Chapter 28
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T ogether Cyan and Steele walked across the meadow in the setting sun. She studied the long shadows cast by the sun, wondering at how much had changed. It could be everything and possibly not much at all.
She reached for his hand, loving the way his fingers closed automatically around hers.
Their bond was strengthening in a natural way that should have made her pause, but instead made her smile.
She felt closer to him than she had with anyone else.
Her cousin would likely be screaming at her to watch out, but it was too late for that.
Their bond was strong, and it was way too late to break it.
She no longer wanted to.
“At this point in time, you can probably get through the front door on your own.”
He nodded at her. As they walked up to the door, he pushed it open and stepped inside, surprised when he saw the room entirely full of smiling people. He looked around at everybody and found Terk, who got up and walked over. “Nice job, Steele.”
Steele laughed, feeling a sense of confidence surge inside, something he hadn’t felt in a few days since this BS all started. “It was easier than I thought, but Cyan and I had some additional help,” he admitted. “However, now we have a bigger problem.”
Terk frowned as he approached, and Steele watched as several other team members stood up at his words.
“What’s the matter?” Terk asked.
“This man is responsible for killing my entire team,” Steele shared. “And I didn’t get a lock on his physical location, but Cyan did,” he said, as he turned to her.
Cyan winced. “I have an idea where he is, but he won’t be there long.” She turned to the group in front of them, frowns gathering on multiple faces, most she didn’t recognize. “He’s in London. Not far from here. I’m not sure what is the best way to pick him up, as he’s tricky.”
Steele added, “Not to mention he’s dangerous and sly, but he also knows we’re onto him. So he’s likely to slip out in the night, like the thief he is. He’s very slippery, and an awful lot of people want to make sure that, number one, he’s caught, or number two…”
They all nodded.
“Don’t worry. We understand option number two,” one of the men muttered, his arms across his chest, just the body language needed from someone ready to go to London himself.
Steele looked at Terk and asked, “Any chance we can get law enforcement or military to pick him up in London?”
“I have a few people I can call. Do you know if the military is actively looking for him? Are you sure about London? And we need to pinpoint a much smaller location than just all of London.”
“I’m sure he’s in London,” she stated. “It’s a matter of whether anybody will trust me because it’s psychic information. I can narrow it down a lot more than I have so far.”
Terk pulled out his phone. “Let me call Jonas.”
“Who’s Jonas?” she asked.
“MI6, somebody we work with a lot. And they know about psychics.” He turned, smiled, and added, “Not only do they understand our style of information, but they also use our services on a regular basis.”
As soon as Jonas answered, Terk put the phone on Speakerphone. “So, Jonas, we have something unusual for you.”
“That’s good,” Jonas quipped. “I was getting bored.” Then he laughed as if to say that couldn’t possibly happen.
She listened to the casual banter between the two men, realizing how comfortable they were with each other and how relaxed.
Terk explained the issue, skirting the Beacon’s role in all this, minimizing the inference of a second energy hooking into Steele’s world. In fact, Terk made it all boringly mainstream.
She was impressed. It wasn’t the easiest thing to describe the work they did. Too often they sounded like they needed to be locked up in a padded room themselves.
When Terk finally stopped talking, a long silence ensued, followed by a heavy sigh. “Good God, Terk. You guys really know how to cause trouble, don’t you? Are you sure he’s here in London? I hate to send out a team on a false lead.”
“Yeah, he’s in London,” Cyan interjected in a loud voice so Jonas could hear her. “He’s in a pub called Willy Wonka.”
He snorted. “Yeah, that would be the name of a pub, wouldn’t it? Does it sell chocolate malts or what?”
“I think they sell chocolate whiskey as one of their specialties.”
Several of the men in the group looked at each other as if they knew the location.
“ Hmm .” Jonas paused. “I think I’ve heard of that.” Through the phone they heard a series of clicks on a keyboard, then his abrupt announcement, “I’ll get back to you.” And, with that, he disconnected.
They turned to Cyan.
She shrugged, hating the attention, her worry immediately rising. “I could always be wrong.”
“You might be wrong, but then again,” Terk noted, with a smile, “you might be right.” He looked over at Steele and asked, “How are you feeling?”
“A little rough, a little emotional, to be honest,” he shared.
“No one handles this stuff easily. It takes time for the emotions, but the physical and etheric body have to adjust as well. That’s a whole different story.”
“I’m supposed to heal quickly, but—”
“No, you’re not supposed to.” A woman next to Terk stood up, looking at Steele. “This is all emotional. Betrayal is emotional. I don’t think anybody heals from something like that easily,” she shared, with a shrug. “And, in throwing him out, you left things a little bit rough.”
