22
The entire world was pain, drilling inside Payton’s skull and writhing around, slowly destroying any remaining brain cells. Light and sound were both pure torture, so painful that when she twisted her head to the side, her stomach lurched and then threatened to explode. She barely held herself back from losing everything on the floor.
How long has it been?
Memories started filtering through her hazy thoughts—just snatches here and there at first, then moments, conversations, until the entire fuckedup day slammed into her mind, making her stomach heave into her throat again. She’d kicked Cole out. Told him he’d betrayed her and to get out of her apartment, then gotten really, really drunk. Somewhere in there, Rita had explained to Payton what a total ass she was being and to pull on her big girl panties and get to fixing everything that had gone to shit.
She’d get right on that.
Just as soon as she could stand without the entire room tilting to one side.
She was still mad at Cole, even though her more rational side had come back into play since some of the alcohol had worn off. Or maybe she was just mad at herself for not being able to have her own back once again. She’d wanted to prove that she wasn’t that weak, vulnerable–asshit girl who got snatched off sidewalks. She’d wanted it so badly that she’d forgotten somewhere along the way that fighting back didn’t have to mean fighting alone.
Would it be so bad to let Cole help? He was a cop and also knew how to seriously kick ass, thanks to his Krav Maga training. Wanting to do it alone had been pure pride on her part and with the benefit of Rita’s wisdom—and at least half a bottle of whiskey—Payton got the point.
Perhaps letting love in would be the strongest thing she had ever done.
So what now? Had she completely fucked things up or could she still make this work? Payton was still not at all sure about Emily and Keila, but with Cole by her side, maybe she could at least hear them out. Somewhere neutral, but not too crowded, so she’d still have her secret weapon if she needed it. Hopefully she had good enough control that she could avoid catching Cole in the crossfire. Either that or she’d just yell “Duck!” really loudly first.
The last moments of Cole’s impromptu visit echoed in her memories and Payton closed her eyes and groaned. She’d figured out when she came to and found Cole laid out on the floor next to her in her apartment that she’d probably shared more than she’d wanted to. The look in his eyes had been a combination of sympathy and horror, right before she’d slammed the door in his face.
All she could do was try. Apologize for being a complete dick, and hope he didn’t do the same to her.
Now came the next hardest bit: standing up. She had no idea whether the screaming in her head was a result of her little trip down memory lane or the alcohol. The nausea, the all-the-fuck-over body ache, and the fact that even the dim light filtering into her apartment was sandblasting her eyes was another story. That was definitely the whiskey.
Determined to get up and moving, she grabbed her coffee cup vase, tipped the flowers out of it, and reached for the jar of instant coffee. The result had a consistency somewhere between motor oil and sludge and she drank it fast. Another followed it, and then another, until she felt like she could either float or fly to Cole’s place. The coffee was followed by a shower scalding enough to wash away any last remnants of her indiscretions, as well as get rid of the scent of beer in her hair. It almost had her feeling half human. She wouldn’t be back to normal until later that day, but at least she could think coherently and walk around without feeling like she was going to hurl all over her shoes. Mostly. She threw on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, grabbed a pair of sunglasses dark enough to black out the sunlight currently threatening to fry her retinas, and left.
She took to the beach and hobbled through the sand toward the juice bar next to the gym. If he wasn’t there, then she’d go to his apartment next, but at this time of day, unless he’d blown off class because of their argument, he’d still be at Rico’s or grabbing a drink after class. Hopefully Lainey had the same effect on Cole as she always did on Payton and he was in a better mood than Payton had put him in when he’d left her without a word. Crossing over the sand toward the gym, she stopped to let the water run over her toes. A light wind tossed her hair and a sort of inner calm crept over her. Looking out over the ocean and taking in the enormous expanse of blue made everything storming through her mind far less significant. Breathing in deeply, she could taste the salt on the air, and the sand shaped softly around her feet.
What would it be like to just lie back and float away?
A gull squawked overhead and jolted Payton out of her thoughts. The ocean was calming, but that could come later. Right now she had a mistake to fix and a future to build. As she walked up the beach toward the gym, the sand cushioned her steps and her feet moved more easily. Reaching the juice bar, Payton held her breath and stepped through the door.
He’s not here.
He’s not here!
Cole wasn’t sitting at the juice bar. Instead, as she walked through the door, Payton caught a flash of blonde before her gaze locked with intense blue eyes.
23
“Finally,” Keila said. Her eyes drew Payton in and Payton’s hands formed fists as she forced her eyes to look away and assess the scene. Yep—there was Emily sitting right beside her.
“Hi, Payton,” Emily spoke. “We’re glad to see you.”
She replied only with a tight nod, though in her mind she was sending a big fuck-you-too to the universe. If she was going to meet them alone in the end, couldn’t she have just skipped the last twenty-four hours entirely?
“Are you okay?”
“No, and I have better places to be. Talk. Now, or I’m leaving.”
Keila spoke first. “Some woman is trying to capture or kill us for our powers, and if we don’t figure this the fuck out, we’re all dead.”
