The Unwanted

A car pulled into the parking lot and a rush of hot and cold chills broke out over Destin’s body while a knot of fear gripped her hard and tight. She’d lied to Caleb. No, she didn’t know for a fact, but her gut had already given her the answer.

Oz’s out-of-character actions, why she’d pulled strings and gotten Caleb out here.

Caleb’s odd feeling something just wasn’t right.

Destin’s inability to see the pieces she needed…it was because she didn’t have them all.

As the silver Lexus swung into a parking spot across the lot, Destin swallowed and then looked over at Caleb. “She knows how we work, you know,” she said quietly. “She knows you withhold the information until it’s something you know I’ll need. She knows I trust you to work it that way. And I bet she tried to get a glimmer off the information she had and didn’t succeed.”

A muscle ticked in Caleb’s jaw as Oz climbed out of her car. “So she sends somebody who feels a connection to this sort of crime.”

Destin nodded. She understood. She really did. She wasn’t concerned because her boss, her friend, had decided to keep her in the dark…what worried her was why.

What was Oz up to?

As the long, lean blonde started across the parking lot toward them, Destin stared at her, tried to pick up something, anything beneath Oz’s sturdy, solid shields.

But there was nothing.

“Mom?”

Oz’s mask…and her shields…cracked.

And Destin stumbled against the car under the avalanche of emotion that came pouring out.

Chapter Eleven

“I didn’t want to prejudice you with my personal connection to the case,” Oz said, a bland smile on her face.

Bullshit.

Destin and her boss followed along behind Caleb and Oz’s daughter, a petite brunette who shared Oz’s eyes but nothing else. Well, that wasn’t true. Oz was a strong woman and although it wasn’t the same sort of strength, the girl Destin had just met in the parking lot had strength in her. A lot of it.

Just a quick handshake had been enough for Destin to realize what the girl had gone through.

She remembered more of it than the others had.

Not all, but the memories were clearer.

But instead of calling Oz on her lie, Destin just smiled. She still had a job to do. It was complicated by the fact that she now had to figure out how to keep Oz at bay, get the information to the cops, and all sorts of fun shit, but the job was still there.

Up ahead, Caleb and Oz’s daughter, a quiet, solemn girl with big, serious eyes, stopped in front of a glass- fronted restaurant. Monica gave them a tight smile and waved toward the door. “This is one of my favorite places for lunch—a couple of my friends work here…” Her voice trailed off and she looked away. Destin picked up on the unspoken words. She felt safe here. She only went to places where she felt safe now. After an awkward silence, she said, “I love the sushi. If that’s okay…?”

Destin could have told the girl there was no way she could eat, but she didn’t have to be psychic to know Monica was walking on an edge right now. No point in making her feel more nervous than she already was.

“Sushi is fine,” Caleb said quietly. He gently touched a hand to the girl’s shoulder and next to Destin, Oz tensed. Destin could feel the other woman’s mama-bear instincts flaring but it was unneeded.

Monica looked up at Caleb with the sort of smile people usually saved for lifelong friends.

Yeah, he had that effect on people. He’d always had the ability to calm even the most jumpy of souls.

“Good.” She shot her mother another nervous glance and Oz smiled at her as well, but it didn’t seem to have the soothing effect that Caleb’s had had.

As the other two pushed inside, Destin loitered out there with Oz another moment. “You two don’t get along well.”

“We don’t get along at all,” Oz said, her voice grim. “But it doesn’t matter. We’re here about a job, right?”

“That’s why I’m here,” Destin said quietly. “But you’re here because your daughter was one of the victims… Oz, why didn’t you tell me?”

Oz flinched. A visible shudder wracked her body before she got her emotions under control. The emotions, though, they continued to twist and torment her and because Destin had yet to shield herself the way she needed to, she picked up on that uncomfortable little merry-go-round.

“You work best when you have no connection to the job you’re working, Destin, you know that,” Oz said, her voice cool and level.

And if Destin hadn’t just taken that little ride through Oz’s emotions, she might have bought it. As it was, her gut was twisting and turning, full of too much emotion, too much chaos.

Oz could play the unaffected bit all she wanted, but Destin didn’t know why she bothered.

Whether they were estranged or not, the girl inside that restaurant was Oz’s daughter. She was affected by this no matter what.

The past thirty minutes had been one long, awful headache.

Destin had tried to ask Monica questions.

Oz fielded them.

This is getting nowhere fast, Caleb thought moodily.

Sliding Destin a look, he caught her eye. A thousand words passed unspoken between them and Caleb shifted his attention back to Oz. “Oz, maybe you and I should go for a walk outside.”

“Not necessary,” she said, waving a hand.

Caleb looked over at the girl and saw that she had her attention almost completely on her hands. Her food was untouched and she’d drank an entire pot of tea. Running on too little sleep, too much nerve and all kinds of fear.

“Monica.”

She looked at him, her mouth pinched and tight, her eyes too dark in her face.

“You know what your mom does, right?”

She nodded, a short, jerky nod while she clenched her hands together in front of her, her fingers knotting and twisting over and over.

“You know what she does.”

Now some of the fear flickered and she looked up, the fear fading away until when she looked at them, her expression was clear and smooth as a doll’s. “I know. Lovely, honorable job…and she was never there for me. Never there for my dad.”

“Monica, I—”

She shook her head. “Enough, Mom. It’s old news. You saved so many, but you couldn’t save those closest to you. Not us, not your family…and not me.” Blowing out a breath, she passed a hand over her eyes and then glanced over at Oz. “Let me talk to your…agent. Whatever she is. You had her come here for a reason, we might as well get this done.” Then she curled her lip. “She’s wasting her time, though. Nobody has been able to find this bastard. She’s not going to be any different.”

“If that’s what you think, then you don’t know as much about what your mom does as you think,” Destin said quietly. As she leaned forward, she covered Monica’s nervous, pale hands with her own.

Caleb felt that familiar little hum when Destin reached out to connect with Monica.

Monica barely felt anything. It happened that way sometimes. Especially when the person had no psychic skill.