Invisibility Cloak

  “I saw the man pulling a gun. I had to do something.”

  Ryder didn’t see any firepower. He rubbed the back of his neck. The general obviously didn’t want any loose ends. He needed to get Amanda and her kids out of here ASAP.

  “Where’s Nick and Sammie?” Amanda asked lifting her head. “Are they somewhere safe?”

  “They’re out front. Your son intercepted me on ‘The Nine’ as I was going back to find Ry.” Detective Coolman’s black eyebrows popped up. “I thought I told you to go home, Ms. Harris.

  “Detective,” Amanda said in a rush, “I had to do something. I saw them drive off with Ryder. I had to save him.”

  “And she sure as shit did.” Ryder played it cool in front of the general, but urgency to leave was forefront. “Let’s get the kids and go home.” He took a few steps then stopped, remembering the women. “Shit―almost forgot. Jer, I got Edgington and Carlyle tied up inside.” He jerked his head to the old white clapboard building.

  “Parker Edgington and Roger Carlyle? You’ve got to be shitten’ me.” Coolman walked to the front door, readying to yank it open. He took his hands off the door and asked Ryder. “Do you want to fill me in on a few things?”

  “Ah, no, Jer.” Ryder followed him. “That would be Sophia Edgington and Mimi Carlyle.”

  “What? That’s even a bigger pile of shit!”

  “I’ll take them off your hands, gentlemen.” General Holmes opened the front door and they all filed into the small house.

  Ryder looked over at Jeremy’s perplexed expression and mouthed, “Outside” when the general stomped ahead of them.

  Mimi and Sophia looked everyone over, but stopped at the general’s face. Their eyes widened and fear flicked across their faces.

  “Detective Coolman, I’ll take it from here.”

  “Oh, don’t bother General Holmes, I’ll take them downtown.” Detective Coolman pulled out two pairs of handcuffs.

  “No problem.” The general narrowed his eyes and stepped closer to the two women bound on the chairs. “I’m headed down there myself, anyway.”

  Ryder heard the click of the gun chamber. General Holmes. That’s why Sophia was waiting here. The general was in to his eyeballs with Castillo. And unless he got Amanda and Jeremy out of here fast and let the general take away the two women, they’d both be in a morgue drawer next to the big Mexican the general just took out.

  Ryder laid his hand on Jeremy’s arm. “Let him take them in buddy, we’ve got some other stuff to do.”

  Jeremy cocked an eyebrow at him.

  “Yeah, matter of fact, there’s something I need to show you right now.” Ryder tugged on Amanda’s hand and walked back to the front. “We’ll see you at the station, General.”

  Mimi and Sophia shrieked out muted protests behind their gags.

  After Ryder shut the door on the general and the two hostages, he turned to Jeremy. “Man, you can be denser than shit sometimes, you know that?”

  “Detective Coolman pulled down his brows. “What am I missing here?”

  “Why do you think Edgington came to this hell hole in the first place? She was meeting the general here. Did you see him drive in, Jer?”

  Coolman shook his head slowly. “He was here already. Said he saw some suspicious suspects lurking around this abandoned building.”

  “How long have you been a dick, dude?” Impatiently Ryder corrected what he said, “I meant to ask you how long have you been a detective, ass-wipe?”

  Coolman muttered, “Damn it, Ry, this is General Holmes, head of the United States of America Strategic Command.”

  Ryder looked him straight in the eye. “Yeah, so what?”

  “Ry―”

  Ryder cut him off. “You trying to tell me buddy, you’re hesitant to believe me because he’s employed by the Government?” He shook his head.

  “Point taken.”

  “Now, I need you to go back in there and tell him that Amanda and I took off. You need to call the ME’s office anyway to get the body tagged and bagged. After I collect some surveillance equipment from your car, I’m going to take care of the general, myself.”

  “Get in the car,” the general growled before he pushed them into the backseat of his sedan. Only their hands were still bound too tightly with the material Ryder shredded earlier. Her brown eyes followed General Holmes as he stepped back up to the other tall, dark-haired man. He shook his hand and nodded.

  “Wasn’t he a friend of Ryder Stevenson’s? Maybe we could plead with him, so the espeluznante, viejo hombre will not take us away.”

  “Creepy, old man, you say?” Mimi cast her a side-ways glance. “He is worse, much worse than that.”

  “I could still plead to him; maybe I could find a way to persuade him to take us with him.”

  “It’s too late for that. Look around, we must find something, anything to cut through these ropes.

  Sophia looked futilely around the backseat for something to work at the bindings with. “Try see-sawing the cloth on the seatbelt.”

  Mimi stomped her feet on the floor and ground out, “Oh! If only we could get at the weapons in the trunk!”

  As soon as Ryder and the Harbor Falls police detective left the building they were tied up in, the general loaded up all three boxes from the pick-up point into his car trunk.

