I pushed into his mind. Poor guy—Uncle Max had really done a number on him. He barely knew his address, let alone where he’d flown in the last month. I scanned past the mental scars and holes and found what it was they were looking for.
“It was a city,” Bennett said suddenly, surprising himself. “Bohlren. A small dirt airstrip. I thought we were landing on the water at first, but then suddenly there were guide lights. A wide river. And buildings.”
Charles quickly got over his shock at Bennett’s sudden revelation and scribbled furiously on the pad of paper in front of him. Jon looked over his shoulder to the two-way mirror. “You flew to a city called Bohlren. A city on a big river. Who was on the plane with you?”
Bennett frowned as he tried to hold on to his train of thought. “I—I’m not sure. A guy, I think. Yeah, definitely a guy.”
“What did he look like?”
Bennett rubbed his forehead. “I don’t know. Tall? Maybe. I don’t know. Look, I don’t know why I’m remembering any of this anyway. Did you drug me or something?”
“We didn’t drug you,” Charles growled.
“Because until this moment right now, I would have sworn on a stack of Bibles that I’ve never flown outside the continental US. But I have. I remember it now.”
“Yeah,” Jon said and turned to face us in the two-way mirror again. “That is strange. But now that you do remember, let’s see if we can dig a little deeper.”
I pulled back as Jon began his next round of questions. “Getting a description is going to hurt him,” I explained. “I can pull it out of him in a mindsweep, but chances are he’ll probably hemorrhage.”
“No,” Thirteen said. “We already know who was on the plane. That’s enough for our purposes. Jon and Charles should be able to fill in some of the holes in the logbooks with what you’ve brought out of him.” He turned to me, his face set in a practiced blank that told me something important was brewing in his mind.
“Thank you,” he said after a long moment. “Once again, you’ve offered aid to our team in a way that no one else has the capability of providing.” He held out his hand. “I would like to formally offer you a position as a task force agent within the International Network of Special Defense.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “So this was a test. Is that it?”
“It was a test, yes, but not how you think. Our agents go through years of education and training to acquire a pittance of the knowledge you possess on supernatural strength and ability. The few moments you’ve experienced where you’ve had to make the choice to put the goals and safety of the team ahead of your own ego and insecurities, you’ve never let me down. If you work with the Network, I will ask you to use your gifts on assignments, in interrogation, while retrieving target information, or however else the situation may call for. And I will ask you to provide intimate information about your father, uncles, and surviving brother. I will ask these things and expect you to comply.”
My stomach quivered at the bluntness of his words. But I understood what he was saying. And why. It had been a misunderstanding of expectations that had led to intense feelings of distrust between us the last time around. Neither of us wanted to go through that again.
“I can do this. I want to do this.”
He slid his big hands down my arms, held out his hand once again. “Then, Magnolia Kelch, welcome to the Network.”
CHAPTER 6
Thirteen treated me to the Thirsty Turtle Bar and Grill for a late lunch. We walked in and I immediately scanned the minds of the crowd. Something felt off. Maybe it was knowing that my father was only a few miles away, but my paranoia had seriously spiked since we’d left Thirteen’s offices. Fortunately, no one seemed to be paying us any attention—or thought.
“Where’s Miller?” I asked as we slipped into a booth. I’d scanned the entire building, including the secret conference room deep beneath the Turtle’s basement, and hadn’t found a single sign of the gruff bartender.
“Miller doesn’t run the Thirsty Turtle for the Network anymore,” Thirteen explained. “He was reassigned a few months ago.” The pang of frustration surprised me. So much was different now. New agents, new offices, no Miller to growl at me about my drinking. When I’d lived on my family’s estate, it had been a torturous hell, but at least it had been a consistent torturous hell. I’d been in the real world for nearly a year now, and it seemed as if nothing stayed as it was for more than a few moments.
