Nathan? Why would he do that?
“But she’s sick,” Dane said more forcefully than he meant to. “Why would you let her go?”
The doctor motioned for Dane to follow him to a corner. The two men sat down. “I can recommend a treatment facility that specializes in addiction, but beyond that, there’s nothing we can do for her here.”
Dane raised his hand. “Hold on. What are you talking about? My wife doesn’t take drugs. She’s practically a teetotaler. She wasn’t admitted for that. It was her mental state that had me alarmed.”
The doctor gave Dane a curious look. “I saw no reason for a psychiatric evaluation. Your wife was quite calm while she was with us.”
“She was? But didn’t my brother tell you what happened? She was hysterical last night.”
“He mentioned that she seemed to be behaving irrationally, but after speaking with and observing your wife, I saw only a woman under a great deal of stress who turned to drugs to self-medicate.”
Dane just sat there staring at the doctor. Julia on drugs? It couldn’t be true.
The doctor must have seen the doubt on Dane’s face. He said, “We ran some tests, based on her behavior last night. The excessive energy levels, her manic state, the compulsive creativity impulse—”
“Creativity impulse? What are you talking about?”
The doctor opened a folder and handed Dane a pad of paper. “She was writing all night.”
Dane flipped through the pad of paper, scanning the contents. Julia had written a story. An actual work of fiction about two sisters who battle an evil queen to free their stolen dragon.
Dane’s heart skipped a beat. Damned near stopped. This was a full story. Not just ramblings or a cry for help.
“What kind of drugs were found in her system?” Dane asked.
The doctor pushed his glasses up his nose. “It’s called Lullaby. It’s a new street drug. I’ve only seen a couple of cases come through here. It’s used by artists and musicians to heighten their creativity. It triggers synapses in the brain, causing them to fire rapidly, coupled with bursts of energy so that the user can work for hours on end without tiring.”
Dane tried to process what the doctor was telling him. It didn’t sound like Julia at all. She was into natural medicines, yoga, meditation. Besides, where would she even get a drug like that? And why would she even take it? To what end? Was she that passionate about this new hobby? Enough to risk her health?
Although… she had been acting differently lately. Skittish, focused, full of energy. And what about the computer? Had she actually begun a novel and misplaced the file? And the notebook? What he to make of that? None of this was making any sense. Dane had a hard time wrapping his brain around what the doctor was telling him, although it must be true. If the tests said the drug was in her system, then it was in her system.
Finally, he asked, “This drug. Lullaby. Could it cause hallucinations?”
The doctor said, “It could, I suppose, although I haven’t heard of that particular effect, but given the herbs your wife was taking for her health and her history of mental illness, it’s possible. Different things affect people in different ways. I do know that caffeine heightens the effects of the drug.”
Julia loved her coffee, there was no doubt about that. But the pad of paper the doctor had given him. That was real work. In Julia’s own handwriting. It wasn’t just the same two words over and over. Or a single sentence. It wasn’t gibberish, it was a complete story.
So what the hell was going on?
Dane didn’t want to waste any more time. He needed to find his wife and get to the bottom of this. He thanked the doctor and left the hospital. He called his brother from the car and when he didn’t answer, he drove straight to the restaurant.
The street that led to Second Chances was under construction, so Dane parked the car a block over, grabbed an old jacket from the backseat and walked the rest of the way. He tried to call Nathan again to no avail. Then he called the office to cancel all his meetings.
He had just hung up the phone when two men grabbed him and dragged him into an alley.
Chapter 12
“Hey, Nate. You been avoiding us?” said a man with an eyebrow piercing and a teardrop tattoo.
“I’m not Nat—”
“Shut up!” The man backhanded Dane so hard, he felt blood seep out of his inner cheek and ooze down his throat.
The second man was shorter, but bulkier than the first, with a bandana wrapped around his head. “Tommy wants his money man. He don’t like waiting.”
Dane just nodded. It was clear these men thought he was Nathan. It was also clear they were very dangerous. What had is brother gotten himself into?
“It wasn’t a good idea to set up shop in his territory, you know what I’m sayin’? You want to play in his sandlot, you gotta pay the toll.”
What were they talking about?
The first man looked at the second. “You think we should break his arm? Maybe bust a kneecap?”
The second man said, “Maybe next time. He’s got a couple hours yet.”
The first man spit on Dane’s shoe. He watched the yellow glob slide off like a snail. “Don’t be late. Or I guarantee you won’t be singing any lullabies to your kids anytime soon.”
Both men laughed at that and the taller one shoved Dane into the front end of a dumpster. He watched them walk away, realizing for the first time in his life that he didn’t know his brother at all.
You won’t be singing any lullabies.
