Flirting With Fate (2 page)

Tanner leaned forward. “What do they have planned
this time?”

“I wish I knew.” The lieutenant absently stroked
his silvering mustache. “They’ve been careful this time and our intel is beyond
inadequate. Our Readers haven’t been able to see how they plan to achieve it,
but they’re getting visions of Ascendant rule and…worse.”

“What’s worse than those sick fucks taking over?”
Fernandez asked.

“In these visions, non-Special humans are being
used as cattle,” the lieutenant said.

“More of the same,” Fernandez said.

Tanner frowned. Six months ago, their SIA unit, in
conjunction with the Stiletto Girls had taken down the Ascendants’ new leader.
Winston had worked his way into the position of president of the United States,
but he’d done so without ever letting on that he was a Special. Even the SIA
hadn’t known. But Winston hadn’t just been a Special, he’d been an Ascendant
and had grown more and more powerful by drinking other Specials’ blood,
draining them to take their gifts as his own.

Winston had planned to use his power as president
and his many powers as a Special to use non-Special humans for their blood and
labor.

“It’s not exactly more of the same,” the
lieutenant said. “Winston’s plan was undeveloped, sloppy in comparison to this.
Our Readers have seen how it will work this time.”

“How?” Tanner asked.

“The non-Special humans are more like animals than
people. It’s as if they’ve lost their ability to reason. They eat, sleep, work,
and give their blood. It’s almost as if they don’t care. They just do as
they’re told. It’s as if they’ve lost something.”

“Their free will,” Tanner supplied.

“Yes.”

“So what do the Stiletto Girls have to do with
this?” Tanner wanted to know. Did Josie know something about this? Was she
keeping something from him?

“Are they keeping intel from us again?” Fernandez
asked.

“We have no reason to think that they even know
they’re involved,” the Lieutenant said. “But our Readers indicate that they
will be.”

“Surprise, surprise,” Fernandez said.

The lieutenant leaned forward on his desk. “Our
Readers indicate they’re in danger. I need you to get close. I need you to each
stick yourself to a girl and protect her,” he said. “I’ll keep you apprised of
any new intel.”

“And what exactly are we looking for?” Tanner
asked.

The lieutenant pulled a hand through his hair.
“Let me do the looking. You keep them safe.”

Fernandez shot Tanner a look and mumbled, “Sounds to
me like we’re on babysitting duty again.”

“To the last of Paige’s bachelorette days,” Josie
said, raising her martini. A double shot of Grey Goose, the drink was
desperately needed and equally deserved after the day she’d had.

Chrissie clinked her beer against Josie’s glass.
“May the marriage be long, your love be strong, and your future be bright.”

Paige’s emerald eyes glimmered with tears as she
covered her mouth. “Aw! Chrissie!”

Chrissie flashed her Cheshire grin. “And—in case
your marriage is like all others—may your always have fresh batteries for your
vibrator.”

Paige swatted Chrissie’s arm before raising her
wine glass. “To the Stiletto Girls,” she said, “the ass-kickingest PIs, the
most beautiful bridesmaids, and the very best friends.”

“Hear, hear,” Chrissie said.

Glasses clinked, and they all drank.

The jukebox played a song about tequila making a
woman’s clothes fall off, and pool balls clicked at the several tables spaced
throughout the room.

The bar was a bit of a dive, but it was near their
office, offered top-shelf booze—which the bartenders served liberally if you
weren’t opposed to letting them stare at your cleavage—and the clientele left
them alone. All in all, for weeknight after-work drinks, it was damn near
perfect.

Chrissie nearly drained her beer then turned in
the booth and grinned at Josie. Josie loved that grin. Chrissie was a little rough
around the edges. She lived hard and played hard, but when she was hurt, the
cut went deep. Her spiky black-and-platinum hair and punk rocker façade might
fool some, but Josie knew there was a soft heart behind that charming grin, and
lately that heart had been hurting.

“What?” Josie asked. “Why are you looking at me
like that?”

“I saw Wiley in your office today,” Chrissie said
in a singsongy voice.

Paige’s eyes widened. “Tanner was there? Jose,
that boy is so sweet on you.”

