The Missing

sidelong glance, as she tried to figure out what he wanted her to say. “That was a long time ago, Robert,” was all she could manage, and it sounded completely lame. Even if it was true—so what if it sometimes felt like yesterday?
    “Yeah. It was a long time ago, but time doesn’t undo harsh words or actions, now does it?”
    Forgetting about her dress, her carefully done hair, and the makeup she’d worked on for nearly thirty-five minutes, Taige turned around and leaned against the iron balcony. She ran a hand back over her hair and then crossed her arms in front of her. “It’s over, and it’s done. Cullen wasn’t in a good place right then. He needed somebody to lash out at, and I was there. Hell, he wasn’t much more than a kid at the time, a kid who had just lost his mom in a very bad way. I’m not going to hold that kid’s mistakes against the man he is now.”
    With a sad smile, Robert shook his head. “Cullen stopped being a kid the day we found out what had been done to his mama, Taige. But that isn’t really what I wanted to talk to you about.”
    Perplexed, she stared at him. “If that’s not it, then what?”
    “Jillian.” Robert slid his eyes back toward the French doors. Through the transparent, filmy gray curtains, they could see Jillian as she talked with Dez. Her face was animated, and showed a happy smile. “Have you . . . I don’t know how to ask this. But have you been doing anything with her?”
    Wary, Taige asked, “Anything like what?”
    Robert laughed. “Honey, you and me are about to become family. Considering how you saved Jillian, what you did for her with Cullen, as far as I’m concerned, you are family. Stop looking like you expect me to take a swing at you and start accusing you of something awful.” Then he shrugged. “Anything like—hell, I don’t really know how to explain. She’s just different. Happier.”
    He glanced back at Taige, sadness creeping into his voice as he murmured, “All her life, she’s been different. It’s made her so unhappy.” Looking back at Taige, Robert said quietly, “You know what she can do.”
    “Yes.”
    “It’s always interfered with her life. Kept her from being the kid she should be. Even when that gift, or whatever you call it, was quiet for months on end, she wasn’t like other kids. But now I see her laughing. I see her making friends around here, and I see her talking to people like she’s talking to your friend in there.” Robert glanced at her, and there was a world of emotion in his eyes, emotions she suspected he couldn’t even begin to voice. “Jillian’s never really had a childhood—not the kind she should have had. And then, right when she should have been a mess inside and still trying to cope with what happened, you show up. The day Cullen brought you home from the hospital, she was different.”
    Taige started to lie. Discussing her abilities with people wasn’t ever something she enjoyed doing. It was like breathing to her. A person didn’t go around explaining how they managed to take in oxygen and blow out CO 2 , did they? But Robert was right. They were about to become family, and hiding what she’d been trying to do with Jillian wasn’t the way to start off any kind of relationship. “Jillian has next to no natural shields,” she finally said. “None. With her gift, she needs them. Otherwise, contact with others can be overwhelming. It’s almost like attention deficit—she has too much stimulation coming in, and her way of dealing with it is to lock down, to shy away from others.”
    Pushing off the railing, she moved to the French doors, staring through the curtains at Jillian and Dez. “Without those shields, she’s vulnerable. It’s probably his thick head, but Cullen’s not an easy psychic read. That might be why she never had to learn the intuitive skills a lot of kids like her—and me, I guess—had to learn.”
    Understanding dawned even before she started the actual explanation part. “You’re shielding her. Or teaching her how?”
    Shaking her head, Taige said, “Jillian isn’t ready for that. What happened when . . .” She couldn’t bring herself to say Leon’s name, or even mention him. “What happened this summer did a lot more trauma than we can see, but she’s hiding from that. I know Cullen’s told you about the visits to the therapist. Right now, she’s got herself in a mental cocoon over the kidnapping. Once she’s handling this better, I can