Twisted Instincts

by Casey Hagen

  “Excellent. Did you get anything from security cameras near the shelter and overpass, Dante?”

  He shook his head and frowned. “Not a thing relating to Tyler. Saw some other seriously sketchy shit that I can’t un-see, but nothing pertaining to this investigation. There’s still quite a bit of footage to watch, and I have a secondary team on it that I borrowed from Troy and Rick over at The Phoenix Agency.”

  Troy Arsenault and Rick Latrobe were their go-to guys from The Phoenix Agency, with a much bigger team and more powerful resources to tap in to whenever necessary.

  They’d brought the gear the guys needed when they went to the shipyard on a mission to rescue Mara.

  Of course, they’d had the wrong place, and all they found was Alegra’s necklace. So, in hindsight, the guns, Kevlar vests, and night vision goggles might have been a bit over the top. He smiled, shaking off the memory. “So, for tonight, I want to stake out Kelan’s house. I want to see what kind of activity goes on after Mason questions the son. We need to keep going over the footage to make sure it’s clear. I’d like Jasper to find out where the business cards are made. If you find the place, I want you to see if you can find out who ordered them. If they’re homemade, I want to know where the paper is sold and what kind of printer made them. The codes on the back are handwritten. The blank line is from a template usually used for hair salon business cards so they can write the next appointment date on the back. I want to know if the handwriting matches.”

  “Okay, so is anyone going to address the two elephants in the room?” Garrett said.

  Every set of eyes swung toward him and his own grew round as saucers.

  “Um, not that they’re actual elephants, I mean…well…no offense intended,” he stammered with a nod in Jasmine and Lily’s direction. “I’m just curious what our psychic friends are getting from this situation.”

  “I haven’t seen anything. I might be able to help if I go to his house and handle the things in his room,” Lily said.

  “Let’s arrange that,” Luca said.

  Luca turned to Jasmine and raised a brow. “Jasmine?”

  “He didn’t run away.”

  “You’re sure?” Mason asked.

  Her gaze never wavered from Luca’s. “I’d bet my life on it.”

  Chapter 6

  Jasmine followed Lily through her front door and the minute she closed it, she leaned back, and slid to the floor.

  “How bad was it?”

  She rubbed her forehead with her fingertips. “I can practically feel the stress wrinkles and frown lines carving themselves into my face. How the hell do you do this day in and day out?”

  Lily set her keys on the entry table and shed her jacket. “At least now I can speak up with the information. For so many years I kept having visions of Alegra and had no choice but to collect them in that book because there was no one to tell. Those were the worst.”

  Jasmine dropped her head back against the door. “I had a vision today. A vision of Alegra and I felt her, what she was feeling in that moment.”

  “This is weird. The way we’re crossing our abilities. I wonder, if we had Sage and Ivy come out here, would this get even more muddled up—or is it something with the way we’re connected to Mason and Luca?” Lily mused.

  “Who says I’m connected?”

  Lily laughed. “You’re kidding, right?”

  “Okay, I’m connected,” Jasmine muttered. But she didn’t have to be happy about it. Without even one smidgeon of effort, invisible tentacles had reached out from her life and began anchoring themselves to Baltimore.

  To Luca.

  “Did you tell Luca what you saw?” Lily asked.

  Jasmine sighed, rolling her head back and forth against the door. “I didn’t want to.”

  “But he pressured you,” Lily said.

  “He did, but it wasn’t just that. It didn’t feel like it was mine. What I saw wasn’t meant for me. You know what I mean? I hated telling him. I knew what it would do. I tried to resist, but you know what a shit liar I am. So, I spilled.”

  “How did he take it?”

  The weight of him as he sagged against her in absolute misery would stay with her forever. She never wanted to see a man so strong brought to his knees like that again. “Direct hit. Might as well have sucked all the air out of the room.”

  “What did you feel when you felt Alegra?”

