Brain Storm (A Taylor Morrison Novel Book 1)

by Cat Gilbert

  She nodded and went out the door. I waited for a minute or so and headed out behind her. I got a couple of fountain drinks and a bag of corn nuts and headed to the counter to pay. I had her add the paper to the total and picked up a copy on the way out the door, folding Trinity’s photo to the inside and tucking it under my arm as I juggled the two drinks and the nuts. Jonas had already pulled out and Mac was checking the oil when I got back in the car. He slammed the hood, hopped in and we were off.

  I showed him the front of the paper and settled down to read while he ripped open the corn nuts. Trinity was on the front page, but it was an article about one of her current cases and what was going to happen now that she was deceased. They’d printed her picture more as a foot note to the case than anything else and it was in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette which was even better. We had just crossed into Texas and they weren’t really all that concerned with the news in Arkansas.

  I put the paper down about the same time Mac was fishing the last of the corn nuts out of the bag.

  “You didn’t want any of these, right?” He paused in the act of popping the last few kernels into his mouth, waiting for me to answer.

  “No. I just got them because they were there and I needed to buy something. I didn’t think anyone would actually eat them.”

  Grinning, he tossed them into his mouth and made a big production of chewing them up. Great. I was trapped in a car with a comedian. I turned to look out my window, determined not to encourage him by providing an audience, smiling in spite of myself. We were all a little slap happy after the afternoon’s success with the possible exception of Jonas. He was still having a hard time dealing with everything, but he was hanging in there and I had to give him kudos for that.

  “I need to call Trinity and let her know the paper was nothing to worry about,” I told him, shaking my head at his antics as I pulled out a phone. Cell phones had been at the top of the list of our purchases at Wal-Mart. We had picked up a handful of pay as you go phones and activated them while we were there. We needed a way to communicate and the phones were the best way to do that. Use them for a couple of days, toss them and get new ones. Nearly impossible to track or trace. The crooks loved them.

  Mac and I quickly went over the plan for tomorrow. We needed to stop at a bank in Dallas and move the funds from Mac’s offshore account into separate numbered accounts for each of us. Right now, Mac was the only one with access and if anything happened to him, we’d all be up the creek. We decided to stop in Greenville, about an hour outside of Dallas. I called Trinity’s cell to let her know about the paper and we agreed to met up at the Chili’s at the Greenville exit.

  I watched the first stars come into sight as darkness fell. Last night, I had been looking forward to this evening, knowing that when it finally arrived, it would be over. We’d either have succeeded or not, but at least the dread that had been suffocating me would be gone. Sometimes it seemed like that was how I lived my life. Waiting for the current trial to pass, relief when it did, frustration when the next one reared it’s ugly head. Living from one problem or challenge to the next. Wishing tomorrow would just magically appear so today would be over. Wishing my life away. One of these days, I promised myself, I was going to live in the moment. Enjoy what life had to offer. Have no worries or responsibilities. Someday, maybe, but it wasn’t going to be tonight.

  “We need to talk about what happens after Dallas,” I said to Mac.

  “Okay.” Mac settled down into his seat, shifting his position so he could look at me better. “What’s your take on it?”

  My take on it? That was easy. I’d gone over it at least a dozen times in my mind.

  “As I see it, it boils down to three problems. First, someone, or perhaps multiple someones at the Agency are after me. Second, we don’t know who they are, or how high up this goes, so even if we find out who the bad guy, or guys are in the Agency, if we don’t know who they’re working for, we’ve accomplished nothing.”

  “That’s two big ones, all right. What’s the third?”

  “Me. I’m every bit as dangerous as the guys who are after us.” I held up my hand to stop him from disagreeing with me. “I know you’re going to say. So far, we’ve been lucky and relying on instinct has worked in our favor, but it’s only a matter of time before we get in a tight jam and I lose it. I feel like we’re playing Russian Roulette, only I’m the gun.”

  “So what do you want to do?”

  “What do I want to do? Run. As fast and far as I can. That’s what I want.” My voice was calm, half joking, but I could feel myself getting angry. I didn’t know how or why this was happening, but it had ruined everyone’s life. Now I was responsible for them. So would they be safer with me gone? Would my responsibility to them be any less if I wasn’t with them? Frustration and resentment at the situation rolled through me as I sat silently looking out the window, avoiding Mac’s gaze. Then I remembered it didn’t matter what he saw or heard. There was no way to mask my emotions from him. If I felt them, Mac could feel them. I looked over to see if it was affecting him, but he seemed okay.

  “You can’t do that.” He said it so quietly that I had trouble hearing it, but the fact was, I did, and it sent my hackles up another couple of notches.

  I turned away from him again with a mumbled, “yeah, right.” and was thrown against the door when he swerved off onto the shoulder and stood on the brakes.

  “Okay. You want to run, Taylor. Here’s your chance.” He tossed the keys at me as he threw open the door and got out. Before I could blink an eye, he was walking down the highway, leaving me sitting there in the passenger seat, keys dangling in my hand.

