The first thing they saw was Jude in a cage. The image didn’t last long, before it was replaced by Jerry Dunkirk’s face.
“That dirty son of a…” Cope trailed of when Jerry began to speak.
“Hi, Cope! It’s Jerry! Remember me? Yup, I’m Jude’s once and future lover! I’ve got him here with me and we’ve been getting reacquainted. Wanna see?” Jerry waggled his eyebrows at the screen. “Heeeeere’s Jude!”
The image flipped to Jude stuck in a cage. He looked worn to the bone. Dark smudges were under his bloodshot eyes. His hair stuck up in crazy directions. It was definitely Jude, but he lookedlike he’d been put through the ringer. “Cope! I’m sorry, I love you! Tell the kids I love them!”
Cope’s heart broke listening to the anguish in Jude’s voice. “Oh, my God,” he whispered.
Once again, the screen flipped back to Jerry’s crazed face. “There you have it, proof of life. In return for that touching video, I want one million dollars. Don’t give me that, ‘I don’t have any money,’ bullshit. I know you’re Buford Forbes’ son. He was loaded when he died, but not as loaded as your friend Jace Lincoln. One million dollars, Cope, and for that, you get Jude back. I’ll be in touch with a drop off location. If you involve the police in the ransom drop, Jude dies. I’ll send him back to you in pieces. I’m in my Dexter era!” Jerry laughed. “Don’t fuck with this bull, you will definitely get the horns. Byeee!”
“I’m calling Fitz and Cisco,” Ronan said, handing Cope’s phone back.
“Wait!” Cope half-shouted. “Jerry said not to call the police.”
“I’ll tell Cisco to keep this to himself and to show up here without lights, sirens and marked vehicles. We’ll keep this between us. I promise.” Ronan cleared his throat. “Can you gather the kind of money Jerry asked for?”
“Maybe, but not quickly. Everything my father left me is still tied up in the company. I’ve got stock options and dividends and that kind of thing. We’ve got about fifty grand in savings. I’m sure I could lay my hands on that pretty quickly.” Christ, Jude was going to die if he couldn’t round up enough money.
“Keep one thing in mind, Cope,” Ronan said, sounding cautious, “paying a ransom is no guarantee that we’ll get Jude back.”
“I understand.” Cope walked back into the living room while Ronan called Fitzgibbon. Truth be told, Cope didn’t understand. How the fuck could an eight year old friends with benefits relationship turn into an abduction and ransom demand?
Ten followed Cope into the living room. “We’re going to figure this out. I promise you. I’ll talk to Everly when she gets up. Sometimes her visions work themselves out in dreams. She might have new information for us when she wakes up.”
As much as Cope appreciated what Ten was saying, he hated the thought of Everly getting deeper into this situation. “She loves Jude so much.”
Ten smiled. “I remember Jude wanted to come with us when we took our surrogate to the doctor’s office to find out if the IVF took. Jude cried harder than Ronan when we got the positive test results. It was snowing like this when Everly was born. Jude was the one who drove us all to the hospital with the SUV slipping and sliding all over the place. He and Kaye stayed in the waiting room. After Everly was born, and we had some time with her, we invited Kaye and Jude into the room. Kaye instantly wanted to hold the baby, but Jude stood there gobsmacked with this look of awe on his face, like he’d just witnessed a miracle. When Kaye finally handed him the baby, he had such a look of peace on his face. He started whispering to Everly telling her that he’d always be there for her and he would love her endlessly until his dying breath.” Ten swiped at tears flowing down his face.
“Fitz is on his way. We’re going out to clean off the stairs and dig out the SUV,” Ronan said. He headed out the door.
From where Cope sat, he could see the neighborhood was blanketed in snow. There were no cars on the street, no plows either for that matter. “Jude’s always had a special place in hisheart for Everly. What’s going to happen to her if-” Cope couldn’t bear to say the rest out loud.
“What’s going to happen to Everly if Jude doesn’t make it home?” Ten asked.
Cope nodded. “The idea of Everly blaming herself or hating her gift because it didn’t give her answers when she needed them the most. It breaks me.”
“So far, whenever one of us has been in danger, Everly’s managed to somehow find the answers we needed. When things have gone poorly, it’s never been anyone she knows or loves. Part of me hoped a day like this would never come. The other part, the more pragmatic side of me, has been preparing her for a situation like this one. I’ve told her again and again about how our gifts don’t work so well when strong emotions like love are involved and that I can’t read myself or her for the same reasons. She understands that concept, but hasn’t had to face real world consequences.”
“Shit,” Cope muttered. The last thing he wanted was for Everly to suffer. “I’m not getting anything either. I don’t know where he is. We didn’t get a lot from Courtney Wilcox last night. All we know is that she and her brother are in on this together, and that the possible motive is unrequited love, which doesn’t really play for me. Fitz said units went to Jerry’s house and Courtney’s on-campus dorm room and found no signs of Jude or Jerry, and nothing that would indicate their whereabouts. So, essentially, we’re back to square one.”
“What do you mean that unrequited love doesn’t play for you? What other reason could Jerry have for wanting to kidnap Jude?” Ten asked.
“If Jerry had been persistently in touch and stalking Jude, then, yeah, I can see his broken heart playing a role in this, but according to Jude, Jerry hasn’t been in touch with him since we got married, so that’s six years of no contact between them.”
“I hate to ask, but do you think Jude’s kept this from you?” Ten asked. “I mean, you can’t read him, so that makes it that much harder.”
For about the hundredth time since he realized Jude had been taken, he hated Running Eagle for putting the spell on Jude that kept him safe from psychic attacks. If only he could read Jude, Cope was certain they would have found him already. “To be honest, I don’t think Jude could keep something like this from me. He’d be too guilty. If, by chance, he could keep this a secret from me, he certainly couldn’t from Ronan and Fitz. I know they’d both tell me if something was going on with him.”
“I agree,” Ten said.
Little footsteps on the stairs caught Cope’s attention. Everly was on her way down the stairs. She wore a determined look on her face. “Daddy!” She flew into Ten’s arms. “I just got a message from Uncle Jude.”
“A message?” Ten asked. “How is that possible? Do you have Dad’s phone?”
“No, I got the message here.” Everly touched the side of her head.
“What did Jude say?” Cope asked.
