together on this.” As solid as the Rock of Gibraltar, Phoebe held up a hand. “Now that we have a head’s up, we can plan ahead. Ella, you can have some time off if you want it, or change up your schedule however you want.”
“I’m not sure what I want to do at this point, except get home and try and figure out a plan of action.”
The only problem was that she had no clue know where to start.
Chapter Nine
“You didn’t have to drive me home,” Ella said as Nate concentrated on guiding his rental car along the slushy streets of her neighborhood. “I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself.”
“You usually take the Metra home, then walk the two blocks from the station to your house. There’s no way in hell you’re getting anywhere near a train track or walking along a wet street where someone could accidentally slip on black ice and leave you as just another hit-and-run statistic.”
“You’re very efficient at your job, aren’t you? Got my habits down and everything.”
If she wanted an apology she was doomed to disappointment. “My only concern right now is that someone else will have your habits down and use them against you.”
Her sigh was quiet, weighed down with the tension he could see in her face. “Why is this happening?”
“It’s got to be the money. It’s the only thing that makes sense. The Rainiers would take a massive financial hit if Claudine Pierpont-Rainier’s inheritance goes over to you. If you’re dead, or you’re not located within a year, the money goes to the family.”
“I don’t even want it. Doesn’t that make a difference?”
“I’m guessing someone’s not willing to take that chance.” With a sigh of relief he pulled up to the curb in front of her little purple cottage, the winter-deadened lawn polka-dotted with patches of unmelted snow. “Okay. Now that we’re here, we need...” Without warning the hair on the back of his neck prickled and a ferocious tug, far stronger than anything he’d ever experienced in the past, slammed into his brain, so hard it jabbed an invisible ice pick into his eyes. Half-blind, his heart pummeling a hole through his rib cage, Nate looked through the windshield to a late-model Caddy parked further down on the other side of the street. And all the while something instinctive deep inside of him sang a one-note song of urgency: I know what this is now. I know what this is...
Ella frowned when he stopped. “What is it?”
“I feel...something.” God, yes. He felt something. But this sensation wasn’t like what he’d experienced in the past when his meager power had whispered to him. That had been easy. Simple. Fucking painless. But this...this was something new. Like it had been in the gym, this was something he could easily believe was life-threatening if he couldn’t find a way to face it head-on.
So that’s exactly what he’d do.
“Ella.” Heat poured into his muscles, that edgy, nuclear-hot energy begging to be released, and it pulsed in time with the pain behind his eyes as he opened the car door. “Do me a favor. Stay here.”
“Wait—”
A breeze warmed by the weak midday sun ruffled his hair as he focused on the Caddy. Whatever it was that was pulling at his attention was both inexorable and agonizing; it couldn’t have hurt worse if a grappling hook had been lodged in his eye sockets to reel him in. But there was something even more than that, something that made his skin both crawl and ice over, and it pushed him so on edge he’d do almost anything to get off of it.
If this was a reawakening of his ability, it didn’t make any sense for it to be going off now. He’d found what he was looking for. Ella was sitting in the car behind him. There was nothing else that was hidden that he wanted to see.
It had to be malfunctioning. He had to be malfunctioning.
But he had to know for sure.
He half expected the car to peel out as soon as he looked at it, but the engine remained silent. From where he stood, he could make out two silhouettes through the smoke-tinted windows, the one behind the wheel vaguely familiar. That familiarity crystallized into stunned recognition when the driver’s door opened.
What the hell...
He’d seen that face before. Not in person, and certainly not anywhere near Chicago. This was a face straight from the television news clips of two years ago, a face he’d