Chapter 3
T aryn watched a shadow approach, but it was hard to see who it was. She stiffened as it got closer and closer to her. Dusk had settled in, and she had seen no movement from Jeff’s house. She hoped the kids were settled in for the night. However, she also felt more fear too. She didn’t trust anything that happened in the dark anymore. Something was seriously off with Jeff. Considering the ad he had placed, it revealed an awful lot about where he was in life. Other people might give him some plausible excuse, but she wasn’t really into ignoring people’s shitty behaviors, especially when it came to abusing children.
As the shadow came closer and closer, she recognized Alex’s profile and smiled. She waited until he got close enough, and then she opened her car door and stepped out to meet Alex halfway. He handed her a sandwich and a bottle of water. She looked at it in surprise. “Wow, you really did think ahead, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, though I wish we had a thermos or something. That coffee won’t last long, and it looks to be a long night.”
“And that’s good. The kids need sleep too.” He didn’t argue with her, just nodded, and she sighed. “Sorry, I’m pretty uptight about the whole process.”
“That’s fine. It’s also not what you normally do, is it?”
She laughed. “No way.” She gave him an eye roll. “I’ve spent most of my life in marketing, online marketing at that. So I spend my days and nights on the computer, promoting the more superficial needs of mankind—fancy cars, luxury homes, expensive cosmetic surgery, diamonds and gems and all that sparkles. So, when you start dealing with stuff a little less than prime, you realize how much ugliness is on the web out there.”
“Of course,” Alex muttered. “I presume nothing is moving here.” He motioned to the house down the road.
She nodded. “No. I’m surprised you even came out here again. Aren’t you supposed to be watching your area at the back of the house?”
He nodded. “True, but I’ve got a couple of… I don’t want to say traps , but tricks to let me know if anyone is moving out there. I can get back there pretty damn fast, but you’re right. I should head back now.” Giving her a ghost of a smile, he turned and disappeared into the trees again.
Within seconds he was long gone, reminding Taryn that some of these guys who worked for Terk and Levi had mad survival skills, nighttime hunting, and whatnot, that she couldn’t even begin to know about, much less to emulate.
Taryn sighed and remained standing outside her car. All she had was the deep need to confirm these kids were safe. With that in mind, she sent Terkel a text, asking about Bruce’s condition.
When the reply came that Bruce was improving, she had to smile. She dreaded telling Bruce that his sister Mary had died while he’d been in that Russian prison, and now Mary’s kids were about to be sold by their paternal uncle Jeff. That would send Bruce into a tailspin and probably cancel out any healing he had done to date.
She hoped for enough time to save these kids before Bruce was fully conscious, before he was finally brought up-to-date. Yet she wanted those kids back right now, without any more waiting. That wouldn’t happen. So she needed all those people out there helping in the background to come up with something useful and fast, damn it. With that thought, she settled against her car door and munched on her sandwich.
Lights came on in the house, and her chewing slowed, as Uncle Jeff stepped outside and appeared to be talking on the phone. She swore under her breath because she wasn’t close enough to hear. She sent Alex a text, sharing all that, hoping he was closer to Jeff and could at least hear Jeff’s side of the phone call.
Alex texted, I’ll see what I can do , but then went silent.
She waited, wondering if Alex was close enough to hear something, but not so close for the uncle to hear or see Alex. They sure didn’t want that. She waited with bated breath, while the uncle argued with somebody on the phone. He became more and more animated and then started talking louder and louder. After a few minutes of that, he took a deep breath and seemed to calm down a bit.
She frowned because, although she heard one word here and there, she couldn’t make any sense from them. Thankfully none of those words were frightening. She was just too far away to make heads or tails out of whatever this asshole was up to. When Jeff headed into the house again, she groaned because the opportunity to learn anything had just slipped past them.
When her phone vibrated a few minutes later, she checked her Caller ID and answered it without a greeting.
Alex whispered, “Jeff was haggling over the price.”
Her breath was sucked away, and, for a moment, she couldn’t catch another.
“Taryn, are you there?”
“Yes,” she gasped. “My God. That is so not what I want to hear.”
“I know, and he also seems to want the kids to go together, but I think the other party wasn’t inclined to do that.”
