“But what if I can’t protect her?”
“There are no guarantees in life, Talon. I only wish that there were. But you will protect her. You protected her from her ex, remember? Even though he wasn’t a threat. And if there was a legitimate threat to her, you would do everything within your power to protect her. Your feet would not get caught in quicksand. It was just a dream.”
I suddenly felt very foolish. “Will the dreams ever stop?”
“They may never stop completely. But I feel certain that they will lessen. And you’ll find, in time, that they don’t bother you nearly as much. Even this time, I’ve talked you down in a matter of minutes. That wouldn’t have happened three months ago.”
I couldn’t disagree with her. “All right. I think I’m okay now. Thanks for talking to me, Doc.”
“I’ll always be here for you, Talon. For as long as you need me.”
And I knew she would be.
Just like Jade would be.
As I said goodbye and hung up, Jade came running into my bedroom, Roger at her heels.
“Talon, thank God you’re awake. You need to get up.”
“What’s going on, blue eyes?”
“I just got off the phone with Wendy Madigan.”
Wendy Madigan? That was a blast from the past. How did Jade know about her? “Wendy?”
“Yeah.”
“But how?”
“I found her name at the bottom of that local news article about your heroics when you came back from overseas.”
Okay. But that didn’t help me understand why Jade was on the phone with her.
“I’ll explain all this later, but right now we need to act quickly. You were right, Talon. Larry Wade was one of the three men who abducted you.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Jade
His eyes widened into circles. He said nothing. In fact, he looked almost catatonic for a few moments. When I got to the point where I was actually beginning to worry, he finally blinked.
“What?”
I sat down next to him on the bed and took his trembling hand. “I’ve been talking to Wendy for a while. After I found her name on the article about you, I figured she had some information, and she confirmed that she did. Today she decided to give it to me.”
He gulped. “Why today?”
“She felt an obligation toward you and your family. She didn’t want to divulge anything until you had told me everything.”
“She told you that something happened to me?”
I nodded. “But Talon, don’t be angry with her. You told me yourself that something had happened to you, remember?”
Talon stared straight ahead, not speaking.
“Talon? Do you understand what this means? We can have him arrested. One of your abductors will see justice served.”
He shook his head, blinking as if to clear his head. “We don’t know where he is.”