by Rebecca York
When a snake slithered in front of them, they both went stock-still.
Jake squeezed her hand as the reptile undulated out of their way, obviously as alarmed to see them as they were to see it.
Stopping about fifty yards from the picnic table where they’d been sitting, Jake cautiously eased up so that he could look through a break in the screen of bushes.
He kept his voice low. “They’re just standing in the parking lot like they don’t know what to do. Mickey took a couple of steps toward the bayou, and Tanya held him back. I think they don’t like the idea of getting up close and personal with nature.”
“Can we make it to the car and get out of here?” she asked.
“Maybe. But then what—fight them again the next time they find us? They attacked as soon as they saw us. They didn’t try to negotiate or reason with us. We have to assume that their goal is to kill us.”
She nodded, hating to acknowledge that he was right. They had to stop these people from coming after them, and this was as good a place as any.
When she started to stand, Jake tried to restrain her, but she gently took his hand off her arm. “I want to get a look at them.”
He made a low sound but didn’t prevent her from easing up behind a tree trunk and peering at the couple who were arguing in the parking area.
They weren’t speaking out loud, but she knew from their body language that they weren’t in agreement about what to do next.
When she hunkered down beside Jake again, she murmured, “Tanya’s the leader. I think we need to focus on her.”
Jake nodded. “Agreed.”
“We practiced pooling our energy when we weren’t touching. How far apart do you think we can get?”
His jaw tightened. “No more than twenty feet.”
“Okay, I’ll come out of the bushes and pretend I’m trying to reason with Tanya woman to woman. Then we’ll hit her.” She stopped and thought for a moment. “We should have a signal. When I say ‘give up,’ that will be the sign to attack her.”
“Yeah, except that we’re going to make a little change. I’ll do it.”
“No,” she answered at once. “They’ll see me as less of a threat.”
He was silent for a moment, and she knew even without reading his mind that he hated her putting herself in danger again.
When he finally nodded, she went on. “And we keep our focus on her, no matter what they do. I mean, even if the attack seems to come from Mickey.”
She turned and pulled Jake to her, holding tight for a few emotion-charged moments. Then she eased away, stood up and strode out of the bushes.
The other couple saw her almost immediately, and she put her hands in the air as if they were holding a gun on her.
“Don’t hurt me,” she called out. “I want to talk to Tanya.”
The other woman jutted out her jaw. “Why?”
“Can’t we speak woman to woman?”
“Where’s your boyfriend?”
“He’s hurt.”
Tanya shrugged. “What a shame.”
“Why are you doing this to us?”
Tanya kept her gaze steady. “Because as long as you’re alive, you’re a threat.”
“If you kill us, it won’t solve your problem. We came to Houma because Dr. Douglas Solomon had a clinic here where he was doing experiments—we assume on fertilized human eggs.”
“Why?” Tanya demanded.
“He was trying to create children with superintelligence. That’s where we came from.”
“He was trying to make telepaths?”
“No. Like I said, he was trying to create superintelligent children. When his experiment didn’t work, his backer shut down the project.”
“How do you know all that?” Tanya retorted.
“We’ve been doing research. But the point is, he was getting his subjects by running a fertility clinic, and there were hundreds of children involved. Are you going to kill all of them?”
“Hundreds?” Mickey gasped.
“Be quiet,” Tanya ordered.
“You can’t kill them all.”
“You’re wrong.”
Mickey had a sick look on his face, and Rachel figured he hadn’t signed up for mass murder.
“Just let us go. We’ll leave the country, if that’s what it takes to satisfy you.”
Tanya’s eyes narrowed, and Rachel knew that an attack was coming.
She might have shouted aloud, but she thought there wasn’t time. Instead, she called to Jake inside her head. Give up.
At the same time she dodged to the side and back, closing some of the gap between them.
She could feel the power gathering between them, but it was already too late for the attack she’d planned.
A bolt of energy slammed into her chest. Another whizzed past her as she fell back, feeling as if the air had been knocked out of her lungs. At the same time, her head spun and her vision blurred.
Behind her, she knew Jake wanted to leap from the bushes and rush to her.
Somehow she managed to shout, No!
If they got him, too, they were lost.
No, they were already lost. Mickey and Tanya must have been practicing their skills for a long time. They were stronger than she and Jake under the best of circumstances, and now she was lying on the ground with her head spinning.
Sadness and horror came down on her like a thick, dark cloud. Everything she had hoped for with Jake was lost. They should have run and figured out what to do next. They’d been crazy to stay here and fight.
She turned back toward Jake, but he was hidden from her.
Get away, she whispered in her mind. At least she’d have the satisfaction of knowing they hadn’t killed him, too.
What happened next totally confused her.
Chapter Sixteen
Rachel heard a loud rustling in the bushes. A flock of large white birds took flight and flapped away. Then Tanya screamed.
