Healed (The Found Book 3) (5 page)

“Are you going to be okay, Angel?”

“Am now.” He felt the exact moment she drifted off, and he shut off his phone. Who in the hell was injured?

It was well before dawn when Nate woke propped against the tree trunk in the forest. He had dreams of holding Sarah, of helping her when she was ill. Shaking his head he realized they hadn’t been dreams. It was real. Dammit, she healed someone last night, and once again he hadn’t been there in the flesh to hold her. This shit had to stop.

He went over to the tent where Brayson was still sleeping and told him they were going to break camp in fifteen minutes. He wanted to get to Ramone. Brayson was in better shape than Nate expected. He still had a hard time keeping up, but
was
managing.

“You know big guy, you might want to let me lead, since I’m the one who knows this territory.”

“Do a lot of hiking at night do you?” Nate was focused on getting there fast. He pushed back a branch making sure it didn’t hit Brayson.

“Well…”

“So let me lead, you keep telling me if I’m headed in the right direction. My night vision is probably better than yours. I’m used to night missions.”

“We could have at least waited until dawn.” Nate quelled the urge to growl a response.

“The sooner we get to the Reverend, the sooner we find your sister.” The Chattahoochee Forest was a walk in the park compared to the Central American jungles he had recently traipsed around in. Hell, this is where they took boy scouts out to earn merit badges, they probably take the cub scouts here too.

“Just how involved are you with my sister?”

“Obviously not nearly enough if she decided to pull this kind of stunt.” And weren’t they going to have a serious Come to Jesus Meeting as soon as he found her?

“So are you here in an official capacity or personal?”

“Both.” They were nearing the lake, Nate could hear the campers.

“Does Sarah realize how things stand?”

“She should have.”

“Should have?”

“Scratch that,” Nate said disgustedly. “Sarah knows damn well where we stand. She also knows that she is seriously endangering herself by traipsing sneaking off. I can’t believe someone so smart can be so damn dumb.” Nate rubbed his eyebrow.

“If she thinks there is something important to do, then she’s going to do it. There is no stopping her.” Brayson shrugged. “Seriously dude, I think you need to mellow, she knows what she’s doing. She’s the most capable person I know.” Nate looked at the young man in front of him, and then he lost it.

“I don’t give a flying fuck how capable she is! People are out to kidnap her. Do you know what they want to do to her? They want to breed her like fucking livestock! Or maybe they just want to cut her open and harvest her organs. We don’t know. There is nothing, and I mean nothing more important than keeping her safe, am I clear?” Nate took grim satisfaction when he heard the firefighter’s sharp intake of breath.

“I didn’t think…“

“No shit you didn’t think. I thought Cyrus told you guys what the hell was going on, and how important it was to keep her whereabouts quiet.”

“Well sure, but it’s been months. And then we heard they caught those bastards who kidnapped Kali.”

“That was somebody completely different. Rixitron is still after the
found
. Dammit, don’t you care about your sister’s safety?”

“Of course I do. We do,” Brayson corrected himself. “She means the world to us. It’s just…”

“It’s just what?”

“It’s just she’s so smart. If she decided to take a risk like this, I just automatically assumed she thought it through and it was a good decision,” Brayson said trying to explain himself.

“I thought you were her older brother.”

“I am. I get it now. Cyrus never let on to how bad all of this is. I mean none of us had any idea, I swear. Now I know, I’ll do everything in my power to help track her down. I swear it.” Nate was satisfied with Brayson’s sincerity.

“Good. These people are ruthless. I think the world of your sister, but she leads with her heart. It’s obvious she’s doing something to help someone. So she’s putting her life on the line. That’s unacceptable. It’s our job to protect her.”

Nate stopped at the edge of the clearing and saw the brick buildings that made up the rugged camp site near the lake’s edge. It’s where the campers assembled before heading out. There were still plenty of tents all over, so not all of the campers headed out to the various outlying campsites. Hopefully Ramone and his merry band of scouts were still there.

“Now how are we going to find Reverend Sands?” Brayson asked.

“That’s simple.” Nate grinned. He walked towards the largest cluster of tents and pulled out his cell phone. He pressed a button and cocked his head, eventually a faint ring sounded and he followed it to a tent.

