Kate frowned. “I’ve got nothing. I can’t even tell you for sure who had a motive because I have a tendency to piss people off on a daily basis.”
“We must be missing something; or, whoever did this is really good at hiding his intentions to murder you.”
His words chilled her. It never occurred to her it could be someone close enough they’d have intricate knowledge about how her gift worked. There were no steadfast rules about their powers—they only had suspicions based on a pattern that emerged over time using their abilities. They never received visions from the dead and—besides the occasional premonition—the revelations were of past events. The state of mind of the person also affected the type of vision the psychics received. They could slip into the thoughts of children and adults in a weakened mental state and experience things from their point of view. However, most of the time, it was a vision from the outside as a witness to the events—as if the memories were a movie unfolding in front of them.
Kate didn’t get the how or why of her visions and had conceded she may never know the precise reasons she had the gifts. When she awoke at nineteen in the hospital and saw the vision of Matt Spencer being abducted by his father and hidden in the woods, it was glaringly obvious she was intended to help others. Her detailing the vision of Matt led to his discovery and her unwanted infamy. Although she shied away from using her gift at first, later she’d been responsible for helping out on dozens of cases. Her assistance ranged from phoning in a tip to the police to being an active part of the investigation.
Declan leaned against the picnic table and talked with his mouth full of brownie. “Try not to worry so much, Kate. I’ve got your back and so does Jared. No one dangerous is coming within ten feet of you without going through us first.”
Kate smiled weakly. “It’s not exactly the future I want for us all. I also need to be more personally involved in abduction cases. Besides, I can’t let you keep getting all of the glory.”
They’d decided, for the time being, for Declan to handle any abduction cases directly. She would give him a play-by-play of any relevant visions she experienced and he’d provide the details to the police while leaving her name out of it.
“I’m becoming somewhat of a psychic superstar. I was thinking about getting an agent and filming a reality show pilot.” As an afterthought, he added, “You could be in it, too.”
“No thanks. I don’t have a good track record when the media is involved. You can keep your job as the face of our psychic operation. You’re more likely to bring in the clients.”
He flexed his biceps while cupping his chin. “You know it.”
Chapter Twelve
The woman was petite with dark, curly hair cascading past her shoulders. Appearing to be in her late forties, she wore a pink skirt with a white, button-down blouse. Her throat was adorned with a set of pearls, her fingers nervously running over one as she walked through the deserted parking garage. Her pink heels tapped with each step she took, echoing off the walls and amplifying the sound.
The lighting was poor in the garage, and a bulb overhead buzzed loudly, lending to the creepy ambience. The woman glanced around and quickened her pace. She jogged clumsily in the heels and had to right her body more than once. Slipping her hands into the recesses of her purse, she pulled out her keyset.
Heavy footfalls behind her forced a gasp from her mouth. Spinning around, she dropped the keys on the concrete floor. Falling to her knees, she fumbled for them several times before successfully gripping them tightly in her fingers.
Daring to look up, the woman noted a young man in a business suit enter a silver Mercedes across the garage. He smiled sheepishly in her direction and offered a wave. His contrite expression told her how sorry he was for startling her. He started the car engine and, a few seconds later, pulled away.
“Get a hold of yourself,” she whispered.
She came upon an older model black sedan. Her shoulders relaxed as she unlocked the door and pulled on the handle. Sliding into her seat quickly, she locked the door behind her and released a relieved breath. Lifting her hand towards the ignition, she went to start the car.
A hand reached from behind her and squeezed her neck. Her reaction was quick and instinctual—she clawed wildly at the skin of her attacker. An arm struck out from behind her and tightened around her arms and chest. With her hands locked to her sides, she still didn’t stop fighting. She bucked wildly, trying to free her body from the rough hold. Fingers loosened over her neck and the hand moved to cover her mouth.
Heavy black cloth was shoved forcibly against her lips and she attempted to shake her head in order to get it away from her. The fight began to leave her as the cloth remained in place. Her last act before losing consciousness was to gaze in her rearview mirror. Instead of seeing who was attacking her, she saw only the darkness of her backseat.
***
“Kate, wake up! Kate, you’re freaking me out; you have to snap out of it!”
The crisp cotton sheets were tangled around her legs and a thin sheen of sweat covered her skin. Her heart pounded against her ribcage as her eyes darted wildly around the room. It wasn’t until they landed on a pair of familiar gray eyes did she feel her terror ease.
She smoothed her palms over her face several times to brush off the remnants of her horror. A pair of muscular arms encircled her waist and pulled her close. She moved her hands away from her eyes and saw Jared kneeling before her on the bed they shared. She leaned against his chest as the vision jumbled around in her brain.
“Kate, I’ve been trying to wake you up for the past five minutes. You kept fighting me and throwing your body wildly around the bed. I didn’t know if you were having a seizure or was in the middle of an intense vision,” Jared said and brushed her hair covering her face aside.
“It was a vision,” she managed. She closed her eyes and pressed her ear over Jared’s heart. She wanted to gain comfort from him, feel secure once again. If she could concentrate on the sound of his strong heart, it would dissolve the terror.
