Chapter IV: "I'm so sorry…"

Stephanie vaguely remembered Shawn leaving her bed early in the morning while it was still dark. She had glanced at the alarm clock and then turned over to go back to sleep, still heavily drowsy. Sometime after dawn, she rolled over and flung her arm across Shawn…but he wasn't there. Raising up, she noticed the bathroom was empty and a grin spread across her face—he was cooking her breakfast. She wondered if she should stay in bed and wait for him to bring it to her or go join him. Deciding to surprise him with a morning treat, she slipped out of bed, completely naked, and drew on her silk robe, rubbing her eyes vigorously to remove the groggy feeling. She silently padded down the hall and the stairs to the kitchen…but he wasn't there. Morning swim? No. Morning work-out? No. Morning run for a breakfast item? No, the car was still in the garage. She was completely baffled.

Shawn wasn't anywhere in the house or he would have answered her shouts. She headed back into the kitchen and went straight for the refrigerator where they kept a whiteboard for messages to each other. A note was left under a New Orleans Mardi Gras magnet that held a lot of memories. With a smile, Stephanie unfolded the letter, which she immediately dropped to the floor. This can't be happening, she thought, grabbing the counter to keep herself upright. Willing her legs to move, she fumbled for the phone and thanked God for speed dial as she unsuccessfully fought off the panic attack.

Therese didn't answer the phone before the answering machine picked up. Stephanie cut off the call and tried again. "You've reached the Nashes—Momma, Daddy, Lily, and DINAH! Please leave…a message at the…beep—BEEP!" Then the tone sounded. Apparently, her parents had allowed Dinah to redo the message and Stephanie would have laughed at the girl's 'beep' but now she couldn't think about anything other than getting Therese on the line. "Therese! Pick up! Please, pick up!" Her panic was truly setting in and she began screaming. "They took him! They took him! PLEASE!"

"Steph, shhh! Calm down, honey. It's gonna be alright. I know, I know, honey," Therese cooed after switching from the answering machine to receiver.

The hysterical woman couldn't stop herself. "I couldn't find Shawn and I found this note on the refrigerator. Somebody took him and-and…"

"Steph, hold on," Therese ordered. The woman suddenly stopped, appalled that Therese would cut her off like that. She listened to the blonde explain the situation to her daughter and get her settled. She loudly gasped when Therese told Dinah that Shawn and Kevin were "lost." Whoever had taken Shawn had taken Kevin too. She was to the point of impatience waiting for Therese to get back on the phone that she almost starting yelling at her again.

"Steph, I'm back," Therese finally said.

Even though she had heard the conversation, she had to confirm the truth of the situation. "Kevin's gone too!" Her friend answered in the affirmative but said nothing else. "What do you know? What are we going to do? What if they killed him!" Her voice hit a level of shrillness that she didn't mean to reach but, still, the woman on the other end said nothing. "Therese! Are you there?"

"Yes, dammit, I'm here! Just shut up and listen to me. Is your security system down?"

"I don't know."

"Go check it," Therese ordered.

Stephanie babbled incessantly about having to find Shawn now before something happened and how she wouldn't be able to handle it if something did. When she reached the keypad, the system didn't say it was disabled but she couldn't get it to reset. "Something's wrong with it." Therese began giving her directions and she listened intently until the blonde said she was going to hang up. "No, don't go. I need—" Stephanie protested.

"Don't give me any lip!" Therese interrupted in a tone the brunette hadn't heard in a long time. "I've got Dinah and Lily to worry about. I'll call you back soon."

"No, wait. You can't—" The phone was dead. Stephanie began to panic again and began gasping for air. When her head grew dizzy, she dropped to the floor and put her face between her knees. Scolding herself for acting stupid and wasting time when Shawn needed her, she began to gain control and slow her breathing. Pulling herself up by the doorframe in the hall, she made her way to the kitchen to find the number Therese had indicated. Drawing upon the strength that had kept her alive in the ring all these years, she dialed the number and, with a barely steady voice, repeated what the security specialist had told her to say.

Knowing the agency would arrive soon, she figured she should put something on instead of greeting them completely naked under her robe. As she undid the ties, she had a creepy feeling that whoever had taken Shawn might still be in her house or had left someone behind for her. She dashed for the bed and reached underneath for the hockey stick she had kept there. Knowing what Therese had been through with regards to guns and the memory of cold steel pressed to her own face, she had refused to keep one—besides, she had thought her house completely secure. Still, right after the incident with Colin Jenkins, she had gone to a hockey specialty store and bought the strongest stick they could get their hands on. If Therese could make it into such a deadly weapon, well, it'd work for her too.

