Instead of being upset about the statement, Quinn accepted it with a mixture of grace and grim determination. “I am going to kill him.” He was matter-of-fact. “If he’s touched one hair on her head, I’m going to rip his throat out and serve it to him on a platter. I’m going to make it hurt, too.”
Paul’s look was appraising. “I think you’re going to be an awesome son-in-law.”
“Oh, I am.” Quinn couldn’t muster a smile. He didn’t have it in him. He would smile for the rest of his life once he had Rowan with him. Until then, he was in attack mode. “We have to go. We need to track down Michael and then get to her. We have to hurry, too. I don’t think we’re going to have a lot of time.”
“Then let’s go. I’ll call Nick on the way. He’ll probably be there ahead of us.”
That’s exactly what Quinn was counting on.
IT WAS IDIOTIC TO LEAVE THE SHIP without backup. Rowan understood that. On any other day, she wouldn’t have considered it. Since Sally’s life was on the line, she had no choice.
She left the note behind because she figured Quinn would find it sooner rather than later and follow. She wouldn’t be completely alone. She rationalized that it was better for her to arrive on her own because they would be less likely to hurt Sally if they thought she could follow instructions. Of course, that could all be bunk. They could kill both of them the minute she walked through the door.
Still, she had to take the risk. Sally was her best friend. There were some things that mattered, and Sally was one of them.
The neighborhood the note directed her toward was grim and sad. The buildings were rundown, abandoned warehouses on every corner, and the poor people littering the street because they had nowhere else to go were a vicious rip to the heart. On an intellectual level, Rowan understood the island authorities kept the homeless off the docks so as not to dishearten the tourists. There’s nothing more that dissuades shopping and commerce than stepping over the poor to do it. Well, at least normal people. That didn’t make it easier to accept in her heart.
It took Rowan two trips around the block to realize she was in the correct place. The numbers above the door were faded. A quick glance in either direction told her the street was littered with people, and none of them were watching her. This was the sort of neighborhood where people minded their own business. That was probably for the best.
She didn’t knock. What was the point? Instead she merely twisted the handle and pushed. It took multiple tries because it was metal and heavy. Finally it gave way.
The inside of the building was as depressing as the outside. There were lights, though. Oddly enough, that made her feel better. At least she would see the danger swooping in. It wouldn’t happen in the gloomy darkness.
She cocked her head to the side, listening to the telltale noises that would direct her which way to go. At first, she heard nothing. Then, after a few seconds, she made out the low murmur of chatter and turned west.
The room she found herself in was long and rectangular. It was largely devoid of furniture, other than a chair placed at the center of the room under a stark, naked lightbulb. Sally was in the chair, her arms tied behind her. She didn’t look afraid, though. Her expression was defiant ... and her voice was razor sharp.
“You guys are idiots,” she sputtered. “I mean ... complete and total idiots. Do you really think this is going to work? Rowan isn’t going to leave the ship and wander to some random abandoned ghetto on an island she doesn’t know. She’s not an idiot.”
Rowan hated to disappoint her but ... well ... apparently she was. She cleared her throat to draw attention away from her friend. Spencer and Julia, who were sitting on wooden chairs on the other side of the room, jerked their heads in her direction. They seemed surprised at the interruption.
“What are you doing here?” Spencer climbed to shaky feet. “You’re not supposed to be here.”
That wasn’t the greeting Rowan was expecting. “Really? You didn’t send me a note to draw me out? Oh, well, my bad. I’ll just be going.” She turned on her heel to leave. It was all for show. She expected him to call out and stop her. She wasn’t disappointed.
“Where do you think you’re going?” He sounded frustrated more than anything else. “You can’t just leave.”
“No?” She arched an eyebrow and turned again. This time she focused on Sally, who didn’t look remotely happy to see her friend. “Are you okay?” She managed to keep her voice even, but just barely.
