Crashed, p.20
Crashed, page 20
That was good, right?
“Go on to the kitchen, sweetheart,” Ms. Bella said. “I’ll be there in a minute.”
“Okay.” Happy now, she beamed at Travis. “Travis, you like pop tarts?”
“Ah ... ”
She poked her lip out. That bad dream was still there, in the back of her mind. She’d feel better if he stayed longer.
“Sure.” Mouth curving in a smile, he glanced at Ms. Bella and she shrugged. “As long as it’s okay with Bel.”
Satisfied, Brooklyn turned around and started to skip down the hall. A light came on upstairs and she looked up the stairs and saw Aaron glancing down the steps. He had a scowl on his face, then clapped a hand over his eyes when he saw her. Before Brooklyn could ask what was wrong, the phone on the hall table rang.
Brooklyn, forgetting it was late, shouted, “I’ll get it!”
Racing over, she grabbed it and yanked the handset up, putting it to her ear. “Hello?”
There was a pause, then she shook her head. “No. Nobody called that lives here.”
She went to put the phone down, then stopped again, head cocked as the man on the other end of the line kept talking. Sighing, she said, “I told you, nobody named Isabel lives here—”
Brooklyn gasped as Travis pulled the phone from her hand.
“Hello, may I help you?”
Chapter 21
There was a startled surprise on the other end of the line.
Travis slipped his phone out of his pocket and opened his secure messaging app, opening the last text he’d sent Miles. Putting his back to the wall, he said, “Anybody there? We don’t have all night.”
He sent the text to Miles.
Might have a problem. Trace recent call to Isabel’s. Now.
He waited to make sure Miles saw it.
The response was almost immediate.
On it.
A low breath came through the phone line, the kind somebody would take if they were trying to calm themselves down.
Isabel had a wary look on her face. He angled his chin to the kid near them, then jerked his head toward Aaron. He’d spotted the teenager the second he came into Travis’s line of sight, although he’d already heard the floorboards creaking, suspected one of the older kids had heard Brooklyn.
Isabel scowled at him, but she took the girl’s hand, urging her away.
“I’m trying to find a friend of mine,” the caller said. His voice was slightly slurred, but beyond that ... flat. Devoid of emotion and with no trace of an accent. Hard to guess an age, too, because he spoke so quietly.
“Yeah? Did you try the contacts in your cell phone?” The hairs on the back of Travis’s neck were standing on end.
His phone vibrated and he looked down.
Working on it. Whoever it is, they don’t want us to know where they are.
The subtle clang of warning in his head went to full-out alarm. Hearing Isabel’s footsteps behind him, he looked over, saw her approaching.
Turning, he put his cell on the table behind him and held out his hand.
Her face was solemn, eyes unreadable as she twined their fingers and moved closer. He tucked her close as the caller said, “That’s just the thing ... I haven’t been able to track her down. Been ... out of touch for a few years and I’m hoping to reconnect with her. Say, by any chance, would your name be Travis?”
Going with his gut, he said, “I take it I’m talking to Stephen.”
Isabel went rigid next to him.
“I’ll be a son of a bitch ... you went sniffing back after her, didn’t you?” The man on the other end of the phone no longer sounded cool and disconnected. He laughed and it was an insane, high-pitched giggle. After less than five seconds, it broke off. “You should know ... you need to get the fuck away from her, boy. She’s mine.”
“No.” Travis stroked his hand down her spine even as fury clawed holes in him. “She wasn’t ever yours. And she never will be. Go back to weeping in your pillow, alone in whatever hole in the ground you crawled into.”
Then he disconnected the call.
Isabel opened her mouth but he shook his head. “I need a minute.”
“But—”
He jerked his head up and touched her cheek. “I know you’ve got questions. So do I. But I need to call Miles. If that was Beresford, we’ve got a problem ... the call was blocked and Miles already started trying to trace it and ran into a wall. That means ... ” He paused and tried to find the gentlest way to explain.
