by D. F. Jones
Jeff sighed. “Well, I tried to reason with you. But I was afraid you’d be this way.”
The man that disappeared down the hall reentered the living room with a sleepy Lacey in his arms. “Mommy? What’s happening?” Fear tinged her words.
“It’s okay, Shorty. Daddy has a fun trip planned for us.” Jeff reached over and ruffled Lacey’s hair.
“Jeff, please. Don’t do this.” She couldn’t contain the panic in her voice. “You don’t know what you’re getting into. You don’t know what you’re getting us into.”
Jeff scoffed at her. “Like you know anything about this.”
She gritted her teeth. “You’d be surprised.”
“We’re going to see a friend of mine, Lacey.” Jeff winked at his daughter as if that would somehow reassure her.
“You’ll have to go through me first,” Dana said.
He shrugged. “You heard her, boys.” He lunged forward and wrapped his arms around her tightly. The two large men took Lacey out the door and out of sight.
Dana could hear her screams as they stole her away. “Mommy! No! Mommy!”
“Let go of me!” Dana kicked at Jeff, trying to connect with him anywhere it might hurt.
He held her fast. “No, you will not stop me on this.”
A tear ran down her face. She hated showing him any weakness. “She’s your own flesh and blood. How could you do this to her? They’ll torture her.” She struggled against him again.
“You’ve always been so paranoid.” He chuckled. “They’re just going to study her. Find out what makes her so special.”
“And how do you think they do that, huh?” she shrieked. “X-rays?” She shook her head furiously. “That’s not how it works.”
“You act like they’ll dissect her or something.” He loosened his grip a tad.
“No, but what they will do is just as bad.” She inhaled a deep breath and then struggled to let it out again. “Jeff, I think I’m hyperventilating. Can I have a little space? I can’t breathe.”
He turned his face toward the door. “Since they’ve made it safely to the car, sure… I’ll back off.” He released her and took a step back.
Dana inhaled deeply again, but instead of working on her breathing she shoved him hard, hitting him in the gut with her shoulder. He staggered back and moved to grab her again. This time she was ready. She put her fingers on his chest and concentrated on her anger. The hair on her arms stood on end as a tingling sensation ran through her entire body. She pushed all that energy out to her fingertips, and electric pulses hit him like stabbing knives.
He screamed and fell backward out the front door. Dana looked up to see Brandon come running up to where Jeff now lay rolling in pain.
“What’s going on? I heard screaming.” He looked down at the pathetic writhing figure on the ground. “Who’s this guy?”
“A dangerous idiot,” she shouted as she jumped over Jeff and ran down the short steps leading to the sidewalk and parking area. She almost screamed as she witnessed a large red SUV pull away with Lacey still screaming from the back seat.
“Oh, God,” she cried as her knees hit the pavement.
Brandon reached her side. “What’s going on?”
She scrambled to her feet, turned to him, and fisted her hands in his T-shirt. Her voice broke as she said, “They took my daughter.”
Chapter 2
Brandon pulled her in for a hug. “Would that idiot back there know where they are taking her?”
Dana pushed away from him. “I think he would.” A sliver of hope lifted her at the thought it might be easier to find them than she’d expected.
“Let’s get him to tell us then.” Brandon marched toward Dana’s apartment. She followed close behind.
Jeff got to his feet when they reached him. Brandon grabbed him by the back of the shirt, hauling him into the air. “All right, little man. We need answers. Now.”
Jeff swung his arms, trying to reach the hand holding him hostage.
Dana put her hands out as if to touch him again. “Talk.”
Jeff flinched. “Don’t touch me!”
“Where did they take Lacey?” she demanded.
“I’m not sure.” He gasped a little as Brandon jerked him backward.
“I don’t like your answer,” Brandon hissed in his ear. “Try again.”
“I don’t have an exact address. I just know a general area where we were supposed to meet Dr. Morrison.” He reached for Brandon’s hand once more but failed to hit his target.
