The Redcastle Redemption (The Athena Effect) Read online

  She washed her hands robotically, smoothing her hair and straightening her skirt. The nurse came back out, washing her hands alongside of her before tucking her light grey hair into a neat bun. She glanced up at Layla’s pale face in the mirror and did a double take. She’d never seen anyone look so shattered.

  “Are you alright?” the woman asked. Layla nodded numbly, and the woman went blue and gray with concern and pity. “Is he your boyfriend?” she asked.

  “Who?” Layla whispered, her pupils still dilated with shock.

  “The handsome one … with the tattoos,” she said haltingly.

  Layla composed herself and turned to face her, encompassing the woman with a powerful pink compassion underlined with a strong sense of purpose. “I want you to do everything you possibly can to help him recover,” she commanded.

  “Absolutely,” the nurse nodded firmly, her eyes determined.

  Layla gathered her own determination and excused herself to peek around the corner. She took one last look down the hallway to see Ramon and Jarod listening to the doctor as he explained the situation to Calvin’s frightened father. Crystal cuddled Poddy, showering him with affection and concern. Layla stifled a sob, backed away slowly and spun around, rushing down the hall as fast as she could to the sign marked “Exit”.

  Flying down the stairs, she made her way into the lobby, stopping to ask an orderly where the nearest airport could be found. She burst out of the emergency room doors and raced to the curb, naively looking around for a taxi.

  A car pulled up right in front of her and screeched to a halt. The driver jumped out, trailing a cloud of frantic orange panic as he brushed past Layla to open the passenger side door. He reached inside to take the arm of a heavily pregnant woman, her face contorted in pain and fear.

  “Help! She’s in labor!” the man turned to call out, appealing to Layla as if she were some kind of receptionist. Surprised, she took the frightened woman’s other arm and assisted him in pulling her from the car and guiding her towards the entrance. The orderly met them with a wheelchair, and once the woman was seated Layla paused, gripping her by the chin to gaze intensely into her face for a moment. The woman straightened up in the chair, a newfound courage blazing behind her eyes.

  Layla looked up at the man and held out her hand. “Give me the car keys and go with her.”

  The woman was wheeled away to deliver their baby while Layla ran to slip behind the wheel of their car. Fitting, she thought, that a new life was beginning just as hers was coming to an end. She drove away fast, ignoring the insistent buzzing coming from her purse when Ramon started calling her. She finally reached over to turn her phone off.

  “I’m sorry,” she sobbed out loud, wiping her eyes to focus on the road as she weaved through traffic. She reached the airport in record time, stashing some apology cash in the glove-box before abandoning the car at the baggage check.

  She raced inside to study the board listing flights to Los Angeles, cutting in line at the ticket counter with ease. She made short work of the clerk, watching with clinical detachment as the young man worked like a demon to get her a prime seat on the next departing flight. Layla smiled a smile that she didn’t feel and flew straight through security like it didn’t even exist. She finally settled into a seat in the lounge, tapping her feet together nervously while she waited to board her flight.

  She took out her phone to type in one last message to Ramon.

  I’m sorry, but this is the only way. Cali and Michael will die if I don’t do this, and I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t at least try to trade myself for them. Please don’t come looking for me, and please DO NOT involve the authorities. I now know for certain that they’ll kill everyone if you do, and I’d rather die than see them hurt you. If I don’t make it back I want you to know that being with you has made me happier than I ever thought I could be. The past few weeks have been the best of my entire life, but it’s time to let it go.

  She paused for a moment, her blurred vision making it difficult for her to focus on the tiny keyboard. She finally typed in what she’d never been able to say in person.

  I love you. I’ll always love you.

  Layla wiped her eyes and turned off the phone just as the call to board the plane was broadcast over the intercom. She stood up, smoothing her skirt and straightening her blouse. It was time to face the fact that karma had finally caught up to her. Ramon’s childish transgressions were nothing compared to the crimes she’d committed, and he didn’t deserve to be dragged down with her. She went to take her seat, stopping to casually drop her phone into a garbage can on the way out of the terminal.

