by Joanna Wayne
“You said you don’t have them that often.”
“I haven’t for the past few years, but there’s no guarantee it will stay that way. There’s no guarantee of anything with me. I don’t control the psychic visitations. They control me.”
Shudders shook her body. She was losing control now, and there were no visions to blame it on. “My first marriage ended because Todd couldn’t take living with a clairvoyant. The divorce ripped mine and Celeste’s life apart. I can’t do that to her again. I can’t do that to me.”
“I’m not Todd. I don’t give up when the going gets tough. I thought you knew that about me. I guess I was wrong.”
“You have no idea what it’s really like to live with a psychic.”
“Then why don’t you tell me?”
She closed her eyes, fighting back the tears that were forming, fighting back a lifetime of painful memories.
Marcus wrapped his hands around her forearms, gripping so hard his fingers dug into her flesh. “You keep all of this stuff bottled up inside you and use it as a shield against taking charge of your own happiness.”
“I don’t.”
“Don’t you? Isn’t that what this is really about?”
Damn him. She was the psychic, but he saw right through her. “Okay, Marcus. You want the whole sordid story of my life. Here it is. My grandfather left Grams when my mother was a baby. He couldn’t take it. My own mother hated her and blamed her for ruining her life. She hated me for being like Grams and threatened to leave me every time I had a vision.
“Finally she did just that. I was nine years old. She just walked off and never came back.”
Marcus let go of her arms and propped his hands on the trunk at her shoulders, pinning her between him and the tree. “Look at me, Dani.”
She couldn’t. “I don’t want your pity.”
“For God’s sake, look at me and tell me what you see.”
She met his penetrating gaze. She saw strength, rock hard. Solid. “I see a man who’s not afraid of anything, but…”
“Well, good,” he interrupted, “because you’re talking like I’m some wimpy pantywaist who can’t take the heat.”
“It’s not about you.”
“Fine, then you do what you want, make all the excuses you need to, but don’t stand there and tell me that you can’t take a chance on us because I won’t have the guts to see it through.”
He kissed her hard, demanding, almost punishing, and still the thrill of him ran through her in breath-stealing waves. She arched toward him and felt the thrusting hardness of his desire pressing into her abdomen.
The passion dissolved as quickly as it began. He broke off the kiss, muttered a curse and strode away without looking back, leaving her to deal with the myriad of emotions erupting inside her.
The phone call came as they climbed into the saddles. The Pensacola Police Department had gotten in touch with the local sheriff’s office. One of their homicide detectives was en route, and Kevin Flanders was under arrest.
The danger was over. She should feel relief, but all she felt was a frigid emptiness deep in her soul.
DANI WOKE IN THE WEE HOURS of the morning, immediately aware of the empty spot beside her where Marcus had slept for the past three nights. She missed his warmth, missed the way he spooned his body around hers while she slept, missed the sound of his breathing.
She should have never made love with him when she knew the relationship had nowhere to go. That was her biggest mistake. She rolled over, pounded her pillow and tried to go back to sleep.
It was useless. She couldn’t sleep knowing Marcus was just across the hall. She wondered what he’d do if she knocked on his door right now. Would he open his arms or turn his back on her? Not that she could blame him if he turned her away. He had every right to his anger. But it wasn’t as if this weren’t hell for her, too. You’d think he’d see that.
This was getting her nowhere. She kicked her legs over the side of the bed, pushed her feet into her slippers and padded into the hall. A shaft of light shone from under Marcus’s bedroom door. The ache to crawl into his arms one last time was overpowering. She tiptoed to his door and lifted her hand to knock.
And then what? Make more memories to haunt her the rest of her life? Give them both false hope that they could make this work? She might as well raise a dagger and pierce her own chest.
Nursing a heartache the size of Texas, Dani turned and walked away.
Chapter Fourteen
Linney was on her front porch, having a cup of coffee while she perused the morning newspaper. Dani pulled up in the driveway, killed the engine and got out. She’d make this short.
Linney waved a greeting as Dani trudged the walk and climbed the porch steps.
“You’re up and out early this morning,” Linney said. “Are you driving back to Austin?”
“I am, but first I’m going to stop by Ella’s trailer and then make a fast trip to the hospital to see her.”
“Why stop by her trailer?”
“A man from hospital admissions called me a few minutes ago and said they need her insurance papers. Evidently she’s talked enough to tell them that the file is in her bedroom closet. He said they have to have the information today or they’ll have to discharge her.”
“That sounds a little over the top, but I know hospitals are feeling the money crunch, too, these days.”
“I guess.”
“Have you heard how Ella’s doing this morning?” Linney asked.
“She’s alert and responding. They think she’s past the worst of the life-threatening hurdles.”
“What a relief.”
“Yes, and did you hear that Kevin Flanders has been arrested?”
“I did. Cutter told me that the Pensacola Police Department tracked him down on murder charges at the exact same time as he was about to be arrested for attempted murder here. Talk about your great timing.”
Dani looked around nervously when she heard the rattle and clunk of an approaching tractor. Thankfully, it wasn’t Marcus, but she should get out of here before he did show up. She didn’t think she could face him this morning without completely falling apart.