  “We’ll―” Sophia quickly clamped her teeth together when the driver’s door opened.

  A second later General Holmes slid into the seat, turning on the ignition. “Isn’t this fancy meeting you two out here?” He didn’t turn around as he spoke to the women in the backseat, just talked louder. “I was expecting a different kind of pick up. Girls that are about thirty years younger.” He glowered at them in his rear view mirror and turned left on Highway 9. “If you get my drift.” He stopped talking and drove a few more miles, before taking a right on Highway 136. “I know just the place―a setting that will prove intimate enough for all three of us. And then we can talk.”

  The majestic, jagged peaks of the Potrillo Mountains rose into view. Fear as sharp as the mountain range they were driving to, got lodged inside her throat. She drew in a deep breath before asking, “You are going to kill us, aren’t you, General?”

  “Ah,” he turned around to meet her eyes. “Not until I’ve had some fun with you. Maybe I’ll let you both persuade me to keep you alive.”

  “Nunca cerdo, asqueroso.”

  “Never, say never.” The general leered at them in the mirror and drove silently until he turned down a dirt road closer to mountain range. Finally slowing the car, he stopped the sedan on a dirt path. He turned around to the two in the backseat. “This is the end of the road, ladies.”

  She waited until General Holmes came over to open the car door. Yanking both of her bounded feet up together, she kicked at him. The elderly man was taken by surprise and he teetered backward. Scrambling to get out of the car, so she could pounce on him, her body swayed back and forth as she tried desperately to lever herself out of the car.

  “Arggg!” Landing on the ground, the general yelled, “Bitch!” He carefully got back up and lunged at her, slapping her with his left hand, while his right held her steady in the back seat. “You won’t die quickly for that little antic, you slut!”

  “No!” She spoke out quickly, “I’m only fighting for my life, General Holmes.” She closed her eyes and whispered, “I want to live. Tell me what I have to do.”

  “Yes, I do too,” Mimi’s voice chirped out next to her. “What do we need to do to stay alive?”

  General Holmes stood up taller and narrowed his eyes at them. “Now that’s more like it!” He paced back and forth in front of a cluster of flowering cacti before he stopped. Finally turning back to them, he said, “Girls. I need young girls.” He shook his head. “God knows
why, but my clients want young, virgins. Preferably blond-haired girls.”

  “No!” She shook her head. “I cannot do that!”

  “Well, then you’ll die. Right here. Right now.”

  Reaching into the front seat, he grabbed his gun. “Out of the car, now,” the general ordered both of them, pointing the gun at their faces.

  “No!” She pulled her head back. “If I’m going to die, then it will be in your car! Not in the desert, you dirty, old man!”

  His thumb touched the chamber and a decided click took up the silence. “Fine. I need a new car anyway.”

  Ryder was thankful that no one could see the sweat dripping down his face as he sat inside General Holmes’ car waiting for the SOB to get back in it. There wasn’t much he liked less than traitors to his country. Oh wait . . . yeah, there was. Scum-sucking traitors that sold little girls and their country’s secrets topped them all. He fingered the small video device Jeremy Coolman gave him to get the evidence he needed to put Holmes away for a long, long time.

  He got every word on tape and video.

  It was time to wrap this drama scene up.

  As the general pointed a gun at the two of them, the front passenger car door swung open. All by itself.

  The general turned.

  And then the door slammed shut. All on its own. It was as if a ghost swirled among them as well.

  Sophia, Mimi and the general all gasped.

  Footsteps crunched on the dry earth and stopped.

  “What―?” she gasped and blinked a few times.

  “Ah, I don’t think you’ll need a new car.” A deep voice came out of thin air. “Not where you’ll be heading.”

  General Holmes’ face contorted and he fell backward as if he was punched squarely in the face.

  Later that evening . . .

  “So let me get this straight,” Detective Coolman said before taking a sip of coffee. “Alejandro Castillo was extorting secrets from your ex-husband. More specifically―ways to walk effortlessly over the US border without being detected. With the Invisibility Cloak?”

  “Yes, Detective Coolman,” Amanda admitted, rubbing her forehead. “But I have solid evidence that he was purposefully misleading them. He knew it was wrong, being involved with them. Wayne knew in the end.”

  Ryder squeezed her other hand.

  “So what happened to Sophia and Mimi?” She looked around her kitchen happy to be home and safe, finally.

  “Down at the station.” Jeremy tipped his head back and emptied his coffee cup. “They keep babbling on about a letter.” He walked to the sink and set his cup down. “They swear it will clear them.”

  “A letter?” Sammie asked as she walked by them. “From who?”

  “Your father, honey.”

  “Uh oh.”

  “What is it, squirt?” Ryder said.

  “A letter from my dad?”

  “Yes . . .” She frowned at her daughter. “Do you know something about it, Sammie?”

  She ran up the stairs and came back moments later, holding a white envelope.

