Firstborn

by Carrigan Fox

  And then she saw him entering somebody’s home and stepping into a living room. Behind him, the dark bearded man moved in and lifted a syringe to Will’s neck, hardly pausing before jamming it into the side of his neck and pressing the plunger. He released Will and moved past him into the living room while the good doctor glanced wildly around the room, his eyes already glazing over. In the next instant, he was falling to the ground, unconscious even before his head hit the plush carpeting.

  She gasped and pulled away from him, keeping her palms on his chest.

  “What’s wrong?” he sensed the shift in her passion even before he saw the look of fear in her eyes as it changed to fierce protectiveness.

  She knew that her visions showed a future that could not be changed. And she slowly drew back from Will Archer, torn between wanting desperately to keep him safe and not wanting to get to close to a man who would eventually die at the hands of a bearded villain. How in the world was she ever going to manage to keep him safe from his own destiny?

  “What is it, Jaclyn?”

  She looked at the quiet house behind him, surrounded by birds singing in trees as a light breeze ruffled the leaves. It was a good place, this country home of Dr. Archer.

  “Would you like to go inside?” he asked. “Let’s go in and sit down. I’ll get you something to drink. I’m guessing you’ve just had a vision of some sort.” Even with the compassion and concern, she could hear his skepticism.

  Taking a deep breath to calm herself, she forced a hesitant smile.

  “Was it something I did?” he joked.

  She smiled in apology. “I’m only sorry that kiss was interrupted.” She patted his chest and stood on tiptoe to place a kiss on his jaw. “You are a very appealing man. And an exceptional kisser,” she added.

  “Do you want to talk about the vision?”

  “Inside, Dr. Archer. I’d love to have that drink that you mentioned.”

  He took her hand in a purely romantic gesture and led her up onto the front porch of his home. While he used his key to open the door, she reached into her purse. “I’ll meet you inside in just a moment. I want to call Taryn and have her meet us here, if that’s okay with you.”

  “Of course.” He pulled the key out of the lock and stepped into the refreshingly cool front entrance of the home he had purchased just over a year before. He glanced around briefly to assure himself that everything was cleaned up. He was typically described as a well-organized man, and his house was rarely disorderly. Dr. Will Archer had been raised to clean up after himself, and it was a trait he was thankful that his parents ingrained in him.

  Leaving the door open behind him, he moved into the house and heard Jac enter the room behind him. He hadn’t heard her call her sister, and he was about to turn to ask her if she was okay when a thick arm locked around his shoulders, pinning his arms to his side. He opened his mouth to shout a warning to Jac when he felt a sharp pain in his neck. And as suddenly as he’d been attacked, he was released.

  Confused and desperate to see his attacker, Will turned to confront his opponent and saw only a blur of movement as the man moved past him. Turning again, he was overcome with dizziness that caused his eyes to blur. He shook his head in an effort to clear his vision and saw the syringe on the carpeted floor between himself and a dark haired man with a beard who was watching him with a cocky smirk on his face. His initial thought was bafflement that Jac’s vision of a bearded man in his office had been exactly right.

  “What do you want?” Will asked only a moment before realizing that the man had poisoned him.

  “We want you dead, Dr. Archer. Nothing personal. We just need to make sure that your firstborn child is never born.”

  “True apothecary, thy drugs are quick,” he muttered wondering how Shakespeare’s words could spring to mind so clearly even while his tongue thickened and could not form the questions that crawled around his mind. His entire world now seemed to move in slow motion.

  “We can’t allow him to defeat us.”

  Will wasn’t certain he had heard the man correctly. A deep resounding boom filled the room, and the blurry bearded man seemed to convulse. Will couldn’t see clearly enough to know if he was still smirking, but he heard Jac calling out to him as the man fell to the ground. She suddenly appeared at his side but then stepped over him instead of kneeling to help him. He heard her voice, telling someone to come quickly. She said something about him being dead.

  And then he saw and heard nothing.

  C

  hapter 9

  “His name was Ray Walker. Does the name mean anything to you?”

  She looked across the table into the apologetic eyes of Detective Wilson. “Nothing.”

  “You’re certain?”

  She fixed her eyes on his so that he could read the genuine truth behind her words. “I have never heard of Ray Walker. Can you tell me what you know about him?” She looked down at her small hands folded together on the table in the police department in an effort to make herself appear more harmless. She would find out who had sent Roy Walker and see that he paid for hurting Will.

  The detective licked his lips nervously and glanced around the room, as though unsure of whether or not he should share any information with Jaclyn MaCall. “He has a record, I can tell you that much. In the past, he’s been linked up with a local militant organization. They’ve attempted to take responsibility for acts of terror in the state in the past. But as far as we can tell, he doesn’t appear to be on any federal watch lists. This means he isn’t perceived as a serious threat. Wasn’t,” Wilson corrected.

  “I wonder if Dianne Huntley would have agreed.”

  “Did the assistant district attorney speak with you already?”

