Amanda's Touch [D.A.R.E.ing Women] (Siren Publishing Allure)

by LeeAnn Masters

  Jackson continued, “We have surveillance on them. We can hear Tabott and Mrs. Hall from time to time, so we know she’s still hanging in there. She seems to be doing a fine job of keeping him as calm as she can. She’s being amenable and stroking his ego, which is just what she should be doing right now. Can you tell me how to contact her family? We need to learn about this young woman. We need to know what her relationship is with Tabott and how she knows him. How he’s likely to respond to her and her to him. How steady is she? Does she have any health problems? Do you have a next of kin list you could pull up for her?”

  Not looking at Allison, Zack responded with a half-lie. “I am her next of kin. We’re just recently engaged to be married. We hadn’t informed the staff as yet since it just occurred over the weekend. Her closest relatives are her grandparents, and they live in Florida.” He saw Allison duck her head to hide her expression and loved her for it. Jackson gave him a doubtful look but went along with him. Zack went on to explain that Amanda had been the lead architect on the Tabott project and had worked with him for months on the renovation plans prior to coming down with an illness that had required someone else to take over.

  “As far as keeping her head, she’s always been pretty solid under pressure and seems to intuitively know what people are going to do.” That was as close as he could come to saying she’d know before something happened without mentioning her abilities. Of course she’d only know if that person had physical contact with her and Zack didn’t want to think about that.

  “I don’t think she has or will panic, even though she must be terrified.” She was terrified! It was crashing off of her so strongly she nearly had him crippled with it. “I don’t think Tabott knows about our engagement and I feel it would be better for Amanda if he doesn’t find out. It would give him more power.” Jackson nodded in agreement. He didn’t want to give the guy any more ammunition.

  “You don’t think Amanda has told him? Or will tell him? Do you think she’d see the sense in not doing that?” Jackson asked.

  Though this was not remotely funny Zack had to curb the wild impulse to laugh. “I’m sure that Amanda has not, nor will she tell him we’re engaged.” Especially since I haven’t asked her to marry me yet! Good God when would these people get a move on?

  “Any health issues we need to be aware of in case we need to use any chemicals to drive Tabott out?”

  “Oh Christ!” Zack gulped “She has a myriad of health issues. First and foremost, we just found out she’s pregnant.” Allison’s look of astonishment was plain for all to see. Well, that would be normal they wouldn’t have necessarily told the rest of the staff about that either. Amanda was going to kill him for letting the cat out of the bag.

  “She had a grand mal seizure two days ago and I’m still concerned she may have another. She suffers from chronic migraines and stomach upset, especially when stressed. She was in a very bad car accident about twenty months ago and suffers from muscle weakness on the right side of her body in her shoulder, hip, and knee. She has pins and rods in her femur and hip from that same accident.”

  Jackson had begun shaking his head as soon as he heard she was pregnant, and by the time Zack finished the laundry list of health concerns he stood with jaw agape. Turning to another staff member he told him to get a doctor on the way, ASAP.

  “I am a doctor,” Zack informed him, and received a look he’d grown accustomed to over the past couple of years.

  “I thought you were the owner of the renovation firm?” Jackson asked him incredulously.

  “I am,” Zack replied shortly. He pulled out his medical ID and his business card and handed both to the commander.

  “Now when the hell are you going to get your ass in gear and get her out of there?!” he demanded in frustration. Reflexively, he raised his hand and rubbed his right eye. It took him only a moment to realize Amanda was working on a migraine. Oh shit!

  * * * *

  Amanda had spent most of the past two hours trying to keep Tabott as happy as possible. He’d railed at her drunkenly for the first hour, waving his gun in her face threateningly. He’d called her every name under the sun but his favorite was “scheming bitch.”

  Now that he was sobering up she was actually becoming more worried instead of less. His anger, previously mitigated just slightly by the alcohol, was now even more dangerously rampant. Amanda was learning she had underestimated his ruthlessness. He felt he had nothing left to lose. The only thing that was keeping her alive was that he wanted Zachary first and figured holding onto her would draw him out.

