Their laughter died down to nothing, leaving the hush of the night only to be disturbed by the local cops and EMTs and the residents standing around on the street in their nightclothes. It felt like poison on Laura’s lips, now the impulse was gone. The community around them was shattered. Three young women dead, and one no doubt traumatized for life – and Laura herself had ended a life. Even if it was a dangerous and violent one, it had been a life.

  It was never going to be enough, no matter how many cases they solved. There would always be men like Robert out there. Men who would kill and kill again. The heaviness of it sat on her shoulders, a burden that would never be removed no matter how hard she worked.

  Laura looked at Eric, and actually saw him for what was probably the first time. A young, eager, enthusiastic agent. A man who wanted to make a difference and had signed up to risk his life for it. Because that was how almost all of them were, at the start. Thinking they were going to save the world and all the people in it, and be a hero, and maybe have a biopic made about them one day. Until they got put into a situation like this and had to actually risk themselves, which was the point when most agents realized they could admit to themselves they were actually in it for the money and the glory.

  But Special Agent Eric Won had made it through that moment, and he’d done so as a hero. Coming to her aid, walking right into danger, and then fighting off a serial killer to save her. She’d saved him, in turn, but that didn’t negate what he had done. She owed him her life. If it wasn’t for his distraction, she never would have been able to get free.

  For that reason, at least, she figured she could drop her ridiculous grudge against him for the simple crime of not being Nathaniel Lavoie.

  “Thank you,” she said. “For coming when I asked you to. If you hadn’t arrived, I’m sure it would have ended much more badly.”

  Eric nodded, but there was a humbleness in it. “I’m just sorry I didn’t pick up the phone when you rang,” he said. “I was off chasing down a wild goose, as it turned out.”

  Laura sighed, mentally telling herself she had to give him at least some praise. “At least you were chasing,” she said. “I can see how much this job means to you. How seriously you take it.”

  “I’ve just been a bit… overzealous, haven’t I?” he said, scratching the back of his neck with a sheepish expression. The sling holding his other arm in place, to stop him from aggravating his shoulder injury, shifted as he did so. He looked rather worse for wear, with a splint on his nose and bruising around one of his eyes, underscored by an angry-looking cut on his lip. “I’m sorry about that.”

  Laura chuckled lightly, shaking her head. There was a kind of odd feeling in the back of her skull, where Robert had hit her. Like pain should be there, but she just couldn’t feel it thanks to whatever they had given her. The EMTs had checked her over and told her she was fine for now, but that she had to rest as much as possible and go in for a CT scan before flying home. She wasn’t looking forward to the trip to the hospital. She just wanted to be at home, curled up in bed.

  “You’ll be alright,” she said. “You’ll learn the ropes and make a good agent of yourself. And now you’ve got an impressive war wound to show off if anyone ever questions your investigative style.”

  “I hope I’ll learn some more of them from you,” Eric said, with a look of affection that was wholly unexpected. It was like he was looking up to her – as a possible friend, maybe a mentor. But then, going through something like this could bond two people. Laura supposed she couldn’t be surprised by it. “I’d like to be partnered up again sometime in the future. I get the feeling there’s a lot more you could have taught me this time, too, if I’d been listening more.”

  Laura smiled, giving a modest wave of her hand. “At least you’ve figured that much out,” she joked.

  “I’ve just heard from the team at the hospital!” Detective Waters had bounded up beside Eric, making Laura turn and squint at him. She was so tired. And she probably should have gone for that scan and everything else earlier, but she’d wanted to stay and make sure everything was wrapped up here. “Cherry Mackintosh is awake and well. She’s just recovering from the after-effects of the chloroform, and she should be back to normal completely. No lasting injuries.”

  “That’s excellent news,” Laura said, resting her heavy head against the inner wall of the ambulance. “Thank you, Detective Waters.”

  “Thank you,” he said, fervently. “I don’t know what we would have done if you guys hadn’t come out here.”

  “Just doing our jobs,” Laura told him, smiling faintly. She could really do with a rest.

  “I think we should probably get to the hospital, now,” Eric said, casting around for the EMT who had stayed with them to check over their wounds in person. “Don’t you think so, Agent Frost?”

  “Sure,” Laura agreed breezily, letting the flow happen around her. She was sure it wouldn’t hurt if she just closed her eyes for a few minutes.

  ***

  Laura took another sip of her coffee, nodding into it. The chintzy music playing in the restaurant felt like it was wrapping around her, like a blanket, soothing away the awfulness of the story she’d just told.

  “Seriously?” Chris said, shaking his head in wonder again. “I can’t believe it. You were only gone for a few days. Your life is so…”

  “Please don’t say exciting,” Laura grimaced. A week of bed rest after coming home from California had been the very opposite of exciting. She’d even had to skip her weekend with Lacey, much to her dismay. But at least it had given her the chance to think about a few priorities – and reorganizing this date with Chris had been one of them.

  “I was going to say eventful,” he replied, raising his eyebrows. “You could have died. I know first-hand how serious head injuries can be.”

  “I thought you were a cardiologist,” Laura teased.

