Disillusioned

by Christy Barritt

  There was no one.

  “We don’t know what’s going on,” Kade continued. “Bobby could have wandered. Or people could be waiting in the shadows to pounce. Be aware of everything around you.”

  Nikki’s gaze flickered over the yard. She didn’t see any signs that they’d been discovered. Surveying the area, she saw a guesthouse in the distance, closer to the water. A weathered red barn stood across the field. Beyond that were woods and cornfields. The possibilities of places to hide out seemed endless.

  “Let’s check the barn first,” Kade said.

  They darted across the field, Nikki realizing with a start just how exposed they were.

  As they reached the doors, voices drifted outside.

  “Stop lying to me! How did you find me?” someone screamed.

  Bobby. That was Bobby’s voice. And it was loud. Escalated.

  Nikki closed her eyes as worst-case scenarios began playing out in her mind.

  Kade nudged the door open and slipped inside the barn with his gun still drawn. As the shadows of the building surrounded him, so did the smell of hay, dank air, and . . . cigarette smoke?

  Slowly his eyes adjusted to the dimness.

  He blinked at what he saw playing out before him.

  Bobby stood in the center of the dilapidated barn, a gun in his hand aimed at something in the distance.

  A gun? Where had Bobby gotten a gun?

  Kade jerked his gaze toward Bobby’s target.

  A teenager stood on the other side of the building, his hands raised. He had to be only sixteen or seventeen. His wide eyes and withdrawn stance made it clear that he was scared.

  “Bobby, what’s going on?” Kade stepped closer, keeping his gun raised. He really hoped he didn’t have to use it. He prayed things wouldn’t go that far.

  “He followed me here,” Bobby said, his gun pointed at the boy. “He’s going to kill me before I can talk about ARM’s plan to destroy America.”

  “Bobby, you’ve got to put the gun down,” Nikki said.

  She must have slipped in behind him. Her face had gone slack with shock, maybe even dread.

  Certainly she’d seen the way Bobby’s hand trembled. At any second, his finger could slip. He could pull the trigger. Then he really would go to jail, and there’d be nothing Nikki or anyone else could do to stop it.

  “How’d you find me?” Bobby either hadn’t heard his sister or didn’t care to respond. His eyes remained riveted on the teenager, and his gaze contained a touch of crazy.

  “I promise you, I have no idea what’s going on,” the teen said. His voice cracked. “I was just smoking. I needed somewhere private. If my mom saw me lighting up, she’d flip out and kill me.”

  “Stop lying!” Bobby’s hand continued to tremble. He looked unstable, like he could fully lose it at any moment.

  “Bobby, put the gun down,” Kade tried to coax him. “Let’s talk this through before you do something you regret. There’s not much we can do to protect you if you pull that trigger.”

  “Whoa,” someone said behind them.

  Kade recognized the voice. It was Marti. Her timing couldn’t have been worse.

  Marti sucked in a quick breath. “What’s going on?”

  “We’re just trying to clear up a little issue here,” Kade said through gritted teeth. His gaze remained on Bobby. He’d never forgive himself if he had any part in helping Bobby harm someone innocent.

  “That sounds like an understatement,” Marti muttered. “Desmond? What are you doing here?”

  Desmond? Did Marti know this kid?

  The boy raised his hands higher. His gaze skittered away from Bobby long enough to plead with Marti for help. “I was just smoking. I promise. That’s all.”

  “He’s one of them!” Bobby raised his gun higher, as if he might shoot at any moment. His voice sounded fraught with tension and stress. Maybe even desperation. “Admit it.”

  “Desmond is one of who?” Kade crept closer to his friend.

  “He’s a part of ARM. He’s been sent here to find me.”

  Kade shook his head, trying to make sense of Bobby’s thought process. “What are you talking about, Bobby? Desmond is practically a kid.”

  Kade used the teen’s name, knowing he had to make the boy real to Bobby. If Bobby simply saw Desmond as a terrorist, there would never be a happy ending to this situation.

