Trouble In Mind (Interstellar Rescue Series Book 2)

by Donna S. Frelick

  “Good. You can do that from here.”

  “Yes, sir, but all the information we got overnight indicates these guys are headed west as fast as they can go. They’re on I-40 and they’re not stopping for anything. We need to mobilize to identify and track that van. I can do that better from out here—maybe Little Rock.”

  “Shit, Matheson, those sightings are more than twelve hours old.” Ballard’s impatience came through the phone in a growl. “That van could be any-fucking-where by now. What do you want to do—set up a roadblock behind the damn thing? Trust me, you’ll do more good chasing your own tail than trying to chase these guys down the road with what we’ve got right now. The answers are here with the husband.”

  Lana gripped the phone, desperate to hold on to her temper. “How about we attack the problem from both sides, sir? Let Agent Jamisky follow any leads he can find on Dr. Roberts there in Nashville. I’ll move on to the Little Rock Bureau office and coordinate our efforts to find the van from there, at least until we’re sure that it’s out of the state. In the meantime Agent Mason can continue to monitor the Amber Alert response and see if we can dig up anything on Mahone.”

  Ballard was quiet for so long, Lana was sure he was going to say no, but he conceded at last. “All right. I’ll approve expenses for a few days—but that’s it. Wrap this fucker up, Matheson, you hear me?”

  “Loud and clear, boss. Thanks.”

  Lana exhaled her relief and swung her bare legs over the side of the bed. Now that she had what she wanted, she couldn’t have said just why she was so reluctant to go back to Nashville. The only thing she knew was that her intuition screamed for her to pursue her quarry west; if she went back east she’d lose them. She’d relied on her gut for every one of her ten years as an agent. She wasn’t about to give up on it now.

  She went to the sink, flipped on a light, splashed cold water on her face. She studied her face over the edge of the towel as she dabbed at her wet cheeks. Was that a hint of shadow under her eyes, a line or two of stress around her mouth? She blew out a breath and reached for the toothbrush.

  Lana knew what this was about. Not the case. At least, not just the case. She hadn’t slept well, but it hadn’t been because she was worried about finding kidnappers. She’d tossed and turned half the night thinking about a certain PI in the next room over, the one whose broad expanse of bare chest narrowed to a hard, smooth belly, whose silky boxers rode so low on his hips they just covered the delectable package beneath, whose kiss, as brief as it had been, had signaled the beginning of something unstoppable.

  Lana had forced herself to pull away from him out of simple self-protection. Another minute in his arms and she would have been lost. Even now, just the thought of that kiss was enough to make her burn. It was as if Gabriel had reached inside her mind and opened a Whitman’s Sampler box of sexual fantasies. Only these were no cheap candies. They were rich with the exotic bittersweet of raw cocoa, the dark swirl of molasses, the velvet smoke of Cuban rum. She could still taste his heat on her tongue. And she wanted him. God, how she wanted him. If it weren’t for this case . . . her mind exploded with the things she would like to do to, for and with the man in the next room.

  She exhaled again and shook her head at her reflection in the mirror. It was no use following that line of thinking any further. There was the case to think about, and what she should be doing was finding a way to get Gabriel back to Nashville as quickly as possible. There would be a car rental agency in Little Rock, maybe closer. She ignored the weight of . . . regret? loss? . . . accumulating in her belly and made up her mind to drop him off as soon as she could.

  No more than ten minutes later, Lana stood outside Gabriel’s door, shivering in the early morning chill. God, please let him have some pants on this time, she thought, not at all certain of her resolve at this ungodly hour. She didn’t realize she was holding her breath until he opened the door and she saw that he was fully dressed. She scraped up an awkward smile.

  “Hey. Sorry to roust you out so early.”

  He didn’t seem nearly as uncomfortable as she was. “I figured you’d be anxious to get started.” He nodded at the coffeemaker. “How do you take your coffee?”

  “Fully loaded.” She stepped inside the room. “And you are my hero.”

  Gabriel smiled as he turned to doctor the coffee with cream and sugar. “An easy quest this morning.” He handed the cup to her. “My lady.”

