“Well, I felt something.” She remained unconvinced. Always a sound sleeper, she didn’t understand the storm raging in her slumber or the anxiety she now felt. She watched a few drops of rain slap against the windshield of Jake’s truck, followed by a gaining steady rhythm of rain pellets. “See there.”
“Okay, babe, as usual, you’re right.” Jake smiled, looking down at her quickly as she lowered herself back onto his leg. Suddenly, lightning struck with a loud bang less than a mile away. This was not a distant rumble, but an explosion.
And so it went for the remainder of the trip. It was one o’clock in the morning, and they pulled into a motel in Sanford not far from the address that Riley Dwyer had provided him. Missing school would be the least of his problems, he had told her. Given what he knew about Nina Hastings and Amanda’s mother, he fully expected to find himself facing kidnapping charges within the week, if that long.
“Why don’t we just go to the house?” Amanda asked, as Jake fumbled with the key to the motel room. It was a Hampton Inn and had decent parking lot lighting, so he felt it was a safe choice.
“You don’t think I just drove for four hours to not get lucky, do you?”
“Please.” Amanda forced back a weak smile.
“Just kidding, babe. We’ll get some rest, and then we’ll go to the house. I’ve got the key. Miss Dwyer gave it to me.”
“Don’t mention that slut’s name, okay? I’m just doing this because I have to. It’s part of the plan, okay? So don’t go native on me and team up with her.”
They walked into the basic room, spied the single king-sized bed and each sat down. Amanda lay all the way back, her feet still touching the floor and her body making an inverted L on the bed. Jake leaned on an elbow and looked at her, sliding up toward her head.
“Don’t do this, Jake. I’ve never been close to my dad, and I don’t know what kind of cruel trick this is, but if I had to drive four hours to get the half million, then so be it.”
“I drove.”
“Whatever.”
“Why are you being a bitch?”
Amanda stared at the ceiling. There was a slight tugging somewhere in the deep recesses of her soul, but she passed it off as the faint pull of fatigue.
“I’m being myself, Jake. You know, for the past fifteen years, as long as I can remember, he’s never been there. He rarely made this trip the other way, you know. He was just never there for me. It’s been my mother and my grandmother. Always. So, I don’t know what we’re going to see a few hours from now in that house, but whatever it is will leave me disappointed, as usual, I’m sure.”
Jake studied her, remaining silent.
“When he was alive, I was better off without him. Why, when he’s dead, should I be better off with his memory? He’s dead. It’s as simple as that. It’s like I’m reading it on the news. If I didn’t care about him when he was alive, why would I care now? I really don’t see what the big deal is.”
“Well, what was that all about back in you-know-who’s office? Was it an act?”
Amanda looked at him and smiled. “Yeah, pretty good, don’t you think? I mean, how else am I going to get the half mil if I don’t convince the gatekeeper?”
Jake felt a chill race up his spine. The smile looked menacing, and he had seen it before… on Nina Hastings. At that moment, Amanda Garrett’s facial expressions contorted into a mask, the blood rushing to the back of her head, pulling down on her skin, making her appear years older. He saw the family resemblance between Amanda, her mother, and her grandmother. He suddenly felt as if he were merely another pawn in her game.
“What?” Amanda asked.
“So what am I? Taxi service?” Jake had never been good at holding his thoughts in abeyance. He was more of a here and now kind of person. He didn’t have the patience for the atmospherics.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, if Miss Dwyer is the gatekeeper, and you’re just on a mission to get this money, I guess I’m being used, too?”
“Come on, Jake. I love you. We’re in love. I’ve never used you for anything.”
There was an awkward pause. He wanted to believe her, but didn’t know if he should. They had been together for four years, but he had never seen her presented with any major life challenge, until now. He was learning about her, and himself. So, it was best to be supportive and not inject his feelings into this critical time. She was the one who had lost her father, not him. Still, he felt a calling to be more forceful with her, but in a subtle way. He wanted to guide her. Toward what, he wasn’t sure. But the feeling was palpable. He needed to be a steady hand for her as she navigated these waters.
“I know. I love you, too.”
They laid their heads back onto the bed and were asleep in each other’s arms within the minute.
Amanda’s mind swirled with confusion, a stormy sea tossing the vessel of her soul against competing swells. Tears of anguish flowed inside her soul. Something stirred within her, something hidden. Eyes peeking from a dark corner, wondering, wanting. Sleep washed over her, but as night spread through her body, a nocturnal entity shifted, perhaps feeling it might be safe to come out.
Those eyes, innocent and frightened, searched for a glimmer of light, a sliver of hope. So many times trying to emerge from hibernation, so many times pushed back, forced into submission. A head lifted in the night, lumbering, listening, checking, and holding still. Like a tamed animal, the eyes turned away from the swirling fury, back toward the inner sanctum where blackness painted over any hope. Where there was no pain.
Inside her tormented soul, distant music began to echo, minute sounds pulsing against the storm. A song, a female voice, a bit bluesy, a bit country — she’d heard it before, a long time ago. The hibernating eyes blinked again in the darkness, brief shutters opening and closing once, as if in acknowledgement of the music that only it could hear. Though competing with the maelstrom that raged in Amanda’s mind, Jessi Alexander’s sweet voice ascended in the private sanctum:
“Every time you smile, I smile with you/Every time you cry, I’m crying too/And if you fall, my arms are open wide/When your night is dark, I’ll light your way/When you’ve lost the spark, don’t be afraid/I’m here for you, just close your eyes/I’m a part of you/You’re a part of me too/Take refuge in me.”
The eyes closed. Her soul snuggled deeply into the darkness where it had been taught to hide. Alexander’s words providing the only hope… the only promise.
The only way.
Then, suddenly, the eyes opened, alert and scanning.
Connected.
CHAPTER 25
Del Dangurs had downed two Rock Star energy drinks. His mind was racing. The inside information he had received on Colonel Zachary Garrett was priceless.
“Can you say, ‘Pulitzer Prize’?” he said loudly but to himself as he stared through the windshield of his vehicle. He was on top of the world, his ego surging from the possibilities and the prey.
His talents were too great, in his view, to waste on proclaiming that Les Miserables was passé or that Aerosmith Reunited was, like, totally awesome. The story on which he was presently working would blow away the competition. No one would come close. He recalled seeing the Charlotte Observer intranet notice about Colonel Garrett’s death. That was when his genius moment had crystallized. He was at the time finishing a review of Morgan Fairchild’s Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate. Steamy, seductive, and sexy!
The editor had decided to post the email from the Charlotte Observer Afghanistan embed, Mary Ann Singlaub, on the intranet.