Shadows of Deception

by Amy Hale

  “No. We are not giving in.” Colt said through gritted teeth.

  “I’d listen to your ex-girlfriend, Colt. She’s smart and knows how this will go down otherwise.” He paused. “She is your ex, correct? We all heard the huge fight you had before she left.”

  Colt pulled her close to his ear and whispered, “Never. You will always be mine and I will always be yours. No matter what happens, never forget that.” He kissed her face, just in front of her ear and then released her.

  In one quick, fluid movement Colt lowered his head and rushed Jeremy, knocking him back and into a tree. Gregory grabbed Colt by the back of the shirt and tossed him several feet away, causing the gun to fly out of his hands.

  Jeremy was quickly on his feet and grabbed the gun. Colt’s attack was just enough of a distraction that Kyler was able to break free, with a little help from Jane. He stood at her side, ready to fight.

  Jeremy held up the gun then pointed it at Kyler. Jane glowered at him.

  “Don’t think I’ll do it? Think you can stop me?”

  Her confidence waned. She couldn’t form the shield around them before, and she wasn’t sure it would work now. Gregory laughed when he noticed her hesitation. “I told you that you didn’t have what it took to win.”

  She ignored his jab and continued to watch Jeremy carefully. He stared into her eyes and then took a step forward. “I know how stubborn you are. The only way you’ll join me is if I give you no other choice. So here’s the deal.” He pointed the gun to his side, aiming it at Colt, who had been trying to sneak up on him.

  “You go with me, Colt lives. You refuse, Colt dies.”

  She shook her head. “Don’t you dare!” She tried to use her gifts to remove the gun from his hand but nothing was happening. She couldn’t hide the hint of confusion she felt.

  “If you’re wondering why you can’t go all super hero right now, it’s because I took precautions. My uncle may have been a jackass, but I did learn a few things from him. For instance, which herbs and compounds effect the system to weaken your powers. Also, the handy trick of how to put it in water undetected.” He smiled as she realized he’d been slowly drugging her through their entire hike to the compound.

  “Yes,” Jeremy said. “It was in both your water bottles.”

  Jane didn’t know what to do next. She looked at Colt, desperation in her eyes.

  He shook his head. “Don’t do it. Jane.”

  Jeremy released an annoyed sigh then shot Colt in the shoulder. He fell back against a tree and then slid to the forest floor, grasping his shoulder in pain.

  Jane screamed. “No!” She stepped forward reaching for Colt. Jeremy grabbed her around the waist and pulled her to him.

  “He might survive that shot, if he isn’t left here to bleed out. But if I have to ask you again, the next shot will finish him off for sure.” He raised the gun and aimed at Colt’s head.

  Silent tears streamed down her cheeks as she turned her face to Jeremy’s. “Yes. I’ll go with you. Just please, let me heal him.”

  “No, I’m afraid that’s not an option. You’d both just try to fight back once he was better. Besides, you probably don’t have enough juice left to fix a wound like that anyway. The drugs should have been in your system long enough now that your gifts are pretty much useless.”

  Jane looked back at Colt. He was breathing hard and staring daggers at Jeremy. “Would you at least get him help?”

  “No, but I’ll let Kyler here drag him back to the camp. It’s only a four-hour hike. He might make it.”

  Jane slapped Jeremy hard. “You bastard!”

  He rubbed his cheek and glared at her. “It’s time to go.”

  “No!” Jane screamed as Gregory and Jeremy began to drag her toward the building in the clearing. “No, you bastards! Let me go!”

  Jeremy called to a guard that had just rounded the corner. “Hey, you! I caught the girl you were looking for! Tell Julia we have Jane and want to make a deal!”

  Colt managed to get to his feet, determined to get her back, but Kyler stopped him. “Man, you can’t do it. Not in your condition. You’re as good as dead if you try. We’ll get her back. We’ll get my sister back. But first we have to get you to a doctor, and it’s a long walk.”

  Colt was starting to feel faint, and he didn’t have the strength to argue. He looked back at Jane, her form flailing in the distance as they pulled her into the building and shut the door.

  Anger gave him a slight surge of energy and he looked at Kyler. “Let’s get back to camp. We have a lot of work ahead of us.”

  Kyler nodded and then called Grant over. His stiff, robotic form followed Kyler’s commands. “Well at least that’s still working.” Kyler commented. “Grant, help support Colt on that side, I’ll support this side. We’re getting him down this mountain.”

  Jane sat in a small room and surveyed her bleak surroundings. Bare walls and a single chair were all that greeted her. She sat on the only other piece of furniture in the room. Her eyes were irritated and red-rimmed from all the crying she’d done in the last hour. Jeremy had shot Colt, and she didn’t know if he was dead or alive. Her mind flashed back to the many nightmares that had warned her over and over about possible outcome. She didn’t understand why he had felt so determined to follow her. If he’d just stayed back at the camp… but she knew such thoughts didn’t serve a useful purpose.

  Attempting to use her gifts, she tried to make the chair opposite hers move, but nothing happened. She took a deep breath and tried once more. Again, the results were disappointing. She hung her head in defeat, her broken heart overshadowing any hope she’d still clung to.

