By Audra Beberman
Chapter Sixteen
Lorenzo Spencer, known of late as the Keeper, stood at the entrance to his vault of collected people. He scanned the horizon for his henchman's nondescript Ford Taurus. He had been expected to return more than three hours before. If he did not return in one hour, Lorenzo would assume he'd either been unable to complete his assigned task, thus deserted -- fearing the wrath of his master, or he'd been captured and returned to the army. If the former was the case, the Jacks children will be dealt with later. In his own way. What was that old adage? Why send a mouse to do the work of a man? The Keeper bared his teeth in another of his awful, self-amused sneers.
The sight of her ex-husband in Lucky's company stunned Bobbie. Although nothing that maniac who sired her could do surprised her at this point. She wondered whether or not Jerry suspected that Tony was here. She didn't remember him mentioning it, although most of what he had said was said to Jax, John and Luke. She'd been out of the room most of the time. Quickly she clicked the remote again hoping one button would be the sound. She tried several before the picture shifted to another room altogether. Chloe sat on the edge of a straight-backed chair and faced a woman who was very familiar. So familiar, that Bobbie whispered to herself, "Hannah?" Then she realized that the familiarity was not of a face from her present world, but one from her past. "Brenda!"
The "Eddie Maine" concert was in full swing as a lone figure edged towards the Jacks family's place on the lawn. Luke and Mac had spotted him immediately and Jerry heard the warning. Quietly he said, "Dad." John heard his son and nodded without looking back at him. He stood and stretched and made a show of tickling Candace. He leaned over to kiss Jane and stepped away from his seat. Carly took his place and immediately turned to talk to Jane as she had been instructed to do.
The stealthy man was lithe and quick for a bulky person, and just after John ostensibly excused himself to go to the men's room, the man made a move for Candy. He grabbed the baby's car seat, and began to run. He did not realize until he was falling to the ground that there was no baby in the car seat. He had been tripped by a thin wire, which was pulled taught between two trees on the edge of the band shell area. Mac and Jason were on either end of the wire. John held his gun with two hands as he stepped out from behind one of the trees. Luke came running along the perimeter of the wooded area, gun pointed. On the stage, Ned was just finishing a moving, sentimental ballad when he saw what was happening; quickly, before the applause even reached a crescendo, he drove the band into a frenzied rendition of their newest song, Stealin' Your Heart. Ned danced his way to the other side of the stage, drawing the attention of the entire crowd. The thousands of people in his audience were mesmerized by Eddie Maine and remained oblivious to the drama unfolding a mere twenty yards away. No one except the participants noticed when the would-be kidnapper was forced at gunpoint into a waiting car.
Jax, never a hunter, was uncomfortably seated in a deer-blind in a tree above the action. He made the only comment uttered at that point, mostly for Jerry's benefit. "Now that's what I call tripping with style!" Jerry smiled and looked over at Felicia. The Jacks brother's private joke had been made a code of sorts. Their man had been caught and was now within their control.
Bobbie continued to press buttons on the remote. She pressed several more until she could hear the conversations in the other rooms. Tony and Lucky were discussing chess and the intricacies of the end game. Bobbie was not a chess-player, but Jerry and Jax competed ferociously. She also listened as each of the Jacks brothers tutored Lucas in their own particular chess-playing style. She understood the lingo and assumed that Lucky and Tony did not realize they were being watched. She touched another button and the screen split to show all four of her fellow prisoners. Then another button showed her a full screen with audio of Brenda and Chloe in a heated discussion about Jax. Bobbie had figured that conversation would eventually occur, as soon as she grasped that it was Brenda locked in a room with Chloe. What Bobbie didn't realize was that she was witnessing the first and last such discussion these two women would ever have.
Bobbie then pressed two buttons on either side of the remote. The screen went blank and the panel lifted in front of the TV. "Hey!" Bobbie said aloud. She punched a few more buttons but stopped when an awful creaking sound began behind her. With disbelief Bobbie watched as the walls on either side of her chamber lifted slowly into the ceiling. At first her mind couldn't make sense out of this latest turn of events. On her left she saw Chloe and Brenda, their argument suspended in mid-word and on her right she saw Lucky with his hand on a chess piece, poised in mid-move, shocked by the unexpected as well.
Tony turned slowly and said with surprise, "Bobbie?"
Chloe was the first to recover and she ran to Bobbie and stopped short of the hug she would have bestowed on her future sister-in-law. What stopped Chloe's exuberant greeting was the sight of the bruises on Bobbie's face. Slowly, Chloe stepped towards her and softly kissed her cheek. Bobbie smiled gently at her. Chloe smiled a sad smile in return and turned to look as Bobbie's eyes landed on the young man across the room who was with Tony Jones.
Lucky rose slowly to greet his aunt. The joy he felt was once again overshadowed by doubt. Now he was sure something was happening. The end game in this freak-show was drawing near. He took her hand in hers and looked into her eyes. The tears in Bobbie's eyes were a combination of relief and sadness and they were echoed in his. She embraced him despite the pain she felt and then looked at him with an aunt's observant eye. He was taller, and even more handsome than the last time she'd seen him. The amount of pride she felt was overwhelming. He had literally survived against all odds. How would she ever explain to her nephew and to the rest of the hostages that the man who did this to them was her father, Lucky's grandfather?
