His body quavered with his efforts, his blood thundered in his ears, and his breath came in tortured gasps, until he wrested his perceptions away from himself and into the killer’s head. Like a movie on a screen, a glimpse of the killer, propelling Tyler ahead of him and boosting her over a fence, flashed through Jared’s mind.
Disoriented and queasy, with his legs threatening to fold beneath him, he opened his eyes. His attention flew to the fence, and he attempted to locate the spot where Tyler and the killer had crossed, but each segment of the long expanse looked alike. He sprinted to the western edge of the picnic area and followed the fence east, searching for some sign of their passage.
Midway, he spotted a scrap of burgundy cloth snagged on the fence directly behind the rest rooms. He grasped the top of the wire with both hands and started to clamber over. Behind him, tires squealed to a halt in the rest area.
“Jared Slater?” A uniformed highway patrolman exited his cruiser and raced toward him. “Stop right there!”
“Follow me!” Jared shouted over his shoulder. “There’s no time to waste.”
He vaulted over the fence and set off into the woods at a trot. The muffled curses of the patrolman followed him.
THE CONCUSSIVE BOOM of gunfire sounded in Tyler’s ear as she flung herself to one side and rolled into the underbrush. She struggled to her feet. With her hands tied behind her back, the effort took forever, and she expected any minute to hear the roar of another shot and feel the bullet.
Behind her, Arnie grunted and cursed, but she didn’t look back. Heading in the direction she hoped led to the rest area, she stumbled through the woods, striving to keep her balance without the use of her arms.
Arnie crashed through the foliage close behind.
Urging her aching legs faster, she ran, knowing her flight was futile, that a single bullet could bring her down, but refusing to make it easy for Arnie to kill her.
Her foot struck a root, sending her sprawling. Before she could rise, running footsteps pounded the ground beneath her ear, and she braced herself for the end.
Strong arms lifted her, and she struggled against them.
“Tyler, you’re safe now.”
The voice was Jared’s. She had to be hallucinating in her fear. But when the powerful arms pressed her against a broad chest, and hands fumbled to untie the belt that bound her, she breathed deeply of Jared’s unique scent—a masculine mixture of mountain air and sunshine that informed her she was truly safe.
When he had loosed her hands, she threw her arms around his neck. “Thank God. I was afraid I’d never see you again.”
He clutched her to him, squeezing the air from her lungs, and she reveled in the security of his embrace.
Until she remembered Arnie.
She pushed away from Jared. “We have to run. Arnie Anderson’s coming after me, and he has a gun.”
Jared smiled a slow grin. “Not anymore.”
She drew a sharp breath. “You didn’t kill him?”
He flung an arm around her shoulder and accompanied her back the way she’d come. “No, but not because I didn’t want to. Arnie’s life was spared by the timely arrival of a highway patrolman.”
“How did you find me?” She stopped and stared with astonishment. “How did you know I needed you?”
He shrugged. “Sometimes those blasted dreams come in handy.”
When they reached the fence, he gave her a leg over, then leaped the barrier. In the parking area, lights of two highway patrol cars flashed, and uniformed officers placed a handcuffed Arnie into the back seat of the nearest cruiser.
Arnie glared at them before the door slammed, and Tyler glimpsed him long enough to view his swollen face and blackened eye.
“Did you do that?” she asked.
Jared nodded and tightened his arm around her shoulders. “It was either hit him or shoot him. He was ready to take another shot at you.”
“What happens now?”
“We make a statement to the authorities.”
She glanced at her watch. “Will I still have enough time to reach Gran’s today?”
He shook his head.
She groaned. “Will the statements take that long?”
He turned her toward him and tipped her chin in his palm. His brown eyes blazed with emotion. “No, but going back to Lake Toxaway so I can pack, will. This time, I’m going with you.”
She snuggled into his embrace, smiling at the thought of Gran’s face when, out of the blue, she sprang her fiancé on the old girl.
Epilogue
A gentle breeze stirred the deep pink blossoms of crepe myrtles that encircled the wide porch, carrying the heady fragrance of roses from the nearby garden to the table where Tyler sat, addressing wedding invitations.
“Want some iced tea, dear?” Gran stepped through the French doors carrying an icy pitcher and tall glasses on a tray. She deposited her burden on the table and sat in the wicker rocking chair across from Tyler.
“Thanks. I’m almost finished here.” Tyler slid the last of the heavy vellum cards into its matching envelope.
A worried crease joined the lines in the older woman’s face. “I don’t know what people will think, with you engaged and married in the space of six weeks.”
Tyler accepted a glass of tea with one hand and grasped Gran’s hand with the other. “They’ll think I’m incredibly lucky to have found a man like Jared.”
Gran nodded. “If they only knew. I still shudder when I think how close you came to being killed. Luck is the only thing that kept you alive during that entire ordeal.”
“Not luck, Gran. Jared protected me.”
Gran sighed. “He is a most remarkable man. Reminds me of your grandfather when he was young.”
Tyler breathed a sigh of relief. Gran had just awarded Jared with her highest accolade. With Gran’s approval won and Jared’s reconciliation with his family accomplished, the wedding would be a happy event for everyone.
“But,” Gran said, “there are still several things I don’t understand.”
