by Jillian Neal
Her eyes lit excitedly as she nodded. He brushed a sweet kiss across her forehead and then gave her a wry grin. “You want some help with this?” he tugged on the clasp of the bikini. She giggled.
“If you take that off, I’m going to want you to keep going and I kind of think I might’ve put Dad through enough for one day.”
Rainer begrudgingly agreed. “I’ll see you in the morning,” he turned and opened the door before he husked, “I love you.”
“I love you, too.” She blew him a kiss and then pulled off the bathing suit top and flashed him as he closed the door. He stifled a groan just in time to notice her father returning to his bedroom. Governor Haydenshire shook his head and chuckled.
“You’re a strong man, Rainer,” he sighed over the image Emily had chosen to leave him with.
Rainer wasn’t certain how to respond so he offered a nod. “Been a while since you took a cold shower after leaving her room, once you thought Lillian and I were asleep.”
Beginning to wonder if there was any part of he and Emily’s relationship that her parents hadn’t figured out, Rainer didn’t deny the accusation.
“Yeah,” he agreed. The curiosity got the better of him. “So, you knew about all of that?”
With a wry grin, Governor Haydenshire confided, “I used to leave the Andersons’ house in the evenings and go to the Non-Gifted high school about a block away. I’d run the track around the football field, oh say, fifty or sixty times, before I got back into my car and drove home.”
Rainer laughed with the Governor. He understood only too well.
“Get some sleep, and trust me, it only gets better.”
“Good night, sir.”
“Good night, son.”
Animals
“To ride!” was the demand that awakened Rainer the next morning.
“Keaton, geez!” Logan spat. Being the only guy in a bottom bunk, he was the one Keaton had chosen to climb up on, sit on his stomach, and broadcast his demand.
“There you are,” Mrs. Haydenshire scolded. “Come here, little one.” She lifted Keaton off of Logan’s gut.
No sooner had she gotten her hands on him than Keaton scampered away. He raced down the hall and flung open the door to the girls’ room.
Rainer heard several high-pitched shrieks, and every male’s face that had previously been buried in pillows in the boys’ room shot upward. They all wondered what Keaton was getting an eye full of.
“Lucky kid,” Garrett grimaced.
“Yeah, but it could’ve been Em,” Logan warned. Rainer laughed as each of Emily’s brothers shuddered in horror.
“To ride, EE!” Keaton continued his quest.
“Keaton, okay, let me get dressed, please!” Emily fumed.
“Aww, now I am jealous,” Rainer’s whimper made everyone laugh.
“Keaton Isaac Haydenshire, we do not go into girl’s rooms when the door is closed,” Mrs. Haydenshire scolded.
“Why?” Keaton quizzed loudly as she issued him back to the living room.
“That’s what I’m saying,” Garrett jumped off of his bunk.
“That’s the best time to go in,” Levi agreed as chuckles spread around the room.
After breakfast, Rainer, Emily, Logan, Adeline, Garrett, and Chloe all took Keaton and Henry to the boardwalk.
Mrs. Haydenshire thanked them profusely for volunteering to look after the boys for the day, and for insisting that she rest and relax.
Garrett and Chloe informed them that they were going to meet some friends, but that they would catch up with them later.
Emily and Logan huffed their disapproval.
“There are two of them and four of you. I think you’ll manage,” Garrett took Chloe’s hand. He gave her a grin that said he was up to no good and dragged her away.
“Wonder what they’re going to do?” Logan huffed indignantly.
“Yeah, well, Chloe went on and on this morning about all of the places they’ve done it here,” Emily spat disgustedly. “They’re like animals.”
Rainer wondered where Garrett and Chloe had consummated their rather open relationship in Virginia Beach.
They proceeded down the idyllic boardwalk, with Rainer carrying Henry and Logan carrying Keaton. They were both delighted as they pointed excitedly towards a clown who was pushing a cart selling stuffed animals.
“Do you want to get one now or after we ride?” Emily asked sweetly.
“Now!” both the twins shrieked.
“So, I’m going to go with now,” Rainer joked.
They stood in line, talking and laughing. Rainer and Logan listened as the boys tried to determine which animal they wanted.
