Healed (The Found Book 3) (7 page)

Chris Jeffries didn’t want to put out an APB on his wife, he didn’t want to admit to anyone that she was missing. They were devoted to each other and everyone knew it. Their life was perfect. They were only ever seen together, so he couldn’t explain her disappearance. Thank God it was summer vacation, and he didn’t have to explain Jeremy missing school. Still, where in the hell was she?

He rifled through the mail on the table until he found the credit card and cell phone bills. Finally, he had some way of tracking her. Chances are she checked into some motel just out of town. He couldn’t stand the thought of sleeping another night without her next to him. It wasn’t right.

When he went online to check her charges, he found one charge at a small electronics store. When he went there and showed her picture, they remembered she had bought a cell phone. Chris scoured the house for the receipt and finally found it in one of the kitchen drawers. She had actually written the phone number of the cell phone on the receipt. Now to trace who she called. He called over to one of his friends in the precinct who owed him a couple of favors. She had used the phone, but she had only called one, and that number belonged to Sarah Johnson.

“Isn’t that Kyle Johnson’s sister,” Lucy asked. Damn busybody. Chris should never have asked her to do him a favor.

“Yes it is,” he responded brightly. “I was doing my wife a favor, Lucy,” Chris immediately covered. “She couldn’t remember which number belonged to Sarah. So she asked me to check a couple of numbers on her statement.”

“Oh, well I never met Sarah, isn’t she one of those
found
?” Sarah was quite the celebrity in the city of Atlanta, even twenty years later. Everybody remembered the child showing up in the Johnson’s backyard,
especially
people who worked with Kyle Johnson.

“Yes she is. But she’s also a respected physician. She’s a remarkable woman.”
Who was butting in where she didn’t belong. “
Thanks for your help, Lucy.”

This changed everything. Chris broke into a sweat. Sarah would be documenting that this wasn’t a car accident, but an assault case. But they still couldn’t prove it was him. Of course, how was he going to contradict Sarah’s evidence, and say that days ago he had her in the hospital with findings of a car accident?

Dammit. Think Jeffries
. There had to be some record of where Sarah was. Come to think of it, hadn’t Kyle said she was in hiding because people were after her? God, that boy couldn’t handle his liquor. Give him a couple of shots of tequila after some beers and everything spilled out to good ol’ Captain Jeffries.

Of course Chris wanted to know what Marshall Johnson was up to, but it turns out this intel on Sarah was going to come in mighty handy. Hell, Kyle even told him the name of the pharmaceutical company after Sarah. God only knew why they wanted her, she was a freak anyway, and she shouldn’t be around his wife. Maybe they could help him find Amy.

****

Nate checked in with Noah. He had been scheduled to infiltrate one of Rixitron’s board meetings by acting as a bodyguard, but there was no way he was going to be carrying out that assignment while Sarah was in danger.

“So Nate, are you finally going to pull your head out of your ass or are you going to let your past keep fucking your over?”

“I take it we’re done talking about Rixitron and the new nanotech division?”

“You got it in one. I want to know what you’re going to do about Sarah.”

“I’m going to find her and get her ass back to California where she is safe and sound.” Nate was silent, willing Noah to keep his mouth shut, but that was the problem with really good friends, they wouldn’t always do what you wanted if they thought they could help you.

“Your parents fucked you up.”

“I called to talk about the op, not go through a bunch of psychobabble.”

“So hang up.” Nate considered it. “You watched two bitter people fight a war against one another, and treat you like a hostage.”

“You’ve got it wrong. It was a high society marriage and I needed to learn how to fit in and run the business.”

“If you actually believed that happy horseshit you’d still be in Long Island married to some plastic debutante running Goodman Enterprises. Instead you went to Oklahoma University to play football for God’s sake. Then put the cherry on top when you joined the Navy.” Noah was fighting back laughter as he spoke. Nate did laugh. It had taken courage at seventeen to make the break from his family, but by twenty-one when he entered the Navy he was damn glad of his decisions.

“You know I already told them to go to hell.”

