Chapter 2
Vincent was dreaming again. A light, as bright as the sun, shone from the end of a very long tunnel. Tunnels he understood. Dank and dark, he'd been wandering awhile when footsteps suddenly sounded from behind him and he realized he was not alone. Then Tess was shouting at him to stop. Didn't she know who he was? She didn't act like it; just kept shouting, and he could feel the adrenalin kick in—fear of being discovered, fear after having finally escaped and begun to taste the exhilaration of freedom. It seemed unreasonable to him, as was her continued yelling at him to turn around.
He did, but by that time it was too late. He could feel the surge of strength and rage as he turned to face her, his eyes already yellow.
Then he felt pain in his gut.
Vincent moaned and shifted around.
"Oops. Gotta go. I'll give you an update later." JT hung up while Tess was still talking. "Vincent? Big Guy? Hey, it's me. JT. Are you awake?
Catherine rushed to his side. He felt a surge of energy, of his body somehow fighting the intrusion of the bullet still inside him. Wait. The bullet Catherine shot had gone clean through. And Catherine hadn't come to his rescue. She'd been the one to shoot him! Vincent tried to comprehend the images, but his muddled brain couldn't make sense of them.
Then he was perched precariously across the railing outside Catherine's bedroom window but he felt no fear. The distant blare of a siren could be heard in the distance along with other noises from the street several stories below, but there was no alarm. In fact, the lady in his arms had a beautiful smile for him. A light wind ruffled her silky hair. "You weren't right down in the tunnels," she was saying, and he wanted to frown. "I'm talking about when you wanted to run off and leave me."
Who left whom? Vincent tried to make sense of the conversation. He knew he wasn't really there, but it felt so very real. A memory. "It was so you could have your life back," he heard himself saying.
"Okay, you ARE my life . . . . it's not what partners do. And you are my partner."
Catherine. His partner. Yes. She looked at him with eyes that spoke volumes: 'I love you. You belong with me. You are my life . . . .'
God, that was so true!
He leaned in to kiss her, not once, but several times. He didn't really want to leave. Then finally he leaped off the building. Such a feeling of exhilaration! Joy. Satisfaction. He was on top of the world. All the feelings flooded back. Hope. Happiness. Catherine!
"Vincent?" JT leaned over and put a hand on his arm.
He roused and started to stir. His gaze was unfocused, but slowly cleared. He looked around the room, confused, before his eyes leveled on the man leaning over him.
"JT?"
The way he said it sounded so familiar, JT almost thought he had the old Vincent back. He blinked. But that couldn't be. Just wishful thinking. He gently pressed him back down onto the bed when he tried to rise. It took no effort at all. He was perspiring heavily, another sign of the strange infection that was wracking his powerful body. But it brought him down to manageable levels. The fact that his buddy had called out to Catherine in his sleep was both heartening and sad. "It's okay. I'm here. Tori brought you here last night. Remember?"
"Tori?" For a moment, Vincent couldn't put a face to the name. Then his head cleared.
"You're safe. She's safe. Everybody's fine. Well, except you—you're not exactly fine. You have an infection or—or something. Too bad you can't heal yourself anymore, huh? Could really use that right now." He laughed, but it fell flat. "Instead, we have to do this the old-fashioned way. But hey, we've done this before, right? Although, you don't exactly remember."
What was JT babbling about? This didn't feel familiar. Vincent closed his eyes and wished for blessed unconsciousness again—and for that look of love and total acceptance on Catherine's face. Had it just been a dream, or was that a memory? He sighed. He knew. Only a memory could have given him that powerful of a longing. A memory that reminded him of just how much he'd lost.
He started to turn but then gasped in pain. The left side of his body, both front and back, was on fire.
"Here. Drink this."
Just water. Oh, what he'd give for a stiff— JT shoved the bottle up to his mouth.
"Slowly. That's it. You lost a lot of blood. I mean, a serious amount. We need to get fluids into you, fast. Do—do you think you could sip something more substantial? I have some vegetable broth here."
JT waved a cup of steaming soup under his nose. The smell was good but his stomach rebelled. "Not yet."
"Okay. No problem." The cup was removed and JT returned to his side.
"Where's Tori?" The effort it took to breathe, much less speak, had him moaning in pain again.
"Just relax. Tori . . . left for a little while. I sent her for supplies." That was a little white lie. She must have gotten waylaid. She'd already been gone for hours. He had no idea if she would ever return. And he didn't want to THINK about where she might be headed in her aggravated state. He'd called Tess to alert her and let someone know he was still with Vincent, and had heard nothing since. "No worries. Like old times."
"You keep saying that," Vincent said on a painful grunt.
"Yeah, well. It was just you and me against the world for ten years, remember? But you didn't get hurt or sick much then, really. I was talking about before. After nine-eleven."
"I lost my brothers in the Towers."
"Yes. You remember that?"
"I know it happened. Not the same thing as a memory." Not like the memory of Catherine on the balcony. Short glimpses of his past life had been coming in for a while, but this last one was much more visceral.
