“She’s settled again. She’s been sedated as the last thing we want is for Kylie or any of the others to gain access to her.”
“What makes you think they won’t gain access to either of us?”
“I have a shield in place. Grant Simms is a good teacher.”
My stomach started hurting, because I didn’t feel right about this. It was too damn easy. Whoever the woman was, she couldn’t have put a shield in place, or else she wasn’t nearly as gifted as she presumed.
There was something about the tone in the woman’s voice that I thought I recognized. I tried to keep listening. Keep breathing—not focus on Simms or anyone else.
“Yes, I suppose he is,” Orlenda said.
“So good, in fact, that Kylie Cain is about to get the surprise of her life.”
My eyes shot open as I heard the low whistle before I ever had a chance to spot it.
I ran from the galley, pushed Ayden hard into the water and jumped in alongside of him, just as the missile hit the boat, and everything went dark.
Chapter Twenty-five
“Kylie! Kylie! Come on! Wake the hell up! Come on!”
I could hear Ayden’s voice. I felt his strong arms around me. I wanted to answer him but couldn’t speak. I felt so light and warm, and distant, yet in a strange way also close. Was this what being in another dimension or universe felt like? I didn’t know. To me, it felt really good, but I could hear the fear and desperation in Ayden’s voice so I pushed myself to speak and come back.
“I’m here,” I muttered.
“Thank God. Hang on, Ky.”
I tried to swim with him.
“No, no, no. Let me do the work,” he said.
“I don’t need a hero,” I replied, water lapping up into my mouth, causing me to cough.
“Right now, maybe you do. Just hang on.”
I wanted back into that other realm right then. I hated depending on anyone. Much less a man. I was starting to feel some pain in my right leg.
We made it to a floating dock. Ayden pulled himself up first and then helped get me out of the water.
After I lay on the wooden walkway for a moment, catching my breath, Ayden lifted me and placed me on a wooden bench that stank of fish guts. I could hear his labored breathing. Note to self—maybe I needed to drop a few pounds.
“Jesus, Ky, you okay?”
“My leg hurts, but I think it’s just bruised....”
“Let me have a look.”
I nodded and sat back while Ayden gently examined my leg. He winced. “It’s not a bruise, Ky.”
“What is it?”
“There’s something embedded in your leg. Wood, I think. Probably from the boat itself.”
I tried to sit up as a wave of dizziness swept over me. I gasped and said, “We can’t see a doctor. They’ll ask too many questions and call the local police.”
Just as I said the words, I heard the first of the sirens. The first of many, in fact.
“I have a better idea. Do you trust me?”
He shouldn’t have had to ask me that. Truth was, I trusted Ayden with my life. And up to a few minutes ago, I had trusted Noah, too. I nodded my head vigorously, or as vigorously as I could. “Of course.”
“Good, because I know someone who can fix you right up.”
“Someone?”
He brought his fingers to his lips and lowered his voice. “Not now. We don’t know if whoever sent that dagger after us is close by. For now, we have to get the hell out of here.”
I made a move to stand and pain shot up through my leg again, but I wasn’t going to let on to Ayden. We needed to get the hell out of here and to find Hope. We were still on a mission. One that had gotten very personal for me.
“What about Noah?” I asked, biting my lip as a wave of pain tore through me. Curious bystanders were moving toward the beach. We moved through the shadows as best as we could. I did all I could to walk normally and not draw attention to us.
He shrugged. “I don’t know, Ky. But we’ve got to get you some help. Let’s not worry about—”
I suddenly stopped under the prow of a massive yacht, where we were mostly in shadows and hidden. I said, “I think we better put a heavy shield around us.” As much as I hated to say the next words to come out of my mouth, I had no choice. “I don’t know if we can trust him. Before the missile hit, I was trying to reach Hope. I heard a conversation with Orlenda and another woman. You were right. We were being set up. We were duped, my friend. I don’t know if he’s involved, or not, but we can’t risk it. It’s you and me. That other woman talking with Orlenda was Jacqueline—Noah’s wife.”
