Imprints Page 13

  He made to go around me, but I put out an arm. “You don’t have to go anywhere,” I told Spring. “He doesn’t own you.”

  Spring made a frightened noise in her throat, but she didn’t obey his command.

  He hit me. Pain exploded in my cheek, as I was knocked sideways to the ground. Spring screamed. I curled, arms going up to protect my head as I wondered what would come next. Nothing did. I risked a peek to see that Jake had knocked the man to the floor. From where Jake had been across the room, he must have started moving the second the man came through the door.

  Jake leapt on top of Jimmy and was poised for another strike when Dar’s voice thundered, “That’s enough!”

  Jake’s jaw worked with anger, and I knew that if he hadn’t been playing a role for Dar, he’d probably have given Spring’s husband the thorough thrashing he deserved. With effort, he lowered his hand and climbed to his feet, his eyes still wary. I’d known Jake was strong, but I hadn’t suspected he could fell a husky man like that with one blow. Maybe the ability was left over from his college days when he actually had worked construction.

  Male disciples now flanked Dar, and their combined bulk made a solid wall between Spring and Jimmy. Someone helped me to my feet, and I stood a little unsteadily next to Spring. Her son had buried his face in her shoulder and whimpered softly.

  “You will leave now,” Dar told the man firmly.

  “She’s my wife!” Jimmy insisted. “You can’t hold her against her will.”

  Dar turned to Spring. “Do you want to go with this man?”

  For the long space of several heartbeats, Spring didn’t speak. Jimmy glared at her, a cruel confidence seeping into his expression. I felt heartsick at what I knew would happen. I reached out to her, squeezing her arm in encouragement.

  “No,” Spring said at last. “I don’t want to ever see him again.” My breath whooshed out in relief, and I wasn’t the only one.

  “Would you like me to call the police?” This question Dar directed to both of us.

  I glanced at Spring, whose head gave a tiny jerk to indicate no. “I guess not,” I said reluctantly. My cheek was already swelling, and when I gingerly touched it, I could feel a little blood.

  “You need to leave now,” Dar said to Jimmy.

  The man’s upper lip curled. “This isn’t over!”

  “Yes, it is,” Dar countered.

  “I’ll come after you!” Jimmy yelled. “I’ll get the boy!” With another snarl, he was seen to the door by two of the larger male followers.

  I put an arm around Spring. “Good for you.”

  “What if he really does get little Jim?” She was shaking now and clinging to her son as tightly as he was clinging to her.

  “He won’t.” Dar put a hand on her shoulder. “He will never find either of you.”

  Spring smiled tentatively, the tension running out of her body. “Thank you so much,” she whispered.

  Dar’s promise seemed ominous to me. How could he promise such a thing unless he did have a way of making people disappear?

  Jake had wedged his way between the bodies to get to me. “Are you okay?” he whispered in my ear.

  I nodded. “I think it’s time to go.”

  “I’ll take you.”

  I didn’t protest because at that moment I wanted nothing more than to be with Jake. I would explain to Ethan later why I hadn’t called him to pick me up. As for fixing my car, well, it looked as though I wasn’t going to need it for a while. Besides, I could always ask Jake to look at it or call a mechanic.

  Dar’s thoughtful gaze had settled on us, though I didn’t think he’d overheard our conversation.

  “I’ll meet you outside,” I said in an undertone, smiling at Jake as though thanking a total stranger for his help.

  “I’m on the bike.” This a little apologetically.

  “That’s okay.” In fact, it was perfect. I could hold onto him and pretend I wasn’t close to tears.

  While I bade farewell to Spring, Jake went outside to wait for me. I glanced at Dar to see if he noticed me leaving, but he was caught up talking to a group of young men. I went outside and climbed on the back of Jake’s bike, resting my good right cheek on his back. He was wearing his leather jacket, and I breathed in the smell of leather. Neither of us spoke.

  We went straight to my apartment, and I didn’t notice or care if Shannon and his partner or whoever was still watching. Jake washed his hands in my bathroom and then doctored my cheek with a comfrey salve. Afterward, I sipped herbal tea on the couch, wrapped in Summer’s afghan, her comforting imprints washing over me.

