His chest tightened, along with just about every other part of his body.
Why did Bree have to be so damned beautiful? Hell, she even looked sexy in her serious federal agent clothes—clothes he wouldn't mind stripping right off her body to find the curves he'd dreamed about as a teenager.
What the hell was wrong with him?
He needed to get a grip. If Bree was here, it was because something bad had happened. He needed to remember that. She certainly hadn't come here just to see him. She'd made it clear the day before she wanted to put the past behind her as much as he did.
He saw Bree show Joe her badge. Then his foreman gave him a quick glance.
He nodded, and Joe handed Bree a hard hat, and sent her up the stairs. He walked over to meet her.
"Hi," she said tentatively as she reached the top step. "All right to come in?"
"Looks like you're already in. What are you doing here, Bree? When you said good-bye to me yesterday, it didn't sound like you were planning on saying hello again any time soon."
"Things changed."
"What things?"
"I need to talk to you."
"About Kyle?"
"No. Something else."
"Hayley?"
"Not exactly." She cleared her throat, looking away from his questioning gaze. "This is a big house."
"It's a duplex, so it's two homes."
"And you're building the whole thing?"
"It's my job, but others work on it."
She turned her gaze to the view. "Is this the master bedroom?"
"It is."
"I wouldn't mind waking up to a view like this."
"Even if the view is in Chicago?" he said dryly.
"Good point. I would prefer it be somewhere else."
"Like maybe a beach in Southern California with colorful sailboats catching the wind and the waves," he murmured, the words coming from a lifetime ago.
Her gaze shot back to his, and he thought he saw pain in her eyes.
"I can't believe you remember that," she said.
"Really? You cut out magazine pictures of beaches in California and put them up all over your walls: Newport, Laguna, Santa Monica, Malibu. Did you ever get out there?"
"Not yet."
"I'm surprised. Why not?"
"I'm not ready for the beach yet. What about you? Have you ever thought about leaving Chicago?"
"I've thought about it a million times, but Josie got pregnant at nineteen, and even though she had Kyle, I wanted to stay close to make sure she could handle things. Plus, I adore her kid. Grace is a gutsy little firecracker. She's like Josie in some ways, but in other ways, she's completely different. She definitely has more confidence than her mother ever had, but then, thankfully, Grace hasn't had to live through what Josie did."
"Thankfully," Bree echoed. "How did Josie meet Kyle? It doesn't seem like they would have been running in the same circles. He's a lot older than her, and from what I learned about him, he's well educated and comes from a fairly wealthy family."
"Josie was working as a hostess at the Waltham Club and Kyle did a lot of networking there. She got pregnant by accident and was shocked when Kyle told her he was going to marry her. She couldn't believe that such a successful and smart man not only fell for her but wanted to take care of her. To be honest, I was surprised that he stepped up. But Kyle said he took one look at Josie and fell hard. He didn't care that she came from nothing or she hadn't been to college."
"She is a beautiful woman. She always has been."
"Yes. That beauty got her into a lot of trouble, but in this case, it got her out of it. I have to give Kyle credit for helping Josie stay on a better path. I think he likes having someone who really looks up to him, which Josie does. But I worry that things aren't as good as they once were."
"Because Kyle works late a lot?"
"That's part of it." He paused. "Why are you here, Bree?"
She gave him a pained look. "I probably shouldn't have come. You're just the only one I can talk to."
"I'm the only one you can talk to?" he asked in surprise. "Isn't there an entire building of FBI agents you can talk to?"
"Not about this."
"About what?"
Before she could answer, Joe came up the stairs. "I'm going to take off, Nathan. You need anything before I go?"
"No, I'm good." He ignored Joe's very curious look.
"All right."
As Joe left, Nathan folded his arms across his chest and gave Bree a thoughtful look. "You're stalling. This must be bad."
"It is bad," she admitted. "I didn't mention this before, but I've had a couple of calls from a man who I think is the kidnapper. He alters his voice, so it's difficult to decipher any kind of tone or accent."
Her words shocked him. The kidnapper was talking to her? "What does he say?"
"Each call has been short and cryptic. He is basically taunting me, making it sound like he's watching me, playing some sort of game with me." She licked her lips. "Anyway, the third call came in about an hour ago. He was chatty this time. He said he was a little bored, that he wondered why I didn't seem to know where he was. He sounded impatient, like I wasn't smart enough to keep up with him."
"That's crazy," he muttered, not sure what to think about the calls.
"I wasn't sure it was the kidnapper in the beginning. The first time, the voice just said I'd be sorry. The second call came when I was walking over to Josie's house. He implied that he could see me. He mentioned my hair being up. He said he wanted a worthy competitor. And then he hung up. But he never mentioned Hayley in those two conversations."
"But he did this third time?"
"Not by name. But he said she was waiting for me."
He frowned. "Okay. Then what happened? I assume there's more and it has something to do with why you're here. You don't think it's Kyle, do you?"
"No, I don't. While I was on the phone, I heard the announcement for a train coming into Park Station. I decided to go down there, to see if I could locate a place where he might have stashed Hayley."
"It sounds like he wanted you to hear that."
"I'm sure he did. But I figured I'd be safe enough at a crowded train station in the middle of the day. So, I got on the train."
"You got on the train?" he echoed. "You hate the train. You always preferred to walk whenever you could avoid taking it."
"Well, it was the fastest way to get there. Anyway, it was really crowded as always, and I was almost to the stop, when this little girl tugged on my coat and asked me if I…" Indecision flashed through her eyes.
"Well, don't stop there. What did she ask you?"
"I can't believe I'm going to say this out loud."
His pulse started beating faster at the look in her eyes. "Just say it."
"She called me Mommy, and she asked me why I had taken so long to come back for her."
Shock waves ran through his body. "What?"
"You heard me, Nathan," Bree said, panic in her voice. "She thought I was her mother. I told her I wasn't, and she just said she'd been waiting for me for a long time. She had brown hair and green eyes—just like me. And then the train stopped, and she jumped off. I followed her, but she disappeared into the crowd."
"Are you sure about what she said to you? Sometimes the train is loud."
"I'm absolutely positive, Nathan. She looked right at me. And she wasn't confused. There was a purpose in her eyes."
He had no idea what to say. He was completely stunned.
Bree stared back at him, her heart in her eyes. "The kidnapper set me up. He knew I would go down to the train station. He wanted me to meet her. He wanted me to think—"
"You can't think that. It's ridiculous."
"How can I not? She was about the right age. I saw myself in her, Nathan, I swear I did." Her gaze filled with anguish. "What if that girl really was my daughter?"
Six
His heart pounded against his chest, and he struggled to take a breath, Bree's words spinning him back into the past.