DIAGNOSIS: ATTRACTION (18 page)

Chapter Twenty

Matt saw the tension on Elizabeth’s face. He imagined that his own expression was just as grim.

As he walked, he gathered his energy, and he felt Elizabeth preparing to aid him. He might not be able to reach the man’s mind, but that wasn’t his only option.

He was about twenty feet from her captor when he silently shouted,
Now.

Elizabeth went limp, as if the frightening situation had made her legs give out. The man scrambled to get control of her, but part of his attention had to stay on Matt. With only a small window of opportunity before the guy was in contact with her again, Matt shot out a jolt of energy, hitting him in the shoulder.

He yelped and reared back.

Elizabeth regained her footing immediately and dodged to the side, giving Matt another shot at the man.

The guy bellowed and went down. Elizabeth kicked him in the face, marveling at her new attitude toward violence. When he stilled, she bent to get the gun and took it out of his hands.

Do we keep this?
she asked as she drew up beside Matt. He wanted to reach for her, but there was no time for anything but escape.

I’ll take it.

He clicked the safety on and tucked the weapon into the waistband of his slacks.

The two of them ran for the scraggly underbrush, disappearing into the trees. But a shout followed them, and Matt knew that the other man had seen where they went.

No, not just one man. There were two others now.

One stopped by their fallen comrade. The other stayed behind Matt and Elizabeth.

* * *

S
TEPHANIE
TURNED
TO
Rachel. “Are you following what’s happening?”

“Yes. They got away from the bad guys, but armed men are chasing them alongside the bayou.”

Frustration bubbled inside Stephanie. She’d been in a similar situation not so long ago.

Craig put a hand on her arm, trying to calm her.

“Is there anything we can do?” she asked.

“We can try.” Rachel closed her eyes, her face a study in concentration as the two other women reached out to touch her. Stephanie felt Rachel trying to direct a surge of power toward the pursuers to at least slow them down, but at this distance, the task was impossible.

“We have to get closer.” Rachel said.

She looked toward Jake, but everybody in the van already knew he was driving at a dangerous speed.

“We can’t fly. And we aren’t going to be any use to them if we crash,” he muttered.

* * *

M
ATT
AND
E
LIZABETH
plunged farther into the wilderness area, dodging around cypress, tupelo trees and saw palmettos. They splashed through areas of standing water, mud clinging to their shoes and making it almost impossible to run.

Both of them were breathing hard, and he wondered how long they could sustain the pace. But they had to keep going because behind them he could hear the men getting closer, making no attempt to hide their progress through the underbrush.

Elizabeth looked back in panic, then pointed to their right.
If we go farther into the swamp, maybe they won’t follow.

We can try.

Matt veered off in the direction she’d suggested, and they worked their way farther into the dense foliage.

When the sounds of the pursuers grew louder, they both went completely still.

“Where the hell did they disappear?” one of the men said.

Sounds like three men. The one who captured me must have joined the others again.

“You beat the bushes around here. We’ll keep going. Widen the search.”

They’re splitting up.

Maybe that’s good. Maybe we can take at least one of them out.

He thought of a plan, telling Elizabeth what he had in mind.

He could feel her uncertainty but also her determination.

He took up a position behind a tree, and she moved into a patch of low bushes.

“Matt,” she called out. “Matt, I’m stuck. Help me.”

Two of the men were too far away to hear her. The other stopped at once, reversing direction and moving cautiously toward the spot where she was standing.

Matt tensed, waiting for the guy to get closer.

“All right,” the thug called out. “I see you. Come out with your hands up.”

Elizabeth moaned. “My foot’s stuck.”

The man took a few careful steps closer, and Matt struck, sending out a bolt that hit him squarely in the center of the chest. He went down, and they both crouched over him.

Matt removed the football helmet and inspected the inside. There was some kind of heavy foil lining, and he laughed out loud.

“What?”

“You know some paranoid mental patients think aluminum foil will protect them from outside influences probing their brains? Apparently it works—at least when we’re the ones doing the probing.”

