“He lives as a shadow in my mind. There, but not there. His presence isn’t overwhelming all the time. Only when he locates a new victim and he wants me to see what he’s doing to her. It’s his way of gloating. Telling me that he’s unstoppable and that I don’t have the power to shut him down. He wants me to suffer. He’s succeeded there,” she said in a painful tone that made Caleb want to weep for all she’d suffered—was still suffering.
That the bastard was continuing to hunt and kill, all the while hot on Ramie’s trail. That he shared with her his victims’ pain and suffering, knowing it would become Ramie’s own. The more Caleb discovered about her abilities and the demented, twisted mind of the man stalking her, the more it sickened him. And the more it made him fear for her and his ability to fulfill his promise to keep her safe.
“How then did you know he was in your hotel room?” he asked curiously. “If you don’t have a link to him but he has a link to you, wouldn’t he be able to get near you undetected? Can’t he control what you see about him?”
She nodded. “For the most part, yes. Today is the closest I believe he’s come. Or maybe he’s merely been watching me all this time. Toying with me. And then today . . . when I touched the handle of the door to my hotel room, his imprint was all over it. I felt a black wave of such hatred and violence that it staggered me. I was so shaken, so terrified that, before I could flee, he threw open the door and grabbed me. I was able to fight him off and escape but not before he gave me this,” she said, rubbing absently over her bruised jaw.
Caleb’s scowl grew even bigger, but he tried to temper his reaction so she’d continue talking. He needed to know exactly what they were up against without him going off his hinges and scaring the hell out of her.
“You don’t think I’m crazy for saying he speaks to me in my dreams and that it’s not just my worst fears manifesting themselves in my subconscious?” she asked in a disbelieving tone.
“Ramie. For the hundredth time I don’t think you’re crazy. It would be the height of hypocrisy to discount anything, considering my own sister has psychic abilities and you certainly possess them yourself. So it certainly wouldn’t be a stretch to say that it’s entirely likely—even probable—that there are others out there who also have special abilities.”
She hesitated a brief moment, licking her lips as if readying herself for what she was about to say. “What ability does your sister have?”
He could hardly refuse to tell her—to trust her—when he demanded her trust and for her to tell him everything about her situation. Even if he was breaking a sacred vow between him and his brothers and Tori.
“She has visions. Of the future. Of what is yet to come. They aren’t always clear in their meaning. Sometimes she doesn’t know their meaning until what she sees comes to pass. It’s deeply upsetting to her because she believes she could prevent bad things from happening.”
“That must be terribly frustrating,” she said, sympathy brimming in her voice. Sorrow was an ache in her eyes, making the smoky gray darker, as though shadows of the past were flickering through her mind.
“At least she doesn’t have to endure the pain and tragedy of others. In that regard she’s fortunate. Unlike you, who suffers right along with every victim that you’re helping. You see everything. Feel everything.”
She let out a sigh and then sank back onto the edge of the bed, defeat evident in her posture. “What are we going to do?” she whispered. “I should have never asked for your help. I’m putting you and your family in unimaginable danger. Because he’ll stop at nothing in his effort to capture me. Life means nothing to him. He’d take out any obstacle to his ultimate goal as if it were only a simple annoyance, like killing flies.”
“Yes, you should most certainly have asked for my help,” he argued. “And I’m going to help you, Ramie. I will protect you. This goes beyond the debt that I and my family owe you. I will not allow an innocent woman—I don’t care who she is—to suffer a fate worse than death.”
A flicker of hope lightened the stormy gray of her eyes. She stared at him as if afraid to believe the unbelievable.
“You can trust me,” he said. “You touched me, gauged my intent. You know I’m not . . . evil. So you have to know I’d never hurt you.”
“I do know,” she whispered.
“Then I suggest we move and move quickly. He’s not far from here and if he does truly have a psychic link to you, he’ll know you’re still close. The longer we stay here, the more opportunity we provide him to find you.”