Predatory Game

by Christine Feehan

  Saber glanced back into the house, looking in desperation for Jess to appear, but he was in the kitchen brewing tea for his sister. "What's wrong?" She sounded more clipped than compassionate because it scared her to see Patsy in tears. She placed a comforting hand on the older woman's arm, feeling inadequate but wanting to help. The moment they came in contact, an instantaneous prickle of awareness ran down Saber's spine.

  "I'm sorry." Patsy looked down at her, the tears spilling over. "I guess I'm more shaken than I thought."

  Saber wrapped her arm around Jess's sister and urged her into the house. Patsy was trembling, and Saber's prickly awareness was now a full-blown radar attack. She kicked the door closed and took Patsy through to the kitchen.

  Jess glanced up, the smile fading from his face. "What happened, Patsy?" His voice was calm, but his eyes were sharp and penetrating. He maneuvered around the chairs and took his sister's hands. "Tell me, honey."

  Patsy sank into a chair. "I'm sorry, I'm being silly. It's just that..." She trailed off again and began to weep quietly.

  Saber hastily got her a glass of water. As she leaned over Pasty's shoulder to pass her the water, she felt the tingle of a low-level vibration emanating from the woman. Keeping all expression from her face, she rested a hand on Patsy's shoulder and let everything in her shift to find the rhythm of Patsy's body. She was very suspicious that she knew what that vibration of energy was.

  "Patsy?" Jess leaned toward his sister. "Just tell me, honey."

  "I dropped by the radio station this morning." Patsy's hand trembled as she lifted the water glass to her lips and took a sip. "It's the first time I've been there since I lost David."

  Jess glanced at Saber. "David was Patsy's fiance."

  Patsy nodded. "I own the station with Jess and I thought I should begin to take an interest again, so I went in and wandered around. It was upsetting, but I really feel like it's time."

  "That's good, honey," Jess encouraged.

  Now Saber was picking up both rhythms, Jess's and Patsy's, because Jess was holding Patsy's hand. It was interesting that they were so different. Being siblings apparently didn't make their individual biorhythms similar. Jess gave off a very strong, steady beat, the blood moving through his body with an ebb and flow that suggested power. Patsy...Saber frowned, not liking the rhythm. Something was a little off. The blood didn't seem to move the way it should. She took a breath and tried to drown out Jess's beat as well as the strange little vibration so she could catch the flow of Patsy's blood, the echoes of the heart chambers.

  "I talked to some of the men and then I left. I was driving down the winding road leading to the main highway, and just as I was approaching that hairpin turn..." Patsy's voiced hitched again.

  Jess let go of her hand to get her a small towel from the sink. That allowed Saber to align her body rhythm with Patsy's. Yes, there was a definite swish that shouldn't be there as the blood flowed through a chamber of her heart, almost as if it wasn't going through properly and was backing up. Along with that Saber could pick up that strange vibration, the energy low and tuned to...

  She straightened, covering her gasp of alarm. Jess's exact tones. The receiver, somewhere on Patsy's body, was tuned to look for Jess's tone exactly. She inhaled and exhaled, pushing air through her lungs. Chaleen's warnings were well-founded. Someone wanted to know about Jess's secret investigation, enough to use his sister to slip a receiver into the house.

  "Take your time, Patsy," Jess instructed. "Tell me what happened."

  "I was approaching the turn. I took it very slow and I know I was already shaken, I always am, but this SUV came out of nowhere, off a little dirt road directly across from the curve, and it hit my bumper. My car went spinning right for the cliff. I nearly went over, Jess. I came to a stop right beside the guardrail. The SUV kept going."

  Jess's granite features went so still it looked as if he had been carved from stone. There was a sudden, telling silence. The walls of the room seemed to expand and contract, and Saber's heart leapt when the floor beneath her shifted slightly. She glanced at the coffee table and saw that items levitated, moved, and trembled. Power surged in the room. Energy. She glimpsed Jesse's right hand curling slowly into a huge fist.

