by Dale Mayer
Her eyes drifted closed, more than willing to let this be her first time all over again.
He was both gentle and demanding, rough and frustrating, as he teased and tormented them both. His lips and hands were busy, and all she could do was whimper in joy as nerve endings fired to life. Her body shuddered under his ministrations.
She wanted to touch him.
She wanted to stroke him as he was stroking her.
She wanted to taste him.
And yet her body couldn’t do anything as she was caught in a web of desire. Mindless jelly for him to mold as he would. She’d never believed this was possible. She’d never trusted to this level.
In her mind, he said. You can trust me. Just relax and let go.
But…
A kiss landed on her lips, a whisper in her mind. No buts. This time is just for us.
When he rose up over top of her, she was warm, wet, and lost to the rising storm clamoring for release. He surged deep inside.
She let out a cry and burst into tears.
He stilled. Tavi, did I hurt you?
Blubbering like an idiot she shook her head and wailed, No.
He slid his hands up to cup her cheeks so he could look into her eyes and see the truth for himself. You sure?
She lifted her long legs and wrapped them around his hips, forcing him in deeper.
No, she whispered. You didn’t hurt me.
She pulled his head down and kissed him with all the longing she held deep inside. It seemed like forever that she’d been alone. She needed this. This sense of oneness with somebody else.
But not oneness with anybody, just me, he whispered in her head. This is what happens when two psychics are perfectly aligned.
And he started to move, his words already her undoing as her body raced straight for the peak, his body driving her up higher and higher.
Her mind was consumed with the concept of love. The concept of where they were going. What they were doing. How quickly they were going to reach it.
Was this real?
Oh yes, this is real. This is your future. When you let go of the past there’s only good things ahead for you, for me, for both of us together. You are not alone anymore. I am here with you. For you… One with you. At his words she exploded into the maelstrom of glory.
He cried out as he reached his peak to collapse beside her.
Emotions, fear, desire, frustration, hunger, fulfillment and yes…love, circled around her, tantalizingly close.
Just accept it. Let it be. Don’t try to think, don’t try to analyze. Open a big well into your heart and let it all fall in.
She tried to comprehend but her brain was on fire…and her body hungered for more.
He said, Experience it and only hang onto that which you want. Let the rest fall away. Just sink into the place of well-being and peace.
Tavika stepped inside herself and found that now it was a comfortable fit.
She was home.
*
He knew the moment when she stepped into her body fully. He’d sensed her disconnection from her own being before. There was so much going on, so much old and new. But it was also a dangerous place for her to be. That disconnection allowed other people to step in and take over. She never really did to the extent that became a problem, but he worried. Now it was like instead of wearing a suit she’d become it.
He couldn’t be happier.
And although this wasn’t exactly the vision he had in his mind, it was way better. And it proved that no matter what his visions were they were still just visions. And fate could take a hand and change things. For the first time he felt emboldened about what was to come. Because he knew it was coming. That dark wave of death was approaching rapidly.
In less than twenty-four hours she’d be dead. That truth flashed through his mind.
He clutched at her, instinctively pulling her close. Events were moving too fast. He needed more time with her.
He had to make sure she survived the encounter with the Ghost.
They were linked. A link that would hurt him too if she went down. But there was nothing he could do about it. She had taken this path and he would do the best he could.
And hope they both had a future.
With her tucked up against his chest, gently resting, he stared at the ceiling, wondering.
About the people in her life, around her life. One thought crept into the back of his mind. Somebody who moved a ruler until it sat at the right spot. Where it belonged. Like a stapler as he’d seen in the snippet visions. Making sure everything was just so on the desk. Tavika’s desk.
His gaze flew open. Could it be? Was it so simple? And at the same time so damn convoluted.
This person was in the perfect position. And had stuck close – damn close to his victim.
So why change it now?
And if it was him, she really hadn’t seen him back then. She wasn’t blocking out the man’s face. She wasn’t blocking out his identity.
She really hadn’t seen him.
Otherwise she wouldn’t be able to speak with him almost every day now.
Dear God. She really had no idea.
He had to be wrong.
Chapter 33
She woke up calm and rested, Solomon snuggled up beside her. Her body was warm, relaxed, almost glowing. Her mind alert. Her muscles felt fluid. Just think about that. Always before she’d come home exhausted and had dropped on her bed. In the morning she woke up, ate and left. As if there was no time for herself because she hadn’t made time. She had that horrible driving sense of guilt she didn’t deserve it.
Rationally she knew that was stupid. She’d been a child. The fact that she’d tried to fit in and hadn’t succeeded, so she’d gone the opposite route was a common enough story. And if they hadn’t encountered the Ghost then life would have been incredibly different. Although she couldn’t imagine what it would’ve been like growing up with her mother. She would have had to move out very young as she’d already found it impossible to coexist within that family. There was just too much psychic ability in one confined space. One without boundaries. Her mother had been lacking them. She had no filters. And that was why Tavika was so strict with herself. She kept herself in lockdown.
