Dead By Nightfall

by Beverly Barton

“What sort of ground rules?”

  “The kind of rules that will keep you safe, keep me sane, and if trouble shows up, hopefully will keep us both alive.”

  “Do you really think we could be in danger?” Meredith asked.

  “Probably not, but considering the fact that Powell Agency employees as well as members of several employees’ families have been murdered recently, I don’t intend to take any chances.”

  “If Yvette had come with us—”

  “That was never an option,” Luke said. “But you don’t need your mentor in order to perform. You can soar off into the wild blue yonder all on your own.”

  “Yes, I can, but you know only too well that if I fly too far off into the wild blue yonder I run the risk of not being able to fly back home unless someone is there waiting for me, to guide me back safely.”

  Luke didn’t comment. Instead he kept his gaze glued to the winding mountainside road leading higher and higher above downtown Gatlinburg. Meredith sat quietly, tried not to think about anything in particular, and occasionally glanced out the window, noting the sparsity of cabins and chalets as the forest grew dense and the paved road turned into a gravel lane.

  When Nicole’s cabin came into view, Meredith’s eyes widened at the sight of the glass and log structure that seemed to be hanging off the side of the mountain. No wonder Griffin Powell’s wife had chosen this place as her private sanctuary.

  Luke parked the agency-owned sedan, a late-model Chevy Impala, in the drive, shut off the engine, and turned to Meredith. She faced him, waiting for the first of what was sure to be many commands.

  “The agency has kept guards up here, out of sight, since Nic went missing,” Luke explained. “That means we can get out and roam around without worrying too much about our safety. But just because we have people watching our backs does not mean that we’re a hundred percent safe. Understand?”

  She nodded.

  “We’re going to get out now. You’re to stay with me and not wander off by yourself. Take all the time you need to look the place over. Stay outside or go inside whenever you want. I’ll follow you. When you pick up on something, tell me what you need for me to do.” He waited for her response, but when she said nothing, he asked, “Are you ready?”

  “I’m ready.”

  He got out of the sedan and by the time she opened her door and stepped onto the driveway, he was at her side. Despite his skepticism and surly attitude, Luke Sentell’s presence made her feel safe. She knew that he would kill to protect her, that his military background made him more than qualified to be her bodyguard.

  Trying to ignore Luke’s larger-than-life energy, Meredith strolled up the driveway, taking her time, hoping to pick up on something related to Nicole. When she reached the steps leading to the cabin’s front porch, she turned back and retraced her steps, all the way to the Impala. And then she headed to the cabin again, stopping halfway to pick up a couple of large pebbles from the gravel drive. She closed her eyes as she enclosed a rock in each hand.

  Nothing. No flashes of light. No images. No reaction whatsoever.

  She tossed the pebbles aside and headed straight for the porch. The moment her feet hit the porch’s wooden floor, her body tightened as if struggling to bear a heavy weight. An image zipped through her mind. A dark figure carrying something. She stopped dead still, trying to concentrate, trying to hold on to that fleeting image. But it was gone.

  “You picked up on something?” Luke cupped her right elbow.

  With his hand on her arm, she should have been able to connect with him, to sense what he was feeling at that very moment, but she sensed only a strong barrier, one that kept her out of Luke’s head.

  “It wasn’t anything much,” Meredith told him. “I think I saw a man. He was carrying something in his arms, but it happened too fast.”

  “Can you get it back, try to see it more clearly?”

  “Things don’t work that way. I’ve been working with Yvette, trying to learn to control my abilities, but although I’ve made some progress, I still have only a small amount of control over what happens.”

  She walked the length of the front porch. Nothing. Not even a glimmer. “I’d like to go inside now.”

