The Dark Gate
Pamela Palmer

MILLS & BOON

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To my parents, Stew and Pat Palmer,

for believing I could be anything I wished…

and for raising me to believe

Contents

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Acknowledgments

If I were to list all the people who’ve helped me get to this place—the publication of my first book—the acknowledgments would rival the novel for sheer number of pages. So, in an effort to save the pages for the story, I want to thank a few special people who have made all the difference. Laurin Wittig, Kathryn Caskie, Denise McInerney, Elizabeth Holcolme, Ann Shaw Moran and Sophia Nash for their critiques, advice, encouragement and unyielding support. My husband and kids for always being there to celebrate the joys. The Mom’s Book Club, who cheered me on every step of the way and were waiting with bottles of champagne when the dream came true. And last, though never least, my agent, Helen Breitwieser, and my editors, Ann Leslie Tuttle and Tara Gavin, for taking a chance and opening the door to a dream. My heartfelt thanks.

Chapter 1

“Three assaults in five days, more than a dozen bystanders and no one remembers a thing. How in the hell is he doing it?”

Metropolitan Police Detective Jack Hallihan paced the aft deck of the small cabin cruiser docked on the Potomac River in downtown Washington, D.C., his steps echoing his frustration. A jet roared overhead, making its final approach into Reagan National, while the summer sun beat down on the back of his neck, sending sweat rolling between his shoulder blades. He was running out of time.

“He’s gotta be knocking ’em out, Jack.” Duke Robinson, a fellow detective and the wiry dark-skinned owner of the boat, tipped his baseball cap to shield his eyes from the afternoon sun even as his head turned, his gaze following the progress of a pair of young women strolling down the dock in bikini tops and short-shorts. “What’s up, ladies?”

The voices in Jack’s head surged suddenly, unintelligible voices that filled his head night and day, and had for as long as he could remember. He clenched his teeth and dug his fingers into his dark hair, pressing his fingers to his scalp, trying to quiet the ceaseless chatter, if only a little.

“You okay, man?” Henry Jefferson, Jack’s partner of ten years, eyed him with concern from the second deck chair as he rolled a cold Budweiser across a forehead several shades darker than Duke’s. Henry was as tall as Jack, but no longer lean. Too many years of his wife, Mei’s, fried egg rolls had softened him around the middle. There was nothing soft about the gaze he leveled on Jack. “You need to see someone about those headaches of yours.”

Jack snatched his hand from his head. Hell. The last thing he needed was to bring attention to his worsening condition. No one knew he suffered from the same madness that destroyed his father. If he had his way, no one ever would.

“It’s just the heat,” he told his friend. If only. He’d be happy if they were just headaches. Sometimes he felt as though he lived in the middle of a raucous party that never ended, a party where everyone spoke Bulgarian, or Mongolian, or some other language he would never understand. Usually he could tamp down the noise so it didn’t overwhelm his mind, like moving the party into the next room. But the past couple of weeks the voices had been all but shouting in his ears. It was starting to scare the shit out of him.

He pulled the discussion back to the problem at hand, a mysterious rapist terrorizing the Dupont Circle neighborhood of D.C. “In each of the three cases, multiple victims were knocked unconscious by some unknown means to awaken simultaneously a short while later—estimated at anywhere from fifteen to thirty minutes. In each case, one young woman among them woke to find her clothing partially removed and blood and semen between her legs. In each case, no one, including the assault victim, remembered anything to help us identify the attacker and solve this case.”

“It makes no sense,” Duke said. “How is he knocking them out before they ever get a look at him?”

“We need those tox reports,” Jack said. “He’s got to be using some kind of gas or drug.”

The muscle in Henry’s jaw visibly tightened. “I want him now, before he hurts another girl. The last assault victim was just eighteen years old. Barely more than a kid.”

Henry’s own daughter, Sabrina, was only a handful of years younger. She and her brother were belowdeck even now. Henry wasn’t leaving her home alone. He wasn’t taking any chances. Jack didn’t blame him a bit.

“And what does the theft at the Smithsonian have to do with all this?” Henry wondered out loud. During the first attack, an ancient stone amulet had been stolen.

“What did you find out about this Stone of Ezrie?” he asked his friend. But Duke’s gaze was firmly fixed on a well-endowed woman making her way along the dock.

Henry gave Duke’s shoulder a hard slug. “Stay in the game, man. We want to know what you learned.”

Duke released a frustrated sigh. “It’s Sunday. Even cops need a day off.”

“Not when girls are being attacked,” Henry said.

“Yeah, okay.” Duke pulled out his wallet and removed a small paper photo. “The Stone of Ezrie.”

Jack took the piece of paper and held it for Henry to see. The photo revealed a sky-blue, teardrop-shaped stone hanging from a simple silver chain. Engraved on the surface of the stone was a seven-point star.

“Why would anyone want this thing?” Henry asked, echoing Jack’s own thoughts. “What kind of rock is it, anyway?”

Duke shrugged. “Nothing valuable. The Smithsonian dude didn’t know why anyone would steal it. There were better things all around. The only thing this rock has going for it is some quack legend. Something about it being the key that opens the gates to Ezrie.”

Henry lifted a thick brow. “What’s Ezrie?”

“Don’t know. It’s all bogus, man. Prime bogus. There ain’t no way to solve this case or to catch the perp until the son of a bitch screws up and leaves us a witness or clue. We’ve been over everything a dozen times.” Duke reached for another beer. “I need a day off, even if you two don’t. So no more talk about work. How ’bout them Nationals, huh?”

Jack took a long drink of Coke, letting it fizz on his tongue as impatience boiled under his skin. He didn’t have time for talk of baseball. He’d managed to push the voices back, but for how long? How much longer until he couldn’t control them at all?

He had to solve this case while he still had the mental strength to do it, before the voices became too much to bear and he ended up like his dad—an alcoholic with a gun in his mouth and his brains decorating the living room wall.

The silken sound of a woman’s laughter yanked him out of his dark musings, stealing every thought from his head. His gaze snapped to the houseboat in the next slip as a tall, slender blonde in nice pants and a trim sleeveless sweater emerged from the door of the boat, holding a cell phone to her ear. She was laughing as she stepped outside, her chin-length hair glowing golden in the summer sunshine.

Jack swallowed. “Who’s that?”

“Larsen Vale. Bleeding-heart lawyer and Ice Bitch extraordinaire. Forget about her. She don’t give it up for no man.” Duke’s words were too loud for the small distance between the boats, but he didn’t seem to care.

The woman glanced up. The laughter drained from her features as though someone had pulled a plug. All emotion fled. Her gaze slid over the men, one after the other, as if they were nothing more than inanimate objects unworthy of her notice…until her gaze slammed into Jack’s. His heart bucked in his chest, a physical jolt like he’d been sucker punched. She held his gaze, then dropped it, shattering it as she turned away.

She clicked her cell phone closed and started across the boat’s narrow deck with quick, confident strides, a briefcase swinging at her side. Without another glance his way, she hopped lightly onto the dock and strode away.

Jack exhaled. “Wow.”

“She’s cold, dude,” Duke insisted. “Ice cold. Don’t waste your time.”

“Dad.” Henry’s ten-year-old son, David, ran up the stairs from below, making enough noise for three kids despite his slight build. “When are we sailing?”

“You don’t sail a motorboat, moron.” His sister, Sabrina, flounced up the stairs behind him.

“Sorry, you two. We’re not taking the boat out,” Henry told his kids. “This is a marina party, not a river cruise.”

“What party?” David asked. “This is boring.”

“David…”

Jack set his half-empty Coke can on the railing. “Who’s up for a walk?” He had too much on his mind to make small talk. If he had to take the afternoon off, he’d rather spend his time with the kids, anyway. He sure as hell wouldn’t have any of his own. Not after what his dad had put his own family through.

“Me, Uncle Jack, me,” David exclaimed, jumping up and down. “Can I get the football out of the car, Dad?”

Henry nodded and Jack turned to Sabrina. “You coming, beautiful?” At fourteen, the girl was already showing signs of the heartbreaker she was destined to become. Unlike her brother, she’d inherited a healthy dose of the exotic from her mother’s ancestry. Her skin was a light coffee color, her intelligent eyes slightly tilted and her hair silky black as she flicked it behind her back with a toss of her head.

He held his breath, waiting for her reply, wondering if this would be the time she’d finally grown too cool to have anything to do with her “uncle” Jack. But she flashed him a smile full of braces and youthful exuberance, and he knew today wasn’t that day. They found a patch of grass in front of the marina to pass the football.

“You suck,” Sabrina shouted as David ran for the ball he’d missed.

“You suck,” the boy called back, laughing. If there was a natural athlete lurking in the kid somewhere, he had yet to show himself. David grabbed the ball and started running toward them.

Jack held up his hands. “Throw it, pal.” But the boy kept running. Jack laughed, happier out here with these two than he’d been in weeks.

“Throw it, David.” Sabrina waved her hands in the air.

The boy finally heaved the football, getting a nice spiral on it, at last. Unfortunately his aim was off. Way off. The ball sailed directly at the door of the marina office and the woman exiting through it—the Ice Bitch, Larsen Vale.

Jack cringed as the ball hit her square in the arm, knocking her briefcase out of her hand. The briefcase hit the wall and clattered to the sidewalk, snapping open. Papers spilled everywhere.

