by R. J. Blain
“Removed the padding and slipped out of the cuff?”
I nodded.
“Good girl. All right. If you’re going to hide behind me, do so. Lean on me if you want. Get the weight off your foot before I have a heart attack.”
I obeyed, sighing in relief at his warmth, and resting my cheek against his back. “My foot’s fine. As fine as it gets. I walked on it all day, and honestly, I feel like I could walk on it more.”
“You’re frozen through is what you are, so you’re probably hurting without realizing it. You don’t have a scrap of fat left on that body of yours. Bradley grabbed something at one of the airport convenience stores for you, but it’s not Chinese. We figured you’d eat just about anything until we could get you in range of a Chinese restaurant. And since it was the first time anyone had used your email address, we figured you’d probably sent the email, especially as you’d done so through a library, or so your email claimed. I’m thinking it was you who’d sent that email.”
“I'd say the odds are slim someone else used my email.” I yawned, and as my pride had already taken a hike, I made myself comfortable against his back. “I shouldn’t be this tired.”
“It’s four in the morning, you’re freezing your ass off, and you don’t have a scrap of fat on your bones right now. It’d be stranger if you weren’t tired, Janette.” Bradley’s father whistled, a sharp, shrill sound that cut over the nearby surf washing over the sand. “And if you fall asleep, don’t worry about a thing. Nobody is going to think less of you for being tired. We have a hotel booked in San Francisco, and we took it for two nights in the hopes we’d have to give you a chance to relax before taking you home to more chaos.”
I peeked around his back to spot Bradley scrambling up the incline. “What is it, Dad?”
“Come fetch your woman before she falls asleep where she’s standing. She dragged herself out of some bushes after you went down to the beach. Her voice is hoarse, she’s freezing her ass off, and she’s exhausted, but she looks intact enough. And before you start your fretting, her foot is fine, but you can’t grab her and swing her around right now. You can very gingerly carry her to the car and get her warmed up in the back. I’ll drive while you fret. Janette, do at least try to maintain a basic relationship with coherency until we reach the hotel.”
“I can do that.” I hoped.
While Bradley didn’t run, he hurried to join us, sidestepped his father, and looked me over, his gaze settling on my face. He frowned and pressed the back of his hand to my forehead. “You’re paler than a ghost and freezing.”
“I’m pretty sure I already said she was cold. Go get her to the car,” Bradley’s father ordered. “She’ll warm up soon enough. Just make sure she’s buckled in before feeding her. While you do that, I’ll look to see if there’s anywhere that’s open to get her something else to eat.”
“Would you prefer to walk? Is your foot all right?” Bradley brushed my hair out of my face and tucked it behind my ears. “You have sand all in your hair. Did you have a good time at the beach while you were waiting?”
I shoved my hand into my pocket and pulled out my collection of tiny shells and my piece of sea glass, straightened, and showed him my treasures. “We should go to the beach every year at least once.”
“I think we can handle that,” he replied, and he smiled. “How’d they keep you from making your escape sooner?”
“Sleeping prisoners can’t cause much problems, and when I wasn’t sleeping, they provided books. There were also illusions that did a good job of making it hard to get out, but I figured it out. I can walk to the car.”
“Without your cane?”
I nodded, and I pointed at my foot. “It’s sore, but it’s mostly better. I can wear shoes again.”
It hadn’t been long ago when I’d doubted I’d ever manage to escape a cast or a boot.
“Dad?”
“I had a look at it. Somebody installed pins at a minimum, and they did a hell of a lot of reconstruction work. She’ll need to have it scanned to see what was done. I’m more concerned about how they kept her so drugged she had no idea she’d been shot in the first place. She hadn’t noticed the scar until she saw the news reports. Whoever had her wanted her healthy, and while she’s thin, that’s probably because of sedation and lack of exercise. I’m thinking about how to handle the situation, because the last thing she needs is to be swarmed by the media. And you’ll be swarmed, Janette. They caught you saving Senator Westonhaus’s life on camera.”
Bradley worked his arm around me, pulled me away from his father, and pointed in the direction of where they’d parked near to the library. “Walking will help you warm up and keep you awake, and after we get you something to eat and to the hotel, we can talk. We have a lot to fill you in on. As I’ve refused to register you as dead, you’re still in the cell, and we’re still trying to operate, but it’s been hard.”
“You’re not angry?” I whispered.
Shaking his head, Bradley pulled me close to his side, and then he sighed and kissed my temple, a lot like my father did when determined to make me understand everything would be all right. “Not at you. No, I’ve learned if you can save someone, you will, so I have chosen to be proud of you. I’m upset you were shot, and I’ve been worried sick, but I was never mad at you. Your mother is really mad you got shot, but she does still love you even though she’s really mad you were shot and then kidnapped. Your father isn’t talking to me right now because he feels I should have kept you out of trouble. I told him I wasn’t your babysitter, you could go do your job as a librarian without me getting in your way, and it wasn’t your fault your work required you to meet with a politician. Mostly, he’s mad that I supported your decision to do your job without trying to control you. He’ll forgive me eventually.”
