“Don’t quit, you’ll go crazy. I tried it when Heather was born. Within six months I was ready to go insane, and even now I’ll occasionally get involved in something as backup. It’s not just the action, it’s also knowing that you’re making a difference, as corny as that sounds, it’s true.”
“My wife doesn’t scare easy, but when I nearly died it did something to her, and then there’s the babies to consider. I don’t want them growing up without a father, or even worse, without parents.”
“I know what you mean, and that was my thinking when Heather came along, but then I realized that she needed me, yes, but she needed the real me, and not someone living life at half-throttle.”
Beck stopped talking and looked down at his wedding band. A ring he still wore, although he’d been a widower for years. After taking a swig from his bottle of beer, he spoke again.
“I’ve nearly died twice over the years, but I’m still here and still raising Heather, meanwhile, my blessed wife was felled by a stroke at the age of forty-four. There are no guarantees here, kid, only chances to live your own way. Don’t let yours slip by, you’ll regret it if you do, especially as young as you are.”
“Thank you, Jack,” he said, and then reached to his right and grabbed the glass of iced tea he’d been drinking. The tea was unsweetened, and he had looked with envy at the beer Jack Beck was drinking, but he was off alcohol until he was back to feeling a hundred-percent.
In the pool, Heather and Maggie were ganging up on Jace as the three of them played a version of underwater tag.
It was August and the sun was hot, but the humidity was low and he had plans for a cookout. The grill sat near the pool, waiting to be lit, and then the aroma of charbroiled steaks would supplant the scent of chlorine. After returning his glass to the red tile table, he spoke again.
“You know, I’ve never really had a father, but of the men my mother dated, you were one that I would think of that way.”
“I appreciate that, I really do, but I always could see something in you, a spark, and I liked you, you weren’t like other kids. You were a serious person, and a thinker.”
They grew quiet as they watched the younger set frolic in the pool, but then Beck turned to him with a wide smile showing.
“You can tell me to go to hell and that it’s none of my business, but back then, ah, Heidi Poe, you know the one, that divorced lady with the little girls who lived around the corner from you and your mother. You were doing more than cutting her grass for her, weren’t you?”
He hesitated for just a moment, but then answered.
“She required other services of me, yes.”
Beck shook his head.
“Goddamn, kid, Heidi Poe was one good looking woman, and how old were you back then?”
“Fifteen, but what made you think something was going on?”
Beck picked up his bottle of beer and chuckled.
“Nobody needs their grass cut three times a week.”
CHAPTER 28
Summervale, North Carolina
One Week Later
Alice opened the door of the cabin and ran into Rob’s arms.
They hadn’t seen each other in a week and had only spoken on the phone, but no one had come around asking about Carl Herman or Sandra Jenkins, and so they believed that the threat had ended, and that it was safe for her to return to town.
The cabin was small, and consisted of just two rooms, but the bedroom had an attached bath, and the living room had a tiny kitchen area in one corner.
Alice’s daughter, Kimmy, was beaming as she looked up at them, and then her eyes grew even brighter when she noticed that Rob was holding a shopping bag with the name of a toy store on it.
She pointed at the bag as Alice and Rob separated.
“Is that for me?”
Rob grinned. “It sure is, here, take a look inside.”
Kimmy let out a cry of joy when she saw what was in the bag. She was a big fan of a kid’s show titled, Warrior Girl, about a young girl who becomes a superhero. Alice and Rob were supposed to take her to see the Warrior Girl Movie, but instead, Kimmy, who was actually Chrissie Jenkins, had to leave for the cabin with her mother, Sandra Jenkins.
The look of disappointment on the young girl’s face nearly broke Rob’s heart, and so he had bought her a Warrior Girl costume, complete with the magic Warrior Wand that lit up in rainbow colors.
“Look, Mom, now I can be Warrior Girl.”
“Wow, that’s really something, why don’t you go in the bedroom and try it on?”
“Okay,” Kimmy said, and then she hugged Rob around the waist. “Thank you, Rob, I love it.”
“You’re welcome, sweetie, and we’ll go see the movie too, all right?”
Kimmy answered, yes, with a mouthful of teeth showing and scampered into the bedroom while singing the Warrior Girl theme song.
Alice and Rob laughed as they enjoyed her exuberance, but as soon as the bedroom door closed, they fell upon the sofa and embraced.
“I missed you so much, Alice, and, I was scared that you might run off too.”
Alice looked down at her engagement ring.
“I won’t run off, not without you, we’re a team now, remember?”
Kimmy came out of the bedroom wearing a blue and green costume with a red cape and mask, and was holding the Warrior Wand and a pack of batteries.
“Can you make it work?” she asked Rob.
Rob placed the batteries in the toy and handed it back to Kimmy, when she squeezed it, the wand lit up in over a dozen colors and made sounds like the tweeting of a bird.
Kimmy’s smile lit up the room, and she gave Rob a hug and a kiss.
“Thank you again, I love it, and Mom, can I go outside?”
“Sure, baby, just don’t play near the stream, I don’t want you getting wet.”
“I won’t,” Kimmy said, and then she streaked outside with her wand flashing.
