Hidden Hearts

by Eva Chase

  The song he’d put together was a sparse piece with flute and drums that managed to hold my attention even with its simplicity. “That’s really beautiful,” I said when it was done. “Are you sure you want to waste that on some perfume commercial.”

  He laughed. “It’s soap. And the commercials pay enough that I don’t really mind.”

  He sounded good—even happy. When I set down the phone a little later, it was with a tickle of relief.

  It rang again the second I raised my hand. My dad’s number. I frowned. What was he doing up?

  When I answered, Dad’s low voice carried from the other end. “Hey, Nick. Everything’s okay?”

  I guessed my text had worried him. “Yeah,” I said settling deeper into the couch. “As far as I can tell. I’d have told you if I thought I was in any trouble.”

  “Well, that’s good. But I think I’d like those details now. What exactly does ‘made contact’ mean?”

  The corner of my mouth quirked up. Dad was always the more cautious of my parents. I’d rather have had this conversation with Mom, who might have appreciated my daring more. Really, though, he should have been prepared.

  “I told you I was pretty sure Alpha Project was snooping around London,” I said. “Well, I confirmed it today. They’ve sent a woman who’s got a talent—something about viewing the past, I think.”

  Dad was silent for a moment. “One of us, hunting us. That’s a new low. Then all you did was observe her?”

  “No,” I said. “I talked to her.”

  He sucked in a breath. “Nick…”

  “It was nowhere near home. And even home wouldn’t lead them to the rest of you,” I said. “We talked about this before. After the way they came after Jeremy—we can’t just run all the time. I have an opportunity to find out more about them. What they’re planning. What kind of resources they have. But I can’t do that just by watching. My talent only works through physical contact.”

  “You couldn’t have left it at bumping into her for a moment or something?” he muttered.

  “I think if they’re using people with talents against us, we need to know as much as possible as quickly as possible,” I said. “Don’t you?”

  “I do. But I don’t like that you’re putting yourself right in their line of fire.”

  “I can handle this,” I said. “I’ve managed to keep a low profile here despite all the ways I’ve used my talent for five years. It’s been ages since I’ve needed bailing out. No one else has lasted anywhere that long, right? Trust me. I’ll withdraw as soon as I feel I need to. And if I have to run after that, I’ll run. I guess it’s about my turn.”

  Dad was silent for a moment. “You know I wish we could have given you a better life than this,” he said.

  My throat constricted. He had no idea that I knew just how much he’d done to give me and my brothers the lives we had. “It is a good life,” I said. “Very exciting.”

  He chuckled at that. “Just be careful. If they’re using talents… we have no idea what we might be up against.”

  4

  Carina

  “So, you come here a lot, huh?” I said, looking around the crowded dance club Nick and I had just stepped into.

  It was early enough that the dance floor wasn’t completely packed, but late enough that I had to watch myself to avoid getting knocked by a fast-stepping foot or a flung-out arm. A cool breath of air conditioning gusted through the room with a minty cucumber smell that was actually a lot more pleasant than other clubs I’d been in. I wondered how long into the night that would last before sweat and alcohol drowned it out.

  “Once every week or two,” Nick said, pitching his baritone voice over the music and the voices echoing off the high ceiling of the converted factory building. “Some places are popular for a good reason. This one deserves all the hype.” He grinned.

  I kind of wanted to find something wrong with it. I wanted an excuse to see this as totally business and not any kind of date. But the truth was that the song playing had a sharp enough beat that I already wanted to be moving to it, and the only partly renovated space had an appealing roughness to it with the one exposed brick wall, the beams visible between the lights high overhead.

  Kind of like Nick, with that slightly crooked nose giving the perfect amount of character to his otherwise stunning face. Not that I’d been spending that much time considering his looks.

  He came here with this friend of his with the supernatural talent for finding things, he’d said. Alex. I’d mainly agreed to join him tonight to scope out some past moments in the hopes of seeing this Alex now, without needing an in-person meeting.

