The Phantom of Black’s Cove

by Jan Hambright

  “When I set Diana up with her milking operation five years ago, so she could supply the Trayborne Foundation Research Labs in Atlanta and Los Angeles with the venom.”

  Olivia’s muscles tensed. Venomous snakes, laboratory research, they were diametrically opposed to one another.

  “The research is promising, Olivia. It could one day annihilate the world’s most deadly viruses.”

  “Please avoid my thoughts, Jack. You know no matter what you say, I hate snakes.”

  “Yes, I do know that.” He took her hand, maneuvering her out the back door of the pet shop and into the dark alley.

  Jack heightened his senses. “Grab that trash can and put it down over there,” he motioned to a spot next to the door, “and go back inside if you like.”

  He listened to her heart rate slow, heard her pull several tentative breaths deep into her lungs. He was glad she was going to stay. He couldn’t lose sight of her, not even for a moment.

  Combing the darkness with his vision, he closed in on the snakes’ location, nestled in the three-inch crack separating the ancient brick buildings from each other.

  “I found him.”

  She mentally shuddered, probably physically too, but he wiped the image of her smooth skin excited with a chill from his mind and trained his focus on his prey.

  He’d soothe her later, after the cobra was back in its cage where it couldn’t endanger the residents of Black’s Cove again.

  How had the snake gotten past Diana’s defenses? he wondered as he stepped closer, picking up the reptile’s scent trail. He must be close, no more than six feet away.

  Was it possible she’d been a victim of the same man who wanted both of them dead?

  Caution rode his nerves, saddled by the knowledge that something Diana understood fully had killed her completely.

  Another bait situation? A way to draw him out, like he’d drawn Olivia out, using Diana, and right into the path of an oncoming train?

  Movement near the head of the alley distracted Jack’s attention.

  The cobra streaked from the narrow crack and became airborne.

  Instinct took over. Jack trained a beam of energy on the snake, coming in contact with the beam guiding it.

  The snake disintegrated in midair.

  Jack refocused, surrounding Olivia in a protective shield.

  He turned to find the masked man standing in the alley less than a hundred feet away.

  “You can’t save her every time, Jack.” He stepped forward. “You can do only one thing at a time.” He reached out and raised the Dumpster twenty feet in the air.

  Caution hissed through Jack as he watched the one-ton bin move to within ten feet of where he stood.

  “What’s it going to be, Jack? Self-preservation or her life? You can’t have both.”

  Anger ignited in his veins, rage and hostility, tempered by his sense of right. He could do only one thing at a time, a fact that was becoming abundantly clear to their tormenter. His Achilles’ heel.

  If he released Olivia to protect himself, the thug would snatch her before he had the chance to recover.

  He reached for the man’s thoughts and found a wall.

  “You can’t get in!”

  “What do you want?”

  “You know what I want. Think, Jack.”

  He lunged left, released the energy bubble surrounding Olivia and sent a burst out, catching the masked thug off guard.

  The pulse hit him full on, knocking him backward and into the street.

  Jack dodged the Dumpster as it hit the ground inches from his head and folded up like a tin can.

  A car horn blared.

  He jumped to his feet and raced to the head of the alley, but the man in the mask was nowhere to be seen.

  Turning, he found Olivia standing next to him, her face stark white in the glare of the street lamp overhead.

  Reaching for her, he pulled her into his arms. “It’s okay. He’s gone.”

  “It’s not okay. It’ll never be okay until we know who he is and what he wants.”

  Holding her against him, he knew she was right, and he knew where they had to start.

  OLIVIA SHOVED the last medical file across the table to Jack and leaned back in her chair. They’d been at it for hours, sifting through the files on the test subjects in Doctor Trayborne’s experiment. She now officially knew every detail about the program.

  “I give up. There’s nothing that indicates any of you developed the ability for telepathic manipulation, but some of the other stuff is, well…out there.”

  Jack smiled and leaned forward, putting his elbows on the table. “You should have witnessed my early years, learning to control and grow my abilities.”

  “You mean they weren’t finite after the initial treatment?”

  “No. Each one of us developed at different rates. My powers didn’t become fixed until I was in my late teens.”

  Excitement buzzed along her nerves and she sat forward. “So any one of you could have developed the ability to telepathically manipulate well after your grandfather stopped monitoring each subject?”

  “Yes, but the terms of the trust are explicit. Any and all abilities or changes are to be disclosed in order for the money to be released.”

  “And you believed they’d step forward and reveal everything?”

  Jack’s face was so serious that she couldn’t hold in the laugh that rattled up her throat.

  “They’re not to be trusted, Jack. Just because they denied developing new abilities doesn’t mean they didn’t. Did your grandfather physically examine any of them?”

  “Yes, but only up until the age of 18. After that they filled out a yearly profile. There’s another problem, Olivia. Four of them are dead.” He slid a red folder across the table to her.

  “How?”

  “Joseph Sabato died in a fire two years ago. His autopsy and death certificate are in there. We know firsthand that Diana is dead. Sam Campbell flew his airplane into the Pacific sunset. They found the wreckage floating in the ocean, but no body. The authorities suspected suicide, but he didn’t leave a note. That was five years ago.” Jack rubbed his hands up and down his face several times, and leaned across the table.

