“I thought you were going to save me.” Her voice held a challenge.
“I can only do that if you place your faith in me.”
“Oh, boy.” She rolled her eyes. “Can we at least skip the melodrama?”
But the protest was half-hearted. He could sense that she wanted to open up to him. Whether she would admit it or not, she was starting to believe in him. He fervently hoped nothing in his past would surface to betray that hard-earned trust.
“Tell me about that man,” he pressed as he searched her face. Even in her agitated state, she looked fierce and lovely and vulnerable. He was pretty certain he’d never known anyone like her.
As if reading his thoughts, she scowled at the road. “All right, you win.” But the capitulation was reluctant, almost grudging. “I don’t know what else to do, so I’ll give you the highlights.”
“Thank you for that.”
She shrugged, then lifted a hand to rub the back of her neck. “Before I moved here I was a research assistant in Chicago for a man named Thomas Lasher. He once worked for the Global Consciousness Project, which is an international group of scientists and researchers that collects data from a network of REGs—random event generators—placed all over the world. The REGs spit out a constant stream of ones and zeros in random fashion. The purpose of the research is to determine whether deviations in the randomness of the number sequences correlates with major world events that engage large numbers of people. Princess Di’s death, for instance. Such a finding could suggest the presence of a collective consciousness.”
She stopped and gave him an apologetic glance. “Sorry. Did you understand any of that?”
He thought about it and nodded, surprising even himself. “Yes.”
“You did?” She couldn’t hide her astonishment. “Most people would think it just a bunch of gobbledygook. Back in Chicago, I never could explain to my friends exactly what I did for a living. I used to just tell them I worked with numbers. Most of them thought I was an accountant,” she said dryly. “But you aren’t most people, are you, Jack?”
“No, and neither are you.” He returned her stare until she flinched and glanced away.
“Which feeds right into my paranoia,” she said worriedly. “None of this is random, is it? Me, you…here. It can’t be a coincidence. Someone is pulling the strings.”
“Maybe…I don’t know. All I know is that I had to come here.” But she had a point. Something had compelled him to that very spot on the road the night before. Whether it was anything more than his visions of her impending death, he couldn’t honestly say. “Tell me more about Dr. Lasher.”
Her face immediately softened. “It would take the rest of the day to tell you about Dr. Lasher. He was an extraordinary man. Absolutely brilliant. He was an innovator in his field, utterly fearless when it came to taking risks with his career for the sake of something he believed in. I was privileged to have known him, much less worked with him. When I think about what he might have accomplished had he lived…” She was momentarily caught by a wave of emotion, though she tried her hardest to conceal it. But she couldn’t quite disguise the telltale quiver in her voice or the sudden sheen in her eyes.
Jack waited silently.
She brushed the back of her hand across her cheek. “Anyway, to make a long story short, Dr. Lasher left the project to pursue his own research, hooked up with some really bad dudes who wanted to exploit his findings and when he refused to cooperate, they sent someone to murder him. And lucky me, I just happened to be at the right place at the right time that night to get a glimpse of the killer.”
“And that’s how you ended up here? You ran?”
“Not at first, but it soon became clear that the police couldn’t protect me. There were some incidents. Strange phone calls, a break-in. Someone following me. Mostly, I think I was being warned. And I also got the distinct impression I was being toyed with. A cat-and-mouse thing. I decided not to wait around for the trap to spring shut on me.”
“Was the man you saw that night the same man you saw today?”
“I thought so at first, but the more I look back on it, I’m pretty sure it was just my imagination. I never got a good look at him, that night or today. I think I just overreacted. Let my nerves get the better of me or something.”
Jack watched her closely. “What did he look like, this man?”
“You mean the killer?” Her voice was steady, but he could sense her tension. Her fear. It was almost a tangible thing. “Like I said, I only had a brief glimpse of him. I remember him as huge, a real hulk, but maybe time and fear has added a few inches and pounds.” She paused. “You would think a blue-eyed redhead would be fair, but he had this…darkness about him. I can’t explain it. It was like there was a perpetual shadow over him or something.” She shuddered and gripped the steering wheel.
Jack went completely still. Something she’d said had struck a chord. “You say…he had red hair?”
“Yes. It was a very strange color of red. It reminded me of blood…” She glanced over at him. “What’s wrong?”
He couldn’t answer. A door had opened in his mind and a memory slipped through.
Someone stood in the shadows just outside his cell. From down a long, dark corridor he could hear the screams. The sound both enraged and terrified him as he tightened his hands around the metal bars.
“Make it stop or I swear to God, I’ll—”
“You’ll what? Kill me?” A low laugh. “You’re in no position to make threats. Besides, in here, I’m God. If you haven’t accepted that by now, I’m afraid there isn’t much hope.” He came out of the shadows, a wiry man with a cruel mouth and tangled, white hair. Such an unassuming figure and yet he wielded a power far greater than life and death.
“Let him go.”
