Chapter 5
T aryn woke up, feeling groggy, as if from a drugged sleep, not the refreshing kind. When she shifted in her seat, she winced and then groaned, slowly opening her eyes wider as she stared at the vehicle she sat in. Noting a stranger in the driver’s seat, she almost jumped out the window.
He turned, then smiled at her. “Hey, my name’s Riff. Terkel sent me.” She swallowed several times. Then he added, “Don’t be scared. I’m on your team, so no need to be alarmed.”
She stared at him, quickly trying to process things and to catch up. “And I didn’t wake up?”
He shrugged. “Nope, you didn’t wake up.”
“That’s not like me at all,” she noted faintly.
He cocked one eyebrow. “Better get over it.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “Just like that?”
“Yeah, just like that.”
She struggled to reorient herself to the chaos her world had become. She brushed her hair off her face and continued to stare at him. “When did you get here?”
“While you were sleeping,” he shared cheerfully. She shot him a look, and he laughed. “Obviously that goes without saying, but, hey, we have to start somewhere. Anyway, it’s a good thing I came, so now your buddy here can also take a nap and rest up.” Riff pointed a thumb to the back seat.
“Any movement on the house?”
“Nope, nothing yet.”
“Alex has his car on the other side though,” she explained. “He was supposed to stay over there but didn’t want to leave me alone here.”
“Good call,” Riff agreed, glancing at Alex, then turned to watch the house again. “When he wakes up, he can head back over to that side, and we can make a plan, should this Jeff guy decide not to leave the house.”
“What plan do we make?” she asked, frowning at him. “Isn’t it a good thing if they don’t leave?”
“As long as we’re also tracking whoever may be coming into this picture,” Riff added, “because that is a whole different story.”
She swallowed hard, then rummaged around and found her water bottle and drank the last bit of it. “I also need a few minutes to walk around a bit, and then some food would be nice.” He nodded. She grabbed some napkins, left the car, found some bushes not far away, and relieved herself, wishing for a bathroom and a shower at least, not to mention the rest of the good things that normal people had. Then she reminded herself that a trio of children were at risk of being sold into God-only-knows what kind of a nightmare, so Taryn shouldn’t be lamenting the lack of her own creature comforts.
As she walked back to the car, the two men were talking, both now awake and standing outside the vehicle.
Alex faced her, smiled, and asked, “How are you feeling?”
“It was a little weird waking up to find a stranger in the car,” she shared, frowning at Riff. “I wish I’d known he was coming, so it wouldn’t have been such a shock.”
Riff shrugged. “Just because I was coming doesn’t mean it wouldn’t have been a shock anyway,” he pointed out. “Walking in the shadows is something I do regularly.”
She still frowned at him, and he frowned right back. She sighed. “Well, you’re already here, and we could use the help.”
“Thank you, that’s most gracious,” Riff quipped.
She flushed, realizing she had no say in that or anything else. Besides, any help that they could get would make it easier on all of them. She shrugged. “It’s not my deal, and apparently I don’t have all the job skills required to pull this off. So I’m sure you guys will do whatever you do.”
Riff raised one eyebrow at her. “But you’re the one who put out the alarm, right?”
She nodded. “To a certain extent, yes, but I’m not sure how much of an alarm I put out, when you consider how long this may have been going on.”
Riff agreed. “Which is another reason why it’s important to catch up with it right now. Once the kids are in the trafficking system, it’s almost impossible to get them back out.”
She winced at that. “I still don’t understand why we can’t just walk in and grab them.”
“Because we have no proof, not per the legal community, regardless of our personal feelings and some hearsay. Until you have proof that Jeff posted the ad, we have no lawful way to intervene. We don’t have the right to just go in and remove children from their uncle’s care.”
“What about under suspicions of neglect and abuse?” she asked. “Surely that would work.”
“Maybe, but, if you have nothing concrete to back it up, the children would just be returned to their uncle Jeff, and the next time you try, you’ll have even less support from the authorities,” Riff explained. “Plus, it would tip off Jeff, and he could take them and disappear. It’s much better to take some time and rally our teams to do it right, while we have a chance to retrieve the kids and also nail Jeff. I’m also not at all against nailing the prospective buyers in this case as well.”
She flushed. “Well, if all goes according to plan, I’ll be one of them.”
He turned and stared, and Alex quickly jumped in. “She was afraid that Jeff would take off with the kids, so she sent in an offer.”
