Chapter 2
A nia made it to the bus depot without any problems. Yet, as she headed to the front counter to see when the next bus was leaving, she heard a conversation that made her blood run cold. A man, somebody she didn’t recognize, at least from the back, stood talking to the ticket collector.
“No, we’re looking for her because she’s off her medications. There appears to be some kind of a reaction she’s had, so we’re doing what we can to find her.” He had a picture in his hand, that he showed at the window.
Ania had no doubt from the look of him that he was somebody her father had hired. But the fact that they were showing pictures around town just made her position sketchier, if that were even possible. Yet what was she supposed to do? Swearing to herself, she hurriedly stepped back out of the way and waited until the person left the window.
She looked in the ticket booth and thankfully recognized a familiar face staring back at her. She raced up to the front counter and whispered, “Vanessa, was he looking for me?”
Her friend looked at her and then nodded. “What the hell’s going on?” she whispered, looking around. “He says that you’ve had some medication that’s gone wrong.”
She shook her head. “No, my father’s been drugging me to keep me compliant and immobile. He has got in his mind that’s the way to control me.”
Her friend’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh, good God. You always wondered how far he would go.”
“Too far clearly,” she admitted, “but I have to get out of here. I have no choice now. Can you sell me a ticket?”
“I can, but nothing leaves until tomorrow morning.”
“Shit,” Ania muttered. “I need to stay out of sight, and he’s already been to my aunt’s, looking for me. She basically told me that I need to get away and to stay away.”
“Yeah, you’re not kidding.” Vanessa looked at her sympathetically. “You can go to my place and stay there. Nobody’s at home right now.”
Ania eyed her hopefully. “You don’t mind?”
“No, I don’t. Your father’s always been a bit…” She stopped and didn’t add anything after that.
Ania nodded. Her father had always been difficult and intimidating. Her friends never wanted to come over because he was a bigwig in the government, and not in a nice way. He was some enforcer, and everybody was scared of him. “What if he finds out what you’ve done?” Ania asked Vanessa. “You know it could be trouble.”
“If you go there while I’m not home, then that’s hardly on me, is it?” she asked. “Just get out of here, so I won’t be seen talking to you. If you want a ticket, tell me right now, and I’ll bring it home with me.”
“What’s leaving first thing in the morning?”
“One into the city, and you can get on that pretty fast. You could at least disappear into the city pretty easily.”
“Good enough,” Ania agreed.
And, with that, she slipped out the side door, using the backroads to quickly head to her friend’s apartment. Ania hadn’t asked for the keys, so that was a bit of an issue. However, as she got to Vanessa’s building, another mutual friend was just coming out of the locked gate.
“Hey, what are you up to?” her friend asked. “I haven’t seen you in a while.”
“I came to visit my aunt and to get away from my family for a while.”
“Yeah, no kidding,” she muttered. “You’re here for Vanessa’s place?”
“Yeah, and I forgot to get the keys from her. I was just down there talking to her.”
“Not a problem, I’ll let you in,” she offered, with a chuckle.
“Are you still looking after this place?”
“It is my uncle’s property, so, yeah, you could say that,” she agreed, with a smile. And, with that, she quickly unlocked Vanessa’s apartment and let Ania in.
If it had been anybody else, they probably would have been pissed, but Estonia was a small country, and most people understood. When somebody was in trouble, often they offered assistance immediately, without being asked, and that made life a whole lot easier for Ania.
As she stepped into the apartment, she felt a sense of relief, her body relaxing. She just needed time to breathe, time to make a plan, and, if she got a bus ticket to the nearby city, that would be a big help. Getting down to the city would be huge, just because it would be so much easier to disappear there. Vanessa was right about that. It would also quite likely be harder to get farther away. However, as long as Ania could get to the city and maybe find a job, that would help. At least she hoped so.
Did her father have a way of finding out if she got paid for work? If so, where could she work for cash, under the counter? Restaurants came to mind, but didn’t they require a uniform? Maybe she could work in a laundry or as a night janitor. She pondered all these things well into the dawn, when she got a text message from her girlfriend, saying it was time to leave. Ania winced because that meant Vanessa was coming home. Ania got up, used the washroom, grabbed her purse, and waited in the trees outside, as Vanessa came home.
