Throbbing like a sore tooth, Cassaundra Reynolds pulled off highway ___ onto Meander Road

by Susan Shay

  “That postman came into the store and touched Cassie as he handed her the mail. And right away she knew, so she gave him a cup of coffee. While he was drinking it, she called the police.”

  Wanting to understand, he caught her wrist. “Whoa, slow down, Sis. What did she know right away?”

  Surprise glinted in her eyes at the question. “She knew he’d kidnapped the little girl. That he hadn’t hurt her yet, but he was going to. And it really wasn’t his fault because he had a brain tumor causing the weird behavior. So Cassie called the police and she told them, and before he’d finished his second cup of coffee, they were there. They found the little girl in his basement, and just like Cassie said, he hadn’t hurt the girl. But she was so frightened, I’m sure it’ll be months before she’s over it. Bless her heart.”

  He focused a moment, sorting through Miriam’s story. “There’s still one thing I don’t understand. How did Cassie know about the little girl in the basement?”

  Miriam shifted her chair so it was as close to his as possible, then she leaned toward him until their heads almost touched and dropped her voice to a low whisper. “Cassie doesn’t want anyone to know this, but...she’s psychic. She touched the man, and just knew.”

  It was all Keegan could do to keep from swearing. Cassie claimed to be psychic? And worse, Miriam believed it? What sort of game was this woman playing? “So Cassie told you she was psychic?”

  “She’s lived here in the apartment on the top floor for a couple of years, Keegan. She’s my friend and trusts me to keep her secret.”

  “Cassie’s the newest princess in the tower?” Unable to stifle a bark of laughter, he snorted loudly. “God, Miriam, you’re such an easy mark. Hey, if we ask really nice and cross her palm with gold, maybe the all-knowing, all-seeing Miss Cassie will read our futures, too.”

  Making shushing sounds like a leaky gas pipe, Miriam fluttered her hands at him. “Don’t say that, Keegan. If she heard you, it would hurt her feelings.”

  “Aw, hell, Sis. If she’s psychic, she can probably pick up what I’m saying even in the tower.” Hoping to make his point, he fixed his gaze on her and raised his brows. “Let’s try to see this clearly. As a psychic, able to hear every voice speaking at this moment, how would she know which one was mine? And if, like most telepaths, she can also hear thoughts, and everyone in the entire world is not only talking but also thinking at the same time, doesn’t she get confused?”

  With a stern look, Miriam folded her arms and leaned back in the chair. “I didn’t say she was a telepath. And besides, it doesn’t work like that. At least, for Cassie it doesn’t. For her, it’s usually touching something or someone that tells her. It’s called psyc-psychometry, I think. She really doesn’t like to talk about it much.”

  “Right,” he scoffed. “She doesn’t like to talk about it. So why was the story in the paper?”

  Her frown deepened. “The story came from the police, not Cassie. And if you read it again, you’ll see her name’s not mentioned anywhere. She wouldn’t do that.”

  All he could do was to lay it on the line for her. With any luck, she’d come to her senses. “Listen to me, Miriam. She’s following the usual pattern—it’s how these people work. They come on as if they’re your friends to get you on their side. They fill you full of bull, and because you like them so much, you believe anything they tell you. So when it’s time for them to start spreading their crap around town, they don’t even have to fight their own battles. They have you to do it for them.”

  Sadness—or was it disappointment?—filled Miriam’s face. “That’s not the way it is, Keegan. I have a feeling she doesn’t like being a psychic. And I know she didn’t like being able to read that postman.”

  “How can you be so gullible? This woman is working a scam, I guarantee you! And if you’re not careful, she’ll end up taking you the same way Boz took Mom and Dad.” He searched his mind for reasoning she would relate to. Leaning across the table, he planted his elbows with a thump. “Hell, for all we know, she’s in this with Steve. He’s out of the house, now just sign everything over to them and you can go your merry way—looking the fool.”

  ****

  Cassie pulled on a pair of rubber gloves, picked up an empty tray, and eased open the swinging door into the coffee shop. Once more she entered the fray surrounding the tournament, which started early that morning, to pick up dirty cups and dishes.

