by Jade Powers
“Do you think I want her that far away from me? I love Jana.” Her mother could be very indignant at times, but Gail remembered how many times her mom had urged and encouraged Jana to go. Of course, Gail had certainly added her own opinions as well. At the time, Gail supported Jana going.
“Mom. I don’t think anything. Please? Just set up an appointment to see her. And don’t let them put you off. Jana was whispering on the phone. She was afraid they’d catch her. I’ll go with you. Please, Mom.”
Gail didn’t often beg her mother for anything, not since Jana’s birth. Gail waited by the phone until her mom had confirmed that she and Gail could drive to the center the following day to see Jana. And this time, they were going to let Gail and her mom talk to Jana face to face.
THE MEDICAL CAMPUS where Jana stayed was near St. Petersburg. Her mom drove while Gail watched the scenery. When they arrived, it was easy to feel overwhelmed and slightly embarrassed. A cheerful woman with a bright smile and engaging manner greeted them in the visitor center.
“We’re here to see Jana Gantry.”
“Of course. We’ve been expecting you.”
Her mother followed the guide, and Gail followed her mother. She’d never hear the end of it if Jana was perfectly content. But Jana couldn’t be, because Gail had heard her panicked voice on the phone.
The woman spoke as she led them down a long hall that smelled of antiseptic and looked like a hospital wing. She said, “Your daughter has come a long way in an amazingly short time. Just wait.”
Jana was in a room with two other girls her age. Her little sister had been shaved completely bald. The skin on her head bore the stitches of the surgeon.
One of the girls was an amputee. Gail couldn’t tell the reason behind the third girl’s presence. The minute Jana heard her mom’s voice, she cried out, “Mommy!” and leapt off the bed in the direction of her mother’s arms.
The key point in the leaping and movement was that Jana did seem to see something. She maneuvered around the host and straight into her mother’s arms. Jana said, “Mom, I found you. I can see you.”
Almost by way of apology, the woman said, “Her eyesight isn’t quite what you and I see, but we have high hopes that in another ten or twenty years, the technology will catch up. We’re trying a few adjustments, but she can see.”
Gail stood silently beside her mom when they walked into the room. Even if Jana could see, she’d never had the experience of looking at her sister before.
Gail said, “Jana, did you call me yesterday? Are you scared that someone will make you into a robot?”
Jana held her arms over for Gail and said, “You came for me. Let’s go home.”
“Honey, the doctors are helping you see. They want to keep you here a little while longer.” Her mother allowed Jana to transition over to Gail. Gail could see tension lines around her mother’s mouth and eyes. Her mom didn’t know what to do. Gail didn’t either, but she could see that Jana was in good health.
“Mo-om.” Jana pouted. She could turn on the full whine when she wanted, but it rarely worked. Gail had seen plenty of kids who had been spoiled because they were given anything just to shut them up in company. Her mother had practiced on Gail. By the time Jana came around, her mom was great at saying no and sticking to it.
Her mother didn’t hear Jana’s voice last night over the phone. She didn’t know how terrified she had sounded. With Jana in her arms, Gail said to the guide, “We’d like to take Jana on a walk around campus.”
“That’s not a good idea,” the woman said. She clicked her tongue and added, “If you take Jana then all of the kids will want to go.”
“Well, all of the kids aren’t my sister. Jana is. Besides, I didn’t ask,” Gail said. She turned her back on the woman and walked out of the room with Jana in her arms. She heard her mother apologize as she carried Jana down the hall.
“Gail? Gail, come back here this instant.” Yeah, that was the single-Mom power voice. Gail kept walking. She would run, but that was childish, and she was a grown woman. Jana was her sister, and damn it, she was going to get to the bottom of that phone call.
“Uh-oh.” Jana said. She settled her head against Gail’s shoulder the way she had when she was little. At five, Jana was getting heavy, but no way would Gail let her go now. Jana added, “Mom sounds mad. You’re going to have time outs.”
“You’re worth it, kid.” Gail could hear voices behind her, but no one had come running out of the room yet. She was almost to the end of the hall.