"Right. Well, do you recall what happened after that? Before you enlisted? I—I can fill you in. I mean, you were pretty torn up after you realized your brothers didn't get out. You changed."
"Changed?"
"Yeah. Like, became a different person. Not—not different like you are now, just . . . different. Angry. You'd never been into drugs or alcohol, but after that you kind of . . . went off the deep end. Literally. Alex and I found you on the streets that night. You were so wasted."
Vincent's mind bent on the name Alex. Yes. The fiancée he'd dumped at some point for Zach's girl, Gabriella. He closed his eyes but no actually memories came to him of her. He stopped concentrating and focused back on JT, who was droning on.
". . . didn't know what to do, but together we pulled you through. Then you enlisted, and we all know what happened as a result of that."
"Muirfield." Just saying the word brought Reynolds' face to the forefront. And the rage. He shouldn't have hesitated. He should have gone for the jugular and finished the job. That man was more an animal than he was—and he hurt so many people!
Vincent's chest started rising and falling in rapid succession. JT checked his pulse. It was dangerously high.
"Vincent. Open your eyes. Focus. What's wrong?"
What's wrong? Everything was wrong! He'd failed in his mission—his last mission—to kill the true beast. And he'd lost Catherine in the process! Not that killing Reynolds would have gotten her back. No. She'd walked away from him in Montauk. He'd wanted her to, at the time, believing Reynolds was right and it was for the best. But now he didn't know. His heart ached more than his side. He willed his body to calm down.
"Look. JT. I'm sure you have family or someone you need to get back to. I don't need a babysitter. When Tori comes back—"
"Family? F-family? You—YOU are my family."
Just like Catherine had said, 'you are my life.' Vincent pressed his head back into the cushions and closed his eyes. He needed to remember. "Tell me."
"About us?" JT tilted the water bottle to Vincent's lips once more, then gazed off into the distance, into the past. "We were just kids when we met. Same school. You—you ran with the popular kids, though. I was just the nerdy little neighbor kids with glasses and buck teeth. But we were classmates and you befriended me. Being an only kid, I loved spending time at your house—so different from mine, you know? My folks both worked, so instead of doing the latch-key thing, you invited me to hang with you after school. Your mom was so great; treated me like I was just another member of the family. I felt like I grew up in your family—your brothers were my brothers. YOU were my brother."
Vincent frowned, trying to remember.
"It wasn't a great neighborhood—working class. Neither of us was rich, but I never noticed a lack."
"So we grew up together. Good friends."
"Yeah."
"Doesn't explain why you'd give up a normal life to help me."
"No. That came later. We were in high school. It was a rough time. Gangs were infiltrating the barrio. I enjoyed school, you know. Did great in class, but I was kind of socially awkward, I guess you would say. Other kids made fun of me. It's stupid, now that I think of it."
"Something happened?" Vincent hated the feeling of weakness. He wanted to sleep, but he wanted to listen more. He gritted his teeth against the pain.
"I'd stayed late one night after class. You had baseball practice, so we didn't walk home together. There was one particularly creepy alley we always took—it was a short-cut. I'd never taken it by myself before, but I thought—what the heck—it would save ten minutes. Big mistake. I got beat to a pump from a gang of kids from the school just out looking for trouble. Kept me out of classes for a week. Blew my perfect attendance record."
"You were hurt pretty bad?"
"A busted rib and lots of bruises, mostly. But you took one look at me and went on a rampage. You somehow learned the name of every kid who'd participated that night and you and your brothers not only gave each and every one of them a lesson they'd not soon forget, you protected me the rest of the year."
"I beat them up?"
"I don't really know what you did—you never told me. But I received a letter of apology from all six kids and no one ever bothered me again."
"I was intimidating back then, too, huh?"
"Nah. Not at all. That's the weird thing. You were a super nice guy. You and your brothers. But you protected your own. You always have." He looked down at Vincent then, a soft smile on his face. "In my opinion, you saved my life, in more ways than one. Later, in college, it was more fashionable to be nerdy—those kinds of incidents didn't happen. But we remained friends, and always will."
Vincent took more water, then eventually the soup, but after an hour fell into unconsciousness again. And dreamed . . . .
"Right this way, Ma'am."
"Thank you." Tori Windsor, dressed to the nines, smiled prettily at the guard as he motioned her to follow him down the long hallway of barred cells at the county jail. Bob Reynolds' back was to them as the guard halted in front of his cell and started unlocking it. He swiftly swung around and, seeing her, blanched.
"What are you doing?"
The fear was evident on his face.
"You can't let her in here!"
The guard, confused, looked back and forth between the two of them. Tori decided it wasn't worth it. The last thing she wanted was to make a scene and be forced out of there before doing what she came to do.
"It's all right," she smiled at the guard, who was probably thirty-something and just on the thick side of handsome. "I can talk with him out here, if that's okay."
"Whatever you want, Ma'am." He took the key out of the lock and put it back in his pocket. "Just call for me when you're ready and I'll let you back out."
"Thank you so much." She waited until the guard went through the gate at the end before turning her eyes on Reynolds. Eyes that may have gone just a tad bit yellow. She smiled.