“Reverend?”

“One minute officer,” a voice answered from inside. The man from the airport video came out of the tent, and Nate had the overwhelming urge to beat him to a pulp. He could have easily done it, he outweighed him by fifty pounds and was at least six inches taller. However, the man gave him an easy smile.

“I take it you’re the man Sarah told me about. I’m Ramone Sands.” He held out his hand. Nate took it.

“Nate Goodman.” Ramone looked over at Brayson.

“And you would be one of the Johnson clan. Are you the cop from California?”

“Firefighter. I’m Brayson Johnson,” he said shaking Ramone’s hand.

“Enough with the pleasantries. Where’s Sarah,” Nate growled.

“If she wanted you to know where she was, she would have told you,” the man said easily. He began walking away from the tent. “I don’t want to disturb my charges.

“Sands, do you know the type of people after her?” Nate said in a loud whisper, following Ramone across the clearing, away from the sleeping campers.

“I know Sarah. She has asked for forty-eight hours. Then she said I could tell all of you where she is. She knew her brothers would be here. She didn’t mention you.”

“Yeah, well, she and I will get that straightened out.” Nate didn’t like his defensive tone of voice.

“Not until the day after tomorrow.”

“Look, this is not some sort of game, Reverend,” Nate said fiercely now they had privacy and he was back to talking about Sarah’s safety. “We’re talking about people who will kidnap her and we won’t ever get her back.”

“Listen to him Ramone,” Brayson interjected.

“We’re in the middle of the forest. How long did it take for you to piece together where she was? She needs another two days. Give it to her. Trust her.” Nate wanted to pick the man up and slam him into the nearest tree until he told him exactly what he wanted to know. Unfortunately, he saw at least five sets of eyes watching him throughout the camp sight. He couldn’t beat up on the Reverend in front of a bunch of boy scouts.

“Look Sands, this isn’t just about people trying to get Sarah, she also doesn’t know when to take care of herself.” Both men looked at him like he had grown another head.

“You’re crazy,” Brayson said.

“Are we talking about the same woman? Dr. Sarah Johnson, the woman who outsmarted an entire platoon of Seals?”

“We’re not Seals and we’re not a platoon.”

“Same as,” the Reverend responded.

Nate rubbed the back of his neck. “Look, Sarah tries to do too much. She takes on too much and ends up sick.”

“Seriously, what are you talking about? I’ve never seen this, and Cyrus never mentioned it.” Brayson looked anxious and confused. It made Nate tense up even more. He knew Sarah didn’t want anyone worrying about her. She had made him promise he wouldn’t tell. Hell, he didn’t even know if she was in the woods to heal anyone, but his gut said she was. Fuck!

“Let’s just drop it.”

“I still want to know about the people who are after her,” Ramone demanded.

“Look around, we have too many spectators. We’ll talk about in the morning.”

“Are you sure she’s safe?” Brayson asked.

“Sands is right. Rixitron didn’t follow me or Sarah. If they do have eyes on you and your family, you going camping is normal. She’s safe for now.” Nate cut his eyes to the good Reverend. “You and I are going to go for a walk in the woods at daybreak, without a bunch of prying little eyes. I will be explaining life, and if you don’t like the words, perhaps you’ll be persuaded by other means.”

“You know, bigger men than you have tried to persuade me in the past, but it never worked, and I didn’t have nearly the motivation I do now. In the meantime why don’t you make yourself useful and help make breakfast for a bunch of hungry scouts.”

Fuck. Nate believed the guy. Still didn’t mean Nate’s version of persuasion wasn’t going to win. It always did. He just didn’t want to use it on one of the good guys. He had to make him see reason.

****

“Who are you?”

Sarah looked into the blue eyes of a little boy.

“What?”

“Who are you? Can I use the toilet?” Sarah pushed up from the floor, frowning. The boy backed away. She immediately forced a smile through the residual ache in her head.

“I’m sorry. Sure, you can use the bathroom. My name is Sarah, I’m a friend of your Mom’s.” He gave her a tentative smile in return and she watched as he wiggled from one foot to the other. Obviously his need for the bathroom was great. “Let me get out of your way.”

