The Doubted
Page 17
He turned away. “That’s…well, good for you, Nyrene.” He had to clear his throat to force out the words. “I’m happy for you.”
He tried to will his legs to move—one step. That was all he needed to do, take one step.
But he couldn’t do it.
“They said there was a reason,” Nyrene said behind him.
He looked back over his shoulder at her.
She edged closer, looking beautiful in skin-hugging pants and a close-fitting top. Her hair was swept up into a ponytail and her eyes looked incredibly dark, incredibly beautiful.
“I think part of the reason was because I was meant to save you,” she said. “I think that’s part of the reason all of this happened.”
“Yeah.” He nodded slowly. “I think so, too.”
She took another step and he turned to face her, although logically he needed to get the hell out of there. Leave, before he started to beg.
“But I think there’s another reason you and I ended up running across each other’s path, Bennett Deverall,” she said softly. “I think we were meant to.”
She reached up and touched his cheek.
His heart slammed against his ribs as he covered her hand with his own. “Nyrene?”
She leaned in closer, letting him take some of her weight.
“Don’t you feel…something here?” She bit her lip after asking, indecision on her face, but then, after taking a breath, she pushed on. “I mean, I know we just met, and everything’s been crazy, but I felt something for you practically from the second I met you, even when I was crying all over you.”
“You…this…” He fisted his hand, only to have paper crumple in his fist.
Confused, he looked down and saw the envelope Taige had given him.
Nyrene continued to talk.
“I know you’ve got a job in Clary and I’m here, but maybe we can work something out.”
You’re looking for something. Maybe it’s an answer, Taige had said. He’d been looking for something for a while. But how could Taige have any clue?
Dumbass, that voice inside him whispered. She’s psychic.
He turned away from Nyrene and opened the envelope.
Inside it, he found two pieces of paper.
The first one… He blinked and shook his head, immediately flipping to the next.
Then he just stared.
After a few seconds, he started to laugh.
Nyrene harrumphed behind him. “You know, I don’t really see what’s—”
He turned to her, crossing the paved stones to catch the back of her neck in one hand, hauling her up against him for a kiss. He swallowed down the rest of her comment, wishing he could just eat her up in five or six greedy bites, but this wasn’t the time or place.
“I won’t be in Clary,” he said, breaking the kiss.
She blinked up at him.
“You won’t?”
“No.” He pulled her up against him, smiling down at her, feeling lighter than he had in…months. “Taige just offered me a job.”
Deverall,
Like I said, you’re looking for something. So am I. I need a cop. Most of my people are young and even some of the people who aren’t come to me without any law enforcement training. What we do, we do by instinct. But instinct doesn’t trump real training.
What do you think about coming on board here and working with my people?
I don’t just mean being a teacher, either. There are cases we get that need the brains of a cop on them. I want you to be that cop.
Let me know what you think.
It was signed simply,
Taige
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Read The Missing
Book 1 in the FBI Psychics Series
After all these years…she’d known she’d see him again. Even when she drove away from Cullen Morgan’s home in tears, she’d known it wasn’t over between them.
Why he was coming to her now, she didn’t know and honestly, just then, she didn’t care.
She was so desperate to see him again, it was almost pathetic.
No, it was pathetic. It had been twelve years, and she was all but panting at the thought of seeing him, of staring into those amazing eyes and standing close enough to smell him. How much had he changed? Taige wondered. Instinctively, she knew that Cullen would be as devastating at thirty-three as he’d been at twenty-one. The truck came to a stop close to the house. She couldn’t see anything beyond the back bumper, and when the taillights went off, she jerked as though somebody had used a Taser on her.
She took a deep breath and then groaned as her shirt dragged against her nipples. They were stiff and erect, throbbing under the thin layer of cotton. Embarrassed, she folded her arms over them and wished she could manage to get a damn bra on. Her hand hurt too much to manage it, though.
Facing Cullen braless and in her bare feet: how much more disconcerting could it get? She held herself stiff as the knock came, pounding on the door as though he wanted to tear the door from its hinges. It came a second time, and third. Finally, she made herself move, shuffling through the dark living room with her arms crossed over her breasts, the wrap on her cast abrading the bare skin of her left arm and rubbing against her nipples.
Nerves jangled in her belly. No butterflies; this felt more like she had giant gryphons taking flight inside her, gryphons with knife-edged wings. She reached out and closed her left hand around the doorknob and slowly opened it, half hiding behind the door. She kept her gaze focused straight ahead so that all she saw was the way his white T-shirt stretched across his wide, muscled chest.
Through her peripheral vision, she saw that he held something in his hand. Something clutched so tight, his knuckles had gone white. She hissed out a breath and forced herself to look upward, up, up, up until she was staring into his eyes. It took a little longer than it should have; he was taller than he had been. At least by an inch. She was five foot ten—she didn’t have to look up to many people, and she decided then that she didn’t care for it at all.
