His head, raw and hollow from the crying, oddly felt better now.
As if some of the grief and pain had drained from his body with the tears.
Funny, he realized he hadn’t cried since his grandmother’s funeral when he was five.
Cassidy had stayed until he ran out of tears, and then, as if understanding his needs, she pulled him down on the bed and curled him against her like a child.
He must’ve fallen asleep immediately, because he didn’t remember anything until waking up with her a few minutes ago.
He owed a debt of gratitude to her for pushing him to let go of his grief.
It was still there, but dulled somehow.
Yawning, he stepped out into the hallway.
Last night was the most sleep he’d gotten since Dix’s funeral, but his body still pulled him to return to bed.
Thanks to training too well ingrained to be ignored, he decided to make sure everything was as it should be before going back to sleep.
“Watson?” he said into his Nextel.
“Yo, boss.
What are you doing up?”
Zach smiled.
Watson had been assigned to the case as Anderson’s replacement—even though Anderson returned as soon as he heard about Dix’s death.
Watson’s hard-edge New York accent reminded Zach of a mafia boss.
Anyone who saw the stocky agent drew the same conclusion.
“Something woke me and I thought I’d do a perimeter check to be safe.
Anything going on out there?”
“Negative.
Although they have great country stations here in Phoenix.
Camel country is doing a Toby Keith marathon.”
Zach shook his head as a small slice of pain cut across his heart.
He remembered Dix talking about country music the night he died.
Taking a deep breath, he let the pain pass.
“You know, I never pictured Tony Soprano listening to Toby Keith.”
“I may sound like a mob boss, but I’m a country boy at heart,” Watson said in the worst country accent Zach had ever heard.
Zach laughed.
“I’ll check back in when the perimeter is clear.”
He pulled on his tennis shoes and slipped out the back door of the house.
His Glock was cold and solid in his hand as he stood and let his eyes adjust to the backyard darkness.
He scanned the yard, but nothing seemed out of place.
Inching along the wall, he peered around the side of the house, alert for anything suspicious.
But the side yard was empty and quiet.
He’d begun to think the uneasy feeling that woke him was a product of his subconscious running rampant.
When he completed a circuit around the house and reached the back door again, he pulled out his Nextel and pushed the radio button.
“Watson?”
“All’s clear.
But keep an eye out, will ya?
Something doesn’t feel quite right.”
“You got it.
Get some sleep.”
Zach turned and as he grasped the doorknob, a sudden sharp pain lanced across the back of his head.
His last thought as he slipped to the concrete was,
Damn, I hate it when I’m right.
*****
Cassidy woke with a start.
Instinctively, she reached out in bed next to her, but found it empty and cold under her fingers.
The small hairs on the back of her neck stood at attention and an involuntary shudder jolted through her.
Something was wrong.
Very wrong
She reached out mentally for Zach and panicked when she found…nothing.
She couldn’t even start the connection.
Her thoughts raced.
“Oh, my God.”
Her hand came up to cover her mouth as she remembered what Zach told her when they’d tried to contact the Reaper.
He’s still alive or you wouldn’t have been able to send out energy along his connection at all.
Does this mean Zach is dead?
She shook her head denying what all the logical evidence screamed at her.
“
No!
”
She sobbed into her hands.
“Get a grip, Cassidy,” she yelled into the empty room.
“If Zach was dead, you would have sensed it.
There has to be some other explanation.”
Cassidy groped blindly in the dark until she found her cell phone and immediately dialed Dix.
The phone had just begun to ring when it hit her.
Panic threatened to engulf her and she beat it back by sheer willpower and scrubbed her hands over her face.
“
I’m ready for you now, Cassidy
.”
She jumped as the Reaper’s voice sounded inside her head leaving a slimy-feeling touch behind.
“
This is between you and me
Cassidy sat up straighter against the headboard of her bed.
“He’s just trying to scare me.
Zach has to be okay.
I didn’t feel him die.”
She said it like a mantra, willing herself to believe it.
Self-satisfied laughter sounded inside her head.
“
I’ve already dealt with Special Agent Hatcher.
But just in case you won’t come to me on your own, I’ve invited your friend, Kathy, to join us
Disbelief flooded through Cassidy.
The Reaper tried to trick them several times and they fell for it.
No more!
Her cell phone still rested in her hand.
She lifted it and hit the speed dial for Kathy’s house.
As the rings continued and the machine clicked on, tears began to stream down her face, the air from the ceiling fan making the wet lines cold.
The weight of the world settled firmly on her shoulders and her limbs felt heavy and weak.
“
Come to the Greenway High School auditorium, alone.
I know exactly how long it will take for you to get here, so I’ll give you fifteen minutes.
And I’ll know if you contact anyone.
Don’t, if you want your friend to live.
“How do I know she’s still alive?”
“
You may reach out to Kathy, no one else
.”
The connection slammed shut with a finality that left her cold and shaken.
Closing her eyes, she reached out for Kathy.
She could sense her friend, scared but alive.
Since Kathy didn’t have any substantial psychic powers, Cassidy couldn’t do more than send her reassuring feelings and hope she could pick up on them.
In minutes, she steered her car racing down Thirty-Fifth Avenue toward Greenway Road at twice the legal speed limit.
“I’m done being the victim.
He started this.
I’ll damned well finish it!”
*****
He felt himself being shaken and then slapped hard.
The concrete of the back porch was cold and hard under him.
He tried to piece together how he ended up here.
The last thing he remembered, he was finishing a perimeter check and getting ready to go back inside.
“Zach!”
Anderson’s voice was insistent.
Another slap.
He tried to open his eyes, but they were heavy and leaden.
The urgency in Anderson’s voice shook him enough to use all his willpower to force his protesting eyelids open.
Anderson’s concerned face came into blurry focus.
“What happened?”
His voice sounded groggy and disoriented in his ears.
“You’ve got to wake up, Zach.
Someone hit you and then drugged you.”
“There’s a pinprick of blood on your neck, I’m assuming a syringe.”
Zach struggled upright and tried to reach out to Cassidy.
“I can’t reach out mentally at all.
They must’ve used some really heavy duty drug to knock my powers totally out.”
Fear rose up inside him pushing the hazy effects of the drug away and bringing the world into focus.
“Cassidy?” he asked, sitting up unsteadily.
Anderson shook his head.
“I showed up to relieve Watson and couldn’t get an answer.
I found him in his car—he’s been drugged, but he’s alive.
I checked the house—yours and hers.
Cassidy’s gone and so is her car.
The news knocked the breath from Zach, and he had to concentrate to drag air back into his lungs.
Get a grip, Zach.
You have to find Cassidy.
He grabbed Anderson’s shirt.
“I’m okay.
I need you to help me find Cassidy.
My powers are still fuzzy.”
“I’ve put out an APB on her car, but we have no idea where she’s gone.”
Anderson was right.
She could be anywhere, but Zach knew wherever she was, the Reaper had her.
He had to find her, to save her.
A memory tickled his consciousness from when he and Cassidy had been driving.
He looked up at Anderson.
“She’s at Greenway High School.
Let’s go, I’ll call for backup on the way.”
Chapter Sixteen
Cassidy quietly opened the front doors of the school auditorium and stepped inside.
The dark hallway smelled like a musty combination of wood polish, sweat and industrial carpet cleaner.
Reaching out with her gifts, she sensed the Reaper and Kathy beyond the inner doors.
The metallic taste of fear rose in the back of her throat, choking her.