  Chris rolled his eyes playfully. “I still had to do rounds when I was a resident,” he said.

  “Do you remember that far back?” Laura retorted, immediately wondering if she’d pushed it too far. But he only laughed incredulously, setting his own coffee cup back in the saucer and shaking his head at her.

  “Are you calling me old, Ms. Frost?” he asked. “I don’t know if you got that, but that’s a doctor thing – I just called you ‘Ms.’ because you’re too also old for me to assume you’re a Miss.”

  “How cutting,” Laura said, clutching her heart in mock pain with a grin that didn’t quite match. She was glad he could give as good as he got. She’d already worked out that Chris was only a handful of years older than her but being able to joke around together was important. Especially if this first date was going to lead to a second.

  And it showed her something else, too. That he wasn’t his brother. She’d already known that, yes, but any lingering doubts she had were getting smaller and smaller the more time they spent together. He looked nothing like John, he spoke nothing like John, and he didn’t act like him, either. John would probably have cracked a wine glass in his fingers at being disrespected like that. Even if he had restrained himself under public scrutiny, Laura was sure that there would have been a flash of rage in his eyes, a warning for later when they were alone.

  But Chris just laughed and smiled along with her, and Laura felt that reassurance settling into her chest more and more with each moment.

  “Here’s your check, sir, madam.” That was the waiter, who had reappeared beside their table with the kind of fleet-footed silence that you expected in a nice restaurant like this. A restaurant which Laura still felt was far, far too nice for someone like her to be sitting in – but Chris had insisted that it was his treat. She wasn’t sure how to feel about the possibility of getting used to that.

  Chris turned to the waiter with a smile. “Thank you.” When the man was gone, Chris picked up his coffee cup again and studied it briefly. “Though it will be a shame to get out of here. I’ve had a good night.”

  “So have I,” Laura admitted. She smiled as their eyes met, then found herself actually blushing a little. Like she was a schoolgirl or something. She hadn’t met eyes with a man and blushed like that since back when she started dating Marcus.

  Given how that marriage had worked out, she wasn’t sure if that was a good sign or not.

  “We should do it again,” Chris said, with a kind of put-on casual air that was transparent, showing his nervousness underneath. “Next week, maybe, after the girls have their play date on the weekend.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Laura said, finishing her coffee and setting it down. “That is, assuming there isn’t another killer out there who wants to ruin my social life for the second time in a row.”

  Chris laughed, but then his expression fell. “Was that serious?”

  “Only slightly,” Laura said, shaking her head ruefully. “Unfortunately, it’s a reality of the job. I do sometimes have to leave at the drop of a hat, and I can be gone for days or even weeks in some cases.”

  “Well,” Chris sighed, tilting his head in a kind of shrug. “I guess, having a doctor’s schedule, I can’t really complain about that.”

  “No,” Laura smiled. “You can’t.”

  “I’ll walk you to your car,” Chris said, then paused. “Unless you think that’s a bit too old-fashioned?”

  “Not too old-fashioned at all,” Laura said, even though it was a little bit – because she also thought it was a sweet gesture, and maybe it was about time she spent time with a man who wanted to treat her like a lady. She stood, picking up her purse while he waited for her to settle it on her shoulder. He stepped aside to let her lead the way, even though he was in front of her. She walked through the restaurant and outside with the feeling of him behind her all the way, like a physical presence even though he wasn’t touching her. It sent an itch down her spine that she badly wanted him to scratch.

  Out by the car, they paused and lingered, Laura crossing her high heels on the parking lot tarmac and feeling a little bit lost, a teenager again. Chris put his hands in his pockets and looked up at the sky as if to say what a lovely clear night it was, and sighed, and then they looked at each other and burst out laughing.

  “I don’t know why I’m being so awkward,” he confessed. “You’ll have a good few days until I see you again, won’t you? And drive safe. Especially with that head injury of yours.”

  “You know I’m all better now,” Laura said, pleased to hear that he cared all the same. She only winced when she took out her car keys, grazing the side of her still-bandaged hand on the inside of her coat pocket.

  “All the same,” Chris said, then hesitated, and then seemed to come to a decision. He stepped forward, one hand resting on the side of her shoulder, and kissed her on the cheek. “Be careful.”

  “I will,” Laura breathed, and he hadn’t stepped back yet, so when their eyes met, they did so across a much shorter space than usual. And when they did meet, it was clear, very clear to both of them that a kiss on the cheek was not going to be enough.

  Laura tilted her head up and looked at his mouth, and he didn’t need hinting twice. Chris closed the distance between them a second time, their lips meeting and sending a thrill of heat through her despite the winter cold.

  When he pulled back and stepped away again, they smiled and chuckled at each other, and he made a gesture back towards where he’d parked his own car. “Well, I’ll…”

  “Sunday,” Laura said, rescuing him with a word they could both agree on.

  “Sunday,” he agreed, grinning at her one last time before moving away.

  Laura got into the car and sat for a moment, smiling stupidly out at the windscreen – or rather, not really at anything at all. She giggled to herself, then covered her mouth in a kind of pleased shock at the sound she’d made.

