Healing Heather

by Aiki Flinthart

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  HEATHER

  She blinked at him. ‘Sorry. I’ve never met anyone as sensitive to my feelings as you are. Normally I can feel people and have some small effect on their emotions, but they don’t know it. It helps me calm a frightened mother. I wasn’t doing it to you on purpose.’ Tiredness loosened the guards on her tongue. She hadn’t meant to tell him that part of her abilities. Manipulating people’s feelings had saved her several times. Kade was more difficult. He seemed to be aware of it in a way that no-one else had been.

  He took a step away, glowering. ‘That’s what this is all about, isn’t it? You’ve been playing me, haven’t you? The stories you’ve spun. That seduction scene in the bathroom. That was all you inside my thoughts, making me believe you; making me want you, wasn’t it? None of it was real! None of what you’ve said is real.’

  Heather faltered. He wouldn’t believe her. But she had to try anyway. ‘No. You wanted me from the first moment you saw me. I felt it in the café when we touched hands.’ She caught his confused, angry gaze with her own strait one. ‘You know that’s true. I just…’ She made a helpless little gesture. ‘…fuelled it a bit.’

  ‘Well.’ He moved further away. His handsome face turned cold, bleak. ‘You can try your influence on Carleton and see how you go with him. From now on, don’t come near me.’

  ‘No! Please? He’ll…’ She shuddered.

  Kade propped himself against the mantelpiece, folding his arms. ‘He won’t do anything to you. I’ll be there the whole time.’

  Heather bit her lip. How could he be so blind to Carleton’s nature and so judgemental of her own?

  Fear. He judged her because he was afraid of her abilities, afraid what he felt for her might be real, afraid it might not be.

  She tried again. ‘And afterward?’ she said softly, studying his lean, tensed shoulders. ‘When you’re gone? He’ll hound me for the rest of my life if he thinks I know where Amy is. Don’t you understand? It’s bad enough running from each town when local people start to suspect I’m doing something odd. If you add the people working for Carleton then I’ll never be free. I’ll never be able to relax. I’ll spend the rest of my life running. And I can’t do it anymore. I’m so tired.’ Her voice broke because she couldn’t help it, but he must have seen it as more manipulations. The look he sent her was colder than the air outside.

  He shrugged carelessly. ‘So lead me to Amali and let her face her father.’

  Heather flushed with anger that gave false energy. ‘Now you’re being naïve. She married David against her father’s wishes. If she contacts her father, he’ll find a way to destroy her marriage.’

  Kade shrugged again. ‘Marriages fail all the time. People divorce, run away, die.’ Bitterness flickered in his eyes.

  The last of her energy drained away, leaving her limp. She curled up on the couch, clutching a fluffy cushion to her belly and pillowing her aching head on another. She sighed heavily, lost in the crackling, spitting fire.

  ‘Kade, just leave me alone. Go and tell him I died here. I’ll disappear again and we’ll all be happy.’ She finally let her eyes close, welcoming the bliss of unconsciousness.

  A stinging pain on her cheek brought her blearily back.

  ‘Heather!’ Kade called her name from a vast distance.

  ‘I’m awake,’ she muttered crossly. ‘But I want to sleep. Please. I’m so tired.’

  ‘No!’

  She opened her eyes to see his handsome face inches from hers, clouded with a welter of emotions.

  ‘You have to stay awake, Heather.’ Anger and fright faded, replaced by concern. ‘You almost slipped away again, like you did last night in the bath.’

  ‘What?’ She didn’t understand. ‘Slipped away?’

  ‘You almost died then,’ he said tersely. ‘And you will now if you go to sleep.’

  Heather yawned. ‘That might not be so bad. I am very tired. It would solve everything, too, wouldn’t it?’ She wanted to thrust him aside, but her arms were too heavy. Darkness claimed her and she went willingly.

  KADE

  Kade saw her slide into unconsciousness again, and was helpless to stop it. What could he do? If he touched her she would have so much power over his mind he wouldn’t be in control. The thought filled him with apprehension. How could he save her—without touching her—when she had clearly given all her strength to save him? Surely he owed her his life, at least.