Reynolds had backed up in his cell. "Now, look here. I told Catherine and the ADA that I was going to confess to everything but would say nothing about" he lowered his voice, "beasts. And that includes you, so I'm no threat to you."
"No. You were so kind to me in Montauk. Like a father, almost. Until you tried to murder me." She took a couple of deep breaths knowing she had to remain calm.
"Tori. I made a mistake. I'm sorry for that; I truly am. And so glad that Vincent was able to rescue you both—"
"Oh, save it, please. Groveling doesn't suit you."
Reynolds pressed his lips together. "Then why are you here?"
"I want names."
"Names?"
"Don't play innocent. You didn't work alone. And you had your hand in a source of deep cash to fund Vincent and his missions. I may be young, but I'm not stupid."
"No. But I . . . beg to differ. Yes, there were funds made available to me for a need-to-know program. But the only two people, besides me, who were read into it are dead. Tucker and—"
"And the one I killed. Your cute little bomber boy."
"That's right."
"Well, I don't believe it. So here's what we're going to do. You write a list, to include phone numbers and/or locations, and mail it to this PO Box." She tossed a hand-written card into his cell. "And I'll consider it a good-faith pledge. It might just keep you alive for a little while longer. And Catherine."
"Don't you dare touch Catherine!"
"What? You're going to threaten me? I wouldn't if I were you."
"She had nothing to do with me and what I did to you or to Vincent."
"She shot him! To save you. That makes her involved."
"Tori. I'll do anything you want. You want names; you got 'em. But please, leave my daughter alone."
She closed her eyes in satisfaction. "It does feel good to hear you beg."
"I'll get on my knees if that's what it takes. Kill me, but save her. You'll be saving yourself in the process, since you know how he feels about her."
"Vincent? She put a bullet in him. Believe me, things have changed . . . and he's with me now."
Reynolds studied her face, wondering at the truth. He couldn't afford to be wrong. "Please."
"The list."
"You'll have it. I'll work on it tonight."
"Good." She turned to go.
"Don't think he won't rip you to shreds if you touch a hair on her head."
She swung around. "If he doesn't kill her first." Tori laughed at his expression. "I guess we'll find out who's right sooner or later, won't we? Guard!"
"Where do you think you're going?" As Catherine came out of her bedroom fully dressed, Gabe got up from the breakfast table where he'd been nursing a cup of coffee for the last hour.
"I'm going in to the precinct." When he gave her a look of I'm-not-so-sure-you-should, she put her hands on her hips. "I need to be there. At least let me work. Take my mind off things. I'm sure you can find something for me to do."
Gabe frowned then thought about it a second. At least they wouldn't be splitting their time watching her at her apartment. He nodded. "Okay then. Let's go."
It was a different story once they finally got to the office. Gabe got pulled away on precinct business he'd been ignoring but could no longer avoid almost as soon as they arrived. Tess filled Catherine in.
"I just learned that Tori visited Reynolds at the jail."
Catherine hurried to catch up with Tess as her partner made her long-legged way past their desks and led them into an interrogation room for privacy.
"She what? Did she kill him?"
"No. Didn't touch him."
"Then let's go. Find out what she said to him. It might give us a clue as to where she is now and what she's up to."
Tess rounded on Cat. "Listen. I'm only telling you this because I know how worried you are. But this isn't your fault and you're not going anywhere. We've got it under control."
"We who? You and Gabe? Because there are only a few people who know anything about . . . this situation, and I'm one of them. Tess, let me help. I know that Vincent is with JT, so I'm okay with that. But you need my help to find Tori and . . . and I need to DO something."
Tess mashed her lips together. "I know you do. I wish this would all just go away."
"You're not the only one."
Tess nodded. She understood only too well. Catherine was torn between duty and love. No easy place to be. "Cat, I can't take you with me. The less you are connected to this case, the better. The chief is all over Gabe right now, asking a LOT of questions. You need to maintain as low a profile as possible. We all do. I'm playing all this under the radar. You would actually be more help to me here, running interference for me, than tagging along, okay?" She waited a beat until her friend reluctantly agreed. "We'll stay connected," she held up her cell phone, "like this."
"All right. But I want to know everything."
"You got it."
Catherine heard the yelling from Gabe's office. It filtered down through the entire first floor. The chief was laying into Gabe big-time. It made her wonder if she was next. Deciding it would be best to avoid another interrogation so soon, she decided she and Tess could talk more freely if she were outside the precinct. She headed to the coffee shop. As soon as she opened the door, though, she was reminded of her last talk with Bob there. Daddy Reynolds. She took a deep breath. It seemed like ages ago. Was it just the other day? She'd actually felt a little bit of happiness knowing she had a father again and that he wanted to be in her life. Then he tried to play her for a fool! He was a hateful man. She pushed the memory of that last horrible chat and his face out of her mind, ordered a bagel and coffee and found an empty table in the corner.
She was studying reports on her iphone when someone pulled out the chair in front of her and sat down. Tori Windsor.
