“You never asked how I knew,” Ryan said.
No, he hadn’t, but he’d sure as hell wanted to. Gavin ran his tongue around his teeth.
“Nope, I figured you would tell me when you were ready. Though, God knows, I wanted to ask a million times.”
Ryan ducked his head down. “Sometimes--sometimes I see things, or just know things.”
Gavin cut his eyes to Taylor who shook her head and shrugged. He could see the strain in her eyes, the pain and confusion.
“What do you mean, Ryan?” he asked this bright amazing boy. God, the things that had come out of his young mouth. Things no nine-year-old should know about. Rage fired through his blood. Gavin felt like hitting something, but he kept his voice steady and calm.
No wonder the kid never opened up to anyone. It was amazing he was as well adjusted as he was.Finally, Ryan whispered, “I just see things, in my mind. Kinda like a movie or something, or like when you read a book and you get the picture in your mind. Ya know?”
“Okay, you see pictures in your mind. What kind of pictures?”
Ryan’s breathing started coming faster, quicker, his little chest beating out with the hurried intakes of air.
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“Hey. Ryan. Deep breaths,” Gavin reminded.
“You’re safe here,” Taylor told him. “We won’t let anything happen to you.”
Ryan’s fisted hands thumped on his thighs, but he took several deep breaths.
“Is it about what happened?” Taylor asked him. “In Austin?”
The little head shook between them. “No, not really. Sometimes I just know when things are going to happen, or when they are happening. Not always. They’re not always right, don’t always make any sense. But sometimes I ‘see’ something and then it’ll happen.”
Ryan looked quickly from his mother back to him. His clear blue eyes were almost wild with panic. “It’s true. I swear it. I’m not making it up. I’m not crazy.”
“Of course you’re not crazy, sweetie,” Taylor said. “We don’t think you are.”
“I know you’re telling us the truth Ryan. We don’t expect anything else,” Gavin told him.
“You believe me?” his young voice wavered. “I’m not making this up. Like in the hospital the day you two met. I knew before Taylor came home that she’d met a black-haired, blue-eyed doctor would come out and tell her the Gibbons girl didn’t make it. And that day in the car. And lots of other times, too.”
Gavin had no idea what to believe. But his great-grandmother believed in the Little People and that no sane person walked over a faerie ring. She was a devout Catholic. His mother believed in simply always knowing what the right thing was to do, and Jesslyn believed in the power of dreams.
Taylor laid her hand on Ryan’s head. “It’s okay, honey. I don’t think you’re making this up.”
But Ryan’s eyes were still locked on Gavin.
“What did you see that upset you so much?” Gavin asked him.
The boy took a deep shuddering breath. “It’s not real. It can’t be real,” he whispered brokenly. Tears filled his eyes. “I saw her in a bus wreck so I didn’t think anything of it, just a fluke, ya know?”
Actually, Gavin had no idea. Bus wreck?
“Who, Ryan?” Taylor asked.
“Nina. I saw her in a bus, with all these people around her.”
Taylor was obviously as lost as he was, but they would get to the bottom of what was terrifying this child.
“Okay. Why did that scare you?” Gavin asked him.
“No, not that. That didn’t scare me.” Hurried now, Ryan tried to explain. But upset, his explanation was scattered at best. “I saw her at school that way, sitting in math class. The teacher thought I was sick so she sent me to the nurse. Sometimes when I see things, bad things, my head hurts.”Gavin looked hard at Ryan. “Does your head hurt now?”
Ryan shook his. “No, not really so much anymore. Not like it did. That’s why I sat down on the stairs. It was like this white-hot pain shooting through it. It’s never been like that before.”
Gavin wondered at that. Was the boy psychic? And what of the pain? As a doctor he was concerned, as a father, he was worried.
“Does it just hurt your head?”
Ryan’s hand waved him off. “I don’t care about my head. It’s what I saw. Last night, before
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you came in, I was getting ready for bed. I saw her again in a car on a highway. I don’t know where, but she was out.” Ryan turned back to Taylor. “Can she be out? Would we know? Would anyone have called us?” His questions all but tripped over each other.
“Calm down, honey,” Taylor said.
Huffing out a breath, Ryan all but leapt off the couch to stand in front of them. “You don’t believe me.” Hurt echoed his words, as his small hands fisted at his sides. “She’s out! She is. I’m not lying. I saw her. And she…. And she.… She.…”
Again his breathing quickened. Gavin leaned up out of the couch and put his hands on Ryan’s shoulders. Ryan’s freckles stood out on his pale face. Pain, confusion and desperation warred in his eyes as he looked from Gavin to Taylor.
Gavin just looked at him.
“Deep breaths. I know.” And Ryan closed his eyes.
“I didn’t say I didn’t believe you Ryan,” Taylor tried.
