PRIMAL INSTINCT

by JANIE CROUGH

  * * *

  THE FIRST THOUGHT that invaded Adrienne’s consciousness when she awoke the next morning was that the static was back. She sat up in her hotel bed, holding herself still to be sure. Yes, it was definitely back—the buzz she got from being around people. Adrienne grinned. It was annoying, but she was thrilled.

  Another noise joined the slight static—her stomach growling. She was starving. Last night she had had no interest in food. The combination of the day she had had and the sleepless night before had caught up with her. All she had wanted to do was curl up and go to sleep, even though it had been early in the evening.

  Once Conner had left, Adrienne had taken a shower trying to wash away the pictures of those women—all dead—and her failure to help them. After she had dried off, she had grabbed an oversize T-shirt out of her suitcase and had fallen into bed, asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

  Now it was early in the morning; the sun was barely up. Adrienne wandered into the bathroom and began brushing her teeth. She didn’t mind waking up at an hour beginning with five. Living on a ranch had turned her into an early riser.

  She brushed her hair and picked some clothes out of her suitcase. She put on khaki pants and a blue button-down blouse. The rest of her clothes she hung in the closet or put in a drawer; the slight buzzing sound in her head hopefully meant she would be staying longer, able to help Conner and Seth find the killer of those women.

  Adrienne wasn’t sure exactly when she had completely committed herself to helping the FBI. But she knew it was sometime yesterday when she had looked through all those pictures of the murdered women, helpless to do anything. Conner and Seth sitting across from her, hopeful she could provide information that would give them a lead, and her able to do nothing. She had always considered her gift a nuisance at the very best, and often downright painful and debilitating; but yesterday, when she couldn’t use it, she knew she wanted it back.

  And now it looked like it was.

  A few minutes later Adrienne was ready to leave the hotel. It was still too early to meet Conner and head to the Bureau’s office. She decided she would spend an hour or so at a local coffee shop within walking distance, then would call Conner and tell him that she would meet him at the field office earlier than 9:00 a.m. She wanted to be there as early as possible so she could get a look at those pictures again. Provide some sort of insight and hopefully help crack open the case.

  Adrienne knew she also wanted to see Conner’s face when she was able to provide intel he totally wasn’t expecting. Certainly Conner had become more kind as yesterday had progressed, and that kiss had been unexpected and magical. But Adrienne knew Conner still didn’t believe her or trust her.

  Adrienne smiled. For once she was almost looking forward to the physical discomfort that came from using her gift. It would be worth it.

  Adrienne walked up one of San Francisco’s famous hills to get to the nearest coffee shop. She breathed in the crisp morning air, grateful for exercise and being outside, however briefly. She knew today was going to be another long day.

  Adrienne entered the coffee shop, surprised at the number of people already there, despite the early hour. The static inside her mind became quite a bit louder. Adrienne got in line, hoping a cup of coffee would ward off the headache forming.

  She smiled, thinking of Conner’s froufrou drink order. Skinny vanilla chai latte... Adrienne couldn’t even remember the rest.

  After ordering and paying for her drink, Adrienne made her way over to one of the few empty tables by the window. She was a step away from a chair when the screaming began in her head. The sound was deafening, as if someone had put headphones over her ears, then turned up the volume as loud as possible. The pain immediately blinded her and she stumbled toward the table, blindly grasping for its edge with her free hand. She tumbled into the seat trying to keep hold of her consciousness.

  I will kill her! I will kill them both!

  The general rage clouded everything, but that one thought filtered through her mind over and over.

  She was crushing the foam cup of coffee still clutched in her hand. The scalding liquid spilled out, but she couldn’t force her muscles to relax their locked grip of the cup. She felt the burn almost distantly, secondary to the pain in her head that seemed to shoot daggers into her eyes.

  I will kill them both!

  The scream was getting louder now, and closer. Adrienne forced her eyes to open slightly, although the agony from the effort nearly caused her to black out. She looked around the coffee shop trying to find the two people the screaming voice referred to. She spotted them in the opposite corner—a man and woman, both in their mid-twenties, huddled close together. Their hands were linked, and they smiled and spoke softly to one another.

  There was no doubt this was who the voice was referring to. Adrienne had no idea how far the man with the voice was from the coffee shop. She could see him storming up a hill—his anger growing with every step—but she couldn’t tell how far he was. Given the loudness of his thoughts, Adrienne didn’t think it would be very long before he arrived.

  And when he did, the young couple would die.

  Suddenly the volume of the enraged man lowered, and Adrienne could see him walking in through a double set of doors in a coffeehouse. Adrienne whirled her head around to see if it was this one he was entering and wilted back into her chair in relief when she saw it wasn’t.

  He was in another location of this same chain, somewhere nearby. But there was one on every corner, so she had no idea how far away he was. His screaming thoughts had subsided a bit as he concentrated on looking for the couple, not yet knowing he was in the wrong shop.

  Adrienne knew she had to act now. Whether the enraged man found the correct coffee shop in a few moments or twenty minutes, he would still eventually find it. She had to get help and warn the couple.

