She instinctively looked back over her shoulder at him.
But Mandak was gone.
CHAPTER FIVE
Seven Years Later
Northern Arizona University
Flagstaff, Arizona
“I’M HOME,” ALLIE CALLED OUT as she slammed the front door behind her. “I took the damn test, and I didn’t do anything that would embarrass you and Natalie. I wrote what Simpson wanted me to write. But you do know that history professor is a fake and an idiot?” She came into the library and threw her briefcase on the couch. “I was so tempted…” She brushed a kiss on the top of Lee Walberg’s thinning gray hair. “Particularly when he started talking about how the new academic blood at the university was so much sharper than the fuddy-duddies he’d replaced. He was talking about you, Lee. Stupid ass. You’re brilliant. Everyone on the staff knows that. I wanted to sock him.”
“So what’s new?” His grin lit his thin face with warmth. “You’re always ready to sock someone in my defense. You’ve got to realize that I’m no longer respected except in certain circles. I’m not liberal enough. That’s why I retired before you came to us. So just ignore idiots like Simpson.” He squeezed her hand. “We both know that you could run rings around him, but you need that course for your master’s.”
“He’ll try every way he can to make sure I don’t get it.” She made a face. “He made me jump through hoops when I aced his quizzes. He accused me of cheating until I could prove it was just this damn photographic memory.”
“He’s jealous. But you’d fare better if you’d keep your thoughts to yourself.” He chuckled. “And didn’t always want to sock him. He’s not that stupid, Allie.”
“Almost. Where’s Natalie?”
“In her studio. Why don’t you go see if you can talk her into stopping work and going out to lunch with us? I want to celebrate the immense strides you’ve made in self-discipline.”
“Sarcasm? Today took a hell of a lot of self-discipline, Lee.” She turned and headed for the staircase. “And Natalie will think so, too. She can’t stand Simpson. Let’s do Mexican.”
“Whatever.”
His tone was absent, she realized. She looked back over her shoulder at him. He was no longer smiling, and he looked older than his seventy years. “You okay?”
“Wonderful.” His smile came again. “Why shouldn’t I, with a tiger like you to defend me? I was just wondering if my stomach is going to tolerate that hot sauce at your favorite Mexican restaurant. I decided that I’ll survive it. Go get Natalie.”
She nodded but still hesitated. She was uneasy. Lee was always so fit and full of wit and humor that she wasn’t accustomed to thinking about his age. But she supposed she should. He had been in his sixties when he and Natalie had taken her into their home and lives seven years ago. She had never known anyone like them, and it had taken almost a year before she realized that they were as genuinely good as they appeared on the surface. “I didn’t know you had stomach trouble. Why didn’t you tell me? We can go somewhere else. Have you been to a doctor and had it checked—”
“Allie, I’m fine. It’s not unusual to have indigestion with hot food.”
“Then why did you scare me?” She flew back to him and gave him a quick hug. “First, Simpson, then you. This has not been a great day for me, Lee.”
“Then we’ll have to see that it gets better.” His arms closed around her. “How about going to the movies after lunch? There’s a new Sorkin film in town. You said that you thought he was always intelligent.”
“Sure.” She stepped back and turned again toward the stairs. “Why not? I need intelligence at the moment.” She ran up the stairs. “Give me thirty minutes, Lee. It will take me at least that long to pry Natalie away from that painting…”
“And for you to brag how restrained you were at class today.”
“Yeah.” She grinned back at him. “She’ll want to sock him, too.” She ran up the next landing and down the hall. She had been joking, but she could always count on support from both of them. These last seven years had been wonderful, not without problems, but for the most part problems that other young people her age had to face. She had been awkward about interacting with the other students, and she could tell they were sometimes uneasy with her. At first, she’d had to concentrate so hard on not reading them or the effort to totally block those memories that she must have seemed slow on the uptake. But she’d gotten better and eventually was able to have a seminormal relationship with a few of them. She’d even reached out and experimented with sex, which had been stimulating physically but offered its own problems. It was hard to block a partner’s past memories when you were sexually aroused. Her solution was just to make the act so exciting that he lived totally in the present. It seemed to work, and she checked another normal accomplishment off the list.