  The door made a light clicking sound, indicating someone had entered the room, but she didn’t bother to look up. A kind voice spoke to her softly.

  “Hello.”

  Jane raised her eyes, peeking through the strands of her auburn hair that fell over her face. The woman before her had a friendly face and gentle eyes. She had her blonde hair pulled back from her face in a bun, the occasional streak of silver peeking out here and there. She offered a glass of water to Jane.

  “I was instructed to bring this to you.” Her calm voice was soothing, and Jane found herself relaxing somewhat.

  Shaking her head, Jane refused the glass. “I’m not thirsty.”

  The woman bent down in front of Jane and smiled, a dimple forming in her cheek. “What’s your name?”

  Jane eyed her suspiciously. How could she not know who Jane was? Rumor had it that everyone had been on high alert since she’d escaped. Maybe she was new to the organization. Or maybe she was one of the members that worked behind the scenes, rarely dealing with the gifted. Now that she considered it, Jane decided it had to be the latter. The woman did look very familiar.

  Lifting her face, Jane looked the woman in the eyes. “I’m Jane, formerly known to The Curators as Alice.”

  The woman’s eyes went wide. “Ah. So you’re the one that’s caused all the ruckus around here.”

  Jane smirked. “Yeah, I did have them going for a short while anyway.”

  The woman laughed, and it was a light sound that seem completely out of place in someone working for such a perverse organization.

  Her smile widened as she brushed the hair back from Jane’s face in a motherly manner. “It’s very nice to meet you, Jane. My name is Karen.”

  Jane smiled back, however, in her mind it seemed odd that she’d be so genial to anyone involved in this organization. She should have been spitting in her face or trying to scratch her eyes out, yet she sat mesmerized by the lovely, nurturing woman.

  Jane had opened her mouth to respond when the door flew open and Jeremy barged in. Karen stood abruptly and moved to Jane’s side. He took the empty seat across from Jane and bent forward, leaning his upper body on his thighs.

  “Okay, gorgeous, let’s talk.” He flashed her a smile.

  He must have thought it was charming, but she only found it repulsive. Visions of Colt fl
ashed in her mind, and her anger quickly built to a rage, burning out any congenial feelings she’d just experienced. She glared at him.

  He looked up at Karen, displeasure written all over his face. “Did you do your job? She’s supposed to be calm and happy to see me. I know her, and this is not her happy face.”

  Karen became nervous and fidgeted. “Yes, Sir. I mean, it was working. I…I don’t know what happened.”

  Jane looked at Karen, then back to Jeremy. “What happened is that you broke your word. You shot him,” she screamed.

  Jeremy held up a finger. “Ah, ah. Now, I never said I wouldn’t shoot him. I said I’d let him go, and I did that. I did in fact refrain from putting a bullet through his brain.”

  “He could be dead, or dying. If you wanted cooperation, killing Colt Henderson was not the way to achieve it.”

  Jane heard a gasp beside her and looked up. Karen had gone pale. She looked at Jeremy.

  “Sir, may I be excused? I’m suddenly not feeling well.”

  Jeremy nodded and Karen fled the room. He shook his head in disgust. “So hard to find reliable help anymore,” he quipped.

  “Jeremy?” Jane spoke his name in a sweet, light voice.

  He gave her a genuine smile. “Yes, my love?”

  Her gaze became steel as it bored through him. “Go straight to Hell.”

  Colt was practically unconscious for the last half hour of the trek back to camp. Before traveling very far, Kyler had stopped and used the first-aid kit Colt had smartly decided to store in his backpack. He managed to slow the bleeding significantly, but he knew Colt would need serious medical attention once they reached the rest of the group.

  Grant and Kyler were carrying Colt when Brett saw them emerge from the trees. Fear gripped his heart like a vice as he ran to his brother.

  “What happened, Kyler?”

  Brett grabbed Colt’s legs and helped them get him through the large double doors and then down the hallway into the dining room. They placed his limp body on one of the long tables and Kyler immediately worked on changing the bandage. Brett’s hands were in his hair, looking at Colt in shock.

  Kyler turned to Brett. “Do you know anything about removing a bullet?”

  Brett blinked. “No, nothing. Who shot him?”

  The frown on Kyler’s face became more pronounced. “Jeremy. The little jackass turned traitor.”

  The color in Brett’s face changed from pale to scarlet as he contemplated what that meant. He forced himself to deal with the matter at hand. “How do we save my brother?”

  “We need to make sure the wound is clean and there is no internal bleeding. I don’t think it hit an artery as I was able to stem the bleeding fairly easily. We should probably remove the bullet, but that could also be dangerous if we aren’t prepared for the possibility that the bullet is what is keeping the bleeding at bay.”

  Rachel ran in the room, her eyes wide at the scene before her. “What the hell happened?”

  Colt moaned and blinked his eyes.

  Brett turned to Rachel. “Please grab us a blanket, then get Wes. Tell him we need him right now. Life or death.”

  She nodded and ran from the room. Colt tried to sit up and Brett placed a gentle hand on his good arm.

