“I’m listening,” Martin said, sounding suddenly awake.
“You know that problem you warned me about?”
“Yes.”
“It’s here.”
“I was afraid you were going to say that. Tell me what you need.”
~
Mark stared at the big, comfy bed in his and Traci’s room at the mansion and yawned. “I’m going to sleep hard tonight,” he said.
“I hope we all do,” Traci said fervently. “Tomorrow’s going to be busy.”
Mark snorted. “That’s putting it mildly.”
“I can’t even begin to imagine what Cindy’s going through,” Traci said with a shudder. “She, Geanie, and I spent some time praying tonight.”
“Yeah?” Mark asked, not as surprised as he once would have been.
Traci nodded. “At least it felt like I was doing something, helping.”
“Jeremiah needs all the help he can get.”
“You don’t think he’s going to do something stupid do you?”
Mark sighed and sat down on the edge of the bed. “Define stupid.”
“You know what I mean.”
“I wish I could say “no” but he can be pretty bull-headed sometimes.”
“Reminds me of someone else I know,” Traci teased as she moved close and began to massage his shoulders, careful not to injure the one that was still recovering from the knife wound.
“Please, I’m positively docile and compliant by comparison.”
Traci laughed, and the sound warmed him through and through.
“Have I told you today how amazing you are?” he asked.
“Not that I remember.”
“Well, shame on me.”
Before either of them could say anything else there was a knock on the door. Mark got up with a groan. “It better not be another crisis. I can’t handle any more for the day.”
“Technically it’s already tomorrow.”
“Not until I sleep it’s not.”
“If we went by that we’d be a couple of years behind the rest of the world.”
“Frightening, but probably accurate,” he said.
He opened the door and saw Jeremiah standing there. The man’s face was a blank mask. Mark hated when he did that.
“I need to see you guys downstairs in ten minutes.”
“Can it wait until morning?” Mark asked even though he was pretty sure he knew the answer.
“It really can’t.”
“Okay.”
Mark closed the door and turned to Traci. “I have a feeling we’re about to lose another day in our calendar.”
~
When Cindy got downstairs to the living room she found that Joseph, Geanie, Mark, Traci, and her father were already there. She took a seat on the couch and looked around. “I guess I’m late to the party.”
“I think we were early,” Traci said. “Jeremiah gave us ten minutes to get down here.”
“He gave us five and that was five minutes ago,” Joseph said with a frown.
“Me, too,” Don said.
“He just told me “now” and hurried off,” Cindy said.
“Why stagger it?” Traci asked.
“So that we didn’t have time to all confer together?” Mark guessed.
“But why?” Cindy asked. “That makes no-”
She stopped as she heard the front door open and close. Moments later Jeremiah walked into the room.
“I’m glad you’re all here,” he said, his face a mask.
“Jeremiah, what’s going on?” she asked as an icy knot of dread settled into her stomach.
~
Jeremiah didn’t answer Cindy directly. He was finding it difficult just to look at her. What he was about to do was hard enough as it was, and he couldn’t lose his resolve. Not now.
“My enemies are coming at me from all sides,” Jeremiah said. “This is my fault. I’ve gotten careless. I can’t involve the rest of you any more than I already have.”
They all stared at him. Some looked puzzled, others afraid. Mark looked angry.
“You care to explain what you mean by that?” Mark demanded.
Jeremiah looked his friend in the eyes. He knew he had one chance to do this right and he had to appeal to the detective on a personal level, in a way that he would understand and hopefully respect.
“Brother, I can’t risk losing you. You mean too much to me and it would destroy me if something happened to you, my sister, my niece or my nephew.”
Tears sprang to Mark’s eyes and he dropped his head down as a shudder passed through him. Traci grabbed his hand and Mark clung to it like a drowning man.
Jeremiah turned to Joseph and Geanie. “My friends, it was never my intention to bring danger to your home. The two of you have sheltered us all many times. You have offered love and protection. It’s time to return that favor.”
Joseph and Geanie exchanged puzzled looks.
Jeremiah turned to Cindy. “My love, my life. I would die for you. I would die without you. My heart is yours in this world and what will come after. Never doubt that.”
She looked like she was about to say something, but he turned swiftly to Don. “Please, take care of her.”
Don nodded but didn’t say anything.
“You’re not doing this by yourself,” Traci said, the first one to speak up. “And if you think we’re going to just sit by and let you, you’re crazy. We’re helping, and you can’t stop us.”
The moment of truth had arrived. Pain surged through him and he did everything he could to push it out of his mind. He couldn’t let his emotions cloud his judgment or he might as well lie down and die. He looked at each face, marking them in his memory. They had each become important to him, even Don, who had offered to be the father that Jeremiah had lost.
“Where I’m going none of you can follow. I know you’ll try and I can’t risk any of you getting hurt. I’m sorry, but this is the way it has to be.”
