Ryan shook his head at them.
“What you’re saying is insane. My granddaughter, that sweet, innocent child, a murderer? No, I don’t believe it. I won’t believe it.”
Juliet leaned forward in her seat.
“I understand your reluctance to believe what we’re saying, but please, as Rob said, for her sake and yours, please take a look at the evidence we’ve brought you, while keeping in mind that the three of us are all professionals who have nothing to gain by telling you this.”
Brendan Ryan looked from face to face.
“The three of you?”
“Yes sir,” Jessica said. “The three of us are all in agreement about this.”
“No, that’s not what I mean. You said the three of you, but if I’m not mistaken, weren’t there four of you?”
***
He sat outside the twelve-foot high front doors of the estate and admired the architecture of the impressive home. Before his wife had been escorted into Brendan Ryan’s office, he had been inside the entryway, and calculated that his home’s entire square footage would fit quite easily inside that massive space.
He was seated upon a solid marble bench. He had just taken out his phone to check his email, when a flit of movement caught his eye, and he looked up to find Samantha Ryan strolling his way.
The little girl had honey-blond hair and large blue eyes. The dress she wore was white with a scattering of pink ribbons that matched the color of those in her hair. She was the epitome of sweetness, and without his knowledge of her former acts, he might have thought her an innocent angel, with that knowledge, he knew that she was most likely the complete opposite.
When she was within ten feet of him, Samantha stopped walking and stared at him.
“You’re Dr. White’s husband. I’ve seen you before.”
“Yes.”
Samantha kept staring, studying him as if he were a puzzle to be solved.
“You’re like me, aren’t you?”
“What do you mean?”
Samantha moved just a bit closer.
“You know.”
“Let’s pretend that I don’t. How are we alike?”
“You like to play games; that’s what I mean.”
“And what sort of games do you play?”
Samantha smiled, and this time she walked right over to him.
“The game doesn’t matter, all that matters is winning.”
And despite himself, he smiled back.
***
Jessica, Juliet, and Rob Stevens, were escorted back outside by Brendan Ryan and two burly servants. When Jessica looked about for her husband, she was shocked to see him not only talking with Samantha, but the little girl was also giggling as he laughed along.
“Samantha!” Brendan called. “Come here, please, Mr. White must be going now, along with his wife and her two cohorts.”
His name was not White, but he saw no reason to explain that to Brendan Ryan, and so he began walking back to the car. While walking beside him, Samantha reached up and took his hand.
“Say goodbye to these people, Samantha, you won’t be seeing them ever again.”
Samantha released his hand and walked over to her grandfather.
“But, Grandfather, I like Mr. White, and he was very nice to me.”
“Yes, Dear, but I’m afraid his wife doesn’t share his affection.”
“What do you mean, Grandfather?”
Brendan smiled down at her.
“Nothing, Dear, now say goodbye and go inside.”
“Okay,” Samantha said, before turning and sending him a wave. “Goodbye, Mr. White,”
“Goodbye, Samantha,”
After Samantha disappeared inside, Juliet walked back to Brendan Ryan.
“Sir, I know that what we’ve said sounds incredible, but if you would only—”
“Enough, Dr. Hamden! I will not listen to any more of what you have to say. Your theory is ridiculous, now please, please leave.”
Juliet nodded her head in acceptance of his disbelief, and soon, the four of them were leaving the estate.
He was driving, and as he did so, Jessica recounted their meeting with Samantha’s grandfather. When she was done, she let loose a sigh.
“I really can’t blame him for not believing us, after all, he must love Samantha, and when he looks at her all he sees is a child who’s been through a great trauma. Still, we did our best to warn him, and in time, maybe he’ll glimpse the truth and get her the proper help.”
“I hope you’re right, Jessica,” Juliet sighed. “But like you said, he loves her, and love can blind you to the truth of others, even the ones closest to you.”
And after saying those words, Juliet reached over and took Rob Stevens’ hand.
CHAPTER 2
The Present
He looked down at the caller I.D. on his phone and then up at his wife.
“It’s her.”
“This is the third time in a week.”
“I know.”
“Why did you give her your number?”
“I thought it might help.”
“Help what?”
“I think she’s lonely.”
Jessica crossed her arms across her chest.
“Then maybe she shouldn’t have killed her parents.”
He answered the phone as Jessica walked away.
“Hello, Samantha,”
“Hi, Mr. White,”
“How was school?”
“Boring, it’s always boring. That’s why I like to play games. Games are always fun.”
“Do you think of me as a game?”
“No.”
“Then why do you call me?”
“Because... because... I don’t know.”
“Whose phone are you using, the chauffeur’s?”
“Yes, Grandfather won’t let me have my own; he says that I’m too young.”
“Have you ever told your grandfather that we talk?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because then he would tell Billy not to let me use his phone.”
“I have to hang up now, Samantha; I need to talk to Dr. White.”
