Brody Judge Read online

  “Breakfast?” Grady asked. “My treat.”

  “Sure, why—" Mason’s voice died, and his eyes grew round.

  “Hey bud, you okay?” Grady put his hand on Mason’s shoulder, alarmed at the way color had drained from his face.

  Mason’s gaze was directed across the street, so Grady looked that way as well. A woman with long auburn hair walked down the steps of the library. She was looking down as she tucked something into a big shoulder bag.

  Mason's attention was focused on her as she descended the steps and headed down the sidewalk. “You know that woman?” Grady asked.

  “I just remembered, there’s something I have to do. I’ll see you back at Sanctuary later.” Mason fished out his keys and hurried to his car, parked at the curb.

  “What the hell?” Grady raised both hands as Mason pulled away. “I rode with you, remember?”

  Mason didn’t glance back or slow down. “Well, damn.” Grady pulled out his phone and placed a call. “Hey darlin’. Any chance you’d come pick me up from Lily’s office and give me a ride home? Yeah, I rode with Mason, but he had a sudden errand to run. Okay, thanks baby.”

  Grady pocketed his phone and took another look down the street. The woman who’d come out of the library had reached a corner and turned. So did Mason’s car. What the hell was going on?

  Mason realized there was a high probability she knew she was being followed. There wasn’t a lot of traffic and he could only go so slow. When he saw her get into an old sedan parked near the elementary school, he slowed even more.

  She pulled out and after a moment he sped up to follow. If she knew she'd picked up a tail, she gave no sign of it. She drove the speed limit, headed south out of town, in the direction he’d take himself to go home or to Sanctuary.

  The turn he’d normally take to go to Sanctuary was less than half a mile away when she suddenly pulled off onto the shoulder, got out of her car and stepped into the road, forcing him to come to a stop.

  Mason pulled over behind her car, parked and got out. “Why are you following me?” she asked the moment he stepped out of his car.

  “Who said I was?”

  The look she gave clearly indicated she didn’t believe him. She appeared angry and suspicious and more importantly, she looked at him like she'd never seen him before. It was the look someone gave a stranger. Could it be that she really had no idea who he was?

  “I apologize.” He hurried to cover his surprise at the revelation. “My name is Mason James and I work down the road at Sanctuary.”

  “Stop following me.” She turned away and started for her car.

  “Wait!” Mason followed and this time when she stopped and turned to him, her expression was entirely one of anger.

  “What is it you want, Mr. James?”

  “Well, how about your name?”

  “Why?”

  “Why?” He hadn’t expected that, and it threw him. “Just being friendly. There’s a car coming.”

  They both stepped off the road and Mason recognized the man in the car as it passed. Jasper Jacks. He threw up his hand and Mason raised his in return, waited for a moment then turned his attention to the woman. “Sadie Rockler?”

  Had he not been trained, he’d never have noticed her reaction. It was only a slight tightening of the skin around her eyes, an almost imperceptible narrowing that preceded a shift into an expression of confusion. “Sorry, no. Catherine Mermet.”

  “I apologize. You look very much like someone I once knew.”

  “I think I would remember if I’d met you, Mr. James.”

  “I’m sorry to have troubled you. If you live around here, and you ever need help with anything, Sanctuary is just a half-mile up the road.”

  She nodded. “Yes, I know. Thank you. Have a nice day.”

  Before Mason could reply, she turned her back on him and hurried to her car. He waited until she pulled onto the road and drove away before he got back in his car. When he did, he placed a call.

  “Hey. Yeah, long time. What’s the status of Sadie Rockler?… because I’m pretty sure I just saw her… fine, call me back at this number.”

  Once he put away his phone, he started the car and pulled back onto the road. When he got up this morning, the last thing he expected was that a ghost from his past would make an appearance. Maybe he was wrong, but he didn’t think so. He believed Sadie Rockler had shown up in Cotton Creek for a reason and that was anything but good news.

