Feel the Heat (12 page)

“Oh honey, of course. I never keep any of those from you.”

“I know, I know.” He rubbed the back of his neck, trying to wipe away the itch. “I guess we’re just looking for anything that can give us a clue in this situation.”

She nodded at the laptop. “Those the files you asked Andy for?”

“Yeah, but we’re no closer than we were before.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “I know the answer’s here someplace. We just need to find it before something bad happens.”

Mia studied him a moment. “Would it be all right if I met her?”

He raised his eyebrows. “To see if you get any vibes?”

“Yes. When we first met it was over the dustup over Chase Carpenter’s secret electronic gadget. I had a vision about you even before we met. I even had snippets of ones about the Carpenter project. I think it was because somehow I had signals that our paths were going to cross. And since then every vision I’ve had has related to someone I know or someone connected to them.”

Dan shrugged. “It’s certainly worth a try.”

“Just as long as you tell them up front there’s no guarantee. I might not get anything from this.”

“Understood. I’ll call Troy first thing in the morning. What’s your schedule look like tomorrow?”

When they first met, Mia was the resident art historian for a museum. After their marriage, she’d resigned and now worked as a freelance consultant. It left her free to travel with him much of the time and they’d kept her home in San Antonio, as well as his condo in Baltimore. That way he had a base on the East Coast when he needed to be in the Phoenix office.

“I have an appointment in the afternoon but otherwise I’m free.”

“Okay then. I’ll set it up.” He smiled at her. “And thanks.”

* * * * *

Gayle Hauser sat in the hospital room next to her husband’s bed. It seemed to her she’d been occupying this chair forever but it was only three weeks. Ever since the night Clark took a turn for the worse. She was using her sick days from her job but those had nearly run out. Then their major source of income would dry up. At fifty-five, Clark was too young to retire, so he also had taken sick days, but he’d used up what he had weeks ago.

He looked so pale and fragile lying there in the bed, one machine dripping saline fluid and antibiotics into his body, another monitoring his heart rate. A pulse oxymeter was clipped to one index finger, measuring the amount of oxygen in his blood. His breathing was uneven. The result, according to the doctors, of the fluid collecting in his lungs. They were doing everything to isolate and contain the source of the infection in his body but nothing seemed to work.

She knew they were considering putting him on a ventilator and that scared her almost more than anything else. She knew of people who’d been put on the machine and never been taken off. It had signaled the last of the downward spiral.

“Clark.” She said his name softly. “I don’t even know if you can hear me.” She slid her hand into his and laced their fingers together. “If you can hear, just squeeze my hand a little.”

Was that a weak squeeze or just a contraction of the muscles?

She wiped away a tear with her free hand and let out a slow breath.

“I’m going to think you’re listening, because I have some news to tell you. Something astonishing has happened. You’ll hardly believe it.”

A soft little sound escaped his lips. Was he acknowledging her? If only he’d open his eyes.

“A man called me out of the blue, Clark. A man I’d never met. He said he represented a very wealthy individual who got pleasure out of helping people like us. Can you believe it? I didn’t think there were people like that left these days.”

Gayle had to stop and gather herself because she still had trouble believing what the man had said. She squeezed her husband’s hand gently. Wait! Was that an answering pressure? No, she was probably just deluding herself.

“Anyway, this man said his boss knew of a woman who could help you get better. A psychic healer. Can you imagine such a thing? You know I don’t believe in all that stuff but, honey, if she can help you I’ll try anything.”

She let out another slow breath and swallowed against the tightness in her throat.

“And not only that, he’s going to give us money. Oh Clark, he said five hundred thousand dollars. Can you even imagine it? I’m afraid I’m dreaming and when I wake up this will all be a cruel hoax. But I’m going to get in touch with this woman and get her to come and see you. Then I can call the phone number I have and the money goes into our bank account.”

She paused and studied his face, so pale and gaunt-looking. He was no longer the robust male he’d been not so very long ago.

“I know you’d tell me this is probably some kind of hoax,” she went on. “I mean, who would give
us
this kind of money right out of the blue? Right? But I’ll tell you, I’d make a bargain with the devil right now if it meant you’d get well.”

