Yeah. He’d looked deeper. Not deep enough, but he’d seen . . . well, he’d seen some things he hadn’t expected.
He’d felt her misery—that sudden, gut-wrenching betrayal when she’d seen him at the party . . . he’s one of them . . .
And he’d seen her escape from Whitmore’s mansion. And an escape it had been, no doubt about it. If she’d planned an escape, then she hadn’t been there to marry that fucking monster.
“She’s been trying to stop him, hasn’t she?” he asked grimly.
“Now you’re starting to figure it out. I knew you could do it.” Nalini smiled at him.
He decided he really, really didn’t like her. Shooting a look at the two in the SUV, he focused on them. “How long will they stay moon-eyed?”
Nalini shrugged. “If I’m around, awhile. Once I’m gone? Not long.”
“You won’t be around.” He focused. Pushed. One of them groaned, harsh and broken. The other just lapsed into unconsciousness, a fine line of blood trickling out of his nose.
“Get in,” he growled, staring down the road, following the shadowy figures of Dru and her companion as they ran through the night.
“You’re not helping matters any, you know,” Nalini said as she slipped into the front seat.
“Shut up.”
“I don’t respond well to that,” she said, shrugging. She stared out the window. “She’s been working this for a long time. Months. Longer, I think.”
Curling his lip, he asked, “And you know that how?”
“You might have a mad power crammed inside that hard skull of yours, and it might let you read minds—obviously, she’s blocking you. But she can’t block the flow of her energy—can’t stop the pain and the misery. I read that. And the very heart of her is tied into this. She’s ready to die to see this through.”
Ready to die—fury punched through him. He’d lost her once . . . not again.
“You’ll lose her again.”
“Stop it,” he growled. “Just fucking stop.”
“Unless you stop feeling, I can’t.” Then she shrugged. “But since you’re determined to screw this up, I’ll be quiet.”
He gave her a dirty look as he twisted the key.
Nothing happened.
Not a damn thing.
Nalini started to laugh. “Oh. Now that is cool.”
Twisting his head to look at her, he lifted a brow and waited. When she didn’t respond, he finally just asked, “What’s cool?”
“Oh, come on now. You had to feel it—that weird little popping thing? It was the dude back there. He fucks with electricity, has to be. And he just shut down your car.”
* * *
FBI.
But he’d taken another woman . . .
Shutting off that flow of thoughts, Dru skirted around through the shadows, trying to avoid the people she could barely make out.
Every now and then, Tucker would grab her arm, jerk her to a stop. Then she’d feel that odd energy spark from him. Damn, he was handy to have around. She was panting, edgy by the time they hit the first building. Leaning against it, she sucked in a breath of air like she’d been running for hours instead of minutes.
Tucker rested a hand on the back of her neck. “We’ve knocked down about six of their men, not including the two guards,” he said, leaning over to murmur in her ear. “There’s another fifteen here, but I dunno who is a guard and who is just one of the victims.”
She wasn’t going to ask him how he had such an exact number. Apparently he had a number of tricks up his sleeve.
Nodding, she took another breath and then straightened, turned to look at the building.
“Joss took somebody in here,” she said quietly. “I know he did. If he’s federal . . . maybe it was a plant.”
And both Joss and the woman had freaky-ass gifts.
Glancing at the low, squat building, she thought. Hard. Then she turned to Tucker. The first time they’d met, she’d known he was like her. Had felt it. Like Joss, he’d been a burn on her brain. Not as intense, nowhere near, but it had been there.
But he’d sensed it on an even deeper level. They’d been working the same case, hired by different parties, working toward a common goal. He’d realized she had a gift—had felt it, he later told her. So he’d sought her out.
“Can you tell if there’s somebody like us in there?” she asked.
Tucker gave her a pained look.
“You’re killing me, Chapman.” He scrubbed his gloved hands over his face.