  Even as he argued with himself, her breathing slowed and her hold on the pillow relaxed. She appeared peaceful, innocent, angelically lovely.

  ‘Dammit!’ Kade swore fiercely. Unable to think of anything else to do, he laid a hand on hers and willed his own energies into her. The surge of transference was feeble at best. It did no more than cause her lashes to flicker. Not enough. She had drained herself proving her abilities to him, fighting him, convincing him. He had to give more. Maybe the energy transference had something to do with the amount of skin contact?

  Half-reluctantly, he gathered her fragile figure into his arms. Still no response. She weighed almost nothing, barely a burden as he carried her along the hall to the bed they shared last night.

  Dragging off her clothes and his own, he bundled her once more under the covers. Then, gritting his teeth, he hauled her slight body against his. She lay limp and unresponsive, though he knew she still lived. Not for long if he didn’t do something.

  He rolled her onto her back. Long, dark eyelashes fringed her ridiculous eyes. In the mellow lamplight, the creamy skin of her long neck seemed a rich gold. Shadows emphasised the clean lines of her jaw and the gentle double-curve of her lips. A tiny, faint pulse in her neck jumped erratically.

  All his reactive anger faded at the sight of her slender, helpless form, relaxed in his arms. This time, he knew it was his own feelings, not hers. She was too sunk in lethargy to project any thoughts into his mind. There were no excuses. No way he could blame her for the chaos of fear, anxiety, admiration, and desire that pulsed through him now.

  Never in his life had he been so affected by a woman. Lovers came and went. He stayed detached. No amount of feminine tears, recriminations, pleas and declarations cracked his shield after Amanda. Yet, somehow, this defensive, elusive, unusual girl had snuck right through his walls and cracked him open, exposing his soul for her pleasure.

  No. He let that bitter thought go. He knew enough…he’d felt enough of her to know that she wasn’t trying to manipulate his feelings out of any sort of vindictiveness or spite. She was simply trying to survive as best she could with the skills she had.

  He looked at her again. The pulse in her neck slowed, jumped, stopped and started again, fainter than before.

  He willed his energy into her; willed her to live, as he had before.

  Nothing.

  Why wasn’t it working this time?

  ‘Come on, Heather,’ Kade whispered. ‘Come back.’

  #

  ‘No, Tor, do it now or she’s going to die! I don’t give a shit who hired the damned thing. It’s your helicopter. Get it out here or get me a paramedic helicopter. The local emergency services is, literally, snowed under with calls already.’ Kade tromped on the snow in the driveway, crushing on the white stuff restlessly. His breath frosted and his nose had lost feeling about three minutes after he’d left the house.

  When Heather’s response to his plea had been to sink further into stupor, he’d had to act. Dressing in the warmest outdoor gear he could find in Tor’s closet, he’d pocketed his phone and strapped on snowshoes. Tor had warned him cell reception was patchy at best, and only possible from halfway down the driveway.

  So Kade now flattened the small area where the phone received signal and swore at the delays. The sun, high and brilliant in a crisp blue sky, glittered off the blanket of snow. He’d forgotten sunglasses so his eyes ached and watered in the dry air. His fingers were numb because he’d had to strip off the gloves to use the phone keypad. Hopefully the phone would kee
p operating in these temperatures.

  Torin came back on the line, his voice crackly and tinny. ‘They’re firing her up now, Kae. I’ve had someone call a doctor and he said you’re doing the right things. Keep her warm. Get more juice into her. The chopper’ll be there asap. Is the pad clear?’

  ‘Jeez, Tor!’ Kade reviewed the terraced area where, in the summer, a helipad allowed easy access to the property. ‘It’s four feet under. I can’t clear it. I’d be leaving her alone for too long. Tell them to bring the winch. I’ll be waiting. Make it quick.’

  ‘That bad?’

  ‘You have no idea.’ Kade glanced at the house. Did she still live? ‘This girl is…no, I can’t explain it. I’ll tell you when we get there—if she survives.’

  There was a long pause. Had the line dropped out again?

  ‘The day you took this job, someone told me,’ Tor said, his voice low and thoughtful, ‘the woman we were searching for would be important to you. Is she?’

