Obsession Untamed (Feral Warriors #2)(39)

You’re not real. You’re dead. And yet there was something about his voice that brushed her mind with a familiar feel of warmth. Of strength.

I’m not dead, brown eyes. I’m right here with you. I’m trying to get you out. Can you feel my hands on your face?

No. I can’t feel anything except the pain in my head, and even that isn’t very strong.

Come to me, D. Follow the sound of my voice, then. Reach for me. Trust me.

I can’t trust you. You ran from the Feds. The words tore at her, sending a cascade of tears through her mind. I can’t trust you.

Then at least trust me to get you out of here. You must reach for me.

Help me, Tighe.

Do you see the thread, D? The iridescent one?

I can’t see anything!

Easy, sweetheart. Reach for me with your mind. Reach for me, D.

And suddenly she saw something gleaming, shining with a million colors. A tiny thread. As she reached for it, she felt the angel wings flutter inside her head, telling her she’d found it at last. No, not it. Tighe.

She felt his mind brush against hers, a soft thrill of pleasure in the feather-light touch, as she followed the thread. Little by little, it grew larger, brighter.

In a rush of warmth, he grabbed her mentally, his mind lifting her from the dark.

Sensation rushed back, overwhelmingly sweet, as she felt his strong arms go around her and pull her close against his warm body. She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face in his throat, clinging to him as joy squeezed her heart and rushed through her chest.

“You’re alive.” Tears streaked down her face as she felt his hand cradling the back of her head.

He pulled back, urging her to look at him. She did, her gaze searching the face of the man she’d thought she’d never see again.

His thumb traced her eyebrow. “You had me worried for a few minutes there, brown eyes. I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to reach you.”

“How are you alive?”

A shadow brushed past the open doorway.

“Tighe, we’ve got company. Lots of it by the looks of things. We’re not going to be able to take her.”

Tighe’s expression tightened as he looked back down at her. “I’m going to have to leave you for now, but you need me, brown eyes. I’m the only one who can save you next time this happens.” His mouth turned hard. “If you sic the Feds on me again, you’re on your own. Don’t turn on me again, Delaney. I mean it.”

She forced herself to release him. “How do I find you?”

“Stand in the parking lot along the northeast side of the Tidal Basin at 5:30 A.M. In four hours. I’ll drive through in a green Camry sedan and pick you up.”

“How am I going to know it’s green, let alone you, in the dark?”

“I’ll have one halogen headlight and one normal one. You’ll be able to tell.”

“What if I can’t get there that fast?”

“Do it. I want you with me before you get another vision.”

“Tighe!” The man’s voice shouted from the hallway. “We have to get out of here. Now!”

Tighe leaned down and kissed her hard, his hand sliding behind her neck, his thumb tracing her ear, then the hollow below it.

“Trust me, Delaney,” he murmured against her lips, then pressed his thumb beneath her ear.

Darkness swallowed her again.

Delaney shoved her hands in the pockets of her blazer as she stood on the edge of the parking lot where Tighe had promised to pick her up. The sky was still dark, few cars on the road at this hour on a Sunday morning. Everything should go down exactly as planned.

As she’d planned, not Tighe.

Trust me, he’d begged her.

Her stomach felt like she’d swallowed nails. In some ways she did trust him. With her body. Oddly, she suspected, even with her life.

But she was an FBI agent. Sworn to uphold the law. She would not let her duty be derailed by feelings for a man she knew was involved in something hugely illegal. Feelings she didn’t even understand.

When Tighe arrived to pick her up, he would be the one taken instead.

Her stomach clenched. The angel wings fluttered angrily. He’d begged her to trust him.

He had to be brought in for questioning. He was into something bad, and the Feds needed to know what it was.

He’d risked his life to come to her and free her from that dark prison. He hadn’t even taken her with him, he’d just saved her.

Delaney pressed her fist against the aching lump sitting in her gut. God, what had she done?

Her job. She’d done her job. He was a criminal. His brother a murderer. She had to catch them. She had no choice. He was a bad guy, blast it.

But he wasn’t. Not completely. He had a goodness in him, a gentleness. He’d rescued that little girl from the fire, hadn’t he?

All her life she’d seen people as good or bad. Especially criminals. Yet Tighe didn’t entirely fit either of those roles.

Delaney rubbed her fist against her churning stomach. Maybe he did. Maybe he wasn’t one of the bad guys at all. All she knew for sure was that he was involved with something big and had refused to be taken by the Feds. All along her instincts had been telling her that he wasn’t evil. What if her instincts were right? For all she knew, he could be part of some military special ops or other supersecret team put together to battle terrorism and save the world.