by Jordan Dane
Whenever I became nervous over things I had no control over, my mind cut loose and rambled ‘willy nilly.’ I considered it perilous. Crowley noticed my restlessness and joined me at the coffee dispenser.
I said the first thing that came to me.
“Did you know that an Ethiopian goat herder discovered coffee?”
She leaned a shoulder against the machine and smiled.
“I did not know that. Enlighten me.”
“Well, truth be told, it was rightfully discovered by his berry-eating goats. It seems they became quite randy after they ate the first coffee beans.”
“After this case is over, we should try that theory of yours. Picturing you a little randy sounds promising.”
I grinned and did not blush.
Athena Madero and her sister Elisa had been ushered into Selina’s treatment room and we hadn’t heard anything. When the hiss of a mechanical door sounded, I glanced over my shoulder and saw Athena walking out of the ER, alone.
I locked eyes with her and couldn’t look away.
***
Athena shoved her hands into the pockets of her jeans. She forced her eyes to stay on Ryker. He gave her an odd strength that she needed. Every step she took towards him, she desperately did not want to take, but she had no choice.
“What’s going on, Athena?” Ryker asked. His low voice felt like a warm blanket. Still, she found it hard to speak.
“My sister shared something with me before we rushed to the hospital. Detective Ramirez is on his way over to take her statement.”
Take a breath. Just one.
“Statement?” Ryker asked. “What’s happening, Athena?”
She didn’t know where to begin, but the beautiful face of Selina sprang from her memory and gave her courage.
“Selina is very sick. She has an extremely rare medical condition called Batten disease. The seizure you witnessed happens in the later stages, among other things.”
“Later stages?”
The words her sister Elisa never wanted to say—because it would make things too real—Athena suddenly knew what she meant. Those words were hers now.
“There’s no treatment or cure to even slow Batten disease. It’s always fatal.” Athena choked on her words and took a deep breath. “Doctors think she’ll be lucky if she lives into her late teens or early twenties.”
Athena pulled her hands from her jeans and wrung the feeling back into them. She wasn’t making sense. She had to make them understand.
“Selina didn’t know until now that she had the disease. Elisa made a decision to keep her daughter’s life as normal as possible.” A tear trickled down Athena’s cheek. “Her loss of vision, those thick glasses she wears, it’s part of the progression.”
Ryker handed her his handkerchief and she thanked him.
“She’s been undergoing personality problems and behavioral issues since she was in elementary school,” Athena said. “Elisa made excuses for her with teachers. That’s why my sister volunteered at her school, to be there if anything happened. But now the worst stuff is coming. The loss of muscle control and the wasting of brain tissue are next.”
She looked into Ryker’s eyes, willing him to understand.
“Is the detective taking Selina’s confession?” he asked.
Athena slowly shook her head before she finally broke down. She couldn’t fight the rush of emotions that swallowed her.
No one spoke. Ryker and his team circled around her, giving her the time she needed.
“Selina had been bullied by Allison and her friends at school. In private, the Barstow girl conducted hate speech against Selina and even went so far as to put a curse on her life.” Athena wiped her eyes with trembling fingers. “My sister Elisa found out about all this, because she worked at the school. Whenever she could, she protected her daughter.”
“What are you saying, Athena?” Ryker pushed it. His voice became more urgent.
Athena couldn’t stall any longer.
“Elisa’s the one who took the lives of those kids. It was my sister.”
***
Valley Regional Medical Center
ER
10:15 pm
Ryker Townsend
The pervasive sadness I had sensed whenever I thought of Selina Madero had been her disease. I knew that now. My gift had tried to tell me. I just didn’t know how to listen.
In an empty room located in the ER, Elisa Madero gave her statement to the police. She would write it down and sign it, but hearing her words—knowing how much she had lost—I felt the magnitude of the tragedy.
“They hurt my little girl.” Elisa cried. “That animal, Allison Barstow, put a death curse on my baby. No one knew how hateful she was, but I knew. I heard the rumors at school of how Allison bragged about that curse and I made it my business to find out what she’d done.”
“When did you find out about Allison Barstow’s altar in the school basement?” I asked.
“A few months back. That girl was evil and she was spreading her filth to other kids in the school. Her followers were just like her. Selina was secretly filming Allison, but she had no idea how sick that girl was.”
“The video camera,” I said. “The one she checked out from the school.”
Elisa nodded.
“Selina was making a video on bullying. Only Arturo Guzman knew. She wanted to surprise me. It would’ve been her way of letting me know what had happened and that she had the courage to fight back. Arturo admitted it to me after I asked him. When I found the camera she borrowed from school, I saw what was on it, without her knowing. It broke my heart. It made me sick. All I wanted was to protect my girl and give her a normal life until—”
Her eyes flared in anger.