When the bell rang for her gate, a now dressed Stephanie inched down the hall to the intercom with the hockey stick drawn back, ready to strike. When the woman identified herself as being with the security company, Stephanie pressed the button for the gate to open and then pulled the curtain beside the door aside to watch the van's approach. When the two people got out of the marked vehicle and rang her doorbell, she undid all the locks but the chain and asked to see their credentials. Satisfied with their IDs, she set the hockey stick aside, but within reach, and allowed them in.

Once inside, Stephanie pointed out the security pad and noted the system that she and Therese had chosen for the home—an upgrade from the expensive crap she had bought not long before they met. She casually picked up her weapon and scooted around them in the hallway. "You play hockey?" the guy asked.

"Uh, yeah, I, uh, play street hockey and I was on my way to play when I found out I couldn't reset the system," she lied and headed off towards the stairs to effectively end the conversation. Several months later, "Stephanie Plays Street Hockey?" would end up as the title of an article in one of the less reputable rap sheets.

Getting the system online to protect her and Shawn's home was a must before Stephanie could make her next step. Otherwise, she would have already been on a plane bound for Georgia. Pulling out the largest suitcase she owned, she started tossing in casual outfits with no idea what would happen after her arrival. Whether or not Therese wanted her there, she wasn't staying in her house alone. Plus, they couldn't coordinate a rescue with her in Stamford and Therese in Atlanta.

Sitting on the suitcase so that it would close enough to be zipped, her cellphone rang and she fell off the luggage and the bed in a mad scramble for it. "Hello?" she asked, pushing her hair out her face.

"Steph, are you alright?"

"Considering the circumstances, I think so. Do you have any news?"

"I don't know 'cause I'm not home right now," Therese angrily seethed and then began to explain about Ruby. She was currently at the vet's, pacing the waiting room as the doctors looked her over to determine the best course of action. "Taking my husband is one thing but when you try to kill my dog…" she trailed off, imagining what she would do to the idiots who dared mess with her family.

"I'm coming to Atlanta."

"What!" Therese exclaimed. "I can't babysit you and my girls and find Shawn and Kevin!" Stephanie must have made an unintentional noise as she bristled at the comment because the blonde quickly said, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean that. It's just, there's a lot I have to do to keep us straight and I don't know what'll be happening and I can't guarantee you anything."

"I want to help and I can't do that just sitting around up here in Stamford with nothing to do. Whether you want me or not, I'm still coming."

Therese didn't want the VP underfoot but she couldn't blame the woman for wanting to be involved in the immediate search for her own husband. Instead of confirming her coming, she asked, "Were you left a letter?"

"Yeah, how'd do you know?"

"Because I got one. What did yours say?"

Stephanie had already carefully wrapped it up and put it in her purse, she retrieved it. "Okay, here it is. 'I'm so sorry…' and then there's these, um, e-ellipses. Anyhow, it keeps going. 'That I had to do this. I have him and, if you want him back alive, you will wait for me to contact you and you will say nothing to the police. By the way, you might want to phone Therese. She's waiting on you to call.' What about yours?"

Therese sighed. "About the same. Look, I gotta go," she said as the woman who had taken the dog approached her. "If you're coming, bring the note. Call me when you know what time your flight'll arrive."

The security agent snapped her phone shut and looked up at the vet's assistant. "Ruby's gonna be fine but…" Therese hated 'buts.' "We think she'll need a pin in her leg and her chest needs a few stitches, and we think two of her ribs are cracked."

Therese closed her eyes and rubbed a hand over her face. With a deep breath, she said, "Do whatever you have to do. Do you want me to pay up front?"

"No, Mrs. Nash. We know you're good for your word. We just want your permission to treat Ruby in any way we see fit and to keep her a couple of days to monitor her," the vet assistant explained. "We can't be sure yet of all the damage the car hitting her has done."

"Like I said, do whatever you need to do. I need to go now. You can reach me at any time on my cell."

"Ma'am, we'll take good care of Ruby," she said and placed a hand on Therese's arm.