  She forced herself to loosen the grip on the ruined coffee cup and reached into her purse for her phone. She stared at it in her hand for a long moment, trying to decide what she would say to 9-1-1 when she called. She wasn’t sure she could get out a coherent sentence. Then she remembered Conner had programmed his number into her phone last night. He may not trust her, but he would at least not ignore her.

  She pressed Send on her phone, praying his was still the last number called, knowing that looking through a contact list now would be impossible. His sleepy voice answered on the second ring.

  “Hello?”

  “Conner.” The one word was all she could manage. Her voice was weak and shaky.

  “Adrienne? What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

  “I need help.” Her voice was barely more than a whisper now.

  “Where are you? At the hotel?”

  “No. I’m at the coffee shop. Up the hill.” She took a breath between each sentence. The white dots were floating in front of her eyes now, but she fought to hold on to consciousness.

  “Okay. Hang on for just a second.” She could hear him saying something to someone else. She leaned her head against the cool glass of the wall next to her table.

  “Adrienne? Listen, Seth is already near the office, he should be there in five minutes. I’m on my way, too. Should I call 9-1-1?” The urgency in Conner’s voice made it through to her subconscious. He believed her that something was wrong; she felt profound relief.

  “Conner...” she started weakly.

  “Yes? What is it?”

  “Hurry. He’s going to kill...” Adrienne was unable to finish the sentence. The man’s voice screaming inside her head hit her so hard that the phone flew out of her hand as she brought her hands up to keep her skull from splitting.

  He was looking for them again, the intent to kill at the forefront on his mind, rage that he couldn’t find them a close second. And he was getting nearer.

  Adrienne knew Conn
er had Seth coming to help her, but even five minutes would be too late. She had to warn the couple sitting across the coffee shop. Get them to leave. Bar the door. Do something.

  Or people would die.

  Adrienne attempted to stand up, but her legs wouldn’t seem to support her. She took her hands from her head and put them on the table to use as leverage to get up, vaguely aware of the concerned looks she was getting from the people around her.

  I will kill them both!

  The pain seared through her head with each of his thoughts. His feelings were beyond just a jealous rage. It was a malicious desire to see them both suffer, to watch them cower in fear. And he didn’t care if he had to kill others to achieve that goal.

  Adrienne finally hoisted herself up from her seat, leaning heavily against the table. She looked down and saw a drop of blood on the table and realized her nose must be bleeding. She wiped it with the back of her hand as she took her first unsteady steps toward the couple in the corner across the way.

  The trip seemed to take forever. Adrienne concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other. She was losing her peripheral vision, could feel blackness closing in around her, but fought it back. He was getting closer, Adrienne knew.

  She finally reached the table where the couple sat, still gazing at each other, oblivious to Adrienne’s agony. They looked up in alarm when she finally stumbled into their table.

  “Excuse me...” the boyfriend started in a perturbed tone.

  “Oh, my gosh, are you all right? Your nose is bleeding,” the woman asked. Both she and the boyfriend stood to help steady Adrienne.

  Adrienne couldn’t think straight. How could she get them to leave?

  “A man,” she finally said, her breath sawing in and out of her chest as if she were running a marathon. “Coming. Hurt you.”

  Adrienne could tell they didn’t understand, had no idea of the danger they were in. She knew they were out of time, could feel the man getting closer. What could she do? She had to make them leave. Maybe if she could just get the woman out.

  Adrienne turned to the younger woman and grabbed her upper arms, trying to keep herself upright. She took a deep breath and focused desperately on the words she needed to say.

  “Can you, please.” Breathe. “Go get me.” Breathe. “A wet paper towel.” Breathe. “From bathroom.”

  The woman looked very confused, but finally nodded. “Sure. Just hang on. Do we need to call a doctor?”

  “No, not yet,” Adrienne answered. She slid into the woman’s vacated chair with relief as Adrienne watched her cross to the bathroom. Hopefully it would be enough.

  The boyfriend looked at Adrienne with a blend of concern and apprehension. Adrienne didn’t blame him for either.

  The door slammed open behind her. He never said a word, but at this close proximity, Adrienne could see every malicious thought the man had. He was sure they were here. He looked around at all the tables and eventually got to where Adrienne and the boyfriend were sitting. He didn’t even pause to glance twice at them. The woman he searched for was not there; Adrienne had sent her to the bathroom.

  A rage overwhelmed the man once again that he had not found his prey. Adrienne whimpered, the pain consuming her, but nobody heard. The man turned to walk back out the door.

  “Here, miss, is this enough? Your nose is bleeding more.” The woman rushed across the coffee shop with paper towels in her hands.

  Adrienne felt the absolute glee the man experienced when he heard the woman’s voice. He would not be denied his vengeance after all.

  He was only a few feet behind where Adrienne sat. Adrienne knew he was about to reach for the gun he had hidden in his pocket. Using the remainder of her strength, she got out of the chair and hefted herself toward the man, knocking into him. He pushed her off easily and Adrienne slid to the floor.

  By now the woman had recognized the enraged man, and was pulling her lover away and around the back of the coffee bar. The man began to draw his gun out of his pocket. Adrienne tried to get up but couldn’t make her body respond.