“I won’t keep you,” Dani said. “I just wanted to stop by and thank you for all you’ve done this week and to tell you again what a great time the girls had with you and the horses.”
“I loved having them here. And hopefully the next time you’re all here, we won’t have a dark knight to deal with.”
Dani only managed a nod.
Linney stared at her dubiously. “You are coming back, aren’t you?”
Dani took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, hating that her eyes were growing moist. “Probably not, but thanks for the invitation. I’ve got to go. Thanks again—for everything.”
She walked away before Linney could say more.
MARCUS HAD SPENT the hours just after sunrise mending a fence up in the northwest pasture. It was the kind of routine ranching duty that usually cleared his mind and calmed his agitation. It didn’t work today.
He started back to the cabin, then changed his mind and decided to stop off at Cutter’s. He was ready for a new assignment, and not one involving Hollywood horrors. He needed something he could sink his teeth and mind into, preferably something risky and dangerous that kept him on the edge every second of the day.
An assignment that would help push Dani out of his mind.
Linney met him at the back door, hands on hips, fire in her eyes. “What did you do to run her off?”
All of a sudden he was the bad guy. He hadn’t a clue what brought this on. “Did you talk to Dani?”
“Only for a few minutes, but it was clear she was upset and not planning to ever set foot on the Double M again. Well, you just let a great woman walk right out of your life.”
“You barely know her.”
“I’m a good judge of character, Marcus Abbot, and I’m observant. You two had all the bells ringing. Just because you married a
cheating tramp the first time doesn’t mean all women are like that. Look at me. I was married to a loser before Cutter, but that didn’t keep me from knowing we’d be dynamite together.”
“Let it go, Linney. And for the record, you’re way off base. Where’s Cutter?”
“In the shower. I’ll tell him you’re here.”
Marcus’s cell phone vibrated as she walked away. He checked the caller ID. The call was from the hospital where Ella was a patient. Not a good sign. He answered anyway.
“I’m calling for Marcus Abbot.”
The voice was female, the words slightly slurred and so low he could barely hear her. “You got him.”
“This is Ella Somerville. I’m looking at your card. It says Investigation and Protection.”
“Yes, but Kevin Flanders is on his way to a jail cell this morning, so I doubt you’ll be needing my protection.”
“This isn’t about Kevin.”
“Okay. How can I help you?”
“You were here yesterday with a woman who looks a lot like me.”
“Dani Baxter. What about her?”
“It’s my husband. He’s going to kill her.”
DANI PARKED HER CAR near the small, weathered trailer where she and Marcus had the run-in with Kevin. She shuddered as she thought of the evil that had surrounded him. A black heart produces a black aura, Grams always said. Malevolence is opaque and blocks out the light.
The trailer looked even more ramshackle in the bright light of day. Mud-streaked and rusty, it had an abandoned, sinister feel to it.
Yet Ella had lived here with a murderous lover. Had she loved him or had something in her past drove her to settle for so little in a mate? There were lots of things Dani didn’t know about Ella. If it turned out that she was Dani’s twin, she hoped to spend lots of quality time getting acquainted, that is if Ella wanted any part of her.
A twin sister. It was still hard to believe it might be possible. Grams would finally get to meet her no-name granddaughter, though it wouldn’t surprise Dani a bit to find out Grams had kept up with Ella telepathically through the years.
Dani had turned her phone off when she’d left the Double M, afraid Marcus would call and she’d have to struggle through a heartbreaking goodbye. She’d been just as afraid he wouldn’t call. Either way, she’d have ended up in tears.
She was tempted to check and see if he’d left a message, but this time she let her good sense rule. She dropped the phone into the car’s canister where she kept her CDs.
An icy chill swept through her as she climbed the two metal steps. Goosebumps peppered her arms. Her stomach clenched.
It was just the dust of evil left behind by Kevin. There was nothing to fear now that he was in jail. His friend Billy might walk in on her, but she doubted it. He’d make himself scarce with Kevin under arrest, be afraid that Kevin would make good on his promise to take him down with him.
She tried the door. It was unlocked and opened easily. Once inside, she felt an overpowering sensation that someone was inside the trailer with her, watching her every move.
The anxiety swelled until she found it difficult to breathe. She was tempted to turn around and leave. Surely admissions could wait on insurance information. But then you never knew with hospitals.
“Is anyone here?” Her voice echoed down the short, cluttered hallway, but there was no response. Forcing the irrational fears aside, she maneuvered her way toward the bedroom. She’d locate the paperwork and be on her way.
The Pensacola newspapers were gone. So was the feathered, green hat that had hung above them. The door to the bedroom was ajar. She shoved it and it squeaked open. Her gaze fell on the bed and the jade-green velvet dress that had been laid out as if for a ball.
Or for a corpse.
Panic seized her and turned her muscles to liquid. She tried to run but a hand reached out from behind the door and locked around her arm.
“Finally, we meet again, but you don’t look pleased, my sweet Helena.”