Thirteen and I split a breaded tenderloin the size of small hubcap while I entertained him with stories of my travels. His eyebrows drew together when I told him about some of the unsavory people whose plans I’d thwarted. “I had to practice to make sure I was in control of my powers,” I explained with a shrug. “Wasn’t like I really hurt anybody. I mean, if I did hurt someone, I healed them right after.”
“I’m sure you did,” he murmured. “And did you enjoy it? Not the stalking, necessarily, but being out there on your own?”
I thought about going to the movies for the first time, going to a mall and shopping like all the other twentysomething girls out there—the freedom of being normal that I’d never experienced until those months away.
“Yeah,” I said softly. “I liked it. But there were too many unknowns. I know you said that my father and Uncle Max haven’t made any moves like they know I’m still alive. But when they found Markus, whatever excuses they gave to the media, they had to know that something powerful killed him. A normal person couldn’t have torn him to shreds like that.”
Thirteen spoke hesitantly. “I understand you believe your uncle Mallroy saw you during the rescue mission last summer.”
“How did you—” Right. Theo.
“All estate security disks were confiscated during the FBI investigation. We’ve replayed the escape over and over, and while there was footage of your uncle standing on the ledge of the estate’s wall, oddly waving to the prisoners as we drove away, there was nothing that indicated that he saw you past your invisible shield. You didn’t show up on the disks at all.”
I’d basically convinced myself of the same thing. But it still didn’t ease the odd feeling that something felt off.
“I’m full,” I announced, my appetite suddenly gone. “We should go if we’re going to meet everyone at Jon’s house.” After another moment, Thirteen called for the check.
We pulled into one of the hundreds of cookie-cutter neighborhoods that had taken over the suburbs like a plague. The homes were pretty enough, with brightly colored siding and neatly trimmed yards. Pear trees so young they still had their support ties lined the sidewalks every few feet. We passed three versions of the same house before parking in front of a newer two-story on the edge of a cul-de-sac. Two cars already filled the tight driveway. I didn’t recognize either vehicle, but chances were I’d recognize the owners. Theo wasn’t here yet.
“How long have Heather and Jon lived together?” I asked as we climbed out of the car. Snow had started to fall again, making the brightly lit house with a Christmas tree in the front window look like something off a holiday card. There was even a little snowman standing guard in the front yard. A chill of anticipation slowed my pace. This was it. I was going to see my team again. I couldn’t tell if the butterflies in my stomach were from excitement or nerves.
“I believe she moved into his apartment while he recovered from his shoulder wound in July,” Thirteen said. “His physical therapy was rather extensive, and she stayed with him to help. They moved to this home a few weeks before Thanksgiving.”
I held back a few steps as my legs grew heavy. It had been so easy to walk into all those unfamiliar clubs and restaurants and coffee shops. Benign strangers in faraway cities didn’t mean anything to me. But these people knew me. They knew the humiliating pain of my past. My powerful “otherness.” They had seen what I turned into when I let my powers take over. What would they think when I walked through that door? Would it matter that I’d saved some of their lives, or would th
ey be scared of me now because they knew exactly what I was capable of?
Thirteen paused at the front door. He looked at me over his shoulder. “Ready?”
My throat tightened. Damn it, I hated this anxiety. I took a deep breath and nodded once. Thirteen knocked twice on the door. My heart pounded as light footsteps hurried over laminate floors inside. The door swung open and revealed a pretty blonde with sharp eyes and dark roots. She wore a brown turtleneck that went well with her light skin tone and jeans over a lean and fit body. The bulge of a weapon harness left the line of her side slightly off. She shifted her gaze in my direction, and the welcoming smile faded. Her mouth fell open.
“Hey, Cordele,” I said lamely.
With an audible snap, she shut her mouth. Her thoughts flashed with a myriad of images before going into a concentrated rendition of the alphabet song. Interesting. Her mental focus hadn’t been that strong before. I tilted my head and studied her closer. Why wouldn’t she want me to see what she was thinking?
