Fort Lupton (30 page)

“
This is an article about
them,” Yvonne said.

Yvonne put the newspaper on the counter.
Yvonne and Sandy put their heads together as they leaned over the
paper.

“
That’s them,” Sandy said
exhaled.

“
They are evil,” Yvonne
said. “What can I do?”

“
Seth is supposed to be
getting me Angela’s home address,” Sandy said.

“
How can he do
that?”

“
He has connections almost
everywhere,” Sandy said. “We need to let her know about these
men.”

“
Tonight?” Yvonne
asked.

“
I can’t go tonight,”
Sandy said. “I have to meet with the police and check on Charlie
and . . .”

“
I’ll go,” Yvonne
said.

“
What about Jabari?” Sandy
asked.

“
What about him?” Yvonne
asked. “I’ll call my friend Dionne. We’ll head to Arizona tonight
and the men can have a boys’ night.”

“
You’re sure?” Sandy
asked.

“
I’m more than sure,”
Yvonne said. “I know stuff about these men that
would . . .”

“
Me too,” Sandy said. “If
we stop them now . . .”

“
They can’t set up again.”
Yvonne nodded. “Good thinking.”

“
I have to go,” Sandy
said. “I’m going to keep your book, if that’s okay.”

“
No bother,” Yvonne said.
“I have a copy.”

Yvonne jogged out of the kitchen. Sandy
heard her moving around, and she came back with another copy.
Together, they found the right pages and dog-eared them.

“
What about telling Alex
Hargreaves?” Yvonne asked. “She’s been taking care of a lot of
this.”

“
Her hands are tied,”
Sandy said. “Colin is her brother.”

Sandy looked at the clock.

“
I have to go!” Sandy
said.

She jumped off the stool and stuffed her
copy of the journal into her bag.

“
You’re sure?” Sandy
asked.

“
I’m almost already
there!” Yvonne said.

Yvonne walked Sandy to the door, and Sandy
ran out to her car. Yvonne dialed her cell phone.