Alice touched Rob gently on the cheek.
“You make a good daddy, do you know that?”
“I love that girl, and I always planned to have kids someday.”
They left the cabin a while later, and as they drove towards town, Alice spotted the new fire watchtower. The metal tower reminded Alice that she had meant to go back and see if the Chandlers had returned to the defunct wooden tower on the other side of the forest.
She glanced into the back seat and saw that Kimmy had fallen asleep, and decided that it was time she told Rob about the Chandlers, and their friend, Drake. When she was finished, Rob agreed that their behavior was strange.
“I’ll go out there to the tower and have a look around,” Rob said.
“I’ll go with you.”
“Maybe I should go alone, it might be dangerous.”
“I can handle myself, Rob, you know?”
Rob was driving, but he turned his head for a second and stared at her. Sandra Jenkins had killed or been involved in the deaths of nearly a dozen men as she went about getting her daughter back. Yes, she could handle herself, of that, he had no doubt.
“Alice, when you got Kimmy back from the man who took her, you had help, didn’t you?”
“Yes, and if they hadn’t helped me, I’d be dead and God only knows what horrible things would have happened to my daughter.”
“They?”
“It was Dr. Jessica White and her husband. I didn’t even know their full names until her book came out last year, and oh yes, a good friend named Kari helped me too. I’ll tell you the whole story soon.”
“You don’t have to; I imagine it’s painful to talk about.”
“No, I want to, I want to share everything with you, Rob, and I want to marry you too, but, I can’t marry you under my real name, and my Alice Johnson identity is phony.”
“The words and the ceremony don’t matter much, but you wanting to share things with me, that means everything.”
From the back seat came the mumbled words, “Warrior Girl to the rescue,” as
Kimmy spoke in her sleep.
Rob and Alice looked at each other and laughed, blissfully unaware of the tragic events heading their way.
CHAPTER 29
Samantha waved goodbye to Billy as she watched her grandfather’s limo drive back up the driveway.
She was staying with Jessica and her husband for several days while her grandfather flew to Africa to attempt to work out a deal to reclaim his diamond mines. Samantha’s grandmother wasn’t well, and was in the hospital for tests, and so when asked, they agreed to watch Samantha until her grandfather returned.
Maggie helped Samantha get settled into a guest room, but then went off to visit Jace, while Amanda was spending the day with Jessica’s father.
Samantha looked curious, as she watched the babies crawl around in their playpen.
“Do they like it in there?”
“Not all the time, but if they make a fuss I’ll let them out,” Jessica said.
Samantha turned from the playpen and walked over to the sofa to sit beside him.
“Mr. White, Billy’s wife is due to have their baby soon, and they’re going to name her Angelica.”
“That’s a good name, but listen to me, we have guests visiting soon, and when they come, I want you to go up to your room.”
“Why can’t I stay?”
“They wouldn’t feel comfortable with you around.”
“Because I’m little?”
“Yes.”
“But I’m not a kid,”
“You are and you aren’t, I know.”
“Can I go outside instead? I want to play with the crossbow you got me for my birthday.”
“That’s fine, but don’t kill anything,”
“Or anyone,” Jessica said. She was teasing, but Samantha frowned at her anyway.
***
Their guests arrived, Lawson, and Robyn Dyer. Lawson’s driver opened the rear door of a black SUV, and as their guests got out of the vehicle, Jessica whispered to her husband.
“Those two are lovers,”
“How can you tell?”
“Little things, the way Lawson smiled when he took her hand to help her out, and Robyn is wearing her hair longer and has on more makeup than is usual for her. Also, when the driver opened the door, they were sitting very close together.”
“I’m happy for them, I guess.”
Samantha came out carrying her crossbow. It was made for a child, but still had a bit of weight to it. Samantha didn’t seem to notice its heft though, as she held it easily in one hand.
Jessica introduced Samantha to the couple, and when Lawson heard her name, he looked over at him and raised an eyebrow. He gave a slight nod in response, knowing that Lawson knew about Samantha’s... uniqueness.
Once in the living room, Robyn cooed over the babies as they both slept in their playpen, and over coffee and pastry, she came to the reason for her visit, as she removed a photo of Numerical from her laptop bag.
The photo was the best of many forwarded anonymously to the FBI by Prophet. It was his revenge for Numerical disobeying him, and for causing the loss of his apostles. It showed a full frontal view of Numerical’s face.
Robyn passed each of them a copy.
“That’s Numerical.”
Jessica studied the photograph. It displayed the face of a handsome man who was likely in his mid to late thirties.
“Where did this come from?”
“An anonymous source,” Robyn said. “It was accompanied by other photos showing the same man entering and leaving the scenes of murders forty-four and forty-five. That photo will be appearing everywhere by tomorrow morning, and I expect we’ll have a name for him soon, and with luck, the man himself.”
Jessica held up the photo.
“Why are you giving this to us?”
“I want both of you to join the Numerical Task Force. I don’t mind admitting that we’ve reached a dead end and need help, and you’ve already shown interest.”
“A dead end? But I would think having his photo should make his capture imminent, no?”
