Chapter Eighteen

Her phone rang.

Amelia flinched. Of course I flinched , she thought. The man on the other side of the table just informed me that he could murder me with my own dreams .

So much for concluding that she had hired the right investigator. Was he telling her the truth? Was murder by nightmares even a thing? Was he delusional?

She reminded herself that the strength in his energy field had been rock-solid stable.

The phone rang again. The couple at a nearby table glared. She raised a hand in apology and yanked the device out of her bag. She expected to see Talia’s or Pallas’s name but she flinched again when she saw the identity of her caller. She started to decline but, on impulse, changed her mind.

“Why, hello, Dr. Pike,” she said, lowering her voice and infusing it with all the cheery warmth and charm she could summon. “I wasn’t expecting you to call. I’m afraid this isn’t a very convenient time.”

On the other side of the table, Gideon’s brows rose. She could not tell if he was amused or merely curious. Maybe both.

“Amelia, where are you?” Norris Pike’s voice was sharp with what was probably concern, but his authoritative tone was irritating, nonetheless. “I’ve been worried about you. You’re not at home. That’s not like you.”

She tightened her grip on the phone, aware that Gideon was close enough to hear both ends of the conversation.

“How do you know I’m not there?” she asked, replacing the warmth and charm with ice.

“When you didn’t answer my earlier calls I started to wonder if you were in trouble,” Norris said. “Anxiety attacks can be quite debilitating. I was afraid you might be dealing with depression. I dropped by your apartment to check on you.”

“You went to my apartment?”

Norris ignored the outrage. “As your therapist, I had every right to be concerned. One of your neighbors heard me knocking on your door. She told me she saw you leave this morning with a male friend and a suitcase. She suggested you might have taken off for a couple of days, but she had no idea where you were.”

“Sounds like you talked to Irene,” Amelia said. “You’ll be delighted to know that she was right. I’m out of town with a friend. At the moment we’re having dinner in a very nice restaurant, so I’m going to hang up because it’s rude to take calls in restaurants. Goodbye, Dr. Pike.”

“Are you telling me you’re on a date?” Norris demanded, sounding stunned. “At night?”

“I know, I’m a little surprised myself. But, yes, it’s a real date and it is definitely night. Progress, Dr. Pike. There’s hope for me after all. Bye.”

“Wait, don’t hang up.”

She ended the call and dropped the phone into her bag. When she turned back she found Gideon watching her with a speculative expression.

“You’re wondering if Norris Pike is my stalker, aren’t you?” she asked.

“You said you had never had an opportunity to view his aura or see his prints after dark, so you haven’t been able to compare them to the photos of the stalker’s prints.”

“True,” she said. She smiled.

“What?” Gideon asked.

“Nothing.” She forked up a bite of her cauliflower.

He gave her a knowing look. “You got a kick out of letting Pike think that you were on a date, didn’t you?”

“I did. Give me a break. This is the closest I’ve come to anything resembling a real date since my lost night.”

Gideon’s eyes gleamed with what looked like genuine amusement. “Should I feel used?”

She managed a smile but the little rush of satisfaction she had experienced when she told Norris Pike she was out on a date at night was already dissipating. In its place was the realization that she was sharing connecting rooms with a man who claimed to be able to kill with psychic powers.

Her life had gotten complicated.