Hell. She was going to tear the kid to pieces. As David started toward her in his loping run, Jack headed after him, determined to save him from a tongue-lashing that would make his sister’s impatient comments sound like sweet nothings.

“Sorry,” David called good-naturedly as he approached the she-devil.

The woman picked up the ball. To Jack’s amazement she gave David a rueful smile and cocked her arm as if to throw it.

“Go long,” she told him.

David grinned and started running. The woman threw an admirable pass with only a slight wobble, right into the boy’s arms.

“Yesss!” David did his own little version of the touch-down shuffle.

Jack looked at Larsen Vale thoughtfully as she knelt to gather up her papers. He’d heard her name before today. He knew she’d earned herself a reputation for ruthlessness in the courtroom, particularly in defense of women abused by their high-profile husbands. Duke wasn’t the only one who called her the Ice Bitch. Yet she’d just been exceedingly kind in a situation that would have provoked most people to anger.

Jack joined her. “Let me give you a hand with those.” He knelt beside her and began picking up the loose papers. He’d thought her attractive on the boat. This close, she was stunning. Her mouth was wide and lush, perfectly framed by a strong, stubborn jaw. Her eyes had a natural, heavy-lidded appearance that was sexy as hell. And her skin was lightly tanned and flawlessly smooth.

Heat tightened things low in his body. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been hit with this kind of lust at first sight. Too bad she was ignoring him.

“Thanks for being patient with David. He’s a little careless sometimes.”

She looked up and gave him the same expressionless look she had on the boat. Her eyes were a clear golden-brown beneath a thin layer of frost.

“Were you afraid I’d shatter him with my ice wand?”

Jack winced. So she’d heard Duke’s comment. “You had a right to be angry with him. I appreciate your patience.”

She stopped in her gathering and glanced toward the kids. “He was just being a boy.”

“Yeah. I apologize for my friend’s rudeness back there, too. His comments were out of line.” Jack tapped the papers he’d collected on the sidewalk to neaten the stack. “He’s a little too cocksure of his success with women.” He handed the stack to her and their fingers brushed. A bare slide of flesh on flesh.

Inexplicably the chatter in his head went silent. Silent. For the first time in…forever.

She jerked, dropping the papers. “Damn.”

The voices rushed back as if they’d never left at all. Jack’s heart slammed in his chest. Had he imagined it?

She gathered up the last of the papers and put them back in her expensive-looking briefcase. As she started to close the lid, the breeze caught a loose sheet. Jack grabbed for it at the same time she did. Their hands brushed again.

Silence. It was her.

Larsen Vale clicked her briefcase shut and rose. She met his gaze, briefly, as dispassionately as before. “Thanks,” she said, and turned away.

Jack stared after her, stunned. She’d quieted the voices.

Hope roared through his veins like a flood through a parched gully. She’d quieted the damn voices.

She was his salvation. His cure.

He hurried after her as she started across the parking lot. “Wait.”

She stopped and turned to look at him, a hint of a question in her eyes.

“I’m…Jack.” He thrust out his hand, partly from habit, partly from an intense desire to touch her again. “Jack Hallihan.”

She glanced at his hand, but made no move to take it. “I know.” Then she turned and walked away as if she hadn’t just changed his life.

“You’re an angel, Ms. Vale.”

LarsenVale cut a wry look at the mother of the bride standing beside her. “I’m afraid a lot of people would disagree with you, Mrs. Ramirez. But thank you. I’m glad I could help Veronica.”

Across the crowded, flower-bedecked fellowship hall of the Dupont Circle All Saints Church, her former client, Veronica Hernandez, and her new husband posed for the photographer while one of the bridesmaids artfully arranged the drape of the classic wedding gown.

Veronica’s mother, a compact woman in her fifties, smiled, tears in her eyes. “It will be different this time. Juan is not like Nicky. He is a good man. He will treat my daughter well.”

Larsen gazed at the newly married couple, at the glowing joy in the bride’s face, and remembered the first time she’d seen Veronica. Bruises had lurked beneath her heavy makeup like stones in a still pond, and fear had haunted her eyes. Now adoration lit those same eyes, an adoration mirrored in her new husband’s.

The signs were good that this marriage would be a far cry from Veronica’s last, but Larsen had long ago quit believing in fairy-tale endings.

“I must see to the cutting of the cake,” the older woman said shyly, and slipped away, leaving Larsen standing alone. A place she was all too used to.

Larsen didn’t mind her mostly solitary path through life, but there were times, like now, when she remembered other plans, other dreams. A man to love her. A wedding of her own.

But that was before she’d realized she was different—that love and family could never be hers.

She took a sip of the dark, sweet punch and grimaced inwardly, wishing Veronica had splurged on a few bottles of champagne. Nearby, a man eyed her with interest, earning her standard, back-off look. The man next to him leaned closer and said something that Larsen was pretty sure ended in bitch. The first man stiffened and turned his back on her in a hurry.

The encounter neither amused nor disturbed her. She wasn’t the man-hater everyone thought she was, though it was a miracle she wasn’t, given her line of work. Day after day she saw the disasters men made of their marriages and the pain they caused those who loved them. No, she didn’t hate them. She just didn’t let anyone get that close.

Unfortunately she’d been cursed with looks that invited nearly continuous male attention. Unwanted attention. So she’d developed a haughty manner that kept even the most determined at bay. She was perfectly happy on her own. No one making demands on her time or asking too many questions. She didn’t need anyone. She certainly didn’t need a man.

Larsen tossed back the rest of the sickly sweet punch.

If only her hormones agreed. She groaned at the memory of Jack Hallihan watching her from the deck of his friend’s boat yesterday, those laser-sharp blue eyes boring into her. An unwelcome rush of heat spiraled deep inside her.

She’d never actually met him before, but she’d known who he was. One of her law clerks had pointed him out in the courthouse last fall. Tall and broad-shouldered, with gorgeous blue eyes and a thatch of dark hair that appeared perpetually mussed, he’d walked with an easy confidence and casual strength that had drawn her attention and refused to let go, especially when he’d flashed a grin that had sent her pulse through the ceiling. She’d found herself watching for him every time she went to court for months afterward. She never again caught a glimpse of him.

Until yesterday, when she’d found him staring at her.

A flush of embarrassment rose into her cheeks as she remembered the way she’d dropped her papers at the touch of his hand, like a schoolgirl with her first crush. He hadn’t called her on it. She’d seen no amusement in those blue eyes, no knowing smile that said he knew she’d been affected by the touch. He’d barely reacted at all.

A day later and she was still reacting. Even the memory of their brief meeting had turned the air in her lungs warm and heavy. With a groan of self-disgust she headed for the punch bowl and a cool refill, her heeled sandals clicking on the bare linoleum floor.

She didn’t want to be attracted to a man. Attraction led to wanting and to wishing for things that could never be.

The conversation in the room eased as the guests’ attention turned toward the cutting of the cake.

As she poured another ladle of the dark red punch into her cup, she heard a soft sound of laughter and glanced up to find a girl standing in the doorway to the kitchen, her pretty, delicate features awash with a poignant wistfulness.

A tiny thing, barely five feet tall, she was far too thin. Larsen guessed she was in her late teens, maybe early twenties. She wore a pair of jeans and a Redskins T-shirt that were both miles too big for her as if she, and not they, had gone through the dryer and shrunk. Her skin was a deep tan in color, her head shiny and bald like a chemo patient’s.

Larsen’s heart twisted with sympathy and she took a step toward her. “Hi, there. May I bring you a piece of cake?”

The girl started and turned to Larsen with a guilty, wide-eyed gaze. “I…nay, m’lady.” The words stumbled out in a charmingly accented rush. “I should not have…nay.”

“It’s all right,” Larsen assured her. “There’s a piece for me and I really don’t want it. I’d be happy to bring it to you.”

The girl cocked her head as if pondering Larsen’s offer…or Larsen herself. The girl’s eyes, an amazing shade of violet, looked suddenly older than her years.

“My thanks,” she said shyly. “But I cannot.” Then she turned and fled into the kitchen.

Larsen sighed, sorry she’d chased the girl away. She turned back toward the festivities, but as she took a sip of the too sweet punch, her vision suddenly went black.

Pain shot through her head and she grabbed for the wall, cool punch splashing her bare legs even as her sight returned. Except…she wasn’t seeing with her eyes.

She could feel the hair on her arms leap upright, her heart beginning to pound with a terrible dread. For the first time in fifteen years she was about to watch someone die.

The scene unfolded in front of her—the same, yet altered. Though still in the fellowship hall, she watched from above now, as if she’d been plastered to the ceiling. Time had lurched forward. The cake was gone, the bride and groom stood near the door, ready to leave. Women gathered around the bride, preparing to catch the bouquet.

Mouths moved, shoulders shook with laughter, but Larsen heard none of it—like watching a silent movie. Then suddenly everyone went still, their expressions sliding off their faces, leaving them looking like mannequins…or wax figures.

No, not everyone. A man, the strangest man she’d ever seen, appeared to be talking. He was dressed like something out of a medieval play. His tunic was a shimmering forest-green, his leggings brown with metallic gold flecks that caught the light. But the strangest things about him were his long, lank hair and his skin—both a matching, startling white.

As she watched, he motioned to one of the bridesmaids. The plump young woman left the throng of women and went to him, her dark ringlets brushing the shoulders of her cobalt gown. When she reached him, she turned her back to him, pulled up her tea-length skirt to her waist, and bent over. The odd-looking man started to untie his leggings.

