The door swung open and DJ came running in, “Momma, are you okay?”
Tasha hugged him close with her less injured hand, “I’m perfect now that you are here. Hey, I’ve got a surprise for you.”
Damien shook his head at the skeptic look on DJ’s face. His son was a seeing is believing kind of kid. Damien couldn’t wait until he started to learn physics and technology, his fields of study and academic love. They were already having a lot of fun with mathematics.
“What’s that?”
“I found someone smarter than you, even smarter than your daddy!” she said with a bit of wonder in her voice.
DJ scowled, “No one is smarter than daddy!”
He might as well have shouted blasphemy. Damien smiled with pride at how vehemently his son defended him. “Sorry kiddo. I’m just as shocked as you. Kevin here has an IQ of one-sixty five.”
His mouth dropped open, “No way!”
“Yes way!” Tasha echoed with the same amazed tone, “I bet he can tell you a lot of stuff too.”
Again with the suspicious gaze. “But he can’t be trusted.”
Tasha pinched his nose. “You’re asking him to teach you something new. You’re not confessing where you hide your stash of candy to him. And yes, I know.”
“Momma!” he yelled accusingly, “you spied on me!”
A challenging brow went up, “Prove it.”
Damien watched the exchange with amusement. It’s like they’d forgotten everyone else in the room.
“I can teach you how to,” Kevin offered.
“You can?”
“Sure. You’ll even know why everyone says moms have eyes in the back of their heads.”
It was like dangling a carrot. DJ was already hooked. He turned to face them as if to make sure it was alright.
“Go ahead kiddo. Make sure he gives you a copy of the FBI handbook too,” Damien looked up at Kevin. “Thanks, Kevin. Don’t teach him everything let him figure some things out like a real detective.”
“So cool!” DJ jumped up and down the earlier tension forgotten.
“You want to leave your backpack behind?” Tasha asked.
“Nope,” he responded quickly taking Kevin’s hand and pulling on it incessantly.
The moment they disappeared through the door, Tasha sighed heavily and Damien knew she had been putting on a show for DJ. It was getting harder not to love this woman.
“Okay, let’s get to the reason I was arrested. Dale, why don’t you tell me since you fractured my wrist over it.”
Dale shifted his gaze between Damien and Tasha, and Damien silently begged he wouldn’t say a word. He would rather wait on Elaine before Tasha was interrogated just in case she ended up blacking out.
Dale sighed, running his hand over his face, “Maybe you should see a doctor first. I’d like to speak to my cousin in the mean time.”
She shook her head, “No dice. I’m going with him so you’re going to have to wait for that talk.”
“Tasha—”
“No,” she said adamantly cutting him off. “I may not have had a choice with Kevin because DJ needed to get out of here but it will be a cold day in hell before I let you leave me alone with any of them.” She stared warily at Doran. “Especially him. He wants to get into my head.”
Damien nodded. She was in a strange place with people she didn’t know or trust. Her reluctance was understandable.
A knock came from the door and a man peeked his head in. “Someone call for a doctor?”
That was strange. They were just talking about one and Damien hadn’t seen anyone move or handle their cell phone.
“Kevin probably called him,” Dale answered his unspoken question but made his suspicion worse when he asked, “Are you new here? I’ve never seen you here before?”
The man smiled walking into the room a medical bag in his hand. “Yes sir. I’m Doctor Stewart’s assistant.”
“Hi, I’m the one you’re here to see not Robocop over there,” Tasha spoke sitting up on Damien’s lap.
Damien smothered a smile, but the medical assistant didn’t hide his mirth earning a glare from Dale.
“Just do your job and leave,” he gnashed out.
“Yes sir,” the assistant knelt down in front of Tasha and whistled, “What did you do?”
“Not sure yet but I’m about to find out,” Tasha answered.
“This is going to hurt.”
“Tell me something I don’t already know.”
Damien winced each time she winced in pain as her wrists were doctored. When it was over, he breathed a sigh of relief and glared at Dale when Tasha collapsed against him.
“There, all done though I would recommend an x-ray.”
Damien nodded, “I’ll see to it but why don’t you give her something for the pain.”
The assistant nodded, “Sure.” He reached into his bag and pulled out a syringe. An already half filled syringe.
“What’s in that?”
“Pain meds,” he answered pushing Tasha’s sleeve up her arm.
“What kind of pain meds?”
The assistant ignored him raising the syringe to her arm. Something wasn’t right. That suspicion was only confirmed when Elaine appeared out of nowhere and pressed the barrel of her gun against the assistant’s head.
“Long time no see. Now put that down before I plug you.”
The assistant chuckled, “Good to see you again—what name are you going by today? It doesn’t matter. Vladimir is very disappointed in you.”
“He’ll get over it once he’s dead. I won’t ask you to put that down again.”
“You don’t have a choice but to let me do this. If I don’t inject her everyone in this room is dead.”
