Kindred (16 page)

FORTY-ONE

Kindred

Until I could figure out my next step with the Tracker, I’d have to focus on other jobs. It's something I’d been thinking for days, but had been oddly reluctant to follow through. I had one waiting for me; all I needed to do was stalk my prey until I found the perfect opportunity to strike. There would be no knife work on this one. The husband needed it to look like an accident so he could collect the life insurance without any question.

It was almost too simple a request for someone with my talents. All I needed to do was make her think she was seeing something while driving, and she’d end up driving off a cliff or off a bridge. Either way, she wouldn’t know what happened and neither would anyone else. This one might be more about opportunity than planning. I’d follow her until she was on the right kind of road, then strike.

But first, I needed to find her. The picture wasn’t great, and she was separated from her husband. Although not for long enough to have changed her policy, so it was difficult to figure out where she’d go. Her soon to be ex-husband didn’t know her schedule anymore, and she was rarely home. So I sat at the address my client gave me and waited. The house was comfortable, but messy. She wasn’t keen on housework, from the look of things. The curtains were drawn as I sat in the living room, waiting patiently for my prey to appear.

I thought about waiting in the car, but thought I might as well be comfortable while I wait. Besides, she’d never know I was here. Her cat did. The fluffy little beast was sitting on the chair across the room, glaring in my direction. The ruff of fur around its neck was puffed up in agitation. Apparently, it didn’t like how I smelled.

The cat’s displeasure was forgotten as I leaned back against the soft cushions and closed my eyes. The doors were out of view of this room and I would hear if the owner returned in time to prevent her from seeing me, so I allowed myself to relax and fall into a light sleep.

When I woke to the sound of a door slamming, all I remembered from the dream I'd been having was a pretty woman and a sense of joy. The woman was unknown, but she seemed familiar. As if I should know who she was. I shook my head. It was just a dream, nothing real.

Here and now, the job was what was important. My victim was home, and standing right in front of me without ever seeing me. “Are you ready to die, little one?” I asked, standing so we were eye to eye. She heard nothing, only frowning a little when the cat hissed and ran out of the room. “It’s only a matter of time.”

FORTY-TWO

Jason

Rachel agreed to wait until we returned to Hannah and Alice’s house before we answered her questions, but she was definitely not happy about it. She was fidgety and kept glaring at me, although never while I was looking. The girl was upset, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out why: she thought I was putting her friend in danger. It was the only logical reason for her to be mad at me. At least as far as I could tell. But people weren’t always logical beings, so who knew what was on her mind?

How was I going to explain everything? I didn’t want everyone to know what happened with Mason. If I kept sharing my story with people, it was going to spread more than I wanted it to. Maybe she’d accept half-answers. The very basic, ‘I don’t know why Mason called me the Earthshaker. I was helping Alice find out information about him, and he kidnapped me. Somehow, the shed collapsed and killed him.’ Would that be enough to satisfy her curiosity?

Somehow, I thought not. The look on her face as we drove home made that clear enough. She wanted nothing but the truth. And, quite honestly, I wasn’t sure she could handle that. Alice was supposed to be home, so maybe Rachel would allow me to speak to her in private before I revealed anything to another civilian.

“Jason, are you okay?” Hannah’s voice was soft, but insistent.

I was quick to assure her. “I’m good. Just lost in thought.”

“Alice and Dan will protect you. Mason’s men won’t get anywhere near you,” she assumed the reason behind my thoughtful expression.

It was strange, but the threat to my life barely computed. Kindred seemed like the more immediate threat. But perhaps I should be more concerned with some random street thug being out to get me. Someone I didn’t know would be better suited to sneaking up on me than someone I was already on guard against. “I can help her with that too,” I said. My thoughts were now stirring with ideas for safeguarding the house. By the time the evening was done, I wanted some kind of plan in place.

“What happened?” Alice asked immediately after we entered the house. “You all look so serious, and,” she added with a glance at Rachel, “a little freaked out.”

“Some whack job threatened us outside the bowling alley.” Rachel was glaring at me as she spoke, and Alice gave me a questioning look, her head cocked slightly to the side and eyes narrowed.

“I need to talk to you real quick, Alice. If that’s okay.”

She followed me down to the basement without any questions, waving the others back for the moment. “We’ll be back up shortly.”

I sat on the bed, sitting rigidly as Alice took a seat by the desk. “What’s up, Jase? You’ve been pretty close-mouthed about stuff with me lately.”

My mouth quirked slightly. “Sorry. I just figured that with the apparent abilities Kindred has, you would be safer out of the loop.”

“So what changed? Why do you want to talk now? And don’t think we won’t talk about the whole ‘protecting me’ thing. I am a cop, and capable of protecting myself. But only if I have the facts.”