  He still wasn’t certain what her involvement was with the investigation, if any. His problem with her was that Zack’s entire family had pulled their investments from his care and placed them with Amanda’s company. How he’d found out that she still held controlling interest in her mother’s firm was beyond her, it was supposed to be a well-concealed secret. She liked staying behind the scenes and allowing Paul to run it for her, and he made a great deal of money doing just that while she got to concentrate on a career she really liked.

  She still hadn’t been able to figure out a way to explain all this to Zack without seeming like a…well…like a scheming bitch. That was why, while she’d encouraged his family to meet with Paul to get information, she’d also told them to feel free to invest elsewhere. If she’d told them not to invest with the firm she was with they’d have wondered about that, too, rock, hard place.

  Once she’d gotten over her initial shock and determined that she needed to keep Jonathon talking, she’d taken every opportunity to do just that. Two hours in, she was getting a little hoarse. The stress was beginning to take a toll on her and she could feel a migraine building behind her right eye. It was only a matter of time until the nausea kicked in and something told her Tabott wouldn’t take kindly to her vomiting repeatedly in his presence. He didn’t seem to be the hair-holding type, she thought acerbically. She pressed her fingers to her eye and rubbed. When the hell would the troops arrive to rescue her, she wondered? Poor Zack was probably going mad due to both his worry and his lack of control over the situation.

  She must have lost focus for just a minute too long because Tabott was now towering over her and fuming at her lack of response. A second too late she saw him raise his hand and tried to duck his back-handed blow. His fist, given a hard core by the butt of his gun, struck her left cheek bone with a vicious strike that snapped her head back. She felt the sting as his signet ring added insult to injury by slicing her cheek open. She clenched her teeth together and hissed in pain but would not give in to it and give him any satisfaction.

  “I’m losing patience, Amanda. You get him up here, and get him up here now! Or I’ll just continue to take it out on you. And, there are any number of ways I can do that…” He walked behind her chair, reached down her blouse and pinched one breast painfully to make his point. Amanda closed her eyes and tried to stay calm because she knew Zack was going to go postal if she didn’t shut her emotions down.

  * * * *

  Zack was in the elevator with Jackson and Hodges when he was hit with the first true wave of pain. He hissed in reaction, as Amanda had, and balled his hands into fists. He abruptly felt her pull the pain in as if to keep it from reaching him. She was trying to put up a wall so his reactions wouldn’t be fed by hers, damn it! He wanted to know what was happening with her and if she closed him out he’d go crazy. Less than ten seconds later he felt an additional pain, this one slightly muted as she attempted to block it out as well. He began to quiver in a rage so intense he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to contain it.

  As they stepped out onto the fourteenth floor the commander and negotiator looked at him in concern. “He’s begun beating on her,” he informed them angrily. He was going to kill the son of a bitch himself if these pansy-assed officers didn’t do their job and get her out soon.

  In confusion they looked at each other and then at him again. “How do you know? We’re not hearing that from our sur
veillance team. They’re still saying it’s pretty quiet in there,” Jackson said, jerking his chin toward Zack’s suite of offices.

  “I can feel what she feels,” he told them briefly. “We’re very close.” They could choose to believe him or not.

  Jackson looked at him disbelievingly but Hodges was more open. “You’re an empath?” she asked as though this was very normal question. Zack nodded once in acknowledgment. It was killing him that he couldn’t just bust through the door and whisk Amanda away to safety. These morons were playing with her life!

  “Good, we can use that to our advantage” Hodges said calmly. “Can you transmit as well as receive?” Jackson looked like he was choking on something at her words.

  Hodges turned to Jackson and said, “You know there’s more to the world than what we see. After all the cases we’ve worked together you should understand that there are links between people beyond our scope of understanding.”

  “Can you send?” she asked again.

  “I can, yes, over short distances. But physical contact works more easily. There are some issues with Amanda that don’t allow me to transmit as effectively to her as I might others.”

