Authors: Jennifer Ryan
“You’re really confident you’ve won. Enjoy the money while it lasts,” she said and kept her eyes on his.
I see your future and it looks very… gray.
“Stop it. Get out of my head.”
She showed him a picture of himself standing in front of a gray cinderblock wall—in a jail cell.
I wonder if this is your past, or your future. You can think about that when you leave here with my money.
“Stop it. Stop it.” James hit at his head to try to push her out. “You’re a witch. A real witch.”
“Don’t you forget it!” she yelled after him as he took off out the front door with the duffel bags. His pickup truck engine revved and the tires squealed. He took off down the long driveway and out of her life for good.
Rooted to her spot, standing there looking out the open front door, she forgot Tyler stood with her. He pressed a frozen bag of corn to her jaw and brought her out of her stupor. His other hand cupped her cheek, his thumb rubbed softly over her skin. She focused on his touch and the warmth of his hand.
“You knew he was going to hit you.”
“He’s predictable. Same as he always was. Nothing ever changes. He only thinks about money and what he wants. His thoughts all revolve around him.”
“Did you find out where your sister is?”
“Not exactly. I didn’t want to get hit again.” She put her hand over his on the frozen bag. “Man, that really hurts. It’s been a long time since he hit me. I’d forgotten how it feels to get whacked like that.”
“It’s more than him hitting you with his fist. You feel the anger that goes with it. I saw you. You took the blow, but the second hit of anger really did the damage.” He brushed his hand down her head and through her long hair, hating that she’d been hurt. “I’m sorry, honey. I wish like hell you didn’t know what it felt like to be hit like that.”
“And it pisses you off that you just stood there while he did it.”
“I’m that transparent, huh.”
“You did a great job of looking intimidating and bored at the same time.”
“How would you know? I stood behind you.”
“Because that’s what he thought of you. It’s what I needed him to think of you. In my vision, you went after him when he hit me. He killed you with a knife from the butcher block.”
Tyler stared at the knives on the counter and back at her.
“Thank you for believing in me and doing what I asked.” Her fingertips rubbed a circle over his chest, around his heart.
He swallowed hard, unable to speak.
“He thinks he’s in the clear. He’s mentally high-fiving himself right this minute.”
She pulled the bag of corn from her face and threw it into the sink. “Let’s go. We have to get Jillian. Are the guys waiting outside?”
He pushed thoughts of his death by stabbing to the back of his mind and focused on the present and the future he still had thanks to Morgan.
“They should be coming up the drive any minute.”
“Okay, let’s go. We need to take the dirt road that leads out behind the barn and into the hills. He took her that way. We’re looking for a well that’s been boarded over. He used some branches and brush to camouflage it.”
“Is she alive?” He hated to ask. This had to be eating her up inside. Even though they weren’t close, and Jillian hated her, Morgan cared deeply for her sister. She’d worry about her niece and nephew growing up without their mother. After all, Morgan had grown up alone. She wouldn’t want those kids to go through the same thing.
“She is, and she’s scared. She’s only been down there a few hours.”
“A few hours?” He thought she’d been down in the well overnight. He thought time might be running out. If she’d only been down there a few hours, she’d probably be okay.
“He tricked her into staying last night by telling her I’d be here this morning with the money, so he’d stay away from me. She believed him,” she said, disgusted with her sister’s betrayal. “Let’s go get her.”
M
ORGAN ASKED THEM
to stop the vehicles on the dirt road and got out and stood looking across a pasture toward the trees. Impressed with the men Agent Davies sent to assist them, they respected Morgan and her gift enough to stand by their cars and wait. No one spoke. They gave her the time and space she needed to do her thing. When she walked off at a forty-five-degree angle from the road and headed for the trees, no one moved until Tyler started out after her. Tyler and ten other agents followed at a short distance as she made her way through a sparsely forested area.
Ten minutes later, they came upon a stone foundation for an old burned-down one-room building. Morgan continued past the crumbling structure and walked another hundred yards and came to a sudden stop. She swayed on her feet, what little energy she still had sapped away as she used her gift.