  I just sat there, stunned, as he walked away. I couldn’t believe he was doing this. He’d been shadowing me for seven years and now, just like that, he was willing to just walk away? There was a full moon and between that and the passing headlights, I was able to make out Mac’s shape for a while. I kept my eyes on him, fully expecting him to turn around at any minute, but he didn’t. As I watched, he became nothing more than a dark shadow on the horizon and then suddenly he disappeared, swallowed by the darkness.

  It was over. I was finally on my own. As the feeling of freedom washed over me, I looked at the keys resting in my hand and realized Mac had given me much more than a chance to run. He’d given me the right to choose. I’d been carried along for the past few days on a whirlwind of events and now, for the first time, the choice of what to do next was mine and mine alone.

  I opened the door and got out, taking in a deep breath of the country air. The light scent of fresh cut hay was barely noticeable over the stench of cow manure. After a few minutes my nose recovered from the assault and the smell ratcheted down from overpowering to bearable.

  There was a brake in the flow of traffic and in the silence I could make out the sound of cattle grazing nearby. Leaning back against the car door, I thought about what it was I really wanted to do, now that I had the choice.

  Mac had forced me to face a few things, not the least of which was that I had been running away for quite some time. Now that I thought about it, I’d been running since the key incident. I was just doing it mentally, lying to myself and everyone else. I’d allowed myself to be driven by fear. Fear of the thing inside me and what it could do. Afraid of hurting someone I cared about by accident, or making the wrong choice and getting one or all of us killed. Running away from the truth.

  I’d deluded myself into thinking that there was some way out of the mess. That I could find a way to keep everyone safe, and happy. Retain some semblance of the lives we once lived and all the while I’d been tilting at windmills. I was kidding myself. There was no running away from this. Not for me. And Mac knew it. He’d felt it in me when I didn’t even know it existed. Strange feeling knowing there is someone out there who might know you better than you know yourself. He’d given me the chance to get out and I wasn’t going to take it. He’d known that I wouldn’t even when I didn’t. When he said I could
n’t run, I thought he meant that he wouldn’t let me. Live and learn.

  Shaking my head in disgust, I pushed away from the car and kicked at a clump of grass. All this inner angst had been for nothing. Things would have been so much easier if I had just looked at the facts and accepted them at face value. I still had questions, but I knew the answers would come. The important thing was that the decision had been made. I knew what had to be done. Now I just had to figure out how to make it work.

  I MUST HAVE been communing with the cows longer than I thought because Mac had made it a good piece down the road. I was beginning to think I had either missed him or he’d gotten a lift, when I finally caught sight of him. I laid on the brakes and pulled over in front of him. He walked up to my window and I rolled it down.

  “I’m driving,” I informed him and rolled the window back up. When he got in, he was smiling but he didn’t say anything. Smart man. I waited until I heard his seat belt click before I peeled out, laying us both back in our seats.

  By the time we were at the Greenville exit, I had come to terms with a lot of things. Driving helped. It gave me back a sense of control and I had needed it. I’d been solidly over the speed limit the whole way, tempting fate and the Texas Highway Patrol, but Mac had stayed quiet. With each passing mile, I felt more in control, more like my old self.

  My mind began to function again, sorting facts and accessing information. Relief flooded through me as my thoughts cleared and the detective in me surfaced again. I’d harbored the ridiculous fear that my ability to be decisive and think on my feet, had evaporated with the arrival of my newfound abilities. The inner panic I’d felt, had been fuel on the fire, only making matters worse.

  What an idiot, I thought, as I pulled into the Chili’s parking lot.

  “Well, we made great time,” Mac said, checking his watch before undoing his seat belt.

  I stopped him before he opened the door and got out. I wanted some answers while the questions were still fresh in my mind. He settled back into his seat, and waited for me to talk.

  “Mac, I need some answers. I know what I want to do. Just not how to do it.”

  He just nodded at me to continue. Obviously he wasn’t going to make this any easier.

  “I need to be able to control this ability I have before we go any further. The agency you worked for, they trained people like me, right?”

  “Yes. If they wanted to be trained.”

  “Well, I want to be trained. Is there anyone there who you trust? Anyone you know isn’t involved in this mess that can help me?”

  He studied the back of the building for a few minutes, thinking.

  “There is one man. He recently retired from the agency, but he was one of the best instructors. I don’t think he’d be involved in this. I can’t guarantee anything, but I think he’s our safest bet.”

  “Do you know where he is?”

  “No, but I am pretty sure we can find him.”

  “Good. Let’s see if we can locate him tonight and head his way in the morning,” I said as I opened my door, and got out. The smell of steak and french fries assailed my nose, immediately replacing the lingering scent of manure. With my lead foot, we were sure to have quite a wait before Jonas and the RV arrived and I had no intention of waiting in the car for them. Mac fell into step beside me as we rounded the building, heading to the front doors. By the time Mac pulled the door open and ushered me inside, I was feeling pretty fine. The prospect of good food, a warm bed and a plan in the works, sure did wonders for a person’s outlook. It was all about attitude and mine was becoming more positive by the second.

  We’d made our way through a couple of drinks and most of an onion blossom when Jonas, Trinity and Mama D, came through the doors. Jonas had changed clothes and now bore a much closer resemblance to a RV driving, family man. Trinity was wearing the same clothes as earlier, but Mama D had changed into a velour lounging suit and was in good spirits, especially considering the events of the past few days.

