Brain Storm (A Taylor Morrison Novel Book 1)

by Cat Gilbert

  Had Trinity been any less justified in what she had done? Truth be told, I was having a little trouble here. What had seemed black and white less than 24 hours ago, was now obscured with hazy gray lines. What Trinity had done had come with a price. Secrets always do and this one, I knew, had haunted her.

  It certainly complicated things though. Going to the bank was a tremendous risk to everyone concerned. If we didn’t go, we stood to lose the only chance we might have to find Kevin’s killers. I knew this was the thing that Trinity feared the most. The reason she would go in alone if it came to that. When push came to shove, justice had to be served. It might come late, but it would come.

  Jonas and Mac choose that moment to come loping around the corner. Both stopped short as they took in the scene before them, Trinity hunched at the table, in tears, the tension thick in the room.

  “Are you okay?” Mac asked, searching my face. Jonas had moved toward Trinity, which I found somewhat ironic, given the fact they were usually occupied with yelling at each other.

  “Fine,” I lied, purposely ignoring the elephant in the room. “How’s our money situation?”

  “We’re good. Everything went smooth as silk. All the money’s accounted for and sitting in the Caymans.”

  I nodded. I should have been relieved, but I wasn’t. I knew the worst was yet to come. We were going to have to walk into a bank in downtown Little Rock and make a withdrawal. I had made the decision. Heaven help us, we were going for the gold.

  EIGHTEEN

  “ARE YOU OUT of your mind?” Jonas was on his feet before the words were out of my mouth. “There’s no way anyone is walking into that bank. Period.” He turned on Trinity, obviously blaming her for my decision. “We have enough money in the Cayman account. We don’t need to risk everything to fetch a few gold coins.”

  Okay, he was right to blame her, but it was for all the wrong reasons. He thought it was about the money. It wasn’t, but he didn’t know that. I hoped that Trinity had enough sense to keep quiet, but she rose to the bait like a fish takes to water.

  “Who do you think you are?” she growled out between clenched teeth. “You don’t make the rules around here, mister. And don’t you dare look down your nose at me for wanting to get them. We’re not just talking about a few gold coins. They’re important and we’re not leaving without them.”

  Trinity was nose to nose with Jonas, hands on her hips, spoiling for a fight. From the looks of things, he was going to give her one.

  “Stop it. Both of you.” Mac stepped in between them, successfully separating them. Jonas hesitated and then backed down, holding up his hands in surrender.

  “Fine. You tell them, Mac. I’m obviously not getting through to them.”

  Mac was silent long enough for Jonas to realize he wasn’t going to get the backup he had hoped for. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Don’t tell me you agree with these two?”

  “It doesn’t really matter what I think, Jonas. What matters is what Taylor thinks, and” he held up his hands to stop Jonas from cutting in, “if you’ll sit down and give me a minute, I’ll explain why.”

  My eyes widened at his words. Mac was backing me up, much like he had last night when I insisted we go get Mama D and that Trinity and I go along. Thinking about it now, Mac had conceded to almost everything I’d wanted. I had felt that until now, he and Jonas had been calling the shots, but if I was honest, that wasn’t the way it was at all. I had voiced my preferences and Mac had quietly backed me up. I hadn’t realized it, and apparently from Jonas’ glare, he hadn’t either.

  It took Jonas a minute or two to decide and frankly I didn’t blame him. For the first time, I think, it really hit me just how horrible this was for him. Like the rest of us, he’d lost everything, but for Jonas, it had to be worse. He was used to being in control. Being the one in charge. It was as much a part of him as fighting for the right was, for Trinity and me. Now Mac was telling him it wasn’t his call anymore. It was mine. He was losing the one thing he still had and I wasn’t sure that was something he was going to be able to accept..

  Finally he drew back a chair and sat down, keeping his distance from the rest of us. Mac noticed, as did Trinity, but for a change she kept her mouth shut. Maybe it had dawned on her too just how much Jonas had sacrificed to help us.