  She buckled her seatbelt and started picking at her fingernails, fighting hard not to cry while she waited for the plane to take off. Deep down inside Layla had always known that her recent happiness was destined to be fleeting, and that fate would somehow find a way to punish her. Even Cali had suspected that their powers might contain some kind of curse. There was every reason to believe that their lives were going to end badly, just as they had for both their grandmother and their parents.

  Layla’s chest constricted with pain when she thought about leaving Ramon, but she knew it was for his own good. The inevitable had finally happened, and the people who had taken her family would kill anyone who stood anyone who stood in their way. She prayed that she wasn’t too late to save Michael, wondering if they’d done anything so horrible to Cali.

  As the plane taxied down the runway, picked up speed and lifted off she closed her eyes and gripped the armrests. Once she was in the sky there was no turning back and she fought to keep from crying out loud, drawing a deep shuddering breath. A woman sitting next to her touched her arm gently. “Excuse me miss… But are you alright?”

  She pasted on a misleading smile, sending her as much indifference as she could muster through eyes swimming with tears. “I’m perfectly fine.”

  Her fellow traveler successfully pacified, Layla pressed her face into the window, alone with her thoughts. When she looked down at the tops of the clouds as her eyes spilled over. They looked soft and comforting, like so many pictures of heaven she’d seen, but she knew what real paradise was. Her idea of heaven was lying warm and safe in Ramon’s arms, and paradise was right there, hidden just behind his shining eyes.

  She doubted that she’d ever look into those eyes again.

  ~

  Ramon waited outside Mina’s apartment complex for her to get home, and by the time she pulled into her carport he was a desperate man. He could scarcely believe that Layla had actually left him, but he had a pretty good idea of what happened. She was going to try and sacrifice herself for her brother and Cali.

  When he got her text his worst fears were confirmed. He knew that she was only trying to protect him, but despite what she said he also knew she needed his help. He had to find her before she turned herself over to a bunch of killers, and for that he needed some help too.

  He was fully prepared to beg for it.

  Agent Kim got out of her car, genuinely surprised to find him standing there. “Officer Ruiz?”

  “I need your help,” he said. “Please. It’s an emergency.”

  She sized him up with suspicion, gesturing for him to follow her. “Come inside.”

  He followed her up the stairs and into her sparse apartment, watching her remove her holster and place her gun on the table. He took the seat she gestured to. “What brings you here?” she asked.

  “Can you trace burner phones?”

  “Maybe. Usually. After all, they have to use existing transmission networks.”

  “Can you do it off the record?”

  “Why?”

  “Layla’s in trouble, and I don’t want to involve the police.”

  “Are you asking me to break the law?”

  His voice was urgent, “It’s a matter of life or death.”

  “Whose life … and whose death?” she asked.

  He explained what had happened, noticing the flicke
r of alarm in her eyes when she heard that Michael had been taken. She sprang into action, sitting down at her desk and logging onto the FBI database. Now Ramon was grateful for her no-nonsense approach, because the same dogged determination she displayed when she was suspicious of Layla was now being put to use to help track her down.

  He gave her Layla’s phone number, watching her access a variety of encrypted programs. Nothing seemed to work, and she gnawed on her lip with a scrunched up brow, stubbornly refusing to give up. Michael would have recognized that look as her game face, the one he found completely irresistible.

  Finally, she smiled triumphantly, looking up from the screen. “After the call you received at the crime scene, it looks like some data was transmitted to her device at the hospital… a video clip perhaps.”

  “Proof of life?” Ramon guessed.

  “Most likely.”

  “Her phone last signaled from the airport,” she announced. “The final contact she made…” she looked up at him again, “was you.”

  “I know,” he choked out, fighting to control his emotions. “She wants me to let her go and not to contact the feds.”