That was when two large men with security badges ran out of an elevator. They stopped in front of Gail. “May we see your identification?”
“No, you may not. You can get the heck out of my way. I’m taking my sister for a walk through the park. If you want to follow at a distance, that’s fine.”
Gail moved to step by the men, but the brute side-stepped, staying in front of her. Gail lifted her chin, her eyes narrowing. She couldn’t very well kick the asshole while holding Jana in her arms, but boy, was it tempting. Instead she took a step forward and said, “Get out of my way, or I’m calling the cops.”
This made the guy laugh, “And tell them what? That you’re planning to kidnap one of our patients, and we got in your way? Go for it.”
Jana clung tighter to Gail. She didn’t say a word but the clenched fists while she grasped Gail’s t-shirt told Gail all she needed to know. These men scared Jana.
From behind, she heard her mother tell their guide, “I don’t know what got into her. She’s a good girl. Premed. She’s a junior and has a four point GPA.”
Great, so her mom was bragging on her while Gail faced off with two bruisers fit for bouncing in a night club. Then her mom saw her and called out, “Gail Annabelle Gantry, what do you think you’re doing? These people are trying to help us. Come back this instant.”
Gail turned to face her mother, leaving the bigger threat behind. It made her shoulders twitchy, and she could swear she felt the heat from their bodies on her back. Her mother was holding out her arms for Jana, but Gail wasn’t about to let her sister go. She said, “Don’t you think it’s at all odd that they won’t let us alone with Jana? Don’t you find it strange that these two mafia wannabes show up when I’m about to find out what that call was all about? I do.”
“Jana can see. She’s healthy and looks great. What more do you need?” her mother said. Gail couldn’t help but wonder if her mom was being purposely obtuse out of some need to think that she had made the right decision in sending Jana away.
“Then what is the harm in letting me walk with her on the grounds?” Gail asked. She felt the muscles in her jaw tighten and her shoulders crunch. She forced herself to relax. She didn’t need to put her own fear onto Jana.
“Jana is in a sterile environment. We need to keep her in the facility. Mrs. Gantry, if you want to take Jana home, we will stop the treatment. Her eyesight is better than it was. It will take an hour for the doctor to sign the discharge papers, but if you want to take her home, we understand.”
The manipulative bitch. Gail could see what the woman was doing even if her mom couldn’t.
Jana said, “Please, Mommy? I want to come home.”
That would have done it for Gail...if she was Jana’s mother, but she wasn’t. And five years of struggle had made her mom tough. No matter how torn their mother looked, she still said, “No, Sweetie, the end of treatment is February tenth. It’s not that far away.”
Their facility guide was a woman with large green eyes who played the ‘aw shucks, just want to help’ card perfectly. Gail supposed it worked like aces on guys, but she wasn’t a guy, and she’d seen the type before. Too bad it worked on her mom.
“Mom, at least listen to what Jana has to say before you make a decision,” Gail said, “Jana, tell her what you told me.”
Jana burrowed her head into Gail’s shoulder. She murmured, “I can’t.”
“Jana, Mom won’t change her mind if you don’t tell us what�
�s wrong.” Gail had never felt as helpless as at that very moment. Everything hinged on her mom believing Jana...if Jana would say anything.
Jana said in her guilty undertone, “I don’t like okra.”
“We told her she had to eat her vegetables or she wouldn’t get to play. I’m sorry this got out of hand,” the guide said.
With a hand on her hip, her mother said, “See? Do you believe them now?”
Gail didn’t know what to believe. Maybe she’d spent too much time listening to Bryce’s stories of the Miami underworld. Everyone thought drugs were the big black market story. Turned out the corporate underbelly fought a lot dirtier. She said, “Jana, you know the difference between a lie and the truth. Did you lie to me yesterday or just now?”
“Yesterday,” Jana said in her smallest voices.
“Okay. I love you, Jana. You really scared me with that phone call.”
Jana nodded, but didn’t say a word.
