by Rebecca York
“That’s not quite the same thing as moving objects with your mind. I’d call that forcing someone to take an action against his best interest. Or that he hadn’t planned.”
“That would be useful.”
She shook her head. “I don’t think we can practice that kind of thing on each other. Maybe we should work on the other part of the problem.”
“You mean trying to figure out how we got this way?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll go get the papers you took from your mom’s.”
As soon as he said it, she felt her stomach knot. There was something in those papers that she was going to find. And did she want him here when she did?
She tried to shove that thought far down in her mind and focused on her other worry. At the moment, the idea of letting him out of her sight felt wrong.
“Go on,” she said. “And hurry back.”
Chapter Ten
When Luke left the apartment, Gabriella walked restlessly from the front windows to the back, then to the street side again, staring out at the sidewalk and buildings. When she didn’t see anything unusual, she got out her cell phone and found there were two messages from her friend at the restaurant, Tim.
As soon as she heard his voice, she knew something was wrong.
“Gabriella, where are you? There were two tough-looking guys here looking for you. Emile said you’d gone home, but they said you weren’t there. Then they started asking people if they knew where you might be. At first nobody would say anything. When they started offering cash for information, Janie went outside with them. I listened in. She remembered that you’d wanted to sublet Emily Philips’s apartment. If you’re over there, you might want to watch out for them.”
She wished she could describe George to Tim and ask if George might have been one of the men. But there might not be time for that. And if it was George, he had someone else with him.
Gabriella took her lower lip between her teeth. She’d suggested this apartment because she’d thought she and Luke would be safe here.
Now it seemed like a very bad idea.
Luke had gone down to the car to get the stuff from her mom. He was outside. And vulnerable.
Her heart was in her throat as she ran to the back window and looked out. Luke was standing beside the car, and two men were on either side of him, both holding guns. Neither one of them was George. Were they mobsters from New Jersey?
She made a muffled sound as her heart began to race. What was she going to do?
In a panic, she tried to reach out to Luke with her mind the way he’d done with her at the motel when George had been standing over him with a gun. At first it was like sending a feeble flashlight beam into a vast, lightless cave. Then she felt a glimmer of something.
Luke.
Thank God. I’ve been trying to contact you.
Tim called me from the restaurant. He said two guys were looking for me.
They were using you to get to me. They’re from the mob. He confirmed her suspicion. Even in her mind, she heard the grating quality of his voice and gasped.
What are we going to do?
They don’t want any witnesses. They’re marching me upstairs. Get out of there.
No! The reaction was automatic. Then she reconsidered. If she were in the apartment, they’d both be trapped.
Too bad Luke had used up the last bullets in George’s gun. Or maybe it didn’t matter. Probably she couldn’t win a gunfight with two experienced thugs.
Better to do something totally unexpected.
Frantically she looked around and found a collection of decorative paperweights on the desk. Snatching up a cluster of them, she ran out the door, closing and locking it behind her, then ran up the steps to the next floor.
Downstairs, she heard Luke and the men come in.
“Hurry up,” one of them growled, “or I’ll shoot you right here.”
He started climbing the steps.
Luke, I’m on the next floor, in back of you. I locked the door. I’m going to hit the bald one with a paperweight.
She heard his silent curse echo in her mind.
Her heart was pounding as they came into view. As a kid, she’d thrown stones into the bayou. Now she was thinking that maybe she could add power to her throw by using the technique they had practiced with the napkin and the paperback book.
Send me your energy, she asked Luke, hoping he’d heard her.
From her vantage point, she watched him nod slightly as the trio stopped at the door.
“It’s locked,” the bald one said.
“Oh, well,” Luke answered.
“I don’t need any smart comments from you.”
“Did it ever occur to your boss that I might have duplicate copies of my research, with directions to publish it if anything happens to me?”
“Maybe. But who’s going to be stupid enough to do that if you’re dead?”
“You might be surprised.”
Now!
Focused on the man’s bald head, Gabriella threw the paperweight. It shot through the air with more force than she could have mustered on her own, finding its mark and hitting with a satisfying thunk.
As the missile struck home, Luke lunged back, grabbing the other man and slamming him into the first.
Gabriella was ready with another paperweight, which she lobbed at the second man. But it went wild, and the guy wrenched himself away from Luke, gun raised.
“Don’t shoot,” she shouted.
The guy whirled around and spotted her on the steps. She ducked back as he pulled the trigger, feeling a slug travel past her face.
Luke sprang at the man, going for the gun. As they struggled, the first man stirred and started to rise.
She pounded down the stairs, a paperweight in each hand. She clunked the first one down on the guy she’d initially hit, and he went still. Then she turned toward the two men struggling. Luke and Blondie.
She wanted to hit the mob guy, but he and Luke were moving too fast for her to get a clear shot.