Shocked realization jolted her. Larsen opened her mouth to yell at him, but nothing came out. As she watched in helpless frustration, two people strode angrily into the premonition—a man in a suit and a woman in the same apple-green sheath dress Larsen wore even now.

It was her! She was watching herself.

The albino in the tunic stared at the two of them with surprise, even as he pulled his distended penis from his leggings. He scowled, then flicked his free hand. Like an army of well-dressed zombies, the wedding guests surrounded the pair and attacked. Without hesitation. Without mercy.

With horror, Larsen watched her other self crash to the bare floor and disappear beneath a barrage of kicking, stomping feet, her apple-green dress turning a sickly, purplish bloodstained brown.

The attack ended as suddenly as it began. Like puppets jerked upright by a dozen sets of strings, the guests stood at attention, blank-faced and splattered with gore. At their feet lay Larsen’s and the unknown man’s mutilated remains.

They’d killed her. The blood roared in her ears.

He’d killed her. The pale, evil puppet master who’d controlled the others.

His thin face wore an expression of fevered satisfaction as he thrust his hips against the bridesmaid, taking her from behind. White hair whipped around his head as if a small whirlwind attacked him alone.

He suddenly looked up at the point from where Larsen watched the premonition, like an actor staring directly into the camera.

With a frown, he looked at her body and then back at her.

He saw her. The hair rose at the back of her neck and she mentally jerked back. He saw her watching him. Eyes narrowed with a malevolent light, he leveled his index finger at her menacingly, then shook his head and the vision was gone.

“Miss, are you okay? Miss!”

Larsen blinked, pulse pounding. The room swam back into view, exactly as it had been before, the wedding festivities still in full swing, the guests eating cake. A woman she didn’t know was pushing her onto a chair.

“Sit. I’ll get you some water.”

“No.” Terror tore at her lungs. Pain exploded in her head. He’d killed her.

“I—I’m not feeling well.” Her stomach rolled and clenched, and she lurched to her feet. She was going to be sick. “I’ve got to go.”

Larsen stumbled from the room and pushed through the outer door to the empty playground at the back of the church. She clutched at the rough brick wall and vomited onto the dirt.

He’d killed her. And she’d seen it. She’d seen it.

Dear God, her death visions were back. Larsen sagged against the wall and swiped a trembling hand across her mouth. Not again. She squeezed her eyes closed. Not again.

She pushed herself away from the wall and started across the parched yard on legs that suddenly felt too long for her body. The curse that haunted her life had lain dormant for more than fifteen years. She’d thought the nightmare was over. Every night she prayed her devil’s sight would never return. Now it was back. People were going to die.

She was going to die.

Chapter 2

Jack felt like a lovesick teenager, though he was acting more like a stalker as he sat on a bench under a large oak across the street from the All Saints Church and waited for Larsen Vale to emerge from the wedding reception.

He had to see her again.

He had to know if she’d really quieted the voices or if the gut-kick reaction he’d gotten from touching her had somehow short-circuited his brain so much that he simply hadn’t heard them for a moment. And if she really could quiet his head? Then he had to convince her to stay by his side for the rest of his life. That simple. That impossible.

He leaned back against the uneven bench slats and stretched his legs out in front of him as the Monday afternoon traffic passed under a hazy summer sky. On the sidewalk in front of him, tourists walked by with their guidebooks and fanny packs.

Sweat rolled down his scalp as the ever-present voices conspired to further destroy his sanity. As a kid he’d barely noticed the noise, the voices little more than static in the background of his thoughts. Not until he was in high school did the sound escalate and distinguish itself as a mob of individual, though unintelligible, voices. But even that he’d learned to deal with until these past couple of weeks, when they’d begun to grow louder, more numerous, more agitated, by the day. He shoved his hand through his damp hair, pressing his fingers against his scalp.

Shut up. Just shut up.

But, if anything, the horde in his head grew even louder. With an angry flick of his thumb, he pushed up the volume on his iPod in a useless attempt to drown them out, and concentrated on watching for Larsen.

What were the chances she’d believe he just happened to be hanging around Dupont Circle this afternoon? That he just happened to be walking by as she left the wedding reception?

Jack grunted. Nil. Hell, even if she did believe him, her secretary would give him away the moment she told Larsen he’d stopped by her office this morning looking for her. Police business, he’d said.

He was so screwed.

His only chance of success depended on him knocking her off her feet with a single lethal blow of his charm. Yeah, right. The formidable Ms. Vale was probably immune to any man’s charm.

Damn, this sucked. He’d never had trouble attracting a woman before. He was the one women accidentally ran into, never the other way around. Now here he was, broiling in the summer sun, praying the woman would give him the time of day. She had to. He had to know if her touch was really his salvation.

A movement across the street caught his attention—a woman in a bright green dress walking out from behind the church. Stumbling, more like it. Her hair shone like gold in the sun. Her dress was splattered…red.

Larsen.

He lunged to his feet and dashed across the busy road, weaving between the traffic, heedless of the honk of horns and the squeal of brakes as he completely forgot his pretense of running into her by accident.

In the minute it took him to cross the street, she’d pulled herself together and now walked calmly, almost normally. Except he was a cop and knew better. There was a paleness to her face and a wildness in her eyes that hadn’t been there yesterday.

Those eyes were pointed straight at him, but he could swear she didn’t see him.

“Larsen.”

She visibly started, then stopped abruptly, blinking as if disoriented. As he watched, she pulled herself in and away, snapping a cool facade in place. Once more, she was the remote woman he’d met before.

“What are you doing here?” she asked with only a hint of a wobble to her voice.

“Screw that. What happened to you? You…” He motioned helplessly at the red dotting her dress. His eyes narrowed as he stared at the spots. From a distance, they’d looked like blood.

She glanced down at herself. “I spilled my punch. Once again, what are you doing here?”

Either she was amazingly adept at hiding her emotions, or he’d screwed up. Badly. But he saw something move in her eyes, a glimmer of the fear he was convinced she struggled to hide, and he knew his instincts were dead-on.

Her cool facade crumbled and she cringed and pressed her palm to her forehead.

“What’s the matter?” Jack curled his fingers around her forearm to steady her, but the moment his fingers brushed her skin, his head noise went silent. The “Hallelujah Chorus” nearly erupted from his mouth.

It wasn’t his imagination. She quieted the damn voices.

Slowly she lowered her hand. If she’d been anyone else, he might have thought he saw a sheen of tears in her eyes.

“I don’t feel well. I’m going home.”

He tightened his grip on her arm. “What happened in there?”

Her response was a moment too long in coming. “Nothing. I have a migraine. I want to get home before I throw up again.” She looked pointedly at the hand still gripping her arm, avoiding his gaze.

“Larsen…” His cell rang and he grabbed his phone and checked the Caller I.D. Police business. Hell. He stared at her, torn, as the percussion beat of his ring tone continued. He could see the faint tremble of her ripe lips, a tremble echoed in the vibration of her arm beneath his fingers.

Her gaze suddenly snapped to his. “Are you going to get that?”

“Yeah.” He gritted his teeth, bracing himself for the rush of noise in his head, and released her.

Without a moment’s hesitation, she brushed past him and strode away.

The death visions were back.

Larsen sat on the navy chenille sofa in her little houseboat and shook. Outside, the miserable day had slowly turned to a miserable evening, the sky darkening as if her mood were sucking the very color from the sky.

It didn’t happen. It couldn’t have happened. Just a dream. A terrible, waking nightmare. She hadn’t had a premonition in fifteen years. Fifteen years. She’d thought they’d stopped. Prayed they’d stopped. How could she go through this again?

Hours had passed since the wedding, yet her stomach still rolled and clenched as her mind forced her to relive the savage attacks. The blood. The rape of that poor girl.

God.

Sick guilt raked her insides with sharp claws. She’d fled. Instead of trying to stop it, instead of trying to save them, she’d fled.

Hot tears burned the backs of her eyes as the weight of too many years, too many deaths, pressed her into the cushions. As a kid, she’d believed she caused them. She’d dream about people dying and they died. Her fault. The evil living inside her.

She was eight when she saw her first premonition, the car accident that killed her mother and older brother, Kevin. She never told anyone, not even her father. How could she when she was afraid she’d somehow caused the accident? The last came when she was thirteen and saw her grandfather’s fatal tumble down the stairs.

It never once occurred to her to try to change the outcome of one of her visions. Not until today. Not until she’d run…and not died.

Restlessness forced Larsen to her feet and she paced the small houseboat, the court papers she should be reading all but forgotten in her hand. She was supposed to have died.

Always before, the cursed devil’s sight had shown her the death of someone she loved. Her mom. Her brother. But this time she’d watched her own death. And that of a stranger. Why? What did it mean?

As she paused at the window, her reflection peered back at her, riddled with a dozen dots of light from nearby apartments as if she’d captured the nightscape and her likeness in a single double exposure.

She couldn’t have seen what she thought she’d seen. One man could not control the minds of so many. Veronica had called to tell her about the terrible attack that had occurred at the wedding and to make sure she was okay. Veronica said no one remembered anything. All those who’d been hypnotized, all those who’d killed, had awakened without any memory of what they’d done.

But she hadn’t been hypnotized. She would have remembered. As would the man behind her. But she’d fled. And he’d died.

