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

at having killed your parents only to have to find someone willing to give up their life to tend to your upbringing and keep an eye on you. Your father was an only child, Taylor. Your dear Aunt Vivian was one of ours. That’s how I know you so well, you see. I studied the reports on you that she sent in daily. Makes for some fascinating reading.”

He went over to pour himself another cup of coffee, creating a dramatic pause. If an audience was what he wanted, he’d certainly gotten his wish. The room was silent, save for the non-stop wheezing of Hughes, struggling for air. That he wasn’t quite finished was obvious. Every muscle I had, quivered in tension, waiting.

“What’s wrong Taylor? Nothing to say? You want some proof?” He smiled maliciously, and I knew this was what he’d been waiting for. He pulled out a cell and flipped it open, watching me as he thumbed the speed dial. He spoke into it and snapped it shut, leaning back against the table, coffee in hand.

“Keep your eyes peeled in that direction,” he said, pointing toward the crates where Lars had disappeared earlier. “Your proof is about to walk right in.”

I looked in spite of myself, not sure of what to expect, but fearing the worst. His whole story was so preposterous, and yet, he seemed so sure. Took such delight in reciting it. We waited in silence. In the distance, I heard the echo of a door closing and felt my heart rate speed with each second of the clock.

And then there she was. Walking out from behind the crates as if it was yesterday. My breath caught, and my hands began to tremble as she walked into the room. Aunt Vivian. The woman who raised me after my parents were killed. The woman I’d buried nearly ten years ago.

“Looks like the night for miracles. First your husband, then your Aunt. Wonder who’ll show up next.” Keith chuckled, as Vivian walked over to join him and poured herself a cup of coffee.

“Don’t get your hopes up, Taylor,” she said as she lifted the cup to her lips, blowing to cool the hot brew. “I’m afraid your parents won’t be joining us.”

Anger surged, slipping through me like flames, reaching out into the warehouse, shaking the metal doors and shifting the crates in their stacks before I pulled it back inside me.

“So, Marcus was right,” Keith whispered, a smug if satisfied smile across his face. “It’s there, just under the surface. Waiting.”

“Yes, he was. Good to know he was right about something,” Vivian agreed as she came over to look at me like I was a specimen in the jar. “Make sure you keep her under control. Drug her if necessary, but I don’t want any trouble. I’ll tell them to get the plane ready.”

She dismissed me with a look and walked out of the room, leaving me shaken to the core. Keith had been telling the truth about Vivian. If the rest of what he had said was true, I’d been manipulated by these people for most of my life, and I had a bad feeling I’d just let them manipulate me again. They’d wanted to see if Marcus was right, whether my ability had indeed surfaced. Keith had been pushing my buttons all evening. And the battle with Hughes? I’d answered his attack with my fist, instead of with my mind. They’d finally brought in the big guns with Vivian, trying to push me to the edge, so I’d lose control and confirm what Marcus had told them, and I’d handed it to them on a silver platter. How much of what Keith claimed was true, I had no way of knowing, but the fact that Vivian was alive and well, was a shock. That she seemed to be higher in the pecking order than Keith, an even bigger one.

“Here’s how it’s going to be, Taylor,” he talked to me, but I noticed he kept his distance. “You cause any more trouble and Hughes here, is going to take it out on Dr. Connors.”

Maybe the shock was wearing off, or I’d been hit so many times I was becoming immune to it, but at least my brain was starting to function again. If I didn’t pull it together, people were going to get killed. People I cared about.

“Taylor!” Keith shouted angrily, causing me to flinch. “Do you understand what I’m telling you?”

He’d never raised his voice to me, the entire time I’d known him, let alone yell at me. He was yelling at me now and the effect, I could guarantee, was not the one he was going for. This was not the man I’d married, the man I loved. That man was indeed dead if he’d ever really existed at all.

This was my enemy. I had been running from that fact since I first saw him, but now it took hold in my brain with undeniable resolve. This man thought he had control over me, but he was wrong. He had no idea what power I held. How strong I was. I had forgotten that, in my initial shock, but I sure remembered it now. I looked over at Hughes and Connors and decided I was done being manipulated.

