Danger Signals

since she doesn't even have it, Jeannette, from what you told me, wasn't married long enough to know how it would have worked out.'

'But that's just it-Gran never tried again. Want to know why? She was afraid to.' Words tumbled out of her, faster than she could think, faster than she could screen them. 'Because she believed she should have prevented Tommy's death. She told me. She believed her Gift didn't work with him, that it actually prevented her from being able to see the danger. She was afraid to let herself get that close to anyone again. She thought…she thought-' But the freshet of words had dried up.

Understanding bloomed in Wade's eyes. He said slowly. 'So that's why you won't let yourself get close to me? You're afraid you might put me in some kind of danger?'

He gave a short bark of laughter. 'God, I can't believe the irony of this. Isn't it the other way around? Seems to me it's my job that's put you in danger. You were brought in to help with my case, and now look. You've got a sadistic psychopath after you.'

'Okay.' She grabbed a desperate breath. 'Okay, back to your job, since you mention it. What about the way this…whatever it is between us-'

'Relationship,' he offered, eyes narrowed.

'Well, what about the way it's affecting your job?'

Slam went his shields, but not before she caught a glimmer of guilt. Guilt mixed with bright flashes of fear.

'What the hell do you mean?'

She got up. adjusting the sheet around herself, and he let her go. perhaps both of them needing the distance, both physical and emotional, like a moat between them.

She faced him across the chasm and said gently. 'Wade, you're here right now, aren't you? Here with me. Where would you normally be on the morning after finding a killer's private lair?'

He leaned back on one elbow, outwardly relaxed, eyes wary. And not even a hint of emotion sneaking past his barricades. 'Oh, sifting through a mountain of evidence, probably. Trying to figure out the creep's whereabouts. His next move. Next-'

'Victim?' She paused, and the word hung shimmering between them. Softly she added, 'But you know his next victim, don't you, Wade.'

'Yeah, and I've got her in protective custody.' His lips stretched in a smile. 'With some obvious variations, I'd be doing the same if it were anyone else.'

'Would you? Truthfully?' Again she waited before quietly adding, 'You know who the killer wants, you know where she-'

He shifted irritably, sat upright. 'No. Don't even think-'

'I am thinking. It's you who's refusing to admit what needs to be done. Because you have…feelings for me, Wade. Because of those feelings, you're not doing your job.'

His hands gripped the edge of the mattress and his eyes hardened. 'Don't tell me how to do my job.' His voice was low and dangerous.

She could feel her heart thumping beneath her arms where they crisscrossed her body, holding the sheet in place. 'If it was anyone but me, you'd have it in motion already. You know you would. It's a no-brainer. You have a chance to catch this guy, and you're not taking it.'

'Tee. I'm warning you.'

'Wade.' She closed her eyes, sucked in a breath. 'I was brought in to help solve this case. Now I have a chance to help you close it. Please, let me do it.'

He got up slowly but in a fury, like magma rising. 'Goddamn it, Tierney. I'm not going to let you be some sort of bait. Like a…a lamb staked out for a tiger. Don't ask me to, because I won't do it.'

'I know.' she said, shaking so hard she could feel her teeth chattering. Now that the moment was here, she was terrified. 'That's why I didn't ask you.'

Wade felt ice creep around his heart. 'What are you talking about?'

She lifted her chin and met his eyes, standing her ground in the face of his anger without flinching. And angry as he was with her just then, he had to admit her courage humbled him. As the words he dreaded tore at his heart.

'I called your boss. Yesterday. Nola Hoffman, isn't that her name? Anyway, she thinks it's a great idea. So does her boss…Styles? It's already in the works, Wade. You're going to use me to smoke out your killer.'

In the lakeshore house in South Carolina, Cory Pearson closed the lid of his overnighter-the one he'd just brought back with him from Lebanon-and zipped it shut. He looked at his wife, sitting cross-legged in the middle of the bed. somberly watching him. 'You know I wish I didn't have to leave again so soon. I just-'

'You don't have to explain to me, Pearse.'

He leaned across the suitcase to kiss her. 'I know. But just the same. This trip-losing my cameraman-it really brought it home to me.' He smiled crookedly. 'As if I needed any more reminding after that little adventure of ours in the Philippines. How things can change in a heartbeat- literally. Change forever. I've come this close, now I'm starting to get superstitious. What if something happened to one or the other of us, and we never got a chance to know each other? I don't know if I could handle it, Sam.'

His wife bounced her way off the bed and came to put her arms around him. Hugged him close for a long, precious time. Then she stepped away from him, and in a resolute voice made poignant by her smile and the tears shining in her eyes, said, 'You've got a plane to catch, Pearse. Go. And be sure and call me after. The very minute. Promise.'

'I promise. I love you so damn much, Samantha June.'

'I know'

The silence in the car was profound. Wade had wrapped himself in it like a survivor of some disaster huddled in a blanket, refusing to even look at the woman sitting mute and motionless as a statue beside him.

He drove with the window down and his elbow propped on the sill, his hand covering the lower part of his face, while he went over the plan again in his mind.

It was simple enough, on its face.

The department would 'leak' word to the media- through its usual channels-that another body had been found, believed to be the work of the Torture Killer. The location of the crime scene would also be leaked. The idea being that the TK, James Jeffrey Larson, knowing himself to be innocent of this particular crime, but knowing also that his designated next victim-Tiemey-would likely be present at the crime scene, would make every possible effort to show up there, as well. Ideally he would be spotted and taken down on the spot. Failing that, Larson would, hopefully, follow her from the crime scene, waiting for his chance.

Which police would make every effort to give him.

The variables, and thus the possibilities for something to go wildly wrong, were legion. Certainties were few.

Consequently, Wade was furious. Not to mention worried. And scared out of his mind.

None of which he made any attempt to keep Tierney from reading, along with the fact that he considered her to be stubborn, intractable, foolhardy and…some things he couldn't even think of words for.

Tierney bore all this without flinching. She ached with his suffering, understood it even though she believed strongly that he was wrong.

She'd tried her best to reassure him.

'I'll be perfectly safe, Wade. Remember, this isn't a killer who strikes from a distance, or from cover. He needs to be up close and personal with his victim.'

'What,' he'd answered back, 'you're telling me my job, again? I know what he does when he gets up close and personal with his victims, remember? I've seen them-all of them. You've only seen one-in person. But hey-I've got pictures. Maybe you need to take a good, close look.'

She replied gently, knowing the cruelty was only a measure of his deep concern for her. 'The point is, there should be plenty of time for police to close in before he has a chance to hurt me.'

'Should. That's the word. No guarantees.'

'Also, don't forget I'll be able to 'feel' him if he even gets close. I'll be wired, Wade. I'll be able to warn you when he's nearby.'

'Yeah?' His eyes had bored into hers, red-rimmed, brilliant as diamonds. 'What if he blocks you? This guy