by Rebecca York
He wanted to send her a strong message—of hope and promise.
I love you.
He felt joy leap within her. I’m never going to get tired of hearing that. I don’t know how I lived without you.
Same here. And now we have to make sure that we’re left in peace to live our lives.
What would you do if you were free to do anything you wanted?
Pick up my life where I left off. My shop and my business.
You were lonely.
But everything’s changed, now that I have you.
There are a lot of impediments to going back to life in the city.
We have to be patient!
They stayed for a few more minutes, speaking to each other, mind to mind. And practicing some of the skills they’d recently learned.
He focused on the television, willing it to come on, and felt Rachel joining him in the effort. After several seconds, the screen flickered to life, and he pumped his hand into the air.
“All right!”
Keep it up, tiger.
He grinned. I can’t do it without you.
Glad to be of service, but can we do something a little harder?
Like what?
I’d try to start a fire or something, but I don’t think the management would appreciate it if we burned this place down.
Finally, he knew they were just stalling. I’m going out to get some dinner, he said. What do you want?
Not something from Ralph’s. Something fast.
She came out of the bathroom and walked into his arms. He folded her close. Things were moving rapidly, and it was hard not to consider that this might be the last time they embraced each other. He tried to keep his mind away from those dark thoughts, but he knew she picked them up.
Needing to reassure himself—and her as well—he brought his mouth to hers for a kiss that he intended to be warm and gentle. It quickly turned hot and urgent. His mouth moved over hers as he tried to show how much he needed her, how much he wanted her.
They were both breathing hard when he finally tore his mouth away.
“I’d better get out of here while the getting’s good,” he gasped.
“We’ll take up where we left off when you get back,” she whispered.
“It’s a date.” He dragged in a breath and let it out. “You’re sure you’re up for staying alone?”
“No. But it makes sense.”
Before he lost the will to leave, he walked out the door and closed it behind him.
Outside, he kept up the communication with her.
You’re still here.
He walked slowly to the car, feeling the link between them stretch. By the time he’d got in, he had lost the contact, which gave him a jittery feeling, along with a profound sense of loss. With his teeth clenched, he pulled away from the space in front of their cabin and headed up the gravel road. When he reached the highway, he turned toward the row of fast-food restaurants that he’d seen earlier. But his mind was spinning, calculating the time he would be away from Rachel.
RACHEL HAD TRIED TO PUT on a brave face while Jake had been here. And she knew she had partially succeeded in keeping him from overhearing her darkest thoughts. Now that she was alone in this dingy cabin, it was impossible to keep up the act. When her knees felt weak, she sat down in the lumpy easy chair and gripped the arms.
“Stop it,” she muttered to herself. “You volunteered to stay here.”
Which could have been a big mistake. Still, she willed herself to steadiness. When she was feeling calmer, she got up and went into the bathroom, where she splashed cold water on her face.
Out in the bedroom again, she peered through the window. It was dark under the trees, making the landscape look spooky. She hated being so alone and isolated, but as far as she could see, there was no alternative.
The seconds ticked by, and she tried to reach out to Jake. He was much too far away, and she couldn’t locate him at all. It was as if he didn’t exist.
But he would be back soon.
Her shoulders were so tight that she was starting to give herself a headache.
Again, she reached toward Jake and found nothing. This time, she couldn’t stop a spurt of fear from slicing through her.
What if they’d gotten it all wrong? What if Eric Smithson came after him while he was picking up dinner? That might make sense. If the stalker disabled the man, he’d have free rein with the woman.
As a graphic image leaped into her head, she shuddered and started pacing the room again.
Did she hear footsteps outside? She wanted to look out the window, but that would only expose her to view if the guy was skulking around outside.
When the doorknob rattled, she jumped. Her heart began to pound as she sent her mind to the other side of the barrier, searching for Jake, even when she was pretty sure she wasn’t going to find him there.
Instead, the door burst open. Smithson crashed into the room and advanced on her, gun in hand.
Before she could scream, he clamped a hand over her mouth.
Chapter Fifteen
“Thanks for picking such a nice private location. This time you’re going to tell me what I want to know.”
Rachel tried to contain her fear, but she felt herself trembling in his grip.
“Come on. We’re getting out of here before your boyfriend gets back.”
“No, please,” she tried to plead, but it was only a muffled gasp.
“There’s something going on with you two, and I will find out what the hell it is.”
Just as he had at her shop in New Orleans, he’d come prepared with handcuffs, which he pulled out of his pocket. “If you scream, I’ll bash these across your face. Do you understand?”
She nodded.
He took his hand off her mouth.
“Put the cuffs on.”
With no alternative, she clicked first one cuff around her wrist, then the other. But at least her hands were in front of her.
“Why are you after us?” she gasped out.
“The Badger wants to know what you’re up to. But it’s more than that.”
“The Badger. That’s a person?” she asked, struggling with her own confusion.
“You’re not the one asking questions,” he retorted as he grabbed her arm.