“He better forgive you.” It’d been so long since I’d had human contact I pressed as close as I could, shivering at the thought of being alone again. “Is Ajani all right?”
“Ajani is fine, although she keeps looking for you, and it’s heartbreaking. I’m looking forward to taking you home to your fluffy goddess. I got us an apartment near to where you work.”
“Don’t you mean where I used to work? People are usually fired after not showing up for a few months, and the public library doesn’t have the funding to keep people who are missing on the payroll.”
Bradley shook his head. “The public library system went to bat for you; the branch, with the expansion and renovation, will need extra bodies, so they’re leaving your employment spot open for a period of two years to give investigators a chance to find more leads. Two years was the best they could swing, but you still have your job. Senator Westonhaus insisted on donating extra to cover your wages until you were found or the two years ended. He claims it was only fair, as you’d saved his life. He also handled making sure your apartment’s lease was broken without penalty. I handled moving your stuff out to our new place. I figured you would get upset with me if I paid rent on a place you weren’t living in. I would have involved you with every step of the process, but for obvious reasons, I couldn’t.”
I struggled to comprehend I could step back into my life after so long locked away. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
Bradley tugged me in the direction of the vehicle. “Let’s get you back to the hotel. Then you can decide how to handle things. We’ve been seeing therapists and specialists on this sort of thing in case we found you. It can be an adjustment going back to life, depending on how your captors treated you.”
“I’ve been alone the entire time. I never saw anyone. I was always by myself, and whenever they wanted to come in to where I was kept, they sedated me with some form of gas, I think. I vaguely remember my foot becoming really infected, but they treated it with pills; they would drug me, bring food, and each meal would have the pills I needed to take. I took them, because I knew my foot was infected.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong,” Bradley replied. “Obvious
ly, if they wanted to have killed you, they would have, and deciding to take unknown pills when you have no other viable choice is sensible. You did the right thing, since you have a working foot and you seem okay enough.” To make it clear he wanted me at the hotel yesterday, he herded me to the car, keeping a close eye on my stride to make sure I didn’t limp, trip, or fall. “I don’t know what they did to your foot, but you’re walking a lot better now.”
As he took me where I wanted to go, I forced my sore, tired feet into motion and walked under my own steam, although I kept close. I recognized I wouldn’t have done the same before having been locked away for a maddening period of time, but I decided to ignore what I refused to change until I had no choice but to face the problem. “They fixed it, and I don’t understand why.”
“I don’t, either,” he admitted. He eased his arm away from me long enough to unlock the rental car and open the back door for me.
The vehicle was still warm from the drive to the beach, and I snuggled into the seat before putting on my belt. Bradley closed my door and circled the vehicle. He snagged a plastic bag from the front before joining me. “I got you a roast beef sandwich since that was the closest thing I could find to one of your favorites. There are also a few drinks in there. The roast beef is heavily accompanied by cheese and horseradish.”
He had me at roast beef, and I grabbed for the bag before digging inside, snagging a rather large sub, which had been tampered with. I wouldn’t ask where he got the jar of horseradish, but I appreciated it. He’d gotten me a variety of fruit juices, and I opted for the cranberry to become my first victim. I delayed eating long enough to slather on the horseradish before beginning the serious work of devouring my breakfast in record time.
Bradley’s father got behind the wheel and laughed. “All right, Bradley. You were right. The horseradish was a necessary acquisition.”
“I’m just glad you picked a grocery masquerading as a twenty-four hour gas station. I almost regretted having gotten the sandwich in the airport. Don’t choke, Janette.” Bradley took the cranberry juice I’d selected, twisted off the cap, and closed it again, holding onto it. “I guess watch where you drive, Dad. And if you spot another one of those stores, we better stop. I don’t think that’s going to be enough.”
I expected to get halfway through the sandwich before it won and I passed out, but I would do my best to meet his expectations. Swallowing, I reached for the juice, and he removed the cap so all I had to do was drink and hand it back to him, so I could resume eating. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. So that you’re prepared, your parents are the unhappiest of our circles. Mickey and Beatrice have been fighting because Mickey thinks a lot like I do. Neither one of us were willing to give up on you, so we’ve been doing the majority of the work. Beatrice thinks you’re stubborn, but she’s determined to be realistic about the situation. Mr. Tawnlen has led the charge regarding therapy, but he’s more like me and Mickey; he wanted us all prepared for when you showed back up, but he’s also been trying to prepare us if your body showed up. Your dead body, that is. I don’t think he’s prepared us enough for your living body. I’m not feeling very prepared,” he admitted, fiddling with the cap before screwing it back into place. “I thought about running away to Hawaii.”
“Hawaii?”
“Hawaii.”
“Why Hawaii?”
“Well, if we’re on an island, preferably one with few other people, I’m not going to lose you.”
I could see benefits to escaping to an island with few other people, although the idea of an uninhabited island was enough to make my skin crawl. I glanced at Bradley, who couldn’t seem to stop smiling. “Mr. Hampton? I think he needs therapy,” I said, before giving my sandwich my full attention.
