Power Play (Amanda Byrne Book 1)

by Kimberly Keane

  “We were all standing around when the smell of wildflowers blew through the house. Everyone looked around. She’d appeared in the living room, raised her hands, and the whole house faded. She took us to some other world. We all ended up sitting in the middle of a beautiful meadow on blankets under some trees. The table with the food was still there but was decorated with vases of tulips and lilacs,” Cal said.

  “Sounds beautiful,” I said.

  “When she brought us back, we gave her the basket of colored eggs and angel food cake we’d prepared as an offering to her,” Randy said.

  “I’ll make it to the next celebration,” I promised.

  “I’m holding you to that,” Cal said.

  I pointed a finger at him. “No setting me up.”

  “I won’t set you up. But there may be some handsome single men around.”

  I glared at him and he smiled sweetly back at me.

  Amelia squirmed and rubbed her eyes.

  “She’s getting sleepy,” I said.

  “Nap time,” Cal said.

  “I’ll let you get her home to bed.”

  “She’ll be out as soon as we start the car,” Cal said.

  I hugged them all goodbye and sent them on their way.

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Sean and Ethan went ahead to the gate while I stopped in one of the gift shops to find something to read. Miriam had taken an earlier flight home. She needed to unpack, repack, and head to the east coast for another client.

  The women’s restroom was on the way to the gate, and as any seasoned traveler would have, I decided to make use of it before the flight. I found the juggling act of getting myself and my luggage into a stall funny and was smiling when I managed to get all of us back out again. My smile died as my eyes met Rick’s. He was leaning up against the nearest sink, his ankles and arms crossed as if he had all the time in the world.

  My legs turned rubbery and my breath hitched in my throat.

  What is the name of this unpleasant emotion? Urd said. And why do you feel it so frequently?

  “Terror,” I whispered aloud.

  Rick inhaled deeply through his nose. “Yes, and your fear is particularly heady. I wonder why that is.”

  I opened and closed my mouth, but I couldn’t make any sound.

  “I wonder how much better your pain will smell,” he said, “when it’s real.”

  I breathed more rapidly, and my head spun. I looked around at the other women in the restroom. No one reacted to Rick. It was as if he weren’t there at all. I closed my eyes, rubbed them, and opened them again. Shit! He was still there.

  His excitement spiked, orange eclipsing the other emotions in the room, and a black wave rolled through his aura. I was so stunned, I stopped breathing for a moment. My terror drained away, replaced by curiosity and concern. What was this thing? Why couldn’t I get anything from it? Was it danger—

  Memories assailed me, cascading over me, blending into one another. Unlike the first time Rick had masked my memories and fed me new ones, my own memories jumped to the forefront to battle his. The memories clashed with one another, both insisting I had children and I’d never had children; I’d married a man whose mind broke, leaving him unable to care for himself, and I’d married Rick. I held my head in my hand and stumbled.

  Rick stepped forward and said, “Let me help you.”

  I wanted to scream, but my throat closed against any noise. I felt Rick’s arm slide around my waist as he stepped into me, supporting my weight.

  Urd, I thought.

  Yes?

  I needed Urd to do something, anything, but the words wouldn’t come. The conflicting memories were too much. Not again . . . not again . . . not again. Darkness crept to the edge of my vision.

  Rick reached out with his free hand and pulled at the handle to my suitcase. He moved us forward.

  “No, thank you,” he said politely. “My wife will be fine. She just needs to sit and rest for a moment.”

  I looked up and realized the other women had taken notice of us. Moving me physically, taking care of the suitcase, keeping me disabled, and altering the memories of every woman who entered and left the restroom must have been too much for him.

  Suddenly, Ethan’s dog, Dillon, raced into the bathroom. He stopped in front of us and his leash coiled on the floor. His hackles were raised, and his lips pulled back from his teeth as he growled. My legs went from rubber to water, and Rick stumbled before he regained his footing and hauled me back up against him.