  Mac nodded and sat down as well, placing his hands gently on the table.

  “You all know about Taylor’s Telekinetic ability, but there’s a little more to it than that. Usually when someone has one psychic gift, they have a secondary gift as well. It’s not as powerful as the first, but it does exist.”

  Well, he certainly had my attention now. A second psychic ability. My mind was racing, trying to think what it might be. I could barely handle one. I knew I’d never be able to deal with a second one.

  “Taylor, take it easy.” Mac had reached over, covering my hand with his on the tabletop. I knew what he was saying this time. He was warning me not to freak out, but trying to be nice about it. I took a couple of deep breaths to calm myself down, remembering all too well what had happened the last time I had panicked. I definitely didn’t want a repeat. Mac waited until I had gotten better control before he continued.

  “Jonas, Taylor has the ability to sense things. That’s why she reacted so quickly when Marcus drew his gun on you. She had already sensed something was wrong. It’s why she’s so good at her job.”

  “Wait. Are you saying Taylor can see the future?” Trinity interrupted him.

  “No, not at all. It’s different than that, isn’t it Taylor?”

  I looked at him blankly, not wanting to believe what he was saying. All this time, I thought I had just been listening to my gut feelings. That I was just good at my job, had great instincts. Now I find out I’m gifted. I know it wasn’t reasonable, but I felt like it was cheating somehow. No longer a level playing field where I excelled. I suppose that what he was saying made sense if you believed in that kind of thing. Now he’d put me in the hot seat and they were all waiting for me to explain as if I knew what I was talking about.

  “I don’t know. If what he’s saying is true, it’s just a feeling. Sort of knowing, without actually knowing.” As I stumbled around trying to explain it was becoming clearer to me. “It’s like instinct, but more than that. There’s a conviction to it.”

  “Exactly,” Mac said, cutting back in. “Conviction. Deep down she just knows. So you see Jonas, no matter how much experience, or information any of us have, on her worst day, Taylor is still 100 times more likely to make the right decision than any one of us. She leads. We follow.”

  I had heard enough. I wasn’t the person who should be in charge. Not of the group anyway. Jonas had way more experience and Mac had ... Well, I wasn’t sure what Mac had, but whatever it was, it was way more than me.

  “I don’t want it.” I pulled away and kicked back my chair from the table. “ I don’t want the responsibility.”

  “It’s too late, Taylor. You already have it. You’ve already made the decision. We’re going to the bank and we’re going to get the coins. Don’t second guess yourself now. That’s the fastest way to get us all killed.”

  Stunned, I stared at Mac, horrified at the burden he had just placed on me. It was one thing to follow my gut when it was just me. How could I do anything but second guess myself when their lives could be at stake? How could I do that to Jonas? Ask him to just accept a decision that seemed insane to him, even if I felt was the right thing to do. This wasn’t going to work and I was about to tell Mac that, when Jonas got up and walked right out the back door.

  NINETEEN

  “HE’LL NEVER accept this,” I told Mac, staring at the closed door, “and I don’t blame him.”

  “It doesn’t matter, Taylor. It’s the way it is. He’ll either come around or he won’t, but it doesn’t change things.”

  “Well, thank you Mac. That was really helpful. That just makes everything better,” I snapped at him.

  He flinched a
t the impact of my words, but I didn’t really care. Taking it out on him wasn’t fair, but at the moment, it felt pretty darn good. I couldn’t look at Mac without thinking about the reason he was now in my life. Trinity had caused a huge problem with the whole gold business so I wasn’t very happy with her and then Jonas had just walked right out the door. Something I wished I could do. Walk away. No people, no responsibility. No nothing. Just gone.

  Needing some space, I picked up my empty coffee cup intending to head over to the kitchen, but decided to check on Mama D first. The cabin wasn’t big, but the kitchen and eating area were separated from the living area by a wall. It was open at both ends, providing more of an illusion of privacy than anything else, but it was better than nothing.