  Well attended for the second competition of the fall, three pairs of elderly gentlemen now faced one another over chess sets. The largest table in the shop, a round one, teemed with old men murmuring to one another as they waited their turn at the boards. Those who didn’t have elbow room at the table stood nearby, leaning on the backs of chairs. At least they were courteous enough to leave some of the tables open for non-tournament customers.

  Easing into the crowd, she lifted her chin as she reinforced her guard. It was more than she could hope that no one would touch her, but if she kept her defenses on the alert, their pain wouldn’t become hers to live in her heart for days. After clearing dirty cups and saucers from the players’ tables, she tried to slide past a man dressed in a wind suit.

  “Well, hello, young lady.”

  Glancing up, she was relieved to see the man was Mack Loper, who also lived in the apartment house Miriam owned. His steel gray hair parted arrow straight, as usual, he gazed at her through the strongest part of his bifocals.

  “Hi, Mack. Have you played yet?”

  “ ’Fraid so.” As if programmed for courtesy, he took the heavy tray from her and held it as she worked. “I went out in the first round. Old Vern here is doing us proud, though. He made it through two rounds and drew a bye for the third, so he’s going to be in the finals later. The house might really have a winner this time.”

  She glanced down to see Vern, dressed, as usual, in his khakis, his hands folded over his leather-belted paunch. Realizing his gaze was focused on her was a little disconcerting. Normally she was able to feel it as she neared someone who was staring at her. Why not this time?

  A worm of unease crawled through her belly, but she forced herself to smile at the old man. “Way to go, Vern.”

  Unsmiling, he slowly nodded. “Thank you.”

  She tipped her head toward the kitchen. “Well, I’d better get back to work. I’ll be out with clean cups and fresh coffee in a few minutes.”

  When she reached for the tray, Mack kept a firm grip on it. “I’ll get this if you’ll clear the way.”

  Grateful, she nodded. It wasn’t as if she couldn’t do it on her own, but a wing man often made things easier.

  Turning into the milling crowd, she held her hands shoulder high. “Excuse us, guys.” One glance at her industrial grade rubber gloves and the men opened a path.

  Mack carried the tray into the kitchen and set it on the counter next to the sink. “Anything else I can do?”

  Cassie raised an eyebrow. “Are you kidding? If Miriam finds out you’re doing my job, she might fire me and hire you.”

  “Not a chance. Once I retired, it was for good.” The sound of Mack’s chuckle was like a rusty gate, but the easy way he laughed suggested he’d done it often during his life—unlike her. “You haven’t been down to see any of my new bird houses lately. Did you get tired of looking at them?”

  Cassie shook her head as she tried to swallow. Why couldn’t she stem emotions, her own and the intense ones leached from others? If she didn’t get a grip, she was liable to end up in a psych ward on heavy-duty tranquilizers. Or pumped full of some drug for schizophrenia. Sometimes she wondered if that wouldn’t be better than the inner turmoil she often dealt with now.

  At least with brain numbing medication she wouldn’t experience pain generated by other people’s perplexing emotions, or her heart imploding over someone she’d never met. And for sure, someone else’s anger wouldn’t burn through her system like a brushfire, making her lash out for no good reason.

  No, Mack’s bird houses hadn�
��t bored her. She simply hadn’t been able to keep a check on the powerful feelings he’d gone through when his daughter, Donna, had been discovered dead the year before.

  Even though Donna had been married and divorced, he’d worried over her living alone as if she’d been sixteen instead of twenty-six. And when she’d been found in the shower with her neck broken, an apparent accident, he’d almost lost his will to live.

  Afterward, his entire apartment pulsated with conflicting, unclear sentiments. Each time Cassie visited, the struggle to keep them at bay exhausted her.

  She arranged her lips into a smile she didn’t feel. “I could never get tired of looking at the houses you build, Mack. They’re absolutely beautiful, and so imaginative! But we’ve been extremely busy here at the store since Melissa just took off last summer.”

  “That’s too bad.” Eyes sad, he shook his head. And without trying too hard, she knew the cause was memories of his daughter. “Being a high school principal for so long, I know these girls do unwise things sometimes.”

  Bracing against the emotions washing from him, she nodded. Head down, she took mugs from the tray, rinsed, and loaded them in the dishwasher.

