by R. J. Blain
I needed a lot longer than a few minutes to process that. “How many attempts?”
“Six total, with the last one two months ago. That’s why Bradley’s parents or Ren are always with him; it wasn’t because of Bradley’s mental health, but because he has been a trouble magnet. Knowing what we know now, we’re kicking ourselves for not cooperating.”
“Because you think they wanted him to keep me stable?”
“They couldn’t allow you to process their presence in your memories. If they took Bradley, they could give you the company you needed. Depression is a severe problem in patients recovering from long-term illness. You would have been a poster child for depression.”
“I don’t remember being depressed. I remember being lonely, but not depressed.”
“Erased,” Beatrice stated. “Mr. Hampton tried to read you, remember?”
“Yes. He said he could only get a fix on the operation, and he mentioned I’d been lonely. I could have told him that.”
“The trauma was too severe to erase the imprints it left behind, although the illusionist—or illusionists—had certainly tried. The results are great, but what they did to get those results classifies as torture. We got the lecture. And we don’t know what sort of response you’ll ultimately have to that trauma.”
Great. “They took me to a jewelry store yesterday, Beatrice. I had to ask the lady to show me something more expensive than what they were buying to get through that.”
“The necklace is a beauty, though. Mrs. Hampton showed us pictures of it last night. For the record, I’m about an hour from leaving for the airport, Ren is coming with me, and Meridian is also on route, but she caught an earlier flight. We have a list of things we need to check out properly.”
“Like the house?”
“Oh, yes. Like the house, which should be empty of housekeeping and the homeowner starting this afternoon.”
“Dr. Castor is there?”
“Yep. With a little help from our friends in the FBI, we were able to verify Dr. Castor has been in residence in California for ten and a half months, approximately.”
Interesting. “And the other supposed participants?”
“They were in or visiting California over the past nine months, too. How strange.” Beatrice chuckled. “Now, you should go grill your fiancé over the kidnapping attempts. That should keep you busy until we get there.”
Yes, it would. “I owe you for that intel.”
“That one’s on the house.”
“Do we have a plan for today when you get here?”
“Yes, we do.”
I appreciated that someone knew what we needed to do. “Okay. What’s the plan?”
“We’re going to knock on the door. If nobody answers and the place looks empty, we’ll pay the place a visit at night with some friends who work security to get us in without tripping every alarm while we do it. We’ll have a great time.”
“How are you going to do that?”
“Simple.”
“How is this simple?” I grumbled.
“Mr. Hampton owns the security company that monitors the house.”
I blinked. “What?”
“You heard me.”
“I did,” I admitted. “But I don’t believe it.”
“It’s funny. It’s like the woman wanted to make sure if something did happen to her house while you were in it, the exact right people would be able to ride to the rescue.” Beatrice laughed. “I do feel badly we didn’t let them take Bradley now. You would have been so much better off with your man around to keep you happy.”
“But then he would have been kidnapped, too!”
“Don’t lie, Janette. Nothing would have made you happier than a bunch of books and your man around to keep you company. You would have been in your personal slice of heaven.”
Damn. My favorite enemy was out for my blood. “You saw the pictures.”
“You couldn’t have been more adoring if you tried. I’ve seen how you look at Ajani, and while you adore your fluffy goddess, you only had eyes for him in those shots.”
“Mr. Hampton is a cruel traitor, compromising my position!”
Beatrice giggled. “I have some good news for you.”
“You do?”
“Ren has possession of your cat, she is booked to fly with us, and she will be in your hands by the end of the day. We also discussed the situation with your hotel, and we have paperwork registering her as an official emotional support animal. She’s still a demon, but she’s a demon who has missed you very much. Also, don’t be surprised if her behavior is a little different than you’re used to.”
“What did you do to my cat?” I growled.
“We didn’t do anything to her. We just had someone with the right talents come in and teach her manners is all. She has learned to be gentle with her warning nips, and she now realizes petting is a show of affection rather than… whatever it was that cat was thinking. She’s still a demoness and a fluffy goddess, but at least she won’t leave scars on those who pet her three times instead of two.”
I grinned. “I love my fluffy goddess. You’re really bringing her?”
“We’re really bringing her. I need to get out of here or I’ll miss my flight. Go interrogate your man. I’ll see you soon.” She promised to text me the flight number before hanging up. I stared at the phone for a long time before narrowing my eyes, getting up, and heading into the main room to wait for Bradley to wake up so I could demand answers to my many new questions.
SEVENTEEN
Why are you looking at me like that?
To prevent me from murdering anyone due to my supreme annoyance over Bradley’s attempted kidnappings, I crawled into bed with him and took a nap, waking up a little after nine so I could order us breakfast. Bradley slept like the dead until ten, and he woke only because of room service knocking on the door. I waited for him to use the bathroom and stumble about his morning routine until he started eyeballing breakfast to stage my interrogation.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” he asked, glancing at me.
“You’ve been almost kidnapped how many times, and you left Ren at home?”
His eyes widened. “How did you find out about that?”
