“All right.” I sighed. “He told me about what happened to him when he was ten. That he was abducted by two masked men and held captive for almost two months by three men. He told me what they did to him.” I fought the nausea that crept up my throat. “And he told me of his eventual escape.”
“I see.” Silence for what seemed like hours but was probably only a couple of minutes.
“Wendy?”
“I’m here. I haven’t talked about these things in…well…twenty-five years.”
“Talon is in therapy, Wendy. He’s healing, but I think it would really help him to heal if he knew who these perpetrators were. So that they could be brought to justice. Do you know who they are?”
“Not all of them.”
God. My heart stampeded in my chest. That meant she knew at least one of them. And she could tell me. I could tell Talon. We could find him. We could lock him up for good.
“Oh my God. Who were they?”
“Before I tell you any more,” she said, “there are some things you need to understand.”
“I’m listening.”
“You were right about Larry Wade and Daphne Steel. They were half-brother and half-sister. Larry is Daphne’s elder by five years. They didn’t grow up together. Larry stayed with his mother. But they did know each other.”
“Why did the Steels try to cover up that relationship? Why would anyone care?”
“Because Larry was sick. And he was one of the three men who held Talon captive.”
My heart nearly stopped, and my bowels churned. Sickness oozed within me. I had always known he was backward, unethical, but this…
My God. Talon was right.
“Jade?”
I cleared my throat. “Yeah. I’m okay.”
“I’m sure this is a shock.”
“No, not as much as it could be. Talon had already decided that he was one of them. I guess it’ll be good for me to tell him that he’s right.”
“Jade—”
“What I don’t understand, Wendy, is why didn’t they have him arrested twenty-five years ago? He should be in prison.”
“It’s a long story. I can give you the short version now. We’ll need to meet in person, maybe even with Talon, for me to tell you everything.”
“Oh, no. I want you to tell me everything now. You promised.”
“I will tell you everything. Right now I can only tell you the gist. I made a promise a long time ago never to reveal any of this except to Talon himself when the time was right.”
“What the fuck does that mean? When the time was right? This poor man has been through hell. He’s been carrying this around for twenty-five years and is only just now getting the help he needs.”
“Talon had to decide for himself when to get help.”
“That is such bullshit! Someone should have helped him. His fucking parents should’ve helped him.”
“Calm down, Jade. I can’t say that I disagree with you. As much as I loved Brad, I didn’t agree with everything he did. But he felt he had his reasons. Number one was his clinically insane wife.”
“What? Are you saying Talon’s mom was certifiably nuts?”
“She was never diagnosed with anything, but based on my dealings with her, I’d say she probably had both bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder. Either that or narcissistic personality disorder.”
I didn’t know much about psychology, but I knew that double diagnosis meant trouble. “Why didn’t the woman get help? Maybe she wouldn’t have taken her own life.”
“Brad tried. She refused. She was a very troubled woman, Jade. But she did dote on those boys. I truly do think that she loved them. The girl though—I don’t think she ever really bonded with her. After all, she killed herself when Marjorie was barely two.”
“Maybe she had convinced herself that Marjorie wasn’t going to live after she was born so early. And then couldn’t deal with it when she did.” I was just tossing out words. I had no idea what I was saying.
“You may well be right,” Wendy said. “I really have no idea, and I can’t speculate. Daphne Steel was… Well, I’ll just say it. She was a mess.”
“All right, but none of this tells me why they didn’t turn Larry in to the police.”
“Part of it was the fact that he was Daphne’s brother. Her father begged her not to turn Larry in. Her father said that Larry was sick, that he needed help, and that prison would kill him. Still, Brad would have none of it, but Daphne… She wasn’t close to Larry. Like I said, they hadn’t grown up together. But she was close to her father. If ever there had been a daddy’s girl, it was Daphne Steel. So she thought about it. But in the end, she agreed with Brad that Larry had to be arrested.”
“Then why wasn’t he?”
“A day later, before he could be arrested, Larry ended up in the hospital. He had been severely beaten, most likely by the two other men who’d abducted Talon. Larry ended up nearly dying from the beating, but he never would name who they were.”
“Why on earth would they have beaten him?”
“Because, Jade, Larry is the one who helped Talon escape.”
Chapter Thirty
Talon
The dreams came again. I was back, walking on the outskirts of the Walkers’ small ranch, but it wasn’t Ryan with me, clutching at my hand. No. It was Jade. Jade, who looked up at me with innocent steely blue eyes, who trusted me to protect her.
But when the masked men came, and when they grabbed her, I wasn’t able to stop them. They dragged her away, all the while she was screaming, “Talon, help me! Help me! Help me!” Until she disappeared into the rundown shack.
I ran toward the shack, but my feet were stuck in mud. I was sinking in quicksand, and all around me, disembodied arms and legs came up from the mud to mock me.
“Help! Help!” I screamed. “I’m sinking! I’m sinking!”
In the abyss, a disembodied head floated upward, laughing at me.
