Revealed (The Found Book 1) Read online

  * * *

  “Noah, are we going to a good place?”

  “Yes, we’re going to a good place.” He crouched down and hugged the little girl who was his best friend. She was so bright and happy, and even though she was five and he was nine, she was still his favorite person to play with, to spend time with. His older brothers teased him for having a little girl as his best friend, but he didn’t complain. She always made him smile.

  “I’m going to miss Nana but you’ll be with me, right?”

  “Not to begin with. For a long time you won’t even remember me. But one day we’ll find one another. Remember, they told us. We have to wait until we’re grown-ups.”

  “But you promise, right?”

  “I do.” Noah looked around the stadium. It was filled to the brim with people to see them off. Looking at the other children, many of them mirrored his expression—sad to go. He would miss his family, but was excited for the adventure and opportunity to help. Noah squeezed Kalani’s hand, and as their damp palms touched he finally admitted he was also scared. It was the right thing to do, and he needed to be strong for Kali. One of the older children came over and put his hand on his shoulder.

  “Are you ready?” Noah nodded, reminding himself he would have a good home, a good life. He would make a difference, and in twenty years he would find Kali again.

  “I’m ready.”

  With a flash of white light they were gone.

  * * *

  Sam’s eyes shot open as the helicopter touched down.

  “Did you see any heat signatures from the air?” he asked Nate.

  “Negative. We’re blind. Do you have any ideas?” Sam nodded. He knew exactly which building they needed to go.

  They disembarked in silence. It was twilight, the helicopter hardly made any noise, and what noise it did make the tree line muffled. Sam looked at his team and pointed at the building closest to them. “That one.”

  The Black Hawk hovered just above the canopy of trees. The team rappelled to the ground. The helicopter would be able to land in the clearing or on the rooftop after the enemy was eliminated, but for now they needed to go in unseen. Sam and Nate took point. As they ran, Sam stumbled, pain shooting through his temple.

  “Are you all right?” Nate whispered.

  “We’ve got to hurry, she doesn’t have much time.” Nate gave him a sharp glance and they both sped up, the others following at breakneck speed.

  When they made it to the door of the building it was secured.

  “Back up,” Sam shouted. Shooting through the lock, he didn’t care who heard them, they had to get to Kelly.

  * * *

  Pain. Needle hot spikes of agony sliced through her brain. Tentacles slithered underneath the soles of her feet. The pain curled around her toes, and spread to the top of her foot. It would to keep on coming, she knew this from past experience.

  “Explain it to me Kelly,” the voice came from the dark, the dispenser of the pain. If she could focus enough on it maybe she could get it to stop.

  “Explain what?” How often had she asked that question in return? Had it ever really stopped the pain? The fire raced higher, stroking around her ankles, her calves.

  “Where did you come from? Where were you before Mike Wachowski found you?” It was the same question, and no answer had ever been right. This pain was going to continue until she died.

  “I don’t know, for the love of God, I don’t know.” The flames were spreading, crawling past her knees. This time she really begged for death, please let this be the last time. No more questions, no more pain, just let her go. If there was a before she couldn’t remember, maybe there would be an after where she wouldn’t have to feel this agony. She concentrated, not on trying to bring up those long forgotten memories, she searched for the after.

  The darkness behind the voice, behind the pain, she spiraled away from all of it. She was flying and looking at the softest pink. In front of the pink sky, she saw herself, arms spread wide in welcome.

  “You’re safe now, you can come home Kalani. We missed you.”

  Kelly walked on her feet, surrounded by wild flowers, in glowing air. She saw something sparkle, shimmering to her right, but she couldn’t keep her eyes off the vision that was her, but not her.

  “Where am I?”

  “You’re wherever you want to be, wherever you need to be.”

  Kelly let herself be enveloped in a hug smelling of orange, vanilla and cloves. After some time, they linked arms and walked across the soft green grass towards the others who were waiting.

  * * *

  “I need you to wake up now. Come on honey, please Kelly, wake up. Please, open your eyes. You’re here, I can feel you. I need you to open your eyes and look at me, and then I’ll let you go back to sleep, but you have to come back from where you are. Please Kali, please.”

  It hurt, it was too far to go. Kelly didn’t want to leave knowing there was going to be more pain and she couldn’t take it. She couldn’t survive any more, it would kill her very soul. If she didn’t stay hidden they would kill everything that made her Kelly, and then she would never be able to put herself back together.

  “Please baby, just for a minute, I need you to open your eyes for one moment, then you can go back to sleep I promise. Just for this one instant, I need you here with me, back here with me.”

  It was the voice, she’d never heard it before, but…she’d been waiting for it. Just that voice. She took a deep breath, and tried to open her eyes, ready for the pain to start again. They fluttered open. There was hardly any light in the room. At long last, the bright overhead lights were gone. Soft brown eyes looked at her, filled with pain and concern.

  “Thank God. She’s awake, we haven’t lost her.”

  Kelly groaned at the newest voice that was pitched too loud for her sensitive ears.

  “Kelly, this is going to hurt.”

