Abduction (A Psychic Romance Novella Series) Read Online Free Page A

more, she would have some ruffled feathers to smooth.
    She sat on the couch, eating strawberries and drinking wine, trying to think of who could be after her. Thinking of irate clients led her to remember something that seemed important to the current circumstances . There had been a potential client, someone who Gabrielle had discovered was a drug kingpin. He had wanted to retain her services as a telepath to check his sellers periodically and make sure that none of them were skimming money.
    It was too much of a liability—particularly since he sold heroin. He was convinced that some of his dealers were using, or offering discounts to friends, or possibly taking more than what was due to them as his sellers. When Gabrielle had touched the man’s mind, already having decided against the proposal, she had found a bleak, almost barren mental landscape, full of cruelty and determined avarice and ambition. He had been entertaining rather unpleasant thoughts about her as a countercurrent to his thoughts about what he would do to any of his dealers that were cheating him.
    Gabrielle had turned him down as diplomatically as she could, sticking with business-oriented reasons for her refusal instead of screaming out at him that he was a horrible, awful person that she wouldn’t get within ten feet of—which was what she had wanted to say. Instead, she had said that if she got involved with a drug syndicate, she would be losing out on her other contracts, some of which were with the government—and even if she didn’t lose them, it would put a strain on her working relationships, and there was a good chance that she would be compelled to provide information on his operations. “As long as I don’t meet with you again,” she had concluded, “they’ll likely leave me alone. But if I come back, someone in the BATF will link me with your operation, and then very unpleasant questions will come up.”
    The man had been outwardly polite, and he at least had had the grace to try and suppress some of the darker, angrier feelings that were bubbling up in his mind. But deep in the back of his mind, Gabrielle had known he was seething from her refusal. He had been trying to think of ways to convince her, of something he could do or say to change her mind. She had made the decision to leave quickly , before he could think of a course of action. She had forgotten about it quickly, reasoning that drug kingpins needed to have the ability to move on fairly quickly from minor disappointments. But what if he had thought about it more, and decided that she knew too much? A captive telepath would be an attractive thing for a powerful drug overlord, Gabrielle reasoned.
    She ate the last of the strawberries and drained the remainder of the wine from the bottle before it had a chance to get warm. If it was the drug kingpin, she thought, she could just turn him in. She had contacts at the FBI. They could send BATF agents after the guy in a matter of days.
    But it could be someone else, Gabrielle allowed. Who was that guy? How had he known about the situation? And would she ever get a chance to ask him in person? Until he had spoken to her, she would have just thought he was a bystander, maybe a particularly helpful one. And what had he done to the attacker?
    Gabrielle thought back to the adrenaline-fueled moment. She had caught sight of the stranger in the corner of her eye, and she could remember seeing him standing there as the last attacker had hit the ground from a considerable height. Had he actually helped at all? How could he have thrown the man up so high in the air? From what Gabrielle could recall, the stranger hadn’t been particularly buff. And the fact that she had tried to read him—and failed— and that his mind was impenetrable, worried her even more. She had become so used to knowing what the people around her were thinking that it was surprising not to be able to hear his thoughts.
    Instinctively, she distrusted him. Anyone