Could she affect the fight with her mind? Did she have the energy?
Luke and Blondie were standing on the landing, and she saw that the guy’s foot was at the edge of a step.
I’m going to try for his foot, she told Luke, hoping the message would get through.
She gathered all her power, pushing at the foot. It seemed she couldn’t do anything by herself. Still, she tried harder and saw the shoe inch toward the edge.
It was enough for the guy to waver on his feet. Luke gave him a shove, and he went sailing down the stairs, screaming as the gun went flying and he crashed to the bottom.
Luke ran after him, grabbing the gun and bashing it onto his assailant’s head.
The bald one was still on the landing outside the apartment groaning. She hit him again, thinking that his head must be made of iron as the paperweight thunked against his thick skull.
Luke rushed back to her. “Are you all right?”
“Yes. Are you?”
“Yeah. But we’ve got to get out of here.”
“I’m sorry. I thought we’d be okay in Emily’s apartment.”
“My fault. I didn’t even know they were in the area, but they must have tracked me to the plantation.”
“And they found you through me. Then they came to the restaurant looking for me, and Janie said I might be here. So let’s not assign blame.”
He stood with one of the wiseguy’s guns at the top of the steps where he could watch both men. “Get our stuff. We’re leaving.”
She dashed back into the apartment, sweeping what they’d unpacked into their travel bags. She looked around, thinking she should straighten up, but there was no time for that now.
In under two minutes, she was back on the landing. Neither of the men had moved.
TENSION ZINGED THROUGH LUKE as he riffled through the pockets of the guy who had fired at Gabriella. He had never been so scared in his life. Not for himself. For her. The George guy h
ad wanted information from her. These men wanted her dead—so she couldn’t talk about him.
He pulled out the man’s wallet and keys, then stood.
“Come on.”
They hurried down the stairs where he searched the second wiseguy and took a second wallet.
“Yeah, it’s stealing,” he muttered in response to Gabriella’s unspoken thought. “Better than murder. Besides, they owe us.”
He caught her agreement and her hope that they’d gotten enough money to do them some good. From the size of the wads of bills, it felt as if they’d liberated a small fortune. Unless they were carrying around bricks of ones to tip bellboys.
She laughed, and he knew she’d picked up that thought, too.
After throwing the bags into the back of his car, she looked up to find him unlocking the door of the other vehicle.
“What?”
“I’m going to drive their car away from here, so they can’t come after us. You follow me,” he said, when what he really wanted was to reach for her and pull her into his arms—and hold on to her for a long time. But if the guys in there woke up before he and Gabriella left, they were in trouble.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
Good question. “You know the city better than I do. Got a suggestion where I can leave their car where nobody will pay attention to it for a while?”
FAR AWAY, RACHEL WAS MAKING lunch when she went absolutely still.
Jake was immediately on the alert. “What?”
“They’re in trouble.”
“The other couple you were talking about?”
“Yes.”
“The same kind of trouble we were in?”
“I don’t know. They were fighting with two men.”
“And?”
“I think they got away. But…”
Although she didn’t finish the sentence, Jake was becoming an expert at following her thoughts.
“You still want to help them.”
“Yes.”
“You know that could be dangerous.”
“I don’t think they’re like Mickey and Tanya.”
“Why?”
“The best I can tell you is—intuition. I spent a lot of time as a tarot card reader making assessments of people.”
“And you’d bet our lives on that now?”
She gave him a pleading look. “They need help.”
He sighed. “Where are they?”
“I don’t know exactly. Somewhere in the city, but I think they’re leaving. I think we need to wait until they get where they’re going.” She leaned back and closed her eyes, trying to learn more.
LUKE FOLLOWED GABRIELLA as they drove to the old Jax Brewery building that had been converted into a tourist shopping mall.
In the parking lot, he found a space for the thugs’ vehicle, then climbed back into his car. They exchanged a long look, but neither one of them wanted to linger.
Gabriella exited, paying a minimal fee for the few minutes they’d been in the lot.
“That fight hurt your arm,” she said when they were heading along the river.
“I’ll live.”
“You need to rest.”
He laughed. “Yeah, when we get some time to ourselves.”
“Now where are we going?” she asked.
“Away from the city. I’m not sure. Maybe it’s better if we don’t know before we get there.”
While she drove, he went through the wallets he’d taken.
After he’d counted the money, he whistled. “Five thousand dollars. That should keep us going for a while without using credit cards.”
“Those guys…”
“Were working on a cash basis. No credit cards. No identification.” He stuffed half the money into his pocket and put the rest into her purse. Then he took the wallets apart looking for hidden compartments. There weren’t any. And no additional contact information at all.
“I guess we should have looked in their shoes.”
“Huh?”
“Didn’t you watch reruns of Get Smart? He was always hiding stuff in his shoes.”
She laughed, then asked, “What if they’d been stopped by the cops?”
