Seeing Black (27 page)

“That goes back to Brian.” Paul explained Brian to
the twins the same as he had explained it to Jill on numerous
occasions, now.

“So you were really just trying to help her, protect
her,” Oliver said.

“Yes. At least, that’s what I was trying to do. I’ve
been following Jill for the last ten years or so. I owed it to
Esther to make sure her daughter was safe. I began to watch over
her, more or less when she was rescued from the island. When I saw
the news of the rescue and I saw the redhead on the news with
Helen, I knew that she was alive. Remember, Liam had been expecting
Jill and Esther, so he knew she was born before they had departed
to Thailand, but Rocco didn’t know that. She was born prematurely.
Before they departed to Thailand, they stopped in California for
some sort of family function, and she went into labor. I also knew
that Rocco didn’t know this information, and luckily, he didn’t
know Helen either, so he never made the connection. Although, those
few weeks after the rescue were nerve-wracking. Every time Jill’s
face was plastered on the television, my heart sank. I thought
she’d be discovered, so I secretly went to see Helen, and we
decided she needed to be sent away just in case Rocco made the
connection.”

“And you knew Helen too?”

“Yes. I did. As soon as you were rescued, I made
contact with her. We kept at a distance and only spoke a handful of
times. I was the one who suggested sending Jill to boarding school.
I was afraid Rocco would make the connection if he saw Helen and
Jill together. You were all plastered all over the television after
the rescue, and I wasn’t sure whether Rocco had ever met Helen.
Regardless, I knew the moment Rocco and Josef found out about Jill
they’d want her. First, he’d want to know if she knew their
secrets. I mean, forget the money they could stand to lose. The
people who they stole it from wouldn’t hesitate to kill them.
Keeping their secret is paramount to them. They’d also want to know
if she knew about the experiments. Those were two secrets that
could potentially have them murdered, either by thugs or sentenced
to death for the inhumane crimes they committed. When the plane
crashed, Esther, the only person who had known their secrets, died.
Her death took care of all the loose ends—or so they thought. Then
Jill comes along; she’s the X factor. What she knows is the big
question they want figured out. Second, Josef, never got over his
obsession with replicating the psychic gene. That’s Josef’s life’s
dream, to recreate the gene. He’s a doctor, a scientist. As far as
he’s concerned, she holds the key to finding out what he wasn’t
able to do all those years before.”

“Because he never experimented on himself or Rocco,
who are the only other psychics they’ve ever found. Fuck.”
Alexander replied, figuring it out as the words came out of his
mouth.

“Now you’re seeing my concern.” Paul said. “Besides
the fact that they’re evil lunatics, thank God Jillian never knew
any of their secrets; otherwise, she’d be fucked more than she is
right now. Jillian holds that genetic material in her DNA. And a
lot of technology has come to light in the last decade. Genetic
engineering is not a thing of the future any longer. It may be
possible for them to clone her genetic make-up, but at what
cost?”

“And he doesn’t know you’re looking for him because
he can’t read your mind or see the future anymore?”

“Exactly. The only ability he seems to have works
only on Jill since they are genetically linked. He is also
manipulating her moods into staying at Wonderland.”

“Wonderland?”

“That is what he calls his home. Everyday Jill wakes
up confused, not knowing why she’s there. She gets anxious when she
realizes she shouldn’t be there and that something is wrong. He
then tells her she is free to leave, and something happens from
that point until the next day. She makes her way out and is
distracted by the gardens, butterflies, whatever, and never leaves.
She is subconsciously trapped. There are no restraints, so to
speak, but she can’t seem to leave. She isn’t even aware of the
length of time she’s been there. But stupidly, in his researching,
he’s also teaching her how to control her visions. He’s doing it
for his benefit, but he underestimates her. We’ve been working on
circumventing his powers. And we think once she has successfully
learned how to control her visions, she can get over that haziness
she sees. The confusion. She’s stopped taking all the meds they
give her, and every night she writes in her journal. When the
morning comes and I see her, she is less and less confused every
time, especially when she reads her own handwriting from her
journals. When I first saw her, weeks ago, she thought she’d only
been gone for a few hours, not six months. Now, she seems to
understand the fogginess that he is creating in her mind.”