A chunk of ice settled in her stomach. She turned toward the kitchen to pour herself a glass of wine, hoping it would take the sharp edge off her misery. But as she reached for the refrigerator handle, the houseboat bobbed with the telltale lurch that heralded the arrival of an intruder. Larsen tensed. She rarely had visitors, and never uninvited.

“Larsen?” The male voice was followed by the brisk rap of knuckles on the glass door. “Larsen? It’s Jack Hallihan.”

Cop. Her heart sank even as her pulse leaped with a strange and unwanted rush of pleasure. She swallowed hard. She couldn’t very well ignore him. The blinds were still open. He knew she was here. She took a deep breath and started toward the door in her bare feet.

Through the window she could see Jack Hallihan’s imposing form in the light’s soft glow. Exhaustion swept over her with the certain knowledge this was no social call. She couldn’t deal with his questions tonight. But refusing to talk to him would only make him suspicious.

With a sigh, Larsen opened the door and slipped outside into the steamy night. If she let him inside, she might have more trouble getting rid of him. Closing the door behind her, she met the piercing blue gaze leveled on her. The small light above the door cast the bones of his face in high relief, making him look even more attractive, if such a thing were possible. Heat radiated from his body and twined with the spicy scent of his aftershave, stimulating her senses.

Distance. She needed distance. She tried to move past him, but he reached for her, sliding the rough pads of his fingers down her bare arm, sending awareness dancing over her skin. Larsen looked at him, startled by the unexpected touch. His eyes had widened as if he were as surprised by the touch as she was. Why was he here? To continue his earlier line of questioning her about what she saw at the church? Or was he here for more personal reasons? She wasn’t sure. All she knew for certain was that he couldn’t succeed at either.

She threw him her stock glare, hoping to cover for the way she’d reacted to his touch, and led him aft, away from the lights, where those eyes of his couldn’t see quite so much. At the back rail, Larsen turned to face him, crossing her arms over her chest.

“What can I do for you, Detective?”

He came to stand beside her, leaning a hip against the rail. Too close. She sensed a restlessness in him, a tension, that made her question the wisdom of seeking out the dark.

“I was worried about you.” His voice was as deep and rich as she remembered, a calming voice that nevertheless turned her pulse strangely erratic. She felt his probing gaze like a physical stroke. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine.” A lie. Tension coiled deep in her stomach. They both knew he wasn’t here out of concern for her supposed migraine.

“I assume you heard about the murder.”

Even knowing why he was here, she couldn’t stop the jerk, the small involuntary movement she prayed he hadn’t noticed.

“Yes, I heard.” But her voice was no longer steady. Just the mention brought it all rushing back. The blood. Somehow she had to convince him her running from the church was innocent, or he’d never leave her alone.

“The best I can figure…” he said, cocking his head and crossing his arms over his chest in a way that warned she had some serious explaining to do. “It happened about twenty minutes after I saw you outside the church.”

Her muscles bunched with the need to put distance between them, if not to outright run, but she knew better than to show fear to an adversary.

“Seems my migraine was timely.” She pretended not to see his frown. Instead, heart racing, she looked up at the clouds blotting out the night sky, glowing a dull orange with the reflection of the city’s lights. She felt him staring at her.

For long moments he watched her, studying her, turning her breath quick and shallow.

“Here’s the thing.” His tone was almost conversational. “I interviewed dozens of people today. Not one of them saw anything. They were upset, sure. A dead body and blood will do that.” He straightened, moving until he blocked her escape, his gaze sharp enough to cut. “But of all the people I talked to who attended that wedding, only one had eyes with the wildness that comes from witnessing violent crime. One.”

He leaned toward her until he was almost in her face. “You.”

Larsen struggled to hold her ground even as her throat went dry. “You misread me, Detective. I left the reception early because I was getting a migraine. The only wildness you saw was fear that I was going to vomit on the Metro on the way home. Which I did, by the way.”

His expression turned hard and disappointed. “You’re going to deny you saw something?”

She uncrossed her arms and moved away, unable to withstand his probing stare a moment longer. He could have stopped her if he’d wanted, but he didn’t. “There’s nothing to deny. I wasn’t there when the murder happened.”

“I’m not trying to say you were. But you saw something, or someone, that alarmed you. Something that might help me solve this case.”

“The only person who alarmed me was a poor girl who looked like she’d been undergoing chemotherapy. Otherwise, I’m afraid you’re mistaken—”

He grabbed her wrist and turned her to face him. “I’m not mistaken. I know the difference between illness, worry and fear, lady. I’ve seen them all. What I saw in your eyes was raw terror.”

“You saw what you wanted to see.”

“You’re lying to me.” He pulled her closer until she could see the deck lights reflected in his eyes like chips of blue ice. “You know something. When I first saw you outside the church, you were running. Don’t try to tell me you weren’t.”

It was as if he could see right through her! Larsen gathered every ounce of coldness she could manufacture and stared pointedly at her bound wrist, then into his eyes, but he ignored her not-so-subtle hint.

“Four women have been assaulted, now a man brutally murdered, and I don’t have a single witness.” He finally released her and turned away, raking a hand through his hair. “Not a single clue to help me solve this case.”

He whirled back to face her. “It’ll happen again, Ms. Vale. Again and again and again, and I don’t know how to stop it.”

She didn’t want to hear this. Guilt already tore her to shreds, but she couldn’t tell him. She could never tell anyone.

“Help me, Larsen.” His handsome face implored her to cooperate. “Help me stop him before he does it again.”

“I can’t. I don’t know anything.”

He stared at her for long minutes, then released his breath on a slow burst of air. “Tell me about the chemo patient.”

Larsen frowned. “Why? She was just a sick kid.”

“She caught your eye.”

“Well…yeah.”

“It’s all we’ve got to go on, Larsen. Maybe it’s nothing, but the subconscious tends to see more than we realize. Humor me.”

So she told him what she remembered about the girl in the too large clothes with the clean-shaven head and startlingly violet eyes.

When she was through, Jack’s mouth skewed left. “Doesn’t sound like much of a lead, but maybe she saw something. It should be easy enough to track her down. Was there anyone or anything else that caught your attention? Anything at all?”

“No. Nothing.” Nothing in real time, anyway. Nothing she could tell him.

His gaze held her captive even as she prayed he’d accept her answers and give up. She sensed rather than saw the predatory tension ease out of him.

“All right. If you think of anything else…”

Larsen had to bite back a nearly audible sigh of relief. “I’ll be sure to let you know.”

Jack Hallihan pulled out his wallet and handed her his card. As she shoved it into her pocket with one hand, his hand closed around her other. “Larsen…”

As his warm fingers slid over hers, a flash of movement sliced through her peripheral vision. Pain exploded in her shoulder, knocking her back into the rail. She’d been hit. With a panicked gasp, she realized the thing was still on her.

An arrow. An arrow was sticking out of her shoulder! Was this some kind of sick joke?

“Get it out of me. Get it out!” She grabbed it, trying to pull it away, but pain seared through her body.

Jack grabbed her wrist. “Don’t touch it. You’ll do more damage.” He swept her into his arms and ran for the door to her houseboat. Every step made the arrow bounce, setting fire searing in her shoulder. She squeezed her eyes closed and clamped her jaw shut to keep from crying out.

“Stay here. I’m going to try to catch the archer.”

She felt the soft cushions of the sofa at her back, then Jack released her and ran for the door. Agony radiated from her shoulder outward, as if a shark had clamped onto her and would not let go. She wanted it out of her. She squeezed her eyes closed as tears ran down her cheeks.

An eternity later Jack was beside her again, his forehead glistening with sweat.

“Did you…catch him?”

“No.” He leaned over her, his blue eyes tight with concern. “Hang on. There’s an ambulance on the way.”

She could hear sirens. They were growing louder. “Did you see who did it?”

“Yeah.” He took her hand, his expression grim. “It was a bald girl, Larsen. A tiny little thing in a Redskins T-shirt.”

She stared at him. Her mouth opened then snapped shut on the metallic taste of fear.

Jack’s expression turned grave and worried. “I don’t know what you’ve gotten yourself into.” He stroked her hair back from her face. “But I think you’re in over your head. Sooner or later you’re going to have to trust someone.”

She blinked, sending more tears sliding down her cheeks. Trust someone. The one thing she could never do.

He had to win her trust.

Jack glanced into the rearview mirror of the police-issue sedan. Tucked into the corner of the seat behind him, hidden behind tinted windows, was Larsen Vale. The answer to his prayers.

Tension tightened his grip on the steering wheel as he maneuvered the roads clogged with morning work traffic. He didn’t remember the last time he’d been this nervous over an assignment. Over anything. But never had anything mattered so much.

She quieted the voices. If he could just figure out how. Hell, he didn’t care how. All that mattered was keeping her close enough to touch.

And the only way to do that was to make her fall for him. To win her as his own. A girlfriend would stay by his side. A wife. He had to make her love him if he wanted to save his sanity. Crazy, yeah, but it was all he could think of.

Unfortunately he also had to get to the bottom of her involvement in this case, but pushing her to tell him what she knew would only earn her anger, if not her hatred. He squeezed the steering wheel until he feared it would snap off in his hands. How could he possibly win both the woman and her secrets?

He had to win her trust. Get her to volunteer the information.

Yeah, right. He’d just wine and dine her for…what? Twenty minutes? He didn’t have time. Every day he didn’t catch the rapist was another day a young woman might lose her innocence…or her life. Someone had died, now. Things were escalating.

