Brain Storm by Cat Gilbert (ebook reader computer .txt) 📕

“No. There are no bugs and no cameras. I’ve never even been in your apartment until tonight.” He dragged the garbage bag over to the kitchen door and opened it, tossing the bag outside into a can. “I was just around. I’ve shopped with you, gone to the movies with you, followed you on the job, had coffee with you. I needed to make sure you were safe, but I never violated your home or listened in on your private conversations.”

“How is it I never saw you, Mac? You’re not that easy to miss.”

“Well, I don’t always look like this,” he said. “You know me, even talked to me, but not as Mac.”

Somehow this knowledge wasn’t making things better. If anything, I was feeling worse, knowing I hadn’t just not seen him, but apparently, I’d seen him as other people and never noticed anything strange. I needed a new line of work.

“Where did you live? It has to be nearby if you were supposed to be keeping an eye on me.”

“I have the condo under yours.” He looked at me, waiting for it to sink in. It did.

“You’re Julian, the gay English guy downstairs?” I asked, incredulous.

“Right you are,” he said, taking up the high, cockney accent, Julian was known for. It would have been hilarious if it hadn’t been so horrifying. He’d certainly pulled one over on me there. I remembered all the admiring and longing glances I’d seen tossed his way. Apparently, I wasn’t the only who had been fooled. The thought only made me feel slightly better. Then I remembered what he’d said about having coffee with me.

“Who were you at the coffee shop?”

“Jason,” he said, quietly.

I closed my eyes in misery. Jason had made my coffee nearly every morning after I moved into the condo at my new favorite haunt. Jason was as different from Mac and Julian as he could possibly be.

“It helped to be able to talk to you once in a while. To not hide all the time.” I nodded. I was hurt and angry, but deep down somewhere, I was amazed too. Amazed that he had stayed with me for seven years and grateful that he had been there when the time came. “I wasn’t there the morning you had your run in with Marcus. They had called me back for a debriefing. Marcus was assigned to fill in for me until I was back.”

“Is that normal procedure?” I asked. Needing a coffee, I started looking through the cabinets for the coffee I knew had to be in there somewhere. Mac reached over my head to the cabinet above the coffee maker, pulled down an unopened bag of beans and began making me coffee, just like he’d done for the past several years.

“No, it’s not,” he said, finally answering my question. “I had a bad feeling about the whole thing. Felt something was wrong. I pulled out early and got back here as soon as possible, but I was too late.”

“He tried to kill Jonas at the coffee shop,” I told him. “Then there was an incident at the hospital.”

“I know,” he said. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there to protect you.” He had ground the beans as we were talking and I watched as he tamped them down and checked the water pressure on the espresso machine.

“He’s dead, Mac.”

“I know,” he said, as the thick syrup began to the fill the glass, the rich crema flowing to the edges. “I killed him.”

I hadn’t expected that, but somehow it didn’t surprise me. Mac seemed to be efficient at a lot of things, killing people not the least among them. Before I could react, Jonas popped his head around the corner.

“We have a problem,” he informed us. No slouch at detective work himself, he came to a fast stop and did a quick survey of the kitchen. “Something wrong in here?” he asked me, ending up with his eyes boring holes into Mac.

“I don’t know. Could be,” I replied unevenly.

“Well, if you don’t know for sure, it’ll keep. This won’t. You both need to get in here pronto,” he said and took off, back to the living room, Mac and I quickly falling into step behind him.

Trinity was sitting on the sofa, in tears, as I had expected. It’s not every day you find out that life as you know it is over. At least I had some warning, not to mention the fact that I was the cause for my change in circumstances. Trinity and Jonas were innocent bystanders, caught up in the middle of something they had no control over, but they were involved. They not only knew me, they knew about me. The bad guys, which by this time I decided were whoever was trying to kill us, kidnap us or in any other way harm us, had already tried to kill them. The fact that they had attacked while both Trinity and Jonas were in the condo instead of waiting until I was alone told me they wanted them both silenced. Like it or not, they were in the same boat I was. Just for different reasons.

“Trinity, I’m sorry,” I started off. After all, her association with me was the reason she was in this mess.

“Don’t even go there,” she ordered, anger showing through the tears. “ This isn’t your fault any more than it’s Jonas’ or mine. It just happened. I don’t like it. I’m not even sure I understand all the ramifications yet, but I’ll survive.”

“Okay,” I agreed, as I sat on the chair arm, waiting to hear the rest of it.

“My question to you Mac is this. Jonas said that we’re not safe, because one,” she held one finger in the air as she counted off, “we know about Taylor.” I flinched, even though I knew it was coming.“And two,” she continued, “we’re in danger because they want her, and will use us, if they get ahold of us, to force her in. Is that right?”

She looked to Mac for his response, but I kept my eyes on her. Yes, they would take her in a minute, use the people I cared about as pawns to get to me. If it ever happened, I would go. That wasn’t even a question.

“Yes, Trinity,” Mac agreed. “They’ll go after anyone Taylor cares about if they think it will give them the advantage.”

Trinity looked over at me as what Mac said sunk in and I saw the question in her eyes. A split second later, it hit me. Mama D. They’d go after Trinity’s grandmother. She was the only other person they could use.

“We have to go,” I said, suddenly moving across the room toward the door, Trinity right at my heels. “They’ll go after Mama D. We have to beat them to her.”

“Taylor, stop.” Mac grabbed my arm and whirled me around.

“No!” I was no longer tired. No longer scared. I was angry. “We’re going. You’re not calling the shots here. Not now! I will not let them hurt Mama D, Mac. I won’t. If you won’t go, I’ll go without you, but I’m not letting them take her.”

“We’re going. We’re all going,” Mac tried to assure me “but we need a plan. You need to think. You need to calm down. LOOK AT ME!” he yelled as I tried to break free. “Do you hear what I’m saying to you?”

I did look at him then, anger numbing my mind to what he was trying to say. All I could think of was Mama D, alone in that house and those monsters coming after her.

“Taylor.” It was barely a whisper on his lips. “Trust me.”

I wanted to. It would have been so much easier that way, but he was asking the impossible. This was the guy who had been spying on me for seven years. Lying to me for seven years and now, he was asking me to trust him? I looked back for support from Trinity, only to find her tucked in tight under Jonas’ arm, both of them watching me closely and I knew something was wrong.

I let my eyes move from them to the room beyond and saw the books and papers that had been thrown around the room. I saw the curtains hanging off of broken rods at the blacked out windows, still moving, as if there was a breeze and felt the fight go right out of me. It looked like a whirlwind had torn through the place. No, I thought, shaking my head, not a whirlwind. Just me. Defeated, I looked at Mac, who had been trying to warn me.

“I’m sorry.”

“Hey, this is okay.” He smiled at me. “Kinda like a temper tantrum.” He let me go and turned me around. “Take a look. There’s a good 10 foot of clear space around us. No one was ever in any danger.”

He was right. All the papers and books stopped short of us. It didn’t make me feel much better.

“This is a good thing, Taylor. We’re lucky it happened.” I looked back at him, the fact that I thought he was crazy written on my face. “No, really, I mean it. This is the second time that you’ve pretty much lost it tonight and both times you protected the people you care about without even knowing you were doing it.”

“He’s right,” said Jonas, “we’re all completely safe. Taylor, I’m not afraid of you. I may be freaked out a little, but I’m not afraid of you.”

I looked over at Trinity, still tucked safely against Jonas’ side.

“I am afraid,” she admitted. “I’m afraid the bad guys have a big surprise coming.” She turned to Jonas and Mac. “What’s the plan and how soon can we leave?”