“Oh my God!” she exclaimed suddenly and sprang forward. Instantly I shifted out of the way. She stumbled down the front steps into the snow. I frowned as she turned back to me with an annoyed smirk. “I was trying to give you a hug, Magnolia. Not attack you.” She dusted the snow from her hair and brushed past me back up to the front door. “I see your personal relations skills haven’t improved while you were away.”
She left the door open for us to follow. I looked to Thirteen. “How was I supposed to know she was giving me a hug? She’s never hugged me before—never even thought about it. She just came at me.” And with her thoughts focused the way they were, I’d had no clue what she’d intended. He gave me a sympathetic shrug, then waved for me to go first. “At least I didn’t defend myself,” I murmured.
I felt Thirteen’s smile as he walked behind me into the home’s patch of an entryway. “That is a good thing,” he said and placed a hand on my back to guide me inside.
The small entry was separated from a pleasant front sitting room by a narrow half wall. We followed the voices past the front room and into an open area that combined a good-size kitchen, dining area, and living area in one space. Cordele headed to the L-shaped couch against the wall. “You guys aren’t going to believe this,” she said with a shake of her hair. Before the two men facing the TV had a chance to respond, a glass shattered in the kitchen. I spun into a crouch automatically, power ready. Of course, there was no need.
“Magnolia?” Heather whispered from the opposite side of a peninsula counter. “You’re back?” She walked around the kitchen counter carefully, her wide eyes never leaving me. Her hair was shorter than I remembered, curling around her ears in a cute blunt cut. Unlike Cordele’s, her blonde was natural. Her white, fuzzy sweater and cream khakis reminded me of a schoolteacher. But it was her thoughts that grabbed my attention. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who was stronger now than she’d been a few months ago. Heather’s empathetic impulses were nearly to the point of aggressive. I felt a hesitancy as she approached, and for a moment I couldn’t tell if the feeling was coming from me or from her.
“Hey, Heather,” I said.
Every eye in the room was on us. I shifted my weight on instinct, keeping the others in my line of sight. Heather sniffed; her eyes welled with tears. Slowly, as if approaching a beaten animal, she spread out her arms and stepped into me. Instantly, I stiffened. But unlike Cordele’s shock-and-awe approach to affection, this hug was…perfect. I closed my eyes and let the relief in her thoughts wash over me.
For several moments, I let her hold me. Her thoughts spun with questions. Where had I been? Was I back for good? She thought I looked different but not in a bad way. When she finally stepped back, her genuine happiness at my return overshadowed all her questions. “I missed you,” she said with a small smile.
My chest swelled, and I felt tears pool in my eyes. I could be stabbed, burned, beaten, and broken and wouldn’t shed a tear. One day with Thirteen and Heather, and I was blubbering like an idiot.
Across the room, Jon cleared his throat. Thirteen had joined him, along with Cordele and Shane, in the living room. “Guess I know why Bennett had a sudden burst of memory in interview today,” Jon said. “So, Magnolia, are you back for good, or is this just a rest stop before you get back to running away some more?”
I felt the slap of his words, and power surged inside me. Heather snatched her hands from my shoulders as if burned. I turned slowly to face Jon. He, Cordele, and Shane adjusted their stances. It made me smile. Good, they were still smart.
“Magnolia has accepted my offer to officially join the Network as an agent member of our task force,” Thirteen explained. “She is here to stay.”
Jon lifted his brows. Shane scoffed and crossed his thick arms over his chest. “She hasn’t even gone through classroom training,” he argued. “She can’t join the task force officially until she’s certified.”
I met Shane’s glare and saw the simmering hurt and rage that festered there. His sandy hair had gotten darker in the winter months. His wide, muscular frame was more cowboy than soldier. Sharp, deep eyes, strong, blond-stubbled chin—I knew for a fact that the other girls on the team found him quietly attractive. But he wanted me. Always had, even though we both knew it would never happen. Seeing me now, all that resentment came pouring back into him.
“Magnolia will not be required to gain certification in classroom training,” Thirteen said with some impatience.
