by H. P. Bayne
You’re only strong because they stood behind you. Now you’re only strong because of me.
“Sully, you need to believe me. You could have gone sideways after everything you’ve been through in life. You could have gone off the rails and given in to anger and pain, but you didn’t. You had us, but that wouldn’t have been enough if it wasn’t for you too. You let us in and you let us help you. And you helped yourself too. You faced down your demons and, God knows how, but you learned how to face the things you have to see, all the things people have done to you. A lesser man would have fallen under the weight of it. You’re not a lesser man, Sull. You’re tougher than you’ve ever given yourself credit for. Please, hear me. You’re enough, okay? Who you already are is more than enough.”
The words wrapped around Sully, held him steady as he ignored the insults Thadeus continued to sling. Sully raised a hand, lifted it to his throat and tugged Mariel’s cross into his fingers. It felt warm against his skin, comforting yet powerful—like something else he could now feel pressing into his space. He opened his eyes to find his dad and Aiden beside him and, just behind them, his birth mom, Lucky. They moved closer, close enough he knew what they intended. He allowed it, took them in, felt their warm, loving energy winding through him, quieting Thadeus’s raging spirit. He recognized their strength, and what was more, he recognized his own.
He felt it as if it was a physical presence, the door that slammed shut inside him, sealing and locking Thadeus away. Whatever fears Sully had left melted away, faded into the dark. Only light remained. Light and the people he loved, both physically present and in spirit.
He felt Flynn, Aiden and Lucky leave his body just before his eyes fixed on Dez. He was still on the floor, eyeing him warily while dragging in heaving breaths, limbs poised as if readying himself for a further assault. A desperate combination of guilt, relief and love crashed over Sully, had him rushing to his side.
Dez flinched and tried to scuttle back, to distance himself as much as possible from Sully’s rapidly approaching form. But there was nowhere to go, nothing but another solid wall behind him. Dez ended up in a corner as Sully dropped to his knees next to him and grabbed him in a hug so tight it was probably painful.
“I’m sorry. God, Dez, I’m so sorry.”
Dez released a quaking breath heavy with emotion, then grabbed Sully back, hanging onto him hard.
“I’m so sorry, Dez.”
“It’s okay. You’re back. That’s what matters.”
Sully pulled back, far enough to look Dez in the eye. “He’s gone, okay? I promise he’s gone, and he’s not coming back. I heard you, D, what you said. All my life, I’ve felt like I was dodging bullets, and I was constantly living in fear of getting shot. The only time I wasn’t afraid was when I was with you guys. The way you see me, I guess I’ve never seen myself that way.”
Dez’s fingers squeezed Sully’s biceps. “I meant what I said, bro. You’re the strongest person I’ve ever met.”
“Strong enough to bounce you off every wall in the room, apparently. Are you okay?”
Dez managed a smile as he nodded. “Yeah. I’ll be hurting in a few hours, but right now I’m good. All I want is to get Kayleigh and get the hell out of here. You up for it?”
Sully grinned. “Damn straight.”
29
Sully questioned why Greg hadn’t responded to the apocalypse-level noise down the hall. The answer became apparent as they peered around the corner toward the rear door.
Sully saw two Gregs—the one slumped over his desk and the other standing next to his dead body with a stunned expression.
“Terrence said he was dead,” Sully said. “Looks like he was right.”
“Terrence was here?”
“He killed Greta to save me. Not that Thadeus couldn’t have handled it, but it’s just as well. I would have hated going to Forbes and having to explain I was the one who killed his wife, even if it wasn’t really me.”
Dez shifted past Sully a bit farther, eyes narrowed as he peered outside. “Where’d those other cars come from? They weren’t here when I arrived.”
“Terrence thought there were Circle members pulling up. I’m thinking he was right.”
“Why would they still be here?” Dez asked. “They couldn’t have missed all the noise, could they?”
Sully considered it. Between the gunfire and Thadeus’s antics in the morgue room, they hadn’t been quiet, that was a fact. But if the cars were still here, the Circle members—and likely Lowell, Kindra and Kayleigh—had to be too.