  Every week or two… And I doubted he came with Alex every time. I might have to reach back pretty far. The more distant the past, the harder it was for me to control exactly what—and when—I saw.

  And I couldn’t do it at all with Nick standing right there beside me expectantly. I pointed to the bar. “Grab me a drink?” I said with my best flirtatious smile.

  Nick laughed, but he pulled out his wallet. He was going to think I was some kind of gold-digger when it came to foods and beverages, but that was okay. As long as he didn’t have any idea what I was really hoping to get from him. “Any drink in particular?” he asked.

  “I’ll take a daiquiri,” I said. Might as well get something more involved than a beer while I had him paying.

  As he headed to the bar, I eased back even closer to the wall at the edge of the dance floor. Bodies whirled and lights flashed in front of me. I dragged in a breath and let go of my awareness of the present. A bright prickling shot through my head as the view in front of me slipped away.

  Sometimes, if I focused on a specific person, I could latch onto a time when they’d been in that place. I concentrated on my observations of Nick—his handsome face, his warmly accented voice, the subdued strength he held himself with. His laugh, unrestrained and genuine. The way he looked at me with his dark blue eyes as if I were a mystery he was looking forward to unraveling.

  Not a chance. But the memory gave me a little tingle anyway.

  A vision swam up: bodies on the dance floor much like they were now, the lights all greens and blues this time, a waitress in a short skirt weaving through the dancers. My gaze skimmed through the figures, but I didn’t see any I recognized. Frowning, I detached my attention again and trained my mind even more on the aspects of Nick I’d noticed. The brush of his fingers against mine when I’d taken his phone from him to give him my number a few nights ago. The whiff of citrus and amber cologne I’d gotten when he’d stepped close to usher me into the club.

  The dance floor in front of me shifted again. More dancers, more lights, this time a rainbow of colors. I spotted Nick in a few seconds, dancing not far from the main doors. He had a couple days’ shadow of beard on his jaw and he was wearing a different colored shirt from the gray one he had on today, but nothing about the image told me how long ago this was. Not long enough for him to look younger, anyway.

  Was there anyone with him that time? He was dancing next to a blond woman in tight jeans and a low-cut blouse, but not so close I was sure they were a couple rather than strangers who’d happened to fall in together on the dance floor. His gaze caught on something off toward the entrance, and he raised his hand. My spine stiffened. Was I about to see this Alex—was I going to find myself looking into the face of a Keane brother?

  In the vision, Nick took a step in the direction he was looking, and—

  “Here you go, one daiquiri for Carina,” Nick said in the present. The vision of the past fractured apart. I found myself blinking at him in a daze for a second before I recovered myself.

  “Thanks!” I said, grabbing the drink from him. He wasn’t looking at me strangely, so maybe he hadn’t noticed how I’d zoned out. He was carrying a vodka spritzer, which he took a swig from as he glanced around the club.

  “Drink up,” he said with a mischievous gleam in his eyes. “I want to get you dancing.”
/>   “I agreed to meet you here,” I said. “I didn’t promise anything more than that.”

  “Hey, I won’t embarrass you out there. I can hold my own.”

  It was true—in the glimpse I’d gotten, he’d been moving to the music pretty damn well. As fine as he was in every other way I’d observed so far.

  “And I’m going to bet you can too,” he added.

  He kept his gaze on my face and said it lightly, but the comment hinted enough at what he might have observed of my body that a waft of heat washed over me. I gulped some of the sweet-and-sour liquid and focused on the burn going down my throat.

  We should dance, if only to pass the time until I could reasonably hope he’d need a bathroom break or want another drink. The next time I was on my own for a few minutes, I’d try to slip back into that sliver of the past I’d peeked at. Find out who he’d been waving too.

  I didn’t want to chug my drink too fast, though. I had to keep my head on straight around this guy.

  I took another swallow and glanced over at him. “What is it you like about clubbing anyway? You seem like you’re getting a little old for this scene.”