  “You can’t join them,” Jake said. “Look at you.”

  “This has nothing to do with Harmony Farm. That girl’s husband is nuts, that’s what.”

  “They’re all nuts!”

  I laughed. “That’s what everyone said about Winter, and half your clients are considered crazy, too.”

  His face relaxed, and despite himself, he laughed. “Okay, okay. We’re all nuts. But Autumn, don’t you think this is a little beyond crazy?”

  “I feel I owe it to those women, Jake. It’s like, well, I can’t explain it exactly, but it’s like I’m finally coming to terms with this ability or whatever it is. I mean, maybe it isn’t something meant to torture me for the rest of my life. Maybe I am supposed to help people.”

  The doorbell prevented me from having to explain further. Jake strode toward the door with the gait of a young man looking for a fight. He hadn’t liked what I’d said, and I bet he was actually hoping Inclar was outside the door so he could direct his anger elsewhere.

  The back of the couch was to the door, so I had to turn to see him open it to Detective Shannon Martin. I groaned and held the afghan up over my cheek. “What are you doing here?”

  He crossed the room in four large strides. “Got a call from the suits outside. Said it looked like you’d been attacked again.” He stared pointedly at the afghan.

  I dropped the pretense and the afghan. “It’s nothing. I stepped into the middle of a domestic dispute, that’s all. Wrong place at the wrong time.”

  His eyes narrowed. “Are you sure this has nothing to do with Danny Foster?”

  “Huh? Oh, no. Of course not.”

  “I was with her,” Jake said. “She’s telling the truth.”

  Shannon’s eyes dug into him. “You sure you didn’t do this?”

  “Oh, yes, I have the habit of hitting my best friends.” Jake held up a fist. “Do you have a problem with me? Maybe we should take care of that right now!”

  “I could always arrest you.”

  I stood and faced them, hands on my hips. “Get out of here, both of you!”

  “I’m not leaving,” Jake said stubbornly. He turned to Shannon. “But don’t let the door hit you on the way out.” It wasn’t really in Jake’s character to be rude, but Shannon seemed to bring it out in him, much as he brought out the sarcasm in me.

  Shannon stood his ground.

  I threw up my hands. “Fine. You two do what you want. I’m going to bed.” I looked at Jake. “If my sister calls, not a word of this to her. Got it?” It’d be just like Tawnia to come running over here and spend the rest of the night trying to talk me out of my plan. “I’ll tell her myself later.”

  “But—” Jake began.

  “But what?” Except that I knew what he’d meant. I knew it as if he’d spoken it. We were that attuned to each other, at least with some things. What he meant was, if it hadn’t been for Shannon, Jake and I would have sat close together on the couch until very late, perhaps watching TV or an old video. Perhaps I would have fallen asleep with my cheek on his arm. Feeling safe.

  I forced my bitterness aside and gave him a smile. “Thanks, Jake.” To Shannon, I added, “I have no comment, detective.”

  They were quiet for a moment, but as I went into my room, I heard Shannon ask, “She has a sister?”

  I smiled to myself. Everyone thought he was such a great detective,
but he hadn’t been able to find out even that much about me. I wanted to laugh, but it made me sad instead.

  I didn’t stay long in my room because I really needed to use the bathroom, and the men didn’t seem to be in a hurry to go anywhere. So much for my grand exit. I realized I should have forced them both to leave, but I’d been raised in a household who had welcomed everyone, friend and stranger alike.

  As I made my dash to the bathroom, I saw the men standing by the fireplace, Shannon holding a picture in his hands. I recognized it as the one Tawnia and I had taken the year before, shortly after we first met, the time when we’d cut her hair like mine. My face was slightly thinner, even then, but aside from that we were completely identical in the photo. Shannon’s eyes met mine as I firmly shut the door. Let him wonder. Or let Jake explain the miracle.

  I didn’t care.

