Finding Cade (Dream Catcher Series Book 1)

by Bernice Layton

  Staring in fascination at the color display, Valerie’s eyes caught a glint of something inside the walnut-sized clear quartz crystal. Bringing it closer, she squinted to see what looked like letters appearing inside. Her breath halted in her throat, she blinked rapidly, her hand splayed across her chest, and in an instant the temperature in the room grew so cold she began shivering. When she felt the familiar sensation of being led someplace, she went with the tranquil flow as she prepared herself mentally. She didn’t know where she was being led to, but she didn’t resist. She drifted on a cloud to that someplace. She wasn't afraid, but knowing she and Lynne were not alone in the house, she immediately shifted her focus away from the brilliant dancing lights. But her fingers tingled as if frostbitten and her hand began to shake so uncontrollably, the chain and crystal shook wildly in her grasp. It was enough for her to break away from wherever it was that she was being led.

  As if flicking on an imaginary temperature switch, the room abruptly warmed, but the colors continued to swirl around the living room. As she struggled to regain control of her wondering mind, the crystal swung between her fingers like a pendulum, and a moan she could not suppress escaped her constricted throat.

  Lynne, who had been admiring the colorful display dancing along the faded wallpaper, turned to Valerie to comment but saw the familiar, distracted, and dreamy look on her sister’s face. That look always gave Lynne the creeps. Throwing up her hands in disgust, she stomped toward her. “Not this again. Come on, snap out of it, Valerie. This isn’t funny—not here and not today.”

  Just as Lynne reached her sister, who was obviously in la-la land, three loud knocks sounded at the front door.

  Jolted out of her trance-like state, Valerie struggled to compose herself. Lynne was hunched over in front of her.

  Clearly upset, Lynne stood upright and marched across the room to the front door but not before shooting her sister an annoyed look.

  Half listening to Lynne’s impatient responses to the mailman’s offered condolences, Valerie’s attention was drawn beyond the mailman’s shoulder to the front yard covered with leaves. Her aunt used to keep the yard so meticulously manicured, she recalled as she watched Lynne accept a stack of mail. Rising to her feet on unsteady legs, Valerie pocketed the crystal and chain, all the while trying to shake off the last remnants of her episode. Unfortunately, she couldn’t seem to move her feet. Her eyes fixated on the leaves that had blown into the foyer and now swirled around Lynne’s boots.

  The leaves held her attention in such a way, she knew it was significant to whatever was trying to channel through her. Whatever it was, she sensed it was connected to the leaves, and she recognized the beginning of another vision. Before she could begin to process it, Lynne stalked back across the room and dumped the handful of envelopes onto the coffee table in front of her.

  “Oh, you’re not going to believe this mess. Auntie Ruby has past-due bills.” Lynne thrust her finger at the envelopes. “Well, I know just how to handle this. Pass me one of those markers,” she said, snapping her fingers in the direction of the black markers they were using to mark the boxes.

  Experiencing a feeling of foreboding, Valerie simply couldn’t shake off the sluggishness that always followed a trance or vision. In any case, she was obviously moving too slow for Lynne, who snatched up a marker from the coffee table and proceeded to write on the envelopes. Seeing Lynne write the words, “Deceased—Return to Sender,” on the envelopes spurred Valerie into action. Snatching the envelopes from Lynne’s hand, she saw they were utility and household bills. “I'll take care of these,” she said, scowling at Lynne as she dropped the stack of bills onto the box she was keeping. “Lynne, that’s so disrespectful, even for you. Aunt Ruby could come back and slap you silly. I'll pay the bills with the money left over from her insurance policy. There are a couple thousand dollars left.”

  “Suit yourself.” Lynne shrugged.

  With Lynne snickering, Valerie picked up the box she was taking with her, just as the two men returned to the living room and hoisted the last of the boxes onto a dolly and rolled them out of the house.

  The sisters followed them out and locked the front door.

  While Lynne hurried to her car, parked at the curb, Valerie paused once outside. A gust of wind pushed her back as she gave the house a lingering look. Feelings of melancholy gripped her as she slid into the passenger seat of Lynne’s car.

  As sad as she was, Valerie grinned as she watched Lynne fighting against the strong March winds. She thought to herself that justice would be served if Lynne was knocked on her butt for the disrespectful way she talked about their aunt. Since that didn’t happen, she was satisfied to see Lynne’s usually stylish hair whipped from her hair comb and now standing all over her head.

  One last glance back at Aunt Ruby’s house, Valerie brightened because in a few weeks it would become her new home. She was eager to meet with the contractor she’d hired. Despite the creaky floorboards and steps, broken window shutters and noisy old radiators, her contractor had said the house was a diamond in the rough. She loved it even more upon hearing that. Still, the thought of not seeing her aunt in it brought on fresh tears that ran down her face. She dug into her pocket for a clean tissue.

  Lynne had gotten into the car and was pressing the heat controls. When she angled them in Valerie’s direction, she paused. “Aw, come on Val, don’t cry. She's in a better place, wherever it is that batty old ladies go with their third eye and psychic connections.” Lynne reached across the space and embraced her sister.

