by Herron, Rita
All these kids had been traumatized. Reuniting with their families and helping them become emotionally stable would take time.
Gaining their trust would be complicated.
He spotted Mark Bayler in the corner at a table where he was drawing. He looked solemn, sad, haunted. How could he not be? He’d witnessed his parents’ murder.
Except this little boy wasn’t alone anymore. He was his.
He studied his facial features, and realized he should have seen it sooner. Mark had his dark hair, his wide cheekbones, and square jaw. And his eyes were just as dark as John’s.
Damn his father. He had betrayed him by robbing him of his own child. Of the twins. By depriving him of a life with Amelia.
Tamping down his anger, he slowly approached the boy. “Mark?”
Mark looked up at him with big brown eyes that mirrored his own. Sad eyes, confused and scared.
“Hi,” he said in a low voice. “Mind if I sit down? I have a story to tell you.”
The boy shrugged, but stopped his drawing. John glanced at it, troubled by the images.
Mark had drawn a picture of the ocean with an island in the middle, the waves choppy, the sky bleak. In the middle of the island, he’d drawn a castle that looked dark and haunted.
“Who are you?” Mark asked.
“Mark, did your parents tell you that you’re adopted?”
Mark nodded. “Do you know where my other parents are?”
John smiled at the kid and began to tell him.
Amelia came to, slightly dizzy and disoriented.
Immediately she knew that the therapy had worked, because she remembered everything. Dr. Marley handed her a tissue, and she wiped at her eyes, aware she’d been crying at times, begging for help at others.
“Are you all right?” Dr. Marley asked gently.
“I will be,” Amelia said. “But I have to call John.”
“Who is John?”
“The agent I’ve been working with to locate my son. I mean, our sons. John is the boys’ father.”
She thanked the doctor, then retrieved her phone from her purse and rushed out the door. She pressed John’s number, anxious to talk to him.
“Amelia?”
“I think I know where the Commander took the boys.”
“Where?”
“The same place he took the CHIMES when we were little. An island off the coast of Georgia.”
John made a low sound in his throat. “I’m going to text you an address. Meet me there.”
He didn’t wait for a response. He hung up, leaving her wondering.
Wasting no time, she rushed to her car and fought the storm as she drove to the facility. John met her outside and escorted her into the building and through security.
“What’s going on?” Amelia asked.
“There’s someone here you need to meet.”
Her heart stuttered as he led her into a small playroom, then over to a little dark-haired boy sitting at a table. The moment he looked up at her, tears burned her eyes.
It was her son.
He looked just like a miniature version of John. Same dark hair. Same dark eyes. Same sharp cheekbones and chin.
She sank onto the small chair beside him, aching to pull him into her arms.
“This is Mark,” John said with a lopsided grin. “Mark, this is your mother.”
John barely managed to maintain his calm as he watched Amelia reunite with their child.
“You gave me away?” Mark asked in a low voice.
Amelia shook her head. “No, sweetie. It’s a long story, but someone took you from me. I’ve been looking for you though because I love you and want to be with you.”
He studied her for a long moment with a childlike innocence, yet a world-weariness also lingered on his face. No telling what kind of life he’d led.
Although at least he’d been with the Baylers, not with the Commander.
Mark’s twin might not have been so lucky.
“I know this is a lot to understand,” Amelia told Mark. “And we can take it as slow as you want, Mark. But I want us to be together as a family.”
Mark looked around the room. “Then I won’t have to stay here forever?”
“No, oh, no,” Amelia said softly. “You’ll have a real home again.”
The boy looked back and forth between John and her, then down at the picture he’d drawn. “What about him?”
“Who?” Amelia asked.
He pointed to the window in the dark castle on his drawing. “The little boy who talks to me in my head.”
John zeroed in on the child in the window. He hadn’t noticed him before. But he looked like Mark.
“Is that you?” John asked.
Mark shook his head. “No, his name is Zack.”
Amelia gasped softly, and traded a confused look with John. But the truth slowly dawned on her. Zack had to be Mark’s twin brother. “How long have you known Zack?”
“Ever since I can remember.” Mark shrugged. “He talks to me all the time.”
Amelia tapped the sketch. “That place, the island. Have you been there, Mark?”
He shook his head. “No, but Zack is there. He doesn’t like it. He asked me to get help.”
Amelia looked up at John. “That’s the place I told you about, the island where he took the CHIMES when we were smaller.”
John angled himself toward Mark. “Listen, Mark, I’ll go check out that place, and then come back. Okay?” He had to. If the Commander was there, it might be his chance to catch him. To stop him.
To kill him once and for all.
Until he was dead, Amelia would never be safe.
And if his other son was there, he had to rescue him before the Commander moved him someplace where they’d never find him.
Mark pasted on a brave face, reminding him of Amelia, and John’s throat clogged.
“You need to hurry. He’s scared.”