  Luke pulled a key ring from his pocket, chose a key, inserted it in the lock, and opened the door. Meredith hesitated for a moment before she stepped over the threshold and into the huge great room that included a two-story foyer leading into a twenty-five-by-twenty-five-foot area lined on two sides by floor-to-ceiling windows. Moving slowly and carefully, she began running her hand over one piece of furniture after another. As if seeing everything in supersonic speed, she gained miniscule glimpses of silhouettes, bodies in motion, and briefly felt one emotion after another—joy, sadness, loneliness, love, anger, fear. She tried to concentrate on the fear, hoping to connect with whatever Nic had been feeling when her abductor had kidnapped her. But the harder she tried to force the connection, the quicker the images evaporated.

  After more than two hours of exploring the large cabin inside and out, Meredith had to admit defeat. She sat down in one of the chairs in the great room, heaved a deep, disappointed sigh, and told Luke, “I sensed Nic’s fear and I picked up on something I can’t describe other than to call it evil, but I’m not connecting to Nic. I have no idea who kidnapped her or where she is now.”

  Luke slumped down in the chair opposite her. “Don’t beat yourself up about it, Merry Berry. You did the best you could.”

  She shot to her feet. “I need some fresh air and a couple of minutes alone. Please.”

  “I’m not letting you go off by yourself. I told you—”

  “Just let me go out on the back deck for a few minutes. You can stand in the door and watch me. I feel smothered, as if the walls are closing in on me.”

  “All right. Go ahead. But I’ll be watching you every minute.”

  Meredith crossed the great room, opened the door, and walked out onto the deck overlooking the vast expanse of lush green valleys and clear blue sky. She walked from one end to the other and then stopped, reached out, and laid her hand on the wooden railing that encompassed the deck. The moment her hand touched the top of the railing an overpowering sensation burst inside, a deep maternal need to protect the life growing inside her.

  Oh my God! Meredith could not shake the feeling of her body nurturing a child. And in that moment she knew without a doubt that she was experiencing exactly what Nicole felt when she had stood right there on the deck three days ago.

  “What is it?” Luke called from the doorway. “Are you all right?”

  She tried to answer him, but couldn’t. She was so completely engrossed in the amazing sensation of being pregnant that mere speech was unnecessary and at the moment, unimportant.

  Suddenly, her body began trembling, and it took her a full minute to realize that Luke had grabbed her shoulders and was gently shaking her.

  “Meredith ... Meredith ...” He repeated her name several times. “Snap out of it.”

  “I’m fine,” she told him. “Really, I’m all right.”

  “What is it? What happened? You picked up on something, didn’t you?”

  Nicole Powell is pregnant.

  “Nicole stood right here and looked out over the mountain. She was ... sad and worried and ...” Meredith faced Luke. “I’m ready to leave now.”

  “It’s okay. You can’t hit a home run every time you go up to bat,” he told her, apparently assuming she was disappointed in not picking up Nic’s “scent.”

  Chapter 13

  Nic stared at the items on the silver tray the guard had delivered to her room. Several covered dishes, a small pot of what smelled like coffee, a glass of orange juice, and a stack of buttered toast. When she had asked her waiter-cum-jailor where she was, he had looked at her and shaken his head. She didn’t know if he didn’t understand English or if he had been ordered not to speak to her.

  What did it matter? It wasn’t as if knowing where she was would chan
ge one damn thing. But Nic knew one thing for certain—she had landed in the lap of luxury. She was aboard a yacht as luxurious and elegant as Griff’s own 140-foot Nicole. When he bought the yacht, Griff had promised her a long cruise, but life had interfered and one thing after another had postponed their trip. Now, here she was taking a cruise, not as a bride on a romantic voyage, but as a prisoner, held under lock and key. With the closets full of designer-label clothes—in her size—and the bedroom suite almost decadent in its beauty, Nic felt like a bird in a gilded cage.

  “Make yourself at home here in these quarters,” Linden had informed her when he had locked her in sometime during the wee hours of the morning. “Mr. York has spared no expense to provide you with only the very best.”

  The very best life had to offer had been what she believed she would have with Griff. Marriage to a man she loved with every fiber of her being, a man who loved her just as passionately. A business that they could share, righting wrongs, assisting people in desperate need of help, using their wealth—Griff’s billions—to make the world a better place. And a family, children born out of their deep love for each other.

