The Phantom of Black's Cove (7 page)

His jaw tensed, his eyes narrowing as he studied her. “You don’t need a cab. I’d be happy to take you back to the hotel.”

The sensation of being held in place overwhelmed her senses and she took a step forward just to prove she could. “You’ve been a generous host, Jack, but I have to get back to work digging around in your past. That is, unless you want to tell me about the clinic and NPQ?”

His eyes darkened from medium blue to light sapphire. He had to know what NPQ was. What else did he know?

“I didn’t think so.” She stepped past him, seeing for the first time the fine etching of scar tissue crisscrossing his torso like a road map. Remnants of his past received in the accident that killed his parents?

“I’ll let myself out.”

He turned and she felt his contemplative gaze on her backside. It wasn’t a totally unpleasant experience, but that fact bothered her and the residual sensation stayed with her even after she climbed in the waiting taxi for the ride back to town.

J
ACK READ THROUGH
Ross Morgan’s medical file once more before he put it down and rocked back in his chair.

Out of the original Black’s Cove seven test group, Ross was the only patient who hadn’t responded to the NPQ formula. His grandfather had never been able to determine why. But could he give Olivia the information, without risking full exposure of the entire group, himself included?

Maybe he could black out the other test subjects’ names and their results. It could work, but she was smart. Smart enough to figure out what those results produced? If so, she would expose them all.

Jack closed his eyes, searching for a solution, but in his gut, he knew she wasn’t going to stop asking questions until she got answers. Answers that could get her killed.

Frustrated, he opened his eyes and stood up, feeling the fringe of euphoria that always preceded a precognitive vision. He slumped against the edge of his desk in a waking dream.

Who would it be this time? Whose life would hang in
the balance waiting for his intervention? Which citizen of Black’s Cove would he rescue in the nick of time?

O
LIVIA STARED
at the number coming up on her cell phone screen, a number she didn’t recognize.

Flipping it open, she answered. “Hello?”

“Miss Morgan?” A female voice whispered over the connection.

“Yes. Who’s this?”

“Just listen.”

Caution ignited in her brain and she contemplated closing the phone on the mystery caller.

“I have information about Jack Trayborne and what went on at Black’s Cove Clinic. Are you interested?”

Excitement surged in her veins, but it was quickly diluted by an ounce of reality. Nothing was free.

“What’s it going to cost me?”

The line went silent and she almost shook the phone to get the woman talking again.

“Nothing.”

She hesitated to respond, a measure of suspicion holding her in check. “I don’t believe you.”

“Jack Trayborne has secrets, Miss Morgan.”

“How did you get this number?” Her mind stuck on the detail. She’d only given out her cell number to the hotel and the cops, no one else, but it was listed in her missing laptop. Could that be the source? Was she speaking with the woman who’d stolen it?

“Be at the roadside park on Highway 21 at twelve sharp today. I’ll leave an envelope taped to the bottom
of the picnic table in area number one. If you like that sample, you can have more. Just call the number on the note and I’ll be there.”

“I don’t believe—” The line went dead. She pulled the phone away from her ear, hit redial and listened to the call go through.

After seven rings, she was about to give up.

“Hello?” A male voice answered.

“Who is this?”

“Dean.”

“Where have I called?”

“A pay phone on 10th street in Black’s Cove.”

“Sorry.” Olivia hung up and sat down on the bed. What to do? There had to be someone besides Jack who knew what went on at the clinic thirty years ago. But could she trust an anonymous caller on a pay phone, who just happened to know her cell number?

No…no…no.
But she was fresh out of leads. She knew the park in question. A restroom, three or four picnic spots, on the main highway…in broad daylight.

Glancing at her watch, she stood up, grabbed her purse and the keys to the car she’d rented this morning.

She had ten minutes to get to the roadside park six miles away.

J
ACK FLOORED THE
Jaguar and whipped around a red Pontiac creeping along in front of him.

The details of the precognitive vision were burned in his brain and repeated in a cyclic stream that made his heart hammer and his hands sweat.

He should never have let her leave this morning and if he managed to get to her in time, he didn’t plan on letting her go again.

O
LIVIA FASTENED HER
seat belt and slipped the key into the ignition. The compact fired up and she rolled out of the hotel parking lot headed for the back way out of town.

Mentally, she ran over her checklist, satisfied she’d brought along everything she needed, including a tape recorder just in case the information was substantial and she decided to take the mystery caller up on her offer for more.

Traffic was light to nonexistent as she reached the edge of town where the speed limit increased and everything opened up into the countryside.