  “Sir, I am an agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.” A voice rang out from near the back door. “I need you to lay down your weapon and put your hands on your head.” It was Seth Harrington. Conner had gotten him here in time.

  Adrienne felt the rage briefly overtake the man before he resigned himself to the fact that he had been caught. Sirens could be heard pulling up outside the coffee shop. The man slowly put the gun on the ground and his hands behind his head.

  Over the next few minutes, organized panic ensued. Uniformed officers filed into the coffee shop, taking statements and making sure no one was hurt. Someone helped Adrienne up into a chair since she was still unsteady on her feet. The attacker was handcuffed and placed in the back of squad car just outside the door.

  Although he was no longer in the coffee shop, his proximity, combined with his continued malevolence, continued to cause jagged pains to shoot through Adrienne’s head. She could still hear everything he would’ve done to them if he had just been given the chance. She could feel bile pooling in her stomach, and she wasn’t sure how much longer she could hold on.

  Adrienne stood, prepared to stumble her way to the bathroom if she was going to lose the contents of her stomach, when all of a sudden the pain and noise in her head completely stopped.

  Caught off guard by the blessed silence, Adrienne looked around in confusion. Then she saw him.

  Conner.

  He had pulled up in his vehicle, double-parked and was rushing inside. Straight toward her. She could see myriad emotions crossing his face: confusion, concern, relief. He didn’t stop until he was standing right in front of her.

  “Conner...” Adrienne reached for him and found she couldn’t hold on any longer.

  Her last thought was hoping Conner would catch her, then she slipped unconscious to the floor.

  Chapter Six

  Conner caught Adrienne as she dropped to the floor, unconscious.

  As he had pulled up in his vehicle—he didn’t even want to think of all the traffic laws he had broken getting here from his house in record time—he had seen Adrienne inside the coffee shop. At first he was overwhelmed with relief just to see she was okay. But as he had rushed closer to Adrienne, he had realized she definitely was not okay.

  There was zero color in her face, except for the dried blood that had trickled from her nose. Against her unnatural paleness, the blood stood out with jarring brightness. She was on her feet but looked none too steady. As he came through the door, some sort of shocked look passed over her features; she took a step toward him and said his name.

  Then promptly collapsed.

  Conner grabbed her as she fell and gently lowered her to the ground. “Seth!” he yelled out to his partner, who was talking to a witness over by the coffee bar. “I need help here.”

  When Seth saw Conner holding Adrienne, he quickly made his way to them.

  “Is she okay? What happened?”

  “I wanted to ask you that. I walked in and basically caught her as she collapsed.” Conner brushed a stray strand of hair that had fallen onto her forehead. Adrienne sighed and moved a little toward his hand. Although her movement reassured Conner, the absolute lack of color in her face did not. “Did the perp hurt her?”

  “There were no reports of him doing anything. He was pulling the gun as I walked in. Didn’t resist arrest or put up any fight.” Seth shrugged.

  “So what happened to her?”

  “I don’t know. She was sitting on the ground when I got here but then was at the table when I looked over at her again. She didn’t seem hurt.”

  Conner didn’t like it. “Why is her nose bleeding? Did she get hit?” He couldn’t see any bruising or swelling around her face, so couldn’t figure out what the bl
ood was from.

  “Not from any reports I’ve gotten. As a matter of fact, the only one who seemed to be acting odd—before the perp pulled the gun, that is—was Adrienne. More than one person has said she looked sick or drunk or something.”

  Conner looked down at the woman lying against his arm. She was stirring more, and he knew she would be regaining consciousness soon. “Did you talk to her at all?”

  “No. I was too busy making sure our psycho wouldn’t open fire on anyone.”

  Conner felt more movement from Adrienne and watched as her beautiful hazel eyes opened. She looked at him with confusion.

  “Hey.” He smiled at her gently. “Don’t try to move too much. You passed out.”

  Adrienne brought a hand up to her head. “The man was going to attack the woman.”

  “I don’t know exactly what was going to happen, but Seth stopped him. He’s been taken into custody.”

  Adrienne nodded. “Good. That’s good. Can you help me up?”

  Conner noticed some of the color was returning to her face. That was a good sign. He and Seth reached down on either side of her to get her into the chair a few feet away.

  “What happened to you?” Conner asked as she sat down. “Did you get hit or something? You have dried blood under your nose.”

  Adrienne brought her hand self-consciously to her face. “No. Sometimes that just happens. I’m okay.”

  Conner noticed the raised red marks on her wrist. He took her hand away from her face to look at it more closely. Her entire hand was covered by the angry welts, and on some parts there was even blistering.

  “What the hell happened to your hand?” Conner asked, careful not to touch what were obviously burns.

  Adrienne looked down at her arm and hand. “I think I spilled my coffee on myself.”

  “Doesn’t it hurt?”

  Adrienne nodded. “Yes. But up until a few minutes ago, my head hurt much worse, and I kind of forgot about my hand.”

  Seth whistled through his teeth. “I’ll get you a cold compress to put on it.”