Daegan scowled. "You must be VanHorn."

Before the weasel of a man could answer, Collin staggered forward, and Daegan noticed the blood staining the front of his shirt and long coat, dripping to the floor.

"Well, look who dropped in," Collin said, then fell back on the bed.

"Call an ambulance," Daegan ordered.

"I'll-I'll be fine," Collin whispered.

"Like h.e.l.l." He leveled his eyes at VanHorn. "Call a d.a.m.ned ambulance."

Frank, shaken by his tone of voice, stared at his legitimate son as if seeing for the first time that he was injured. "Collin?"

VanHorn reached for the receiver just as Kate and Sandy slid through the open door.

Kate's eyes were round with fear and she glanced desperately around the room. "Where's Jon?"

"Out the window, I think. I'm going after him." Daegan motioned to the other men. "You'd better stay and talk to the police."

"I'm coming with you," Kate insisted.

"No!" Frank thundered. "There will be no police-"

"Just do it," Daegan ordered VanHorn. "Now!"

"I won't stand for it."

"You don't have a choice," Daegan said, rounding on the man who'd sp.a.w.ned him. "When Collin goes to the hospital and he's got a gunshot wound, the hospital will inform the police. It's the law."

"Not if we call my private physician."

"Dad, give it up," Collin said, his voice a rasp, his skin the color of chalk.

Kate moved toward the bed. "Let's see if we can stop the bleeding. I'll get some towels." She leveled her gaze at Daegan. "Wait for me and we'll find Jon!"

VanHorn shouted out the address into the receiver then slammed the phone down. "Okay, the ambulance is on its way. Now, I'm outta here."

"You're all staying," Daegan insisted, then looked at his friend. "Sandy."

"I'm on it." Sandy calmly took a gun from his shoulder holster.

Kate hurried back into the room with clean though dingy towels, which she pressed against Collin's chest. "Hold these," she instructed VanHorn.

Daegan moved to the window and glanced back at Kate. "After the police arrive, meet me at Robert's."

"I said I'm coming with you!"

"For the love of G.o.d-"

"Don't argue with me, Daegan. Jon's still my son!"

Daegan frowned but eyed his friend. "She's coming with me. We'll meet you back at Robert's town house."

"Got it," Sandy agreed.

"I'm not going to go down, O'Rourke! Not like this. Not because of you and your b.a.s.t.a.r.d!" Frank glared at his son.

Daegan's smile was pure venom. "Doesn't look like you have a choice, now, does it?"

"Give it up, Dad," Collin croaked. "It's over."

"Like h.e.l.l! I'll go down fighting, like a man!"

"Jesus!" Collin whispered then shuddered violently on the bed.

"Look at this," Frank said, motioning to his legitimate son. "This is all your fault. If you would've left everything alone-"

"It's not Daegan's fault," Collin whispered.

But Frank had a target in his sights as he rounded on his illegitimate son. Hate and loathing seethed between them and the room was suddenly hot with anger. Frank's nostrils flared and fury mottled his face. "You should have kept your nose out of this, O'Rourke! It was none of your G.o.dd.a.m.ned business."

"My son is none of my business? Guess again, Frank. Let's go, Kate!"

"He wasn't your son any more than you're mine."

Daegan bristled. "That's where you're wrong, old man, and where you and I are different, thank G.o.d."

"Daegan-" Collin said weakly from the bed.

"Just take it easy there."

"Wait! I'm sorry." Collin was beginning to shake, his teeth chattering.

"Shock," Kate explained. "Hold on. Don't talk."

"No, please, Daegan, you didn't do it," Collin admitted, trying to sit up. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.

Frank's head snapped as if he suddenly understood what his son was trying to say. "Shut up, Collin!"

"Let him talk," Daegan said and Frank's eyes narrowed with a rage that he'd carried since the day of Daegan's birth.

"You miserable b.a.s.t.a.r.d, your mother should have had the abortion like I told her. Then I never would have had to deal with you." He stepped closer. "You've been a burr up my a.s.s for a long time, O'Rourke, and your ma, always trying to trap me. Thinking I'd leave my own wife for her, the foolish woman. Thinking I'd stay with her and her b.a.s.t.a.r.d son." He drew himself up, his chest puffed out proudly over his now prominent belly. "I moved on from Mary Ellen years ago, on to younger fillies."

"Amazing what you can buy with a little Sullivan cash," Daegan said, his guts roiling, rage surging through his blood. Still, he held himself back, knowing that there were more urgent matters to pursue. Jon was missing, running scared. Jon was his first priority.

"Let's get out of here," Kate said as if sensing a fight of horrific proportions.

"We will." With all his willpower, Daegan managed to contain his fury. "You're a pathetic excuse for a man, a father, a son, and a husband, Sullivan. I feel sorry for your kids and wife, the ones who had to see you every day."

"You ungrateful s.h.i.t, I'll kill you with my bare hands," Frank vowed and lunged, throwing all his weight at Daegan.

But Daegan was ready. He'd been preparing for this all his adult life. Fists curled, he connected hard with Frank's belly, then snapped his father's head back with a sharp left cross to the jaw.