Olivia pressed down on the accelerator.

The car sputtered, surged forward, sputtered again and stalled.

“Shoot!” She stepped on the brake, rolled to a stop and put the car in Park. Glancing in the rearview mirror, she made sure there was no one there to rear-end her before she got the engine started again.

She turned the key.

The engine fired. The car roared back to life. Olivia gunned the motor, put the car in gear and took off again, checking the clock on the dashboard—11:53.

She was going to be late.

Worry frayed her nerves. Would the information disappear if she didn’t show up on time? Reacting to the
thought, she pressed down on the accelerator. The car picked up speed, the speedometer needle climbing to fifty in a forty-five zone.

Olivia let off the gas, but the needle moved steadily higher.

Panic clamped on her nerves. She put her foot on the brake.

Fifty-five…

Up ahead in the distance, she saw the blinking red warning lights of a railroad crossing come on.

The letters of an acronym AOT, always on time, zipped by in her brain. The 11:55 freight was always on time.

She stomped on the brake pedal.

A puff of smoke rolled out behind the car as the tires grabbed the pavement. The car didn’t slow.

Sixty…

Olivia reached up and jerked the gear shift into neutral, the engine revved, the car moved faster.

Sixty-five…

She forced the shift lever into Park.

Gears ground. The transmission locked up, disintegrating from underneath the vehicle, but it didn’t stop.

Seventy…

On her right and closing in fast she saw the train, heard its shrill whistle above the racket coming from the possessed car.

Jump! She had to jump.

Olivia grabbed for her seat belt closure and pressed the release button. It didn’t open.

With all the strength she had, she pulled the steering wheel to the left, but the car didn’t respond. It continued on a collision course.

A destiny with a freight train.

Jack slammed on the brakes, locking them up as he rounded the corner just ahead of the locomotive, and jumped out of the car.

He channeled his energy, focusing it on the freight train roaring down the tracks. If he cast it on her car, it would be torn apart with her inside. He didn’t doubt that someone was controlling her vehicle and twin energy fields always caused an explosion.

Reaching out, he felt the sixty-ton engine vibrate the ground under his feet. Its rumble was deafening, its momentum deadly.

“Stop!” he yelled, raising both his hands in a push-back position against the thundering wall of iron.

Sweat squeezed out of his pores as he strained to slow the train long enough for her to cross the tracks in front of it.

The screech of steel wheels on steel tracks split the air.

The noise coming from the train’s diesel engines went up an octave, as the force he exerted on the loco
motive over-revved its drive train and spun the wheels on the tracks.

A second longer…he could hold it back a second longer.

Olivia’s car hit the tracks and shot past him.

He let go.

Half a second later, the train blasted by.

Turning around, Jack reached his palm out and took possession of the car. It rolled to a stop a hundred feet up the highway.

He ran for it.

Smoke belched from under the hood. The tires had been flattened by her attempts to stop the runaway vehicle with the brakes.

Anger surged in his veins. He’d told them to leave her alone. Warned them what would happen if they tried to hurt her again. This time, he’d make sure they stopped.

The driver’s door opened. Olivia staggered out and collapsed in a heap next to the smoldering compact.

Reaching back, she repeatedly slugged her fist against the rear door of the car.

“Stupid! Stupid…car. Why didn’t you stop?”

Jack slowed his pace, amused by her act of retaliation, but she had to be in shock. She’d missed being crushed by the train by less than half a second.

“Olivia?” He knelt on the ground next to her and raised her chin with his hand.

Her eyes went wide, like a frightened animal, desperate and confused. He pulled her into his arms. Her body trembled against his.

“It’s okay. You’re safe now.”

She melted into him.

Reaching out, he stroked her silky hair with his hand. The contact sent desire, hot and urgent, rushing through him like a river, sweeping his resistance away in its relentless current.

He could hold back a train, but he could no longer hold back the need that had taken over his body, one cell at a time since the moment he’d seen her in a vision.

Olivia listened to the pounding of Jack’s heart against her ear. Not even the click-clack of boxcar wheels on the track could drown it out. She breathed him in, feeling truly safe. The terror that had shattered her mind and heart only moments ago evaporated.

Pushing back from him, she stared up into his face. His eyes narrowed and she sensed his intent well before he leaned forward, aiming for her lips.

She closed her eyes an instant before contact. Anticipation stirred in her blood stream and trapped air in her lungs.

The kiss was sweet, shifting and changing as she put her arms around his neck. The intensity level shot up, taking her desire with it in boundless leaps that threatened to yank her restraint.