Turning her head, Rachel saw an enormous alligator come creeping out of the vegetation along the bayou. Then another. Then the snake they’d seen earlier slithered into view, followed by a family of raccoons.
The raccoons ran past, but the other animals were slower and kept heading for the center of the parking area where the couple stood. As Rachel watched, she knew that Jake was doing it, sending a low level of warning energy through the underbrush, telling the animals to escape—and not toward the water.
While the predators advanced, Tanya and Mickey instinctively backed up into the underbrush, before sending a bolt of energy at the lead alligator, making it shudder and go still.
But changing their focus gave Rachel and Jake the edge they’d needed.
Even with Jake hidden from view, she felt him gathering power, and she helped as best she could. As Tanya and Mickey sent a bolt at another alligator, Jake flung a ball of energy toward Tanya. It caught the edge of the blast she’d sent at the alligator and hurled it back toward her. The double whammy had her staggering. She fell in a clump of weeds, her eyes wide with shock that these two novices had knocked her off her feet.
Jake was ready with a second blast, and Rachel struggled to help.
She braced for an attack, perhaps from Mickey, but he had gone down on his knees beside Tanya, his total focus on his fallen lover.
As they’d agreed, Jake ignored him, sending another charge at the woman who had directed the attack on them, and Rachel heard her make a gurgling sound.
Rachel lay on the ground, panting, sure that she could summon no more energy, but when she felt Jake reaching for power again, she gathered every ounce of concentration she could scrape together, adding as much as she could to the effect.
Ruthlessly, Jake launched one more bolt at Tanya, who shuddered, then went still.
Mickey leaned over her, cradling her in his arms, his expression urgent and terrified. He must have been trying to communicate with her, but he wasn’t getting any answer.
He laid her gently on the ground, t
hen raised his head and screamed, turning toward Rachel with a murderous expression on his face. She could feel him gathering energy on his own—without Tanya—and she knew he was going to strike her. She was too weak to fight back. Too weak to run. If he hit her, she was dead.
Before he could attack, Jake came flying out of the bushes. Like her, he must have used up all his psychic energy bolts, but he could still use conventional force.
Hearing Jake coming at him, Mickey whirled, but he was already on the ground, and Jake landed on him.
“See how you like this.”
Grabbing Mickey’s head, he smashed it against the ground. The other man tried to fight back, but he was no match for Jake’s rage and physical strength. Mickey had been relying on psychic abilities for so long that he’d lost any physical-fighting skills he might have once possessed.
In the face of the onslaught, he went limp, and Jake rolled off him, then ran to Rachel, gathering her to him.
“Are you all right?” he asked, his voice filled with urgency.
“I think so.”
She was still weak and confused, but she felt no more threat from the couple who had followed them here, intending to kill them.
Jake held her for long moments, then eased away and ran to Tanya, who was lying in the weeds, pale and still.
“Is she dead?”
“Yes,” Jake replied. He turned just as Mickey pushed himself up. Rachel screamed, thinking he was going to attack Jake, but he ran in the other direction, into the underbrush, and disappeared. Was he trying to get away? Or kill himself now that Tanya was dead? Or was he too disoriented to know what he was doing? She heard him tramping through the foliage, followed by a splash, then thrashing in the water, the sounds of a man who couldn’t swim.
She thought about going after him. He would drown if she left him there. Or an alligator could get him.
But Jake caught the thought and answered.
He and Tanya came to kill us. He’ll try again if you go after him.
Yes, she managed to answer, hating herself.
Stop! We’re finally free of them. Think about that.
She knew he was right. Struggling against her normal compassionate impulses, she pushed herself up and swayed on unsteady legs, looking around.
When another figure appeared on the road, she stiffened. It was the man from the office.
“You folks okay?” he asked.
“Yes. Why do you ask?” Jake said aloud. In his mind he was saying, Nothing happened here. Nothing happened here. Go back to what you were doing.
Rachel added her power to Jake’s. For a moment the man hesitated, then he turned and walked back the way he’d come.
When they were alone again, Jake turned her toward him, and she leaned against him.
“It’s over,” he murmured. “They can’t hurt us now.”
She allowed herself to absorb that for a few moments. “But Carter Frederick is still on the bed.”
He cursed. “Yeah, we still have to take care of him. Somehow.”
“I’ll bet his fingerprints are in the room where he killed Evelyn.”
“It was a hotel room. There were probably lots of prints.”
“But his should be included.”
“So we drive him back to New Orleans and turn him over to the cops?”
“Let’s give him the good news.”
“What about the other guy? The Badger.”
“I don’t know.”
When they stepped into the room, Rachel’s eyes went to the man on the bed. The covers were rumpled, as though Frederick had made a violent attempt to get away. But he’d failed, and he was still cuffed and tied to the bedposts. Now he was lying pale and still, and she remembered the energy charge that had whizzed past her when she’d dodged aside. It must have zinged through the door and hit Frederick.
“Oh, no,” Rachel whispered.
