“I think she just broke training,” Jane said flatly. “And you should have known that if you’d been in touch with her lately.”
“I’ve been trying to contact her, dammit. She hasn’t been linking with me for the last two weeks. I went to the Romanos’ estate in Italy and it was closed up. The bank shows Romano on an extended leave of absence. I’ve been trying to track them down by accessing computer and credit card records. Nothing. I hired several agents whom I’ve used in the past to extend the search to Switzerland and France.” He paused. “I was afraid that perhaps Lisa had exploded and done something that had caused the Romanos to know about her potential. They might have decided to totally isolate her from me and the rest of their social set.” He added bitterly, “Just as my parents did me.”
“Could they have forced her not to link with you?” she asked skeptically. “You brainwashed the poor girl.”
“I did not brainwash. I suggested. And she is not poor in any sense of the word.” He shook his head. “But, no, she wouldn’t have reacted to force.”
“Then we’re back to her protecting you.” She frowned. “And us finding and protecting Lisa.” She remembered something else he’d said. “How much protection is she going to need? Just what is her potential?”
“Considerable. I was careful not to let her explore the boundaries. It’s certain that she has the blood talent. I sense that all the time. She’s had no training, so she can’t control it. I wanted it entirely subdued while she was a child and a young adult. It could make her life hell.”
She tilted her head, her gaze searching his expression. “Did it make your life hell?”
He didn’t answer. “I was going to teach her how to handle it later, after she reached maturity. As for the Persuasive skills, she hasn’t shown them to me.”
“Nor to me,” she said drily.
“But I understand they sometimes go along with the power to link. They could come later, when I start opening the layers.”
“Actually, she could use a few layers of persuasiveness. She’s definitely a diamond in the rough.”
He nodded. “But you don’t appreciate that talent in me.”
“You have a tendency to misuse it. You enter my space. Hell, you violate my space. While you’re training Lisa, you might teach her not to do that.”
“I won’t get the opportunity to train her if she ends up dead,” he said bluntly. “I have to know where she is.”
“So do I. You’re this great hunter. You spent years tracking down every member of that cult who murdered your sister Maria. Why can’t you find Lisa?”
“I’ll find her.” He threw the rest of his coffee into the fire and the wood hissed and sputtered. “But you’re going to help me. I can’t wait. I have to know.”
“By using force? I told you: I can’t let her break her contact with me.”
“I’ll handle it.” His eyes were cool. “She’s mine. Back off, Jane.”
“Go to hell. She chose me. Do you think I like any of this? But she needs someone and she chose me. Now she’s my responsibility.”
“No way. I saw those sketches. She’s afraid and I have to take that away. You have to help me take it away.” He got to his feet. “I can make you want to do it.” He was suddenly kneeling beside her, his eyes holding her own. “Just a shift in perception,” he said softly. “You know I’ve done it before. You’ll just suddenly realize how right I am. How much you want to do what I want you to do.”
She could feel the waves of power and persuasion he was emitting. She could sense her subtle shifting of will, the heat, the yielding. She glared up at him. “You son of a bitch. This isn’t about seduction or one of your sex games. Don’t you dare try to do that to me. I’ll fight you. You’d have to hurt me. And if you managed to do it, then you’d risk destroying me. Do you really want to do that?”
He stared at her for a long moment.
“Hell no.” He was on his feet in one smooth movement and sat down again across the fire from her. “I can’t hurt you. Okay, I’m a bit upset. It just seemed a tool I could use that would give me what I needed. As you say, I’m a son of a bitch.”
More than a bit upset, Jane thought as relief rushed through her. That persuasiveness was almost more powerful than his more deadly talent. She knew he had no compunction about using it to get his way with other people if necessary, but he was very careful about stepping over that line with her. It only showed how serious he was about finding Lisa.
“You care about her,” she said quietly. “It’s not about possessiveness or duty to someone who is going through the same thing as you did as a child. You do love her, Caleb.”
“You find that so strange?” His smile was bitter. “My parents would have agreed with you. I was supposed to represent everything dark in their own lives. I should be incapable of affection, right?” He shrugged. “Somehow it managed to slip in over the threshold like one of those vampires they thought I might become.”
“I don’t find it strange. How could I? You don’t let me know enough about you to judge. But I think I might be learning a little tonight.” She shook her head. “But I’m frustrated because when I realized that you had a resemblance to her, I was hoping you’d know where I could find her.”
“Did you get the impression that she knew her location?”
“I didn’t get much of an impression at all. She wanted me to see where she was being kept and that she was a prisoner, but our link was only with the sketches until recently. She seemed to be trying to teach herself to extend the contacts for a longer period, but it was slow going. She said she’d never been taught and she had to teach herself.” She grimaced. “And that I was no help at all. I couldn’t keep her with me.”
“But I could.”
She looked at him. “Are you back to square one?”
“No, you’re too stubborn to let me try to go to her right now. But I can go into your mind and insert a stay that will allow Lisa not to spin away from you.”