  “Valerie, listen, she lived a good life, and that funeral home was packed so much that the smell of old perfume and talcum powder was thick in the air, wasn't it? What I'm saying is that Aunt Ruby lived a very full life stirring up havoc for a lot of folks and scaring the daylights out of me. But she lived a long, very long time. What was she ninety-seven, ninety-eight years old?”

  Lynne turned back to readjust the heat control, which was oddly not warming. Turning back to Valerie, she was met by her scowl and her narrowed eyes.

  “What’d I say now?” she asked.

  “Aunt Ruby was seventy years old, and you know it,” Valerie said. She had a mind to get out of the car, go around the corner, and take the bus back to her apartment.

  As Lynne’s voice began fading into the background, something bizarre happened. Condensation formed on the windshield and grew so thick Valerie could hardly see through it. She didn’t think Lynne's hot breath was the cause of what appeared to be fog.

  “What is that?” she asked, trying to reach out to clear the glass, only to realize her arms wouldn’t move. They were pinned in her lap as if they were paralyzed. Her eyes locked on the windshield as the fog thickened. Squinting, she struggled to see beyond the mist and failed, but she was very much aware that her body felt as if she was being pulled into the foggy mist. The air was so thick, and her breathing became labored. Struggling to catch her breath, she watched something incredible happen. As if by an invisible hand, letters appeared on the windshield:

  C-A-D-E

  Valerie suspected that whatever was holding her suspended was now trying to communicate with her. She couldn’t say she was having a vision because this wasn’t like anything she had experienced before, and it unsettled her. Gradually, the fog began to lift, the letters dissipated, and the windshield quickly cleared. Now able to wiggle her fingers and her arms, she sighed with relief. Aware that Lynne was talking about how upbeat the neighborhood was as she adjusted the temperature settings, Valerie realized that only seconds had passed and only she had experienced the fog episode.

  Stopping mid-sentence, Lynne’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Um-hum, that’s it, I’m taking you home right now. This is the second time today you’ve zoned out with that spacey look.” Lynne’s tires squealed as she pulled away from the curb. “And if you do it again before I get you home, I’m dropping you and that box of crap off at the nearest bus stop,” she warned.

  Closing her
eyes, Valerie tuned her sister out as she pondered what had just happened, and more importantly, she wondered what CADE stood for.

  Chapter Two

  Cade

  Whatever they had injected him with was starting to wear off.

  Cade awakened slowly with a throbbing headache, partially from the knock-out drug he’d been given and partially due to the twang of screaming guitar chords and shrieking male voices. Music, if one could call it that, was blaring through speakers and permeating every inch of the vehicle. Attempting to move his arms to ease the pain in his shoulders, Cade realized he was tied up.

  Initially, he’d thought he was a kid again when he and his brother Dante had taken turns tying each other up, just to see who could get loose first. Cade always won. The numbness in his fingers and his inability to move his hands and feet told him this was happening right now. But for how long? Minutes? Hours? He had no way of knowing, and the hood covering his head made it impossible to see anything.

  The last thing he remembered clearly was standing at the bus stop and hoping Nate would show up. He never sensed or heard anybody creep up behind him, but he did feel the jab and pinch of a needle and a hood shoved over his head.

  Nate!

  Oh God, had these people kidnapped him too? At least that would explain why he hadn’t shown up.

  The disk!

  Cade panicked, hoping it was still securely hidden behind his belt buckle.

  Awareness of his surroundings grew until he realized he was in the back of a truck—a very cold truck—with his hands and feet bound together behind his back. He willed his numb fingers to feel around for anything he could use to free himself, a difficult task made worse by the truck bouncing and jolting him up and down so hard his teeth rattled.

  With agonizing slowness, he moved his hands from side to side until he felt some slackness in the rope binding his wrists. The more he worked them, the looser they became until he managed to twist one hand free and then the other. Almost crying out in pain, he bit his lip when the blood rushed back into his fingers, causing them to tingle as if a thousand sharp needles were pricking them. When the sensation passed, he massaged his wrists to restore circulation to his stiff limbs. Relief flooded through him as he lifted the hood and uncovered his eyes.

  Blinking, he looked around to get his bearings. Inching closer to the small window leading to the cab of the truck, he could see the backs of two white men bobbing their heads to the heavy metal music. He also saw that it was still night time and took that as a sign that he hadn’t been unconscious for a long time.

  A sliver of light streaming through an opening in the truck’s side panel revealed his pockets had been turned inside out. His clothes had been searched, and instinctively his hand flew to his belt buckle. It remained securely in place, and the protective latch behind the buckle told him the data device was firmly intact.

  Those bastards took my three-dollar bus fare.

  Resuming his prone position in case one of the men turned around to check on him, Cade drew his legs up so he could un-tie the rope from his ankles. As he worked to loosen the rope, he wondered how he was going to escape, seeing as how it was two against one and he was still doped up.

  Finally free of the rope, he angled his body sideways and strained to hear what the men were saying. But it was a wasted effort. The music was too loud.