The only thing in his favor was the bizarre twist of fate that had dropped the pretty attorney right into his hands. He had one chance to charm her. Once chance to win her over. But he had to move fast. And he had no clue how to go about charming a man-hater.

“This is kidnapping,” she muttered, her words slurred from the heavy sedative they’d given her before they’d dug the arrow out of her shoulder in the emergency room.

He glanced at her again. Her head was back, her eyes closed, a scowl marring the beauty of her face.

“Yeah. So sue me for not taking you back to your houseboat where the little archer could take another shot at you.”

“I want you to take me to a motel.”

“For the time being, you’re stuck with me.”

“I don’t want to be stuck with you. I don’t want to be stuck with anyone.”

Jack sighed. He’d known this wouldn’t be easy. “Your life’s been threatened by a murder suspect, Larsen. You’re under police protection until the captain decides otherwise.”

“I need to go back to my houseboat. I need some things.”

“You can borrow one of my T-shirts and a toothbrush. My partner’s wife can loan you whatever else you need. Try to think of this as a short vacation.”

Her frown deepened. “At your house.”

“Only the finest for D.C.’s most formidable prosecutor.”

“You’re mocking me.”

“You? No. My house? Maybe.”

She didn’t reply. He glanced into the rearview mirror to find her expression had evened out. The pain medication was kicking in.

She’d been lucky. The arrowhead was small and had gone cleanly through her shoulder, doing minimal damage. A few inches and the arrow would have gone through her heart. His own heart lurched at the thought of how easily he might have lost her—his salvation gone in the blink of an eye.

By an arrow. What in the hell was going on?

Somehow, Larsen Vale held the key to this case. How, he couldn’t begin to guess, but he’d stake his life and his reputation on the fact that she’d seen something in that church yesterday. She’d witnessed something that had sent her running from the scene. And someone knew it. All he could do now was protect her—and get her to confide in him before she was permanently silenced.

By the time he arrived at his modest row house apartment, the focus of his thoughts was fast asleep. He carried her inside and back to his bedroom, laying her on his bed. The morning sun shone through the blinds, casting thin rows of bright sunlight across both the woman and the unmade bed.

He pulled the cord, adjusting the blinds, then stared down at his very own sleeping beauty.

“What am I going to do with you?” He slid a thick lock of silky golden hair between his thumb and forefinger, feeling a shaft of desire spear through him. Damn. His own lust was a complication he could do without. But she was beautiful. There was no denying it.

His gaze traveled over her features as he drank his fill, at last. He brushed the pad of his thumb over the softness of her cheek, a fine possessiveness rising inside him. She was made for him, the cure to his madness, the escape from his own private hell.

Determination bordering on desperation fired his blood. He wouldn’t lose her. He couldn’t. He couldn’t return to the building insanity in his head knowing…knowing…the cure was lost to him. If he ran Larsen off now, how would he stay sane when the noise grew beyond bearing? How would he stand it when he knew a single touch of her hand would silence the chaos?

Stay by my side. Silence my madness.

“Trust me, Larsen,” he whispered into the stillness of the room. “When you wake up, tell me what you know. Help me catch these guys before they hurt you again.”

His gaze slid from her face to her shoulder. The sight of the bandaged wound made his gut clench. He’d whispered the words for her benefit, in the hope she’d remember them subconsciously, but he meant them, he realized. He didn’t want her hurt again. There was something about her, something fierce and proud, that drew him. Something within her he recognized in himself.

Secrets.

Chapter 3

Larsen opened heavy eyelids. Where was she? Why wasn’t her boat rocking? Her sleepy gaze caught the slow spin of a fan on the ceiling above and she felt the breeze waft over her. The musical score from Les Miserables drifted in from another room, accompanied by a deep masculine voice.

Jack Hallihan’s.

Memory slammed into her, stealing her breath. She was in his house. In his bed. Thanks to the little bald girl.

She’d tried to kill her.

A surge of fear jolted her awake.

Why would the girl have attacked her? She’d seemed so sweet. So shy. It didn’t make sense. But then, not much in her life ever had. All she knew for certain was that death seemed to have his eyes on her this time.

Heaven help her.

She was suddenly glad for her cop bodyguard. Jack. If only he would stop asking questions.

Larsen levered herself to a sitting position, her shoulder throbbing beneath the heavy bandage. Her gaze drifted, taking in the Spartan masculinity of the room. The dresser was made from the same sturdy oak as the bed. In the corner, a single chair, barely visible beneath a mound of discarded clothes, appeared to serve as the hamper.

The light filtering through the blinds had a late-afternoon feel to it. A glance at the bedside clock told her it was almost seven. She’d slept the entire day. The entire Tuesday.

Damn. She’d had two meetings with clients and a court appearance on her calendar for today. First thing in the morning she’d have to make some phone calls to apologize.

Larsen pushed back the sheet and swung her legs over the side of the bed, then stilled at the waft of air across her privates. What in the…? Her startled gaze dropped to her lap. The oversize T-shirt was bunched at her hips, but there was no hiding the fact she no longer wore anything beneath.

Jack.

Her heart lurched in her chest. What had he done? Just how badly had she misjudged him?

As she grabbed the sheet and yanked it over her lower half, her gaze snagged on something familiar lying across the bunched-up bedspread at her feet. Two somethings. Her shorts and panties, looking freshly washed.

She stared at them, her heart rate slowing. He’d washed them. Jack Hallihan had washed her bloodstained clothes…after undressing her.

Her breath caught in her throat. The thought should have outraged her. Instead heat pooled deep in her abdomen and throbbed between her legs. A fine time for her hormones to decide to do the cha-cha. Not that they hadn’t been practicing that little step for months now, since the first time she’d seen the handsome cop.

She reached for the clothes and managed to get the panties on one-handed with maximum struggle. Exhausted, shoulder throbbing, she sat on the edge of the bed and stared at the shorts with their neat little zipper and button. No way.

“Need help?” Jack stood in the doorway looking impossibly handsome, one muscled shoulder propped against the doorframe. He was casually dressed in khaki shorts and a navy T-shirt with MPD emblazoned across the chest in bold white letters. His short dark hair was appealingly tousled.

He watched her with that blue intensity she was becoming used to, but this time it was warmed by sympathy…and something more. Something that made her increasingly aware she wore nothing beneath the oversize tee but a thin pair of panties.

She tried to give him her chilly look, to push him away, but she was so far from cold it wasn’t funny, so she glared at him instead and held up the shorts. “I suppose you know how to get these on since you took them off.” The thought of him peeling them off her had her hands shaking. She struggled to keep her voice even, struggled to meet his gaze.

He pushed away from the door and came to kneel in front of her, inches from her bare legs, his face nearly on a level with hers. He held out his hand for the shorts. She handed them to him as her gaze roamed the strong planes of his face—his pronounced cheekbones, his strong, faintly stubbled chin. The firm mouth that even now tilted into a sensual smile.

With effort, she tore her gaze away, but his warm scent wrapped around her, sending need rippling through her body.

Damn hormones.

“How you feeling?” he asked.

His words, the movement of those lips, pulled her gaze back to him and she couldn’t help but wonder what it would feel like to have that mouth pressed against hers.

How was she feeling? Like a woman who hasn’t had sex in eight years.

She took a deep breath, struggling to find air, scrambling for an appropriate answer. “Hot. Sore. Definitely sore.”

She caught a glimpse of laughter in his eyes before his mouth compressed with sympathy. He set the shorts on the floor at her feet.

“Step in.” He rose and held out his hand to her. “Can you stand?”

She wanted to say, “of course,” but she wasn’t sure. It annoyed her that she might need help, yet she took his hand. “Let’s find out.”

He gave her a small, approving smile and closed his warm hand around hers. Pure attraction hit her hard. She struggled to keep her face impassive.

“Okay?” he asked.

Her bare feet sank into the soft beige carpeting. “So far, so good.”

“The room’s not spinning?” A hint of a smile lifted the words.

Oh, yeah, it was spinning all right. Just not the way he meant. She had to get rid of that lethal smile of his before it caused her to do something she’d regret. Like smile back. He could not know what he was doing to her. He’d have power over her she desperately couldn’t afford to give him.

She met his probing gaze with a glare. “I’m fine,” she snapped, pleased with the bitchy sound even as it extinguished the teasing light in his eyes. She felt only a twinge of regret.

With swift, clinical movements, he pulled the shorts up and over her bottom. No lingering touches, no seductive fumbling.

But it didn’t matter. Her body was like dry brush ready to ignite. The rough slide of his thumbs over her thighs and hips as he pulled up the shorts, the warm touch of his fingers at her stomach as he fastened the button, set up a throbbing between her legs just below the place he reached for the zipper.

She held her breath against the wave of sensations pricked by his nearness and his touch. If he ever decided to seduce her, she’d be in deep trouble.

Who was she kidding? She was already in trouble. First thing in the morning she was making some calls to get herself a different bodyguard.

Jack met her gaze, his expression enigmatic. “Dinner’s almost ready.”

Larsen nodded and followed him into the hall, but as he led her into the living room, his hand slipped around her upper arm, gripping her lightly just beneath the sleeve of her T-shirt. His thumb brushed over her bare skin in a soft caressing motion that was too intimate, too pleasant.

She jerked her arm away and winced as harsh discomfort radiated down her arm from her shoulder. “I’m not an invalid,” she said tightly. Silence, heavy and reproachful, followed her into the living room.

