Illicit Intuitions: Sensory Ops, Book 3 (19 page)

“I’ve been a little busy.” He tied the string of his shorts and took his clothes and shoes to his locker. Dana leaned against the wall near the door with a smug look smacked across her face.

“You’re sacrificing your mental health for hers.”

“That’s a little extreme.” After securing his cell phone within one of the waterproof bags he and Dana sometimes used he slipped it in his pocket. He wouldn’t think about why he took the phone today—to not miss Ava. “I’ll be back in time for the adult group.”

At the beach, he walked until the water was mid-calf before he crossed his ankles, dug his toes into the wet sand and lowered into his meditative position with his hands palm up on his knees.
 

Waves lapped at his waist and rushed over his legs and hands. He worked at relaxing, beginning with the tension in his neck. He dropped his head to the right, touching his ear to his shoulder to stretch out the left side. On a long exhale he rolled his head slowly forward, feeling the pull along the sides of his spine down into his mid back. He raised his head straight up, drew the cleansing scent of the water into his lungs and then dropped his left ear to his shoulder to repeat the process.
 

Left. Down. Up.

Right. Down. Up.
 

Left. Down. Up.
 

Over and over, concentrating on cleansing breaths, he continued the cycle until the fresh oxygen seeped into his muscles and the pulling tightness lessened.
 

It hadn’t been easy to guard Ava from the unexpelled darkness he’d absorbed, to keep her from feeling again the trauma she’d experienced during her young marriage, but he’d been unable to see her suffer more. This had been one case where not confronting the emotions had potentially been more cathartic.

Physically relaxed, he lowered his shields one at a time until his inner eye, his mind, was unprotected. Fears and worries and darkness—Ava’s emotions—he’d absorbed over the last few days danced a complex tango along the blinding vortex rushing to his mind’s forefront.
 

The world misted blue, more electric and vibrant than the vast waters before him.
 

Connected to the earth and the cleansing properties of the sea, he envisioned the heavy gashes of anxiety and negativity marring his mental vision being erased like gouges in the sand vanishing with the retreating waves.
 

He raised his face to the sky and channeled his breaths along restorative avenues. Using his mind, he expelled the blackheads of Ava’s recent pain through his pores until his energy flowed as freely as the rushing waves.

Unencumbered by stress, he unfolded his legs, took a deep draw of breath into his lungs and lay back. The water cocooned him. The retreating waves carried him deeper until he was floating on his back. Free and at peace, he allowed nature to carry him.
 

The phone strapped to his wrist jarred him back to reality. Treading water to keep from sinking, he checked the display before answering. “Ava. How are you doing?”

“Holding strong.” Sass lightened her plastic-bag-muffled voice, hinting at her ability to find fun in strange circumstances. “Where are you?”

“Swimming.” He rolled onto his back and propelled himself toward the shore using primarily his legs. “Have you had any problems?”

He’d almost asked where she was, but hesitant to hear an answer he wouldn’t like he pulled back. Disgusted by his own cowardice, he slipped his shields back into place as he closed in on the shore.
 

“Everything’s been great. I’ve lowered my shield a few times to make sure I wasn’t imagining the entire experience with you, but I’m feeling strong.”

“Good.” Back on the beach, he sat on the sand to dry off. “Don’t overextend yourself.”

“I can’t decide if you sound like a nagging wife or an overprotective boyfriend when you make those demands.”

“Neither.” She sounded like Dana. Not even empathic abilities cleared up the mysteries of women. “I sound like a doctor looking out for the well-being of his patient.”

 
“So that’s all I am to you? A patient?”

No.
“Ava…” He couldn’t form the denial. He couldn’t lie to her any more than he’d been able to avoid her questions about how he’d healed her. “I’m not sure what you are.”

“Well, let me know when you figure it out.” She half laughed. “Listen, I’ve got to go. I should be back there in the next hour or so.”

“See you.”

“Be safe.” She hung up before he could respond.
 

He’d expected something flippant like
later
. Instead, she’d sounded suddenly worried, as if she had insights he didn’t. Hell. The woman had him all kinds of messed up.

He rubbed his hands over his hair, scratching the back of his head. An explosion of iced hatred erupted behind him.
 

“I’ll have those contacts, Hermes.”
 

H spun around, coming up to his knees.
 

Janus stood less than a foot away dressed in camouflage that blended seamlessly with the dense foliage.
 

H coiled his muscles, preparing to rise up and strike.
 

Janus swung out his right arm with a black pipe firm in his grip.

Rage that Ava had set him up—betrayed him—ripped through his heart the moment before the pipe rammed his head.
 

“Ava.” Kami turned off the engine and shifted to face her from the driver’s seat. “Are you sure you’re up for this? The last time you were here…”

“I can’t be afraid of the place I work.” Ava rested her hand on Kami’s arm and squeezed lightly, offering her friend more reassurance than she suddenly felt herself. Her barriers were holding up well against Kami, and she’d done okay in her neighborhood when she’d gone to change clothes, but she was one woman. Though she’d already faced her biggest terrors, hundreds of people milling around inside with a range of emotions as vast as the Grand Canyon terrified her.
 

She’d worked with H steadily for the last few days. He’d dropped his shields and somehow magnified and altered his emotions to help her begin identifying the differences between her feelings and his. He’d sent her an array of feelings from light and sweet to dark and violent. They’d worked on sending out feelers without becoming invasive.
 

She’d identified her shield as a brick wall with a mural of the rocky, Greek shoreline. All she had to do to allow H in was picture the rocks on the shore farther apart or gone. With them in place, his testing pushes had no more power than soft waves brushing the rock.