But at the end of all the experiments and challenges, she had come home to Lee and Natalie, and that alone had made those years stellar. The love that had grown between her and Lee and Natalie Walberg had made that happiness complete. “I’m home, Natalie,” she called. “We’re going out to lunch.”
She stopped in the open doorway of Natalie’s studio. Natalie always left the door open when she was working. She said that she didn’t want to close out the world when she was painting. “Life enriches everything we touch,” she’d told Allie. “If I absorb enough life, someday my daubs will become masterpieces. Or not. But anyway I won’t miss being with you and Lee because I’m being pretentious.”
There was nothing in the least pretentious about Natalie at this moment, Allie thought. She wore sandals and jeans, and her white hair was tied back out of her face. She was frowning absently at the canvas in front of her. “Lunch?”
“Lunch,” Allie repeated. “Mexican.”
“That’s nice.” Natalie added a little ochre to the paint of the bowl of bananas on the canvas. “How did your test go?”
“As expected.” She came into the room and climbed on the stool next to the easel. “He’s an ass, but I was very good.”
Natalie looked up with a grin. “Now that’s not what I expected at all.”
“Lee would have been upset. I can always stomp on that arrogant bastard after I get my grade.”
“True.” She stepped back and tilted her head. “What do you think about the background colors I’m using?”
“Honestly? Those streaks look like a cross between a sunset in hell and a cotton-candy contest at a county fair.”
“I think so, too.” She sighed. “I was going for different and unique. I hate these boring still lifes.”
“Then why are you doing it?”
“Because I wanted a challenge. Challenges are important. If you keep doing what you want and what’s easy for you, then you never grow.” She looked at Allie perched on the stool. “For instance, it would be easy for me to paint you again. Lord, I’m tempted. You’ve changed since I did that portrait two years ago.”
“No.” Allie held up her hand. “You made me sit for hours on end for you. I nearly went crazy.”
“But Lee loved his birthday present.” Her eyes lit with mischief. “He has another birthday coming up in three months. Just enough time to—”
“No,” Allie repeated firmly. “That still life is looking better to me all the time. Just tone down the streaks.”
“Hmm.” She looked back at the canvas. “I’ll hurry and get this done, so I can start your sketch. I know you won’t want to disappoint Lee.”
Allie shook her head. “And you’re not going to give up, are you?”
“Why should I? You’re soft as butter.”
“Could be.” About Lee. About Natalie. She couldn’t deny it. “We’ll talk about it later. Finish up that bowl. I told Lee I’d make you break in thirty minutes.”
“Forty-five. I’ve got to change. Mexican, you said?”
“That’s the initial plan.” Her brow wrinkled. “But Lee said something about having to watch out for an upset stomach
. I didn’t know he had problems.”
“As far as I know, he doesn’t.” Natalie looked at her in surprise. “I’ll have to ask him about it.”
“Do that. He’ll tell you and not just pat you on the head.”
“He does that with you?”
“You know he does. You both do.”
“And do you resent it?”
“It frustrates me sometimes.” She smiled. “But, no, I don’t resent it. I kind of like it. It shows that you care about whether or not I’m worrying.”
“That’s what families do, Allie,” Natalie said softly. “Care.”
“I’ve found that out.” Allie met her eyes, then looked back at the painting. “Forty-five minutes, Natalie. I’m sitting here until you put down that brush.”
* * *
LEE COULD HEAR ALLIE AND Natalie talking and laughing only a few minutes after Allie disappeared around the bend of the staircase. It was a familiar, endearing sound, and his own lips curved in response.
“She loves you.”