Her heart slammed against her chest. She turned and stared at the man whose grasp was cutting into her flesh like knives. It was the man who’d been watching her that first day at the festival, and the aura swirling around him was thick as smoke and black as night.
She forced the words past the choking knot in her throat. “You have the wrong person. I’m not Helena.”
“Oh, come now, my love, don’t think you can play me for a fool. You almost got that red-haired strumpet killed by fixing her up to look like you. It might have worked had I not seen you that same night, talking to the police like you were completely innocent. Of course, they believed you. Everyone always believed you. Even me.”
She tried to break free, but he yanked her arm behind her back and twisted until she cried out and bent over in pain. She had to find a way to reason with him. “My name is not Helena. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Now, now, sweetheart, did you really think you could just disappear and that I wouldn’t come looking for you? I’m your husband. I loved you.”
Husband. He and Ella must have been married, might still be. No wonder she could live with Kevin. She was used to worse. “I’m not your wife. My name is Dani Baxter. I live in Austin. I have for years. You can check all that out.”
“I know who you are. I know what you’ve done, and that you did it with that thug right here in this decrepit chunk of metal.”
“No. I never lived here. That was Ella. She’s in the hospital, recovering from a stab wound. Her boyfriend…”
No. Dani had it all wrong. Kevin hadn’t stabbed Ella. This man had, and now he was going to kill her.
The realization sent a new wave of terror coursing through her veins. She had to make him understand that she was not Helena or else break free. She looked around for a weapon and saw one almost immediately.
A pearl-handled dagger rested on the pillows next to a pair of silky pantaloons. It was the weapon he was going to use to kill her.
He let go of her arm and shoved her across the bed. “Put the dress on. Wear it for me the way you wore it for him.”
The dress from her nightmarish vision. The dagger that had plunged into her heart. She gagged on the fear. “No. I won’t wear it. It’s not mine.”
“Put on the dress.”
She lunged for the dagger. He caught her feet and yanked her back toward him before she could reach it.
His fist hammered against her right cheek, and she fell into the folds of the horrid gown. She tasted blood. She retched and barely kept from being sick.
When she looked up again, he was holding the dagger in his right hand. He slipped the blade beneath her sweater and twisted the cold tip into her flesh until blood trickled down her abdomen. With a jerk of his hand, he sliced through her sweater and bra from top to bottom.
She used her hands to try and cover herself from his leering gaze as her sweater fell away. He chuckled at her humiliation and slid the blade between her thighs.
“Do you want to take off your jeans by yourself, or should I take care of that for you as well?”
Panic consumed her. This was just the way it had happened in the vision. She couldn’t put on the dress, but not doing what he said would get her killed, too.
The shame and terror were all part of his plan, but in the end he would plunge the dagger into her heart just as he had in the nightmare.
She struggled for control as her horror and anger melded into a hard core of resistance. “I’m not Helena. I’ve never worn that dress for anyone else, and I won’t wear it for you.”
Vile curses flew from his mouth, and he exploded into a frenzied rage. His nostrils flared. His hands knotted into hammerlike fists.
Now she understood the fear she’d seen in Ella’s eyes.
He punched her in the stomach and yanked the jeans off her body while she regained her equilibrium.
“Don’t make me hurt you, my sweet. Put on the dress. I want to see you in it.”
His
tone turned soothing as if he’d assumed a new personality. A Jekyll and Hyde, monster and gentleman. But if she crossed him, she knew the rage would return. Antagonizing him only brought out the beast. She’d have to appease and then outsmart him.
She reached for the dress and slipped it over her head. Ella was thinner than her and the dress fit tightly, squeezing her waist and pushing her breasts from the wired cups.
“That’s so much better, my sweet.” He reached beneath the skirt and let his hand slide up her thigh. “I know you made love to him, Helena. Right here on this bed. You’ll make love to me the same way.”
The man was sick. Life with him had to be pure hell for Ella. He was the opposite of everything good. The antithesis of all she loved about Marcus.
Loved. It was uncanny that the word would slip so easily into her thoughts now. All Marcus had asked for was a chance for them to make it work together. She’d been afraid to even try.
Afraid of failure. Afraid of loving. Afraid of losing.
“I would have made you happy if you’d let me, Helena. You ruined all that.” He ran his thumb along the edge of the dagger as seductively as if he were touching a woman’s breast. “I could have been everything to you. Now you’ve forced me to have to take your life.”
Dani became paralyzed by fear. He was going to rape and then kill her. She was going to die, and Celeste would go through life without a mother, the same way Dani had. She’d never even have a chance to tell her goodbye.
She’d never get to know her twin sister, whoever she might be. She wouldn’t be there to take care of Grams.
She’d never feel Marcus’s lips on hers again. Never thrill to his touch again or wake up in his arms. Or make love with him.
I love you, Marcus. I should have told you that. I should have given us a chance.
Marcus would say to never give up. She wasn’t ready to die. One last burst of adrenaline raced through her bloodstream, obliterating the fear that had held her captive. She brought a knee to the monster’s crotch in a fierce surge of force.