Psychic Link (Linked Inc. Book 2) (9 page)

Chapter
13

Hours later, Cara was in the shower as Coop spoke to his friend and co-worker. Agent Howard Stillman had been his new partner since Betty had decided to retire. The man was like a brother to Coop.

“He filmed us.”

“Filmed you doing what?”

“He filmed us in a compromising position. He showed her the video and claimed that it was caught on a security camera. Looks like he enjoyed himself.” Coop handed over the plastic bag containing the used and dirty dishtowel that he’d found on the ground, near the hole in the wall.

“Sick fuck.” Howard grabbed the bag. “We’ll get his DNA off this.”

“You need to move fast. If he knows we were in that room, there’s a chance he’ll destroy his phone, especially if he’s aware that we can retrieve the deleted video. They’ve had a rash of robberies. There are corridors that the staff uses to move through the building undetected. When you arrest him, make sure you check out the tunnels. If I had to guess, either one of the staff or he is using them to smuggle out the stolen stuff.”

“I’ll handle it.” Howard gestured toward the cabana. “So is that the girl? Did you really tie the knot, like Betty saw in her vision?”

“That’s her, but she doesn’t know that Betty told me about the vision. If she knew her aunt even had the vision, she’d be pissed that I had purposefully avoided her for the last six months.”

“I think she’d be more pissed that you were the reason your brother broke things off with her.”

“What?” Cara’s anger was palpable, in the tremor that racked her body and the way her eyes slit at him. Her cell phone was clutched in her hand, and she looked like she wanted to launch it at him like a weapon. “You what!”

“Time to come clean, man. I’m sorry.” Howard patted him on the back as he headed out into the path of trees.

“Answer me, damn it. Aunt Betty had a vision about us; she told you, and then you avoided me? Is it true?”

“Cara, I can explain.”

Cara held up her hand to stop him from stepping toward her. “You knew all this time, and you avoided me.” A tear slipped down her face, but it wasn’t an upset tear. It looked more like an I’m-fucking-pissed-off tear. “And Eric? You’re the reason we broke up?”

“Hey, I just suggested it when I told him about the vision. I didn’t tell him to go sleep with your best friend.”

****

“I can’t…” She stormed over to him. “Squash,” she screamed as she shoved him backward into the pool and began to run. He’d known all this time. He’d been the one responsible for her heartache, and yet he’d never said anything. Neither had Aunt Betty. Her own flesh and blood. Tears streamed down Cara’s face.

Cara hurried through the canopy of trees that cloaked her from the moon above. She heard a branch break from behind her and turned when a hand reached out and grabbed her, covering her mouth. Beefy fingers dug into her cheek, bruising her tender flesh. Visions fought to take hold. She used her energy to hold them back. There was no way in hell she was blacking out.

Terror traveled down her spine and bile rose in her throat as she fought to get free before the hard metal of a gun pressed against her temple. An eerie calm settled over her as she pressed the recorder button on her phone, knowing its location by heart because of the readings that she recorded.

“Cara,” Coop hollered out as the pounding of his feet passed where they stood. Her assailant inched her around the base of a tree, keeping her from being seen, the shadows swallowing their bodies.

“Don’t move or I’ll kill him,” a voice she knew all too well whispered in her ear. Phillip.

Her body froze on the spot as ice traveled down her spine. He’d been the one with the video. She’d known that. She’d known he’d been the one spying, but knowing, and being in his clutches, replaced her anger with fear.

“Let me go,” she mumbled beneath his hand. Every time she blinked, she’d get pieces of visions that were seeping through, the flickering images making a headache build behind her eyes.

“You’re a slut. You haven’t changed a bit. You were one when you were eighteen, and you still are. Do you know what I like to do with women like you?”

Tears streamed down her face as she shook her head, afraid of what he might say. Her hands clenched at her sides, wanting to claw at the man holding her hostage.

“I’m going to cut you up, to the point that any man who sees you will be disgusted. Cooper won’t want anything to do with you, and then maybe he’ll see I did him a favor. Then I’m going to cuff him to the bed and fuck him like he wanted to do to you. You did me a favor all those years ago. It’s because of you that I realized I liked men, and not just any men, but the ones that fight back. I bet Special Agent Cruz is a fighter. I can’t wait to find out.”

Cara had to swallow the bile rising in her throat. Cruz would be blindsided. Cara clenched her eyes closed and then lost against the visions she’d been fighting to hold back. They flooded her senses, bombarding her, back to back.

