Chapter Nineteen
“You can live here, if you want.”
Nyrene looked at the small cottage and fought the urge to laugh with not a little hysteria.
Her entire life had been upended.
She had gone from being a boring nurse who longed to be a romance writer to a psychic who longed to be a boring nurse, and Taige had just offered her a chance to be a nurse again.
I need somebody with your skills. It’s not like I can put an ad in the paper. Not everybody knows this shit exists, Nyrene. We need to keep it that way.
She was going to have a chance to live rent free and Taige had also mentioned sending her back to school for her RN and paying for accelerated courses in trauma—and business management.
When Nyrene asked why, Taige had grimaced. I need somebody who can help with administration shit. You seem like a good fit.
But Nyrene didn’t need classes in that. She’d been helping run Dr. Evil’s office for almost two years, ever since he’d chased off the last office manager. She and Michelle had been doing the job together, so it was entirely likely she could fumble her way through whatever it was that Taige needed.
“Will you tell me more about what happened that day?” she asked, turning to look at the woman who’d be her boss. “Will you teach me to control…this?”
She waved a hand at her head.
“You were there,” Taige said softly. “What do you think happened? And I already promised to help teach you. That’s already a given.”
“I don’t know what happened with that woman. Who she is. Why she was there.”
“I can’t tell you much about her, but she’s…trustworthy,” Taige said, leaning her hips against the bed. Her brow arched up and she coolly said, “You’re not law enforcement material, Nyrene. You’re not a cop. You’re not…one of us. But that doesn’t mean you can’t use this gift of yours to help people. I can show you how. I’m offering you that chance.”
Nyrene knew that.
She also knew that her old life was gone.
There was no way to go back to it, either.
Still, she thought about Dev, thought about the hint of a promise she’d thought was maybe growing between them.
“I’m a danger out there right now, aren’t I?” she whispered.
“You could be,” Taige allowed. “I won’t stop you from living your life, but it’s possible you could bring harm to those around you, especially if you slip and your shields fall.”
Her decision was already made.
The fact that Taige had just told her she wouldn’t be forced was just one more brick in the wall.
“I want to be able to make a difference,” she said, her voice hollow.
“Honey…” Taige came up and rested a hand on her shoulder. “You already have.”
* * * * *
Dev came up short at the sight of the woman leaning against the back of the rental. His personal vehicle had been impounded and Amana was already taking care of getting it turned back over to him, but for now, he’d need the rental for at least one more night.
He hoped Crawford had worked things out on that end before he’d up and disappeared a couple of hours ago.
And shit, had he disappeared.
Dev had gotten a text from him around six, letting him know that everything had gone down smoothly and Taige had Nyrene tucked away for the night. Crawford, according to the text, had to report back to his own boss, but it had been mighty nice working with him.
Dev had been in the middle of talking to the captain so he hadn’t been able to answer right away. It took him all of ten minutes to get some room to answer and in those ten minutes, the number Joss had texted him from had been disconnected.
What the fuck had he meant, Taige had Nyrene tucked away for the night?
Where the hell was Nyrene?
The first thing he planned to do when he left the station was to go to Nyrene’s house, although he knew he wouldn’t find her there. And his plans didn’t change even when he was kept at the Clary Police Department until nearly midnight.
He was going to track down Nyrene, come hell or high water.
The sight of the long, lean woman standing with one hip propped against his car sort of changed the equation though. Having Taige standing less than ten feet away meant he might not have to track down Nyrene.
“Where the hell is Nyrene?” he demanded, closing the distance between himself and the quiet psychic with strange gray eyes.
Taige lifted a brow. “Hello, Deverall. Good to see you. How did everything go down? Man, it’s been a crazy few days, huh?” She spoke in a laconic drawl laced with humor.
He had no time for it. “Where is she?”
“She’s at my facility,” Taige said calmly. “She wants to learn. I can’t teach her anywhere else, and she needs hands-on training. This isn’t the kind of thing that comes with an online course and a syllabus.” Taige hitched up one shoulder in a shrug. “Besides, while we eliminated the one group that was trailing after her, there’s no guarantee more won’t come looking. Once she’s fully trained, she’ll be safer, but we need to track down the people who put the alert on her for her to be really safe.”