Lee turned to look at Andre Mandak, who had just opened the French doors leading from the garden. “What’s not to love?” he asked flippantly. “I’m a grand and wonderful person, and she’s a very perceptive woman.” He paused. “And I’d just as soon that you don’t insist on seeing her unless you have a good reason. She’s always disturbed when you leave.”
“Is that why you pushed me out into the garden?” Mandak smiled. “How protective you are, Lee. It’s not as if I’ve been dogging her footsteps during these last years. I haven’t come here more than ten or twelve times a year. Just when she seemed to be having difficulties adjusting and needed a little streamlining with the blocking.”
“But you’ve been coming more frequently lately. Six times in the last two months.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I wanted to do it. I told you that I was in charge when I delivered Allie to you. You agreed to it.”
“That was seven years ago. Things have … changed.”
“Yes, they have. But some things haven’t changed. You and Natalie gave Allie the security and normal life I wished for her.” He paused. “But she also needed me. I arranged for you to be her emotional support, and you’ve done a good job. But I was able to give her something you couldn’t.”
“Do you think I don’t know that?” Lee said roughly. “I could see her beginning to heal the more you worked with her. After every session, she was more confident and eager to face the world. Allie was walking wounded in more ways than one when you and Josh Dantlow brought her to us. But she’s almost normal now. You’ve taught her how to control accepting that damn memory bleed from everyone around her.”
“Not entirely. It needs constant reinforcement.” He paused. “And that’s not the only thing she needs from me. What about all of her own memories of the ugliness that she was forced to tap? Sometimes, it’s still overpowering for her. I can go in and neutralize it.”
“Those bastards,” Lee said harshly. “Doing that to a helpless kid.”
“The problem was that she’s never been helpless. She’s always had weapons that could turn lethal.”
“And you’ve been there to make sure those weapons are honed and ready.” Lee was silent a moment. “Back off, Mandak. She’s been punished enough. Let her live as good a life as she can.”
Mandak smiled. “You didn’t say that when I suggested bringing Allie to you. You didn’t accept her entirely out of the generosity of your heart. You remembered your son, Simon, and looked at her and saw only revenge. Have you forgotten, Lee?”
“You know better than that. But it was a mistake. We can find another way.”
“Perhaps. But I’m not willing to wait,” he said without expression. “I went out and searched and found my weapon, and I’m going to use her. I once told Allie that she wasn’t unique, but she’s very close to it.”
“Damn you.”
“Seven years ago, you thought I was the answer to your prayers.” He studied his face. “But you’re soft; I was afraid this would happen. You love Allie. Natalie, too?”
“Yes.” He said in a rush, “Dammit, she’s worth loving. She’s smart and giving and only wants a chance.”
“And I gave it to her.”
“And now you’re getting ready to take it back. Do you think I don’t know why you’ve been coming so often lately?”
“She’s ready for me.”
“The hell she is. If you leave her alone, she could finish her education and have a career. Maybe get married and have children.”
“She might still be able to have all that afterward.”
“If she’s not dead or crazy.” He urged, “Leave her alone. Natalie and I don’t want her sacrificed on Simon’s altar. He wouldn’t want it either.”
“Simon wasn’t the only one,” Mandak said. “He was just the only one who mattered to you. I have a long list.”
Lee started to curse beneath his breath.
Mandak shook his head. “I have to take her.” He suddenly smiled. “But not quite yet. You’ll have some time with her. I haven’t set up the details.”
“You may be surprised,” Lee said grimly. “Allie has changed from the kid you knew years ago. You’ve only had short encounters with her. She’s a woman who runs her own life now. She may not be willing to be ‘taken.’”
“Then that will only make it more interesting.” Mandak shrugged. “And I knew she would be difficult from the beginning. All fire and stubbornness…” He turned and opened the French doors. “I won’t stay and see her now. That would only upset you that I disturbed your gentle little tigress. I’ll come tomorrow. Enjoy your day.”