  Had it been nothing more than a foolish dream?

  Oh, Griff, why didn’t you tell me the truth? Why did you keep such an important part of your past a secret from me?

  During their three-and-a-half-year marriage, she had given him numerous opportunities to explain about his unique relationship with Yvette. But whenever she had brought up the subject, he had given her the same rhetoric. He, Yvette, and Sanders had been prisoners of a madman named York, each of them forced to do horrible things in order to protect one another and to survive. The three of them had killed York and Griff had chopped off the man’s head. They were united for all time by the shared nightmare of their past. He loved Sanders as if he were his brother and Yvette as if she was his sister.

  However, he had left out one small detail about his relationship with Dr. Meng. He had neglected to tell Nic that while being held prisoner on Amara, he had been forced to have sex with York’s wife, the oh so fragile and helpless empath. And one other slight detail that he had never bothered to mention was the fact that he could be the father of Yvette’s child.

  Nic curled up on the pale green brocade sofa, wrapped her arms around herself, and wept softly. Allowing herself to cry while she was alone, with no one to see her, would release the buildup of anger and frustration and fear that had accumulated since the moment she had come face-to-face with Anthony Linden at her cabin in the mountains. Had it been four days ago? He had kidnapped her on Sunday morning. The next day she had awakened in a mansion on an island somewhere. That had been on Monday. Right? And then the day after that, after Lina had saved her from Mr. Auburn Hair, Linden had taken her away, and locked her in a room on the airplane with Jonas. Had that really been last night? If so, then this was Wednesday, the beginning of Day Four, but only three full days since she had been abducted.

  Poor Lina. Was she still alive? Or had Linden had her killed?

  And where was Jonas? They had brought him aboard sometime this morning before dawn, only minutes before Linden had escorted her to her palatial suite. Had he been given a decent room, a chance to shower and shave, and a decent meal to eat? Or had they locked him away in some dark hole in the bowels of the yacht? Was he still dirty, ragged, and bound in shackles?

  Nic wiped her face with her fingertips as she rose to a sitting position and then stood and drew in a deep, cleansing breath. If she could have helped Lina, she would have. If the opportunity arose where she could help Jonas, she would. But for now, she had to be selfish. She had to think of herself and her baby and put their needs first.

  Eyeing the silver tray on the table near windows overlooking the deck, Nic decided that she should eat not only now, but whenever she got the chance. She needed nourishment to keep up her strength and her baby needed nourishment to thrive. Not knowing what even the immediate future held, she didn’t dare squander any opportunity.

  Nic walked across the room, opened the drapes covering the windows, and glanced down at the table. She slipped off the paper cap on the glass of OJ, lifted it to her lips, and downed every drop. There, that would hold her until after she took a shower and changed clothes. Once she finished bathing and dressing, she would eat every bite she could hold.

  A flash of movement outside on the deck caught her eye. A crew member or another “guest” had just strolled by outside her cabin. There was no point calling out to him. If he was another prisoner, he was as helpless as she. And if he was a crew member, he worked for York.

  Oh, Griff, where are you? I’m going to do everything I possibly can to take care of myself and our baby. But I need you to do everything you can to save us.

  But if Griff couldn’t find her, if he didn’t rescue her, what then?

  Then I’ll do whatever I have to do to stay alive and protect my child.

  By the time they arrived back at Griffin’s Rest, Meredith had decided what she should do. She had allowed Luke Sentell to believe that she hadn’t picked up on anything significant about Nicole at the Gatlinburg cabin, so he hadn’t questioned her silence during their return drive. He had assumed her not being able to gain any insight into Nicole’s abduction had disappointed her. She hadn’t corrected that assumption. After all, she actually was disappointed. She had hoped that she would pick up something that might help them locate Nic. But what she had sensed while standing on the deck at the cabin, she wished she hadn’t. She now possessed Nicole’s most intimate feelings, sacred information, and had felt a mother’s deep love for her unborn child, had for a few brief moments known what it felt like to be carrying a baby inside her body.