She was a little wobbly as she made her way out of the room. She wished she had a chance to have washed her hands and rinsed her mouth before vacating the room. She’d just have to wait. The bright morning light streaming through the window made her eyes water. She’d really overdone the healing last night, but she wasn’t feeling too badly except for the floor hair and grungy mouth. That was funny, after such an intensive healing session, it should have been worse.

Nate. She remembered him coming to her. His presence had been so strong. Dammit, he was already in Georgia. Despite her annoyance, her anxiety seemed to ease and some of the tension left her shoulders. Nate was close. She took a deep breath. She didn’t have much time to get this situation sorted out. First things first. She needed to get people to take Amy’s word over Chris, and that meant finding out what leverage Chris had hanging over Jarrolson’s head.

The cabin was small. It almost looked like the floorplan of her first apartment. One room, the bathroom, and a kitchen separated by a counter. She gave a weak grin when she saw the avocado green refrigerator. Her grandmother had that same color in her house. She moved to the sink, washed her hands and rinsed her mouth, then peered inside the fridge. Her head might still be hurt a little, but she was pretty hungry, and she bet the little boy could use some food as well.

“Damn.”

“That’s a bad word.” The kid hadn’t made a sound, and Sarah gave herself points for not screaming.

“I’m sorry Jeremy, you’re right, it is a bad word, and I shouldn’t have said it.”

“What’s wrong?” he asked his head leaned far back he could look her in the eye. Sarah crouched down so they were at equal heights.

“There isn’t any food in the fridge, but I’m sure we can rustle something up for breakfast.”

“Pancakes?” Who could resist such a hopeful expression? Sarah prayed there was some pancake mix that only needed water somewhere in a cupboard.

“We’ll see sweetie. Wanna help me look? Let’s see what there is in this place. Whoever finds the most stuff wins.”

“Okay.” He grinned at the game.

After a quick search, they found quite a lot. Best of all she found coffee, she desperately needed some caffeine, maybe it would help wake her up. She started the coffee maker. Of course Jeremy was most excited about the pancake mix. There was also maple syrup and some cooking oil she could use in the big cast iron skillet she found.

“Jeremy, I need to use the bathroom and then I’ll make breakfast. Do you want to see if your Mom wants to get up?”

“She’s been sick, she asked to sleep in. I wanted to make sure to be quiet.”

“Well I’m glad you came out here with me. With the door closed she should be able to rest.” Sarah smiled at the little boy, but inwardly she was sad he was such a little adult at such a young age. “When I come back from the bathroom, we’ll make pancakes.”

“Yay.” She was happy to see his green eyes light up.

Jeremy was sitting at the table when she left the bathroom.

“Are you going to make pancakes now?”

“You betchya.” Sarah, poured herself a cup of coffee, and wished there was milk in the fridge. Damn, what was she thinking? Who cared about milk for her coffee, what was she going to give Jeremy to drink?

She searched the cupboards one last time, and then thought to check the freezer. Finally she found some frozen orange juice concentrate.

“Why are we here?” Jeremy asked as she poured him a glass of orange juice.

“We’re here for a vacation, remember Jeremy?” Amy looked much better than the night before.

“Mommy, you’re up. You’re not sick anymores?” Jeremy ran up to his mom, his arms open wide as if to give her a hug and then he stopped.

“It’s okay little man, you can hug me.”

“I don’t want to hurt you.” Amy got down on her knees and scooped her son into her arms.

“You’re not going to hurt me.” Seeing their two blonde heads together, Sarah wanted to cry.

“Why are we on vacation?”

“Hey you two, sit down the pancakes are ready.” Sarah set three plates of pancakes on the table, and topped off Jeremy’s orange juice.

“Remember, you always wanted to go camping?” Amy said as she watched her son dig into his food.

“But we never go anywhere together.”

“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” she admonished. “Well we are this time. Isn’t this fun? We’re going to walk in the forest.”

“Like in the woods?”

“Yep. We’re going to go for a walk in the woods.”

“Are we going to see a bear?” Jeremy asked, his eyes wide as saucers.

“I hope not. But we might see a deer.”

“Like Bambi? When do we get to go for a walk?” Sarah laughed at Jeremy’s enthusiasm.

“Can I have more pancakes before we go? You makes really good pancakes. I really like Sarah, Mom.”