The room was as masculine as the bedroom, but more fully decorated. Leather upholstery and rustic wood sat against a backdrop of light olive walls and hardwood floors with area rugs reminiscent of the southwest. On the walls were framed prints of sailboats caught on rough seas. The room was simple, yet attractive. Inviting. The kitchen, on the other hand, was plain and functional.

She caught the scent of a mouthwatering aroma and made a small, involuntary sound of appreciation. She hadn’t realized how hungry she was until that moment.

He watched her with an expression that appeared almost boyish. “I tried something new tonight. I hope you like it.”

Be the bitch, she told herself, but she couldn’t do it. Self-protective she might be, but she’d never intentionally crossed the line to cruel.

“It smells delicious.”

Though the words were without inflection or an ounce of enthusiasm, the smile that lit his eyes set butterflies to flight in her stomach. Larsen nearly groaned out loud. She might as well admit defeat right here and now. How was she ever going to steel herself against this man’s charm? And she must. She couldn’t let him get too close.

Jack seated her at the table, then went to fetch their dinner as Larsen’s gaze followed him. He moved with an athlete’s strength and coordination, every movement controlled and sure. As bodyguards went, she could have done worse. Much worse. Heaven knew, she enjoyed watching him.

If only his sharp eyes didn’t have to watch her quite so closely in return.

Jack watched with amusement as Larsen dropped her fork for the second time. She was clearly right-handed, but trying to eat with her left to avoid jarring her injured shoulder. With an exasperated sigh and a wry roll of her eyes, she picked up the uncooperative fork, then dug back into the chicken paprika he’d cut into bite-size pieces for her.

The woman was a puzzle. One moment she was snapping at him for touching her, then minutes later he caught her watching him over her dinner plate with raw feminine interest in those golden-brown eyes. Was the Ice Queen warming up to him at last? Or was she, as he was beginning to suspect, no ice queen at all?

He watched her devour the meal with obvious relish. “You’re hungry.”

She looked at him with those wide, naturally slumberous eyes as she swallowed. “I haven’t eaten since lunch yesterday. And this is—” she made a sound of appreciation deep in her throat “—unbelievable.”

The compliment pleased him. He saw an opening to draw her out and took it. “Do you like to cook?”

Her mouth twisted into a rueful frown. “As little as possible. I never really learned. My dad didn’t know how and my mom…died when I was eight.”

“I’m sorry.”

She shrugged. “It was a long time ago. I’m over it.” But something moved in her eyes, sharp and fresh, belying her words. He could almost see her pulling back and away, her expression turning into that of the aloof attorney. Conversation over.

Not if he could help it. “My aunt taught me to cook when I was ten. Aunt Myrtle. She was an odd bird, nice in a zany sort of way. Her weirdness drove my mom crazy. She finally went too far when I was sick one time. Myrtle took me to her house, tried to cure me. I don’t know what happened—just that she used some heavy woo-woo stuff. My mom took me home and never let her visit again.”

Larsen’s eyes had lost that defensiveness and had taken on a gleam of interest. “Did she hurt you?”

“No. That’s the funny part. When she finished, I was fine.”

“You mean, she really healed you?”

“I don’t know. My parents wouldn’t tell me what happened and I never saw Aunt Myrtle again. Last I heard she was still living in the Virginia mountains, only about an hour away from here. I should go see her one of these days.”

When they’d finished eating, Larsen dabbed her mouth with the napkin, then stood. “Thank you. Dinner was excellent.”

As she reached for her plate, he grabbed her wrist, blanketing his brain in a calming silence. “Nope. You’re company. No touching the dirty dishes.”

She stared at him, but to his delight, a twinkle appeared in her eye. “You’re just afraid I’ll drop your plate like I kept dropping my fork.”

Self-deprecating humor. Who would have thought? He grinned at her, coaxing the twinkle in her eye into a glimmer of a smile. “Let’s just say, I’m being cautiously hospitable.”

A full-fledged smile illuminated her face, transforming the Ice Queen into a true angel, making him ache to pull her close and kiss her.

For a heart-stopping moment her eyes warmed until her expression seemed to be the visual equivalent of his thoughts.

She wanted the kiss as much as he did.

Then golden lashes swept down to hide her emotions. “Do you mind if I watch some television?”

Jack took a deep breath and released her wrist, uncorking the noise in his head. “Help yourself. The remote’s on the coffee table.” What just happened? She wanted him. She wanted him. Hot damn. He seriously doubted the formidable Larsen Vale ever gave in to such base desires, but a guy could dream.

He carried the dishes to the sink. The soundtrack from a Friends rerun and the sweet sound of Larsen’s laughter kept him company as he did the dishes. He could do this. Every night for the rest of his life. A woman’s company over dinner. Soft, feminine laughter filling his house. Larsen’s laughter. Hell, yeah.

The sudden jolt of longing startled him. Longing for an honest-to-god life and future with the beautiful woman whose touch could keep the madness at bay.

If he didn’t blow it with her first. And he would, if he pressed her too hard about this case. Yet if he didn’t…how many more would die?

Larsen rose as the final scene of the James Bond movie slid into the fifteenth car commercial of the evening. She’d paid little attention to the flick, too aware of the cop watching her from the sofa.

“I need a bath,” she told him.

He visibly started. “Can’t you wait until…tomorrow?”

“No, I feel gross. I’ll sleep better after a hot soak.” She still had flakes of dried blood on her shoulder and arm. “Can I borrow something to sleep in?”

Jack’s eyelids sank over those blue eyes, sending tendrils of warmth snaking down her limbs. “Lady, you can have anything of mine you want. You sure you want clothes?”

“Yes.”

“Are you certain you’re up for this?”

“I feel fine.” And, amazingly, she did. Her brows pulled together. “My shoulder doesn’t even hurt anymore.”

Jack set his Coke on the coffee table, his gaze skimming leisurely down her bare legs. “Don’t get dressed afterward.”

She jerked her head to face him. “Jack…”

His smile dawned sexy and playful. “Relax, Larsen. I just need to change your bandage. Wrap your top half in a towel so you don’t have to take your shirt off.”

She stared at him, scrambling to gather the wits he’d scattered to the wind with his suggestive comments. “Right,” she said at last, and spun on her heel toward the bathroom, wondering if she should forego the hot bath and opt for a cold shower instead.

Steamy moisture hung in the air, clinging to the mirror in a wet fog. Standing on the terry bath mat, Larsen slipped into the borrowed pajama pants she’d brought in with her, then wrapped a dry bath towel tight around her breasts, tucking the end under her arm. Clutching it tight to her chest with one hand, she fluffed her wet hair with the other and called to her host.

“Jack, I’m ready for you!”

Larsen groaned as the raw double entendre echoed in her ears, making her cheeks flood with heat, which just flustered her more. She was twenty-eight years old. The Ice Bitch, for heaven’s sake. Ice bitches did not get flustered over hot cops. They weren’t supposed to blush over anything.

She heard the doorknob twist. As the door opened, she tried to fake a calm disinterest, but the sexy smile Jack leveled on her sent heat of a different kind flooding her system.

He leaned against the doorframe, teasing lights dancing in his blue eyes. “You’re ready for me, are you?”

She tried to look haughty, but failed miserably as she met his grin. “You’re impossible.”

The worst part was that she was ready for him. Never in her life had she been so aware of a man. But he couldn’t know. She couldn’t go there with him.

“The bandage, Detective,” she said crisply, struggling to hide her reaction to his nearness.

He made a mock face of disappointment that did nothing to dim the smile in his eyes, but his hands busied themselves with the first-aid supplies.

His gaze dipped to take in her outfit, lingering a moment too long on her hands…or what they covered…making her feel hot and damp.

“How was your bath?” he asked, his smile turning friendly.

An answering smile escaped her mouth. She didn’t want to like him, but he made it so hard not to.

Larsen tucked the towel in tighter. “The bath felt great. I’m finally clean again.”

“No trouble with that shoulder?”

“No. Like I told you, it’s stopped hurting.”

His eyebrows lifted. “Let’s see how it looks, shall we?” He motioned to the closed toilet lid. “Have a seat.”

He stood close, his knee brushing her thigh as he carefully pulled at the tape holding the bandage to her shoulder.

“This might hurt.” He eased the bandage off her skin. His brows pulled together as he stared at the wound.

“Damn, woman, you heal fast.” His expression registered both surprise and approval. Beneath dark lashes, his blue eyes slid to her face.

Larsen shrugged. “It must have been a small arrow.”

Jack stared at her shoulder, frowning. “I don’t care what size it was. This wound looks like it’s been healing for days.” He shook his head. “Amazing. Anyway, I think we can probably switch you to a couple of Band-Aids.”

“Great. Let me get back in the bath and wash the tape marks off.”

But he was already reaching for her. His thumb ran along one of the tape lines, the look that entered his eyes warming her to her toes. “I’ll help.”

“Yeah, I bet.”

He grinned at her. “As much as I’d enjoy seeing you in that tub, we’ll do it here.” He picked up the washcloth and began to ease the glue from her damp skin.

She stared at the speckles in the tiled floor while he worked. The subtle scent of his aftershave gave an exotic touch to the steamy, soapy smell of the bathroom, stirring her senses, as if his nearness and the rough pads of his fingers skimming her bare shoulder weren’t doing enough.

His breathing no longer sounded calm. She glanced up to find him watching her, his eyes hot with wanting. The room turned stifling. Airless.

