to me. I can help . . . whatever it is.
She stumbled a little.
Then kept on running.
Yeah. She heard him all right.
Blowing out a breath, he looked back at the Waffle House. Taylor Jones was standing by his car. Dez wasn’t with him . . . but he wasn’t alone.
Joss recognized the blonde from here.
He didn’t know her name, but he didn’t need to. He’d seen her before.
This was the woman Patrick had been checking out the night before.
And Joss knew her vaguely. He’d seen her around. He just couldn’t remember where.
* * *
“JOSS, have you met Nalini Cole? She’s with the unit. Fairly new, though.”
Joss slumped on the couch, eyeing the long, cool blonde narrowly.
“I’ve seen her around,” he said, directing his words at Jones, but still keeping his eyes on Nalini. “Can’t recall where just yet.”
She laughed. It was a clear, bell-like sound. Almost angelic. It matched that pretty, pale hair, matched the clear, refined oval of her face.
But it didn’t match those dark, sultry eyes.
Her face said angel and her voice seemed to echo it.
Her eyes, her body, the way she moved, the way she watched people . . . all of that screamed . . . devil. Or maybe trouble.
As she leaned forward, a smile curved her red-slicked mouth. “Now that’s not entirely true, is it?” she asked. She posed prettily, the swells of her breasts on display as she continued to watch him.
“Well, I did see you . . . last night. Just not entirely with my eyes. Before that? Don’t recall just where I saw you, and I don’t have time to wade through the maze of information I’ve got crammed into my brain.”
Cutting his gaze to Jones, he said, “What’s going on, boss? I’ve got a bitch of a job to do, and we’ve got some serious logistics we need to hammer out.”
Jones opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, Nalini said, “He wants a blonde, doesn’t he?”
She toyed with her hair. It was done up in a series of tiny braids . . . no. Not braids, exactly.
“Dreadlocks,” she offered. She gave him a serene smile. “They’re called dreadlocks.”
“Next time I’m grilled on the hairstyles of women, I’ll keep that one in mind.” He raked her over from head to toe and then shook his head. “You’re all wrong.”
“No. I’m perfect.” She leaned back, abandoning the seductive pose, the sex kitten smile, and gave him a grim look. “And more . . . I was pulled here for just this. I knew the minute I saw that fuck last night why I was down here, but I’ve been having nightmares, bad fits, things that I can’t even explain, and it’s been going on for weeks. My . . . abilities don’t normally work like this, but something has been pulling at me, guiding me. I headed down here over a month ago.”
“A month . . .” He shot Jones a look. “I thought you said she was with the unit . . . unless she’s been working this, too?”
“Freelance,” Jones muttered. “Cole has commitment issues.”
She snorted. “I also have issues of being wanted for crimes I didn’t commit—you don’t want that on your plate, sugar.” She continued to stare at Joss. “I’ve been down here a month. I’ll be sitting at a table, and I’ll hear a scream. But there’s nobody there. Then I’ll feel a knife, and it’s like I’m dying. Or I’ll feel hands on my wrists, my ankles. And somebody’s tearing into me, raping me. Over and over. But I’m alone in my hotel room. The worst . . .” She paused, her lashes falling to shield her eyes. “I was in the middle of a mall, walking around, and then I was on the ground. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t breathe. But I could see . . . I should have seen the roof of the mall over me, but I saw trees, blue sky. And then there was something big, and fast . . . and I felt pain like I’ve never felt before. It was over in a few minutes, but it seemed to last forever.”
Leaning back in his seat, Joss studied her. “You are . . . what, precog?”
“Not so much.” She sighed and pulled something out of her purse, laying it on the table between them. Joss leaned forward, eyeing the gold chain, the silly charm that hung from it. “I found this at a pawn shop up in Atlanta. It shouldn’t