Possession: Steel Brothers Saga: Book Three Page 5

  Jonah and Ryan came out—Joe with what looked like a gin and tonic, Ryan with a can of soda.

  “Sorry,” he said, when I eyed the can. “I’m just not ready for alcohol at eleven.”

  I nodded. After all, he wasn’t the one about to divulge his guts.

  “I asked you guys to come before Marj gets here because I can’t tell her everything. Not the worst of it. But I need you guys to know a few things. I may not tell you everything, but you deserve to know what happened. And you deserve to know what happened to Luke.”

  Jonah widened his eyes. “You know what happened to Luke?”

  “Yeah.”

  Luke Walker had gone missing a couple of weeks before I had. He was my age, skinny little kid with buckteeth, a basic nerd. He wasn’t a close friend of mine, but for some reason I had decided to save him from the bullies who were always after him. And then one day Luke disappeared. My first thought was that the bullies had taken him, but they hadn’t. Jonah’s best friend was Bryce Simpson, Luke’s cousin, and the three of us and Ryan decided to try to figure out what had happened to Luke.

  I cleared my throat. “The day I was taken, I saw Luke.”

  “Was he alive?” Ryan asked.

  I let out a breath. “No, he was already dead.” I paused a moment, getting my bearings. “That old shack where two of the guys were, they had Luke in there. I don’t know what they had been planning to do with him so close to his home or whether my presence changed their plans. He was already dead but…”

  “But what?” Jonah asked.

  I closed my eyes, but the image swirled like a kaleidoscope inside my head. “They hacked him up with an ax. They… They made me watch, threatened to kill me if I screamed or threw up.”

  I opened my eyes. Both my brothers’ faces had turned pale as ghosts. Neither said a word. What was there to say?

  “They put what was left of his body into a giant trash bag. I don’t know what they ultimately did with it. They shoved it in the back of a pickup, tied my hands and legs, and shoved me in the backseat. I think I was in and out of consciousness as we drove. I don’t know how long we were driving.”

  My brothers still stayed silent.

  “It’s hard to remember the details. I think it was dark outside by the time we got to wherever we were going. Seemed like we had been driving for hours.”

  “Tal,” Jonah said, his voice cracking, “if you’d been driving for hours, how did you make it back home when you escaped?”

  I shook my head. “I have no idea. So much of it is a blur. We’ll get to my escape in a while. But for now, I need to tell you what I told Dr. Carmichael.”

  My brothers nodded.

  “They pulled me out from the back of the truck and unbound my feet. They pushed me into an old house and down the stairs into a basement. I had wet my pants, but it didn’t matter because they took my pants and underwear away from me anyway. All I had was my shirt and a ratty old gray blanket they gave me.” I stopped, squeezing my eyes shut again.

  “It’s okay, Tal,” Ryan said, his voice lower than usual. He was trying so hard to be strong for me. My little brother.

  But it wasn’t okay. Nothing about my life since then had been okay. If it was ever to be okay again, I had to get through this.

  “There was another one at the house, also wearing a black ski mask. Remember, Ry, there were only two guys at the old shack off the Walker place.”

  Ryan nodded.

  “Anyway, once I got out of the basement, I found out why I was there. They each…” I gulped. “They each…raped me.”

  My brothers’ faces were unreadable. They didn’t look surprised at my admission. But why would they be? Why else would three psychopathic degenerates keep a young boy prisoner for months? Surely they’d known, or at least guessed. I’d been taken to a pediatrician and poked and prodded after my return, so my parents must have known, even though I never spoke of it.

  “Once they were done, I threw up. I couldn’t help it. They left me, and I lay down on my blanket. What might’ve been a couple of hours later, one of them brought me a glass of water and a sandwich, along with an old paint bucket I was told to piss and shit in. I ate the sandwich and drank the water. Sometimes they tormented me with water, holding a really nice clean glass of crisp ice water just out of my reach. I still have nightmares about that sometimes. I still have nightmares about all of it.”