  “Nice fella,” Rick said and tried to sidestep around the dog.

  Dillon moved and blocked our path.

  Ethan’s voice called out, “I’m sorry, I need to enter the ladies’ room.” He walked into the bathroom, stepped up beside the dog, and patted Dillon’s head. “Good boy.”

  The dog’s hackles didn’t lower, but the growl moved to the back of his throat.

  “Set my mother down,” Ethan slurred.

  Rick didn’t move, but he loosened his hold on me, and I slid downward until my muscles responded.

  “Don’t like you. Like lady. Stop touching her. Leave,” Ethan said.

  Dillon stopped growling and made interesting noises as Ethan spoke. My warring memories quieted, and the implanted ones began to fade until they became like memories of dreams.

  “What now?” Rick said.

  “Now we wait for the cops.” Ethan tried to pull his cell phone from his pocket but kept fumbling.

  “Sounds good to me,” Rick said. He stepped away from me and leaned up against another sink. He crossed his arms and ankles.

  I sat down on my suitcase and put my face in my hands. “Let him go,” I said to Ethan through my hands.

  “What?” Ethan said.

  “Let him go,” I said again louder and pulled my hands from my face. “The cops won’t see anything.”

  “But—”

  “They’ll arrest you and quarantine Dillon.”

  Ethan growled, much like Dillon had, then stooped and picked up Dillon’s leash. I stood up and grabbed my suitcase. Ethan put his arm around me, and he, Dillon, and I walked out of the women’s room.

  “If we can’t hand him over to the cops, what are we going to do about him?” Ethan’s voice sounded normal again.

  “I don’t know yet.”

  Sean waited outside the bathroom and held both Ethan’s and his carry-ons. “Is everything okay?”

  “Not exactly,” Ethan said.

  “What happened?”

  “Rick happened,” I said.

  “Where is he?” Sean looked around.

  “We left him in the bathroom,” I said. “But you won’t see him.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because if you forget you’ve seen someone right after you see him, you won’t remember you’ve seen him at all,” I said.

  “Huh?” Sean said.

  I stopped and looked at Ethan. “You didn’t forget! How did you do it?”

  “Dillon.”

  “Huh?”

  “Yeah. When Dillon took off down the concourse, I knew something must have been up. I linked up with him and saw you and the guy in the bathroom.”

  “But Rick didn’t alter your memories.”

  “He did. But he didn’t think to try and change Dillon’s memories too. I kinda became Dillon a little bit.” He patted the dog’s head again. “It’s still hard to talk and control my own body at the same time I’m linked with him, and even harder when I was mostly him, but I managed.”

  “That’s why you sounded drunk and then strange and then drunk.”

  “You guys lost me,” Sean said.

  “We’ll explain it on the plane,” I said.

  Urd, are you okay? I thought.

  Yes. That was unpleasant, but not as unpleasant as the last time. Do all humans experience this range of mental states?

  I don’t know. I’ve been told I’m emotional. Maybe that’s why Rick thinks I smell better than others. I shuddered at the memo
ry.

  It would seem this heightened emotion would be a detriment when dealing with deities.

  It doesn’t seem to be, but I didn’t do so well with the Dagda and Morrigan, so maybe it is. I don’t know.

  Your child had an excellent question.

  Yeah, what are we going to do about Rick? It looks like he’s not going to give up on me.

  How do humans keep other humans from hurting them?

  We don’t usually fight one another.

  Urd chuckled wryly. Humans have fought in more wars than the gods.

  Well, I haven’t fought anyone.

  But what do people do when this happens?

  Learn to fight, but that can take a long time. Get a gun, but I’m not getting one unless I learn how to use it, and that’s going to take some time too.

  So, there are solutions, but these are longer term.

  Yes.

  What are shorter-term solutions?

  I thought about it. The only people I knew who were stalked on a regular basis were celebrities, and they always had an entourage of security people around them. That’s what I needed, a bodyguard.

