Beyond Fearless

by Rebecca York

  He gulped in a breath of air and let it out. “That happened to you?” he heard himself say.

  “Yes,” Lindsay answered.

  “And we got away,” Jordan added. “Otherwise, we wouldn’t be here.”

  “Who did that to you?” Zach asked.

  “The man sitting behind the desk was Kurt MacArthur. He was the head of the Crandall Consortium. Years ago, they funded Dr. Remington’s fertility clinic in Darien, Connecticut. The one we told you about.”

  Jordan stopped talking, and Lindsay took up the narrative. “Jim Swift was standing behind him. When we burned down the Crandall Consortium headquarters building…”

  Zach stared at her. “You burned down the building?”

  “That was the only way we could escape. So you see, we’re not afraid to take desperate measures to defend ourselves. For the record, someone else shot MacArthur and killed him. We escaped from the building, and went into hiding. We thought Jim Swift had died in the fire. But he survived, and he’s going after any of the Dariens he can find.”

  “Why?”

  “He thinks we’re…” He stopped and shrugged. “Well, I don’t know exactly what’s in his warped mind. But apparently he sees us as a threat to civilization as he knows it.

  “For years, he was MacArthur’s chief hit man. So we’re assuming he was too badly injured in the fire to keep up the wet work on his own.”

  Zach winced at the casually delivered assessment. Obviously, Jordan Walker’s recent experiences had hardened his outlook on life. But the same was true for himself, Zach silently admitted. Until a few days ago, he hadn’t been associated with any hit men.

  “Well, the men who shanghaied us are dead. After we ditched in the sea, I slashed holes in the bottom of their raft. So I guess I took the same attitude as you. If I had to do it to save my life—and Anna’s—I would.”

  Lindsay let out a sigh. “They may not be dead.”

  His gaze shot to her. “Why do you think so?”

  “I can’t be sure. But I feel…something.” She shrugged. “Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe it’s just that Jim Swift is still out there. He was focused on Anna. He could have figured out that you bonded with her.”

  ANNA closed her eyes, taking deep, even breaths of air, the way she did before she got ready for her act.

  She had gone to pieces. San Donato had made her go to pieces, and she’d better be ready to fight him when he came back.

  But first, maybe she could get some information.

  She couldn’t move her hands more than a few inches, but she pressed her fingers against the comforter, trying to pick up memories the way she picked them up on stage.

  She caught an image of a man, not San Donato, lying on the bed. She studied his face. He had gray hair, a narrow mustache, and a thick gold chain around his neck. A rich tourist. Or maybe someone who lived in Grand Fernandino part of the year?

  He looked contented and prosperous. Probably this was his cabin cruiser, and he had no idea that a bastard named San Donato had borrowed it. Too bad she couldn’t contact the guy and tell him that a gallery owner in town had taken his boat—and was using it to kidnap a woman.

  A shiver went through her, and she was immediately sorry that she’d thought about herself. She gave another tug at her bonds, then flopped on the comforter, willing herself not to cry.

  Zach. Oh, Lord, Zach. San Donato thinks he can bond with me. I won’t let him, she vowed, then couldn’t help adding, but I’m afraid of what he’s going to do. Don’t let him…

  She couldn’t put the next part into words. She was sure she knew what it was. But she didn’t want to think about it. Not when she was lying naked and helpless on this bed.

  So she struggled to pull her elbow toward the place where San Donato had been sitting. It took a long time, but finally she reached the spot.

  When she did, she gasped.

  ZACH stood and paced to the other side of the room, then turned to face them.

  For a moment he thought…

  “What?” Lindsay asked.

  “Just for a moment…I…”

  “Was that Anna? Trying to reach you?”

  “Yes!”

  He squeezed his eyes closed and concentrated with every fiber of his mind. But it didn’t do any good. Not now.

  “Maybe we should talk about the Darien children a little more,” she suggested.

  “Why?”

  “So you’ll understand better,” Jordan answered. “The more you know, the more effective you can be.”

  Zach sighed. He didn’t want to take a side trip into his own background. He wanted a direct line to Anna. But maybe Jordan was right.

  “Bonding turned on our psychic powers. And yours, too,” Jordan said.

  “But what about Anna?” Zach shot back. “She was already a psychic.”

  “She was only using a tiny part of her talents. Joining with you made the difference. Together you were awakening her latent abilities—and yours,” Lindsay said.

  “But we met earlier. When we were children.”

  Lindsay blinked. “You did?”

  “Not physically. I had an imaginary friend, and it was her.”

  Jordan whistled through his teeth, then glanced at his wife. “Maybe we need to reevaluate some of our assumptions.”

  “But not now!” Zach almost shouted. “Anna’s gone, and we’re sitting here and talking, instead of going after her.”

  “Where should we go? Where is she?” Jordan asked.

  Zach whirled toward him, his fear and frustration bubbling over. “I don’t fucking know! That’s the problem. I don’t know. I got a flash of…something. But I don’t know where it was coming from.”

  “Maybe we can find her,” Lindsay murmured.

  “How?”

  “When we were on the run, one of the talents we developed was viewing a remote location.”