Phillip with one man after another handcuffed to a bed as he had sex with each. Some were familiar, and others weren’t. One was the missing speaker that she’d found. His back had cuts and was bleeding. His body slumped against the bed as Phillip pounded into him. “Oh God, no.”

“You’re seeing it, aren’t you?” Phillip’s hold on her tightened. “How I take them and break them before killing them and turning them into fish food. It’s going to be worse for your husband, and the best part…I’m going to make you watch.”

More visions assaulted her. Phillip entering in and out of rooms, laughing as he stole items from several guests. Another of Phillip, only younger, the way he’d looked when they first met. He was inside a bar where male strippers danced on the stage.

Cara tossed her phone into the grass to distract him as she struggled against his hold. The butt of the gun came down on her temple, making the visions disappear. Her last thought was of Cooper as she slipped out of consciousness.

****

Coop ran into the hotel, leaving a path of water as he ignored the looks the other guests gave him. Howard was standing at the concierge desk when Coop approached.

“She came this way. Where is she?” Coop asked, his gaze searching the lobby.

“She didn’t come this way, Coop. I’ve been in the lobby getting the information on Phillip since I left you. She hasn’t been in here.”

“Fuck.” Coop ran his hand through his wet hair. “She came this way. I saw which way she turned out of the cabana as she ran.”

“I’ll help you find her.” Howard glanced back at the concierge. “Call the local PD and tell them to put out an all-points bulletin on Cara Thornton and Phillip. Consider him armed and dangerous. Have the remainder of your security team keep their eyes peeled, and have them search room by room for Mrs. Thornton. Tell the local PD to form a search party. Give them my number if they give you any lip.” Howard slid a card across the desk.

The concierge nodded as the blood drained from his face.

“Do it now,” Coop demanded when the guy was slow to pick up the phone.

Coop hurried out of the hotel with Howard, and they checked each and every pool cabana as they passed, systematically clearing each inch as they hit the tree line. They were checking the canopy of trees and around each one when Coop felt something beneath his foot. He picked it up. The screen on it showed that someone had been recording something.

Coop hit Play and listened in horror as Phillip threatened her. His heart clenched as he listened, word for word, to what the sick fuck wanted to do to them both. “Oh, I’ll kill you first, you sick fuck.”

Cooper stepped back onto the sidewalk and held up the phone for Howard to see. “He’s got her.”

The old couple, Coop and Cara had breakfast with their first morning, came strolling down the path. Both of them shared a worried look as they neared. “Dear, is your wife okay? John and I were talking a stroll down the beach and admiring one of the houses for sale when we saw that hotel security guard carrying her inside. Is there anything we can do?”

Howard and Coop exchanged a look. “Which house was it? There are three that I noticed for sale.”

“The one with the yellow shutters. That’s why I liked the house, although this tightwad won’t agree to let me have it.”

Coop kissed the lady on the forehead in his excitement and was about to take off when Howard grabbed his arm.

“Be smart. You can’t go busting in there like Rambo. It will get her killed. We do this the right way and you both walk out alive.”

Chapter
14

Cara kept her eyes closed and her body limp, using her senses. She lay on a hard wooden floor, the cold seeping through her clothes to chill her body. Her wrists were restrained, the bindings digging into her tender skin, but she felt nothing at her feet. The room reeked of mold and mildew, a place that obviously hadn’t been cleaned in a while. Yet she could hear the sounds of the waves crashing against the shore. She was still on the island, and even better, near the beach. She could find her way back to Coop, if she could just get out of this. All she needed was for him to make one wrong move and she’d escape.

She peeked through her eyelashes, not ready to let on that she was conscious. The room was dark. The only light was from the moonlight peeking through the windows, casting a glow on the hard floor.

“I know you’re awake.” Phillip’s voice drifted to her ears. “I can tell by your breathing.”

His heavy footsteps neared, and black combat boots appeared in her vision. Material crinkled, and she opened her eyes to find that he’d squatted in front of her. Phillip ran the cold, hard barrel of the gun down her tear-stained cheek, eliciting a shiver down her body. She struggled against her binds.

“He’s going to find you, and he’s going to kill you.” She spat the words into his face.

He swiped it away and shoved the gun into her chest. “Not before I’m finished with you.” He ripped open her shirt and ran the gun between her breasts. The metal was cold on her skin and her chest heaved.

