God, she was strong, so strong. She’d walked in on her mother’s corpse, found her tortured and beaten, and she was still fighting. Anyone who could do that was extraordinary. She might be small, but she was the strongest person he knew. But even if she could stand against the storm tearing its way through her world, she wouldn’t be able to stand against a killer if he came for her. That required a different type of strength, one he could offer.
Sienna needed protection, and before she’d let him do that for her, she’d have to trust him. Looked like he’d be eating at the diner three times a day for a while longer.
13
Sienna
Jace was sincere, she could tell that. That didn’t mean Sienna could let him in. Maybe he really did want to help; maybe he was just a very, very good liar. She frowned, refusing to look at him as his truck bounced along the road. He hadn’t spoken since they’d left his property, his mouth set in a hard line. He was angry with her, or maybe just frustrated. Either way, Sienna wished that had been avoidable. He was a stranger, but as every day passed, he was starting to feel less and less like that. If he was really working for them, if he’d wanted to hurt her or kill her . . . well, all he would have had to do is stand back when the trucker had gotten in her face.
Or just let you walk off the damn cliff.
What the hell had happened in the meadow? She’d had a bit to drink, sure, but she hadn’t thought she was that far gone. She closed her eyes, trying to clear her mind and focus on the present moment. Nothing else mattered. Opening her eyes again, she blew out a loud breath, causing Jace to turn her way for the first time in the trip. Worry was written all over his face.
Why had she even told him about her mom? She’d promised herself she wouldn’t say anything. But then he’d touched her, held her, and the floodgates had opened. She hadn’t felt anything like it since she’d found her mom on the floor: comfort from a simple human touch. Unlike the other regulars at the truck stop, he hadn’t been yelling at her or—she shuddered—trying to look either down her shirt or up her skirt. He was just . . . there. There for her. Until she’d blown it back at the house. He was sitting just across the car from her, but he may as well have been an ocean away due to the tension between them.
It took less time than Sienna remembered to arrive at her car. Jace was watching her closely, probably trying to work out if she was okay to drive. She was. There was nothing like pouring your secrets out to a total stranger to sober you up. What she was going to do about it was another question. He embraced her, hugging her quickly, before returning to his vehicle. There were no further caresses, no lingering holds. He sat in his truck and waited for her to start the engine and drive off before she saw him leave in the other direction, returning home. That was something, she supposed. He hadn’t just dropped her off on the roadside.
By the time she got back to the truck stop, her eyes were drooping, from sheer exhaustion this time. She was going to have to get some sleep before she would be able to even think clearly about what her next step should be. Should she take Jace at his word, trust him? Maybe she could find a way to check out his background a little. Dragging her feet, Sienna approached the corner immediately before her room, where she stopped dead. Her slow movements had paid off—there were voices coming from right outside her room. If she’d been going her usual pace, she would have walked straight into them before she’d heard the whispers.
“Do you think she’ll even listen?” a deep voice asked. Must be a man. Fuck.
“No. She’s scared. She’s not going to trust us.” Another voice, a woman this time.
“Can you feel her?” The man’s voice again.
“Yes. She’s listening to us.”
What. The. Fuck?
The woman kept speaking. “She’s so scared, Cole. She’s desperate. I know what that’s like.”
Sienna’s legs went out from under her slowly, like whatever had held her up for weeks had suddenly been cut away. For all her stress and worry, a small part of her had thought that somehow she’d get away. She couldn’t die here in the middle of nowhere, could she? Her head fell and she closed her eyes. Jace had even promised her everything would be okay.
“Cole! She’s used her powers already. She stopped them from hurting her already.” Sienna’s head jerked up again. Them? If they weren’t the ones who had killed her mom, then just who the hell were they? How many people were suddenly out there, running around in the world trying to kill her?
“Sienna, it’s okay. We’re not going to hurt you.”