“Judging from their behavior when they found us, I’m guessing they would have tried to shoot their way out of it.”
She winced. “What are we going to do?”
“They were after me. Guys from the mob. Which means I put you in danger by having you with me. I was afraid of that,” he added.
She gave him a fierce look. “Do not say we should split up. If we had, they would have gotten you. And before that, George would have gotten me. We’re safer together.”
“I guess you knew I was thinking about…separating.”
She put her hand on his knee and said the next part silently, he assumed to emphasize that they were better together than apart.
Of course I knew! And you’d better promise me that we will stick together—no matter what.
The depths of her feelings might have shocked him if he hadn’t felt something similar. When he didn’t answer at once, she clenched her hand on his knee. “Say it!”
“Okay. We will stick together.”
“And we will find out how we got these mental powers. And we will strengthen them.”
“Yes.”
A rest stop was coming up. When she pulled into the parking area, he looked at her, then caught what was in her mind as she cut the engine and reached for him.
When he gathered her into his arms, she started to shake. He was trembling, too, as they stroked their hands over each other and kissed with a desperation and passion that made his head spin.
“I just want to be safe. With you.”
“I know.”
She gripped his arm. “And don’t start that stuff again about my being safer without you.”
“The mob…”
“Don’t.”
She moved her mouth against his, as if that could stop the unwanted thoughts running through his head.
They were lost to each other. Lost to the world, kissing and touching and celebrating their escape from the wiseguys—until someone rapped on the window beside her, and she jumped.
For a terrible moment Luke thought it was one of the men who had found them at Emily’s apartment. But it was just a teenager grinning at them through the window.
Luke gave him a look that would have killed if they’d had that ability.
The kid’s expression changed in a split second, and he hurried off. When Luke’s focus shifted back to Gabriella, she fumbled for his hand and gripped it tightly.
“What is it?” he asked, trying to read her, but her thoughts weren’t clear to him.
“Something…” she whispered.
“What?”
“I feel like someone was watching us.”
He looked around the parking area in alarm, then relaxed. “Just that jerk who thought it was funny to interrupt us.”
“No. I mean, someone else, far away who can see things…psychically.”
He stared at her, fighting a feeling of dread. “You’re sure?”
“Of course not. But I think someone knows we’re…connected.”
“Someone who wants to help us…or harm us?” he pressed.
She sighed. “I wish I knew.”
“Maybe we can figure it out if we strengthen our powers. If they can spy on us, maybe we can spy on them.”
“Which means we need some privacy to experiment. Are we far enough from the city to find a room?”
“I don’t think so. Why don’t you let me drive?”
“Your arm’s okay?”
“Yeah.”
She climbed out and looked around, and he knew she was still coping with the spooky feeling that a remote viewer could eavesdrop on them.
One more thing they had to worry about. But there was nothing either one of them could do about it at the moment.
When she slipped into the passenger seat and buckled her seat belt, he t
ook off, still heading away from the city.
He drove to Bayou Monroe, a small, quiet town. First they stopped at a discount department store where they shopped separately and each paid cash for casual jeans, T-shirts and baseball caps.
They found a motel with cabins, and this time she checked in. The minute they stepped inside, she closed the door and reached for him, and he came into her arms.
They’d had no real opportunity for privacy since the men had found Luke that morning.
Finally they were alone, and the hot, frantic kisses they exchanged made his head spin.
Still, he knew this was about more than satisfying their need for each other.
Intimate contact had cemented the connection between them, and it might be the key to their survival.
His mouth moved feverishly over hers, her taste familiar and intoxicating. She returned the passion with something near desperation.
He wanted to tell her to slow down, but he couldn’t say the words—or rein himself in.
His hands found the hem of the T-shirt she’d bought and slipped under, stroking across the skin of her back.
Electricity arched between them, as she strove to tell him with her mouth and body and hands how much she wanted him.
He lifted his lips a fraction, his breath rough. “We need to use this for more than…pleasure.”
“I want…you.”
“I want you, too. But I want more.”
He felt her silent protest, but she knew he was right. They had almost gotten killed this morning. Their shared talent had saved them.
“What should we do?” she whispered.
He grinned at her. “This is working pretty well.”
She let her head drop to his shoulder, clinging to him as she dragged in air.
He leaned back against the wall, taking her with him, feeling energy surging back and forth between them. In fact, he was sure he was on the verge of seeing sparks fly.
He smiled at the thought.
Striving to keep the idea in his mind from transmitting itself to her, he turned her in his arms so that her back was cradled against his front. His hands slid up and down her sides, then moved inward to capture her breasts, stoking her arousal.
He knew she felt his mind reaching for hers. More than reaching. As he stared into the room, his breath caught. He could see little crackles of mini-lightning skittering across the floor and pooling around chair and bed legs.