Chapter Twenty-six
We moved mostly unscathed.
The blood pouring down my leg didn’t go without notice, but mostly people were attracted to the yacht still burning in the harbor. If anything, I must have looked like an innocent victim.
Either way, we moved as quickly as we could away from the harbor. Ayden, who also seemed to know his way around anywhere, directed us down a narrow alley lined with residential balconies. Our luck held out. Hanging over a balcony was someone’s wash, along with a dark galabiyya, a traditional robe found in North Africa. Ayden swiped it and put it over me, and we were moving again. That it smelled clean was a bonus. But I was fading fast. Blood ran down the inside of my leg and squished in my shoe. My wound might be concealed by the robe, but I was soon going to be leaving behind a trail of blood.
Taxis lined the streets just outside the harbor. Ayden picked the closest one, helped me inside, and instructed the driver to a residence that was unfamiliar to me.
I was fading quickly, and soon found my head on Ayden’s shoulder. He made small, reassuring sounds to me. He held my hand as the pain in my leg turned critical. It was all I could do to not gasp.
As the taxi sped along in a dizzying array of flashing lights and turns and braking, I also fought the strong need to vomit. I was in shock, and a frustrating side effect for shock, at least for me, was the need to heave.
While we drove, and while I faded in and out of consciousness, I was aware of Ayden sending a text message. He used a disposable phone. I couldn’t see the message, but he received a reply soon enough. He glanced at the message, then turned off the device, and that’s when I fainted.
I was roused when the taxi stopped. Ayden paid our fair, using dirham that were no doubt damp. He helped me out, and I did my best to not appear suspicious. The taxi driver didn’t seem to pay us any mind, or perhaps that was wishful thinking. Either way, he sped off, and I found myself looking down upon the city of Morocco.
Ayden held me close as the hot wind thundered over me. Blood had now officially sloshed over the sides of my running shoes.
Just as I turned and vomited, a dark car came down the winding road, and stopped next to us.
Still holding onto me, Ayden ducked his head down and spoke in nearly fluent Hebrew. The driver answered in the same, speaking words I barely heard, in sentences that I couldn’t quite distinguish.
Soon, I was in the back seat of the dark car, with Ayden holding me close, and soon after that, we were pulling through guard gates and into the home of a massive estate overlooking most of the city.
“A safe house?” I asked, my words barely distinguishable even to my own ears.
“A very safe house.”
“Mossad?” I asked.
Ayden nodded, “Like I said, a very safe house. They also have a resident doctor and surgeon. Let’s get you fixed up.”
Chapter Twenty-seven
I refused anything but a local to the wound site. I didn’t want to be drugged. I did, however, accept the shot of whiskey that Ayden offered me. Thankfully, it did help some. At the very least, it settled my stomach.
When we arrived at the safe house, there was a doctor waiting for us. He spoke in Hebrew to Ayden. I was roused enough at this point that I understood him, but didn’t care to converse. He didn’t ask how or why I was injured. He only asked Ayden i
f I was allergic to any medications.
“No,” I answered before Ayden had the chance to ask me the question.
The doctor’s eyes widened but he continued to speak directly to Ayden. “I will sedate her and remove the piece, then sew her up, and in a few hours she should begin feeling better.”
“No sedation. Local only,” I said.
Ayden shook his head and knew better than to argue with me. He relayed my message. The doctor shrugged and got on with his work.
Ayden stood to the side as the doctor fixed me up, and when he was finished he said goodbye to Ayden and left me there on the bed, in a room cloaked in heavy velvet draperies.
“You okay?” Ayden asked.
“I’m fine.” I sat up and grimaced at the line of stitches traveling down my thigh. “That’s going to be pretty.”
“Every beauty should have some kind of wart,” he replied.
“Smart ass.”
“True. You should eat something. I’ll go check what’s in the kitchen.”