He tugged at the lapels of his rumpled lab coat. “In due time. At the moment, you should just enjoy your reprieve. You did, after all, draw the longest straw. Or rather, I drew it for you. But no matter. Let his screams be a lesson to you.” He moved closer to the bars. There was something unholy about the hard glitter in his eyes, that taunting smile. “The next time I have to send Red to find you, there won’t be enough left of either of you to bring back.”
As the image faded, Jack heard another voice inside his head. Not a memory this time, but a softly probing whisper that rose and faded like an ocean tide. It wasn’t really a voice, he realized, but more of an impression. Or a thought transference.
Jack?
He glanced over at Claudia. She watched the road, her brows furrowed in deep concentration.
Jack!
The projection was an urgent command, and with it came a strong sense of warning.
“Pull over,” he said.
Claudia looked at him in alarm. “Are you sick?”
“Please, just stop the car.”
She found a place on the shoulder wide enough to safely pull off the road, and he jumped out while the vehicle was still rolling.
“Hey!”
Striding several feet away, he stood with his back to the car, head tilted to the mountains, his gaze roaming the misty landscape. All was silent. He could hear no sound at all except for his raging blood and the rapid beating of his heart.
The voice came again, softly at first, then stronger, as if a sudden gust of wind had swept aside the fog inside his head. The voice was distinct, forceful and eerily familiar.
Jack? Jack!
He could feel a clenching tension at the back of his neck, so painful he couldn’t concentrate. With an effort, he forced his muscles to relax as he tried to empty his mind.
Jack! Where are you?
I’m here…with the girl…
Jack!
A deep, pulsing silencing. And then…
…danger…
The last was nothing more than a wispy impression, and then the voice, the entity, the vision—whatever it was—faded slowly back into the mist.
“Wait,” Jack said aloud. “Who are y
ou? Where are you? What do you want from me?”
He hadn’t realized until that moment that Claudia had gotten out of the car and followed him. He turned now and found her standing a few feet away, her eyes clouded with confusion. She lifted a hand and tucked a strand of dark blonde hair behind one ear.
For the longest moment, neither of them said anything. Then she drew a breath and glanced off down the valley. “You heard it, too, didn’t you?”
He stared at her in shock. “What?”
“You heard…the voice.” Her gaze came back to him. “Or whatever it was.”
Slowly, he nodded.
“Who is he?” The question was barely audible.
“He?”
She shrugged, but her gaze was very direct. “That’s the impression I got. You don’t know who he is?”
Jack shook his head.
She moistened her lips and took another breath. “This is all very strange, isn’t it?”
“Yes.” Her confusion touched him. He had the strongest urge to walk over and put his arms around her, but something held him back. An insecurity that he didn’t understand. He wasn’t afraid of rejection. He was afraid he might not know the right thing to do.
“What did he say to you?” Claudia asked. He could tell she was trying to cling to her poise, but that tiny tremor in her voice made him want to go to her even more, hold her even tighter.
“Danger.”
She lifted a brow. “That’s it? That’s all he said? Maybe he should try telling us something we don’t know.” She started a little as he moved toward her. She looked as if she wanted to step back, but instead she held her ground. Her chin came up, a tiny act of defiance. “What’s going on, Jack?”
“I don’t know.”
She hardened her voice. “Why are you here?”
“I’ve told you why.”
“I mean, why are you here?”
He continued to walk toward her. “I’m here because of you. I am because of you.”
A shadow flickered across her features and then she gave a tiny, bitter laugh. “Oh, the pressure. I hope you’re kidding because that’s a lot to put on my shoulders. I am only human, after all.”
The last was a bit of a taunt and Jack didn’t know what to say to that. Now it was he who was lost in confusion. He felt as if he were entering uncharted waters without maps or stars or even instinct to guide him. “Do you want me to leave?”
Her head came up. “Would you, if I said yes?”
“I could disappear, if that’s what you want.”
“You don’t mean that literally, do you?” she asked with an ironic lift of one brow. “Just go poof in a cloud of smoke?”
He allowed himself a brief smile. “I mean, you wouldn’t have to know that I’m around.”
“You’d just be lurking behind trees, hiding in shadows, stuff like that? You’re that good, huh? I’d never even know you were spying on me.”
“Protecting you, is how I see it.”
She thrust her hands into her pockets. “Even if I don’t want you to.”
“I don’t have a choice. It’ll be easier if you just accept that.”
“Easier for you, maybe.” A slight bitterness crept into her tone.
“Easier for both of us.”
Her skin was pale, like an alabaster bowl, and before he could stop himself, Jack lifted a hand and skimmed his knuckles down her cheek.
She frowned, but didn’t move away. And when his thumb grazed her lips, she closed her eyes and shuddered.
“I should tell you not to do that,” she said.
“Why don’t you?”
She sighed. “Because it’s been a very long time since anyone’s touched me. And I’m well aware of how pathetic that sounds.”
He didn’t really understand what she meant, but he could sense her loneliness. A strange melancholy tugged at him, too, along with a rush of excitement. His heart pounded as he stared down at her. “You’re beautiful,” he said. “I had no idea.”