Jack retreated first, feeling the sensation of fire scorch his lips where he’d touched her. All reason had gone on hiatus the instant he took her mouth.

Rocking back, he stared at her. She’d been as dazed and consumed as he had been, but he resisted the need
to reach for her thoughts and even though the train had passed, he felt like he’d been hit by it.

A timid smile spread on her mouth and threatened to pull him right back into the measure of heaven he’d just escaped.

“You’re him.” Her smile broadened. “You’re the Phantom of Black’s Cove. You saved me from being annihilated by that freight train.”

Jack sobered. “No one knows who the Phantom is, Olivia. That’s why he works.”

“Then how in the heck do you explain what just happened?”

Tension knotted the muscles between his shoulder blades. “The accelerator on the car stuck wide open. The engineer saw you and was able to slow the train just enough that he narrowly missed crushing you.”

Her gotcha look of glee vanished. “I wanted to believe.”

“I know you did. Now why don’t you tell me what you’re doing out here?”

Olivia opened her mouth to speak, but thought better of it. Part of her wanted to tell him what had put her in the train’s path. The other part knew she’d have to admit the phone conversation, but he was her ride to the park, and the information she so desperately needed.

“You know the roadside park on Highway 21?”

“Yes.”

“I was headed there.” She attempted to stand, using the side of the car to pull herself up onto her wobbly legs.

Jack reached out to steady her. Heat entered at the
site and radiated into her where they made contact. The desire to kiss him again raced across her mind.

“You know my life flashed before my eyes just before I crossed the tracks?”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I decided I haven’t done enough kissing in my lifetime.”

A sultry smile parted his lips and she returned one of her own.

He released her. “Changing the subject isn’t going to work, Olivia, and as much as I enjoyed that kiss, you’re still going to tell me what you’re doing out here.”

He was a mind reader judging by the amused look on his face.

“I got a call half an hour ago from a woman claiming to have information about Black’s Cove Clinic…and…you.”

His amusement was replaced by a look of concern. “And you bought it? Can’t you see this was a ploy to put you smack in front of the 11:55?”

A chill skittered through her body. She hadn’t considered that angle. “There’s only one way to find out if she was telling the truth.”

“And what’s that?”

“Take me to the roadside park where the information is supposed to be hidden.”

He crossed his arms over his broad chest and studied her, a tactic that made her squirm. If the information was where the caller said it would be, she could use it to expose his secrets. Find out what made
him tick behind all those muscles and devastating good looks.

A quirky smile flashed on his mouth, but vanished before she could get a read on its source.

She reached inside the compact, grabbed her purse and pulled the strap over her shoulder.

“After you.” He reached for her elbow and escorted her toward his car. “We’ll call a tow truck, but I doubt there’s much help for that car. I hope you took the supplemental insurance policy.”

“Your humor sucks, Jack.”

He laughed, a deep pleasant sound that infiltrated her mind and remained there long after they reached the low black Jag. She pulled in a deep breath as he opened the door and slid into the passenger seat, feeling drained.

She’d beaten death by a half second. It wasn’t something she ever wanted to do again.

Jack hesitated next to the car, surveying the surrounding area for their hiding place. They had to be nearby. Heightening his senses, he combed the area for movement. Nothing.

He climbed in the car and made a U-turn. “You said a woman called you?”

“Yeah.”

“Did she give you her name?”

“No.”

His nerves tightened. Was it possible Diana lured Olivia onto the tracks? Everyone in town knew the 11:55 was always on time.

“Promise me if you get any more calls, you’ll contact me…that you won’t chase secrets alone.” He glanced over at her, struck by the contemplative look on her face.

“My life really did flash in front of me the instant I realized I couldn’t stop the car.”

“You should consider yourself lucky. Most of us never get the motivation to change course.”

“Who said I was going to change course? I’m just going to avoid those train tracks in the future.”

She looked over at him, smiled and raised her eyebrows.

He instantly wanted to touch her, to absorb some of her optimism, but he held back. She had no idea what she was dealing with. What they were capable of. Hell, he was just beginning to realize it himself. They’d go to any length to keep their secret.

“Here it is.” He slowed the car and turned into the park’s empty parking lot. Easing to a stop, he tried to reconcile the blade of caution sawing back and forth over his nerves.

There was no one around, save the fall leaves that covered the grass and scattered in the wind. The door to the restroom stood open, a slave to the breeze rocking it back and forth.

“Where is this information supposed to be?”

“Taped to the bottom of the table in picnic area number one.”

