Part 17 (1/2)
”When this is over,” he said, ”I'm going to take you away, Katie Rush. Someplace tropical, where bikinis are formal wear and a full meal is a mai tai and a banana. And I'm going to make you forget every moment in your life that's ever hurt you.”
He had no idea what prompted him to say it. It wasn't calculated; it wasn't smooth; it came out rough and unprepared but from the heart. Her eyes widened, and she shot him another very fast glimpse.
There was a whole world in that look. A universe.
”I'll hold you to that,” Katie said, very softly.
He held out his hand. She took it, and the warmth and strength of her fingers made something wounded in him begin to heal.
”Then let's finish this,” he said. ”Because I can't wait to see you in a bikini.”
”You've seen me in less,” she reminded him.
”Not in the last hour. I think it should be a rule that I see you naked every hour.”
She lost her smile, and her gaze fixed straight ahead. ”We're getting close,” she said. ”Stefan, promise me you won't let Teal drag you in again. Promise me.”
Because she was afraid that now, if they were cornered, Teal could be hurt badly, maybe killed. She was afraid that might hurt him, too, maybe fatally...and he couldn't be sure of anything, at this point. His physical reactions were getting worse, and clearly Teal didn't know, or couldn't control the effect she was having on him.
Then you have to control it. After all, he was the adult.
”I can't promise,” he said. ”She may need me.”
Katie's eyes glittered briefly, but she didn't look at him again, and she reclaimed her hand from his to handle the s.h.i.+fting duties. The rest of the drive-and it was short and fast-pa.s.sed in tense silence. He kept his mind still, listening for any hint that Teal might be trying to send to him, but he felt and heard nothing.
Maybe they'd finally knocked the girls out. He wondered why they hadn't done it earlier.
”I have to make a guess,” Katie said. ”Would they go to the public-access areas, or do they have some kind of private s.h.i.+pping ready for the girls?”
”It's not much of a guess, is it?”
”No,” she said. ”The way these b.a.s.t.a.r.ds planned things, they wouldn't take the risk of bringing the girls through any public areas. Lena and Teal are too resourceful, and Lena in particular is too recognizable. So we look at commercial s.h.i.+pping.”
”That's a problem. There's about eight million containers that come and go from this port every year. Right now, there are probably at least twelve thousand containers sitting on the docks.”
”But how many of them are outbound?”
Stefan thought about it. ”Less than half that many. If I had to guess, I'd say between three and four thousand.”
”But that's s.h.i.+pping containers. How many s.h.i.+ps?”
He shrugged. ”Couple of hundred in docks right now, probably. Rule out the cruise s.h.i.+ps and other pa.s.senger vessels and you're looking at maybe a hundred to a hundred and fifty cargo and commercial vessels.” She shot him a look that clearly asked how he knew. Stefan smiled. ”Didn't my father tell you I was a born gypsy? I've spent most of my life on the streets. You pick up all kinds of knowledge. That's courtesy of some dock work I did a few years ago.”
”Dock work,” she repeated. ”You?”
He shrugged. ”I was researching some ideas for a new network show, and I had to try it out. Tough guys down there, but they have good hearts.”
Stefan sensed that he'd once again tilted her perceptions of him off-center. He smiled again, this time to himself. Keep surprising her, he told himself. She can't resist a mystery.
And he wanted to keep her interested in him, wanted that in ways he'd never wanted a woman before. Not just physically, but in his soul.
”Bridge coming up,” she said.
”Go over the bridge. It'll dump you out on Seaside.”
”Where do I go from there?”
”Katie-” He hesitated for a second, then said, ”Follow your instincts. I told my dad you were a precog, and I meant it. You've been right at every step-more right than anybody else. It's time to let yourself believe in your own abilities. Have faith in yourself.”
”I'm not psychic, Stefan!”
”Then how did you know? How did you know they'd switched the girls out of the van? Your friend on the phone said there was no evidence the girls had been moved at all, everyone else agreed, but you knew, Katie. Didn't you?”
Her knuckles whitened on the Jaguar's leather-wrapped steering wheel. ”It was a guess.”
”Then guess now. But don't doubt yourself. Just do it.”
She didn't say a word in response. The Jaguar rocketed over the Vincent Thomas Bridge, over the iron-gray waters of the Main Channel, and Stefan caught sight of helicopters above. Police helicopters, two of them. He pointed, and Katie nodded, lips compressed into a straight line.
”Right or left?” she asked as they exited from the bridge, and Seaside stretched across in front of the hood of the car. ”Stefan! Right or left!”
He folded his arms. ”You decide.”
She glared at him, then whipped the steering to the right. ”I have no idea what's this way.”
”Just keep following your instincts. Trust me, Katie. I know you can do it.”
She was utterly furious with him, but she drove without argument, following the curve of the road and ending again on Seaside Street. The entire area was commercial, some of it taken up by old cannery factories, many still operational. The smell of the docks. .h.i.t Stefan with a vengeance, and he tried to remember anything that could have been helpful.
There was no sign of the FBI this direction. The police helicopters were hovering over a spot at least half a mile distant.
”They've got the wrong truck,” he said. ”We're on our own.”
”Maybe I'm the one who's completely wrong!”
”No,” Stefan said with absolute certainty. ”You're not wrong. Trust yourself. Trust me.”
She muttered something about gypsy psychics and their high opinions of themselves, which made him smile, and suddenly braked and downs.h.i.+fted the car to a crawl. Her head snapped around to look at a completely nondescript warehouse behind a closed and locked chain-link fence.
”Stefan,” she said slowly. ”I think-can you reach Teal? See if we're close?”
He closed his eyes and opened up, opened fully, and felt a tentative brush against his mind.
Teal. She was awake-drugged, scared, sick, but awake. The vision he got from her was a confusing blur, but enough. Just enough.
Stefan opened his eyes and said, ”We're here. They're inside the warehouse. There's a s.h.i.+p docking outside. They're going to load the girls...o...b..ard.”
Katie stopped, handed Stefan the cell phone and said, ”Stay in the car.” She reached under her jacket and removed her pistol, checked the clip and safety, and made sure that her extra clips were ready to hand. ”Call the Port Police and the FBI-the task force is the last call, so just redial. Get backup here as soon as possible. Tell them I have a visual on the girls.”
”Wait, Katie-”