But her face had drained of color and she closed her eyes. “That means he’s not in prison. He can’t make those kinds of calls in prison.”
“No.” Travis cupped her face in his hands and pulled her close to him, pressing his lips to her forehead. “He won’t touch you, Bella-mine. I swear it. He won’t fucking touch you.”
Chapter 22
A laugh that was pure ice came from her.
Startled, Travis lifted his head and looked down, saw the fierceness that had entered her eyes.
“Bet your ass he won’t,” she said in a hard voice. “But if he were to try? I’ll break his hands off at the wrist and feed them to him. I’m not the scared, trapped girl I used to be, Travis.”
“No,” he murmured after a moment of studying her. “You’re a queen.” He dipped his head to press another kiss to her, but this one to her lips and it was raw, potent and full of all the love and need he had for her. “You’re my fucking queen.”
He slid his lips along her jawline and nuzzled the curve of her neck, but pulled back as she tried to tug him closer. “We need to talk to Miles, figure out what the hell is going on.”
“If I’m a queen, you must be my knight.” Her mouth curved in a smile, this one with a wry edge. “But you’ve always tried to take that role on, haven’t you?”
“Every queen needs a knight.” He’d play along for now. Even if she wasn’t terrified, he could still glimpse the edge of fear in the back of her eyes. Hell, he was scared. He and Isabel both knew better the cruelty people were capable of. And it wasn’t just Isabel living in this house, either. It was Isabel and a handful of kids, all of whom were vulnerable.
But they’ve got me. That prick has no idea what I’m capable of.
Nor did he have any idea what Isabel was capable of. She was right, there. She wasn’t broken, scared or trapped, wasn’t a pawn to be used by her father, with her sisters there to keep her contained.
A floorboard creaked overhead and he shot a look toward the stairs, saw a shadow fall along the railing and he took Isabel’s hand and squeezed. “Why don’t you check on the kids, let them know it’s okay while I get Miles on the phone, see what he’s found out? I need to get my laptop and a few other things from my house, then I’ll be right back.”
Her lips parted as if she’d argue, but then she closed her eyes, taking a deep breath.
“Lock up. Set your alarm system.”
“You’ll only be gone a couple of minutes ... no.” She shook her head. “You’re right. After all, it’s not just me. Hold on.”
She disappeared into a room she pointed out as the library earlier and returned in under a minute, pushing two keys into his hand. “The front door and deadbolt. And the alarm code ... ” She bit her lip, then recited a series of digits to him.
The day they met.
Her cheeks went red, chin going up as if to dare him to comment on it.
He just kissed her.
“I won’t be gone long.”
Isabel watched him leave and told herself it was just her imagination that the house felt strangely absent after he’d left.
Retreating to her room, she pulled on a pair of yoga pants and a tank top, then jogged up the stairs.
Aaron, Storm and Brooklyn were all in Storm’s room, with Jacob lurking outside. He gave her a narrow-eyed look. “What’s going on?”
Instead of saying anything to him that second, she knocked on Storm’s open door and waited for the girl to beckon her in. Isabel waited a moment and said, “I’d rather only explain this once. Can Jacob come in?”
Storm and Aaron exchanged a look before the teenaged girl slanted a look back at the door and said in a saccharine voice, “Sure, he can come in. But if he gets nasty with you, I might pop him in the mouth, Ms. Bella. I’m tired and my temper runs short when I’m tired.”
Isabel sighed and pushed a hand through her hair before giving Storm a warning look. Storm gave her an angelic smile. Isabel shifted her gaze to Jacob. “She may be pulling your leg. She may not be. And the last time she threatened to pop a kid in the mouth, she knocked out two of his teeth—he was bigger than you. That was before she came here, but I heard about it from her caseworker.”
“I just want to know what in the hell is going on,” Jacob said in a surly voice, opting to totally ignore Storm’s comment.
“Then come on in, sit down, and shut up.” Isabel gave him a hard look, then did the same at the older two before giving Brooklyn a softer version. “As hard as it is for you to be quiet, Brooks, you need to hold your tongue, too.”