  Jess Calhoun was no SEAL. At least he was no ordinary SEAL. For a moment she couldn't breathe. Even her brain froze. He moved the walls, the floor, and the objects on the table. He had to be involved--very involved--in the GhostWalker project. And anyone in that project--anyone who knew about that project--was her mortal enemy. She had never had pain around him, never had to worry about headaches and the problems that came with psychic abilities. She thought it was the house, or the fact that they just fit, but he had to be an anchor, a GhostWalker who drew energy away from others.

  He had to be trained. And very skilled. They'd lived in the same house for months and she'd never suspected. She always knew when a GhostWalker was close. They gave off a different energy field. Damn. Her gaze slid to the window, the door, calculating the distance. And what about her emergency pack with her money and her important things? Could she get to it? Did she dare take the time? Did she have time to pack everything that mattered?

  If Patsy went down, Jess would concentrate his attention there and that would give her an opening to escape. Did he suspect she knew? She had to act natural. Had to appear as if she was only concerned for Patsy and her safety. And what had really happened? Saber shook her head, trying to clear her brain. Patsy had a bug in her pocket tuned to Jess, not Saber, so what did that mean? She had to think.

  "I'll be right back." Saber flashed a small sign to Jess, hoping he would just let her walk out.

  "Where are you going?" Patsy caught at her hand.

  "I need to take a quick look at your car, honey," Saber said. "It'll just take a minute." Because if Patsy was telling the truth there would be evidence.

  Jess gathered his sister close. "You're all right, Patsy."

  "I know, it's just that it was so weird that it was right in that same spot where I lost David, almost as if it were meant to be."

  Saber was on her way out of the room, but the floor rolled and she turned back to see the horror on Jess's face. He looked stricken. Pale. She couldn't bear it, even though she was terrified that he was her enemy.

  "Patsy, don't say that," Jess snapped. "I mean it. You're not meant to die because David did. That's bullshit and you know it."

  He glanced up at Saber and motioned her to check the car. She realized his fear was no act. He was genuinely afraid Patsy had nearly driven off the cliff on purpose.

  She hurried through the house to the front, where Patsy liked to park her car. The sleek fire engine red convertible suited Jess's sister. Saber walked around the car until she came to the rear bumper. Black paint, scrapes, and dents marred both the bumper and the rear end of the car on the left side. The car had definitely been hit, and fairly hard. It would have put the convertible into a spin. Patsy had been lucky.

  On one hand Jess was a GhostWalker and the two of them being in the same place at the same time couldn't be a coincidence. On the other hand, Patsy's car had been hit and she had come in wearing a bug tuned specifically to look for Jess's tones. He was conducting some covert investigation that was riling people up everywhere, which meant he was probably in more trouble than she was. If she had any brains at all, she'd leave.

  "You're stupid, Saber," she murmured aloud. "Stupid."

  She'd stayed ahead of Whitney by being smart, by being on the move and leaving no trace behind. She knew how to conceal herself right out in the open, and she was still free because she always--always--played it smart. So what was she doing considering walking back into that house?

  She stood in the front yard, staring at Jess's house, her heart pounding, and realized the truth. She loved him. She had let herself fall in love with him. And he was her enemy. Did he know about her? How could he not? There was no such thing as coincidence, not in her world. How many men and women had Whitney actual
ly experimented on, opening their minds and removing their filters, enhancing their psychic abilities and genetically altering them? Certainly the chances of accidentally running into one in Sheridan, Wyoming, were very small.

  "Leave, Saber. Walk into the house, pack your things, grab your emergency pack, and leave while you can," she said aloud as firmly as possible. "He's a GhostWalker, and wheelchair or not, this is a setup. If he's in trouble, that's his problem. You can't go back to Whitney. You have to look out for yourself. You do. So go now."

  Her heart ached--an actual pain that seemed like the point of a knife stabbing deep. She shook her head and made herself go in. She'd be casual. She'd walk in and tell him about the car, excuse herself, and get out.

  She pressed her hand to her chest as she made her way through the living room. She loved the house. Loved everything about it. She loved the way Jess's scent lingered in every room. Masculine. Spicy. She inhaled to breathe him in as she stopped in the doorway and just looked at him. Even in his wheelchair he was an imposing figure. He looked up, his eyes meeting hers, and her heart nearly stopped at what she saw there.

