Huntington Memorial Hospital
Pasadena, California
Braxton Valentine had been rushed to the nearest trauma hospital that had a helipad, flown by Mike D’Antoni in the Phoenix helo. He’d been shot in the shoulder and had a knife slash to his stomach that looked nasty. The SWAT crew had a medic to administer to Brax’s wounds on the spot and Mike scrounged blankets to cover his naked body for the flight.
If anyone knew what he’d endured, it had been Mia. He had reached out to her and let her ‘feel’ everything.
Mia and Faith had flown with an unconscious Valentine and stayed with him until he was out of surgery and stable.
Days later, when he could receive visitors, Mia came alone on a mission supported by her team in absentia. She had dressed in her official Phoenix uniform, something purely for Valentine’s benefit—for optics. Dark gray slacks and a black bomber jacket with the Phoenix logo on the sleeve. At a quick glance, she might’ve looked like law enforcement.
Mia stared out the window of his private room until she heard him stir in his hospital bed. When she turned her head, he blinked his eyes open and she waited for him to focus.
“You’re Mia. You were at Raine’s funeral,” he said, with his voice raspy and weak.
Mia had only mentioned her name in the telepathic message she’d sent to him at the safe house. She had no more doubts of his abilities.
“You were in my head, so we’re even.”
Valentine narrowed his eyes at her.
“Who are you people?”
Mia saw him glance at her jacket with a puzzled expression. He’d noticed the embroidered NODT emblem on her sleeve.
“What’s NODT?”
“It’s top secret, need to know stuff.”
In truth, the letters were an inside joke to the Phoenix Agency, contrived by Mike D’Antoni. NODT meant Not One Damned Thing.
Mia settled into the comfortable silence between them, allowing his mind to clear enough to ask questions she knew he would have. If she rushed him, he might not register what she needed him to hear.
“Why am I not under arrest? I’m not under the protection of my former employer anymore. I killed people to get to Mateo.” He raised his chin and didn’t wait for her answer. “If you’re one of those acronym agencies, you took De La Cruz and you’ll make all of this go away for your own agenda. Raine will have died for nothing.”
Mia let him get angry without pushing back. The guy needed to vent.
“Admit it,” he insisted. “You used me to get to De La Cruz.”
When she didn’t answer, Valentine raised his voice and spoke slowly as if she were hard of hearing.
“Your people shot me.”
No one from the Phoenix Agency had shot Brax. The shooter had come from the SWAT contingent, but she would never reveal that.
“We saved your life, which didn’t seem to matter to you at the time.”
He didn’t have an argument for that. Score one for her.
She thought about what happened the night he was shot. After Mia had seen Mateo De La Cruz hauled away in handcuffs by the SWAT team, the man’s resemblance to his twin had been uncanny. Mateo had been the one on the train who had killed Raine in cold blood, using a suppressed weapon that he’d kept hidden. The memories she had filed away in her mind brought new details she hadn’t seen at first.
Brax and Raine never stood a chance, but unless Brax cooperated and shed light on everything that had happened between the crime boss and the covert mission where his brother died, it would mean he couldn’t let his guard down to trust anyone.
After everything he had allowed her to see—the personal, intimate things between him and Raine—Mia had hoped for more.
“What kind of man are you, Valentine?” she demanded. “Tell me.”
He rolled his eyes and heaved a sigh. Stubborn. When his jaw muscles flexed, Mia knew he needed prompting.
“Let me tell you what I know. You’re a man driven to protect innocent lives. You did it on the train. I was there. I saw what you did and how you did it. You assessed the situation and you didn’t hesitate.”
When he shut his eyes, Mia had no trouble imagining his thoughts had turned to losing Raine. Guilt would always be an insidious enemy for him.
“You made an impossible decision—the right decision—to save the lives of strangers, because that’s the kind of man you are. You saved me. I owe you my life, Brax…and forty-seven other people are alive today because you put your life on the line. You risked everything to make a difference.”