She stopped talking as the nurse on duty came in. The woman smiled at Gayle, the practiced professional smile that was becoming all too familiar. She checked the machines monitoring Clark then injected medicine into one of the IV lines. At the door she turned and smiled at Gayle.

“We’re all praying for him, Mrs. Hauser.” Her voice was soft and soothing. “Hoping for a miracle. We just think the two of you are so nice. Something good’s bound to happen.”

“Thank you,” Gayle told her. “I hope your prayers are being heard.”

When the door closed and they were alone again Gayle lifted Clark’s hand to her lips and kissed his knuckles.

“I hope I’m doing the right thing here. I just wish I knew if you heard me.”

As she lowered his hand to the bed, again she felt what might have been an unconscious muscle spasm but she preferred to believe he was actually squeezing her hand. Her heart beat just a little faster.

“Oh Clark. You heard me. You heard me. I just know things are going to be all right.”

She reached into her pocket and touched the slip of paper with Lauren Cahill’s phone number on it. Waiting two days to call her was going to be the hardest thing she’d had to do yet.

* * * * *

“Did you get the photos I sent?” Reid McFadden asked his boss.

“I did,” Olberman told hm.

“I want you to know I played hell getting them. The guy in the house is very cagey about being seen. That house is shut up like a fortress, plus they’ve got a guard sitting in a car down the street.”

“I hope you were careful.” Olberman’s tone was sharp.

“I know the score. Don’t worry. I got lucky. I was doing my usual once-a-day drive- by just at the moment he came out to toss some idiot off the porch.” Reid took a sip of smooth Scotch. The day had been a real bitch and Olberman was getting on his nerves. “Haven’t got the others yet though. Can’t hang around too long. But I figured if you found out who one of them was it might tell us who her friends are.”

“You were right about that. The man in the house is Troy Arsenault. He’s a partner in The Phoenix Agency.”

Reid wrinkled his forehead in thought. “I don’t think I know them.”

“All ex-military. They do corporate security, hostage negotiations and rescue. They’re really a security and paramilitary firm. I’m assuming the others are some of his partners. Two of them live in San Antonio.”

“That doesn’t sound so good.”

“Oh I don’t think they’ll be a problem.” Olberman’s voice was thick with confidence. “I’ve got people who can chew them up and spit them out. You just get that woman to the hospital. I’ll do the rest.”

Reid disconnected and sat for a moment staring into his glass. And wondering why he had a sudden uneasy feeling that things were going to get far more complicated than anyone expected.

Chapter Six

Lauren and Troy were in the kitchen drinking coffee when Troy’s cell phone rang. By now Lauren was used to the harsh intro to AC/DC’s
War Machine
. She listened carefully to his side of the conversation, trying to read the expression on his face. When he hung up smiling she relaxed a little.

“Good news?” she asked. “Did they find out who my stalker is?”

“I wish I could say yes, but we might have a new angle to try.”

She quirked an eyebrow. “Really? I thought Dan was having Andy crunch the lists and identify possibles. What else can we do?”

He took one of her hands in his, rubbing his thumb lightly over the knuckles. Just that simple touch made her breath catch and her pulse stutter. How was it possible, she wondered, that in such a short time she, who had become adept at avoiding entanglements, was wrapped so tightly with this man? Trust was a scarce commodity with her. Life had taught her not to give it easily. But Troy had breached her defenses, reached deep into that part of her that she guarded so carefully. And somehow she couldn’t make herself regret it. Not yet, anyway. Not ever, she hoped.

“Do you remember my telling you that each of my partners’ wives had a special psychic gift?”

“Yes. I thought it unusual that each of you fell for someone who had that kind of ability.”

He grinned. “Another example of truth being stranger than fiction. Oh, and just to clarify. With Rick’s wife, Kelly, it’s the dog.”

Lauren widened her eyes. “A dog?”

“Uh huh. A Caucasian Ovcharka. Russian sheepdog. They’re known for bonding only with their owner and those family members it’s trained to protect.”

“So what makes this one so unusual?” she asked.

