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

we got the gold,” Trinity said. “Why was everyone running out like that?”

“I think it had something to do with Taylor yelling about a gun, but I couldn’t see what was happening,” Mac explained, “ I was busy getting Mama D out of the bank.”

“Yeah, you were moving pretty fast when you got to the car. I thought you were going to toss Mama D right out onto the street,” Jonas put in, making us all laugh. “What did happen in there?”

Everyone turned to me expectantly, and I realized I was the only one who knew what had gone down. Things had been moving so fast we hadn’t had time to discuss it. Once we’d gotten on the road, the bank seemed a distant memory, not something that had just happened. I’d been too distracted with other things in the car to even think about it.

“They had a guy in one of the offices watching the bank,” I explained. “He didn’t seem much of a threat as he was paying much more attention to the short skirt in line than he was to the general comings and goings around him.”

“How’d you make him?” Jonas asked.

“The usual way, I guess,” I said, remembering my anxiety that I might have lost my touch.”I just knew.”

I heard the melody from The Twilight Zone and gave Trinity a look, while Mac chuckled, encouraging her.

“Anyway,” I continued, deciding to ignore her, “he either noticed something and alerted them, or they had the box flagged because a second guy came into the bank. They didn’t talk, but I caught the nod between them, and then the new guy came over and sat down next to me, watching the vault door. When Mac and Mama D came out, he started to go for them, and I tripped him up. I saw the gun when he was moving and decided it would make a good diversion and give Mac some cover to move. You know. Bank. Gun. Lots of running and screaming. Seemed like a plan.”

“What about the guy in the office?” Mac asked me. “Did he have a gun too?

“Uh, yeah,” I answered evasively. “He sort of ran into the door.”

They all just looked at me for a minute. The mood had sobered as I told them what all had gone on. Jonas and Trinity had been outside and had no idea any of this had happened. Mac may have been on the inside, but he’d been in the vault until the last minute. This was the first they’d heard that it’d had been a near thing.

“You think they know she was there?” Jonas asked Mac.

“Depends.” They both looked over at me.

“How hard did he ‘run’ into the door?” Mac asked me.

“Pretty hard,” I answered back. “And I’m pretty sure the other guy has some broken ribs.”

“Okay, then. I guess it’s safe to say they know,” Jonas said grimly. “They’ll know we’re working together, and that’s what they’ll be looking for.”

“I think they already had a pretty good idea we were together when they attacked us at Taylor’s condo,” Trinity snapped at him. “We were lucky she was at the bank today, or it would have had a different ending.”

“Hey! I agree totally.” Jonas held up his hands in surrender. “Don’t bite my head off. I’m just saying, if I were hunting us, I’d know if I could find one, the others wouldn’t be far away. Gangs are easier to find than just one person.”

“Jonas is right,” I cut in. “It’s something we need to talk about, but before we get into it, there’s something I need to say.” I hesitated, knowing what needed to be said, but not knowing how to start.

“Taylor, go ahead and just say it. We’re listening.” I gave Trinity a nod and decided to plunge on in.

“I know you all are here because of me. No,” I said, when objections started in, “let’s be honest. I’m a victim here too, I understand that, but if it weren’t for knowing me, being in the wrong place at the wrong time, you wouldn’t be here. You’d be living your lives, safe at home, instead of being on the run. I think we can agree on that, right?”

“We don’t blame you, Taylor. At least, I don’t,” Trinity put in, throwing a look at Jonas.

“I don’t blame you either,” he said, “but I’d be lying if I said there hadn’t been times when I wished I didn’t know you.”

I laughed at that. “Thanks, Jonas. There’ve been times I wished I didn’t know me either. That’s been the problem lately. I didn’t know me. I lost who I was. When this whole thing started, it really rattled me. I couldn’t get a handle on it. Things were coming at me from all directions, and I was so busy dodging them, I couldn’t get my feet planted.”