  Jonah cleared his throat. “That’s perfectly understandable.”

  Of course it was. I looked to my older brother. “Now that you know the gory details, do you still wish it had been you instead of me?”

  The question was unfair, I knew. But Joe had always wished he had been there to protect me. I wanted my brothers to be happy that this hadn’t happened to them. I wouldn’t wish that horror on either of them. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone, except the three psychos who’d done it to me. On them, I wished all that and everything else hell had to offer.

  And I was well acquainted with what hell had to offer.

  “I don’t really know how to answer that,” Joe said.

  “Just say you’re glad that didn’t happen to you.”

  He shook his head. “I can’t.”

  I heaved a sigh. My older brother wrestled with his own demons. I knew that. I wished I could help him, but I couldn’t do a damn thing for anyone until I helped myself.

  “How did you escape?” Ryan asked.

  “I don’t really remember. Every once in a while they would leave the door open and dare me to run away. Every time I tried, of course, they caught me and punished me for it, so I stopped trying. One day, the door was open, and they hadn’t come. I don’t know if they had just forgotten to lock me back in or what. But I ran up the stairs wearing only my tattered T-shirt. I had no pants.”

  “But when you were found,” Ryan said, “you were wearing your clothes.”

  “That’s one of the things I can’t figure out,” I said. “I remember walking up the stairs, opening the door that had been left open a crack, running outside, and then scampering across the vast wilderness. And the next thing I remember I had clothes on and I was walking around the outskirts of Snow Creek.”

  “Maybe you blacked out,” Jonah said.

  “Maybe,” I said, “but I was ten years old. Where would I have found clothes?”

  Jonah rubbed his jawline. “Maybe you found a house and went to it and asked for clothes.”

  I shook my head. “No, that doesn’t make any sense. Anyone who found me and gave me clothes would have alerted Dad. Or at least the police.”

  “True,” Ryan said.

  “Is there anything else you want to tell us about this?” Jonah asked.

  “No. You can certainly infer the rest. It happened many times. I stopped counting. Why would I want to remember that number? Some things are a blur, but what isn’t a blur is what they did to me. I remember every horrific detail of the pain and of the humiliation. And unfortunately, it has made me who I am today.”

  “You’re wrong, Tal,” Ryan said. “Those couple of months don’t define you. You’re a good person. You were a hero overseas, and you’re a hero to me.”

  “Only because I saved you that day. And let me tell you, I’m fucking glad you got away.”

  Of course, my younger brother didn’t respond. Neither of my brothers could ever admit that they were glad that this hadn’t happened to them. I didn’t understand, but maybe I wasn’t meant to. They had their own issues that they needed to work through. Jonah especially. He shouldered a lot of guilt because of what happened to me that day. I’d tried to relieve him of it, but I had not been successful.

  “How much of this are we telling Marj?” Joe asked.

  I sighed. “Only the bare minimum. And definitely not the part about them butchering Luke. I don’t want our baby sister burdened with any more than necessary. I’m sorry I had to burden you guys.”

  Joe shook his head. “No, Tal, we needed to know.”

  True. They d
id. In their own ways, they had gone through it with me. “Do you guys want to come to therapy sometime? Or go by yourself? I’m sure Dr. Carmichael would be happy to see you.”

  “Whatever you want us to do,” Ryan said.

  “Ryan,” I said, “you have to quit leaving this all to me. I have finally decided it’s time to work through this, and I’m going to do it—not just for you guys and not just for Jade but for myself. And you have to do the same. Maybe you didn’t go through what I went through, but you’re dealing with it in your own way. Whether you seek help has to be your decision, not mine.”

  Jonah cracked a bit of a smile. “You’re a wise man, Tal.”

  Wise? Was he kidding? I was about as far from a wise man as any man on the planet. I shook my head.

  “No, hear me out. It may have taken you a while, but you finally came to the conclusion that you need help. There’s no shame in that, and now you know that. There’s no shame in what happened to you. The shame belongs to the people who did it to you.”

