Chapter Thirty
She took a moment to absorb his words. It was as if she’d been struck by a fever. Her palms tingled. She could feel perspiration trickling down between her breasts. She was suddenly a little lightheaded.
The walls of the hotel room metamorphosed into the walls of the cell at Serenity Gardens. She needed to breathe.
The balcony. She had to get outside onto the balcony.
She stood too quickly. Her head spun. She grabbed the edge of the table to steady herself.
“Alice.”
Owen was out of his chair, wrapping a strong, steady arm around her shoulders before she realized that he had moved. Sebastian appeared on the table in front of her and made soothing dust bunny sounds.
“I’m okay,” she declared.
“Liar,” Owen said gently.
“Panic attack,” she admitted. “I need air.”
He did not argue. Maintaining his grip on her, he steered her toward the balcony, opened the door, and ushered her outside.
The clean desert air was a tonic. She forced herself to go into the familiar breathing routine.
At the same time, she felt the steadying pulse of Owen’s energy field.
Sebastian hustled after them and hopped up onto the railing.
She rested a hand on him and took comfort from his sturdy aura.
Her training kicked in—finally. When in doubt, go back to the Core Principles.
Core Principle Number One: Do not mistake impulse for true intuition.
No, that didn’t fit the situation.
Core Principle Number Five: You control your talent; your talent does not control you.
That wasn’t useful, either.
“Talk to me,” Owen said.
“I’m trying to find a Ballantine Principle that can be applied when you discover that two different people are trying to kidnap you and also murder the man who is protecting you. Turns out there isn’t one.”
“If all else fails, apply logic. Can you think of anyone else besides Kelbrook who might want to grab you?”
Her mind began to clear. She forced herself to concentrate. “Webber? The director of Serenity Gardens? I was evidently worth a lot of money to him.”
“I did a psi profile on Webber. He’s a mid-level aura reader who probably accepted gratuities from other people who were desperate to make difficult relatives disappear into Serenity Gardens.
But getting you back to the hospital would not do him any good now.
He has to know Kelbrook would never deal with him again.
Besides, Webber took off, remember? Someone else is in charge of Serenity Gardens. ”
“Maybe the new director thinks that if he gets me back he can convince Kelbrook to have me committed there again?”
“Maybe. But it feels weak on several levels.”
She wrapped one hand around the railing as a thought struck.
“I suppose it’s possible that one of my clients here in Illusion Town decided to try to take advantage of the situation.
It’s hard to believe that any of them would do that to me, but in recent days it has become very apparent that I can’t trust my judgment. ”
“Your judgment is fine. You were drugged and hypnotized by a psychic con man. Even a high-rez aura reader would have been fooled by a creep like Travis Poole.”
“The bottom line is that I was deceived. Now I can’t be sure of my read on any of my clients.”
“Are there a lot of them?”
“Several.” She frowned, trying to think. “They all seemed grateful when I was able to help them. And there’s another thing. The street clinic clients are a mixed bag, but they are on the street in the first place because they can’t manage their lives very well.”
“Hard to see one capable of organizing an amateurish kidnap and ransom scheme, is that what you’re thinking?”
“Yes,” she said. “The problem is that if we open that door we are going to end up with a long list of suspects, most of whom are unlikely. And I’m sure none of them have any connection to Kelbrook. We’ve already established that the code name Sykes’s client used—YourWorstNightmare—feels personal.”
“What about Randolph Draper, the guy who used you as Subject A in his book? You said you gave him a taste of what you can do with your talent. Maybe he’s out for revenge, the kind that also brings in some cash?”
She summoned up memories of the confrontation with Draper and groaned.
“I’m as certain as I can be that he isn’t involved in this.
He made it clear he was very disappointed in me.
Called me self-centered and made some irritating comments about my failure to understand how important his research was.
But to tell you the truth, I think he was relieved when I ended our association.
He was fascinated with me at the start, but the more he tested me, the more nervous he got. In the end, he was scared of me.”
“Good.”
The satisfaction in the one word made her elevate her brows. “Good?”
“He deserved to be frightened. But I’m inclined to agree with you.
He’s not a strong suspect. Our problem is that if we exclude your clients, and Draper and Webber, we’ve only got two solid suspects—Kelbrook and Twitchell, both of whom are strats who prefer to overplan.
Also, I keep coming back to the fact that they don’t know the local territory.
No, there’s another player. The more I think about it, the more I’m sure of it. ”
“Maybe someone else in the Kelbrook family?” she suggested.
“Twitchell is already working on behalf of the family, and by all accounts he’s very, very good at his job. Why go around him and hire cheap talent to grab you?”
“That means we’re back to my list of clients.”
“Not yet.” Owen’s eyes tightened a little. “There is one common element that appears in the first kidnapping ten months ago and the two recent attempts. I should have seen it earlier. We need to go back to the beginning.”
She frowned. “Are you talking about the circumstances of my birth?”
“No. We have to return to the Hotel of Dreams. It’s the center of the storm.”
“What is the one element that is common to all three kidnappings?”
“An injectable, fast-acting sedative,” Owen said. “Somewhere in this spiderweb is the person who supplied the drug.” He went back to his phone and did a fast search. “Guess who happens to have a degree in chemistry?”