“You couldn’t help me, Talon. I died anyway. You didn’t get here in time. And now you will die too.”
I stared into the dead eyes of Luke Walker.
“No!”
And then my head went under.
I held my breath as long as I could, but soon I was forced to breathe in. Mud, dirt, slime entered my mouth, my nose…
The end…
The—
* * *
I shot up in bed.
My heart was beating out of my chest. What the fuck? A new dream?
I had to talk to Dr. Carmichael. She had given me her number, but I had never used it, other than to call to make an appointment. She told me point blank that she didn’t normally give out her cell number except in rare cases. I guessed I was one of those rare cases.
I had come so far. I had told Jade everything, and she hadn’t turned away from me. I had to get through this. And I wasn’t going to be able to get through it if I continued to have horrible and disgusting dreams. I looked at my cell phone. Ten thirty. Not too early to call.
I punched in Dr. Carmichael’s number.
“This is Melanie.”
“Hi. It’s…Talon. Talon Steel.”
“Yes, Talon, I recognized your number. Did you want to try to get an appointment today?”
“No. I mean, I was wondering if you could talk to me now.”
“Of course. Are you all right?”
“Yeah. I mean no, but yeah. I’m not suicidal or anything. I’m not going to do anything stupid. But I’m a little freaked.”
“Tell me what’s going on.”
“I told Jade everything last night.”
“I see. And how did it go?”
“It was…hard. I mean, I knew it would be. But still it was hard.”
“How did she take it?”
“She bawled. I bawled. But we got through it.”
“And none of it mattered to her, did it?”
I sighed. “No.”
“Is that what you need to talk to me about?
”
“No. I just had a really freaky dream.” As I told Dr. Carmichael about the dream, my skin chilled. “It’s different than any other dream I’ve had. I really don’t know why I would have it now, right after I told Jade.”
“Well, Talon, you’ve always been able to protect everyone. Everyone except yourself. Now you finally have the person who means everything to you, so you’re afraid that you won’t be able to protect her.”
“It can’t be that simple.”
“Dreams are never simple. But that’s my initial thought. You can come into the office if you want, and I can take you through guided hypnosis. That might give us more valuable information.”
“No, I don’t want to do that. At least not today. I guess I was just surprised by it all. I mean, I woke up in a cold sweat.”
“Understandable. But dreams are usually manifestation of fears, sometimes fears we don’t even realize we have. And that’s a very legitimate fear.”
“But she trusts me, Doc. She fucking trusts me.”
“Of course she does. With good reason. You’re a very trustworthy person.”
“But what if I can’t protect her?”
“There are no guarantees in life, Talon. I only wish that there were. But you will protect her. You protected her from her ex, remember? Even though he wasn’t a threat. And if there was a legitimate threat to her, you would do everything within your power to protect her. Your feet would not get caught in quicksand. It was just a dream.”
I suddenly felt very foolish. “Will the dreams ever stop?”
“They may never stop completely. But I feel certain that they will lessen. And you’ll find, in time, that they don’t bother you nearly as much. Even this time, I’ve talked you down in a matter of minutes. That wouldn’t have happened three months ago.”
I couldn’t disagree with her. “All right. I think I’m okay now. Thanks for talking to me, Doc.”
“I’ll always be here for you, Talon. For as long as you need me.”
And I knew she would be.
Just like Jade would be.
As I said goodbye and hung up, Jade came running into my bedroom, Roger at her heels.
“Talon, thank God you’re awake. You need to get up.”
“What’s going on, blue eyes?”
“I just got off the phone with Wendy Madigan.”
Wendy Madigan? That was a blast from the past. How did Jade know about her? “Wendy?”
“Yeah.”
“But how?”
“I found her name at the bottom of that local news article about your heroics when you came back from overseas.”
Okay. But that didn’t help me understand why Jade was on the phone with her.
“I’ll explain all this later, but right now we need to act quickly. You were right, Talon. Larry Wade was one of the three men who abducted you.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Jade
His eyes widened into circles. He said nothing. In fact, he looked almost catatonic for a few moments. When I got to the point where I was actually beginning to worry, he finally blinked.
“What?”
I sat down next to him on the bed and took his trembling hand. “I’ve been talking to Wendy for a while. After I found her name on the article about you, I figured she had some information, and she confirmed that she did. Today she decided to give it to me.”
He gulped. “Why today?”
“She felt an obligation toward you and your family. She didn’t want to divulge anything until you had told me everything.”
“She told you that something happened to me?”
I nodded. “But Talon, don’t be angry with her. You told me yourself that something had happened to you, remember?”
Talon stared straight ahead, not speaking.
“Talon? Do you understand what this means? We can have him arrested. One of your abductors will see justice served.”
He shook his head, blinking as if to clear his head. “We don’t know where he is.”
“Wendy told me he owns some land in Montana. We’ll start there. But honestly, he’d be stupid to go there.”
“And if that turns up nothing?”
“We put the cops on it. We hire the best PIs in the business. For once, aren’t you glad that money is no object?”
