Tapestry of the Past Read Online Free Page B

Steele wouldn’t even consider the possibility that she was telling the truth.
    That left only her to stop a killer.
    Problem was, she didn’t have the slightest idea where to start.
    A soft meow drew her attention. Leaning down, she scooped up the worried Siamese. Holding the slender cat close, she scratched its head and stared at the wall. “Tia, what am I going to do?” The Siamese washed her face in sympathy.
    Damn, when would she ever learn? You’d think after the fiasco , she would know better. Even now, three years later, she winced at how naïve and stupid she’d been. She’d pulled the tatters of her self-respect around her and promised herself never to tell anyone about her visions again.
    So, okay, there were extenuating circumstances this time. She’d never had a vision where she was the victim. But, still, the end results were bound to be the same. Disbelief and the subtle easing away, as if she might be contagious.
    For some insane reason, though, she’d had the instant innate belief that Gabriel Steele was different. Something about his eyes. Even his initial reaction hadn’t dampened that belief. When he’d told her to sit and had begun to question her, she really thought he’d help her even if he couldn’t fully accept her knowledge came from a vision.
    “Just goes to show you how wrong my instincts can be, huh?” She tickled the cat under the chin. “I reacted to him, Tia,” she confessed in a near whisper. “Like I’ve never reacted to another man. Not even Christopher. Even after he made it clear he thought I was lying.” She gave a bitter laugh. “Guess that makes me desperate as well as stupid, doesn’t it? You wanna hear something weird? I could swear he was as turned on as I was.” She wasn’t stupid, past history aside. She knew guys could screw like bunnies without knowing so much as the woman’s name. But would a man only interested in getting in her pants have said the one thing guaranteed to send her scurrying like a mouse? And it had been deliberate. Of that she hadn’t the slightest doubt.
    A big black head butted insistently under her hand. Kalesia scooted back to allow another cat to hop up beside her.
    “Why couldn’t he be more like you, Hannibal? Starved and injured, you had every reason not to trust humans. Yet you let me close. You gave me a chance.” She rubbed her cheek against the long, silky fur of the tom. “It’s too bad Gabriel Steele didn’t do the same because, without him, I have the feeling I don’t stand a chance at all.”
    * * * * *
    Stark horror held her rigid as the violence raged, unabated. Rage, fear and hatred swirled about, threatening to encase her in their fetid grip. She couldn’t escape. It was going to trap her forever. A scream locked in her throat, the tendrils ripped asunder without warning.
    Torn from sleep, Kalesia stared into the diffuse light of pre-dawn, a startlingly real sensation of terror gripping her.
    * * * * *
    “ Kalesia , you didn’t?”
    The wail turned several heads. Kalesia sighed. So much for hoping the open-air restaurant would restrain her mother.
    “Mom, I had to. This is my life we’re talking about, not someone already dead.” Bad idea. She needed someone to talk to but a late dinner with her mother had definitely been a bad idea. Her mother preferred to deal with her ability by pretending it didn’t exist.
    Kalesia glanced at the citrine-studded watch on her wrist. Maybe it would be better all the way around to suddenly recall an appointment.
    “But the police?” Della Brannigan smoothed a strand of hair back. She’d allowed a swath of white hair to remain, a striking contrast to the dark auburn she’d given her daughter. But where Kalesia’s eyes were Brannigan green, her mother’s were tawny brown. Kalesia noticed a gentleman at a neighboring table discreetly eyeing her mother. Even on the backside of fifty, her mother could still turn heads.
    Now, however, she looked ready to cry.
    “Mom,