Agent Kim watched the tension between the siblings, fascinated. She wasn’t about to let this opportunity slip through her fingers, and it was in her nature to be direct, “Hey Layla– I was hoping I’d have a chance to ask you a few questions about the night you got that confession.”
Layla paused. It was in her nature to manipulate, and she thought that she might as well get it over with. “Sure thing,” she said, putting down her bag and taking a seat at the table to look closely into Mina’s sloe eyes. “Ask away.”
“Layla…” Michael’s voice was pleading.
By the time Layla had grabbed her bag from the counter and made for the door Mina was smiling placidly, her sense of urgency completely dissolved. She thought Michael seemed unnecessarily anxious, and after they watched Layla leave she smiled at him warmly.
“Wanna go play a game?”
They ended up having a wonderful time, lying across his bed with their controllers, working as a team and getting further in the game than they ever had before. Her formidable intellect was obvious, but Michael found himself gradually getting over his intimidation and growing increasingly comfortable around her.
It was easy to see the girls at Max’s place as sex objects, because that’s how they saw themselves, but Mina was an equal… a superior in fact. She was more accomplished than any girl he’d ever met, and as much experience as he’d had with females, he’d never had one as a real friend, much less been so attracted to one he actually respected.
He couldn’t stop casting surreptitious glances her way, admiring all the little details about her. He was charmed by everything about her, from her glossy black hair to her one crooked tooth, from the cute way she wrinkled her nose when she was frustrated to the duck lips she made when she focused on the game. He was sorely tempted to lean over and kiss those lips more than once, but there was his sense of fair play– Would Mina be feeling so friendly if his sister hadn’t just worked her mojo on her?
When it started to get late she looked at her watch, “Oh! I better get going.”
Michael walked her out to her car, watching her pull away with a wistful look on his face. He wondered if he’d ever see her again. Halfway on her drive home she pulled over, suddenly realizing that she hadn’t gotten one answer out of Layla. It had happened again, and she turned the car around, her anger flaring as she drove. Michael answered the door, and from the look in her eye he knew that she was going to demand some answers.
“We need to talk,” she said.
He opened the door wider, “Come in.”
Now he felt like he owed her an explanation, and he sat her down and tried his best to explain Layla’s strange ability without going into too much incriminating detail. She looked at him skeptically, goading him into telling her more than he knew he should.
Truth is stranger than fiction, she thought, but his story was unbelievable on so many levels.
Given their relatively recent appearance on the radar, she’d expected to hear that Michael and Layla were raised by Gypsies, carnival people or traveling grifters, but the story he told about them being taken from their mother by a renegade research scientist was more improbable than anything she’d conjured up in her wildest imaginings.
When she asked what had happened to his sister the other night he told her about the abduction. When she pressed him for details his story got harder and harder to swallow. She scoffed, getting Michael more and more frustrated until he blurted out a name, wishing he could take it back the moment he spoke it.
~
The next day Mina did some digging around, making a few phone calls and checking databases. She was surprised to find that Senator Blackwell had indeed been in town that night, attending a fund-raiser for battered women.
She talked to her local police contact, who told her an off-the-record story about officers being called to a downtown hotel to investigate a reported kidnapping. Rumor had it that a prostitute had declined to press charges against a man visiting from out of town, but somehow major strings had been pulled in order to get all records of the incident wiped clean, including the unprecedented deletion of the maid’s emergency call.
It was disturbing, to say the least.
Mina went to the scene of the supposed crime, speaking to the hotel manager to discover that all of the hallway security cameras had malfunctioned that night, and the elevator cameras that would have recorded any visitors to the floor were “down for maintenance”.
As completely insane as the entire story was, the more Mina dug around, the more evidence she found to support it. She shook her head in disbelief, scarcely able to come to grips with it.
Could Michael possibly be telling the truth?
~
Layla was head over heels in love, but she refused to admit it. She adopted a fatalistic attitude, living one day at a time and following her every whim. Her brush with the senator had shaken her to the core, making her question everything she’d been doing. She’d thrown all of her carefully made plans out the window, deciding that it was enough to simply be happy in the moment.
The minute she pulled up in front of Ramon’s apartment the phone in her purse rang.
“Michael just called me looking for you… Where are you?” Ramon sounded panicked.
“I went to pick up some take-out. I’m waiting right outside your apartment.”
“Don’t go anywhere. I’ll be right there.”
Ramon hustled out of his office and jogged over from the nearby station, smiling at the thought of her. They’d spent nearly every night together since the day he’d brought her home, and he still couldn’t get enough of her.
Outwardly, she seemed as demure and ladylike as ever, and he never would have guessed what a demon she’d turn out to be in bed. She was eager, playful and insatiable, and Ramon felt like she was unleashing years of pent-up desire onto him. He laughed out loud, wondering how he’d gotten so lucky.
