by Rebecca York
When Zach cleared his throat, they both turned. Lindsay’s eyes went to Anna. Then she crossed to her and gave her a long, warm hug.
“I’m so glad we found you,” she murmured. “How are you feeling?”
“A lot better,” she answered.
“You and Zach are lucky to have each other…like me and Jordan.”
“And lucky for us you got here in time,” Zach said, his voice thick with emotion.
He and Jordan shook hands.
“We were so alone,” Lindsay said. “You don’t know what it means to us—finding you. When we first bonded with each other, we were…afraid of what was happening.”
“Maybe I had an advantage because I already had the mind-reading act,” Anna answered.
“You’ve been in hiding since you escaped from the Crandall Consortium?” Zach asked.
“Yes,” Jordan answered. “And we’ve been looking for other Dariens.”
“I guessed that!” Anna said. “Did you find any?”
His expression turned grim. “We were on the track of several others. Jim Swift found them first. They didn’t make it.”
She felt her stomach clench.
“I hope you’ll join us,” Lindsay said. “We could use some help locating other people like us and saving their lives. And getting Jim Swift off our backs.”
Anna took that in. “You mean kill him,” she whispered.
“Yeah. Before he kills us,” Jordan answered.
She swallowed hard.
“It’s hard to get used to the idea,” Lindsay murmured. “That somebody hates you so much that he wants you dead.”
“Yes.”
“If we can get Swift out of the picture, we can save a lot of lives—not just our own.”
She nodded, then scuffed her foot against the deck. “If Zach and I need to hide and can’t pursue our professions, how do we make a living?”
“We’d like to establish a self-supporting community.”
“Where?”
“We haven’t figured that out yet.”
Zach looked uncertain. “I’d hate to give up my salvage business.”
“If we can eliminate Swift, you can go back to work. If we can’t, it’s not safe for you to be out there under your own name doing the same kind of job. And if you take another identity, he might be able to find you anyway, by studying the probabilities.”
Zach made a rough sound.
“He’d be more cautious now, because he knows that the two of you have bonded,” Jordan said. “That means you are more than the equal of anyone he sends. So he’d want to figure out a way to take you by surprise.”
Zach nodded tightly, digesting the information.
“And what about the police? San Donato is dead. Are they going to come after us?” Anna asked.
“Did any of us touch him?” Zach asked.
“No,” Anna answered. “So what can they prove?”
“Nothing.”
Lindsay spread her hands. “Let’s assume nobody can figure out what happened at his ceremonial ground. Or if they come up with theories, they will involve the Vadiana gods; he tried to take too much power, and they smacked him down. For all we know, maybe that’s what did happen. Maybe that’s why our plans worked out.”
Anna’s eyes widened. “You’re joking, right?”
Lindsay shrugged. “Who knows who they really are. Maybe they’re spirits who have been on his island for thousands of years. Maybe they’re space travelers stranded here, meddling in the lives of the islanders.”
They were all silent for several moments. Then Jordan turned toward his wife, and they exchanged a long look.
Moving to Lindsay’s side, he addressed Zach, “I think we can’t solve the big questions in one conversation. For now, we should let the two of you settle down a bit. So why don’t we dock this baby? Then you and Anna can stay on board and hide out, and we can go to a hotel in town.”
Anna heard the words, but she caught the edge of something more in Jordan’s mind. Jordan wanted to leave them alone, but he also wanted to be alone with Lindsay.
She and Zach had felt a strong sexual pull from the first time they’d wanted to touch each other. Was it the same for Jordan and Lindsay? And had it continued?
Yeah. The ghost of an answer flickered in Anna’s mind, and her gaze shot to Jordan.
When he grinned at her, she struggled to hold her gaze steady.
“Sorry. I picked that up. And I couldn’t help answering. Probably I should have kept my mouth shut.”
“The four of us can communicate…silently?” Anna asked.
To some degree, Lindsay answered. We can get better at it if we practice, she added.
Later, Jordan urged.
He wasn’t saying so, but probably they’d gotten caught by the undertow of the intense encounter between her and Zach. Probably that had worked on them, and Jordan really did want to spend some quality time alone with his wife. They deserved it. They’d come down here to help her and Zach, and they’d saved his life—and helped save her sanity.
The captain piloted the rented boat to the slip where it had come from.
After they’d tied up, Lindsay hugged Anna again, and also Zach. “Let’s plan to get together tomorrow morning,” she said.
“Where can we find you—if we need to get in touch?”
“We dropped our stuff at the Eden Hotel before we rented this boat.”
“Okay. In old town. I know where it is,” Anna answered.
They stood on the deck, watching the other two Dariens and the captain leave. He was going with them to get the payment they’d promised him.
Dariens, Zach murmured in her mind. That’s what we are.
Yes.
I like having a name for our strange condition.
She smiled at him, then sobered. There must be a lot of people around here who were at San Donato’s ceremony. Like Bertrand. Do you think they’ll look for us?