  “Her real-life-hero brothers broke her innocent heart. I know that sounds dramatic to adults, but for her, those boys were the reason she smiled every morning; they shattered her by leaving her behind. It wasn’t just the action, but the things they said to get her to buzz off, you know? All things they never would have uttered if they knew it would be the last words they ever said to her.” Jasmine stumbled over the words as her throat thickened.

  She had experiences. Memories she had no interest in resurrecting because of the pain they would cause, but this was different. It’s the nature of her innocence that made her brothers’ rejection of her so traumatic.

  Lily slid down the door and landed with a thud right next to Jasmine. She reached out and took Jasmine’s hand. “We need wine.”

  Jasmine choked out a laugh. “Wine makes everything better. You have the energy to go get it?”

  “In just a minute. I’ll have the energy in just a minute,” Lily said with a laugh.

  “A minute works,” Jasmine said.

  “There’s something else going on with you two. I don’t know if others felt the tension in the room, but I did. What’s that all about?”

  “He’s hell-bent on proving Tyler is a runaway,” Jasmine said.

  “Well, isn’t there a chance he might be?”

  “No.”

  “Oh. Your gut. So, this isn’t you taking it personally because of being labeled a runaway yourself. You know for sure,” Lily said, giving her hand a squeeze.

  “I guess it’s both. I want him to trust me, and I think because he knows that I have a past there, although I didn’t tell him the specifics, he sees my gut feeling as skewed. I totally thought he accepted it, but he keeps mentioning that runaway thing and making sure he looks at me when he does it. Like it’s some sort of pissing contest.”

  “So, let’s find out why Tyler was running away,” Lily said with a matter-of-fact shrug of her shoulders.

  “Why, Lily, I’m shocked at you. Aren’t you supposed to be all Southern manners and shit? And here you are suggesting we interfere in an investigation…your boyfriend’s investigation.”

  “Actually, it’s your boyfriend’s investigation.”

  “He’s not my boyfriend.”

  “You just admitted you guys were connected.”

  “Sure, but we haven’t made a commitment. God, we’re about as connected as a dog when it humps someone’s leg. I don’t call that forever.”

  “Depends on the leg, I’m sure.”

  “So, how do you propose we go about approaching Tyler’s parents?” Jasmine asked.

  Lily slid a piece of paper out of her pocket. “It might be a bit complicated, but I’m thinking we just give them a call.”

  Jasmine took the number and smiled. “I think my attitude is rubbing off on you. Mason won’t like it.”

  “I love the man. He knows that. I also love you, Sage, and Ivy. You’ve all been with me for two decades. I’m pretty sure he’ll understand that my loyalty is to you in this. Besides, they did say they wanted us to talk to them. They never said how that had to happen. I’ll go give them a call,” Lily said, giving her a wink.

  “So much for that wine,” Jasmine muttered.

  Her gut told her that this was not going to go over well with Luca when he found out. Well, too damn bad. The big, stubborn oaf needed to be brought down a notch.

  Her phone buzzed in her pocket. She slid it out and glanced at the screen.

  Speak of the devil.

  “Hello?”

  “Hey, what are you up to tonight?”

  “Lily and I are g
oing out for a bit.” It’s not like it was a lie.

  “We need to talk. I have first shift on the stakeout. You mind if I pick you up later?”

  “How late are we talking?”

  “One or so in the morning.”

  “Sure, I’ll be here at Lily’s.”

  “I’ll see you then.”

  “See you,” she said, and hung up her phone.

  Lily’s heels clicked as she hurried to Jasmine. “Okay, let’s scoot. It took some convincing and a bit of a guilt trip, but they’ve agreed.”

  Jasmine reached out. “Help me up.”

  Lily took her hand and gave it a hard yank, launching Jasmine onto her feet. “Okay, let’s go prove that your gut is right and put that guy of yours in his place once and for all.”

  The row houses Jasmine had grown used to seeing and associating with Baltimore fell away five minutes into their drive. Another ten minutes after that they arrived in a subdivision made up of big houses that had to at least be four bedrooms.

  Jasmine had lived in a house like that until her father died. When she started running away, her mother continually accused her of thinking she was too big for her britches to live anywhere but.