I’m going to die.
The gun lowered over her stomach, where he shoved the barrel into her belly button.

“He should have been more careful with the condom.” Phillip looked at her with cold-blooded eyes as a sneer lifted his lips. He slipped a knife from his pocket and flicked it open. Moving the knife over the exact spot the gun had just been. The sharp blade pressed against her stomach, making her afraid to move, afraid to breathe.

The sharp end pressed deeper into her skin. A trickle of blood ran over her abdomen. Anger and fear drained her hope to escape.

“Please don’t. I’m begging you,” she whispered.

His smile grew, and he licked his lips as the knife moved up her body, stopping at her chest. He leaned into her and licked a path up her cheek.

“I’m not going to kill you….yet.” He slammed the knife into the skin above her breast. She screamed. The pain seared through her like a red-hot poker. Dots claimed her vision as he pulled the knife free.

Cara’s tear-filled eyes narrowed, and she did the only thing she could. She smashed her forehead against his. The move sent him reeling onto his ass and made stars dance in her eyes. The gun he’d once held flew beneath a coffee table, the knife just out of reach. She scrambled for it and got to her feet, holding the knife in front of her bound hands, using it as a shield.

Phillip stilled on the ground, and his hands roamed the floor around him, probably in search of his gun. “You won’t get far, Cara, and when I find you, I’m going to fill you full of holes. You won’t live to disgust anyone else.”

Phillip dropped his gaze and frantically looked for the gun. Cara turned and ran. The door was locked and bolted into place. She glanced over her shoulder to find that Phillip was reaching for the gun.

Her heart raced as she took off for the stairs, trying to put as much distance between a bullet and herself as she could. There were only two doors at the top of the stairs, both open; one was a bathroom and the other a bedroom. She hurried into the bedroom and slammed the door closed, twisting the lock. Her gaze ran over the bedroom furniture. Under the bed would have her trapped and unable to fight back. The window was partially open. She didn’t have time to cut through her bonds and climb out the window. She was stuck with nowhere to go, and only a knife to keep her alive.

She moved into the closet and stepped inside the darkened space, easing the door shut.

“Cara,” Phillip called out. “There’s nowhere to run.”

Tears streamed down her face as her body trembled. Goosebumps covered her arms as a hand appeared from nowhere and covered her mouth. A hard, familiar body pressed against her back.

“I’ve got you,” Coop whispered in her ear and lifted his hand.

“Why were you in the closet?”

“I wanted to have the element of surprise. I heard someone running upstairs.” He took the knife and sliced through the rope around her wrists and moved her body behind him.

Relief flooded her system as Cooper aimed his gun at the closed door.

“How did you find me?” She couldn’t stop the trembles in her fingers as she held on to his hip on one side while holding the knife in her other hand.

“Luck,” he answered.

“I know you’re in here,” Phillip called out.

Coop held the gun with both hands and aimed it at the door.

The knob of the closet door turned, making Cara gasp.

“I can hear you,” Phillip spoke as the door swung open.

Coop pulled the trigger.

****

He never missed a target. One bullet through the head. Phillip was lying broken and dead on the floor as Coop pulled Cara against his chest and eased her out of the room and over the body. He sat her on the bed and clicked the comm in his ear. “I’ve got her. Second floor. She’s hurt. Call EMS and the coroner’s office.”

Howard came bursting through the door with a phone pressed against his ear. “We need an ambulance. Female, age thirty-two, looks like a knife wound to the chest.” Howard glanced to the opposite side of the room. “The assailant is dead.”

Howard shook his head. “No, I don’t know the address. Shit.” Howard cursed as he left the room.

Coop pulled the shirt over his head and sat next to her, pressing the fabric into her wound. She looked dazed, as if the pressure and pain were making the room spin around her.

“Cara, stay with me.”

She shook her head as her eyes slipped closed.

Coop carried Cara, cradled against his chest, down the stairs, refusing to lay her down. He held her until the ambulance arrived and carried her inside, placing her on the gurney.

He kept touching her, afraid if he stopped and she woke, she’d get visions of the paramedics working to access the damage. The paramedics were asking him questions about allergies and her medical history, none of which he knew. When they asked if she might be pregnant, that question made him pause. “Possibly.”

He’d never considered having children, maybe because he’d never met the right woman. Coop’s gaze caressed Cara. Coop had caused his own damage to her that needed repair. One problem at a time.