His gaze settled on a table to the left, situated under a large pine tree. “I’ll go. You stay in the car. I don’t like this.”

“Cars don’t like me. I’m not staying. I’m going with
you.” Before he could stop her, she opened the door and climbed out.

He followed, his senses heightened the moment his feet hit the pavement. Something wasn’t right. He combed the woods with his gaze, looking for movement.

“Let’s hurry.” He grasped Olivia’s arm, steering her to the picnic table and standing guard as she knelt next to it and ran her hand along the edge.

“Nothing.” She plopped down on the bench. “I’ve been duped, suckered, conned.”

On the hillside above the park, Jack saw a flash of movement in his peripheral vision. The echo of a rifle shot blasted terror straight through him.

He lunged for Olivia, casting a shield around them at the same instant he pulled her to the ground. But he hadn’t deployed soon enough.

Another shot cracked through the air, its bullet impacting the invisible wall protecting them.

Olivia rolled over, staring at the blue sky overhead. What was happening? She watched a slug slam into a watery bubble floating just above her face. It stopped cold and tumbled onto the ground next to her. “What is this?” She poked at it.

“It’s an energy field, but we have to get out of here. I’ve been hit.”

Terror shook her. She rolled over and saw the sleeve of Jack’s shirt. Crimson and spreading fast.

“I’ll protect us, but we have to get to the car.”

Olivia worked to wrap her mind around what was happening.
Think…think…think.

She yanked her blouse out of the waistband of her jeans and ripped the bottom off it. Wrapping the material several times around Jack’s upper arm, she pulled it tight to stem the bleeding.

Helping him to his feet, she flinched as another slug splayed on the bubble.

It didn’t matter that she must be going nuts. It didn’t matter that things like this only happened in science fiction movies. It didn’t matter that it didn’t matter. She had to save Jack. But an explanation would be something she demanded after they survived.

“Stay close. I can only shield us together in a three-foot area.”

Reaching out he took her hand. The contact had a magnetic quality that made her heart race. They broke into a jog.

Four more shots bounced off the field before they reached the car.

Jack pulled open the driver’s door. She slid in first, he followed. He fired the engine, backed up and floored the gas pedal. The car rocketed forward. Jack barely braked before he pulled out onto the highway.

Olivia didn’t breathe normally again until they were racing away from the park.

“Wait. Where are you going?”

“Home.”

Panic shook her nerves. “You need medical attention. We need to turn around and go to the hospital.”

“They’re required to file a report with the police department if a gun shot wound comes in. There will be
lots of questions, Olivia. Questions I’d rather not answer. It’s a flesh wound. The bullet went through and through. We can take care of it at home.”

He was right. Of course he was right. They’d ask her what happened and she’d tell them how her car had taken over and attempted to ram her into a moving freight train, how an invisible bubble had stopped a barrage of bullets meant to blast them full of holes…

“They’d cart me off to the nut house.”

“My point exactly.”

She tried to put it all together. There was that Phantom thing again. The same phenomenon had protected her from the car on Main Street, she was sure of it, felt it in her heart, and no matter how many times Jack denied it, she was sure he was the Phantom, lifesaver of Black’s Cove. But he needed anonymity. She’d give it to him for now. But how had he known where she’d be?

“How’d you find me?”

He cast her a sideways glance that sent her heart rate up. “I was worried about you this morning after you left. I decided to come into town to check on you.”

She could see right through him. Besides, how did he know she’d be in that car? If he was the Phantom, he’d have saved whoever was behind the wheel. Her bravado deflated.

Jack slowed the Jaguar and made the turn into the estate. His arm throbbed. How was Olivia going to react to the lab where his grandfather had worked out the details of NPQ? He was going to have to placate her somehow.

He’d blacked out everything in Ross’s file that could possibly spark her need to know. Would it be enough? Somehow he doubted it. Olivia Morgan was on a quest for something more, but he’d yet to delve into her thoughts and memories deep enough to find out what drove her. Could he protect her from herself?

“Would you look at that?” she said from the passenger seat.

Jack followed her line of sight to Black’s Cove Lake. The mist had dissipated and the afternoon sun shone on its surface, hitting the water and creating glistening diamonds in ribbons of light.

“It’s so beautiful.”

“Yes, it is.” He enjoyed the awe in her voice.

They drove the last quarter of a mile to the house and he pulled the car into the garage.

“Stuart will help me take care of my arm. Make yourself comfortable in the parlor.”

He glanced over at her and saw a stubborn glint in her eyes. She clamped her teeth together, jutting her chin forward. He was in trouble.