He turned toward the foyer, and Martin and four other men dressed in tactical gear entered the room. Martin nodded at him and Jeremiah nodded back. Then he turned for one last look at all the people in the world that he held dear.
“Goodbye,” he said, before turning and making his way quickly to the front door. He opened it, and stepped out into the night.
6
Cindy lunged up from her seat with a cry as Jeremiah left. She started to follow, but her dad stood up, grabbed her, and pulled her into a tight embrace. She struggled to break free, but he just held her tighter.
“You have to let him go,” he whispered.
“No! He needs me, and I need him. We’re stronger together.”
“Cindy, it had to be this way,” Martin said.
She twisted around so she could glare at him. “You of all people should know that I can help him. I’ve done it before. I’m not going to just sit and wait to hear that he’s been killed!”
“He has work to do that you can’t be a part of,” Martin said. “Any of you,” he added, looking around the room.
“And just who are you?” Mark demanded.
“You can call me Martin. I’m a colleague of Jeremiah’s.”
“You’re the C.I.A. agent from Vegas,” Mark said.
“He is,” Cindy said, still glaring.
“Now that introductions are out of the way, it’s time to move all of you to a secure location,” Martin said.
“I’m not going,” Cindy said.
Martin grimaced. “Jeremiah says that you are, no matter what I have to do to make that happen.”
“It’s best we go with them now,” her dad spoke up.
Cindy wanted to argue, to scream and cry and rage, but the fight was leaving her and in its place grief and fear were taking hold. She stopped trying to break free from her dad and instead began to lean against him, no longer certain her legs would fully support her.
“If someone
would like to go upstairs and get the other four members of our party, that would be great,” Martin said.
Mark and Traci stepped forward. Martin signaled and one of his men escorted them out of the room. They returned less than five minutes later with both babies, Kyle, and Cindy’s mom in tow.
Carol and Kyle were blustering. Cindy leaned her head into her dad’s shoulder, unable to cope with either of them.
“Both of you knock it off,” Don barked.
Cindy glanced up just in time to see the startled looks on her mother and brother’s faces. She couldn’t honestly remember her father using that tone of voice before. It was evidence of just how seriously he was taking the events that were unfolding around them.
“Dad-” Kyle began.
“I don’t want to hear it,” Don said. “Lives are on the line, including ours. Not a peep from either of you until we get where we’re going. Understood?”
Both her mom and Kyle nodded without saying anything.
“Alright, we’re moving out,” Martin said.
~
Jeremiah watched from a perch on the roof of the house while Martin and his team loaded Cindy and the others into black sedans. He didn’t know where they were being taken, at his own request. He did know that they would be safe no matter what. He waited, watching them and the surrounding area.
Mark and Traci were each holding one of the twins, one of whom was fussing slightly. Kyle and Carol both looked furious, but Don seemed to have them under control. Everyone in the house had to go into hiding, hard as that would be.
Slowly the cars moved out, and moments later they were heading down the hill. As soon as they were off Joseph and Geanie’s property, Jeremiah breathed a sigh of relief.
He could do what he had to now that he didn’t have to worry about anyone else. The night pressed in around him and he started to remember what it was like to live with the silence and to pick out the slightest changes in his environment. It was years since he had been truly alone, but the old skills were still there. They always had been.
He was ready. He had some cash on him for things he might need that he had taken from a safe Joseph kept in his office. He’d pay the man back if he could one day. Cindy and the others were safe, and it was time for him to go to work.
~
They had all been split up into four cars. That alone would have been enough to set Mark on edge. What made it worse was the way they’d been split up. Each car had two agents in the front, one driving and one literally riding shotgun. That left room for three in each back seat. He had heard enough from Martin to know that all four cars were taking a different route to wherever it was that they were going. That made the separation anxiety he was experiencing even more intense.
Mark, Traci, and Ryan were in the back of one car. Traci was wedged in the middle between Mark and Ryan’s car seat. They had been separated from Rachel. At least Rachel was with Joseph and Geanie and that gave him some comfort. Don was with Carol and Kyle. Mark didn’t envy Don the conversation that must be happening in that car.
That left Cindy all alone with Martin and another agent. That really worried him more than he could say. His own natural paranoia developed over years of being a cop and years knowing her and Jeremiah was kicking into high gear. How did they really know they could trust Martin? How did they know that was even his real name?
For all they knew he was the enemy and he had specifically chosen a name that would subconsciously set Cindy at ease because it started with the same three letters that Mark’s name did. That way it would sound familiar, like someone that could be trusted, like a friend.
He couldn’t see anything outside the tinted windows and his anxiety skyrocketed. This could be the most insidious kidnapping plot ever.
He forced himself to try and take deep breaths. Jeremiah apparently trusted this guy otherwise he wouldn’t have sent them all off with him. Even if he did trust Martin, though, he’d been wrong to do what he did.
