by G. K. Lund
Mender
The Ashport Mender Series Book 2
G. K. Lund
Copyright © 2018 by G.K. Lund. All rights reserved.
This book is a work of fiction. Similarities to actual events, places, persons or other entities are purely coincidental.
Published by Northern Quill Press.
ISBN: 978-82-93663-15-7
www.northernquillpress.com
www.gklundwrites.com
Cover design by Damonza
(Add. image: Volkswagen Beetle, Belfast © Copyright)
Edited by Jinxie Gervasio and N. Hall.
Mender / G.K. Lund, 1st. ed.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
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Chapter 1
Two sets of eyes stared at me with restrained dismay. In a way, I felt like the suspects placed on the other side of the table in the interrogation room, the detectives asking questions and drawing their conclusions. Only, in this case, my interrogators were worse than the police. In my world, they were as close to the police as one could come, and at the moment they were not happy with me. Both because I had done something wrong, and because I had done something right. Only to no avail in either case.
“How long has it been since you slept, Maggie?” Gerard asked me, attempting to kill me with kindness. He was a big man in his fifties, heavy muscled with broad shoulders and thick arms. His russet skin was his softest feature as he otherwise had a weather-beaten face, graying beard, and balding head. A broad jaw and heavy features told of a long life lived, and of a once handsome young man.
“I don’t know,” I answered him and inhaled sharply, trying to think. Two days, probably. Two days since it all went awry. Which was a nice way of telling myself I had messed up royally.
“I’m betting a couple of days,” Annalise chimed in, who narrowed her eyes. “You look like it.” She was not a woman of patience, Annalise, nor was she inclined to spend her time on bullshit. Not in the least. Though one of my favorite people in my life, she could be tough to deal with. She had her own issues, though. I got that. She was about Gerard’s age, thin, and more and more frail-looking, which pissed her off to no end. But she still had her beauty, despite fine lines on her face and the light-gray haircut in a straight bob that reached just below her jaw.
“So what?” I told her, trying to sit up on Gerard’s soft couch. It made me sink down again. With them on each of their chairs facing me, the power show was all but decided.
“Andrea won’t be saved by me sitting on my ass.” The thought of the kidnapped woman who’d been tied to a chair for two days and now most likely chained in a dark basement, made me draw breath again. While I was out gaining no information, her situation worsened, and it pained me to think of it.
“She won’t be saved by you exhausting yourself and making mistakes, either,” Annalise pointed out. It made me hate her a moment. Then I realized she was right. She always was.
“No one has seen anything of the cars you described,” Gerard said. “Nor has anyone seen any of the men you encountered on the farm where they kept her first.”
I nodded. I knew we were at a dead end. But I couldn’t give up. I needed to help her. Bad shit happened to the affiliates of our Community. That was how it was. But you always did what you could to help. That was how we survived. That was how we stayed hidden.
“Doesn’t mean I should give up,” I told them.
“We’re not saying that,” he argued. “But you can’t go on like this. And you’re not alone.”
I knew that as well. Gerard had reached out to the Community. There were so many on the lookout for anything that could help that me wandering around blind didn’t add much. Not unless I happened to walk onto whatever hell-hole they were keeping Andrea in.
Fat chance.
“The time has come for you to step back and wait,” he continued, his voice soft now. Friendly. He knew how much this hurt me. Of course he did. When I had met him five years ago, my first impression of him had been that of a hard man; it still was, actually, but his ability was such a contrast to that. As an empath, he picked up emotions like a sponge, and unlike me, he couldn’t turn his ability on and off. It made it difficult to lie in his presence, and it also made it downright impossible to tell him he didn’t understand how you felt. He understood all too well.
“Please don’t make me do that,” I said. No point in protesting loudly.
“Only until we find something concrete. There are others that are in need of help.”
“What can possibly be worse than what happened to Andrea?” I said. Ashport wasn’t the biggest place in the world. Though bad things happened often, a kidnapping was not commonplace. A kidnapping that had been meant for me, I might add. The men who had taken her belonged to a company called Yorov, and they had been after me before. They were the reason I had been taken from my childhood home, and now they had found me again. And taken Andrea by mistake.
“I’m not saying worse,” Gerard said and rubbed a hand over his head. “But other things have happened.”
“You revealing our existence to a cop being one of them,” Annalise said.
I cringed at the thought. I hadn’t had a choice. I had tried so hard to keep Hansen in the dark about everything, but the problem with cops is they’re like dogs with bones. They keep sticking their noses where they don’t belong to find answers. And he’d gotten answers all right.
Get out of my head.
“There was no choice,” I said weakly. “He was going to arrest Rob. What was I supposed to do? He’d already seen Andrea’s mental projection.”
