Landry laughed harshly. “How old are you?”
“Thirty-six,” Miss Stowe said. She spoke in a monotone.
Landry frowned. “She told me she was twenty-eight. She sure as hell looks twenty-eight. Must have had some work done.”
“Why don’t you try something a little more complicated?” Titus suggested dryly.
“She was Senator Rathmorten’s mistress for a while,” Landry said. “I wonder if she knows what really happened to his wife. There were rumors that he killed her, but they evaporated quickly. There was no proof, and he was a senator, so he would have been able to quash the investigation.”
“Why don’t you ask Miss Stowe what she knows?”
Landry looked at her. “Do you know how Elizabeth Rathmorten died?”
“Rath murdered her,” Miss Stowe said.
“Shit,” Landry whispered, fascinated. “How do you know that?”
“I was there that night,” Miss Stowe replied in the same uninflected voice. “His wife had gone out earlier. The senator and I had sex in his office. I left the mansion but returned a few minutes later through the side entrance because I had forgotten my earrings. When I got back upstairs to his office, I heard his wife’s voice. She had come home sooner than expected. There was an argument. I was afraid they would hear me, so I hid in a hall closet.”
Landry glanced back over his shoulder at Titus. “This is fucking amazing.”
“I’m glad you think so,” Titus murmured. Holding the focus with the ruby amber for this long a period of time was exhausting, but he dared not show any weakness to Landry.
Miss Stowe continued speaking. “I heard sounds of a struggle. And then there was nothing but silence. When Rath came out of his office he was carrying his wife in his arms. I could see that her head was covered in blood. He took her out of the house and drove off with her.”
Miss Stowe stopped.
“They found Elizabeth Rathmorten’s body in the alley behind an apartment building,” Landry said to Titus. “It looked like she had jumped. Shit, with information like this, I’ll have Rathmorten in the palm of my hand.”
“Have you seen enough?” Titus asked.
“Yeah, sure, let’s get out of here.”
“One more thing.” Titus focused on Miss Stowe. “You have had an unpleasant dream, but that is all it is, a dream. You do not want to remember it because every time you try, you will get a pounding headache. You are not feeling well. You want to go straight home and go to sleep.”
He stopped pulsing psi through the relic. Miss Stowe blinked several times, looking confused. Then she collected herself and turned to Landry.
“I’m sorry,” she said, her hand on her stomach, “but I’m feeling a little ill. I think I should go home.”
“Sure,” Landry said. “I’ll drive you back to your apartment myself.”
BENSON WATCHED KENNINGTON USE THE RELIC ONE LAST time just before the woman got out of the car, ensuring that the events of the past hour would be nothing but a dream to her.
He sat behind the wheel of the big Oscillator 600 and waited until she disappeared through the door of her apartment building. Then he looked in the rearview mirror.
Titus Kennington, sitting in the backseat, looked a little weary but smugly satisfied.
The son of a bitch thinks he’s playing me.
“I’m impressed,” Benson said. “You’ve got a deal.”
“Excellent.” Kennington smiled his patronizing smile. “I’m delighted to hear that, Mr. Landry. It will prove profitable for both of us.”
Once he got his hands on the other relic, Benson thought, he sure as hell wasn’t going to turn it over to Titus Kennington. Instead, he would get rid of the doctor and take possession of both relics.
Whatever Kennington’s form of psi talent was, it was a safe bet that it was not unique. There would be others who could control the relic, others who, in turn, he could control. With the resources of the Guild behind him, he could find the talent he required to take advantage of the ruby relics.
“I suggest we discuss the problem of Miss Ingram and her new bodyguard,” Kennington said.
Chapter 20
CELINDA WIPED THE STEAM OFF THE BATHROOM MIRROR with a washcloth and surveyed her image. She didn’t look any different, she decided. Okay, maybe she was a little flushed, but that could be attributed to the recent shower. Surely no one in her family would guess this morning that she’d spent a goodly portion of the night engaged in hot sex with her bodyguard.
She looked at Araminta, who was perched on the counter, grooming herself.
“This is the bride’s day,” Celinda said. “Everyone will be focused on Rachel. I’m just the maid of honor. No one will give me a second glance.”
Araminta stopped fussing with her gray fur and batted her blue eyes.
“Well, it’s not as if you spent the night entirely alone, either, missy.”
She scooped up Araminta and went back into the main room to finish dressing. The door to Davis’s room was still partially ajar. She could hear the shower running. She stood still for a moment, remembering the night with mixed emotions.
I like to sleep alone. Don’t take it personally.
How else could a woman take that kind of comment? she wondered.
She dressed in the black trousers and the dark green top with the three-quarter-length sleeves that she had brought along to wear to breakfast. She heard Davis’s shower go off while she was putting on her lipstick.
A knock sounded on the door of her room.
“That’ll be room service with the eggs and toast I ordered for Araminta and Max,” she called through the connecting door. “I’ll get it.”
She crossed the room, Araminta on her shoulder, and opened the door.
Waves of dark, twisted psi energy slammed across her senses, making her recoil backward so quickly that she stumbled and almost fell.
Benson Landry, dressed in traditional ghost-hunter khaki and leather, a knife on his hip, lounged in the opening.
“Hello, Celinda,” he said, giving her his trademark hunter’s smile, the one he thought was so incredibly sexy. “Heard you were in town for a family wedding. Thought I’d drop by and see how you were doing. Been a while.”
She heard a soft rumble in her ear. Araminta was growling. Only her daylight eyes were showing, however. She had not gone into full predatory mode, but she was clearly on the edge.
“What do you want?” Celinda asked, astonished that she was able to keep her tone even. Her heart was pounding in her chest, and adrenaline was snapping through her.
“I told you,” Landry said, reptilian eyes gleaming. “Just wanted to see how you were getting on.”
“You’re here for some reason. What is it?”
“Why don’t you invite me in, and we’ll talk?”
“We have nothing to say to each other. I kept my part of the bargain. Leave me alone.”
“Yeah, well, I’m in a mood to change the terms of our deal.” He raised his brows at the sight of Araminta on her shoulder. “What is that thing? Looks like something a cat coughed up.” He chuckled.
Davis materialized beside Celinda. He had put on a pair of trousers, but he was still nude from the waist up. Max was perched on his shoulder.
“Get out of here, Landry,” he said, his voice gravedigger soft.
Landry narrowed his eyes. “Who the hell are you?”
“Davis Oakes. You might want to write that down. We’ll be meeting again one of these days. But this isn’t a good time. Got a wedding to attend.”
The rising tide of male hormones was palpable. Celinda’s anxiety level went up several more notches. The