“Isn’t there someone you can call?”
“Yes,” both he and Taylor answered.
“Then call them. She’s out, Mama. She’s out and she’s coming here. Tonight, she….
Tonight she.…” Big tears rolled down those pale cheeks to drip off his chin.
Gavin couldn’t stand anymore. He pulled Ryan into his arms. “Shhhh. It’s okay, champ.
It’s okay.”
“No.” Ryan pulled out of his arms. “She killed them. She--she shot them. In--in their bed.
Blood was everywhere.”
What was this? He looked to Taylor who was worrying her lower lip, her brow furrowed in concern and worry.
“Who?”
Ryan’s chin trembled. He opened his mouth. “It wasn’t real. Tell me it wasn’t real.”
“What did you see Ryan?” Taylor asked him gently.
“She was in a house. Our old house in Texas. I recognized the hallway.” He started to tremble. “She wanted to know where we were. Nina thought the woman was you so she--she just--she just shot her. She just shot her and she didn’t even care that it wasn’t. But he was yelling at her, and then she shot him too. Nina just shot them. Then she ran.”
He looked to Taylor who sat without color.
“Charles? Rhonda?” she asked.
A jerky nod answered her question. Ryan was still trembling and crying. “She’s coming.
She’s coming.”
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Nina Fisher was out. Taylor called Lieutenant Morris, since he was the only cop here she knew, and he called Gatesville.
Damn it.
She’d asked him to check out Charles too, but as yet, they’d heard nothing back.
It was nearly midnight, but Taylor was not remotely tired. She felt wired, jittery and frazzled. Gavin carried Ryan up the stairs and they both tucked him in, despite his murmurs and mumbles.
Poor Ryan. He finally fell asleep, having completely worn himself out. Both she and Gavin had sat with him until he fell asleep. Gavin told them faerie stories, about the Little People.
When Ryan finally fell asleep, she heard Gavin whisper something as he touched Ryan’s cheek.
This I’ll defend
. What did that mean?
Taylor leaned over and brushed the hair back off his forehead. She had no idea what to think of everything she’d heard that evening. Gavin’s hand on her shoulder pulled her gently back towards the door. She saw Ryan had already set his violin on its stand in the corner by his chair and music stand. The posters of faraway places and peoples should have calmed her. This was her home, her and Ryan’s, but his words worked on her nerves so that everything seemed like an illusion of peace and security. A fragile shell that could easily be ripped away by the hand of a revengeful junkie. Nina shadowed a danger over their lives.
With one last look at her son, she pulled the door almost closed, but left it cracked. Just in case. In the hallway, Gavin turned her around and pulled her to him. They just held on. Simply held, as though both needed to make certain the other was there and safe.
She felt the weight of his kiss on her head.
“Come on,” he whispered, pulling her with him.
Their footsteps echoed softly on the stairs as they descended hand in hand.
“What did he mean about the car and me crying?” she finally asked him.
Gavin let go of her hand and paced the length of the room and back. His hand ran through his hair. “We were coming here to pick you up and in the middle of a sentence he starts breathing hard and goes stark pale. Tori and Mom were talking to him and he never heard them. His eyes got this faraway look in them. Then, out of the blue he whispered your name. All he said, after he looked around and seemed to realize where he was, was that you were crying; that
he
was making you cry.” Gavin’s mouth turned rueful. “Charles. Kid hit that one right on.”
Taylor shook her head. “I had no idea. He never mentioned anything.” Of course, he’d been so adamant that they believe him. Perhaps his silence stemmed from fear. What else was new?
Ryan and fear were practically brothers, born of the same abusive woman.
Gavin walked over and sat down on the couch beside her. “It’ll be okay,” he promised,
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pulling her to him. “No matter what we learn or hear. It’s going to be fine. I swear to you.”
He couldn’t promise her anything of the sort if Nina was out. But, she didn’t say that.
Instead, she laid her hand on his chest and her head on his shoulder.
“Well, we have more to discuss with Petropolis than we thought tomorrow, don’t we?”
“Hmmm….”
His hand covered hers and squeezed before his fingers started to trace patterns on her inner wrist. Even with the gentle touch, she saw anger still fired his eyes, reminding her of the center of a flame. A muscle bunched in his jaw.
“Gavin?” she asked him.
His eyes cut to her, quickly and sharply. Where was her humorous charmer?
“Are you okay?”
“Fine.”
“You don’t sound fine. Do you want to talk about it?”
“No.”
Taylor pursed her lips, then drew them back between her teeth. “It’s hard, isn’t it?” she whispered.
Gavin didn’t answer her, but kept caressing the back of her hand and arm.
“Do you deal with this sort of thing day in and day out? I mean, I guess I always knew you did, and what with Amy Gibbons I knew. But my God. How can people be so.…” He bit off the end on an oath.