  Kade hauled his thick wool hat off and thwacked it against his thigh.

  ‘Yes. No.’ He swore. ‘I don’t know, Tor. All I know is that there’s something weird going on and she’s part of it. I don’t think Carleton told us everything, either. Do me a favour and get a deeper background done on him – and on his daughter. She evidently married a surgeon named David something. See if you can find him, too. More than the usual. Dig.’

  ‘What am I looking for?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Kade repeated. ‘That’s the problem. It’s a… gut feeling. There’s something not right here.’

  ‘I’ll get someone on it.’

  ‘No.’ He stamped in the snow. ‘I think it’s one we need to keep between us. You do it.’

  In another long pause Kade could almost hear Tor totting up his time and the cost to the business if he took his focus off running it for long enough to do a deep background search on Carleton.

  ‘Alright.’ Tor ended the call.

  Used to his abrupt ways, Kade pocketed the phone and regarded the silent house for a long time. Was it Heather’s influence that made him doubt Carleton’s veracity? He’d forgotten, now, what he thought of the man at their first meeting. All his memories were coloured by feelings of uneasiness and distaste. But were they his or hers? Why was she so afraid of a man she’d never even met?

  He trudged to the house and inspected Heather. She still breathed, but shallow and soft, barely audible even in the silence of the darkened bedroom. Swearing, he raced through the lockdown preparations. One of the upstairs windows, left unshuttered in the storm last night, had blown in and the floors were a mess of water and leaves. Cleaning it wasn’t high on his list of priorities so he threw a towel over the water and made mental note to send a cleaner in when the roads were clear.

  He tidied the kitchen, at least, then packed her clothing and his own. At the last minute he bagged his torn, bloodied clothing and stuffed it into his haversack. It might be useful.

  Arriving back in the bedroom with juice and chocolate, Kade managed to rouse Heather enough to force the liquid into her, though much of it dribbled down her chin, onto her throat.

  Her eyelids opened briefly and drifted closed again. Despairing and helplessly angry, he dressed her, scooped her up, wrapped in the quilt, and carried her to the front room.

  Peering out the front window, a faint, dark speck high in the blue sky brought a grim smile to him. The distant tick-tick-tick became a deeper note that thrummed through his chest. The helicopter neared and dropped lower. Lower, still, and the noise drowned the peaceful silence. A cloud of snow surged up from the landing pad. The helicopter hovered, waiting.

  Kade studied the pale, sleeping figure in his arms and kissed her white lips gently.

  ‘Hang in there, Alanna.’

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  KADE

  Kade paused in his pacing when Torin re-entered the room with a beer bottle in each hand. He passed one to Kade, who threw down a mouthful. Tor sipped his and sank onto the red leather couch, shoving aside a pile of unread junkmail. It cascaded to the floor, joining a welter of others.

  ‘You do know you could afford a bookkeeper or PA to do your private accounts, don’t you?’ Tor said. ‘The business does, actually make a profit.’

  Kade threw him a half-hearted grin. ‘I have a lower care-factor about these things than you do.’

  ‘I noticed,’ Tor said drily. ‘But your care-factor about this girl Katherine-Meghan-whatever seems to be pretty high.’ He hooked one arm over the back of the couch and took another swig of beer. ‘Want to tell me what’s going on? Have you heard from the hospital?’

  ‘Yes.’ Kade strode to the window and stared out over the busy streets of the Tribeca without seeing them. ‘They have her on a drip. She’s still unconscious but they think she’ll be alright with a few days rest and food. Exhaustion and exposure, they said.’ He laughed bitterly. ‘You should have seen the way they looked at me. Like it was my fault she almost died.’ He leaned on the window frame and hung his head, hearing the truth of it again.

  Leather creaked on the couch behind. A heavy hand fell on his shoulder.

  ‘It wasn’t this time and it wasn’t last time, either, Kae. She made her own choices, as did Amanda.’

  Kade made a noise of frustration and shoved Torin’s touch off, gritting his teeth against the upwelling of pain. ‘Easy to say,’ he spat, ‘but it was my choice to hound this poor girl until she couldn’t run any more. My fault I pushed her too hard; that I got injured and wasn’t there to protect her.’