“You could get a sword, instead,” Logan urged excitedly. He pointed to long, stuffed swords on the back of the cart.
“Logan, no; they’ll hit each other all day.”
“It’s stuffed, Em. I don’t think they’ll do any real harm.”
“No. I want a mookey,” Keaton announced. His eyes a lit as he pointed to the stuffed monkey on the cart.
“And what do you want, little man?” Rainer asked Henry. He pulled him off of his shoulders, and held him in his arms so he could see the different options.
Henry considered for a moment. He was much more thoughtful than his twin. In effort to tell Rainer what animal he wanted, in secret, Henry leaned his mouth close to Rainer’s ear.
Instead of cupping his hand to block his voice, he covered his mouth and shouted, “I want a yi-yon, Wainer!”
Rainer and Emily cracked up.
“Got it,” Rainer assured Henry, who was now beaming over his successful secret telling. After Rainer paid for the toys, they took the boys for pizza.
Logan and Rainer let them pretend to play on the console video games in Dough Boys, before they returned them to their high chairs. Emily and Adeline cut the boys’ pizza into tiny bites and by the time everyone had finished, they were covered in red sauce, grease, and pizza spices.
Logan shook his head, and proceeded to scrub Keaton down with wipes from the diaper bag that Mrs. Haydenshire had packed them. Adeline gazed at Logan with rapt adoration as she watched him take care of Keaton.
He and Emily double-teamed Henry, until he was wriggling furiously but was relatively pizza-free. They stopped at the playground, and let the boys down while they sat on the benches to watch them play.
“You’re going to be such an amazing dad,” Adeline gushed in unabashed devotion. She thoroughly embarrassed Logan. He seemed momentarily at a loss for words.
Offering the twins ice cream seemed to be the only effective way to get them to leave the playground. Everyone got a cone and watched as the twins ran around the statues of inventors on display in one of the courtyards near the ice cream cart.
Logan and Rainer chuckled as several Non-Gifted tourists discussed the brilliance of Edison and Tesla and their discovery of electricity.
“They really were genius,” one man vowed loudly to his wife. He was standing near Logan, and turned to gaze at him in hopes that he would corroborate his belief.
Logan nodded and then with a chuckle he added, “Oh yeah, definitely very gifted inventors.”
“See?” the man huffed to his wife.
Emily, Adeline, and Rainer guffawed.
A Receiver
Suddenly, Henry returned to Rainer and held up his arms. He was on the verge of tears.
“What’s wrong, buddy?” he scooped him up and gave Emily a quizzical glance. Henry buried his face in Rainer’s neck and sucked his thumb.
“Keaton probably pinched him or something.” Emily went to retrieve Keaton from a statue of Thomas Jefferson.
They walked on and stopped in a few stores, but Henry continued to fuss and would lean away from Rainer, throwing his body side to side and then rubbing his arms and stomach with his hands.
Rainer tried to determine what he wanted. He set him on his feet, but Henry began crying again, so Rainer lifted him back into his arms.
Everyone studied him t
o figure out what he was asking for. Finally, Emily glanced around to make sure no one was watching them too closely, other than the private investigator who had been following them all day.
They’d taken to waving to the PIs and actually posing for pictures.
Emily placed her hands on Henry’s arms and closed her eyes. Rainer knew his energy would be almost impossible to read in its undeveloped form, but he was desperate to know what it was that had Henry so upset.
Emily’s eyes goggled and her mouth fell open as she furrowed her brow.
“What?”
“I think he wants you to cast him.”
“He’s scared?”
Emily held Keaton tightly, and looked around for anything or anyone that might be frightening the twins. Rainer’s shield cast formed over himself and Henry.
Henry relaxed. He fell back on Rainer’s chest and sucked his thumb again. He rubbed his tiny hand on Rainer’s neck tenderly as he let Rainer soothe him.
“Should we take them home?” Adeline quizzed.
“We can’t take them home until they’ve ridden the merry-go-round,” Logan shuddered over the fit that would ensue if they left before the boys made it to the rides.