  “You can’t get up yet, bro. You need medical attention.”

  Colt frowned. “I’ll live.”

  “Not if you do something stupid, so stay still and let us help you.”

  Rachel’s speed was a benefit as she returned in less than two minutes. She handed the blanket to Brett, and he draped it over Colt. Wes was right behind her.

  Brett looked at Wes, his eyes pleading. “You’re a genius, right?”

  Wes nodded numbly, staring at Colt.

  “Good,” said Brett. “Are you genius enough to know how to help him?”

  Wes swallowed. “I think if I could get my hands on the right medical information, I could effectively do what needs to be done.”

  “I’ll find it,” Rachel said as she disappeared quickly, heading for the library.

  Kyler had taken Grant’s cell phone, looking for any information that might be helpful to them in regard to the organization. There were some phone contacts that looked vaguely familiar, along with Julia’s cell number.

  Rachel returned with a medical trauma book, and Wes wasted no time looking up the information he needed. Meanwhile, Colt tried to piece together just what had happened at the complex. He didn’t fully remember getting back to camp, and the details after he was shot were fuzzy. Was Jane okay?

  Colt tried to sit up once again and Brett protested. “What do you need done, Colt? I’ll take care of it.”

  Colt seethed, “I need you to kill that lying, little, dick-head Jeremy! I need you to bring Jane back home!”

  Trying to sooth his older brother, he nodded in agreement. “We’ll do it all, bro, you just gotta get better first.”

  Kyler frowned. “They claim to have Elana too. Please tell me she’s still here, Rachel.”

  “I don’t know Kyler. We all did our own thing for a while, then went to bed. But now that I think about it, I don’t remember seeing her grab dinner last night.”

  Kyler handed Grant’s phone off to Brett and ran from the room to check on the whereabouts of his sister. Brett flipped lazily through the photos app, until he came across something that caught his attention. He stopped and peered closer, then used his thumb and forefinger to enlarge the photo.

  Placing the photo in front of Grant, he asked, “Who is that lady? She looks familiar.”

  Grant’s gaze landed on the photo and in a calm voice he answered, “That’s Karen. She works at our facility. She’s been there for years.”

  Brett’s eyebrows rose and he swallowed. “Colt, I think you should see this.”

  Colt opened his eyes and Brett put the phone in front of his face. Colt used his good arm to grab the phone and adjust the distance so he could see clearly. He studied the photo a moment, then looked at Grant.

  “Grant, tell me again. What is her name?”

  “Karen.” Grant replied.

  Brett looked at Colt again, taking note of the displeasure in his features.

  Rachel looked at the two brothers, then walked over and took the phone. “Who is she?”

  Colt glanced at Brett, pain in his eyes. “That’s Karen Henderson. Our mother.”

  It’s hard to believe that I’m writing an acknowledgments page for the fourth time. Someone pinch me! My heart is full knowing that readers are enjoying my work and spreading the word. I owe so many people an expression of gratitude and it’s hard to know where to start. My success this far is not just due to my own hard work, but also the efforts of those who’ve been an integral part of this journey.

  As always I owe my biggest thanks to my family. They’ve learned to adapt and work around my crazy writing schedules and bursts of random creativity. Without my husband, son, and daughter, I’d be a total wreck; living off beef jerky and Diet Coke while wondering if I have clean underwear. I love you three to the moon and back!

  To my beta readers – you ladies are the best! You keep me on track every time. Without you, Jane and Colt would likely end up in some remote village in the frozen Tundra… without pants.

  Much love to Wendi for her editing expertise and encouragement throughout this book. You’ve been the voice of reason when my brain went berserk.

  I’m forever grateful for the amazing talents of Sarah Hanson. My covers are always eye-catching thanks to your creative genius. You get the mood and look I’m going for every time.

  Many thanks to Staci for the gorgeous formatting and interior design. You’ve saved my bacon more than once and I’ll be forever grateful for all the help you’ve given me.

  A special shout out to Gladys Gonzales Atwell, A.L. Wood, Kris Pittman, Jamie McGuire, and Ailsa Marshall. You ladies have gone above and beyond for me at times. Each of you hold a special place in my heart.

  A HUGE thanks to you dearest reader.
Thank you for allowing me to entertain you for a short time with part two of Jane and Colt’s story. It’s an honor to be included in your day! I hope you are as excited as I am about Shadows of Deliverance, the final book in the trilogy. Hang on to your Harleys… it’s gonna be a wild ride!

  Amy Hale is an author, mother, and wife living in Illinois. She started her writing career in 2003 with non-fiction and educational pieces, but decided to take the leap to fiction in 2014. She’s always plotting new projects and writing down crazy ideas. She’s a hopeless romantic and adores all the various ways a love story can be told. Amy also loves mystery, humor, suspense, and other action filled stories, so her goal is to blend the action with romance and keep you on your toes.

  Her husband and kids are the center of her universe, although her cat believes otherwise. She also loves reading, music, and photography. When she’s not writing or reading, Amy can be found watching MST3K movies with her kids, or enjoying the scenery fly by from the back of her husband’s motorcycle.

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