“Okay... can I call again?”
“Yes.”
“Mr. White?”
“Yes, Samantha?”
“Do you like me?”
“Yes, Samantha.”
He heard her giggle, and then the line went dead.
***
He found Jessica in the kitchen. She was seated now, but her arms were still folded across her chest.
“I don’t like that; I don’t like her calling you.”
“Why not?”
“Well, for one thing, what if she’s planning something?”
“I think we can handle a seven-year-old.”
“There are several dead people who believed the same thing when she was only six.”
“Yes, but they didn’t know what she really was, we do.”
“Do you? Or have you forgotten that she’s a sociopath?”
“She’s... not beyond redemption.”
“You really believe that, knowing that she’s murdered over half a dozen people?”
“I do.”
“Why?”
“Because of you, because when I was lost in darkness, you pulled me into the light.”
“Yes, but you’re not a sociopath. You have feelings, you’re capable of guilt, shame, she’s not.”
“I’m hoping that’s not true and... I think it’s why she calls me.”
Jessica grabbed her cup from the table and took a sip of coffee; when she put the cup down, she smiled.
“I’m supposed to be the therapist, you know?”
“Speaking of therapy, I have this pain that needs your attention.”
Jessica’s face clouded.
“Is it your back? Is the knife wound still causing you pain.”
“No doctor, this ache is in my front.”
She laughed as she rose from
her chair and walked over to him.
“I have just the cure for that.”
He took her in his arms.
“I hoped that you might.”
***
Samantha handed the phone back to the chauffeur and he placed it into a compartment on the seat beside him. He was a young man, Hispanic, with short, curly hair and a strong physique.
“Billy.”
“What?”
“I want my own phone. I want you to get me a phone.”
“No way, kid, it’s risky enough letting you use mine.”
“If you don’t get me a phone I’ll make sure that Grandfather knows what you did before you picked me up.”
Billy stared at her from the rear view mirror.
“You would really fink on me?”
“Yes.”
“I didn’t have a choice. You know my wife’s in the hospital.”
“I’ll still tell and he won’t like it.”
Billy shook his head.
“Blackmail, at your age?”
“It’s not blackmail, it’s a promise.”
“All right, kid, I’ll get you one, a cheap one, no Internet and all that crap.”
“Thank you, Billy,”
“Uh-huh,”
A mile down the road, Billy asked a question.
“Hey kid, this guy you talk to, this Mr. White?”
“Yes?”
“He’s never asked you to meet him somewhere or do something... weird, has he?”
Samantha smiled.
“No, Billy, Mr. White isn’t weird, he’s... different.”
“Different, how?”
“You wouldn’t understand.”
“Well, maybe not, but listen, if things ever get weird with Mr. White or anyone else, you let me know, okay?”
“Okay.”
Billy drove on. As he was headed down the private road that led to the estate, he came upon an attractive young woman running down the lane and frantically calling for him to stop, behind her was a car with flames coming out from under the hood.
Billy stopped the limo and opened his door to talk to her.
“Are you all right? Is that your car?”
“My baby!” the woman cried. “My baby’s in the car and I can’t get her car seat unbuckled.”
“There’s a baby in there? Holy crap!”
Billy jumped out of the limo, but then leaned back in to speak to Samantha.
“You stay there, kid, and keep an eye on things. I’ll be right back, I gotta help this lady.”
Before leaving, Billy smiled into the front seat. Samantha then watched as Billy sprinted to the woman’s car and ripped open the back door. Two things happened then. One, was the appearance of a black van that rolled out from under a copse of trees and parked by the woman’s car. The second thing was that Billy began jerking about in pain, as the twin electrodes from a stun gun bit into his neck.
As Billy fell to the ground, a masked man climbed out of the back of the car and stood over him, as a second masked man emerged from the van and used a fire extinguisher to douse the flames under the car’s hood.
As Samantha watched all this with wide eyes, the woman tried to open the limo, but Billy had locked the door before he left and the keys were still in the ignition.
“Open the door, little girl,” the woman said. She was in her twenties and beautiful, with blond hair and green eyes.
As the van backed up to them, the two men got out of it to stare in at her. Samantha reached through the partition and grabbed Billy’s phone off the front seat.
***
They were lying across the bed together, kissing, when his phone began playing music.
“That’s Samantha.”
“How can you tell?”
“I gave her a unique ringtone.”
Jessica listened for a moment.
“Isn’t that...”
“Ave Santani, the theme from the movie The Omen, yes, I told you that I hadn’t forgotten what she is.”
As Jessica laughed, he reached over and grabbed his phone.
“I don’t mind you calling, Samantha, but—”
“Mr. White! Mr. White a lady and two men hurt Billy and now they’re trying to get to me.”
He sat up on the edge of the bed.
“Where are you?”
“I’m on the little road that leads to the estate. I’m in the limo with the doors locked.”
He turned and spoke to Jessica.