  Mack took a long breath and blew it out. Although she couldn’t see them, Cassie knew his shoulders sagged low and her heart dipped with them. “Just you remember to be careful, Cassie girl. You never know who you know.”

  As the day wore on, the men started leaving, some by themselves and others in clusters, until only Vern, his opponent, and a few observers remained. Exhausted, Cassie eased the choke hold on her guard.

  With her back to the entrance, she refilled sugar containers. The moment Keegan walked into the coffee shop, the room grew brighter and the air took on an effervescent quality.

  “Hey, Cassie.” His voice was melted chocolate, warm and soothing.

  She bit her lip as she forced herself to wait several moments before she turned to him. His dark eyes mesmerized her, as well as the tiny scar next to his upper lip and his square jaw. She took a much needed breath. “Oh, hey, Keegan. How was your day?” Where were you all this time? But it wasn’t her business where he’d been, and she wasn’t going to touch him in order to find out, on the off chance she could tell.

  His shrug was casual, non-committal. “So-so. I ran over to Austin to see an old friend who’s the city editor at the Texas-Statesman, but it was pretty much a dead end.”

  Forcing herself to move, she picked up her tray of supplies. “That’s too bad. Wasn’t your friend there?”

  He glanced at the chess game, which was winding down. “Oh, he was there, but he didn’t have the information I was after. He offered me a job, though.”

  The air thickened so, it required effort to drag it into her lungs. Shoulder muscles taut, she gripped the tray a little tighter. “Are you going to take it?”

  Once more he turned toward her, his dark gaze sweeping quickly, almost imperceptibly, from the top of her head to her feet. The breath she’d had trouble forcing into her lungs froze there, like a shard of ice. His mouth turned up in a half-smile, he tucked the fingers of one hand into his pocket, and shook his head. “I understand y’all are kind of shorthanded, so I promised Sis I’d work here...with you.”

  Had he paused, his tone ripe with innuendo, before he uttered those last words? Or was her mind simply playing tricks? Concentrating intently, she forced herself to walk into the kitchen. While she put the things away, she couldn’t move him from the forefront of her mind. The way his eyes crinkled as he spoke, the way he stood, hipshot; his smile, even his frown, played again and again in her mind.

  Pulling into herself, she was still for a moment as she felt for the underlying tremor each person had—as individual as a fingerprint. His was new, one she’d never sensed before, and it sent vibrations of warmth flowing through her. But in that impression, she could discern nothing that might be a danger.

  At the sink, she sprinkled cleanser and started scrubbing. Of course she was attracted to him. As good-looking, smart, and personable as he was, she’d have to be a corpse not to be attracted. But she had to contend with her gift. She could never live a normal life—and she wouldn’t allow herself to fall in love.

  When she’d rinsed the sink, she dried her hands and picked up a bottle of spray cleaner. Going back into the coffee shop, she wiped tables and straightened chairs a final time. The game was running long, but as soon as the guys finished, they could all go home. With the tiring day she’d had, she was more than ready.

  After spritzing the round table, she cleaned the top and finally made the circuit pushing chairs into their proper places. Glancing down, she saw a cup left behind on a seat. As if in slow motion, it toppled off the edge. Without thinking, she caught it—then remembered she’d forgotten to replace her gloves.

  The vibration crashing through her was like thunder from a colossal drum, quaking long and hard and painful, deafening her to the sounds going on around her. A brilliant flash stabbed into her eyes and, as her irises contracted painfully, she nearly collapsed to her knees.

  The bookstore disappeared.

  Her body shuddering in the cool air of night, Cassie smelled dust and rain on the breeze. A feeling of devout piety stole over her as her heartbeat slowed to a sluggish thud. Casting her gaze downward, she saw a young woman, her face white and still as if it had been carved from alabaster, lying near the edge of a rocky crag. With hands that were not her own, she crossed the girl’s stiffening arms over her cold, unmoving chest, then straightened her skirt, pulling it to her knees.

  As gently as if she were putting a child to bed, she slipped the body over the precipice where it crashed helplessly into a tree, flipped almost completely around, hit the ground, and rolled down the steep slope until it rested brokenly against a jagged boulder.