“Of course not, which just worries me more. I also don’t understand why they would speak so freely over a phone on this topic anyway,” Taryn grumbled. “How is that even possible?”
“Chances are Jeff and the buyer each have a burner phone, which means the call is untraceable, and it’ll be the number Jeff’s given in the ad.”
“Then we do need to respond to the ad,” she declared in a mad fit.
“You already did, didn’t you?” he asked, with a note of humor, just as he appeared by her side.
All she could do was flush. “How did you know?”
“Because you’re not the type to leave it to chance. But the main point here is that he wasn’t arguing with you .”
“That’s obvious,” she snapped, “and I don’t like that one bit because it means he’s found another buyer, even though he hasn’t responded to me.”
“He still might touch base with you though,” Alex said, trying to keep it light. “He’s obviously negotiating, and maybe somebody got in there before you. So, if that buyer causes any trouble, Jeff might very well contact you anyway.”
“Or I could raise the price,” she suggested. “Should I raise the price?”
Alex hesitated. “You know that you’ll have to produce that in cash in order to make this thing go down.”
“Why?” she asked. “I can’t be alone in this. Won’t the government back me somehow?”
“I have no idea,” Alex admitted. “I just know, what with government red tape,… if push comes to shove, do you have that kind of money that you can get in a couple hours?”
“I’ll get it,” she stated brashly.
He sighed at her tone. “That means, no. So, you don’t have that kind of dough.”
“I can’t let these kids get sold off like some sleazy internet merchandise,” she grumbled.
“I agree with you fully. Absolutely I do,” he replied, “but we need a solid plan, more than a foolhardy dash into the middle of the chaos.”
“I had a plan,” she stated. “I would buy the kids.”
“So, what happened?”
“I put in an offer, and Jeff didn’t get back to me,” she explained, “and I don’t know why.”
“That’s my point exactly. Even with cash and all that, we seem to be missing something here. Maybe some special exchange of two phrases happens in these things that we aren’t aware of,” Alex suggested. “Maybe that ad price is a starting point, when it’s really a bidding war. I can’t really say though, because I’ve never had any experience with this side of the web.”
“Well, if you don’t, and I don’t, maybe we should ask someone who does.”
“Let me check in with Terkel, and I’ll get back to you.” At that, he disappeared again.
With a sigh, Taryn sat alone in her car once more, her nerves twisting and turning in her gut. To even think that somebody was already negotiating for these kids made Taryn ill. To think that her offer to buy them had been completely ignored made her completely sick to her stomach.
Could Jeff have known that something was wrong with her offer?
Maybe.
How could that be?
Because she didn’t act like the other demented buyers?
Too much was going on in her brain that she didn’t have answers to, and it was driving her nuts.
When her phone vibrated, she wasn’t surprised to see it was Terkel. She bypassed any niceties, like a normal greeting, and asked, “Why can’t we go in and do a full-on rescue? They are right here. I don’t understand why they can’t be picked up for safety reasons.”
“Remember that we’ve got eyes on this sale, along with both domestic and international agencies. They all have skin in the game, so we can’t rush in and undo whatever they may have going on in the background. Meanwhile, I’ve reached out to somebody in Texas who is taking it to a judge to see if it’s something they can get a court order for. One problem is, we don’t have any viable proof—the kind the courts and the authorities want anyway—tying that auction bid to Jeff and these particular children, although we have an image of the ad, it’s a help but it’s not enough,” Terk explained in a calm tone that was grating on her nerves, and even Terk knew that. “That’s what we need right now. Otherwise we won’t pull this off.”
“So, none of the hackers in your corner have managed to trace that ad back to Jeff yet?” she cried out rather desperately.
“They’re working on it,” he shared, “but, even so, we can’t just go steal children from a blood uncle. What happens if that blows up in our faces? Sure, we can tell the cops, Hey, sorry about that. We made a mistake . But the real cost would be that Jeff would be on to us, and Jeff would by all rights be awarded temporary legal custody of those kids, and nobody within these various authorities would choose to work with us again. If Jeff chooses to take those kids and to disappear under future circumstances as these? Then we would be far worse off than we are right now.”