The man was stirring. When he reached up and found that his helmet was gone, he gasped.

“Who are you? Why are you after us?” Matt asked.

“Following orders.”

“Who wants us? And why?”

“I’m just doing a job,” he said, repeating what the other guy had said.

“And why are you wearing a helmet?”

“The boss said to.”

“Why?”

He looked away. “He said you had some kind of mind control rays.”

Oh, great.

Too bad we can’t read minds,
Elizabeth said.

Too bad he doesn’t have more information. But
w
e can’t waste a lot of time on him. The others could come back.
He bent to the man.
Stop looking for us. Go back to your car. Drive away.

The man looked confused.

Go on. Get out of here, before the man and woman do something worse to you.

The man gave them a panicked look. Pushing himself up, he began running back the way he’d come as if the devil were after him.

When he was out of sight, Matt and Elizabeth moved farther into the swamp. Ahead of them, Matt saw one of the bayous that cut through the area. They could run along the edge, or they could plunge in—which might or might not be a good idea, depending on whether an alligator was waiting to scoop them up.

In the distance, he saw a pier sticking out into the brown water. A couple boats were moored there.

Elizabeth followed his thoughts, and they both ran for the dock.

Behind them they could hear running feet. When a bullet whizzed past them, Matt whirled and returned fire, making the attackers duck into the underbrush.

That gave them a little time, but he knew he and Elizabeth would be sitting ducks when they went out onto the dock.

He slowed, trying to make a decision.
I’m going first.

That didn’t work out so well last time.

What’s your suggestion?

We go into the water on the other side of the dock and climb into one of the boats.

Risky. But may be our only option. You go in. I’ll hold them off.

They reached the pier, and both ducked to the other side. He took up a position at the end near the shore, ready to stop the bad guys from coming closer. Elizabeth went into the water, swimming along the pier where she was sheltered from the men who were coming cautiously through the trees.

From behind the cover of the dock, Matt got off a couple shots at the pursuers, making them think twice about coming closer. But the standoff couldn’t last forever. There were still two pursuers left, and Matt had only the ammunition in the one weapon.

As he kept part of his focus on the men, he also followed Elizabeth’s progress. She made it to one of the crafts, a speedboat with an inboard motor.

This one?

He answered in the affirmative, wishing he knew more about boats. But they had to get out of a bad situation, and the vessel seemed to be their best alternative.

Can you get in it?

I hope so.

It had seemed like a good idea at the time, but making it from the water into the boat was easier said than done. As she tried to heave herself over the side, he waited with his breath shallow in his lungs, wishing he could swim over and boost her up. But he had to stay where he was, holding off the pursuers.

* * *

E
LIZABETH
STRUGGLED
TO
pull herself inside, but it was clear that the side of the craft was too high for her to scramble over from her position in the water. Her only alternative was to set the boat rocking from side to side. When it was almost dipping into the water, she finally flopped over the gunwale, onto the bench seats, banging her hip and shoulder as she came down.

Wet and dripping, she lay there for a few moments, struggling to pull her thoughts together.

Now what?

You have to start it.

She began searching around, looking for a key. It wasn’t under the dashboard, and it wasn’t in any of the compartments around the craft.

Zap it. Like I zapped the door lock in the basement of The Mansion.

This is a little different.

She made a low sound, but began studying the controls, and Matt directed her to the starter.

She focused on it, giving it a mental jolt, then another. Nothing happened, and she thought they might have to abandon the craft and go to plan B—which was swimming across the bayou and disappearing into the swamp beyond—if they could make it across without getting shot before an alligator ate them.

When she was about to give up hope of starting the boat, the engine coughed, then sprang to life.

Good work.

* * *

T
O
KEEP
THE
THUGS
from rushing forward, Matt got off a couple more shots. Then the gun clicked and he knew he was out of bullets. Abandoning his position at the side of the dock, he leaped up on the boards. As soon as he made a run up the boat, the bad guys started shooting. He ducked low, and he heard a gasp behind him. In his mind’s eye, he saw what was happening. Elizabeth had turned and was hurling bolts of power at the men, pushing them out of range, giving him time to untie the boat from the piling and leap inside.

