Eye of the Falcon (Psychic Visions #12)(45)

She slowly closed her mouth. “You have a plan?” she asked hopefully.

He shrugged. “I don’t know that it’s a plan exactly. But I’m not helpless.”

She glanced around. “Do you have any place to hide? Any escape routes they wouldn’t know about?”

“No, but I do have traps set all around the outside of the property. They won’t get to us without us knowing.”

“They got to the outside of the interior fence without us knowing,” she pointed out. “So how can you say that?”

“Because I just set up a few more traps.” His tone was cool as he showed her the cameras pointed at his latest additions.

That shut her up. At least for a moment. Then she shook her head. “I should leave. Just drop me in town and drive away.”

“What good will that do? They will still come after you, no matter where you run to.”

She winced. “Then what can I do?”

He crouched down in front of her. “You can go through your mother’s boxes, so we know exactly what we’re up against.”

Her gaze widened. “I totally forgot.” She struggled to her feet.

“No, none of that.” He scooped her up and plunked her down on the kitchen chair. “Sit here. I’ll get the boxes.”

She glanced around but saw no sign of them. “Where did you put them?”

“In my office.” He turned and walked away. When he returned a few minutes later, he carried both boxes.

She’d settled with her feet up on a second chair. He put the bigger box with the paperwork on a third chair beside her. The leather keepsake box he put down slightly midway on the big table.

“We’ll start with the paperwork from your mother.”

“Good. Because I’m not sure I’m ready to open the other one,” she said shortly.

The cardboard box was full. At least a dozen brown manila envelopes were inside and a couple smaller envelopes, like to mail letters in. She stared at them for a long moment. But she never made a move to open them. He stepped forward and said in a low voice, “You want me to help?”

She nodded. “It would be a lot faster if you did.”

He took everything out of the box, set the box off to the side, sorted the envelopes into a stack. He handed her an envelope and took the second one for himself.

She opened the first flap and gasped. “This is my birth certificate.” Tears came to her eyes as she added in a hoarse whisper, “And my brothers’.”

He stepped up behind her and read the names. “Well, at least it’s your name.” He checked the rest of them. “Your three brothers were born twelve and fourteen and sixteen years ahead of you. Twelve years between you and the last one. That’s a lot of years.”

She nodded. “I know. I don’t know if I was an accident or if they just kept trying for more.”

Behind the birth certificates was her parents’ wedding certificate.

“This one appears to be important family documents.” She slowly went through them. “Here is my father’s birth certificate. These are my brothers’ and my mother’s.” She was drowned in data by the time she hit the middle of the file. “This is all very fascinating, but it really has nothing to do with my current issue,” she said when she got to the end.

“No, but it’s a huge gift. To have all that information. It means you can trace your family roots, and then it’s your choice if you want to reconnect or not.”

She sighed. “True enough. But not yet. It feels all too wrong.” She put down the envelope and reached for the one in front of Eagle. “What’s in this one?”

“I’m not sure,” he said. “It looks like a ledger.”

It was only one-quarter of the thickness of the envelope she had already gone through. There were maybe a dozen sheets of paper in it. On one column was a set of three letters. The second one contained a description, followed by three columns listing money, like a total and how much was paid out in a running total.

She frowned. “It’s probably my dad’s records.”

“From smuggling?”

She nodded. “I know he paid the men after a shipment was sold.”

She quickly flipped through the different sheets, seeing nothing to change her opinion. When she got to the end, she shrugged and said, “All this information is more than twenty years old. I highly doubt it’s got any relevance today.”

She put the envelope on top of the others, and he handed her the first of them. She turned it over in her hands, frowning. “I’m surprised it’s not labeled.”

“You can go through and label them now,” he said drily.

She shot him a look. “I know I’m taking my time. I’m just realizing how painful some of these memories are.”

“I understand. I also understand we could be under an imminent attack, and it would help to have the answers these men are looking for.”

She gave him a shuttered look and nodded. She opened the top envelope and pulled out its contents. It was everything to do with her brother Ethan. His school reports, records, copies of his immunizations. Basically a synopsis of the twenty-two-year-old’s life, from a doting mother’s perspective, although most of the information stopped when he finished school. Sniffling, Issa said, “My eldest brother’s school records. I suspect there’s one for each of us.” She closed the envelope and put aside on the tabletop, grabbing the next one. “Yes, this is for Sean, my middle brother.” She closed it went to the third one. “This is Liam’s envelope.” He was eighteen when he died. It hurt to look at the pictures from school and see the smiling face she could barely remember. She touched his face and shook her head. “How could he have been such a major part of my life for so long, and now it’s almost impossible to remember who he was?”