“Am I okay?” Sally’s voice was shrill. “Of course I’m not okay. Why did you come here? Are you a complete and total idiot? Why didn’t you call the police and let them handle things?”
That was a fair question, Rowan silently conceded. “Because the police can’t handle this situation. This is above their scope. Besides, I’m guessing Spencer picked this neighborhood because he knows the cops are less likely to respond to calls here. Am I right?”
“Pretty much.” Now that he’d adjusted to the fact that Rowan had invaded his space, Spencer was ready to get to business. “We expect you to come with us. If you put up a fight, we will kill your friend.”
To Rowan, that was an absolutely absurd statement. “You expect me just to leave with you, huh? Why would I do that?”
“Because I have some things to discuss with you, some tests I want to run. You will acquiesce to all of them.”
Rowan couldn’t help being confused by the set-up. She took a moment to search the room and then shook her head. “Wait ... is it just the two of you?”
“Of course not,” Julia scoffed. “We have men surrounding the building. Trust me, you don’t have a play here.”
She sounded sure of herself ... and yet Rowan was naturally suspicious. “If you have men surrounding the building, how come they didn’t alert you to the fact that I was walking through the door?” Rowan’s mind was going a mile a minute. “I mean ... shouldn’t they have been waiting at the door to make sure I was really alone? Shouldn’t you guys have been prepared to run in case I brought an army with me?”
Spencer snorted. “What army could you possibly muster?”
He might be surprised, Rowan internally mused. Still, if he was operating in the dark, things could still work out. This clearly wasn’t the scenario he had planned. So ... what went wrong? “Where is Darcy?”
Julia rolled her eyes at the question. “Will you listen to her? I knew that would work. People assume Darcy is sweet and innocent because of all that blond hair. This idiot certainly fell for it.” She turned to Rowan and graced her with a condescending smile. “You don’t have to worry about Darcy. She’s perfectly fine. She’s the one who drew you here. Granted, it was three hours early, but she followed through.”
Ah, well, that explained it. Rowan ran her tongue over her teeth, working things out as she tried to fit the pieces of a complicated puzzle into place. “So, Darcy is the one who slipped the note under my door ... and she did it early.” That couldn’t have been a mistake, Rowan surmised. For some reason, Darcy jumped the gun. There was only one explanation. However, it wasn’t something she could give voice to in mixed company. “Your men aren’t here yet,” she surmised, a sense of glee settling over her. “You hired thugs — or whatever you call them here — and they’re not here yet because this wasn’t supposed to go down for three hours. Oh, well, that’s just priceless.”
Julia turned haughty. “They’re called mercenaries and don’t you worry. They’ll be along shortly.”
Even though she remained terrified, Rowan’s mind was working fast enough to do the math. It was two against two. Quinn wouldn’t be far behind. He would call Nick and get his men to the warehouse in record time. It was an interesting turn of events.
Of course, Rowan did her best to keep from thinking about the fact that if she’d simply called Quinn from the start and had him go with her rather than follow, they’d probably already have freed Sally and have the answers they needed. She didn’t want to dwell on that. It made her feel stupi
d.
Still, as long as she remained calm, she had a feeling things would work out. She had hope, which meant she had everything. She forced a smile for Sally’s benefit — hoping the woman would relax while she pressed for information — and then focused on Spencer. “I think we should talk.”
He appeared tickled at the suggestion. “Oh, really? What is it you think we should talk about? Oh, wait. I know what I want to talk about. Let’s talk about your abilities. Don’t bother denying you have them. I thought you were a dud — and I was devastated by that for a long time — but the realization that your father only faked his death was the catalyst for a new investigation. This one was much more ... fruitful.”
Rowan hated the way the man talked. Everything that came out of his mouth was manipulative. “I have no intention of denying it. There’s really no reason. I’m sick of the games.”
“That makes two of us.”
“So ... what is it that you want to know? I mean, why are you so obsessed with me and my family?”
“Because you’re my family, too.”
