TPG (21 page)

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

Celia greeted Kyle and Liam at the
door, then led them to the den where Eddie was already waiting, ignoring the
fact that Liam’s eyes remained locked on her wheelchair the entire way.

Eddie didn’t pause
at the sight of them, he simply smiled and asked Celia to go play on the iPad
or watch TV in the family room. Then he turned to Kyle and asked, “Did Sheila
call yet with an update?”

Kyle shook his
head.

“You
do
know that this was done for Bree,
right? To protect her?”

“But how did you
know?” Kyle asked. “How did you know about the threats I was getting?”

“Sheila.”

“Sheila?”

Eddie nodded. “I
called her after you brought Bree back from camp. I knew there was something
going on when you wouldn’t talk about why you brought her home. So I called
Sheila and she told me about the video in the woods. She said it was just a
prank, but I knew there was more to it. I knew what was going on. Someone was
trying to get you to back off. And I knew you wouldn’t do anything about it.”

“So
that’s
why you called Shelia?” Kyle
asked. “Not to tell her that you were worried about me, but to check up on what
had happened with Bree at camp?”

As Kyle finished
the question, his phone rang. He slipped it out of his pocket and looked at the
caller ID. It was Sheila.

“They found her,”
Sheila said through sobs. “She’s okay. They found her.”

“Where?” Kyle
asked.

“Downtown. In the
lobby of a building under construction. A security officer found her.”

“And Adrea?”

“They found her
too.”

“Is she okay?”

“She was drugged
and had some red dye spilled down her neck to make it look like her throat was
slit, but she’s fine.”

“Is Bree there?
Can I talk to her?”

“She’s at the
police station. I’m on my way now. I just got off the phone with them.”

Kyle said he’d
meet her there, then hung up.

Eddie was smiling.

“I don’t
understand,” Liam said. “What the heck is going on?”

“I kidnapped
Hillier,” Eddie said.

“I got that much.
But after meeting your daughter, I figured it was so you could see if Hillier
could get her to walk again. Have him transfer energy over to her to see if it
has the same effect with her as it does with him.”

“No. That was just
a secondary benefit. A bonus,” Eddie said. “I kidnapped him for Bree. For Ky. I
had to make sure Bree would be safe.”

Liam shook his
head. “So I don’t get it. You made her safe by getting her
kidnapped
?”

“In a sense, yes,”
Eddie said. “When you told me how weak and frail Hillier was, I knew I had to
grab him before he got healthy. So I’ve been parking outside his building at
night waiting for him to leave. And last night, he left. So I followed him and
grabbed him. The guy was such a mess that I actually thought he might never
wake up again after I drugged him. But he did, and when he woke I offered him a
deal. I told him that as long as he transfers some of his energy to Celia and
gets her to walk we won’t try to stop him from doing what he does, so there
will be no reason for him to harm Bree.”

“Wait a second,”
Liam said. “You made a deal with him where you agreed to let him
continue
to kill?”

“I think you’re
looking at this the wrong way,” Eddie said, his expression tightening. “Bree
won’t be harmed.”

“But you did this
for Celia. That was your plan all along, wasn’t it?” Kyle said. “Even in the
beginning. As soon as you realized there was some legitimacy to what Liam was
saying, it was your plan to get Hillier to transfer energy to Celia. Even
before you found out about Bree. That’s why you were calling Liam, why you were
so interested in John of God.”

Eddie sighed. “Did
I consider it? Of course. Would I have gone through with it if we were able to
prevent this madman from continuing to kill?” He looked Kyle square in the
eyes. “We’ve been best friends for how many years?” His expression deepened.
“Even if it meant my baby could walk again, you know I wouldn’t let these
deaths continue.”

“So why are you
allowing it now?” Liam asked.

Eddie’s eyes
turned steely. “Because he’ll have
Bree
killed if we don’t. The guy’s a mercenary.”

“A mercenary?”