The standoff ended with a fizzle. Gail didn’t kidnap Jana or even take her outside. Her mother apologized a million times to the woman who Gail would forever call ‘that stupid guide lady’. She’d given her name once, but Gail was so keyed up she couldn’t remember. Now her dislike of the woman, fair or not, meant that she could care less what the guide’s name was.
They ate lunch together, and Jana showed them the toy room. Gail’s shoulder blades ached with tension. Studying every word Jana said, her actions and reactions, Gail tried to find some clue about her state of mind.
When they left the facility, Gail did so with a troubled heart. If Jana was in trouble, it was deeply hidden. She replayed Jana’s words in her mind, remembering her fear. That wasn’t imagination. Gail didn’t exaggerate it.
Something was wrong...but what?
Chapter 12
BRYCE SPENT THREE MISERABLE days pacing the hospital. The staff would only let him in to see his dad in tiny little bits of time. The hours spent waiting were endless. His dad had been fine three months ago. After everything, after the kidnapping and all of the nights he spent worrying, to have his dad return home and then get attacked like this...it was all too much.
His mom alternated from bouts of weeping to sudden spurts of energy. When they got home, she organized the cupboards and mopped the kitchen. Bryce hid out in his room. It was cowardly, but he just didn’t know how to handle the situation.
He called Gail every night, frustrated that he was needed by both Gail and his parents, and that in truth, he couldn’t do a damn thing to help either one. On Wednesday Lucas left a cryptic message for Bryce on the Langden answering machine. While his mom played the message for him, Bryce scribbled down the number. Lucas was probably just calling to see how his dad was doing.
Bryce called from the kitchen phone. The area code wasn’t Miami. He wondered where Lucas had ended up. Lucas answered on the first ring.
“Hey, it’s Bryce.
“Hey, are you sitting down?” Lucas asked.
That was a totally weird question. Bryce said, “No. What’s up?”
“I need to tell you something. I’m not sure what good it will do you. I’m not even sure if I should say anything, but you have the right to know.”
Lucas walked around the counter and grabbed a stool, hoisting himself up. “What’s going on?”
“I just want to be clear. This isn’t Lauren’s fault. She and I had no idea what Kendall was capable of or how psychotic the man could be. I just want you to know that.”
Bryce gripped the phone with a strangle-hold. “Was he behind the attack on my dad?”
“Yes, he was. He as much as bragged about it to Lauren when he fired her. He said there was nothing she could do, that he was too powerful and nobody would believe her. I turned him into the freakin’ FBI and nothing happened. I think that’s why he went after your dad.”
“But why? My dad wasn’t even involved!”
“I’m sorry. Lauren and I have gone in circles about what we could have done differently.”
“Was it my fault? Because of the listening device? I think he might have had my coworker murdered.” Bryce didn’t know how to contain his rage. He didn’t know how to feel so much anger and have it go nowhere.
The phone was quiet for a second. Then Lucas said, “I think he found it.”
“It’s my fault,” Bryce said. He closed his eyes. Bryce was the reason his dad was in Miami to begin with. He was the reason his mom and dad were apart for half the year. He was the reason his dad was attacked. If his dad died, it would be square on his shoulders.
“Kendall had a choice. You can’t blame yourself for another person’s evil. You wouldn’t have put a bug in his office if he was the type of stand-up guy who didn’t ask you to compromise your friends,” Lucas spoke with passion and Bryce could hear the underlying anger. He said, “That’s not all, but I’m not sure if the additional information I have means anything given the context of everything else.”
“What is it?” Bryce wanted to stick his fingers in his ears like a three year old and run. Or punch the wall hard and take out all of the plaster.
“That name you gave me to look into? You asked if was in any way connected to the tech companies?” Lucas said.
“Yeah. Is it?”
“It’s a subsidiary of SpaceTech. The connection has been well-hidden. The CEO of SpaceTech definitely doesn’t want anyone to know that he’s also pushing cutting-edge technology in the hospitals.”
“This is bad. This is so bad,” Bryce ran a hand through his hair. He needed to get home to Gail. Crap. He needed to stay with his dad.