He stopped speaking a few moments before he
continued. “Oliver, I am truly sorry that Heather got mixed up in
all this. I didn’t know that Brian would use her to get to Rocco.
I’ve stayed on the sidelines all these years. No one knows more
about Rocco and Josef than I do. I’ve been studying and following
them almost my entire life, even when I lived in Thailand with
Liam. I made my home here in Texas in order to keep an eye on them.
When I heard he had found out he had a daughter, things went
downhill fast. First, being a faculty member, I was able to
manipulate a scholarship for Jill. I needed her close so that I
could keep an eye on her. She’s smart and got in on her own, but I
had to make her go to Austin Law School, so I upped the ante by
getting her a full scholarship with full stipends. Thank God she
chose it.”

“So you did this for her mother? Because you owed
her mother to watch over Jill?” Oliver said in question form, but
it was really more of a statement.

Paul sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “This
is the part you guys aren’t going to like.”

“Nothing I’ve heard, I’ve liked.” Alexander
said.

“Well, you really aren’t going to like this.” Paul
took a moment before continuing. “Yes. I owed Jill’s mom my life. I
am forever in her debt, but I’ve been watching Jillian my entire
adult life. After a few weeks of dating her, she thought I was
falling in love with her and that it was all so fast, but really,
it wasn’t. I fell in love with her the moment I saw her walk into
my classroom. After trying to protect her for so many years, I had
strong feelings for her, but nothing could prepare me for seeing
her face to face, finally talking to her. So when we began to date,
it didn’t take long for those feelings to develop into love. I
can’t help it. She brings out a need for me to protect her.”

Alexander’s fists clenched.

“I’m sorry. I know you love her too, but so do I. I
had to keep up the charade of being just her teacher, but I’ve been
a lot more than that for many years. When I saw the way she was
with you two,” he pointed first at Oliver and then at Alexander,
“especially with you, Alexander, I just couldn’t keep my temper
under control. I know I was a dick to you, but I just wanted to
keep her by my side, safe. I wanted her to love me as much as I
love her.”

Oliver must have noticed the change of mood in the
room, so he spoke first. “So, what’s the plan now?”

“Well, I’m not a killer, but Brian is. He’s a loose
cannon. I don’t want her in Wonderland when the shit hits the fan.
I’m trying to get her out of there. I’m not going to pretend I
don’t want Rocco dead, but I can’t be the one to do it. I can’t
pull that trigger, so this will kill two birds with one stone, if
you will. He killed many innocent children as well as tormented my
childhood. Brian can do the dirty work, and I get my vengeance.
It’s just a matter of time until Brian finds Wonderland. I had
given him all my intel, including the information on the drug
money, over a year ago, and he’d never been able to find Rocco.
I’ve tried going to the police, but no one will touch Rocco, first,
because he’s Rocco Taylor and second, because they think this is
all a bunch of conspiracy-theory bullshit. No one can stop the
train Brian’s on. He hates him as much as I do. He even has some of
the old time drug thugs helping him, something I orchestrated
before Jill was in the picture. When Brian finds Wonderland, Jill
cannot be there. He wouldn’t hesitate in killing her. She’d just be
collateral damage, and he won’t give a fuck about it.”

Paul leaned forward and spoke directly to Alexander.
“Now, I’m going to ask you, Jacobs: Why the fuck couldn’t you keep
Jill away from her father? I wouldn’t have ever allowed her near
him. If she’d been mine, I’d have moved her to the other side of
the world to keep them apart.”

Alexander snorted and leaned back, arms crossed.
“Have you met Jillian? She doesn’t listen to anyone, including you.
Her fucking superpower is stubbornness! He sought her out and used
all her weaknesses to manipulate her into seeing him, her weakness
being, that he’d cure her of her psychic shit.”

“No. You are so goddamn clueless, Jacobs. That is
not her weakness. Josef threatened to kill you, Oliver, and Heather
if she didn’t cooperate.
That
is her weakness.”

Alexander and Oliver stayed silent. Oliver finally
spoke. “How do you know that? Why didn’t she tell us?”