“You did when it came to your career. But something has been holding you back about getting serious about Sarah. I don’t know if you think you’re unworthy, or marriages can’t work, but whatever it is, you damn well better figure it out before she slides through your fingers.” Every muscle in his body went tense at the idea of Sarah not ending up in his arms, not being his.

“Look asshole, I’ve already made some decisions. I decided to ask for a transfer so I’m not taking any more overseas assignments. I want to be old and boring like you. At least that’s my intention if I can get Sarah to agree to go on a fucking date.” He rubbed the back of his neck.

“Now that’s more like it.”

“I’m hanging up now.” Nate pressed end. He looked around the campsite and
found Ramone showing some of the younger scouts how to build a fire. He called Brayson over, and asked him to show the scouts instead, so he could finally have his talk with the Reverend.

“Reverend, enough with this bullshit, you need to tell me where she is now.”

“I promised I’d give her until the day after tomorrow. Then I’ll take you to her.”

“Something is going on, and she’s in danger, admit it. She wouldn’t have taken all these precautions if it wasn’t dangerous.”

“Agreed. That’s why she’s in the middle of a forest. Look she’s meeting up with an old friend of ours. She needed help only Sarah could give.”

“But she trusted you? You somehow brought her to the middle of nowhere to wait for Sarah?”

“I told you, she was an old friend of mine too. We were all in elementary school together.”

“Not good enough,” Nate knew he was growling, but he couldn’t help it.

“Look Nate, if I thought for an instant they were going to come to harm I would be the first one to bring in the troops, you and her brother included, but they’re not. We need to give them forty-eight more hours. Sarah needs to develop a plan and get Amy on board.”

Nate’s back molars weren’t going to survive this, he was going to end up with dentures for sure.

“Why didn’t you stay with them? I don’t get that, why didn’t you stay around there?”

“I just couldn’t for two reasons, I had commitments here, and Amy wouldn’t have felt comfortable with me there. But I didn’t leave Sarah undefended.”

“What do you mean?”

“She’s armed.”

“Does she even know how to use a gun?”

“Are you kidding? Coming from that family? Of course her daddy and brothers taught little Sarah how to take care of herself. Just give her the time she asked for.”

“Fine. But, first thing Sunday morning, I better see Sarah,” Nate turned to walk away.

****

“Sarah, I’m scared to go back. Chris will convince everyone he didn’t hurt me. If I try to leave him he’ll use Jeremy as leverage in a custody case. I don’t know what to do.” It was cathartic for Amy to cry and now was a good time for it to be happening. Jeremy was in his room sleeping after a long day walking and playing in the woods.

“Amy, we have solid evidence you’ve been beaten, and the imprints of his ring in the photos. It’s obvious he is holding something over Ed Jorrelson’s head, we need to find out what that is and get him to turn.” She needed help to find out what it was. She really needed Cyrus and Kyle. Cyrus was going to be so pissed she left the apartments in California. Then there was Kyle who was not going to believe Chris did this.

Damn it, she did not need her brothers help. She could do this on her own. She bit her lip, damn, damn, double damn. She was being stupid. She would want them to come to her. It had always been a two way street.

Then there was Nate. She had really come to depend on him, but it seemed like he was never there. With everything going on with the
found
, and all the missions he was on, she had only seen him for maybe three weeks in eight months’ time. Then she remembered when he had been in Miami and helped her from a distance. There was no denying their connection. Damn, she wanted her brothers
and
she wanted Nate’s help.

“Amy, we’re going to figure this out. Your baby girl, your son and you are going to have a great life, and Chris is not going to be a part of it. You’re going to be safe. I promise.” Amy’s blue eyes were swimming with tears.

“You can’t promise something like that. Hell Sarah, not even my parents would believe Chris beat me. He was always so perfect, like I was made of glass. You had to see it the couple of times you saw us together.”

“Did he ever hit you before?”

“Never. But, he was always so strict. I had to do everything so perfectly. I had to give him all of my attention. We had to be in the same room, unless I was getting something for him. He hated it when Jeremy was really young and needed my attention. That’s why he wanted me to get an abortion. He didn’t want me to have another baby and take time away from his needs.”