With a thud Frank went down. He staggered to his feet, swung wild, and Daegan threw a combination punch that sent him reeling against a bureau. Wood splintered and Frank slid to the dirty tiles.

A bruise darkened his jaw and blood discolored his lips. Daegan, still standing, hands curled into tight fists, loomed over him. "You want more? Huh? I got more."

"Go to h.e.l.l."

"Been there. Now it's your turn."

Frank glared up at his b.a.s.t.a.r.d son. He tried to stand but his legs wobbled and Daegan towered over him, ready to do more damage.

"I despised you from the day you were born." Blood stained his teeth.

"Believe me, Dad Dad," Daegan said with a sarcastic sneer, "the feeling's mutual."

"Daegan," Collin whispered as sirens wailed through the broken window. "Listen please..." He coughed and choked, fighting to stay conscious. "You have to listen...it was me...fifteen years ago, it was me-"

"Don't," Daegan whispered, his right hand aching from the blows he'd landed. He didn't know what kind of deathbed confessional he was about to hear, but suddenly he didn't care-didn't want to know any more family secrets.

Collin was desperate and reached forward, clutching Daegan's sleeve with long white fingers. "Dad and I," he said in a deep, rattling breath. "We...we killed Stu."

"Oh, Christ," Frank moaned.

"What?" Daegan couldn't believe his ears.

"It's true, we saw the whole fight, saw you run off to phone the police...and then we got to him and I wanted to call an ambulance but Dad...Dad kicked him in the head hard enough...Oh, dear Jesus, we killed Stu. Forgive me, Stuart. Please, please...I...Stuart I love..." Tears flooded his eyes and he was shaking.

"You let me take the heat for it," Daegan said, turning dead eyes on his father.

"You deserved it."

Daegan's throat worked. The anguish of fifteen years of not knowing, of doubting himself, welled up inside him. "And you're gonna pay, you miserable son of a b.i.t.c.h," he said through lips that barely moved. "You're gonna pay big-time."

Chapter 24.

Run...run...

Feet slipping, Jon sped through narrow alleys and zigzagged across streets that smelled of diesel and sea-water. He needed to find a policeman, but would they believe him? VanHorn said the adoption wasn't legal, that the police couldn't help him, and those men were talking about millions of dollars, millions! millions! What could they possibly want with him? What could they possibly want with him?

Don't you get it? Someone wants you dead!

His breath was burning in his lungs, his shoulder hurt, and his legs ached, but still he ran, sure that someone was following him.

He charged steadily uphill, his lungs ablaze as the tenements gave way to nice houses and shops and wrought-iron fences. Christmas lights flashed by his eyes and an overwhelming sense of deja vu washed over him. Somewhere not too far away he heard the melodic strains of a Christmas song.

"...a beautiful sight, we're happy tonight, walkin' in a winter wonderland..."

He swallowed back his fear. This was another repeat of his dream, and the footsteps behind him weren't imagined. Someone very real and evil was chasing him!

Forcing his feet to keep going, his heart pounding furiously, he heard his pursuer and cast a glance behind him. In the thin lamplight and through the shadows, a man was following, running at breakneck speed, catching him.

No! No! No! Don't stop, keep running!

"In the meadow we can build a snowman..."

Heavy breathing, thudding footsteps, his name called into the night. "Jon! Stop!"

Jon lunged as a huge hand dropped down and clamped over his shoulder.

"Shh. It's me!" Daegan said.

Jon nearly crumpled in relief. He wasn't going to be shot! Turning, he saw Daegan's face in the watery glow of a streetlamp.

"What're you doing here?"

"I came looking for you."

Daegen...my father.

Jon backed up. "You lied to me," he accused him, still walking backward, his breath fogging in the night.

"I thought I had to. I was wrong."

"I don't believe you."

"I know and I can't make you. But I'm your father and-"

"No!" Jon said, anger spewing from him. "My father wouldn't have left me, my father would have stuck around while I was growing up, my father is a great guy who...who-"

"Never knew he had a son until a couple of months ago, who couldn't believe it but, once he met you, found out he loves you. He never realized a child could make such a difference in his pathetic life."

The words echoed through the night and resonated in Jon's battered heart. Daegan was his father! His d.a.m.ned father! Daegan was his father! His d.a.m.ned father! Biting his lip, he silently told himself he wasn't going to cry, even though Daegan might walk out and leave him again. Biting his lip, he silently told himself he wasn't going to cry, even though Daegan might walk out and leave him again.

"And it's not just because you're his son," Daegan was saying with a sad smile curving his lips, "but because he cares about you, likes to be around you, gets a kick just hanging out with you."

"Then why did you leave?" Jon demanded, challenging this man he'd once admired. Daegan looked sincere, but Jon didn't want to trust him. After all, the guy was pretty good at disappearing acts.

"I thought I had to. I thought it would be best if you never knew. I thought your mom and you could go on with your lives and never have to deal with what you're dealing with now."

"The Sullivan family," Jon sneered.