  Raw desire mixed with something else, something she'd never seen before. Could he love her? Was it possible? She pushed a hand through her hair, suddenly uncertain of what to do.

  "Baby? What is it? You look as upset as Patsy."

  The caress in his drawling voice warmed her when she hadn't even known she was cold. She shook her head. "There's black paint as well as scrapes and a large dent in her car, Jesse. Someone hit her." And there was a listening device somewhere on her person. Saber had to find it and destroy it. "Did you go anywhere else today besides the radio station?" She poured tea and added a little milk, setting the cup down in front of Patsy. She was very casual, moving around Jess's sister to stand at her side so she could once again rest her hand on Patsy's shoulder in comfort.

  "Just the police station to report the accident."

  Saber nodded. "Maybe you should have gone to the hospital and let them check you out. You didn't hit your head did you? Or hurt your neck?"

  She had it now. The low-level energy was coming from Patsy's jacket pocket. Anyone could have dropped it in as she passed by them on a sidewalk.

  She was fairly certain that it was no accident that someone had hit Patsy's car and then taken off. But why? Saber studied Jess's face. He looked cool until she looked at his eyes and felt the volcano simmering just below the surface. He was enraged, and that meant he'd come to the same conclusion Saber had: someone had tried to harm his sister. But if that was so, then who put the bug in her pocket? She looked at Jess again as he leaned forward, his sister's hand in his, murmuring comfort to her.

  She had been with him nearly eleven months. When she was close to him, he stilled the demons that plagued her. Not because he was a GhostWalker and an anchor, but because everything inside her was at peace when he was near. He made her laugh. Not a fake, polite smile, but a genuine laugh. More than that, she liked him, liked being with him. He was intelligent and could talk about any subject she was interested in. Jess was her best friend.

  She couldn't believe he was really betraying her. She couldn't bear it if he was involved in a conspiracy against her. She took a breath, let it out, and turned away to keep her composure. There was something so endearing in watching him comfort his sister, that look of love on his face, the gentleness in him.

  But the fact remained that he was a GhostWalker and she was on the run and Whitney would do just about anything to get his hands on her. But could she leave Jess when he might need her the most? There was a listening device tuned to the exact frequency of his voice--she'd worked with rhythm and sound enough to know Jess's when she heard it. Still, her mouth was dry, her heart fighting for acceleration, which meant her body was in flight mode.

  Jess chose that moment to look up at her and smile. The warmth in his eyes, the tenderness, swamped her.

  Okay. She would try to gather more information and just keep her guard up every second. That meant watching him taste their food and drink in case he put a drug in it to sedate her. She shoved a hand through her hair and sighed. The complications were enormous and she was crazy to stay.

  "Saber," he asked, his voice gentle, "is something wrong?"

  "I'm upset that this could happen to Patsy," Saber said, and it wasn't altogether a lie. She hated that Patsy might be in danger as well.

  Patsy immediately reached out and caught her hand. "I'm all right, just a little shaken. If it hadn't been that exact spot, I'd be all right. I go there often and put flowers just over the guardrail. I had no idea that dirt road was there or that anyone lived on it. It's a scary drive to come off of, onto that highway right in the middle of a hairpin turn."

  Saber took the opportunity to move very close to Patsy, zeroing in on the listening device. One tiny burst and the bug was toast, but if she didn't direct it exactly, she could destroy everything electronic in the house. Worse, she was sincerely worried about Patsy's heart. Something was off, the rhythm not quite right. If she blew it, she could kill Patsy, and that didn't bear thinking about.

  "Tell us what was so important before all this happened," Saber encouraged, knowing she was opening a can of worms, but determined that Patsy would stop crying. "Let me take your jacket for you, and you just relax and have tea and tell us what's up."

  Patsy straightened immediately. "Yes. I had something very important to discuss with you both."

  Saber reached down to help Patsy out of her jacket, not giving her a choice in the matter. Jess raised his eyebrows at her, not at all pleased that they were about to get a lecture. Both of them knew what was coming, and Saber had deliberately invited it.