  *****

  Catherine struggled to control the trembling that claimed her. Her body was rigid with fear and her hands hung onto the steering wheel in a white-knuckled grip. What was it about Mason James that made her so afraid?

  He was near movie-star handsome, sexy as sin, but something in his eyes scared her. Recognition. How was that possible?

  She tried not to think about it and chanted to herself as she drove. “It’s gonna be a bright, bright, sun shiny day.” Why that phrase always came to mind was yet another mystery in her life, but today she didn’t ponder it. Instead, she clung to it like a lifeline until she reached the house she’d rented.

  Tucked back off the road, it was a small house with two bedrooms, one bathroom, a little kitchen, dining and sitting room combination with a washer and dryer in the kitchen and a porch that ran around the entirety of the house.

  On the front porch an old, splintery swing hung on rusted chains. As she hurried up the steps, it creaked and moved in a sudden gust of wind. Catherine fumbled with her key, bolted inside, locked the door and then leaned back against it.

  Mason James. Mason James. Mason James. Why did it feel like the name should mean something, and not something good? Had Sadie known him? Was that part of the knowledge that had been taken? Should she try to find out? Was he a threat?

  Catherine felt the sob rising and pushed away from the door. She couldn’t allow herself to cry, to be weak. She had to figure this out. But how?

  Just asking that question made panic rise. Before it could fully take hold, she hurried to the bedroom, changed into running clothes, locked the house and took off. She had no real destination in mind, she just ran.

  Time ceased to matter. All that counted was to keep moving. Keep breathing, keep putting one foot in front of the other. Pant out all that panic and let it float into the blue sky like a swam of angry bees, rising higher and higher until they vanished.

  When she broke through a stand of trees and saw him, she realized she’d veered off course. Catherine slowed, but not before he lowered the ax and turned his head to look at her.

  The oddest thing happened when their gazes met. She forgot about her anxiety, her need to run from the fear of things she couldn’t remember. That all vanished and in its place appeared a deep-seated need to comfort this giant of a man who carried so much pain in his eyes.

  His gaze never wavered from hers as she approached. She stopped five feet from him and marveled at his size. He had to be close to seven feet tall and big, with arms so large she bet one of his arms was as big as her thigh.

  “Are you lost?” He asked in a voice that was low pitched and gentle.

  “I don’t remember when I wasn’t.” The words that came from her mouth gave her a shock. Why had she said that?

  “I’ve been lost, too.” He propped the ax against the stump he was using as a chopping block and gestured to the back porch of the house. “Want some water?”

  “Yes, thank you.”

  Catherine followed the giant to the steps that led to the back porch. He stopped at the door, looked back at her and then disappeared inside. She waited, looking around. The house didn’t appear to be old, the wood was fresh and new.

  The door opened, and the giant returned with two bottles of water. He handed her one and sat down on the top step, opened his bottle and turned it up to drink.

  She did the same and within moments had downed the whole bottle. “God that was good. Thank you.” She smiled at the giant and then looked around. “Where can I put this?”


  “Just put it on the step and I’ll throw it away. Do you want more?”

  “Oh no, thank you.”

  “You’re welcome. And I’m Mathias Gray Horse.”

  “That’s a beautiful name.”

  “Thank you. Are you new here?”

  “I am.”

  “And you are?”

  She hesitated then answered. “I’m Catherine. Catherine Mermet.”

  “Why do you say that like it’s a lie, Catherine?”

  His question shocked her and provided a totally inexplicable sense of relief, like a kid who had done something wrong and secretly wanted to be caught. What the hell?

  “It kind of feels like a lie, Mathias.”

  “I know that feeling.”

  “I met a man today. Mason James. It scares me to even speak his name. Isn’t that odd? He called me something else.”

  “What?”

  “Sadie.”

  “Did that feel like a lie?”

  “It just felt scary. Life feels scary. And wrong.”

