Take Her to HeVan (Nephilim Book 6) (29 page)

“Sarah Kline, the famous computer expert, retired from business to open a sanctuary for women and children. It’s in Wisconsin and it’s simply called ‘The Sanctuary.’ You can look her up on the tablet or use it to find refuge closer to here. It’s a last resort place for women to go to who need to completely disappear from those who are abusing them. I apologize again for being so rough; I would never intentionally hurt a woman,” said Jural.

Linda gasped when another man appeared in the doorway. Gary had crept up from the stairwell when Jural hadn’t come back.

“Gary won’t hurt you. He is a landscaper from Denver who volunteered to help us search for Marla when she was taken from her bachelorette party. We need to search the rest of this building and then we’ll leave you in peace. If you want help right away, Sarah is here in town for the wedding; you can call in a few hours and talk to her. I’m not going to give you the phone number for the hotel.” Her eyes sharpened when he said that.

“I think you would feel more comfortable if you looked it up on the tablet. That way, you would be assured I wasn’t luring you into a trap.” He could tell she hadn’t thought of that. Finally, he pulled a tool out of the bag.

“If you slide this under the edge of the door, no one will be able to break in again.”

“Including you?” she asked and he had the grace to blush. He stepped into the hall, closing the door behind him. Moments later, he heard the tool sliding into place.

“Come along, Gary, we still have four more floors to search in this building. The odds are against Marla being here, but we can’t afford to overlook anything,” said Jural.

“Hey, man, you had all that stuff ready. Do you do this a lot? I mean, helping people?” he asked.

“We are always prepared. On our island, there are so few women. Without women, there is no future. They deserve to be treated with kindness and respect. While the wives of our men set up the Sanctuary and run it, we support it with our wealth. There are too many to help them all, but we help whom we can. You are the same,” he said, looking over at Gary. “You could have gone home to your bed. Yet you came to help. This world needs more people like you, Gary.”

“Even though I’m gay and will never marry a woman?”

“Whom you love isn’t important, Gary; it’s only important that you love,” said Jural as they went up another flight of stairs.

After searching the rest of the building and not finding anything, they headed back downstairs. Jural was delighted to see the woman and her two children standing beside Gary’s truck. As a landscaper, he needed to carry his crew from site to site so he had a large crew cab truck.

“I decided to trust you. The man who’s after me has a lot of skill. He always finds us. I looked up that Sarah Kline and read about her writing facial recognition software to help the police find criminals. I think he’s using something like that. A thousand dollars might get us to Wisconsin, but he’d only track us there. I’d hate to lead a man like that to your Sanctuary.”

Jural put his hands on his hips and thought what to do. He took a long look at the industrial area. Linda was just about to give up when he spoke. “Okay, then this is what we’ll do. Get into the back and the three of you lie down. We’ll drive to an all-night store like Walmart and I’ll go in and get you some cleaner clothes to change into and some luggage. Then we’ll head over to the hotel. I’ll phone ahead and Becky and Sarah will temporarily blank out all the security, they can do stuff like that. There are no cameras at the Sanctuary; you’ll be safe there.

“Becky, Sarah’s sister, used to work for the CIA. She’ll create a new identity for you going back generations. Then you can learn a new skill, something unrelated to what you’re doing now.”

Linda interrupted him, “I don’t have skills. Since my husband died, I’ve been waitressing. That’s where I met the creep. I thought he was the answer to my prayers and he turned out to be a devil. I sure hope you’re not another devil, mister. If I wasn’t so desperate, I wouldn’t trust you. But we really need to get out of Boulder.”

“Don’t worry about it. We’ll give you training. Maybe to be a teacher? There are lots of tiny towns with small populations all over the US without cameras. We’ll find you one that doesn’t even have an ATM machine. Teachers are always welcome. Now how about we get going?”

He didn’t step forward; he still let the woman make the decision. That final gesture decided her. “Okay, you’ll have to unlock the truck.”

“I gotta say, buddy, hanging out with you is never dull,” said Gary.

Jural gave him a quick grin before placing a call to Markus at the hotel. He wanted Becky to get started on her magic. He reported the empty building and let the team know someone would have to cover the next one.

Everything went precisely as Jural said it would. Even better, Sarah Kline met them in the lobby and Linda recognized her from the picture on Wikipedia. Only the Wikipedia article didn’t mention anything about Sarah being married and pregnant. She took them to a suite at the top floor of the hotel with three bedrooms. She had been sharing it with Becky and her
Ankida
. She offered the third bedroom to Linda, who still hadn’t shared her name, and then turned to Jural for an explanation.

“Can we offer a bed to Gary? He’s been up all night with us searching. I don’t want him to get into a wreck driving home,” said Jural when he saw Gary getting ready to leave.

“Of course; we rented the entire floor. Here, Gary, the room number is on the card. You’ll find a robe and other amenities in the room. A meal is being served in the banquet room downstairs whenever you are ready. We had intended to spend the morning decorating for the wedding; now it’s our search command,” she said with a sad smile.

After a bemused and amazed Gary left to catch some shuteye, Tammy turned to Jural for the whole story.

“Is there any news?” he asked, worried about the lack of results.

“No. Other than knowing he carried her off over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. We’ve had no luck finding where he’s stashed her. The sheriff drove out to his ranch and he didn’t find her there either. Of course, after Charlotte’s brief visit, we know she’s in some kind of brick derelict building. Charlotte is going to try again to get a lock on her but it sucks so much energy
—
and being pregnant makes it even harder for her.”

Neither of them noticed the door to the spare room open. Little Sara Samuelson wanted one of the oranges on the table. She was really hungry and mama was washing Andi in the tub. She felt safe because the nice lady’s name was Sarah, too. Her daddy used to sing her a song about Sarah smiling. Maybe it was about this lady; she had a nice smile.

