Page 42 of Booked for Kidnapping

“Bradley, your job is to keep her company until she explicitly asks you to give her space. Librarians are social creatures, even when they’re introverted, and I’ve found all of the librarians in my life are hardwired to need to be doing things with people or they slowly go mad.”

“Most humans slowly go mad in seclusion, Dad. That has nothing to do with her status as a librarian. It has everything to do with people needing to interact with other people to maintain their base mental and emotional health. Which is why I’m stuck with you or Mom if I even make it look like I’m about to go anywhere other than the store or to handle work affairs. And I only get away with handling work affairs because Ren keeps following me around.”

“Ren follows you around because it’s his job to follow you around, although he does appreciate doing his regular job more lately, though he has expressed concerns you are attempting to take over the entire stock market by force.”

“I don’t have nearly enough money to do that, Dad.”

“Not from a lack of effort.”

“Well, if you hadn’t mandated I drag you everywhere I go when Ren wasn’t around, I wouldn’t have had the time to try to take over the stock market by force.”

Obviously, something had happened during my forced extended stay at an unconventional hotel. “Mr. Hampton, why did you mandate he have a babysitter at all times?”

“One of the psychologists determined he was at a high risk of anxiety and depression due to your kidnapping, and they—all three who came to the same conclusion—did not want him to be alone in case it was determined you had died. Honestly, I think you’re going to emerge from this better off than everybody else. A fear of being alone is much easier for us to work around than the various triggers we’ve developed in the past few months. And no feeling guilty, unless you invited yourself to be kidnapped.”

“I would not do that.” I hesitated, finished off my juice, and put the bottle in the bag before grabbing my next victim. “And I only left the first time because the one doctor gave me a bad feeling and Bradley had said he didn’t want to see me unless I was back in my prime. And I was working on that.”

“I’m not mad at you for that,” Bradley stated. “I poorly worded that, and I hold full responsibility for having goaded you into running off until you were better. Really, I’m the reason I have my current set of problems, although you’re going to have to tell me if you don’t want me around all the time. Our hotel room has two queen beds, but I’ll share with Dad if you don’t want somebody that close.”

“I am not responsible if I get up and crawl into bed with you,” I replied with a shrug. “I’m also not responsible if I end up on the floor. They just made me a nest of blankets and pillows, so it’s been a while since I’ve actually been in a bed.”

Bradley muttered curses. “I’m not sure I should be involved with investigating whoever did this to her, Dad. If I get my hands on them, I’ll be going to prison.”

Me, too. Instead of saying that, I kept quiet, my guilt keeping me close company. The first time I’d disappeared, I could at least pretend I had good reason, and Bradley’s acknowledgment he’d goaded me and contributed to my flight helped me cope with it.

This time, I hadn’t been at fault for my disappearance, but I’d become aware of the deep consequences of having been missing and presumed dead. I supposed my inability to claim responsibility made it harder for me to accept.

Had I been given a choice, I wouldn’t have left my family, friends, or my fluffy goddess.

I’d grown to treasure them all.

Chuckling, Mr. Hampton navigated through the small town before merging onto a highway headed south. He let us stew for a few minutes before saying, “There are reasons they bar anyone involved from working in investigations. It clouds the water and makes it harder to get an unbiased view of the truth. If we’re going to investigate what happened, we’ll have to either exclude the portion where Janette’s involved, or we’re going to have to learn how to truly be unbiased rather than determined to make the pieces fit when they don’t. It’s a problem. We’re also going to have to evaluate just how serious we are about getting to the bottom of this.”

“We need to,” I stated. “And I’ll do it alone if I must.”

“Well, someone is determined.” My future father-in-law made a thoughtful sound in his throat. “Beatrice won’t be stopped, either, so we have two librarians itching to figure out why this is going on and how to stop it—if we can. My wife’s determined, although her focus is on the bill more than the politicians backing the bill. Three librarians all pointed at the same problem is a force to fear. The others should come around given some time and a good argument. Honestly, once they find out you were locked up for almost nine months? I expect the little things they were grousing over won’t seem at all important now. Most of them have already come to the conclusion you did the right thing attending the memorial service. It’s a game of consequence, and there are no winners in that sort of fight. It’ll work out. We really just all need to sit down, talk about it, and make sure we’re on the same page. I’ll help with that, and so will that brat of mine in the back with you.”

Hoping I wasn’t about to make a critical mistake, I said, “Senator Westonhaus told me that he got his marching orders from the top. He was told he would support the bill, and that was that. The others did, too. And that it isn’t uncommon for politicians to quietly disappear if they don’t do what the uppers want. I’m not sure if I should believe him or not. But then he decided to run for President?”

At the rate Bradley cursed, I worried he’d lose his temper altogether. “President Castillo is backing Westonhaus’s campaign, so there might be something to it. No, there’s been talk for years that the government is just one big sham, and that a few people at the top run the entire show. President Castillo being one of those show runners. Of the supporters of the bill, Westonhaus is more moderate, especially now. Moderate politicians can win presidential campaigns, as they’re more likely to draw in votes from both sides of the fence. No, it’s been something I’ve suspected for a while. But why this specific overhaul? That’s what we don’t understand.”

I fell quiet, spending the rest of the drive to the hotel contemplating what I’d been told—and if it made any difference at all in the grand scheme of things. What could a few vigilante librarians do, no matter what sort of magic we packed? Magic wouldn’t help us if the law turned against us even more than it already had.

Few would be safe under the new legislation, and while Senator Westonhaus had talked a good talk, I recognized his pretty speech sounded too good to be true, from what I could remember of it.

I also recognized it had been months without being able to write down what he’d told me, which meant my memory might be flawed.

“I don’t like being a pawn in a political game,” I muttered.

“I don’t, either. I got my fair share of time in the limelight, and I still have politicians on both sides of the fence trying to get me to make statements supporting their campaign or answer questions about you. I dodge most of it, so I’ve gotten a reputation of being overly sensitive, as I refused to acknowledge you were likely dead. After six months, they tack on the presumed dead because the odds of finding the victim alive are slim. We were shown the statistics. I just like telling people you’re very bad at being a statistic and live to buck statistics.” Bradley paused, and he heaved a sigh. “You’re going to say it, aren’t you, Dad?”

“I will if you won’t. It’ll probably be less embarrassing for you if I say it, mainly because you’ll splutter. It’s dark enough she won’t catch you blushing, at least.”

“Thanks, Dad,” Bradley grumbled.

I had missed far more than I liked, and if Bradley thought I would ignore an amusing story involving him, he would soon learn otherwise. “Well, now I need to know, Mr. Hampton.”

“He will appreciate when he can take you home and he won’t have to fend off eager bachelorettes determined to heal him from your loss. Using their bodies. Once, a set of triplets showed up at the house wearing rather skimpy bikinis. Bradley had graced us with his presence because he couldn’t go anywhere in the city without someone showing up and bothering him, so he’d decided to bring his problems to my house.”