“Yes, I talked with Rob,” Gerard said. “He backs up everything. If his seeming like a psychic had been all the cop had seen, that would have been okay…but as it is—”
“We now have a cop in the know running around town,” Annalise broke him off. “You know how that usually goes.”
I nodded. Cops always did what Hansen had tried to do. He’d wanted to arrest Rob because to him there was no other reason for Rob knowing anything about Andrea than him being involved. It was why he had been so suspicious of me as well. He knew there was something not right. Cops usually did. That’s why you stayed away from them. That was rule number one.
Get the fuck out of my head.
I shook my head a little. Trying to think of something else. I’d had to reveal my own abilities to protect Rob. Of course I had. But in doing so, I’d done what I knew was a violation. I’d hated it. I never used my ability on anyone I knew. Not even remotely. And I’d stood there hearing him screaming at me, not verbally, no, but the words might as well have been roared into my ear: Get out of my head. Get the fuck out of my head. Get out. Get out. Over and over again. And the look on his face. I felt shivers run through me.
“I get why you did it,” Gerard said. He’d likely picked up on my certainty that protecting a friend was the right thing to do despite the danger. “However, we’ve heard enough stories of cops becoming even more difficult to deal with when they know about us.”
“I know,” I said. It wasn’t unheard of that they downright started hunting affiliates. There were even rumors of one such cop in Ashdale. No need for one of them here i
n Ashport as well.
“So you need to deal with this now before it escalates.”
I nodded and then looked at Gerard. The message was clear despite any sympathies he might have. His duty was to the whole Community. He couldn’t coddle me, nor did I want him to. He was the judge we’d all chosen to stand behind, and I mended things. That was how it was. So when he told me to do something, I had to.
“In addition, there is something else I’d like you to look into,” he said, making my heart sink even lower. More to do meant less time to spend on Andrea. Despite how many others were looking for her, I couldn’t let it go.
“We should tell her while she eats,” Annalise said, a more sympathetic tone in her voice now.
“No need,” I said, though realizing that there might actually be some need. I had barely eaten in the last few days. Or slept. That was true. I had been looking for Andrea and hiding from Yorov, the FBI agent, and Detective Hansen all at once. Looking over my shoulder all the time was like a caffeine boost to me, but now, in the safety of Gerard’s house, I felt the fatigue sneak up on me.
“Come on,” Annalise said, leading me to the kitchen where I saw a takeaway bag on the table. “I got you something spicy,” she said as I opened it, the smell of chicken tikka masala rising up.
“Extra spicy?” I asked hopefully.
“No bland food for you,” she said handing me a fork, and actually smiling a little.
“There’s one more thing before we get into details,” Gerard said behind me. Three problems? I turned to see him leaning against the door frame.
“Yes?” I prompted, seeing his eyes meet Annalise’s a moment. I didn’t need to listen in on his thoughts to know he didn’t like what he had to say.
“I’ve reached out to Eddie Hays. You might need a new identity before this is over.”
I nodded and sat down to eat. There was nothing else to do. My time in Ashport might not last much longer whether I left voluntarily or someone took me away by force.
Chapter 2
Gary’s Auto Shop looked worse than it was in the darkness. The large deep-green building could use a new coat of paint, sure, and maybe the yard could use fewer cars and junk, but all in all, it wasn’t much worse than any other auto shop out there. More importantly, it was run by Gary, who was an affiliate. That meant fewer questions when you had somewhat unusual car problems.
“Evening, Maggie,” he said as I walked in the door. The place was quiet this late, and Gary was putting away his ledger, having closed up the cash drawer for the night.
“Hi, Gary. Car ready?” I asked him as he turned back to me. He was about my own height, dark graying hair, a friendly face, and with a perpetual case of motor oil under his fingernails.
“It is,” he said, “but I talked with Gerard yesterday. Seems you’ve got people after you these days.”
I sighed. Of course Gerard had talked to him. He seemed to have talked to a lot of people. That was how he’d found out what I’d been doing the last few days.
“You said my car was ready,” I protested. I had called Gary from Gerard’s before coming and he’d told me it was done. Getting around town took too long on foot, and it had to be done by now. It had been in the shop for days.
“It is, but Gerard’s got a point. You’ll be spotted if you drive that thing around.”
I knew the chances of that, but I was starting to not care. It hadn’t been much of a problem when Hansen had driven me around, but that was not the case anymore.
Get out of my head.
I swallowed hard. “Come on, Gary. What am I supposed to do?”
He gave me a warm smile. “I said it was ready. God knows it’s not the first time you’ve come here with bullet holes in that thing.”
That was unfortunately true, and I was thankful we had an affiliate mechanic in town. Bullet holes were hard to explain away to both doctors and mechanics. People had tendencies to want to call the damn cops.
“Anyway,” Gary continued. “I won’t leave you hanging. But I’m not giving you your own car, either. Gerard’s orders.”
I nodded, understanding. “So…?”