They reviewed a dozen detailed maps of the area, and none of them showed any wells. There could be one or a dozen out in the hills. The fact that Morgan knew the well had been covered by brush would only make it more difficult for them to find by searching the property on their own. Morgan was their best chance of finding Jillian.
She stumbled, turned to her right, and followed a path only she knew. He decided to try talking to her in his head.
Morgan, are you all right?
Almost there
, she said weakly.
He didn’t like the way she sounded. He could barely hear or feel her. Their connection to each other was tenuous. She used everything she had to find her sister.
She jogged down a small incline and dropped to her knees in front of what looked like a mound of boulders with several small bushes behind them. Deceptive, and a good cover for the well. When Morgan leaned over the boulders and threw several of the bushes aside, everyone saw they were just large branches broken from another large bush. Brittle, sun-bleached, well-worn wood covered the well. Anyone who happened to step on it might fall through and into the depths, maybe to their death.
As soon as Morgan and several of the men began removing the wood, Jillian called out, “Help me. I’m down here.” Her voice nothing more than a gravely rasp. She must have screamed for a long time with no one for miles to hear her.
Without Morgan, they might not have found Jillian in time—or ever.
“Jillian, we’re coming. Hold on,” Morgan called to her.
“Help me! Get me out of here!” she screamed, but hardly anything came out of her sore throat. Scared and angry, she couldn’t believe her father dumped her down this hole. Cold and wet, she twisted her ankle landing in the soft mud. It hurt so badly she couldn’t stand on it. She probably broke it, and all of this was Morgan’s fault.
Morgan waited while they lowered a man down on ropes. Twenty-something feet down, her sister cursed and pleaded in alternating tones of anger and misery. Morgan wished this hadn’t happened, but Jillian brought it upon herself when she’d invited their father into her life. She should have left well enough alone.
As soon as she freed herself from the ropes, she turned on Morgan.
“Here comes the freight train,” Morgan said softly to Tyler.
Tyler didn’t have time to register Morgan’s remark before Jillian managed to limp over the five feet to them, cock back her arm, and throw a punch toward Morgan’s face. Morgan ducked in time and planted both hands on her sister’s shoulders and shoved her back, making her stumble on her bad ankle. She squealed in pain, but kept the furious glare in place.
“I’ll forgive you for that once.” Morgan turned from her sister and walked away from everyone now staring at her. She couldn’t take the added attention. Fading fast, she still had so much to do. She hoped Sam arrested her father.
“This is all your fault. If you’d just do what he asked, none of this would have happened,” Jillian screamed after her.
Tyler had enough of Morgan’s family members taking shots at her. He grabbed Jillian’s arm and spun her around to face him. She winced when she shifted her weight to her bad ankle, giving Tyler a little satisfaction.
“Leave her alone, or I’ll arrest you.”
“You’ll arrest me. I was kidnapped and thrown down a well.”
“You contacted your father and helped him set this up. You wanted the money just as much as he did. How much of a cut did he promise you?”
He waited to see if she’d answer. She didn’t, but stood defiant, looking incredulous and guilty as hell. Unable to look at him, her eyes fell away.
“You wanted it just as much as your father does. A little quick cash and who cares who gets hurt. The fact that he double-crossed you hasn’t even entered your mind. You just want to blame her because you’re pissed he took off with the money and left you down that well.”
“It’s only a hundred grand. She won’t miss it. She’s rich, thanks to the family curse. She uses it to make all that money.”
“You ridicule her for that family curse, and then you want to benefit from it. Well, let me fill you in on the kind of woman your sister is. She lived on the streets and in shelters from the time she was thirteen. She got her GED because a nun took an interest in her and helped her. She taught herself about the stock market and finance through hard work and studying her ass off. She doesn’t use her
curse
to make money on the stock market. She uses her brain. And what difference would it make if she did use her gift? It’s hers to use as she sees fit.