The way she said needs made Sarah shudder. Something seemed off.

“Is there anything else? Something you’re not telling me?” Sarah felt bad for probing, but she felt she had to.

“Nothing. Nothing that matters.” Amy’s voice was a choked whisper.

“You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to, but you’re going to need to talk to someone.” Sarah watched as two tears twisted their way down her friend’s face.

“I was nothing to him. I was never there. He said he loved me. But he really didn’t. He just wanted to own me, to use me.” Amy looked down. “Sometimes in bed he would hurt me and he didn’t care because I belonged to him. I was his. But he never beat me before that night.”

Sarah wrapped her arms around Amy and rocked her back and forth cursing Chris Jeffries. It didn’t matter how mad Cyrus was going to be, or how hard she was going to knock Kyle in the head, she needed their help, and she would do whatever was necessary to get it. But first she was going to take the next forty-eight hours to plan. That’s what she was good at, she gathered information, she dug deep, and her brothers executed, hopefully not literally.

And Nate. Nate was already there. He wasn’t off on some other mission, he was actually there. But then again, she was the mission this time.

Chapter Five

“Got it.”

“What do you mean, got it?” Nate spent the past twenty-four hours with boy scouts training them how to survive in the wilderness. He knew Cyrus and Sierra were doing everything they could to find out what Sarah was up to, and he and Brayson were in a holding pattern.

“Our girl set up a fake Skype account at the coffee shop downstairs. It was different than the secure one we set up to contact her family in Georgia.”

“Dammit, she said she was just surfing the web downstairs. That was supposed to be a secure place, because we had cameras and a guard down there. It was one of the few places of freedom we’d been giving her.” Sarah and some of the other
found
had been chafing at the bit, so they had to make a couple of concessions and that had been one of them. Who would have guessed Sarah couldn’t be trusted.

“I pulled information on the Skype account, apparently she’s been in contact with your guy Ramone Sands. He explained all about a mutual friend of theirs, Amy Jeffries.”

“Yeah, he mentioned she was meeting up with Amy, I didn’t get the last name.” Nate had a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. This was not going to be good.

“Ramone said it was a matter of life and death she get in touch with Amy, and he said to expect a call from an Atlanta number. It was a throwaway cell phone. It gets worse.”

“How?” Nate was not going to like this.

“Amy’s husband is Kyle Johnson’s boss.”

“Fuck,” Nate damn near yelled.

“Exactly.”

“No wonder Sarah did this all on her own.” It made no sense she didn’t go to her family. “Shit Sierra, I understood why she avoided us, there was no way we were going to let her leave our protection. But her family? They are her rock.”

“Not if the problem is a cop. She’d want to get all of her ducks in a row first. I checked it out. Amy went into the hospital, apparently she was injured in a car accident three days before calling Sarah. Lots of contusions, cracked ribs and the like. If this was domestic violence instead…” Sierra’s anger was clear.

“Adds up,” Nate agreed.

“But I don’t get how Amy thought Sarah could help her. She doesn’t know about her healing abilities.”

“That’s not what she wanted. She wanted to put this on record and have someone in her corner.” Nate couldn’t think of anyone better than Sarah to have on your side. But the idea of some dangerous cop with a screw loose, out looking for his wife, with Sarah in the cross-hairs was bad news as far as he was concerned.

“Do you know where this husband is?”

“His name is Chris Jeffries. He’s a police captain in the Atlanta PD. Everything I’ve pulled up shows him as a straight arrow. He has commendations out his ass and he’s even in line for a promotion.”

“No wonder his wife would be worried and want help. It would be hard to prove. You said the doctor at the hospital corroborated the auto accident?”

“Yeah. I’m still looking to see if there has ever been any connection between the good doctor and Jeffries. I want to know if Jeffries has something hanging over his head.”

“Good work,” he complimented Sierra, impressed with all she discovered.

“No it’s not, I’m still kicking myself on the Skype thing.”