The Innocent: FBI Psychics, Book 2 (2 page)

The man in front of her curled his lip, a slow, smirking sort of smile. It was the smile of a man she wouldn’t trust at her back. She didn’t even trust this man at her
front
. “Well, hey there, Sheriff… Oh, wait. You ain’t the sheriff no more. You know what? I think I’ll stay right here. I’m talking to this pretty little piece of candy here.”

Sheriff—

She tore her eyes away from him and stared at the man she’d come to find.

Sheriff Lincoln Dawson, the man she’d found herself falling head over heels in love with over the past year.

The man who, according to this thug, wasn’t the sheriff anymore.

Okay, that could wait.

“I think you’ll step away.” Lincoln’s voice came a little closer and she took a deep, steadying breath.

His eyes cut to hers.

She watched as his gaze passed over her and then immediately came right back.

Cocking her head, she said softly, “Hello, Lincoln.”

The very last person he’d expected to see in Hell was Jay Roberts.

As she turned around and gave him a slow smile, he was hard-pressed to do anything but stare for almost a minute. Her hair, a pale, almost white blonde, was colored in streaks of blue and pink here and there. It might have looked silly on some, but it suited her.

Halfway down her neck, he could see where her tattoos started and, just like the first time when he’d seen her—only in a picture, of course—he wanted to peel her clothes away and learn each and every one of those tattoos, each and every curve. Killer curves, deadly attitude.

And the attitude he’d sensed in their online communication, and picked up on even more in their phone and Skype sessions, was every bit as sharp as he’d suspected.

A slow smile curved her lips and he wanted to cross the floor, grab her and cover her mouth with his. Taste her, like he’d wanted for almost a year.

He’d waited that long to finally meet her.

Now his life was in shambles and Lloyd Pritchard was threatening to put his hands on her.

Lloyd was an idiot.

But then again, he always had been.

He might be an idiot without arms or legs if he touched Jay.

Linc’s heart, so bitter and broken over the past few months, gave a slow, ragged beat in his chest. Part of him wanted to go to his knees in front of her and wrap his arms around her waist, press his face to her belly. She would listen. She would talk him through this and he wouldn’t hear any of the false sympathy, the false hopes—there
was
no hope. He was a cop. He knew what was going on.

The other part of him just wanted to tell her to get her ass in the car and go back to her nice, safe little job in Dallas.

He had no place for her in his world now.

Although he had to admit, she didn’t exactly fit into the
safe
little picture he’d had in mind. She’d sent him a few pictures and they’d Skyped, but she didn’t quite fit the images. The blonde hair was right, but those pink and blue stripes didn’t fit. Her face was the same—heart-shaped with the most fuckable mouth ever—and he wanted to grab her up against him, lose himself in her.

The look in her eyes, somehow both wary and challenging, had him keeping his distance.

She was trouble in a pair of combat boots. He’d figured that out even as he’d caught his first glimpse of her through the plate glass window. He hadn’t recognized her from outside.

The soft, throaty voice—a little too rough, a little too raspy—stroked against his senses like a caress and he wanted to kick everybody out of the gas station and ask her why she was here.

Instead, he forced his mind away from the skin-skimming clothes and shifted his attention to Lloyd and his pack of ass-kissing hyenas.

She’d been about five seconds away from a whole world of trouble and he suspected she knew it. The new sheriff wouldn’t get off his ass to scratch it and city police force consisted of exactly two full-time cops and one part-time. None of them were worth the price of two postage stamps.

The best thing Linc could do was get her out of here. It seemed like the rest of the world had forsaken this town. Maybe God had too. He’d had a hard time during his tenure as sheriff, dealing not just with the assaults, but also with the disappearance of several local girls and a handful of unusual suicides. But he hadn’t let that deter him. He’d had a mission and he’d see it through.

Over the past two months, ever since his daughter’s disappearance, an even darker pall had settled itself over the place. Since the last night he’d seen DeeDee, a local hunter had gone missing, as well as a pretty high school junior and a kid from the basketball team.

He no longer cared. All he cared about was finding justice for his daughter.

The oppressive weight was just getting worse. This town was plagued by a dark curse.

This wasn’t any place he wanted Jay to be.

He didn’t want
anybody
here. If he could build a wall to keep everybody out, he’d do it.

That wasn’t an option, but one thing he could do? Beat the shit out of Lloyd if he so much as touched Jay.

Lloyd eased closer to her and Jay watched him impassively, her hands hanging at her sides, loose and ready.

Linc shot out a hand and grabbed the back of Lloyd’s thick neck. “You don’t want to go messing with her, son,” he said levelly.

Lloyd jerked away and swiveled, driving a fist into Linc’s gut. Or, that was the intention. Linc was already spinning away. From the corner of his eye, he saw Jay, and what he saw was such a distraction that Lloyd managed to sucker punch him. He didn’t get another hit in, though.

A wet, cracking sound filled the air and Lloyd screamed, going down after Linc took his leg out.

Linc turned just in time to see Jay balance her weight on the edge of the counter and drive her booted feet solidly into the skinny chest of one Johnny Hutchins.

Willy Lee was the last one standing and as he wheeled around, Linc smashed his fist into the bastard’s thick neck, watched as he went red. Gasping for air, he stumbled into a stand of chips and jerky and then crashed to the floor.

Jay looked back at him and the vivid, intense green of her eyes laid him low.

“Jay.”

She cocked her head at him. “Hello, Linc.”

He would have said something else, anything else, but Bryce Atkins came barreling around the counter, his face pale and strained, eyes wide. “I called the cops.”