She’d lost him. Mia saw it in his eyes. She had to get his attention.
“But you failed to protect Raine, the most important person in your life.”
In that moment, in the stark stillness of the hospital room, she sensed his utter powerlessness and his hurt at hearing the truth from someone else. She had weaponized his own personal feelings, after hearing him confess to the Garretts over the bug, and used his guilt against him.
Mia hated saying those words to him. It tore at her gut and she would never forget the look in his eyes. She didn’t need to be a psychic to understand his regret. She had to show him another way to deal with what happened to him, besides wallowing in his misery.
“Go on. Lie to me.” Mia edged toward his bed. “Tell me you didn’t feel that way.”
Valentine dropped his chin and refused to look her in the eye.
“That’s how I still feel.”
Time for more tough love. Mia placed a hand on his bed rail and stared at him.
Mateo had killed Raine, but the El Paso police didn’t have enough to convict him. Authorities hadn’t pressed charges for the assault on the train. Mateo’s hit men were dead and no one had seen a third shooter.
They now had enough to put him away for what he’d done to Valentine—leverage to get the man to cooperate—but too many top secret government agencies wanted more and Mateo De La Cruz wouldn’t be easy to flip.
It was one of the many reasons she had come to see him today.
“We were hunting De La Cruz before you came into the picture,” she said. “For national security reasons, we had to take him alive. Thanks to you, we have a chance at taking down his whole operation. You can still make a difference.”
Valentine glanced up, confused.
“Wait, are you recruiting me? Because if I ever see that son of a bitch again, you will have to kill me to stop what I intend to do to him.” He glared at her. “What if I say no?”
Mia shrugged, pretending she didn’t care, when nothing could be further from the truth.
“Then you’re right. None of this ever happened and Raine died for nothing. You can go back to your life…whatever that will be.”
Mia reached into her pocket, pulled out a card with cryptic contact information on it, and tossed it on his blanket.
“If you change your mind, call this number.”
He reached for the card and stared at it before Mia turned toward the door, but something kept her from walking out.
Valentine had planted something in her. In the end it may have saved his life, but she didn't understand what images he'd sent, considering his strength to block her. Why had he let her see such intimacy between him & Raine? She had to know.
"We know about your gift.” She shook her head. “Correct that. I know about your psychic abilities more than the others.”
“Others?”
She ignored his curiosity.
“I understood the need for your mind to reach out...even when you didn't want our help. You were in trouble and I was your backup plan, but why did you let me see your...personal, intimate moments with her?"
Valentine hesitated long enough for her to wonder if he would answer at all. He stared at the wedding band on his finger, avoiding her eyes.
"I didn't want my love for her to die with me. I wanted you to know."
Mia fought the emotion that tightened her throat, but when tears welled in her eyes, she let them trail down her cheeks and didn’t wipe them away.
"I can see I trusted the right person." With misty eyes, he smiled.
Mia walked out of his hospital room, still feeling the connection Valentine had entrusted with her. He hadn’t severed the bond they had and she took that as a hopeful sign.
When she got to the parking garage, Mia received a call she knew would come.
“Did he say yes?”
Mia recognized the low, throaty voice of Aunt Vivi Alderson, a powerful psychic and founder of the Lotus Circle.
“No, but he didn’t say no either. I gave him a number to call.”
“Leave everything to me and my circle, Mia. Braxton Valentine is a wild mustang that needs to be broken—and I have just the woman to do it. Trust me, honey. That man doesn’t stand a chance.”
“You act as if you know for a fact he’ll make the call.”
“What kind of psychic would I be if I didn’t know that, honey?”
Mia smiled as she ended the call.
Whatever Valentine had learned from his nomadic and mysterious mother—whether she’d been mentally unstable or a misunderstood psychic wonder—would be put to the test.
Aunt Vivi and the Lotus Circle had Braxton Valentine in their sights.
Valentine: In the Crosshairs - Book 2 of 2
Coming Feb 2018