Killer Thoughts

Chapter Seven

The flight to Venezuela went off without a hitch. They landed in Caracas and met Caleb’s driver without attracting undue attention. The small hotel they entered catered to people who wanted to keep a low profile. Located between a large barrio on the western edge of the city and the modern district of El Rosal, the little building gave enough security that they didn’t have to fear for their lives just entering the place. At least, not yet.

In the distance, Mount Avila separated the city from the Caribbean Sea. Despite the beauty and grandeur of the distant mountain, they’d avoided a few No Go Areas, where most foreigners wound up dead. Violence was high in the city, and Owen knew it would get even more brutal before he left. DeSanta had to die.

Their driver had spoken like a native for all that he looked like a Swede. In accented English the unnamed man had said, “He’s here, hasn’t moved in two days,” before leaving Caleb and Owen with a large duffel bag when he dropped them at their hotel.

Their small room had cracked walls, a stained wooden floor, a single bed, and a small water closet big enough for a toilet. A communal shower and sink were down the hall. Of the ten rooms in the dingy, run-down place, only this one and two others had occupants, or so their driver had informed them on the ride over. Besides telling them that DeSanta was there, present, in the city.

“Chatty friends you have,” Owen remarked.

Caleb shrugged. “If I was stationed here, I’d be quiet too. Every two seconds, there’s someone lying shot or dead three streets over. But this was as close as I wanted us to be. DeSanta’s men patrol the eastern part of the city.”

“Where you’re going to connect with him. Not safe, Caleb.”

“Hey, at least I don’t have to be in the same building anymore. That was tough. Remember Florence?”

“Oh, right. That was bitch.”

Caleb grinned, and Owen could see the adrenaline junkie gearing up to go.

“I know I told you I could be a mile out, and I didn’t think I’d need to be this close. But this is kind of a rush job. I haven’t had the time to lock onto him before now. I’ll be on his block. I figured they’ll see me, but I’ll be in disguise, working on the neighbor’s house. My papers check out. An electrician is due to visit the blue house a block down tomorrow morning. No biggie.”

“Dying the hair?”

“Black.”

“Not platinum blond? You’d look even more interesting as a redhead.” Owen grinned at the look Caleb gave him. “Hey, I can make jokes, or I can dwell on how much I don’t want to do this.” His smile faded. “DeSanta needs to die. The things he’s done…” Owen’s gift—or curse—was that he connected with his targets long enough to see through them, to know, in that split second before everything ended, how they’d lived.

When he’d ended Linda Cavendish’s life, he’d seen her greed, how many people she’d had a hand in hurting with her illegal cage fights and senseless rumor mongering. In addition to murder, she’d broken careers and ended more than her share of marriages. Led by greed, she’d also died by it. But DeSanta took bad to a whole new level.

Owen had dealt with scumbags and murderers, but defiling innocents definitely took the cake. He knew Kerr was a deviant bastard, but this man, DeSanta, was the epitome of evil. He feared what he’d see before DeSanta succumbed, but even more, Owen worried he’d be forever tainted by the darkness he’d be forced to confront. As if the evil would bleed through to him and stain him forever. Sometimes after an op, it took him months to recover deep inside. And he feared losing himself more than anything.

Caleb clapped him on the back. “Don’t worry. Yeah, it’s gonna suck. But I’ll be here for you as fast as I can. Keep a gun close, and stay conscious for maybe half an hour. You don’t have to physically touch him, so you should be good to go.” He paused. “I still think we could call in—”

“No.”

“Shit. Fine. Then you just need to hang on long enough for me to get back.”

Caleb would have to stay by DeSanta until Owen made the connection. The minute Owen did, Caleb would beat feet back to Owen.

Once Owen started destroying DeSanta, he’d be vulnerable, unable to process outside of the kill. And after the deed, he’d be unfocused, confused. Unfortunately, there would be a short lag time between Caleb fixating on the mark and arriving back here at the hotel. But it couldn’t be helped. Owen refused any other offer of assistance. The fewer people who knew what he could do, the better. Frankly, he didn’t trust anyone with his most closely kept secret except Caleb, the admiral, and Heather. And he’d be damned if he’d involve his sister in danger.

“Besides,” Caleb continued. “Just think of all the kids you’re saving by doing this.”