The vision brought back too many emotions she’d tried to repress. The woman being attacked in her car forced Kate’s own fears to the surface. “It was horrible. A woman was in a parking garage and someone grabbed her from the backseat once she got into her car. She struggled as he put a gag on her. I think there was something on the fabric…maybe a type of chloroform.”
“Who was it? If you’re seeing a vision then it means she’s still alive.”
“I don’t know,” she hissed.
Jared’s eyes widened with surprise. “What do you mean?”
“I have no idea. This has never happened before. Not since Matt Spencer,” she said in a ragged whisper.
When she got inside a person’s head, she needed a visual image first. Although she could end up in someone’s head she didn’t intend to, like her mailman, she still knew the person. The only time she had a vision of a complete stranger was her first; of Matt Spencer’s abduction.
“If the person is missing, then they’ll be listed in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System. Give me as much information as you can, along with a sketch, and we’ll figure out how to help this woman.”
There were a million reasons she fell in love with Jared Corbett, but one of them was her admiration for his rational side. He could remain levelheaded and handle a crisis without breaking a sweat.
“It sounds terrifying to relive the vision, but you’re safe here, Kate.” Jared continued to comfort her. “I know it’s hard, but try to keep your emotions out of it as you think back over every detail. Anything that could help identify who she is and where she was taken can help get her home.”
It would be much easier to curl into a little ball and hide under the covers. But Jared was right. She had to be strong, especially when a woman’s life was in danger. Kate admitted, “Jared, I didn’t know her, but there was something familiar about her. What if I saw her before? What if she was a woman I passed on the stre
et?”
“I suppose it’s possible. We can only guess how your gift works, and we’ll have to accept it’s going to be unpredictable. Maybe we should throw our assumptions out the window and believe someone else out there is deciding what you see.” Jared kissed the top of her head.
His words were giving her clarity. She’d been a control freak since she became psychic. It clawed at her insides to know someone could be pulling her strings and dictating whose head she would see into. But maybe whoever was sending her the premonitions had her best interests at heart. She was scared of fate and it had held her back in so many ways. It was time for her to let go completely.
***
The next day, Kate was unsurprised to wake up and find Declan sprawled out on the living room couch. He paused his Xbox game and squinted at her with curiosity. She stretched lazily before settling into the cushions next to him. She lifted her fuzzy slippers onto the couch and relaxed into the cushions. She had knots from lack of sleep the night before.
She held back a chuckle as she noted Declan’s prop glasses were no longer on his face. “Jared called you?”
“Yes, bright and early. Asked if I could hang here until he gets home from work.”
“I don’t need you to babysit me. Jared did have an alarm put in, and I do have the combination to the gun safe.”
“An alarm didn’t help last time around; and although you have a gun, it’s not useful if you’ve never shot one before.” He rotated his body to face her. “I was thinking though, if I’m going to spend so much time here, I should have my own room.”
“Jared likes you, but I think he draws the line at you living with us.”
Declan brushed at a piece of lint on his black tank top. “He trusts me too much and it’s messing with my head and hurting my game. Shouldn’t he be worried I’ll end up hooking up with you again?”
Kate shook her head. “Jared believes in you and thinks you’re one of the good guys. More importantly, Jared has faith I wouldn’t touch your crabs-riddled ass with a ten-foot pole.” She gave him a sarcastic smile. “Besides, you must realize he’ll shoot you if you try to lay a finger on me.”
“If he was smart, he’d make you wear a chastity belt before leaving for work,” he mumbled.
She gave him a minute to pout and his ego to heal before she spoke. Kate understood Declan may not be in love with her, but he hated the idea of rejection. He was sore over the fact she’d walked away and he wasn’t the one to end things.
Declan’s sour expression indicated it was time to change the subject.
“Did Jared tell you about my vision last night?”
“That’s one of the reasons he left early. He wanted to see if he could find out who the missing woman could be.”
She and Jared had stayed up into the early morning hours trying to identify the woman from her vision. While he was on the phone with the police department, she’d been scouring the internet for information. Nothing had come up about a woman being kidnapped from a parking garage. Sketching out the woman and the black sedan had made Kate note how rusty her artistic talents were, but the drawings were passable. They were close enough to make her hope he could use it to make a positive identification.
“I just don’t get it. Has the same thing happened to you before? Did you ever have a vision of someone you didn’t recognize?” she asked, leaning forward.
“Sure, I’ve had an out-of-the-box vision here or there. Just a few weeks ago I had a vision of the clerk at 7-11, and I didn’t realize who he was until I revisited the store days later.
We’re psychic, Kate, we can’t always expect to have complete control over our gift. You could’ve met this woman somewhere along the way and that’s the reason you saw a vision of her being taken. Maybe she worked at the hospital while you were there or you could’ve seen her around your campus while you were still in school,” Declan suggested.
“There was something familiar about her, but I can’t seem to place her. If only her name was revealed, it would make things a hell of a lot easier,” she lamented.
