Extrasensory (11 page)

After they’d ordered their food and been served, Mark threw the first question at her. “Have you always had precognition? I mean, since you were a child?”

“Yes. I guess since I was about ten years old.” She made a face. “My parents thought I was making up stories to call attention to myself. They were both very busy with their lives. My father’s an attorney and my mother is a successful real estate agent.

They didn’t understand a child who was ‘different’. Besides, I was wrong a lot of the time and they punished me for creating problems where there were none.”

“What about when you were older?” This from Dan.

“I began to learn how to interpret the messages a little better but many of them confused me. So again, I was wrong more than I was right. It got so nobody wanted to trust anything I had to say. Even after the times I was proven right.”

“Tell me a little bit about how you get these images or whatever they are,” Dan prompted.

As long as I can keep away from the image of you naked and the sound of your voice in my
head.

Mia explained about the images that could hit her at any time. Sometimes sharp, sometimes just flashes of color. Seldom clear enough to interpret so she had to do a great deal of research to identify what she was seeing.

“And it’s so easy to be wrong.” She pushed her plate away, no longer hungry.

Managing with her bandaged hand was difficult anyway, even though the injury was to her left one and she was right-handed.

So yet again she described everything, beginning with the first image of the bouncing rock. What she was doing when the flashes of images hit her. What they looked like. And again, without quite knowing why, she held back the image of the dripping knife.

Dan narrowed his eyes, watching her, trying to keep the atmosphere relaxed. He waited until the waiter had brought their coffee before he spoke again, then he did so carefully. Mia was like a caged bird waiting to take flight at its first opportunity.

“I have a sense that there might be an image you’re reluctant to share with us.” He made his voice as low and controlled as possible. “Am I right?” Mia started, almost dropping her coffee cup and banging her bad hand against the table. Did he know? Impossible. She bit her lip against the pain, then paled as she saw blood seeping through the bandage.

Dan gently took her hand in his. “I think you might have re-injured yourself pretty badly. This doesn’t look good. I want to have a doctor look at this for you.”

“It’s all right.” She blinked back tears. “I’ll be fine.”

“It has to do with what you’re holding back, doesn’t it,” Dan guessed.

“Mia.” Mark leaned across the table. “Whatever it is, we’ll help you with it.” She clenched her right fist, forcing a calm she didn’t feel and pushing the image of a naked Dan Romeo from her mind with deliberation. After all, it would be normal not to want to share visions of violence with two strangers. “I picked up a knife to cut something in my kitchen and I had an image of someone being stabbed.”

“And you dropped the knife you were holding on your hand,” Mark said.

Mia nodded.

“Any clue as to who was being stabbed? Or doing the stabbing?” She shook her head, blinking back tears again as pain shot through her hand.
Jesus,
Mia, get a grip here.
“No, none at all. That’s what has me worried. And that’s why I didn’t want to say anything, maybe point you in the wrong direction. But Dan, a voice said, ‘Someone’s going to be killed
.’
I don’t usually hear voices. Someone’s going to be killed and I can’t even tell you who.”

“Right now we don’t have
any
direction,” Mark told her, “so whatever we get from you will be a starting point.”

“Okay.” Dan signaled for the check. “The first thing we need to do is get out of here and get that hand looked at. No objections,” he insisted, when Mia tried to protest again. “Then, when that’s taken care, we’ll go meet with Chase Carpenter and his people. They’ll want to talk to you themselves.”

Mia fiddled with her napkin. “I’ve been through this before. They won’t believe me.

They’ll—”

“Be professional and polite or I’m off the case,” Dan told her. “Trust me, Mia. I won’t let anything bad happen to you.” Exactly how the hell he was going to do that he didn’t know unless he handcuffed her to himself until this was over. And that brought up images that made his body react strongly. Like it or lump it, he was in a real pickle here.

“Psychic powers are difficult to harness if you don’t have someone to help you,” Mark pointed out, as they waited for the valet to bring the car. “Faith and I were very lucky. Actually, she was and I rode on her coattails.”

“What do you mean?”

