Excerpt (Complete Chapter One)
Chapter 1
Caleb Devereaux turned out of the sharp
switchback and onto the driveway leading up to the tiny mountain cabin,
swearing when he hit pothole after pothole. Fury and impatience simmered in his
blood but the anticipation of having finally found Ramie St. Claire after an exhaustive
search kept his mood from being completely black.
Ramie was his sister, Tori’s, only hope.
The moment Tori was kidnapped, Caleb
had begun his search for Ramie St. Claire. She certainly wasn’t the first
person on most people’s go-to list when looking for a loved one. Ramie was
psychic and had been helpful in locating victims in the past. While many would
be skeptical, Caleb absolutely believed in Ramie’s abilities.
His own sister had psychic
abilities.
He and his brothers, Beau and Quinn,
had always been extremely overprotective of their baby sister. With good
reason. Caleb was the head of a veritable empire. Security was always top
priority. They’d always feared kidnapping for ransom, but in their worst
nightmares they’d never imagined that Tori would simply disappear and be at the
mercy of a madman.
There’d been no ransom demand.
Simply a video of Tori bound hand and foot and the maniacal laughter of her
captor as he told Caleb to kiss his sister goodbye.
He just prayed he wasn’t too late.
God, don’t let it be too late for Tori.
It infuriated him that Ramie St.
Claire had simply dropped off the map three months ago. No trace of her, no
forwarding address. No evidence that she even existed. How could she simply
disappear when she was such an invaluable aid in finding kidnap victims and
missing persons? How selfish of her to simply refuse, by her actions, to help
anyone?
He’d worked himself into a rage by
the time he finally pulled up to the small cabin that looked as though it
wouldn’t weather the upcoming winter at all. He wasn’t even certain there would
be electricity. Only a person determined not to be found would live in a place
like this.
He got out and strode to the
ramshackle front door, his fist up and pounding. The door shook and rattled
under the force of his knock. Only silence greeted him and it sent his blood
pressure soaring.
“Miss St. Claire!” he roared.
“Answer the goddamn door!”
He beat on the door again, shouting
again for her to answer. He likely looked and sounded like the madman holding
his sister, but at this point he didn’t care. He was beyond desperation. It had
taken every resource available to him to finally track Ramie down. No way in
hell he was leaving until he’d gotten the information he’d come for.
Then the door swung open and he was
greeted by the sight of a petite woman with wary, gray eyes. He was momentarily
taken aback, going silent as he stared at Ramie St. Claire for the first time
in person.
The photos he’d seen of her didn’t
do her justice. There was a delicate air to her as though she were recovering
from an illness, but it in no way detracted from her beauty. She
looked…fragile. He felt a brief moment of guilt for what he was about to ask
her to do, but he brushed it away. There was no price too high to pay for his
sister’s life.
“I can’t help you.”
Her softly spoken words slid like
velvet over his ears, a direct contrast from the anger her refusal caused. He
hadn’t even made his request yet and she was already giving him the brush-off.
“You don’t even know what it is I
want,” he said in an icy tone that would wither most people.
“It’s rather obvious,” she said
wearily, fatigue drooping her eyelids. “Why else would you come all this way? I
don’t even want to know how you found me. It’s obvious I did a piss poor job of
covering my tracks if you managed to find me here.”
Caleb frowned. Had she been ill? Was
that why she’d dropped out of sight so she could recover? It didn’t matter why
now that he’d found her. He didn’t care what her reasons were.
“With your abilities why would you
purposely make yourself difficult to find?” he demanded. “My sister’s life is
at stake here, Miss St. Claire. I’m not merely asking you to help me. I’m not
leaving until you do.”
She shook her head adamantly, fear
chasing the lethargy from her eyes. “I can’t.”
There was quiet desperation to her
words that told him there was more to her refusal than what appeared on the
surface. Something was wrong and yet he couldn’t summon any regret for forcing
her compliance. Not when Tori’s life hung in the balance.
He reached inside his jacket and
pulled out Tori’s scarf. The one item they’d found at the sight where she must
have been taken. In the parking lot of a grocery store beside the open door of
her car. He should have never let her go alone. He’d failed her. Failed to
protect her. Failed to ensure proper security.
Ramie immediately backed away, a
desperate cry on her lips. He shoved forward, forcing the scarf into her hands
and holding her and the scarf so there was no escape. She emitted a broken sob
and she looked up at him, stricken, her face going unnaturally pale. Her pupils
flared and then clouded, pain and devastation clearly outlined on her features.
“No,” she whispered. “Not again. Oh
God, not again. I won’t survive it.”
Her knees buckled and she would have
gone down, but he caught her, ensuring the scarf never lost contact with her
hands. He watched in horror as Ramie’s body sagged, slipping from his grasp
despite his best effort to support her weight. She was simply lifeless, as limp
as a rag doll. He quickly followed her down to the floor, determined that she
not lose her grip on Tori’s scarf. But it didn’t seem to matter now. Ramie was
somewhere else.
Her eyes glazed over and her body
began to twitch spasmodically. She curled into a fetal position, the fragility
of such a self-protective measure gutting him. She moaned softly and then began
to weep.
“Please don’t hurt me again. Please,
I’m begging you. I can’t take any more. If you’re going to kill me, just do it.
Quit torturing me.”
Chill bumps spread rapidly up
Caleb’s nape as Ramie’s voice, which sounded nearly identical to Tori’s, filled
his ears. Dear God, was he witnessing what was happening to his sister through
Ramie?
The scene Ramie was painting was horrifying.
Not only for the fact that his sister was even now enduring the absolute worse.
But from all appearances, Ramie was suffering with her.