  I peeked around the corner, not knowing if Mama D had taken refuge in there or one of the two bedrooms. She was propped in one of the recliners, sound asleep, a daytime soap opera playing on the television across the room. Mama D loved her soaps. I snorted at the thought that my whole life had become a soap opera and headed back into the kitchen to put on a fresh pot of coffee.

  Both Mac and Trinity had disappeared, and I wasn’t sorry to see it. I wasn’t what you’d call a people person. I loved Trinity and Mama D, but I needed space and there was little to none to be had in the cabin. I did have a bedroom to myself, but I’d been so tired the night before, that I hadn’t been able to enjoy the solitude.

  I watched as the coffee began to drip into the pot, completely absorbed in the process as it slowly covered the bottom of the carafe, making its way up the sides. The last few drops were hissing out, when I felt Mac slide up beside me.

  “Trinity went out to tell Jonas about the gold. I thought it might be a good idea to turn off the alarm systems before they set them off.” He sat his cup down next to mine and I filled them both without a word.

  We went back to the table and sat in silence sipping our coffee. I couldn’t help but wonder about Mac. Seven years, he’d been watching me, but I’d never even known he existed. He’d been on the fringes of my life. A downstairs neighbor. The guy who handed me a coffee in the morning. But ever since he’d made his appearance last night, he’d known what I was feeling practically before I did. Something Keith had never managed to do, and he had been closer to me than anyone.

  How many times had I been close to losing it only to have Mac caution me, bringing me back from the edge. Even now, there were things to be said, decisions to be made, but he sat quietly sipping his coffee, giving me the space I needed.

  I slid my eyes up slowly, to find him watching me, and I knew. Something else was going on here.

  The door flew open, causing us both to jump, as Jonas and Trinity came in from outside. Mac announced he was going to reset the alarms as Jonas led Trinity to her seat and pulled up a chair next to her. She had obviously been crying, a near perpetual state, it seemed, since this whole thing began, but other than puffy eyes and a runny nose, she seemed none the worse for wear. I had a million questions I was dying to ask, but none of them were important right at the moment. What was important was that Trinity had told Jonas the truth and he was back.

  “Trinity explained about the gold coins,” Jonas said when Mac came back into the room. “Obviously, I don’t agree with what she did, but I can understand why she did it, and why you feel the need to go after them. For what it’s worth, I still think it’s a big mistake.”

  Mac looked at me, waiting to see if I would step up or not. Heaven knows I didn’t want to, but if what he said was true, I didn’t have much of a choice. I was caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place. Somehow, while I was watching the coffee stream into the pot, I had made the decision. I might have the ultimate responsibility, but that didn’t mean I had to go it alone.

  “I understand Jonas, but before we get into that I want to say a couple of things, clear a few things up, if I may.” I looked at Jonas who reluctantly nodded. I was treading on thin ice here and I knew it. “Jonas, I have relied on your advice in the past, always valued your opinion. It’s the same with you, Trinity. You both have knowledge and information and experience that I will never have. I may know, instinctively the direction we need to go, but I don’t know how to get there or maybe even what to do once we arrive.” I paused, at a loss for words to explain what I wanted. Not sure how to convince them of how important they were to the whole process.

  “I guess what I’m trying to say is that I have no intention of running blindly into the fray. I need your help, just like I always have.” I paused, letting my words sink in before offering him an option out. “Jonas, it’s not too late for you. They don’t know you’re with us and your connection with me is weak enough that I don’t feel they would go after you. If you want out, there’s still time.”

  He sat there, looking at me and I could practically see the thoughts tumbling around in his head, weighing the options. He could go back, back to his job and his life and pretend this had never happened. If he had half a brain, he would jump on the chance. I only wished it was still an option for Trinity and Mama D.