“Yeah.” Still, the mess left a bad taste in his mouth. If he didn’t know better, he’d think he had a hint of foresight in his skill set. Because he had a bad feeling about the mission, a sense unlike what he’d experienced on similar ops, when he’d been raring to take down the bad guys. And he couldn’t have said why.

“He took the bait, sir.”

Carl gripped the phone tighter. When he’d heard about plans to eliminate DeSanta, he’d planted a seed with his contact in DC. It seemed they’d made good on the idea about asking Owen for help. And now Owen would be even more vulnerable in a foreign country without his usual backup. Perfect.

Talk about a good day. He nodded at his supplier, who dragged another stoned woman from the cattle car in the warehouse. Carl inspected his merchandise, nodded, and said into the cell phone, “That’s good, Fielder. Keep me apprised of developments as they come in.”

“Yes, sir. Also, Koffman spoke with Neever. Though they haven’t spotted anyone else out there, he swears they have company in Bend.”

Carl gave Owen credit. The man was no slouch. Knowing he had to leave his precious estate and staff behind—and aware Carl would know he’d gone—Owen had left more than his spare security to watch the homestead. Probably Jack Keiser and his little bastards patrolling the area.

Yet another reason Carl preferred not to engage Owen on his own turf. Recollections of his father and brother dying, without any trace of Owen’s guilt, unnerved him. If Owen indeed knew people who could kill with a thought, what prevented him from taking Carl out the same way? That Carl had lived this long told him Owen might be psychic, but he couldn’t kill on command. Had he been able, the bastard would no doubt have killed him long ago.

No. Owen had contacts to do his dirty work for him. Men like that Caleb Dalton. Unfortunately, Carl had yet to find his own psychic to help him out. Although… “Fielder?”

“Sir?”

“Any word on that other matter I had you looking into?” A search into a psychic for hire, one who could use his or her ability to kill. Tit for tat, Owen.

“Maybe. I had a phone call from someone claiming he knows about the program that disbanded. Someone with skills you might need, except…”

“Yes?”

“He seemed a little…off, sir. I’m not sure how much of a help he’d be.”

“No matter. If he can do what needs to be done, we’ll bring him on board. Have Harry set up the meeting. Oh wait, he’s no longer with us, is he?” Harry had been a bit too wheedling about money, and Carl had been in a foul mood of late. So just yesterday, Harry had enjoyed his last minutes gagged and strapped to Carl’s special table, fucked to within an inch of his life. Poor Harry hadn’t enjoyed the buggery, but Carl thought the slash across his throat had given him the respite he’d begged for, there at the end. Carl, on the other hand, had thoroughly enjoyed his time with Harry. Though a disappointment in some ways, Harry had proven to be a stellar fuck.

He smiled at the remembrance, then focused once more on the present. “I’d like you to screen our new friend, Fielder. See to it.”

“Will do, sir.”

Carl disconnected the call and got down to business. Trading guns for women would serve its purpose today, especially as some of the females seemed more than unwilling and just young enough to be considered illegal in most states. Just what Carl’s new clients had been looking for.

He wrapped up the deal and hurried back to his limo, careful to keep himself free to take calls. He couldn’t wait to see what happened in Caracas. Owen and Dalton had no idea what was coming their way. It would be fun to watch them squirm, fearful for their lives. What great stories they’d have to tell their pathetic friends when they returned. And they’d know just how far Carl’s reach extended.

He laughed and poured himself a scotch. And waited.

Owen spent that day and night unable to stop thinking about Ian. Had his little thief found the new Whistler etching he’d intentionally left in his personal, less secure safe off the bedroom? He’d bought it for three hundred thousand, only because he had a feeling Ian might like it. Was Ian making good use of his time painting? Though Ian had refused to admit it, Owen thought he liked the artistic challenge in copying the works, more for art’s sake than for the money he’d get when he sold the forgeries.

Ian had a creative streak that meshed well with Owen’s own ability to generate income. He had no idea why, but he’d always been able to know when to invest and when to pull out. Granted, he’d gotten burned a few times when he’d let sentiment rule logic. Yet even then, he’d known he should withdraw and intentionally ignored his instincts.

After a restless night’s sleep and a breakfast not worth mentioning, he paced the small room, feeling hemmed in and uncomfortable in the sweltering heat. He slapped at another mosquito, wishing for the moderate climate of Bend once more. Did Ian realize Owen never brought anyone into his home? Acquaintances and casual dates he entertained away from Bend—his true home. Ian wouldn’t understand what his presence meant to Owen, but the others in his employ would.