“None of them deserved to live when I couldn’t keep my baby alive.” The woman slumped in her chair, exhausted. “Not one doctor had answers. I turned to my faith, but my baby got worse. When I met Arturo Guzman and he shared his belief in the good of Santería, I was desperate. I couldn’t give up hope in my little girl. If I could give her my life instead, I would have done it.”
“What did you do with the blood you took from Justin Lutrell and the others?” I asked.
“Arturo didn’t know about any of this. He is a Holy Man and he had a book of white magick. I studied it. I came up with my own spells. I believed with all my heart that I could add years to her life, if I had healthy blood. Killing them came from my anger at how they treated my precious girl. Even if I gave her the gift of time, they would have made her miserable. I couldn’t let that happen.”
“Why did Selina take your gun?”
Elisa closed her eyes and her lips trembled as if she were saying a prayer. She made the sign of the cross and opened her eyes again.
“I thought she would take her own life. Ay Dios mío. None of this is her fault. She didn’t know she was even sick. The only thing I could give her was a normal life—and now that’s gone.”
“Did you take the Toluene from the shelter to use on Allison?” I asked. “Selina was there. She wasn’t the one who—”
“No. I had no idea Selina was at Allison’s party. I found out where the bonfire was and I sneaked in. Because I volunteer at the teen shelter with Selina, I knew what that liquid could do after I researched it. That disgusting Barstow girl needed to feel the fires of hell for the torture she put Selina through. She told my baby to kill herself. Who does something like that? She bullied and badgered her. I was so afraid they would wear her down and she might find a way to take her own life. I had to stop Allison and her friends, can’t you see that?”
Elisa’s pained expression turned into a sad smile.
“When Selina crawled back through her window that night, she thought I’d stayed up to catch her, but she was the one who nearly caught me.” She wiped her tears. “But I had the car and she had her bicycle. I made it home faster. My sweet girl never knew.”
With eyes welling, she looked at me, her face etched in pain.
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“I’ll be in prison when my little girl dies.” She cried. “Oh, God, I won’t be able to hold her.”
The sting of tears hit me hard. I didn’t care who saw.
***
Madero Home
Two days later
Ryker Townsend
Crowley and I had come to say good-bye to Selina and Athena before we got back to work to finish the case with Detective Ramirez. Our flight would leave in a few hours. Lucinda had notes to finish with Athena and they worked inside at the kitchen table.
I needed fresh air and wandered out to the front porch. I liked stoop sitting. It’s what chess pawns did while they imagined being proper Kings. Selina must’ve liked stoop sitting, too, because she joined me. I liked her company.
Selina respected silence and didn’t feel the need to fill voids in conversation. I appreciated that, but when she finally spoke, she shattered my heart without breaking a sweat.
“What do you think happens when you die?” Her words hung like a cloud between us until they seeped inside me and wrapped around my heart.
A million things raced through my head—famous quotes, Hallmark card sentiments, and scenes from sappy movies. But when I stared into the eyes of a young girl who had a real expiration date, I had no idea what I should say.
She needed answers and I had nothing.
“I don’t know.” I stared across the street with my elbows on my knees. “Muslims have a pretty cool idea of it though. They think this life is prep for the next realm, whatever that is. For them, death is only a transition from one place to the next, like Amtrak with a one-way ticket to a different dimension.”
“I like the idea of Amtrak. Trains are cool, but I’m not sure I’d want to be in another realm as anything but me.”
I grinned.
For all Selina had been through, she had respect for who she was in this life. In another realm, she wanted to still be her. I liked that. Whatever her mother did in the name of loving her daughter—the extreme and tragic motives behind what she did—Elisa did a good job raising Selina.
“Well, then try this one.” I narrowed my eyes at her. “Hindus believe in rebirth and the reincarnation of the soul. Death of the body is perfectly natural and the soul is separate. When someone dies, the soul is released and sets off on a great journey to other worlds.”
Her eyes lit up and she smiled.
“…until the soul finally returns back to earth. Then I guess it finds another body—like a baby being born again—and the soul continues its path.”
“I like that,” she said. “But what do you believe?”
I didn’t hesitate.
“I believe that human beings have an undeniable life force. I’ve seen it. I mean, I’ve sensed it, you know?”
“But you deal with death all the time. Dead bodies,” she said. “How can you have that kind of faith?”
I reached for her hand and held it.
“You’ll see your mother again. And on the other side of the veil, you won’t be sick. You won’t know pain. When you die, you’ll bring all the love from this life and take it with you. It stays in your heart and it becomes part of your soul.”
Tears glistened in her eyes and before I finished, Selina wrapped her arms around me and hugged me hard. She knew how to hug—the really good kind that feels like a steak dinner.
Selina pulled away from me and ran inside the house, not looking back. When I glanced over my shoulder to see her go, I noticed Athena standing at the door. She had tears in her eyes and must’ve been listening.