  “Oh? What are those issues?” Hodges stood with raised brows. Zack stared at her, not sure what or how much to say. “Mr. Grayson, we need any edge we can get here, surely you understand that?”

  “I…I’m not sure you’ll understand what I’m about to tell you,” he replied slowly as he was distracted by yet another muted pain sensation from Amanda, a migraine flare this time.

  In the next second his head turned involuntarily in her direction and the muscles in his body tightened again as though in preparation of a strike. This time they all heard Amanda cry out and he felt a white-hot blaze of pain shoot through his head. Zack took off down the long hallway toward his suite and grunted heavily as he found the air knocked from lungs, and his face pressed to the floor. He’d been tackled hard from behind as Jackson and another officer took him down and sat on him.

  “Grayson! You cannot go busting in there!” Jackson ordered him. “Do you understand me? You’ll get her killed.” Zack struggled fruitlessly while pinned to the floor by both men. “If you don’t calm down I’ll handcuff you and have you removed? Are we clear?”

  Zack continued to struggle uselessly as Jackson pressed his knee harder into his back and the other officer hauled an arm up behind his back and between his shoulder blades. “Grayson, are we clear?!”

  Breathing hard Zack grunted his agreement and tried to calm himself. He’d be of no use to Amanda if he couldn’t control his own emotions. Intellectually he knew that, but as her lover he couldn’t focus on what he should do, only on what he wanted to do.

  “We need you to talk to Tabott but I can’t let you do that if you can’t control yourself. I won’t have you making the situation worse. Are you hearing me?” This time it was Hodges who spoke.

  “I hear you,” he replied shortly.

  Jackson told the other officer to release him and keeping a knee on Zack’s back reminded him one more time, “Cool and calm, Grayson, got it?” Zack nodded, unable to speak as he felt another wave of pain wash over Amanda and he groaned out loud. How many times had Tabott struck her, he wondered? He wanted to fillet the bastard. Jackson allowed him to roll over and helped him to his feet while giving him a quelling look.

  Hodges pressed Zack for an answer. “What issues impact your communication with Ms. Hall?”

  Uncaring if anyone believed him at this point Zack stated baldly, “Amanda is clairvoyant. She can see someone’s past or future by touching them or their belongings. She is a touch telepath. She can read what people are thinking when she touches them. She is also a medium. She can see and speak to the dead. Her abilities cause a…friction of sorts between us, and she can and has successfully blocked my emotional influence both consciously and subconsciously.”

  “So, she knows what Tabott will do before he does it?” Hodges asked excitedly. Zack could almost hear her thinking that that would be their ace in the hole.

  He grimaced and rubbed his aching lower back. “Not always. She doesn’t see everything and she can’t see her own future. She can only see her future as it pertains to other people’s lives.”

  “I’m guessing that’s why she told Allison not to let you in the office then,” Hodges muttered to herself. When Zack looked at her curiously she explained, “Amanda’s exact words were, ‘Do not allow Zack to come in here.’ Allison was very clear. That was a specific order from Amanda. We thought it was only worry on her part. I guess now we know better, don’t we?”

  * * * *

  Amanda was striving valiantly to hang on to consciousness. In pain, she’d made the mistake of becoming sarcastic with Tabott. This had resulted in him taking the butt of his gun to back of her skull in reprimand. That of course did nothing to help stave off her migraine, or nausea. Her head felt as if it was disconnected from her body. An awful deep burning sensation was the only thing keeping her awake and she desperately wished she could let go of it and drift away. As if he could read her mind she felt another sharp blow to her cheek as he struck her open-handed this time.

  “I need you to stay with me, Amanda” he ordered. “Call him again… Let’s see if he’s ready to play.” He hit the redial button and handed her the receiver.

  * * * *

  “Lieutenant Hodges.” Zack watched and listened as Hodges answered his cell phone. He’d been told to remain silent until given permission to speak. His phone had been confiscated within a minute of meeting Jackson and handed over to the negotiator. There had been multiple calls since then but he had not been allowed to answer them. With his phone now connected to their system he heard Amanda’s voice for the first time and fell to his knees in gratitude.