“You’re…” Ben narrowed his eyes. “It almost sounds like she’s there under watch.”
“No.” Taige smiled serenely. “We’re a private facility. She’s not being detained or anything else. She wants to be there.” She shoved off his car and moved to stand in front of him. “Of course, if you don’t trust me, you’re welcome to come and talk to her for yourself.”
In response, Dev pulled out his keys. “I’ll follow you.”
She made a face. “Well, about that… I think it will work better if you ride with me. See, my car is clean and I really don’t feel like crawling around on the ground checking yours for bugs.”
He wanted to argue but logic sort of insisted she had a point.
Plus, the longer he argued, the longer it would take to see Nyrene.
And wasn’t it just a bitch that suddenly he was the one who was going to be just along for the ride?
Maybe it was karma paying him a visit.
“Fine,” he said, moving to the car parked next to his. “I’m assuming this is yours.”
“Man, you must be psychic,” she said lightly.
* * * * *
He’d planned to be awake at first light and hunt down Nyrene. By the time they’d gotten to Taige’s mysterious facility, it had been past four a.m.
He’d assumed he’d have to go to a hotel, but Taige had told him there were a few guest rooms in the facility and she’d put him up for the night.
His head had no sooner hit the pillow than he was out.
It was the first deep sleep he’d had in months.
When the bright light shining in through the window finally managed to wake him, he jackknifed into an upright position, looking around, disoriented.
His limbs weighed down on him like his muscles had turned to concrete overnight but he knew the real culprit was his own exhaustion. He’d been running on fumes and adrenaline for so long, and at some point last night his gut had decided he was safe, so instinct had shut down and the adrenaline fueling him had just crashed.
He felt like shit.
Fumbling his way out of the bed, he half-walked, half-stumbled into the bathroom he remembered passing on his way to the bed last night.
Once he’d taken care of urgent matters, he splashed water on his face, then made judicious use of the wrapped toothbrush.
He wasn’t feeling much more human even after he’d taken care of basic hygiene needs.
But he wasn’t waiting around to see Nyrene, either.
Scrubbing his hands over his face, he made his way to the door and opened it.
Immediately, he came up short.
There was a slim teenage boy waiting there.
He caught sight of Dev and flashed him a smile. “Hello, I’m Alex,” the boy said, the faintest hint of an accent underscoring the words. “Ms. Morgan wanted me to wait for you and bring you to her.”
“I—” He started to say I don’t want to see Taige, but decided it wasn’t ideal to have that discussion with a kid. He’d just have it with Taige instead. Falling into step with the boy, he studied his surroundings. He hadn’t known what to expect from Taige’s facility, but it seemed an awful lot like a home. “Do you…um…”
“This is my home. Sort of,” Alex said cheerfully.
“What’s that mean—sort of?”
“I’m being trained.” The boy shrugged, as if he was discussing the weather. “My uncle and his wife are with the Bureau, but that’s not really any place I can get training. Ms. Morgan, though? She’s good at helping with that. Especially after…” His words trailed to an end and he said, “We’re here.”
Dev wanted to ask, After what?
But Alex had already opened the door to the room.
Music flowed out. It was that new-age sort of stuff—instrumental, all harps and fluid, liquid sounds that went perfectly with the people on the floor in front of him. As he watched, they went from standing with their arms overhead to dropping down with their hands brushing the floor.
His eyes locked in on one curvy ass.
How pathetic was it that he knew from one look that he was staring at Nyrene’s excellent butt?
He didn’t know.
The boy next to him cleared his throat.
Dev shot a look at him and saw that the boy’s golden cheeks were flushed a ruddy shade and he was making a study of the very plain ceiling overhead.
“Shit, kid,” Dev said. “If you don’t want to know what I’m thinking, try harder not to hear it. I can’t help it.”
“So I noticed,” the boy responded with a snicker.
The sound of their voices carried and somebody from the front called for a break.
Nyrene straightened and turned around, face flushed pink as her gaze collided with his.
“Ben,” she murmured.
And even though it seemed like twenty feet separated them, he heard that murmur as though she’d whispered it right into his ear.