I wasn’t hungry but I wasn’t stupid either. We still had a little girl to find and save, and I was going to need my strength more than ever at this point.
I could hear some rustling and banging going on from the other room, and after a few minutes of twirling my thumbs and staring at the wall, I began to feel the numbness wearing off my leg, and I decided to limp and grimace my way into the kitchen, which turned out to be as elaborate as the bedroom, albeit oddly contemporary with a lot of stainless steel, white shaded glass counter tops of all things, and an oven that my mother would have died for.
I stood in the doorway, amused that with Ayden’s senses he didn’t realize I was watching him bang around. It wasn’t until he turned to the stove, a mixing bowl in his hand, which he poured what looked to be an egg mixture into a cast iron pan, that he spotted me. “Jesus, how could I not have known you were there?”
“Truthfully, I was wondering the same thing.”
“So much for those psychic powers,” he laughed.
“Yeah, so much.”
“Why are you even up and in here?”
“Boredom and the fact that we better come up with some kind of plan.”
“You aren’t one to keep down, are you?”
“Nope.”
“Another whiskey?” he asked, holding up a glass filled with the amber colored contents.
“I don’t know. What you making?”
“An Ayden special.”
“Do tell.”
“I make a mean omelet, lady. I’ve got some onions, mushrooms, spinach and a little Andouille sausage.”
“Guess they keep this place stocked, and how do you know about this place anyway?”
A sheepish grin spread across his face. “My dear, I am an operative. You can’t tell me that you don’t have these kinds of contacts in certain places around the world.”
I nodded recalling a place in Greece that I can count on to go to, and one just outside of Hong Kong. I did have other contacts and homes that if I needed to pull some strings I could utilize, so I couldn’t exactly third degree him on how he’d come by this safe house. “They obviously know your meal tastes.”
He laughed. “They know I am a limited chef and the one thing I do well is the Ayden special.”
I ambled over to the fridge.
“Hey, sit down. What do you want?”
“I don’t know. I figure I’d see if there was any wine in there. Thought it might go well with the Ayden special.”
“True. And of course there is wine. Only the best for you.” He took a bottle out of the fridge.
I recognized the wine as being worth a cool grand. “You know what, if I didn’t know better, I’d say this was all planned to get me here and seduce me.”
He came around the counter where I was sitting carefully—and painfully—on a suede bar stool. He handed me the glass. “You know me too well. How am I doing so far?”
Despite the circumstances, I smiled. “I’d say not bad.”
He winked. “Good.” He went back to the stove, where he went back to work on the omelet, which he soon served on a plate before me.
I took a bite. “Oh wow. This is delicious.”
“Told you.”
“Thank you, Ayden. Thanks for everything.”
“No need to thank me. I’m just glad you’re okay. Relatively speaking. You did have me worried about you, and losing you is the last thing I would ever want.”
I saw him blush as he said it while pouring himself a glass of wine, and I have to admit that in that moment I was pretty smitten. Yeah, Ayden and I had had this push/pull thing for a long time now, but I had thought for so long that my heart belonged to Noah, which I realized was totally ridiculous. Not only was Noah married to the enemy, but I now had to wonder if Noah wasn’t the enemy himself.
Ayden on the other hand had just saved my life, and now poured me some of the most amazing wine that I’d ever had. Plus, he was super easy on the eyes. I wanted to slap myself for even thinking these thoughts. Ayden was also my co-worker, my partner. Maybe that doctor had given me more than just a local in the leg. I took another bite of the meal as he sat down next to me with his own plate. “Thoughts on how we save the kid?” I asked.
“I do have thoughts. The good scientist back at the boat gave me a map. There are two locations that she might be, and we have to figure out where they are.”
“You still have the map?” I asked. “Wasn’t it destroyed?”
“Nope.” He tapped the side of his head, “Kylie, my dear, you do know that I am a psychic who reads current situations and can connect here and now.”
“Yes. Of course.”