Well, then. Nothing like telling it straight. Payton walked over to the table and perched on the edge of a chair.
“Who’s the woman?”
“We don’t know, but she’s not going to stop hunting us. I’ve followed her lackey through several states, but I haven’t found her again. You were hard enough.”
Payton smiled, despite her nerves. Every instinct she had was still on edge. “Good to know.”
Emily smiled back. “It gets easier, you know. I almost drove myself crazy when my powers first appeared. You’ll learn to control it.”
“And what makes you think I believe any of this?”
“You’re here.”
“And I just know,” Keila interjected. “I can find others like us; that’s how I tracked you.” She frowned. “I just don’t know what exactly you can do, yet.”
Others? “How many are there?”
Emily answered. “We don’t know, not exactly.” She shot a glance at Keila. “Those of us on our own, well, we don’t tend to fare well. There’s safety in numbers.”
“And she will find you. That much is guaranteed,” Keila said. “You can’t hide from them any better than you can hide from us. My boyfriend Jason overheard them talking back in Chicago—they’re planning on moving everything to Asia. We can’t let anyone else leave the country. . . .”
Keila kept talking, but Payton didn’t hear another word. A single word repeated over and over in her head.
Asia.
Girlfriend. Flown out to Asia. Stuck here babysitting. Newest Addition.
Oh, my God!
They were watching her. They were still watching her! Payton stood up so fast her legs bumped against the table, pushing it forward with a loud scraping sound.
Cole!
“I can’t, I can’t do this. I have to go.”
She ran out the door. Panic grew inside her with every step she took toward his apartment, until her feet moved from walking to running so fast it was almost like the devil was at her heels. At the thought, Payton pushed herself harder again. For all she knew, he w
as.
She rounded the corner and cut through a backstreet that took her directly to Cole’s front yard. Even from the street, she could see the sprinkling of glass on the front lawn. She cut through the yard and ran up the stairs to his apartment door, stopping cold when she saw the blackandyellow tape crossing over his door—Police Line Do Not Cross.
Fuck that.
With a quick glance around to make sure she was alone, Payton turned the knob and pushed. She expected it to be locked, or to offer some resistance at least, but the door swung open and she nearly fell into his apartment. She caught herself at the last moment, landing heavily on one knee, wincing as glass shards dug into her skin through her jeans. Cole’s apartment was a complete disaster. It looked as though a tornado had passed through, completely obliterating the interior while somehow leaving the rest of the building untouched. The floor, the couch, it seemed like every available surface was covered in papers and personal belongings. Was he lying somewhere in all this mess, unconscious or worse?
Her power!
Could she reach out to him with her power, try to find his mental signature with her mind? If she knew anyone well enough to locate them based on their inner voice, it’d be Cole. She’d literally been inside his head and seen his dreams, his innermost thoughts.
But if he wasn’t conscious, would that even work? Payton had no idea. She closed her eyes and felt around the room—nothing. Taking in a deep breath, Payton let the light in her mind spread out until it covered Cole’s entire apartment, but the only person she could sense anywhere inside was herself. Damn it. What the hell had happened here? Had the mysterious woman already found them? If Cole wasn’t at his apartment, could she even find him in time? She might already be too late.
Payton slipped back to the front door and made her way back out to the front of the apartment block. Any law enforcement that had been at Cole’s apartment had obviously moved on. People passed her on the sidewalk, but she paid them little attention. She needed to get somewhere quiet, somewhere she could concentrate.
She slipped around to the back of the apartment block and found an old table setting with several wroughtiron chairs scattered about. The cigarette butts littering the ground along with several empty beer bottles made it clear the place was well frequented, but she hoped it would be quiet during daylight hours.
Payton hauled one of the chairs over into a patch of shade, sat down, and closed her eyes. She felt her fear mingle with rage, spinning around inside of her. This had been her worst fear, that these assholes would use her relationship with Cole—use Cole—to get to her. She wasn’t running, though. No, she was through with that. It was time to meet these bastards head on and take them down. Keila and Emily might be afraid, but they didn’t know what she could do. Payton had trained for this moment and now they’d gone and pissed her off on top of it all. She was ready.
She felt the light build within her and she tugged at it, pulling it loose until every single drop of it moved within her. She felt it mingle in her center then spread to every part of her body, before breaching the edges of her body and flooding out into the world. Payton pushed it past the apartment block, past even the street, her anger fueling her power like never before. The city was a mass of minds, endless drops in a sea of thoughts, all circling through a large center of humanity that held it all together. She reached out to it and the anomaly sucked her in, snatching her and tearing her in all directions, tumbling her mind.
Cole. I need to find Cole.
Payton brought the image of Cole’s face to the center of her mind. Moments flashed though her thoughts—Cole smiling, even laughing, chuckling at whatever little joke had been between them. The vision calmed her, centered her. She felt the ground beneath her feet and she sank into it, almost as an anchor of sorts. A beam of sunlight fell across her face and she felt the light touch of a breeze against her skin. The sun, the world, everything had its own energy. All she had to do was find Cole’s and follow it.