Josie’s cheeks burned. She knew damn well how
sweet on her Tanner was, thanks to the ultrasonic steamy visions that bombarded
her every time they touched. He wanted her. She wanted him.

But right now she needed him, and not because he
made her girlie parts hum.

“You’re pretty sweet on him, too,” Chrissie said,
propping her chin on her fists. “So why is it you haven’t fucked his brains out?”

Paige reached across the table and squeezed
Josie’s arm. “It’s because things are going to be serious between you two,
isn’t it?”

Well, yes and no...

“I’m just not ready to get involved with him.”
Josie shrugged. “Those SIA guys are trouble, ya know?” She winked at Paige, who
was engaged to be married to an SIA guy of her own.

Chrissie nodded. “I’ve been in Wiley’s memories,”
she said. “Boy has some serious baggage.”

Josie swirled the clear liquid in her martini
glass. “We all have baggage.”

“Did you know he was a foster child?”

Josie looked up from her drink. “I didn’t know
that.” But somehow it didn’t surprise her. Somehow she knew Tanner was an
orphan like her.

Chrissie shuddered. “If most foster parents are
like his, it makes you want to sign on to take in a couple of brats, ya know?”

“That bad?” Josie asked.

Chrissie shook her head. “The memories are buried
pretty deep, but what I’ve seen...yeah.”

“So what was he doing in your office?” Paige
asked, moving the conversation away from the circumstances of Tanner’s
childhood. Though it rarely happened, using their abilities to gossip always
made Paige uncomfortable.

“Secret groomsman stuff,” Josie said. “I can’t
tell you, or it would ruin the surprise.” Why was her capacity for telling the
simplest lies diminished when she was near her girls?

Inclining her chin slightly, Chrissie narrowed her
eyes. She knew Josie was lying. She must have seen a piece of Josie’s memory.
Already.

Damn it.

Josie ignored the look. She could figure out
something to tell Chrissie later. At least if Paige picked up on the lie—which
she likely would, given her empathic abilities—she’d not know the reason.

Josie didn’t want either of her partners knowing.
First and foremost, she was looking for answers to some very private questions
about her past—questions about memories she’d kept secret from both of her
friends, even the postcog Chrissie. Involving the girls would mean sharing a
part of herself she’d locked away a long time ago.

But second, and more importantly, if Josie found
the answers she expected at the fertility clinics, the girls would never let
her go through with her plan.

Chrissie gave up on trying to glare the truth out
of Josie and looked at her beer.

Oblivious to the silent exchange, Paige leaned
across the table with a grin. “Thanks so much for taking care of all the
wedding details for me, Josie.”

And thank you for changing the subject.
“It’s not a problem. You know I love to plan.” It was true. And if her ability
made planning a wedding a little easier for her than it was for most, so be it.

Josie hadn’t even realized Chrissie’d turned
toward the door when she heard her mumble, “If it isn’t the Three Stooges.”

Tanner.
Josie’s eyes darted to the door a
little too quickly.

Chrissie chuckled and patted Josie’s arm. “Well,
look who’s suddenly interested in a few SIA boys.”  

Josie’s heart kicked up a beat at the sight of
Tanner Wiley. Even in jeans and a soft green oxford that matched his eyes, he
looked like he’d stepped off the cover of Every Woman’s Fantasy Weekly. His
light brown hair was tucked behind his ears and was a little ragged where it
brushed his collar. His grin was wicked as ever, and his sleeves were rolled to
his elbows, exposing strong, bronzed forearms.

The three men strode across the room to stand at
the end of the girls’ booth.

“You ladies must be on a budget to be in such a
seedy place,” Tanner said, looking around at the scarred floors and undoubtedly
taking in the stale beer smell.

“We like it here,” Josie explained.

“What’s your excuse?” Chrissie asked.

Tanner shook his head and looked to Josie. “Is it
just us or is she mean to everyone?”

“She’s an equal opportunity bitch,” Josie said
with a smile. “But seriously, if you’re here to ride our coattails on the
Pentagon job,” she said, referring to a sensitive case they’d wrapped that
afternoon, “it’s already taken care of.”

He nodded and lowered his voice so only she could
hear. “I don’t suppose you’d believe me if I told you we were here because we
wanted to hang out with you?”