Dana pushed her face close to his and grabbed his arms.
He recoiled.
Brandon kept a firm grip on Jeff’s shirt.
“I swear to God. If they harm a hair on her head, I will kill you myself,” Dana said.
“They won’t hurt her, Dana. Don’t you get that?” he whined.
“They absolutely will. Dr. Morrison is a sadist and a lunatic. And you just handed her over to him.”
“You know Dr. Morrison?” Jeff asked.
Shadows of horrors past crossed Dana’s features. “I know him very well.”
“Let’s take a little trip.” Brandon jerked Jeff to one side and nodded toward his apartment. “Dana, in a drawer on my nightstand, you’ll find handcuffs and my gun. Do me a favor and grab them for me. My car keys are on the table by the sofa.”
She urgently retrieved the items he requested.
She rushed back out the door and handed him the handcuffs first. He wrenched Jeff’s hands behind his back and quickly cuffed them together. Keeping one hand on the cuffs, he holstered his gun in his jeans and held out one hand for his keys. “My car okay?”
She nodded. “That’d be great. Mine isn’t very reliable.”
He shoved Jeff in front of him. “Walk. Do not speak. If I hear so much as a sigh come out of your stupid mouth before we tell you to talk, I’ll shoot you in the kneecap.”
Jeff pursed his lips together and nodded, then almost stumbled as Brandon gave him another shove forward.
They found Brandon’s yellow Ford Expedition and shoved Jeff into the back seat. Brandon dug through a black bag in the passenger seat and pulled out a second pair of cuffs. He connected Jeff’s cuffed hands to a small steel bar that he had bolted to the interior roof of the car.
“Sit down. Shut up until we ask you a question. Don’t cause us any problems.”
Jeff’s head jerked up and down like one of those silly bobblehead dash ornaments.
Dana jumped in the passenger seat, pushing the bag aside. Brandon climbed behind the wheel. He looked at Jeff in the rearview mirror. “What direction?”
“Uh …they should be heading toward … uh…” he stalled.
Dana whirled around in her seat and held one hand inches from his face. “Unless you want me to fry your eyesight, I suggest you answer him, now. No tricks.”
Jeff swallowed hard as he stared at her fingers. “We were to meet them at an old diner on I-35. The one with the big playground next to it just before you get to Wichita. It’s abandoned.”
“See? That wasn’t so hard, was it?” She snapped her fingers, and sparks flew, almost landing on his forehead.
He didn’t say a word.
She turned and noticed Brandon’s eyes darting between her and the road.
“That’s pretty cool. You’ll have to teach me how to do that.” He grinned.
“This?” She snapped again, and small sparks shot from her fingertips.
“Yes. I don’t think I’ve seen anyone that could do that.” He smiled, not a trace of fear or mockery in his voice.
“It’s not something I can teach.” She looked around. “How long do you think until we reach this diner?”
Brandon looked at Jeff through the rearview mirror. “Wichita is about ninety-five miles south of us, so we’re probably looking at an hour and a half.”
She put her head in her hands.
Brandon reached across the seat and put his hand on her shoulder. “It’ll be okay. We’ll
find her. Maybe I can catch up to them before they get there.”
She looked up at him, tears rimming her eyelashes. “I hope so. She’s my everything. And that man … that organization won’t hesitate to hurt her if she doesn’t cooperate.”
He ran his hand down her arm to hers and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “Why don’t you fill me in on these people, so I know what we’re walking into.”
She nodded and swiftly swiped the tears from her cheeks. “It sounds crazy.”
He smirked. “I can handle crazy.”
She gripped his hand, not wanting to lose his comforting touch. “I was born with these unusual gifts. I’ve had telekinesis for as long as I can remember. The electricity thing developed when I was around ten. My parents were worried about my abilities. They were afraid I’d hurt myself or someone else if I didn’t learn to control them. So they sent me to a special school our family physician had told them about.”
“A special school,” Brandon echoed.