Elizabeth watched him jump aboard, then turned back to the wheel. As she pulled away, the men started shooting again. He and Elizabeth bent low, making themselves as small a target as possible while the craft roared up the bayou.

Matt looked back at the two men. One of them seemed to be in charge and was giving orders to the other. He pointed toward another motorboat moored nearby, and they ran to the vessel and jumped in.

Matt was pretty sure they weren’t going to make the engine turn over with their minds. But it seemed they didn’t need to. When he heard the craft start, he muttered a curse. Either they knew where to find the key or they had lucked out.

He cursed again as the boat took off after them, and it became clear very quickly that the other craft was more powerful.

“They’re gaining on us. What are we going to do?” she shouted. “Can we goose up the engine?”

“I don’t know.”

He focused on the motor, trying to force it to put out more speed, but the maneuver didn’t seem to be working, and all they could do was keep going.

The men in the boat behind them kept firing their guns, the shots becoming more accurate the closer they got. Bullets whizzed past, and some struck the hull. Matt looked down, seeing water rising in the bottom of the boat. They were sinking.

Chapter Twenty-One

“We have to bail out,” he said. “Then dive below the surface and swim toward shore.”

“No, wait.” Elizabeth pointed toward a blue van that had turned onto the road beside the bayou and was racing along, keeping pace with the two boats.

He gave her a questioning look.

“It’s them.”

“Who?”

“The woman I told you about. The one who was probing my mind.”

“Is that good or bad?”

“I don’t know.”

From the van, a voice zinged toward them.
We’re here to help. We’re going to blow up the other boat. Add your energy to ours.

Matt still couldn’t be sure that the people in the van were on their side, but he knew for sure that the men in the other boat were closing in for the kill.

He looked toward the van, trying to see who was inside. Someone slid a window open, and he saw several people.

With a little prayer that he was making the right move, he fed power to the woman in the van.

He felt her building energy, and then a beam of tremendous force shot from the van to the pursuing boat.

For a moment it seemed to hover in the water. Then the gas tank exploded with an enormous boom. The boat disintegrated, sending a shock wave across the water, and swamping Matt and Elizabeth’s craft. They went into the water, both of them gasping for air as waves from the shattered craft pounded them.

Elizabeth,
Matt cried out in his mind. When she didn’t answer, everything inside him went cold.

Still shell-shocked from the explosion, he tried to focus, tried to figure out where she was. At first he heard nothing. Then he picked up dim echoes from her mind. She was underwater, unconscious and sinking.

He dragged in a breath and held it, diving below the surface, swimming toward where he thought she was.

He could see nothing in the murky water, but he kept going, guided by his connection to her. His own lungs felt like they would burst, but he stayed under, because if Elizabeth died, he might as well die with her.

But finally, finally, his searching hand hit against her shoulder. He grabbed her shirt, trying to summon the strength to pull them both up. Then he realized that another man was beside him, grasping Elizabeth’s other side and helping pull her upward.

They broke the surface, and Matt gasped for breath.

They pulled Elizabeth to shore and laid her on the bank. She was pale and lifeless, and Matt checked her airways before turning her over and starting to press the water from her lungs.

Water gushed from her mouth, and he screamed in his mind as he worked,
Elizabeth. For God’s sake, Elizabeth.

For horrible moments, she failed to respond. And then he caught a glimmer of consciousness.

He kept calling to her, saying her name, telling her how much he loved her.

Matt?

Right here.

What happened?

They blew up the other boat, and you went down.

He turned her over, clasping her to him, ignoring the crowd that had gathered around them. But finally their voices penetrated his own consciousness.

“Thank God.”

“I’m so sorry. I didn’t know that would happen.” That was the woman who had directed the energy beam at the other boat.

“It’s all right. You kept them from shooting us.” That last comment came from Elizabeth, who was taking in the men and women around them.

You’re like us,
she marveled.