“She shouldn’t have to,” Cordele added. “I mean, she’s the one who trained us on powers that we didn’t even know existed. If we wait for her to get certified, we might miss out on the chance to move on the brothers before they solidify their operation in Eastern Europe.”
I lifted a brow. First she’d tried to hug me, and now she was defending my assignment to the team. I glanced again into Cordele’s thoughts and saw a specific image of my brother Markus ordering her torture. Then me, standing before him, blocking her and the others from his assault. Cordele met my gaze and nodded. She’d shown me that image deliberately, letting me know that whatever else she might be thinking, she knew just how dedicated to the Network I was. A warm feeling of solidarity spread through me, making it easier to face the others.
Jon eyed me carefully in the silence that followed. They were waiting for his reaction. He’d cringed a bit at Cordele’s slip about their current assignment, but then he’d remembered how Bennett’s memory had come flooding back. That has to be her doing, he thought. And if that was the case, I already knew what they were trying to do.
“Bohlren,” I said, answering Jon’s unspoken question. “I’ve never been there and have no idea what significance it holds for my father and uncle.” I let the electric gleam I was feeling shine in my eyes. “But I can help you find out.”
A slow grin lifted his lips. “Magnolia… Welcome back.”
CHAPTER 7
By the time the Chinese food arrived, most of the rest of the team had joined us. Jon had sent out a text message letting everyone know the good news of my return, so when Charles and Marie Hilliby walked through the front door, they didn’t freak out and try to kill me on the spot. They wanted to, but they managed to restrain themselves. Charles had figured out that it had been me “helping” Bennett with his memory that morning, but it didn’t matter. I’d broken, healed, burned, and reburned his hands more times than either of us wanted to remember. He’d hold tight to his grudge for as long as possible. I couldn’t blame him. I was surprised, however, by the lack of emotion coming off Marie. The petite Latina fashionista with her Chanel sweater and leather knee-high boots had always been a bitch to the nth degree when it came to me. She barely spared me a thought or glance as the meeting got under way.
“We know that Senator Kelch has been meeting with ambassadors from several nations formerly of the Eastern Bloc,” Jon began. “We’ve recorded meetings with diplomats from the Russian Federation, Belarus, and Ukraine. Only in the last three visits has the sen
ator included his brother Magnus in the meetings.” His eyes fell on me automatically at the mention of my father. I didn’t flinch, but the urge was there.
“Kelch Inc. wants to secure a power base in Russia,” Cordele continued. “Senator Kelch met publicly with Federal Assembly member Ronal Spielrien under the guise of gaining support for additional aid to the US and Russian military units in the Middle East. Privately, he also met with Deputy Prime Minister Sasha Fedorov. Fedorov is a heavyweight in the rebuild of the Russian economy. Jon’s Captain Bennett was first recorded as piloting to Eastern Europe around the time of this private meeting. Our belief is that Senator Kelch called in little brother Magnus to set the groundwork for Kelch Inc. building up an industry base there in the Russian Federation.”
“But that was just the first meeting,” Shane cut in. He sat directly across from me on a recliner, so he actually had to make an effort not to look in my direction. “After the Fedorov meeting, Bennett flew the brothers together for private meetings in Belarus and in Ukraine three and four weeks later. We only have supposition right now as to who attended those private meetings. But no matter who they met with, it just doesn’t seem worth the time and energy to establish an industrial base in all three neighboring nations when each one could barely provide the economical backbone to fuel a Kelch Inc. product market.”
OK, I thought I was following pretty well. They needed to know who my father and Uncle Max were seeing at these secret meetings so they could stop whatever nefarious plot they were most likely forming. And the whole thing about setting up a Kelch Inc. plant in one of these countries—Father needed the multibillion-dollar company and its vast lines of products and military weapons contracts to keep up his legitimate global power base. The company was also the perfect front for all of Uncle Max’s arms and drug deals with foreign terrorist nations. Not to mention, the more recognizable power the family had, the more they could focus on strengthening their supernatural power levels, which was always the underlying goal in everything they did.
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