  Bobby shook his head a little too quickly to look sane. His skin seemed to vibrate with the motion.

  The man was on edge. About to go over it, it appeared.

  “He’s been planted here,” Bobby stated. A drop of sweat fell from the tip of his nose. “You ever hear of sleeper cells? They’re real, and they’re here in the US. They’re everywhere. As soon as their leader gives them the signal, they’ll pop into action.”

  “How do you know this?” Kade kept his voice even, calm, determined not to escalate the situation any more than it already was.

  Bobby swung his head toward Nikki. His eyes looked desperate, bloodshot, burdened. “I was never supposed to get away. The leaders of ARM spoke openly about their plans because I was nothing more than trash to them. I was inconsequential. They never thought I’d get away, even if the ransom was paid.”

  “You remember that?” Nikki whispered.

  What she was seeing as a breakthrough, Kade was seeing as a breakout. This wasn’t necessarily a moment for hope because Bobby was finally opening up, but rather one that called for extreme caution because of his unbridled actions.

  “I remember some. Not much. Enough.” Bobby’s hands shook, and he sneered with contempt at Desmond. “You’ll never get away with it.”

  “Um, you guys.” Marti looked between them with large eyes. “I’m sorry to tell you this, but Desmond has lived here for years. Years. He’s not one of the migrant workers. He’s a permanent resident. You’ll notice he has no accent.”

  Desmond nodded enthusiastically, obviously desperate to do anything to appease and reassure Bobby. Anyone in his shoes would. “It’s true. I’ve lived here my whole life. Ask anyone.”

  Bobby blinked and shook his head, twitching as if his brain was short-circuiting. “No, I’ve seen him before.”

  “Have you left the country before, Desmond?” Marti asked.

  He shook his head. “No. Never. But I want to go to Niagara Falls one day. I thought it would be cool to go over them in a barrel, but my mom tells me that doesn’t ever really happen.”

  That seemed to confirm what everyone was thinking: Bobby was paranoid. Maybe losing his mind. Suffering from PTSD.

  “Bobby, I need you to give me the gun.” Kade reached his hand out.

  A tear rolled down Bobby’s face. “I’m not crazy.”

  “No one said you were crazy,” Kade continued to prod. “But we all need to keep cool heads here. Okay? You were innocent when you endured what you did at the hands of those terrorists. Don’t make the same mistakes they made by making another innocent person suffer.”

  Bobby continued holding the gun, his arm outstretched, the barrel aimed right at Desmond. His arm shook—from emotional stress? From holding it out so long?

  It was hard to tell.

  Finally Bobby’s locked elbow broke, and he released his hold. Kade gently pushed the gun down toward the ground and away from the boy. He pried Bobby’s fingers off the weapon and put an arm around his shoulders.

  “We need to get you inside. Okay?”

  Bobby didn’t bother to respond. Instead, he lifelessly walked with Kade toward the house. Kade hated to admit it, but Bobby looked defeated.

  As Kade walked past Nikki, he saw the tears streaming down her face, and he realized that Bobby wasn’t the only one feeling conquered at the moment.

  CHAPTER 11

  Nikki should have helped Kade escort Bobby inside. She knew she should have. But she couldn’t make herself move from her spot in the barn. The implications of what could have happened just now made her freeze, made her doubt herself, made her fee
l like giving up.

  Quickly she wiped away the moisture under her eyes and forced an apologetic smile at Marti. In the distance, Desmond ran toward the woods—presumably his shortcut home. Marti had been talking in low tones with him, her hand on his shoulder, until just then.

  Nikki thought things couldn’t get worse, but they had. What had just happened with Desmond had the potential to send the feds right to their doorstep.

  Marti squeezed her arm. “I’m so sorry. I know that was hard on you.”

  “I’m the one who’s sorry. I keep thinking about everything that could have happened just now.”

  “Well, thankfully that hunky man of yours was around to make the situation right.”

  Nikki ignored the misconception and stepped into a shadow to see Marti’s face better. The sun glared through a crack in the boards, nearly blinding her. “Do you really think Desmond will stay quiet about this?”