  Trinity looked at me like I had lost my mind, and I wasn’t convinced she was wrong. Mac had come through in the clinch, but he was still an unknown. Jonas was our security blanket, and the prospect of losing him and essentially being on our own was daunting, but I couldn’t deny him the choice. He had been trapped into this, and there was a way out, if he wanted it. I held my breath, waiting for his decision.

  “I’m sticking,” he finally said, with a grim smile. “I can’t leave Mac out here alone, with three women.”

  “That’s a good choice, because Taylor is wrong,” Mama D announced from the doorway, surprising us all. “You can’t go back now, Jonas. None of you can. According to the news, you four were tragically killed last night in a fire.”

  We rushed into the living room, but they are already onto the next story. Mac flipped the channels and landed on one of the local stations, just as our pictures flashed onto the screen.

  Jonas took top billing, being a Little Rock detective, tragically killed during a rescue attempt. Trinity and I had apparently been trapped in the blaze, which had spread to the adjoining condos, resulting in the additional death of homeowner, Julian Hayes. I cocked an eye at Mac. Poor Julian. So much for finding love and living happily ever after.

  We watched as they got comments from some of the surviving neighbors, and a statement from the police about Jonas’ record with the department. When they cut to the weather, Mac grabbed the remote and the screen went blank.

  “Well, at least you died a hero, Jonas. Taylor and I were apparently too stupid to run out of a burning building,” Trinity said, sarcasm dripping from each word. “Julian, what can I say, except that photo did not do you justice.”

  I looked over at her in surprise. It was the most she’d said since she’d come back inside and I took it as a positive sign that she was getting some of her sass back. Coming clean about the gold with Jonas and me probably had a lot to do with that. Mama D announced she was going to go try to get some more sleep, and Trinity decided to join her, leaving Jonas, Mac and me alone in the room. I waited until they had disappeared down the hall to voice my question.

  “Just how do four dead men become two dead women and a couple of dead guys?” I asked. “What happened to the three Mac got outside the condo?”

  “That agency you work for powerful enough to have fingers in this, Mac?” Jonas wanted to know.

  “Worked for, Jonas. Past tense. And you have no idea how powerful they are.”

  I was afraid we were going to find out.

  TWENTY

  WE MADE OUR plans for moving the gold over lunch. Getting in and out of the bank without raising red flags was the main problem. Having been declared dead, at least the police weren’t looking for us, but it also meant that even if we could get Trinity into the bank without being seen, she’d never make it into the vault past security. Not with her recent demise being the breaking news and as recogniza
ble as she was.

  The only other person with access to the box was Mama D. The very thought of sending her in gave me the chills, but we were out of options. It was either that or leave the gold behind and neither Trinity or Mama D were willing to do that.

  It took us about two hours, but we managed to pull together what I thought was a pretty good plan. Mac’s contact was in nearby Hot Springs and not only was he good at moving money around, he apparently was a whiz bang at making fake ID’s. I couldn’t help but think how incredibly convenient that was when Mac told us about it. I could only hope that this psychic sense thing that told me Mac could be trusted was dead on the money or I was going to be extremely put out.

  We’d get the new id’s, then Mac and I would go into the bank, disguised of course. Mac was handling that portion and I could hardly wait to see what he would do, what with all the talent he had in that arena. Trinity and Jonas were just too difficult to conceal, so they would be stationed outside. Mama D would go in, retrieve the gold and get out. Just that simple, except for one little thing.

  Gold weighs a lot. I don’t care what you see in the movies, those guys are not carrying a bag of gold bars. Jonas had put pen to paper and figured out that a half million in gold at today rates, would weigh in at 15-20 pounds and that was after gold had soared in price. Depending on the going rate when Trinity had figured the total, it could easily be 30 pounds or more. It didn’t seem like that much, but 30 pounds of compact weight that you’re trying to hide, is vastly different from a 30 pound child slung over your hip.