Free Secrets Amoung The Shadows by Sally Berneathy

one now lying on her desk.
    Slowly she sank back into her chair.
    "Take it, and we'll get on with the hypnosis," he ordered.
    She tried to laugh, but it came out a shrill hiccup. "This is absurd. Are you suggesting I should shoot you if another personality manifests? Please...put the gun away. We'll go somewhere more public if you're concerned about my safety."
    He thrust out of the chair and strode around the desk to her. She flinched backward from the hurricane raging in his eyes.
    "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. I'd never hurt you. But..." He hefted the gun with one hand, cradled hers with the other, laid the revolver in it and closed her fingers around it. His flesh against hers was warm, but the steel in her palm was cold...and deadly.
    "I don't know about this other person, this Edward," he went on. "In my dream he hated you. Remember what happened last night when a patient got out of control. And Hedlund's half my size."
    She looked away from him and dropped the weapon back onto her desk. Her fingers burned on the outside of her hand where he'd touched her and felt icy on the inside where she'd touched the cold steel.
    "I will not hold a gun on a patient. If you're concerned, we'll postpone further treatment until I can work you in during regular hours or get a colleague to join me."
    He studied her intently for a moment, then straightened his tie and smoothed his suit jacket. "You're probably right." He turned and started toward the door.
    She leapt to her feet and went after him, a little surprised at the strength of her need to prevent him from leaving. She put a restraining hand on his arm just as he reached the door. He stopped and looked down at her hand.
    Suddenly self-conscious, she withdrew her hand from his arm. "What are you going to do?"
    "What I ought to do is call the policemen who came to see me today and tell them everything. I can't take the chance I might hurt somebody else."
    "But?" she urged, hearing the reservation in his words.
    He shifted uncomfortably, looking across the room toward the window rather than at her. "But the thought of being trapped in prison—" He shook his head. "I can't."
    "Then let me help you."
    For a long moment he didn't speak. Finally he looked at her and drew in a deep breath. "If you can see me during regular office hours tomorrow, if we can be sure you have someone here to help you, just in case, okay. Otherwise—" He shook his head. "I'm not going to put you in danger."
    "I'll arrange something," she agreed. "Come back and sit down. We have a lot to talk about even without hypnosis."
    His gaze flickered back to her desk. "If you'll sit between the door and me. And keep the gun at hand."
    "I'll sit right there." She indicated the end of the dark blue sofa beside the door.
    He nodded curtly, strode across the room, took the gun from her desk and laid it on the lamp table beside the sofa. She cringed away from it.
    Swiveling the recliner around to face her, Eliot dropped into it. He clutched his hands tightly together, no longer attempting an unconcerned facade.
    She leaned back, hoping to help him to relax by presenting an example. "Let's talk about the situation with Kay Palmer. You dreamed about her the night she was killed."
    He dipped his head in a brief affirmative.
    "And you have no memory of that night."
    "None. As far as I know I was home all evening."
    "Are you positive you didn't lose a period of time? Be watching one television program one minute then something else entirely different the next? Look at the clock and realize two hours had passed without your noticing it?"
    "I'm not positive about anything anymore."
    "Tell me about that evening, every detail you remember from the time you left work."
    "I was at the office until around six. Then I went by the gym and worked out for an hour. I stopped to get a pizza. Went home and ate it while I watched a movie on television. I don't remember there being any gaps in the plot. I watched the news and went to