“Oh, I know he needs therapy. That’s why we have been keeping a close eye on him. After you see a doctor, if you want to go to Hawaii for two weeks, I’ll tag along and get a tan while you amuse yourselves. Two weeks might be long enough to give sufficient warning for the grouches back in New York.”
That didn’t sound promising. “Was it meeting with Senator Westonhaus about the donation? I mean, I didn’t tell anyone because people were already pissed at me about the funeral.”
“That’s part of it.” Bradley’s father started the car. “Two weeks might get you ready to meet with everyone and clear out the air.”
In a way, understanding there were problems we would need to solve helped more than it hurt. I expected problems. Someone couldn’t vanish for so many months without problems cropping up, assumptions being made, and tempers flaring. That my disappearance was tied to a senator actively working on a bill meant to enslave many Americans wouldn’t help my cause any. But I might be able to overcome those challenges with some time, effort, and a few heart-felt apologies. “I’m not apologizing for helping to catch the goats.”
Everything else would be addressed in time.
Bradley snorted, and then he laughed. “There was a video of you wrangling a goat, and you looked so happy to be playing with a goat. As such, we now have several goats that currently live with your parents. It was a bit of a failed peace offering. I suggested if word got out they had goats, and you heard about the goats, you might show up. They were offended, but they’re now the grandparents of our new pets. The goats are part of why they’re not talking to me right now. Apparently, they expected you to magically appear about ten minutes after agreeing to house the goats for a while.”
“You bought goats?”
“I bought us goats. I bought an entire little herd of goats. We have three girls and a boy. And we’re apparently going to end up with baby goats, and I should be sorry about this, but I’m really not.”
“You really bought goats?”
“Ajani likes the goats. She rides them. I harness trained your fluffy goddess, and she tolerates it because when I harness her, we go to visit the goats. Your parents are actually really tired of me coming over to play with your cat and the goats.”
Bradley, in the span of almost nine months, had lost his mind. I could understand how the stress might get to him, but to buy goats? “Mr. Hampton?”
“I encouraged the goats. You were really happy in the video, and we thought if we found you, you’d like to have goats.”
I regretted my memories of the goats—and the subsequent shooting—were fragmented at best. “You should question me properly about everything leading up to the goats,” I stated between bites of my sandwich. “Maybe I know something useful.”
Bradley chuckled. “We plan to do that after you’ve gotten rest. Right now, you’ll eat, rest, and relax. I’ll get Dr. Mansfield flown in as soon as she’s able, and I’ll reach out to a few contacts here to use their equipment and some staff, then you can go through a medical exam done by someone you trust. The therapists we’re seeing have been pretty clear about that. We need to work within your comfort zone, and adding a lot of unfamiliar elements, like medical staff, might be a problem.”
“I mean, finding out it’s been almost nine months was a shock, but I don’t think I’m going to be that much of a mess.” I took out some of my annoyance on my sandwich, decided I needed more horseradish, went for the jar with the same general voracity of a frenzied shark, and doctored my sandwich until the horseradish stood a chance of slaughtering my taste buds. “I will not react well if you leave. I have figured that out on my own.”
“People are social, and after nine months of being alone, that doesn’t surprise me,” Bradley replied, staring at the jar of horseradish. “They didn’t feed you anything spicy, did they?”
I thought about it, scowling as I realized I hadn’t had a single speck of spice since I’d been kidnapped. “Not that I can recall. And I think I got so bored before I escaped I kept forgetting to eat. They provided a cooler with things to make sandwiches between sessions of gassing me out, and they’d provide something hot after. I think I ended up only eating the warm food, usually steak, because it was in
front of me. They provided books, but at one point, I used them to create castles. I have mastered building arches with books.”
“You stopped reading books?”
“Oh, no. I’d read them once or twice before they joined the pile. They never provided enough books. Honestly, I cost them a fortune in newer releases. I think they were just going to the local bookstore and buying out the stock of anything even remotely interesting and keeping track of what they’d already gotten. Honestly, I want to go rob the place just for the library. Because the room I was kept in? It’s now a library. A good library, too.” I polished off the rest of my sandwich and sighed my contentment before stealing my juice back from Bradley. “For the first while, it was like a really good vacation. I had access to a decent tub, they kept it stocked with stuff to make bubbles, and they decided good behavior should be rewarded with cake and coffee. That part? Honestly, I didn’t mind it. It was just damned lonely.”
“Bradley, your job is to keep her company until she explicitly asks you to give her space. Librarians are social creatures, even when they’re introverted, and I’ve found all of the librarians in my life are hardwired to need to be doing things with people or they slowly go mad.”
“Most humans slowly go mad in seclusion, Dad. That has nothing to do with her status as a librarian. It has everything to do with people needing to interact with other people to maintain their base mental and emotional health. Which is why I’m stuck with you or Mom if I even make it look like I’m about to go anywhere other than the store or to handle work affairs. And I only get away with handling work affairs because Ren keeps following me around.”
“Ren follows you around because it’s his job to follow you around, although he does appreciate doing his regular job more lately, though he has expressed concerns you are attempting to take over the entire stock market by force.”