Primal Instinct

“So you’re a psychic? Or an empath or something like that?” Harrington asked gently, although his doubts crept into his tone.

“No, not really. I don’t have superpowers. I can’t read people’s minds or anything. I don’t feel what other people are feeling. Like, if you were sad right now, I wouldn’t feel your sadness. Really it’s just evil I feel, malicious intent. It’s kind of like they draw me into their thoughts.”

“Why? How?” Conner didn’t attempt to hide his incredulity at all.

“I don’t know. Some people are terribly sensitive to heat or light. My brain is just sensitive to negative energy.”

“Do you feel it about everybody?”

“No. Most people aren’t menacing. They can be catty and rude, but usually it’s due to their own insecurity rather than actual malevolence.”

“So how do you ‘sense’ it? Do you see images? Have visions?” Seth asked.

“Hear little voices in your head?” Conner tagged on.

Adrienne ignored Conner. “The closer I am to the person—in terms of physical proximity—the clearer I can sense everything. From far away it’s like seeing and hearing through multiple panes of glass—difficult to make out the details. If I am close, it’s like being inside someone’s head. I can see and hear everything.”

Conner didn’t believe any of this. “So what if I want you to demonstrate your ‘powers’? Can you do that?”

Adrienne’s irritated gaze swung around to Conner again. “Not really.”

“Well, that’s pretty convenient, isn’t it?” Conner snapped.

More glaring was shared between Adrienne and Conner. “It’s not a dog and pony show, Special Agent Jackass.”

That got a snicker from Seth.

“And no offense, but I don’t owe you anything.”

Conner stood up before he was even aware of what he was doing and took a step toward Adrienne. What was it about this one tiny woman that made him feel like he was about to jump out of his own skin?

Fortunately Seth waylaid him before he had a chance to... Conner had no idea what he would’ve done when he reached Adrienne.

“Adrienne, can you excuse us for a moment? I need to discuss a text I just received with Agent Perigo out on the porch.”

Seth grabbed Conner’s arm—hard—and began pushing him through the small living room and out the front door.

“What?” Conner barked at him the moment the door was closed.

“You’re asking me what?” There was obviously no text Seth wanted to show him. “I was just wondering if you wanted to arrest her. Maybe you’ve got her fingered as our killer.”

“What?” Conner felt like a parrot.

“Well, the way you’ve been treating her, Agent Jackass, is like she’s a perp, or at the very least some sort of hostile witness.”

Conner rubbed his hand over his face wearily. Everything Harrington was saying was true.

“I don’t know what the hell’s the matter with me, Seth.”

“I don’t know either, but you’ve got to get yourself under control. She’s not the bad guy here.”

“I know.”

“You think this is a waste of time, Con, I get that. And to be honest, I don’t know what to believe, either. But if what she’s saying—what Chief Kelly said—is true...”

“Then it could really be the break in the case we’ve been hoping for,” Conner finished for him.

“You don’t like her, for whatever reason. Fine. But let’s see what she can do.”

Conner almost corrected Seth but stopped. It wasn’t that he didn’t like Adrienne Jeffries—he hadn’t made up his mind whether he liked the little spitfire or not. But liking or disliking didn’t really seem to matter. He was affected by her. And it made him damn uncomfortable.

“All right, I’ll behave.”

Seth looked relieved. “Good.”

They walked back through the door and into the kitchen.

“Saving the world one text at a time?” Adrienne asked with one brow cocked. She had taken a seat at the table in the chair farthest away from where Conner had been sitting.

“Something like that.” Seth smiled.

Conner didn’t say anything. He figured opening his mouth would just get him in trouble.

“You two must be on some pretty big case for the FBI to put you at my doorstep after all these years.”

“We are. It’s gruesome,” Seth informed her.

“And you were told I could help.”

Both men nodded.

Adrienne continued. “And when they sent you out here to bring me back, did they warn you I would tell you to go screw yourselves?”

Chapter Three

Adrienne could not believe it was all happening again.

She would not let the FBI just walk in and take over her life. She was older now, wiser. And she knew the toll using her gift to help the FBI would take. She had lived through it before.

Barely.

She knew Special Agent Friendly and his sidekick Special Agent Hot-But-Annoying sitting at her kitchen table really had no idea what her gifts were or what her life had been like ten years ago when she had worked for the Bureau.

Worked. Adrienne barely restrained a bark of laughter. More like duped and manipulated.

She knew Agent Hot, excuse me, Agent Perigo was particularly skeptical. Adrienne wasn’t offended by that. But there was something about him that made her slightly crazy. She had spent the past twenty minutes itching to slap the alternating smug and hostile looks off his face. Either that or jump his bones.

Adrienne had been downright shocked when she had returned Ruby Tuesday to the barn and found the two men standing there with Vincent. Whenever someone unfamiliar was around, Adrienne could always sense it.