“Well, let’s go let them ride and then leave. I have a weird feeling,” Emily admitted hesitantly.
“Maybe we should go,” Rainer insisted.
“To ride!” Keaton shook his head at Rainer adamantly.
“No, it’ll be fine. Let’s just let them go a few times and then we’ll leave,” Rainer handed her his wallet to Emily to pay for the tickets as he held Henry tightly.
“I want Mommy,” Henry whispered dejectedly. He buried his face deeper in Rainer’s neck.
And Rainer knew instantly as he stared down at Henry and then back to Emily. She smiled at her baby brother, and then met Rainer’s gaze. She nodded proudly.
Henry was a Receiver just like his big sister. That’s why Rainer could pick up on Henry’s energy when he’d never felt Keaton’s. Henry was wide open just like Emily. Receivers were incredibly easy to feel, but extremely difficult to guard. A sudden, overwhelming, possessive need to protect came over Rainer as he followed Logan to get in line to ride the merry-go-round.
It was late afternoon, and they were supposed to meet the rest of the Haydenshires for dinner at Buoy’s.
Henry seemed to cheer as they edged closer to the entrance to the merry-go-round.
Intelligence
~Garrett Haydenshire~
“What?” Garrett spat as he jerked his phone from his pocket. He kept his hands tracing over Chloe’s exposed breasts as she reclined against him in the bed of the hotel room he’d rented. “This sure as hell better be good!” His phone had been ringing for the last ten minutes. Garrett and Chloe had been busy up until a moment or two before.
“Dammit, Garrett, get both of your heads out of Chloe Sawyer! Vasquez followed your family to Virginia Beach. I just got a shot of him on a streetcam on the Boardwalk!” Vindico seethed.
“I’m almost there. Fitzroy called me this morning. His undercover found out that Nic had Vasquez’s brother make several appearances for him down in Monterrey.”
“What?” Garrett let Chloe fall to the mattress as he leapt from the bed. She huffed and stared up at him to show her disapproval.
“Get up. We have to go!” he commanded.
“I’m fifteen minutes away,” Vindico explained. “I’ve got every available officer with me, but, Garrett, Vasquez is in trouble. Nic’s furious that your mom survived. He has to do whatever he’s been assigned to do, or he won’t be making a return trip home from the beach.”
“I’m already on the boardwalk. I got a suite yesterday. I’m on my way. I’ll find him before he does anything. Rainer and Logan have the twins out there,” Garrett choked.
His mind raced through all of the nauseating scenarios of things that Nic Wretchkinsides could have assigned Vasquez to do, in order to reestablish him back in the Interfeci’s good graces.
“I know. And, Garrett, Wretchkinsides is going to try to force your father not to run in this election. You and I both know who would be the easiest to attack and the quickest way to get to your old man.”
“I’ll meet you there,” Garrett ended the call and demanded that Chloe get dressed. They were in the elevator a minute later.
“Well, what do you think he’s going to do?” Chloe was panicked.
“I don’t know, baby, but could you just please shut up?” Garrett sprinted to his car in the parking deck. He pulled his Browning hi-power semi pistol out of his glove box and sprinted towards the boardwalk. He touched Logan’s name on his phone.
“Dammit, Logan, answer the fucking phone!” Garrett fumed as he sprinted towards the carnival rides. He was fairly certain that’s where they would have taken the twins.
He raced up the midway.
Cal’s face, the medivac station in Brazil, the funeral, the phone call, Emily lying in a hospital bed, ‘If she makes it through the night then maybe,’ the cemetery, the vengeance, it all fed Garrett’s fury as he methodically searched for the murderer at hand.
They were not taking another one of his brothers. He wouldn’t allow it.
In The Reflection
“To ride!” Keaton swung his legs wildly in Logan’s arms.
“Okay, we’re next,” Logan assured him.
They all watched the ride spin, with the twins vibrating in their excitement. After several long minutes, the ride slowed and eventually stopped.
Children and parents began exiting, and then Rainer and Logan set the twins on the floor of the ride to let them choose a horse.
Logan lifted Keaton onto a large black stallion as Henry pointed to a smaller blue one on the opposite side of the ride.