  ‘Injured?’ Tor’s deep voice cut through the darkness and Kade clenched his jaw, trying to master his spiralling guilt.

  Tor asked, ‘Are we still talking about this girl? Because you couldn’t have got out of hospital in time to get home to Amanda, we both know that. You had two bulletholes plugged for God’s sake. What does that have to do with this? I don’t see the connection.’

  Collecting his discarded haversack, Kade tipped it out on the floor and snatched up the plastic bag containing his clothes. He thrust it at Torin and turned again to the window. Plastic crinkled behind him and Tor made a noise of disgust.

  ‘Is that blood?’

  ‘Yes.’ Kade held himself tightly in control again. ‘I want at least two good men on her door and two in the room, Tor. We need to get to the truth behind this girl before we give her over to Carleton.’

  After one, quick, searching inspection of Kade’s face, Tor produced his phone and barked the orders. Tucking it away he brandished the clothing, wrinkling his nose.

  ‘So explain.’

  ‘I can’t. Not yet, anyway. Let them dry and put them into the evidence locker at work.’

  ‘Kade, what is going on?’ Tor tied the bag shut and threw it at the door.

  ‘We need to wait until she’s well enough to get out of hospital.’ Kade clutched his partner’s arm, half-surprised not to feel what Tor was thinking. ‘Trust me. It’s important. And I’ll take over the investigation into Carleton. I think I know what I’m looking for now.’

  Tor frowned, his dark-rimmed storm-blue eyes heavy with doubt. ‘Fine. Three days. No more. After that, if you’ve found nothing and she’s well enough, we arrange the meeting with Carleton.’ He swallowed the rest of his beer and headed for the door. There, he paused. ‘So, when she’s released from hospital, what do we do with her? Where’s she going to stay and what’s to stop her running?’

  Kade directed a furious glare to his partner. ‘She’ll stay here, with me. I’ll keep her from running.’

  Tor grinned and glanced around the room with its welter of unread mail, clothes, and random sports equipment. ‘I’ll send the cleaner over, shall I?’

  HEATHER

  Heather woke to a familiar, yet unfamiliar environment. She recognised the antiseptic smell and the background hum of voices and machines before she even opened her eyes. She’d spent many hours in hospitals over the years—but never as a patient. But which hospital?
r />   She braved the world, opening her eyes. High-rise buildings dominated the view outside.

  He’d brought her to New York after all.

  ‘Ah!’ An over-cheerful face appeared and Heather flinched. The female nurse checked Heather’s pulse and blood-oxygen content. She nodded. ‘Nice and strong now.’ She patted Heather’s arm and tugged the heavy white sheets unnecessarily into place. ‘You’ll be fine in a couple of days. Buzz if you need anything.’ She pointed to the button dangling by the headrest. ‘We’ll take the catheter out a little later, when you’re stronger. You can rest now.’

  ‘Wait.’ Heather’s voice cracked. ‘The man who brought me in. Where is he?’

  ‘Mr Miller?’ The nurse dimpled. ‘He went home to get some sleep. But he left two of his people outside your door and two inside, behind the curtain. He said you were worried about a stalker. Don’t be worried. You’re safe here.’

  Heather turned aside to hide the tears. The door closed and a lock snicked in the silence.

  #

  The first two days she spent doing little more than sleeping, eating and trying to resist self-pitying misery. It wasn’t easy. She didn’t have the energy for any other sort of emotion and no-one to vent it on, anyway. No-one visited except medical staff. Kade had installed round-the-clock security who never spoke to her. Straight-faced and unflinching they basically ignored her, though their eyes followed her and their bodies tensed every time she left the bed.

  So she was alone, yet not alone at the same time. The only time she had any privacy was in the bathroom. It was humiliating but also strangely comforting. Yes, she was basically imprisoned, but she was also safe from Andrew Carleton. But for how long?

  After two days recuperating, she felt well enough to confront Kade and ask the question. She asked one of her stoic bodyguards to request Kade’s presence.