  “So that’s why you didn’t come to see me at the office.” She nodded with understanding.

  Ramon leaned forward in his chair, his eyes on fire. “Where did the last call to her phone come from?”

  She kept searching, muttering about what she was doing like she was talking to herself, “It’s not a burner phone. Looks like they’re using burner numbers created for an existing phone line. The numbers are used once and discarded … but like burners, they’re transmitted over existing towers. With the right access …” She clicked away on her computer, her nimble gamer fingers flying over the keyboard.

  “Hmm,” she said. “Interesting.”

  “What?” Ramon blurted out, completely beside himself.

  “The transmission tower is located just outside of the Angeles National Forest.”

  “Where’s that?” he asked.

  “A couple hours northeast of Los Angeles. It’s a wilderness area–A forest preserve. Nearly a million acres.”

  “A forest? Why?” Ramon asked.

  “There are lots of remote cabins there, weekend retreats. It’s not too far from the city. It might be some kind of safe house or meeting place.” She looked at him with grave eyes. “A good place to hold hostages.”

  “That must be where they took Cali and Michael.” He exhaled, running his hand across his scalp. “Los Angeles. She knew it was them.”

  “Who?”

  “Some people that nearly killed her and Michael in LA. The gang of thugs that manage Senator Blackwell for the mob.”

  “The senator? You think the senator is after Layla again?”

  He nodded grimly. “Yeah. She’s been expecting this all along, but I didn’t believe he’d risk it. They must want to use her to control him or something.”

  “But why would they take Michael and Cali? For a trade?”

  “More like bait I guess.”

  “We should report it! I can get the agency involved.”

  “No!” Ramon cried. “She was warned that they’d know if she reported it. Do you remember how easily they pulled strings to cover everything up before? I think they have informants on the inside.”

  “Dirty cops,” Mina scowled.

  She’d been around people doing things just outside the law her whole life, but police corruption flew in the face of everything she’d gotten into law enforcement for. The thought that it existed right under her nose made her grit her teeth with anger.

  “Mina, these people are cold-blooded killers. If they catch wind of anything they might panic. I really doubt they ever intend to let anyone go.”

  She nodded, acknowledging the gravity of the situation. “If they make any more calls from the same phone I might be able to pinpoint their location more accurately.”

  Ramon stood up. “I’m heading down south right now. Will you continue to trace her number and contact me if you find anything?”

  She stood to shake his outstretched hand. “Sure.”

  He nodded gratefully. “Thank you for your help.”

  “Good luck,” she said, watching as he walked out the door.

  Mina paced in her tiny studio apartment, thinking about all of the roadblocks thrown in her way when she tried to investigate Michael’s improbable tale about the senator. She recalled with a new clarity his frustration at not being able to prove anything. She’d laughed it off and scoffed at him, unable to believe that such tremendous conspiracies actually existed in the government she’d sworn allegiance to.

  She closed her eyes and recalled the look on his face when he finally confessed everything to her. She’d thought he was being overly dramatic, but she had been wrong. He was afraid of them, very afraid, and now she could see that he’d had every reason to be.

  What if they killed him?

  She raced over to her table and strapped her gun back on, grabbing her gym bag and running out the door. She stopped Ramon just as he reached his patrol car.

  “Wait! I want to go with you.”

  “Why?” he asked.

  “I know that area like the back of my hand. I used to go to a camp up there every summer. Besides, I have some vacation time due to me, and there aren’t any really hot investigations going on right now. I’d really like to help.”

  “It has to be off the record,” he warned her.

  “I know,” she agreed, adding, “I care what happens to them too.”

  “I don’t know if you should get involved. This could be dangerous.”

  She rolled her dark eyes at him, gesturing towards her car.

  “I’ll drive.”