Yes. And we have to get out of here before someone comes to investigate the explosion.

Was it safe to go with them? Matt wondered.

Yes,
Elizabeth answered, and he let her faith guide him.

The men and women helped them to the van. Like the night at The Mansion. Cold and wet in a van.

Matt pulled Elizabeth closer and tried to pay attention to where they were going, but it was still hard to focus. He knew that they stopped at a shopping center. Some of the newcomers stayed in the van. Others went in and bought dry clothing. First the men cleared out and Elizabeth changed in the van. Then it was Matt’s turn.

The dry clothing did wonders for him, and he looked around at the people who had rescued them.

“How did you find us?” he asked.

“Rachel found you,” one of the men answered. “We’re all children who were born as a result of Douglas Solomon’s experiments—using fertilized human eggs he acquired from his fertility clinic.”

“We found out from Maven Bolton that he was trying to make superintelligent children,” Matt said. “And, instead, he got us.”

There were murmurs of agreement.

“And we are...what, exactly?” Matt asked.

“You probably figured that out, too. Telepaths who couldn’t connect with anyone on a deep level until we met someone else from the clinic,” one of the women said. “I’m Rachel Harper.”

In turn, they all gave their names.

Jake Harper, Stephanie Branson, Craig Branson, Gabriella Boudreaux, Luke Buckley.

“You were probing my mind,” Elizabeth said to Rachel. “When we were driving down here.”

“I’m sorry if I alarmed you.”

“Why did you do it?”

“Because we had to be sure you weren’t enemies. The first time we met other people who had been altered by the clinic, they tried to kill us.”

“Why?” Elizabeth gasped.

“They were selfish. They wanted to be the only ones with special powers.”

“Nice,” Matt murmured.

They turned onto an access road, then drew up in front of what looked like a large plantation house. “This is where I grew up,” the woman named Gabriella said. “I’ve opened a restaurant here, but it’s closed today. We can all go inside and relax.”

Matt was still overwhelmed to meet this group of people.

We’re on your side,
Rachel Harper said.

Matt swung toward her.
Got to watch what I think.

We all do. That’s one of the little inconvenient things about us. But I know you’ve been practicing blocking your thoughts. You’ll get better at it.

Inside Gabriella led the way upstairs to a sitting room on the second floor.

Matt and Elizabeth sat together, still coming to terms with their narrow escape.

“Who was after us?” he asked.

“We can’t be sure who he was. Dr. Solomon is dead. And so is a man named Bill Wellington, who funded the project through a Washington think tank called the Howell Institute. That should have laid the past to rest. But it appears that someone else knew about children from the clinic. Either they knew what was going on back then—or perhaps they discovered it.”

“Why were they chasing us? What do they want?” Elizabeth asked.

“They’re after us because of what we are,” Jake answered. “We’ve got powers they don’t understand. Which makes us a threat, or maybe an asset that someone can exploit. Like a secret weapon.”

Elizabeth shuddered.

“You have to admit that being able to send mental bolts of power at your enemies is a skill to covet.”

Matt nodded.

“It’s a lot to deal with,” Rachel said. “And I’m sure the two of you want some time alone to think about what you’re going to do.”

“What are our choices?” Matt asked.

“You can stay here with us. Or you can go off on your own. It’s up to you.”

Elizabeth looked at Rachel. “You have a shop in the French Quarter. Where you do tarot-card readings.”

“Yes.”

“I went there. I mean, I was drawn there by...” She lifted a shoulder. “I don’t know. I guess there was some kind of connection between us.”

“I’m sorry I wasn’t in town. It would have avoided that boat chase.”

“Yeah, but the guys in the other boat would still be alive,” Jake said in a hard voice. “It worked out.”

Matt looked at him and knew that it was a lot better to be friends with Jake Harper than his enemy.

Jake answered with a small nod.

They talked for a while longer, each couple telling how they’d met and what had happened to them as a result.

Finally Gabriella said, “You must be worn out. There’s an empty cottage on the property. Why don’t the two of you go over there and relax? And we can all meet back here for dinner.” She looked at her watch. “At six-thirty.”

