The Truth About Toby

by Cheryl St. John

  Shaine led her toward the back door. “Get in the car. I’ll get your bag.”

  Six and a half hours later, she and Austin sat in the fathers’ waiting room, the television droning from a corner of the ceiling. “We should have heard by now,” Shaine said.

  Austin nodded and glanced at his watch.

  “I know what time I saw on that card,” she said, as if assuring herself.

  He tried to read last week’s issue of Time.

  The double doors opened and Nick came through, beaming. “You can see him in a little while,” he told Shaine. “It’ll be about an hour before they move her to her room.”

  “She’s okay?”

  “She’s a champ,” he replied, his face flushed. “It was great!” He started to leave, then turned back. “Oh, and I won the baby pool.”

  Rain gusted against the multipaned window. The darkness outside was relieved only by an occasional spear of lightning. A lonely man’s sharply etched features were reflected in the glass.

  He knew he was being watched.

  Wind howled beneath the eaves. He turned his head and found her.

  Lightning flashed, momentarily defining his rugged features.

  Austin.

  She wanted to touch him, to ease his pain.

  “You can’t,” he said, though she hadn’t spoken a word.

  And he was right. She couldn’t absorb all the pain and hurt like she wanted to. She would only add to his burden.

  She’d never wanted that.

  A small figure appeared at his side. Shaine squinted through the darkness and made out the fair-haired child. “Toby,” she whispered.

  “I been waiting for you,” he said, his childish voice piercing her soul. “I want Bear.”

  “I have him,” she promised.

  “Get him now.”

  She didn’t want to leave. He wouldn’t be here when she returned.

  “Please?”

  Torn between denying Toby’s request and losing him altogether, she cast Austin an anguished look.

  “I’ll take care of him,” he promised.

  Shaine awoke, the oppressive silence of her apartment closing in on her. The dream’s gloominess weighed on her heart. The beginning of the dream had been familiar, but the rest had confused her. Selfishly, she wished Austin had been there to wake her. Usually he heard, even from the other room, and came to gently rouse her.

  An odd intuition pulled insistently until she got up and tiptoed to the other room. The streetlight filtering through the blinds striped the empty sofa.

  Shaine switched on the lamp.

  He was gone.

  Chapter 18

  Austin called as she prepared breakfast for the two couples from Minneapolis. At his voice, Shaine’s heart jolted.

  “Ken called,” he explained. “He wanted me to join him down here in New Mexico.”

  “I thought you said there wasn’t anything at the farm that would be valuable.”

  He didn’t reply right away.

  After thinking, she said, “You were protecting me, weren’t you?”

  “Yeah. That, and the hunch I had about Samantha.”

  “Damn you, Austin! How could you go off without telling me?”

  “I knew you’d want to come.”

  “Darn right I would have. This is more my concern than it is yours!”

  “In case you’ve forgotten, you made it my concern.”

  She didn’t have a reply for that one. She rolled the spiral phone cord around her finger and bit her lower lip.

  “Besides, you have to take care of things there for a few days, don’t you?”

  Disappointment washed through her, easing her initial anger. “You know I do.”

  “Trust me to take care of things and to look out for Toby’s best interests.”

  Instantly his words brought her recent dream to mind. I’ll take care of him, he’d promised. “But I’m the one who saw where to find Amy,” she argued reasonably.

  “You were. If there’s anything I think can be better solved using you, I’ll tell Ken and we’ll work around it until you can get here.”

  She released the cord and held her hair back. “That will be at least a day or two. Audrey will probably come home tomorrow. Her mother is arriving this afternoon, and she’ll help with the baby. Nick has the rest of the week off. He and Marge can handle the inn.”

  “Take my number and Ken’s down. Call if you need anything.”

  She jotted the numbers on a piece of paper.

  “Call me,” she said, and then hated herself for sounding so needy. She was not like her sister, and she would not make a fool of herself over a man.

  “I’ll call you tonight,” he promised.

  Shaine hung up and blinked back tears. This was only the beginning of missing him.

  That night he called as promised. Shaine had been reading in bed, and reached over to grab the phone.

  “What were you doing?” he asked.

  “I’ve read the last two pages of the same book about ten times.”

  “Want to sleep? Try the program manuals.”

  “Thanks, I might do that.”

  “Ken got leads on a couple more kids today,” he said. “He contacted parents and they’re overnighting us something I can use.”

  “You need me for that,” she said. “They already have the criminals in hand, they need to see where the kids are now.”

  “We know,” he said. “And it’s a hundred percent sure we’ll want you here as soon as you can make it.”

  She could set things in order tomorrow and leave the following day. “I’ll fly in Sunday evening.”

  “I’ll book you a flight.”

  “Can you do it from there?”

  “This is the FBI, remember?”

  “Right.”

  She knew they both wanted to say more. She wanted to tell him she missed him and that she wanted to be with him forever. She wanted to tell him she loved him.

  “I’ll call you with the flight information.”

  “Okay.”

  “Good night.”

  Shaine hung up. An hour later she trudged upstairs for the manuals.

  “How’s the baby?”