  ~

  Chapter Five

  DUNGEON

  ~

  Caledonia was tossed into the truck after Michael and the door was slammed shut, the bolt of the lock clicking into place. “I’m so sorry,” she sobbed, grabbing his hand to apply pressure to the wound. “I never thought they would do something like this. I just need to get back to Calvin… I have to find out what happened…”

  She immediately got to work, ripping strips of fabric from the bottom of her shirt and using them to bandage Michael’s wound. He was deathly pale and shaking, and she worked quickly to stem the bleeding and bind the stump tightly.

  She swayed on her knees as the truck began to move. “I’ll do a better job of this when we get to wherever they’re taking us,” she promised.

  Michael’s teeth started chattering from cold and shock, and Caledonia sat down by his side, wrapping her arms around him.

  “P-promise me you’ll k-keep trying to get away,” he said.

  She gritted her teeth, willing herself feel the anger, forcing it to overtake the despair. “I won’t leave without you again.”

  “No!” he cried. “L-let them kill me. … I deserve to die.”

  “Stop talking like that,” she said, doing her best to soothe him. “Look at me.” She took his face between her bloodstained hands and encased him in a soothing cloud of pinkish lavender, tranquilizing him with all of her might. His head grew heavy and fell onto her shoulder, his eyelids fluttering.

  “It’s gonna be alright,” she lied.

  “No it’s not,” he shook his head. “There’s something you don’t know. … Something I’ve done,” he mumbled right before he drifting off into a dreamless sleep.

  Cali sat in the back of the truck, cradling Michael’s head in her lap. She wished she could sleep too, but every time she closed her eyes she saw Calvin getting shot and falling. She felt the truck leave the freeway after hours of driving, jostling them around as they turned onto some bumpy winding roads. Her ears popped as they gained elevation and she smelled pine trees, realizing they were climbing into an unknown forest.

  The perfect place to dump their bodies, she thought, shaking Michael when the truck finally jolted to a full stop.

  “Michael … Michael … wake up.”

>   The men still had their sunglasses on when the door rolled open to reveal a large, secluded cabin set amidst a grove of pines. Late afternoon light slanted through the trees, and Cali tried to calculate the time. They had been driving all day long.

  “Get out,” one of the men barked.

  Caledonia helped her groggy cousin climb out of the truck onto a crushed gravel driveway, her arm around his waist. Her eyes darted around to take in as much of the terrain as possible, noting the steep wooded hillside that rose up behind the building’s tall peaked roof, leading to a rugged wilderness that went on as far as the eye could see.

  There wasn’t another building within sight.

  Michael and Cali were each seized from behind by both arms and frog-marched towards the house where they were herded into what turned out to be a luxuriously appointed hunting lodge. An impressive granite foyer led into a great room, its centerpiece a massive fireplace hewn of the same stone. Faux fur throws softened a pair of leather couches that faced the hearth, and a bearskin rug with its snarling head still attached crouched underfoot like it was about to spring to life.

  “Whose place is this?” Caledonia asked.

  “Shuddup,” the man behind her snarled.

  Western themed art decorated the rustic wood paneled walls, and racks of antlers loomed over a wet bar sparkling with cut crystal decanters and glasses. A low table held ashtrays stuffed with half smoked cigar butts and empty glasses.

  “I’m going to need some medical supplies,” Caledonia demanded as they were pushed through the room and down a hallway towards a door covered with hardware.

  The men that propelled them forward ignored her, watching as the third one produced a set of keys and struggled with the multiple locks on the door. It finally creaked open with an eerie groan, and Cali and Michael were thrust down a steep and narrow stairway.

  The second room they found themselves in was very different from the first one. Dank and windowless, a bare light-bulb swayed from the low ceiling, illuminating a thin and dirty mattress on the floor. Chains that terminated in handcuffs dangled from pipes that protruded from the walls, and the cold cement floor was spattered with a dark substance that Caledonia guessed was not paint. An old ceramic sink was mounted in the corner, next to a bucket that was no doubt intended to serve as their toilet.