by R. J. Blain
“I don’t have nearly enough money to do that, Dad.”
“Not from a lack of effort.”
“Well, if you hadn’t mandated I drag you everywhere I go when Ren wasn’t around, I wouldn’t have had the time to try to take over the stock market by force.”
Obviously, something had happened during my forced extended stay at an unconventional hotel. “Mr. Hampton, why did you mandate he have a babysitter at all times?”
“One of the psychologists determined he was at a high risk of anxiety and depression due to your kidnapping, and they—all three who came to the same conclusion—did not want him to be alone in case it was determined you had died. Honestly, I think you’re going to emerge from this better off than everybody else. A fear of being alone is much easier for us to work around than the various triggers we’ve developed in the past few months. And no feeling guilty, unless you invited yourself to be kidnapped.”
“I would not do that.” I hesitated, finished off my juice, and put the bottle in the bag before grabbing my next victim. “And I only left the first time because the one doctor gave me a bad feeling and Bradley had said he didn’t want to see me unless I was back in my prime. And I was working on that.”
“I’m not mad at you for that,” Bradley stated. “I poorly worded that, and I hold full responsibility for having goaded you into running off until you were better. Really, I’m the reason I have my current set of problems, although you’re going to have to tell me if you don’t want me around all the time. Our hotel room has two queen beds, but I’ll share with Dad if you don’t want somebody that close.”
“I am not responsible if I get up and crawl into bed with you,” I replied with a shrug. “I’m also not responsible if I end up on the floor. They just made me a nest of blankets and pillows, so it’s been a while since I’ve actually been in a bed.”
Bradley muttered curses. “I’m not sure I should be involved with investigating whoever did this to her, Dad. If I get my hands on them, I’ll be going to prison.”
Me, too. Instead of saying that, I kept quiet, my guilt keeping me close company. The first time I’d disappeared, I could at least pretend I had good reason, and Bradley’s acknowledgment he’d goaded me and contributed to my flight helped me cope with it.
This time, I hadn’t been at fault for my disappearance, but I’d become aware of the deep consequences of having been missing and presumed dead. I supposed my inability to claim responsibility made it harder for me to accept.
Had I been given a choice, I wouldn’t have left my family, friends, or my fluffy goddess.
I’d grown to treasure them all.
Chuckling, Mr. Hampton navigated through the small town before merging onto a highway headed south. He let us stew for a few minutes before saying, “There are reasons they bar anyone involved from working in investigations. It clouds the water and makes it harder to get an unbiased view of the truth. If we’re going to investigate what happened, we’ll have to either exclude the portion where Janette’s involved, or we’re going to have to learn how to truly be unbiased rather than determined to make the pieces fit when they don’t. It’s a problem. We’re also going to have to evaluate just how serious we are about getting to the bottom of this.”
“We need to,” I stated. “And I’ll do it alone if I must.”
“Well, someone is determined.” My future father-in-law made a thoughtful sound in his throat. “Beatrice won’t be stopped, either, so we have two librarians itching to figure out why this is going on and how to stop it—if we can. My wife’s determined, although her focus is on the bill more than the politicians backing the bill. Three librarians all pointed at the same problem is a force to fear. The others should come around given some time and a good argument. Honestly, once they find out you were locked up for almost nine months? I expect the little things they were grousing over won’t seem at all important now. Most of them have already come to the conclusion you did the right thing attending the memorial service. It’s a game of consequence, and there are no winners in that sort of fight. It’ll work out. We really just all need to sit down, talk about it, and make sure we’re on the same page. I’ll help with that, and so will that brat of mine in the back with you.”
Hoping I wasn’t about to make a critical mistake, I said, “Senator Westonhaus told me that he got his marching orders from the top. He was told he would support the bill, and that was that. The others did, too. And that it isn’t uncommon for politicians to quietly disappear if they don’t do what the uppers want. I’m not sure if I should believe him or not. But then he decided to run for President?”
