The Departed Read Free

hardest.
    “What happens to me now?” Tawny stared at her, her gaze sobering.
    “That’s not so easy to answer, Tawny. What do you think happens?”
    Tawny just smiled.
    And as easy as that, she faded away.
    Once Tawny was gone, Dez turned and faced the rest of the team.
    Her gaze locked on Taylor’s.
    He lifted a golden brow.
    She nodded.
    That was all he needed. Without a word from her, he turned away and the team sprang into action.
    And just like that, Dez’s job was done and she was relegated to the sidelines.
    Good thing for her she’d brought a book.
    She knew Taylor wouldn’t be leaving here anytime soon.

CHAPTER TWO
    “YOU’RE not supposed to be here,” Taylor snapped, his voice flat and cold.
    Dez ignored him, staring at the house with a rapt expression.
    The voices…they called to her. Their call was impossible to ignore. The whispers were like a siren’s song in her head. Responding to Taylor’s blunt statement was pointless, especially since she couldn’t explain why she was here. She just knew she had to be here.
    She hadn’t been notified and that meant nobody thought her skills were required. If Taylor wanted her here, he would most definitely have called her.
    After all, she lived just a little outside of Williamsburg. It wouldn’t take her any time to get to the small, upscale subdivision where all hell was currently breaking loose. It made her gut hurt to think about the hell happening inside this posh, designer neighborhood. Some people thought bad shit didn’t happen in places like this.
    Dez knew better.
    “There’s a child in there,” she said quietly.
    “No, there’s not.” It was Colby Mathis, one of Jones’s bloodhounds. Under most circumstances, she would have listened to him, agreed with him. She liked the guy, respected him, and she knew he knew how to do his job. He was the hard-core psychic and she was the one who talked to ghosts.
    But he was wrong this time.
    Because there was a ghost standing at the door of the house, staring at Dez with desperate eyes, her mouth open in a silent scream.
    “He’s got a child in there, Taylor, and if you all move on him like you’re planning, he’s going to kill her,” Dez said, her voice strained.
    Colby swore. “We don’t have time for this, Jones. The fucker’s slipped away from us before—he’s not doing it again.”
    Taylor looked from Colby to Dez, and Dez stared into Taylor’s eyes.
    “Colby, give me one minute.”
    Taylor saw the frustration simmer in the other man’s eyes, but the agent gave a terse nod and retreated, falling back a few steps as Taylor reached out and caught Dez’s arm. He tried to ignore the soft, silken warm skin of said arm, just as he’d tried to ignore the way his heart had skipped a beat when she had moved to stand beside him earlier.
    He hadn’t even seen her, and he’d known it was her.
    Felt it, somewhere deep inside.
    Guiding her away from the crush of bodies, he said, “You can explain what you’re doing here later. But for now, tell me why you think there’s a kid in there when all my intel is saying otherwise.”
    Dez flicked a look past his shoulder. “Something woke me up and I just knew I needed to be somewhere. Here . So I got up, got dressed, and headed out. Ended up here—I didn’t even know you had a team here, by the way.”
    For a period of about five heartbeats, all thought stopped. Taylor could think of nothing else but those words— got dressed . Meaning…what? Had she been sleeping in pajamas? Something slinky and silky? Something sensible, practical? Or had she been naked, that sleek, warm brown body bare?
    Blood drained out of his head and he clenched his jaw, jerked his attention away from her, and stared at the house until he could remember what he was doing, why he was here.
    What he was about. He didn’t have time to be thinking about Desiree Lincoln and her sleeping attire—or lack thereof. He had a job to do.
    A mission. The mission. It was all that