“They can’t be on the main floor,” Sully said. “They building’s pretty solid but not that solid. You’re right; they should have heard something—if they were on this floor at least.”
“So an upper floor maybe?”
“Maybe. Do you have your phone? You should text Lachlan. I don’t know why he hasn’t found us yet.”
“Lachlan’s here?”
Sully nodded. “I ran into him outside. Last time I saw him, he was going to take a drive around the place. Chances are he came inside.”
Dez pulled out his phone. “Shit.”
“What?”
“I’d put it on silent. I’ve got a bunch of missed calls and texts from Eva, Mom and Lachlan.”
Sully offered a sheepish smile. “I think Eva and Mom were probably calling mainly to tell you I took off on them.”
Dez scrolled through his texts. “Yep, you got that right. But Lachlan, he just called twice. What about you? Anyone try to reach you?”
Sully had been in the process of pulling out his phone as Dez was talking. He wasn’t surprised to find the battery completely drained. All the paranormal juice flowing through him tonight had wreaked havoc on the device.
“It’s dead,” he said. He had one of his portable chargers in his pocket, and he plugged the phone into it before dropping it back into his pocket.
“Mine’s not far behind,” Dez said. “Being stuck in a morgue deepfreeze couldn’t have helped. I think I’ve got just enough juice to manage a quick call. I’ll check in with Lachlan. I don’t want Eva and Mom over here, not until this is resolved—especially if we’re about to go toe-to-toe with the Circle as well.”
Sully wasn’t about to argue. He waited, keeping one eye on the door as Dez made the call. A hand gripping Sully’s shoulder had him turning back. Dez’s eyes were wide as he lifted a shaking finger to tap the speaker function.
“Dez? Are you there? Dez?” Sully knew immediately what had startled him so badly. It was Lachlan’s number, Lachlan’s name showing on the call display. But it wasn’t Lachlan’s voice.
It was Lowell’s.
“Listen, Dez, I don’t know how you managed to get out of the locker, but know this. It’s over, you hear me? I’ve got your boss here, and he’s about to start singing for us. Want to hear?”
A shriek of pain—definitely Lachlan’s—came from the phone. Dez’s fingers dug into Sully’s shoulder, hard enough to bruise. Sully clamped a hand over Dez’s mouth before he could respond, shaking his head at him. No. Far as Lowell needed to know, Dez was still locked away, freezing to death inside a morgue cooler. Sully had been waiting for this moment, waiting to face Lowell, to reveal himself to the man who, above all others, he’d been hiding from.
He was done hiding.
Sully took the phone from Dez, holding it right next to his mouth to ensure Lowell didn’t have the opportunity to mishear.
“Guess again.”
Silence. Dead silence. Then, “Wh-who is this?” The stutter on the first word told a tale of its own. Lowell knew the voice. He just hadn’t grasped it yet.
“Think back two years,” Sully said. “I’m sure it’ll come to you.”
Another silence from Lowell, but this time, Sully could hear muffled chatter in the background. It seemed Lowell, too, had put his phone on speaker. Sully grinned. Even better.
“Tell your friends the second son has come for them.”
With that, Sull
y disconnected.
“What the hell, Sully?”
Sully grasped handfuls of Dez’s coat and towed him back toward the morgue room where the two bodies lay sprawled out on the floor. He looked to the side, saw Aiden there. Flynn, he knew, would be back with Kayleigh.
“Aiden, which floor is Lowell on? Second?” A head shake, no. “Basement?” That earned him a nod. “And Kayleigh? Is she down there too?” Another head shake. “Kindra’s upstairs office?” A nod. “Is Kindra there too?” Another nod. “Does she have a weapon?” One more nod.
Sully turned back to Dez, thrusting his phone at him. “I think there’s enough juice left in your phone to call 9-1-1. Get them here, now. With luck, they’ll catch the rats jumping ship. Then go upstairs and keep watch. Don’t confront Kindra. Wait for me.”
“What are you going to do?”
Sully grinned. “I’m going to show those bastards exactly why Harry warned them about me.”