  Amanda sucked in a breath as she looked at Wayne’s scribbled handwriting on the front. It was addressed to Miss Samarium Harris. “When did you get this, Sammie?”

  “It came after dad was killed. I was too scared to open it.” Her cherub face looked like she was heading for a meltdown before she hurled her body into Amanda’s lap at the kitchen table. “I’m sorry I didn’t give it to you earlier,” she whispered.

  Exhaling slowly, Amanda cradled both hands around her daughter’s face. “Honey, it’s okay. Can we open it now?”

  Sammie nodded furiously.

  Amanda passed the letter to Ryder. “Please?”

  He tore it open and studied the paper, swearing under his breath. “Jer, this will put a lot of people away.” Ryder handed the handwritten letter from Dr. Wayne Harris to Jeremy.

  Jeremy perused the contents of the letter and whistled. “Numerous contacts at Strategic Command were in cahoots with Alejandro Castillo?” The Harbor Falls Detective looked at everyone at the kitchen table. “This is extremely secure intel. No leaks.”

  Sammie bobbed her head furiously. “Yes, sir!” She looked up wide-eyed at him. “I promise I won’t leak any intel.”

  Amanda waved her hand at the letter. “Please keep Wayne’s part out of this out of the media. As you can see, he knew what he did was wrong.”

  Detective Coolman nodded. “I’ll do my best, ma’am.”

  Epilogue

  December 1st . . .

  “So what are we going to name her, Mom?” Sammie asked while she bounced up and down on the balls of her feet. “She’s going to be so much fun!”

  “Another girl.” Nick groaned beside her, “Yeah, so much fun.”

  Amanda mustered up a small grin, even though she was exhausted. Who’d have thought she would deliver a ten-pound baby? No, correction, a ten pound, two-ounce baby girl. Cuddled up next to her, she gently ran her index finger over her jet-black hair. She was beautiful, just like her brother and sister were when they were born. Just as perfect as Nickel and Sammie, except she had Ryder’s coloring.

  “You did good, honey.” Ryder said from the other side of the hospital bed. “She was big. Ten pounds, two-ounces.” He grinned. “I believe that’s how big I was. I’ll have to double check with my mom.”

  “Ten point two, hmmm,” Nickel said quietly. “I got it! Molybdenum.”

  “Molly-de-what?” Ryder said stepping closer to Amanda. Their daughter reached her tiny fist out to clutch onto his finger.

  “Yeah, an element Peter Jacob Hjelm isolated in 1781. Often confused as a lead compound. Atomic number is forty-two, atomic weight of ninety-five point ninety-six. But get this . . . the density of Molybdenum is ten point two grams per cubic centimeter. And to top it off it is often used an alloying agent with steel.”

  “Perfect, Nickel,” she said looking at her husband. “She binds us together as a family.”

  Ryder cleared his throat. “Speaking on that subject, and since we are all together.” He looked over at her son and daughter before he looked back at Amanda.

  And she nodded, encouraging him on.

  “How would you both feel, if I adopted you? Since your mother and your brand new sister has Stevenson as a last name, your mother and I would like you both to, too.” Ryder stepped up to Nickel. “No rush, I know it’s a big decision. I don’t want to push you into something you don’t want to do.”

  Nickel looked up. “Thanks, man, but can I think on it?”

  “Absolutely. No rush. Ah―” Ryder told Nick before he gasped out when Sammie gave him a fierce hug.

  “I want to. Can I do it by myself or do both of us have to change our name together?”

  “You can do whatever you want, Sammie. Just know that we love you both, whatever you decide,” Amanda said quietly.

  Nickel nodded.

  Amanda yawned and lowered her lids.

  “Come on, let’s head home, your mother needs some shut eye.” Ryder leaned over and kissed her on the top of her head before he turned to her two children. “Who wants to beat an old retired Army Ranger at a game of pool?”

  “I do!”

  Also from Soul Mate Publishing and Jill Elaine Prim:

  MELTING GLACIERS

  Tavis Cameron, the brawny Scottish Highland warrior turned Vampyre, prepares to end his existence on Earth, no longer able to live like a monster until Devon Willem approaches him. Devon is the leader of the Guardian Organization, an agency sworn to protect humans from the otherworldly evils that most mortals never knew existed. Tavis isn’t swayed until Devon tells him his soul mate is waiting for him in the future . . .

  Running away after witnessing her uncle killing a man in he
r father’s study, Nina Botanno, the heir to a New York Mafioso crime family, falls into Dr. Tavis Cameron’s arms the day before she is to report to work. Tavis knows the instant he steadies her that he has found the one he has waited centuries for, his soul mate.

  In the middle of unraveling a drug-trafficking operation, Tavis’s plane crashes in the Bolivian Andes and Nina scales the summit to save him. Together they uncover an organization that involves her family’s enemies and they want revenge. Can Tavis and Nina overcome their barriers and find true happiness with each other?

  Now available on Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/pbvyeq5