  “I know.”

  “You’ve lived with it?” He seemed so sincere, she believed him.

  “I have.”

  “And how do you make it stop?”

  “You find your true face.”

  “And how do you do that?”

  “It’s what I’m trying to discover.”

  She felt the waves of grief and pain that emanated from him. They rolled over her like water pounding the shore at the onset of a storm, powerful and unrelenting. More than that, she saw it in his eyes and heard cries in her mind, the cries of women and children. It gave her shivers, and it gave him pain. She felt it stab him like a sharp blade.

  “I’m sorry for your pain.” She knelt and put her hand on his knee. “I wish I could take it from you.”

  She saw surprise appear in his expression and heard the light gasp. Mathias put his hand on top of hers. “Save your strength, Catherine, for whatever battles you must fight, but thank you for that.”

  Catherine nodded, ignoring the tears that spilled down her cheeks. “Thank you for the water, Mathias. And the kindness.”

  “You will never know anything else from me. My home is always open to you.”

  “Likewise.”

  He chuckled. “I don’t know where you live.”

  “Oh!” Catherine smiled. “About seven miles east of here. I rented a house off County Road One forty, just a few miles past the turn to that place, Sanctuary.”

  “The little yellow house with white shutters?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’ve seen it.”

  “You’re welcome anytime.”

  He nodded and gave her hand a squeeze. “Do you need a ride home?”

  “No, thank you.” She stood. “I think I need to walk.”

  “It’s a long walk.”

  “I have nothing else to do, and I like to walk.”

  “Then walk well, Catherine.”

  “Thank you. I’ll see you again, Mathias.”

  “Yes.”

  She turned and walked away, and Mathias watched her go. Then he pulled out his cell phone and called Etta. “Doc? I just met another Empath. A very strong one. Stronger even than you.”

  “Who is it?”

  “Catherine Mermet. Or not. I don’t know. She doesn’t know. She said she met Mason, and he scared her. He called her Sadie.”

  “And why are you telling me, Mathias?”

  “Because she touched me and as long as her hand was on me I was free. She is… more, Doc. Much more. And she needs help.”

  “What do you want me to do?”

  “I don’t know. Help her. If you can.”

  “Okay, I’ll see what I can do, if you’re sure that’s what you want.”

  “I am.”

  “Very well.”

  “Thank you.”

  Mathias set his phone on the rail of the deck and walked back out to the woodpile. Catherine Mermet or whoever she was had somehow reached inside him and eased his suffering despite the pain that was so obvious within her.

  He hoped Etta could help her. If not, he would be here, and he had no doubt he would see her again.

  Chapter Six

  Brody looked up at the climbing tower. Today it was deemed finished, and he fully intended to be the first to climb it.

  Tower was an apt term for this man-made edifice of steel and concrete. Fashioned to look like a natural structure, it rose two hundred feet into the air. The side facing the water had a slight crescent shape so that it curved outward.

  It was going to be a hell of a fun climb and he was ready. Brody had waited until he was certain everyone was done for the day and busy with dinner or relaxing. Now he stood at the base, looking up and planning his route.

  Certain he was alone, he never noticed the woman who ran along the shore toward him as he climbed.

  She saw him begin his ascent and slowed to a walk. He wore no safety gear. There were no lines or pitons or anything. Just a muscular man in a pair of shorts and shoes, climbing upward.

  Spiderman. She couldn’t stop the smile that rose at the thought. He was a bit like the fictional superhero the way he moved upward, all on his own power.

  But he was far more than a fictional hero. He was beautiful, and she was mesmerized watching him, seeing his muscles lengthen or bunch, watching his body strain and stretch as he made impossible progress upward.

  How high was that thing? It had to be more than ten stories. Fifteen? What if he fell?

  That thought gave her a shock of concern. There was no one there to help. She broke into a run, determined to close the gap between her and the rock as quickly as possible.