  Marti’s smile disappeared, and her gaze trailed behind her in the direction Desmond had gone. “He lives in fear of disappointing his mother. If we stay quiet about those cigarettes, he won’t spill a word.”

  Nikki realized that while she’d just met this woman, she had no choice at the moment but to trust her. She hoped she didn’t regret it. “Do you think he knows who Bobby is?”

  Marti paused thoughtfully. “Honestly? No, I doubt he has any idea. He’s not the type to stay home watching the news. He’s the type who’s out riding his bike, skateboarding, playing basketball, and apparently smoking.”

  Nikki wrapped her arms over her chest, longing for answers. For comfort that felt unreachable. For a life different than her own.

  “I just don’t know what’s gotten into Bobby,” she muttered. “I mean I knew he would come back changed. I simply hoped he came back at all. But I didn’t expect any of this.”

  A sad, compassionate smile crossed Marti’s face. “He’s been through a lot. I’ve been following the story on the news.”

  Nikki nodded. When he’d first been taken, Nikki had read everything she could about ARM. She almost wished she hadn’t. What she’d read had been so horrible. These men had no regard for human life. They killed anyone who got in their way.

  Worst of all, they hated the United States. But the news didn’t report about the terrorist group very often. They were too preoccupied with everything going on in the Middle East. ARM wasn’t even on the radar of the average American citizen.

  ARM had executed some terror attacks down in South America. But nothing here. Nothing yet.

  If an event didn’t directly affect them, most Americans pretended it didn’t happen. News footage of a foreign land simply seemed like scenes from a movie. And Americans wanted to keep it that way.

  Nikki had always felt people needed to pay more attention. That was one of the reasons she had wanted to become a missionary. She’d seen what life was like for people living in other countries with devastated economies and corrupt leadership, and she had wanted to help.

  Her worldview had shifted, and she’d wanted to reach outside of herself and her comfort zone. But somehow she’d ended up right back where she started: trudging through routines, making a good living while building a world around her that she pretended was going to last. Castles built in the sand—beautiful, temporary, easily washed away.

  “I’m a bit of a conspiracy theorist, as I said earlier,” Marti continued. “Savannah thinks I’m a little over the top sometimes. But I did something kind of crazy the other day.”

  “What’s that?”

  “As a part of Hope House, we’re looking for avenues to help find these exploited women who need our assistance. At the suggestion of a friend, I got on the dark web.”

  “The dark web?”

  “Yeah, it’s—”

  “An encrypted network,” Nikki finished. “I’ve heard of it. I just haven’t heard of anyone I know actually using it.”

  “You might be surprised.” Marti nodded, her face animated. “There’s some pretty scary stuff there. I started reading these terrorist websites. I know—it doesn’t sound very smart. I get that. But I wanted to know what they were talking about, how they were recruiting. It’s scary. It’s never been easier to pull together a group of like-minded individuals who want to do harm to others. It’s like Psychos Unite.”

  “That’s one way to put it.”

  They started walking toward the house. The sun rose higher in the sky, and a gentle breeze danced across the landscape. There was a briskness in the air, promising a chilly autumn on the way. At one time that would have thrilled Nikki. Right now it seemed inconsequential.

  “I guess I’m bringing this up because there’s a lot of chatter there. A lot of chatter,” Marti said. “And if you get into the right chat room, you never know what you might learn.”

  Nikki realized where Marti was going with this. “You might hear something about Bobby . . .”

  Marti nodded. “If I do, I’ll let you know.”

  “Please don’t put yourself in danger because of us. I’d never want that. Never.”

  “I’ll be careful. But I feel like I should be saying that to you.”

  Marti’s words hung in the air, and Nikki realized the truth in what she said.

  The enemy could very well be closer than she ever imagined.

  Kade glanced out the front window in time to see Marti climb into her car. As Nikki started toward the house, Kade hurried to meet her. He knew she was upset, and rightfully so.