At the rate Bradley cursed, I worried he’d lose his temper altogether. “President Castillo is backing Westonhaus’s campaign, so there might be something to it. No, there’s been talk for years that the government is just one big sham, and that a few people at the top run the entire show. President Castillo being one of those show runners. Of the supporters of the bill, Westonhaus is more moderate, especially now. Moderate politicians can win presidential campaigns, as they’re more likely to draw in votes from both sides of the fence. No, it’s been something I’ve suspected for a while. But why this specific overhaul? That’s what we don’t understand.”
I fell quiet, spending the rest of the drive to the hotel contemplating what I’d been told—and if it made any difference at all in the grand scheme of things. What could a few vigilante librarians do, no matter what sort of magic we packed? Magic wouldn’t help us if the law turned against us even more than it already had.
Few would be safe under the new legislation, and while Senator Westonhaus had talked a good talk, I recognized his pretty speech sounded too good to be true, from what I could remember of it.
I also recognized it had been months without being able to write down what he’d told me, which meant my memory might be flawed.
“I don’t like being a pawn in a political game,” I muttered.
“I don’t, either. I got my fair share of time in the limelight, and I still have politicians on both sides of the fence trying to get me to make statements supporting their campaign or answer questions about you. I dodge most of it, so I’ve gotten a reputation of being overly sensitive, as I refused to acknowledge you were likely dead. After six months, they tack on the presumed dead because the odds of finding the victim alive are slim. We were shown the statistics. I just like telling people you’re very bad at being a statistic and live to buck statistics.” Bradley paused, and he heaved a sigh. “You’re going to say it, aren’t you, Dad?”
“I will if you won’t. It’ll probably be less embarrassing for you if I say it, mainly because you’ll splutter. It’s dark enough she won’t catch you blushing, at least.”
“Thanks, Dad,” Bradley grumbled.
I had missed far more than I liked, and if Bradley thought I would ignore an amusing story involving him, he would soon learn otherwise. “Well, now I need to know, Mr. Hampton.”
“He will appreciate when he can take you home and he won’t have to fend off eager bachelorettes determined to heal him from your loss. Using their bodies. Once, a set of triplets showed up at the house wearing rather skimpy bikinis. Bradley had graced us with his presence because he couldn’t go anywhere in the city without someone showing up and bothering him, so he’d decided to bring his problems to my house.”
Unable to help myself, I burst into laughter. “Bradley! You didn’t. Where did you find a set of triplets in bikinis?”
“The library,” he groused.
While all sorts showed up at the library, I’d never met a set of triplets in bikinis at work. “Why were they in bikinis at the library?”
“They wore skirts at the library. They were half an inch from showing off their panties if they leaned forward,” he complained.
I stared at him, blinking. “Were they pretty triplets?”
“No.”
Mr. Hampton snickered. “They were pretty, but they aren’t his type. You’re hi
s type, and he was not at all interested in having a set of triplets cure him of his loneliness.”
Bradley bowed his head. “Yet you and Mom invited them in.”
“Well, they’d come a long way from home just for a chance to heal you. It seemed rude to leave them on the doorstep, and they were already dressed to use the pool.”
“He ran and hid in his room, didn’t he?” I guessed.
“No. He ran and hid in your room with your cat. We couldn’t get him to come out for several days. He would just say the triplets would get him. I thought we were going to have to drag him out from under your bed at one point.”
“Were the triplets too much for you?” I grinned at Bradley. “Do you need me to buy a bikini to make up for it?”
“Yes. Yes, I definitely need you to buy a bikini to make up for being hounded by scantily clad triplets. While our apartment doesn’t have a pool, I happen to have a pair of parents who have a pool and probably wouldn’t mind me bringing you home to them.”
“I certainly wouldn’t have flown across the country if I minded you bringing her home, Bradley. Don’t mind him, Janette. Onto the serious question. Are you ready to try to talk to your parents? They’ve been pretty upset lately.”
