Sudden Insight

by Rebecca York

  “He’s got to be cautious.”

  He skimmed his lips over her cheek. “You were very brave.”

  “I just did…what I had to.”

  “More than you had to.”

  She didn’t try to explain her overwhelming panic; she simply snuggled in his arms as they talked.

  “Mickey and…the woman…”

  “They’re like us. I mean, they bonded—mentally.”

  “But they can’t stand the idea of sharing their power with anyone else,” he muttered.

  “It’s not sharing! We have nothing to do with them.”

  “Maybe they can’t think in those terms.”

  “Why?”

  “I think it’s coming from Tanya. I caught the edge of her thoughts. She’s needy.” He cleared his throat. “But it’s more than that. I think she may be a psychopath.”

  “And she controls Mickey?”

  “Apparently.”

  “Both of us were needy.”

  “Not like her.”

  “Thank God.” She dragged in a breath and let it out. “They didn’t even try to be friendly. They just attacked.”

  “They’re a lot stronger than we are. We were lucky to get away.”

  “Did they?”

  “I don’t know. I was pretty out of it by the end.”

  “There was a lot of smoke,” she murmured. “I couldn’t see them.

  “If they escaped, can they find us?” she asked in a voice she couldn’t hold steady as she remembered the attack.

  “I don’t know,” he answered, his voice weaker, and she knew he didn’t even have the strength for this conversation.

  She wanted to drag him out of bed, out of the city. Away to some safe place.

  “They knew we were in New Orleans,” she whispered.

  “But they had to tell Patrick to call me,” he whispered.

  That calmed her a little. They were safe here. At least for now. “You need to sleep.”

  “Yeah.” When he closed his eyes, she felt her chest tighten. But she reached out with her mind, feeling him with her. It was all right. He was just going to sleep. It wasn’t like when he had slipped into unconsciousness.

  “Let me cover you.”

  Mmm.

  He raised his legs, and she pulled the quilt free before spreading it over him and settling down beside him.

  She was exhausted, too, and she was asleep almost as soon as she closed her eyes.

  For a long time, she was at peace. Then she slipped into a dream that she and Jake were far away, on a tropical island, lying in the warm sun. He leaned over to kiss her, and she smiled in her sleep.

  When she felt his hand on her breast, she knew that the dream was part of their reality.

  You’re awake.

  How are you? she asked.

  He slid his hands around her bottom and pulled her against the erection straining at the front of his pants.

  Fully recovered.

  You need to rest.

  I need you.

  She might have argued, but she needed him, too. Needed to reaffirm everything that they had built between them.

  When his tongue played with the seam of her lips, asking her to open for him, she did, closing her eyes as he explored the line of her teeth and stroked the sensitive tissue on the inside of her lips.

  She heard herself make a small sound deep in her throat, telling him she liked what he was doing. But he knew that already, knew it from her mind.

  She was open to him in a way that thrilled her. When his tongue dipped farther into her mouth, she felt hot, needy sensations curling through her body. And through his.

  She sighed as his hands stroked over her hips, then upward to find the sides of her breasts, making her nipples tighten.

  She needed more. So much more. But she knew from his mind that he wasn’t going to rush this.

  You brought me back.

  I had to.

  We need to celebrate. She heard the grin in his voice, and more. His silent words were like a solemn commitment.

  An affirmation of what they had found together, and almost lost.

  She reached up to run her fingers through his thick, dark hair. Then she slid one hand down his back, slipping it under the waistband of his shorts.

  They’re in the way.

  So are your panties.

  She saw him grinning as they both rolled away so they could kick off their underwear, then come gratefully back into each other’s arms. The lengths of their bodies pressed together.

  Sensations bombarded her. What she was feeling. What he felt.

  “Yes,” he murmured, his mouth still on her.

  She was dizzy with desire for him.

  When he gathered her closer, words of gratitude rose in his throat.

  It was difficult to draw in a full breath, difficult to think.

  She made a small sobbing sound as he rolled her to her back, playing his hands over her throbbing nipples before taking one hard peak into his mouth, drawing on her as he used his thumb and finger on the other side.

  Please, now.

  Soon.

  He slid one hand down her body, into her hot, moist folds as he lifted his head to look down at her.

  She saw passion mold his features, felt her hips lift restlessly against his fingers.

  Her eyes met his, and everything inside her clenched.

  When his body sank into hers, she cried out at the joining.

  She was so overcome with emotion she couldn’t speak as he began to move inside her. But they didn’t need words.

  She threw her head back onto the pillow while she matched his rhythm. Her fingers dug into his shoulders as they both climbed toward orgasm.

  She felt him holding back, felt him waiting for her to reach the peak of her pleasure. But she moved her hips in a frantic rhythm, pushing them both toward climax. Finally it rocketed through her, and through him, and they clung together, feeling the universe tilt and sway around them.

  They came back to earth gently, still clinging together.

  Oh, Jake.

  I love you.

