Abduction (A Psychic Romance Novella Series)

by Ladd, Larissa

  Gabrielle decided that she needed a good night’s sleep. She fixed a quick dinner for herself with chicken and vegetables and tried to zone out, watching one of her favorite shows on the computer. She told herself that she’d take stock of the situation again in the morning, if her mysterious benefactor hadn’t gotten in touch. She had to assume that he knew how to reach her.

  While she was brushing her teeth, a chilling thought occurred to Gabrielle. Her benefactor might not have gotten in touch with her because it was, in fact, dangerous. More attackers might have arrived on the heels of those who had tried to abduct her. He might have been seriously injured, even killed.

  Gabrielle rinsed her mouth out and tried to think of what she should do. Walking around her house slowly, she decided that, for one night, she could do without the crystals shielding her windows and doors. Some errant thoughts would likely come in, but at least nothing would come through the walls of the adjoining apartments, and she realized that, with things so unsettled, she needed to be aware of someone trying to break into her home.

  She removed the crystals from the windows first, and then from her front door, as well as the door leading to the small patio that had been such a selling point for the apartment. She knew she’d be awakened much earlier than usual by the comings and goings of her neighbors, but that would just give her a longer period of time to think about what she should do next.

  Gabrielle crawled into bed feeling anxious and wary. She decided to put up a light shield—enough to block out stray thoughts of people walking past her window in the middle of the night, but not so much that she wouldn’t feel more intense thoughts directed at her—thoughts that might come from possible assailants, looking to kidnap her for a drug overlord. For a long time, every random noise kept her from falling asleep, and she got up a few times to check and make sure her apartment wasn’t being invaded. Eventually, she was too tired to get up anymore, and tried to tell herself that she would certainly hear anyone trying to break in. After all, she had never slept deeply, and she had unguarded all of the entry points.

  As she started to doze off, reassuring herself that she had done all that she could, the thought occurred to her that if there was one person on the planet that she was incapable of reading, there were likely to be several people with the same particular trait. She was too exhausted to think about it further, in spite of the spurt of fear that the idea gave her. Her eyelids were too heavy, her limbs remote and almost numb with sleep. Whatever happened, she told herself, she would just have to deal with it when it came up. She couldn’t let fear rule her.

  Chapter Four

  When Gabrielle woke up, she had the uncomfortable feeling that someone was close by, without being able to put her finger on who it was or where they were. She lay in bed for a long moment, casting outwardly with her mind, trying to find the source of the impinging sensation.

  One of these days I’m going to quit…Wish mommy would let me stay home from school…First day at the new job!...Why is it so early…

  None of the voices that she heard in her mind were the source. Gabrielle felt scared, wondering if there were people right outside of her apartment, waiting for an opportunity to grab her. She swallowed and decided that she would just have to get up and go about her normal routines, keeping her shields lowered to make sure that she ‘heard’ anyone looking for her. She suddenly remembered that she hadn’t been able to hear her mysterious benefactor the day before—there could be others just like him.

  Gabrielle gave herself a shake, reasoning that she couldn’t just hole up in her apartment all day. She had things to do. She would deal with any would-be attackers when they showed up. She remembered that she still had the stun-gun from the attack; it would certainly be handy to have.

  Getting out of bed, Gabrielle decided that she would go about her normal routine as much as possible, try and get to as many clients as she could, and see if she could figure out who to call about the people who had attacked her the day before. The more she thought about it, the more certain she was that it had been someone working for the drug kingpin she’d had to turn down. That should make it much easier to get him off her back, she thought. One call to a contact in the FBI, and she could get the ball rolling. The thought cheered her up, and Gabrielle stepped out of her bedroom, smiling.

  “Make some coffee, will you?” Gabrielle jumped at the sound of a voice in her apartment. She wheeled around, trying to find the source. Sitting on her couch—in the middle of her living room—was the man from the previous day. He was in the same jeans, t-shirt, and hoodie that she’d seen him in before, looking completely at ease as he sat there, a faint smile curving his lips.

