but this is…

Inconceivable.

“Your friend is something,” Vail murmurs in my ear.

Tipping my head I say, “You’re telling me. I had no idea…” I wave a hand at what’s in front of us. “I just knew she was good with computers. Can find anything.”

“Stop talking about me like I’m not here. It’s rude.”

“What’s rude is shoving a small boy, an old woman, your friend and her husband into a locked box without explanation,” I counter.

It takes a moment, and her fingers continue to fly over the keyboard doing whatever before she stops and turns her chair around.

“Husband? When did that happen? He wasn’t your husband this morning,” she says with a furrowed brow.

Before I can answer she’s back at the keyboard tapping away. Less than a minute later she says, “Ah, stopover in Vegas.”

“How the hell—” I don’t get the rest of my words out because we’re all distracted by the arrival of several cars. Men in suits that have to be FBI, casual clothes and even a couple of uniforms pile out of the vehicles and spread across the front yard.

Vivi does her thing, and every screen shows a different angle of the house. Outside and in.

“They know we’re here,” she says. “They’ll try to take her without force, but I think she’ll try to run again.”

“They’ve got her cornered though,” Vail says as he leans closer to one of the screens. “They’ll cut off all her exit points then move in, right?”

“Yeah.”

“And you got us in here so she can’t use any of us to get herself out of this,” he adds.

“Van. She would have tried to use him. I’ve seen her do it with the boyfriend. It’s why her house is now wired for sound and has this room.”

“But you helped her move here,” I say. “After she had that break-in… Ah.”

“Yeah, that was the boyfriend. She took some money, a bag of drugs that weren’t hers.”

“And he kept seeing her after that?”

“I think it was how he hooked her.” Vivi glances back at me. “I’m not one hundred percent on that but it makes sense.”

“When they arrest her can I take Kavan home or will they want to get the authorities involved?” Vail’s arms around me tighten with each word he said.

“You can take him. I have the court order for it in my car.” She frowns then mutters, “Another fuck up.”

“Daddy?”

The three of us turn to see Kavan has walked over. Vail lets me go and drops to to a crouch, turns so Kavan isn’t facing the monitors. “What’s up buddy?”

“I go home with you?”

“Of course. But not yet. Soon.”

“Okay.” Kavan grins. “I eat my snack first.”

“Yeah, you go eat and we’ll go home as soon as we can.”

When Kavan goes back to sit with Luna and Vail is once again standing beside me, I say, “We need to see if Luna will move with us.”

“She will.”

I look at Vivi with my mouth hanging open.

“What? She will. She loves him like a grandchild, and she doesn’t have any family to hold her here.”

Shaking my head, I look back a Vail. “Looks like you’re getting a wife, a son, and a nanny all on the same day.”