She came to join me and sat on the top stoop.
“Do you really believe that?”
I surprised myself by how quickly I answered.
“Yes, I’ve seen too much not to.”
Athena cocked her head and stared at me until I felt the heat of a blush.
“You’re a strange one for a Fed, Townsend, but I like you.”
I smiled, maybe even chuckled.
“What’s Selina going to do?” I asked.
My question seemed an intrusion, but I honestly wanted to know.
“We have a lot to talk about. My sister will plead guilty and will accept sentencing. When we know where she’ll be in prison, we’ll make our plans. Selina wants to visit her mother.”
“Yes, of course.”
“Selina’s decided one thing. She wants to finish high school.” Athena lowered her voice. “Doctors don’t think she’ll make it, but my money is on her.”
“Yeah, me too.”
Athena touched my shoulder before she went inside and left me alone. It hadn’t been an accident that I had studied different religions in search of an answer on death. Selina had reminded me that every day was a gift, no matter how philosophically I indulged myself on the notion of dying.
I had my reason for believing in the endurance of the human soul.
Something powerful continued to reach out to me from beyond the veil and manifested in my dreams. My gift. In the absence of life, I did not believe in an eternal abyss. I hoped that meant I would know Selina Madero again and I smiled at the thought.
I turned my face toward the sky and closed my eyes, relishing the warmth of the sun on my skin. In that moment I would’ve been unflinchingly content to be a pawn or a King.
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Hot Target
Tough Target
An Omega Team Novella Series – Desiree Holt Amazon Kindle World
2 Novellas with connected storylines
By Jordan Dane
Redemption for Avery
Now Available
A Special Forces: Operation Alpha Novella – Susan Stoker Amazon Kindle World
(Crossover with Jordan Dane’s new Ryker Townsend – FBI Profiler series)
By Jordan Dane
Coming 2017
Jordan Dane will be writing for these great Kindle Worlds:
Paige Tyler’s – Dallas Fire & Rescue (Jan 2017)
Susan Stoker’s – Special Forces: Operation Alpha (Spring 2017)
Sable Hunter’s – Hell, Yeah! (Aug 2017)
About the Author
Bestselling, critically-acclaimed author Jordan Dane’s gritty thrillers are ripped from the headlines with vivid settings, intrigue, and dark humor. Publishers Weekly compared her intense novels to Lisa Jackson, Lisa Gardner, and Tami Hoag, naming her debut novel NO ONE HEARD HER SCREAM as Best Books of 2008. She also pens young-adult novels for Harlequin Teen. Formerly an energy sales manager, she now writes full time. Jordan shares her Texas residence with two lucky rescue dogs.
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Social Media Links:
Website http://www.JordanDane.com
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Thriller/Crime Fiction Blogs:
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Bibliography
Avon/HarperCollins Titles:
NO ONE HEARD HER SCREAM – No One Standalone
NO ONE LEFT TO TELL – No One Series Book 1
NO ONE LIVES FOREVER – No One Series Book 2
EVIL WITHOUT A FACE – Sweet Justice Series Book 1
THE WRONG SIDE OF DEAD – Sweet Justice Series Book 2
THE ECHO OF VIOLENCE – Sweet Justice Series Book 3
RECKONING FOR THE DEAD – Sweet Justice Series Book 4
The Omega Team Novella Series – Desiree Holt’s Amazon Kindle World:
HOT TARGET (Novella 1 of 2) – Feb 2016
TOUGH TARGET (Novella 2 of 2) – May 2016
IN THE EYES OF THE DEAD (Crossover with Jordan Dane’s Ryker Townsend FBI Profiler Series) – Nov 2016
&nb
sp; The Special Forces: Operation Alpha Series – Susan Stoker’s Amazon Kindle World:
REDEMPTION FOR AVERY (Crossover with Jordan Dane’s new Ryker Townsend FBI Profiler series) – July 2016
Harlequin Teen Young Adult Novels:
IN THE ARMS OF STONE ANGELS
ON A DARK WING
INDIGO AWAKENING – The Hunted Series Book 1 of 2
CRYSTAL STORM – The Hunted Series Book 2 of 2
YA Anthologies:
NYX IN THE HOUSE OF NIGHT Anthology – “The Magic of Being Cherokee” essay (Smart Pop Books, Jun 2011)
Cosas Finas Publications – Crime :
BLOOD SCORE (A Gabe Cronan Novel)
THE LAST VICTIM (A Ryker Townsend Novel-Book 1) (Series to be launched 2016)
Cosas Finas Publications – Short Story Anthologies
SEX, DEATH and MOIST TOWELETTES
Cosas Finas Publications – Non-fiction
ONE AUTHOR’S AHA MOMENTS – Author Craft Book with a Focus on Writing YA