Everyone nodded agreement. They’d felt it too and were able to sympathize with my plight.

“Today, on the drive here, I had some time to think about things. What was the next step for us? How best to keep everyone safe? Stuff like that. Frankly, it wasn’t going well. There didn’t seem to be any clear answer. At least, none that I could see. Then Mac asked me what I wanted to do. Simple question really, but it made me angry. Really angry. That’s when he pulled over, threw me the keys to the car and walked away.”

Jonas turned on Mac, incredulous. “You left her there? What! Are you crazy?”

Trinity picked up a bed pillow and threw it at him. Mac had been watching Jonas and didn’t see it coming, so it hit him square in the face, throwing him back in the chair.

“Before you lynch him, let me finish!” I said, getting up to pull a soda from the mini-fridge. “His walking away was the best thing he could have done.”

I pulled out drinks for the others and started passing them around the room. “It forced me to stop and look at what I really wanted, and I realized something important out there, alone with the cows and the crickets. I may be a victim, but that doesn’t mean I have to act like one. I’m tired of trying to stay one step ahead of these guys. Tonight, I took my life back. I’m done running.”

“So what are you saying, Taylor?” Jonas asked, “What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to embrace the weirdness, Jonas. Whatever this thing is inside me, it’s not going away. It’s part of me now. Maybe it always was, and I just didn’t realize it. It doesn’t really matter. The important thing is I need to understand it better. I can’t just cross my fingers every time it rears its head and hope I can live with the fallout. Mac knows someone who may be able to help me learn how to control it. I plan to find him and see if he can teach me a few things.”

“That would take care of your worry about hurting one of us,” Trinity noted, “if you could learn to control it.”

“That’s true,” I agreed, “but there’s more to it than that. This isn’t just about learning to control it. I plan on using it.”

“Using it? Just what do you intend to do, Taylor?” Jonas asked.

“I intend to go after them, Jonas,” I answered, “And I intend to win.”

“You’re going after them?” Jonas was on his feet. “I thought you were concerned about keeping Trinity and Mama D safe? How does putting them in harm’s way keep them safe?”

“It doesn’t,” I snapped back at him. “I didn’t say we’re going after them, Jonas. I said I’m going after them. If I can’t find them and stop them, no one here will ever be safe. Look at what they’ve been willing to do so far. They’re not going to stop. The only way any of us have a chance of having any kind of a life is for me to stop them.”

“Wait, what are you saying?” Trinity cut in. “You’re going without us? You want us to leave? You want us gone?” Her voice was rising with each question she asked. She may have offered to go, but she didn’t like the idea.

“No Trinity, that’s not what I want,” I assured her. “ but that may be the way it needs to be. What you said tonight is true. This is what I need to do, but I can’t ask you to risk anything more. I have enough guilt to carry around without adding that to it.”

Mac and Jonas both looked over to Trinity, who ignored them, concentrating instead on what I had to say. She knew what she’d told me. Now she was waiting to see what I had decided to do. I looked at her and knew in my heart I was doing the right thing. Maybe it was my gut feeling or my special senses, but whatever it was, I knew without a shadow of a doubt this was right.

Right or not, the mood had gone to confrontational in a blink of the eye. Mac was sitting still as a statue, watching me, waiting for the next shoe to drop.

“So you want us to leave,” Trinity said, tears in her voice.

“What I want is for you to understand where I’m coming from, so you can make a decision about what you want,” I said, trying to explain. “The three of you haven’t had any more choice about what’s been happening than I have. Up until now. Things have changed. We have the gold. They don’t know where we are. You have a new identity and tomorrow after we go to the bank, you’ll have the money to start over. I know what I’m going to do. I’ve made my choice. Now, I’m asking you to make yours. That includes you, Mac. I’ll protect you as best I can, but I can’t let fear stop me from doing what I need to do. You can come with me, or go your own way. The decision is yours. But if you choose to come with me, it’s got to be your choice,