“She’s being kidnapped outside her home. Call the police.”
“What?” Jessica exclaimed, even as she grabbed her own phone.
“Mr. White, what do I do?”
“I’m not sure that there’s anything you can do, but listen to me, those people are trying to kidnap you, not hurt you.”
“Kidnap?”
He heard a loud thump come over the phone.
“What was that noise?”
“They’re trying to smash in the window, and I think that they gassed me or something. I’m breathing funny and my heart’s beating really fast.”
“They haven’t gassed you, that’s fear.”
“What?”
“That’s fear you’re feeling, you’re afraid.”
“Fear?”
The sound came of shattering glass, and Samantha screamed.
“Samantha?”
“Mr. Whiteeeeee...”
Silence, but then, he could hear breathing on the other end.
“I know someone’s there, and I want you to listen to me. Let the girl go and drive away.”
He heard a chuckle, and then the words, “Or else?”
“I will find you and I will kill you.”
Another laugh, and then silence.
He put the phone down and turned to Jessica.
“She’s gone, taken!”
CHAPTER 3
The kidnapper, a man named Jack, laughed as he tossed the chauffeur’s phone to the ground and broke it beneath his heel.
His female partner and lover, Cinda, sat behind the wheel of the van, as Cinda’s brother, Harry, finished taping Samantha’s hands behind her back.
Jack squinted at the kid, the girl named Samantha. When he grabbed her out of the back seat she was screaming, but now, now she stared at him as if she could kill him.
Get in line, kid, Jack thought.
Jack was forty-two. He had never done an honest day’s work his entire life and was proud of it.
As a teenager, he had been a collector for his uncle, a number’s runner. In his first month on the job, a storeowner named Harfner took one look at Jack and figured he could walk right over him. When Harfner failed to pay Jack all of the money his uncle was owed, Jack took out a gun and shot Harfner in the foot.
The next day, when Harfner hobbled in to stand before Jack’s uncle to complain, the uncle agreed that, yes, the kid had a temper, but he also pointed out that Harfner would likely never try to short him again.
A week later, Harfner’s three brothers dragged Jack into an alley and beat him until he passed out.
After giving himself a few days to recover, Jack interrupted the Harfner Brothers’ weekly poker game. The game was held in the back room of Harfner’s grocery store, a room that had only one exit.
Jack announced his presence by tossing a milk carton full of gasoline into the pile of chips. The flimsy cardboard container burst open and splashed its contents onto the objects in the room, objects that included the four Harfner Brothers.
As the four men sprung from their seats and headed for him, Jack smiled, struck a match on the doorframe, and tossed it into the room. He had just enough time to slam and lock the door before the frantic pounding began.
Jack smiled as he heard their screams, while sniffing the air to savor the odor of their burning flesh.
By the time the fire department put out the blaze, Jack was already out of town. He never looked back, and although a lifetime of criminal behavior stretched behind him, he has never spent one momen
t in jail.
***
After Harry slapped tape over Samantha’s mouth and blindfolded her, he took off his mask, as Jack did the same, and Cinda removed the long, blonde wig, to reveal auburn locks.
Jack took a deep breath, but, as he turned to step away from the limo, he heard it.
Whimpering, someone was whimpering,
He looked about, wondering if they had somehow missed seeing an eyewitness. All that stared back at him were the trees and shrubbery that lined the road.
Then he heard it again, and this time he realized that it was coming from inside the limo.
He opened the front door and looked in. On the floor of the passenger’ side was a young girl with raven hair and huge brown eyes. The child was barely two and was so small that she almost succeeded in hiding under the seat, had she not been in despair, Jack never would have seen her.
He reached in and grabbed a fistful of her long hair. The little girl screamed as he dragged her from the limo and tossed her like a doll to Harry.
“Here’s another one for you. Make sure that bitch stays quiet.”
Cinda stared at the child in horror.
“She’s seen our faces.”
“I know; we’ll take her with us.”
“Where the hell did she come from?” Harry said, even as he covered the child’s mouth with a wide swath of tape.
“She must be the chauffeur’s kid. You screwed up on the surveillance; we should have known he was picking her up.”
Harry opened his mouth to respond and Jack pointed at him.
“Don’t give me any shit. You’re only on this job in the first place as a favor to your sister.”
Harry bit back his anger as Cinda put the van in gear.
***
Less than an hour later, they were at the cabin.
The cabin had three bedrooms with two baths, but it had no phone, satellite or cell service. The cabin’s owners liked it that way, had loved the seclusion and solitude.
In the early morning hours, Jack had shattered that sense of seclusion when he woke them, marched them barefoot into the woods and murdered them with a shotgun.
He figured the cabin’s reclusive owners wouldn’t be missed for weeks and Jack only needed their home for a couple of days. He told his partners that the couple had left to visit relatives.
The TAKEN! Series - Books 5-8 (Taken! Box Set Book 2) Page 11