He waited until Dez turned the corner into the stairs heading up. They exchanged one last look, a quick nod and a smile.
It would have to be enough to sustain Sully. Dez had spent his life protecting him; he no longer needed that protection.
With Dez out of the way, Sully cast Ned out, listened as lightbulb after lightbulb exploded until the hallway was cast in darkness. He wasn’t sure where to find the stairs leading to the basement. He knew they weren’t connected to the main staircase, the one leading to the upper floors; he recalled that from periodic visits over the years to Kindra’s office.
He decided he didn’t need to find the stairs down. He’d let the Circle show him.
He waited, listening, allowing his eyes to adjust to the dark. Within moments, he heard it, the sound of quiet footfalls and nervous mutterings from somewhere nearby. Probably the closed door facing the short hall leading to the morgue cooler rooms.
Just as well. Once they emerged, they’d be in for a surprise.
Sully turned Ned loose again, focusing this time on the two corpses. It seemed a horrible thing to do, but the stakes were high enough to render it necessary. Thadeus had proven helpful in this much, at least. Without him, Sully would never have considered using Ned to reanimate a pair of dead bodies.
Under Ned’s influence, the two rose shakily to their feet and stumbled, the man before Greta, out into the short hallway and to the door Sully believed led to the stairs. He peered around the corner, far enough to spot Aiden standing there, eyes fixed on his.
“Is it the right door?” Sully whispered.
Aiden nodded.
In the distance, sirens sounded, growing gradually closer. The mutterings behind the door intensified. It started to ease open.
Sully reached out further with Ned, seized the door and flung it wide, sending it crashing into the wall with a bang. Someone in the staircase yelped. Startled, not terrified. Not yet.
Their terror was about to begin.
Using Ned, Sully pushed the two corpses forward, putting them directly in the path of the would-be escapees. This time, a chorus of screams, one seeking to outdo the next in volume. Footsteps thundered on the stairs, rushing back down, several people—four, perhaps five—wailing and cursing as they went.
From farther down the hall came another set of rushed footfalls, ones Sully recognized immediately as Dez’s. He peered around the corner, saw the bobbing of Dez’s cellphone flashlight. Sully dashed out of hiding long enough to put himself in Dez’s path. A rush of relief nearly put him on the floor as he spotted Kayleigh held tight in Dez’s arms.
“Uncle Sully!” Kayleigh exclaimed. “Dad punched Auntie Kindra in the face. Mom’s going to be mad.” Her eyes turned to the two shadowy figures standing at the top of the basement steps. “Ew, why is that guy naked?” she whispered.
Sully gave the girl a quick hug, then focused on Dez. “I thought I told you to wait for me.”
Dez shrugged his free shoulder. “Opportunity presented itself. I took it.”
“Get Kayleigh out of here, now. I’ll get Lachlan.”
“I can’t just leave you here.”
Sully clasped him on the shoulder. “Dez, you’ve always looked out for me, and that means more than I can tell you. But you need to trust I can handle this. If I know you and Kayleigh are safe, that’s all the protection I need, all right? Go. Now.”
Dez was torn, that much was obvious. But in the end, he was a father first, and Kayleigh’s safety was most important.
Dez ran off toward the entrance and Sully stepped close enough to see his SUV speeding out of the lot.
Now it was just Sully, alone and about to face off against some of the most dangerous and powerful people in Kimotan Rapids.
He could deal with that.
Then again, he wasn’t actually alone. With Kayleigh safe, Flynn had returned to Sully’s side. He stood there, flanked by Aiden and Lucky. Close behind, Sully recognized Justice Prescott Montague. And materializing just down the hall stood the Schusters—Thackeray included.
If Sully had needed the nudge, this would be it. The presence of the ghosts Lowell had created signalled beyond all else it was time to deal with this, once and for all.
“Is there another way out of the basement?” Sully asked, happy enough to take a response from anyone who had one.
Montague provided the answer, shaking his head in the negative.
Good. Nowhere for anyone to go.
The sirens were louder, right outside the building. Time to move.