“Nothing turned up online?” he questioned. She shook her head and he drew his eyebrows together thoughtfully in response. “I hate to even throw this theory out there, but maybe you couldn’t find anything because it hasn’t happened yet. This could be another premonition.”
“You think I’m meant to stop her abduction from happening?”
He shrugged. “It could be. Not that you need that kind of pressure right now.”
“I never thought about how confusing it could get—not being able to distinguish between visions of the past and future,” she sighed. It would be much easier if each vision came time-stamped with a cast list.
“Maybe we could find out more today. You can meditate and try to get back into her head. I have some new cases I could get cracking on, too.”
Kate nodded in agreement. Spending the day trying to incite a vision was the best thing she could offer the nameless woman. Although Kate felt panicked over the possibility that it was a premonition, she couldn’t allow it to mess with her head. The only way she’d be able to function successfully as a psychic was to realize she could only do her best to try and help those who she saw in peril.
Chapter Thirteen
By the afternoon, exhaustion set in and her head began to pound. She leaned back against the couch cushions and rubbed her temples.
Declan sat next to her and shot her a sympathetic look. “It doesn’t always happen. You’ll have another vision of her.”
“I’ve had visions of Julie, my mom’s boyfriend and Jared, but of course I didn’t connect with the one person I want to,” Kate complained. She mirrored his expression. “Nothing helpful for your cases either?”
“No, just vision after vision of Camilla. This girl is ruining my life.” He leveled his gaze on her. “I have to get out of this funk. I’m going out tonight whether or not Camilla will come with me.”
“I can’t lie and say I’m not enjoying watching you suffer. It’s almost like cosmic justice for how poorly you’ve treated the female population.”
“I’ve never made promises to any of the women I’ve slept with. They’ve known exactly what they’re in for when they walk into my bedroom.” He picked up the bowl of pasta he’d made for lunch. “Well maybe not exactly; since they all seem surprised by the fact that I’m a manimal in the sack.”
Kate snorted. “A manimal? You’re such a freak.”
“At least I know how to have fun, something you seem to be in very short supply of these days.” He pointed at her with his fork for emphasis.
“Fun? I doubt that’s possible when I’m trying to find out who wants me to dead and having visions of abducted women.”
“You’re going to end up crazy if you let the psychic stuff take over your life. Remember, I’ve met other psychics before, and some of them have ended up locked up because they can’t figure out what’s reality and what’s a vision.”
When Declan first met Kate he regaled her with stories of other psychics he’d tracked down. His objective had been to learn more about his gift and also find someone to solve cases with. Instead, he mostly found schizophrenics who couldn’t distinguish reality from their visions. He warned her over and over again to maintain an emotional detachment to save her own sanity.
“Jared and I could use a night out…” she started hesitantly.
“Has it been a while since you went on a date?”
She nodded. “We went to the movies last month, but Jared kept making us switch seats because he thought a few men were watching me creepily. I don’t think we remember how to relax without constantly looking over our shoulders.”
“Then, as your doctor of fun, I prescribe to you a night of abandon. No omen talk and no talk about your attack,” he said.
It was hard to imagine a night like that. The past six months had involved doctor’s appointments, police interviews and visions trying to uncover her attacker. As happy as she was to be back w
ith Jared, she wouldn’t mind taking a temporary break from the doom and gloom. She knew he desperately needed a reprieve as well. He was wound tight over the lack of movement in her investigation and it was chipping away at his cool, laidback personality. His determination to track down the person responsible only made her more fearful that her premonitions couldn’t be altered.
Living together should’ve been a time for them to have fun and strengthen their relationship. Instead, she was left feeling she was in the witness protection program; with Jared and Declan as her assigned guards.
“I think I’ll take your advice, Dec. I was given another second chance for some reason and Jared and I deserve to be happy.” She looked around the half-unpacked house she shared with Jared. “We’re finally alone together, and we should be making the most of it.”
“Jesus, Kate, don’t talk to me like we’re two chicks sitting here.” He shook his head in disgust. “I did have a thing for you at one time, you don’t have to rub it that Jared gets to see you naked.”
As he returned his attention to his lunch, she tried not to flinch at his statement. It had been two weeks since she moved in and the most skin she’d shown was the dress she wore to their housewarming party. Their kissing sessions had been off the charts amazing, but as soon as Jared’s hands reached under her clothing, she froze. Her body screamed at her brain to shut the hell up and let things progress. But her head kept winning the inner battle. She was scared for him to see her naked and vulnerable with her body looking like someone mangled it with a chainsaw.
A lesser man may have given her grief over her fears. Jared stole her heart more and more each day, and it came as no surprise how understanding he was about her trepidations about sex. In a weak moment, she admitted how wrecked her body looked and her shame over the scars. His insistence that he thought she was beautiful no matter what had rang true, but she still felt self-conscious. She wanted to give him everything, including her body, and had to find the courage to make it happen.
The Final Omen: Second Sight Book Four Page 8
