Titanium

by Linda Palmer

  "But I need a tampon. You know what that is, right?"

  I got dead silence in response. I waited, fingers crossed, my ear pressed to the wood. Just beyond it, a hushed one-sided conversation took place. I couldn't make out a word.

  "Ti says you can't have it."

  "Are you kidding? Let me talk to him."

  "He's not here."

  "Oh my God. I can't believe this. Can't you just dig one out, please? They're in the red make-up bag. Ti won't even have to know."

  I heard footsteps retreating and moments after, returning. I heard the zipper of the make-up bag. Would he pass me one of the tampons? Or do what most guys would do, make sure there wasn't a gun with the makeup and hand whole thing over?

  The deadbolt slid back. He thrust the bag into my hands. "Be quick."

  "Thank you." Poking my fingers into the bag, I took out the emergency tampons and what looked like a tube of lipstick. Only it wasn't. I showed everything to the man in the mask as I returned the bag. "I'm keeping these plus the gloss. That tape wrecked my lips." When he didn't answer, I stuffed everything in my back pocket and prepared for the walk back. "Some water would help them, you know."

  "There's a sink in the safe room."

  Safe room? That was another question answered. "How was I supposed to know? It's black as pitch in there."

  Just as we got back to my door, I heard footsteps over our heads. Someone joined us a second later.

  "Here." Second guy took my hand and put a paper sack in it. Delicious smells emerged. My mouth watered.

  "Thank you."

  "Take your drink."

  A Styrofoam cup bumped against my fingers. I took it. One of them pushed me through the doorway and yanked off the mask. I heard the door click shut and the sliding of the bolt. With a sigh, I sat down right there in the dark and ate my chicken sandwich and fries while they were still halfway warm.

  At least the guys who had me were varying the menu.

  Sometime later, my head dropped and woke me from a fitful doze. Clueless as to whether it was day or night, I gave in and stretched out on the cold, hard floor. Everything would look better in the morning.

  Not that I'd know when morning got there.

  Ti's raspy voice woke me from a heavy sleep. I sat up with a start, confused until the last remnants of a vivid dream about Zander faded to nothing. My situation came back in a rush when the beam of his flashlight shone right in my face. I'd never felt so sad, so empty, so scared.

  "Do you mind?" I covered my poor eyes.

  He lowered the light. When my pupils adjusted, I saw he had Panther with him. I also saw that he held another cell phone. "Time to call daddy again."

  "It's Sunday noon already?"

  Zander

  Sparks and I got back to Riley's place around five or six on Saturday in the pouring rain. The sky looked black dark. I saw a strange car parked in the drive. Surely it wasn't McConnell. He couldn't have gotten there that freakin' fast.

  Frustrated and feeling pretty damn judgmental, I got out of the truck and made it all the way to the porch before Sparks, who'd followed me back, caught up. He blocked my path. "Keep your cool. This might be your woman's father."

  "Doesn't deserve to be."

  "Yeah, well, that's not for you to say. And Riley might not thank you for beating the shit out of the guy now that he's popped up again."

  If the army had known Sparks could read minds so accurately, I'd have been out of a job.

  We found Dom sitting in the recliner and Steve McConnell on Riley's computer. They both jumped up. Dom introduced us.

  "How'd you get here so fast?" I ignored the hand McConnell offered me.

  He lowered it. "My jet. I travel a lot. Are you and my daughter...?"

  I could tell by his expression what he meant even though he didn't finish. "No."

  "Ah." McConnell ran his hand through his dark hair, his glance bouncing from one to the other of us. "I'm guessing you know that Riley and I aren't close."

  "Yeah," I said. "And for the life of me I just don't get why any man would desert his own kid when her mom had just died, especially a daughter as sweet and beautiful and amazing as her."

  "I had my reasons. Not that I owe you an explanation."

  I bristled and squared my shoulders. Dom broke in. "Why don't we all sit down so Mr. McConnell, here, can catch us up?"

  We did.