  We made it back to the gate unscathed and found unoccupied seats. I sat on the floor next to Dillon, pulled out my cell phone, and called Drew.

  “Thank you again for your help rescuing me.” I’d spoken to him briefly when he visited me in the hospital, and I must have thanked him at least three times already.

  “I think we’re even,” he said. “I’m whole again.”

  “I’m so glad Airmid was able to help you, but I still feel like I owe you. You have no idea what they would have done with me if you hadn’t been there. If you need anything, I’m here.” I buried my free hand in Dillon’s fur and swallowed loudly. “Despite that, I’m going to ask you for another favor.”

  “Shoot.”

  “Do you know of any good bodyguards? I need one who can withstand psychic attacks.”

  “No, but let me see who I can find.”

  I thanked him once more and hung up. I shook my head and looked at my hand against Dillon’s side. I was tired. It had been five days of hell and it was time to go home.

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Two days later, I still wasn’t home—I was at Ethan’s apartment. It smelled like dirty teenagers, and I was tired of picking my way over and through everything lying on the floor, counters, tables, and chairs. I momentarily questioned whether or not the child came from me. If I didn’t get home, or into an environment where you could walk across a room without fear of breaking something underfoot, I was going to have to commit myself.

  It had taken Drew some calling around, but he’d found a friend of a friend to help me—Daniel Geist, a former soldier turned bodyguard. Daniel was on his way to Ethan’s from Texas. He’d tentatively accepted the job, and I’d tentatively hired him, based upon a brief phone conversation and a confirmation, with Daniel’s approval, that Miriam couldn’t read him, but we wanted to meet in person before finalizing the arrangement.

  I sat on the couch with my laptop. Dillon rested atop my feet. I glanced through my email and went straight for the one from Harry. Surprisingly, his flirtatious nature never made it into print. His emails were direct, putting as much information in as few words as possible.

  He had sent me background information on each of Mr. Bradley’s employees. I ignored the men, which left three women.

  The youngest was twenty-six and single with no children. She was a telepath. A good one, but not as skilled as Miriam. She had a mental breakdown at age twenty. Mr. Bradley hired her just after her release from the mental institution. It appeared he may have visited her in the hospital.

  The eldest was sixty, widowed with two children and five grandchildren. She was a truthsayer—one who can sense lies. She was known for being the best in the country with skills that could determine where, within a statement, a lie was. Her husband died of brain cancer when she was forty-two. Her daughter was diagnosed with the same inoperable brain cancer but miraculously recovered.

  The last was forty-four and married with three children. She was an exopath. Exopathy was the reverse of my empathic ability—whereas I can see and feel the emotions of others, an exopath can influence the emotion of others. In her twenties, she was arrested for murdering her abusive boyfriend. She was acquitted. She was also a person of interest in the subsequent murders of his parents and sister, but no charges were ever filed.

  None of the psychic abilities were a surprise, given Mr. Bradley’s line of business. And, unfortunately, none of the information gave me any indication if one of them had created the curse.

  A knock sounded at the door and I jerked, which caused Dillon to startle awake and bark.

  “Hush. It’s okay,” I said to the dog. He quieted and gave me his doggie grin. I stroked the soft fur on his head. Ethan came into the room and sat next to Dillon.

  “Do you think he’ll work out okay?” Ethan said.

  “I hope so.”

  “Me too.”

  I walked to the door, stood on tiptoe, and looked through the peephole. A man stood on the threshold, looking somewhat distorted from the lens; but still, I took a step back and whistled under my breath. He looked to be of medium height with short brown hair. Even though he wasn’t enormously muscular, a T-shirt was strained to its limit, outlining beautifully shaped pecs and biceps that I immediately wanted to run my hands over. He didn’t have any colors around him, just a glow, like he stood in bright sunlight. I got my libido in check and opened the door.

  I met his eyes, which were light brown with flecks of amber, and his face boasted a strong jawline. Before I could pull my thoughts together and say something that sounded even slightly coherent, he spoke.