“She told me. We’ve been trying to figure out what
exactly is this hold that Rocco has on her, and she told me the
reason she agreed to meet with him in the first place was because
Josef had been threatening her with hurting you all. She didn’t
tell you about it because she knew that you wouldn’t have allowed
her to go. Threat or not. But now, she’s there because she doesn’t
have a choice. She can’t leave, even if she wants to.”

“Damn it, Jillian!” Alexander pounded his fist on
the table.

“Luckily, it doesn’t seem as if he can read minds,
but he can alter her mood. So even though it’s obvious that he is
dangerous, when he’s around her, she’s calm and unafraid. He’s been
experimenting on her, but she can’t remember.”

“I suppose you can’t just give me an address for me
to go, knock on the door, and get Jillian home?” Oliver asked.

“I can give you an address, but it won’t do you any
good.”

“How about the police?” Oliver asked.

Paul shook his head. “It won’t help, either. First,
she won’t leave, not yet, at least. She is still fuzzy and under
his mental control. We’ve been working on breaking her connection
to him so that she can leave, but we’ve come to realize that the
only way it’ll happen is if she plays the part of the naive girl
wanting to get to know her daddy and in turn allowing him to teach
her. If she can learn how to get into his head, instead of vice
versa, she can escape. Also, there is no cop that will barge into
Rocco’s home and accuse him of kidnapping. And just for argument’s
sake, let’s say they do get a warrant or the balls to question him,
what will happen when Jill says she’s there voluntarily. And she
will. She will say whatever it is he wants her to say.”

“Fuck,” Oliver said.

“Exactly,” Paul added.

“So what do I do?” Alexander asked.

“You do nothing. You wait.”

“Why did you even bother coming, then?”

“Because she asked me to. In one of her brief
moments of clarity, she asked about you and made me promise to come
and tell you what was going on. She asked me to trust my secret
with you. She said you wouldn’t betray her by betraying me. I’m
also giving you the journals with detailed accounts of everything
I’ve just told you, along with my notes. If something were to
happen to me, you at least have some leverage.”

Alexander dropped his head onto his palms; his
elbows rested on the table. “Is she okay?”

“She’s . . . Well, it’s like she’s not Jillian. She
gets easily distracted. We start talking about the escape plan, and
one moment she’s the feisty redhead I love.” Alexander groaned but
Paul continued, “And the next, she’ll get distracted by the buttons
on her shirt. It’s as if she is mentally jammed. Rocco has given
her the illusion of freedom, but she’s stuck in a maze.”

Paul looked at his watch. “Listen, I have to go. I
told you both what I promised I would. I’m trusting you with a lot
of secrets. I’m sure you want to run out and save her as soon as I
leave, but you can’t. Like it or not, you have to trust me. Trust
her. I’ll get her out of there soon. Rocco’s been upgrading his
security system, something he does often. I’m not sure I’ll have
access to the house after that, so I have just a few days to get
the fog out of her mind so that she can see what is happening as it
happens.”

Oliver didn’t say anything as Paul stood up to
leave. Reluctantly, Oliver stuck out his hand and shook Paul’s
hand. Alexander struggled to get the words out, and Paul waited a
moment before turning to leave. “Wait.” Alexander called out. He
was embarrassed. He wasn’t the kind of man to wear his heart on his
sleeve and definitely not in front of Paul, but he had to get a
message to her. “Um, can you . . .? Can you tell her I love her?
Can you tell her I miss her? That I want to help. That I wish I
could help. That I’ve never given up.”

Paul took a step towards Alexander. “I’ve loved
Jillian for a long time now. I don’t remember what it feels like
not
to love her, but I see that I was never who she wanted.
I wish I were, but I’m not. As hard as it may be, I respect her
decision.” Paul stuck his hand out to shake Alexander’s hand and
didn’t let go right away. “But don’t confuse my concession with
weakness. I’m not doing any of this for you. I don’t give a fuck if
you’re suffering, if you’re hurting. I’m doing this for her, not
you. I know your past and how you’ve treated your women before.
You’ve cheated on them, slept with them, and never called. You
played them. Alexander, I hope you know that I’ll kill you if you
hurt her.” He squeezed Alexander’s hand before letting it go.