  “Thank you, kind sir.” She took a sip, letting the hot liquid warm her chest. “We got confirmation that the van is moving west through Arkansas with two sightings yesterday. And some info on one of the kidnappers that goes along with the profile you came up with. I’m headed into the Little Rock office to monitor operations from there.” She stopped, reluctant to get to the part where she planned to dump him.

  Gabriel studied her over his coffee. “What aren’t you telling me, Lana?”

  “We should be able to find a car rental agency on the way somewhere. Or in Little Rock.” She couldn’t meet his eyes. “I hate to do that to you, but I don’t have any other way to get you back to Nashville. I’m sorry.”

  He didn’t look worried. “I’m not going back to Nashville.”

  Anger sparked, but Lana tamped it down. “Of course, I can’t make you go anywhere. But this . . .” She gestured, unable for a moment to describe just what it was they had between them.

  “Collaboration?”

  “Okay,” she accepted, “collaboration. This collaboration can’t go on. It was one thing to have you tag along on my own turf. I’ll be in someone else’s yard in Little Rock, asking them for help in this investigation. I can’t explain your presence in the middle of a Federal investigation to people I don’t even know.”

  “Understood.”

  That surprised her. She narrowed her eyes at him.

  “So you agree?”

  “I’m not expecting you to introduce me to the boys in the Little Rock office. It serves my purposes that no one else knows I’m involved. If you want I’ll even rent another car.”

  “But you still plan on following me to Little Rock.”

  He shrugged, the movement a smooth ripple of muscle beneath his shirt. “If you mean do I plan to stay close to you, no matter where this investigation leads, then, yes, Alana, that is my intention.”

  Lana blew out a breath and ran a hand across the top of her tightly-wound French knot. She didn’t know where to start. The man was impossible.

  Gabriel moved closer to capture her upper arms. “We’ve been over this, Lana.” His voice was smooth, seductive. “We need each other. Now is not the time to break up a working partnership. Not when we’re so close to finding Asia and Jack.”

  He was standing so near she could feel the warmth coming off him. She could smell the clean tang of hotel soap mingling with the enticing scent that was his alone. She looked up into eyes so dark she could have lost herself for hours, and she wanted him so much she ached with sudden need. Shaking, she forced herself to take a step backward.

  Gabriel’s hands dropped from her arms, and he stood regarding her, his expression unreadable. She turned away, struggling for the objectivity she needed to bring some order to the chaos in her mind. Only one argument seemed to make sense. Short of locking him up for interfering in a Federal investigation, she had no control over his actions. And if his actions were going to include shadowing her anyway, she had to keep him close enough to know what he was up to.

  “All right, let’s go.” She held up a finger in warning. “But you stay in the hotel room once we get to Little Rock. You can catch up on Ellen.”

  Ethan drifted between sleeping and waking, unable to find true rest, unwilling to leave the world of his dreams for the waking nightmare his life had become. While he floated he could still hold onto an illusion of a place where pain seemed far away, where a soft touch could soothe his aching heart and a murmured word could bring him solace. If he opened his eyes, he knew, he would be alone, waiting, with on
ly his anger and his guilt for comfort.

  --Dad? Are you there? It’s me, Jack!

  Ethan sat up in the twisted sheets, one hand to his head. Jack?

  --Dad? You feel sad. Are you okay?

  --Sure, buddy, I’m fine. I’m just . . . I miss you and Mom. Are you both okay?

  --Mom’s right here. She says to say she’s fine. They haven’t hurt us. She misses you, too.

  Ethan’s heart turned over in his chest. Asia’s face filled his mind, her golden-brown eyes shining with laughter, her fine, high cheekbones blushing with joy, her soft lips smiling at him.

  --Tell her I can’t wait to see her. And you, too, Jack.

  --I know. I wish we could just come home.

  The boy’s weariness bordered on despair. Ethan felt the emotion being communicated straight to his heart, bypassing the words he heard echoing in his mind. He struggled to conquer his own answering pain and sent back a wave of reassurance and love.