Mark studied her pale face. “If you don’t mind, I’d like you to meet my wife and have her tell you about it herself. There is a group of people she met through her aunt who can help you understand and deal with this, as well as make you feel better about yourself.”

“That’s a great idea,” Dan agreed. “The sooner the better.” Mark pulled out his cell phone. “I promised to bring home Chinese takeout tonight for the two of us. Why don’t I make it takeout for four?”

When Dan had Mia buckled into the passenger seat, he closed the door and turned to Mark. “Well?”

“I’m not the leading expert on this but I’d say she’s the real deal. This isn’t a performance with her.”

“Okay, then. Let’s go. You can be my wingman.”

He called Chase to tell him they’d be just a little late, then pulled out into traffic.

Mia felt as if she’d fallen down a rabbit hole. No amount of protest could deter Dan from getting her hand attended to, or Mark from agreeing with him. She felt cosseted and protected by two big, tough yet gentle men, who took care of her as if she was a precious jewel. And layered on top of that was this
thing
that seemed to be going on with Dan. Every time she thought about the scene in her office the night before, she squirmed, hoping no one would notice.

“I didn’t think you’d want to get thrown into the chaos of an emergency room,” Dan told her, closing his cell phone. “This is a doctor Phoenix uses sometimes. He’s good and discreet.”

“Thank you.” That was all she could say, since apparently he wasn’t going to let her off without getting her hand checked.
He’s like a steamroller,
she thought.

I want to fuck you.

She looked at him but he was staring straight ahead through the windshield.

In minutes they were at a small brick building and he was ushering Mia into the office through a back door. A man with the kindest eyes she’d ever seen unwrapped her hand and shook his head, then scolded her in a soft voice.

“You could have whacked off your thumb, young lady. You also ran the risk of developing a major infection.”

Hardly any time seemed to pass before her hand was cleaned again, numbed, stitched and she’d received a strong shot of antibiotics. Dan held her uninjured hand the entire time in a gesture of assurance. But whatever was bubbling between them must be apparent to him, too, she thought, because every few minutes he looked at her with a strange expression on his face. She was torn between wanting to pull her hand away and never having him let go.

Mark just sat near them, smiling at her encouragingly.

Where do you find men like this? How lucky their wives and girlfriends are.

Girlfriends! Did Dan have one? He’s not wearing a wedding ring so probably no wife. Or
did he just not wear a ring? Ohmigod, did I have an erotic vision, an…incident…with a married
man?
She cringed at the thought.

Dan frowned. “The pain worse?” he asked.

“No, no. I’m fine. Really.”
Not.

When the doctor was finished stitching and bandaging, he gave her two small packets of pills.

“One’s an antibiotic,” he told her. “Take it every six hours. The other’s for pain. Go easy with them. I gave you some pretty strong stuff but I think you’ll need it. I want you to take one now before you leave.”

“I have a meeting to go to,” she protested. “I can’t have my brain fuzzy.” He looked at Dan who nodded agreement.

“All right. I’ll inject a local anesthetic. But as soon as it starts to wear off, pop one of those pills, you hear?”

“I’ll make sure,” Dan assured him.

“I’ve been keeping ice on it,” she said. “All weekend.”

“Keep doing that when you get home. It will ease the swelling from the stitches.” He looked at Dan and shook his head. “Take better care of your woman.”

“She’s not—”

“I’m not—”

They both spoke at the same time and Mark grinned. “I’ll make sure of it.” Then they were back in the SUV heading for Carpenter Techtronics. While Dan called to say they were en route, Mia did her best to be calm.

“You’ll only need me for this afternoon, right?” she asked anxiously.

“We’ll see how it goes. But you may turn out to be the most intrinsic part of this puzzle, the only one who can provide us any clues.”

“I do have a job to go to,” she protested. “My boss has been gone and won’t be back until tonight. But I guarantee he’ll be looking for me tomorrow. He won’t be happy if this disrupts my schedule.” She chewed on her lip a moment. “He doesn’t know anything about my…abilities, either.”

“We may have to make arrangements, then.”

“Arrangements?” She turned her face to stare at him. “What kind of arrangements?”