They’d take care of him. He hoped. He had a feeling he’d need to give Tim a raise when he returned. That’s if Ian hadn’t stolen the man blind and convinced him he’d be better off working elsewhere.

Owen grinned, glad to concentrate on his little thief and the pleasures still awaiting him.

“Owen. I’ve got him.”

Caleb’s mental call preceded the familiar thickness of psychic energy, a foreign sense of someone else rushing at him. Like a narrowed tunnel, Owen saw the target at the very end and readied himself to rush through and connect.

While Caleb held the tie, he lay down on the bed, gripped his pistol by his side, and closed his eyes, knowing he’d barricaded the door as best as he was able. The flimsy lock would do little, but the chair against it would scrape the floor if moved, alerting Owen to company.

He let himself go and focused, using a surge of disgust and anger to push him fast. He raced through the tunnel and landed in DeSanta’s essence. A clingy quagmire of powerful energy enveloped him, making it hard to breathe.

DeSanta had a potent psyche, domineering and sticky all at once.

“I’ve got him. Get out, now,” Owen sent Caleb before he forgot himself in the task at hand.

“I’m gone. Be there in twenty. Maybe less if I can.”

Caleb winked out, leaving Owen alone with the mark.

Owen didn’t want to linger, but he had to satisfy himself that he was doing the right thing. Despite all that he’d seen and studied about the man, the truth came from the knowing. On a sigh, he leeched into DeSanta’s bones and blood and thoughts. While Morvelo DeSanta enjoyed an early lunch, laughing with his henchmen about something, Owen seeped deeper. And then the memories hit him. Hard.

Feelings and visions of torture, madness, and moments of loving clarity intersected. He whipped a young boy to death while stripping the flesh off a little girl. Then he molested them in ways that made Owen want to gag. And then, a vision of DeSanta bouncing his niece on his lap, no thought of hurting her at all, just a pure, innocent love—which completely contrasted with his disgusting, baser needs.

More violence, this time meted out with a gun and a knife. A slashing pattern DeSanta particularly liked to use when making a statement to his enemies.

The visions and feelings grew in intensity, and he felt DeSanta relive them as he pushed the man to open himself. DeSanta shook his head and rose from the table. He excused himself and wandered down the marbled hallway into a large bedroom, where two small girls quivered with fear, chained to the foot of his bed like dogs.

DeSanta stared at the darker of the two. He wanted… No. Owen surged into the man’s mind. Instead of crushing DeSanta’s heart, as he’d done previously, Owen managed to turn him away, toward the bathroom, where his death would be in private and not in front of the children.

Can spare them that, at least.

DeSanta stumbled, muttering to himself and cursing his inability to focus.

Owen felt nauseous, the power of DeSanta’s sick, twisted desire making it difficult to hold control. He exerted himself once more, aware of an excruciating pain in his temple. Fuck. Not good. He didn’t have any more time to play. With the notion that he was judge, jury, and executioner and that this man had been found wanting, he brought out a mind trick that used to scare the bejesus out of him and leveled it at DeSanta—a darkness, an oppressive, putrid hatred for everything the man was.

Owen let it pour out of him, shooting DeSanta full of his own evil. A reflection of his own truth in the form of Owen’s version of hell.

DeSanta clutched his heart and stared blindly at the pristine white walls of his bathroom. He tried to cry out for help, but Owen tightened down on the man’s muscles, freezing his vocal chords.

Yes, extreme pain. Anguishing punishment, you fucking bastard. He gripped harder and jerked his mind, so that arteries tore and DeSanta’s lifeblood flooded his chest cavity, missing the heart. Internal damage no one would be able to explain, a definite turn from the invisible footprint he normally left. Yet Owen wanted to make a statement.

Still focused, he began to trace into the man’s flesh. The skin, the largest organ of the body, and Owen’s personal playground at the moment. Into DeSanta, he carved the ugly truth. Rapist. Murderer. The devil claimed his due, scored into the man’s chest and across his forehead as a warning to all.

DeSanta lay dead and bleeding while Owen stared through his dead eyes at the feet that entered the bathroom.

He heard men swear and cross themselves as DeSanta’s flesh continued to peel, talking to the evil in them as well.

And then he heard the roar of sirens and the local police Caleb must have sent to save the girls and anyone else trapped in DeSanta’s mansion. Gunfire erupted.