  “I think it’s weird,” Olivia said, reaching for the file and flipping it open, “considering what happened to Judy Bartholomew, and that nurse trying to inject you with potassium chloride. Maybe someone used telepathic manipulation on them. What happened to the last one?”

  “She drove her car off a cliff.” Jack stared at her, letting her observation sink in. Why hadn’t he seen it before? Had the other test subjects been picked off one by one, drawing a path straight back to Black’s Cove? Dread crept through his body, coating his nerves in mind-numbing caution. Who was next?

  Olivia grabbed two of the files and shoved them toward him. “There are only two who have a chance of being behind this. Rick Dowdy and my brother. But we both know Ross is stuck in a wheelchair in a Phoenix care center a thousand miles from here. That leaves Mr. Dowdy.”

  “What are the chances someone else got hold of the formula?”

  “Doubtful. It’s been entombed in the vault since my grandfather realized how dangerous it could be if it fell into the wrong hands.”

  “Does anyone else have access?”

  “No. I’m the only one.”

  Jack glanced at the two files, then back up at her. “I’ve had enough of this for one night.”

  Olivia smiled, her soft full lips turning up at the corners and driving his mind in several wild directions at the same time. Desire flared, burning unchecked in his veins. He pushed back his chair and stood up. Wanting her. Needing her. Those were emotions foreign to him only a month ago, but now he found himself drawn to the language they spoke inside of him. Answering in the only way he knew how. By touching her.

  He reached out and took her hand, pulling her to her feet. “In the morning, we’ll drive into Black’s Cove and talk to Rick Dowdy.”

&
nbsp; Olivia leaned into him, feeling safe as he wrapped his arms around her and held her close. Was there even a chance that Ross was somehow involved? She doubted it, considering the extent of his brain damage. He was forever chained to a wheelchair, of that she was certain.

  “What do you say we take it upstairs?” he asked, holding her away from him, but not too far.

  She instantly missed the contact of his body pressed to hers. Its warmth, the way it made pleasant sensations dance over her skin wherever he touched her.

  “I’d like that.”

  OLIVIA DRAGGED HER EYES open and found her bearings in the dark room. She glanced at the clock on the nightstand—3:00 a.m. Sliding her foot across the silky sheet, she searched for Jack beside her, but he wasn’t there.

  She rolled over, catching sight of him standing at the massive window on the south side of the room, his naked body silhouetted against the filmy sheers he held open.

  “Jack,” she whispered.

  He didn’t move.

  “What is it?” Caution caught her nerves in its grasp and she climbed out of bed, moving toward him, her feet silent on the thick carpet.

  He reached for her and pulled her against him. “Do you see that?”

  Straining to see something in the far-reaching landscape outside, she finally focused in the direction of the clinic.

  “There’s a tiny light on, in the northeast corner. Do you see it?”

  The faintest flicker caught and held her attention, like a small star in the sky, there and not there. “Sort of. What is it? The power is off because of the fire isn’t it? Is there a backup generator?”

  “No.”

  He brushed his hand down her bare back, exciting every nerve ending in her body. She moaned in delight. Making love with him had taken her beyond ecstacy, to a level she’d never experienced in her life. She wasn’t sure she could ever go back. She didn’t want to.

  “I have to investigate, Olivia.”

  Fear intertwined with caution inside of her and she grasped his forearm, hanging on to him. “I’m going with you.”

  Jack could feel her shaking, the message telegraphed through her hand where it locked onto his arm. He’d give anything to pick her up, carry her back to his bed and make love to her until dawn, but he couldn’t let the light go this time. He’d seen it once before, two weeks ago, and put it off as an emergency lamp running on a battery source until he found all the batteries were dead.

  Someone haunted the clinic. He was determined to find out who. Tonight. With Olivia in tow? He cared more about her than he’d ever imagined was possible, but would she be safe here, unprotected from a madman with skills that rivaled his own?

  “Get dressed, wear your tennis shoes. We’re going cross-country.”

  OLIVIA TRIED TO RELAX as Jack maneuvered them along a narrow path through the woods. The chill of the October night air wreaked havoc on her body’s thermostat. But she couldn’t blame it all on the temperature. Her stomach was in knots, her nerves as frayed as the bottom hem on a pair of cutoff jeans. Jack was the only thing holding her together.

  Staring past him, she focused on the light to keep from turning tail. The man who wanted them dead was cunning. He’d somehow managed to almost get past Jack’s defenses time and again and if anything happened to Jack…well, she’d…she couldn’t live with the thought. She was falling for him. Hard.

  Jack slowed and pulled her with him into a stand of aspens. “It’s still on.” His voice was whisper quiet and she watched him straighten and pull in a deep breath of air.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I have heightened senses whenever I employ them. I see clearly in the dark. Sometimes I can smell the enemy, depending on the direction of the wind. And I can hear the slightest sound of movement. That’s how I detected the bomb in your car.”

  “And what about touch.”

  He trailed his fingertips along her jawline and lowered his mouth to hers.