  --Soon, Jack. It won’t be long, I promise.

  --Mom says to tell you we’re not in the van anymore. We’re in a house somewhere, but we don’t know where.

  --A house? Hope sparked in him. If they’d stopped moving, Gabriel might have a chance to catch up with them. Is there anything you can tell me about the house? Can you see anything outside?

  --No. They covered our eyes so we couldn’t see. But I can hear trains. They’re really close, and there are a lot of them. All the time.

  --Trains! That’s good, Jack. That’s really helpful.

  --Yeah. Mom said to tell you ’cuz it might help you find us.

  --Mom’s smart, buddy. We’re lucky to have her, aren’t we?

  --Yeah. I gotta go. I’m starting to feel pretty tired.

  --Okay, Jack. Thanks for talking to me. I feel a lot better now.

  --Okay, Dad. ’Bye.

  “I love you, son.” Ethan said it out loud, knowing Jack had faded from his mind, needing to say it anyway. His chest expanded with the feeling, and he allowed himself a shaky breath. They were still alive. They hadn’t been hurt. And now they had given him a way to reach them.

  When Ethan went downstairs, dressed and with new hope in him, Sam was with Rayna in the living room. He flashed a grin at his friend.

  “When did you get back?”

  Sam glanced at Rayna before looking back at Ethan. “Early this morning. What’s going on?”

  “We need to get in touch with Gabriel.” Ethan headed to the kitchen for tea. “Jack told me something that may help us.”

  Sam and Rayna had been trailing him, but now Sam stopped dead and gaped at him. “Jack told you?”

  “Ethan . . .”

  Ethan put a hand on Rayna’s shoulder. “Ray, I know how you feel about this, but right now I don’t have time to convince you I’m sane. I need to speak to Gabriel.”

  Sam’s head swiveled from Ethan to Rayna and back. “Will someone please tell me what the hell is going on?”

  Rayna turned to him, unhappiness written into her dark features. “Ethan says he’s been . . . communicating . . . with Jack. Ever since he let Gabriel scan him. That’s not a common side effect as far as I know. What do you think?”

  Sam shook his head. “Ethan, man, you’ve been under a lot of stress. And those pain pills—”

  “Don’t cause hallucinations. Ray and I have discussed this already. Now, it’s true I’ve been under a lot of stress. For that reason I can’t remember where I put Gabriel’s cell phone number. Can you two please stop worrying so much and help me?”

  Sam and Rayna exchanged another look, then Sam took a slim black case out of his breast pocket and punched in a single digit. He handed the unit to Ethan.

  Ethan spent a few seconds admiring the device before putting it to his ear. “New comm unit? Never seen one like this before. Nice.” He waited a second. “Gabriel?”

  “Ethan? I was going to wait until a bit later to report on our progress. I didn’t realize you were an early riser.”

  “Actually, I have something to report myself. I didn’t feel it could wait.” He could sense the other man’s interest sharpen, almost as if their minds were still connected.

  “Tell me.”

  “First I need to ask you a question. Is it possible that by opening my mind to yours I might have tapped into some latent telepathic talent? Could you have somehow made me more receptive to alternative forms of communication?”

  There was a moment of silence on the other end of the line. Then Gabriel spoke very slowly.

  “You’ll have to be clearer than that, Ethan. Maybe it would just be easier if you explained what happened to make you ask me such a question.”

  Ethan shot a look at Sam and Rayna, who were keeping a wary watch on him from across the room. “Gabriel, I’ve been speaking with my son, and he’s told me something that may help us find him.”

  Gabriel went very still. There was every possibility, of course, that Ethan’s hold on reality had slipped. The man had suffered severe emotional and physical trauma. Gabriel had borne witness to it in his mind, knew intimately how close Ethan was to collapsing under the weight of guilt and worry. But he also knew the strength that was Ethan’s to draw on, the love that sustained him, the determination that fueled his endurance. And he knew an opening of the mind such as Ethan described was possible, in theory.