  As I listened to Joe’s words, I thought about Dr. Carmichael’s words a few days before. She’d said that I understood objectively that none of this was my fault, and she was right. I did. The problem was not my conscious mind but my subconscious, and I would work through it.

  “Hey, guys!” Marj called. She stepped onto the patio.

  “Hey.” I stood. “How’s Jade’s mom doing?”

  Marj blew out a breath. “She’s the same. Jade’s going to be coming back later tonight because she has to go to work in the morning. She’s a little miffed at you, though.”

  “I know. But she’s with her dad, and there were a few things I needed to take care of here. She’ll understand one day.”

  “Yeah? When?” My sister whipped her hands to her hips.

  She was a spitfire, that one.

  I sighed. “Well, sit down, and I’ll tell you.”

  Marj eyed the empty glass of whiskey sitting in front of me. “Drinking at noon?”

  “Yeah. But I’m done. I’m only having one.”

  She pulled up a chaise and sat. “What did you guys want to talk to me about?”

  None of us spoke for a moment, but when Joe opened his mouth, I held up a hand.

  “No, Joe. I need to say it.” I turned to Marj. “You were right to be suspicious. We have been keeping something from you. And it’s been my decision. Because what we’ve been keeping from you is something that happened to me.”

  “Oh my God. Are you okay?”

  I cleared my throat. “I’m fine. Or at least, I’m getting there.”

  She went pale. “What do you mean? Talon, you’re scaring me.”

  “You know those news articles you found in Joe’s house? About the child abductions around the area twenty-five years ago?”

  Her eyes got as big as dinner plates.

  “One other child was taken, one that never made the news.” I closed my eyes, willing myself to calm. “That child was me.”

  Chapter Seven

  Jade

  I had left my dad for a bit to go down to the cafeteria and get us some food. As I was walking back with some sandwiches, my cell phone buzzed with a number I didn’t recognize. I was so tired and worn out, I considered not answering it, but my curiosity eventually got the best of me.

  “Hello?”

  “Jade?”

  “Yes. Who is this, please?”

  “It’s Ted Morse again.”

  “How did you get this number?”

  “I found it among my son’s things.”

  My body went cold. “Has Colin shown up yet?”

  “No,” Ted said, his tone accusatory, “and it seems that you are the last to have seen him.”

  “I assure you I have no idea where he is, Ted.” Worry tugged at me. I no longer loved Colin. Hell, I no longer liked him very much. But I didn’t want anything to happen to him.

  “I’ve contacted the police. They’ll be in touch to question you since you were the last person to see him alive.”

  Alive? Did he think Colin was dead? My heart thrummed wildly. “That’s not true. There were three other people with me the last time we saw him.” I thanked God for the alibi of Talon and his brothers. The way Ted was talking, I thought he might be trying to pin this on me.

  “And who would that be?”

  “Talon Steel and his brothers, Jonah and Ryan Steel. Colin and I had just come out of a restaurant, and the Steel brothers were coming out of a bar across the street.”

  Ted huffed into the phone. “Drunk, no doubt.”

  “No, they were not drunk. Also, it was Friday night and it was warm. There were other people walking around.”

  “And that’s the last time you saw my son?”

  I didn’t like his tone. Ted Morse was a powerful man, and as an attorney, I knew better than to spill my guts like I had. “Ted, if you want to talk to me any more about this, you’ll need to call back some other time. I’m in the hospital right now. My mother’s been in an accident, and she’s currently in ICU.”

  Silence for a moment. Then, “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  His tone didn’t indicate sorrow at all.

  “So I’m sure you understand why I can’t talk anymore. Goodbye, Ted.” I ended the call.

  Marj had left a couple hours ago, promising to read Talon the riot act for leaving me here. I desperately wanted to call him just to hear his voice. Instead, I went back to the waiting room where my father sat. “There wasn’t much down there. Here are a couple of ham-and-cheese sandwiches.”