He was one man though. She was about to face a room full.
 

No. She couldn’t be afraid of the office. Of the public. She just hoped she hadn’t left H too soon. More time would make her stronger, but she had to trust in the training she’d received. She had to get on with this case, learn what she’d missed, if there were new developments.
 

“We could go someplace else. They could come to you, Ava.”

“No.” Ava grabbed her purse from the floor. “I made you a promise, Kami. I’m going to see this through.”

Kami’s life had been rough in the dark sludge lingering beneath the glitz of her rich family. Channing had been one of two people to always stand beside her. He’d helped her escape and he’d been murdered. That Kami had survived it all without a fear of getting close to people astounded Ava.
 

Even with the closeness of her own family, their undying loyalty and support, she’d never allowed a relationship to go beyond one or two dates. Until H, though they hadn’t really dated, and nothing said they’d have a permanent relationship. Especially once he discovered her lie.

With images in her head of the discovery and his expected withdrawal she was reminded of how her future would be. Lonely.

The idea of a family appealed, but she’d accepted the likelihood of never seeing the dream into fruition. She wouldn’t risk another Constantine.

“You caught his killers.”
 

“Not all of them.” Madame V and her crew had gone down for Channing’s murder and the attempted murder of Trevor Masters, but Ava regretted she hadn’t been the one to take down the cretin she’d escorted to Breck’s fundraiser. More, she regretted they hadn’t ended the Whitestone connections.
 

Loathing broiled in her blood, obliterating delusions. Eston White, or Whitestone, would not pull their assets out of Sirrahmax or off Dr. H’s trail until they were certain the lenses didn’t exist. She would do her part to persuade them to see things differently. “We’ll bring down anyone connected to Channing’s death and eliminate any remaining threats facing Dr. H, Max or any other innocents connected to them.”

“You seem more certain than before Dr. H is a target rather than the contacts.” Kami leaned back a bit and tilted her head. “What happened in his lab?”

Images of the last few days with H flickered in and out of her head. Flirtations. Brief kisses before he pulled away. Illicit moments of sexual discovery.
 

Emotions floated around her, instructions sounding more like directives were either snapped at her or tempered with tenderness. He’d unwittingly busted through her protective wall when he’d healed her and taken advantage of her downed defenses when they’d made love. He regretted trespassing into her mind the first time, but had no issue with how things had ended in her home or his lab.

She’d enjoyed every touch, every look, every kiss.
 

Regardless of his few missteps, he was a good man with a solid moral core, which amazed her considering his upbringing had been overseen by the sadistic General Scott. He called to her heart. To her inner woman. He seduced her to trust him with her secrets, her abilities and her body.
 

While in some ways that trust was profoundly intimate, and she hadn’t had the power to stop herself from falling for him, only a little, she held a part of herself back. As much as she’d trusted him with, she hadn’t trusted him with the deepest of her emotions. She’d withheld her heart, unwilling to calculate the risk of another heartbreak.
 

The man was a conundrum, consistent only in the depth of passion.
 

Passion for helping her handle her ability.
 

Passion for the protection of the children he worked with.
 

Passion for identifying true empaths and then working to see them accepted by the world and kept safe from people who would abuse and misuse their gifts.
 

Passion that sparked the air between them and ignited a blaze in her belly when they connected mind-to-mind.
 

“Ava? What happened?” Kami asked again.

She blinked, clearing the blurry haze obscuring her vision.
 

“Too much to retell.” Or even fully grasp within the small amount of headspace not being used for the case and maintaining her shields. “He helped make me stronger.”

Breck exited the front doors of the building. After a few steps, he stopped and watched Kami’s car with shadows of worry crossing his face. The shield around Ava’s mind shimmered like a USS Titan force field taking fire during a Romulan attack.
 

“So, you’re really an empath?”

“Seems so.” Maybe she wasn’t ready for this. Breck and the team had accepted her professional past, but would they so easily accept her now? Could they trust her to stay out of their heads?

“Stop worrying.” Kami broke into her thoughts as if she could read minds. “I told him what Dr. H said. He accepts the possibility, but isn’t going to ask you for proof. Neither is he worried you’ll shoplift his feelings.”
 

“Am I that transparent?”

“Yes.” She jerked her head toward the door. “Now, get yourself braced.”
 

“Yes, ma’am.” Ava opened the door and climbed out of the car. Her shields took a hit, but she held firm. H’s reminder to stay conscious of her barriers slipped to the forefront.

Kami got out of the car and pushed the alarm button on the key fob as she rounded the hood. Her mouth hardened fiercely in contrast to the fear quivering in her gaze. “If you even start to look like you did, I’ll knock your ass out and carry you back to Dr. H.”

“First, him telling me not to leave. Now, you threatening to take me back. I’m surrounded by nags.” She slipped her hand through Kami’s bent arm and headed toward the building. “Thank you.”

“Just remember to thank me if I have to do it.”

“You got it.”
 

Ava focused on her shielding and loosened up as they grew nearer to Breck. With each step closer, his shadowy intensity lightened as he watched Kami.
 

Love, respect and desire swarmed Ava. The air sparked with electricity, sending shivers across Ava’s arms. Kami and Breck hadn’t been together more than a few weeks, but like Ian and Kieralyn they so clearly belonged.
 

The purity of their connection spanned the distance between them and seeped beneath unseen cracks in her shields. She envied them for finding what she’d seen in her parents. What she’d hoped to one day have for herself.