“Today, she used her money and her gift to find you. She paid your father one
million
dollars to get him to tell her where you were. A million dollars of her own money to get back a sister who hates her and would take her for every dime she has if you could.”
She tried to get out of his grasp. The truth hurt, and she was going to listen. It was the only way he had to make up to Morgan for the fact that, again, she’d gotten hurt, and he’d stood by and done nothing.
“My father wouldn’t leave me out here. He just wanted to be sure she gave him the money. That’s all.”
“You keep telling yourself that if it makes you feel better. The truth is, he took the money and left to catch the jet waiting for him at the airport. He never planned on giving you a dime. He meant for you to stay in that well. He didn’t tell her where to find you. She did that all on her own.”
He turned her so she could see Morgan. She’d fallen to her knees about twenty feet away, and one of the other agents helped her to sit down. She had her face turned to the sun and even from where he stood with Jillian, he could see her swollen jaw had turned an even deeper shade of red. Her lip had swelled and crusted over with dried blood. Her skin paled to ghostly white against the deep blue of her shirt. She looked lifeless, guarded by two agents.
“Look at her. That curse, as you call it, sucks the life out of her every time she uses it, like she did today to find you.”
“At least she wasn’t down in that hole.”
“I wonder how many times she was locked in the closet for days, not hours. I wonder how many times your father slapped her, punched her, or beat her until she couldn’t move. Imagine it was your daughter down in that hole, or locked in a closet, or beaten. Hungry and hurt and scared. Your father could have just as easily taken your little girl and put her down that well. Morgan would have paid any amount and used her gift until she died if it meant getting her back. It’s what she did for you today. It didn’t kill her, but she doesn’t exactly look like she got out of this unscathed. A bruised jaw, a busted lip, a million dollars gone, all to get you back.” He turned her to face him. “What a waste, if you ask me. Don’t contact her again. Stay away from her. If you don’t, you’ll answer to me.”
“Who the hell do you think you are?”
He leaned into her face. “I’m the only family she’s got.”
S
HE FELT THE
sun on her face and Tyler’s strong body along her back. They sat on the soft grass beneath a huge oak, her body tucked between his long legs, her head resting against his shoulder and chin. Her face hurt. She turned her head and glanced around at the rolling hills.
“Tyler?”
“Yeah, honey?”
“Where did everyone go?”
“They left about an hour ago. They collected all the evidence they needed.”
“And my sister?”
“To my disappointment, they took her to the hospital. Her husband and kids will meet her there. She maintains this is all your fault.”
“She won’t be charged with a crime?”
“She should be,” he said angrily. “But, no. Agent Davies agreed he’d let her go. She didn’t know your father was going to dump her down that well. He used her. If you ask me, she got off easy. She wanted her cut of the money.”
“He dumped her down a well,” she said in defense of her sister.
“Yeah, and to thank you for paying to get her back and for finding her, she tried to clock you.”
“Yeah, well, like father like daughter.”
She gently put her hand to the side of her face. The throbbing pain ached like nothing else. Just talking hurt. She’d never again put herself in the position of being used by her father or sister. It saddened her to think that now she really was alone. She had no family, not like Tyler had a family. He had his sister and his friends. Her family was lost to her. She’d tried to be good to her sister and found it hard to accept that even though she’d tried, her family would never be what she wanted.
Let it go
, she said to the universe and looked up to the sun, letting the warmth help to heal her broken heart.
“Let what go, honey?”
She’d forgotten he could hear her thoughts, but took comfort that she wasn’t alone. Not when she had him.
“The dream that I was born into a family who cares about each other. My father and sister would rather curse me for my gift and exploit it to their benefit. I just have to let it go. I can’t make them be something they aren’t. I can’t be something I’m not.”
Her sadness radiated off her. He leaned forward and wrapped his arms around her. His wrists ached from leaning back on his hands, but he barely noticed. Morgan was all that mattered. He looked over her head at the land and the sun setting in the distance. “You picked a pretty spot to rest. I like it here.”