“Larsen…” Her name was little more than a whisper on his lips. He slid his palm along the side of her neck, sending shivers rippling through her. His gaze held hers captive. Tension built and coiled within her as she waited, breathless. Wanting.

Slowly he slid his thumb beneath her jaw and lifted her face, bending toward her. Even as part of her begged to push him away, she reached for him, lifting her hand in turn to slide along his stubbled jaw.

A low growl escaped Jack’s throat a second before he covered her mouth with his own. The kiss started out gentle, then turned harder, more insistent, stirring feelings in her that quickly turned raw. Hungry.

How long had it been since she let a man get this close? She’d forgotten how good it felt to be touched, to be filled with passion and life. And need.

Larsen wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer, opening her mouth on his. A growl rumbled deep in Jack’s chest as his tongue swept inside to claim hers. He tasted like heaven, like warm, sinful fantasies.

His hands gripped her waist and he rose, lifting her to her feet and into his arms. She forgot the towel, forgot everything but her need for this man. She lifted both hands to his face, holding him just where she wanted him, that wonderful mouth fused with hers. He pushed her gently backward, against the sink cabinet, pressing against her. He was hard. Aroused.

Reason wormed its way into her passion-fogged mind. Sex. Too much. Too close.

She pulled back from the kiss. “Jack…”

He dragged in short ragged breaths as he watched her, his passion-drugged eyes brimming with impatience, an impatience that slowly turned to resignation. Jack sighed and let her go. But as he stepped back, the towel that had covered her dropped to the floor between them. With a gasp, Larsen grabbed it and yanked it over her breasts, but the damage was done. The moment shattered.

“I…need to get dressed.” She tried to push past him but he put out an arm to bar her way.

“You still need a Band-Aid.”

Embarrassment heated her cheeks. “Okay, but no sexy, lingering touches this time.” She couldn’t quite meet his gaze.

It was one thing to kiss him. Something entirely different to flash him, accident or not.

To his credit, he didn’t say anything that would compound her self-consciousness. Instead he applied the Band-Aids to her shoulder with quick, clinical movements.

“All done.”

She hazarded a glance at his face and found him watching her with amused sympathy.

He lifted one wry, teasing brow. “You do know how to get a guy’s attention.”

“Yeah. Well…” Her embarrassment melted beneath his gentle humor. “On that note, I’m going to bed. Alone,” she added as she walked with forced calm down the hallway to Jack’s bedroom.

Larsen closed the door, then sank back against it, her legs refusing to hold her upright a second longer. She struggled to suck air into her lungs, struggled to remember how to breathe after that kiss.

Every nerve in her body hummed with electricity. She could probably light the entire room if she shoved her finger in the light socket. Her fingers went to her lips, trailing over flesh that still tingled.

The man could kiss.

With a groan, she closed her eyes and leaned her head against the door. Why had she let him do that? Now he was going to want more. She was going to want more.

When what she needed to do was put distance between them.

She banged her head silently against the door at her stupidity. It was time to find that rock-solid control she’d always prided herself on, and find it fast.

The sound of Jack’s cell phone ringing in the living room permeated the room, followed by the low murmur of his voice.

With a determined sigh, Larsen pushed away from the door and grabbed the borrowed sleep tee off the bed. She was just pulling it on when she heard the rap on her door.

“Larsen, that was my partner on the phone. Come watch the news. There may be a break in the case.”

Her pulse leaped with a bone-deep if fragile hope. “Thank God.” She wrenched the door open and followed him into the living room as the newscasters appeared on the television screen.

“In our top story, two congressional interns are missing tonight. The young women were last seen leaving a pharmacy on Dupont Circle this morning with an unidentified male. The event was caught on the store’s security camera.”

Larsen watched the screen change to the grainy black-and-white videotape, then gasped as she saw him. The albino. His back was to her as he stood in the middle of the tape, but she was certain it was him. The same stark white hair, the same odd clothing.

Her heart began to pound. She hadn’t imagined him.

In the background, the two young women chatted as they walked into the store. Neither seemed to pay any attention to the white man standing feet away.

The albino lifted his arm and the pair stopped abruptly, going suddenly, unnaturally, still. The purse one carried dropped, unnoticed, to the floor.

Chills raced over Larsen’s skin as she watched the evil man step around them and leave the store, the two women turning to follow. As the three exited onto the sidewalk outside, two small figures emerged from the right and followed them out the door.

The station cut back to the newscasters, but not before Larsen got a look at the last two. Though she wore a baseball cap and a different T-shirt, one of them was the cancer girl—the girl who had shot her.

She heard the click of the remote and the television screen went dark. Larsen turned toward Jack, suddenly afraid she hadn’t hidden her reactions. Her heart sank when she met his gaze. Gone was her friendly companion of a minute ago. In his place stood an angry, hard-eyed cop.

“I want the truth, lady…and I want it now.”

Chapter 4

Jack’s sugar-spun fantasy of spending his life with the one woman who could cure his madness crumbled beneath a slug of hard reality. How could he have forgotten Larsen Vale was a liar?

She stood beside him, her fingers gripping the back of his leather sofa, her face pale, her eyes wide with guilty dismay.

He’d called her into the living room to ID the bald girl Henry had seen at the end of the tape. Instead she’d visibly jerked at first sight of the prime suspect, the latter-day Pied Piper who seemed to have led the little group right out the store.

“You know him.” The implications ricocheted across his brain.

“What?”

“The Pied Piper. The leader. You’ve seen him before.”

Something pained moved through her eyes. “No.” She unhooked her fingers from his sofa and turned to face him, raising that stubborn chin. “I recognized the cancer girl.”

She looked so damned innocent standing there in her soft pajamas, her golden hair damp and curling under her jaw. Another man might have believed the act of innocence, but not a cop. Not him. Beneath those soft golden lashes, her wide eyes crawled with guilt.

Jack slammed the remote on the table. “Don’t. Don’t lie to me. You nearly came out of your seat when you saw him.”

Larsen crossed her arms over her chest, her gaze sliding away. “If I reacted to him, it was only because of his weirdness.”

He stared at her, feeling the fragile connection between them fray and split. “How stupid do you think I am?”

She froze, then seemed to shake herself loose, her gaze shifting to the blank television screen. “I swear to you, Jack, I’ve never seen him before.”

Dammit. His fingers flexed with the need to grab her and shake her, to scare the crap out of her until she told him what he wanted to know. At the same time, he wanted nothing more than to sink to his knees and beg her to trust him.

He turned away from her, shutting his eyes over the battle raging inside him. “Go to bed, Larsen.” Before he destroyed what tenuous connection remained between them, losing his only chance at a life without madness, his only chance at a future.

Larsen paced the darkened bedroom, the room lit only by the soft wash of light slipping under the door from the hallway. She’d been pacing for more than an hour, but she wasn’t the only one still awake. Beyond the door she could hear the low sound of the television and knew Jack was still up. And probably still furious with her. What was she going to do?

She couldn’t tell him what she knew. As a kid, she’d believed she somehow caused the tragedies she foresaw. The shame and self-loathing kept her silent. Then in college, she’d done some research on visions and premonitions and realized she was just a type of fortune-teller. Seeing the future didn’t mean she was causing it. But neither did it mean others would understand, if they knew. It didn’t mean they’d accept her, not think she was a freak. It wasn’t a risk she was willing to take.

But now she didn’t know what to think. The albino saw her. He saw her. If she were merely a fortune-teller, merely a seer of the future, that wouldn’t be happening. So, what did that make her visions? What did that make her?

The old fear that she was somehow to blame clenched like a fist in her stomach. The feelings that she was evil rose like bile in her throat.

She couldn’t tell him. She couldn’t tell anyone. But those cop eyes of Jack Hallihan’s saw way too much. He already suspected she knew something. He had an uncanny ability to see right through her lies. He was dangerous. She needed to get away. In the morning, she’d make some calls. She wasn’t a prisoner…yet. But he certainly wasn’t going to let her walk out of here after she’d given herself away with that video.

No, she needed help. The kind one got from friends in high places, which she happened to have, thanks to her skill in the courtroom. She’d rescued the daughter of a D.C. circuit court judge from an abusive marriage just last month. She had little doubt George would put a bug in the right ear and she’d be free of Jack Hallihan before lunch.

Regret pressed down on her with surprising force.

She’d been attracted to him for months. But that mild infatuation was nothing compared to the attraction that had built over the past couple of days, catching fire in his arms tonight. Strangely, her attraction to him was more than physical. When he wasn’t playing cop, he was good company. Fun, sexy.

Her fingers trailed over her lips. And the man could win awards with his kissing. She remembered the way he’d held her, the way he’d pressed her against the sink cabinet until she’d had no doubt of his desire.

A warm rush of longing turned her knees weak and she sank down onto the bed. If only things were different. If only—

Her sight suddenly vanished. Pain split her skull.

Heart lurching with fear, Larsen grabbed her aching head as another vision hit her like a sledgehammer.

She recognized the Old West decor of Tony Jingles, a restaurant on Q Street, not far from the pharmacy where the young intern had been abducted. As before, she watched from above, as if she hovered near the ceiling, wrapped in an unnatural silence.

Dread balled in her stomach.

She didn’t want to see this.

She tried to close her eyes, tried to wake herself up or to shake herself out of the scene, but she remained rooted. Trapped.