Zach’s face turned fierce.
I think he’s got sense enough not to tangle with us, she said quickly. After what we did to his master.
His master?
That’s what he called San Donato.
Zach made a disgusted sound. Just to be safe, maybe you’d better go below. There are probably a lot of kids around the docks who’d like to earn some money by picking up a carryout dinner for—
He stopped short.
She looked around in alarm. What?
I just saw Claude, the guy who was with me when José tried to kill me on the dive.
Anna sucked in a sharp breath, trying to rearrange her thoughts. “You think he’s after us?”
“No. I think he doesn’t even know we’re here.”
He gestured down the dock, and she saw a muscular man chatting casually with a boat owner about twenty yards down the pier.
“I’d like to try and use our powers on him.”
“How?”
“Somebody set me up—let’s see if we can find out who.”
“You think he can tell us?”
He gave her a steady look. “I’d like to see.”
“What do you want to do?”
He switched to silent communication. Call him down here—if we can. Not out loud. Then when he gets here, we’ll ask some questions.
She could read how important it was to him, so she whispered, “Okay.”
They held hands and he led her back into the shadows. Then she lent him her power, helping him send out a call to the man twenty yards down the pier.
Claude, come down here. Let’s have a little talk. I don’t blame you for anything. I just want to know what happened.
She watched the man’s head jerk, but he stayed where he was.
Claude, come on down here. Let’s talk.
Claude straightened up, said something to the man he’d been chatting with, then looked up and down the dock.
Over here. Come chat with me.
Finally, Claude turned in their direction and started walkin
g down the dock, his stride a bit jerky.
When he reached the boat where she and Zach lurked in the shadows, he stopped.
Come on board.
When the man hesitated, Zach repeated the invitation.
Claude gripped the rail, pulled the boat against the dock, and stepped aboard.
“Anybody here?” he called out.
“Yeah.” Zach stepped from hiding, and Claude gasped.
“You! What you want, mon?”
“Nothing much,” he said out loud. But his silent message was different. How did you and José happen to set me up?
Claude’s lips moved, but no sound came out.
Come on. You can tell me.
“Git away from me.”
Anna stepped forward, and he stared at her. “Who are you?”
“I’m Zach’s friend.”
As she delivered the bland line, she heard Zach’s silent laugh in her mind. How about fiancée? And we’ll change that to wife as soon as you’ll agree.
What a time to bring that up! She wanted to talk about the two of them, but Claude was standing in front of her, looking terrified.
“Don’t be afraid,” she said, then reached to lay a gentle hand on his arm. “Just tell me who hired you to go out with Zach and look for that wreck.”
As she spoke aloud, she sent the question directly to his mind, urging him to level with her.
“I don’t know,” he whispered. “I just got…a letter with instructions and money.”
She sensed that he was speaking the truth. He didn’t know who had hired him. But as she touched his sleeve, her old talent surged up. She saw a letter, with a return address—a post office box in Winslow, Montana.
Zach gasped. It came from Winslow. It must be from my brother.
Claude was standing stock-still. Anna moved her fingers to his hand.
“The letter asked you to look for Zach?”
“To be there when he was looking for crew. That’s all.”
You don’t know anything else?
“No.”
He seemed to be speaking the truth again. “Thanks for stopping by,” Anna said.
“See you around,” Zach added.
Claude blinked, turned, and hurried to the rail, then climbed back onto the dock. He strode down the dock, and Anna moved closer to Zach as they watched him go.
She reached for Zach’s hand. “Your brother wanted you dead?” she whispered. “So he arranged for you to go down with a guy who would freak out? That’s kind of a risky way to set up a murder.”
“Maybe he was thinking it wouldn’t really be murder. If it happens, it happens.”
“You think there are really two guys named Sanford? Terrance and his brother?”
Zach shrugged. “At least Terrance has an e-mail address.” But it was obvious he was still thinking about his brother. “I knew how badly he wanted me off the ranch. I never dreamed he wanted to make sure I wasn’t coming back.”
She turned and wrapped her arms around him. “Your own brother. He must be a monster.”
“He always acted like I didn’t belong in the family. His whole life changed when my father married my mother. Then I came along, and from his point of view, things got a lot worse. We never got along. I left because I couldn’t stand it anymore.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“But we don’t even know if the letter Claude got still exists. Or if we can prove where the money came from,” he muttered.
“And trying to investigate is going to be a problem if we’ve got to stay hidden.”
“Yes. Did you get any more from Claude?”
“Well, I know what happened to your crew from the States!”
His head shot toward her. “What?”
“Apparently they arrived yesterday. And when they got down to the docks, someone told them you’d left and you weren’t coming back.”
“Shit. I guess it was someone working for San Donato who thought I was already dead. Or I was going to be dead soon.” His face turned grim. “Did the crew leave again?”
“Yes.”
“So I left them in the lurch.”
“It’s not your fault. And maybe it’s better this way. You don’t have to face them and make up some story about why you’re going out of business.”