“What if the kids are hurt?” she asked bitterly.
“Take it easy, Taryn,” Terk replied. “As long as they’re in that house, and nobody is there to pick them up, we’ll leave them in that situation. I don’t think Jeff’s abusing them, other than verbally. He can’t take a chance of doing much, not when he wants prime dollar for them.”
Her breath let out in a whoosh . “God, I don’t even want to think about that.”
“Then don’t. We’re all working as part of a team here, so don’t go off half-cocked.”
“Yeah, so when do I get to go off half-cocked then?” she snapped.
“If Jeff tries to escape with the children,” Terk stated. “Then you stay on his tail, no matter what. Most important is that you let us know every step of the way where you are, even if that means you call me and stay connected to me on the phone during the car chase and to its full completion. And, if you have a chance for Alex to come with you on any car chase, let him drive. He’s got the training for it.” And, with that, Terkel was gone.
Taryn settled back to wait and to watch, her mind churning with thoughts. Finally she realized she could do one thing. So she sent healing energy to Bruce. She wished she could speak telepathically, but it was a skill she had yet to master. She had no idea whether the children could or not.
Taryn and Bruce had always been close friends, nothing more than that—although they had discussed more at one point in time but had ultimately decided they were better off as strictly friends than friends with benefits.
She loved him. She loved him dearly but as a friend. She could only hope that Amara managed to get over to Terk’s castle in England to see Bruce and to try to heal their relationship. As a side note, Amara’s presence with Bruce, as long as Taryn was stateside, might help Bruce recover faster, should something truly upsetting happen here. Losing those children would break Taryn’s heart, along with letting Bruce down, should Taryn not save these kids. Taryn had been a kid once herself, taken advantage of in the same way that these kids were about to experience.… That hit a little closer to home than she cared to admit.
She’d always been close to Bruce to a certain extent, partly because they had shared certain gifts, and partly because Bruce’s parents had taken her in as a foster kid, which had worked out really well for Taryn. She’d become close to the whole family. It had shown her a life she hadn’t seen before, but they hadn’t been the first foster home she’d been in. Yet it had been the best, and thankfully for her sake and for her sanity, the last foster home for her.
Taryn had gone in with a chip on her shoulder and an attitude about life that wasn’t that easy to deal with. Bruce’s mom had quickly surrounded Taryn with love, and it never eased up. Yet Taryn had been so confused about it at the time, not realizing just what a gem Bruce’s mom was. Taryn had never been exposed to someone like that. Taryn winced with a pang of sadness now, since Bruce’s mother had passed away from a heart attack not all that long ago.
Did she know that Bruce had been in a Russian prison?
Did she know that Bruce was in trouble?
Did she know that Mary and her kids were in trouble?
Did Mary have the same intuition as Bruce did?
Far too many things had been left unsaid among the family members, yet maybe Bruce and Mary’s mom didn’t need to know this right before she passed. A whole lot of horrible things happened in life, but not many were much worse than knowing that your son was a prisoner and slated for execution in a Russian prison, all during the same time period that your daughter was killed in an auto accident. Wow. That would have been so damn hard to handle.
Pulling back her heavy emotions, knowing it wouldn’t help anything, Taryn settled in to watch and to wait, alternately sending energy in the direction of Bruce and now trying to send some to those children in that house with Jeff.
When a voice in her head spoke to her very softly, Taryn frowned, shifted a bit, sitting up, looking forward, still inside her car. She called out equally softly in her mind, Who are you?
Nothing but the faintest of whispers was there, then a sigh, and then nothing.
Bruce? Taryn asked. Is that you? They had never managed to speak telepathically before, but Taryn’s limited abilities had increased somewhat. Maybe Bruce’s greater gifts had grown in leaps and bounds, enough so they could talk to each other in this way now. With Bruce’s help, maybe she could do more now. She called out once more, Try to communicate again, if you can .
Afterward came a weird hum, almost a struggle on the ethers, and then the energy disappeared.
Taryn sat there in the car, dry-eyed for a long moment, and then the tears just gushed. She didn’t even know where they came from, but they were so hot and so sudden that she was completely helpless to stop them.
That was the moment she realized they weren’t even hers.