Rowan wasn’t expecting that answer and she was flabbergasted. “What?”
“Oh, you didn’t know that?” Spencer’s eyes twinkled with evil intent. “Well, it’s true. You’re my niece. You should sit down.” He gestured toward a chair about ten feet from Sally. “We have numerous things to discuss. Since you’re early, it seems we have plenty of time to discuss them.”
Rowan felt as if all the oxygen had been stolen from her body. How was this even possible?
QUINN WAS TAKING NO PRISONERS WHEN he kicked in Michael’s office door and strode into the room. For his part, the normally unflappable captain was absolutely flabbergasted.
“What are you thinking?” He hopped to his feet, his eyes wide as saucers when he saw the ruined door. “Do you have any idea how difficult that’s going to be to explain on an expense report? Geez. You’re going to get in trouble unless we think of an acceptable lie.”
Even though he was being fueled by fury, Quinn took a moment to consider the statement. Michael was acting as if it was a normal day, as if Fred hadn’t been stabbed and Rowan wasn’t missing. If Michael was in the know, wouldn’t he at least pretend to have a different reaction?
“Where is Rowan?” Paul barked out the question as Quinn mulled his options.
Michael made a face. “Is that supposed to be a trick question? How am I supposed to know where Rowan is? She’s usually attached to Quinn’s hip. Maybe you should ask him.” Something occurred to him. “Wait ... who are you again?”
Quinn was done playing games. “He’s Rowan’s father. Don’t worry about what he’s doing here. We’re the ones asking the questions from here on out. I only care about two right now. The first is about Rowan. Where is she? Are they planning on keeping her at that warehouse or immediately moving her? If they’re smart, they’ll go with the latter. I want to know how smart they are.”
Instead of immediately answering, Michael wrinkled his nose. “What are you going on about? You’re not making any sense. I mean ... you come in here, kick my door in, and then start asking ludicrous questions. I want to help you, but I can’t until you explain yourself.”
Quinn studied his friend’s face for an extended beat. There was no lie hidden behind his eyes. He was either the world’s best actor or he really didn’t know what was going on.
“Your friend Leon Spencer took Sally,” Quinn started, opting to lay all of his cards on the table. “He took her and stabbed my friend. This was after he sent you to the basement to spy on us this morning.”
Michael’s eyes filled with disbelief. “Why would he possibly do that? Not the spy part. That’s ludicrous. I was in the basement looking for you because I needed to talk. The other stuff, though. Why would he do that?”
“Because he wanted to lure Rowan to him. He’s obsessed with her.”
“But ... why? I don’t understand. You’re not making a lot of sense.”
Quinn had to fill him in, at least on a cursory level. He couldn’t tell him everything — some of the secrets weren’t his to tell — but he had to tell him enough to convince Michael that the man he thought he trusted was a fraud. “Why did Alexander Fletcher change his name to Leon Spencer?”
Michael’s eyebrows practically hopped off his forehead. “How can you possibly know that? It’s supposed to be a secret.”
“I know a lot more than I often let on. It’s important. He must’ve given you a reason.”
“He did. He said his father has developed early onset Alzheimer’s and is running wild. Because he’s a man of means, no one can arrange a lockdown in a hospital. He’s turned mean, lost his mind. He’s going after his own son.”
Quinn was officially intrigued and grabbed the phone from Michael’s desk. “Call him.”
“Who?”
“Henry Gibson Fletcher. I want to talk to him.”
“What makes you think I can get him on the phone?”
“You’re our best shot to make it happen. We need his help.”
“But ... why?”
“Because your buddy is a big, fat liar,” Paul replied without hesitation. “He changed his name to distance himself from a bad reputation and hide from certain people. He used you to get access to Rowan.”
“I’m not disputing he’s a little nutty,” Michael conceded. “He’s always been slightly off-center. But why would he care about Rowan? What is she to him?”
“His niece,” Quinn replied. “She’s his niece and he wants to control her.”
