Brain Storm (A Taylor Morrison Novel Book 1) (40 page)

I motioned her to keep quiet and to move further down the wall of cabinets we were hiding behind. I didn’t think Brown would rush us, or he probably would have done it by now. As far as he knew, I was armed and dangerous so he wouldn’t expose himself, but I wanted her out of the way just in case he came running through the doorway. She slid down the wall and crab crawled quickly to the corner of the kitchen between the refrigerator and the stove. She reached up and grabbed the skillet that had been sitting on a burner, ready to fry up the mornings bacon and gave me a nod that she was good. I gave what I hoped was a reassuring nod back and waited for Brown’s next move. We didn’t have to wait long.

“Taylor,” Brown called out. “We need to talk.”
 

I didn’t bother answering. I could feel Brown moving around in the living room. He didn’t have much room for cover in there. It was a fairly small room, with basically three walls. Where the fourth wall would normally be was pretty much open access to the entrance door and stairway. There was very little wall space to provide any cover so he was limited as to where he could go, which was a good thing. I might be able to throw something at him, but not if I wasn’t sure where he was. That was the problem with this kinetic ability. It had limits. You couldn’t just do things. You had to know what and how and where and when. I might not know much about it, but I knew that much.

“Taylor, there’s no sense in anyone else getting hurt. Just come out and let’s talk.”
 

Anyone else getting hurt?
I didn’t dare look at Candice, afraid to see my own thoughts mirrored on her face. I had no idea where Mac was or what had happened to Bryan, but Mama D was still upstairs. Brown could get to her in seconds and there was nothing I could do to stop him.

I glanced behind me at the kitchen, searching for options. I was just inside the open doorway to the left, squatting down behind cabinets. The table was across from me, sitting between me and another wall of cabinets and the sink. On the far end of that wall was the door to the outside. The end furthest away from where Candice now hovered with her frying pan.
 

We had a way out, but to get to it, we’d have to cross the open doorway and skirt the table, and I was pretty sure that wherever Brown had holed up, he’d made sure he’d have a good view of the outside door. We were pretty much trapped.

“Where’s Sean?” I asked, stalling for time, frantically looking for a way out.
 

“I’m afraid Sean met with an unfortunate accident.”

He was moving again, coming forward through the room. I could feel him, almost see him in my mind. I tried to ignore what he’d said about Mac and concentrate on escaping, but his words had shaken me. I didn’t dare ask about Bryan.

I looked back over at the kitchen entrance, hoping something had changed and saw the dishes piled up on the drying rack next to the sink. Dishes, pots, pans and
knives
. I could see the handles peeking out from under the pots that were air drying. I felt Brown still moving forward through the living room. He’d figured out that if I hadn’t made a move by now, I wasn’t going to.

I gave Candice a look and nodded my head towards the drying rack and then the back door. She looked over, frowning and then understood. She turned back nodding. I shifted position, ready to move. I had no idea where Brown was, but had to think that the sight of a knife coming at him would have him diving for cover. If he was distracted, I might be able to get to him and buy Candice enough time to get out the door.
 

I looked back over my shoulder and reached out for a knife. I saw the handle wobble and closed my eyes.
God help me
, I prayed as I grabbed hold of one of the knives and threw it where I hoped Brown would be standing. I watched as it sailed through the opening and lunged to my feet, ready to follow. The sound of it striking the fireplace, followed by Brown’s laugh stopped me in my tracks. Candice had started moving for the door as soon as the knife flew, but I motioned her quickly to stop and go back. I had clearly missed.

“Very good, Taylor. That was actually quite close but not close enough." I felt him move closer and knew he was nearly on top of us. This had gone on long enough. I motioned for Candice to head out the back as I made my decision.

I stood up and stepped out into the entry, coming face to face with the barrel of Mac’s gun in Brown’s hand. I looked up into Brown’s face and knew he had made a critical mistake. He had Mac’s gun. A nice, deadly, semi-automatic that I was quite familiar with. That meant the bullets were in a clip. It fed the bullets into the gun, one after another, so you didn’t have to stop and load them by hand. You could carry multiple clips and have a nice supply of ammo. You just had to press the release button and watch the clip drop away and ram another one up into place.
 