  “How did you get in? Who the hell are you?” Gabrielle scowled at him for a moment before remembering the stun gun she’d grabbed as a result of the attack. She moved for her purse near the kitchen, and felt herself stopped suddenly. She was stuck in place, all of her muscles tensing as something invisible held her in a firm grip. The only part of her body she could move was her head, which she turned in the direction of the man who had been sitting in her living room. He stood, walking towards her slowly, and suddenly Gabrielle realized how he had managed to drop one of the attackers from such a great height.

  “You’re a telekinetic.” The man nodded, his smile growing slightly.

  She still couldn’t move. So what if he was just interested in getting to her first? What if he had no intention of helping her—but was working for the same person, interested only in keeping a bounty for himself?

  “To answer your questions: I got in by unlocking your door. Not difficult, considering there were no electronic systems to get in the way. And my name is Dustin.”

  Gabrielle clenched her teeth, frustrated by the hold he had on her. She was rooted to the ground, and no amount of straining against the telekinetic force that held her seemed to be of any use.

  “Don’t give yourself a hernia. I’ll let you go, but I need you to calm down.” There was a faint accent to his voice, one that Gabrielle couldn’t quite identify.

  She reached out to touch his mind again, and was doubly frustrated when she came up against the brick wall once more, remembering belatedly that she hadn’t been able to read him at all the day before. She growled low in her throat, wishing that there was something she could do to the infuriating man in front of her. He seemed to be amused by her frustration, his lips twitching with suppressed laughter.

  “Fine. I’m perfectly calm, now.” Gabrielle took a deep breath, trying to relax as much as possible.

  What she really wanted was to hit Dustin—hard. He chuckled, and immediately, the sense of being pinned to the floor disappeared. Her body was hers once more. She tried a different way of getting into his mind, and almost gasped at the sensation of being rebuffed once again. It wasn’t just that his mind was inaccessible to her—he was pushing away any possible contact. If he hadn’t been, she might have been able to access a flicker, something of his mind.

  Gabrielle shook her head. “What are you doing here?”

  “Keeping you from getting yourself shanghaied or killed, mostly. Waiting for you to make some coffee.” Dustin took a step back, crossing his arms over his chest.

  Gabrielle felt a flare of annoyance and consciously suppressed it, knowing instinctively that he was enjoying her irritation and unease. She took a deep breath, turning away from him and toward the kitchen slowly.

  “I make coffee for myself, anyway. I’m not making you any breakfast.”

  Dustin chuckled behind her and Gabrielle thought over his assertion that he was keeping her from being shanghaied or killed. She wasn’t sure whether she was more frustrated with his ability to immobilize her, her inability to read him, or the fact that he was so amused by the whole situation.

  She set up the coffee maker and started it, turning around to see Dustin only a few feet away from her, watching her with amusement written plainly on his face. Up close, Gabrielle had to admit he was handsome; tall and lean
, with a little muscle on his almost-lanky frame. He had dark-dark hair, cut short and tousled, brushed forward across his forehead, and bright blue eyes. Under other circumstances, she might have actually been attracted to him.

  “So, could you clarify this whole thing about keeping me from getting myself shanghaied or killed?” she asked, leaning against the counter and crossing her arms over her chest as she stared at him levelly.

  “Orders from above. People are after you, I’m supposed to protect you.” Dustin shrugged.

  “Who do you work for, then?” Gabrielle rolled her eyes.

  “No one you’ve heard of. But that’s about to change, which is part of why I got assigned to you.” Dustin raised an eyebrow, smiling slightly.

  “How am I supposed to trust you, if I don’t know you, and I’ve never heard of whoever you’re working for?”

  “I did save your life yesterday. And I could have easily killed you before you woke up this morning, or just abducted you, but I didn’t.” Dustin grinned broadly.

  Gabrielle reached up into a cupboard, turning her back on Dustin and retrieving two mugs. She poured her own coffee first, leaving the second mug on the counter for him to serve himself as she poured milk and sugar, stirring and taking a quick sip.