  Rodyn had explained it to him in the earliest days of his training. A similar process of expanding the latent communications pathways that existed in his own mind had been the first step in acquiring those powers that were the legacy of his Thrane genetic code. But this was the first time he’d heard of a full-blooded human responding with an expansion of telepathic ability. The likely explanation for what had happened was Jack’s abilities. That one so young and with no training at all could make contact from such a great distance would indicate phenomenal power.

  Gabriel drew a breath and glanced at Lana. Her eyes were on the road, but the tension in her body showed she was aware something significant had transpired in the phone call. She turned to meet his gaze, searching. How could he explain? They had both thought Asia to be the prime target of this kidnapping. Perhaps she had been. But if the men who took her found out about Jack, they would quickly be much more interested in him. And there was no doubt Jack was the one Kinnian was after.

  “Gabriel? Are you still there?”

  “I’m here. Tell me what has happened.”

  Ethan talked and the extractor listened with more than one sense, probing for signs of strain and instability behind the calm, self-assured voice. Gabriel used the single, silken link that still connected his mind to the doctor’s to determine how much to believe of what the man was telling him. He found Ethan excited, anxious for his family despite his hope, desperate to be believed—but he did not find him crazy.

  “And what did the boy tell you that makes you think we can find him?”

  “They’ve stopped moving.” Ethan couldn’t hide his emotion. “They’re in a house now, and Jack says he can hear trains close by.”

  Gabriel frowned. What he knew about the transportation systems of Earth would fit on half the screen of a very small datapad. Trains—plural—more than likely meant some sort of depot or hub. He needed a map. Better yet, he needed Sam.

  “Is Sam back yet?”

  “Yes, he’s here.”

  “Let me speak to him. And Ethan.” Gabriel looked again at Lana, who was glaring at him now. “Trust in yourself. Trust Jack. What is happening between you two is extraordinary, but it is not impossible. There are precedents for it. You should know that Jack is very special.”

  “I already knew that, Gabriel. You need to bring him back to me.”

  “I’ll do everything I can.” He waited, staring at the road ahead, while the comm changed hands.

  Sam’s voice was low and incredulous. “Are you saying you believe all this?”

  “Yes. Why do you think we’ve had certain complications?”

  Sam’s response was brief, an
attempt at discretion. “You mean Kinnian?”

  “Yes. He wants the boy.”

  “Do you think anyone else knows about Jack?”

  “Not yet, but it’s only a matter of time. I need some technical help. I’ll send the specifics through.”

  “We’re standing by. Good hunting, amigo.”

  “Gracias, mi capitán. I’ll talk to you soon.”

  Gabriel disconnected the call and appeared to use his phone’s data functions while he contacted the Shadowhawk through his wetware for a detailed sensor scan of the area around Little Rock. He gave Sam’s crew the search parameters for a large rail depot, and he gave them the description of the vehicle they were tracking, in the hope the van was moving or was parked somewhere in the area.

  “So are you going to tell me what the hell that was all about?” Lana’s voice was deceptively soft.

  “It may be nothing.”

  “Not judging by the look on your face. You know more than you’re telling me about these others who are stalking Asia and Jack. Who are they?” Her green eyes had gone dark and there was steel beneath the velvet in her voice.

  He shook his head. “I can’t be certain.”

  “You’re lying.” Her eyes sparked with anger. “I’ve been a cop for a long time, Gabriel. I can read the signs. Who wants the boy? What’s so special about him all of a sudden? We’ve been assuming he was just picked up along with Asia. If you’ve learned something that changes that assumption, I need to hear it.”

  He put a hand on her shoulder to calm her. “The conversation I just had with Ethan changes nothing about what we need to do next, Lana. It only confirms that we’re on the right track heading into Little Rock. Sam has access to some fancy satellite equipment. I’ve asked him to do a little scanning of the area for us. Ethan and I . . . well, we just have a feeling the kidnappers may have gone to ground, that they’re no longer on the road.”

  Alana stared at him. “You mentioned trains.”

  Gabriel sighed. “Is there a depot of some kind in the area?”

  “Why?”