The Rage of Storm ( MC No Limits Book 3 )

Chapter 18

Josie

April 3rd, 2009
The day started strangely when Mom walked around the house half-naked again, and the neighbors knocked on the door to complain.
"Listen, Hugo... your wife can do whatever she wants. But she can't run around in the garden where our children can see her," shouted the neighbor who often came to our door to complain about Mother's behavior.
"I'll take care of it," Dad said as he closed the door and took a deep breath.
"You should put her in an institution," I heard him call through the closed door.
Dad turned to me and looked at me sadly. His brow furrowed in concern about what I saw and heard.
"What's wrong with Mom?" I asked him, crying.
"Mom is sick, darling... but I'll help her. Don't worry, Josie," he answered me and took me in his arms.
He gave her a few of her pills, and she seemed to fall asleep. Every time she took them, she would just sleep for hours, then she would seem normal again. As if her brain had forgotten that she had been completely misbehaving a few hours before.
While Mom was sleeping, I sat in my room and heard Dad talking on the phone. The whole thing worried me, so I crept to the door of his study.
The wooden door had beautiful indentations of flowers that I gently touched with my fingertips.
I opened the door carefully after listening to what he said for a while and noted names he mentioned: Johnson, Smith, Forbes. He mentioned murders, child molesters, rape. I leaned against the door and turned the handle and it popped open.
Dad stared at me with the phone in his hand and said nothing.
He stood behind his desk in the study that I was never allowed to enter. That day I entered it for the first and last time.
I remember the bookshelves that lined the walls, large shelves filled with lots of books. And in the middle of the room there was a large desk. I didn't understand what was so special about this room.
"...I'll get in touch later, Darek," he said briefly and hung up.
The look on my face must have told him that I had heard more than I should have, and even I thought he was scolding me, he wasn't.
He calmly asked me what I had heard, and I repeated his words... every single one.
"Jesus Christ" is all he said and took a deep breath.
He held his forehead and sat at the desk looking at me.
"Josie..." he started but was interrupted by the phone ringing.
When he looked at it he swallowed and answered it and just listened and stared at me.
"I understand," he said as he hung up the phone.
He took a deep breath and briefly looked in front of him in thought, then he stood up and went to one of the bookshelves. He opened it, and I was amazed when another room could be seen behind it.
"Go in there, Josie," he said as he walked past me towards Mom.
The room was impressive with a chair and a couch in it, a small table, and pictures of men pinned to the walls.
Dad brought Mom in and laid her asleep on the couch.
He paced around the room, running his hand through his hair.
He tried to call someone but without success.
"Josie... honey... I have to do something I've never done before. We're all in danger. I was just told we have a mole in the FBI. I can't trust anyone... my whole team is dead," he said dazedly.
"What... what do you mean, Dad?" I asked him, crying.
He took out a device from the small table that looked like an ear piercing machine. It had an epruvette at the base and there was a small plate on it... a chip.
"Josie... I have no choice. Mom isn't ready... but you are. I'm running out of time... I have to destroy all of this before they find it. And... I'm leaving a message, Josie. For Jon Steward... remember the name. Jon Steward," he said as he stood in front of me and held the device.
"You can't trust anyone... only Jon! I'll blow everything up... Whatever happens... I love you, Josie," Dad said sadly as he stuck the device in my ear and pulled the trigger.
The pain was so intense for a moment that I screamed, and he knelt in front of me.
"Ready for what, Dad? What's going on here?" I asked, crying even harder.
"You had an imaginary friend, Josie... Hope. Do you remember? I found a way to hold memories in the brain. I need you now. You have to be strong... I will hypnotize you, and Hope will keep a secret for me. She'll tell Jon... You can't trust anyone from the police. Only him!" He said as he pulled out a pendulum from the table.
My eyes widened at his words.
"Dad!" I shouted angrily.
"You won't remember any of this, Josie. I have to protect you. Jon knows about my project... Project Hope. I'll call him and tell him where the information is. He'll come get you and help you," he said as he burst into tears himself.
I shook my head and took his hand, I wanted to say something but before I could, he had already made me listen to him.