  “Just because you haven’t abducted or killed me yet doesn’t mean you’re not going to,” she observed.

  “Very true, Gabrielle.” He had poured a full cup of coffee and added two spoons of sugar to it before taking a long sip. “Guess you can’t trust me at all.”

  Gabrielle rolled her eyes again, turning away from him and into her living room to sit on her couch. Dustin followed her, sitting down in a chair and watching her silently, seemingly unconcerned about the situation.

  “Why does anyone care about some drug kingpin sending some thugs after me?” she asked.

  Dustin didn’t look like any government agent that Gabrielle had ever worked with. Even if he was working undercover, he wouldn’t be wearing clothes quite that casual, not for the purposes of protecting her. Dustin shook his head.

  “I don’t know who is after you—but it certainly wasn’t a drug kingpin. Which is why you’re going to call your clients today, say you had a family emergency, and get the hell out of dodge for a while.” Gabrielle balked at the suggestion.

  “I can’t do that! I have to make a living. Look, I can protect myself. I’ve done a perfectly good job of it in the past, and I would have been able to handle those thugs yesterday, even without your help.”

  Dustin smiled slightly, and Gabrielle felt the blood rushing to her face, anger flooding her body.

  “Gabby, my dear, those three thugs were the tip of the iceberg. I can’t guarantee your safety in this city, so we’re going to a house that belongs to a friend of mine for a few days, just ‘til I get some more information about what’s going on, and we can take care of your little problem.”

  “Absolutely not. I’m not leaving the city. I don’t even know you!” She threw her hands up in the air, careful not to spill her coffee, and took a sip of it before setting it down. “If you’re required to protect me, you’ll just have to do it right here until the weekend.” Gabrielle shook her head.

  Gabrielle moved to get up, thinking that she would go into her bedroom and get dressed, sneak out of she had to. The moment she stood, however, she was surrounded by an invisible field, holding her in place—even her head, this time.

  She squealed with indignation, clenching her fists and straining against the telekinetic hold. Gabrielle saw Dustin standing up in her peripheral vision, and then he set his coffee cup down and came to stand directly in front of her.

  “You don’t seem to be understanding. This isn’t a request. This isn’t a suggestion. If I wanted to, I could pretty easily just pick you up and carry you into the car, lock you down in the back seat, and take you wherever I wanted to. But that would be messy and unpleasant. Besides, your clients would probably alert the authorities, and then there’d be three or four different groups of people looking for you instead of just one. So you’ll call your clients, and make your excuses, and then we’ll get you all packed up and we’ll go.”

  “Fine. Just let me go.” Gabrielle scowled at Dustin, hating the fact that she felt completely helpless in the grip of his telekinetic ability.

  Dustin held her in place for a moment longer before releasing her. Gabrielle stalked into the kitchen and picked up her phone, shooting him another glare as she unplugged it from the charger and went through her contacts. She began making calls, cringing at the backlash from some of her more prominent clients, who had come to expect her to be almost at their beck and call.

  Dustin hovered nearby, watching her go through each of the calls. Gabrielle thought to herself that if she seemed to falter, he would likely remind her that he had all of the power in the situation—by levitating her, or getting the phone out of her hands.

  After the calls were made, Dustin grabbed her elbow and guided her into her bedroom. “Pack enough clothes for a few days, and whatever other stuff you need.”

  Gabrielle wanted to rebel. She had never taken to being commanded, and the fact that Dustin was able to back it up with his abilities, on top of her inability to read him for any weaknesses, made her irritable. She couldn’t trust him—that much was clear. In spite of his comment that he had been assigned to protect her, the fact that he wouldn’t tell her who he was working for, and that he had brushed off her concerns so blithely, annoyed her.

  “I take it we’re not going anywhere formal?” Gabrielle asked tartly, pulling open her drawers to pick out clothes to wear. Dustin chuckled.

  “We’re barely even going to be stopping for gas.” Gabrielle dug out a few pairs of panties, a couple of bras, and tossed them onto her bed, her sense of indignation and distrust growing. She was so wrapped up in her anger at having to cancel all of her appointments that she almost didn’t catch the tendril of thought.

