PRAISE FOR
THE MISSING
“Suspense that can rip your heart open and leave you raw…The characters are absolutely fantastic, from the leads to the side characters. The setting is wonderful. If you enjoy suspense/thriller/romance novels, heavy on the suspense, then I highly recommend Shiloh Walker’s The Missing.”
—Errant Dreams Reviews
“Walker pulls it off brilliantly…[She] certainly has a future in paranormal and/or romantic suspense.”
—The Romance Reader
“Great romantic suspense that grips the audience.”
—Midwest Book Review
CHAINS
“This book is a double page-turner. The story is thrilling, and the sex just makes it better—two great reasons not to put it down until the end!”
—Romantic Times
“Breathtakingly wonderful…Smoothly erotic…Utterly amazing…Will definitely keep your pulse racing!”
—Errant Dreams Reviews
“Exciting erotic romantic suspense.”
—Midwest Book Review
FRAGILE
“[A] flawlessly sexy suspense novel…Exhilarating.”
—Romantic Times
“An excellently crafted mystery and romance!”
—Errant Dreams Reviews
“Suspense, romance, and an ending that I can’t say anything about—because that would be a spoiler…I recommend reading this one.”
—The Best Reviews
“Intense, sexy…Ms. Walker has created another unforgettable…fast-paced, edgy tale.”
—Fallen Angel Reviews
HUNTER’S FALL
“Shiloh’s books are sinfully good, wickedly sexy, and wildly imaginative!”
—Larissa Ione, New York Times bestselling author
HUNTER’S NEED
“A perfect ten!…[A] riveting tale that I couldn’t put down and wanted to read again as soon as I finished.”
—Romance Reviews Today
HUNTER’S SALVATION
“One of the best tales in a series that always achieves high marks…An excellent thriller.”
—Midwest Book Review
HUNTERS: HEART AND SOUL
“Some of the best erotic romantic fantasies on the market. Walker’s world is vibrantly alive with this pair.”
—The Best Reviews
HUNTING THE HUNTER
“Action, sex, savvy writing, and characters with larger-than-life personalities that you will not soon forget are where Ms. Walker’s talents lie, and she delivered all that and more…This is a flawless five-rose paranormal novel, and one that every lover of things that go bump in the night will be howling about after they read it…Do not walk! Run to get your copy today!”
—A Romance Review
“An exhilarating romantic fantasy filled with suspense and…star-crossed love…Action-packed.”
—Midwest Book Review
“Fast-paced and very readable…Titillating.”
—The Romance Reader
“Action-packed, with intriguing characters and a very erotic punch, Hunting the Hunter had me from page one. Thoroughly enjoyable with a great hero and a story line you can sink your teeth into, this book is a winner. A very good read!”
—Fresh Fiction
“Another promising voice is joining the paranormal genre by bringing her own take on the ever-evolving vampire myth. Walker has set up the bones of an interesting world and populated it with some intriguing characters. Hopefully, there will be a sequel that ties together more threads and divulges more details.”
—Romantic Times
Titles by Shiloh Walker
HUNTING THE HUNTER
HUNTERS: HEART AND SOUL
HUNTER’S SALVATION
HUNTER’S NEED
HUNTER’S FALL
THROUGH THE VEIL
VEIL OF SHADOWS
THE MISSING
THE DEPARTED
FRAGILE
BROKEN
Anthologies
HOT SPELL
(with Emma Holly, Lora Leigh, and Meljean Brook)
PRIVATE PLACES
(with Robin Schone, Claudia Dain, and Allyson James)
THE
DEPARTED
SHILOH WALKER
BERKLEY SENSATION, NEW YORK
THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
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South Africa
Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
This book is an original publication of The Berkley Publishing Group.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
Copyright © 2012 by Shiloh Walker, Inc.
Cover photo by Claudio Marinesco.
Cover design by Edwin Tse.
Interior text design by Tiffany Estreicher.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
BERKLEY SENSATION® is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
The “B” design is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
PRINTING HISTORY
Berkley Sensation trade paperback edition / January 2012
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Walker, Shiloh.
The departed / Shiloh Walker.—Berkley Sensation trade paperback ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-425-24521-7
1. Psychic ability—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3623.A35958D47 2012
813.6—dc23
2011036848
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Table of Contents
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Twenty-One
Twenty-Two
Twenty-Three
For my family…always. You’re my everything. I thank God for you.
For Patti D.…you were the first one to ask when Taylor would get a story. The first. And I told you he wouldn’t get one. I think I even called him a bad name. He’s another one of those characters I never planned on giving a story to—I didn’t think there was a story there. But I kept getting asked, first by Patti, then others: But I want to know why he’s the way he is. Why is one of those questions that can be deadly for a writer—it starts all those strange little wheels spinning. I got asked why too many times about Taylor and those wheels started spinning. Turns out he had a story after all.
And because I’m always asking him for medical help, I think I should probably mention Klaus B. for that help. Thanks bunches!
AUTHOR’S NOTE
French Lick, Indiana, is a lovely old town…a lot of history runs through it and I wanted that for this story. But I took a little bit of liberty while writing it…putting in an extra resort, placing a jail where there isn’t one, a florist shop. In reality, I wouldn’t change a thing about the town, but for the book, I needed to change a few things.