The scene below appeared disturbingly normal. The afternoon sun shone through the slats of the window blinds, illuminating a half-empty restaurant. On the television in the corner, the Baltimore Orioles mascot bounded across the field in what appeared to be pregame shenanigans.

A flash of white caught her eye and everything changed.

The albino strode into the restaurant, turning the patrons and wait staff to stone. Forks and glasses dropped onto the tables, food-laden trays crashed silently to the floor.

The only natural movement came from a booth nearby. A middle-aged woman with a round, intelligent face stared around her in disbelief. She opened her mouth as if yelling, then began to shake the two people in the booth with her—a man Larsen presumed was her husband and a pretty young woman, probably her daughter.

The woman looked up to see the albino approaching. Her eyes widened with shock, then turned to fear as her husband’s hands closed around her throat and he began to choke her. The albino motioned to her blank-faced daughter. The girl climbed out of the booth and, like the bridesmaid before her, stood motionless as he raped her in front of her mother’s dying eyes.

With his white hair swirling around his face, his eyes glowing like yellow-green embers, the albino’s head jerked up and he met Larsen’s gaze. Through his song, he smiled malevolently.

And reached for her.

Jack paced his living room, slapping the television remote against his thigh in an agitated, bruising rhythm as the newscaster droned, becoming just one more voice in his head.

Who was she? Ice Queen or siren? Angel or devil?

Winning her trust was a luxury he could no longer afford.

His last doubt that she was involved in this case had evaporated as he’d watched her react to the surveillance video.

His sanity be damned. His first responsibility was to the people of D.C. It was high time he got to the bottom of Larsen Vale’s involvement. Before that bastard committed another murder or assault.

With weighted feet, Jack strode to his bedroom and rapped on the door. “Larsen?” When she didn’t answer, he pounded harder. The door, not fully latched, swung open to reveal a figure huddled on the floor in the sweep of hall light.

His heart lodged in his throat. “Larsen, what happened?”

She stared at nothing, her eyes glassy and filled with horror. He crossed to her in three quick strides and knelt in front of her, searching for sign she’d been injured, but he saw nothing out of the ordinary. No arrow sticking out of her. No blood.

He cupped her face in his hands, his palms encountering the cool clamminess of her skin. “Talk to me, Larsen. What happened?”

Long lashes swept up. Tormented eyes met his gaze and slowly filled with tears. Sobs began to rack her slender body.

“Are you hurt?”

She pressed her lips hard together, but shook her head.

His fear slid away. Keen protectiveness warred with frustration even as he pulled her against him in a move that was at once alien and utterly natural. She fit against him perfectly, her arms sliding around his neck, her face buried against his shoulder.

She belonged to him. In a way he couldn’t describe, he felt it in his bones.

Jack stroked her damp hair as her crying slowly subsided. She wasn’t injured, not physically at least. Whatever tormented her came from within. Was it fear that hounded her? Guilt?

He felt the tension drain out of her as he rubbed her back.

“I need to know what’s going on,” he said quietly. “I can’t help you if I don’t know.”

Too late, he realized she’d cried herself to sleep. Resigned, he lifted her into his arms and carried her to the bed, then lay beside her, his fingers twined with hers.

Blessed silence filled his head, perhaps for the last time, as he gazed at the woman who stirred so many conflicting emotions in him. Come morning he was going to have to break through her defenses to get at the truth. No matter what it took. Even if it meant earning her hatred, and losing his last chance.

Larsen woke to the smell of coffee and the sound of a soft rain pattering against the window. Her arms, which were always on top of the covers when she slept, were buried beneath a sheet tucked up to her chin, as if someone had pulled the sheet over her during the night.

Jack.

She’d woken just before dawn to find her back pressed against his chest, his arm tight around her. She’d felt so safe, so secure, she’d fallen right back to sleep. Something warm and soft moved in her chest. If things were different, if they were different, he might just be a man worth taking a chance on.

But though he might be able to protect her physically, he was, ultimately, a cop who saw too much. And she was a woman with secrets she could never share. Premonitions. Death.

Tony Jingles.

The terrifying memory slammed into her and she struggled from beneath the snug sheet and sat up, heart pounding. The albino would strike again. Another rape. Maybe another death.

She raked her hair back from her face and stared at the plain blue sheet bunched at her knees, her mind spinning. She’d seen her own death at the wedding reception, yet she hadn’t died. For the first time ever, one of her death visions hadn’t come true. Were these visions different from the ones she’d had as a child, or had she simply never believed she could change things, so never before tried?

Oh God, what if she could have saved her mom from that car accident all those years ago? Her scalp began to tingle with the horror of the thought. Don’t. Don’t go there. What was done was done. She couldn’t change the past. But maybe…maybe…she could change the future.

The horror charging through her system slowly changed to excitement. What if she could stop the murder at Tony Jingles? What if she could save that woman and her daughter, and possibly end the albino’s rampage once and for all?

Sudden restless energy shot down her limbs. With a kick of the sheet, she climbed out of bed and began pacing the room. Jack was a cop. He could stop the attack and catch the murderer.

But how could she tell him what she knew without telling him how she knew it? She’d find a way. She had to. For once, just maybe, her death visions could be used for good instead of bringing evil.

Jack poured himself a cup of coffee as he dug his fingers into his scalp, trying to ease the volume in his head. The damned voices were getting louder, as if each day they invited more and more guests into the party.

“Headache?” Larsen said from behind him, entering the kitchen.

He jerked his hand away, nearly spilling the coffee, and turned to face her. She looked soft and delicious this morning, her hair sleep-tousled, her pajamas clinging in all the right places. Blood pooled between his legs as he remembered the feel of her pressed against him during the night. He’d slept. Eventually. But now, with her awake, all he wanted to do was to sweep her up and carry her back to that bed, preferably without those soft, clinging pajamas.

He tore his gaze away from her and shoved the coffee carafe back under the brewer. It was time to play tough cop, not horny fool. But damn, she looked good.

“Do you get the Post?” she asked. Her gaze met his, then darted away with a glimmer of fear. She must know he intended to dig her secrets out of her this morning and he hated that she did. Hated that she feared him. An innocent woman would have nothing to fear.

“It’s in the foyer,” he told her. “The plastic sleeve is wet. It’s been raining since dawn.”

She returned moments later holding the newspaper in one hand and a folded white sheet of paper in the other. “I think you’d better see this.”

At the strained look in her eyes, he set down his mug and reached for the folded sheet. A handwritten note. As his gaze skimmed the bold black letters, the hair rose on the back of his neck.

Tony Jingles. This afternoon. The Dupont Circle Rapist strikes again.

His gaze pinned Larsen. “Where’d you find this?”

“It fell out of the newspaper when I picked it up.”

She was lying. He wasn’t sure how he knew that. The answer wasn’t necessarily in her gaze, which was finally meeting his, nor her erect, self-assured stance. Nor was it in the stubborn, upward thrust of her chin. He simply felt it in his gut. And he’d long ago quit second-guessing his gut. The question was, what was he going to do about it?

He skimmed the note again. Did it matter? Didn’t he have what he needed—a way to catch that son of a bitch? If he still had questions afterward, he’d interrogate her then.

He’d know where to find her. Larsen Vale wasn’t going to make another move unless he said so.

Larsen’s nerves were eating her alive.

She paced Jack’s living room, her sandals clipping over the hardwood floor as she waited for word from the Tony Jingles stakeout. The Orioles game was scheduled to begin in twenty minutes unless they called a rain delay, which was a real possibility given the drizzly skies.

The woman cop Jack had sent to babysit Larsen walked through the living room on one of her quarter-hourly rounds. The woman, Sergeant O’Malley, wasn’t much in the way of company. Short, stocky and unsmiling, she’d relinquished no more than one-word answers when Larsen tried to engage her in conversation when she’d first arrived. When the cop wasn’t making her rounds, she remained firmly by the kitchen door.

Outside, two male cops kept an eye on the house. Larsen hadn’t considered the fact that whoever supposedly put the note in Jack’s paper obviously knew where he lived. Of course, that person had been her, though she could never tell him that. So she cooled her heels in a protective custody with no means of escape short of outside intervention.

It wouldn’t take much to get herself out of here. She was convinced of that. A phone call, maybe two. Heaven knew she’d made enough of them already this morning, apologizing for yesterday and clearing her calendar for the next few days until the police caught the albino and ended this nightmare.

Why was she hesitating? Maybe because if she left now she’d never know what happened. Larsen stared out the front window at the damp, gray afternoon, the trees in front of the row house wilting with the drizzle.

And maybe the problem was Jack himself. She needed to get away from him. She knew that. But it didn’t change the fact that she was drawn to him in a way she hadn’t been to a man, to anyone, in longer than she could remember. But staying here was foolish. She was playing with fire.

With a sigh, she turned from the window as the clock on the chest in the corner chimed two o’clock. The Orioles game was about to begin. Her heart gave a nervous kick. If she was right about the murder happening pregame, it would happen soon.

Larsen turned on the television and stared as the Orioles mascot ran onto the field exactly as she’d seen him in the premonition. Chills raced over her skin, standing her hair on end. The murder had begun. The memory of that vision, that nightmare, replayed in her head like a horror film—the restaurant, the albino, every patron hypnotized but one. And she’d sent Jack and the D.C. police into the thick of it. With guns.

A sudden, horrible thought struck her. What if he controlled them, too?

Oh, God, what have I done?

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