“A songbird told me.” I pointed at the desk and snapped my fingers. “Eat.”
“You’re in bodyguard mode, I see.”
I foresaw a complete lack of bodyguard mode in my life in the future, as I’d evolved. Future-wife or irritated fiancée mode seemed more important than mere bodyguard mode. “No. I’m in highly irritated fiancée mode. That’s even worse. It’s like protective bodyguard mode, but regarding my future spouse, who apparently got almost kidnapped how many times?”
Bradley sat, turned in the chair so he could face me, and picked up a link of sausage, nibbling on it while eyeing me with a gratifying amount of wariness. Once he chewed and swallowed, he said, “More than once, less than ten. I think.”
“You aren’t sure if you were almost kidnapped more than ten times?” I grabbed my plate, sat on the edge of the bed, and took my frustrations out on a piece of bacon. “I want to hear a dramatized retelling of the one where you and Ren got knocked out and needed to be rescued by your father’s security team. Once you’re done, I want to know why you didn’t tell me.”
“Ren suggested I avoid telling you until he was present to defend my honor.”
A bark of laughter escaped before I could squelch it. “Okay. That’s fair. I can accept Ren wanting to play interference. He would know I wouldn’t handle the news well. I’m really not handling this news well, and I’m willing to acknowledge this.”
“I am impressed you didn’t drag me out of bed by my ear the instant you found out.”
“You were sleeping, and I needed a nap. I was even crankier before my nap. I stayed up all night reading awful legislation. I’m going to need another nap after I eat breakfast and hear your end of the story. After my nap, we need to get the bitch, Ren, Meridian
, and Ajani from the airport.”
“Dad can handle getting them from the airport.”
“No. I need to see my fluffy goddess immediately.”
“And I guess we’re going to retrieve Ajani from the airport.”
“You may address her as our cat, but she’ll always be my fluffy goddess. That’s as far as I’m willing to compromise on this issue.”
Bradley laughed, and he relaxed. “All right. I’ll get my father to do the dramatized retelling for your enjoyment, but I’ll give you the basics. Honestly, I can’t give you a dramatized retelling because we were walking near my parents’ place for some fresh air when we got gas bombed. One minute, I was talking to Ren about scheduling. The next, I had an oxygen mask over my face while some doctor was trying to figure out what the hell we’d been sedated with. It acted fast, we both went down like rocks, and my father’s security people, who were practicing stealth observations, about shit their pants because the would-be kidnappers were just as good as they were.”
“Illusionist?”
“Probably. Since we were already out, Dad’s team opted to use some flash-bangs to scare off those in the area—and a powder bomb. Powder bombs are fun. It makes it really difficult for people, including illusionists, to hide. They spotted at least two figures, but they bolted once the various toys started going off. We were out cold, which freaked Dad out, but the sedatives only lasted for about thirty minutes before Ren came around. I was a little slower, but that didn’t really surprise anybody.”
“You’re smaller, and you have a good lung capacity. You probably got a big dose of the drug, and you metabolized it a little slower?”
“That’s what Dad thinks, yeah. Anyway, that was after a few other failed attempts. Somebody tried to grab me outside of your branch twice and once outside of the main branch. Ren handled two of those, and Beatrice took care of the third. Also, Beatrice is quite handy with an umbrella. Ren would have interfered, but Beatrice had the situation covered, and what she didn’t cover, I did.”
“Obviously, I owe the bitch a dinner at the very least. Were you actually apprehended for any length of time?”
“You may thank Ren for preventing that one. I got hit with an illusionist, and without him, I would’ve just happily gone into some stranger’s vehicle.”
“It looks like I owe Ren dinner, too.”
“I’m sure they’ll be happy to embarrass me at your leisure. They were definitely using an illusionist, though.”
“Which explains why you didn’t seem all that surprised. Because my kidnappers tried to get you, too.” I sighed. “Beatrice thinks I was becoming unmanageable, and they wanted to kidnap you to make me happy.”
“I have certain regrets regarding my status as kidnapping resistant right now. Had I known that was what was going on, I would’ve jumped in the vehicle rather willingly. However, we hadn’t known.”
“I would have been annoyed if you’d invited yourself to your kidnapping. However, being stuck in a room with you and a bunch of books seems like a very nice vacation, so I’m a little sad about that.”
Bradley grinned at me. “Would you like me to arrange for us to be locked in a room together with a nice, comfy bed, a bunch of books, and set feeding times?”
“With a connected bathroom. Like a hotel but with books.”
“Will this win me forgiveness for not telling you about the kidnapping attempts?”
“As long as I get a dramatized version of you having to be rescued while you were unconscious.”
Bradley laughed. “There are pictures. I find them to be embarrassing, but they exist, as my father’s team wears body cameras, so the whole thing was recorded. I’ll ask Ren to tell you about some of the attempts, and Dad would be happy to embarrass me about that time I almost got kidnapped at his house.”
“But you weren’t hurt?”