Vanessa casually checked the mailbox, just a collection of open bins, and dropped something inside, then disappeared into her apartment. As soon as she was inside the building, Ania waited for the next person to exit the lobby, giving her a moment to enter before the front door locked itself again. She checked Vanessa’s mailbox and picked up the envelope and disappeared into the trees again. A note came with the bus ticket.
They came back. Twice. You’ll have to watch it, and I don’t know if you’ll get onto the bus safely .
And, with that, Ania swore. If she couldn’t get on the bus, she couldn’t use the ticket. Not knowing what else she could do, she stayed put for a long moment, thinking over alternate options. Not wanting to bring any more pain to her childhood friends, Ania stepped out, feeling lost, and headed down to the main street. At the very least maybe she could hitch a ride from somebody going into the city. Not that it was the smartest thing to do, especially at nighttime, but she was out of options.
*
Sanders and Riff had divided the small town into two sections, and both had spent the final daylight hours yesterday checking local businesses for Ania. They had decided to not go to the local authorities or even the hospitals, fearing her father would most likely do that. Sanders had no desire to run into him. Riff soon called off their foot search, due to darkness and to Sanders’s lagging energy. The guys regrouped at the B&B and would start again first thing in the morning.
Early the next morning, after Sanders had stopped at several more locations, checking to see if anybody had seen Ania, Sanders walked into a café and ordered a coffee. As soon as it was ready, he took it outside and sat down on a nearby bench. He remained here for a moment, opening his mind and sending out messages, hoping that Ania would receive them.
When Riff walked up to him, he looked at him sideways. “Good idea,” he said, pointing at the coffee.
Sanders nodded back toward the café behind him. “I just got it to go.”
“Back in a minute.” And, with that, Riff quickly bounded up the steps and entered the café.
Riff had so much more energy than Sanders, and he was envious, but he also knew that he didn’t dare wait any longer at Terk’s place before coming here and looking for Ania. Still, something strange in the energy was going on, and he couldn’t figure out what it was. So, he pushed it, and he pushed himself. He was here trying to help somebody, and, even as he sat there, he knew that Cara and Clary were helping him more than they probably should be.
Clary sent him a message. Stop. We are healers. We are helping you.
He winced because, of course, everybody on Terk’s team could read minds, and that was a hell of a thing. He replied, We’re not getting anywhere. Nobody’s seen her .
Keep looking , she stated. I don’t know how or why, but I believe in you. I believe in the messages you’re getting .
Are you getting them too?
No, but energy is stirring on the ethers . I just don’t know what that means for your situation . And, with that, she was gone again.
He was still contemplating her words when Riff exited the café, holding a cup of coffee of his own. He took one look at Sanders’s face and asked, “What’s that look for?”
“Just a message from Clary.” He quickly filled him in.
“I agree with that,” Riff replied. “I can feel the same energy moving. I just don’t know what it’s doing or who it’s after.”
“That’s not helpful, and, so far, either nobody has seen her or nobody wants to talk.”
“And yet, if she has family and friends here, that would make sense. People would protect Ania from all these strangers asking questions. According to Terk and the text I just got from him, Ania’s aunt lives here and stays low under the radar. She’s not terribly friendly with anybody.”
“ Great ,” Sanders muttered, “so chances are, she won’t talk to us.”
“I wouldn’t think so, but it’s hard to say. We also have a couple friends of Ania’s who are here. Then again, they may not talk either, as nobody knows who we are.”
“Exactly. Nobody knows who we are. Nobody knows what we’re up to or whose side we’re on.”
Riff shot him a hard look. “Yet you feel pretty strongly that there are sides?”
“Absolutely. Definitely there are sides. Nothing feels easy about this at all. I just don’t know why I’m not getting in touch with her. The signals seem to bounce off.”
“Maybe she’s afraid that somebody’s tracking her. Maybe she’s afraid that messages are being received that aren’t going where she wants them to go. Maybe she’s afraid they are her father’s goons, trying to trick her. Maybe she’s not capable of sending them or receiving them.”