“Oh, interesting,” Riff murmured. “Yeah, that might work—if you can get him to talk to you.”
“Yeah, except Jeff didn’t respond.” When Riff stared at her, she shrugged. “Alex wondered if there was some code or special catchphrase or something when you buy things on the dark web, so they know you’re legit .”
Riff shook his head. “It’s not so much that there’s a code, but there is definitely a process. He wouldn’t answer you right off the bat anyway, especially if he had other people interested, as in regular buyers Jeff has dealt with before.”
“And yet regular buyers ,” she noted, feeling the sickness in her heart, “implies that Jeff’s done this before.”
“Do we have any evidence of that?” Riff asked them both.
“I don’t know,” she muttered. “You would have to talk to Terkel about that—or maybe Levi and Ice.”
“Are they involved too?” Riff asked her.
Alex nodded, “One or both of the teams are doing a deep dive on Jeff. No word yet on that.”
She asked Riff, “Do you know them too?”
“Sure, Levi and Ice are major players in the industry. Plus, they work a lot with Terkel,” Riff shared. “So, yeah, I do know them. And, if they’re involved, it’s great because then they’ll have law enforcement working quietly on the sidelines to help us.”
“I still don’t understand the whole quietly on the sidelines thing,” she muttered. “I just want to go in there and grab those kids and take them away.”
“Yeah, but that’s a rookie move. Taking them away is one thing. Taking them away so they never have to deal with this uncle again, that’s a whole different story. We cannot fail in this process. We cannot let those children go back to Jeff again, and that’s what we’re trying to avoid.”
She winced. “I get that, and I get why everybody keeps telling me that, but it still feels as if we’re not doing enough.”
“It always feels as if you’re not doing enough,” Riff declared, his voice steady as he studied Taryn. “That’s just one of the things that comes with this work, because honestly, as soon as we find something’s going on, such as this,” he stated, carefully gauging his words so as not to pop her bubble, “we just find dozens more cases like it.”
She looked around in disgust. “How about I go for a food run?”
The men eyed her, and Riff suggested to Alex, “Go with her.” He spoke in a simple tone, no BS, clear-cut.
She stared. “I don’t need somebody to look after me.”
He turned a hard gaze her way. “You may well believe that, but you’re not seeing the bigger picture. The problem with that short-term thinking is that little girl, who is an unknown factor in all this. What if she latches on to you while you’re out driving?” he asked. Taryn just stared back, now wide-eyed. “Will you continue to drive while she’s overwhelming you? Or even do what you need to do in order to get back here? Am I wrong to worry about that?”
Taryn continued to stare at him, now frowning. “I don’t know. I’ve never had this experience before.”
“And considering the work that we’re doing right now,” Riff clarified, “you yourself know, as well as I do, that it’s better off if we stay in pairs.”
She flushed. “And yet, if we leave, you’re not a pair.”
He smiled. “But if anybody here doesn’t need to be in a pair, it’s me.” She glared at him, but he just shook his head. “Don’t waste time arguing.”
She turned to Alex, already walking toward the road. “Where are you going?” she asked, frustration oozing from her.
“Working my way around to the back to pick up my vehicle.”
“Good enough,” she conceded. “I’ll wait here for you.”
He smiled at her. “That’s a good idea.” Then he quickly disappeared from view.
She pivoted to glare again at Riff. “I don’t know that I trust you.”
“Good. You shouldn’t trust me just because I said who I am. If you haven’t checked in with Terkel, how do you know I didn’t lie?” She had no answer to that. “I could have lied.”
She narrowed her gaze at him. “You’re having way-too-much fun in a situation that doesn’t call for it.”
His eyebrows shot up. “I’m not having any fun. Fun would be surfing in Hawaii. Fun would be doing something with friends, not sitting here trying to stop children from getting served up to some pervert as his playthings,” he muttered. “If you don’t trust me, contact Terkel.”
She frowned, wondering if it was safe to do so, but Riff’s gaze was steady.
Riff added, “And you should. You know you should.”
She sighed, pulled out her phone, and, when Terkel answered, she said waspishly, “Describe Riff.” He gave her a physical description that matched the man in front of her. “Why didn’t you tell us that he was on the way?”
“I didn’t know he would come,” Terk stated. “I put out a word, looking for help, to see if Riff was available. He was in the US at the time, and, as is typical Riff behavior, he just arrives when we least expect it and yet most need it.”
“But is it safe to trust him?”