“
Hey, Dionne,” Yvonne
said. “You want to go on an adventure with me?”

~~~~~~~~

Saturday night — 11:07 p.m.

Feeling the air change in their bedroom,
Jacob opened his eyes.

“
Brother.” Fin’s voice
came from the end of the bed.

“
What is it?” Jill sat up
in bed.

Jill turned on the bedside lamp. Fin was on
one knee with his head down. He was breathing hard. His shirt was
wet with blood.

“
Fin?” Jacob
asked.

“
I need your help,” Fin
said to Jacob.

“
What’s happening?” Jill
asked.

“
The curse is not lifted,”
Fin said. “At least for me.”

“
Abi?”

“
She’s carrying our son,”
Fin said. “She’s dying. Our healers say the curse hasn’t lifted for
her.”

Their bedroom door opened and Keenan was
standing in the doorway.

“
You will need me there,”
Keenan said.

“
Jacob?” Fin asked. “The
healers said we need you and the Oracle.”

“
Keenan?” Delphie came up
behind him. She put her hands on his shoulders. “What are you doing
here?”

Her eyes took in Fin.

“
What’s going on?” Delphie
asked.

“
The curse hasn’t lifted
for me, for Abi,” Fin said. “Please.”

Jacob looked at Jill.

“
Go,” Jill said. “We’ll be
fine here.”

“
But . . .”

“
Go,” Jill
said.

Jacob jumped out of bed and started to get
dressed.

“
I am going, Mother,”
Keenan said. “It is my curse that lingers. He will need me before
it’s over.”

“
The healers say they need
the Oracle too,” Fin said.

“
I just need to change.”
Delphie looked at Jacob and then back at Fin. “How bad is
it?”

“
The kingdom is rotting
from the inside,” Fin said.

Delphie gave a curt nod. Jacob closed the
door to the bathroom.

“
Come on, Keenan,” Delphie
said. “Let’s get dressed.”

Delphie and Keenan rushed out of the room.
Fin fell to all fours to catch his breath. Jill got out of bed and
knelt down to him.

“
Show me,” Jill
said.

Fin turned his hand over, and the events on
the Isle of Man unfolded. He brought Abi there. The healers stemmed
the flow of blood only to have it rip open again. Over and over
again, Abi was healed and injured until she started to lose her
life force. Fin’s desperate eyes looked up at her.

“
I can’t leave the boys,”
Jill said. “They are too young for curses and evil jealousies, too
young to be without me.”

“
But Kathryn?” Fin
asked.

“
No,” Jill
said.

“
We will not succeed
without her,” Fin said. “We need a Titan.”

Jill closed her eyes to his desperation and
pain.

“
Father,” Jill said in a
soft voice. “I need you here.”

Perses appeared in her room. He lifted her
to her feet with one arm and brandished a sword at Fin with the
other. Fin dropped his head in submission.

“
What have you done?”
Perses asked. “Confess now and I might spare you.”

“
No,” Jill
said.

Perses looked at her.

“
He’s still affected by
the curse,” Jill said. Perses let go of her. “He needs a Titan. I
can’t go because of the babies. He could use Katy,
but . . .”

“
I cannot ask for a
child,” Fin said. “I would never ask for a child.”

“
And your husband?” Perses
gestured toward the bathroom.

“
He and Delphie are
going,” Jill said. “Keenan too.”

Perses nodded. As if by magic, Jacob
appeared from the bathroom at the same moment, and Delphie and
Keenan were standing at the door. Perses nodded, and they
disappeared.

The room was absolutely silent. Jill knelt
down to touch a drop of blood on the carpet.

“
It’s starting again,”
Jill whispered.

One day at a
time

Sunday early morning — 2:59 a.m.

Sandy woke up with a start. Sitting up in
bed, she glanced over to Rachel’s crib. In the last month, Rachel
had started sleeping through the night. She had even made it a week
in her own crib. Tonight, Rachel was sound asleep.

Sandy glanced at Aden. He was asleep.

Groggy and hung-over from her emotional day,
she rested her head back on her pillow and almost fell asleep.
Something nagged at the back of her mind. More asleep than awake,
she got out of bed and slipped out of their bedroom. She went to
the end of the hallway and peeked in Charlie’s closet.

It was empty. Charlie’s bed wasn’t slept in.
Her heart squeezed with panic.

She went to Noelle and Sissy’s room. Their
beds were made. Noelle’s half-open closet door drew Sandy like a
magnet. Noelle’s closet was almost empty. Sandy spun around and
jogged through the adjoining bathroom and into Nash’s bedroom. His
bed was made and his room was clean. Sandy dropped onto his
bed.

Something was seriously wrong if Nash’s room
was clean and his bed was made. She racked her brain.

Where were her children?

They were somewhere. Her heart told her they
were somewhere safe.

Why weren’t they with her?

She heard a sound in their living room. She
ran to see if her kids were sleeping in the living room
tonight.

Buster, the ugly dog, was lying in front of
the apartment door the way he did when the kids were due home from
school. He looked up at her.

With his soft whimper, Sandy remembered.

She had sent the kids away.

Charlie was at Seth’s house. Noelle and
Sissy were safely ensconced in Bestat’s palatial New York
apartment. Nash and Teddy were in the mountains snowshoeing.

Her kids were gone. And they weren’t coming
home anytime soon.

Sorrow overwhelmed her. She fell to her
knees next to Buster. He made another sound, and she lay down
beside him.

One day at a time, they would watch the door
in hopes the children would return.

Tonight, they cried.

~~~~~~~~

Sunday morning — 4:59 a.m.
Phoenix, Arizona

“
Is this it?” Yvonne
whispered to Dionne.

“
That’s the address,”
Dionne said.

She pointed to the number on the side of a
plain apartment building. The nondescript building was neither too
big nor too small. It wasn’t a nice place, exactly, and also wasn’t
a dump. It certainly didn’t seem like the kind of place where a
senior FBI agent would live. The women looked up at the building
and then pressed their heads together to look at Yvonne’s phone
again.