  “This is Amanda Hall…” she began with a shaky voice and Zack ached to hold her. Now that he was closer maybe he could reach her emotionally? He had to try. He pushed harder than he ever had sending warm and comforting feelings her way, wishing he didn’t have to touch her to deaden her pain.

  Abruptly her voice grew a little stronger, more composed, and he could tell he’d reached her. “Jonathon Tabott wants to speak to Zack Grayson. Is he available?”

  In the background they could hear Tabott grow angry with Amanda. “No! I told you that I want the bastard in here! Not on the phone! Tell him to get his ass in here and talk to me face to face, like a man!”

  “Amanda?” Hodges was checking to see if she was still with them.

  “Don’t!” Amanda yelled. “Do not let him in here!” Zack lurched to his feet as he heard the clatter of the dropped phone. A scuffle in the background and the unmistakable sound of flesh striking flesh was followed by a swallowed whimper and fresh flare of pain from Mandy and Zack groaned in agony. Jackson grabbed his arm in an iron grip to hold him in place.

  “Fucking cunt! Do as you’re told!” she was ordered by Tabott.

  “You’ll kill him if I bring him in here! I won’t let you do that!” The horrendous pain in her voice and the amount of it emanating from her was worse than awful. It was staggering and Zachary thought he might lose his mind.

  Beyond his ability to stay silent he shouted to her, “Mandy, call for Joshua! Do you hear me? Call for Josh!” Then the line went dead.

  * * * *

  “Who is Joshua?” Hodges demanded.

  Well she hadn’t thought him crazy yet, he may as well go for broke. “He’s my dead brother. Amanda has been working with him to cross him over, but he’s still hanging around. I can see the spirits she sees if I am touching her. I’m playing the odds that I’ll be able to see him today if she calls him. It seems that the closer Amanda and I become emotionally the more tied I am to what she sees. Just yesterday I discovered I can see whomever she sees after touching her once to tune into their frequency so to speak. At least that’s the best explanation I can come up with.” He stopped to look around him, wondering if they’d lock him away in an asylum for hi
s words. Hodges was dumbstruck and Jackson was fingering his handcuffs.

  “Zack!” He heaved a sigh of relief at the sound of his voice and turned to his brother. Amanda must have heard him.

  “Josh, oh thank God! We need your help. Can you tell me what’s going on with Mandy? Be our go-between? We need to know where Tabott is and what he’s doing.”

  Zack had no idea if it would work or not but he reached out and took Hodges’s hand praying his connection to Mandy was strong enough to work even at a distance.

  “Oh my God!” was the gratifying answer as her eyes tried to focus in disbelief on the figure in front of her. He stretched to grab onto Jackson too who muttered, “Holy shit!” before pulling away from him in alarm.

  “We can all stay in contact this way,” Zack insisted. “Commander, hold onto my arm!” Jackson tentatively reached out to him.

  “Tell me how she is, Joshua, is she badly hurt?” Zack’s voice broke again and he swallowed.

  “Zack, I don’t think she’s too seriously injured, yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if her cheekbone is fractured and she needs some stitches along the base of her skull. He hit her with his gun.” His sorrowful look spoke louder, it wasn’t pretty. Zack tasted bile in the back of his mouth and swallowed again, tamping it down.

  He actually stepped forward before he felt the now restraining hands of Hodges and Jackson.

  “You can’t go in there, Zack. That guy does plan to kill you and he’s determined to take Amanda down too. You’ll only make matters worse if you give him what he wants,” Josh informed him.

  “Go back and check on Mandy, see if you can get something from her without triggering Tabott,” Zack ordered. “If I can’t be there for her, I want someone to be.”

  “Zack, she’s not alone, buddy,” Josh tried to comfort him. “David’s there with her.” Zack’s eyes widened in surprise and fear. For some reason that knowledge didn’t bode well. The hair on the back of his neck prickled.