She gazed at him warily. “I don’t like the sound of that.”
“Because you’re finding it hard to trust me after I tried to adjust your perception. You can trust me in this. If I can’t do what I need myself, I’ll try to facilitate your doing it. Anything to get what I want. You know that’s my mantra.”
She nibbled at her lower lip as she studied him. Coolness. Mockery. The mask was firmly back in place. But she’d seen something behind it that might give her a chance to help Lisa.
“Why couldn’t she do it herself?”
“She told you: She’s not been taught. You saw what kind of temperament Lisa possesses. She’s impulsive, a little volatile, passionate. And she’s had no one around her to temper those characteristics. Certainly not Teresa Romano. No gentling influence there.” His lips twisted. “And I wouldn’t teach Lisa anything to do with mind games until she’s capable of a little more restraint.” He paused. “But you said she’s teaching herself. That could be a formula for disaster.”
“Who taught you?”
“No one. I learned everything on my own. That’s why I know the dangers. I didn’t want that for Lisa.”
“Well, it seems to be heading toward her like a runaway train.” She was silent a moment. “If I let you put that ‘stay’ thing in my mind, will Lisa know you had something to do with putting it there?”
“Really, Jane.”
“None of your damn arrogance. Would she know?”
He shook his head. “She’d just realize that she has control. If she’s teaching herself, she might believe she’s doing it.”
“And then she could be there long enough for me to question her.” She frowned. “If she’ll answer me. She doesn’t trust me.”
“She wants to trust you. As you said, Lisa came to you, not me.”
“I think I was the only one she could reach. I don’t know why.”
“I do.” He held her eyes. “My link with you is very strong. It’s always there. She used it as a springboard
.”
She pulled her gaze away and looked at the fire. “And that’s why she’s afraid I’ll pull you into helping her.”
“Probably. She knows I usually have a certain influence over people around me.”
“Understatement.” She was silent again. “Okay, you can do it. But I still won’t have unlimited time to question or influence her. My time with her is triggered by those sketches I do after I wake.”
“That may change. As she gets stronger, she may be able to reach out to you at any time. As she could do with me, if she chose.” He picked up the sketchbook and flipped it open to the first page. “Now let’s go over these sketches again to see if we’ve missed anything.” His gaze was raking Lisa’s face and expression. “This is where she must have realized that she was in trouble and she might be going to have to have help to deal with it. There’s stress but not desperation. It’s always difficult for Lisa to imagine that she can’t handle situations herself.” He pointed to the mountains and flowering garden in the background. “Calm, beautiful surroundings. Whoever is holding her here is going very slowly, probably trying to use persuasion.” He flipped through a few more sketches. “Same background, but her expression is changing; it’s becoming more tense, her jaw harder, her eyes alert and fierce.”
“I just thought she looked a little older.”
“She does. But it’s because whatever is happening to her is causing her to mature more rapidly.”
“What?”
“I deliberately did everything I could to extend that peaceful period in her life and keep her body and mind from jump-starting.” He grimaced. “And becoming like mine. But she’s feeling a threat and she’s instinctively becoming what she feels she has to be to combat it.” He flipped a few more pictures and found the one in which Lisa’s lip was bleeding. He paused a moment, as if he had to control himself. “You see the expression is becoming more intense. She’s in fight mode.” He went to the sketch with the bloody message. “And it increases and increases. She’s being hurt and she knows exactly what she’s facing now. It’s causing her to change. Childhood’s end.” He pointed to the letters written in blood. “And she’s learning to control her blood flow. Those abrasions on her wrists shouldn’t have bled that freely. She needed enough blood for her message and caused it to come to the surface.” He flipped to the sketch where Lisa was looking down at the cliff with her hand resting on the windowsill. “You see her wrist here? It’s been only a little over twenty-four hours and it’s nearly healed. She might not even know it’s happening, but her blood is doing what it needs to do to protect her.”
“Let’s hope that we find her right away and don’t have to worry about her making any more progress.” She glanced at him. “She’s being hurt. All the signs are there that she has to be doing this to protect you. Why? Do you have any idea?”
“Not a clue,” he said grimly. “As I said, it’s not a cult. I’ve been on guard against that possibility since they killed Maria. Why would anyone try to take me down? I’m a hunter. I’ve killed for armies, police, personal vendettas, and the Devanez family, who’s the core of my own heritage. There are always people left behind who could turn hunter, too. Whoever they are, they brought Lisa into the middle of it.” His lips tightened to iron hardness. “That’s not permitted. I’ll have to demonstrate that to them.”
Jane was suddenly chilled. She knew what Caleb was capable of doing and she had never seen him more lethal. “Could it have anything to do with the Romanos? They don’t seem to be on the scene. Do they have some kind of vendetta against you? You said that they wouldn’t permit you to see Maria or Lisa.”
