Mason picked up his fork first, followed by his wife. Then Kyle and Rowan gave it a try. They all managed to choke down some of the repast. Their father had eaten earlier, after which he’d walked over to the mill, where he’d continue to work and ponder. If he had anything useful to say, he’d be back. They could all count on that.
Spencer gave a valiant attempt at eating, and he saw Tabitha did, too, but after another half hour of pushing cold eggs around on their plates, his mother finally removed the uneaten food from the table, leaving only the bacon behind.
Yeah.Spencer could manage a few pieces of that.
He chewed slowly and thoughtfully, for the umpteenth time weighing good against bad.
The bad? They still didn’t know how the day would unfold.
The good? Spencer had a decent portion of his family here; those who were MIA from their jobs, taking personal days to help deal with things.
Spencer didn’t know whether he would have been able to hold it together without their support.
Another positive? His mother had alertedallhis brothers this morning of the events that were going down. To say that Vincent was gobsmacked that Tabitha was at the heart of things, was an understatement.
Most of his siblings couldn’t make it to Maine, but they sent their emotional support. Julian, however, was actually on his way here for however long this Charlie Foxtrot took.
Buck had also, upon hearing the news, requested immediate, emergency leave from the Coast Guard. It had unequivocally been granted. Since Buck’s superiors had met both Spencer and Tabitha during the rescue a few days back, they’d somehow felt vested in the outcome of this newest debacle. So yes, Buck would be here within the hour, as well.
After what seemed like another eternity of nothingness, his two brothers arrived not ten minutes apart. Their appearance at least gave everyone something to do; explaining exactly what was going on, giving over every detail they knew, lamenting over the slew of stuff they didn’t.
Julian immediately sat down to engage Tabitha, and bless him for distracting her with “submersible” questions. He was asking pointed, technical stuff that required well thought out answers, and Spencer could tell that even though Tabbi was still antsy, having to pull statistics out of her head for Julian’s satisfaction went a small way toward keeping her calm.
The next two and a half hours passed while they all took turns pacing. Talk was minimal.
When Spencer couldn’t stand the inactivity any longer, he dialed Tex.
“Hey, Spence,” the man answered immediately, clearly distracted while he continuously dug for information.
“Hi, Tex. I’m sorry to bother you, but I don’t suppose you have anything new for us, or maybe an inkling of something we could do that might help?”
Tex immediately must have felt Spencer angst, because he became fully engaged. “Listen. I know that biding your time feels counterproductive to you right now, Spencer, but believe me, saving your strength for whatever the next step is going to be is the best thing you can all do right now.”
“You sound like my mother.” Spencer heaved a sigh.
“Not what you wanted to hear, huh?” Tex asked astutely.
“Nope. I was hoping you could send us in a direction that would make us feel engaged.”
“Sorry about that. I’m— Hold on. The number I assigned to Tabitha is ringing.”
Shit.Good timing.
Spencer didn’t hear any of what Tex was listening to, but he sucked in an anticipatory breath and alerted Tabitha and his family. “Someone’s calling Tabitha’s line.”
He assumed Tex would share what it was quickly, but the thirty seconds it took for him to get back to them, seemed like an eternity.
“It’s him. Our guy,” Tex finally enlightened Spencer. “You need to hear this.”
“Okay. I’m putting it on speaker,” Spencer agreed.
The words that came out had been put through the voice-changer again.
“So, Tabitha, how does it feel, waiting and wondering, huh? Pretty awful not knowing what’s going to happen, isn’t it? Here’s an update on Sheila, though. She’s very comfortable. At least for the moment. But she won’t be for much longer.”He laughed, diabolically. “I’ve prepared a special place for her. Adifficult spot where you’ll have to retrieve her after you leave me my money. It won’t be a cake-walk, bitch,”another guffaw,“but that’s how I want things. You don’t deserve anything to be easy.”His tone turned on a dime, morphing into a growl. “Just remember, if I so much as see one cop with you, Sheila is dead. If you don’t have my money, Sheila is dead. Try any heroics and… Well, you get it.”He snickered again.Clearly his emotions were all over the place.“Do as I say, and everything will be fine. I’ll be back in touch in two hours with your final instructions.”
Click.
Tabitha dropped her head into her hands and shook it back and forth, lamenting. “This is horrible. Sheila has to be so scared, and it’s all my fault.” She turned tear-drenched eyes to Spencer. “My fault,” she repeated. “I’ll do whatever it takes to get her back. And I think… I think I should go getrealmoney from the bank. If Ghillie discovers we’ve given him paper before I can rescue Sheila…” She trailed off, not wanting to repeat the man’s words.