I also made free with my fictional little special task force of the FBI—one headed by the hero, Taylor Jones. Taylor’s in charge of some special people—psychics—and they work pretty hard to stay out of the public eye. I know his task force isn’t portrayed very accurately, but, well, the FBI wouldn’t let me come in to play with them…
CHAPTER ONE
“FUCKING crazy,” one of the techs muttered, watching as Dez Lincoln stood in the middle of a desolate Iowa field with a smile on her face.
She was a beautiful woman—her black hair cut short, no more than an inch long, currently spiked up. Her skin was a light, smooth brown and her eyes were dark, so dark they almost appeared black, set under feathery, arched brows. Her body was all curves and long limbs, round hips, and a chest that was undeniably female. But there was no mistaking the strength—there was well-toned muscle to go along with those curves.
No doubt about it, she was gorgeous, and when she smiled, she could make the hearts of the men around her race.
But right now, her smile was fucking freaky.
Under her feet, they suspected, were dozens of bones. Unmarked graves.
The location of a serial killer’s little playground. Or maybe his burial ground.
But she smiled. It was a peaceful, beautiful smile—a Mona Lisa smile, and it didn’t belong in the place of death and decay, the tech thought.
Fucking freaky. He muttered it under his breath again and went to turn away, only to realize he was the subject of intense scrutiny.
Special Agent in Charge Taylor Jones was staring at him, and he did not look pleased. If Desiree Lincoln was fucking freaky, then Jones was fucking scary and that look never boded well.
Swallowing, he held that steely blue gaze and prepared himself for the fact that his head just might be rolling across the ground, figuratively speaking, in a second or two.
But all Jones did was stare at him—long enough to make sure the point was made.
Idiot.
Taylor Jones didn’t much like having any of his people being called crazy—they were unique, all of them. If they weren’t unique, they wouldn’t work for him. But unique didn’t make them crazy—and it didn’t make them freaks.
The tech flushed and after another fifteen seconds, Taylor looked away.
Still, he knew the man’s thoughts were echoed by a number of others. At least among the techs. Those on Taylor’s team understood, on some level, how Dez’s gift worked and they were no longer surprised by her reactions, even in a place as disturbing as this. Others, though…no, they didn’t like to see a woman smiling when she stood in the middle of what was likely an unmarked, mass grave.
Perhaps, if he didn’t know Desiree, he’d agree with them.
He knew her, though, and her gift had long since stopped unsettling him. Other things about Dez might unsettle him, but not her gift. He knew she wasn’t smiling because she stood atop the possible gravesites of murder victims.
She smiled because one of them, at least, would find peace tonight.
To Dez, that meant a lot.
Taylor wished he could find some solace in that, but all he felt was a fiery hot rage, carefully hidden under a cold, professional veneer. Somewhere, buried under all of it, was exhaustion.
He couldn’t let that cold professionalism crack and he couldn’t give in to the rage. Later, sometime much, much later, he could give in to the exhaustion, though.
They already had the killer in custody. Correct that, he thought to himself. The alleged killer.
Alleged, my ass. Keaton Weiss was a brutal, sadistic bastard who had spent the past fifteen years preying on the Miss Lonely Hearts type, stalking them, seducing them…then kidnapping them, raping them, and killing them. Their bodies had never been recovered, until one victim had managed to get away and that was how they had finally managed to catch Weiss.
And catching Weiss was what had led them here.
No…it was what had led Dez here.
All Taylor had to do was place her in the room where Weiss had committed untold atrocities on untold women and, one by one, the ghosts had started to whisper to her. Most of them, though, had been too weak, too faded, or still too traumatized to connect with Dez.
She would work with them and hopefully, over time, she could help them move on.
But one of them had been able to establish a tenuous link with Dez and that link had proven strong enough for her to lead them here. Here, they’d find the evidence they needed to put the bastard away.
Jones didn’t have the gifts Dez had, but he knew his people, and judging by the looks on the faces of some of them, they had hit the crime jackpot here. Some of them were all but chomping at the bit to get out there and start their own hunt, but they knew they needed to give Dez her space.
If they screwed this up for her, the ghost may never find the peace she needed.
Some of the ungifted techs didn’t quite understand that. While Taylor was impatient in the extreme and itching to get out there, he knew if that ghost didn’t find any sort of peace, she’d linger with Dez.
And that would torment her.
He couldn’t do that.
Not to her.
He tried to force up some semblance of the cold, hard shield he’d perfected so long ago—he didn’t have any sort of special interest in Dez Lincoln. He wouldn’t wish the unrest of an agitated ghost on any of his people; that was all. He needed them all at their best, all the time.
But even as he told himself that little line, he knew it for what it was.
Nothing but shit.
He most certainly had a special interest in Dez Lincoln. And he had from the very beginning.
Not that it mattered, though.
She was a member of his unit and that made her off-limits.
And even if that wasn’t an issue, Taylor Jones didn’t do relationships.
Period.
“WILL you find him? Stop him?”
It was the third time Tawny Lawrence had asked Dez that question. The departed so easily forgot things, especially when they were agitated, and Tawny was most definitely agitated. Agitated, angry…and as they’d drawn closer to her unmarked grave, she’d gotten sadder as well, as though she’d felt the gloom and the darkness looming over her.
But Dez didn’t mention the repetitive questions—she simply answered as she had the first and the second time. “We have found him. He has been stopped. He won’t do this to anybody else.”
They were often confused—especially once they realized she could see them, hear them…talk to them. Some of them had spent years and years unable to speak to anybody, not even each other. A lot of the time, the souls of the departed were trapped in their own personal hells and until they could break free and move on, they weren’t aware of anything or anybody.
The Departed Page 1