  Jake had left his keys on the bathroom sink, and later after I washed my hands, I picked them up and stood staring into the mirror. I felt the lack of something huge, something I couldn’t name. It wasn’t my sister, it wasn’t my friends or my job, it wasn’t even God, because I felt I knew where I stood with Him. It was an emptiness, an itch I couldn’t scratch, a hunger I couldn’t feed. It was watching TV at night alone. Eating everything in the cupboard without sating the urge to consume. It was climbing and never reaching the top. Of needing something but not knowing what.

  I stared down in my hand and saw the flat metal silhouette of a woman that hung on the key ring: Jake’s mother. His grandmother had it made shortly after his mother had died, and he always carried it with him.

  Imprints. I’d been reading his imprints, and yet they’d seemed like my own feelings. Maybe it was all in my mind. I squeezed the keys tightly. If Jake did feel this way, I’d had no idea. Nor did I know how to go about asking him about it or trying to help without betraying what I’d done. Regardless of how close we were, I simply couldn’t do that. These feelings, if they were real, were far too personal.

  I set the keys back on the sink and left the bathroom.

  Chapter 11

  I had it all—nickel-sized earrings with mini transmitters, a two-way radio transceiver, and a tiny phone with e-mail capability. Plus, Ethan had the map. There was no way he could lose me, but just in case, he promised to follow Dar’s car to the hidden compound and then place another phone or transceiver at the base of the tallest tree he could find near the buildings in case I might need it.

  Of course there was a lot we didn’t know, such as whether the farm was patrolled (Jake’s thought) or encircled by an electric fence (Bret’s idea), so we had backup plans. The phone could be buried at the base of a pole holding up the fence directly west of the entrance, or thrown over at midnight by the closest gate on the second night there. Or had I turned those last two around?

  Well, it didn’t really matter because I didn’t think I’d need any of it. “How do I look?” I asked Tawnia, who’d come with Bret to the shop so she could say good-bye. I’d left off my makeup and worn a flowered, sleeveless broomstick dress.

  “I thought they wore those T-shirts. Didn’t you say they gave you one?”

  “I packed it with the other clothes I don’t mind losing to their dress code. But I’m going to arrive in style at least.”

  “You look wonderful. The guys certainly like it.”

  I glanced over to where Jake and Ethan stood by the doors that connected Autumn’s Antiques with the Herb Shoppe. They were both gawking at me.

  “I’d better enjoy their attention while I can,” I said dryly. “For all I know, Harmony Farm has a law prohibiting dressing up. Come on.” We walked toward Jake and Ethan.

  I felt a tiny bit of satisfaction at the frustration on Jake’s face. Neither he nor Shannon had been at my apartment when I woke up, though I felt their presence in the breakfast dishes drying on the counter and the pair of officers outside the building in a police car.

  Jake had tried again to talk me out of my plan after I’d arrived at the shop that morning, but I remained firm in my decision to help Ethan find Marcie. If everything went well, I’d be back to work by Monday or Tuesday. Meanwhile, Jake, Thera, and Randa would take care of my store. I hadn’t felt so alive since Winter died.

  Strange how everything these days was measured by that defining event. Before and after. I knew it was the same for Ethan: before and after Marcie vanished. With the Fullmers it was before and after Victoria went missing. But there were good defining events as well. Before and after I found Tawnia. Before and after Tawnia married Bret.

  Was I in the middle of a defining event now? I shivered, feeling suddenly cold and exposed in my dress, goose bumps breaking out all over my bare arms. Only my feet felt normal inside their covering of hard, callused skin.

  I hugged Tawnia. “I’ll call you,” I said brightly. “Don’t have that baby while I’m gone.” She rolled her eyes, and that made it easier to walk toward the door.

  When I tried to hug Jake good-bye, he shook his head. “Forget it. I’m going with you.”

  “What?” Ethan and I said together.

  I frowned at him. No wonder he was still wearing those torn jeans. “Don’t be ridiculous. One of us has to stay here.”

  “I’m not letting you walk into this alone, and that’s final.” Jake folded his arms across his chest.

  Tawnia grinned. “I think it’s a great idea. You look the part.”