Jake rushed to the kidnapper and pressed a hand to his neck. “He’s alive.”
“We’ve got to save him. I want to turn him in to the police,” she heard herself say, disgusted with the idea of helping him even as the words came out of her mouth. “I want him to tell the police he killed her.”
“Why would he do that?”
“Because it will be his best alternative.”
She moved to the other side of the bed, putting her hand on the man’s shoulder, struggling to overcome her revulsion at touching him. He’d tried to kidnap her. He’d tried to choke her, and it was so tempting to simply let him die. But she couldn’t do it.
Jake’s eyes went to her. When he started to speak, she shook her head.
I don’t want to take a chance on his hearing anything we say.
Right, Jake agreed. He’s in bad shape. Can you save him?
I don’t know.
You’ve connected with your clients on a deep level. Maybe that was why you could bring me back when I was dead.
That was different. I love you.
Their eyes met across the man on the bed.
We might hate this guy, but we need him alive. For us, Jake said. What should we do?
Pour energy into him.
Even saying that made Rachel recoil, but she reached for Jake’s hand. When his soul had left his body, she’d gone after him and brought him back.
Do you have the strength to do it after the way Tanya zapped you? Jake asked.
I don’t know.
I’ll help.
She grimaced. When she’d known Jake was dying, she had pressed herself to him to get as close as possible. She could barely stand to touch Carter Frederick.
The idea of reaching out to this man sent a shiver of fear through her, but she pressed on.
Closing her eyes, she sensed energy building between herself and Jake. It was a comfort to feel him there. He was with her, every step of the way.
Still, she knew she had to do more than pump energy into Frederick if she was going to accomplish her goal.
When she clenched her jaw, she felt Jake soothing her.
It’s okay. Do your best.
No, I’m going to do this, she answered, knowing that his giving her permission to fail made a difference.
She swallowed hard, then reached for Frederick’s mind.
As she caught the edge of his consciousness, she gasped. Dark memories enveloped her. Some of them were violent. Others were sad. By herself, she would have jerked back for self-protection, but Jake kept her grounded.
She saw Carter Frederick as a boy, saw his father pounding him with fists, then saw the boy stamp down the sidewalk and kick a dog that was tied to a tree outside a house.
She rejoiced with him when he made friends with another kid in the neighborhood, then felt his despair when the family moved away. Her heart clutched when his mother died, leaving him alone with a father who turned more and more to the bottle, then took out his anger and frustration on his son.
She saw him in school feeling stupid when he couldn’t understand a lesson, then shrinking back as a teacher yelled at him in front of the class. He got his revenge by slashing the teacher’s tires.
More scenes followed. A girl he thought he loved who broke up with him to date a more popular boy.
There were scrapes with the law. The young man robbing a convenience store.
Drugs. Another girlfriend. He ached to connect with her, but he couldn’t keep his violent impulses under control. He hit her. She left him. He was going to track her down, but her brother was large and threatening, and Carter thought better of tangling with the guy.
He never finished high school. He hooked up with other young toughs. Took jobs for crime bosses—then found his way to legitimate businessmen who wanted jobs done that they couldn’t acknowledge.
When he’d gotten a call from someone whose alias was the Badger, he’d been pretty sure the guy was dangerous. But he paid well, and Frederick always completed the assignments he was given. And he made good money for his efforts. Enough to live in a nice apartment.
He’d failed, and he’d been afraid of the Badger. He’d never met the man, but he knew it would be fatal to disappoint him, which was why he’d been so relentless in his pursuit of Rachel and Jake.
And she knew he hadn’t been lying to her. He had never met this employer. He had dealt with the man only over the phone, but even at long distances the Badger tied Carter’s stomach in knots.
His fear of the Badger came through very clearly. Along with the memories flashing through the man’s mind.
And overlaying everything was a more engulfing fear. He was dying. But he wasn’t going upward toward the light. He was sinking into darkness so profound that it rose to swallow him up.
You don’t have to go there, Rachel whispered to him.
He startled. Who are you?
Rachel Gregory.
He tried to wrench himself away from her.
No. Let me stay. I’m here to help you.
How?
You can change everything. Give yourself another chance.
Impossible.
You can make a fresh start. Your life doesn’t have to go on the way it has.
She had started this because she wanted to help herself and Jake. As she understood Carter better, she wanted to save him—with a desperation she would have thought impossible. Because she had left Mickey in the bayou? Perhaps.
Carter was speaking again.
I’m dead. I’m going to the bad place.
Not if you want to change.
Maybe he believed her. Maybe he was so terrified that he would grasp at any straw. But she felt a shift within him. He’d had so few good relationships. So few good impulses. Now she was reaching out to him in a way that pulled him toward what he might have been if his life had been different.
She’d started off hating and fearing him, but the connection changed her perception.
In the background, she heard Jake speaking urgently to her.
Don’t trust him. He’ll hurt you.