She snorted, then clapped a hand over her mouth. Yeah, because she hadn’t already heard that already today—damn the sexy cowboy. Wait . . . how did they know her name?!
The voice came back around the corner within seconds. “I can read your mind. We’ve been trying to find you. Yes, you are in danger, but you’re not alone.”
She stood on shaking legs, taking a shuddering breath and then gulping it down. Her hands gripped her thighs so hard her nails pressed into her skin, pulling her back from the fear enough to speak. They knew she was there, knew exactly where she was. There was no point in staying silent, or trying to run. Maybe, just maybe, they weren’t the ones trying to kill her after all.
“Why should I believe you?” Her voice was weak and high and she had to hold back a groan. God, she sounded so pathetic!
“It’s okay.” A woman stepped around the corner and Sienna scrabbled backward. The woman held her hands up in surrender, looking sharply over her shoulder for just a second. Shit, where was the guy? “It’s okay, Sienna. I can show you my memories”—she paused, head cocked as she stared at her—“or we could just say fuck this shit and you listen to what we have to say. You know I’m not lying, you’re just too scared to admit it.”
“I’m not scared.”
The woman snorted. “Honey, you’re so scared you can barely stand. But that’s okay. I’ve been there. I wasn’t alone then, and you’re not now. Please, just listen. I didn’t, and I barely escaped with my life.”
No. No. No. No. Sienna squeezed her eyes shut. This had to be a hallucination. She was exhausted, stressed out, and she’d had a big day. That was all this was. When she opened them again, the woman would be gone and she could go back to her room and get some sleep.
“I thought I was going crazy, too. But he’s seen the things I can do. You’re not imagining it, either.”
Sienna’s eyes flew open and this time she nearly fell to the ground as she jolted. A large man stood next to the woman. He had a sympathetic face, but he was built like he fucking lived at the gym. A guy like that could squash her with his little finger. She didn’t need to walk off any cliffs—one false move now and it would all be over.
“Jesus, Sienna. Are you okay?”
Fear once again gave way to what-the-fuck. The man in the sedan trying to run her off the road had scared the hell out of her, but he hadn’t stuck around. Not only were these people doing more talking than trying to kill her, one of them was definitely in her fucking head! She forced her legs to move and walked to a bench near her room. They obviously already knew where that was, too. “Okay. You have my attention.”
The woman flopped down on the seat next to Sienna. “I’m Payton, by the way. That gorgeous man over there is Cole.” Cole did the man head-nod thing at Sienna, but didn’t come any closer. Good.
“So you can’t use your powers on command yet?”
Her what? “No. What are you talking about?”
“The car. You . . . it looked like you bounced them off. That’s a new one.”
“How the hell would you know what it looked like?”
Payton tapped the side of her head. “I can see it just as clearly as you can.” Every muscle in Sienna’s body tightened again. “Oh, no, don’t get scared again!” Too late. Sienna had a feeling she was going to be scared as fuck for all eternity if this shit kept happening. “You’re just blasting it out there. That’s natural. Like the cliff, it was a defining moment f
or you.” Payton wagged her eyebrows. “Good work, by the way. He’s hot, too.”
“Who?”
Payton grinned. “The cowboy, of course! You should keep him.”
Sienna’s mouth dropped open. This was fucking insane. “It takes a bit of getting used to, doesn’t it?” Cole said, grinning at her from across the walkway. “I still have my huh? moments.” He chuckled, and Sienna forced herself back from the ledge. If these two were going to kill her, then, well, they’d had ample opportunity already. Who knew what their end goal was, but the people who murdered her mom hadn’t seemed like the “sit down and have a chat first” type. For the moment, anyway, she was just going to have to trust Payton and Cole were safe and listen. Otherwise she was going to give herself a stroke with the constantly rising blood pressure every time one of them spoke.
“So, your power,” Payton said. “All you need to do is focus. It’s already there waiting for you. I’ll show you. Just close your eyes.”
