Chapter 33
Private jet en route to Moscow
The jet refueled in Madrid and landed in Moscow a few hours later. Calise dozed uncomfortably, always waking up to find Shane outlining her face with his fingers and speaking softly to her.
Still tender from the delivery, Calise eased herself into the black sedan waiting for them at the Moscow airport. The human driver conversed some with Shane in Russian while she stared out the window at run-down houses and people warming their hands around garbage cans turned furnaces. Snow fell in one continuous blanket. The hopelessness of the people sank into her very being.
As the drive wore on into the apple-lined trees of the country, she had to ask. “Shane, how did you fall?”
He was in her face, pointing at her. “Never, never ask me that again.” He grabbed her shirt on either side of her neck and lifted her slightly. His lip quivered and curled into a sneer. “That’s between me and my Father and is none of your business.”
The hollow circles of his empty eyes bored into hers, and she realized in that instant, Shane was more than a little mentally unstable. His temper was on a short fuse and whatever had happened to him, whatever he’d seen and done since they’d been apart, he was not all there anymore. That made him dangerous.
He released her and backed off.
They didn’t speak for the rest of the drive.
After traveling about three hours northeast of Moscow, and with daylight waning, Shane told the driver to slow in a forested area outside of the town they’d just passed through. The driver turned off the engine, and Shane retrieved boots, a coat, hat, gloves, and a flashlight from the trunk for Calise. “Go,” he instructed the driver. Then he said to Calise, “Nara may or may not know you’re here, but this is one of her family’s orphanages where they have angel babies. They are tortured here for their entire childhood so they fall or commit suicide in their teenage years.”
“What?” Panic, fear, and rage consumed her thoughts. This is where she brought my baby? The horrors that a demon, unsupervised in an institution, could inflict on innocent babies, was…unthinkable. She’d seen the psych ward, and that was adults… Maybe this is what Ellen was talking about with the missing and abducted angel babies?
Calise hurried to get bundled up as the icy cold hit her lungs. Snow seemed to be forever falling here, settling a glaze of white hope on the dank futility of her situation. She needed to get Michael out of here. “What does my sister-in-law Liza have to do with all this?”
“She runs the place, under protest. Liza owed Nara’s father money, and her debt came due. But she’s torn. She may be an ally, depending on what’s happened since I left. Calise, this isn’t going to be easy, but we will get our babies away from Nara. I love you. I can be a wonderful father to the kids. I can make you happy, you’ll see. Together we can help Liza, and you’ll save me in turn, just in time.”
How many babies is he talking about? Save him just in time from what?
The iron gates creaked as they stole into the compound under the light of the moon, their boots crunching on the fresh snow. Calise could see the hollow circles of Shane’s eyes every time he turned to check that she was keeping up with him. Her heart pounded out of her chest as she realized she only had the necklace to fight Nara. She desperately hoped that Shane and Liza were on her side.
“We’ll go in the side entrance, get the babies, and get out,” Shane explained.
“You keep saying, ‘babies.’ What do you mean?”
He stopped and slumped against the dirty wall behind him. “Nara and I had a baby. I’m not leaving here without both our children.”
Not good.
“Do you believe in me, Calise? Do you trust me and will you prove it?” Shane was beginning to show signs of fear. His gaze darted back and forth, and he kept wringing his hands together with paranoia. His musty aura surrounded him like moldy leaves tumbling around in a frosty autumn wind.
“Yes, I do trust you.”
He closed his eyes and leaned in. He wanted a kiss.
She closed her eyes and hesitantly reciprocated. Lucas will understand—I would forgive him anything he did in the name of protecting our child.
The kiss lasted way too long because Shane wanted it to. In college, his lips were like butter, his tongue would send tingling shock waves to her toes, and she’d never wanted him to stop. Now, his breath was acidic and his tongue singed her with pain as it greedily entered her mouth, begging reciprocation.
****
Commercial airline en route to Moscow, Russia
“Tell me everything one more time.” Lucas repeated for the third time. “Slowly.”