  The kiss took her breath away and left her winded when he pulled back.

  “All-consuming,” he whispered against her ear.

  Olivia heated in sync with the primal need exploding between them, forcing them together like magnets.

  She was in over-the-top, howl-at-the-moon, got-to-have-him lust, with Jack Trayborne.

  Damn. She pulled the thought back, praying he hadn’t entered her head space and tagged it.

  “Are we going in the front?” she asked, fixing her stare on the light shining through the window of the room in the corner of the clinic where she’d climbed the fire escape both times she’d broken in.

  “There’s a service entrance on the northwest corner. We’ll enter there and work our way upstairs.”

  Dread washed over her and she couldn’t paddle her way out of it. The thought of entering the building, where she’d almost been cooked, made her jittery.

  “It’ll be okay, Olivia. I won’t let anything happen to you.” He squeezed her hand and some of her worry evaporated.

  Jack stepped from behind the trees holding on to her. So far, he hadn’t detected anything out of the ordinary and apart from the light, there was no indication that anyone lurked nearby. Still, agitation rubbed over his nerves and put his senses on alert.

  They reached the service door. Jack dug the key out of his pocket and used it to open the door. He paused, pulling information from their surroundings.

  The night was still, calm, the first wisps of mist were just beginning to creep up from the earth and spread out over the grounds. A preamble to dawn at Black’s Cove that had been transpiring for centuries.

  He focused his attention on the interior of the building, picking up the sound of a low hum coming from somewhere inside.

  Caution bit and held on to his nerves. He stepped through the entrance and took hold of Olivia’s hand.

  The strong smell of smoke hung in the air, a result of the charred walls they brushed past as they moved down a narrow corridor and out into the massive dining hall.

  Jack scanned the darkness and came up empty.

  He pulled Olivia to the stairs, scanning the length of them before they started up. At the landing, he paused again.

  The hum was growing louder. Whatever it was, it was on this floor.

  Scanning left, he saw a narrow beam of light shining from underneath the door at the end of the hallway, but the hum was coming from the opposite end.

  Caution pulsed inside of him. Which way? The light represented the most risk. Someone had turned it on. And someone could still be inside the room.

  He moved left, focusing his senses completely on the strip of light.

  They reached the door and he pushed it open, prepared to take on whoever was inside, but the place was empty except for an LED light sitting on the window sill.

  Jack stepped inside, seeing a trail of footprints in the layer of dust on the floor.

  Two sets of tracks. Two people had recently been in the room, but what were they doing here?

  “Jack, look at this.”

  He turned in time to see her step toward the opposite corner of the room.

  “It’s my laptop!”

  “Don’t touch—” Before the warning was off his tongue, Olivia bent down and picked up the computer.

  Jack felt the vibration of the explosion under his feet.

  The floor shifted.

  Reaching out he pulled her to him, wrapped his arms around her and encased them in a protective shield.

  Falling, they were falling.

  The floor fell away, sending them crashing down into the basement thirty feet below.

  They hit bottom.

  The impact jarred Jack’s bones, but he maintained his grip on Olivia.

  Tons of debris rained down on them, impacting the shield and burying them alive beneath it.

  Olivia’s heart pounded so loud that he could hear it without trying. “Relax, we’re going to be fine.” He brushed his hand against her hair, feeling her terror ease.

  S
econds later, the last piece of debris rained down and the air stilled.

  “What happened?”

  “The laptop was booby-trapped. Picking it up set off a charge that blew out the floor from underneath us.” Worry sliced into him as he stared up at the mess piled on top of them.

  He was immediately thankful for the impenetrable darkness that prevented Olivia from seeing the inside of their tomb. If he released the bubble to clear it away, they’d be crushed. If he did nothing, they would die.

  Searching in the darkness, he spotted a measure of hope rising up out of the chaos, a main support pillar less than three feet to their right. If they could reach it and take cover behind it, he could release the bubble and let the debris settle into the void, making it possible for them to climb out.

  It was a risky plan, but it was the only chance they had.

  He let go of her and stood up. “We’ve got to push three feet to the right. There’s a support column there.”

  “Can’t you just sweep this stuff away?”

  “No. If I release the shield, the debris will bury us.”

  She was silent in the darkness. He heard her sharp intake of breath, felt the invasive tension charge the air around them.

  “You can only do one thing at a time?”

  “Yes.” The admission pulled his nerves taut and made him feel inadequate. “It seems our tormenter has mastered what I haven’t. The ability to manipulate more than one object simultaneously.”

  “He can juggle a couple of things at once. So what?” She stood up next to him. “He can’t read your mind or he would have known what you planned to do in the alley and after the car accident. He’s good, Jack, but you’re better.” She reached for him and he escaped into the feel of her body against his. All these years, his skills had gone unchallenged. He wouldn’t cower at the first sign of resistance.

  “Push,” he said, grasping her hands in the dark and placing them on the shell of the shield. “We can manipulate this energy field until we get to the column.”

  Olivia tried to understand the texture of the bubble encasing her and saving her from becoming a human pancake. The skin was tough under her hands, but it also gave with the pressure and she felt the entire mass move forward a couple of inches.