  Jac nodded. “After I answered the homicide detective’s questions, the ADA stopped in to tell me that they wouldn’t be prosecuting me. It was clear self defense, of course.” She shrugged. “Or defense of Will. Same thing.”

  “Dr. Archer was lucky you were there and so quick to respond.” There wasn’t a question in his tone…not exactly.

  “I was there to protect him until MSC got a security detail assigned to him. But yes, I’m also glad I was there. Have you talked to the hospital? Did they determine what Walker injected in Will’s neck?”

  “Sodium Pentothal.”

  “Truth serum?”

  Detective Wilson’s eyes widened almost imperceptibly in surprise at her knowledge. They always seemed surprised by the depth of her knowledge. “Of sorts.”

  “And he considers himself a professional? It’s fairly well known that Sodium Pentothal isn’t effective as a truth serum.”

  The detective nodded. “Yes, but Dr. Archer isn’t exactly a well-trained covert spy. At least I don’t think he is. It probably wouldn’t take much to convince him that his life depended on sharing some information with Walker. I think it’s likely that Walker has some connection with one of Dr. Archer’s patients.”

  Jac eyed him thoughtfully.

  “You disagree?”

  She smiled to herself, acknowledging the detective’s intuition.

  “What’s your theory?”

  “Theory?” she shook her head. “Walker was interested in the name of a woman who he believed was sleeping with Will and might be pregnant with his child.”

  He looked doubtful when he asked, “What is the significance of this woman?”

  “The million dollar question, Detective. I’ve talked to Will about it, but he assures me that he hasn’t been involved with anyone in a long time. It seems a fruitless search.”

  “And only Ray Walker knows why it was such an important search,” the detective concluded.

  “That’s not entirely true. He wasn’t working alone. He was working with a young blond man. He had white blond hair. The two of them may or may not have been working with others. But if Ray Walker was a card-carrying member of a militia, it stands to reason that the entire organization may be involved.”

  Detective
Wilson frowned. “How do you know about this blond man? Was he at Archer’s house?”

  “Not exactly.”

  “Then where have you seen this blond man.”

  Rather than answer, Jac smiled sweetly at the detective. He got the message.

  “I hope for Dr. Archer’s sake that Walker was working alone or with only this blond man. Not even MSC can ward off an entire militia.”

  “Getting me a list of the membership would be a start in the right direction,” she suggested.

  “I’ll talk to my boss and see what we can do.”

  ***

  Inhaling deeply, Jac focused on sitting tall and stacking her vertebrae so that even her grandmother would have been proud of her posture. Almost immediately, she began to feel her muscles relax. In the background, the gentle sound of the ocean waves filled the room but went unnoticed by the sole inhabitant. She breathed out and made a conscious effort to focus on relaxing the muscles in her shoulder and her face.

  When Will Archer’s bruised face entered her mind, she allowed herself the luxury of losing herself in his eyes and remembering when he had kissed her outside of his house. She smiled to herself and then pushed him away, deliberately making her mind blank and relaxing her facial muscles as well. Instead of allowing Will’s emerald eyes in her mind, she visualized a lush green grassy yard. She imagined lying in the grass and staring into the blue skies with the lazily drifting white clouds. She took a moment to re-think her visual. Instead of lying in the grass, she was lying on a hammock strung between two large oak trees in front of Will Archer’s home. She studied the canopy of oak leaves over her head that allowed beams of sunlight and patches of blue sky to filter through as a breeze occasionally stirred the leaves. She continued breathing deeply and soon felt her heart rate begin to slow.

  And now the leaves and hammock were also gone. The slow and deep rhythm of her heart filled her ears and her body. She felt as though her body were floating in a decadently warm pool of silk. She didn’t emerge until the ringing of her phone brought her back to the meditation room in the back of her shop. Typically, she would have turned off the phone, but she was waiting for calls from Will, Taryn, and Detective Wilson. She couldn’t afford to check out for too long.

  Will had been released from the hospital only twenty-four hours after being brought in. And before he had been released, Taryn had issued the orders for the new security detail. It was both a relief and a cause of stress for Jaclyn, who wanted Will to remain safe and sound but didn’t trust anyone else to take appropriate care of him. No amount of security training would have prepared an MSC employee to handle Ray Walker. Jac’s visions alone had allowed her to save Will. And while she was a split second too late to stop Walker from injecting the Sodium Pentothal into Will’s body, she did still manage to eliminate the threat and get her client to the hospital for treatment. He was now on the mend and resting comfortably at home.

  Detective Wilson greeted her when she answered the phone.

  “I have received the authority to provide a list of names for those we believe are affiliated with the militia to MaCall Securities Consulting. The expectation is clear, however, that the list goes to Dr. Archer’s security detail.”

  “Where else would it go?” Jac asked, feigning confusion.

  “Jac, I’ve known you since you came home from college. I’ve worked with you on more than one case for clients you represented with MSC. Don’t bullshit me. I know that you will take it upon yourself to investigate every person on that list in an effort to find out his interest in Dr. Archer,” he accused.

  She laughed playfully. “Things have changed, Detective. I’m no longer an employee of MSC.”