“Yes. Thanks,” Elizabeth said.

Gabriella showed them to the vacant cottage.

Elizabeth looked around admiringly at the antique pieces and classic fabrics. “It’s charming.”

“Stephanie’s the one with the visual smarts,” Gabriella said. “She did the decorating, but we’ve all been going to country auctions and estate sales—picking up furniture for here and the main house.”

Elizabeth nodded.

“I’ll leave you alone.”

When Gabriella had walked out of the cottage and closed the door behind her, Matt turned to Elizabeth.

“In my wildest dreams, I didn’t imagine anything like this,” she whispered. “People like us. Friends.”

“Yeah. And the two of us—safe at last.”

He reached for her, and they embraced. He wanted to take her straight to the bedroom, but they were still covered with dried bayou water.

She grinned at him, and he knew what she had in mind. They both headed for the shower, discarding their clothing as they reached the bathroom.

Matt turned on the water, adjusted the temperature and stepped under the spray. Elizabeth followed, and he reached for the soap, slicking his hands and running them over her bottom, her hips and up to her breasts.

She made an appreciative sound, leaning in to him as she soaped her own hands and caressed his back and butt, then clasped his erection, stroking up and down, making him gasp.

“Not like this,” he muttered.

“You don’t like it?”

“You know I do.”

She turned him loose, and they kissed as they washed off the soap.

When she reached for the shampoo and began to lather his hair, he groaned at the delay. But he saw the smile in her mind.

Foreplay.

Are you trying to drive me crazy?

I’m enjoying the freedom I never thought we’d have.

Oh, yeah.

He returned the favor, washing her hair. They’d barely rinsed off when he scooped her up in his arms, cradling her against him as he fitted her body to his. Leaning back against the wall, he let her do most of the work, and they climaxed together in a burst of sensations. As he eased her down, she melted against him, and they stood under the rushing water, spent but happy.

When the shower began to cool, he turned off the taps. Both of them were almost too limp to move, but they managed to dry off and hold each other up as they staggered to the bedroom.

Under the covers, they cleaved together. Two people who had always been alone. But no longer.

The events of the day had taken their toll, and they were both quickly asleep.

* * *

S
OME
TIME
LATER
,
Elizabeth woke and marveled at the way she felt. Safe and relaxed and free.

For the first time since she’d crashed into that light pole, no one was trying to kill her.
I’m still overwhelmed that we found each other.

Yes.
And it’s not just the two of us. There are people who understand us.

She nodded against Matt’s shoulder, taking in his thoughts, catching the edge of his sudden tension. Even though she knew what he was thinking, she also knew he was going to say it aloud.

He pushed himself up in the bed, and she did the same, pulling the covers up with her.

He cleared his throat and looked at her. “I’m finally free to ask. Will you marry me?”

“You know I will.”

Reaching for her, he folded her into his arms, and they clung together.

“Being with you is a dream come true,” she murmured.

“But it’s real. And it’s the beginning of our lives together.”

She sensed another thought in his mind. “Getting married is a good idea before we have kids.”

“You want them?” he asked.

“Yes, even though it makes me a little nervous. What powers will they have?”

“I guess we’ll find out,” he said.

“They won’t be alone the way we were. They’ll have us.”

“Yes. And we have to make sure they have a safe place to grow up.”

“Like here,” she breathed.

“You want to stay here?”

“I think so. I feel so blessed that Rachel and the others found us.” She squeezed his hand. “We should get dressed and go over to dinner—before they wonder where we are.”

“They know,” he answered. “But they’re giving us privacy. They know how much we love each other. And they know we’re going to want a lot of time alone.”

He grinned at her, and she followed his thoughts.

“Not just for sex.” She said it aloud.

“Of course not.”

They climbed out of bed and began to dress, both of them loving the freedom to joke around and the freedom to plan the rest of their lives together.

* * * * *

Keep reading for an excerpt from JOSH by Deloris Fossen.