That didn’t mean she hadn’t loved her mother. Because she had. She loved all her family. But they were gone and she’d been living for them. Not herself. Until Jericho blasted open that cauldron of emotion. There was a parallel here that she was just now understanding. Having locked up so much inside, she’d taken all those different layers of herself, all those different ones of her past, and compressed them into this single space. As that space, opened the layers eased back giving more space around her.
When she went into the abyss she went through layers. She opened them up and explored the spaces between. But with her own psyche she’d refused to do that. She crushed it all down so there was nothing between them. And of course, there was always something, she just hadn’t taken a closer look. She hadn’t seen the kidnapper’s face. She’d heard his voice, but it was intermingled with the screams of the dying around her. She didn’t want to remember the words.
She remembered the terror, the horror. Her mother pleading. Her sister crying. Her brother never said a word. Then he couldn’t – the killer cut out his tongue. But Travis had been unconscious from the beginning. A blow to the head while he’d been on the computer and he never woke up. Never knew who his killer was. She’d asked but he was never able to tell her.
But there was always that one thing that defied explanation. She’d been separated. Tied up, gagged, and tossed into another room.
Why? What had made her so different? What made her not be the same as them? Why were they victims to be killed and she wasn’t? They were all well-known psychics. Her mom famous. Her older daughter a rising psychic. Her son that much younger, less capable, but showing promise. Friends, family, even police knew he had budding capabilities.
She’d been the ugly du
ckling. Her mother told everyone that. That somehow she had two children that were extremely gifted and then there was her. She never brought up her first born in public. And almost never with the family. Tavika rolled over onto her back.
Was that why the family was targeted?
Did the ghost hate psychics?
Was he trying to take out a threat before they came after him? Was that why she’d been saved? Because she was no threat.
Did he not know what to do with her? She had always been in the background. Not many people even knew she was part of the family. Although she was a twin she didn’t look like her brother, who did look like their sister.
Jericho’s big hand stroked up her hip, her side, sliding up to her shoulders and down her arm to clasp her fingers. “Heavy thoughts?”
“Heavy thoughts,” she affirmed. “I think I know why I was allowed to live. At least at the time.” She turned her head to stare into his now wide-awake eyes.
“Tell me.”
“I was the only one that wasn’t psychic,” she admitted.
His eyebrows shot up.
“In the eyes of the world at least.” She sighed. “I defied my mother’s training, her wish to embrace that part of my heritage to the point of even publicly telling the world I had none of the skills of my family. I walked away from that side of her life. Even though my mother and sister were screaming at me to step up.”
Jericho stroked the side of her cheek, his energy calm and accepting.
She smiled. “Being a public circus monkey was not my idea of a good time. I wanted friends.”
“Didn’t your mom have friends? As I recall there was something in the case files about your mom being surrounded by men all the time? That had actually been part of the problem. There were too many men, too many suspects?”
“Mom had a lot of men around, but I don’t know how many were actual friends. Honestly, as I look back on the stream of men I think they were more interested in the thrill of having sex with a psychic than they were in the family or a permanent relationship. Lots came looking for answers to their own problems and then there were the professionals seeking her help on cases. There was talk of a TV show at one time.”
“A television show?” He looked startled. “I don’t remember anything about that.”
“There was no one left to mention it,” she said shortly. “The thing is she was likely targeted because of the publicity she loved.” She groaned. “And I was saved because no one knew what I could do. Hell, neither did I. The thing was all kinds of men showed up from cops to private investigators, even the FBI was on our doorstep. The Ghost could have been one or none of them.”
That was one of the things about Jericho she loved. There was no judgment on his face, no censorship in his eyes. No criticism in the words coming out of his mouth. He was very accepting. “If she was any good then I’m not surprised. And your sister, did she have a lot of boyfriends?”
“Mom wanted to keep the men at bay until she was nineteen. Said it was important for her skills to develop.” Her smile was sad as she said, “But her power shone in her sexuality. She loved playing with the men. They circled her as if she were a bitch about to come into her first heat. Each man vying to be the one. The others all lining up to be next.”
His eyebrows shot up.
“That’s a mean thing to say,” she said in shame. “It’s just my house was more like a bordello. It wasn’t comfortable.”
“Don’t be ashamed. It’s the cards that were dealt you. Life happens, and all we can do sometimes is play the hand we were given.” He paused and studied her face. “Did any of the men come on to you?”
“No one saw me with Bellamy around,” Tavika said. “She was gorgeous, confident, disdainful of me even. And of course, I was a kid when she was ripe on the edge of womanhood.”
“And in hindsight, maybe that–”
“–was a good thing.” She nodded. “It was for me.”
“Maybe they were targeted because they were so beautiful and you were spared because as young as you were, your beauty had yet to shine.”