Rainer lifted him onto it, and relaxed as Henry clapped his hands. He looked thrilled. His nerves seemed to have calmed.
The music started, and Henry quickly grasped the pole through the horse. He squealed delightedly.
Suddenly, Emily’s entire body pulled taut as she glanced around nervously. She shook her head, and chill bumps rose on her arms. Rainer’s cell phone rang ominously. He pulled it from his pocket and answered quickly.
“Lawson,” came Vindico’s rough voice. “Where are you?”
“Uh, I’m on the boardwalk. We’re taking the twins on the merry-go-round.” He swept the area with his eyes, and made certain Emily and Henry were right beside him.
“Stay there. I’m on my way!” Vindico ordered.
“What, why?” The line went dead.
“Rainer, we need to leave,” Emily convulsed.
“Okay,” Rainer tried to figure out how to get off of the ride without halting it and infuriating dozens of toddlers.
To his relief, the ride stopped of its own accord but, in the split second that it slowed, Keaton slid from his horse and leapt off of the still- spinning ride.
“Keaton!” Rainer handed Henry to Emily, and sprinted after him. Emily and Adeline were right behind him.
Suddenly several rides stopped at once, and visitors to the boardwalk fair converged onto the midway.
“Keaton!” Rainer screamed, but he could no longer see him.
“Where is he?” Emily bawled.
“I’ll find him.” He dodged in and out of the fair guests, screaming Keaton’s name with Logan doing the same.
“Keaton!” Rainer grasped a toddler dressed in a green shirt and overalls, but it wasn’t him. “I’m so sorry, ma’am,” Rainer managed a hurried apology to the mother that was set to claw his face off.
“Rainer!” Emily pointed to the ground just to Rainer’s left.
“What?” he spun and felt his heart sink rapidly to his feet. Violent revulsion washed over him.
There, on the ground, outside the house of mirrors was Keaton’s monkey.
“Rainer, I feel someone,” Emily paled and shook in her fear.
“It’s Vasquez. He’s here,” Garrett and Chloe appeared out of nowhere. They l
ooked terror-stricken and halted beside Rainer and Logan.
“What?!” Logan stunned.
“Vindico just called. He’s coming in the gates. Vasquez is here,” Garrett stated morosely.
“Garrett, I think he took Keaton,” Emily sobbed.
“I just saw him. He took him in there!” to Rainer’s shock, the Private Investigator who had been following them all day, raced towards Garrett to tell them where Vasquez had disappeared with Keaton.
“Let’s go!” Garrett ran into the House of Mirrors, with Rainer and Logan on his flanks. Fury was armored in Garrett’s march. His Browning was chambered and loaded at his side. They entered the house, and Rainer heard Keaton screaming.
“Let him go, Vasquez! We’ve got you surrounded! Let him walk away and we’ll cut you a deal!” Garrett shouted furiously.
Logan and Rainer edged around the macabre rooms, not certain if what they were seeing was real or only a reflected image. Emily entered behind Rainer.
“Adeline has Henry. They’re with the police outside,” her voice shook in her paralyzing fear. They could hear Keaton’s frightened terror in his screams, but then they were cut off in a chilling, horrific, choke.
“Vasquez, let him go!” Garrett growled furiously.
They continued on into the house. They checked every angle and every reflection. They were getting closer. Rainer could feel it.
Emily shuddered. Her entire body faltered as she tried to fight off the black energy threatening to consume her. They spun around another corner, and caught a glimpse of the tail of Keaton’s blanket as it whipped around the next mirror. They stepped carefully. Garrett was the only one with a gun.
As they followed the sight of the blanket, they came face to face with Roberto Vasquez. His filthy hand gripped the terrified toddler’s throat.
“EE,” Keaton pled in choking terror as he tried to pull his neck away, but couldn’t fight Vasquez’s strength.
Emily sobbed. “Please, please let me have him.”
Vasquez just laughed derisively.
“Vasquez, let him go,” Garrett menaced. He edged closer. Vasquez put Keaton in front of his face and heart, using him as a human shield. Garrett lowered his gun to Vasquez’s crotch.