  Kade pushed the door open and spotted the grocery bags that Marti must have left. He picked up several, keeping the door propped open with his hip.

  “Where’s Bobby?” Nikki grabbed the remaining few plastic totes.

  “He went to lie down.” They carried everything into the living room and placed them on the couch. The TV murmured in low tones in the corner. Bobby had left it on earlier. “I convinced him to take his medicine.”

  “He doesn’t like taking it,” Nikki said. “It douses his emotions and makes him more like a zombie. But without the medication, he’s paranoid. I don’t know what they did to him over there.”

  “You don’t want to know.”

  She sat down heavily in an overstuffed chair, as if all the energy had drained from her at his words. “He told you?”

  Kade shrugged. “He told me enough.”

  “I’ve been practically begging him to open up to me, but he won’t. There’s still so much I want to know.”

  Kade shifted and sat across from her. “I know it’s hard to see him suffer. My dad had pancreatic cancer. He beat it, but still. Seeing him suffer for all of those months was heartbreaking. My dad didn’t want to tell me how much pain he was in, but I could see it all over him. The hardest thing was knowing there was little I could do to help.”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

  “I didn’t expect you to. Besides, he’s doing okay now.”

  “You’re right, though. Seeing people you love suffer is excruciating.”

  She started to sort the items Marti had bought when Kade gently touched her arm. “Bobby needs help, Nikki.”

  Silence stretched between them for a moment. “I know. But what can we do? If the military gets ahold of him and puts him in jail, he’s not going to get that help.”

  “I agree.” Kade frowned. “I just don’t want to make all of this worse. He found that gun in Jack’s closet. He put the ammunition in it, and there’s no telling what he would have done if we hadn’t shown up when we did.”

  “So what do you propose we do?”

  “We need to find some answers, Nikki. Tell me: How did you set up that security detail when things went wrong at the hospital? Who knew about it?”

  “Only Raz.”

  He crossed his arms. “Can you trust Raz?”

  “I’ve known Raz for a long time. My parents trusted him. He assured me this security firm—Steel Guard—was the best.”

  “He’s the one who helped Bobby lawyer up, correct?”

>   Nikki nodded. “Yes.”

  “How about the doctors at the hospital?”

  She nibbled on her bottom lip. At one time, Kade had found that adorable. He still did, truth be told.

  “Only one doctor and nurse even knew we were there,” Nikki said. “We had a room in a wing of the hospital that’s hardly ever used.”

  “Set up by Raz again?” Kade was sensing a theme here.

  Nikki nodded. “Yes. I feel like I’m being interrogated. You don’t think I should have trusted Raz?”

  “I’m just trying to piece together what happened. Raz may or may not have been trustworthy, but either way, he’s got information we don’t.” Kade leaned back and collected his thoughts for a moment. There was a leak somewhere. Had someone been paid off? Had the CIA gotten one of their men in there, disguised as hospital staff?

  A breaking news story drew their attention to the TV. Nikki sucked in a deep breath when she glanced at the screen.

  It was a picture of her and Bobby. The media hadn’t dropped this story. No, they were milking it for all it was worth.

  “Wright, who was originally thought to be a prisoner of war, is now suspected of being a military defector. Wright and his sister, fundraiser Nikki Wright, are now on the run. High-level officials fear that Wright is involved with a terrorist plot on American soil. A manhunt is underway as authorities try to locate both him and his sister.”

  Darren Philips, Bobby’s commanding officer, came on the screen.

  “I’ve always thought there was something off about Bobby,” he said. “No SEAL I ever worked with had such hatred for his country. I began to suspect he only made SEAL because of his connections. He’d make strange remarks every so often about how Americans didn’t belong down in Colombia. In fact, he requested the assignment in Colombia, and someone pulled some strings to get him there. I always found that suspicious.”

  How could any SEAL worth his weight go on TV and bring down another SEAL? Kade didn’t know Darren Philips that well, but he knew him enough. He was no longer a SEAL, and he liked to get on TV at every opportunity—probably because it helped to sell a book he’d just published.