  He didn’t dare let hope bloom. Not yet. Still, he asked, “You mean like what San Donato did when he spied on us?”

  “Yes,” Jordan answered. “Lindsay is better at it than I am.”

  “I saw a friend of ours shot and killed,” she said, the horror of it bleeding into her voice and into her mind.

  Zach winced. The more these people revealed, the more he understood what they’d been through. And they’d escaped with their lives. Together. If they could do it, so could he and Anna. He had to believe that was true.

  “Jordan and I did the remote viewing together,” she said.

  “Can you do it now?” Zach demanded.

  Lindsay and Jordan looked at each other. Jordan was the one who answered. “We don’t have a focus for the search. We were hoping you could direct the process.”

  Zach slammed his fist against the bulkhead. “In other words, you’re offering me false hope.”

  “No!” Lindsay shouted. “But the question is, can you trust us enough to open your mind to us?”

  That was certainly a big question. Jordan and Lindsay had dropped into his life, and they could be lying to him.

  “No,” Lindsay said, and he knew she had caught the thought. “Trust us,” she whispered.

  “What if I can’t?”

  Her face grew so sad that he felt his heart squeeze. And he knew in that moment that rescuing Anna meant more to her than he had imagined.

  Before he could say anything else, she crossed the cabin and reached for his hand. Jordan seized both her hand and Zach’s free hand.

  At the three-way contact, Zach felt a shock go through him. Much like the sensation when he’d first touched Anna.

  “We healed you. Now let us join with you,” Lindsay murmured. Did she actually speak? Or did he only hear it in his mind? He didn’t know. But he felt them opening to him, opening and sharing secrets that no person would willingly give up.

  He saw Jordan as a boy—locked in a closet.

  He saw Lindsay at a school dance, being pulled tight against a boy she couldn’t stand.

  He saw the two of them sitt
ing in a restaurant, sharing the shock of touching. And then they were in a garden, wildly kissing—until an old woman yelled at them to cut it out.

  It had been like what had happened between himself and Anna—that wild, out-of-control need to connect on the most basic level. And because he recognized the desperate need, a door inside his head opened.

  Thank you, Lindsay murmured.

  We care about you and Anna.

  He knew in that moment that they had risked their lives to save him. He hadn’t been thinking about that. Instead, he’d been fighting them.

  I’ve been acting like an ungrateful lout, he said.

  You’re acting like a man who was alone for all of his life—then found a partner who brought him more than he ever expected from another human being.

  He looked at Lindsay, knowing that the words softly spoken in his mind had come from her.

  Lie back and relax.

  He lay down, and she moved her hand from his and pressed it against his forehead.

  Try to find Anna now, she said.

  Panic surged. She was gone, and he had no idea how to search for her across the wide blue water of the Caribbean.

  But he could feel Lindsay’s calm strength and Jordan still with them in the background. He was there, but he was letting Lindsay do the heavy lifting.

  Send your thoughts outward, she told him.

  Oh sure. Easier said than done when he had no idea which direction to look. Then he remembered he had often done something like this when he searched for a shipwreck. Whatever he did then, he could do now.

  Closing his eyes, he focused all his concentration on the woman he loved.

  He had never used that word before. Not even in his mind. He should be embarrassed to use it now, when two other people were inside his head. But he didn’t have energy to spare for embarrassment.

  With every shred of concentration he could muster, he reached toward Anna. He felt Jordan helping him, and Lindsay adding an extra burst of power—something that he didn’t possess himself.

  But it was hopeless. It wasn’t going to work.

  He sagged back against the bunk. And just as he was about to give up, he found Anna. He didn’t even know how it had happened. Suddenly, he could see her.

  And what he saw was like a knife slashing through his chest.

  She was on a boat. Lying on her stomach, naked, her wrists and ankles secured to the corners of a bed.

  Across her buttocks and back, red slashes marred her beautiful skin.

  He screamed in anguish, and the picture snapped off.

  ZACH lay panting on the bed, the image burned into his mind. He couldn’t cope with it.

  “The bastard’s…already raped her,” he managed to say, although his throat was so clogged he could barely speak.

  “No!” It was Jordan who spoke.

  “What the hell do you know about it!”

  “I caught the edge of her thoughts. She was horrified he was going to use sex to bind her to him. He hasn’t done it yet. He’s only…punished her.”

  “Whipped her!”

  “Yes,” Lindsay answered as she stroked her fingers over the hot flesh of his forehead.

  “We won’t let him rape her,” Jordan growled.

  “We don’t even know where she is!”

  “What did you see?”

  “The cabin of a boat. An expensive boat.” He stopped, thinking. “It’s the boat that came to the island. The crew pretended to rescue us. Then they hit me over the head.”

  “So he hasn’t gotten very far.”

  “They’re going somewhere.” Somehow Zach forced himself not to howl at the two other people in the cabin. This wasn’t their fault. They were trying to help. “She doesn’t know where San Donato is taking her.”

  “That’s right.”

  “But he does. And we have to figure that he’s nearby. On the same boat. If you can get into his head, you can find out.”

  “Into his head?” Zach asked, the idea making his guts twist with pain that was only partly physical.