“Why? From what I can tell, the hospital acts as a cutting-edge facility. They’ve given three deaf patients hearing. They’re in the middle of human testing on a bionic eye that will give patients sight. If there is a bright side to SpaceTech, this is it.”
“Gail’s little sister was offered a place there, right after Kendall’s goons started following me and Gail. Jana is in their facility. Gail said they won’t let her out until the end of treatment. They’re extorting her mother. Whenever she wants to pull Jana out, they tell her that she won’t be allowed back into treatment later if she is pulled out early.”
Lucas swore rather vehemently. He said, “Kendall is a ruthless bastard. He’s after me and Lauren. We’re going underground. I’ll be in Miami packing our stuff in the next few weeks and then we’ll be gone.”
Bryce leaned against the wall. The situation was hopeless. On the one hand his father was hospitalized at Kendall’s order, still unconscious and possibly dying. If Bryce went to Miami and his dad died, he’d never forgive himself. On the other hand Gail and her little sister, Jana, may or may not be in danger from the same people who hurt his father. If he interfered, Bryce might make the situation worse. If he didn’t, Jana might end up like his dad.
People like Kendall knew how to lie publicly. Since Jana was a charity case, her entire treatment was paid for by the hospital. The spin on any story would favor the doctors.
Bryce hung up the phone and rubbed his eyes. He was soul tired. The exhaustion he felt was deep. He missed Gail. He felt useless at home waiting for word about his dad. He crawled into bed super early thinking he would fall immediately to sleep. Instead he stared at the ceiling.
His mom came in around nine o’clock. Bryce pushed off the covers. He wandered out into the kitchen.
“Mom?”
“There’s no change,” she said. His mom opened the cupboards, pulling out a bag of chips. “Are you hungry?”
“I’m fine.” Bryce closed his eyes. He needed to say this but feared her reaction. He blurted out, “Mom, I need to talk to you.”
Bryce had never confided in his mom before. Not really. He skimmed over the truth, skipped vital parts, outright lied. He needed real advice now. He told the truth, the story from start to finish with his part and his fears and his role in it all. He told her of Kendall and his involvement with Dad and the kidnappings and attacks and Gail’s little sister. Of course sh
e knew what Sven and Drake told her, but they wouldn’t have mentioned Bryce’s part in it all. If she hated him, she hated him. He told his story now.
His mom listened, every now and then taking a chip and crunching it. The sound reminded Bryce of movie nights when he was little with Mom and Dad letting the kids eat potato chips and ice cream while they watched The Neverending Story.
When he finished, he took a deep breath. Now was the moment when he had to tell her that he was going back to Gail, that she was the love of his life and needed him. That he still had school, but was torn because he couldn’t bear the thought of his dad in the hospital unconscious while he sat in art class.
“You want to go back,” his mom said. Bryce had expected judgment. His mom wasn’t happy when he first called from Miami. But now her tone was supportive.
Bryce nodded.
With a deep sigh, she said, “You know your dad loves you and your sister more than anything else in this world. He will understand why you left. I’ll be okay. There’s nothing you can do here but wait. Go to Gail. You’ve grown up this past year, and it’s a change for the better.”
“What if dad dies while I’m in Miami?” Bryce practically choked on the words.
“There is nothing you can do to save him, no matter where you are. Given a different set of circumstances, of course I would want you to stay here.”
Bryce swallowed. He said, “I feel torn in two.”
She added, “It’s okay, Bryce. You can go.”
“Thanks, Mom.”
Suddenly the moment had broken and his mother was no longer a confidant. She was back to being a mother again. She said, “Just promise me you won’t go after Kendall on your father’s account. If he’s doing something to that little girl, by all means protect her, but don’t act out of revenge.”
Bryce mumbled assurances. He said, “I want to say goodbye to Dad tomorrow. Just in case.”
“I understand.”
Bryce felt better. Knowing he had his mom’s forgiveness and encouragement, Bryce could face the future. He fell asleep that night thinking of Gail.