She could try to fight him with her mind, but she knew it wouldn’t do much good, not with Jake gone. He’d managed to generate a thunderbolt alone, but it hadn’t had much power. And she’d only done it with his help.
She tried to send a desperate message to him, but it was as though she were flinging her thoughts into a fast-running river, where they were swept away.
When the man hustled her toward the door, she dug her heels into the rug, but he pulled her along, his fingers making marks on her arm.
Panic shot through her as they stepped outside, and he began marching her toward a car parked in front of the cabin. Oh, Lord, this wasn’t supposed to happen.
She looked wildly around and saw no one and no other cars. Apparently nobody was near this section of the grounds, which meant screaming for help would do her no good.
Still, in desperation, she silently cried out.
Jake, Jake, he’s got me. Please get here in time.
When he didn’t answer, she knew she was going to have to try something herself.
“Come on.”
The man pulled at her arm, hustling her toward the car.
If he got her in there, she knew she was dead. Just like Evelyn Morgan. Dragging her feet, she struggled to summon up mental energy. As he yanked the car door open, she sucked in her will and hit him with a bolt of power.
He staggered back.
“What the hell?”
Instead of replying, she ran. She got partway across the parking lot when the kidnapper caught up with her and clamped a hand on her arm.
As she tried to summon another energy bolt, he slapped her across the face so hard that she almost blacked out.
When she fell,
she felt him catch her under the arms and drag her toward the car. By the time they reached it, she had recovered enough to stiffen her arm and make her body rigid as he tried to push her through the door.
When he socked her between the shoulder blades, she lost her grip on the door frame and fell into the backseat, but she wasn’t going to give up yet.
Whipping around, she kicked out, her feet hitting him somewhere in his midsection.
“Bitch,” he growled in anger, coming at her again, but her head had cleared enough for her to gather some strength to send another feeble energy bolt at him.
Probably it wasn’t much worse than a bee sting, but as it struck him, his curse filled the car’s interior.
“What the hell are you doing?”
She didn’t waste energy answering.
But he apparently was too incensed now to think clearly. He lunged at her, coming down on top of her, closing his hands around her throat.
She tried to drag in a breath, but there was nothing there. Panic gripped her. Spots danced behind her eyes as she struggled to hold on to consciousness. Was this how it would end?
Smithson cursed, eased up on the pressure.
“Got to question you,” he growled.
Her moan almost drowned out a sound that came to her from far away. Tires on gravel.
And inside her head, Jake’s desperate question.
Rachel, Rachel, are you all right?
She tried to answer, but her brain was too fogged.
Jake’s feet made the gravel fly as he charged toward them.
But apparently her attacker figured out it wasn’t just the woman and him anymore. He lurched out of the car, going for the gun he had stuck in the waistband of his jeans.
With Smithson’s hands gone from her throat, Rachel dragged in a breath. Even as she started coughing, she kicked his hand, sending the gun flying into the parking lot.
The guy cursed, but now Rachel’s attention was on Jake, as his eyes flashed to her.
Can you help me? he asked.
Yes.
Everything happened very fast then.
Jake didn’t have to tell her what to do. Still coughing, she let him direct the process, feeling a ball of power form in his mind. Even in her weakened state, she was able to add to it, sensing it grow and build. Jake flung it from him, slamming it into the man who had tried to kidnap her.
He staggered back, hitting the wall of the cabin, and she climbed out of the car as Jake launched another blast of energy that propelled the man backward through the doorway.
Jake leaped forward, grabbing the assailant by the collar, hauling him up and slamming a fist into his face, and she knew that he’d needed the physical impact, not just the mental one.
As the guy went limp, Jake looked around the parking area, making sure that no one had been watching them.
Desperate to free herself from her shackles, Rachel knelt beside the kidnapper and fumbled in his pocket for the handcuff key, which she extracted and tried to fit into the lock.
But it was hard to work with her wrists cuffed together. Jake helped her, and they pulled the restraints off her wrists, then clicked them onto Smithson. When he started to stir, Jake socked him again.
Together they hauled him into the cabin, across the carpet and onto the bed, attaching the handcuffs to a bedpost.
“Be right back.”
Jake charged into the parking lot again, heading for the guy’s car. When he returned, he was carrying a length of rope. Quickly they tied the attacker’s feet to the end of the bed so that he was pinned down at his wrists and ankles.
When he opened his eyes and started to buck, Jake gave him a piece of advice. “Settle down, if you don’t want to get hurt—very badly.”
The guy gave them a murderous look but stopped struggling.
Jake turned away and pulled Rachel into his arms. “Are you all right?”
“Yes.”
They switched to silent communication.
I’m so sorry, Jake said.
It was my idea. Making him think I was defenseless.
Yeah, but it put you in too much danger.
I don’t think either one of us was quite prepared for how it went down, she answered. Let’s not play the blame game. We’ve got work to do.