He was silent. “It’s possible. I have a way of attracting that kind of feeling, don’t I? Sometimes I encourage it. But they had years to try to plan some way to get rid of me and they didn’t do it. The most that they did was to keep my sisters away from me.” He added, “Though I’m certain that they felt the same horror and distaste for me that my parents did. I can remember when they first visited my mother and father and the way they looked at me whenever I was around. Granted, I behaved atrociously. Gino was always nervous and impatient that I was allowed in his august presence. Teresa was more subtle, but she was all sympathy toward my mother. That was somehow … worse.” He paused, thinking back. “Yes, Teresa was far more subtle. I didn’t realize until later how much more clever her approach was than Gino’s. No wonder they were given custody of Maria and Lisa.”
What must that have been like for him? Jane could feel the anger begin to stir at the sheer unfairness of it.
“Good God, you’re beginning to feel indignant for me,” Caleb said roughly as he caught her expression. “Next it will be pity. Stop right there. That’s not an emotion I ever want you to feel for me. I didn’t need it then, and I don’t need it now.”
“Heaven forbid. I’m just trying to understand those people. If they’re that callous, I can see them not caring if something bad happened to you. You apparently didn’t exist for them as a person.”
“You’re right there.” The violence was gone from his voice. “And it’s something I’ve begun to consider. They might not be involved in any plan to rid the world of me, but they might not be moved to keep it from happening. You might ask Lisa a question or two about that when you have the opportunity.” He rose to his feet. “And now it’s time for you to try to go to sleep and see if Lisa will give you a chance to do that.” He pulled her to her feet. “I’ll see you in the morning. Or whenever you choose to share with me. I think you know that I want to be told what’s happening as soon as possible.”
“I’m being sent to bed on a mission?” she asked wryly.
“Not the mission I’d choose for you.” He picked up the sketchbook and handed it to her. “But the one that’s necessary at the moment.”
She started to turn away and then stopped. “What about that ‘stay’ thing you said you had to do?”
“Oh, that.” He took a step closer to her and his hands were suddenly moving on her temples with deep, mesmerizing strokes that caused her to inhale sharply at the touch. Then his hands dropped away from her. “That should do it.”
Jane frowned. “That’s all?”
He nodded. “No big deal. I actually didn’t have to touch you to insert the stay. I’d already done it the minute you said I had permission to do it.”
“Then what was that about?”
“I wanted to touch you,” he said simply. “I’m not entirely pleased about having to give in to you about this, so I thought I’d take whatever I could from the situation.”
“Impossible.” She turned on her heel and strode up the hill toward her tent. He is more than impossible, she thought. Caleb was accustomed to winning and manipulating everything around him, and when he couldn’t, there was no telling what action he would take to get his own back.
Get his own back. Those words suddenly struck home to her. That was what Caleb was attempting to do in a very real sense. He considered Lisa as belonging to him and he was going to try desperately to get her back. His relationship with Jane might make it easier or harder for him, but she was aware that she would be tied to him until that occurred. It was what she had dreaded when she had realized it was Caleb who had a relationship to Lisa.
She was still wary, but she felt a little better that she had faced him down once tonight. How many other times she would be able to hold her own with him, she had no idea. But she had to do it. Because they both wanted the same thing and had to find a way to get it.
To have Lisa come out of this alive.
CHAPTER
5
The cliff.
Lisa wanted her to pay special attention to it.
Why?
It didn’t matter. Just do it.
Jane’s pencil flew over the page, documenting detail after detail. The cliff … a path … Was that an island in the distance?
She finished the sketch.
Then she drew a deep breath and, as usual, tried to pull
herself together.
Lisa, still in that dim room, her gaze on that cliff and path …
Dear God, more bruises.
Deep bruises on her throat and shoulders. Her peasant blouse torn at the shoulder, revealing a long, livid scratch.
For God’s sake, what’s been happening to you, Lisa?
The answer came swiftly and with impatience. What do you think? It’s pretty obvious, isn’t it? Sometimes I wonder why it has to be you.
It has to be me because somebody up there probably knows no one else would put up with you. I don’t deserve this, so now answer me politely.
Lisa was silent and then said, Santara is getting impatient. He’s afraid to do too much. But he has pressure, and I don’t make it easy for him. She paused and then the next thought was hurled with sudden ferocity. As if I would do what he wants. As if anyone could make me.
Santara? That’s who did this to you?
Yes, Santara. I think he said his first name is Leon.
Is there anyone else there on the island?
I’ve seen three more men, but I don’t know their names. I think there are others. Santara is the only one who deals with me. She paused. I feel the link … is stronger with you. This time yesterday you were slipping away from me by this time.
Maybe you are stronger. You told me you were working on it.
Yes. Another pause. But I didn’t expect it would happen this soon.
I’m just glad it did, Jane said quickly. If you want my help, I need answers. Do you have any idea where you are? You seemed uncertain before.
I don’t know. I had a blindfold when they brought me here. You saw the mountains and then the cliff on this side of the house. When I was trying to get down the cliff, I saw that island in the distance.