  “Don’t bullshit me, Jac,” he only repeated.

  “I wouldn’t dare.” She grinned to herself while he agreed to messenger a copy of the list to her sister’s office to be copied and distributed to Will’s security detail. After some additional charm and encouragement, Detective Wilson even agreed to have a second copy dropped off at Triskele, as well.

  She hung up the phone and laughed, feeling quite proud of herself for her accomplishments. Her father had always teased her about being manipulative, but she had always cringed at his use of that word. It always sounded so devious and underhanded. She preferred to think of herself as charmingly persuasive.

  ***

  “Have you ever done this before?”

  Will looked at her as if she had just asked the most moronic question ever.

  “It’s really not too difficult. It’s all about persistence and stamina.” She smiled smugly at her deliberate innuendo as she walked behind him and trailed her fingertips across his shoulders.

  “Isn’t it too soon for this kind of thing? I don’t want to make an ass of myself.”

  “As long as you’re worrying about things like that, this will never work.”

  “I never took you for a wham, bam, thank you ma’am kind of woman, Jac MaCall.”

  She tugged on a lock of slightly curled hair above his ear. “Now you ruined the double entendre. There is no whamming and bamming in meditation, Dr. Archer. Now relax and follow my instructions.”

  She had never enjoyed herself more thoroughly as she had since Will Archer walked through the front door of Triskele. She had made the suggestion for the location of their second date. Mostly, she wanted something that wouldn’t be physically stressful on him since he was still recovering from the attacks. But a small part of her wanted to pull him out of his comfort zone. And she held back a giggle as she watched him walk into her shop, glancing at the crystal displays but walking with a single mindedness toward her in the back of the shop.

  Now they sat on the floor in the meditation room with her favorite classical music CD playing softly in the background. On her knees behind him, she gently ran her fingers through his hair, massaging his scalp.

  “Who does this for you when you’re meditating alone?”

  “Unfortunately, nobody does,” she laughed.

  “You think I need the extra help relaxing,” he accused.

  She nodded and added, “Plus I wanted to get my hands on you.”

  He chuckled and rolled his head around his shoulders, stretching his neck and attempting to loosen up without displacing her hands. “You don’t need to make an excuse to put your hands on me. Not ever.”

  “Are you ready?”

  “I was born ready,” he assured her naughtily.

  “For meditation,” she persisted.

  “Oh, that. Sure. Ready when you are.”

  She took a moment to rub the knots out of his muscular shoulders and neck before sitting opposite him with her legs crossed in front of her. She studied him for a moment, noting that he also sat cross legged with his palms face-up on his knees and his fingers drawn together. She snorted and took his hands in hers.

  “There isn’t any particular technique that is required for this. It’s simply about being silent, focusing internally, and allowing yourself to regulate your own body to soothe and rejuvenate your body, mind, and soul.”

  “Piece of cake.”

  “Stop talking.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “I’m going to talk you through it. I need you to remain silent and focused on my voice. Take some time to breathe deeply, in through your nose and out through your mouth. Good. Now slow it down a bit.”

  She lifted her eyes from their joined hands to his face and was startled to find that he was watching her intently, his green gaze boring into her soul. God she adored this man. Keeping her eyes on his, she continued breathing.

  “Now I want you to think of something that is beautiful and mesmerizing, something that can capture and hold your attention. I like to imagine floating in a hammock or on a wave. Lying comfortably and staring up at the leaves overhead or the clouds.”

  His nod was barely perceptible as his attention drifted to her moving lips and then back to her eyes. He imagined swimming in a warm pool of lavender oil, surrounded by her pe
ach scent while her lips trailed kisses over his neck, shoulders, and chest.

  “Close your eyes,” she instructed, relieved to not have his disconcerting eyes on hers. “Continue breathing and visualizing.”

  He seemed to be visualizing, but she heard a slight hitch to his breathing.

  “Now slowly let yourself sink down, down, deeper, until you feel yourself grounded.”

  He felt his pulse quicken as he visualized lowering himself onto her deliciously naked body and sank himself deep into her. Her warm, liquid silkiness surrounded him, and he breathed deeply through is nose, catching the scent of their musky love-making.

  “Listen to the steady rhythm of your heart, pumping life through your body.”

  His heart pounded as he moved in a steady rhythm with her. He had never felt more alive.

  “Breathe in slowly, deeply. And now release, feeling the air flow gently over your lips.”

  His breath caught in his throat as he took in her exquisite beauty. He lowered his lips to hers.

  “Now your visualization should begin to fade. All that will remain will be the sound of your heartbeat and the feel of air filling your lungs. Allow yourself those sensations.”

  He closed his eyes and reveled in the sensation of moving inside of her.

  She continued breathing deeply, her own eyes closed and relaxed. And then his hands tightened on hers and he groaned slightly, bringing her back to the meditation room. Her eyes snapped open and she studied Will’s face. What was that look? He looked almost…aroused.

  “Will,” she barked, slightly amused at his male predictability.