  “He’s a doll.” She slid into the car and plucked her damp blouse away from her skin. “Whew! Good thing I packed some summer clothes. Whose car?”

  “Ken’s,” he replied, pulling away from the curb. “He’s meeting us tomorrow morning.”

  “How’s it going?”

  “They’ve located two more kids.”

  “That’s wonderful.”

  “Not through anything I did. The Holbrooks seem to remember nearly all the kids and where they delivered them. Some they remember on their own. Some of them Rossi volunteers. It’s going to boil down to the department coming up with every file for a child missing over about a two-year period, and showing them the photos. We’re basically at their mercy, but they don’t realize it yet and they’re talking to save their own butts.”

  “What about the man and woman who actually took them?”

  “They’ve been identified, but so far no luck in trying to find them.” He spoke as he maneuvered through the evening traffic. “Ken has had to assign people to stay in the homes where the children have been returned. They can’t take the chance of this getting out to the press before those two are caught.”

  “What a nightmare.” She looked over at him thoughtfully. “What about you? You were in that guy’s head. Can you get anything on him?”

  “I’ve been working on it.”

  Fatigue was evident in the clear-cut lines around his mouth. “Have you been running?”

  He shook his head.

  “There a gym at the hotel?”

  “He’s got me in a motel.”

  “Is there a pool?”

  He glanced over. “You afraid I’ll get out of shape?”

  “Hardly. I think you need to keep up as much of your routine as you can. It’s been hard on you bei
ng away from your home.”

  “I’m a big boy,” he said. His hands tensed on the steering wheel. “I take trips. I’m not agoraphobic, you know.”

  “I know. You take trips, but you don’t expose yourself to all this other stuff. You hadn’t used your ability for years until you met me. And I can see why.”

  “Yeah, well, now I have, and I’m handling it.”

  “I don’t want to argue with you, I just care about you.”

  The words hung uncomfortably in the air between them, and Shaine wished she could snatch them back.

  He switched lanes and signaled for a turn. Pulling smoothly into a parking slot, he got out and retrieved her bag from the trunk.

  She followed him into the building and down a hall. He unlocked the door to his room and held the door open for her.

  Two queen-size beds, a desk and a television cabinet made up the ordinary-looking room. Shaine forced her gaze from the beds with the teal spreads.

  “Did you bring a bathing suit?”

  She always left one in her suitcase. She nodded.

  He lifted her bag to the luggage rack. “Let’s go for a swim, then we’ll clean up and grab a meal somewhere.”

  And avoid being here in this room with the two beds until as late as possible. Suddenly she resented the fact that he was putting this awkward distance between them. She unzipped her suitcase and went through the motions of getting ready.

  They were the only swimmers in the pool. It extended beneath a Plexiglas divider, which they swam under, and they enjoyed the cooling air outdoors as the sun set. Shaine could tell the exercise had invigorated Austin by the way he seemed to relax.

  “I have an idea,” she said, as they towel-dried their hair on the way to the room. “Why don’t we have a pizza delivered and watch a movie?”

  “Really?”

  “I wouldn’t have to do more than wash my hair, and I’m pretty tired from all the flights.”

  He agreed and made the call while she showered.

  The pizza came while he took his turn showering. He’d thought to order soft drinks and plenty of napkins, so they had a picnic on the bed closest to the TV.

  The only movies the pay-TV channel had were old titles, so they chose Young Frankenstein and laughed at the same ridiculous antics they had before.

  “I love this part,” he said as he leaned back against the headboard and crossed his ankles.

  She lay on her stomach and plumped a pillow beneath her breasts. Shaine’s attention wavered from the screen to his legs beside her, up to the loose sweatshirt and finally to his relaxed face.

  A minute later he caught her staring, and turned the volume down. “Thanks.”

  “For what?”

  “Offering to stay in.”

  “I was tired.”

  He lifted a skeptical brow. “Okay. But you suggested it for my benefit.”

  She shrugged and traced the pattern on the spread with one finger.

  “And I appreciate it.”

  “In that case, you’re welcome.”

  His mild gaze studied her face and the hair she hadn’t taken time to dry into place, moved calmly to her bottom beneath the nightshirt and traveled the length of her bare legs, which were close enough for him to reach over and stroke. Her skin tingled as though he’d touched her in all those places.

  “It would be okay,” she said softly.

  Her voice brought Austin’s attention back to her lips. Up to her tawny eyes. “What would?”

  “If you touched me. If you kissed me.”

  He wanted to. He’d learned something important while he’d been here the last two nights: There were a lot of people in this world he could do without. But he didn’t think Shaine Richards was one of them.

  He moved his hand to her calf, brushed the silky-soft skin and ran his palm up her thigh as far as he could reach without leaning forward.

  What kind of relationship could they have with him living the way he did? Would she come to visit?

  He sat up and filled his hand with her firm bottom.

  “I’ve missed you,” she said, and rolled to her side, her nightshirt riding up her shapely thighs.

  No man could have resisted. This one didn’t want to.

  He pulled the cotton up, revealing white bikinis, and pressed a kiss on her stomach.