The next moment, he was gone.
Lee’s hands clenched into fists as he gazed after Mandak. He couldn’t make the bastard listen to him. Mandak was a law unto himself, and this project had been on his agenda for a long time. Lee had admired the obsessive determination that had driven Mandak all these years. It had matched his own passion for revenge.
Before Allie had come into their lives. Before they realized that they might have to trade her life for that revenge.
No! He wouldn’t let that happen. He and Natalie would find a way to keep Allie safe. He would talk to Natalie tonight, and they would discuss ways and means. They had been married forty-two years, and they had never been beaten yet. Except once.
Except when they had lost their son, Simon, to that butcher, Praland.
He closed his eyes as a rush of pain surged through him. If you knew her, you wouldn’t want her hurt, son. Help us to save her.
There has to be another way.
* * *
LEE MIGHT BECOME A PROBLEM, Mandak thought as he got into his Mercedes rental car. He supposed he should have foreseen that problem. But he’d been so absorbed in the main issues that he’d only been aware that everything appeared to be going along efficiently and left it to Lee and Natalie. In general, he’d chosen well in bringing Allie to them. They’d been so heartbroken about Simon’s death and he had taken into account that they were kind, sympathetic people, and Allie was a victim who would appeal to them.
She had even appealed to him that night in the forest and the weeks at the lodge afterward.
He had found himself caught, held, torn between that fire and emotional storm that had shaken him as he interacted with her and the anger that he’d feel this way. It had not been in his plan to have Allie have an effect on him. His duty as a Searcher called on him to seek out and help those who had troubling gifts such as Allie possessed. Yet he was always careful to distance himself when he was dealing with a victim. But he hadn’t been able to distance himself that night with Allie. She had touched him with a wild multitude of emotions. A few times he had felt as if he was getting too close …
But he’d managed to take control and move forward with the plan. Everything had been in place, and he’d insinuated Allie faultlessly into the life he’d chosen for her. A small university
far from Camano’s stomping grounds. Two very respected retired teachers to pretend that Allie was a distant relative they’d allowed to come to live with them while she finished her education. Throw in a relatively small student body to give Allie her best chance to keep from going crazy by being bombarded by her fellow students’ memories, and the groundwork was there for her to survive. The weeks of intensive working with her when she’d arrived at Flagstaff had been enough to keep her steady and start her on the right path. He’d deliberately kept himself away from her for the next six months and let her adjust to Lee and Natalie after he’d turned her over to them. He’d noticed big progress in those months though Allie was resentfully aware that she still needed him. That resentment had persisted through the years. The bonding had lessened but never left them, and when he had to reinforce her early training, it slipped effortlessly into place. Allie didn’t want to rely on anyone or anything, and she was still as suspicious of him as the night they met.
And so she should be, he thought. He had never lied to her nor would he. But he had never told her anything close to the entire truth.
But that time was coming.
Yet his talk with Lee Walberg had made him uneasy. Lee would not tell her anything unless it actually came down to trying to save her from Mandak. He was too grateful for Mandak’s help in finding Simon, and loyalty was ingrained in him. But he’d added an element of uncertainty, and it might mean he’d have to escalate the plan.
His cell phone rang. Josh Dantlow. He hadn’t been expecting him. He hoped to hell Lee Walberg hadn’t called him and tried to— “What is it, Dantlow?”
“A little courtesy would be nice,” Dantlow said dryly. “Considering the cooperation I’ve been giving you all these years, Mandak, I think I deserve it.”
“You gave me cooperation because you thought Allie Girard would someday be able to give you information that would bring Camano and the other crime bosses down in one glorious trash heap.”
“But she hasn’t done it. Seven years is a long time. When can I expect something, anything, from her? It’s not as if I can justify budget expenditures for protective surveillance involving her when you wouldn’t even let me keep her record on file. It wasn’t reasonable that you—”