  When they drove through the front gates and up the long drive toward the main house, Meredith realized that Luke would take her back to Yvette’s home, the sanctuary where she and Yvette’s other students lived.

  “If you don’t mind, I’d prefer to walk from here,” she told him. “I need some time alone. And ...” Think of a reasonable excuse for why you need to go inside the main house. “And I promised Barbara Jean that I would stop by and see her when we got back.”

  “Okay.” Luke pulled up in front of the house and stopped, never questioning her honesty.

  By the time he opened his door, she had already flung open her door, hopped out, and stood in the driveway. “No need for you to get out.” Glancing back at him, she faked a smile. “And thank you for taking me to the cabin.”

  “Yeah, sure.”

  He stared at her as if trying to figure out what made her tick. Before his intense gaze totally unnerved her, she waved good-bye, slammed the car door, and rushed up the front steps. Luke drove off to park the car inside one of the numerous slots in the garage terminal. After rushing inside the house, Meredith paused in the foyer, breathed slowly and evenly until her heart rate returned to normal, and then focused on locating the person she needed to see.

  Where are you? Where are you?

  As she concentrated fully on the task, the answer came to her quite clearly.

  You’re not alone.

  I need to speak to you alone, just the two of us.

  I’m going outside on the patio off the living room. Come there as soon as possible.

  Staying focused on the mental link she was trying to form, Meredith made her way through the living room and out onto the patio without encountering anyone. Staying close to the house, her back to the outer wall, she waited. Somewhere in the distance the hum of a boat motor rumbled from the far side of the lake. Birds chirped. Squirrels and chipmunks and a variety of other small woodland animals scurried about through the nearby forest. Voices carried on the air, the sound a muted mumble. For the vast number of people, it was just another beautiful summertime day in northeastern Tennessee.

  A ripple of awareness forewarned Meredith. She sensed the other woman’s presence. And then the French doors opened and Maleah Perdue walked out onto the patio. Meredith slipped into the sunlight and
approached the woman she had psychically summoned.

  “Oh, hello,” Maleah said. “I didn’t know anyone else was out here. I just suddenly had this overwhelming urge to come outside for a breath of fresh air.”

  “It’s a beautiful day, isn’t it? It will be autumn before we know it. That’s my favorite season.”

  “Yeah, mine, too.” Maleah stared at her. “I thought you and Luke were going up to Gatlinburg this morning, to Nic’s cabin.”

  “We were. I mean, we did. We’ve already been there.”

  “Quick trip.”

  Meredith nodded.

  “Look, if I’m disturbing you, I can take a walk down by the lake and leave you alone,” Maleah said.

  “No, you’re not disturbing me. Not at all. As a matter of fact, you’re just the person I wanted to see.”

  Maleah stared at her inquisitively. “Really? What about?”

  “I gave it a great deal of thought all the way back from the cabin, trying to decide what to do. Being in possession of someone’s thoughts and feelings is a great responsibility, one I usually try to avoid. Heading the list of Yvette’s most important lessons is learning the ability to block other people’s thoughts and feelings. But in this case, I knew Yvette and Griffin expected me to use my talents to do what I usually try not to do.”

  “For heaven’s sake, will you stop rambling and just tell me what you’re trying to say?”

  Startled by Maleah’s aggravated outburst, Meredith clamped her mouth shut and froze to the spot, her gaze glued to the other woman’s flushed face.

  “I’m sorry,” Maleah said. “I didn’t mean for that to sound so hateful. Sometimes I say what I’m thinking without running my thoughts through a censor.”

  “It’s all right. Really. I have a habit of rambling.”

  “Please, go on with what you were trying to tell me.”

  Meredith nodded. “At the cabin, I wasn’t able to pick up on anything much about Nicole’s abduction and nothing about where she was taken, but ...” She swallowed.