  Brody caught sight of movement on the ground and like an idiot let it distract him. In the fading light of day, he saw her. The woman with the red hair who ran the obstacle course. That moment of distraction was all it took to have him lose his grip.

  He knew he was going to fall and so pushed away from the wall with all his might. The water was deep at the base of the tower. He could manage. Funny, how long a fall can seem at first, until suddenly the ground, or water, in this case, seems to rush toward you.

  Feet first, he took the plunge.

  She was already diving into the water by the time the man disappeared beneath the surface. She swam down, searching but saw nothing so rose for air.

  At that moment the water exploded upward right in front of her and there he was. For a moment they were both frozen, staring at one another.

  It literally took her breath. She found herself gasping, but not from holding her breath. It was him. He stole her breath and perhaps her heart in that moment. She’d never experienced anything like it. At least she didn’t think she had.

  And surely, she’d remember if she’d ever felt something this big. It eclipsed everything, making her blind to the dome of twilight sky above her, the enveloping coolness of the surrounding water.

  “Ah, Red, you took the plunge to save me?” His smile was seductive.

  Not, however, nearly as seductive as the hand that reached up to wrap around her neck and pull her to him. It was as if she’d lost control of her body. She did nothing to stop him as he reeled her in and kissed her.

  And that was when something broke loose inside her. She felt desire rise, clawing at her. He took with his kiss as if it was his right to claim whatever he wanted of her. Dear God. She gave and took in return until they were both breathless upon parting.

  “Brody Judge, ma’am.”

  “I’m Trin- Catherine Mermet.” She nearly screwed up and hoped he didn’t notice. “And I don’t think you required any assistance at all, Mr. Judge.”

  “Ah, Red, you’re gonna go formal on me after that kiss?”

  He had a point. And one for which she had no defense, so she took the coward’s way out, pushed away and swam as fast as she could. She didn’t stop until she reached shore and then she ran.

  By the time she reached the yard of her house she wa
s breathing hard and mentally beating herself up. She walked around and around the house until her breathing slowed and then headed for the door. It wasn’t until then she realized she’d not thought about her own problems since she saw Brody Judge fall from that tower.

  He fell and all she could think was she had to help. Why? Was that normal for her? Was it natural for her to react to his kiss the way she had?

  Without thinking her fingers rose to touch her lips. Brody Judge. Tears threatened, and she quickly brushed them away. She would have to stay away from that place to make sure she didn’t run into him again. His lure was too strong, and she couldn’t afford to allow herself to be attracted to him.

  As much as she’d love to turn around and run back to find him, to tell him who she really was and have him kiss her again, she couldn’t. Until she could find a way to convince Sadie and Catherine to leave her alone, she couldn’t be with anyone. Not even a man who’d opened a door to things inside her she had either not ever known or had forgotten herself capable of feeling.

  *****

  Brody stood looking up at the tower. He’d been up since before dawn, waiting to see if she would show up. She hadn’t, and he was disappointed.

  The kiss had affected him in an unexpected way. But then so had she. When she looked at him, she seemed so fragile and afraid and yet she dove in to save him. Then when they kissed he felt it, something that swept through his mind, tempering the lust with something almost magical.

  Even as he thought it, he chastised himself for such fanciful notions. It wasn’t possible. Yet, he’d felt it. Felt her. It was like she’d reached inside him, searching for pain or injury.

  He couldn’t explain how he knew, but he was certain she wanted to ease him of whatever pain he felt, and he found that remarkable. Not to mention he’d felt her passion break free. Literally felt it, like a jolt that had sizzled through the universe to unlock something and suddenly he was lost in desire that didn’t all belong to him.

  Damn, he’d spent too much time around Etta and Deacon. Both were empathic, and he tried to keep things buttoned down when he was around them. Not that either one of them was the kind to stick their noses in where they didn’t belong. But he knew there were times when they picked up on strong emotions. Was it rubbing off on him?