  Patsy lifted her chin and glared at her brother, which was difficult to do when he had just been so loving to her. "I have come to save Saber from your playboy tendencies, Jess. You're a hound dog and you know it. She's a sweet, innocent girl who needs my protection and I intend to give it to her."

  Saber hid a grin at Jesse's aggrieved look and carried the jacket across the room to the doorway leading to the living room. She needed to get it as far from Patsy as possible.

  Saber hung the coat in the closet and, glancing back toward the kitchen to assure herself no one could observe her, placed her hand on the listening device and concentrated on keeping the electromagnetic pulse streamlined toward that one small object only. The brief surge of energy eliminated the faint vibration so she could breathe a sigh of relief. She'd check the computers and Jess's cell phone as soon as she could, but she was fairly certain she'd kept the pulse centered on Patsy's jacket pocket.

  "Very funny, you two," Jess said as Saber reentered the room. "It's a good thing I'm not sensitive."

  "I'm thinking you need to go to the hospital for a checkup, Patsy," Saber said, changing the subject abruptly, knowing Jess would follow her lead if only to get out of another lecture.

  "Saber's right, Patsy. You could have internal injuries we don't know about," Jess agreed.

  Patsy rolled her eyes. "You're both just saying that to distract me. Saber's much too young, Jess, to be living with you like this."

  "Actually I just look young," Saber said. She might be small and waiflike, not tall and elegant with womanly curves, but she certainly was a fully grown woman. "I'm a lot older than you think." But she couldn't very well tell her age when she didn't know it herself. Whitney wasn't big on giving out that kind of information. She hadn't known people celebrated things like birthdays and Christmases and anniversaries until very recently. "And truly, when you came in that day and we were clowning around, it was only a joke. Jess is always a gentleman with me."

  "Even when I don't want to be," Jess muttered under his breath.

  Patsy leaned forward. "What did you say?"

  "I said I'd never hurt Saber, not in a million years, Patsy," Jess assured.

  "I'm sure you wouldn't hurt her deliberately," Patsy said. "But she isn't like your other bimbos."

  Saber leane
d her hip against the wall and grinned at Jess. "I see Patsy's met Chaleen. She was here recently, Patsy. She wanted to pick up where they left off."

  "Jess!" Clearly aghast, Patsy reached out to her brother. "Are you all right?"

  "Of course I am. Saber sent her away."

  Patsy cast Saber a grateful look. "I detested that woman. She only pretended to enjoy all the things Jess liked. And she really didn't like the family."

  "Families can be scary," Saber admitted.

  "Not ours," Jess said, holding out his hand. He noticed she was staying far away from him and knew it was a bad sign. "Come here."

  Saber crossed to his side, hiding her reluctance. The more she was with him, the more physical contact they had, the more she knew she would be trapped by her own feelings for him. But she put her hand in Jess's because she couldn't resist.

  Jess tugged at her until she was close to him and he could catch the nape of her neck, dragging her head to his level to brush a kiss in her hair. "I'm sorry, ladies, but I have an appointment with my doctors, so I'll have to leave you two alone. Patsy, don't you dare persuade Saber to leave me. I wouldn't survive it."

  "Just the opposite. I'm going to persuade her she needs to make an honest man out of you."

  Jess flashed a quick smile at his sister. "I'll love you forever if you manage to convince her."

  "You'll love me forever anyway," Patsy said.

  He pushed himself out of the room, hearing Saber urging Patsy to go for a quick checkup, even if it was just to her own doctor, "just in case."

  Jess entered his office, upset over Patsy's supposed accident. Coincidences were piling up and they were beginning to strain the bounds of credibility. And Saber, well, she was just acting weird.

  He had a meeting with Lily and Eric about the bionics and he wasn't looking forward to it. By now the therapy, visualization, and drugs should have been working, but he still couldn't walk. He didn't need to be wasting his time with doctors who weren't doing him any good.

  Something was wrong with Saber and he was terrified she was on the verge of pulling a vanishing act. If she took off, he'd never find her. And that scared the holy crap out of him.