Brain Storm (A Taylor Morrison Novel Book 1) (50 page)

“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 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 to cause trouble.”

“He’s lying to you, Keith. He knows exactly what I’m talking about.” I didn’t need to open my eyes to know I had his full attention now. I could practically hear his brain working to figure out what I was trying to tell him.
 

“Hughes? Who exactly did you kill?” I could hear Keith’s footsteps on the concrete and sat up to see him walking slowly toward Hughes, as he waited for his answer.

“She’s playing you.” Hughes was coughing now, his words barely discernible. “Trying to turn you against me.”

Keith came to a stop, pulling a gun out from under his jacket and pressed it against Connors forehead. “Is that what you’re doing, Taylor? Playing me?”

He turned to look at me and I knew without a doubt he’d kill Connors without a moment’s hesitation. I could see it in his eyes, which were watching me like a hawk. This was a test in so many ways. And there were so many ways it could go wrong. Hughes stood next to him, a look of triumph on his face.
 

“How much did you sell me for, Hughes?” I asked, watching his confidence fade a bit. “Brown was in on it, wasn’t he? It might have worked, if you hadn’t crossed the line.” I shrugged and leaned back, placing the ice pack back on my face as I closed my eyes. “Ask him about Abby.”
 

Her name seemed to echo through the warehouse and the stillness that followed. Seconds seemed to stretch into minutes and I found myself holding my breath for what seemed an eternity. I was betting on the fact that if Keith knew about me, he’d know about others that had special abilities too.

“What about Abby, Hughes?” His voice was deadly, the sound of it sending a chill down my spine. “Is there something I should know?”

The wheezing sound of Hughes breathing suddenly filled the air and I realized he must have been holding his breath too. I wondered if he even realized that he’d done it. If I’d noticed from where I was sitting, Keith was sure to have noticed too.
 

The sound of the gunshot was as deafening as it was unexpected. Keith hadn’t even waited to hear what Hughes might have said. He’d just shot him. Terror brought me to my feet so fast, I knocked the chair over, the weight of it against the handcuff nearly dragging me to my knees. Hughes was on the ground next to Connors, not moving. I couldn’t see his face, and I didn’t want to. It was obvious from the amount of blood pooling under him that he was dead. I didn’t need a closer look. Connors was sitting where he had been, covered in blood splatter, but he was still in one piece. I turned away to find Lars standing still as a statue, his eyes fastened on Keith and the gun he still held in his hand.
 

A door smashed open, banging against the wall and within seconds, three men appeared, guns drawn, weaving through the crates and stacks of boxes like ghosts. Keith watched them cautiously as they moved in, assessing the situation.
 

“All clear,” one of the men called out and I watched as two more men melted out of the shadows. Five men on the ground. Six, I revised, not seeing the man who had been at the gate. Odds were good that at least one or more of them was working with Hughes. There was no way of knowing who it was. No wonder Keith looked nervous. I’d be afraid to turn my back on any of them if I were him.

There was a blur of movement as Vivian came into the room. She barely gave me a glance as she strode purposefully over to Hughes body, only to stop short as she noticed the gun still in Keith’s hand.
 

“Problems?” she asked, her casual tone belying the steely look she was giving him. I’d seen that look before. I’d grown up with it. Aunt Vivian was not happy.

“Not anymore.” Keith holstered the gun, giving a discreet nod to indicate the men in position behind her.

“You two.” She pointed to the two nearest men. “Get rid of this. The rest of you get ready to pull out. You,” she pointed at me, “sit down.”

I glared at her, fully intent to stand my ground only to have Lars snatch up the chair and shove me back into it.

She went to pour herself a cup of coffee, stalling as the two men drug Hughes’ body from the room, leaving a trail of blood in their wake.
 

“Well?” she snapped as soon as the door slammed closed behind them. “Explain this mess.”

“Hughes sold us out. He and Brown were in on it together.” He ground the words out in anger. “He took Abby.”

“What?” Vivian shook her head in frustration. “What are you talking about? Who told you this?”

He jerked his head in my direction and I braced myself as she headed my way.

Vivian had to be over 50, but she looked closer to forty. She’d changed her hair style and gotten rid of the grey. She’d slimmed down, losing the extra padding that had softened her features and I suspected there’d been a bit of plastic surgery here and there along the way. If I hadn’t known her when she was younger, I doubted I would have recognized her now.

“Hello Vivian,” I said as she came to stop before me. “May I say that death certainly becomes you.”

She hit me almost as hard as Hughes had, snapping my head back with the force of it.

“You’re lucky I like you, Vivian,” I said, wiping the blood away from the cut she’d managed to re-open. “That move didn’t work out so well for Hughes.”

“Shut up, Taylor. You’ve already managed to get one person killed here tonight. Let’s not add to that number.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Keith shot him. Not me.”