*
Alex stiffened, hearing the brutal sobs in his head.
“What the hell?” he muttered. He sat up, looked around, but it was most definitely in his head and not outside him. He tried hard to figure out who it was, and yet everything kept coming from the direction of Taryn. He hesitated to ask if it was her because it seemed to be so private, so tormented, so personal. It would be awkward to interrupt. He frowned, hating to be a party to it, and tried to block it out. He’d never heard such painful sounds before.
When his phone vibrated, he answered, only to hear Taryn sobbing away. “What’s wrong? What’s the matter, damn it? Taryn, talk to me.”
“It’s not me. Those aren’t my sobs,” she cried out, and then the call went dead. Alex stared down at it, but, instead of calling her back, he phoned Terkel.
“Yeah, I’m not sure what’s going on either,” Terkel began, his voice calm but distant. “We’re trying to figure it out here.”
Alex muttered, “I don’t understand. What did she mean that it’s not her sobs. Did she really mean that?”
“She meant it. I think she’s picking up on someone else.”
“Why the hell is she picking up on anything?” Alex asked in frustration, “Unless… that’s what she does?”
“I don’t think she knows what she does. She’s always been a very strong intuitive. My understanding is that she grew up with Bruce, and they used to play all kinds of games based on intuition when they were younger. However, it’s not something that she’d ever really used, beyond what she recognized as just her intuition. I think she only shared her fledgling gifts with Bruce. But right now?… She’s apparently been attracted to and caught up in some energy that she doesn’t recognize, and doesn’t know how to get herself out of.”
“ Great ,” Alex muttered, followed by a hard release of breath. “It’s absolutely incredible hearing her in my head.” After a moment of silence, he asked Terk curiously, “You’re hearing it too?”
“Well, I’m hearing her ,” Terk clarified, “so I don’t understand what you mean that it’s not her because what I am hearing is definitely her.”
“Yes, you’re hearing some of Taryn. It’s her voice but not her tears.” Alex shook his head at that.
“You must think that makes sense,” Terk replied, with a note of humor. Then he laughed. “It’s not even that it makes sense. It’s just what it is.”
“God,” Alex whispered. “This stuff is so bizarre.”
“It can be. Absolutely it can be,” Terk confirmed, “but the bottom line is that we don’t really have answers for very much in life when it comes to this energy work. Thus, we’re as stuck as everybody else trying to figure out what’s going on. Everyone struggles to settle into their normal, and this is ours.”
“Well, I hope you figure it out because Taryn sounds horrified by it.”
“She is, and she’s clearly picked up on somebody. Now the question is,… who is it?” And, with that, Terkel disconnected.
Alex was left sitting there all alone, listening to the terrible sobs in his head. He tried everything he could to tune it out but wasn’t getting anywhere and finally realized that ignoring it wasn’t helping. Damn it, those tears, those sobs, they were so damn strong. He phoned Taryn. “Is that still you?”
“It’s not me. It never has been,” she wailed, now bawling too in response to these heart-wrenching sobs. “But it’s somebody, somebody who’s terrified, somebody who somehow latched on to my energy,” Taryn guessed. “I don’t know how to get free.”
“We’re supposed to learn these things as we go along, but we never really have a chance to because there’s no opportunity to ever really try or practice,” he murmured. “We could really use Terk’s experience to teach us how.”
“I don’t know about practice or trying,” she choked out between sobs, “but this is beyond the realm of anything I’ve ever experienced.”
“So, what makes you think it’s not you then?”
She gave a broken laugh, still mixed in with some sobbing. “Because I’m seeing images. I’m seeing things. It’s like…” Then she stopped. “Oh my God,” she whispered, “I think I know who it is.”
“Who?” he asked.
“The little girl—Cassie, Bruce’s niece. I think it’s her crying, crying for the loss of her mother,” Taryn offered, as the tears started anew yet again. “Oh my God, her pain is just horrific. I need it to stop.”
“Well, I’m pretty sure Terkel would tell you to distance yourself from this, but learn what you can, ask why she’s doing this, and see if there’s anything you can do to help.”
Suddenly Taryn gave a strangled yelp.
“Hey, Taryn. Are you okay?”