Brown’s problem was two fold. He didn’t have an extra clip and I knew where the button was. I reached out mentally and pressed down on the release, hearing the click as the clip disengaged and dropped from the gun.

The shocked look on Brown’s face was priceless. I grabbed the gun and jammed it upward as he fired, the bullet missing me by inches. I twisted the gun from his hand and gave him a knee in the groin. He bent forward, doubled over in pain and I brought the same knee up into his face, breaking his nose and spraying blood over the wall. I brought the gun around, clubbing him in the side of the head with it and he went down like a ton of bricks. He’d barely hit the floor when I let loose with a hard kick to his kidneys, making sure he was down.

I was out of breath by the time I’d finished with him, but I dropped to my knees to grab the clip and ram it back into place, chambering a round in one fluid motion. He wasn’t moving, but I was ready for him, just in case. I staggered back to my feet and put some distance between us, keeping the gun trained on him. Candice came up beside me, still holding her frying pan and I heard her gasp. Following the stricken look in her eyes past Brown, I saw Bryan’s body on the floor by the fireplace, his face bloody and a red pool staining the rug beneath him. He wasn’t moving. For all I knew Brown had killed him. My thoughts flew to Mac. He was out there somewhere and I needed to find him, but I had to take care of Brown first.

“Candice, get the duct tape,” I ordered. She looked at me in confusion, tears streaming down her face. “Candice! Duct tape. Now!” She snapped out of it and ran back into the kitchen, jerking open drawers in rapid secession, searching for the tape.

I heard a noise from the floor and looked down to see Brown had come to and was trying to get to his feet. I kept the gun on him as he got to his knees and struggled to stand and motioned him to move into the kitchen intending to tape him to one of the sturdy kitchen chairs for safe keeping.

“Well done, Taylor.” He grimaced as he took a breath, and I sincerely hoped I had broken some of his ribs during our fight as well as his nose “You’re good, but once again. Not quite good enough.”

He turned to face me, a smile on his face and suddenly I was flying backwards through the air. I slammed onto the floor, sliding into the stairs behind me so hard the gun was torn from my hand and I watched helpless as it went spinning across the floor back towards Brown. I was momentarily stunned as realization seeped into my rattled brain. Brown had just thrown me across the room without ever laying a hand on me. Dazed, I scrambled to my feet, as he picked up the gun, and turned it on Candice.
 

“No!” I screamed, desperate to somehow stop him. My gaze was focused on Candice and I saw her eyes widen in fear, fixed somewhere behind me.

“Say, good-bye,” he said and I watched in horror as his finger tightened on the trigger. In a distant part of my mind, I heard the sound of a shell being racked into place behind me and managed to fling myself flat on the floor just as Mama D cut loose with the shotgun.

The impact took him off his feet and pinned him to the wall, where he hung for a minute before sliding onto the floor. At such close range, there wasn’t a chance he’d survive, but I scrambled across the floor for the gun he had dropped just in case and felt immediately better once I had it safe in my hand. My ears were ringing and I was covered in blood. I looked at Brown and from my vantage point on the floor he seemed dead enough. I rolled over and saw Mama D had dropped the gun and collapsed in a heap on the stairs, obviously in shock. I tried to get to my feet without much success and then suddenly, Candice was there helping me up. She was patting me down and hugging me, and I finally figured out that she thought Mama D had shot me too. I looked behind me at holes in the wall, the grouping still tight, just a couple of feet above where my head had been. It had been close. Too close.

Then again, I thought as I struggled to my feet and made my way to the stairs, Mama D was pretty good with that shotgun. I picked it up, securing Mac’s gun in my waistband, as Candice checked on Mama D. She had a bad case of the shakes, but that was to be expected. I wasn’t too steady myself. I motioned for Candice to stay with her while I went to check on Bryan.
 