  But I didn't let it go. "What made you email her last week? Is her aunt right in assuming you need a kidney or something? Or did you just now figure out she's all grown up and won't be a bother? Whatever the reason, if this is just a flyby, you can get the eff out of here now. You're not hurting her again."

  Sparks winced. Dom laid a heavy hand on my shoulder as if he thought I might go ballistic. Well, maybe I would. I'd been hovering on the brink all day, and if any man on the planet could set me off, it was this lowlife.

  McConnell heaved a sigh. "I made a mistake, okay? I let someone convince me that it was in Riley's best interests for me to just go away."

  I couldn't believe my ears. "Are you really blaming your bad decisions on someone else?"

  He shook his head. "No, no. It was me. Me, a case of Jim Beam, and a shitload of guilt."

  Was he lying? My gift told me no, and whether I wanted to or not, I totally got the guilt thing.

  "I've regretted it ever since." McConnell crossed his arms over his chest and didn't flinch even though I stared him down. "The rest is for Riley's ears. Now you obviously have friends with skills. I'm hoping we can get past whatever this is--" he flicked a finger between the two of us "--and find a way to bring my girl home."

  "This is me thinking you've got no business here. But that's not my call." I took a deep breath. "What do you know?"

  McConnell told us a story crazier than anything he'd ever thought up--a tale about Titanium freaks taking their devotion to the extreme. He also explained how he'd rigged his home security cameras so that it looked as though he and his family were there even though his wife and kid were safe at her mom's. When he finished, I jumped up and began to pace. This Jason-Titan dude was a sicko with incredible resources, and I had no idea how to get to him.

  I turned to Dom. "Where are the others?"

  "Talking to your neighbors. If this guy has been around during the day, somebody might've noticed something that --"

  The buzz of McConnell's phone brought us all to attention. He stepped into the kitchen to privately answer it.

  Only I wasn't about to let that happen.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Riley

  "Hello?"

  Ti held the phone so we could all hear. "Hello, Steve."

  "You told me I had until Sunday noon."

  "What can I say? I don't like waiting. What's your status, and you damn well better have progress to report."

  "I want to talk to Riley first."

  "Not until you tell me why 'Entertainment Tonight' didn't announce that you'd soon have a really big story to share."

  "They're too busy reporting the latest celebrity break ups."

  "Don't screw with me!" Ti caught Panther's eye. That giant of a man with his crazy contacts stepped toward me. I backed into the wall, turning to face it when he got to me. That didn't faze him. The creep simply grabbed me from behind, lifting so he could nuzzle my neck.

  "No..."

  His hands slid over me.

  I bit my lip to keep from giving Ti the terror he wanted, but just couldn't do it. "Stop! Please!"

  Dad broke in. "Okay, okay. I'll try ET again. As for the other stuff, there are contracts, schedules, loans. If I can't give anyone the real reason I need to fire Walls and kill the script, I'm going to catch a lot of flak that could end the franchise and the series. Maybe if I had more time."

  "You have until tomorrow." Ti ended the call and once again took the phone apart and stomped it to pieces with a vengeance. He caught Panther's eye and smirked. Panther nodded.

  So Ti was taking lessons in brut
ality. Well, he clearly had a good teacher. "What happens if my father doesn't give in to your demands?"

  Panther answered for everyone by growling like the animal he was.

  Zander

  McConnell stared in shocked silence at the iPhone in his hand.

  With a roar, I lost it and kicked over a kitchen chair. I was about to put my fist through one of Cheap Charlie's walls when McConnell surprised me with full Nelson hold. I automatically countered with a release that reestablished my balance and challenged his. Though he immediately let me go, he'd made his point.

  Calmer, I shrugged my shirt to rights and avoided the heavy gazes of my buddies. "I'm fine, okay? I just..." I took in a deep breath and slowly exhaled. "If they hurt her, I swear to God I'll kill every last one of them."

  "We'll help," said Dom.

  McConnell nodded. "And I get to go first."

  I knew he meant that and for the first time got an idea of his true feelings. His past actions still had me wondering, even though I'd made my own share of mistakes. I pulled my cell from my pocket, ready to try Brian again. Didn't have to. "Titanium" blasted as it vibrated in my hand. "Hello?"