“Okay.” She licked her lips, then whispered, “But where is Travis?”
“He’ll be back.” Moving to the window seat, Isabel sat down. “I’m trusting all of you to be responsible enough about this to keep it to yourself. And I might have to keep you all home from school for a few days until I find out what’s going on—it’s not a get-out-of-jail-free card. You’ll still be doing your lessons here on the computer.”
“Fine,” Jacob snapped, jamming his thin shoulders against the wall and glaring at her. “Just tell us what happened.”
Taking a deep breath, she said, “I can’t tell you everything. It’s not safe—and I made an agreement.” She gave Aaron a hard look when he started to interrupt. “Regardless of how tough life has made some of you—” and she wouldn’t belittle them by pointing out that they were just kids. She’d just been a kid, too, and she’d taken down Wilson Steele. “I made agreements and I gave my word. You know how I feel about honoring promises.”
When none of them balked, she smoothed her damp hands down her yoga pants and gave a very brief, very redacted version of the events—she’d once had knowledge of a man who’d done horrible things and she’d helped put him and several of his accomplices away in federal prison. One of them had found her.
She’d had to pick and choose her words very carefully because she couldn’t risk any of them finding out anything that might identify her—that could endanger them. When she was finished, Aaron huffed out a breath. “I could drive trucks through the holes in that story with how much you left out.”
“I already told you I can’t tell you everything,” Isabel said.
Aaron went to shoot something back at her.
Storm laid a hand on his thin shoulder and squeezed. “Is he dangerous?” she asked.
“He could be. And if you want, I’ll find new homes for each of you. I might have to, anyway.”
“No!” Brooklyn lurched off the bed and propelled herself to Isabel. “No, Ms. Bella. If we go, you’re alone. And Travis is here. He’ll protect you.”
Isabel had stopped expecting anybody to protect her a long time ago. But, yeah, her heart warmed at the thought of Travis Barnes ... her knight.
“I’m not alone, baby,” she said, stroking her hand down Brooklyn’s soft, downy hair. “Even aside from Travis, the people who’ve been protecting me are already aware of what’s going on. They’ll find out what happened, how he found me ... and they’ll take action.”
“That’s if they get here first,” Jacob mumbled.
He was looking outside the window, a hard, angry look on his face.
“They’ve never let me down.” She said it gently, and she saw him flinch.
“Cops,” he said with a sneer. “They’ve never done anything but let me down.”
He turned on his heel and stormed out, all but plowing into Travis as he left.
Brooklyn bolted off the bed and dashed to Travis, wrapping her arms around his legs and clinging to him. “Are you going to protect Ms. Bella?”
“I think Ms. Bella can protect herself,” he said after shooting a look at Isabel. His lean face softened with a smile and he hunkered down in front of the girl to brush his knuckles over her cheek. “But I’m going to make sure nobody hurts any of you.”
“She said a bad man hurt her once and she put him in prison.”
“I know.” Travis dropped a kiss on Brooklyn’s brow, then scooped her up. “She’s a brave woman, Brooklyn. And a smart one. I need to talk to her about a few things. Can you stay with Aaron and Storm for a while? Ms. Bella and me, we need to talk to a friend of mine.”
“But—”
He gave her a look.
She huffed out a breath. “Fine.”
“You have to tell me how you do that,” Isabel said as she followed him out of the room, closing the door behind them.
“Do what?”
Isabel rolled her eyes. “Earlier, you shut Jacob up with just a look, and you did the same thing with Brooklyn. I’ve been doing this for five years and I can’t command that kind of instant respect.”
A hint of a smile appeared, then disappeared. “I honestly don’t know what to tell you,” he said as she led him to her office. She locked the door and turned to face, arms folded over her chest. “It’s a toned-down version of my shut up, sit down or I’ll make you look but I don’t think those kids honestly think I’m going to cuff them and work them over.”