She hit me again, sending blood flying through the air and me back down onto the floor.

“Sit her up,” she ordered. Lars jerked me up and, for what seemed like the tenth time that night, slammed me back into the chair. Some help he was turning out to be.

I kept my head down this time, waiting for the dizziness to pass, watching the blood drip onto the floor at my feet.

“Are you finished now, Taylor?” she asked, echoing the words I had heard too many times in my childhood.

I lifted my head, and stared off to her left, making sure not to make eye contact. Docile and humble. It was what she expected and her satisfied sigh told me I had gotten it right, even after all these years.

“Now, what’s this nonsense about Brown and Hughes?” she demanded. “And I want facts, Taylor. Not your opinion.”

“Brown was working with Hughes in the beginning,” I mumbled, the words barely audible. “He had abilities, he was able to read thoughts, move things like me.” I heard her quiet gasp and smiled, my head down. She’d had no idea. Brown had been in her grasp the entire time and she’d never even known it.
 

“Brown was supposed to pretend to be kidnapped, beg me to rescue him, then let Hughes know where we were hiding. But he never did. He never made the call.”

“Why? What happened?” Keith had come up while I was talking. “Why didn’t they take you when they had the chance?”

“Brown was angry. Hughes had used Abby to find us after the fire. That’s how he knew where we were. Knew when I would be close enough for Brown to reach me.”

“Get on with it Taylor. What happened to the girl?” I was taking too long. Vivian was losing patience, I could hear it in her voice. “Where is she?”
 

“She’s dead. Hughes killed her. That’s why Brown didn’t call. He was angry about Abby.”

“What kind of fool do you take me for?” I looked up just in time to see the last hit coming. I went with it, landing on the floor and this time Lars let me stay there. “You would have
never
gone to the Agency knowing that Hughes was the one after you.”
 

“I went to the Agency
because
Hughes was after me.” I paused to wipe the blood off my face and let my words sink in while I stalled for time to think about what I was going to say next. “Sean was hurt and needed help. The Agency was the best chance he had and I thought I’d be able to smoke Hughes out on my own. Find out who else was working for him.”

My last words hung in the air, planting the seed and I waited, as she stood over me, shaking with anger. I wasn’t worried about another hit. Vivian had a pattern I was well familiar with. Three hits had always been the limit, but I wasn’t about to try to get up and test the theory. I’d been willing to take the beating so she’d believe what I told her, but that was as far as I was willing to go. One more smack and this was going to end here and now, which was the last thing I wanted. I needed to know who was behind this and I was pretty sure there couldn’t be too many more rungs on the ladder before I got there, so I was content to wait her out and see what came next. I’d given her a lot to think through and even more to worry about.
 

“Very convenient that Brown and Hughes can’t be present to tell their side of this story. Perhaps, Keith, you were a bit premature in killing him before we could ask any questions.” She directed her comments to Keith, but I could feel her gaze boring down on me, searching for some indication that I was lying to her. “What makes you think that Brown was telling you the truth? Perhaps he was just another victim.”

“Because I saw Hughes with Brown before we rescued him.” I decided it was time to stand up and started getting to my feet as I talked to her. “Because Brown was the one that attacked Sean and threw him off the cliff, before he came after me. Brown knew who the buyers were. He betrayed Hughes, just as Hughes betrayed you.”

I was on my feet, and bent back down to pick up the towel to mop at my face, making sure not to make eye contact with her.
 

“The people who killed Brown must have been the buyers,” Keith said, jumping ahead to the logical conclusion. “not some hillbillies robbing the place like Hughes suggested. So how did you manage to get away?”

“There was no one else, there. I lied about that.” I said, having decided to take the chance and tell them the truth, in order to drive home my point. “I killed Brown. Then I poured gasoline on him and set him on fire. The evidence was all right there. You would have known, if Hughes had bothered to tell you.”

She was dying to ask me how I did it. How I’d killed him. If Brown had gotten the jump on Sean, he was more than a match for me, yet here I was, and Brown was dead. She wouldn’t ask though, and admit that Hughes had kept the information from them and I certainly wasn’t going to volunteer anything. Better to let her wonder.

“This complicates things.” Vivian turned to Keith, apparently done with me. “We have to assume that they know who she is.”
 

“Oh, it’s worse than that, Vivian,” I said quietly, dabbing gently at my face until she turned back to stare at me. “I’m pretty sure they know where I am too. Unless you think Hughes was the type to walk away from large sums of cash.”

She stared at me, fury in her eyes that I dared to talk to her like that, but she didn’t make a move toward me. I was right and she knew it. Odds were good that Hughes had made arrangements other than the ones she had planned for tonight. She had much bigger problems to deal with than me right now.

“We need to talk.” She motioned to Keith, as she stepped away from me and headed toward the door.
 

“Get them ready to go,” he ordered Lars, as he fell into step behind her.