The only thing that bothered him was her sudden refusal to talk about the future. It was as if she was afraid to let herself believe in her own happy ending, and she was always waiting for the other shoe to drop. She would do just about anything for him, but the one thing he wanted the most she would not give him.
He rounded the corner to find her leaning against her convertible holding a couple of paper bags and wearing a bright smile.
“What have you got there?” he asked.
“Sushi,” she cocked her head playfully. “You said you’ve never tried it, so I thought I’d surprise you.”
“Where’d you get it?” he asked, catching his breath.
“There’s a new place just outside of Hopland. Right off the freeway… It’s supposed to be pretty good.”
He frowned, “Layla, you shouldn’t be driving that far by yourself.”
“I was careful,” she said reassuringly.
“You know you shouldn’t be taking chances like that.”
She rolled her eyes at him. “Are you going to let me in or not?”
They walked to his apartment door together and he opened it, standing back. “After you.”
She set the sacks down on his kitchen counter, pulling out a bottle. “I brought some champagne… Let’s have a toast.”
“Oh… Do we have something to celebrate?” he asked. “Have you decided to move in with me?”
She shook her head no. “Please stop. It’s not a good idea. Besides… I don’t want you to get sick of me.”
He came closer to wrap himself around her. “Never,” he whispered in her ear. “And I’d feel better if you were here in town, closer to the station.”
“Are you hungry?” she asked, changing the subject.
He kissed her freckled nose. “It’s cold, right? It can wait.”
“Yes,” she smiled, answering his kiss with a lingering one on his lips. “Why don’t you grab some glasses?”
He heard a cork pop while he rinsed out a couple of wine glasses in the sink, rounding the corner to find her and the bottle gone, r
eplaced by her discarded blouse draped across the couch. Shoes and a bra made a path that led down the hallway, followed by her skirt and stockings. A pair of lacy underwear hung on the doorknob of his bedroom.
With a glass in each hand and a grin on his face, he followed the trail of clothes leading him to his beautiful, amazing, damaged girl.
~
EPILOGUE
~
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Bleary eyed, he squinted to focus on the dial of his bedside clock. Who in the hell could it be this early in the morning? He yawned and stretched, thinking it was probably some jealous wife whose husband never made it home last night. He sat up with a grunt and swung both feet onto the cold wooden floor.
Bang! Bang! Bang! A fist pounded the door again.
“Alright, alright, I’m coming!” he called.
The private eye groped for a robe draped over the lone chair in his tiny studio apartment, slipping it on and shuffling for the door. He unlocked the deadbolt and opened it as far as the chain would allow, peering out through the crack. “Yeah? Whatta you want?”
“You Joe Stewart?” a man asked.
“Who wants to know?”
With one well placed kick the door came flying open, tearing the flimsy lock right out of the frame. Two men barged into the room, a big one and a little one, both of them brandishing guns. One of them held him at gunpoint while the other closed the door behind them, checked inside his bathroom, and went to the lone window to pull the drapes closed tight.
Hands raised, he backed up as far as he could go, finally sitting back down onto his bed. “What do you want?”
“You found a redheaded broad for Senator Blackwell. We want to know where the girl is.”
“I have no idea,” he said.
The little man drew his gun back and swung, answering him with a smack across his face that opened up a gash across the bridge of his nose. The private eye raised his hand to his face, lowering it to see blood. He held both palms up again in a gesture of supplication. “Okay… okay… Take it easy! Who sent you?”
“Where’s the girl?” the little one asked again.
“Listen,” he tried to reason, “You tell Blackwell he can deal with that creepy professor dude on his own. I don’t wanna work for him anymore.”
The big man came closer to press the muzzle of his gun to the man’s head. “What professor?”
The now frightened man gestured to the end table beside the bed, “His address is in there…”
“Get it,” the little man barked, watching him scramble to retrieve his address book, pulling out a piece of paper.
“Here… This guy. He’s the one that found the girl and made all the arrangements. I swear, I only met them at the hotel.”
“Professor Theodore Reed,” the little man read the envelope.
“That’s the one… He knows where find her.”
“Someone has the feds sniffing around, looking into your little adventure in Ukiah… Do you know who that might be?”
“No!” he protested. “I don’t know anything about that!”
“Alright,” the little man nodded towards his hulking counterpart. “Do it now.”
Once more the big man raised the gun to the private eye’s temple, firing one well-placed bullet directly into his brain.
~
The insistent buzzing brought professor Reed to the door, wondering what fresh hell was waiting for him on the other side. He’d jumped the gun and ordered plenty of expensive new equipment, but once the bulk of the money from his research grant “fell through” he’d been forced to turn away several deliveries. He’d even had to submit to the indignity of a repossession when he’d bounced a check for a new centrifuge.
