"James, go get a blanket," J.T. ordered.
James came back with a blanket and wrapped it around Laura. After a few minutes, Laura's lips started turning pink again.
"Are you o.k.?" James asked.
"Give her a minute, James," J.T. said. "Don't you worry about talking right now, Laura, just focus on breathing." Turning to James, he continued, "It takes some time to get your breath back after something like that. I know, I almost drowned as a kid. Took me about an hour before I could speak."
After they took Laura below, J.T. told James to watch her and make sure she didn't go to sleep. He was concerned that she might have a concussion, and felt that they needed to have her checked out at the hospital to make certain it wasn't too serious.
J.T. turned the boat around and set sail back to the marina. He called ahead so that an ambulance was there waiting on them by the time they returned. The doctor in the ER gave Laura some oxygen and checked her over. Eventually, he diagnosed her with a concussion and sent her home with James and J.T., giving them a print-out on what symptoms to look for at home. He told Laura that she needed to gets lots of rest and take it easy over the next few days. She was to let him know if any of the symptoms listed on the sheet he gave her persisted or got worse.
J.T. suggested that they all stay at his house for the next day or so. That way, he said, he and James could take turns keeping an eye on Laura's condition. Laura protested a bit, but in the end, she was too exhausted to give them much resistance and she capitulated.
A few weeks after the boating incident, they were all eating over at J.T.'s house, and Laura brought in two presents from the car. She gave one to J.T. and one to James. They looked at her with questioning looks until she said, "Well, go on. Open them up."
J.T. unwrapped his first. It was a beautiful stained glass piece of a sailboat on the water. Laura had included a note inside the box. J.T. opened the note and read it to himself. "Thanks for saving my life," it read. James opened his and found a similar note. His stained glass scene depicted a boy riding a bike down the beach.
J.T. went over to Laura and gave her a big hug.
"I'm just glad you are o.k. Thanks for the gift."
"Yeah," James added, "thanks. That was pretty scary. Next time, you stay inside the railing, young lady," he said in mock sternness, wagging his finger at Laura as he spoke.
"Yes, sir!" Laura said with a mock salute.
Laura's near-drowning had been concerning on more than one level. The x-ray that had been performed on Laura in the ER had revealed the implant which had been installed for monitoring the prisoners while they were at Utopia. The doctor started asking questions about it. Laura had told him that it was a private medical issue, and that she didn't want to discuss it. After a few more prodding questions, the doctor finally let it drop.
They were all concerned that if they didn't get the devices removed, it might lead to their true identities being revealed and land them back in prison. They began discreetly searching for a good hospital somewhere other than the Cayman Islands where they could have the devices removed. The Caymans were too close to home and too many questions would be asked. It had to be somewhere else.
They finally located a good hospital in Costa Rica. Research had revealed that Costa Rica had some of the finest medical care in all of South America. The whole procedure would cost them each ten thousand dollars, plus the cost of the charter plane split three ways. They flew into San Jose on a Friday afternoon, spent the night in a hotel, and then had all three of their devices removed on the following day at a local clinic - no questions asked. One more day in town to monitor for any signs of infection, and it was back to George Town on Sunday.
All in all, life had been good for the three of them during these past eleven years since they had been kidnapped from Utopia. Not only had they escaped re-capture, but they had been able to build new and fulfilling lives in Grand Cayman and become good friends all around. They had no idea that their world was about to be turned upside down once more.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Sasha's eighteenth birthday party had been a huge success. The party started out with a trip to the Trapeze School of New York, where Sasha and a group of her friends tried out swinging from the trapeze. Next, it was back to the Bartonovich's brownstone for a catered birthday lunch, complete with three-tiered birthday cake, presents, music, dancing - the whole nine yards. Lastly, they finished it off with a movie.
The following morning before breakfast, Nick and Mia asked Sasha to come into the library so that they could give her one last birthday present. They sat down around the coffee table and Nick placed a manila envelope on the table that had Sasha's name on it. Sasha was still on a party-high from the events of the day before and she was grinning from ear to ear.
"Thank you again for the party yesterday, Nick and Mia. It was the best birthday party ever."
Although it had been years since they had officially adopted her, she still preferred to call them by their first names. Mia could understand completely. No one could replace Sasha's mother, nor did she want to. She was just glad to be a part of Sasha's life.
"Sasha," Nick began, "I'm very glad you had a good day. We have one more present to give you, but it's not what you might expect. I have some very good news for you, but it also might be very difficult news."
Sasha looked from Mia to Nick and back, a quizzical expression on her face. "O.k., what is it?" she asked.
"When we adopted you, there were certain facts about your life that we didn't feel you needed to know at the time," Nick continued. "Mia and I talked about it and decided that you needed time to grieve and adjust to your new life before we told you. Due to other circumstances that will hopefully be clear in a few minutes, we decided it would be best to wait until you turned eighteen to tell you those details."
Sasha had moved to the edge of her seat with curiosity, wondering what was about to be revealed.