Wasn’t that the name of the drug that had been found in Julia’s system? Dane was so sickened by the thought of what he feared his brother had done, he nearly vomited right there in the alley.
When he was certain the men were gone, he pulled his cell phone out and dialed.
“This is Harrison,” said the detective.
“Frank? It’s Dane. I need you to arrest my brother.”
***
Nathan was alone when they found him driving down Brackfield Highway, which only incensed Dane further. He was frantic. Out of his mind with worry for his wife. He no longer gave a rat’s ass about anyone else in the world. At that moment, there was only one person he cared about. Julia.
If anything happened to her, he would never forgive himself.
Dane relayed everything he knew—and everything he suspected—to Detective Harrison, stressing that his wife was missing and in danger. He wanted to comb the restaurant himself, since that was the most likely place Nathan was manufacturing the drug, but Harrison talked him out of it.
“If you go in and she’s there, you’re liable to get her killed,” Harrison warned.
A few of the officers did a sweep of the place on the pretense that they’d had a complaint about a fight breaking out.
They didn’t find Julia.
Julia. With the carnival laugh and the million-dollar smile who just wanted to be a good wife and a mother. Julia, who never hurt anyone. Where was she? Dane didn’t want to think about how frightened she might be. Or how despondent she was at the thought of losing her sanity. Or, if she even knew, how she must be feeling knowing that her own brother-in-law had betrayed her. But that’s all he could think about as he paced the police station waiting for his twisted twin to walk through the door.
Had Nathan sabotaged the file? Replaced the plain red notebook Julia had filled with ideas with a brand new blank one? Or had that actually been written by Julia as a side effect of Lullaby?
And the automaton. Julia had tried to tell Dane something about it the other day. “Just look at the page. Look what he wrote,” she had said. What ‘he’ wrote. Another hallucination? Or an innocent reference to a boy doll? Could Nathan have reprogrammed it? He was good with machinery. Or he might have asked Uncle Ron how to do it. But why Julia?
He wanted the answer to that question so badly, he wanted to know everything that Nathan had done to his wife, but right now, there was another more pressing question to ask. In that moment,
he didn’t care about the drugs, or the money, or any of it. All Dane cared about was his wife.
“Where is she, Nathan?” he asked when they were alone in an interrogation room.
Nathan looked smaller in that metal chair, the dangling exposed bulb highlighting his unshaven face. He was sweating despite the chill in the air. His eyes dashed around, as if Julia might pop out at any moment.
“Dane, you have to understand. They were going to kill me.”
Dane slammed his fist down and Nathan jumped. “Where is she, goddammit?”
Nathan ran his tongue all across his lips. “I thought, if I could just make her a little sick, maybe you’d cancel the campaign and you or mom would give me the money—”
“A little sick? You nearly cracked her in two, you demented piece of garbage! Those drugs had some serious side effects.” Dane leaned in, his face inches from Nathan’s. “Unless that was you too.”
Nathan shook his head. “Unless what was me?”
Dane didn’t respond. He just waited for the answer to his first question.
Nathan stammered. “I just thought she’d feel stressed, you know? And then you’d want to ease the stress, so you’d withdraw from the race. The drug was only supposed to make her act a little goofy—”
Dane grabbed his brother by the collar, practically spiting his response. “Bull! That’s bull and you know it, Nathan. You gas lighted my wife.”
“No,” Nathan shook his head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I only slipped her a couple of doses in her coffee now and then. I was careful to never give her too much.”
This was getting Dane nowhere. He didn’t have time to sort out all the gory details, he had to get to his wife before…before only God knew what.
Dane looked at his brother for the first time. Really looked at him. He wasn’t a hero. He was a coward. Julia was the hero for putting up with this family. All of them. Even Dane.
He seized his brother by the throat and shoved him up against the wall. “Tell me where she is right now, Nathan, or I swear to God, I’ll deliver you to Tommy myself.”
Nathan’s eyes widened. “H-How do you know about Tommy?”
Dane dropped his brother and hit the intercom. “We’re done here. Take him to the restaurant and make sure you tell all his employees that he’s a snitch.”
The door opened and an officer stepped in. “Let’s go.”
Nathan’s eyes pleaded with Dane. “Okay, I’ll tell you. First promise you’ll offer me protection.”
Dane nodded at the officer. “He’s done.”
The officer turned Nathan around toward the door.
Nathan shouted. “You win, Dane! I’ll tell you everything.”
Chapter 13
Nathan revealed that after he had dropped Julia off at the hospital last night, he received a call from the drug dealer, Tommy. Tommy was a ruthless heroine dealer and Nathan had inadvertently invaded his territory with his new concoction, Lullaby. The drug was manufactured out of the kitchen of the restaurant. He thought drug dealing might keep the restaurant afloat and his employees in paychecks, but the plan backfired when Tommy had insisted on taking seventy percent of the profits. Now, Tommy had decided on an additional “rent” fee for Nathan for usurping his territory to the tune of two-hundred grand.