Again, silence.
What was up with him?
“Baby, this is good news. Once we find Larry, we can force him to tell us who the other two are. Let’s get on it. Let’s get Jonah and Ryan and Marj, and we’ll get started. Not only do you have the money to bankroll a full-scale investigation, but the woman you love happens to be the city attorney of Snow Creek right now. I have access to all the databases. We’ll find him, Talon. I know we’ll find him.”
Still he stared straight ahead.
“What’s wrong? I don’t get it.”
He shook his head slowly, methodically. “I just don’t believe it. I mean, I wanted to believe that I had identified two of my abductors, but inside, inside my objective brain, I knew it was unlikely.” He turned to me, his eyes unreadable. “Is there really an end to this in sight?”
I took his hand, massaging my thumb into his palm. “Nothing can erase what you went through, but we can at least find one of them and bring him to justice.”
And again, silence.
“You should be ecstatic. What’s wrong?”
Silence again.
Then, “It’s just…” He raked his hands through his tousled bedhead. “I’m not sure how to say this. How to make you understand.”
I continued to rub his palm with my thumb, aching to comfort him. I had no idea what could be the matter, but he needed to know I was here for him. That I wasn’t going anywhere. Ever.
“You can tell me anything. You know I’ll understand.”
He drew in a deep breath. “All these years I’ve lived with this horror, and until recently, I never even thought about trying to heal. And now, with you, I finally found a reason to go on. And through you I found other reasons, my brothers and sister, my ranch, even myself. And I’m beginning. I’m moving forward.”
“Yes, you’re doing great. So what’s the matter?”
“I’m not sure. I’m not sure I can put it into words. But if we find one of them, finally put one phase of this to rest…it’s gone. That part of my life is finally gone.”
“And that’s a bad thing?”
He shook his head. “I told you that you wouldn’t understand.”
“Try me. Talk to me, Talon.”
“It was horrible. No child—hell, no living being—should go through what I went through. But I did go through it. It was my own. It was horrible, heinous, awful. But it was mine.”
I squeezed his hand. I wanted to take him into my arms and comfort him, but I wasn’t sure that was what he needed right now. “Why do you want to hold on to this, Talon?”
“I don’t. At least I think I don’t. I told you it was hard to explain. But it’s been part of me for so long.”
“It will always be a part of you. It will always be part of what made you the man you are today. And I think you’re an incredible man.”
“I’m trying, blue eyes. I’m really trying.”
“I know you are. You’ve had to own this. You’ve had to walk this path alone for so long. But you’re not alone anymore, Talon. I’m here for you. Your brothers are here for you. Marjorie is here for you. The six people you saved that day in Iraq—they’re all here for you. The hundreds of employees on this ranch who depend on you for their livelihood—they’re all here for you. You have a lot of people in your corner, a lot of people who would do anything for you.”
“Could it really—I mean really—be over? Really over?”
My sweet, wonderful Talon. He’d lived so long with this burden. “It was over twenty-five years ago, baby. You’ve been free since then. You just didn’t know it. It’s time we took matters into our own hands, time we brought those perpetrators to justice. And
now we can. So, my love, it’s time.”
He turned to me, his eyes misted over, and nodded. “Time to let it go.”
* * *
As expected, Larry wasn’t in Montana, but with the Steels’ money and a private investigation team, along with help from the local police force and state patrol, Larry was picked up three days later in southern New Mexico. He’d been using an alias and had been working at a hatch chile farm, trying to make enough money to cross the border.
And in his personals? Colin’s wallet and phone.
That sicko had been the one who called me using Colin’s phone.
He’d been brought back to Grand Junction and was being held in the county jail for now. I sat, at the visitors’ window, waiting for him. I’d told Talon I was going, and I’d offered to take him with me, but he had chosen not to come. Probably just as well. I wasn’t sure he could have held it together. I’d had to nearly tie him down—along with Jonah and Ryan—to keep him from going after Larry himself.
I didn’t know what I was going to say to Larry. What could one say to such a sick person? He most likely had killed Colin, too, though with no body, a murder would be difficult to prove. There would be no reasoning with Larry. A psychopath couldn’t be reasoned with. Still, I had to try. The prosecuting attorney had offered him a deal if he named the two others. I was here to convince him to take it.
His hands and feet were cuffed when a guard let him in. He was dressed all in orange, the little hair he had in disarray and his countenance fatigued. He sat down and picked up the telephone.
“Jade,” he said. “Are you here to represent me?”
My eyes must’ve nearly popped out of my head. Had I heard him right? “I’m the acting city attorney now, Larry. Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t represent you. I’m not sure the mayor would look too kindly upon me moonlighting to represent my former boss who happens to be a child molester.”
He sighed. “You’d be surprised what the mayor is capable of.”
“It shouldn’t surprise me what you’ve turned out to be capable of, Larry. I mean, with your questionable ethics and all. Still, I never would’ve thought you to be such a sick criminal.”
Possession: Steel Brothers Saga: Book Three Page 20