“Yeah.” Dana chuckled humorlessly. “Not really a school. We had lessons on math, history, science; that kind of thing. But we spent the majority of our time learning to develop our gifts and use them against each other in battle. Dr. Morrison was one of their scientists.”
“You had to fight each other?” Brandon said in disbelief.
She frowned. “They forced us to fight each other over and over and over. We were training for The Curators’ army.”
“The Curators. That was the group?” he asked.
She nodded. “They were a bunch of sadistic, greedy, power-hungry psychopaths with plans for us that had nothing to do with helping us and everything to do with putting themselves in positions of power. They’d planned to brainwash us, raise us, and train us to infiltrate vital positions in various government agencies.”
“What the hell?” he muttered.
“I know. It sounds crazy, but it’s the truth. They treated us like lab rats. We were starved, drugged, abused, and beaten into submission. And there is no way in hell I’m letting them pull my daughter into that world.” Long buried feelings of hatred and fear erupted to the surface.
“How many were in this … school place?”
“Oh man, I think there were close to forty when I escaped.” She inhaled deeply. “There are thousands of people like me in the United States alone. They’re slowly trying to round us all up.”
“Damn. How did you get away?” He kept his eyes trained on the road.
“I got lucky.” She looked at Jeff, his eyes wide with shock. “One guard felt what The Curators were doing was wrong. His name was Jimmy. He made plans to help a few of us escape. The plan was to slip out after dinner, but something went wrong, and only two of us made it to the storage area where we were to meet. Jimmy got one of the side doors unlocked before the alarms started going off all over the building. Somehow, they’d found out about our intentions. A girl named Sandra and I ran and barely made it out of the compound before they completed lockdown. I don’t know what happened to Jimmy. I’m afraid it wasn’t good.”
“So how did douchebag back there enter the picture?” he asked.
Dana witnessed Jeff shoot a dirty look at Brandon. “He’s Lacey’s biological father. He witnessed Lacey’s abilities a couple of days ago. I’d kept both our gifts from him up to then.”
“Lacey too?” Brandon asked.
She nodded. “She has telekinetic abilities as well.”
“Wow. That’s amazing.” His brow creased, and he glared at Jeff through the mirror. “Wait. You sold out your own daughter to these ass clowns?”
Jeff cast his eyes down. “I didn’t know! I had no idea about Dana or her history with them. I have a friend who’s good at finding specialized information. Procuring items for a specific clientele, that kind of thing. He helped me set this up.”
Brandon yanked the wheel to the right and slammed on the breaks. The car came screeching to a halt on the shoulder. He threw it in park, turned in his seat, and punched Jeff in the nose. “She’s a kid, not a specialized item.”
Jeff attempted to grab his nose but being handcuffed forced him to move his face up to his hands instead. “You broke my nose,” he yelled, a small trickle of blood running down his fingers.
“You’re lucky I don’t break your damn neck,” Brandon growled. He put the car in gear and pulled back onto the interstate. A muscle in his jaw ticked as he put a death grip on the steering wheel.
Dana supposed he imagined the steering wheel was Jeff’s neck. She certainly did. She liked Brandon more and more with each passing minute.
“So how are these people still getting away with this crap?” he asked as he changed lanes to pass an elderly couple in a pickup.
“I heard from an old friend that authorities had shut The Curators down, but there are still those who believe in what they were doing. It sounds like Dr. Morrison escaped punishment for his crimes.”
Brandon nodded but said nothing else. They drove in silence for about an hour. Jeff slept despite his uncomfortable position and sore nose. Now and then, he’d let out a small snore, and Dana resisted the urge to pop him in the nose again.
She stared out the window as fields and the occasional house dotted the passing landscape. Her heart ached. She wanted her baby girl safe in her arms and to know that Dr. Morrison and his people couldn’t touch her. Dana ran from them when she was sixteen and made her own way. The harsh streets were nothing compared to life with The Curators. But it was time to take a stand and put an end to this once and for all. Dr. Morrison would never harm another child again.