  Oh no, now he was going to hurt her too? Too tired to struggle, a tear leaked down her temple.

  “No, baby, it’s okay, we’re going to get you out of here.” Maybe this man wasn’t lying to her, she wanted to believe his voice, those eyes.

  Sam couldn’t believe the shape she was in. Her eyes were almost completely swollen shut. He’d been lucky to get her to open them just that little bit. Her wrists and ankles were meaty pulps where she had struggled against the restraints. If he could kill the three people in the room again, he would, only much slower.

  “We gotta move man.” Sam watched Rydell cut through the last of the ties holding her down.

  Sam gently lifted her off the table, trying to block out her scream of pain. As he stood, she spasmed and then went limp.

  “Jonah is landing the helicopter on the roof, it’ll touch down in two. We gotta move, Son. We found the communications room and they sounded the alarm. People are on their way.”

  Holding his special cargo, Sam followed Rydell, easily keeping up with his fast pace. As they crashed through the door to the stairwell, Sam threw a quick thanks to the universe that Kelly was unconscious and didn’t feel anything as he repositioned her over his shoulder into a fireman’s carry. It was four flights up to the roof and it wasn’t until they hit the cold night air that she started moaning.

  Mathers and Kota were already onboard and pulled her into the belly of the helicopter. They placed her on the cot and Kota started to strap her in. Then all hell broke loose. Sam watched in horror as her bloody hand shot up and contacted the side of Kota’s face. Her panic and rage must have blocked what had to be excruciating pain as Kota grabbed her wrist to stop her from hitting him again.

  Sam dove to the first aid kit under the bench seat and pulled out one of the pre-filled syringes with morphine. When he got to her, Rydell already had her arm pulled and prepped so he could administer the medication. Within seconds the chemicals rushed through her system, alleviating her pain and calming her down.

  Tearing his friend’s hand away from Kelly’s wrist, he nodded at the h
orror on Kota’s face when he saw the shredded flesh he had been holding. Both men looked closer to examine Kelly’s injuries, realizing they could actually see to the bone. The kind of pain she must have suffered to fight her restraints to that extent must have been unimaginable.

  A movement caught his eye, and for just a moment, Sam thought he saw a flash of blue through the swollen slits.

  “Noah,” she whispered, reaching for him before passing out.

  Chapter Four

  Noah. Had her dream been true? Everything was a blur. She was in and out of consciousness during those first days in the hospital. Her mom later told her they were worried about her eyesight and potential brain damage. What happened if the doctors were right and her visions of Noah were a sign something was wrong with her brain? But it was all fuzzy. Then there were the surgeries done on her wrists and ankles to repair tendons and ligament damage. It was over a week before she was coherent enough to speak with the authorities, but as soon as she was, it was like a cork had exploded out of a champagne bottle.

  Every imaginable arm of law enforcement came in to question her, wanting to know why she had been kidnapped. She told them everything she could remember. She’d been grabbed as she’d been leaving work, and she must have been either knocked unconscious or drugged, because the next thing she remembered was waking up strapped to the metal table.

  The more people who questioned her, the more agitated she became. It was like she was back there, being held against her will. Finally, her dad kicked them out. He told them to quit with the stupid questions, it was obvious she had been taken because she was one of the found children, and now it was their job to find the people behind her kidnapping. She loved her father.

  “I can’t believe some of the idiots I work with, Kelly. Now, your job is to get well.” He immediately roared for one of the doctors to come into the room. Kelly laughed, and it hurt her head but it felt good at the same time. Her mom was in the corner of the room pretending to read a book and winked at her. The doctor who was handling her case came in with a surgeon. They discussed how well her grafts had taken, and the remarkable rate of recovery she was experiencing. Her doctor was extremely pleased, but the surgeon seemed distant. He asked about her family history, but her father asked them to leave.

  “Dad, you don’t have to be so protective,” she admonished.

  “Yes I do. Whenever anyone finds out you’re one of the five found children, they treat you differently, and I won’t have it. You were just tortured! That weasel will treat you with respect or I will kick him off the roof of this hospital.” She glanced over at her mother expecting to be able to share a grin, but her mother looked as fierce as her dad.

  “He’s right Kelly. We haven’t told you yet, but Alfred Hawley was killed during a botched kidnapping in England two months ago.” Kelly’s blood ran cold. She’d met Alfred when his family visited America ten years ago. His adoptive parents wanted to see if meeting another found child would help to jog his memories. It hadn’t.

  “Expect us to be protective of you.”

  “Mom, I’m twenty-five, I have my own life, you can’t protect me twenty-four seven.”

  “Until those bastards are put behind bars, you’re moving back in with us.” The fear gripping after hearing about Alfred’s death, eased. The idea of moving back with her parents for a little bit sounded wonderful.

  She still couldn’t stop the tears from falling. The wonderful gangly teenager she met was dead—he was so kind and funny. Alfred was three years older than her, and he was one of the youngest people to ever be elected to the House of Commons in England.

  “Dad, they’re going to find those motherfuckers and make them pay, right?”