“Yes,” Terkel declared, “especially considering he’s probably the one who told you to call me anyway.”
She felt the heat in her cheeks once more at the accuracy of his deduction. “Yeah, and now he’s grinning like a fool.”
“He has a habit of doing that, but don’t let him piss you off. Just remember that he’s there to help and that he’s very good at what he does. Anything else is secondary, just noise, so don’t let it distract you.” And, with that, Terkel disconnected.
She nodded. “Well, he gave you a reference, though I’m not exactly sure it was a good one. Yet he vouched that you are who you are.”
Riff snorted. “That’s about all he can do anyway.” Riff took a skimming glance at the house. “In case you hadn’t noticed, most of the people in this industry tend to be free spirits.”
“So I’ve heard.”
“We don’t take well to orders, and we do what we want because we’re here to help. Outside of being part of teams of gifted people who are doing this energy work,” Riff explained, “most of us don’t enjoy having bosses or being bossed around.”
“Ah, that figures.”
“Why does it figure?” he asked her curiously.
She shrugged. “Because you look as if you’re a bit of a knothead.”
He stared at her for a moment and then chuckled. “Well, you’re not far wrong,” he muttered. “So, when you’re out shopping, pick me up coffee and some food, will you?”
She nodded. “I figure we’ll probably need to get more than a little bit.”
“Well, somebody has to stay here all the time and keep watch,” he agreed, “though I would just as soon move into the house.”
She stared at him in shock. “How will you manage that?”
“Not sure yet. I’m still working out a viable plan.”
“There is no viable plan that’ll get you into that house,” she stated in exasperation. “You just said that we don’t want to do anything that’ll put the kids in jeopardy or to give Jeff a heads-up.” When Riff turned to stare at her, she raised both hands in mock surrender. “Fine, okay, so you won’t do anything to put the kids in danger, but it still doesn’t sound like a plausible plan.”
“I didn’t say I knew how to make it happen,” he clarified. “I just mentioned I would prefer to be in there.”
“So would I,” she muttered, “but Jeff wouldn’t let anybody in. He’s become very antisocial in this last year, even more so since his sister-in-law’s death and the subsequent disappearance of his brother.”
“Yeah, the teams are searching for the missing brother, but I would like a bit more history on Mary’s death as well,” Riff noted thoughtfully.
She frowned at him. “I’ve wondered myself if Jeff did something to get rid of Mary, to make his criminal life a little bit easier, but I don’t know,” she muttered. “It’s a bit far-fetched, especially when she was the breadwinner, with her husband and his brother Jeff both unemployed.”
“Not necessarily. I’ve seen serial killers who enjoyed family life, until it just wasn’t any good anymore, and they took out the entire family. Then just… moved on to start a new family.” When she stared at him in shock, he shrugged. “Remember that it takes all kinds in this world. Just when you think you’ve seen it all, you haven’t. Somebody still has the ability to do things that will shock you.”
“Well, all I want to do is get those kids back before Bruce wakes up, when we have to tell him what happened.”
Riff faced her. “The Bruce at Terk’s? Ah, now that makes more sense. These are Bruce’s kids?”
“Bruce’s niece and nephews,” she clarified. “His sister Mary died while he was in prison, which he doesn’t even know about yet, much less about this whole child trafficking fiasco.”
“Jesus, that guy’s been through the wringer. We definitely need to get these kids back to Bruce. He’s been through enough already. The last thing he needs is to wake up and to find out these kids have been sold into sex slavery.”
“Let’s not even go there,” she muttered. “I just want to get them back.”
“Last I saw of Bruce, he was beginning to surface a bit. I have high hopes that he’ll come back fully.”
“What if he doesn’t?” she asked.
“We don’t need to go there just yet,” Riff stated. “The healers working with Terk are incredible. Amazing, really. They work with people on the cusp of life and death all the time. So Bruce is definitely in the very best place he could be right now.”
Taryn didn’t know what to say to that. The concept of energy-working healers working with the people on the cusp of death was a little stunning, but Riff certainly seemed serious about his choice of words. “Can you imagine what it would be like to do something like that for a profession?” she asked softly.
“It takes dedication,” he replied. “You obviously have abilities yourself, and healing is really not that far off.”
She snorted. “I have minor, very minor abilities, and I would call it more intuition than abilities.”
“Yeah, most of us are more comfortable calling it intuition,” Riff agreed. “That doesn’t change what it is.” When she glared at him again, he smiled. “Besides, you and Bruce used to experiment a bit telepathically, didn’t you?”