She snorted. “Like it ever did.” She shook her head. “No, I think it was more likely my lack of psychic abilities. I wonder if there was a connection to a case my mother had worked on. Maybe she’d come close to catching him back then…”
He cleared his throat awkwardly. She turned to look at him then narrowed her gaze at the ill look on his face. “What?”
“Did you ever consider the Ghost might be…a cop?”
She stared at him. Then opened her mouth ready to blast him.
“Wait,” he said holding up his hand, adding, “Let me explain.”
“Not if you are going to blame my profession and those I work with. You don’t get to blame all cops because of what you went through,” she snapped. “One bad cop is terrible for everyone.”
“And yet we questioned if he was military, a psychic, and any number of other professions. So perhaps a cop. How did he know where to find Gordon? Answer that. If it wasn’t for having access to the database, how could he have known?”
“I have notes about Gordon on my own personal laptop,” she said. “Not in the computer at work. And he wouldn’t be able to access that one.”
“Unless he was a computer specialist.”
“So now he’s a cop and computer specialist.” She snorted. “Maybe he’s been following me around and saw me with Gordon.”
“Maybe. Look,” he said in a conciliatory tone. “We just have to keep our eyes open. He has access to information I don’t think he should be able to. He’s been a step ahead of us all the way. That would be a hell of a lot easier to do if he has access to the cases.” He shrugged. “Maybe he’s a friend of a cop. The cop doesn’t realize that all the questions he’s getting from this man are because he’s more involved than anybody could believe.”
She was suddenly really tired again. Just the thought was so defeating. It would destroy her if she found out the Ghost was somebody she knew personally.
“Of course it could be somebody you know,” he said, picking up her thoughts again. “Because what do predators like to do? Get close to their victims.” He hesitated then told her about Hunter going to talk to Gordon and what he’d found out.
She shook her head. “That’s a help but again that’s not making sense because I was already his victim. There is no point staying close to me now.”
“Unless he was trying to make sure you didn’t develop psychic abilities, in which case he’d have to correct his mistake.”
That was harsh and cold and just a little too close to being a possibility. She wrapped her arms around herself, a chill setting inside. “That sounds so…horrible.”
He pursed his lips. “I’m not saying this so you look at all your friends and coworkers sideways, yet I don’t want you to dismiss them out of turn just because they are cops and friends. The ideal person to keep track of this would be a cop. They’d have access to the files. And that’s huge. He’d be able to know what the police know and what they don’t. He’d be able to change his MO if needed. In fact, he could change all kinds of things based on what he found there.”
“The FBI say he’s been connected to forty-seven cases so far,” she said abruptly. “I only had eleven to his name.”
“The FBI?” Jericho asked in surprise. “If so many why has he not been caught?”
“I was called into the captain’s office to find the FBI asking about the Breaker case. Apparently in a few recent cases the Ghost has used pressure syringes.”
“So did you tell him about Gordon?”
She shook her head. “Not at the time. I should though.” She glanced over at the phone but didn’t make any effort to move. Her mind was still consumed with the possibility of the Ghost being a cop. “It would make more sense if he was an FBI agent,” she said. “He’d have access to even more.”
“You don’t know that he doesn’t already. Lots of cops have friends in the FBI, and any cop
working on a case can ask for information on other files, once connected.”
She reached up to rub her face. She hated to think of a trail so close to her but so far away. “I know the guys I work with really well. I trust them. Some are good cops, others are better. There are only a couple that are just so-so. That’s typical of what you’d find in any station.”
He had to be wrong. She’d never really considered this killer could be a cop. Why would she? Cops in a half a dozen states were looking for this man. No. It didn’t feel right.
“It wouldn’t be a cop. They are all dedicated. Look at Henry. I have known him since I was a little girl. He’s moving up the ladder of life hoping to make the captain’s desk and looking to do something more political.” She waved her hand. “I don’t know exactly what it is. I try to keep out of it because it’s not my stuff. I just wanted to be a cop. Take bad guys off the street. Henry can do that political stuff. I can’t.”
“And who’s Henry, you never mentioned him before?”
She frowned. “I think you’ve seen him. Maybe when in spirit form.” She stood up and walked over to a picture on the coffee table. She tapped the image of Henry. He took it from her and studied it. “I saw him the day I was at the station.”
She smiled. “Yeah, he’s all over the place.” She replaced the photo. “Henry’s been there for me all these years. Close but not tight in a confining way. But just kind of there, the odd phone call every once in a while to make sure I’m doing okay. He showed up at my graduation from high school. And he’s the one who helped me get into the Academy. Without him, I might not have made detective. He’s been like a benevolent uncle.”
“I guess he was one of the people to hang around the house all the time with your mother?”
She looked up at him and frowned. “You know, I’m not too sure about that. I don’t know when I first started seeing him. I know he was there. I remember him holding me and telling me I was going to be okay. And that he’d keep me safe. I wasn’t in very good shape, but I do remember he’s the one who took me out to the ambulance.”
“He took you out to the ambulance? They didn’t bring a stretcher to collect you?”