  “Grams got a good nap in while we were on the road,” Trinity explained, when I commented on how rested Mama D appeared. “Whoever thought of the RV, was a genius.”

  “That would be Jonas.” Mac pointed across the table to Jonas who was more than happy to accept the genius title and Trinity’s gratitude.

  All things considered, it was a festive meal. Everyone was feeling relief that the gold was secure and we were all safe. I kept quiet, enjoying the time together. There would be time enough later to lay my plans out on the table and let the chips fall where they may. For tonight, it was time to relax and celebrate our success. Tomorrow it would start again.

  TWENTY-FOUR

  WHEN WE WERE finished, Mac and I headed over to the Best Western across the street. It was new and more along the lines of a Hilton Hotel than the usual BW’s that dotted the highways. Mac got two rooms. One for me and one for Mama D and Trinity to share. He and Jonas would camp out in the RV with the gold.

  I slid my key card into the door and watched the little green light go on, indicating the lock had been opened. I slipped inside and immediately flipped on the bathroom light and smiled. My own private bathroom. One I didn’t have to share with anyone. Not that I minded sharing, but the idea of being able to take as long as I wanted in the shower without worrying about the hot water supply was all I could think about. I was still admiring the shower and stack of fluffy towels, when the knock sounded on the door.

  “I want to talk to you for a minute, before the guys come up.” My illusion of privacy swirled away in the whirlwind that was Trinity, as she pushed past me into the room. “Look, I know you need some down time, but I’ve wanted to say something to you since this morning and there hasn’t been a good time to do it.”

  “Okay.” I resigned myself to a discussion that I knew would last until the guys came up in the 30 minutes we had agreed on. “What’s up?”

  “There’s a couple of things. First off, I want to apologize for what happened this morning. It wasn’t about the name.”

  “I know that, Trinity. You don’t have to explain.”

  “Yes, I do. I saw your face. I know you were angry and you had every right to be. Don’t!” She stopped me before I could get a word out. “ Let me finish.”

  She began to pace back and forth at the end of the bed. I felt a warm glow as I moved to take a chair at the computer desk across the room, waiting for her to continue. This wasn’t the nervous pacing that I’d been seeing since we’d been on the run. This was summation pacing. I’d watched her do this in the court room so many times, I could probably tell you how many steps she’d take before turning. Trinity was thinking. Choosing her words just so, to make her point the best way possible. All the passion and drama that was Trinity, but none of the chaos of the last two days. She was back in control. Her body language told me what I needed to know. Now I needed to hear what she wanted to tell me.

  “You were angry, but you were mostly scared. Scared, not only by what might have happened when you lost control, but by what you were prepared to do when you came around that corner, riding to my rescue.” She stopped pacing to stand in front of me, hands splayed out on the desk as she leaned in to make her point. “Don’t think that I don’t understand what it cost you to kill those men in order to protect me. Or that I don’t realize you’d do it again in a heartbeat if you needed to.”

  She started pacing again, gathering her thoughts. I kept quiet, not wanting to interrupt her train of thought. She was heading somewhere with all this, I just didn’t know where yet.

  “I know you feel guilty that this all happened. I know you feel responsible. I know I have been making things more difficult for you while I tried to come to terms with things. I know all this, but there’s a couple of things I want to make sure you know before you make any decisions that effect all our lives.”

  Well, she had my full attention now and she knew it. She moved back in front and this time got right down in my face, eye ball level.

&nbs
p; “I want you to know that Grams and I love you. That we don’t blame you one bit for happened. I want you to know that I’ve come to terms with it and, that you can trust me to keep it together. Most of all, though, Taylor, I want you to know that if you can’t do what you need to because you’re afraid for us, we’ll leave. Right now. Tonight.”

  She stabbed the desk in front of me to emphasize her point. I had been afraid I would have to send them away to keep them safe and here was Trinity offering it to me on a silver platter. All I had to do was agree with her and they’d be gone.

  “What do you want, Trinity?” I asked softly. “It’s your life.”

  “What do I want? I want to stay. I think we’re better together, than apart! But not this way. Not with you afraid to move because it might expose us or put us in danger. We can’t hold you back and as long as you feel guilty, you’ll play it safe. You have to do what you’re best at. So you decide. I just wanted you to know, I have your back if you want me.”

  She turned and walked out the door, leaving me sitting there with my mouth hanging open. What just happened? Did I just get yelled at for trying to protect her? I think I did. Was she right? The epiphany I’d had with the cows on the roadside not to run meant nothing, if I deceived myself about the reason I was staying. If I could sweep away the feelings of guilt and the gripping need to protect them, what was left?

  Twenty minutes later, when Mac knocked on the door, I was still sitting in the same place, but I wasn’t the same person. The transformation wasn’t complete and I wasn’t sure what I would be when it was finished, but the roots were taking hold. I knew what I had to do next, I just wasn’t certain how to go about it. Trinity had just cleared that up for me. I felt a shiver of anticipation run up my spine, as I crossed the room to open the door.