She smiled a little at that. “I thought you saw me in a vision.”
“Not clearly. Not like this.” His gaze devoured her face—the soft, pink lips; the wide, brown eyes; the cloud of blond hair that curled about her shoulders.
She stared up at him, lips parted and waiting, and for the longest moment, he stood there trapped in her spell, enthralled by the darkest of gazes. And then a car engine sounded, and they both whirled toward the road.
“We should go,” Claudia said breathlessly. “Probably not a good idea to be standing out in the open like this.”
He kicked himself for the lapse. “Where are we going?” To the hospital? To the police station?
She thought about that for a moment. “Home,” she said finally. “Let’s just go home.”
Chapter Eighteen
As it turned out, they didn’t go directly home, but instead stopped at a large sporting goods and camping store in Rapid City. If they were going to do this—whatever this was—Claudia decided that Jack needed more suitable attire.
So they spent some time outfitting him with boots, wool socks, a parka, shirts, jeans and underwear—thermal and otherwise. The purchases took a sizeable bite out of Claudia’s cash on hand and Jack protested every step of the way, but she remained adamant. No way could she allow him to go out again in such flimsy clothing. She didn’t want to have to feel guilty each time she bundled up for an excursion.
Besides, she thought a little acerbically. If Jack really had come there to save her, buying him some new clothes was the least she could do to repay him. And her reasoning—she freely admitted—spoke volumes to her rapid change of heart. Jack had pretty much won her over.
Abetted by her instincts and, yes, maybe her loneliness, she was now willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Whoever he was and wherever he’d come from didn’t matter so much anymore because Claudia was no longer afraid of him.
While he changed in the dressing room, she stood at the large plate glass window and stared out at the street. Behind the row of businesses rose the Dakota Hogback, a small mountain range that divided the city in two. The mist was finally clearing and she had no trouble making out the peaks. But the day was still overcast with little chance of the sun breaking through, so if Jack’s interpretation of his vision was correct, there would be no need to go back to Mount Rushmore today.
Claudia was thankful for that. She could use a little time to get used to the idea. Being on the run was one thing. Trying to save a child’s life from unknown “tangos” was something else altogether.
She couldn’t quite believe how quickly she’d waded into the deep end. After all, she’d known Jack for less than a day. A part of her still worried that she was being impulsive and irresponsible while another part wanted to rush headlong into Jack and Claudia’s Excellent Adventure. She hadn’t realized until he showed up just how empty her life had been for the past two years. How much she’d craved companionship, a little excitement. Now she certainly had that. In spades.
Speaking of which…
She moved closer to the window. There wasn’t much traffic this time of day, which was probably why she happened to notice the man standing across the street. He was tall, broad-shouldered and bald-headed, but what captured her interest was the way he stood so still, head tilted back, eyes closed, completely oblivious to everything and everyone around him.
He wore a long black coat, black pants, boots. He didn’t look at all like he belonged in Rapid City.
Claudia’s heart fluttered in alarm, although she really wasn’t sure why. A lot of tourists came through the area, so that was no big deal. And unlike the man at the monument, the stranger across the street didn’t seem familiar to her in the least. She’d never seen him before, or anyone who looked remotely like him. His skin, what she could see of it, had an almost ghostlike pallor, and in spite of the gray day, his bald head seemed to reflect light. He was an odd-looking man. Very odd. And Claudia couldn’t take her eyes off him.
Then, as if he’d been trapped in the deepest of trances, he snapped to his senses. His head came down as his gaze swept the street like a predator searching for prey.
Without thinking, Claudia stepped back from the glass a split second before he focused in on the window. His attention lingered, moved on, then returned. He tilted his head back again and closed his eyes briefly before moving on down the street.
“Are you ready to go?”
Claudia hadn’t realized she’d been holding her breath, but now at the sound of Jack’s voice behind her, she jumped as the air came swooshing out of her lungs in a painful rush. Her hand flew to her chest as if she could somehow suppress the hard knock of her heart.
Jack’s voice sharpened. “What’s wrong?”
“Did you see that man across the street?” She turned quickly back to the window. The bald stranger was nowhere in sight. She stepped up to the glass and glanced out. Gone. How could he have disappeared so quickly?
Claudia’s imagination started to take flight, but she quickly reined it in. Obviously, he’d turned down another street or stepped into one of the businesses. There was nothing sinister about any of this.
No need to see a bogeyman around every corner just because killers are out there looking for you, she thought dryly.
“Claudia?”
She jerked around. “Yeah?”
“What man?” Jack asked in concern. “The same one you saw at the monument?”
“No, this guy was different…. I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen him before. It’s just…” She shook her head. “I don’t know. All of a sudden, I’m seeing menacing strangers everywhere I go. Present company excepted,” she tried to quip.
She glanced up at Jack, but his gaze was now fastened on the street. For a moment, she wondered if he’d caught a glimpse of the bald man, but when she looked back toward the street, she saw a dark blue car idling at the traffic light.
Magnum Force Man Page 9