  “Oh yeah, little girl, oh yeah.”

  She couldn’t keep her eyes open any longer, and slipped back into the comforting dreams she’d been having since arriving at the hospital. She dreamed of a place with a meadow and a kind woman she called Nana. Then there was Noah. Noah had been her imaginary friend all through her early childhood. If something broke, Noah did it. Who let the neighbor’s dog into the house? Must have been Noah. She had a very clear picture of how Noah looked—beautiful milk chocolate brown eyes, short hair that still had some wave to it, not like the silky black curls of his childhood, and gorgeous light cinnamon skin.

  In her dreams, she wasn’t Kelly Wachowski, she was Kali, and they lived in a different world together. She’d never had these kinds of dreams before she’d been tortured. Kelly worried maybe the doctors were right, maybe she did have brain damage, but the dreams gave her such comfort she didn’t really care.

  Chapter Five

  Five weeks later the doctors said she was healed, but she knew better, she knew she was the furthest thing. Trying to find some humor, her ability to laugh left the building yesterday. Things had gone to hell. If confusing dreams with memories were her only problem she could have dealt with it, but there was a lot more going on. Now she’d become a danger to the people she loved more than anyone else on Earth. It’s why she had to go someplace safe. Somewhere she couldn’t hurt the people she loved. She paced around the living room, looking at all of the mementos her parents collected over the years.

  “What’s this about Kelly, you’re scaring me.”

  Kelly looked at the big blonde bull of a man standing in front of her. This man loved her like she was his own child.

  “I’ve called Dr. Fredericks and he’s recommended a neurosurgeon and psychiatrist. I’ve met with the psychiatrist on a couple of occasions and she’s…I think she can really help me.” Watching her parents, her mother showed her normal compassion and patience but her dad looked like he was going to burst a blood vessel. “I’m hallucinating. They’re not sure if this was brought on by the shock therapy they did on me while I was held captive, but bottom line, I’m seeing things, and hearing things that aren’t real.”

  “So what?” Her dad came over and wrapped his huge arms around her. Kelly was short to begin with at five foot three and compared to her dad she felt like a doll, this time was no different.

  “Dad, I have a real problem. I need to address it.”

  “So, you’re suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. I’ve served with men who’ve gone through a whole hell of a lot less than you did, and seen their struggle. I’m not trying to discount what you’re going through, and I think it’s great you’re seeing someone. But you didn’t bring your Mom and me in here to tell us that. You have something else planned and we’re not going to like it, are we?”

  “Dad, I’m hearing voices. Remember my imaginary friend from childhood? Noah?” She waited for him to nod. “I’m hearing his voice all the time. In my head. Not like he’s talking to me, it’s like I’m living his life or something. Like I’m tuned into the Noah radio station. He’s some kind of soldier and he’s giving orders, and he’s…he’s…well its bad.” Kelly wiped the tears streaming down her face, thinking about the horror she experienced through Noah’s eyes, and now again looking at the devastated expression on her father’s face.

  “The neurosurgeon never heard of anything like this ever happening before, even with the electro-shock therapy I went through. He’s the one who recommended I talk to Dr. Weston, the psychiatrist.”

  “Okay honey, what did the psychiatrist think?” her mom asked.

  “Up until yesterday, she thought this was something we could work through with sessions. But then things changed.” The tears came more quickly, and she could barely get those last words out.

  “What changed?” her dad asked sharply.

  Kelly shook her head wildly. She couldn’t tell them, she just couldn’t.

  “Mike, don’t push.” Her mother pulled her into her arms, and made everything even worse.

  “Mom, the shock treatments and whatever chems they gave me…they messed me up. Last week I ended up on the floor with my hands over my head trying to protect myself from a bomb. But yesterday…” The snot flowed from her nose and her mother
, God bless her, pulled out a handkerchief.

  “Mom, I waited behind the couch with Dad’s gun for hours, it was trained on the door, waiting for somebody to come through it. I was waiting for the enemy to come inside so I could blow them away. I waited, and waited. I had my finger on the trigger. Then you came in with the groceries. I could have killed you.”

  Her mother hugged her close, but she looked over her mother’s shoulder and she saw her dad’s face. He was finally hearing what she was saying.

  “I have to leave.”

  “Now that is complete and utter bullshit,” her dad roared. “You’re not leaving.” Kelly’s heart unclenched. She had been so sure he would hate her forever when she told him his adopted daughter had a gun trained on the wife he loved so dearly.

  “So what’s your solution?” Kelly asked as she gently pulled out of her mother’s arms.

  “We lock up the guns.”

  “The guns were locked up.”

  “I change the combinations.”

  “She’s not going back to her apartment and that’s final.”

  Kelly squeezed her mother’s shoulder, feeling the steel beneath. Mike Waschowski came over and put his arms around both women.

  “Of course she’s not going back to her apartment, she’s staying right here. We’ll figure this out,” he assured his wife.

  “Dad, I talked to Dr. Weston, and we agreed I need someplace where I can be safe.”