  "It's Brian. What's up?"

  "You said we could call. I know you meant it." I told him what had happened, and what we'd done so far, which was basically nothing.

  "So you're just now reporting this?"

  I scrambled for an excuse. "Isn't there some kind of twenty- four-hour wait on missing persons?"

  "Only in the movies. I'll see you in fifteen minutes. I don't want anyone to do anything else until I get there. Do you understand?"

  "Roger that." As I tucked my cell into my pocket, Wilson and Simms walked in and joined us.

  "Got something." Grinning, Wilson held up his cell phone. We crowded around him. "Lady across the street took these." He showed us two pictures of a silver SUV, parked in Charlie's drive. "She was getting a shot of her Halloween decorations."

  I took his phone and enlarged the photo with a sweep of my fingers. The license plate, almost hidden by a ghost, read TITANUM. Our man for sure. "Thanks, guys."

  "No problem, Xman. Wetsu."

  We eat this shit up. Yeah, they did, but this time their efforts might save the girl I loved. A sudden surge of hope and gratitude choked me up. I walked right through the kitchen and out the back door, where I stood on the tiny slab of concrete that was our porch.

  The rain continued to pour, pinging off the aluminum grill nearby and getting one of my sleeves wet. A breeze rustled the limbs of the maple in the yard, shaking off the colored leaves that had managed to cling to the branches. My head began to clear.

  Someone else stepped outside. A backwards glance revealed McConnell, taking a pack of cigarettes from the pocket of his leather jacket.

  "If my wife caught me doing this, I'd be single again." He lit one and inhaled deeply before blowing smoke from his mouth and nose. "Are you in love with Riley?"

  I shrugged. "Probably."

  "Is she in love with you?"

  "I sure as hell hope not."

  "Why?"

  I pulled up the left leg of my jeans just enough that he could see the prosthesis.

  "That's your reason?"

  "Reason enough, don't you think?"

  He snorted a dry laugh. "Unless Riley has changed since she's grown up, she's not the type to hold a bum leg against you. That girl was always bringing home butterflies with broken wings, baby birds that'd fallen out of the nest, kittens that had to be fed from a doll bottle."

  "I don't need her pity."

  "You're confusing pity with compassion, son. Did that myself, once. Ever heard of Guillain-Barre syndrome?"

  "No."

  He took another drag on his cigarette. "Neither had I, but I got it anyway. Or maybe it got me. Anyway, I wound up flat on my back with a machine doing my breathing for a while. Kari, my girlfriend who is now my wife, by the way, stuck with me even though I begged her to go. At first I hated it. But I began to understand that she wasn't there out of pity or even some misguided sense of duty. She stayed because she wouldn't abandon the man she loved. For the very first time I understood what real love meant. I realized that I'd only cared about two people in that way--her and Riley--and I'd deserted Riley when she needed me most."

  I knew he was telling the truth, but still couldn't believe my ears. "You didn't love Riley's mom?"

  "Not like that, I'm ashamed to say. But Riley, well, I couldn't have been crazier about that precious little girl." He smiled as if remembering something special.

  I just didn't get it. "What made you go?"

  "Leslie told me I wasn't fit to raise a daughter, and she was right. At the time, my best friend was a bottle of booze and my favorite hangout, an art table stuck in the corner of the bedroom. I spent hours slumped over a sketch pad caught up in pulp fiction. I forgot to eat, bathe, and sleep. How would I ever remember I had a kid to feed? I kept telling myself that many of the greats were at their best when they were high--Hendrix, Poe, Freud. What I forgot is that's what killed them, too." He grimaced. "Not a pretty picture, huh?"

  I didn't answer. I couldn't. He was telling the truth.

  "So now I'm dealing with the guilt of not loving Ramona and giving up Riley." He dropped the cigarette and rubbed it into the concrete. "I think you might know a little about regret."

  "You been talking to Dom?"

  He shrugged. "Your friends are pretty worried about you. For what it's worth, you should listen to what they say. If you don't, your guilt is going to consume you and affect the people you love in the worst of ways."