  She had longed to hear those words from him. Now she wondered…

  Not because you brought me back. I knew how I felt. I couldn’t say it. I didn’t dare think it.

  The words trembled at the edge of her mind. She clung to him as he rolled to his side and settled her against him.

  I knew it, too. Even when I never expected it in my life.

  But it’s not enough, he finished the thought. Not yet.

  I need to feel safe.

  I know. We will.

  When?

  She knew he couldn’t answer, and she also knew that their time together might be limited.

  No! he protested.

  We still don’t know about the clinic. The man who killed Evelyn Morgan is still chasing us. The police still think we’re involved. We’ve assaulted a detective. And now another man and woman have shown up and tried to wipe us from the face of the earth. They almost killed you.

  It sounds bad, but we’ll figure it out.

  She desperately wanted to believe him, but too much had happened too fast.

  We’re strong together, his thoughts told her.

  Strong enough?

  Yes.

  She knew he would have given her that answer, no matter what he really thought.

  We will be strong enough. You were right. We have to practice.

  Yes.

  “I’m going out to get us something to eat.”

  Her hand tightened on his arm. “Too dangerous. I’ll do it.”

  “No. This is no neighborhood for a woman to be walking around at night.”

  She sighed. “Okay.”

  When he climbed out of bed, she looked at his leg and his stomach.

  He followed her gaze.

  “How do those…burns feel?”

  “Not great. But I’ll live.” His gaze bore into her. “Thanks to you.”

  She could only nod as s
he watched him dress.

  “You still have the gun we got here earlier?”

  “Yes.”

  That made her remember what had happened at the warehouse.

  “You threw down the gun you had.”

  “Yeah. It turned burning hot.”

  He zipped his jeans and told her, “Lock the door and keep the weapon with you until I come back.”

  As soon as he had left, she got out of bed and pulled her clothes on. Then she took the revolver out of her purse and made a quick trip across the hall to the bathroom before returning and locking the door.

  As she sat on the bed, she sent her mind toward Jake, trying to contact him. She couldn’t reach him, but it wasn’t like when he’d been leaving his body. She knew he was still on earth, and that knowledge was reassuring.

  Then she sensed the edge of his thoughts and focused in on them. Her heart beat faster as she felt him coming toward her.

  Finally he spoke.

  Unlock the door.

  She got up and let him in. As soon as he’d set bags and a pasteboard tray with cups down on the table, she hugged him.

  “I didn’t like letting you out of my sight. Or out of my hearing.”

  “Me neither.”

  They pulled out seats at the table. He’d brought poor boys and cups of strong New Orleans coffee. With cream and sugar for her.

  Did you find out about the warehouse?

  He answered as he took a bite of the sandwich. The fire department saved the building, but the floats are destroyed.

  Sorry!

  I’ll pay for them.

  She started to say it wasn’t his fault, but he shook his head. I burned the place up.

  To save our lives.

  They ate in silence for a few minutes before she said, So how did Mickey and his girlfriend find us?

  He took a sip of coffee as he said, Convenient that you can talk and eat at the same time.

  When she laughed, he went on. The Evelyn Morgan murder made the news. That would be a clue. Maybe they headed down here and then got more…um…vibes when they got to the city. Who knows what they can do.

  She nodded. “And who knows what we can do, if we keep working at it. They may have done us a favor—showing us real power.”

  He grinned, then sobered. We have to assume Evelyn Morgan knew about the clinic.

  Or suspected. And thought it had affected us. Maybe she didn’t know how. And what about Eric Smithson, the guy who killed her, then tried to tie me up in my shop?

  I’m assuming that he doesn’t know. And he’s trying to find out.

  She thought about that as she ate. Why does he care?

  I assume it’s not because he’s worried about liability from the old experiments.

  He could be like Mickey and Minnie.

  Minnie! I’m sure she’d hate being called that. But back to Smithson. I don’t think he’s got any psychic abilities. He’s using conventional methods. And he was shocked by the window image I put into his head.

  Right.

  And we can’t go to the cops about him. Or about Mickey and Minnie.

  When they’d finished the meal, Jake said, “We should get out of here.”

  “Where are we going this time?”

  “First, to practice our thunderbolt skills.”

  “You mean like what the Odd Couple did to you.”

  “Odd Couple! Like us.”

  “But we’re not as odd yet,” she pointed out.

  “Yeah. I shot a bolt back at them, but it hardly had any power. I didn’t even know we could do that.”

  “How do we get more power?”

  “Like I said, practice.”

  “On what?”

  “We can go out into the swamp and try to zap some trees.” He started for the door, then stopped. “Where’s the car?”

  “Kendall said it was in a garage a few doors down.”

  When Rachel started to straighten up the bed, Jake helped her. Together they folded the quilt and stuffed the trash into the bag from the fast-food restaurant.

  Jake turned to inspect the room. “It looks like nobody was even here.”

  “Maybe we should wipe away our fingerprints. And take the sheets.”

  “Yeah. Not a bad idea.”

  They used paper towels from the bathroom to wipe all the hard surfaces they might have touched and bundled up the bedding before leaving.