“Yes, Liam. A
fucking mercenary. You made that connection yourself. He’s a damn hit man. He
does exactly what you thought he did, kills for hire. He’s a damn hit man.
That’s it. A glorified one who has the most perfect game in town
—
he leaves no evidence and
can get what he needs accomplished whenever the hell he wants to. And he has
one of his mercenary buddies ready to kill Bree if he’s harmed. Kyle knows. As
soon as Hillier didn’t check in with his buddy this morning, Bree was abducted.
And the only reason why she wasn’t killed is because I told Hillier we didn’t
want to stop him. That all we wanted was for him to help out Celia. That’s it.
So there was no reason to hurt Bree. He agreed to it and called his buddy and
told him to let Bree go.”

“What about
Allie?” Liam asked. “Will he be able to help her?”

Eddie paused and
softened his expression. “I can ask him,” he said. “And I can tell him that
getting Allie out of the coma has to be part of the deal.”

“Did he say he
could do that?” Kyle asked.

“I didn’t ask, but
if he can get Celia to walk I can’t imagine he won’t be able to help Allie as
well.”

Liam swallowed.
“But he’ll have to kill to get the energy to do that, right?”

Eddie didn’t
respond.

“Of course he
will.” Liam lowered his eyes, answering his own question.

“I suppose he
will. But would you rather Allie die? Would you rather Bree die?” Eddie asked.
“Because those are the alternatives.”

“There has to be
another way,” Liam said.

“There isn’t. This
is it.” He looked at Kyle, who was sitting quietly. “And we all have to make
our fucking peace with it because this guy is not going to screw around. Did
you see how quickly he had his buddies nab Bree?”

Liam’s face was
frozen. He turned to Kyle. “There’s got to be some other way, right?”

But Kyle just
looked down at his feet.

“There
isn’t
another way,” Eddie said. “There
simply isn’t. How else will he transfer energy over to Allie if he doesn’t have
any to give? And what about Bree? This guy has connections all over the place.
The government, KnightWare, the police. You’re the one who made that
connection. You know he’ll find out, and he’ll kill Bree
if
he doesn’t kill Kyle first.”

Kyle looked up,
his eyes narrowing on Eddie. “How do you know that? How do you know he has
those connections other than Liam’s stories?”

“You don’t think a
guy with his ‘talents’ puts them to use for the big guns—DEA, FBI, NSA?
C’mon, Ky.”

“So we’re supposed
to just let this happen?” Liam asked. “Even though we can prevent so many
innocent deaths, we’re just supposed to let it go by? Not say a word?”

“I’m not saying
it’s easy,” Eddie said. “But yes, that’s what we have to do. It’s the same
thing Kyle’s been doing, or what he was going to do. Let it happen.”

Liam shook his
head. “But what if we just kill him? Or just let him die. Let his energy just
run out. Then he
couldn’t
harm Bree.”

“Then Allie dies,
or becomes a living vegetable.”

“But no one else
will.”

“You’re forgetting
about Bree.”

“No I’m not,” Liam
said. “If he’s dead, he can’t kill her.”

“That’s not the
way it works,” Eddie said. “You think he doesn’t know that? He dies, his buddy
kills Bree. No matter how long it takes.”

“We can hide her,”
Liam countered.

“Where? Where are
we going to hide her so she’ll be safe for the rest of her life and still be
able to lead a relatively normal life?”

“Maybe she won’t
be able to live a
normal
life,” Liam
said. “But no more innocent people will have to die.”

“Easy for you to
say,” Eddie said. “Bree isn’t
your
daughter. Besides, you really don’t think this guy’s friends will be able to
find her? Really? You run a fucking comic book store. You think
you’ll
be able to keep her hidden?”

The room remained
silent. No one spoke.

Liam looked over
at Kyle. “I’m sorry, Kyle. I want Allie back more than anything in the world,
but I can’t let this happen. I can’t sit by and let this guy keep killing. And
I can’t let someone else die to save Allie’s life. There has to be something we
can figure out, but we can’t let this happen. We can’t let someone else die.”

Liam began to
leave the room, but Eddie blocked the entrance.

“Where the fuck
are you going?”

“I’m going to call
the Crusaders,” Liam said, his beady eyes zoning in on Eddie’s. “And then I’m
going to call the police. And if they try to cover it up, or shut me up and
keep this quiet, I’ll have the Crusaders go public with everything. This has to
stop.”