“Nobody was hurt. I was lethargic for the rest of the day due to the sedative, but we had a doctor come to the house and take a blood sample. Ren was woozy, too, so we got pampered. Mom even made us nice steaks after our rough day.”
“That poor woman must have been crying while cooking.”
“She had a new medicine to test. I’m pleased to report the steak did not rise up to kill her, and she’s on a new regime to control her dietary problems. She still has to be careful about her blood sugar, but she isn’t forced to be fully vegan anymore, although she does take care to limit how much meat she has.”
“That’s great!” I hesitated. “And your dad’s heart issues?”
“My mother will love you forever if you check him over.”
I sighed, scarfed down my breakfast in record time, and grabbed Bradley’s phone, summoning his father under the pretense of having a question.
“I’m going to get yelled at when he realizes he’s been tricked,” Bradley muttered, shaking his head and taking his time with this breakfast. “Now I just need to figure out a way to be able to have dairy.”
“I’m sure someone will figure out a medicine that actually works for you one day.”
“If only.”
Within a few minutes, Bradley’s father knocked on the door, and I grinned at the older man, waiting for him to step inside before bolting the door closed.
“I feel like I have been tricked into coming into this room, and I’m concerned.”
“Beatrice snitched.”
“About what, precisely?”
I laughed at how Mr. Hampton did a great job of preserving whatever other dirty secrets my friends and family kept from me. “A sedative bomb that hit him and his bodyguard. Also, we have to go to the airport later to pick up my cat.”
“I’m aware. Technically, we don’t need to, as they’re getting a rental of their own, but I assumed you would not be happy if I didn’t take you to see your fluffy goddess.”
“You are absolutely correct.”
“All right. I shall tell you about the day I almost had a heart attack because someone tried to kidnap my boy right from my yard.”
“You will tell me after I check to make sure you don’t have a heart attack.” I turned off the bracelet meant to control my abilities, removed it, and handed it over to Bradley. “That seems like a fair exchange. Story time for a functioning heart.”
Mr. Hampton chuckled, and he sat on the edge of the bed. “Which one got to you?”
I pointed at Bradley. “I would have gotten around to it when I checked everybody else, but when he’s worried and his mom is worried, that means I’m worried, and you do not want to wake the sleeping bodyguard beast.”
“She’s in highly irritated future-wife mode, and I’m finding this to my liking,” Bradley announced.
“That’s a rather unique way of expressing how much she loves you,” his father muttered. “Honestly, I thought the pictures did a better job.”
My eyes widened at the blatant verbal slaughtering of my dignity. It also made me wonder what the hell pictures he’d taken. Spluttering, I retrieved my phone, sat down on the other bed, and searched the internet for my name and Bradley’s, time filtered to be for the past week, and clicked on the image results.
Apparently, Bradley’s father had become obsessed with taking photographs of us, as there were a horrifying number of them, including some from when I’d been hiding behind him and Bradley had first caught sight of me. “You had security nearby?”
“Yep. I’d sent them ahead; I have a team in California, and it was fairly easy to get them to the beach to keep an eye out for you. They had spotted you playing on the beach, and I had them play tourists while making sure you didn’t slip off. We hadn’t even gotten in the air before I’d confirmed you were actually here.”
“Dad!”
Mr. Hampton chuckled. “What?”
“You had not told me that.”
“Why would I tell you? How could I get a good picture of you if I spoiled the surprise? I knew where she was the entire time, and she had protection. Of course, by the time she went hiding into
the bushes, the security team was starting to get concerned. If we’d been delayed, they would have fetched her and given her water and basic care until we could arrive. I managed to convince them to just patiently hide out and wait for us.”
How ruthlessly sneaky. “That’s just fucking brilliant.”
“I certainly thought so. I’ve been getting pictures of you two since we picked you up, and the best of the lot has been going to the media. It’s doing a fine job of establishing you two are a genuine couple.”
“People think we’re not because of the bill?” I guessed.
“People think you’re the queen over all gold diggers. Jez has strictly limited how much her inheritance will be because she doesn’t want to unbalance anything with her attorney. We discussed the situation with both of them; they’re getting an equal inheritance, and it’s capped at a certain amount. Bradley gets the rest. Any other children we bring into our home will end up with the same deal—and they’ll be told exactly why. Bradley doesn’t even need the inheritance.”
“I plan on establishing stocks for Jez and her attorney once things settle down. I will claim we’re using the inheritance funds to seed it. In reality, it’ll be the amount of the inheritance funds, but it won’t be their actual inheritance. I’ll do the same for the other kids whenever they come home. It’s only an inheritance if our parents don’t spend it before they kick the bucket.”
I was surrounded by clever, sneaky men. “You have my approval. You know about the little job tonight, Mr. Hampton?”
“We’re already monitoring the home. Dr. Castor has not left as scheduled. The alarm is still disabled, and the motion detectors are picking up activity inside. I suspect she got wind we’re sniffing around her turf. I expect when we knock, she’ll be there to greet us and invite us in for a chat. Beatrice is convinced she’s flying out on the three o’clock.”