The Soul Catcher - Alex Kava [134]
Down by the beach he could see a fishing pier and about ten boat ramps, all empty this time of year. He wondered how hard it would be to take a boat without anyone noticing. Except on the bus ride to the park, he thought he had noticed a Coast Guard station not far from here. Shit! This wasn’t going to be easy.
“Hey, Justin.” Alice waved to him as she weaved her way through the crowd to join him.
Shit! It just got harder.
“I’ve been looking for you.” She smiled.
Why did she have to be so fucking pretty? And damn, she had on another tight sweater, this one blue, and he couldn’t help noticing how fucking beautiful blue her eyes were.
“Why were you looking for me? Do you need something?” He needed to play out the role of complete asshole, or he’d never be able to pull this off.
The wounded look in those blue eyes just about ripped his heart out.
“No, I don’t need anything. I just wanted to…you know, be with you. Is that okay?”
Shit! Double shit! He couldn’t do this.
“Yeah, I guess,” he said, and felt like he had just tossed away his entire plan.
“Hi, Alice, Justin.” The woman named Kathleen squeezed through to get to them. Justin couldn’t believe she remembered his name. She hadn’t been in very good shape last night during their introductions. “I’m glad to see you kids together.” She smiled at Alice, and Justin thought he saw Alice blush. Then suddenly, Kathleen looked sad, the smile replaced with almost a frown as she squeezed Alice’s shoulder and said, “You kids take care of each other, okay? No matter what happens.”
Then she left them, only she was headed in the wrong direction back toward the exit. Maybe she needed to use the rest room. Justin thought he had seen them back that way.
“She’s really a nice woman. We talked about a lot of stuff last night,” Alice said in her soft voice. “She helped me see a lot of things.’
“What kinds of things?” he asked, but his eyes were scanning the surroundings again, looking, hoping for a miracle.
“Things like how much you mean to me and how I don’t want to lose you.”
He stopped and stared at her. She reached for his hand and intertwined her fingers with his.
“I care about you, Justin. Please just tell me what I can do to make things right with us again.”
God, her hand felt good in his, like it belonged. Was she being straight with him, or was this another of Father’s tricks? Before he could say anything Brandon appeared from out of nowhere.
“Alice,” he said, scowling down at their hands with some kind of power that made Alice pull hers away. “Father wants to see you before the prayer rally. You need to come with me.”
She looked up at Justin, apologetic, almost pained. He immediately wondered if Father had yet another lesson for her. Nah, there wasn’t much time. Cassie already had the crowd all revved up.
He watched Brandon lead Alice away, taking some weird shortcut up through the trees. What the hell was Father doing up there, anyway? Probably some strange ritual he does to prepare.
He scanned the crowd again. How much time did he have before Brandon, Alice and Father came back down? Could they see him from up above? Shit! He was fucked.
Then, just as he turned, he recognized a tall blonde at the edge of the bike trail, waving at him. It took him a minute. He probably would have remembered who she was sooner if she was with her short, blond bookend. He smiled and waved, noticing that she was away from the stage and with an older woman who looked enough like her to be her mother. Maybe that meant they had come in a car.
He started toward them, feeling a surge of excitement again, starting to actually believe in miracles.
CHAPTER 73
Tully tried to blend into the crowd. It took him a minute to pick out the plainclothes agents from the Cleveland field office. They were scattered throughout the park. If Everett expected to find the place crawling with men in black, he wouldn’t be able to pick them out. All of them were in place, and they were ready. Tully knew most of the agents, though he could hardly recognize them