  "How can you say that when you don't even know me?"

  "I know enough. What happened to you wasn't karmic payback for something you did or didn't do. Shit happens, period. Whether or not you want to believe it, you're one of the good guys and always will be. But I'm sure you've heard that before." He glanced toward the door. "I think your cop's here."

  Pissed that Dom had talked about me, I followed McConnell into the kitchen. We told Sergeant Brian everything we knew so far and showed him the shot of the SUV. He called in the plates and got a name and an address. Though Brian didn't share them with us, Dom quietly maneuvered himself so that he could read what the cop wrote. His wink told me he'd gotten it.

  "I'm going to run by the station and do some checking up on this guy before I drive out there. I don't want any of you to do anything until you hear from me. This is police business now. Stay out of it."

  "We will." I lied through my teeth.

  Brian just shook his head as if he could spot lies, too.

  "May I come with you?" McConnell asked.

  "Sure." Brian caught my eye. "Have you got a permit for that thing?" His gaze dipped to my hoodie pocket, where the Glock was still stashed.

  "Roger that." I wondered how he knew it was there. It didn't show.

  With a solemn nod, Brian left with McConnell right behind him.

  "Did you get it?" I quietly asked Dom.

  "Jeremy North, 32 Tolkien Avenue, San Antonio."

  We waited until we were sure both Brian and McConnell were gone before we loaded up in the two trucks.

  Destination? Tolkien Avenue, of course.

  Chapter Twenty

  Riley

  Long after Ti left me, I sat in the dark with my pulse racing. I needed to escape and even had a plan of sorts, but the time had to be right for it.

  Ti told my father that he'd lived Eric's life. Did that mean he had wealthy parents somewhere doling out cash to keep him invisible? Parents who just didn't get him? His having money might explain how he could so carelessly dispose of cell phones and have access to a building with a safe room. It could also be the reason Panther kept hanging around. Well, that and the fact that he got off on fear and pain.

  If I just knew where I was.

  Alone and scared, I couldn't help but wonder why my other senses hadn't kicked up a notch. I hadn't seen the light of day in what felt like forever. Shouldn't I at least
be able to hear better? Or was that just a myth? Had I been so caught up in my misery that I'd ignored hints I desperately needed?

  With that in mind, I sat very still, deliberately tuning in to my surroundings. As I soaked in the stillness, I began to hear things. Sort of like my eyes adjusting from dark to bright. I discovered I could make out voices, but not from the hallway. They came from beyond the wall I now leaned against. I heard other noises--car doors slamming, a rain wall engulfing the building, the sounds of multiple tires on gravel or rock.

  Amazed I could make out so much, I stood and walked the room as I had before, this time with my hand high on the wall. I discovered windows. Two of them. Boarded over to keep out the light as they were in the bathroom. I felt better knowing they were there, even if they did me no good. I also wondered why a so-called safe room would have any kind of opening to the outside. Was this really that or somebody's basement?

  Rustling outside the door made me hurry to it. "Al? Is that you?"

  No answer.

  "So everyone gets to leave while you're stuck here? Why? Did you piss off Ti when you talked to me?"

  "Who says they left?" Definitely Al.

  "The house is very quiet."

  "Who says it's a house?"

  I sighed. "Could I please have a flashlight?"

  "Nope."

  "How about a TV? My iPod? A radio? Whatever you've got? I'm going nuts in here. You seemed so much nicer in the parking lot. I got the feeling you didn't want to hurt me."

  "Wasn't there."

  "Whatever. Why are you doing this? I know that you know how petty and ridiculous Ti's demands are."

  "Shut up."

  "Do you really want to go to prison over a stupid graphic novel? Come on, dude. You're smarter than that. If you let me go now, I won't tell anyone anything. I swear."

  "I'm not listening."

  "Just think about it, okay? When your relief shows up, mention it to him and see what kind of response you get. Tell him I won't talk. Tell him I'll pay. I have money, you know. Over a hundred thousand dollars. I'll give all of it to you guys."

  "Nobody needs your money. Ti's doing this for the fans."