Jay shifted her attention to him, her eyes a wide and vivid shade of green, focused on him.

Arching a brow, Linc said levelly, “I’m sure the lady appreciates it.”

Bryce blinked. “I called because of
you
. You broke his leg.”

Oh, for fuck’s sake.

“He was hassling her.”

“She shouldn’t be dressed like that,” Bryce said, jerking his chin up.

Linc ran his tongue along his teeth and then closed the distance between them, eyeing him narrowly. “You might want to watch it, kid.”

Bryce’s eyes widened and then he jerked his gaze away, staring at the men on the floor. “Ya’ll tore up the store. The manager is going to kick my ass. You know how Dave is.”

“I do.” He shrugged and turned away. “You can tell Dave these guys were harassing a woman in here.”
My woman
.

His…

He sighed and dragged a hand down his face, then turned to look at Jay. Yeah, she still felt like his. Never mind that he had never actually laid eyes on her, in person, before today.

She felt like his, and if she’d come to him any time other than now…

Abruptly, anger surged inside him and he shoved past her, storming out the doors.

Why now?

Why couldn’t she have come to him back when he still had any sort of life left inside him?

Chapter Two

Well.

That went smashingly.

Brooding, Jay shoved a hand through her hair and then glanced at the thugs all around her. One was still a strange red color as he struggled to catch his breath. The one who had a busted knee was yowling.

And the one she’d kicked in the chest was crawling to his feet, eyeing her with ugly hate brewing in his eyes. She pulled her phone out and gave him a winning smile. “You ready to dance again, honey?”

He kept his distance.

She thumbed her phone, ready to put in a call to her boss. She was going to need a lawyer. Granted, this was her mess and not related to her job, but she could still make use of one of the lawyers Oz knew.

But there was a message waiting.

From Oz.

You have trouble coming. I’ve reached out to a freelancer the Bureau knows. I can’t be there personally for a few days—personal matters—but the freelancer can be there in a few hours. Keep your head down.

Jay grimaced and responded.
Too late, boss
.

She read the next text from Oz as she headed out the door.
I know. Just keep your mouth shut and don’t say what doesn’t need to be said. I’m on my way.

The beauty of working for one kick-ass psychic bitch. She knew everything, it seemed, even before it happened.

Linc stood by her car, a sexy little Mustang convertible she’d bought after a particularly well-paying job two years ago. She’d only received thirty percent of the fees paid to the Oswald Group, but this fee had been hefty. A rather infamous porn star’s daughter had been kidnapped. About ninety-seven percent of the world hadn’t even realized he had a daughter. That narrowed the suspect pool quite a bit. But Trevorr Starr hadn’t wanted to go to the cops because he already knew who had her, and why, and he didn’t want to go public about his daughter. She had a nice, normal life and hadn’t realized what her father did for a living. He wanted it to stay that way so he’d turned to the Oswald Group and told them he’d pay any price, offering them one million dollars, but they’d have to sign confidentiality agreements.

Oz had said they could do it for half that and confidentiality agreements were standard for all jobs.

The child had been with Starr’s ex-girlfriend on a beach down in Mexico. The ex was now doing time in a jail almost too posh to be considered a jail. Jay had used her cut of the money to pay off quite a bit of debt, plus put down a heavy chunk of change on this car. Her baby.

Sometimes, though, when she sat inside it, she remembered how that little girl had looked up at her when Jay found her.

Are you going to take me back to my dad? I miss him
.

Not all the jobs ended so easily.

Although she didn’t make a sound, Linc heard her and turned to face her, his face resolute, his eyes cold and unyielding. His gaze flicked over her before returning to meet hers. “Why are you here?”

“Wow, Linc. Such a nice greeting. It’s so nice to finally meet you too.”

His lashes swept down. “We talked about this…it’s not working out.”

There was a wail of sirens. He turned his head, a muscle pulsing in his jaw. Then he looked back at her. “You need to leave. Now. Don’t ask questions, just go. If you don’t—”

The black-and-white came screaming around the curb and his shoulders tightened.

“Too late,” he muttered. He took a step toward her. “Get inside the store. Lock yourself in the bathroom. If you know anybody important, for God’s sake, call them now.”

Something knotted in her gut at the intent look on his face.

His eyes flashed as he continued to stare at her. “Did you
hear
me? Call a lawyer. Fuck, if you know a senator, call them. Anybody who would care if you disappeared off the face of the earth, call them.”

She arched a brow. And then, because she was curious, she shrugged and turned around, headed back into the store.

She didn’t need to make a call, but she did wonder why he was so intent on it.

As the police cruiser came to a stop in front of him, Linc pretended boredom and leaned back against Jay’s car.

He’d been the one to break Lloyd’s knee.

He’d been the one to bust Jimmy Hutchins in the throat.

Right now, Jay was out of sight and maybe, if she stayed that way, the pussies running the police department would be more interested in Linc than her. He could even push them hard enough to get them that way. They wouldn’t make
him
disappear, that much was certain. They’d already attempted to go that route and it hadn’t gone well for them. All they’d do was make his life a living hell, and what more could they do that they hadn’t already done—

He cut that thought off as he thought of Jay, back there in the gas station, completely unaware of the backass town she’d walked into.

How had this happened?

How had everything gotten even more fucked up?

Five minutes. It had taken five minutes for everything to go straight to shit. The black-and-white came to a stop in front of him and Linc stretched out his legs, arms crossed negligently over his chest as a man by the name of Biff Stahley climbed out.