  What her mother hadn’t considered is why Jasmine would rather live on the streets than in their tiny apartment with two closet-sized bedrooms and paper-thin walls.

  It had nothing to do with being too good for the apartment, and everything to do with her mother’s new boyfriend and the avid attention he had started lavishing on Jasmine.

  So desperate for a father figure after missing her own, she absorbed all of it, until it turned into something not father-like.

  The avid watchfulness turned into awkwardly long stares and then finally full-blown leering. He grabbed at Jasmine when her mother wasn’t looking.

  The one time she tried to tell her mother, her mother accused her of trying to ruin her relationship because no one could live up to her daddy.

  Goddamned right no one could live up to him…definitely not a man who thought he could slide his hands down Jasmine’s waistband under the guise of giving her a back rub.

  Lily reached over and took Jasmine’s hand, because her intuitive friend always picked up on her moods. “I wish I could have been there for you,” Lily said.

  “You were. If you hadn’t suggested becoming blood sisters, I wouldn’t have my gut. My gut saved me. Instead of being broken, I’m just a bit dented,” Jasmine said.

  “Yeah, well, I don’t care what anyone says—I like the dented can section of the store better,” Lily said with a tearful laugh.

  They pulled to the stop alongside the curb in front of a two-story gray colonial with black shutters. A Lexus and Volvo sat parked in the driveway, clean and polished to a high shine.

  “Nice place. It’s weird that he’s run away so much.”

  “Sometimes the worst things happen in pretty places. I don’t know. I didn’t get a bad vibe from his parents.”

  “Well, why don’t we go see what we can find out?”

  They walked up to the front door, rang the bell, and waited. A dog barked on the other side. From the deep sound, he was a big one.

  Eric Mishler opened the door with one hand and held the sleek chocolate Lab by the collar with the other. His claws clattered on the tile as he tried to get to them. His tongue lolled out of his drooling mouth as he panted with what looked to be a goofy dog grin on his loveable face.

  “Oh, he’s beautiful,” Lily said, dropping before the dog, earning her a tongue bath.

  “Good to see you again, Eric. This is my friend, Lily. You spoke to her on the phone.” His hair had been smoothed, but he wore sweats and a T-shirt. From the looks of the scruff on his face he hadn’t had a good shave in about a week, which was weird because she had only seen him for the first time just a few hours ago. His eyes drooped with the weight of exhaustion.

  “Of course. Nice to meet you,” he said.

  Lily scrambled out from under the weight of man’s best friend and held out her hand. “Nice to meet you, too. I wish it were under better circumstances.”

  “Me, too. Come on in,” he said, holding the door open wider for her.

  He closed the door behind them and led them to a living area off the foyer.

  “Stella is just fixing the coffee. She’ll be right in.”

  “I’m right here,” Stella said, carrying a large tray with a ceramic pot and four cups into the room from the kitchen.

  Jasmine smiled, hoping to ease the worry in Stella’s eyes. Sure, she had made coffee and pulled out the stops to entertain, but anyone with eyes could see from the lines around her mouth, her gray pallor, and red eyes that she was just going through the motions. “Hi, Stella. This is my friend, Lily.”

  “Nice to meet you,” she murmured, taking Lily’s hand. “Please, sit. Would you like a cup of coffee?”

  “We’d love it,” Lily said, smiling reassuringly.

  Stella poured and offered them cream and sugar. With their drinks in their hand they took a seat as an awkward silence fell over the room.

  Jasmine glanced to Lily, hoping for some sort of direction on how to navigate this, but Lily just smiled and took a sip of her coffee.

  She’d pay for that.

  “So, I’m assuming my friend explained to you what it is we do,” Jasmine said.

  “She did. I must admit, I didn’t want to take part in this. I don’t believe in these things, and this is the kind of thing you hear about after someone loses a child, and not in a good way. I don’t want to fall victim to a scam,” Stella said, wringing her hands.

  “I understand. Listen, we aren’t asking for any compensation. And we don’t guarantee any results. But we do have gifts. They may help, they may not. Lily and I are not comfortable letting this case go on without at least giving it a shot. For Tyler,” Jasmine said.

