The Enlightened (Mind Dimensions #3)(24)

“Drive,” I tell him, planting the gun firmly in his side.

And he does. He drives in silence, which I don’t mind. With my free hand, I put my Miami hotel address into the GPS app in Caleb’s phone. It looks like we’re about five hours away and moving in the right direction.

We ride in tense silence for about an hour before the forest gives way to a suburb.

When we pass by a blue sign, I tell him, “Stop the car and get out.”

“You’re just going to leave me here?” Paul asks once he’s out of the car.

“Would you rather I shoot you?”

“No, but how will I—”

“Stop. Don’t even try to play the feeble old man card on me. We just passed a sign that says there’s a rest stop less than a mile away. You can walk it.”

His face is unreadable for a moment, but then he says, “Caleb was right. You will regret this.”

“I highly doubt it,” I say and scoot over into the driver’s seat. Then I close the door, missing Paul’s nose by a hair, and slam my foot on the gas pedal, hoping the exhaust fumes hit that * in the face.





Chapter 10





When I get on the highway, I crack open the window to let the warm Florida air in and draw in a deep breath, reflecting on how lucky I was that my desperate ‘grab a gun and kidnap Grandpa’ plan actually worked.

Now I need to make sure my mom, Lucy, is all right. Pulling out Caleb’s phone, I put in her number from memory. Her current cell number is what used to be our household’s landline, back when my moms lived in the city. That’s a number I’ll never forget, and I’m grateful to her for keeping it. I’m terrible at remembering phone numbers these days.

The call goes straight to voicemail. I’m guessing that means she’s on the phone and doesn’t want to interrupt her conversation for an unknown caller. Or at least I’m hoping that’s the case. I refuse to think of other possibilities. I’ll have to try calling her again in a bit.

As I drive, I alternate between going the speed limit and doubling it. I decide against speeding on the fourth fluctuation. The last thing I want is for the police to stop me. The idea of being taken in, almost naked, for grand theft auto is not at all appealing. Though, on second thought, I could probably Guide my way out of it.

Pulling into a large rest stop, I waste a few minutes buying myself some clothes and flip-flops. Thankfully, I’m in Florida, so no one seems to think I’m crazy for driving around in my swimwear—else there'd be more people that I’d need to Guide. As is, they probably assume I’m a tourist. While I’m at it, I take a bathroom break and grab a bag of chips—something I would not normally consider food. Since I don’t have any money, I have to Guide the cashier to put his own money into the register and allow me to pay him back via PayPal through Caleb’s phone.

As soon as I’m back on the road, I call Lucy again.

To my relief, she picks up on the third ring.

“Hello, who is this?” she asks.

“Hi Mom, it’s me, Darren. I had to borrow someone’s phone. Can we talk?”

“Oh, Darren, hi. How’s your vacation going?”

“Great, Mom. But this isn’t just a ‘how are you’ call. I have something strange I need to talk to you about.”

“Oh?” Had this been Sara, my worrywart mom, her voice would’ve sounded concerned by this point, but not Lucy. Ever the detective, she just sounds curious.

“What are you working on?” I ask. “And I know how random it sounds, but please just tell me.”

“Hmm... not much, to be honest. Not work-wise, anyway. We just closed this high-profile embezzlement case...”

“What about any cases dealing with dangerous people?” I ask, two steps away from sounding crazy. “Or could this embezzlement case get someone who’s dangerous in trouble?”

“What’s this about, sweetie?” Now her voice sounds a tiny bit concerned. “Why are you asking me this?”

“I don’t want to talk about it over the phone, but I need to know if you’re working on a dangerous case,” I insist. “Can you please tell me?”

“This makes no sense,” she says. “Is this some kind of game, like when you were a kid?”

“Do you need me to beg you to answer?”

“Fine,” she says, blowing out a breath. “But I have to say, you sound like your mother when she’s had one of those bad dreams. And the answer is no. I don’t have any cases that even Sara would consider dangerous, which should tell you a lot. Nor do I have many cases, period, even the boring kind. But I have been busy looking into the case file on your friend Mira’s parents’ murder. A case that was shelved long ago—”

“That,” I say, my heartbeat picking up. “That sounds like it could involve dangerous people.”

“True, but I’m not really working in the field. Just reviewing some old paperwork. It’s a bit odd what happened with this case.”

“What’s odd about it?” I can’t help being intrigued.

“It was dismissed as a mob hit. The file states that Mira’s father worked for the mob, which is why no one looked into his death too closely. They don’t bother when mobsters kill each other.”