“Can I push it off until after I’ve had some sleep?” I whispered.
“Absolutely. We’ll be at the hotel in ten minutes, and as soon as you’re settled, I’ll call them and let them know you rescued yourself and got a hold of Bradley to handle what you couldn’t. That should leave your pride intact.”
“Thank you.”
After some sleep, I would begin putting the scattered pieces of my life together, beginning with my parents.
ELEVEN
Uh oh. My mother had gone formal on Bradley’s father.
I made it to the hotel room, crossed to the bed, and flopped. I’d forgotten how comfortable beds could be, and murmuring my contentment, I crawled to the middle, snagged every pillow I could get my hands on, and curled up. Someone sat on the edge of the bed, pulled off my sneakers, and after a few tugs, freed the blanket from beneath me.
“I guess we’re not going to have to find somewhere to feed her right away,” Bradley whispered, and he covered me with the blanket before tucking it around me. “She went from coherent to gone in five seconds flat.”
Well, I wasn’t quite gone yet, but I saw no need to be bothered with opening my eyes or notifying them I clung to consciousness. I appreciated he’d pulled my shoes off, though. It spared me from mustering the energy to do it myself.
“To be expected. I thought she was going to fall asleep on her feet before you came back off the beach. I’ll call her parents. They should be awake by now, and I’ll take the blame for them not being able to talk to her. I’ll put the call on speaker so you can contribute. I doubt Janette will wake up, so try not to fret. We’ll just make sure we’re nearby so we can reassure her when she wakes up.”
I doubted I would need reassurance, although I expected to be confused upon realizing I wasn’t still chained in some empty room with books for company.
The bed bounced again, and I assumed Bradley’s father had opted to use the bed as a chair as well. A moment later, a phone began to ring.
“Hello, Mr. Hampton,” my mother answered. “What can I do for you?”
Uh oh. My mother had gone formal on Bradley’s father. I hoped he would survive the call—and that Bradley wouldn’t get caught in the blast radius.
“You could call me by my name, Tanya,” Mr. Hampton replied in an exasperated tone.
“I could, but that was before I found out that you’re actually also a Bradley and went by your middle name to distinguish yourself from your son, who is also a Bradley. If I call you Bradley, everyone will get confused.”
Bradley’s father laughed. “I legally changed my name from Bradley and gave it to my son so he wouldn’t have any weird numbers attached. I thought I was being considerate. Call me Paul. That’s my original middle name, before I got rid of it because it annoyed me. That way, you’ll be happy because you’re aware you’re inevitably making me twitch because I can’t escape my birth name. The only thing I left unchanged was Hampton, as I didn’t want my mother to cry. I changed my name to what she would have named me if my father hadn’t been stubborn.”
Things had truly become strange since I’d been kidnapped.
“You’re in a good mood. All right, Paul. What can I do for you this morning?”
“The lead was a hit, and your little girl is passed out in my hotel room, not quite fit as a fiddle, but close enough. I’m going to call in Dr. Mansfield to handle her checkup and pull some strings for access to a private clinic rather than take her to a hospital. She would have talked to you directly, but she passed out fairly hard the instant she got near a bed, and I didn’t want to try to wake her, tired as she is. We fed her, and she’s underweight. She was taken care of, but I suspect solitude led to some depression and a lack of interest in eating. She was kept in confinement alone and restrained from my understanding of the situation. The whole time we’ve had her, she’s been firmly attached to either myself or my boy. She must have lost enough weight she was able to slip the cuff and escape. She went to a library and emailed Bradley, and Bradley did as we’d asked, dragging me along for the ride.”
“She’s really okay?”
“She’s really okay, and there wasn’t anything she could have done to come home sooner as far as I can tell. She hadn’t been aware she’d been shot, so they must have had her under full sedation for at least a month at the start of her kidnapping, maybe longer. I’ll ask Tawnlen about the specifics to get a timeline. I suspect longer, because they did some significant work to her foot.”