But he still couldn’t let it go. I got stopped at a traffic light on the way back. I didn’t know if I’d get here in time.
You did.
But he almost had you in the car.
I would have kept pounding him with my mind.
If you’d still been conscious. Thank God you’re okay.
He hugged her tightly, and she clung to him, thankful that he’d gotten back in time.
Finally, she turned to the man on the bed.
“You’re going to give us some answers.”
“Like hell.”
“I suppose you’re prepared to hold up under torture.”
Even tied down, the guy was defiant. “Try and make me talk. See where it gets you.”
Jake shrugged. “Yeah, we’ll see.”
“When he thought he was getting me out of here, he told me he worked for someone named the Badger,” Rachel volunteered.
The guy grimaced. “Fat lot of good that will do you.”
“And what’s your real name?” Jake asked.
The man clamped his lips together.
“He said there was something strange about us,” Rachel murmured.
I guess he’s going to find out what it is, Jake answered.
Let me see what I can do, Rachel suggested. She felt Jake mentally step back, allowing her to direct the process as she probed the man’s mind.
The guy’s face contorted as he felt her mental fingers walking through his brain.
“You’re doing it again,” he shouted.
Ignoring him, Rachel dug for information.
“You’re not Eric Smithson. Your real name is Carter Frederick,” she said after several seconds.
His eyes widened. “What did you just do?”
“What Dr. Solomon made it possible for us to do,” she answered, watching his face.
He reacted to the name.
Getting Frederick’s name hadn’t been all that difficult, but extracting more information wasn’t so simple. The guy who called himself the Badger had taken the code name to stay anonymous. From their business conversations, all Carter Frederick knew was that the man who’d hired him had been some high muck-a-muck in Washington. He’d moved somewhere out West, but Frederick didn’t know where.
Rachel rummaged around in the man’s head, not sure exactly what she was doing. But one clear memory stood out.
“You killed Evelyn Morgan,” she breathed.
“No.”
“You’re lying.”
He gave her a defiant look. “You can’t prove anything.”
Could they?
Maybe if Frederick had been in better shape, he might have resisted. But the recent information in his brain was theirs for the taking. She saw the scene in Evelyn Morgan’s hotel room. The woman had opened the door, and Frederick had burst in.
He’d tied her up, started asking questions and gotten rough when he didn’t get what he wanted.
She’d lashed out at him with her legs, then made a dash for the door. But Frederick had caught up with her, and she’d hit her head on the radiator while trying to get away.
Rachel felt sick as she leaned against Jake.
She glanced at Carter Frederick, who was lying on the bed with his eyes closed, his breath shallow. “I want to get away from this disgusting piece of work.”
“Let’s go outside.”
After Jake checked to make sure there was no chance of Frederick’s escaping, they stepped onto the covered porch and walked across the gravel parking area, to where a picnic table sat under some shade trees.
“What are we going to do with him?” Rachel whispered when they had both sat down.
Jake shook his head. “I haven’t gotten tha
t far yet.”
But there’s something else that’s important. Carter Frederick was afraid of the Badger.
Which means he’s dangerous, if he scared a hard case like Frederick.
Rachel felt a spurt of dismay. The Badger guy must know we were children from the project. If he can’t find us through this guy, he’ll use someone else.
And then what? Kill us to get rid of the evidence of the doctor’s experiments? Or maybe he thinks he can use us.
She shuddered. Are you saying we have to give up the lives we’ve made for ourselves in New Orleans?
For now. Until we can… His voice trailed off and he shrugged. I don’t know what the answer is.
They had been focused so completely on the conversation that they hadn’t noticed anyone on the road—until a man and woman came striding toward the parking area in front of the cabin.
Rachel gasped as she recognized them.
It was Mickey and Tanya. Obviously they had escaped from the warehouse—and had kept looking for her and Jake. Maybe they’d zeroed in on their psychic energy, now that they recognized it. And their session with Frederick had drawn them.
The newcomers didn’t give them any warning, they simply attacked, sending a bolt of energy toward Rachel and Jake that would have knocked them over if they had been on their feet.
Rachel cried out. Jake grabbed her hand, grounding her.
He dived into the bushes, taking her along.
When she started to speak inside her head, he whispered, “Don’t communicate that way unless we have to.”
She did as he asked, wondering if it would do any good.
A bolt of power landed near where they’d entered the underbrush, then another close by. Both of them singed the leaves where they hit, but the foliage was apparently too damp to catch fire.
In the face of the assault, Jake froze, and she did the same.
Another bolt landed, but this one was farther away, and she knew that their attackers didn’t know exactly where she and Jake had gone.
“I think it’s because they can’t zero in on us when they can’t see us and we don’t use our powers,” Jake whispered. “And that includes speaking mind to mind.”
That was good news—until they had to fight.
They crept deeper into the underbrush along the bayou, tramping through standing water. It was strange not being able to reach for Jake’s mind, but she kept herself from doing it.