Dean’s ramblings made no sense. So far he’d picked out that Calise was missing and so was his son. “Cali said Liza works for a lunatic that tortures babies. Does that make sense?”
Staring out the window, Lucas’s mind only perked up for Cali’s name or Michael’s.
“Are you even listening? Seriously, my sister can pick them,” Dean continued. “But then again, apparently so can I. Liza’s last purchase on our credit card was a one-way ticket to Russia.”
Lucas ignored all of his body’s screaming pain. He focused on any information that might help him find Cali. “So it was Ellen that told you to follow Liza’s trail?”
“Yeah,” Dean blabbered on. “It sounds crazy, but Ellen said it’s not crazy, and then after that lady at the airport…”
“What lady again?” Lucas willed ibuprofen and a caffeine-laced beverage to appear in front of him, but nothing happened.
“Ellen gave me a card with a phone number.” Dean produced the white card with numbers typed in the middle. “What do you think? Could Liza really be working for some whack job family in Russia torturing babies? I never saw Liza as someone who’d do that.”
“Yes,” Lucas nodded. “I believe Cali. And Dean…” he said, laying a hand on his shoulder, “…sometimes your eyes only see what you can handle. Now this friend of Ellen’s…”
Dean bobbed his head. “Yeah, so I’m tying my shoes after I got through security, and there was a chick being led away by security after her nether regions kept setting off that metal detector light saber thing.” He waggled his eyebrows and elbowed Lucas in the ribs.
Lucas made a circular motion with his fingers to get him to move the story along. “Dean, c’mon buddy. Ellen’s friend…” He reminded him.
“Oh yeah! Well, I saw your face in a different interrogation room as three guards were leaving. They said they were going to stuff you in an empty suitcase and dump your body in Lake Michigan. I figured I better do something before airport security snuffed my future brother-in-law. That’s when I saw that woman. Dude, she was chiseled perfection. She told me she had many other virtues besides her legs and asked me what I thought we should do.”
Lucas had only seen bursts of light, but Dean kept insisting he was talking to some hot woman who gave him flashes of inspiration.
“So she let you in the room and gave you the dummy passport and airplane tickets? She helped me get all my weapons back on?”
“Yup, and gave me a gun.” Dean patted his coat.
“Good. So what’s my name again on that ticket? Mr. Rut Vie?”
Dean leaned in close. “I think so. Look, I’m telling you, when I hauled you out of there in the wheelchair I found, and the door was shutting her into the room, I swear…she sat in the chair you just got out of. And when I looked back as the door closed, she morphed into you, bound and gagged, like I found you…”
“Good old Ellen,” Lucas said.
“That was like a miracle or something.” Dean’s face glazed over in amazement.
“Now if only we’re allowed one more and get Cali and Michael back.”
Lucas woke to Dean snapping his fingers in front of his face to get his attention.
“Hey, you’ve got to give me something here, man. I hoisted you from an airport interrogation room and went through hell to get you on this flight with me. Tell me what’s really going on.”
Lucas wondered if his face appeared much older than it should have. Did young soldiers come back from war with fewer worry lines than him? Could Dean see his congealed mixture of fear, anger, and guilt? Lucas shook his head at Dean and turned to stare back out the window.
A finger flicked his shoulder. “Not. Good. Enough.”
“I can’t tell you,” Lucas sighed. “Isn’t it enough that your sister trusts me?”
“I don’t care. I’m not sure I trust you. My sister was in hysterics over her baby being kidnapped. Now she is gone, and I’ve maxed out my credit card for what could be a wild goose chase to Russia!” Dean huffed, ready to burst.
Lucas rubbed his eyes. “Cali and your nephew may have been kidnapped by a person from my past. A very dangerous woman. Ellen might have contacts in Russia that can help us track them, if they’re here. When we land, I think we should separate because I don’t need another person from Cali’s family in danger.”
“What kind of danger?” Dean asked darkly. “What kind of trouble are you in?”
“The worst possible kind,” Lucas answered.