  Was this really her? A year ago, she’d been so broken. She’d been divorced, unable to see her own daughter, and only really friendly with the inside of a bottle. She’d dragged herself home every night only to lose herself in oblivion so she could forget, and then in the day she’d had to drag herself hungover to work and try to make a difference even though she felt like she was the most useless woman in the entire world. And the visions would come, and then she’d want a drink again before midday, and Nate had to put up with her being snappy and slow until she did.

  It had almost put an end to their partnership back then, she remembered. Before she’d managed to start pulling herself up out of the gutter, one lost sobriety chip at a time. He’d stuck by her, though.

  But apparently, this time was different.

  Laura reached inside her purse to dig out her cell phone, more out of habit that anything else. She knew by now that she wasn’t going to see a message or a missed call from Nate. If he was going to call, it would have been when she was recovering from her head injury. But he hadn’t even messaged to wish her well. That was how she knew just how completely serious he still was about never working together again.

  Never being friends again.

  The thought put a bit of a dampener on the elation that kiss had produced.

  She scrolled through the messages on her phone to the last one she’d sent him, before she’d even gone on the last case. It was still unanswered, even though it was marked as read.

  And a spike of pain in her head for a moment had her panicking, thinking that she must have triggered her concussion again – but then she realized it was in her temple, not in the back of her skull – the same place that her visions always –

  She was watching him fall again. Again. Nate’s face was contorted in fear, in absolute horror, and she knew that it was because he was looking down at the ground and how far away it was and knowing he was about to die. His arms and legs flailed for purchase against the air. Against nothing. The vision behind him was black, empty, a swirling void of nothing, giving her no clues.

  Not the where. Not the when. Not the who or the why.

  Only Nate, falling, and every detail of it was so clear she found herself holding her breath, even though she didn’t need to breathe here in this vision space, even though she was a nothing presence herself, an incorporeal form. He was falling, and she could hear the sound of the wind whistling through his clothes as he passed, and a desperate scream ripping from his mouth, and all she wanted to do was reach out and catch him.

  All she wanted was for him to be safe. But he was falling, falling, falling…

  Laura blinked her eyes open on the cell phone, on the message that he hadn’t replied to. It was so clear. It was stronger again than the last time. The sound she’d heard, the way he had cried out – even though she’d gained no detail, it had been so strong.

  And her head – her head was pounding.

  The stronger the headache, the more immediately the vision was going to come true, at least in all of her experience so far. But the concussion – that was new. What if it was skewing the pain? Making it worse?

  Was Nate in danger now – like right now?

  Or was she getting a false signal?

  There was no point in trying to answer the question. It didn’t matter. Laura put the car into drive and pulled out of the parking lot, checking the GPS for the route. She had to go to him. She had no choice. If there was even the slightest chance he was in danger, she couldn’t leave him to deal with it on his own.

  She had no idea where the place she had seen him falling from was, but if she could get to his house, there was a chance he was still there. That she could stop him before he went to whatever location would hold all that danger for him. And in the meantime, she hit dial on Rondelle’s number, waiting for it to connect, needing desperately to ask him if Nate was somewhere on a case.

  She’d thought that the ebb and wane of the shadow of death over him every time she thought of telling him about her visions meant that the knowledge of them would keep him safe. But it wasn’t true. He was in more danger now than he ever had been before.

  There was only one way she could interpret that. Every time she’d thought about telling him the truth, she’d thought about healing the growing rift between them. But she’d left it so late, and then he hadn’t been able to deal with it. And the rift had widened all the same.

  What the visions were telling her was clear.

  Nate was in mortal danger – so long as she was not with him.

  Even if he didn’t want to see her now, even if he never wanted to see her again, she wasn’t going to let this happen. She was going to go to him. She had to.

  Even if he hated her for the rest of his life, she had to be with him right now – so that he would have a rest of his life to live.

  NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER!

  ALREADY TAKEN

  (A Laura Frost FBI Suspense Thriller—Book 6)

  When victims of a serial killer turn up with a creepy signature left on their foreheads—an ornate, wax seal—FBI Special Agent Laura Frost is plagued with visions of people from past centuries. Is her psychic vision misleading her? Or leading her right into the arms of a killer?

  “A MASTERPIECE OF THRILLER AND MYSTERY. Blake Pierce did a magnificent job developing characters with a psychological side so well described that we feel inside their minds, follow their fears and cheer for their success. Full of twists, this book will keep you awake until the turn of the last page.”

  --Books and Movie Reviews, Roberto Mattos (re Once Gone)

  ALREADY TAKEN (A Laura Frost FBI Suspense Thriller) is book #6 in a long-anticipated new series by #1 bestseller and USA Today bestselling author Blake Pierce, whose bestseller Once Gone (a free download) has received over 1,000 five star reviews. The Laura Frost series begins with ALREADY GONE (Book #1).

  FBI Special Agent and single mom Laura Frost, 35, is haunted by her talent: a psychic ability which she refuses to face and which she keeps secret from her colleagues. While Laura gets obscured glimpses of what the killer may do next, she must decide whether to trust her confusing gift—or her investigative work.

 

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