Sully sent the corpses down first. Maneuvering two dead bodies, even with the power provided by Ned, was far from easy, and Sully grimaced as the man plunged down the stairs, landing at the bottom in a heap. No sounds emerged from the Circle members below, no screams, suggesting they’d removed themselves to a quiet corner somewhere, as if hoping they wouldn’t be discovered.
Sully followed the corpses into the basement, righting the man and sending him off, in front of him. The bodies wouldn’t necessarily be enough to stop a bullet, but they’d help. What was more, they might just draw enough surprise that Lachlan, wherever he was, might be able to get the jump on Lowell.
Sully’s phone buzzed in his pocket, startling him. Dez’s name showed on his call display, and Sully kept his tone hushed as he answered. “Hey.”
“Sull, Eva and Mom are on their way over. Police are here.”
“I know. I heard.”
“They’re setting up a perimeter. Get out of there.”
Sully shook his head, though Dez wasn’t there to see. “Not until I’ve got Lachlan.”
“Listen to me. I took a gun from Kindra, and I’ve turned it over to one of the patrol officers here, but I’ve told them Lowell, and possibly others, are armed. I’ve also told them a couple of people, including the commissionaire, have been killed already. SWAT’s being deployed, so you need to get out.”
“How long before they get here?”
A pause. “Could be up to an hour.”
“That’s too long,” Sully said, tone hushed but urgent. “These aren’t your usual criminals. They’re smart and they’re used to getting their own way. I can’t leave Lachlan with them for a whole hour, not if they’re torturing him. I’ll figure out a way to get him out, and I’ll try to disarm Lowell. Then I’ll get Lachlan and me out the side window. Thadeus blew it out to get himself in here. It’s kind of behind some bushes, so the police might not see it to know to watch it. I’ve been told there’s no other way out of the basement. Once I get Lachlan out, I’ll set up my mini-army to try to keep the bastards down here.”
“Mini-army?”
“The bodies.”
“Jesus Christ, Sull. That’s creepy as hell, you know that?” He sighed, a sound of resignation. “Be careful, buddy, okay? Don’t do anything stupid.”
“Pretty much everything I’ve done tonight so far counts as stupid,” Sully said. “I’ll see you soon.”
“You’d better.”
Sully disconnected, placing the phone back into his pocket
before looking around him. The lights in the windowless basement were on, though dim, and Sully thought about blowing them out like he’d done upstairs. But that would defeat the purpose. He wanted them to see him coming. They’d feared him enough to condone the murder of children. He wanted to show them their fears were justified.
The spirits had once again gathered around him, as if he’d become the general they were counting on for a next move.
“I need you to show me the way,” he whispered.
Flynn met his eye, the meaning clear enough even without the benefit of audible words. Are you sure?
Sully nodded, offering a confident smile to further convince his father. Flynn nodded back. Then, with Aiden’s hand clutched in his, he drifted across the room to a door on the other side.
Sully followed, moving slowly to allow for the staggering gait of the two bodies in front of him. He pressed between them long enough to test the door, which he discovered locked. No matter. It would take more than that to stop him.
The door flew open under Ned’s force, thudding hard against the wall. He heard the sounds of people down the hall, a man’s startled cry followed by a hissed, “Shut up.”
The hall was long, extending the length of the block-long building, and it was difficult to tell, given the concrete-caused echo, which direction the voices had come from. But he didn’t need to rely on his own senses to find them. Not when he had a troop of ghosts at his side.
Flynn took them to the right, and Sully sent the corpses that way first, keeping his own footsteps quiet so the bastards down the hall could better recognize the shuffling gait of the approaching bodies. He heard hushed sounds of urgent conversation, people on the verge of panic.
Good.
Flynn stopped at a door second from the end of the hall, on the left. It, too, was closed, but that would be no more a problem for Ned than the others had been. Sully placed the bodies in front of it, then took one final, nerve-steeling breath. He turned Ned loose, sending the door crashing inward. This time, he was met by a barrage of screams, then the eardrum-rattling pops from a handgun’s repeated discharge. Four shots fired. The larger of the two corpses staggered backward under the impact, hitting the wall behind him.