  He raised an eyebrow at me. “Is that a jab about my age? I’ll have you know I’m only twenty-seven. I guess that’s a little above the average.” He nodded to the crowd. “It’s not even that I like the dancing so much, although I do enjoy getting absorbed in the music. There’s just something about being surrounded by so many people who just in this moment are all letting loose, leaving behind all their ordinary worries… I like the vibe, I guess you could say. It’s something you don’t feel many other places.”

  “No, I guess you don’t.” That was a more philosophical answer than I’d expected. I glanced at Nick sideways as I downed more of my drink. Apparently Mr. Warm and Handsome was a thoughtful one too. “Do you have a lot of worries you need to escape from?”

  His smile this time was crooked, but his eyes still looked amused. “I don’t think of it as ‘escaping.’ I think of it as reminding myself how much bigger the world is than my own little bubble. So many different people with so many different perspectives.” His voice softened a bit. “What about you? Got any worries you’d like to leave behind?”

  My mind tripped back to the Alpha Project compound: the rooms that always felt a little too clean to be lived-in, the high wall outside that I’d barely ventured past until I was sixteen years old. And also to Mikkel Langdon, sitting me down at one of those gleaming glass tables and pointing to two old photos of a young man and woman. These two—it’s because of them you’re here.

  It was because of them, Jason and Lisa Keane, that I was here, too. I downed the rest of my drink and set the glass aside. “Maybe I’ll tell you about those worries later. I thought you wanted to dance?”

  Nick set his hand on the side of my bare arm, his skin warm and smooth. I was abruptly more aware of the swish of my dress across my legs, the small weight of my necklace against my breastbone, as we moved into the crowd. I hadn’t gotten that dressed up and I wasn’t showing off that much skin, but Nick’s presence made part of me wish I was sharing more.

  A new song was just starting. I threw myself into the frenetic beat. Time to tire this guy out so he’d be running for another drink sooner rather than later.

  Nick kept up with me move for move. He did know how to hold his own. He left a little space between us, not pushing too close like some guys tended to do on the dance floor, but he could connect with a partner all the same. Here and there his fingers grazed my wrist, my elbow, my shoulder next to the spaghetti straps of my dress.

  He grasped my hand and twirled me around, and as I spun back toward him I found myself stepping closer on instinct. Letting my body brush right against his muscular frame. He looped an arm loosely around my waist as we shuffled and dipped together. His touch wasn’t just warm but electric now.

  I pulled away before I could completely lose my breath. My nerves jittered, eager for… more. More contact, more warmth, more of that intent gaze.

  Nick smiled at me, his face crinkling slightly at the corners of his eyes, and damn it if my heart didn’t hiccup. Every move he made, in perfect time with the rhythm of the music, told me he’d be a fantastic lover. I did hook up with randoms from time to time, when I wanted a little more stimulation than I could get on my own. And he was more than just some random.

  But he had a kind of connection to this Alex who might very well be the guy I was after. Who was part of a family of murderers. Which meant I didn’t know how far I could trust Nick. Definitely not far enough to get naked with him, even with my emotional shields up.

  He trailed his hand down my arm as a slower melody wove through the beat, and a shiver that was way too enjoyable shot through me. My body wasn’t just warm but hot now. I had to hold myself back from licking my lips.

  We’d been out here long enough, hadn’t we? He didn’t have to be the one who called a break.

  “Another drink?” I said over the music.

  Nick nodded. He took my elbow, as gently as he always touched me, to stay with me as we squeezed through the dancers to the bar. The closeness of his body, his breath tickling over my hair as we dodged a particularly enthusiastic college girl, sent a bolt of desire right through my belly.

  It was only when we reached the bar that I realized this wouldn’t work for my plan. I needed distance, somewhere he couldn’t see me fade out.

  I gestured toward the restrooms. “I’ll be right back.”

  “Should I get you another daiquiri?” he asked.