Yvonne shrugged, and Dionne nodded. Yvonne
pulled on the apartment building’s outer door. It opened
easily.

“
How did you do that?”
Dionne asked.

“
I thought, ‘Open,’”
Yvonne said with a smile.

She held the door for Dionne and they went
inside the apartment lobby.

“
You did not,” Dionne
said.

“
You’re right,” Yvonne
chuckled. “I didn’t. It wasn’t locked.”

Dionne gave a soft laugh and pressed the
button to the elevator. The elevator doors slowly opened.

“
We have to hurry, because
she might leave for work,” Yvonne said.

“
Who might leave for
work?” a woman asked as she stepped off the elevator.

The woman gave Yvonne a long look before
assessing Dionne. She wasn’t as tall as either Yvonne or Dionne.
She had long black hair and light brown skin, like Seth had told
them to look for. She wore a dark blue windbreaker, exercise
tights, and running shoes.

“
What’s it to you?” Dionne
said.

“
You’re Dionne Wilson,”
the woman said, “Doctor Leroy Wilson’s wife, Jeraine Wilson’s
mother, and an incredible singer.”

“
So?” Dionne asked. “It’s
a free country.”

“
That makes you Yvonne
Smith,” the woman said.

Yvonne smiled.

“
You are more beautiful
than I’d imagined.” The woman nodded. “They told me, but
. . .”

“
If you will excuse us,”
Dionne said, “we have important business.”

“
Maybe I can help,” the
woman said. “Who are you looking for?”

“
We came to see the woman
in 431,” Yvonne said.

The woman looked surprised.

“
Urgent business,” Dionne
said.

“
Who sent you?” the woman
asked.

“
A friend,” Dionne
said.

The woman looked at Yvonne and then back at
Dionne.

“
I thought Art was in
hiding,” the woman said.

“
You know my handsome
agent?” Yvonne smiled.

“
Why are you here?” the
woman asked.

“
Who are you?” Dionne
stepped in front of Yvonne. She towered over the smaller
woman.

“
Angela Muniz, FBI,” the
woman said. “I was just going for my run and . . . You
got my address from Art?”

“
O’Malley,” Dionne
said.

The woman nodded.

“
I’m going to let you into
my apartment,” Agent Muniz said.

Agent Muniz got back into the elevator.

“
Well, come on,” Agent
Muniz said. “I’ll let you in and go running. You can eat and
freshen up.”

“
We need to talk to you as
soon as possible,” Yvonne said.

“
Whatever you have to say,
it has to wait,” Agent Muniz said. “I’m running a marathon in a
month and a half and I can’t miss training.”

The woman nodded. Dionne and Yvonne got back
onto the elevator. Before they could say another word, they were
standing in Agent Muniz’s apartment watching the door close.

“
Well?” Yvonne
asked.

“
Now we wait,” Dionne
said.

~~~~~~~~

Sunday morning — 5:59 a.m.

“
Oh.”

Sitting on the floor playing with Mack,
Heather looked at the entrance to Mack’s room. A voice had just
said something. Or at least she thought she had heard something. No
one was standing there.

“
Tink?” Heather
asked.

“
T’nk, T’nk, T’nk, T’nk,”
Mack babbled.

He was a saliva dripped, babbling mess. He
chewed on his fist. Heather wasn’t sure if Mack had seen Tink or if
he was repeating what she had said. She hoisted herself to her feet
and lifted Mack to her hip. She went to the door to look.

“
Tink?” Heather looked
out.

Ivy was standing against the wall next to
the door. Heather touched her arm, and the girl burst into tears.
Well versed in her own melodramatic ways, Heather used her free
hand to guide Ivy to the old leather couch in Schmidty’s family
room. She settled Ivy on the couch, grabbed a box of tissues, and
returned. She set Mack on the floor so he wouldn’t get fussy.