Sienna watched Payton’s eyes drift shut and she closed her own. A few seconds later, she felt Payton’s touch. She frowned. Actually, no. No one was touching her—physically, anyway. But she wasn’t entirely by herself, either. Payton was just . . . there. “Look inside you, where you feel all that hurt, and the love. That’s where you’ll find it.” A wisp of light moved through Sienna’s mind, and she followed it. It moved down, deep inside her thoughts. There! Like tiny bursts of lights, sparking inside her mind. How was she going to catch it? They were like little fireflies, dancing about. Damn. She’d heard about guided meditation, but this was a bit extreme. It was almost like she was sharing the inside of her mind with someone else.
“You are,” Payton said. Okay, well, that explained it, then. Sienna was just going to ignore the implications of that for a moment, before she really did go insane. “Imagine reaching down and catching one of the lights, and then pull it up with you.”
Sienna tried, but the lights kept darting out of her reach. She took a deep breath and dived in deeper, but was suddenly stopped. She hit a hard wall, something fleshy and pink. Oh, God! It was her mom, lying on the floor, her cold, dead stare looking straight at her. “Sienna. You’re okay. You’re still here with me, out in the open.” She tried to imagine the light she’d seen inside her mind, and feel its warmth. The wall in front of her didn’t move—but started projecting Jace. His smile, warming her inside before he turned around and walked off the cliff. Sienna’s stomach lurched with him and her eyes flew open.
“I can’t do this!”
Arms wrapped around her and a gentle shushing noise reached her ears. It was only after several minutes that Sienna realized it was coming from Payton, and that Cole had positioned himself right in front of them while her eyes had been closed, shielding them both from anyone who happened past.
“It’ll come in time,” Payton said. “When you’re ready. And once you are, you’ll have complete control.” She paused, then spoke again. “Can you trust us enough to meet some other people?”
14
Sienna
They were telling the truth. Sienna hadn’t managed to grab onto it, but there was something there inside her. A light. Something tangible. She could feel it, and Payton had the same thing. That much she’d proved already. “Okay.”
Taking her car, she followed them down the highway, driving for what seemed like forever, until they turned onto a dirt road. It was a lot like the one that had led to Jace’s ranch, but this one wandered through untouched desert, ending up at a long trail winding around the bottom of a butte. Sienna shielded her eyes and looked off into the distance, where she could barely see the outline of a shack, dwarfed by the massive rock structure. Payton leaned out the window and called her over to their car. “Yours isn’t going to survive the trip to the front door. Emily’s already seen it. Hop in here with us!”
Well, in for a penny and all that. She shivered as she stepped out of the car. They were so far out from any civilization that she doubted anyone would ever find the body if her worst fears came true. Even if the others here didn’t mean her any harm, that didn’t mean she was safe. The wind blowing up around the barren landscape sounded like whispers of the dead in her ears. At any time, a shadow could launch itself out of the dark and slit her throat. Payton had already completely blown her mind in just half an hour. What if the people who hunted her mother were the same? Her mom had been just about the smartest person Sienna had ever known, but even she had told Sienna you could never rule out anything. She was seeing the cold truth of that. There was definitely more to the world than she knew; the rules she’d relied on her entire life could be bent and broken and she had no idea what side those people were on.
About half a mile from the shack, Cole stopped the car and sat silently as Payton’s eyes fluttered closed. “What’s going on?” Sienna asked.
“Payton’s checking in before we drive up to the house,” Cole replied. “If I don’t have her with me, we mere mortals have to use cell phones, but we never approach without calling first. We’re pretty careful.”
“No shit.” Sienna stared at Payton, who sat deadly still for a few seconds more before suddenly bouncing back to life.
“It’s all clear. Drive on!” She turned to Sienna. “You already knew you weren’t safe. What you don’t know yet is why. Now that we’re together, we’ve finally got a real chance at finding these people and stopping them. God knows, they’re not going to stop until we do.”
“Stop who?” Had the same people who killed Sienna’s mom done something to Payton? Who were the others?