“Yeah, it’s that last one that’s really worrying me,” Sanders admitted. “I was amazed at her gifts. Yet how did she learn to use them? I don’t know that anybody in her world has these abilities. We didn’t discuss that.”
“Why don’t we go talk to the aunt? Maybe she’ll let us know something.”
Sanders grimaced. “You and I both know she won’t though.”
Riff laughed. “But it’s important to feel as if we’re doing something and to put that energy out there while we’re at it, all in order to get somewhere,” Riff explained. “We’ve come this far, so we’ll try to stay positive.”
With the address in hand, they quickly headed to the aunt’s house. Once there, they walked up to the small 1940s house in the back of a larger home. No telling which one had been built first, but the smaller one had probably been servants’ quarters or a rental at some time.
As they walked up to the smaller home, the door opened, and an older woman stepped out, her features hard as she snapped, “What do you want?”
That was the thing about Estonia, so many people spoke English. Not that it was a problem because Sanders knew quite a bit of Russian at this point anyway. Not that everybody spoke Russian either, but they managed to do pretty well when switching between languages. He dismissed the bruise on one side of her face and quickly explained that he was a friend of Ania’s and that he’d come here on a surprise visit. However, so far, he hadn’t found anybody who had seen her.
The aunt’s gaze narrowed with suspicion. “She has no male friends. It wouldn’t be allowed.”
He studied her aunt and then slowly nodded. “We haven’t met in person yet,” he shared.
At that, she almost spat in his face. “Online? That’s not a relationship.”
He took a mental step back. “No, it’s not,” he admitted. “However, we can’t have a relationship if I can’t find her.”
She crossed her arms over her chest, giving a stance of might, yet her fingers trembled.
Instinctively he added, “I wasn’t sent here by her father.”
Her gaze widened, and she turned, looking around in fear.
“He did not send us, and he does not know that we’re here.”
She shuddered. “You need to ensure he doesn’t find out, or you can expect a bullet in your back,” she muttered. “He will allow nobody close to her.”
His breath went out in a whoosh . “Thank you for the warning. Would he also hurt her?”
She winced, still looking around again. “You need to leave,” she whispered. “Just talking to you will put me in danger.” And, with that, she slammed the door in his face.
He waited, hoping that she would come back out and talk to him. When she didn’t, he left her a note in the mailbox at the side of the house. If you get a chance, please let me know where she is, so I can help her . And he left his phone number too. He didn’t think that she would let him know, but he took that chance, and he wanted to leave her an avenue if she did feel like she could do something.
He didn’t know whether she was afraid of the father or the government or something else entirely. Yet, if she were afraid, she would likely lock down and do nothing. Victims had a hard time stepping out of their own victimology to help others. However, sometimes that was exactly the push that people needed in order to stop being a victim.
As they walked away, a young woman walked up to Sanders and asked in a low murmur, “Are you looking for Ania?”
He nodded. “I am,” he replied, keeping his voice low but a smile on his face. “Nobody seems to have seen her.”
“She just left this morning,” the young woman shared, looking around nervously. “She wanted a bus ticket into the city, but her father has already been looking for her. He and his men kept coming to the bus station several times last night, where I work. I bought her a ticket, but then had to tell her it might be too risky to use it. She has to be extremely careful.”
Sanders nodded slowly. “Thank you for that. Do you think she’s still in town?”
She shook her head. “No, I think she will hitch a ride, instead of taking the bus, so that her father wouldn’t know.”
He nodded, then turned to look at Riff, who was searching the area for clues or for those goons. “Does she have a phone now?” he asked her.
Immediately the woman shook her head. “Not that I know of, but she would be very careful with it if she did. Her father would never willingly allow her that much freedom.”
He winced at that. “ Nice father .”
“No,” she countered, her tone harsh. “He’s not, and, if he finds out you’re looking for her, you better have a hell of a good reason, or he’ll kill you.”
He stared at her. “That’s the second time we’ve been warned off.”
“I’m warning you off, but I’m hoping you won’t listen. Ania needs a friend who can help her right now.”