Funds Nathan had no access to, nor had any means to acquire after both Dane and Cynthia refused to lend him any more money, naming the campaign as the reason.
Tommy decided the deadline for the rental fee was tonight, so Nathan had to hatch a new plan. He couldn’t just wait for Dane to drop out of the race to attend to his wife’s breakdown. So Nathan decided to kidnap Julia. He hired a couple of his own employees to hold Julia in a cheap motel room while he claimed that she had been abducted from his car at gunpoint. Dane would have assumed it was because he was the mayor and a Caulfield and would have gladly paid the ransom. No one would have been the wiser. It would have worked too, since most of Nathan’s staff held records for violent crimes.
Except Tommy’s thugs, mistaking Dane for his twin, clued him in to the drug operation.
Harrison wanted Dane to wait at home, fearing that if anyone saw him near Nathan, things might get ugly, but Dane insisted on being there when his wife was freed. Since Nathan’s own employees were the ones holding Julia, he simply walked into the hotel room off the highway, said he had the money and was about to make the drop, and walked out with Julia.
It was around the corner from the hotel that Dane first laid eyes on his wife.
To his astonishment, she ran to him.
He pulled her tight and buried his head in her hair, drinking in the scent of her, tasting her skin, whispering that he would never let anyone hurt her again. He promised he was going to be a better husband, that they could try to conceive whenever she was ready, or they could adopt, or they could just get lost in each other for the rest of their lives. He didn’t care. As long as he had her.
“I never want to lose you, Julia.” His voice cracked and he felt his eyes moisten.
She smiled at him. “Let’s go home.”
It was later that night, in their living room, that Dane proved he meant every word he had said.
Cynthia was sipping a gin and tonic when Dane entered the home with his wife.
“What did you do to your brother?” she demanded.
“Cynthia,” Ron warned. “Calm down.”
She reeled at her brother. “I will not. He betrayed Nathan. His twin,” she shrieked.
“Nathan made his own bed, Mother.” Dane was still holding his wife’s hand.
“You cannot let him sit in that jail cell. I won’t stand for it.”
“He broke the law. That’s the price he has to pay.” Dane’s tone was steady, unwavering.
Cynthia looked at her son as if she didn’t recognize him. Then a slow sneer spread across her face.
“I’ll cut you off. I won’t offer a cent for the campaign.”
Dane had his own money set aside, knowing that one day she would threaten this action, but at that moment, it didn’t matter at all. “That’s not a problem. I’m dropping out of the race.”
He walked over to the bar and pulled out a bottle of champagne.
“What? You can’t be serious.”
“Actually, I am.” Dane uncorked the champagne and reached for four glasses.
Cynthia was stunned. “But that was your dream. You can’t just piss it away.”
Dane poured the bubbly and handed a flute to Ron and Julia. Julia accepted the glass, but didn’t take a sip.
“Actually, that was your dream, Mother. I wanted to be an architect.”
Julia giggled.
Cynthia grew enraged and advanced on her daughter-in-law. “This is your fault. You gutter rat, milking from the teat of the Caulfield fortune.” She raised her hand.
Dane was at his mother’s side so fast, her head spun when he grabbed her arm. “I think you should leave now.”
They stood there glaring at each other for several seconds.
Julia walked over to the door and opened it. “I think that’s a marvelous idea.”
Ron sighed and set his glass down. He patted Dane on the back, winking as he passed his nephew. “Family, huh?” he said. “Always good for cocking up a holiday.”
It wasn’t until then that Dane realized it was New Year’s Eve.
Ron said, “Come on, Cindy, I’ll take you home.”
“Don’t call me that. I hate that name.”
Ron grinned. “I know. Why do you think I call you that?”
Dane waved as his mother got into his uncle’s car. She flipped him the bird.
Julia walked over to her husband and said, “Happy New Year, my love.”
They climbed the stairs together, hand in hand.
As the young couple walked past Julia’s office, a silent Toby opened his eyes and smiled.
Mommy was home.
The End
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
&nbs
p; Barbra Annino is the author of the bestselling Stacy Justice reluctant witch mystery series and the new Secret Goddess urban fantasy series. She writes fiction full time when she’s not walking her three Great Danes. To learn more about her books, upcoming projects or to sign up for her newsletter, visit her at http://www.barbraannino.com/.
You can also contact her at her Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorBarbraAnnino
Or email her at [email protected]
Copyright 2013, Dane House, LLC, license notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the authors. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without written permission from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review. This is a work of fiction. Any similarities between the characters, places or events that take place in this book are strictly coincidental.
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