Josie threw her head back and laughed. “No. I
wouldn’t believe that.” More likely was they’d come keep an eye on them. But
then, Darian was already pulling Paige from the booth to the dance floor,
apparently intent on taking advantage of every opportunity to touch his wife-to-be.

The way Darian looked at Paige made Josie turn all
gushy inside.

Tanner touched her arm and his expression turned
sheepish. “Let me buy you a beer?”

At his smile, hundreds of butterflies burst from
their cocoons in her belly. “Another martini would be okay.” Another martini
would be more foolish than okay, but she didn’t have the willpower to turn down
his company.

He signaled the waitress and ordered the drinks,
and Chrissie said, “What about me?”

“Fernandez can buy your drink,” Tanner said,
nudging his partner.

Chrissie rolled her eyes.

Fernandez watched Chrissie with his usual
combination of skepticism and fascination.

“Fine,” Chrissie said, “but don’t get any ideas.
This isn’t a double date.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Fernandez said, lifting
her hand by her fingertips and gazing at her through his thick, dark lashes.
“Do you wanna go make out in the corner?”

Chrissie punched him in the arm, but then slid
over to make room for him.

Josie did the same for Tanner.
Bad idea
,
her brain warned, but she ignored it.

After what she’d found in her mother’s old journal
this weekend, she needed to unwind like she needed air.

Tanner slid into the booth and his body heat
warmed the space around him. He smelled a little like leather and gunpowder—two
smells Josie wasn’t entirely sure she’d find so damn appealing on anyone else.

The waitress returned with their drinks, and
Tanner held one out to Josie. “For the lady.”

As she took it, her fingers brushed his. The touch
sent a jolt of electricity straight to the sweet spot between her legs and a
vision to her mind.

He slid his hand into her hair and lowered his lips
to hers. Waves crashed and soft Caribbean sand grazed her bare back. He slipped
his tongue into her mouth. She arched into him and her nipples grazed his chest
hair…

Josie withdrew from his touch slowly, her cheeks
warming. The beach this time. Every time she had a vision of the two of them
together, the locale was different, but the temperature was always the
same—scorching.

She’d begun having intimate visions of Tanner
Wiley six months ago when Stilettos, Inc. had worked with him and his two
Specials Intelligence Agency partners, Darian and Fernandez. After six months
of prophetic foreplay, she ached for him so much it was embarrassing. In her
dreams, her fantasies, her visions of his future and her own—he was always
there. Always touching her. As a result, she walked around a state of perpetual
arousal.

“You okay?” Tanner asked. He turned in toward her
and brushed a lock of hair from her face.

He slid his hand between their bodies and
explored her breasts, her torso, the sensitive skin at each hip bone, before
returning to her breasts. His thumb toyed with each nipple as he dipped his
tongue into her mouth. Instinctively, her thighs spread, welcoming the strength
and weight of his narrow hips as he settled onto her.

Between their bodies, he explored. His
fingertips lightly grazed her stomach and circled her navel. Her hips rose off
the sand, desperate to have his fingers slip inside her.

Josie licked her lips and concentrated on keeping
her breathing steady. Every time she touched Tanner, she saw this. Heat.
Passion. Sex.

What puzzled her, though, was that although she’d
chosen not to act on her attraction, the visions hadn’t changed. As someone who
regularly saw snippets of the future, she understood how easily it could
change, and how the smallest decision could make a person headed to point A
alter course to point X.

Six months after her first vision she hadn’t so
much as kissed the man, so why was she still seeing herself going at it hot and
heavy with Tanner?

Tanner smiled, cocking his head. “What? Did you
see something?”

She sighed, wishing he didn’t know about her
ability and that he weren’t a Special too. Dealing with men who were too
attractive for their own good was hard enough. Throw in the complications of a
secret society of people with special powers and add the mess of tension
between the SIA and Stilettos, Inc. and suddenly entering into the relationship
became foolish.

For six months, she had kept her distance from
Wiley because she
wasn’t
foolish. But after what she’d found in her
mother’s journal, foolish didn’t begin to describe what a mistake it would be
to start anything with Tanner.