Amelia planted a kiss on his forehead. “Sweetheart, I have to go with John and show him where that island is.” She looked up at the counselor sitting in the corner. “Will you be okay here until we get back?”
Mark nodded. “Save him. He’s never had a mommy and daddy.”
John looked at Amelia and saw the anguish in her eyes. They had to hurry.
Amelia’s heart swelled with love as she hugged her son, and they left the room. She couldn’t believe he was alive and that they’d finally found him.
And that he had a twin brother.
“I don’t understand how Mark knew about Zack,” John said. “Do you think they met at some point?”
Amelia hesitated. “Maybe he has a connection with his twin like Sadie and I do,” Amelia admitted. “We don’t always know each other’s thoughts, but sometimes we sense when the other is in trouble.”
John seemed to stew over what she said as they got in his SUV.
“I hate to leave him alone,” Amelia said. “Especially when we just found him.”
“I know,” John said. “But he’s safe, and if he’s right about the Commander having his brother, we need to find them.”
“I think I can lead us to that island,” Amelia said.
“Good.” John squeezed her shoulder. “I’m going to line up a chopper and team for backup. We’ll get him out if we have to storm the place.”
Zack stared out the window at the endless sea of water. Chop, chop, chop, the waves crashed back and forth.
Outside his room in the hall, it was quiet.
An eerie quiet as if he were alone in the castle.
Then loud footsteps. Voices. Men hurrying. Something was wrong.
He jammed his notepad beneath the mattress of the cot in case they came in. He’d been drawing, trying to show his friend where he was.
&nb
sp; That kid is just in your head.
No . . . he was real, wasn’t he?
Or was he crazy like the Commander said?
Chapter Thirty-Two
John and Amelia flew to Savannah, then took a chopper with Nick and Jake riding along for backup. The Blackwood brothers had been shocked to learn John was their half brother. At least as shocked as one could be when the Commander kept surprising them. But both had admitted they’d suspected the Commander had had another family during the years he was presumed dead.
And they wanted their father gone for good as badly as John did.
Amelia showed them where the island was on the map, then called Sadie to tell her about finding Mark. He had no idea what Sadie had said to her, but Amelia seemed pleased when she’d hung up.
Now worry pulled at her face again. John understood her concerns.
The closer he got to the coast, the more familiar the area seemed.
He had been to this island before, too.
Probably when he was guarding Amelia.
That thought soured his stomach, but he inhaled deeply to calm himself. He had to finish this for Amelia and for his sons.
He studied the map spread across his lap, the details of his visit blurry, but he easily guided the pilot toward the remote island.
Amelia sat with her hands clenched in a death grip, staring out the window, scanning below just as he was. Every minute counted.
The top of a building caught his eye through the fog, and he remembered Mark’s drawing. Although this place looked nothing like a castle, it was the only building on the island, and he vaguely remembered it from years before.
“There,” he said, pointing out the building to the pilot.
The pilot gestured toward a clearing about a quarter of a mile away. “I’ll try to land over there.” But the wind was so strong, the chopper rocked sideways. The side brushed the tops of some trees, sending it spinning.
The pilot tried to correct it, bobbing up and down in the turbulence.
Finally he brought the bird down, the engine sputtering. Reservations nagged at him for bringing Amelia. Finding Zack could be dangerous.
But if he was traumatized, Amelia might be able to help.
“Stay here with the pilot,” he told her. Gordon was former military and trained with a weapon.
John secured his Sig Sauer, adding a knife to an ankle strap under his pants leg. Jake and Nick were checking their weapons as well. But suddenly the sound of guns cocking echoed nearby.
“Don’t move, you’re surrounded.”
John froze as men dressed in camouflage stepped from the shadows of the trees, automatic rifles aimed at him, Amelia, Nick, Jake, and the pilot.
“You’re holding a child here?” John asked.
A laugh rumbled from one of their captors. He was big, rough-looking with a tattoo of an eagle on his lower arm. “We’ll take you to him.”
The hair on the back of John’s neck prickled. That was too easy. There was no way these men would turn over the child without a fight.
The man with the tattoo gave John a warning look. “Give up the weapons.”
John, Nick, and Jake exchanged looks, then handed over their guns. The pilot tried to reach his, but one of the men shot him, and he fell to the ground, the bullet piercing him right between the eyes.
Amelia gasped, and John cursed.
“Anyone else want to be a hero?” the shooter growled.
John shook his head, and Jake and Nick played it cool.
The leader gestured toward a path. “That way.”
Another man aimed a gun at Amelia’s back. “Go, lady.”
John cursed himself for bringing her along. If they both got killed, little Mark would be left completely alone in the world.
Amelia followed close behind John, with Nick and Jake behind her. The poor pilot . . . he was dead because he’d tried to help them.
There were at least eight men with guns, which meant they were outnumbered. And now John and the Blackwood brothers were unarmed. If anything happened to John, she’d never forgive herself.