The room fell silent, no one moved from where they stood not even to draw their guns which was weird considering Elaine, someone they didn’t know had one pressed against someone else’s head.
Tasha, she hadn’t made a sound either. Damien turned his head to stare at Tasha’s against his shoulder. Her eyes were closed and she was breathing deeply as if she was asleep. And right beside her was Mike—her something more than just a bodyguard or friend.
“She’ll be out for a while,” Mike said in a way of an explanation.
Damien wanted to ask why, but he stayed silent. Time for explanations came later when someone wasn’t threatening the woman he loved with a syringe.
“I’ll risk it. Now, don’t make me ask you again because—”
The assistant moved fast, disarming Elaine and holding the gun to her. But that advantage didn’t last long when Elaine knocked it out of his hand, twisted that same arm behind his back, gripped his chin with her free hand and jerked his head until a loud snap echoed in the room. The assistant fell heavily on the floor. Dead. And the guns were finally drawn.
“You want to explain that?” Dale demanded harshly.
Elaine crouched down and searched the assistant’s pockets, “Not particularly no. Either way it doesn’t concern you.”
“What do you mean it doesn’t concern us?” Richard asked more calmly.
Elaine stood holding a phone and another device in her hand. “Mike.”
“Got it.” He took the device, leaned down, grabbed the body and threw it over his shoulder and walked out of the room like there was nothing strange about what he was doing.
Elaine dropped the phone to the floor and crushed it under her booted foot, “I go away one month and you manage to turn everything upside down.”
Damien ignored that. “He does know there are hundreds of agents out there, right?”
“And yet no one will see him leave.” She crossed her arms over her chest, “Care to explain how you were caught?”
Damien shifted Tasha to lay across his lap, her head under his chin, “Actually, she was caught.”
“I know, I was there but you were spotted way before that. How would Dale here know to arrest her when you weren’t there?”
Damien stared at his cousin who stared back with no remorse. “I knew you wouldn’t let her go.”
Damien bit down hard on his jaw. “So how did you find me?”
“Security cameras.”
“Really?” The skepticism echoed in Elaine’s voice. “Homeland security know you borrowed their satellite?” She leaned to the side and smiled, “Audrey, it’s nice to meet you. Face to face I mean.”
Audrey paled and Dale shifted to block Elaine’s view of her, raising his gun higher. “You don’t look at her. You don’t even speak to her!”
Elaine shrugged and then turned to Damien, “Come on, we’re leaving. Where’s brainiac?”
“You are not going anywhere. You just killed someone in front of us.”
The look Elaine gave him chilled Damien to the bone. They needed to leave before his cousin’s neck got snapped like a twig too. “Elaine, let’s just go.”
“What about DJ? Are you going to leave him behind?” Dale taunted, “Doesn’t matter. Social Services must have him by now.”
Damien stood, Tasha in his arms, “Dale, that’s not funny.”
“Who said I’m joking? She’s going to jail and you will be too as an accessory. DJ will stay with social services until we find his real parents.”
Damien clenched his jaw and prayed for patience, “We’ll see what Ellie has to say to that. In fact, I should call her right now and ask her.”
Dale’s eyes narrowed dangerously, “Don’t involve her in this!”
“Why? She has a right to know her husband is about to put her nephew in a group home.”
“Well, she’ll find out soon enough,” Elaine offered, “I called her on my way here. It didn’t seem fair to leave her out of the reunion and I had a feeling you would be difficult.”
“Don’t you…”
“What, kill her?” Elaine cut him off. “Protecting your wife is what got us all in this mess in the first place. If Ellsa had done what she was told and cut off all ties with her, none of what happened would have happened. So damn stubborn!”
Damien had to smile at that last part. Some part of Ellsa he remembered had been emerging this last month. She was stubborn when she wanted something. That stubbornness led to one hot weekend and DJ.
She stirred in his arms and he looked down at her, catching her as she opened her eyes. She stared at him, almost like through him before she blinked, once, twice then she fully came awake. Damien held his breath and waited.
“Damien, what’s going on?”
He let out the breath, “You passed out from the pain.”
“I did?” she looked around, “Where’s the doctor?”
“He needed to leave,” Elaine answered quickly, “want to explain what you’re doing here?”
Tasha sighed, “It’s not as if I had much of a choice. This cop dragged me out of the cabin as if I’d killed his grandmother. Oh, and would you please tell him we don’t have another sister, much less a twin to me.”
“What else has he been telling you?” Elaine asked calmly. Too calmly.
“Not much else. He was about to list out my crimes but now that he has a gun pointed in my direction, I’m not sure I should ask.”
Richard moved forward, his gun already holstered like everyone else except Dale. He placed his hand on Dale’s shoulder and his gun followed suit. “Tasha, why don’t you and Damien go to the visitor’s room and Elaine stays and explains a few things to us about the past you don’t remember.”
Tasha turned to Elaine, who gave her a nod and a smile. “Okay, but don’t hurt her or I’ll really sue you guys.”
Richard nodded, “Deal.”