“When Kelly and Rick met, Xena immediately took to Rick. Almost unheard of with these dogs.” He took a swallow of his coffee. “Rick was in a pretty dangerous assignment and the dog kept warning Kelly, even though they were separated by thousands of miles. Saved his ass more than once.”

“That’s a pretty remarkable dog. But what does all this have to do with me?”

Troy took her hand again, lacing his fingers with hers. “Dan’s wife Mia is a precognitive. Do you know what that means?”

She nodded. “She has visions of things in the future.”

“Yes, but with Mia it’s a little different. She doesn’t go into a trance or anything. These visions can come to her out of nowhere when she’s doing something very ordinary. Like sitting at a traffic light or making coffee. And they don’t come to her as anything clear-cut. She gets bits and pieces in flashes and often what she sees are clues to the real thing.”

“Are they focused on a person or an event?” she wanted to know. Lauren knew about precognition but she’d never really studied it a lot. She had enough to keep up with learning about and using her own psychic gift.

Troy leaned back in his chair. “When Dan and Mia met she’d already had a vision about him, only he was a warrior come to fight a battle. Which wasn’t so far off the truth. He came to San Antonio to help his friend, Chase Carpenter, whose top-secret government gizmo was in danger of being ripped off. And Mia had had fragments of visions about that too. So in a way her visions were a portent of Dan’s arrival and their connection.”

Lauren frowned. “Okay, but what does all that have to do with me?”

“When Mia gets her precognitive flashes, they either have to do with someone she knows or someone she’s about to know. She and Dan talked about it last night and thought maybe if you agreed to meet her, let her get to know you a little, her mind might pick up something that would lead to your stalker.”

“You mean, like sensitives? She can touch me or something of mine and get vibrations from it?”

Troy shook his head. “Not like that at all. Although she does say she gets vibes from people she connects with. Anyway, I thought it was worth a shot.”

“I agree.” Lauren finished the rest of her coffee. “I’ll try anything to get rid of whoever this is. When are they coming over?”

“Dan suggested later this morning. I have to call him back and let him know it’s okay.”

Lauren rose, rinsed her cup in the sink and put it in the dishwasher. Turning back to Troy, she waved her hand in the general direction of the front of the house.

“What about all those cretins camped outside my house? If they see someone new coming in here they’ll fall on them like bloodsuckers.”

“They’ve seen Dan coming in and out. Mark too.”

“But you know they’ll try to swarm them. Badger them for information.”

“Sweetheart.” Troy stroked his knuckles down the slope of her cheek. “Believe me when I tell you tougher people than the idiots outside have tried this with us before and failed. It’s all good. Really.”

“I hope so.” But she was none too sure. Whenever she went through one of these sieges they could last from hours to days. It just depended on how hungry they were for news and how tenacious they decided to be.

“When I came downstairs before you this morning I checked, and the crowd seems to have dwindled a lot.” He ran his hands up and down her arms. “I think we’re about at the end of the latest frenzy. If we could just get this stalker taken care of you could draw a full breath.”

“Don’t I wish.” She leaned her head against his chest. “Sometimes I think maybe my folks are right and I should just give up using my gifts completely.”

“Hey.” His voice was soft and warm. He slid two fingers beneath her chin to tilt her head up.” “I don’t want to hear that. You can’t let them win.”

“I know. I know. It’s just I’m so tired of this always happening. And if they go away now and you catch this stalker, what happens next time? Will I always be running from something?”

He touched his mouth to hers. “Let’s get this taken care of first. I promise you the future will handle itself.”

Lauren looked hard into his eyes. Did he mean what she thought? Hope swirled inside her, something she didn’t remember feeling for a long time.

“That’s a promise,” he repeated, as if reading her thoughts. “Meanwhile let’s shower and dress. Dan said Andy was trying to refine the lists we narrowed down so I’m going to give him a call.”

The heat of the water paled in comparison to that generated by Troy and Lauren as they stood naked in the shower. At the sight of his erect cock, the muscles in her pussy contracted and she was consumed with an urge to take him inside her. Just his touch had her aroused and hungry for him.