A chilly breeze ruffled the trees, and waves crashed at the shore as they followed a path up to the building.
One of the men opened a heavy wooden door, and the troops ushered her and the others inside. The entryway was dark, cold, as if the place had been deserted for some time. Cracks in the walls and poor lighting added to the eerie feel.
They followed the men up a staircase, then through a set of double doors and down a corridor.
They came to a door, which one of the men unlocked.
Her pulse thumped when he opened it and ordered her to go in. Amelia’s heart squeezed at the sight of the little boy sitting by the window with a sketchpad in front of him.
Then he turned toward her, and her heart melted. He looked exactly like Mark.
They were identical.
She and Sadie had had a connection all their lives. Had sometimes drawn the same pictures.
Her sons also shared a similar kind of connection.
This little boy had been drawing the same picture Mark had drawn, a sketch of the building with him inside looking out the window for help.
John didn’t like this setup at all.
The only reason they’d brought them this far was because they planned to kill them.
Dammit to hell.
The door slammed shut behind them, locking them in. John’s heart hammered at the sight of the boy. He looked just like Mark.
“Damn my father for keeping them both from us,” he muttered.
Nick strode across the room to check the window while Jake looked for a vent to escape through.
Amelia stooped down beside the child. “Hi, my name is Amelia. Are you Zack?”
The little boy jutted up his chin. “Yes, how did you know?”
John gently touched the boy’s shoulder. “Mark sent us to get you.”
A tiny smile pulled at Zack’s mouth. “I knew he would help me.”
Amelia squeezed his arm. “Zack, we’re here to take you to a nice home. Would you like that?”
He looked wary but he nodded. “Can I meet the other boy? The one who lives in my head?”
John soaked in his son’s face. But anger for all he and Amelia had missed consumed him.
“Yes,” Amelia said. “And he’s not just in your head. He’s your brother, Mark.”
Outside the room, footsteps pounded, then John heard shouts.
Nick cursed. “Damn, they’re leaving.”
Keys jangled outside the door, then it opened again, and the Commander appeared holding a semiautomatic, an evil leer splitting his face. “Hello, my sons. So nice to have you all here together.”
“You son of a bitch,” John growled. “Just let us take Zack and we won’t even bother looking for you.”
Blackwood’s hearty laugh rumbled in the cavernous space. “We all know that’s a lie. Besides, Zack is going with me.”
He aimed the gun at Amelia, and John, Jake, and Nick went stone still. Then he crossed the room and jerked Zack up by the arm.
“Please don’t take him,” Amelia cried.
“Leave him,” John said, his fists knotted.
But Blackwood dragged Zack toward the door. Zack yelled and kicked at him, but the Commander fired a shot into the air. Amelia screamed and Zack froze, then went limp and let Blackwood drag him from the room.
Amelia sobbed and ran to the door and started beating on it. John caught her and pulled her into his arms. “Shh, we’ll get out and find him. I promise.”
Nick rushed to the window. “They have a chopper. It looks as if they’re escaping.”
John’s adrenaline surged. Damn bastard was going to get away again.
He released Amelia, removed the knife from his ankle,
and used it to pick the lock. It took him several tries, but he managed to open the door.
He waved them to the door. “Come on.”
But as soon as they made it into the hallway, a bomb exploded from below.
Amelia cried out. The walls shook. Smoke seeped upward. John forged ahead, knowing they had to hurry.
He led the way down the hall. They came to a halt at the double doors, which were locked. Nick slammed his body against the doors, and John joined him. Three tries later, the doors splintered, and they started through.
Smoke clogged the stairway and the hallway. Flames licked at the floor and doorways.
Jake removed his jacket and so did Nick, and they beat at the flames as he and Amelia raced through the fiery patches and hurried to the bottom floor. Fire shot up across the front entryway, and John pointed left.
Amelia coughed as smoke clogged her lungs. He jerked a handkerchief from his pocket. “Here, cover your face.”
She took it and did so, while Nick plowed ahead, beating at the flames licking the walls to make a path. Jake took up the rear.
Part of the roof crashed in with a thunderous roar, and burning pieces rained down. One caught Jake. Nick ran back to help him.
“Go on. Get Amelia out of here!” Nick shouted.
“Go after the Commander!” Jake yelled
John didn’t want to leave his half brothers, but he had to save Amelia and his son.
Another explosion blasted, rocking the walls and shaking the foundation, and the building began to crumble down around them. Amelia screamed as burning rubble pummeled them. He dragged her behind him, keeping her close until they made it to the outside.
They were both coughing, but he eased Amelia to the ground a few feet away. He spotted the Commander climbing into the helicopter, pushing Zack in front of him.
“Go get him, John!” Amelia shouted.
He ran toward them and caught Blackwood by the leg. “You’re not going anywhere!”
The Commander slammed his gun back, hitting John in the face. He grunted, but rage fueled him, and he punched his father in the lower back, catching him in the kidneys.