He’d certainly done his research on
Ramie St. Claire’s abilities but there was little information beyond her
astonishing success record. No mention of how she managed to help victims or
what it did to her. God help them all. What had he done?
Her body jerked and it took only a
moment for Caleb to realize what was happening. It was too unmistakable. Bile
rose in his throat and he had to suck in steadying breaths to keep from heaving
the contents of his stomach on the floor. Tears burned his eyelids as he
helplessly watched his sister being raped through the window of Ramie’s
awareness.
Ramie’s weeping tore at his heart
and he gathered her into his arms, not knowing what else to do but rock her
gently. “Tori?” He whispered his sister’s name experimentally, not knowing if a
link had been established through Ramie. “Can you hear me? It’s Caleb. Tell me
where you are, honey. I’ll come for you. Hold on please. Don’t give up, no
matter how bad it is.”
Ramie’s head jerked sideways and the
imprint of a hand immediately appeared on her cheek. Caleb was horrified,
unsure of what to do now that he’d crossed a line he couldn’t come back from.
He tried to push back his guilt, telling himself that anything that helped him
recover his sister was worth it. But was torturing an innocent woman worth it?
He hadn’t given her a choice. She’d
told him no and yet he’d forced this on her not knowing the heavy toll it would
take. He had no idea how her powers worked and now that he did he was sick to
his soul. No wonder she’d been so resistant. No wonder she’d told him she
couldn’t do it anymore.
“Ramie. Ramie!” he said in a more
forceful voice. “Come back to me, Ramie. Come back so you can tell me how to
find her.”
Ramie’s eyes were opened but so
distant that he knew she wasn’t here. The imprint of the hand on her face was
bright and vivid, red against deathly white skin. There was a look of such
defeat and despair in her eyes that once again he found himself battling tears.
Suddenly she hunched inward, her
entire body jolting as though absorbing a blow. She wrapped her arms around her
stomach and he realized that she’d been kicked. Or rather Tori had been kicked.
It was a horrific, helpless feeling to know that two women were being
victimized, one because of him.
Then she simply rolled away, her
cheek lying against the cold floor, her eyes fixed and vacant. She was
completely still and terror gripped him. Was Tori dead? Oh dear God! Had he
just witnessed his sister’s murder?
“Ramie! Wake up! God, please wake
up. Tell me how to find her. Tell me that she’s still alive!”
He picked Ramie’s slight weight up,
swearing because she was so thin and fragile, weighing nothing in his arms. He
carried her to the worn sofa and carefully laid her down, not wanting to hurt
her any more than she’d already been hurt.
He sat on the edge, gathering her
icy hands in his, rubbing, trying to infuse warmth. He had no idea what to do.
Should he take her to a hospital?
Then after several long moments, she
blinked and seemed to come out of her trance. Pain immediately swamped her
features and she began to silently weep again, each tear cutting him to
ribbons.
“Is she still alive?” he asked
anxiously. “Do you know how to find her?”
“Yes,” Ramie said dully.
Hope surged in his heart and he
found himself nearly crushing her hands in his.
“Tell me where,” he urged.
Slowly and painfully she whispered
the location down to the minutest detail. Chills once again slithered up his
spine at the precision in which she described not only the location but the
kidnapper. She even provided a license plate number.
He picked up his phone and
immediately called his brother, relaying the information that Ramie had
provided. When he was done, he stared helplessly down at Ramie, grateful and
yet deeply regretful for what he’d just subjected her to.
“What do I need to do to help you?”
he asked softly.
Resignation dulled her eyes even
further. “There’s nothing you can do,” she said in a flat voice. “Just go.”
“The hell I’ll just leave you here!”
He was already calculating in his
head that he could simply bring her with him. He could get her the care she so
obviously needed at the same time Tori was receiving what she needed.
“Your sister needs you. Just go.
I’ll be fine.”
The lie was so obvious, but it
seemed to be all she could muster. He was torn between rushing to be with Tori
and staying to ensure Ramie would be all right. But how could she be? Two women
would live with this for the rest of their lives. His precious sister and the
woman he’d forced to help him never knowing the price she’d pay.
“Please,” she begged, her voice
breaking. “Just go and leave me be. I gave you what you wanted. I helped you,
now go. It’s the least you can do.”
Caleb stood, wiping a hand over his
hair and down the back of his neck in agitation. “I’ll go, but I’m coming back,
Ramie. I’m going to make this up to you.”
“You can never take this back,” she
whispered. “There’s no making up for what’s been done. Just go and take care of
your sister. She needs you.”
She closed her eyes, tears seeping
from her eyelids. How could he just leave her like she asked? And yet how could
he not go and ensure that his sister was safely recovered? He’d never felt so
torn in his life.
“If you have any humanity
whatsoever, you’ll leave and never tell anyone where you found me,” Ramie said
hoarsely. “Please, I’m begging you. Just go. He plans to kill her tomorrow. At
dawn. You don’t have much time.”
Her words proved to be the impetus,
driving him to action. But goddamn it, he would make this up to her. Somehow,
someway.
Regret swamped him. Worse was the
fact that even knowing now what he hadn’t known before, he couldn’t say he
would have done anything differently. Not when it meant the difference between
Tori’s life and death. But at least now he better understood Ramie’s
resistance. No longer did he look at her and think she was selfish and cruel.
Now he realized her disappearance had been self-preservation. He didn’t know
she’d survived this in the past. He just prayed he wasn’t the tipping point in
pushing her so far over the edge she’d never recover.
Caleb closed his eyes and then
gently touched her cheek. “I’m so sorry. You’ll never know how much. My family
and I owe you more than I can ever repay. I’ll go for now and pray to God I’m
not too late. But I’m coming back, Ramie. Count on it. I’ll make this up to you
if it’s the very last thing I do.”
Ice
