The Unwanted (A Novella of the FBI Psychics) Read Free Page A

there’s little reason for us to get involved and nobody has contracted for our services. The locals aren’t having much luck and, to be completely honest, there’s no reason for federal involvement on your end, Durand. It’s not entirely likely that’s going to happen, either. This guy is smart. He’s not going to do anything that will catch federal interest.”
    “He caught yours,” Caleb pointed out. And just how did he do that?
    “That’s true. Pity, that.” Her lashes swept down, shielding her eyes.
    Something pulsed inside him and he had to wonder… Just what aren’t you telling us? She didn’t elaborate, and he suspected she wasn’t going to.
    But he wasn’t wrong. He knew it, could feel it in his gut, a sharp, strong tug. Studying her face, he tried to get some clue as to what was going on, but there wasn’t one. Since he wasn’t one of the psychics who could read thoughts, he was just going to have to play her game until she decided to tell him.
    He hated these games. At least with Jones, the bastard laid things out on the table.
    Oz continued to watch him expectantly so he went ahead and gave her what she seemed to need. “So if there’s no reason for federal involvement, just why am I here?”
    “I think a two-party team would work best,” she said vaguely. “And you’re the person who works best with Destin. In the past five years, she’s worked with all my other people and she’s never managed to click with them quite the way she clicked with you. That’s what I need on this. I need my best, which is her, and she needs all the tools I can give her.”
    “But you’re still not answering why you’re bothering to put a team out there at all. Screw whether it’s me or somebody else. Why get involved? Why do you need anybody out there at all, much less one of your best?” Destin asked, shooting Caleb a narrow look.
    You really don’t want me here, do you, doll?
    A slow smiled curled Oz’s lips, but she didn’t say anything. Playing her cards close to her chest ,Caleb thought moodily. “She’s not going to tell you anything yet, Destin. She’s having too much fun with her head games on this one,” he said, keeping his voice flat and his gaze focused on the boss’s face.
    “Oh, come on now,” Oz said, her voice light, belying the hard glint he saw in her eyes. “There’s more to this than head games.”
    “Okay. Then spill it.” He wasn’t holding his breath on that happening, though.
    “Why…it needs to be done.” Oz smiled again, an inscrutable little curve of her lips that made his spine go tight and his gut go cold. That smile never meant good things. Oz had some sort of insight into this job.
    For the past five years, he’d been working with a man who’d pushed him to his limits. Taylor Jones was brilliant. He was driven and he had a knack for knowing which of his agents was the right one for any particular job, but he had no real psychic skill.
    Oz, on the other hand…
    Oz was a different story. She had an erratic ability that could be as strong as an F-5 tornado one day and then she’d be unable to predict anything for months. When her visions came on, they came on strong. But they weren’t always useful. One of the weirdest visions she’d told them about had been when she’d once helped a sixty-three-year-old widow find her missing wedding ring. The vision had pulled her out of bed at night and she hadn’t been able to sleep until she found the woman, somebody she’d never met, living in a town two hours away.
    Then she’d spent the next four months unable to see anything.
    It also meant he had to do the job, whether he liked it or not. Maybe Jones wasn’t going to force it on him, but if Oz was having one of her gut feelings about this, there was no way he could just turn his back and walk out.
    That look in her eyes wasn’t because she had an odd little feeling or she’d heard rumors, damn it all.
    “If it needs to be done, then quit dicking around