Chapter 15 #2
“And you still went ahead and had kids?” Anderson asked.
“And I still went ahead and had kids,” he agreed, chuckling. “But we didn’t do triplets, although you could always talk to Terk and his crew about that. Yet, in his case, it was twins, like times ten or more. I’ve lost count.”
“Terk?” he repeated. “Isn’t that Merk’s brother?”
“Yeah, it sure is. Terk’s over in England. His team had a hell of a bad deal and ended up going private. In the process, they’ve really come into themselves. They do a lot of—how shall I say it?—energy work.”
“Oh shit, that’s right. He’s that secret ops guy, isn’t he? The one with all the psychic stuff going on?”
“Yeah, you could say that. Anyway, most of his clan are having twins right and left.”
“Don’t tell me it’s contagious? No, no, no. Not happening.”
And, with that, Levi laughed and laughed and ended the call.
As soon as Anderson was almost to the front door of Talia’s home, he got a horrible sense of wrongness. Without even questioning it, he bolted for the front door and raced inside, where he saw a woman he’d never seen before, holding a gun on Pamela.
“Stop right there!” snapped the woman.
He frowned at her, then turned to Pamela and asked carefully, keeping an eye on the lady, “Are you okay?”
Pamela nodded but motioned with her head to the floor, and he realized that all the triplets were in the playpen. They were contained and staring up at everybody with huge eyes. When they saw him, one reached out with her arms to try and get picked up.
He walked over to the baby and murmured, “It’s okay, sweetheart. It’s okay.”
“Oh, isn’t that cute? You want to pay attention to me now because I don’t have the same sense of solidarity that you appear to have when facing a gun.”
He turned to their gun-toting woman and declared, “Unless you’re prepared to shoot me right now, you won’t ever again either.”
She frowned at him. “No need to get ugly,” she muttered.
“Yeah, well, you’re the one holding a gun on her and threatening the babies.”
“I haven’t threatened the babies at all,” she stated, scrunching up her nose. “Good God, anybody who’s got triplets needs all the help they can get.”
“Exactly, so what the hell are you doing here, and why did you bring a gun to a baby party?”
She looked down at the gun in her hand and frowned at him. “Why is it you don’t seem to give a shit about the gun?”
“Because I’ve spent a lot of time in the military and have been in situations you can’t begin to imagine.
I don’t give a fuck what it is you think you’re getting away with just because you’re waving that around.
And now,” he added, his tone calming, “there’s no going back for you.
” She shifted uneasily, and he nodded. “You better think about it and choose wisely because, if you’re a part of this nasty mess, I can assure you that I’ll take you down. ”
“What mess?” she asked. She stared at him, then back to Pamela and asked, “What is he talking about?”
“For one, you are brandishing a weapon, endangering us and these babies. Not to mention the fact that you are in someone else’s house.”
She muttered, “I didn’t want to do this anyway. But this, … this is Tim’s gun, and I know that he’s been here. I don’t know who the hell lives here.”
Anderson took a long look at her, his eyebrows raised. “Timothy Magnus?”
She nodded. “Yes. That Tim. Do you know where he is?”
“No, but I really want to.”
“Why?” she asked. “Why do you want to know where he is?”
He pointed at the triplets and stated, “These babies who you’re putting at risk, … they’re his.”
He watched as all the color fled from her skin, and she literally looked ready to faint. He reached out, snagged the gun from her hand, and helped her to the couch. She stared at the babies, at Pamela, then back at the babies.
Pamela spoke up now. “The babies are not mine. They are Tim and Talia’s children. Tim’s wife, Talia, is in the hospital. She’s his sister,” she explained, as she pointed to Anderson. “We’re wondering if Tim put her there.”
The stranger started to shake, and it only escalated as this information sunk in, to the point that Anderson sat down beside her and held her hands, reminding her to breathe. When she calmed down, he asked, “You didn’t know?”
“No, no, I didn’t know,” she whispered. “We’d been going out for quite a while, but he was acting off lately. I kept trying to talk to him, but I … I loved him so desperately. Thus, I was willing to put up with any behavior to try and make it work, you know?”
He nodded grimly. “I don’t know what behavior you’re talking about, but this is his legal family, his legal residence. So, you really had no idea he was married?”
“No,” she wailed, crying out. “No, and I certainly didn’t know he had kids.”
“He does. When did you last see him?” he asked, returning to the business at hand.
At that moment, Pamela handed a glass of water to the stranger.
She looked at it, closed her eyes, and drank it greedily.
Then she wiped her face. “He’s been acting strangely for about a week.
I was just so desperate. I didn’t know what was going on.
… I kept trying to find him, talk about what was happening, and he just kept putting me off and putting me off.
Then my place was broken into, and some money I had was stolen.
When I went to call him, I had this weird feeling that he might have had something to do with it.
Yet there was no need. If he had only asked, I would have helped him,” she cried out. “I would have given him the money.”
“When was this?” he asked.
“A couple days ago. I mean, literally just two days ago.”
“You reported it?”
“No, it made no sense. He wouldn’t have done that.
I mean, I’ve always shared whatever I had.
I know he didn’t have a lot of money, but I wasn’t with him for money though,” she explained, looking up at Anderson with tears in her eyes, and then her gaze locked on the babies again.
“Apparently he was with me for the money,” she whispered, staring at the triplets.
Anderson shook his head. “No, I don’t think he was. He was probably … using you for a break from this because caring for infants can be pretty intense.”
“It should be intense,” she declared, the tears welling up in her eyes.
“I mean, it’s supposed to be intense. If you are blessed with children, you spend every moment you can with them.
I lost a baby quite a few years ago, and I …
I’ve never gotten pregnant since,” she shared, more shudders racking her body.
When Pamela sat down beside her, now holding her other hand, the stranger looked up at her and whispered, “I’m so sorry. … I was feeling so desperate.”
“And what made you think he was here or that you needed a gun?”
“I thought I saw his vehicle here. I’ve been driving by a lot lately,” she confessed. “I was just … looking for answers. I was looking for anything that would tell me what the hell was going on. Tim left the gun at my place. I found it when I started searching for answers.”
“And how do you feel about Tim now?” Anderson asked.
“How do you think?” she snapped bitterly. “Everything’s been a lie.”
He nodded. “And what about a vehicle?”
“He uses mine a lot of the time,” she replied, rubbing her face. “I don’t know what …” Her voice broke off, and she seemed to get overwhelmed again.
“And that vehicle …” He pulled up a picture on his phone and showed it to her. “Is this yours?”
“Yes,” she confirmed. “That’s mine, and he’s apparently got that too. I’ve been borrowing one from a friend.”
“Right. In that case, I can stop the search on IDing your vehicle.”
“Why would you do that to begin with?”
“Because Tim tried to break into this house today, and one of the neighbors had security cameras facing our way. Tim was caught on camera in this vehicle driving away from this house.”
“Right, that’s him,” she muttered, as she stared at the photo. “I just … I don’t understand.”
“I get that, and I’m sorry. It’s not easy to hear the truth sometimes.”
“I just feel so foolish now,” she declared, anger in her tone. “All this time I thought he was with me, but he was just trying to get away from this.” Then she burst into tears.
“What’s your name?”
“Alice Quinn,” she whispered, as she broke down again.