He continued to swim in the morass of the man’s mind, a dangerous thing, considering DeSanta now lay dead. With some effort, Owen pulled himself together and swam back through the tunnel toward himself.

He opened and blinked his dry eyes at the ceiling, slow to understand the loud noise drawing closer to the room. He gripped the pistol in his hand, not sure how much time had passed since he’d been gone.

Pounding on the door, accompanied by more gunfire, jerked him out of his stupor. Still exhausted and unable to do little more than crawl, he rolled off the bed and landed hard on the floor, away from the door.

Just in time too, because the chair against the door slid across the floor as the door was flung open. Someone emptied a machine gun into the mattress. More footsteps entered.

“Stay the fuck down,” Caleb shouted.

Grunting. The sound of fists striking flesh. Owen raised himself over the bed to see another man try to knife Caleb in the back. He raised and shot his own gun before the guy had the chance.

Caleb dropped the man he’d been holding and swung around to see his attacker crumple to the ground, his hand over the bullet in his belly. Then he turned back to Owen. “You look like shit. Son of a bitch. You’re bleeding.”

Owen wiped a shaky hand under his nose, not pleased to find it covered in dark blood. His head hurt too, from banging it on the floor when he’d fallen. He tried to get up but couldn’t. “H-how did they find us?”

Caleb scowled and hurried to help him stand. With one arm, he held Owen upright, and with the other he grabbed the duffel containing their change of clothing, some supplies, and more weapons. “I don’t know. But this shouldn’t be happening. We need to move, now.”

They’d just skirted the dresser and neared the bathroom when shots fired. A blazing pain struck Owen’s thigh.

“Shit.”

“Damn it.” Caleb yanked Owen into the water closet with him, slammed the door shut, and shoved Owen down. Then he opened the window they’d planned as an escape route and checked outside. “Clear. Come on.”

Sirens sounded from outside. Caleb climbed through the window with the duffel strapped to his back and turned to help Owen through while keeping his gun trained on the door.

Owen’s leg ached something fierce, but by concentrating, he was able to ignore the pain. A numbness crept up his leg as he worked himself over the ledge and onto the steel railing. Except the lack of feeling didn’t stop at his thigh. He shook, his reserves fading, and went to one knee. The fire escape shook.

He whispered, “Good thing you came when you did. I’m flaming out, man.”

Caleb swore, fired into the street below them from the flimsy landing on which they stood, and said something Owen couldn’t make out.

The world spun, and he saw nothing more.

When he woke, everything was dark, and he felt a strange vibration around him. His throat ached, and he swallowed hard, coughing at the itch there.

“Easy. Christ, Owen. Next time, give me a little more warning.”

Caleb.

Out loud, his friend said, “We’re right now in the plane heading home.” A pause. “It was Kerr. He sent a note with one of the bastards who bombed our car. Oh right, you missed that, Miss Daisy, because I had to find us alternate wheels and carry your heavy ass out of Dodge. Anyway, apparently Kerr can’t wait to see you again.” Caleb sounded gruff when he added, “I’m staying until he’s done. That was way too close for comfort, and he’s got to have impressive contacts if he tracked us that soon. The flight manifest was scrubbed, and no one but me and a few higher-ups knew about this.”

“Great.” Hell. It even hurt to mentally communicate.

“No. I want you to talk to me, with your mouth. Open your eyes, slacker. Come on. I know you’re tired, but I need to see…”

Owen felt as if he’d been in a coma for weeks. It took Herculean effort to open his eyes.

“Christ, Owen. Your pupils are still huge. Not good, man.”

“I know that,” he rasped. “I feel…bad.”

Caleb swore, creatively, in several languages. Two of which Owen recognized.

“Okay. Close your eyes and rest. We’re flying back to a private airport away from Bend, then driving back to the house. You need rest, man. Oh, and when I called to check with Tim, he said your boy is safe and sound and funny as hell. So the fact Tim hasn’t killed him yet is a plus.”

Owen wanted to laugh at Caleb’s dry tone, but he couldn’t find the energy. A slight pain in his leg alerted him that the gunshot he’d suffered had been real. But the relief that Ian was waiting for him, alive and well, gave him the respite from consciousness he needed.

“…okay? Owen, hey, Owen.” “Buddy, you still with me?”

Caleb’s voice faded, and Owen sank into oblivion once more.