“We’re here to help, but I still must find her.”
“That’s the problem because she needed to get away, and she needed to get away fast.” She turned to look back at the aunt’s house. “Her aunt is too scared to do anything, so you should leave her alone. Plus, she is in danger too.”
“I don’t intend to cause her any trouble,” Sanders said, his tone gentle. “I am here for Ania.”
She studied him intently. When she relaxed a little bit, she nodded. “I don’t know where she’ll go, but she doesn’t have much money, so she’ll need a job right away. She won’t take any legitimate job because her father will track her down that way.”
Sanders winced at that.
The woman nodded. “So, look for dives, bars, and even worse, the streets,” she shared. “I hope she doesn’t have to go that route, but she’ll need to eat, and she’ll need to do something under the radar. She has her passport, so, if she can find a way to get out of the country, she needs to.”
“You think her father will keep her locked up?”
“He’s kept her drugged,” she shared. “She didn’t tell me very much, and some of it I could understand without being told, but she was on medication for antibiotics for an injury, and I think the antibiotics were something else. The people looking for her came to my booth at the bus station and told me that she’s off her medications and had a rough reaction to one of them, and they’re looking for her because they’re so concerned about her health and well-being,” she repeated sarcastically.
She shook her head. “The only thing they’re concerned about is themselves. I just don’t know why they care. Her father never gave a crap about her before her mom died, and, now that her mom is gone, he seems to be hunting Ania down, high and low. I don’t like it,” she declared bluntly. “And if you can do something to help, please do.” And, with that, she was gone.
Riff moved closer. “Interesting,” he murmured. “Ania has a few fans, at least.”
“She has a few fans, but nobody’s really capable of helping her.”
“That’s not true,” Riff argued. “We’re here.”
With that, Sanders agreed. “I get it, but it’s still pretty rough. Ania has no way of working properly, if her father will track her ID number.”
“So, she’ll get paid under the counter, but that’s good because we’ll follow her that way.”
“Her friend didn’t have anything helpful to give, did she?”
Riff’s tone was slightly sardonic, as if that were standard. “I wonder if they ever do. Anytime somebody is in trouble, everybody knows they’re in trouble. Still, no one knows how to help them and prefers that somebody else do the job.”
“That’s just typical of people,” Sanders agreed. “Everybody wants to be safe, so they tend to not get involved.” He looked around but still saw no sign of her. “She obviously knew what she was doing because she’s long gone.”
“Anybody who lives here is probably aware of Ania’s plight or aware of what her father represents and what people coming and asking questions means for her,” Riff explained calmly. “So basically everyone won’t get involved, not if they know what’s good for them.”
“Right. In that case it’s a good thing we have a little bit to go on, and, if she’s managed to leave, she’s headed into the city—probably looking for work and a way to get out of the country. So we have some idea where to look.”
“She might want to leave the country, but her father will never let her go on her own. He will already have alerts set up at the airports and the seaports.”
“Damn. I don’t understand that,” he muttered, as they got back into the vehicle. “Why would a father try to keep a grown, educated daughter under so much control?”
“I think that’s the answer right there.… It’s all about control. And, if he thinks that she has any special abilities, anything that’ll make him money or will increase his status or power, you can bet he won’t let her go.”
“So, the biggest thing she has to do then is keep that detail away from him, so he doesn’t know. Whether she can achieve that or not is a whole different story.”
“Exactly. Let’s head into the city and see if we can find her. Did you get a time frame on how far ahead she is?” Riff asked Sanders.
“Sounds like she left early this morning or even late last night, hearing word of her father and his goons watching the bus stop.”
“So, she could be, at most, about fourteen hours ahead of us. That’s long enough to disappear, if you know what you’re doing. If you don’t know what you’re doing, it’ll be a little harder. If she has some money, and she’s not used to roughing it, she’ll have to take some cheap accommodations, I would think.”
“Which isn’t really safe either, especially if she can’t read people or use her telepathy.”
They continued to hash it out as they drove into the city, which wasn’t very far away. However, if Ania didn’t have transportation, it was a far-enough walk to be an obstacle to her progress.