Page 8 of Shattering Dawn

“And the third possibility?” Gideon asked.

“I told you I don’t have any exes,” she said. “And that’s true when it comes to my social life. But I do have an ex-therapist.”

The pen stilled in Gideon’s hand.

“Can I ask why you were seeing a therapist?” he asked quietly.

“I have sleep issues.” There was no need to mention her little phobia about night. “Some sort of PTSD associated with the kidnapping. I thought Dr. Pike might be able to help me. But things got…messy. Complicated.”

“In what way?”

“Pike took what I thought was an unprofessionally intense interest in my problem. He kept pushing for details that I didn’t want to give him. Then he started insisting that we have our therapy sessions at night. I got a bad feeling about the whole situation.”

“No kidding,” Gideon said.

Belatedly she realized what he was thinking. She flushed. “It wasn’t like that,” she said. She paused, mentally rerunning the last couple of conversations with Norris Pike. “At least, I don’t think so. I never got the sense that he was attracted to me in a personal way. To be fair, there were legitimate clinical reasons for meeting at night. My issues were sleep-related, after all.”

“Did he suggest spending a night in a sleep clinic?”

“No. He said he wanted to take another approach.”

“What was it?” Gideon asked.

“I never found out. I started canceling the appointments.”

“How did Pike take that?”

“Not well. He was frustrated by my failure to cooperate. He made it clear he thinks I’m making a huge mistake.”

Gideon glanced at the pictures on his desk. “You must have seen Pike’s aura on several occasions.”

“As I told you, my vision—”

“Only works at night. Right. So you don’t know if Pike might have been the runner you saw in the apartment gardens?”

“No. I’ll give you his card.” She reached into her tote, extracted her wallet and plucked out Pike’s business card. She put it down on the desk. “It’s got his contact information.”

“That will be helpful.” Gideon gathered up the energy prints and the aura photo. “You can have these. I won’t be needing them.”

“Are you sure?”

Gideon’s mouth crooked in a faint curve that might have been a smile. “Unfortunately, they are meaningless to me.”

Amelia hesitated. “But you’re taking my case?”

“Yes. It sounds interesting.”

She should be glad, she thought. Relieved. And she was. But…

There was no getting around it. Something about Gideon Sweetwater made her uneasy. Maybe it was the ominous paintings. Her intuition told her that he was the artist.

“Well, that’s good,” she said.I think, she added silently. “Thank you. What should I do next?”

“Go home. Keep the doors and windows locked. Make sure there are always people around you whenever you are outside. I’ll start making inquiries. Tonight I’ll stake out your apartment complex and see if your stalker puts in another appearance.”

“How will you recognize him if you can’t see his energy field?”

“I’m pretty good at picking out people who are in places where they shouldn’t be.”