  I knew she was referring to his dreadlocks, but what she and many other people failed to understand was that far from being a mess of tangled, unkempt hair, dreads required a tedious process of careful washing and twirling with special products. I mean, I loved Jake’s look, but he probably spent more time on his hair than I did on mine. Of course, most days I left home with my short hair wet, but still.

  “You can’t leave your store,” I protested.

  “Why not? You’re leaving. Randa and Thera are perfectly capable.”

  “I promise I’ll come by after work every day to make sure everything is running smoothly,” Tawnia volunteered. She looked happier than she had all morning, and I knew that was because Jake would be able to keep an eye on me.

  “What about your class?” I asked Jake.

  “I’ll miss it,” he said tightly. “If we’re there that long.”

  I looked at Ethan for support, but he shrugged helplessly.

  “Okay. Fine. Let’s just go.” I wasn’t as annoyed as I pretended. Actually, it was touching that Jake felt he had to drop everything and come along, and if things turned ugly, he had proven to have a fantastic right hook. On the other hand, I’d hoped to get to know Ethan as we worked together. I’d especially enjoyed imagining sneaking away from the farm to enjoy at least one romantic rendezvous under the pretense of discussing options. With Jake there, too, that might be out of the question.

  Outside, I climbed into the front seat of a blue, fifteen-passenger van Ethan had found somewhere. Jake ended up in the back with our luggage, but he had to sit on the floor since all the seats had been removed. “I borrowed this from a friend,” Ethan said when he saw me looking at the monitors and other electronic equipment that lined the windowless walls of the van.

  “You have nice friends.”

  “You know,” Jake said from the back, “my bike would fit in here. Might come in handy to have something else to drive besides this van.”

  Ethan liked the idea immediately, but I wasn’t so sure. “Isn’t it too heavy?”

  Both men disagreed, and soon they had managed to put in the bike and stabilize it by tying a web of ropes to every available surface. Jake packed boxes on each side to further protect his baby.

  “So what are you going to do at the farm, anyway?” I asked Jake when we were finally on our way.

  “I guess I’m going to help them build. Dar says they’re expanding.”

  “You haven’t worked construction in ten years. Or more.”

  He shrugged. “It’s the sort of thing you don’t forget. It’s easy.”

>   I thought he might change his mind after a few days of heavy labor. “We’d better hurry,” I said to Ethan. “I’m supposed to be there by now.”

  He nodded and stepped on the gas. It was then I noticed the prescription bottles lying in the plastic compartment between the two seats—the one I’d seen before, and two others.

  “Are these all Marcie’s?” I asked.

  He nodded. “When you find her I don’t know what condition she’ll be in. She may need them.”

  “It’s dangerous to stop medicine cold turkey,” I said. It was also dangerous to combine certain medications. From my research on the Internet the day before, I was pretty sure two of the bottles were antidepressants. Perhaps one hadn’t worked, and the doctor had switched her over. Marcie would know which to take. “You want me to stuff them in my bag?” I started reaching for them, preparing myself for the unwelcome flood of imprints.

  Ethan reached out to take my hand. “No,” he said. “They have her name on them, and they might be discovered. I’ll just keep them here until you find out where she is and what’s happening.” He released my hand and put his own back on the steering wheel. “Besides, it’s been a whole year. Probably have to take her to the doctor first.”

  He was right, of course. Yet abruptly, I felt the perverse desire to reach out and take the bottles, to see what mysteries they might hold. I might even be able to tell which one Marcie had been taking. Instead, I clasped my hands in my lap, realizing the imprints might be worse than those on the tiny gold ring.

  “When we get her back, I bet Jake and I could find something that would help her. Something herbal, I mean.”

  Ethan glanced over at me briefly and then back to the road. “I’d appreciate that.”

  “Uh,” Jake said from the back, “we’re close enough. You should probably stop here. Don’t want them to see you.”

  Ethan pulled over to the curb a half block from the hotel. He jumped out to grab my bag and then gave me a hug. “Good luck,” he whispered in my ear. His freckles stood out in the brightness of the afternoon sun, which filtered through his thick curls.