She gaped at him, mouth parting on an inhalation of shock. “Have you ... no. Never mind. And we’ll pretend you didn’t say that.”
“You know I wouldn’t harm a hair on their heads,” Travis said gently.
“Of course, I know that.” She closed the distance between them, stroking the disheveled hair back from his eyes. “You’d no sooner hurt a child than me.”
A dark look came and went on his face.
“Stop it.” She cupped his cheeks in her hands, glaring at him now, the intensity making her voice flat. “We’re not going to keep rehashing old ground, Travis. That’s over and done. We’re rebuilding. The past is behind us.”
“Not yet, it’s not.” He gripped her wrists, turning his head so he could press a kiss into each palm before backing away.
Hefting a leather laptop bag onto her desk, he unzipped it and pulled a laptop out. “I’ve arranged to have somebody come inspect the security here, making sure it wasn’t compromised, but I don’t think that’s the case.”
“Arranged ... ?” Puzzled, she eyed him, then said, “Oh. You mean Miles. You’ve already talked to him?”
“No. I texted him and told him to make it happen.”
She eyed him, blinking slowly as she processed his words. “You just told him.”
“Yes.” He pulled several gadgets from the bag and fiddled, but stopped the second his phone rang. He checked the screen, tapped something, then turned away with his back to her, speaking in a voice too low to hear.
“Is that Miles—”
He held up a hand, still speaking in that too-low voice.
Finally, in a normal tone, he said, “Confirmed.”
As he turned back, he glanced at her. “Sorry. This has to be handled ... a bit more officially now.”
She wasn’t sure what that meant, but she nodded.
“Sir, I’m going to let you talk to her now. Need to check her office before I put you speaker.”
She frowned at him. “Check my office for what?”
He shook his head and passed her the phone.
“Bella.”
She recognized the sound of Miles’ grizzled voice and said, “Hello.” As he replied, she watched Travis pull a long, slim wand-like device from his bag.
“If you’re wondering what’s going on, Travis is checking for bugs in your office.”
“Bugs ... ”
Travis shot her a look and lifted his finger to his lips.
Baffled, she passed a hand over her eyes. “Right. I’ve had a bigger problem with spiders than normal. That last one scared my kids half to death.”
“Understandable. I’m not a fan myself.” On the other end of the line, Miles chuckled. “Not a bad cover-up, but it is highly unlikely anything has been planted in your house. But we have to make sure. Travis is going over it now and the team I’m sending out will do a more thorough sweep.” He took a deep breath and blew it out. “I’ll figure out what the fuck is going on, Bella. I promise you. Do you understand?”
“Yes.” She glanced at Travis again, saw that he’d already covered more than half the room. “I know you will, Miles.”
“Travis gave me a quick rundown while he was getting his gear.” Miles recounted what Travis told him. “Does all that sound about right?”
“Yes. I ... ” Frustrated, Isabel ran a hand through her hair. “I didn’t talk to him, man. Not even for a second. For all I know, it’s not him.”
“Regardless, somebody not only has your number, but they know who you are. And they’ve connected you to him ... and Travis.”
She sucked in a breath and her gaze shot to Travis. She hadn’t heard that part. At that moment, he lowered the device he carried and thumbed a switch on it, turned to her. “It’s clear in here. I’ll go over the rest of the house in a minute.” He crossed to his bag, pulled out another device. It looked like one of the walkie-talkies she’d bought for a couple of the boys she used to have in the house ... sort of. Just a lot more high-tech.
He fiddled with it, then put it on her desk, glancing up at her only once. “It’s a sound jammer—it’s designed to interfere with any electronic surveillance. I doubt there is any, but just in case.”
“Fun.” It came out terse and hard. She didn’t mean to sound so bitchy—none of this was his fault and she wasn’t exactly angry at him.
But he heard the temper and lifted his head, focused back on her, giving her a slower, more thoughtful look.
“I hear Travis so I assume he’s done sweeping for bugs,” Miles said just as Travis opened his mouth.