“What makes you think I care?” I answered him, keeping my voice one of defeat and despair. “For all I know, he works for you. How do I know he isn’t just another Dr. Brown?”

The exhaustion I was feeling from being on an emotional roller coaster most of the night, lent credence to my words and I saw a flicker of doubt in his face before he turned to Hughes in question.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Hughes croaked out, barely able to talk. “You think Brown worked for us?”

“No. I know he worked for you. You used him against me. How do I know you’re not using Connors the same way?” I glared at him, putting all the anger and hatred I felt for him into my words. He flicked his eyes quickly to Keith, and I caught a brief glimpse of fear cross his features. Keith didn’t know about Brown. In an instant, everything changed, the pieces falling into place. Hughes had double-crossed them, and Brown had been in on it with him. I still didn’t know who all the players were, but now I knew some of them were playing for a different team. Brown had been with the other team, or at least, he had been until Hughes had killed Abby. That had been a game changer.

I didn’t know what Brown had been planning on doing with me, but whatever it was, it didn’t involve Hughes. I glanced over, catching Connors’ eye as my mind scrambled on how best to use my new found knowledge.

Hughes recovered quickly and simply shrugged his shoulders, shaking his head like I was some sort of nutcase when Keith looked over at him. He was good. I had to give him that. If I hadn’t been looking at him at just the right moment, I wouldn’t have seen that instant of unguarded fear and caught on to him. He was right to shrug me off. There was no way for me to prove Brown had been working for him or that he was double crossing Keith and Vivian. It was his word against mine, and I was so desperate, I’d probably say anything.

I looked over at Hughes, and he smirked at me, his confidence back in full force and there I was, bloodied, defeated and chained to a chair. If I were in Keith’s shoes, I wouldn’t believe me either, and it was, in all probability, going to get him killed. There was no way Hughes could let me leave with Keith and Vivian. Not if he was selling me off to another group. He’d have to make a move tonight before we got on that plane. Why I would even care that my dead husband, whom I now pretty much hated with every fiber of my being, would probably be dead before the night was out was beyond me. I hung my head and started chuckling at the absurdity of it all.

“Stop it, Taylor,” Keith barked out, obviously worried that I was losing it. You should be worried, I thought. Bad things happen when I lose it. I looked up to see Dr. Connors watching me, concern in his eyes. He was an innocent in this. Of that I was certain. Like Abby, he didn’t deserve any of this. At the very least, I needed to get him out of this mess, and I had a bad feeling I was running out of time. Keith knew me well. I protected the innocents. He’d use him against me, like they’d used Abby. Like Abby.... the thought kept nibbling away at the corners of my brain. Unwanted, I remembered the horror in Brown at what had happened, the pain of Dr. Connors when I told him, and realized I had one more card up my sleeve. One I had to play right, to have any chance that Keith would believe it. I looked Dr. Connors in the eye and willed him to understand what I was about to do. Then I took a deep breath and jumped in with both feet.

“Fine, Keith, just go ahead and ...how did you put it? Oh, yes. Take it out on Connors if that’s what you want, but if he has any value to you at all, I’d keep a close eye on Hughes.” I let anger edge out the defeat in my voice as I threw out my ace. “He has a tendency to kill people.”

“Hughes kills lots of people, Taylor. People I tell him to.”

“Somehow I doubt you told him to kill this one.”

I leaned back in the chair, closed my eyes and put the ice pack back in place, but not before seeing the look of shocked anger Hughes directed at me. That’s right, buddy boy. Brown told me what you did. You killed a Client. Keith may not know, but he’s about to.

I feigned indifference while trying to settle my nerves, and waited to see what happened next. I wasn’t worried about Hughes rushing me. I’d hear him before he got close, the way he was wheezing. His throat was swelling shut, and it sounded like I had done some severe damage to his vocal cords. With any luck, he’d be in need of medical attention shortly, and there would be one less bad guy we’d have to worry about.

“What’s she talking about Hughes?” Keith asked quietly.

“I have no idea,” he wheezed out. “She’s trying