  Stomach heaving at the shock of the vision, Cassaundra leaned heavily against the table to stare at the broken cup lying at her feet.

  “My God, Cassie. Are you all right?” Keegan demanded as he hurried toward her from across the room.

  “Yes. No, honestly, I’m fine. Just a little light headed.” Hoping to save herself from the experience of having Keegan touch her so soon after the horrifying scene, she collapsed into a nearby chair.

  “Why don’t you get her a glass of water? When I was married, I found that usually helped ladies when they were, er, unwell.” Vernon looked embarrassed at his own words.

  She shook her head. “Honestly, guys. I’m fine. I’ve just had too much caffeine and not enough protein today.”

  Looking relieved, the men nodded. “That’ll do it every time. You need to get this young woman a hamburger,” Mack said with a pat on Keegan’s back.

  Keegan nodded. “Just as soon as I clean this up.”

  She forced herself to think past the horror lurking in her mind. “Vernon?” she called as the older men turned away. “Did you win the tournament?”

  He chuckled roughly. “Nah. I always get down to the wire, and choke.”

  With a wink at Cassie, Mack elbowed Vernon. “Maybe old man Petersen just outplayed you. Ever think of that?”

  “Aw, hell, he couldn’t outpl—” Interrupting himself, Vernon shot a look at her. “Oh! ’Scuse me, Cassie. I shouldn’t have said hell in front of you. See what you made me do, Mack? If I was on top of my game, he’d have never beat me.”

  Mack shook his head. “Well, I must not have seen you when you...”

  Bickering amiably, they walked toward the front of the store. After getting a broom and dustpan, Keegan swept up the mess as Miriam hustled toward them.

  “The guys said Cassie’s feeling bad.” A tiny frown puckered her forehead as she slid a cool hand across Cassie’s forehead. “Are you okay?”

  Love and concern radiated from Miriam as she knelt next to Cassie. “I’m fine. I just need something to eat.”

  With a quick glance at Keegan, Miriam smiled happily. “Want to go to Contralto’s?”

  Cassie had been to the upscale res
taurant only once, but she remembered it well. The music was soft, the lights low, candles glowed in the middle of every white tablecloth, and the waiters wore tuxedos. Romance wasn’t just atmosphere there, it was the business plan. It would be easy to fall in love with just about anyone at that restaurant. But it would be too hard for her to keep from falling for Keegan there. “I’m really hungry for Ron’s.”

  “The home of the world’s best-tasting—and greasiest—hamburgers?” Keegan mouth curved into an appreciative grin. “You taste them on the air when you walk in the door. And when you leave, you’re a scented ad for the place.”

  Cassie nodded. It would be impossible to begin a relationship with a layer of grease slicking your fingers, wouldn’t it?

  Again Miriam looked at Keegan, and this time, so did Cassie. He shrugged as if to say, Fine with me.

  Cassie got to her feet and started for the door, carefully keeping Miriam between her and Keegan. With any luck, he’d move on soon and she could see no reason to get closer to him than necessary—physically or emotionally.

  After Miriam flipped off the lights, she glanced at Cassie. “Since you aren’t feeling well, why don’t you ride with us, Cassie? We can pick up your car afterward.”

  Cassie smiled, but shook her head. No way was she putting herself into that situation. “I don’t like leaving it down here at night. Besides, I’m feeling better. I’ll be okay.”

  The three of them walked to the parking lot together. When Cassie pulled out her keys, Keegan took them from her. “How about I drive your car for you?”

  Nodding, she warmed under his gaze. She couldn’t feel what was on his mind, but anyone could read his face.

  While to others his look might be outwardly harmless, for her—she shoved back the dread that threatened to explode through her—it could spell disaster.

  Chapter Two

  Keegan swung his feet into Cassie’s Volkswagen and immediately started looking for the adjustment lever. She wasn’t short, but she drove with the seat so far forward, his knees waved in the air somewhere around his ears. Fumbling around the dark floorboard, he felt as ridiculous as if he were sitting in a child’s kiddy car. Finding the lever, he pushed back with a big sigh. As he fastened the seatbelt, Cassie slipped into the seat next to him, causing a subtle, warm glow to slide over his skin.