“You know better than to ask me to explain love,” Tyler said with a grin.
“Fiddlesticks.” Gran withdrew a lace-edged handkerchief from the bodice of her lavender housedress and fanned her face. “I understand love well enough. It’s why Peter Stanwick tried to kill Jared that I don’t understand.”
Tyler set the stack of wedding invitations aside. “Jared and I didn’t understand, either—at first. But after we talked again with Robby, Pete’s son, and interviewed the doctors who examined Pete, we discovered Pete believed Jared had killed his wife.”
Gran’s blue eyes widened. “Good heavens! Why would he think such a thing?”
Tyler shook her head sadly. “Mary’s death caused Pete to have a mental breakdown. Since Jared, a total stranger, had appeared in town asking questions about Mary at the time she died, Pete was convinced Jared had killed her.”
“And now?”
“Pete’s getting treatment. We’re hoping a jury will go easy on him, under the circumstances.”
Gran’s face wrinkled in distaste. “I hope they show no mercy to that horrible Anderson creature.”
Tyler shivered, remembering. “Not much chance of that. Between the ballistics matchup of Arnie’s gun and the bullets that killed the three women, and Arnie’s blood found at Veronica Molinsky’s where he ripped his cheek open hiding in her rose arbor, he’ll be put away for a long, long time.”
“Here’s Jared now.” Gran nodded toward a car pulling into the driveway and rose from her rocking chair. “I’ll bring another glass.”
She slipped into the house as Jared climbed out of his car. Tyler crossed to the porch steps to meet him. The sight of him made her heart pound and her pulse race, and when he drew her into his arms for a long, lingering kiss, she wondered if anyone ever died from sheer happiness.
He released her, and she crooked her arm in his and walked back to her chair. He sank into the rocker with a sigh.
“Were the tests rough?” she asked.
He nodded, raking his fingers through his hair. “Tedious. The parapsychology department at Duke University is thorough. They have to be, in a field viewed with so much skepticism.”
She waited. He would tell her the results in his own time. The silence stretched between them, comfortable and intimate. One of the most fulfilling aspects of their relationship was their ability to communicate without words.
He nodded toward the invitations. “Are those ready to mail?”
She grinned. “I’ll drop them off at the post office later this afternoon. Now’s your last chance to back out before the die is cast.”
“Hmm.” He scratched his chin. “There’s a thought.”
“Jared!”
With a mischievous grin, he grabbed her wrist and tugged her onto his lap. “You know I’d marry you today if you’d forget this fancy wedding and run away with me.”
She nuzzled her face into his neck. “Now, that would be a new experience—running away with you without cops and killers on our trail.”
His lips grazed her hair. “We could hire Enrico and go back to the Birch and Bottle Inn.”
She sat back and glared at him with mock indignation. “And forget the private honeymoon cottage in Bermuda? No way.”
He shrugged in resignation. “You’re right. Besides, I’ve grown fond of Gran and wouldn’t want to disappoint her. What’s a few more weeks? We’ll have the rest of our lives together.”
She settled contentedly into his arms.
“Tyler?”
The somberness of his tone made her sit upright and study his face. “Yes?”
“Are you sure you want to go through with this?”
“The big wedding?” Fear hammered at her heart.
He shook his head. “Marrying me.”
“Of course, I’m sure. Why wouldn’t I—”
“The test results. They were pretty conclusive.” He turned away, avoiding her eyes as he stared across the deep side lawn.
“They won’t change my mind.” Her heart constricted at the pain in his eyes.
“You have to know that I’m different. My mindit doesn’t work like other people’s.” His flat, emotionless tone frightened her more than his expression.
She stroked his cheek with the back of her hand. “Tell me about it.”
“They verified my psychic abilities, my heightened perceptions. That night in the emergency room, Arnie Anderson had just committed his first murder and was in a highly agitated state. When I suffered the aneurysm, my trauma produced a psychic conduit, connecting me to Anderson. That’s how I shared his thoughts.”
“But—” she drew back and met his gaze “—Arnie had nothing to do with sending the bomb, and you dreamed about that, too.”
He nodded. “The tests also confirm I have strong powers of precognition.”
“Precognition?”
“Clairvoyance. I can tell the future—some of the time. When I’m emotionally connected to someone or something.” He grimaced as if the words left a bad taste in his mouth. “That makes me different.”
She grasped his shoulders and met his gaze. “That makes you special. But I would marry you even without your extraordinary powers.”
“If anyone’s special, it’s you.” He clasped his fingers behind her neck and drew her head down, covering her mouth with his. She reveled in the scent of him filling her nostrils and savored the taste of him on her lips.
She lacked his precognition, but knew she would love this man forever.
When the kiss ended, she drew back, searching his face and finding her love reflected there.
“Have you had any more dreams?” she asked.
His face crinkled in the smile she adored. “Only good ones, and all about you.”
She dipped her head for another kiss. “I promise to make all those dreams come true.”
eISBN 978-14592-7579-9
DREAM MAKER
Copyright© 1996 by Charlotte H. Douglas
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
All characters In this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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Printed In U.S.A.
Table of Contents
Cover Page
Table of Contents
Excerpt
About the Author
Books by Charlotte Douglas
Cast of Characters
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Epilogue
Copyright
Dream Maker Page 18