  I gave him a thumbs up and hurried away. As soon as enough dancing figures blocked the space between me and him, I ducked to the side of the restroom door and leaned against the wall again.

  I was at the other end of the room now. I’d have to hope I could get a glimpse from this angle that showed him.

  With a slow inhale, I cast my mind back. But my nerves were still humming, my skin tingling at all the places Nick had touched me. The room faded out before my eyes, but when it reformed into a vision of the past, I couldn’t see him anywhere. I tried again, letting myself revel for a moment in how good his hands had felt, the tenderness of those brief caresses.

  My view of the room shifted again. I thought I caught a hint of Nick’s tawny hair somewhere in the crowd, but then I lost it a second later. I frowned.

  Maybe it’d been stupid to think I could get any useful visions here. Too crowded, too chaotic. I’d just have to wait until this Alex guy was back in town for me to meet in the present. Even if that thought made me edgy.

  I ducked into the bathroom after all and let the cold stream of water in the sink dampen my desire a little. By the time I ambled over to the bar to rejoin Nick, I felt fully in control. At least until he aimed another one of those way-too-charming smiles my way.

  He nudged my daiquiri glass over. “As you wished.”

  “Thank you.” I rolled my first mouthful over my tongue as I decided what to say next. Better to just put it out there. “I think I’ve got to get going soon. Early morning tomorrow.”

  Nick nodded. “I hear you.” He leaned his arm against the bar, nothing in his stance suggesting he’d taken offense. He had to be about the most easy-going guy—no, person—I’d ever met. His quick acceptance set me a little more at ease. Which might be why I perked up so fast when he added, “I still owe you some Indian, if you’re up for that another day. Alex and I have a favorite spot. Best food in the city, I’d say.”

  A restaurant. That’d be somewhere quieter, somewhere I could get more of a read on Nick and his friend from their past interactions, if they’d been there a lot. I only hesitated a moment before I said, “I think you’ve already figured out my weakness. Name the time, and I’ll eat you under the table.”

  He chuckled, and I had to stop myself from beaming. It felt too damn good making this man laugh.

  5

  Nick

  The building wasn’t much to look at, to tell you the truth. Bland
gray marble face, blank glossy windows in even rows.

  I guessed that made sense. The Alpha Project people didn’t want to stand out. They worked covertly, behind the scenes. At least fifty years they’d been at this, Dad figured based on the fellow subjects he’d met in captivity. All that time, they’d been kidnapping people with talents and getting away with it.

  The only reason I’d been able to recognize this place from the impressions I’d gotten from Carina was that the impression had included the busy intersection with bizarre modern art statue just down the street. People tended to notice things that were the most memorable. Handy for the sort of uses I usually put my talent to. Handy for this use as well.

  “Are you sure this is a good idea?” Jeremy said from the phone at my ear.

  I resisted the urge to make a face like I might have fifteen years ago when we were kids. My older brother was even more cautious than Dad most days. It made sense, since being the oldest he’d had the most responsibility helping look after the rest of us, but it did put a damper on things.

  “I’m not going to go right in,” I said. “I just want to get a feel of the place from the outside. Maybe I’ll get some impression of what Alpha Project is up to in there, other than meeting with Carina.”

  “Whatever it is, it’s nothing good,” Jeremy muttered.

  “No kidding.” I studied the building. No one had come in or out in the few minutes I’d been in view. It was the business district, and I was dressed up to blend in. There were all kinds of office workers hustling around making the most of their lunch break. No reason for anyone to pay special attention to me.

  “If they’ve got her, they might have other people with talents,” Jeremy said. “And Lord only knows what talents. You’re taking every precaution you can?”

  “Full shields up,” I said with an upward twitch of my lips. Growing up with a mom who could read minds, you figured out every trick you could to keep your mental privacy. After a lot of experimenting, my brothers and I had determined that simply concentrating on an image of very literal shields all around us could stop her from slipping into our minds. Over time, it’d taken less and less concentration to bring those up.