At the thought, her light moved, picking up a tiny sliver of energy that moved from her to another person, then another, spreading out. She followed a random line, but her focus dissipated as soon as she homed in. No, that wasn’t it. She tugged at another line, then another, but they all slipped away, seemingly melting even as she reached out. She had to find her own connection to Cole, something that mattered.
Payton stopped moving after the trails spiraling through her consciousness and pulled Cole’s face again to the forefront of her mind, this time searching for his energy. The light seemed to almost glow brighter within her mind as she scanned her own thoughts, running her power through her brain like a card catalog, teasing out memories. A touch to her back when she’d been upset, holding her hand while she stared out to sea, training together, chatting after class. The images fluttered and then morphed to more erotic memories: his touch, his taste, and then Cole’s face twisted in a moment of ecstasy as he moved over her. The memories warmed her, but then quickly morphed again into the blackness she’d felt inside while witnessing his abduction, and then her own with Cole inside her mind. But . . . wait . . . this time instead of just the darkness and fear, each memory was splintered by light, and by hope. She had witnessed Cole’s worst moments—and he hers—in a way no one else really could, and she could see him now, there with her, as clear as day even through the fear and pain. They’d shared their very minds, and a piece of Cole had embedded itself inside her. The line was bright, so bright that it shimmered and grew until it eclipsed anything else. Payton’s eyes snapped open.
She knew exactly where to go.
24
The small residential area wasn’t far, less than two miles from where she was standing in Cole’s backyard. Her feet tripped into a run and Payton stretched her power forward, ahead to where she could sense Cole’s mind. It was weak, but it was there, whispering in the darkness. Tiny flashes of a concrete floor flitted through her mind along with incoherent phrases.
Cole!
Payton ran as fast as she could, past older homes in the community to the cookiecutter rows of new developments. The house in her mind was at the end of a block. She could see it mentally, glowing and shimmering like an internal homing beacon. She’d be walking into a trap; that much was so obvious that she couldn’t believe they’d be stupid enough to attempt to draw her in by taking Cole in the first place.
Worked though, didn’t it?
She’d made friends here—Rita, Lainey, even Aaron—but Cole was the only one she shared a true connection with. They’d been inside each other’s heads, for fuck’s sake, and he understood her like no one else. Payton didn’t care that it was a trap. She’d walk into the literal arms of the enemies themselves if it meant saving Cole. He’d already been through one nightmare in his life, and he didn’t deserve another one simply for being with her. As she ran, Payton could feel every muscle bunching and pulling, but rather than tire her, it only made her feel stronger. The people holding Cole might be strong, but they had nothing on her.
But they know. . . .
A grim smile pulled across Payton’s face as the thought ran through her head. Cole’s captor would likely be physically much stronger than she, but he wasn’t the boss—not if what she’d sensed in his mind that night at the bar was right. He wasn’t the boss, but he knew who was. Everything she needed to save those she cared about, everything she needed to finally bring peace to her life, would all be inside his head, just ripe for the picking. Her mind made up, Payton locked down everything but her light. She wouldn’t think about Lainey, about Rita, not even Emily or Keila. She’d get in, find Cole, and then take the information she needed. There was nothing that could stop her from doing that—then she just had to make it out alive.
Her steps finally slowed as she reached the house right next to where Cole’s mind was still reaching out to her. She was close now, so close she could almost taste the undercurrent of fear that ran through his thoughts. He was conscious, but beyond that she just couldn’t
tell. Whatever he was under the influence of was muddling his senses.
The house next door had a tall, molded fence, and Payton slid behind one of the decorative columns, considering her options. Should she burst in and take advantage of the element of surprise, or was there a quieter way to make her entrance? Her gaze slid over the front door. It looked solid, almost too solid, and was complete with a mesh security door. She couldn’t take the chance that whomever was inside would be alerted to her presence and do any more harm before she could get inside.
She checked her surroundings one last time before closing her eyes and sending out her light. Beyond Cole’s muddled mind, who else was inside? It took only a few seconds to lock onto the ramblings of the same man she’d sensed walking outside the bar that night. Payton’s legs urged her forward and she had to lock her muscles to force herself to stay in place. There was something about a familiar mind that made it easier to drop into a second time; something she was grateful for at that moment, even if she wanted to kill the asshole. She swept over him quickly, checking the rest of the house in detail, but could find no one else. One henchman against her; Payton would happily take those odds. If only her power would give her a more precise location inside the building. Without it, the front door was too much of a risk.
Dropping low, Payton skirted the property boundaries until she hit the back yard. The house was a twostory beige cookie-cutter style made from prefabricated parts, the lawn perfectly manicured. It was the type of place where you’d expect to find college graduates with overpriced trinkets and luxury cars made out of easily breakable parts. It definitely wasn’t where you expected to find a man chained up in the basement. Payton was never again going to assume anything was what it seemed on the surface. If she’d learned anything through all this, then at least that might help save her ass in the future.
Payton (Dreamcatchers Romantic Suspense Series Book 3) Page 16