“But ... why? There’s no motive as far as I can see.”
Quinn played a hunch. “He believes she’s psychic.”
Realization dawned on Michael’s face. “Oh, geez. He’s always been off his rocker about that stuff. He can’t see the truth when it’s right in front of him when it comes to paranormal stuff. He’s obsessed.”
“Well, that obsessed man stabbed my friend and stole my girlfriend. I need to find him right now, and I’m going to need access to his father to do it. Can you arrange that?”
“I don’t see why not. Give me five minutes.”
That was all the time Quinn could give him. One way or another, he had to get to Rowan. She needed him, and he refused to risk living a life without her.
It was time to free her from fear.
19
Nineteen
Rowan felt as if her insides had been hollowed out. She didn’t know how to react to Spencer’s bombshell. Surely it had to be a mistake.
What if it wasn’t, though?
“You’re my uncle?” She slid her gaze to Sally to gauge her friend’s reaction and found the blonde listening with rapt attention. She’d given up fighting against her restraints.
“I am.” Spencer perfunctorily bobbed his head. “Your mother was my sister.”
“My mother’s maiden name was Gentry,” Rowan argued. “Your name is Alexander Fletcher. Why am I supposed to believe we’re related?”
Spencer couldn’t contain his surprise at mention of his real name. “I see you’ve been busy.”
“Just a little,” Rowan confirmed. “We’ve been researching the Phoenix Society for weeks. You really shouldn’t be surprised.”
“Oh, I’m not surprised. Why do you think we decided to move on you so fast?”
“Because you’re an idiot. Oh, wait, that’s not the answer you wanted to hear?” Rowan was feeling bolder. “Are you the one who arranged for the studies years ago?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I’ve always been infatuated with the paranormal,” he replied simply. “Haven’t you ever felt you were meant for bigger things? I certainly have. I watched a movie when I was a child and it made me yearn to be more. I thought perhaps there was a possibility psychic abilities could be created, so I decided to run a few experiments.”
Rowan really wanted to ask which movie it was, but she was terrified the answer would be Carrie or Firestarter. “You though
t you could figure out a way to create psychic abilities out of thin air. That’s just so ... ridiculous.”
“Actually, it’s not.” Spencer’s eyes fired at the insult, but he remained calm. “I’ve done extensive research on this. My father fought my efforts for learning exploration when I was younger, but ultimately he gave me money every year to run my experiments ... as long as I didn’t mention it to his friends and stopped pestering him.”
“Your father sounds practical.”
“He’s a limited man. He can’t see beyond this plane of existence.”
“I think that’s true for most people.”
“Not you. You can see more than the rest of the world combined. You can see the answers to life and death.”
“No, I can see the precursor to death,” Rowan corrected. “I can’t see anything beyond that. My gift isn’t some great thing. It’s simply something I’ve learned to live with.”
“You can’t see the truth of your potential. There’s so much more you can do, be.”
“I’m happy with who I am.”
“Which is why you’re disappointing as a niece.” He delivered the line with cruel joy. Since Rowan didn’t exactly want to please him, she was fine with the dig. “I had hoped you would develop further on your own. To be fair, I wasn’t even sure you were gifted for a long time. Your parents protected you, tried to hide you from me.”
“Or perhaps my mother simply wanted to stay away from you,” Rowan countered. “Have you ever considered that?”
“Not really. I was a good brother. She needed money and I arranged for one of the experiments to be conducted in Michigan, which is where she opted to go to college. I never understood why — it’s an abysmal state — but I went out of my way for her and she didn’t as much as thank me.”
There was truth in his words, at least from his perspective, she mused. There was also information he probably didn’t mean to expose.
“You wanted to experiment on my mother because she was a blood relative,” Rowan volunteered, putting things together completely for the first time. “You thought her results could be extrapolated for yourself. If she developed psychic abilities, you could, too.”
Farewell Seas Page 56