  The car was where Kendall had left it.

  When they had pulled into the alley, Jake asked, “You have some idea where to find the clinic?”

  “South…and west.”

  “How do you know?”

  She reached into her purse and closed her fingers around the deck of tarot cards, letting impressions come to her the way they did during a reading. “I have a feeling we’ll be headed in the right direction. And when we get closer, I may have a better idea.”

  You’re the psychic.

  You seem to have developed some talents we can use.

  As they drove out of town, Rachel said, “We were pretty busy when we had our meeting with Mickey and Minnie, but we should see what we can figure out about them.”

  “Like what?”

  “Well, they looked like they were about our age.”

  “Right. And they both had Southern accents, but not too pronounced. Maybe they were born around here and moved away.”

  She thought for a moment. “They found each other a while ago and worked on their talent—unless they just plain have more ability than we do.”

  “I think it’s the former.”

  “We hope.”

  Jake swung his gaze toward her, then back to the road. “You think we’re going to meet them again?”

  She felt a shiver go over her skin. “I wish it weren’t true, but I do think we will.”

  “You think they got out of the warehouse?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, that’s one advantage we’ve got over them—you. I doubt that either of them is a tarot card reader.”

  She murmured her assent. When she’d gotten interested in the field, she hadn’t thought that it might save her own life.

  Jake squeezed her hand, and she knew he’d picked up the thought.

  “Anything else we know about them?” he asked.

  “They’ve been practicing for a while.”

  The conversation petered out, and they sat in silence until Jake pointed to a secondary road.

  “How about we go there for target practice?”

  “As good a place as any.”

  They turned off the highway onto a narrow road barely wide enough for two cars to pass. But there was no traffic coming toward them.

  The road soon went from blacktop to gravel. Trees thick with Spanish moss crowded in on either side. She looked out the window trying to spot any houses that might be in the area, but she saw only swamp vegetation and pools of water covered with duckweed. An alligator plopped into the water as they passed.

  Jake found a patch of relatively dry ground, and they both got out, crunching over gravel, then stopping to stare around them at the peaceful scene. It was damp and dark under the trees and probably ten degrees cooler than in the city.

  “If we attack the trees, we’re going to scare the birds,” Rachel said, looking over at some egrets wading in the shallow water of a bayou and standing on the far shore.

  “Let’s hope we can.”

  “What did you do when you sent that mental thunderbolt toward Mickey and Minnie?”

  “I’m not sure. We were under attack. After I saw them do it, I just thought of calling up energy, then sending it in a stream toward them.”

  “Okay. Let’s try it.”

  They walked a little way from the car and stood shoulder to shoulder, their hands clasped.

  You direct it, Rachel said, since she had no idea what he had done at the warehouse.

  He pointed toward a tree about twenty feet away. I’ll see if I can hit the trunk.

  She watched Jake foc
us on the trunk, felt his body tense as he gathered his concentration. She wasn’t sure what he was doing, but she knew he was trying to re-create his actions in the battle. Her heart started to pound as he stood for long seconds with his fingers clamping hers in a death grip. When nothing happened, he made a disgusted sound.

  “Maybe they blasted it out of me.” The observation was followed by a curse. “Nothing’s there. If they come back and attack us, what are we going to do, crawl under the table?”

  Chapter Twelve

  Carter Frederick, alias Eric Smithson, felt his stomach tie itself in knots. He didn’t want to make the call, but it was his only alternative.

  When the Badger picked up the phone, Carter dragged in a breath and let it out.

  “I need some help from you,” he said.

  “Were you involved in a New Orleans warehouse fire?” the man on the other end of the line said.

  “No.”

  “And you don’t have Gregory and Harper?”

  “No. There’s something about them. Something they’re using to get away. Maybe you’d better tell me what it is.” He’d never demanded anything from the Badger, and he held his breath now, waiting for an answer.

  “If I knew, I’d tell you.”

  “Where would they go?” he pressed. “Where should I look for them?”

  “Houma, Louisiana,” the Badger answered.

  “Why?”

  “They may be trying to get information about the Solomon Clinic.”

  “Why?”

  This time the line went dead.

  RACHEL SQUEEZED JAKE’S hand. It’s not gone. There’s no reason it would be.

  How about the fact that they almost killed me?

  But you’re here. We’re…communicating mind to mind. That’s not gone.

  Then why isn’t the firepower working? She heard the anger and anxiety in his voice.

  Determined to stay calm, despite the beating of her heart, she said, Let’s think about it. What did you do when you were fighting them?

  He flapped his arm. I don’t know. I just did it.

  They stood in silence for several moments, and she knew he was on the verge of turning and stomping back to the car.

  She wondered if he would let her help, but she didn’t have to ask.

  She felt his resistance. He wasn’t used to someone else taking over for him. Specifically, he wasn’t used to her doing it, but after a long moment, he gave a mental shrug.

  For a split second she thought about giving up before she started. At least he’d be able to say she’d failed, too.