“Yeah. And they’re good—they’ll find other work.”
She cleared her throat. “You’re sure this came from your brother, not San Donato?”
“I can’t be sure. But we hadn’t had that daydream where we met. Not yet.”
She nodded. “This island has a long tradition in the Vadiana religion. San Donato didn’t have to be the only one using it for less-than-savory purposes.”
He nodded. Suddenly his body jerked and she felt a shock wave coming off of him.
“What?”
He didn’t answer, but he had turned to stare down the dock toward the street.
She had been expecting him to make a further comment about Pagor, but when she caught what was in his mind, she followed his gaze, then went stock-still.
Claude had paused under a streetlight, and Anna gasped as she saw that he was talking to a ghost.
CHAPTER
THIRTY
THE MAN STANDING under the streetlight turned toward the dock.
“Wild Bill,” Anna gasped. “I knew you cut a slit in their raft; I thought he drowned.”
“I guess somebody picked them up,” Zach growled. “Lindsay kept saying she didn’t think he was dead. I didn’t want to believe her, but I guess she was right.”
Bill was huddled at the end of the dock with two other men. Not the guys who had been with him before. Probably they were too smart to get involved with the fugitives again. But these new thugs didn’t know anything about what had happened.
“So much for Jordan’s assumption that Swift wouldn’t come after us until he figured out how to do it more safely.” She made a strangled sound.
“It’s not Swift. I mean, I’m picking up that Wild Bill knows him as Jim Stone.”
“Yeah.”
“But Wild Bill also has a private score to settle with us.”
“You mean, like we tried to kill him and now he’s back to get revenge?”
“Yeah. And he doesn’t know about our special talents. Because his boss didn’t tell him. So he thinks he can take us.”
“Maybe he can,” she whispered.
“No,” Zach answered, his voice hard and sure.
As they watched, the man started down the dock, flanked by his hired hands. They were all wearing untucked flowered shirts and she saw a bulge on each man’s hip. Handguns.
Feeling trapped, Anna looked around wildly. “What are we going to do?”
He gripped her hand, and the scene he’d conjured in his mind made her gasp.
“Can we do it?” she asked.
“We have to,” he answered, watching the men stroll down the dock like they owned it.
As they drew closer to the boat, Zach hurried to the controls and started the engine. With her heart hammering in her chest, Anna started to cast off, making it look like they were trying to make a hasty getaway.
She didn’t have to pretend to look scared; she was.
Wild Bill and his friends leaped onto the boat.
As soon as they were on board, they pulled out the guns that had previously been tucked in their belts.
“Hold it right there,” Bill ordered, his voice sharp and his eyes flat as a smear of mud.
Figuring Bill wasn’t going to start shooting in the dock area, Anna whipped the line free. The boat leaped forward as Zach gunned the engine.
“What the hell?” Bill shouted.
There was no time for real preparation. No time to practice what Zach had in mind. And no margin for error, if they wanted to come out of this alive.
She knew Zach planned to jam the throttle in the high position, using his mind to keep it there. But when he gave the mechanism a jolt, the engine sputtered.
Anna
gasped, sure the boat was going to leave them sitting in the dock area with Bill and his friends.
Desperately, she funneled mental energy to Zach as he focused on the throttle. When the engine settled down to a steady hum, she breathed out a sigh.
The boat was already moving. Suddenly it leaped forward.
Bill and the other two thugs whirled toward the controls. “What the hell?”
Jump.
Without question, Anna obeyed the order, jumping off the side and hitting the water as the gunmen lost their balance and toppled backward, grabbing frantically at the rail to keep from splatting onto the deck.
Anna went down, then kicked to the surface in time to see the boat bounding across the harbor like a killer whale zooming after prey.
On the deck, Zach lurched to the rail and launched himself into the the water.
If the thugs had been smart, they would have followed. Instead, as Anna looked back, she saw two of them leap toward the throttle.
“Stop this thing!” Wild Bill screamed.
“I’m fucking trying.”
“You idiot. Just turn the key.”
“It doesn’t work!”
As Bill wove his way toward his colleague, Anna switched her attention to the water, frantically searching the harbor. When she didn’t find Zach, her heart leaped into her throat.
Zach.
He swam to her and came up beside her, treading water. “Are you all right?” he asked anxiously.
“Yes. Are you?”
“A scrape on my arm. That’s all.”
From the water, she saw the craft speed across the harbor and almost hit a fishing boat. When she realized where it was heading, she made a strangled sound. Zach hadn’t told her that part.
If there had been boats over there, I would have aimed differently.
Seconds later, the cabin cruiser plowed into the fueling station at the harbor mouth, slid up onto the dock like a hippo clambering out of the water, and hit one of the gas pumps—where it burst into flames.
“Oh, Lord.”
“I think that’s the end of Wild Bill and his friends.”
“Yes. Why didn’t they jump?”
“They thought they could cut the engine. If we hadn’t jammed it with our minds, they could have.”
