Page 89 of Abducting Sarah

“Goodbye, Jac,” I said, tears making my throat tight. “I’ll never forget you.”

He gave me a sad, gut-wrenching smile. “You are always in my heart, Sarah Hollinger.”

I stepped onto my home world and had never felt less at home. Once my feet were on earthly soil, the cargo bay door went up, stealing my view of Jac. Everything within me screamed to run back to him. To tell him I had made a huge mistake and to take me back to Orhon, and Deacon, too. But then flashes of Jac on his knees with Mother Portend’s hand onhis shoulder came to mind, and I knew I couldn’t put him, or anyone else, in such a dangerous position again.

I forced myself to turn toward Ryan’s mansion and marched forward. A house full of safety and the protection his money had brought me, which is what I thought I’d wanted. What I needed. Now, it all just felt so wrong. Now that all the drugs that he’d insisted I take were out of my system, there was a clarity to my thoughts that hadn’t been there for the past year.

I smiled to myself.I hadn’t been crazy after all. I hadn’t been hallucinating. I was Volatile Bateen’s daughter, half-alien royalty, and seeing and communicating with ghosts is a part of my genetic make-up.

The mansion was bigger than I had remembered—ostentatious might have been a better word than merelybigger. Something about the overly manicured flowers and those decorative touches around the doors and windows, it all seemed out of place. Unnatural. It was nothing as sweet and pastoral as Deacon’s father’s home with the blue flowers that seemed to grow wherever they wanted and the simple silver roof.

As I came toward the front door, I noticed my sister’s cars were parked nearby.I wonder how long I’ve been gone, Earth time. I’m sure I’m about to find out.Taking a deep, fortifying breath for what lay ahead, I pressed my finger to the biometric lock, hoping I was still in the system.

An alarm sounded and startled, I jumped back. “What the fuck?”

The door swung open and a large man I didn’t recognize stood before me. His eyes widened in shock when he saw me, and he grabbed my arm and quickly ushered me inside.

I stood in the foyer, and he looked outside, his gaze scanning the mansion’s grounds. “Are they still here?” he demanded to know.

“Who?” I asked, completely confused.

He shut the door behind me, peeping out the window next to it, his brows furrowed together. “Your kidnappers. Are they still here?”

Did he mean Jac?“Uh, no, I’m fine—”

“Sarah?”

My sister Jenny’s excited voice rang out, and I turned toward the sound as she ran to me from the living area of the house with an excited squeal of happiness. I smiled at seeing her, and had the thought that the heavy streaks of blue in her hair would have been more appropriate on Halla than inside Ryan’s fancy, and oppressive, home.

“Oh, my God, you’re okay! We’ve all been so worried!” She wrapped me up in a hug and tried to squeeze the life out of me, while my other sister, Elizabeth, ran to join us. She clamped down on both of us, as we cried together.

When the nice moment was over, Elizabeth stepped back, concern in her eyes as she looked me over. “Where have you been? Who kidnapped you? Are you alright?”

“No one kidnapped me,” I fibbed until I could figure out how to explain everything. “I’m fine. It’s a long story—”

“You’refine?” Ryan barked irritably as he entered the foyer. “Do you know how much trouble you have caused me and you’refucking fine?”

I pursed my lips, annoyance swirling in my stomach. “Nice to see you too, Ryan,” I said flatly.

“Let me look at you.” He took my hands in his, spread them wide, and gave me a once over before his gaze narrowed on my face. “Are you hurt? You look…odd.”

God, it was still the same old shit with him. I jerked my hands from his grasp, refusing to let him make me feel inferior, like he used to. “I’m not hurt,” I said through gritted teeth.

Ryan braced his hands on his hips, looking completely put out as he glanced over at the man who’d answered the door.“Marshall, contact your boss and let him know we will no longer be needing his services. Sarah is fine, no thanks to you.”

The large man’s face colored in embarrassment, and with a curt nod he left the house, his cell phone to his ear. Ryan slammed the door shut after him.

“Who is he?” I asked.

Ryan scoffed. “I had to hire a company who deals with kidnap negotiations to—”

“You did what?”

Elizabeth stepped up to me and put a hand on my arm. “I insisted he hire them. After you were gone with no note, and no calls from the kidnappers, we didn’t know what was happening. The police could only do so much, and we needed experts to handle the situation.”

I nodded, remembering what Deacon had told me about sending his android, Lanai Dea, to Earth in human form as a police officer investigating my missing person case so that it would seem as though real law enforcement was pursuing the issue.

“Okay, that makes sense,” I mumbled, realizing just how much worry I’d put them through.My sisters at least.

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