“That was a very long time ago, when we were just children, and we used to imagine we could send messages back and forth,” she explained. “His family was my foster family, so we lived in the same home. We were together constantly, so it wasn’t that difficult to know what the other one might be thinking. His family was really good to me.”
Riff frowned at her. “You’re a foster child?”
She nodded slowly. “Yeah, and, no, I don’t have a clue who my family is. So don’t even bother asking because I gave up even thinking about it ages ago.”
“Maybe,” he conceded, “but you know that also probably explains why that little girl reached out to you.”
“I think she just reached out, and I happened to be nearby,” she replied.
“I would agree with that to some degree, but I wonder if it wasn’t because you’re also a foster child and understand loss, grief, and all the other emotions that go along with what Cassie’s experiencing right now. Those real and personal experiences you share remain unresolved in your own mind to some degree, and is likely what drew that little girl to you. What you also need to understand is that’s why she reached out, but it’s also why you reached back.”
*
Alex picked up the car and headed back around to where he left the two of them. As he drove up, Taryn got right into the vehicle. Riff gave them a salute, and, with that, they headed back to the convenience store. “Did you guys get on okay?” Alex asked her.
She smirked but nodded. “He’s different.”
“He’s very different, but we all are, in our own way,” Alex noted. “And having abilities as he does makes him very different. Like Terkel, the energy work makes Riff a very strong, unique character, who can do things you can’t even imagine.”
“Did he sneak up on you in the car too?”
Alex laughed. “I don’t know if you heard him, but that’s what he does. He’s very shadowy. And I hate admitting this, but I was half dozing, and I didn’t see or hear him approach. So believe me that I was quite perturbed at the time, at least until he reassured me that it’s just the way he works.”
“Still unnerving though.”
“Absolutely. Unnerving is a good word for it.” Alex nodded, with a smile.
As they reached the store, she sighed. “I don’t suppose real food is around here. I’ve been living on processed food for way too long.”
“Well, let’s fill up on gas here,” Alex suggested, “and we can always ask inside if a restaurant is nearby.”
“I’ll do that, while you fill up the gas tank.”
As soon as he had the tank full and paid for, she came back out, smiling. “Down the road about a mile are a couple fast-food restaurants and a sit-down restaurant.”
“We don’t really have time for sitting here in town,” Alex pointed out, “not when we have Riff out there waiting for us.”
“I agree,” she said, “but we should at least pick up something more than granola bars and days-old sandwiches.”
With a nod, Alex drove into town and pulled up at the first burger joint, one without a drive-through window. She went inside, ordered several burgers, plus fries, milkshakes, and even coffee. She bought more than enough for three people, and, as she got back into the vehicle, she groaned. “This is not much better than corner-store sandwiches, is it?”
“Maybe not, but at least it’s something different.” Alex focused on the road and headed back to where Riff and her car should be waiting.
As he drove up closer, she leaned forward and asked in alarm, “Where is he?”
Alex shook his head. “Not sure.” He drove up and parked at the spot where Riff should have been. Alex got out, looked around, then turned to her, a frown on his face, and got back in the driver’s seat. “No sign of him.”
She stared at him and started to swear. “Where’s my car?” she cried out. “Where’s he taken my car?”
He grabbed her hand and said, “Easy now. Riff could have moved your car to a better spot.”
“Well, he damn-well better hurry up and tell us where the hell he is,” she snapped. “I want to know right now.” Instead of a phone call or a text, her vehicle drove toward them, and she stared. “That’s him.”
Riff pulled off to the side with the window down, so the two driver’s side windows faced each other, and smiled at them. “Hey, I thought we better keep changing it up, you know, and move around. That way we’re not sitting here at the same spot the whole time. I’ll go around to the back where you were parked. I suggest you guys pull a little farther down, so you’re a bit more out of view, and see if that works.”
“Sure,” she replied, a heavy sigh slipping out. “You gave me a heart attack when I saw my vehicle was gone.”
He laughed. “Is this your car?”
She nodded. “Yeah, and it’s all I really have, so I would appreciate it if you don’t just run away with it.”
“We can switch if you want, with the rental, so you’ll be back in your own wheels.”
She looked over at Alex, who nodded. “She’ll feel better,” he agreed, with a smile. With that settled, they quickly made the switch. That done, she handed over his bag of hamburger meals, along with the coffee, spare water, and snacks that she’d picked up at Riff’s request.
