He nodded. 'Michael Travis helped her as much as he could, but he said she was already stronger than he was. He tested her extensively and found out that she was amazingly multitalented. She was not only a Listener, she was also a Finder. Give her a glove, a scarf, a half-smoked cigarette and she could not only sense the person within a mile's distance but distinguish him in a crowd. He thought she'd be just what we needed if we could get her to cooperate. She didn't want to be involved with anything to do with psychic phenomena. She just wanted the tools to survive it and build a normal life for the two of you. Michael was very disappointed because he kept seeing hints of possible talents he'd rarely run across and wanted to do still more tests. She told him thank you, but no, thanks.'
'She walked out on him?'
'He never saw her again. But he kept tabs on her because he felt it would have been irresponsible for him to ignore that potential.'
'That sounds so… clinical.' She shivered. 'She wasn't 'potential,' she was my mother. She had a right to ignore your damn potential and live a normal life. You should have left her alone.'
'We didn't force her. We told her the situation and left it up to her.' His lips twisted. 'I'm not saying that the CIA didn't persuade her with a few photos of the children that they'd managed to free from their owners. Two of them were already AIDS victims.'
'Dear God.'
'It was enough to make her agree to one job and one job only. She had to make arrangements for your care while she was gone and sent you to summer camp for six weeks. You were thirteen then. Do you remember?'
'Of course, I do. I didn't want to go to the blasted camp. I wanted to stay with her. She said I needed to be around people my own age.' But she had never dreamed what her mother had been planning. Her mother was always urging her to be more outgoing and sending her to camp had seemed perfectly natural. 'Where did she go?'
'Central Africa. Molino was to rendezvous with one of his bandit cohorts, Kofi Badu, for a payoff. That's where I met her. We became… close.'
'How close?' She paused. 'Lovers?'
'No. She was scared and I tried to help her. I was used to being a freak in everyone's eyes, but it was the first time she was exposed to it. She'd always hidden her gift.' He met her gaze. 'Is that what you thought when I showed up at the beach that summer when you were fifteen? That we were lovers?'
'Not at first. Yet sometimes you seemed to read each other's thoughts.' And she had been jealous, she remembered suddenly. Her mother had been right. Megan had had a king-sized crush on Grady. From the moment she'd seen him, he'd caught and held her. He'd been her friend and teacher, yet she couldn't deny that he'd drawn her sexually. There had been moments when she'd only had to look at him to have her heart start pounding crazily.
For God's sake, she'd been only fifteen. It was an entirely natural response for a young girl when brought into contact with a man as physically attractive as Neal Grady.
'I assure you that if we read each other's thoughts it wasn't psychic-related,' Grady said. 'We lived in each other's pockets when we were in the jungle and that's bound to draw anyone close.'
'And did my mother find Molino?'
'Yes.' His lips twisted. 'We furnished her with a red shirt Molino had left at one of his whorehouses in Madagascar and it was enough for her. We flew into the jungle where we thought the bandit, Kofi Badu, had a hideout, and spent three days there. She located Molino and went with the team to keep them on target.'
'And that's where she killed Molino's son?'
'No, that was later. The raid proved a bust. They were waiting for us. We lost seven men… and your mother was captured.'
She went rigid. 'What?'
'We got her back two days later. But by that time the damage was done. She'd already killed Molino's son, Steven.'
'I don't care about his son,' she said fiercely. 'What about my mother? Did they hurt her?'
'Yes. But she survived it and came out on top.'
'What did they do to her?'
'Are you sure you want to know?'
'Hell, yes.'
'Molino's son raped her.'
She felt sick. 'Then I'm glad he's dead.' Dear God, what her mother had gone through. 'She never let me know. She didn't let it change her. When she came home, she was the same as the day she left.'
'I told you, she came out on top. Sarah was strong enough not to let that filth make her any less than she was.' He paused. 'But when she came back home we decided to take precautions and have her disappear for a while. That's why we whisked the two of you away from Richmond the minute she came back.'
'She said she had a better job.'
'We wanted to give her new credit cards and documents in a new name, but she said that it wasn't necessary since Molino was on the run from the CIA. She said Molino might be caught any day. Sometimes Sarah believed what she wanted to believe. She didn't want you to know anything about him or the talent she'd been trying to hide from you all your life. I tried to talk her out of it.'
'Why?'
'Molino is relentless. He digs until he reaches pay dirt. He went underground for a long time and Sarah was feeling safer and safer every week. All the time he was working, searching, bribing everyone to find out everything he could about her and where we'd found her. After her death we discovered that the day before Molino's men had raided Michael Travis's library at the think tank and stolen all the records pertaining to her.' He shook his head. 'Dammit, I knew he'd find her. He was raised to believe in the vendetta and he wouldn't quit until he'd killed Sarah and her entire family. As the years passed, Sarah was getting more confident and I was getting more uneasy. That was why I rented that cottage and stayed close to you both all that summer.'
'Not that last day.'
'No, Sarah wouldn't let me come. She was beginning to be impatient with having me near all the time. She wanted to forget what happened with Molino and I wouldn't let her.'
'So she died.'
Yes.
'Shit.' Tears were streaming down her cheeks. 'Because of me. Right? She wanted everything to be safe and normal for me and they found both of us.'
'It was her choice, Megan. None of this was your fault. You were the one person she loved in the world and she didn't want you to feel hounded because she'd decided to go after Molino.'
'But she didn't stop him, did she? He's still out there selling drugs and children. He killed my mother and all she tried to do was for nothing. How can that be?'
'He's clever. He's rich. He has contacts in the governments of several countries. Corruption. Bribery. Fear.' He shrugged. 'His main headquarters is in Madagascar and it's as secure as a fort. And when he moves around to other locations he has the money to stay virtually invisible. The CIA has been trying to get their hands on him for years and they can never find the bastard. I almost had him twice but he slipped away.'
'Had him?'
'Sarah was my friend. You don't think I'd let him kill her and live?'
'I don't know what to think about you, Grady.'
'You knew what to think about me at one time.'
'You were pretending even then.'
'Perhaps.' He added wearily, 'Perhaps not. Those were good days for me. I felt as if I had a family again. I had no business feeling like that. I was there to protect both of you and emotion always gets in the way. I should have ignored Sarah when she told me to stay away from both of you for a while. But I cared too much about what she thought and felt. I won't make that mistake again. Not with you, Megan. That's why I told Phillip to tell you that he was Sarah's half brother so that he could talk you into taking his name, changing your name from Nathan to Blair. I had to find a way to cover your tracks after Sarah's death.'