After a screaming phone call in which he was blamed for Layla’s escape the senator refused to return his calls, despite his offers to track her down again. An aide to the senator even threatened to have him prosecuted for submitting a falsified grant proposal; he dared not push his luck.
Professor Reed got the distinct impression that as much as the senator wanted Layla, he feared being found out much more than he desired revenge. His wife must be a real ball-breaker, the professor thought, congratulating himself for never having married.
He shuffled down the hall without enthusiasm, opening the door a crack only to be knocked backwards by the force of it flying open in his face. He lay on his back, blinking up at the two men silhouetted in the doorframe.
“You Professor Reed?” the little one asked.
He half scrambled and half crawled backwards, rising to his feet with creaking joints. “What do you want?”
“Is there anyone else in the house?” the man asked.
“Who are you?”
“We want the girl… The redhead and her brother. Tell us where they are no-one here needs to get hurt.”
“Who sent you?” the professor asked, shocked to see both of the men brandishing pistols, aimed directly at him.
They closed the door behind themselves, looking down the long hallway suspiciously. “Tell us where they are and you won’t get hurt.”
Professor Reed held up his head defiantly, “Exactly what do you want them for?”
The big man drew back his arm to deliver a vicious blow to the old man’s temple that knocked him back onto the floor.
“Hey! Take it easy, if you kill him we’ll never find them!” The little one knelt to look into the old man’s shocked eyes. “Listen buddy, we’re just tying up some loose ends, and if you know what’s good for you you’ll tell us where they are before my friend here gets carried away.”
“Loose ends?” the professor gasped. “You want to kill her? You’re not aware of her special talents… Are you?”
“Talents?” the little man laughed.
The professor sat up, “She was running Max’s whole blackmail operation… That’s what she did to the senator, tried to blackmail him, right?”
The two men exchanged a glance, afraid that the old man knew much more than they feared.
“She’s just another whore,” the little one said.
“Oh, she’s much more than that. She can hypnotize people, and make them do her bidding… She has the ability to make anyone do nearly anything.”
The big man scoffed, “Sounds like a load of bullshit to me.” He raised his hand to deliver another blow.
“Wait! Wait!” Professor Reed cowered. “I have proof.”
The men followed Professor Reed into his lab, looking around suspiciously as he scurried over to a monitor. He pulled open several deep drawers that held thousand of recordings, selecting a few to play.
“I documented all of my experiments,” he explained, hurrying to show the men before they changed their minds. The screen played images of a child, a tiny redheaded girl sitting alone at a table. A series of people were brought in and seated across from her, all of whom suddenly, inexplicably looked like they’d just heard the funniest joke in the world. Some laughed, some smiled broadly, but all of them were relaxed and happy.
“Now,” Professor Reed said proudly, “Here… Notice how she demonstrates another behavior in this reel.”
The subjects came in exactly the same way, only this time it was very different. The girl seemed agitated, twisting her hands in her lap and biting her lip. Each subject slumped with sorrow, some cried, some became quiet and withdrawn. The girl looked to the camera frequently, her eyes anxious.
The little man leaned forward and watched the tapes carefully.
“It looks like an act to me,” the big one said.
“I have years of studies on record,” Professor Reed said. “She gets better and better as she ages.”
The professor quickly put more recordings on, and they watched the child grow into a young woman, eliciting vastly different responses from all kinds of people.
“With the proper motivation, she can control anyone’s emotions, and bend them to her will… er, your will.”
“How does she do it?”
he asked.
“She was born with the ability to change people’s emotional state. She can generate and project a mood onto another person. She can make someone sad or frightened enough to confess anything… spill secrets… even go against their own best interests.”
“How long does it last?”
“Several hours… Long enough to sign papers, record confessions, make a few phone calls… Max was financing his whole operation using her.”
“What’s in it for her? What does she want?”
“Oh, Layla isn’t motivated by money… But she will do just about anything to protect that worthless brother of hers.”
The two men exchanged a look, the possibilities running through their minds.
“So you see, her talents could take you a whole lot further than just one perverted state senator ever could.”
“Interesting.”
“That’s just the tip of the iceberg. You have no idea what these girls are capable of.”
The little man looked at him shrewdly.
“Girls?”
~
THE END
~
The story concludes in the sequel, “The Redcastle Redemption,” due out in 2014.
~
Other books by Derrolyn Anderson:
~
“Between The Land and the Sea – Marina’s Tales #1”
“The Moon and the Tide – Marina’s Tales #2”
“The Fate of the Muse – Marina’s Tales #3 ”
“The Turning Tides – Marina’s Tale’s #4”
“The Athena Effect – #1”
“The Mackenzie Legacy – The Athena Effect #2”
~
www.derrolyn.com
The Caledonian Inheritance (The Athena Effect) Page 23