  One second later, the radio went silent and only the whine of the truck’s engine could be heard, that was, until he heard the chime of a cell phone. When the man in the passenger seat answered, Cade listened to snippets of what the man said. He heard the man confirm somewhat impatiently that they’d picked up the package and that, yes, they would follow directions to get rid of it. When the call ended, the head banging-music resumed.

  Cade’s stomach clinched.

  I know what that means…I’m about to become another DC homicide victim. Ah, hell no. Forget that. I still have stuff to do, and I am not going out like this.

  With renewed energy and highly motivated to escape, Cade stretched his neck until he could see through that sliver of light coming in from the opening in the seam. He couldn’t see much. No landmarks or road signs. Nothing except fog. Somewhere in the back of his head, he recalled seeing the weather report calling for fog, or perhaps his fuzzy brain was still experiencing the after-effects of the drug in his system, or he was having a déjà vu moment. He wasn’t certain, but the fog was weird.

  One thing he knew for sure was that he shouldn’t be wasting time thinking about the damn weather.

  Forget the weather. Focus on getting away.

  Just then, the truck slowed down and veered off onto a rocky, bumpy road.

  Sensing the truck had taken an exit or turn and could possibly be ready to stop, Cade quickly pulled the hood back over his head and assumed a fetal position again with his hands behind his back. In addition to calming his breathing, he was feverishly plotting how he could overpower his captors without getting himself killed in the process.

  The truck came to a stop with the brakes squealing as it appeared to pull off to the side of the road with gravel hitting along the undercarriage of the truck. The driver turned off the engine, silencing the awful music, before opening the squeaky driver’s side door.

  Cade’s sixth sense kicked in. He thought he smelled water when the door opened and one of the men stepped out. He could hear the gravel crunching beneath his boots as he walked, and when the men started talking, he followed their conversation closely.

  “Look, dude, I don’t wanna drive all the way out to the warehouse then drive someplace else to dump the body. You know what I’m saying?”

  “Yeah, I'm with you, man.”

  The passenger got out of the truck and slammed the door.

  “I’m gonna take a leak. I'll pop him right here. Cool?”

  “Yeah, dude, that’s cool with me. We gonna get paid either way.”

  “Cool and nobody uses this old road anymore, so let’s dump him out here where he won’t be found. Say, how much of that shit did you give him anyway?”

  “Enough, and besides, I couldn’t exactly see the measurement on the syringe. Don’t worry. He ain’t waking up, so be cool, man.”

  Well, that ain’t cool with me.

  Cade snatched the hood off his head as adrenaline pumped furiously throughout his body. He was mad as hell. These men were talking about taking his life, as if it wasn’t any more important than that horrific music they listened to. He calculated he could take the driver down quickly given the element of surprise. The disadvantage was he couldn’t see his opponent and size him up first. It didn’t matter. This was about his survival.

  Cade was prepared to beat the crap out of the men but had to keep in mind that they were armed. He inched up to a squat as he waited for the man slowly walking around to the back of the truck to open the barn-type doors.

  The seconds ticked down in his mind.

  The instant the back door swung open, Cade’s forearm shot out and connected to the throat in a solid chop to Dude #1, rendering the man speechless and dazed. In the same motion, Cade hopped down out of the truck, while driving his fist into the man’s kidneys, to which the man expelled a silent breath before doubling over in pain. Not giving the man a chance to fall to the ground, Cade pulled him into a chokehold and applied enough pressure to render him unconscious. “Go to sleep,” he snarled in the man’s ear as he eased his limp body to the ground then rolled him slightly around to the driver’s side back quarter panel.

  Orienting himself to the fuzzy but dingy overhead road light and the swirling fog while still fighting the lingering effects of the drug, Cade moved quietly and quickly, following the sounds of whistling and peeing. He spotted Dude #2 about thirty feet beyond the front of the truck with his back to Cade. The driver had turned off the headlights, but there was enough illumination for Cade to assess the silhouette of a stocky man. He was confident he could take him on.

  But when his inner voice kicked in again, he
paused. His sixth sense screamed at him to escape while he could and leave the pissing man to his business. Physically, he was weak and sluggish. Taking out the first guy had left him shaky and exhausted. He sensed the pissing man was the more dangerous of the two and wouldn’t go down without a fight, and honestly, Cade didn’t know how much more fight he had left in him. As he was wisely deciding to turn and flee, he’d been slowing, silently backing up. That was, until gravel crunched beneath his dress shoes. The pissing man turned around and saw him.

  “What the fuck?” the man yelled, caught off-guard as he began fumbling with his zipper and stumbled before he could break into a run.

  With a boost of adrenaline, Cade ran in the opposite direction with his slick dress shoes slipping on the gravel. Not thinking beyond putting as much distance as possible between himself and Dude #2, his legs began to feel heavy and leaden as if he were running in a swimming pool. He could hear the guy hurling profanities and yelling at him to stop as his footsteps closed in behind him.

  Cade tried to run faster, but his body wasn’t cooperating.

  He heard more gravel crunching behind him and suspected Dude #1 had come to and now both men were chasing him. With both of them stringing profanities behind him, Cade suddenly heard a pop, and half a second, later he felt what he was sure was a round from a gun slam into his upper back and through his chest. He felt white hot pain, intense and searing.