Taylor shrugged. “If someone doesn’t help them, then who will?”
“How in the hell do you keep from killing someone?”
The charmer was indeed banished. “This vengeful side of you is new.”
His guttural sound might have been some sort of answer, but he helped her out. “What can I say? It’s in the blood. My mother stems from rebels, my father from Highlanders way the hell back when. So there you have it. Guess I’ve got that feud-ideology in me after all.”
Taylor didn’t know what to reply to that, so she didn’t. “I could use some of that tea we never got to have. Would you like some?”
“Sure.”
In the kitchen Taylor kept busy, tried not to keep looking at the clock wondering if Morris would call.
She had barely walked into the living room again before Gavin said, his voice brooking no argument, “I’m staying tonight.”
Did he expect her to argue?
Taylor ran her tongue around her teeth as she handed his glass to him. He took it, the intense gaze steady and daring her to object.
She sat again beside him. “I was hoping you would.”
His chest fell as a sigh expelled. “Were you? I wasn’t sure.”
“Why not?”
“I have no idea. Maybe I’m looking for a fight.” His grin was far from humorous. “I’m glad you agreed. I’d have been up half the night worrying about the two of you.”
“We’ve already stayed up half the night,” she reminded him.
“So we have. Listen, I want….”
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The cordless shrilled.
They both grabbed for it; Gavin handed it off to her.
“Hello?”
The sigh on the other end had her stomach muscles tightening. “Ms. Reese? This is Morris.” Like she wouldn’t recognize that cigarette-gruffed voice. “We have a problem.”
* * * *
The scream pulled them out of their troubled sleep. It went on and on. Taylor was up and running through the door with Gavin. “No! No! No!” came the yell from Ryan’s room.
They burst in, flicked on the light and saw the huddled form in the blankets. His young blue eyes gushing tears, reflecting the terror in his mind, in his soul.
“Ryan!” Gavin shook him. “Ryan!”
Taylor laid her hand on his muscled arm. “Here let me.”
Gently, she gathered her tense son to her, rocking. “It’s okay, baby. Mama’s here. I’m here.
It’s okay.” Humming she tried to calm him. When she felt him start to ease, she sang
Jesus Loves
Me.
By the ending he was holding her, hiccupping, and whispering the words along with her, as though they alone would banish whatever demons plagued him.
Taylor pulled back to ask him what he’d dreamed of. But he only held on tighter, his arms vined around her.
“Ryan?” Gavin asked from the other side of the bed. Taylor felt the mattress give as he sat on it. “Ryan?”
Slowly, ever so slowly, Ryan turned his head and looked at Gavin. The man she loved reached out and rubbed Ryan’s back. “You okay, champ?”
Ryan nodded. Then shook his head. Finally, he just shrugged.
They hadn’t told him about his appointment with Petropolis. She figured she’d mention it this morning. The dawning sky was already heralding a new day. Taylor tried to shake off the tiredness that still pulled at her. The giant red numerals on Ryan’s alarm clock said it was almost six. This time she pulled him back and settled him on the bed between her and Gavin. All of them leaned back against the headboard. Sheets with sailboats on them lay bunched at the foot of the bed, along with the colorful patchwork quilt Ryan used as a blanket.
“Ryan, we have something to tell you.”
Actually, they had a hell of a lot to tell him. The things Morris told her… Shaking off the black, horrid thoughts, she said, “Yesterday you were so quiet and we were very worried about you. We called and made an appointment for you this morning.” He remained very still between them. “Is this because of what I told you last night?” he whispered. “About ‘seeing’ things?”
“No, but I would like for you to talk about that with Dr. Petropolis. I’d….” She looked at Gavin. “
We’d
like to discuss that with her too. You shouldn’t feel bad for having such a gift, Ryan. But seeing as how affected you were by the things you saw, and what you remembered, we want to keep the appointment this morning.”
Taylor didn’t think he would argue, and he didn’t. “What time? Will I miss school?”
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“Actually, it’s at eight.”
He only nodded.
Gavin raised his brows at her, and she could only shake her head.
“I’ll tell you what.” She gave Ryan a squeeze. “Why don’t you start to get ready, or just lay up here and rest a bit. I’ll go down and start on breakfast. Waffles.”
Finally, he moved. Raising his head, he looked at her out of bright eyes. “Homemade ones?
From scratch?” His dimples lazily winked at her.
Feigning offense, she gasped. “Do I make any other kind?”
“Not unless you’re in a hurry,” he answered.
“Well, I’m not in a hurry this morning. We’ve got plenty of time.” She made to get off the bed. Ryan grabbed her back in a hug. “I love you, Tay--Mama.”
This morning’s dark cloud did have a ray of sunshine bursting through it.
Taylor smiled. “I love you too, sweetie.”