  And she meant every word. Sure, she wanted to prove herself right to Luca, but more importantly she wanted Tyler home. And she wanted to find out why he was running away, and make sure whatever was driving him out of his own home didn’t continue to torment him.

  “I appreciate you reaching out, even if you don’t find anything,” Eric said, reaching an arm around his wife’s shoulders. He stared down at her, his eyes heavy with worry. “We just want our boy home.”

  Stella leaned into him and closed her eyes.

  “So, how do we do this?” he asked.

  “If you could just lead us to Tyler’s room. We’ll look around his space, hold a few of his things, and see if we come up with anything,” Lily said.

  “Sure,” Eric said, nodding.

  Tyler’s parents led them upstairs and to his room at the end of the hall.

  A plaid navy comforter covered Tyler’s bed. His pajama pants lay draped over the footboard. He kept his room neat, his desk organized, and a collection of sports memorabilia in glass cases along the top shelf of his bookcase.

  Jasmine remembered the mention of Tyler not being good at sports. “Tyler’s a sports fan, huh? What’s his favorite?” she asked as she ran her fingers over the cases of baseball cards and signed balls.

  “He loved baseball and hockey. He wasn’t much for playing…” Eric trailed off.

  “But he tried. He tried so hard,” Stella said, giving Eric a weak smile.

  “That was my fault. I pushed him. He didn’t want to. He did it to make me happy, and all it did was make him miserable,” Eric said.

  “Eric told him a few years back that he wouldn’t be disappointed in him if he moved on to something else, but Tyler kept trying. He just wanted to please his dad,” Stella said.

  And made himself miserable doing it.

  Jasmine stepped over to his closet and ran her fingers over the clothes hanging there. Stopping on the baseball jersey, she rubbed the fabric between her fingers, and froze as it barreled into her like a train bursting through a snowbank built up at the edge of the road blocking a snowy track.

  His coach was molesting
him. The shame clung to his jersey as surely as it swallowed him whole. He had kept going to practice, kept trying to make his dad happy, and he continued to be victimized.

  “Did he have a good coach?” Jasmine asked.

  “First-rate. Buddy of mine from high school. He really took Tyler under his wing, but it didn’t matter. Tyler just didn’t have it in him,” Eric said, his stricken expression snapping to Stella when she let out a soft cry. “And I don’t hold it against him. Tyler needs to find something he likes, something he’s good at.”

  Jesus. He was being hurt by his father’s friend. No wonder he ran away. He kept going to please his dad, and when he was hurt he didn’t feel he could go to him.

  Jasmine hated that she was right about this—and had no idea how to break it to the parents so, if Tyler came home, when Tyler came home, he wasn’t subjected to more of the same.

  “Would you two give Lily and me a moment in the room? We won’t take anything. Just a few minutes to focus.”

  Eric and Stella glanced at one another, silent communication flowing through them. No wonder they managed to hold their marriage together. The connection ran deep.

  “Sure. We’ll just be downstairs,” Eric said, taking Stella’s hand and leading her out.

  The minute the door clicked, Jasmine looked at Lily. “The coach was molesting him. He may not be playing baseball anymore, but he’ll always be at risk if the coach and his dad are friends. I don’t know the first clue what to do with that information,” Jasmine said.

  “Nothing yet. Let’s talk to Mason and Luca and find out how they want to handle it. We want to make sure it’s handled properly so the police can build a strong case,” Lily said. “Are you getting anything else?”

  “He’s alive. I feel it. His energy is strong. He’s a fighter.”

  “Good.” Lily nodded with a small smile. “At least that’s something.”

  Jasmine swayed and caught the wall for balance. She blinked, shook her head, and gasped as more slammed into her. Why the hell was it ramming her like an angry bull sinking his horns into flesh?

  “What is it?” Lily asked, laying her palm on Jasmine’s cheek.

  Jasmine closed her eyes as the coolness settled over her skin. “This is going to sound crazy…”