  “Thanks, sweetie.”

  “No problem.” I unwrapped one and took a bite. I didn’t want to talk about Ted and Colin, so I said something else that had been on my mind. “I can’t get over Mom’s boyfriend leaving her here.”

  “That is weird,” Dad agreed. “How much do you know about him?”

  “Not much. She said he was a senator from Iowa. I’ve never heard of him. But it’s not like I keep up with who the senators are in Iowa. Honestly, I’m not sure what Mom saw in him. He was good-looking enough, olive skin and a great head of hair, nice build. But he had a slimy look about him, you know? I can’t really put my finger on it, but something about him seemed off.”

  “You didn’t like him?”

  “I can’t really say that. All I did was have dinner and go swimming with the guy. He was perfectly polite to me, and he had a gorgeous tattoo—a phoenix on his forearm. You know I’ve wanted a tattoo for the longest time, and that image was just so apt for my life right now.”

  My dad shook his head. “I’ll never talk you out of that tattoo, will I?”

  I smiled. “Sorry, Dad. I’m going to be inked at some point. I don’t know when, though. I had originally planned to come to the city this weekend and scout out some shops, but Mom’s accident obviously superseded that intention.”

  “I’m sorry your mom is in here suffering, but if there’s any good in it, it’s that it kept you from getting a tattoo.” He smiled at me.

  “Only postponed it, Dad.”

  Talon had reacted horribly to the idea of me getting a tattoo. It was the image—the phoenix—that had upset him. What did he have against the phoenix?

  I couldn’t be concerned with that now. I was about to take another bite of my sandwich and then get back to the subject of Nico Kostas, when one of the new duty nurses came out.

  “Mr. Roberts, Ms. Roberts, Ms. Bailey has regained consciousness.”

  I stood up quickly, knocking over my coffee. “God, I’m so sorry.”

  The nurse smiled. “Happens all the time up here. I can only let one of you in right now.”

  I looked to my father.

  “You go, Jade. She’s your mother.”

  I nodded and followed the nurse. My mother was still hooked up to all the machines, and her eyes were still slits, though the swelling had gone down quite a bit. Amazing what a difference a day made.

  “She looks the same.”

  “She’s conscious. Just
say hello to her. Tell her you’re here.”

  I took my mother’s hand. “Mom?”

  Her eyes fluttered just a touch.

  “Mom, it’s Jade. I’m here. You’ve been in an accident, but you’re going to be okay.”

  Her eyelids fluttered again, and her lips started to move. I couldn’t make out anything she was saying.

  “It’s okay. You don’t have to try to speak. Just know that I’m here. Dad is here too. Everything’s going to be fine.”

  She moved her lips again, and one word croaked out. “Nico.”

  I resisted the urge to roll my eyes in front of the nurse. Her daughter was here, her ex-husband was here, but the only person she wanted was the guy we hadn’t seen head nor tail of since the first night.

  “Nico will be here soon, Mom.” It was most likely a damned lie, but I didn’t want to upset her.

  Her eyes flickered closed. I squeezed her hand, but there was no more response.

  “It looks like she’s drifted out of consciousness again,” the nurse said, “but this was an excellent sign. The doctors are very happy with her progress.”

  I let out a sigh of relief. “Can I let my dad come in?”

  “He’s welcome to come in for a few minutes, but she’s no longer conscious.”

  I went back to my dad and told him what happened.

  “I’d like to meet this Nico,” he said.

  “I’m sure he’ll turn up sooner or later,” I said. “A bad penny always does.”

  * * *

  I was exhausted when I got to work the next morning. My dad had driven me back to Snow Creek at nine o’clock last night, and then he drove back to Grand Junction, where he was staying at a motel. I said a quick hello to Michelle and David and then sat down at my desk and checked my calendar for the day’s events. I had a city council executive session this afternoon, but for now I was free. I took care of some administrative crap and then continued my investigation. I had fired up the Internet when Michelle poked her head into my office.