“There.” Brandon interrupted her thoughts. “I think that’s the diner.”
Dana jabbed Jeff.
“Ouch … what?” He attempted to adjust his position and winced.
Good. She hoped his face hurt like hell for weeks.
“Is that the meeting spot?” she asked.
Jeff drew his brows together and studied the area for a moment. “Yeah, that should be it. There should be an old storage shed or barn thing in the back.”
Brandon pulled into the empty parking lot. They didn’t see any other vehicles. “Were you supposed to go around back?”
Jeff nodded.
Brandon pulled to the side of the dilapidated building and put the car in park. “I’ll check it out. See what we’re getting into.” He opened his car door.
“Wait!” Dana put her hand on his arm. “Please, be careful. They may have other gifted people helping them. A select few of the gifted were as demented as The Curators.”
He smiled at her. “I will.” Brandon jumped out of the car and quietly shut the door. He unholstered his pistol and carefully approached the large barn that loomed in front of them.
Dana watched with anxious nerves as he rounded the side of the barn and disappeared from sight.
All was quiet for several minutes, and she wasn’t sure if she should get out or stay put. After waiting in the silence for a few moments more, she decided she could sit still no longer. She opened her door and slid out of the seat.
“What are you doing? Are you crazy?” Jeff hissed from the back seat.
“He might need me.” She wondered if Lacey was already there. “They might need me.”
“What about me? Are you just going to leave me here?” He looked panicked.
She glared at him and shut the door. What happened to Jeff was no longer her concern. He killed what little care she might still have for him when he kidnapped their daughter and proved he loved himself far more than he’d ever loved either of them.
She jogged to the old building first and pressed her back against the wall as she looked around at the barn. No one appeared to move inside or out.
Where had Brandon gone?
She needed to find her daughter, and ensure the kidnappers hadn’t also captured Brandon. She had yet to see the vehicle used in Lacey’s abduction. She prayed she hadn’t already missed them. She ran across the opening from the building to the barn, once again
pressing herself close to the wall. With quiet steps, she inched her way to a small window and ducked underneath it.
She felt sick. Nerves were getting the better of her, and she was afraid her daughter wouldn’t be in there. She was also uncomfortable with the thought of seeing Dr. Morrison again. Just hearing his name made her skin crawl.
What kind of reaction would she have once she was face-to-face with him?
Dana took a deep breath and steeled her nerves. She had to do this. She had to find Lacey, confront Dr. Morrison, and help Brandon. Failure was not an option.
She poked her head above the window sill, only to see … nothing. The barn was completely empty. Her heart sank.
“What are you doing?” Brandon asked directly behind her.
She jumped and had to stop herself from shocking him. Instead, she smacked his arm. “My God. You scared the hell out of me!”
He grinned. “Sorry. Why are you not in the car?”
“You were taking forever. I worried something happened to you,” she admitted, then turned to walk back to the car.
He fell in step beside her. “I appreciate the thought.”
She glanced at him as they approached the car. “So what do you think? Have they been here?” She needed to get her focus back on the task at hand.
“I couldn’t find evidence indicating anyone has been here.” He frowned.
Dana got in the car's backseat. “They haven’t been here. Did you lie to us?”
Jeff shook his head. “No, I promise. This is where they told us to meet.”
Brandon opened the driver’s side back door and leaned in. “Where else might they be?”
Jeff shrugged, and Dana pressed her fingertips against his temples. “Don’t piss me off, Jeff.”
He closed his eyes. “Uh, there might be one more place we can look.”
“And?” she asked.
“I heard them talking about a hospital. I don’t know where it is, but they mentioned Taylorbrook Hospital.” He slightly stammered the name.
Dana and Brandon slammed the doors before settling in the front seats again.
Brandon started the car and pulled back onto the interstate. He frowned. “You had better be on the level with us. I have no qualms about beating you to death and dumping your body in a ditch along the way.”