  Should have left the house by now. The pretty boy must be with her.

  The image in the mind of the person who had had the thought was of her. Gabrielle stopped in the midst of digging out pairs of jeans. She turned to Dustin, who opened his mouth, presumably to reiterate his threat.

  “Shut up. Someone’s here.” He started to speak but she held up her hand for silence, casting her mind out in as wide a range as possible. She stepped closer to the window, thankful for her forethought in taking the crystals that shielded her from intrusive thoughts away.

  Have to go in fast. If that guy is there, he’ll get in the way.

  Gabrielle closed her eyes and opened her mind, dropping even the minimal shield that she had put up as a force of habit. She touched one mind, then two, three, four, and finally a fifth. Whoever was after her had thought to send more people this time.

  She opened her eyes and looked at Dustin. “Five of them. They’re about to try and break in.” She listened carefully, locating them outside of her building. They were going to come in through the patio, where they thought they would have the element of surprise.

  She told Dustin about their plan. He scowled, setting his jaw before nodding to acknowledge that he’d understood.

  “Looks like your ability will come in handy, after all. Go get the stun gun. These guys are in for a surprise.”

  Dustin followed her out of the bedroom, watching as she retrieved the stun gun she’d gotten the day before in the previous attempt to abduct her. He stood between her and the patio door, and Gabrielle cast her thoughts out again, listening to the men arranging themselves, thinking that she and Dustin were completely unaware of their pending attack. She wondered what Dustin’s plan was—surely a big fight would attract the kind of attention he was hoping to avoid? She looked at the stun gun quickly, figuring out how it worked. She wondered how powerful it was.

  Gabrielle fought down the urge to scream as she heard the pounding on the patio door. Three sharp thuds and the door had broken inward, sending glass and decorative wood paneling onto
the floor. Dustin was standing so calmly, watching as the five men began to push through the broken gap where the door used to be. It was as if he didn’t even care, Gabrielle thought. He had insisted that he was supposed to protect her—why wasn’t he doing something? She brought the stun gun up, half-convinced that Dustin was in cahoots with the attackers. She’d hit him first, and whatever juice was left over after that, she would get another one of her would-be assailants, and then she would fight the rest of them as best as she could.

  She heard the shocked thoughts of the five men as they came into her apartment, spotting Dustin and herself standing there.

  “Well, gentlemen, it seems you’ve lost the element of surprise,” Dustin said, sounding almost bored. “Let’s just go ahead and get this out of the way, shall we?”

  Gabrielle caught a quick passing thought from one of the men; he was rubbing his hands together, surprised but moving onto a new tactic.

  Just need to get close, he thought, and Gabrielle saw a mental image—he wasn’t just a regular person, an overgrown muscle-bound thug. He had an ability as well; not telepathy, like Gabrielle or telekinesis, like Dustin. The man had some sort of capability to make himself into a human stun gun. She wondered how she could circumvent that ability, how to let Dustin know—and whether she should.

  Before she could react, the two men who were closest were pushed backwards by an invisible force—Dustin’s telekinesis—into two of the other men. The one who could manipulate electricity with his hands leapt forward, aiming himself at Dustin.

  “Oh, no, you don’t,” she said, knowing he intended to immobilize her would-be protector first before going after her, giving his fellows a chance to regroup. Their operation depended upon speed; they knew as well as Dustin did that too much commotion would attract the police, and they wanted to get in, collect her and Dustin, and get out.

  Gabrielle saw the trajectory that the assailant was hoping for and lunged around Dustin, getting between him and the assailant. Dustin was busy pushing the others through the door with his ability. Gabrielle decided against using the actual stun capabilities of the weapon in her hands; likely, the man would just reroute the electricity, or not even be harmed by it. Instead, she moved quickly, getting behind him, and brought the butt of the gun down on the exposed back of his neck. It wasn’t quite enough to knock him out, but he fell, rebounding and tumbling over until he came around to face her.