  “You should’ve asked who it was before opening the door.”

  I nodded, filing the information away. “I’m Amanda Byrne.” I extended my hand and Daniel shook it. Unlike most strong men, he didn’t cradle my hand as if he were afraid to exert any pressure. It was one of the few perfectly executed handshakes I’d experienced. To make matters worse, my hand tingled where his fingers brushed against it when he withdrew. Dear gods, I could be in trouble with this guy.

  He won me over even more when he didn’t do a double take at my eye. The trip home had been bad. At my first opportunity, I got online and ordered a year’s supply of colored contact lenses. I couldn’t wait until they arrived.

  I finally pulled my scattered thoughts together, beat my libido into submission again, and invited Daniel inside. While Dillon smelled Daniel’s legs and shoes, Daniel sunk down to a squat and petted Dillon under the chin. Dillon looked at Ethan, chuffed, and wagged his tail.

  “Glad you approve,” Ethan told Dillon. I was glad he approved too. The dog had saved my life, and if he didn’t like Daniel, I was going to go back on the hunt for a bodyguard. Even if that meant more time in Ethan’s apartment, gods help me.

  I offered Daniel a drink, but he declined. We took seats around the room, and I ended up on the floor next to Dillon with my back propped against the couch.

  “Based upon our phone call,” Daniel said, “this Rick abducted you, threatened you, and tried to abduct you again.”

  “Yes.”

  “What does he look like?”

  “He’s short for a man, about five four. Muscular. Salt-and-pepper hair and brown eyes. He has the psychic ability to alter memories. I think he can smell emotions. I don’t know if he has any other psychic talents,” I said.

  “Be careful when it comes to hair color. It’s one of the easiest things to change,” Daniel said. I thought about my contacts and how easy it was to change eye color too.

  “Do you know why you were abducted?”

  “I pissed off someone. He hired Rick to take me. The deal was Rick got me when the guy who hired him was done with me. When I got away, Rick came after me again, but Dillon stopped him.” I fluffed the dog’s ears for a moment, still grateful.

  “You told me you don’
t know Rick’s last name. Who was this someone you pissed off?”

  “Michael Bradley.”

  Daniel stilled. His eyes darkened to a deeper shade of brown, which heightened the contrast with the amber flecks. Beautiful. Alluring. Oh, I really was in trouble. I closed my eyes and shook my head. I did not need to become enamored with my bodyguard. I ignored the little voice inside me that suggested it might already be too late.

  Daniel said something I didn’t hear.

  “I’m sorry?”

  “Michael Bradley. The Michael Bradley?”

  “You know him then.”

  “I know of him.”

  “Be thankful you don’t know him.”

  “Do you know why Rick came after you again? Would Michael Bradley have sent him after you again?”

  “I have no idea, but I don’t think so.”

  Daniel sat back, a grim look on his face.

  “What?” I asked.

  “He may be fixated on you.”

  “I don’t like the sound of that.” Dillon lifted his head, chuffed at me, and laid it in my lap. The warmth of him scattered the thoughts that were starting to take hold in my head. The ones that had me wondering if I’d ever be safe again.

  I spent a moment petting him and then looked at Daniel. “How does this bodyguard thing work?”

  “I’m your constant companion. You’ll need to do what I say when I say it. No questions.”

  I felt my jaw clench. I didn’t do well following orders. But I didn’t have much of a choice, now did I? Dammit!

  I blew out through pursed lips and nodded. “I don’t tend to follow orders well, but I’ll do my best.”

  “Your life may depend on it.”

  He was right. Double dammit.

  “Okay,” I said, “one more thing. What experience do you have working with psychics?”

  A dark look briefly crossed Daniel’s face, and he pursed his lips as if considering something. “I’m . . . I haven’t witnessed anything psychic that’s convinced me. What people are saying you did for Drew . . . it’s incredible. But . . . hard to believe.”