Page 101 of Her Unflinching Warrior (Omega Sky)
“Anything else?” Jada looked at all of the tired faces. Everybody else shook their heads. “Okay, let’s just wait until Gideon joins us.”
“How are you doing, Jada?” Lydia asked. “I’ve been in your shoes, having someone hurt me.”
“Fuck, baby, call it what it was,” Clint said as he put his arm around his wife. “They tortured you.”
Lydia nodded. “So how are you doing, Jada?” she asked again.
She could actually see on the woman’s face that Lydia had been through the same kind of thing that she had. “I’m getting there,” Jada said. “I’m almost all healed.”
“Your body is healed, but what about the psychological scars?”
Jada snuck a peak at the other faces on the screen. All she saw were men and women looking at her with compassion.
“Yeah, and the bad dreams,” Jada admitted. “It helps that I’m not sleeping alone.”
Lydia grinned. “Yes, that helped me a lot during my recovery, too.”
Jada could hear Gideon coming back into the room. She turned to catch a glimpse of him before he sat down. His face showed nothing. No emotion.
Her heart sank.
“Kendall sent something to my mother at her church. It was an offer of funds from a new donor who wanted to remain anonymous. The donor had one caveat—they wanted a portion of the funds to be used to purchase computers and start a youth class to learn basic coding skills.”
“So how do you know this is from Kendall? Did it say his name?” Jada asked.
“No, like I said it was anonymous, but he suggested the classes teach the kids the basics of social media and how to limit their exposure in order to have a balanced life. She and the Pastor really liked everything they were reading, until they got to the end of the letter. He had provided them with a link for more information, and to register for the donation.”
Gideon shook his head.
“What, baby?” Jada prompted.
“I went to it. It seemed innocuous enough until you scrolled further down the registration page and saw where Kendall had candid shots of Mikey, his two boys, and me. It was at a barbeque last year. There was a sentence underneath that said,Look to the children, they predict our future.”
“When did this letter come in?” Clint asked.
“Two days ago.”
“Your mother didn’t immediately talk to Mike?” Kane asked incredulously.
“That was Mike’s response. He lost it,” Gideon said. He was still unemotional. “Mike left to pull his boys out of school. He didn’t know what all had been going on with me, or what I’d been working on, but as soon as there was a hint that his kids could be part of this mess, he wanted them safe.”
“Where is he taking them?” Kane asked.
“He’s trying to figure that out,” Gideon admitted.
“He can stay at my house at the lake. There’s plenty of space for him and the boys until this blows over.”
“Appreciated,” Gideon nodded. “I just wanted to take a minute to update all of you, before heading over to their house. There has to be something there that will lead me to Kendall’s next fucking clue. He’s trying to lead me around like a fish on a hook.”
“I’m going with you,” Jada said.
Gideon glanced over at her and nodded.
* * *
Felix,the genius in the family, was able to pinpoint the clue as soon as Gideon explained they were looking for a message that might have been relayed to either him or Kyle.
“I didn’t think it was anything but a bug, Uncle Gideon,” Felix explained as he took him to the family room and turned on the large flatscreen television set.