“Good enough,” Riff said. Then he took the rental and disappeared.
She stared at the dust he created as he left. “You think he’s really okay?”
“Yeah, I really do think he’s okay.” Alex picked up a coffee and smelled it. “What is it about coffee?”
“I don’t know, but, while I fully understand that I can exist without it, I really don’t want to,” she muttered. “It makes me happy, so I picked up enough for all three of us.”
He smiled, then nodded. “ Huh , and here you told me that you would have forgotten me,” he teased, referencing an earlier conversation.
She smiled. “Let’s just park up here on the roadside, at the little pullout, and eat our burgers. Then we can decide where and what we want to do after this. I still want to go in there and grab those kids. And I remember all the rational excuses why that’s a bad idea. I just can’t control my emotions. So give me a break.” She glared at him. “Beyond that, I have no idea what we can do.”
“As we’ve discussed before, those are the challenges,” Alex noted. “It’s woo-woo versus the five senses. Balancing what we can do with what we need to do is always the challenge. Plus, we must be patient while we wait.”
She muttered, “It still sucks.”
He motioned at the burger in front of her. “Eat. You’re the one who wanted hot food, so don’t waste the opportunity.”
She snorted, then picked up the burger and took a big bite. Within a minute, she turned to him and said, “Something’s wrong.”
He looked at her, tears pouring down her face, and asked, “What’s the matter?” He wasn’t freaked out like before but still not comfortable with the tears. “Oh, boy, and this is exactly why you don’t get to stay alone anymore.” He moved the food and drinks out of the way, then opened his arms, and she launched herself into them, continuing to sob as if her heart was breaking. While Alex knew it wasn’t her heart breaking, he also knew, for this kind of a connection to happen, some history in Taryn’s world allowed her to be a conduit for this contact from Cassie.
Taryn must have some pain that she hadn’t dealt with herself. When the sobs finally slowed again, he whispered, “It really is okay to cry, you know?”
She shook her head. “No, I told you before. These are Cassie’s tears,” she stated defiantly.
“Yeah, I get that, but they are also yours,” he declared, trying to make it seem as if it didn’t matter much. “No way it can’t be so.”
She stared at him, brushing him away.
“Cassie has picked up on somebody else’s pain, and it’s allowed her to make that connection,” he began. “Yet it’s also because of the pain you’ve got bottled up inside that Cassie can connect as strongly and as securely as she does.” Taryn stared at him. He knew she needed to hear the truth, so he continued. “So, when this is all over, and when you have a chance to sit back and to reassess everything that’s happened, you need to deal with that personal pain of your own, so it can’t keep plaguing you.”
She blinked at him several times, then slowly nodded and retreated to her side of the car. She pulled napkins out of the to-go bag and wiped at her face with a frantic action that revealed how much she didn’t want anything to do with this. When she was finally done, she looked back over at him. “I know I probably don’t look normal in any way at this point, but thank you.”
“For what?” he asked.
She shrugged. “Not for the lecture. I could do without that,” she quipped, “but definitely for the compassion.”
He nodded, and, in the same equally formal tone that she’d used, he whispered, “You’re welcome.” He stared at the house and then turned to her. “Now, if that bout is over, let me ask you something. Are you getting any images or impressions from the little girl?”
Taryn frowned at him.
“With all that crying going on, that little girl is wide open to you, which you could use to our advantage—if you could get a little bit of control, and not be quite so affected personally.”
She rolled her eyes.
“You might manage to communicate with her to let her know that it’ll be okay.”
“But will it?” she whispered. “We haven’t got them out of there, and the little girl doesn’t know anything at all about what’s going on in her world. She just knows that everything is completely changed and that it doesn’t feel safe anymore,” she whispered. “I can’t lie to her and tell her it’ll all be okay,… not when she’s still stuck in that same nightmare over there.”
“But it will be okay. No way we’ll leave those kids there. We’re getting things in place, as we find out more intel. We’re doing what we can,” he explained, “and believe me when I tell you that Cassie will be rescued one way or another. Get it through your head that she will be rescued and will have a chance at a new life.”
“You promise?” Taryn asked, staring at him intently.
Not surprised that the child version of Taryn inside the adult version of Taryn needed the same reassurance as the little girl Cassie in that house, Alex nodded. “Absolutely. I promise,” he whispered. “And there will be a life after all this for you too. But, right now, you need to comfort that little girl, and that means, if you have to lie, you lie.”