“What did they do to her foot? Is she okay? Who do I need to kill?”
“Goodness, Tanya. How did you go from asking about her foot to wanting to know who you need to kill?”
Bradley snickered.
“I haven’t had coffee yet,” my mother admitted. “But if they did something to her foot, they’ll make her cry, and then I feel I should be justified in a little murder. And don’t you laugh at me, Bradley Hampton!”
“They did a great deal of restorative work on her foot. She’s walking again in regular shoes. No cast, no boot. Judging from the feel of it, they’ve installed a bunch of pins, maybe a rod or two, and otherwise reconstructed it. She had no idea the procedure even happened, so they must have kept her down and out through the entire recovery process.” Bradley’s father chuckled. “Honestly, after seeing how much she struggled after her procedures, I find myself unfortunately indebted to them for saving her from so much pain and anguish. However, I’m really upset with how badly her disappearance hurt my boy. Janette seemed quite excited about the goats, so I expect she’ll be visiting soon enough with her fluffy goddess in tow. Bradley made mention of escaping to somewhere quiet for two weeks with Janette, so I expect we’ll stay out here until she’s had a chance to catch up and he settles down. You can wrangle the other kids and prepare them for her return. We’ll want to make sure somebody is always available to keep Janette company, especially for the first while, until we see if there’s any trauma.”
“I can wrangle the kids, and I’ll make sure none of them make a fuss. If she needs two weeks to settle down with Bradley, then that’s what she needs. Knowing she’s all right will be good enough until she comes home. So, she doesn’t need to go pick a switch?”
“She rescued herself as soon as she could, so I feel she doesn’t need to pick a switch. That said, if she’s picking one to herd my boy off, we’ll let her pick several if she expects to break the first few smacking him to get a move on.”
Bradley laughed, and the sound relaxed me as nothing else had been able to. I snuggled into the warmth of the blankets and pillows, fighting sleep to listen to them. His father’s warnings had worried me, but the conversation reminded me reality rarely matched my fears.
My mother could be upset with me and still love me
and want me to come home. Even when I scared her to the point she questioned if I still lived.
“I’ll bring her home as soon as she’s ready,” Bradley promised. “I think she’d convinced herself we’d hate her because she hadn’t rescued herself sooner. But we’d expected everything except complete solitude, and I have no idea what that has done to her emotionally. My current plan is to stay in the room so she can find me easily until she’s ready for some independence, and I’ll make sure Dad’s around if I’m in the bathroom.”
“Don’t you go luring my daughter into any bathrooms,” my mother warned.
The fastest way to convince me to go chasing after Bradley into some bathroom involved my mother telling me I couldn’t, and I filed that away as something to explore in the near future, assuming we could evict his father from the room long enough to take advantage of the situation.
A bath large enough for two would make a bathroom adventure interesting.
“What about if she lures me into a bathroom?” Bradley asked, his tone curious.
“She can do whatever she wants to you if she’s the one doing the luring. You Hamptons are pushy, and you won’t be pushing my little girl right now, you mark my words. Ruthlessly use those damned goats to bring her home in a timely fashion. I will send pictures. I’ll even go find another little girl for the herd if you promise within three weeks.”
“You like the goats,” Bradley accused.
“We might be expanding the enclosure to get a herd of our own,” my mother confessed. “They’re adorable little devils. And it seems I am going to be owning two horses, because someone in my house went to an animal auction this morning, saw these two sad horses, and is refusing to leave unless he can bring them home. I don’t have any damned idea where we’re going to put two horses!”
Mr. Hampton snickered. “I’ll call work and talk to Jerome. His wife owns a construction company, and I’m sure she can fit you in for a barn raising and a quick fence job. The stalls you got aren’t big enough for the horses?”