“Well, what comes along with that is a photographic memory, as you might recall.”
I nodded. I had seen his mind at work before. Damn nice talent to have.
He went on, proud as a peacock, “I took one look at the maps and have them stored up here. Don’t worry. I’ll draw them for you, but first we eat.”
“Okay then.”
Our meals finished, we sat down in the family room on an overstuffed leather sofa, facing large paned windows where all I could see outside was a sky filled with stars. “Gonna draw me that map?” I asked.
“I am.” He took my glass from my hand and set it on the table. He then turned back to me and, being no idiot, I knew what was about to happen. I should have stopped it, but I didn’t. Ayden took my face in his hands and said, “I meant it when I told you that I wouldn’t know what I would have done without you.”
He kissed me then. His lips were soft, yet forceful enough and he tasted like the wine we’d been drinking. His hands traveled down my back, and I felt myself responding to his kiss, which truly left me wanting more. From something sweet, the kiss turned passionate and heated and I was pretty sure where this was headed, too, until he stopped and sat up. I looked at him with what I was sure was a puzzled look.
He shook his head. “I think I better draw you that map.”
“Okay. What just happened?” I stuttered.
“I kissed you and you kissed me back in a way that says you really do have feelings for me. I’d love to continue that kiss and take you straight to bed, but I also care very deeply for you, Kylie, and in all honesty, I don’t want a one-night stand with you. I think if we went to bed right now, it would ruin everything. I might be crazy for saying that, but I am not willing to risk that. I’m not willing to lose you as my partner, or my friend, or possibly something more in the future. I am probably a damn fool.” He sighed and took a sip from his wine.
I took his hand and said, “No you’re not. Now draw me the map.”
Chapter Twenty-eight
Hope knew that Orlenda and the other woman were coming for her. She had “heard” them talking about Kylie being close. She had heard them talking about an explosion, and she had heard what they really wanted her to find and where they wanted her to transfer to, to find it. She even thought she might know why they wanted wha
t they did. Maybe. And, it was very scary.
She had a bad sense that Kylie had been hurt. She felt it in her own leg. Hope wasn’t only an audial and a traveler, she was an empath, too, and she had heard the explosion and felt the searing pain that Kylie had. Hope had woken up gasping and sweating. In her dream, she had almost drowned.
It’s her, she had thought at the time. Kylie had been hurt and almost died.
But she did not die. Hope had heard whisperings of a soothing man’s voice, helping her.
Could she still help her though? Hope knew that Kylie was walking into a trap. Orlenda was going to kill her and her friends.
She had to let Kylie know...but she wasn’t listening to her. She was talking to someone else. They were trying to draw a map.
The map was the problem, of course. The map was a trick. The scientist was a fake, too. He was a real scientist, but he had been planted there by Orlenda. As Hope had heard Orlenda say Echidna: “I am one step ahead of them. And one step is all I need to be.”
“Come on,” whispered Hope. But despite her pleads, Kylie wasn’t hearing her. That was the problem with audials. They needed quiet to hear. They also needed no distractions. And Kylie was very, very distracted by the man, who was now hovering over her.
Hope had to break their connection. She had to.
After all, Orlenda was coming for her.
Hope put all her focus into her reaching Kylie, to send her the image of a symbol she had seen on a towel in the bathroom, when Orlenda had allowed her to go pee and wash up. It was all she had to give and she crossed her fingers that it worked.
Chapter Twenty-nine
“There’s something wrong,” I said.
“What do you mean? You feeling okay?” Ayden asked.
We were driving a Buggati Galibier that had been conveniently parked in the garage. Ayden was actually driving and I was trying hard not to focus on the pain in my leg. Ayden had not wanted to move out tonight because of my injury, but we both agreed that we couldn’t waste any more time. “I’m fine. It’s the map. There’s something not right. Did you ever tune into Dr. Graves after he left the boat, or his source?”
Chills & Thrills: Three Novel Box Set Page 9