He nodded. “Yeah, it feels like it.”
“If you want to come over here,” she suggested, “I can help. I’m Cara, by the way, one of the healers here.”
It was almost an order, but one he didn’t want to ignore. He hesitated. “I don’t want to put you out.”
Cara smiled. “If it would put me out, I would have said so,” she stated.
“But, in the meantime, I’m perfectly capable of sitting here and helping you right now.
So, come over here and sit down. Besides, I was sending energy your way earlier, only you didn’t realize it was me.
I’m connected to the Beacon, as are the other healers here.
So when you were struggling, we helped.”
Steele smiled at her. “I owe you and your friends a huge debt of gratitude. You were helping me root out Brent’s hook, right?”
Cara just gave him a knowing smile. Several other women nearby nodded in response.
“You saved my life as well as Cyan’s. Thank you for that. So, I guess helping me with depression is just small potatoes now, right?” Steele sent a silent Thank you to the Beacon as well.
Chuckles came from the crowd.
Any help from Terk’s healers was all good in Steele’s opinion.
So, more help to make this adjustment easier was okay with him.
As soon as he sat down, Cara placed a hand on his head, and her touch was something so real, so soothing, so comforting that he almost groaned out loud with relief, as what felt like years and years of pain just disappeared.
He opened his eyes, realizing that a tear had spilled.
“It feels like you just obliterated decades of trauma. How is that possible?”
“Because I did,” she declared. “No need to keep all that in there. His energy was aggravating your system. Like inflammation where the body is fighting a battle it doesn’t know how to win, but is determined to fight regardless.
A constant battle was going on inside, yet one that you would have become so used to that you didn’t know the war was even happening.
No need for that.” She nodded. “Give me a minute, and I’ll get the rest of it. ”
Cara soothed away as much of the trauma as she could. “I thought I’d gotten rid of all that,” Steele muttered.
“You tried,” she noted, “but that doesn’t mean that having your friend in there allowed you to truly get rid of it.
That’s not how it works. And that friend of yours,” she added, with a smile as she faced him, “had his own reasons for not letting you heal. It helped him to stay hidden, for one thing.”
“Yeah, as long as I wasn’t healing,” Steele acknowledged, looking up at her, “he was protected, wasn’t he?”
“He was. As long as you didn’t know he was there, he was safe. But the minute all that changed, then his own safety changed. And every animal goes all in to save themselves.”
“And yet he thinks that he’s safe now,” he stated, looking at her.
“But he’s not,” Cara said. “Even I can see that from where I am. He’s trying to stay cool and think.
He’s planning but not sure which way to go.
That’s because, although he knows he lost his hook into you, he can’t be sure what connections you have to take him down.
He’s aware an attack is coming, but he doesn’t know in what direction it’s coming from. ”
Steele didn’t even want to question how she knew that. Everything felt way too good. In the warm comfort of the castle, with the gentle ministrations of the healer working on him, even Cyan’s caring energy soothing his soul, Steele slipped into a deep sleep and knew no more.
*
Terk’s phone rang. He glanced down at it, automatically knowing it would be Jonas.
And knowing what the call was about. He glanced around the table.
Only a few men were still here. Steele had crashed after Cara had worked on him, and he was out for the count.
Cyan had been given a room to rest, and he knew she’d dropped into a deep sleep as well.
Most of his team and their families were in their apartments, prepping for the night.
Calum and Brody were both here, looking at him, picking up on his instincts.
Brody whispered, “Shit.”
Terk nodded, putting the phone on Speaker, so both men could hear the conversation. “Jonas, what happened?”
Jonas, in a frustrated and tired voice, snapped, “He left before we got there. According to the bartender, he’d literally just left.
Walked toward the men’s room and right out the back door.
My men spent an hour searching and following up.
The bartender told us how he’s a regular but a loner.
Lives close by and goes by a different name. He knew him as Bentley.”
“Bentley? Interesting choice.” He pulled in his errant thoughts as he listened to Jonas’s ragged breaths. “I’m sure this will be over tonight,” Terk added. “I’ll update you in the morning.”
“Wait! What? Don’t leave me hanging until morning,” Jonas cried out, his frustration building. “If you know something, tell me. We did this at your request, so don’t cut me out of it now.”
“I’m not, but the events about to come will play out in their own unique way. I can only fill you in after the fact, as nothing has happened yet. Get some sleep, Jonas.” And, with that, he ended the call.