I sighed and looked down at my hands, which I held folded in my lap. “Now there’s another threat. One of Mason’s men—apparently one that wasn’t overly loyal— warned me that one of the loyal members of the gang is after me. I figured that was a threat you guys could deal with. As far as I can tell, Kindred was the only one of the gang who had any unusual abilities.”

“Do you believe him? That there’s a threat, I mean,” she chose to move on from my insinuation that she and the cops wouldn’t be able to handle Kindred, but I was under no illusion that she would be finished with the topic.

I laughed, with a sound so bitter it could hardly be called a laugh. “Why shouldn’t I? There’s no evidence to the contrary, and with my luck there are probably several of Mason’s men who want me dead. I’m just surprised that they’ve waited so long.”

She ran her fingers through her long brown hair in frustration. “I know,” her voice was clipped, but it was obvious her frustration didn’t lie with me, at least not all of it. “Dan and I will get on that threat, but I hope you don’t mind if we continue trying to dig up something useful on Kindred too,” there was a sarcastic lilt in her voice that hadn’t been present earlier

I acknowledged her request with a tight nod and moved on to the next concern. “I think I need to be a little more active in the protection of the house. Some ideas have been floating around my head for traps I can place so we can sleep easy at night.”

“We’ll talk about that shortly,” Alice agreed. “But first we should probably figure out something to tell Rachel. Did anything happen that could reveal your abilities to her?”

“I didn’t have to use them, but the guy who approached us called me Earthshaker. He claimed it was the only name he had for me.” Alice nodded thoughtfully. “Rachel has already questioned why he called me that, and what I had to do with Trevor Mason.”

The normally well-composed detective sighed, once again seeming aggravated at the situation. “Why can nothing ever be simple?” she asked quietly. “Never mind. We need to tell her something, but I don’t know how to explain the Earthshaker thing. The Mason connection is easier. You were hired to talk to the street people to find his businesses, and Mason took it personally. It’s the truth, edited.”

She sat quietly for several minutes, glancing around the room as if hoping a solution would appear out of the woodwork. I used the time to think about possible traps, and also rules that would need to be in place for those who lived in the house, along with those who would visit frequently. What I tried not to think about was explaining stuff to Rachel. The idea that even some of my baggage was going to be weighing down another person was not one I wanted to dwell on.

“I’m really not sure,” Alice said, “except maybe to say that it was a code name we used so he wouldn’t know who you were.”

With a slight shrug, I agreed. “It’s better than the truth. I really don’t want to go there.”

“Don’t worry,” she pledged. “You don’t have to share with anyone you don’t want to. Not anymore. You’re making great strides in being more controlled, so the possibility of someone finding out by accident is highly unlikely.”

Alice stood, brushing her hands on her slacks as she rose. “We should tell her something so she can go home. We can’t very well start a conversation about earth traps while she’s here. Once she’s gone, we’ll discuss the options.”

We told Rachel the story we’d decided on, but I could tell she still wasn’t sure. She had to be wondering why we were so secretive if the story was so simple. My suspicion was confirmed when she asked, “Why couldn’t you tell me this stuff in the car?”

My mouth twitched nervously, but Alice saved me. “There’s an ongoing investigation into Mason’s gang. Jason and Hannah weren’t sure what they were allowed to say about it until they talked to me,” she chuckled. “It was a little over cautious of them, but I told Jason it was okay to tell you.” She lied so smoothly that even I had trouble disbelieving her.

Rachel accepted the story without question. “I have class early tomorrow, so I should get home. Dustin, could you drive me home?”

“No problem. I’ll see you guys tomorrow,” he said with a meaningful glance at me when Rachel’s back was turned. He would want me to talk about what had happened tonight.

I waved him off, a slight smile crossing my face at the concern. Strangely, the idea of someone else wanting me dead didn’t bother me. I suspected the problem would be solved for me before it even became an issue. And if it wasn’t…well, I guess I’d have to take care of it myself.

FORTY-THREE

Hannah

It always impressed me how smoothly my sister was able to lie. On occasion, it made me wonder whether she lied to me about anything and I just never realized it. Although the fabrication she and Jason told Rachel had enough truthful elements to it, to make it sound honest. And the reason behind the deception was well intended; we didn’t want to give away Jason’s secret.

Speaking of, Jason seemed oddly unconcerned with the revelation that people other than Kindred were out to kill him. What was going through his mind? How could he figure this threat wasn’t worth worrying about?

“Hannah, we need to discuss security,” Alice said, waving for me to join her and Jason in the living room. Sam was sleeping at Dan’s, and would have to be told later what was going on.

“What security?” I asked, joining Jason on the couch.

