Page 24 of Storm Surge

“He lied to you.” There was just enough of a hard edge in Mark’s tone to assure Jamie her father’s story repulsed him.

She drew in a couple of breaths, got up, and closed the door to her office. The last thing she wanted was for her aunt to overhear this conversation. “Go ahead.”

“Obviously, he didn’t die. He and his men appear to have been hiding out in Afghanistan with the help of an Ahmad Hassanzai.” Mark stopped abruptly. What was coming next was going to be awful.

“Tell me. All of it.”

“You really haven’t been following what’s happening in the world? I know you and your aunt don’t have a television, but you have access to a computer and this has been all over the internet. You aren’t curious about the world?”

She was, but she’d known something ugly waited to grab her by the throat. That’s why she’d always resisted the urge to search the news. In the past, she’d researched the name her father gave her and found nothing. That’s when she stopped looking. Now she knew he’d lied to her about his name. “I am. That’s why I’m asking you.” She and Mark were two of a kind. They’d both been hiding from something in a way. He had been threatened by someone powerful, though he claimed not to know the person after him.

Mark blew out a breath. “A few weeks earlier, someone set bombs off all around the country and the world. Lots of innocent people were killed. A specific group was accused of setting the bombs, only they weren’t responsible.”

Jamie squeezed the phone tight. “Who was?” But she knew.

“Your father, Jamie. Your father is the man responsible for the bombings. He’s leading a group of high-up people in our government and others, referred to as Legion. They’re trying to take over the world.” He dragged in an audible breath. “Your father is a very bad man.”

She almost dropped the phone. Didn’t want to believe it. But she did.

“And there’s something else you should know.”

She sucked in several breaths, not sure she was ready to hear anything else. “What is it?” she forced the words out.

“You father is the one who has been trying to kill me.”

The words fell like blows. Her father was trying to kill her brother? Why? The only explanation was because of their mother.

“He knows I’ve been looking into my mother’s disappearance. He believed our mother may have told me something that would incriminate him. So, he sent his goons after me. But I was blessed enough to have people who were able to help me disappear.” He’d told her about the group of hackers who were all Christians. They used their talents for good only.

“I’m so glad. What else do you know about my father?”

“There’s plenty and it’s all bad, but you should go onto this website that’s been set up by a group of patriots called Strike Force.”

Strike Force? Will’s team. “That’s the people who are here now searching for my father. The ones who found the body in the woods they believe is our mother.”

Silence followed those words. “I know someone from their team as well, though she doesn’t realize I know this about her, and she only knows my screen name. They’re all good people. You can trust them.”

She hesitated. Jamie hadn’t told him about the connection she’d felt with Will Grayson or the alarming memory she’d experienced upon seeing the man who was her grandfather. “There’s something else you should know.” Jamie poured out her story and waited for Mark to say something.

“Do you think there’s a possibility that you are this Lizzy?” She could hear him typing on his laptop.

“I don’t know. I have no idea what my middle name is, and my aunt refuses to talk about it.” She stopped for a second and listened to his keystrokes. “What are you searching for?”

“Information connected to the Van Gogh cases Will told you about. Whoa.” He blew out a breath. “There were at least five other women who died by this man. Your case. . . I’m sorry.”

She tried to keep from falling apart. “It’s okay.”

“Lizzy Grayson’s case was alike in the way that she was taken. The front door to her apartment was left open. A photo of Van Gogh’sStarry Nightand a polaroid photo of the victim bound and gagged were left on the floor of the living room. Nothing more. Only Lizzy’s body was never discovered.”

Something about the facts stirred a fleeting memory inside her. “What about the other women? What did they look like? Where were their bodies found?”

“All were in their early twenties. Dark hair. Slender built. Their bodies were found along the banks of the Anacostia River in Washington D.C.”

She pulled in a breath. “And there’s been no other deaths since?” If those faint memories of her grandfather were true, and he was somehow connected to these murders, why hadn’t he kept up his killing spree?

“No record of any. Which is strange for a serial killer. What do you know about your grandfather?” More typing assured her Mark was on the task.

“Nothing. I thought he was dead. My aunt told me their parents had died years ago.”

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