Mark was furious at Jeremiah and at himself. He should have known the rabbi would pull some kind of lone wolf crap given the circumstances and how he’d been acting right before siccing the C.I.A. on them. He shouldn’t be trying to go it alone, shutting out his friends in the process. They all worked well as a team and he was benching them all. He was mad at himself for deep down being grateful that Jeremiah had taken the rest of them out of play.
He wanted Traci and the twins to be safe. That was the most important thing to him. Jeremiah’s plan for that seemed a bit extreme, but he knew the types of people he was going up against and they didn’t. Mark did trust that Jeremiah had done what he had thinking it was in everyone’s best interest. Mark just wished that he had been consulted.
“What are you thinking?” Traci asked him quietly.
“I’m really mad at him.”
“I know. I can tell,” she said.
“He had no right to do this.”
“He probably felt like he did. That it was his duty to keep us all safe.”
“Dear heavens, you sound like him,” Mark said.
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” she said.
“By going off the reservation he’s not only screwed himself but also the rest of us. He’s a suspect in four murder cases and it will not go unnoticed that he’s gone off the grid.”
“Mark, just say what it is you’re afraid to say,” Traci said quietly.
Mark swallowed hard. “I don’t want to,” he whispered. “I don’t want this to all be real.”
Traci grabbed his hand and squeezed it hard. He could feel tears welling in his eyes. He was exhausted, and it had been an emotionally charged day. He needed to sleep soon before he was no good to anyone, but he was terrified of what would happen if he did fall asleep. There was a very real possibility that when he woke his world would have changed forever.
“Say it,” Traci urged.
“I’m afraid that I’ll never see Jeremiah again.”
“Why?”
“Because in the next few days he’s either going to be killed or he’s going to have to go on the run for the rest of his life. His only chance will be to flee this country and change his identity or else risk being caught and going to jail for murder. Keenan won’t give up, and once he finds out Jeremiah is gone, there’s going to be a manhunt on for him.”
“And?”
Mark took a shaky breath. “And if they think I helped him, the same could be true for me.”
Traci leaned over, hugging him as best as she could. “We’ll get through this, like we’ve made it through everything else life has thrown at us,” she whispered.
“What if we can’t this time?” he asked, nearly choking on his own fear.
“Then we’ll run together,” Traci said.
Tears slid down his cheeks. “I can’t do that to you, to Ryan and Rachel.”
“Well, you for sure can’t do it without us. Whatever happens, I’m with you to the end, do you understand?”
“Yes,” Mark said.
As the car sped on into the night they clung to each other and cried.
~
Cindy glared at Martin who was sitting beside her in the back of the car. She was the only one in the group who had been completely isolated from the rest. The first thing she’d done once they’d started driving was tried the door, but it was locked with no way for her to unlock it.
“Nice to see you, too,” he said wryly.
“What idiotic plan have the two of you hatched without me this time?”
Martin pushed a button and raised the privacy glass between the front and back seats.
“No plan. I just agreed to protect all of you while he handles what he needs to handle.”
“He needs me.”
“Yes, he needs you safe.”
“He needs me to be out there helping him. Even if he manages to find and kill whoever is out to get him the charges against him aren’t just going to go away. I
need to figure out who killed Pastor Ben and why.”
Martin sighed. “I’ll be honest with you, Cindy. Jeremiah has more lives than a cat, but I don’t see a way out of this for him.”
“There’s always a way out,” she snapped.
“Given what all of you have gone through I’m sure it’s begun to seem that way. Some things can’t be fixed, though, and sometimes we can’t escape the consequences of our actions no matter how well-intentioned we are or how unfair it would be.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying, some problems are permanent. Sometimes people die no matter what we do to save them.”
The sick feeling in her stomach that she’d had earlier came back in full force. “You think he’s going to die, don’t you?”
Martin sighed and turned away from her. “I think we’ve done everything we can to give him a fighting chance. And he’d be the first to tell you that if he lives but the people he cares about are killed, it wouldn’t be worth it. I owe him. And I’m doing the best I can by limiting the number of things he needs to worry about.”
“If I remember correctly I was the one who figured out that the Dome of the Chain was the real target back in Israel. So, by my calculations you owe me, too.”
“That’s true.”
“So, let me go help him.”
“I can’t do that.”
“Why not?” she demanded, her frustration raging out of control.
“Because I have a family that I need to be able to go home to.”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“If I keep you locked up for your own safety you’ll only hate me for it. If I let you go, Jeremiah will kill me.”
“No, he wouldn’t,” she said.
“Then you really don’t know him as well as you think you do,” he said.
More than anything else he could have said, that statement unsettled her. “I do know him, he wouldn’t do that.”
“Just because you bring a tiger into your house and teach it to play nice with you and your family doesn’t make it any less of a predator. Jeremiah is a killer and that’s something that doesn’t just go away. There’s a reason he was so good at his job, a reason he became famous in the community.”
In the Presence of Mine Enemies Page 5