  “You have a better suggestion?” Jordan answered.

  “No.”

  “We’ll stay with you.”

  “But what if he knows we’re there? If he knows I’ve found him, won’t he rush ahead with what he’s doing?”

  “He could,” Lindsay whispered.

  “Can’t the three of us…do something? Can’t we cut her bonds or something?”

  Jordan looked doubtful. “Did you develop a lot of skill at telekinesis?”

  “No. I was hoping you had.”

  “Only a little. And not from this far away.”

  Zach lowered his head into his hands, pressing his palms against his forehead.

  “Maybe we can fool San Donato,” Lindsay said.

  “How?”

  She looked apologetic. “I picked up something from you.”

  “Oh yeah?”

  “He worships a goddess named Ibena.”

  “What about it?” he snapped.

  “If he figures out we’re there, I can take the lead and tell him I’m Ibena—and praise him for the bold steps he’s taken.”

  Sickness rose in Zach’s throat at the very idea of praising the bastard. Yet it might work.

  San Donato was so sure of himself. So convinced that he was making the right moves. Maybe that was the way to get him. Maybe the goddess could tell him to turn Anna loose.

  He knew Lindsay had caught his desperate thought when she said, “We have to keep this in character. If we try to go that far, he’ll think something’s fishy. Let’s leave it at praising him.”

  He shot her a dark look, but he knew she was probably right.

  They were both gazing at him expectantly, waiting for his decision.

  “Let’s do it,” he said, surprised that his voice sounded strong and determined. Inside, he was cringing.

  CHAPTER

  TWENTY-SIX

  LINDSAY SAT DOWN on the bunk beside him. Jordan took the other side.

  “Go for it,” Jordan said.

  He closed his eyes, sending his mind out again, toward that ship where San Donato was holding Anna captive.

  Because he’d done it before, it was easier to get there this time. And he could go in by slow degrees. First he saw the ship below him, sailing through turquoise water. Then he came closer and saw men standing on the deck.

  One of them was San Donato. He’d never met the bastard in person, but he knew it was him—just from the arrogant way he was leaning on the rail, staring at land that was rapidly approaching.

  Grand Fernandino? Or somewhere close?

  He felt Lindsay take the lead now, dropping down toward the man, who jerked when he felt her presence.

  So there was no sneaking up on him.

  “Ibena?” he whispered, awe in his voice.

  Yes. I’ve come to tell you how proud I am of you, she answered.

  The arrogant bastard didn’t question that for a moment. A goddess had dropped in on him, and he was totally sure he was worthy of her regard. Still, he kept his inner voice reverential.

  I do your bidding, always.

  I know. I am so happy to have you as my most powerful follower. You have gone through much to bring the woman back.

  Yes.

  We will talk more, after you bind her to you.

  Zach could hear the surface conversation. He thought Lindsay was probing more deeply into the man’s mind, but he couldn’t tell exactly what she was doing.

  San Donato kept flapping his silent mouth.

  As soon as we get to shore, I’m heading to the ceremonial ground.

  No. I want you to wait. Until midnight. It will mean more if you wait until the midnight hour.

  If I can.

  You dare to question me?

  Pardon, goddess. But I must do this quickly—to serve you better.

  You serve at my pleasure. Do not forget your place.

  Zach felt the man cringe.

  I am your serva
nt, San Donato silently said.

  Lindsay broke the connection, and Zach fought the sickness in his throat.

  “We got a lot of information from his mind,” Lindsay said.

  “Like what? Why didn’t you make him wait longer for his damn ceremony?” Zach demanded.

  “Because I could feel his impatience. He wants to serve the goddess. But on his own terms.”

  “Oh, great.”

  Jordan jumped back into the conversation. “He’s heading for the village where he was born. But this boat is faster than his. We made an educated guess about his destination after we picked you up, so we’re already heading toward Grand Fernandino.”

  Zach had been so preoccupied that he hadn’t realized they were already speeding toward the island.

  Jordan left the room to tell the captain to aim for the far side of the island, and Lindsay looked at Zach. “He’s poured a lot of money into the place—making improvements for the residents—so they’ll be loyal to him. And he has a ceremonial ground halfway up the mountain.”

  “A ceremonial ground?”

  “Where he and his followers worship the goddess.”

  Zach tried to take that in.

  Lindsay laid a hand on his shoulder. “We’ll get there.”

  “And then what? How many people will he have around him? All loyal to him because he’s bought and paid for their loyalty, so that every one of them will be ready to stop us?”

  Jordan came back into the room and fixed him with a direct look.

  “You’re not giving up, are you?”

  “Of course not.”

  “On the way there, we’ll talk strategy.”

  “Like what?”

  “You’ll be closer to Anna. You can contact her. Get her to help you. Maybe she can disable San Donato. Or we can provide a big distraction.”

  “Yeah,” he answered, wondering if that was just wishful thinking.

  ANNA closed her eyes, but her mind was racing. They were at sea. And probably everyone on the boat knew she was tied to the bed. So could she leap over the side before they figured out what had happened?

  She knew it would do her no good to try and pull her wrists and ankles free. Instead she thought about the leather cuffs that held her. Could she make them loosen?