“I’ve got one you can borrow. Just please try to bring it back without bullet holes.”
“You know I’ll try,” I said finding my wallet from my purse. We went through the usual bickering about payment. It was something I didn’t like much. A lot of people wanted me to get things for free on account of helping for free, but that was not how things worked. I could claim small favors from people, but that was it. All to avoid any extortion or misuse of power. These rules had evolved for centuries. Affiliates were no less greedy than regular people. Gary having waited for me after closing time, and lending me a car, was more than enough.
“Come on,” he said when I’d finally been allowed to pay my bill. “I’ll walk you out.” He switched the lights off and locked up. I was more capable of taking care of myself than he was, and we both knew it, but I appreciated the sentiment nonetheless.
“There it is,” he said as he locked the gate. I turned to see what he nodded toward and stood staring a moment. A small Volkswagen Beetle was parked by the curb. The damn thing even looked cute in the darkness, despite it being hard to see details.
“You’re lending me a car that looks like it’s on a continuing smiling spree?”
Gary chuckled behind me. “No one will be looking for you in that thing.”
I sighed. “You’re right about that.” I gave in. A car was a car.
I said goodbye to Gary and went and got into the little thing, throwing my purse into the passenger seat. While adjusting the driver’s seat, Gary started his truck and drove off. I was about to put the key he’d given me in the ignition when a movement inside the fence surrounding the auto shop caught my attention. What the hell? We’d been the last ones to leave that place, hadn’t we?
I sat still, straining my eyes to see in the darkness. And yes, there was definitely movement among the cars in the yard. Not a cat or any other animal. This was an intruder on two feet. I considered calling Gary a moment but decided against it. I didn’t want to risk anything happening to him. Cursing under my breath, I opened the car door. No light went on in the coupé to reveal my presence, and I sent a silent thanks to Gary for knowing exactly what I needed in a car. I slid out and ended in a crouch on the road then looked around a moment, like I had on the way into the auto shop. No suspicious cars around. No people. Gary’s was placed in a quiet area, not many residential houses, but close enough to town that he’d have enough clients.
I heard nothing out of the ordinary, only traffic further away and the muted soar of the Greenlight River on the other side of the auto shop. I leaned back against the Beetle and zipped up my jacket so my white shirt wouldn’t reveal my presence in the dark. Then I moved around the car and further down the metal fence that surrounded the lot. Gary had locked the gate, but there was another way in. It wasn’t my first time dealing with problems there. I had no idea if I had come over a robbery or something else this time, but Gary was an affiliate and I had to check it out. Just because he wasn’t there at the moment, did not mean something bad couldn’t happen to him at a later time.
I found the opening in the fence that I was looking for. It was well hidden, but unfortunately by the ground, forcing me to roll under it, the metal trying to stop me all the way.
I heard nothing when on the inside, and moved closer to where I had seen the figure, my eyes as adjusted to the dark as they could be by now. There was no light source, either, to help me, or weaken my adjusted eyes. Not a damn sound gave away anything. I moved with silent steps between the cars. There were a couple of trucks and bikes in the mix as well, but nothing that revealed anything. The lack of sound or visual movements did not make me give up, though. I knew better than that. Likely the person, or persons here, where in the middle of something. Or they knew I was there, too. I moved carefully, hiding behind vehicles.
A sound in front of me made me sto
p abruptly. Someone moved a few feet ahead of me, scuffing along the ground, barely audible because I was so close. I realized I didn’t have my purse with me. The metal lining would have been a helpful comfort now. As it was, I felt around the ground, finding nothing more helpful than a rock and gripping it tight. I moved forward, ready to strike.
A screeching wail met me as I stepped forward. A fat cat protesting sharply at my sneaking up on it. My pulse in my ears I stopped and lowered the rock. Damn cat. Relief hit me at the same time as anger. The real danger forgotten for a split second.
A hand clamped down on my shoulder, forcing me around as the muzzle of a gun found its place under my chin. I was slammed into the truck behind me as a man placed his arm on my chest pinning me back.
I had never seen him before, but the suit told me everything. This had to be the FBI agent assigned to Andrea’s case. Agent Larkin.
“Ms. Evans,” he said, “nice to finally meet you.” The smug smile on his face was visible even in the dark night.
I didn’t have time for niceties, though. I knew I had no time on my side. If this man got me, I would be taken out of town. I had to find Andrea. I noticed two things about the gun to my head. It was not the tranquilizer gun he’d try to take me out with last time, and his finger was not on the trigger, but resting beside it. He didn’t want me dead. That was his mistake.
I opened my mouth as if I was about to say something, distracting him a millisecond, enough for me to raise my hands and slam my fists into his ears.
The gun did not go off as he jerked backward, stumbling to his knees, eyes closed as he grunted in pain. I didn’t stick around to see if he was okay.