  Her fingers threaded through his hair, sending a shiver of keen longing through his body. He worked the pajama up and kissed her breasts, tugged it off and suckled her neck. Her gratified sigh of pleasure brought his lips to hers.

  She kissed him greedily, and he rediscovered the rapture of her pliant lips and the warm recesses of her mouth. The feel of her silky soft skin beneath his hands escalated his all-consuming need for her. Her sighs praised him. Her eager hands encouraged him. He disposed of their clothing, and her soft, ready flesh welcomed him.

  Her pleasure crested immediately, giving him blissful time to build his own with slow measured strokes while she kissed him and whispered delicious words of esteem against his mouth.

  Minutes later, Austin lay at her side, exhaustion creeping across his body and mind. He dismissed the slender thread of fear that tried to weave itself into his consciousness. He’d held his guard in place, even in his sleep—though not as strongly—for years. Staying on the fringes of deep sleep prevented him from seeing anything he didn’t want to see.

  He didn’t want to see their future.

  Sleep crept in around the edges of his mind, and as it did, his inner man gave him counsel. You can’t love her. You don’t want to love someone and then know things about them that you’re helpless to prevent.

  He feared they didn’t have a future. That’s what he really didn’t want to see.

  Chapter 19

  “Weather report said there were snow flurries in the Rockies,” Austin said to her the next morning. They sat in a booth eating an early breakfast at a pancake restaurant near the motel.

  Shaine sipped her coffee. “Have you called to check on Daisy?”

  “Yeah, she’s fine.”

  She leaned her chin on her palm and studied him, thinking how handsome he was. The remembrance of their night together brought a flutter to her stomach.

  “Can I get you anything else?” the waitress drawled from beside Austin.

  Unpleasantly drawn from her ruminations, Shaine reached for the thermal coffee pitcher.

  “We’re fine, thanks,” Austin replied.

  “All right. Holler if I can get ya anything else.”

  Shaine set the pot down with a start. The girl’s voice rang in her head.

  Austin laid his fork down. “What’s wrong?”

  “Her accent! Her accent!”

  “What about it?”

  She straightened in her chair. “The woman in my dream had an accent like that. Not exactly, but close.”

  “The dream about Toby and the woman?”

  “Yes!”

  “Miss!” Austin flagged the young woman down. She wound her way through the tables and gave him a thousand-watt smile. “Would you mind telling us where you’re from?” he asked.

  “Lived in eastern Kansas my whole life,” she said. “Moved out here about a year ago to help take care of my father-in-law.”

  “Thanks.” After she moved away, he turned to Shaine. “Not exactly like that?”

  She shook her head in frustration. “Not exactly. But I think if I heard the exact accent I’d know it. Those words and that voice are permanently recorded in my head.”

  “We’ll tell Ken about this. I’m sure it’ll help.”

  They finished their coffee and Austin drove to the offices where Ken had been working.

  “You need to hear accents?” Ken said, scratching his jaw. “Well, that shouldn’t be difficult. I’ll sit you down here with one of the office people, and they can hook you up with our offices around the country. You can talk to the secretaries or the agents.”

  Shaine readily agreed, and Ken called a friendly middleaged woman
over to help. Barbara Maddux located offices through the central states, and Shaine spoke with one or two people at each location.

  It took about ten tries to hear the sound she wanted.

  “Missouri,” she told Ken confidently.

  “You sure?”

  “Without a doubt. There’s something about that not-quite drawl that’s distinctive.”

  “Okay. I’ll question the Holbrooks right away, and I’ll get back to you.”

  Shaine accepted the plan with an impatient nod. “You have something for us to do here today, right?”

  “We have several items from missing children whose MO is the same. You up to a session? I can give you a man to work with you while I go to the jail.”

  She nodded. Anything to pass the time until he returned.

  “Do you have someone who’s worked like this before?” Austin asked.

  “All of my people are already on this case,” Ken replied. “I have agents working ’round the clock to turn these kids up and process them. You can take one of the local guys or wait for me.”

  Austin met Shaine’s apprehensive gaze. “We’ll take our chances.”

  Brett Baldwin was a jerk. Austin knew it the moment he laid eyes on him. The man swaggered into the office, didn’t bother to shake Austin’s hand and gave Shaine the once-over. ’So you two are gonna go into a trance or something, huh? What am I supposed to do—polish your crystal ball?” He snickered. ”Read an incantation?“

  He was afraid of them. Austin sensed it in his offensive attitude. “Don’t worry,” he said. “You don’t have to do anything except keep the proceeding official.”

  “Official? In order to do that, we’d need a real witness. And I don’t see any. This is about as official as calling the psychic hotline for a lead.”

  “We don’t have to do this.” Shaine picked up her purse and stood.

  Austin caught her wrist. “No. We don’t. If you don’t want to, you don’t have to. I’ll do it alone, or we can sit out in the lobby and wait for Ken.”

  Resignation replaced the irritation on her face. She sat back down. “Okay.”

  Austin turned to the detective. “I know you’ve been briefed on how to conduct this and yourself. Sit there. Check the evidence, keep the recorder going, take notes and keep your mouth shut.”