“It was actually you who brought us here. Our friend found you first.” Payton grinned. “You scared her shitless that day. Well done. It was about time someone ruffled Keila’s feathers a little.”
“I never saw anyone.” Everyone was a local, except the drivers passing through, and none of them had stuck around.
“You wouldn’t. If there’s one thing Keila’s gotten very good at, it’s hiding.”
Wait . . . the blonde. The one that had disappeared in seconds.
“Yep, that’s her.”
“Okay, this thought-reading thing is really creepy.”
Payton shrugged. “Sorry. It’s a habit. Makes sex wicked awesome, though.”
Oh. My. God. Sienna’s face burned the rest of the way to the house.
Cole pulled the truck up at the house, covering it up once they exited. It was incredible how the truck-shaped object blended into the environment. He caught Sienna staring. “A few of us tag-alongs have law-enforcement and military history. It comes in handy.” He looped an arm around Payton’s shoulders as they strode into the building. Sienna followed them a few paces behind, half getting ready to make a run for it should everything suddenly turn.
The house itself was a bit of a walk from where they’d parked, and was an old nineteenth-century design. It reminded Sienna of the set of an old western movie, the ancient gray wood long since bleached by the sun. Everything was covered in a thin layer of sand firmly affixed by the monsoon rains. When they reached the house, Payton slipped out from under Cole’s arm and strode inside. He sat down on the long porch steps and patted the stoop next to him. “She’ll go get the others. Some of the more, shall we say, paranoid members of the group would prefer to meet outside for now.”
Sienna brushed off one of the steps and sat down, careful to avoid a massive splinter. “What are they like?”
“The other psychics?” There was that word again. She still wasn’t sure what to make of it. What she’d done on the road that night had been crazy as fuck, but she wouldn’t call it psychic. That was more Payton’s thing, with the mind reading. “They’re all different,” Cole continued. “This is the first time we’ve all been together, it’s a bit of a mismatched group.”
“What can you do?”
He smiled, but he didn’t turn to her. His gaze roamed constantly over the landscape, as if he were keeping watch. “I’m not psychic. Neither are Reece, Aaron, or Jason. W
e don’t know for sure, but it seems to be only women.”
“Why?”
“We don’t know that, either. Could be Keila’s only found other girls.”
Sienna followed his stare out to the desert. Nothing. What was he looking at? “So how do we fight someone that we have no clue about?”
“Don’t know that, either, but what you all can do . . .” His gaze broke from its constant wandering long enough for him to shoot her a quick glance, looking her up and down. “I’m sure you’ll be just as strong.”
Before she could ask another question, the door to the house opened and a blonde head poked out. The woman from the restaurant! “It’s her.”
Payton rolled her eyes. “I told you she was clean.”
Before Sienna could ask any more questions, another blonde came flying out of the house and practically tackle-hugged her off the step. “I’m Lainey. It’s so great to finally meet you!” Her burst of energy refreshed everything around Sienna, her skin almost tingling with it.
“It’s umm, nice you meet you.”
Lainey took her hand, hauling her up, and introduced the others. The sneaky one was indeed Keila. Sienna frowned as she looked her over. The woman had a pinched look to her face that never seemed to entirely go away. Standing close to her was a tall brunette named Emily. She took Keila’s hand and tugged her over. “Satisfied now?”
“Fine. We can go inside.” Keila ushered her into a front room of the house, where camping chairs and lanterns had been set up. In the center of the room was a large table, surrounded by boxes of different things littered about the place. Sienna felt the tension inside her unravel a little more. This was clearly a makeshift “dump your shit everywhere” place right now. An evil genius would probably be a little neater. As the thought ran through her head, Payton snorted. Sienna grinned, but didn’t say anything. Cole was right, you got used to that quickly. “How’d you guys find this place?”
Sienna (Dreamcatchers Romantic Suspense Series Book 5) Page 8