He hadn’t moved. There was blood on his face and on the floor beneath him. I couldn’t tell if he was alive or not, couldn’t see him breathing. I knelt down and checked for a pulse. It was there. Surprisingly strong and steady. I quickly checked him over and the only damage was a large gash on his head which accounted for all the blood and a huge bump on his head that accounted for him being out cold. He probably had a concussion, but at least the swelling was on the outside and not inside his brain. That was something, at least. I rolled him over into a recovery position, made sure his airway was clear and went back to check on Candice and Mama D, grabbing a blanket off the sofa to cover Brown’s body on my way. Candice had moved Mama D into a kitchen chair with her back to the carnage. She looked up in question when I came in.
 

“He’s alive,” I assured her. She breathed out a sigh of relief and I knew she’d been terrified that Brown had killed him. I’d been worried too and I was still worried about Mac, who I had yet to find. “ He got hit on the head and is out cold. You may want to go throw some cold water on him. See if you can get him to come around.”

“Okay.” She was shaky, but got to her feet in spite of it. “Where are you going?”
 

 
I handed her Mac’s gun and put the shotgun in easy reach on the kitchen counter. “I’m going upstairs to get my gun and then I’m going to look for Mac. You work on Bryan and stay in the house.” I pointed at the gun in her hand. “Keep that with you. The safety’s off.”

I leaned down and gave Mama D a hug and a kiss on the cheek. She was still in shock and probably would be for a while. I had no idea when she’d managed to get the shotgun. Didn’t know if she’d found it here already, or taken it from our stash. What I did know was that this was the second time she killed a man and that was something you never got over. She’d just saved all our bacon. It was a fact that dimmed in light of such a violent action but it might help her be able to live with what had happened. She had done what she had to do, but that didn’t make me any less sorry that she’d had to do it. Not for the first time, the thought crossed my mind of how much better off they would all be if they’d never known me. They would be home, happy and safe. I had given them the choice, but that didn’t change the facts. This had happened because of me and I had to find a way to live with it.

I headed quickly upstairs, giving the cabin a once over on my way up. By the time I reached my room, I was pretty certain Mac wasn’t in the house, which meant he was somewhere outside the cabin. I pulled my gun out of the drawer, slipping an extra clip inside my pocket. I figured that if Brown had help coming from the Agency, he would have waited to make his move until they were there, but I wasn’t positive. Maybe he had waited and they had been outside taking care of Mac while Brown was busy with us inside, but there had been enough time and gunfire for them to come running if that was the case and no one had showed up.

In any event, I wanted to be ready in case I ran into some of his friends out there in the woods. I’d already nearly gotten everyone killed tonight underestimating Brown and leaving my gun behind. Once was more than enough.

When I came back down, Bryan was awake and sitting up in a kitchen chair. He might have been awake, but he wasn’t focusing yet and looked like he was going to pass out again at any second, so he was of no use.
 

“Keep watch,” I told Candice, as I grabbed a jacket and threw it on. “He might not be alone.” I gave her a nod and slipped out the door into the night.
 

THIRTY-FIVE

I STEPPED OUT to be greeted by a sky full of stars and a nearly full moon. At high altitude, the sky seemed almost close enough to touch and without the smog from the distant cities, gave off enough light not to need a flashlight to search the clearing around the house.

Whatever Brown had that made him buzz, Mac didn’t have. I had been happy about that, but now would have given anything to hear it. It would have made it much easier to find him now that I’d figured out how to hear the minute changes in the buzz.

I might not be able to hear him, but I knew Mac could hear me. I’d gotten through to him in the bank. He said it was like I was talking to him. If he was alive and awake, I could get through to him now. I sat down on the porch and tried to clear my thoughts.

Mac, if you can hear me, make some noise.
I waited, listening, hoping to hear him call out and got nothing. I tried again and got the same result. Either he couldn’t answer or I couldn’t hear him, which was a distinct possibility given the ringing that was still going on in my head from the shotgun blast.