Jason leaned forward on the couch, his elbows resting on his knees and hands folded under his chin. “I’ve been considering placing some traps around the house at night, just in case someone tries to sneak in while we’re sleeping.”

“Traps? Like booby traps?” What a life we were leading that made a discussion about booby-trapping our own house seem perfectly logical. “What exactly would you do?”

Alice perked up as well. Apparently, if Jason was planning something, he hadn’t shared those plans with her yet. “Well, I was thinking kind of a variation on the holes I used last fall. I would place them around all the windows and doors and leave a thin layer of earth over them so they would be completely invisible to anyone approaching.”

“If you did that, you’d have to set them pretty late just in case one of our friends came by,” Alice said.

“We could set a time, say about midnight, and let Dustin and Dan know that they can’t come over after that. We’re up until then or later most nights anyway.”

Alice shook her head, “I don’t know. You have to be up in time to fill in the holes before I leave for work in the morning. And what happens if I get called away for a case?”

There was a hint of a smile on Jason’s face when he answered. “I considered that. All you have to do is wake me, and I can fill in the hole by the door nearest to the garage so you can go out. I’ve been working on my control through the cement, and I’ve gotten pretty good at it.”

“Maybe you can position it a little ways out from the door,” I suggested. “If you put some kind of mark around it that only we would know about, then Alice could sneak out of the house without needing to wake you.” He got little enough sleep as it was, and when he did sleep he was plagued by nightmares. There had been more than one night that I’d heard him moving around the kitchen and living room in the early morning hours, although he was always back in his room by the time the rest of us got up.

He was nodding attentively, thinking about my suggestion. “It could work. Let me do some tests on it, but for tonight, I’m going to set them how I said. Just wake me in the morning before you’re ready to leave, okay Alice?”

“No problem,” she agreed. “Are you going to go outside to set them, or just do it from your room?”

“From my room. That way if someone is watching the house they won’t notice what I’m doing. Someone should probably call Dustin and let him know not to come back tonight. And if he comes early tomorrow, tell him to use the side door. Once Alice leaves for work, I’ll leave that one open. Most of the criminal types wouldn’t use the door anyway, and by then we’ll be up and moving.”

“I’ll call him,” I offered. Jason stifled a yawn. “Go down. We’ll be going to bed soon anyway.”

He didn’t argue, and tossed us a wave as he headed to the basement, “G’night.”

Alice started to get up. “Allie, I’m worried about him,” I said, looking after Jason.

“He seems to be doing okay, Han. He’s not freezing in fear, he’s functioning enough to plan protection, and he’s talking to us now more than he has for the last few months.”

I nodded, not disagreeing with her on any of that. “But he’s not acting like he’s taking this new threat seriously. He doesn’t seem concerned that another person is after him.”

“Oh, hun,” she said, joining me on the couch and wrapping her arm around my shoulders. “He’s exhausted. Mentally at least, if not physically. There’s only so much a person can take before they just have to shut down for a little while. He’s been living with so many threats to his life, that it probably seems kind of surreal to have yet another one. What else can he do? We’ve already been in protection mode over the other threats, so how much more can we do now that we know there’s another one?”

“You and Dan can catch the threats that you can see. Get rid of this Mason loyalist so Jason can concentrate on catching Kindred. He’s more than enough for Jason to have to deal with.”

She got a little defensive. “We’re going to. Keep in mind that we just found out about this tonight. I’ll call Dan before I go to bed, so he knows what we’re going to be working on tomorrow. But remember, we’re not in complete control of the cases we work. The captain will give us any assignment that he wants, and we’ll have to work on this in our free time.”

I stifled a sigh and ran my fingers through my hair, brushing the strands from my face. “Fine. Just do the best you can. But…”

“Catch him. Or them. I know, sis. Try not to worry so much. We’re on it, and if we can prove to the captain that there’s a case in all this, we may be able to get some manpower on it. But it’s late, so we should both be in bed already. Sleep well. The house is secured for the night, so try to relax, okay?” She waited for my nod before she went to her room.

Relax. Right. That was possible. The holes Jason was putting in were not infallible, and Kindred had already proven to be resourceful. For all we knew, he could have been in the house while we were talking. We’d never know.

Well, Jason would, I suppose. Unless Kindred was in his head again. It still bothered me that we hadn’t noticed when Kindred was treating Jason like a puppet, and I suspected it bothered Jason as well although he hadn’t mentioned it.

I jumped a bit when I heard a deep bass sound outside the window, echoing slightly off the house next door. Jason’s traps. The sound from around the house was more muffled, but I could tell it came from the entire perimeter. It was as safe as Jason could make it for now.

So why did I keep feeling like it wasn’t going to be enough?