“There’s no match for that face in the photographic files of the DMV, Armed Forces, other government records, or private institutions. That would mean he’s likely never had his picture taken as an adult. Someone will recognize him and give us a lead, but I’m not willing to sit back and wait for that to happen.”
Robyn leaned forward in her seat, her eyes imploring,
“Jessica, every day this monster is out there is a day closer to the death of his next victim. I want your help. I need your help.”
“You already have a husband and wife profiling team, Summer and Todd Gray.”
Those words came out of Jessica’s mouth dripping with resentment, and it surprised her. She hadn’t admitted to herself how much it galled her that Summer Gray occupied a position that, in earlier days, would have been filled by her.
Robyn looked taken aback by the emotion in Jessica’s voice, and also appeared insulted.
“Jessica, good God, you don’t think it was my idea to bring that woman on board, do you? That decision was made by the Deputy Director himself.”
“I’m glad to hear that. I thought you were a better judge of character than that, however, I’ll have to say no, despite my interest in the case. My husband is just regaining his health and we don’t need a maniac like Numerical targeting us as enemies.”
Her husband turned to her.
“I want to discuss this; let’s go in the kitchen.”
Jessica frowned, but then stood up with her husband.
“Please excuse us for a few moments,” she told her guests. “We’ll be right back.”
They entered the kitchen and Jessica shut the door behind them.
“I want Numerical stopped as much as you do, but not if it means placing you in danger again. You’ve survived the shooting, regained your health, and I want you to stay healthy.”
“Circe Doyle getting the better of me was a fluke, and if my foot hadn’t been in a cast and my mind dulled by medication, I would have been able to overcome her, or at least avoided getting shot. I feel good again, I feel like my old self and I want to act like my old self. I want a shot at Numerical, and I think you do too.”
Jessica’s eyes grew moist and she leaned in and hugged him.
“You agreed that we would stop. You told me that in the hospital.”
“I know, and I thought that I could, but I don’t know how to stop being myself. Numerical nearly killed Elena, and I know that makes you furious. We can track him down and stop him, Jessica, I know we can. The two of us can do anything.”
She hugged him tighter, as if afraid if she let him go that he would immediately be swept off into danger.
When she finally released him, she shook her head.
“Not yet, please? Maybe someday soon, but not yet,”
He wiped at a stray tear on her face and sighed.
“All right, but I hope you reconsider.”
She sniffled and let out a deep breath.
“Go see to our guests, and I’ll be out in a minute, I want to wash my face.”
After he left, Jessica turned towards the sink and saw Samantha standing outside the screen door.
“How much did you hear, young lady?”
“Everything,” she said.
Jessica dampened a paper towel and then sat down at the table, as Samantha came inside.
Samantha sat across from her, and laid her crossbow atop the table, then, she pointed at it.
“Mr. White said that you didn’t want me to have that, why?”
Jessica gave a little shrug.
“I think you’re a little young for it.”
“You don’t hate me, do you?”
“Oh, no Samantha, I don’t hate you, honey. I like you, I thought you knew that?”
“I do, but I didn’t used to, and do you know why?”
“Why?”
Samantha looked at the crossbow again.
“What did you want to g
et me for my birthday?”
“I don’t know, maybe some Warrior Girl toys, girls your age love that show.”
“I don’t, but I’m not like other girls. I’m never going to grow up to be a girl like Maggie, or like her friend, Heather, and that’s why I thought that you hated me, because I thought you wanted me to be somebody else. Mr. White can’t be somebody else either, he’s different too, and we can’t change, we can’t.”
Jessica stared at Samantha for several moments as a smile slowly formed on her face.
“You’re a very wise eight-year-old, do you know that?”
Samantha shrugged.
“I’m just me.”
***
Jessica returned to the living room to find her husband sitting in a corner of the sofa, looking glum.
Apparently, he had informed Robyn that they wouldn’t be joining the task force, because she also appeared dejected.
“We’ll join the task force, but I have two conditions.”
Robyn sat up straight.
“What are they?”
“We’ll need time to make arrangements for child care in case we have to travel, and in any event, we wouldn’t be able to join you until Samantha goes home.”
“That’s not a problem, and in the meantime, I’ll supply you with an encrypted laptop that contains a complete set of case files, but what’s the other thing?”
Jessica stared at her husband.
“Remember I said that I wanted you to do something for me? Well, I want you tested, not just a complete physical, but a test of combat skills. Whenever we hunt one of these devils, it always seems to come down to a contest between you and them. It happened that way with Jeffrey and also with Robert Rothman, but if you fail, that’s it, we’re done and off the task force, agreed?”
He stood and took her in his arms.
“Agreed, and thank you,”
Lawson spoke up.
“I can administer the test, but you’ll have to fly to Virginia.”
“Is it difficult to pass?” Jessica asked.
Lawson smiled.
“It’s got a nearly perfect failure rate. Over a thousand men have taken it, and only a handful have been successful in passing it, Colonel Beck was one of them.”
Jessica looked concerned.
The TAKEN! Series - Books 13-16 (Taken! Box Set Book 4) Page 27