She was about to go to the bowl of fruit, when they started talking about a bad man. It scared her until she realized they were trying to help the lady the bad man hurt. When they said the part about the bad man carrying the lady like a sack of potatoes, she gasped out loud.

Tammy and Jural turned at the sound.

“I’m sorry, honey, did we scare you? You’re safe here with your mama; no bad men can get you. Do you need something?” Tammy asked her in a quiet voice.

“Can I have an orange, please? Mama’s washing Andi. She’s gonna pop me in next, she said.”

“Why don’t you take this bowl of fruit into your room? Maybe your mama or Andi would like something too,” said Tammy, carrying it to the door. She knelt down on one knee and gave the bowl to the girl who held it with both hands. Sarah and Jural waited by the couch. They didn’t want to overwhelm her.

“He took her into the banana building. Like a sack of potatoes,” Sara whispered.

Tammy tried not to let her excitement show. “Oh, did you see?”

“Yes, we were walking and I saw. Mama was busy with Andi; they didn’t see, only me. He had a truck. Not big like Gary’s truck, just a regular truck. And he put the lady on his shoulder just like a sack of potatoes and carried her into the banana building.”

“Does your mama know where the banana building is?” asked Tammy.

“Well, of course she does. We were walking by it every day,” said Sara matter of fact before she took the bowl of fruit and went into the bedroom. Her mother was calling her.

Tammy got up and went back to Sarah and Jural. “Did you hear?”

“I sure did. Let me call Becky and she can start looking. We may need to have them show us the way. Do you think they could come down to the banquet room?” asked Sarah.

“No, it’s too dangerous. They would be seen on the cameras in the halls and elevator. Have Becky come here,” said Jural.

“Of course, you’re right. I forgot for a minute there that our little family needs protection too,” said Sarah before she picked up her cell to call her sister. They decided not to contact Karlo and Charl until they had something more solid. They didn’t want to get their hopes up.

Fifteen minutes later, Becky and her
Ankida
entered the suite. She was carrying the small laptop computer she took everywhere. It might look like a simple tablet but Jalen, one of Grace’s
Ankida
, had souped it up for her. It had the processing capabilities of a supercomputer.

“The little girl called it the banana building?” Becky asked.

“Yep, but she went away before we could ask her more,” said Sarah.

“Why don’t you knock and see if mom would be willing to help us,” asked Becky.

“Yes, I was just waiting until you got here. I wanted to give them as much time as we could. Mama is still a little leery,” said Sarah before she went over to knock on the door.

It was now about seven in the morning. Most of the buildings Becky had parceled out had already been searched, with only four or five remaining. The searchers would be returning to the hotel to rest and refuel before going back out again. They hoped Charlotte would be able to find Marla through astral projection again.

Amy had been able to stop her labor but Markus had forbidden her from attempting another vision as it put too many additional lives at risk.

Linda looked at her two beautiful girls and thought about how her life had spiraled out of control. She had been given an opportunity to save them and she was going to take it. Her only worry was that somehow this was all an elaborate trap. Part of her worried and part of her told herself she was being paranoid. She had been put through so much in the last year it was amazing she hadn’t gone crazy. If it hadn’t been for her girls, she might have. For them, she could do anything, she
would
do anything.

When she heard the knock at the door, her heart stuttered for a moment. Checking that her girls were absorbed in the cartoons on the TV screen, she walked over to see who was there. Opening the door, she found Sarah Kline; behind her, she could see Sarah’s twin, Becky, the woman introduced as Tammy, and Jural, the man who had brought them.

“Is there a problem?” she asked.

She wasn’t aware of the fear in her eyes. Sarah saw it and understood it, having dealt with so many women. Had it only been six months? She reached out to take one of the woman’s hands and softened her voice.

“No, there’s no problem. Are your girls okay, do they need anything? Would you like to order some food for them? I had mentioned taking them down to the buffet, but Jural reminded me that given your concerns, it wouldn’t be a good idea,” said Sarah.

She didn’t jump into what the little girl might have seen. Making these three feel safe needed to come first.

“Thank you for the bowl of fruit. I would like to order some more food for them. Maybe some cereal?” she said to Sarah, sending a smile to Jural for his fast thinking.

“Oh, I think we can do better than that. The girls deserve a little spoiling. How about pancakes or French toast? We can set up a mini buffet here in the suite,” Sarah said, gesturing to the table at the back of the suite that could be used for dining or meetings and the large credenza against the wall.

“Jural, are you hungry?” Sarah asked, turning to him with a smile.

Knowing what Sarah was really asking, he smiled before telling them both he was hungry enough to eat the curtains. It had the added benefit of being the truth; he hadn’t had any food since dinner the night before.

“Why don’t you go ahead and call in a large order. I’m feeling a little hungry myself. Having a buffet of food to graze from would suit me fine,” she said to Jural. Then turning back to Linda she explained, “I find I get heartburn if I eat meals that are too large. Ooh
—
that was a solid kick,” she said, putting a hand to her side. “If the girls are okay for the moment, why don’t you come in here and sit with the three of us for a few minutes,” asked Sarah.

Looking back at her girls for a moment, Linda hovered over the threshold and then decided she had to go all in and trust these people. She left the door open a crack so she could hear them and she walked over to the seating area and perched on the edge of a chair. Looking around, she realized she’d never been in a hotel room like this. These people had real money; this was a very high-end suite and she was just a waitress from Boulder.

Aware of the clock ticking, it was incredibly hard for Sarah, Becky, and Tammy to make small talk. They also knew that if this woman didn’t trust them, they were sunk. It hadn’t been lost on them that she hadn’t given them her name yet. Becky, always one to jump in with two feet, did the same thing here.