"Thank you," the blonde replied and turned to go home. Climbing into the SUV, she put her head against the steering wheel to rest a moment, the first time she had been still all morning, before the storm broke again. At least she knew her dog was safe now. Ruby had been a surprise, part of a house-warming gift upon her and Kevin's return from their honeymoon. They were moving into a new house, one to accommodate both Evan and the little one that had hoped they had made during their trip to the Caribbean. Therese had barely set her luggage down when she was presented with a tiny beagle puppy whose ears and feet were bigger than her body. A ruby ring was attached to her collar and she began to be called by the precious stone as they tried to find a fitting name for the dog. When Kevin suggested that they officially name her that, Therese readily agreed. She was now leaving the puppy behind that Kevin had given her and she had to make sure that he would be greeted by her when Therese brought him home.

She slammed her fist on the steering wheel and cranked the car to leave, wishing she could form some sort of plan to get this problem resolved but there was absolutely no where to start without police involvement. If it was about murder, the abductors wouldn't have left a note. There was a point to his being taken and she could be assured they would keep him safe through whatever purpose it was…and that went for Shawn as well. They would have to wait until contact was made to do anything.

Therese had to park on the street for the van blocking the driveway. One of the workers recognized her as he pulled some tools out of the back and greeted her. She realized that she must be a mess. She smelled like dog and baby, and not the powdery scent. Her hair was escaping like mad from her ponytail and she was still in mismatched pajamas. Therese nodded and headed straight inside to find Jamie. He had a folder open on the countertop and was jotting down notes on a memo while on his phone. He set the cell down upon seeing her and she immediately asked, "Can you tell me what happened?"

"Yeah, I think so," he replied, running his hand through his hair.

"Keep talking," she responded and headed down the hall. When she realized he hadn't followed, she backtracked. "Walk and talk."

"Well, the system on the fence was cut and—"

"Cut?" she asked, walking through the bedroom and into her bathroom. Jamie hesitated in the doorway and she poked her head out the bathroom door. "You just can't exactly cut that thing without being on the inside." When she disappeared back into the master bath and left the door a quarter of the way open, he took only a couple of steps inside and then debated on what to do. When she started the shower, he turned to go. "Keep talking," she called as she pulled her shirt over her head. Therese could care less at this point. When you have a whole medical crew staring up your private parts as you delivered a baby, not once but twice, modesty meant nothing anymore.

Jamie could see the shadow of her body as she undressed and he turned around to stare out into the yard. "Your perimeter system is separate from your home. It's on grids."

"Like I don't know that," she muttered before slipping into the shower.

"A grid was scrambled long enough to look like a blip on the monitors and then, on the other side, they cut the wires and retied them to reroute the sensors away from the gate." Therese then realized that the gate had been open for Jamie to come in, meaning the gate had been open for the abduction.

"You just can't look at my system and know about the grids and the separate systems. That's why I have two of them."

"Someone knew. They also found a way to scramble the home system so that it turned off but didn't feed back to the monitors as being disabled without a code."

"That's impossible!" she shouted, getting soap in her eyes and muttering curses. "That technology is too advanced for anyone to just know how to scramble it! I wouldn't have picked it otherwise!" she spluttered through the water.

"I'm sorry, Therese. That's the best explanation I have. We've got to replace the keypad and the grid that was cut. Anything else you want us to do?" Jamie asked, his eyes still averted from the bathroom door.

"I want a new system. If they got through this one, I want another one. And get a trace put on my line."

"I thought you didn't want to go through the police."

"Jamie," she stated firmly, sticking a sopping wet head out of the door, "I know you've got the equipment. I know Aaron's plan for bumping the facility up to include investigative services. Just do it."

She disappeared back inside and Jamie sighed and replied, "I'll call the office now."

Finally smelling and looking like a normal human being, Therese decided it was best to check in with Sharon and the girls and ask Kevin's aunt to keep them for the night. She started to pick up the phone when it rang. Her heart jumped into her throat as she checked the callerID. It was a number she didn't recognize and she carefully lifted the receiver, as if handling the phone was like handling her husband's fate. "Hello?"

"Therese Blair Nash," the caller said, as if he hadn't heard from her in a long time. "How are you doing?"

"May I ask who's calling?"

"It doesn't work that way," he replied, his tone changing to a menacing growl. Therese instantly knew who she was dealing with—Kevin's abductor.

TBC…