"Sasha, your biological father is still alive." Nick paused to let Sasha process what he had just said, knowing that her entire world would shift with the words he had just spoken.
"That can't be possible," a confused Sasha replied, "my father died in a car crash in Canada when I was a baby."
"Sasha," Nick continued, "I know this is hard to accept, but your mother didn't tell you the truth about your father."
"So you're saying Mom lied to me about my father's death? Why would she do that?" Sasha said, visibly upset.
"Look, I know this is a lot to process, but your mother had a very good reason for not telling you the truth about your father. Your father is a man named J.T. Thornbacker. When you were born, he had just been sent to prison for twenty-five years. He didn't even know your mother was pregnant with you. In fact, he doesn't even know you exist at this moment."
"I'm sure your mother just did it to protect you," Mia added, touching Sasha's hand gently as she spoke.
"Why did you guys wait so long to tell me?" Sasha asked, looking hurt.
Nick and Mia looked at each other.
"Your father is currently on the FBI's wanted list. He escaped from prison nine years ago," Mia answered.
Sasha's eyes widened and her mouth came open with a look of surprise.
"What?"
"I know it's a lot to take in. Everything you need to know is in this envelope," Nick said, tapping the envelope on the coffee table with his finger. "Once you have had a chance to look over it, ask me anything you like."
"So no one knows where he is?" Sasha asked, picking up the folder and placing it in her lap.
"We know where he is, Sasha," Mia said.
Sasha looked at Mia with a mixture of surprise and bewilderment.
"He is living under an assumed name in another country," Nick went on. "We can arrange for you to meet him, but there are some complications. Because he is a wanted man, if the FBI finds out about him, he will go back to jail for t
he rest of his life."
Sasha stood up, clutching the manila envelope in both hands. She began backing away from Nick and Mia. She was upset, her brain not sure which question to ask first. Should she be mad at Nick and Mia, or her mom, or at anyone? She didn't know. Her thoughts were a jumble of emotion-filled firecrackers.
"I need some time to think," she said as she turned and practically ran out of the library and up the flight of stairs to her room. Nick and Mia heard the door slam.
Sasha sat down on her bed. She opened up the manila envelope and poured out the contents onto her bed. Her eye was caught by an 8 ? by 11 inch photograph of J.T. Thornbacker. He was smiling as he faced the camera, and dressed in a three-piece suit. She went over to her mirror and held the picture beside her face as she peered into the mirror so she could see her image side by side with her father's. The resemblance was undeniable. She wondered when the picture had been taken.
There were various articles in the pile on her bed. One was about J.T. being appointed CEO of some company. Most of the others were about his arrest and trial for embezzling funds and various other illegal business practices. She read them all, devouring them for information about who her father was and what he was like. The last article was about J.T. Thornbacker's amazing escape from prison, along with two other prisoners. It detailed how the hideout that they had fled to after leaving prison had been discovered, and that all indications pointed to their plan to flee to Europe and live under false identities. She wondered how Nick and Mia had found him after all these years.
Before today, she had believed her father's name was Steven Byers, and that he'd been a school teacher who had died in a car crash in Canada. Today, she had learned that she had been lied to by both her mother and her adoptive parents about one of the biggest facts in her life. It was unsettling. The more she thought about it, the madder she became.
She needed someone she could talk to, someone she could trust. She called her best friend Marty to see if she could come over and talk.
"Hi Sasha," Marty answered.
"Hi Marty. Can I come over? I need to talk to you."
"Sure. What's up?"
"I can't talk about it on the phone and there's something I need to show you first."
"O.k. When do you want to come over?"
"I have to wait until the coast is clear. Maybe in about an hour?"
"No problem. Just text me when you leave to come over, o.k.?"
"O.k. See you soon."
She was taking a risk in talking to Marty about her real father. But she needed someone she could trust to listen to her. Right now, she was having some definite trust issues with Nick and Mia. Marty had been her best friend since grade school. She had been Sasha's confidant when her mom had died. If she couldn't trust Marty, then she couldn't trust anyone.
Sasha grabbed her backpack and tossed in a windbreaker, a flashlight, and her phone. She collected all of the papers spread out on her bed and put them back in the envelope, tossing that into the backpack too. Now all she had to do was wait until Nick and Mia went to bed. She didn't want them knowing where she was going and she certainly didn't want them asking a lot of questions or trying to stop her. She was eighteen, after all - old enough to do what she wanted.
Mia came and knocked on her door around 10:30 p.m.
"Yes?" Sasha responded.
"Are you o.k.?" Mia said without opening the door.
"Yeah, I'm o.k. I just want to be alone right now."
"O.k. If you need anything, just come and get me."
"Alright. Thanks."
Sasha heard Nick and Mia's bedroom door close down the hall. She waited another thirty minutes until she no longer heard any sounds coming from the direction of their bedroom. She slipped on her backpack and quietly opened the door, looking down the hall to make certain the light was off in her parents' room. She had practiced going downstairs without making a sound, marking each place she would need to step without making the floors creak. She paused before each floor to carefully peer around the wall separating the stairs from the rest of the floor before coming down to the landing, making sure Nick wasn't still up. She went all the way down to the basement, punched in the security code to turn off the alarm, and exited the door that led out to the sidewalk. She closed the door as quietly as she could, locking it with her key.
