“Welcome back.” There was a world of relief behind his simple greeting.
“What happened?”
“You broke the telepath’s hold.” Wolf sounded tired.
Unable to see him, I started to push up from Kayden’s lap. He was there, helping me upright. The change in position caused a moment of lightheadedness, but once sitting up, I let Kayden tuck me against his side, my head
on his shoulder. Every stiff muscle protested. “So do we know what he was going to have me do?”
Wolf slumped in the chair. “Not yet, but you made it through the blocks.”
I wasn’t sure that was such a good thing considering those memories that lurked on the edges of my consciousness. Sleep would be taking a vacation tonight. I sighed. “Well, at least we accomplished one thing.”
Wolf pushed up and ran a hand over the back of his neck. His arms dropped
to rest on his knees. “Now comes the fun part.”
My short-term relief faded under rising nerves. “Fun part?” The last half of
my question squeaked.
“We broke his block on your mind. Now we have to figure out how to piece
your memory together, so we can see who he is and what he had planned for you
to do.”
Incredulous, I just stared at him. “I don’t think I’m up for another round of
psychic cage fighting.” The pulsating ache in my head agreed.
Wolf shook his head, then stretched. The dull pops of his joints audible in the
quiet room. “If a fight breaks out, you’ll only have yourself to blame. With the
memory blocks down, we’re going to go back through what you remember from
Friday through Sunday afternoon. Conversations, places, faces, all of it, until we
have everything in your head.”
Worry niggled at me. “Why not just have me go back to where it all started,
or where they held me, and let me do my Peeping Tom act?”
“A couple of reasons,” Kayden answered. “First, taking you back through
your memories allows Wolf to see what you’re seeing. Once we put a face to our
mysterious telepath, we’ll put Rabbit on confirming an ID. Linking him to Ellery
or Hobbes helps us know who we’re facing. Second, after all you’ve endured, there’s no guarantee your ability will actually work right now, and we’re running
out of time.”
Obviously, other things had been coming down the pike while Tito and his buddy were getting up close and way too damn personal with me.
“Whoa, back up,” I broke in. “Why couldn’t either of you see him this last
time? You were both there. How will this be any different? Who’s Rabbit? What
do you mean my ability won’t work, and did we get confirmation on the
exchange?”
Wolf gathered an empty cup and headed for the kitchen, his voice trailing
behind him. “You were back behind the blocks; the only reason Kayden could reach you was because of whatever tie you two have going on. Neither of us could see what you were seeing.”
“Just hear bits and pieces,” Kayden added. “Rabbit is our team’s geek. He’s
been running names from Tito’s notebooks through various databases. If we can
get him a description, he can add it to his task list.”
Right, the other members of Kayden’s crew were due in town on Sunday,
which was…today. It sounded like they made it in already. “Is your whole team
