Predatory Game (GhostWalkers, #6)(28)

She hurried through the house to the front, where Patsy liked to park her car. The sleek fire engine red convertible suited Jess’s sister. Saber walked around the car until she came to the rear bumper. Black paint, scrapes, and dents marred both the bumper and the rear end of the car on the left side. The car had definitely been hit, and fairly hard. It would have put the convertible into a spin. Patsy had been lucky.

On one hand Jess was a GhostWalker and the two of them being in the same place at the same time couldn’t be a coincidence. On the other hand, Patsy’s car had been hit and she had come in wearing a bug tuned specifically to look for Jess’s tones. He was conducting some covert investigation that was riling people up everywhere, which meant he was probably in more trouble than she was. If she had any brains at all, she’d leave.

“You’re stupid, Saber,” she murmured aloud. “Stupid.”

She’d stayed ahead of Whitney by being smart, by being on the move and leaving no trace behind. She knew how to conceal herself right out in the open, and she was still free because she always—always—played it smart. So what was she doing considering walking back into that house?

She stood in the front yard, staring at Jess’s house, her heart pounding, and realized the truth. She loved him. She had let herself fall in love with him. And he was her enemy. Did he know about her? How could he not? There was no such thing as coincidence, not in her world. How many men and women had Whitney actually experimented on, opening their minds and removing their filters, enhancing their psychic abilities and genetically altering them? Certainly the chances of accidentally running into one in Sheridan, Wyoming, were very small.

“Leave, Saber. Walk into the house, pack your things, grab your emergency pack, and leave while you can,” she said aloud as firmly as possible. “He’s a GhostWalker, and wheelchair or not, this is a setup. If he’s in trouble, that’s his problem. You can’t go back to Whitney. You have to look out for yourself. You do. So go now.”

Her heart ached—an actual pain that seemed like the point of a knife stabbing deep. She shook her head and made herself go in. She’d be casual. She’d walk in and tell him about the car, excuse herself, and get out.

She pressed her hand to her chest as she made her way through the living room. She loved the house. Loved everything about it. She loved the way Jess’s scent lingered in every room. Masculine. Spicy. She inhaled to breathe him in as she stopped in the doorway and just looked at him. Even in his wheelchair he was an imposing figure. He looked up, his eyes meeting hers, and her heart nearly stopped at what she saw there.

Raw desire mixed with something else, something she’d never seen before. Could he love her? Was it possible? She pushed a hand through her hair, suddenly uncertain of what to do.

“Baby? What is it? You look as upset as Patsy.”

The caress in his drawling voice warmed her when she hadn’t even known she was cold. She shook her head. “There’s black paint as well as scrapes and a large dent in her car, Jesse. Someone hit her.” And there was a listening device somewhere on her person. Saber had to find it and destroy it. “Did you go anywhere else today besides the radio station?” She poured tea and added a little milk, setting the cup down in front of Patsy. She was very casual, moving around Jess’s sister to stand at her side so she could once again rest her hand on Patsy’s shoulder in comfort.

“Just the police station to report the accident.”

Saber nodded. “Maybe you should have gone to the hospital and let them check you out. You didn’t hit your head did you? Or hurt your neck?”

She had it now. The low-level energy was coming from Patsy’s jacket pocket. Anyone could have dropped it in as she passed by them on a sidewalk.

She was fairly certain that it was no accident that someone had hit Patsy’s car and then taken off. But why? Saber studied Jess’s face. He looked cool until she looked at his eyes and felt the volcano simmering just below the surface. He was enraged, and that meant he’d come to the same conclusion Saber had: someone had tried to harm his sister. But if that was so, then who put the bug in her pocket? She looked at Jess again as he leaned forward, his sister’s hand in his, murmuring comfort to her.

She had been with him nearly eleven months. When she was close to him, he stilled the demons that plagued her. Not because he was a GhostWalker and an anchor, but because everything inside her was at peace when he was near. He made her laugh. Not a fake, polite smile, but a genuine laugh. More than that, she liked him, liked being with him. He was intelligent and could talk about any subject she was interested in. Jess was her best friend.

She couldn’t believe he was really betraying her. She couldn’t bear it if he was involved in a conspiracy against her. She took a breath, let it out, and turned away to keep her composure. There was something so endearing in watching him comfort his sister, that look of love on his face, the gentleness in him.

But the fact remained that he was a GhostWalker and she was on the run and Whitney would do just about anything to get his hands on her. But could she leave Jess when he might need her the most? There was a listening device tuned to the exact frequency of his voice—she’d worked with rhythm and sound enough to know Jess’s when she heard it. Still, her mouth was dry, her heart fighting for acceleration, which meant her body was in flight mode.

Jess chose that moment to look up at her and smile. The warmth in his eyes, the tenderness, swamped her.