She started walking in the direction of Marty's house. She turned the corner and was about to walk past an alleyway when she was grabbed roughly from behind. She tried to scream, but there was a cloth over her mouth. As she inhaled, she felt weak and couldn't keep her eyes open. In seconds, she lost consciousness.
Silas McGruder dragged her into the alleyway, out of sight of anyone who might be passing by.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Sasha's phone didn't have a password on it, which was good for Silas. That way, he didn't need to use the burn phone he had purchased to send a message to Nick Bartonovich. It was 6:00 a.m., time to get the ball rolling. Silas took a deep breath and exhaled it slowly. This text was about to start the events moving that he had planned for so long. He had checked and double-checked all of the details. Everything was in place. Now all he had to do was send this text.
He scrolled through Sasha's contacts and selected both Nick and Mia's numbers, and then he typed out the message:
I have sasha. 10 million in cash, one hundred dollar notes, or you never see her again. Put the money in a big cooler with wheels on it. J t thornbacker must deliver the money. Will contact you in 24 hours to tell you where to meet me with the money. No cops or else.
He checked the message twice to make sure he had all the details right, then hit the send button. He then took a picture of Sasha, duct-taped to the captain's chair in the RV, and sent it through, as well. Once the message and picture were sent, he removed the phone's cover and popped out the battery. It was just a precaution so that they wouldn't be able to track the phone. He checked Sasha's restraints one more time before climbing in to the driver's seat of the RV and driving away.
As Silas drove along, he thought about the events that had led up to this moment, and a smile came across his face. All of the planning, all of the time spent surveilling and researching, the investment he had made in the miniature microphones that he had placed around the Bartonovich's house - it had all paid off. Now the brass ring was in sight.
Many months before, when Silas began to focus on Nick Bartonovich as the key to his future success, he had started looking for a way to spend more time staking out their house. He'd found a basement efficiency apartment on the opposite side of the street from the Bartonovich's home, down on the corner. It was the perfect place from which to surveil all of the comings and goings at their residence. Besides, he had needed a place to stay since he'd lost the house in the divorce.
He had purchased a set of high quality remotely accessible microphones that he was going to use to bug their house, but he needed a way to get inside undetected in order to plant them. One day, the HVAC company that the Bartonoviches used was out doing routine maintenance on their system. Silas was home and was watching the Bartonovich house that day. He noticed that Nick and Mia left together shortly after Sasha headed off to school, leaving the HVAC technician alone in the house. Silas had simply walked over with a box containing the bugs, tipped the HVAC tech a hundred dollars to let him in the house, and planted the bugs.
He had been settled on the kidnapping scheme for some time. He decided that nothing else would provide the leverage he needed to get what he wanted. He had everything planned out except how he was going to get Sasha alone so that he could grab her. Breaking into the house would set off the alarm, and doing something in broad daylight near their house was too risky. Then, when he had heard from the bug in Sasha's room about her plan to leave the house after dark without her parents' knowledge, that problem was solved. Finding out that J.T. Thornbacker was her father from th
e bug in the library was just icing on the cake. He couldn't resist using J.T. as the courier. The last thing Nick wanted was for J.T. to get caught by the cops - then he would be connected to the prison breakout he had orchestrated and go to jail. Every bit of insurance Silas could get to make certain the authorities stayed out of his way was welcome. Yes, this was going to be sweet revenge indeed.
Nick Bartonovich reached over to the night stand and picked up his phone. He looked down at the sender and wondered why Sasha was texting him this early in the morning from the next room. He opened the text and read the message. Then he saw the picture that came through next and he immediately jumped up out of bed, ran down the hall to Sasha's room, and threw open the door.
"Sasha!" Nick exclaimed. "Sasha, if this is a joke, it isn't funny. Where are you, sweetheart?" There was no answer.
By this time, Mia had put on her robe and was walking down the hall to Sasha's room.
"What is going on? Where is Sasha?"
Nick handed Mia his phone.
"Oh, my God!" Mia exclaimed.
Mia and Nick began a hurried search of the house, each of them calling her name as they checked each floor, hoping and praying this was all a joke. When they had gone through every room, they met back up in the kitchen. Nick placed his hands on Mia's shoulders and looked straight into her eyes to make certain he had her full attention.
"Mia, I need you to call the airport and have them get the plane fueled and ready to go to Grand Cayman. You stay here and get the money. I'll call you once I'm in the air and we can work out the details."
Nick dressed quickly and left the house for the airport. He pulled out his phone and dialed a number. It was 5:00 a.m. in the Cayman Islands, so it was a long shot that his office administrator would be awake, but he dialed anyway. It rang several times before finally going to voicemail.
"This is Nick Bartonovich. Drop everything you are doing and call me as soon as you get this message. This is an emergency."