“If it turns out we need you for the next few days,” Mark told her, “your boss will be told you’ve been drafted for a special assignment. A secret art project. One that came up suddenly.”

Her jaw dropped. “And you think he’ll buy that? You don’t know Dr. Hunter.” Dan chuckled. “And Dr. Hunter doesn’t know Phoenix.”

“But what will you tell him? Who will he think you are?” She was stunned.

“If it turns out it’s necessary, you just leave that to me. We’ll keep your boss off your back. Right now your job can’t take precedence. And Phoenix will more than compensate you and the museum for time lost.”

““But this is so absurd! Am I shanghaied?” She tried to make a joke of it.

“In a manner of speaking.” Dan reached across her to squeeze her right hand. “I decided that signing you on as a consultant would shortstop a lot of problems.”

“What’s even stranger is that you believe me.” She was still amazed at the whole thing.

“If I hadn’t met the Hallorans I might be a tougher sell. But tonight they’ll tell you their story, which is just as over the top as yours. So consider me a convert.”

“Why are you being so nice to me?” she asked curiously.

His face tightened and a dark flush stained his cheeks. “Do I act like the kind of person who eats children for breakfast or something?”

She felt a flush of embarrassment creep over her face. “No. I’m sorry. It’s just that…” She held her hands up in a helpless gesture. How could she tell him she was used to being treated like a pariah or an oddity by everyone she met. Including her own family, whom she hadn’t seen in ages.

“I have to take good care of my only resource.” He bit off the words.

“Oh.” She swallowed hard. She could tell she’d made him angry. “I’m sorry if I upset you. Thank you. I think.”

She kept stealing glances at him as they drove through the streets of San Antonio.

He was such a complex man, hard one minute, caring the next. She was sure, however, in a firefight or any other type of confrontation he’d be all business. No emotion. He was built and conditioned to get the job done.

Which was probably why Chase Carpenter had hired him to make sure the bumpy little rock, or whatever the hell she saw in her visions, was safe. There wasn’t any indication that this man would ever accept failure.

She could almost feel the testosterone oozing from him, more than any man she’d ever met, which was probably why her hormones were leaping out of control. She knew there was no way he’d be interested in someone like her. When he did take a woman to bed, Mia was sure she’d be tall and lithe, with hair like a silk waterfall and a blemish-free body. She’d also know more about sex than Mia could even begin to imagine.

Men like Dan Romeo weren’t attracted to mice or sparrows.

But mice and sparrows didn’t have erotic visions where they lost control of themselves and masturbated at the command of a vision.

A tiny splash of an image seared her eyes, a scene from last night. Holy god, this was getting serious. She needed to figure out what to do about it. What if she accidentally blurted something out? Every minute she was with this man strung her nerves tighter. She sighed inwardly, wishing she’d kept her mouth shut, never sent the email and hidden under the covers until the images stopped bombarding her. Only she’d tried that before and it never worked.

When they pulled into Carpenter’s underground garage, her body tightened up again and her nerves began to unravel. Dan took her right hand in his big warm one and held it during the ride up in the elevator. When the doors slid open, he squeezed it once, then dropped it and took one step away. Mia was grateful. She didn’t want the strangers she was about to meet, skeptical ones at that, to think Dan Romeo was dragging some chippie he was involved with into a critical situation.

Nodding to the receptionist, he and Mark flashed their visitor’s badges. He signed Mia in, received a badge for her and led the way to the conference room, opening the door to the most unfriendly group of people she’d ever seen gathered around a conference table. Dan made the introductions then pulled out a chair for her. He and Mark sat on either side of her, twin pillars shielding her.

“Would you like some coffee, Dr. Fleming?” Chase asked.

She tried to decide if he was being coldly polite or if that was just his personality.

“No, thank you. I think I’ve had my caffeine allotment for today. But a glass of water would be nice.”

The man introduced as Ladd Tolbert, sitting at the end of the table, got up and poured one for her.

She sipped it slowly, wondering if she should say something, if Dan would open the discussion or if they’d suddenly begin peppering her with questions. Chase solved the problem by taking the lead.