Eddie pushed Liam
hard in the chest, causing the chubby man to fall backward and tumble to the
floor. “You aren’t going anywhere, and you’re not calling anyone.”

“Eddie!” Kyle
yelled. “What the hell are you doing?”

“He’s going to get
Bree killed,” Eddie said. “Is that what you want?”

Kyle helped Liam
to his feet, then glared at Eddie. “He’s doing the right thing. Let him go.”

“Let him go? What
about Bree?”

Kyle swallowed.
“I’ll have to get her in protective custody, or something. I’m not sure. But
he’s right. We can’t let this go on.
I
can’t let this go on. It has to end.”

“Do you think
these guys are joking around, Ky? They’re killers. Trained killers. Yeah, they
faked Adrea’s death, but that was only because they didn’t need the risk. It
was just to get your attention. But they
will
kill Bree.”

Kyle stared at
him. “How did you know they faked Adrea’s death?”

“Hillier told me.”

“How would he
know? He was with you.”

“His buddy told
him when Hillier called to tell him to back off and let the girls go.”

Kyle kept studying
Eddie, seeing the sweat form above his upper lip. He was nervous. He was also
lying. Kyle could see the façade of deceit sliding off until there was nothing
at the core but resignation.

And then Eddie did
the unthinkable.

He pulled out a
gun and pointed it at Liam and Kyle.

“No one is going
anywhere.”

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

Terry Hillier wasn’t going to be
able to deliver what the man wanted. It simply wasn’t going to work for a
number of reasons. The first being that he was barely able to keep himself
alive and help out Evan, let alone add someone else to the mix. And even
putting that aside, he just couldn’t do what he was being asked. Transferring
energy to help someone focus was one thing, getting someone to walk again was a
whole other universe—one that strengthening the mind would do little to
fix.

But he had needed
to bide his time and play along until he was healthy again. He had no choice.
He was slipping away and needed a hit, quickly. As he rolled his neck while
taking slow, deliberate breaths to try to control the pain, he considered his
options. He could either wait and see if the man would actually let him take a
hit and then go from there, or he could try to do something before the man
either killed him or turned him in. He’d much prefer the latter option, but he
wasn’t really in a state to act on it. His hands were tied behind his back and
his body was on the verge of complete collapse.

But he had to
fight through it and at least try.

He’d already
scanned the room for something with a sharp edge to cut through the twine
binding his arms, but hadn’t found anything useful. His only option was to
create his own sharp edge by breaking the glass coffee table and then using one
of the shattered shards of glass. It would take some time, but it was all he
could come up with. So he shimmied the chair over to the bookshelf and grabbed
a metal paperweight in the shape of a globe and about the size of a softball.
Together with his weight, it’d likely do the trick. He shimmied back to the
coffee table, positioning himself so the back of the chair was against it and
the paperweight in his hands facing it. He mustered what strength he had left
and leaned himself and the chair backward so that he landed, paperweight first,
flush on top of the table. His body cried out in pain as the glass shattered on
impact—sharp, throbbing signals screaming up and down his back, shooting
over to his arms and legs.

When the coursing
pain subsided enough to allow him to take inventory, he realized the collision
had much better results than he’d intended. The fall had actually cracked the
back of the chair, allowing him to slip the twine off rather than fighting to
keep the tremors steady long enough to cut it loose. His hands were still
bound, but he was free from the chair. He tried opening the door leading to
what he believed was a garage, or maybe the outside, but it was locked from the
other side. Normally that would be odd, as a home lock typically prevents
someone from getting in, not out, but he was sure it was something the man had
done just for him to make sure he didn’t escape.

He had to try the
other exit, even if the man was waiting for him. It was the only option. He
walked up the stairs, sure the door would be locked just like the one
downstairs. But he had to try. He had to rule out the easy options. When his
aching body finally made its way to the top, he turned his back to the door and
used his still bound hands to turn the knob. Locked. Just as he expected.

But there was
something else there. He could feel it. His nerve endings began dancing, the
electricity prickling the hairs on his neck.

There was someone
outside the room.

And whoever it was,
was most definitely a match.