“Taige.”
She didn’t say anything. She couldn’t. Her throat felt frozen, and forcing words past her frozen vocal chords seemed impossible. She just stepped aside to let him come in, and when he did, his arm brushed against hers. She flinched and pulled away, backing away until a good two feet separated them. Once he was inside, she closed the door and leaned against it, resting her left hand on the doorknob and holding her right hand against her belly and studying the floor.
He turned to stare at her. From under her lashes, she watched as his shoulders rose and fell, his chest moving as he blew out a harsh breath, almost like he’d been holding his breath the same way she had.
“God, Taige…”
His voice sounded almost exactly like it had in her dreams—no, exactly. In the dim light, she couldn’t see his face very well, but she had a bad, bad feeling that her dreams had been pretty damn accurate in that aspect, too. Shoving away from the door, she kept her head down as she moved around him and headed into the living room. He followed behind her slowly. She heard a click, and light flooded the room. She shot him a look over her shoulder, just a quick glance, enough to tell her just how dead-on her dreams had been.
It was almost too spooky; even his hair looked right. It was short
er than it had been when he was younger, almost brutally short. His shoulders strained the seams of his shirt, and she had a flashback to her last dream, when he had crowded her up against the couch, demanding she tell him how she’d gotten hurt. She’d shoved him, pushing one hand against one wide, rock-hard shoulder, and she imagined if she reached out and touched him, he’d feel exactly like he had in her dreams.
“So, are you going to look at me or just let me stare at the back of your head all night?” he asked softly.
She shot him another quick, almost nervous glance over her shoulder, and Cullen blew out a breath.
When he spoke again, his voice was closer. “Aren’t you going to ask me why I’m here?”
Aren’t you going to speak to me at all? Cullen wanted to ask.
Instead, he waited until she finally turned around and faced him. In the brightly lit room, he noticed two things. The first was that she had her arm, her right arm, in a cast that went halfway up to her elbow. A chill raced down his spine. The second was that her left eye was puffy and nearly swollen shut, a dark, ugly bruise that Cullen suspected was every bit as painful as it looked.
“I already know why you’re here. You need my help.” A bitter smile curved her lips as she stared at him. “Why would else would you be here?” She glanced at the file in his hand and held out her hand.
Cullen swallowed and lifted it, staring at it with the metallic taste of fear thick in his mouth. “You don’t owe me a damn thing, Taige. I know that. I’ve got no right being here, and I know that, too.”
She sighed and dropped her head, covering her eyes with her uninjured hand. “Cullen, stop. You want something. Out with it. I’ve got better things to do than stand here and have you brooding all over me. So just spill it.”
“I…look, if I didn’t have to have your help, I wouldn’t be here. But it’s not me that needs you—just…just don’t—”
Taige cocked a brow. “You don’t have much of an opinion of me, do you, Cullen? Whatever brought you here in the middle of the night twelve years after kicking me out of your life has to be pretty damn important, and considering the kind of help you probably need, I’m going to assume there’s somebody else involved.” She stared at him, her gaze shuttered. “You think so little of me that I’d refuse to help whoever this is just to make you suffer because you and me got some history?”
History… Is that what we had?
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Bio
Shiloh Walker has been writing since she was a kid. She fell in love with vampires with the book Bunnicula and has worked her way up to the more…ah…serious works of fiction. She loves reading and writing anything paranormal, anything fantasy, and nearly every kind of romance. Once upon a time she worked as a nurse, but now she writes full time and lives with her family in the Midwest. She writes romantic suspense and contemporary romance, and urban fantasy as J.C. Daniels. You can find her at Twitter or Facebook and read more about her work at her website. Sign up for her newsletter and have a chance to win a monthly giveaway.
Check Shiloh’s other half…J.C. Daniels
J.C. Daniels’ Titles
Blade Song #1
Night Blade #2
Broken Blade #3
Edged Blade #4
Shadowed Blade #5
A Stroke of Dumb Luck (Tor)
Bladed Magic (A Kit Colbana Novella)
Misery’s Way (A Kit Colbana Novella)
Final Protocol
Blade Song Anniversary Edition
Damon
Look for other titles Shiloh Walker
The Grimm
Urban Fantasy Romance
Candy Houses • No Prince Charming • Crazed Hearts
The Ash Trilogy
If You Hear Her • If You See Her • If You Know Her
The Secrets & Shadows Series
Burn For Me • Break For Me • Long For Me
Deeper Than Need • Sweeter Than Sin • Darker Than Desire
The FBI Psychics
The Missing • The Departed • The Reunited
The Protected • The Unwanted • The Innocent
The Hunters
Paranormal Romance
Hunting the Hunter • Hunters: Heart and Soul • Hunter’s Salvation
Hunter’s Need • Hunter’s Fall • Hunter’s Rise
And more