Dream Shard (24 page)

Failure wasn’t in his vocabulary.

General Slynn studied the body. He looked up, noting the fresh blood splatters on the wall.

“We have a serious problem, gentlemen.”

Jacobs, Gennaro, Lorance and Polke all nodded, but it was Major Jason Jacobs who spoke up first.

“The MPs refused to let me post my own men in here. I need full power of authority when it comes to my Operative.”

“Agreed,” the general answered. “You’ll all be receiving new operating rules. This proves Turvel wasn’t acting alone in his attempt to secure your Operative. Makes me sorry I had him shot before I found out who he was working with. That was an oversight that can’t be allowed to happen again.”

Jason Jacobs was still fighting to hold his tongue. But that only made the general more certain of his value.

“Your teams will be increasing to four birds. Pull the men you need. Colonel Jacobs, you will expand to eight birds since you have three Operatives. New rank effective immediately.” He snapped them a salute before leaving.

Jason Jacobs was close on his heels, but he turned down a different hallway and headed for a door being guarded by his men. Grace looked up when he pushed in the door of her room after a single rap.

“How is Kalin?”

Jacobs didn’t stop until he was next to her bedside. “She’ll make a full recovery. I’m not so sure the MPs who kicked my men out when you went into delivery will if I ever set eyes on them.”

“I never suspected it went deeper than Turvel and Fredricks.” She was sitting cross legged on the bed, her newest son lying in front of her. “Am I losing my home?”

“No.” Jason reached out and let the baby grasp his finger. “Slynn promoted me and doubled the size of the unit.” The communications tablet in his shirt pocket chirped. He pulled it out and unlocked it.

“Brice is here.”

Grace smiled. Jacobs watched her for a few more minutes before there was a knock on the door and Brice Campbell entered. Jacobs moved back, letting Grace introduce her son to his father. He retreated from the room and found Garrick in the hallway, because Devon was in the room across from Grace.

Garrick glanced through the door while it was open, gaining a glimpse of Grace as her husband slid an arm around her.

“A lot of us wondered why you didn’t hook up with her.”

Jacobs shook his head. “I’m too much a part of the machine that surrounds her. It takes someone from the outside to crack the shell our Operatives build to protect themselves from the realities of their lives. You and I chose this career. They are caught in it.”

“I see your point.”

The door opened to the room Devon was in. Kalin was the patient but Devon was planted next to her side and Garrick was pretty sure it would take half his unit to drag him away.

“That little civilian in there is more unique than anyone realizes,” Jacobs observed. “I’m indebted to her now myself.”

“So am I,” Garrick answered. “I think she might have saved Devon’s life.”

“She did,” Jacobs confirmed. “By forcing him to see that everyone needs more than just missions. Beneath it all, we’re all human. Including you, Gennaro.”

Jason Jacobs gave him a pointed look before he cut him a salute and walked down the hallway. Garrick Gennaro watched Devon for a few more minutes.

“He looks good.”

Gennaro snapped a salute out as Slynn came around the corner.

“Yes, sir, he does.”

“This one is going to do better in his life,” the general said. “She’s got the guts to be his partner instead of his pet.”

Garrick nodded. “I think you’re right, sir.”

And it certainly felt right. Something Garrick realized he hadn’t felt in a very long time.

Chapter Eight

If there was a spot on her body that didn’t hurt the next morning, Kalin couldn’t find it.

“Sure you don’t want the morphine?”

She sat up and glanced across the room to find Devon watching her. But her surroundings didn’t look familiar. The bed was huge and set back behind a half wall. She had a dim memory of stumbling along with him the night before, being more carried than walking if she were honest, but details were in short supply.

“I don’t like wondering if someone is in my quarters,” he offered from the office that was set across the way from the bed. “So no full walls. I had it modified.”

“This is your—”

“Place,” he supplied. “I’ve never called it a home.”

There was a kitchen but a real lack of personal items. Yet there was a sense of intimacy in knowing that he’d brought her to his bed that touched her deeply.

“How long has it been since you had a home?” she asked.

He came across the large expanse of the main room, entering the bedroom through what had once been a double doorway but was now just a wide entrance. He climbed right up onto the bed and cupped her cheek.

“You need love to make a home.”

His touch was divine, filling her with happiness. “You do, Devon.”

“I can’t promise you a place like Grace’s. She might be losing that this week.”

She felt him pulling back and reached out to grab a fistful of his shirt. “I love you, Devon, and if you start making excuses for why you need to walk away—”

“I can’t.” He closed his eyes and she felt something wash through him that sent tears into her eyes. “Seeing you there…bleeding…I can’t let you go.”

She slowly smiled and flattened her hand against his chest, absorbing the feeling of his heart beating. “Best words I’ve ever heard from you, Devon Ross.”

He pulled her into his embrace, crushing her against him until she yelped from the pressure on her shoulder. He laughed and let her loose.

“According to Grace, you could use a little target practice.” He flashed her a grin as he went about finishing dressing. She felt privileged to be included in something as mundane as a morning conversation. The reason was simple. She was part of his world.

“Gee…thanks,” she answered as she climbed out of the bed. “I hit the guy, didn’t I?”

“Killed him, but with two rounds.” He held up two fingers and wore an expression that said her shots had been okay but nothing worth bragging about.

“So sue me.”

“Got something else in mind for you, Kalin Smith.”

Devon crossed his arms over his chest and his lips split into a wide, arrogant smile.

“What is that cocky grin for?” she asked, pausing in the bathroom doorway. “Basking in your victory of stealing my heart?”

“I’m thinking you’re going to marry me today.”

She propped one hand on her hip. “Is that a fact?”

He nodded. “You love me.”

“And you can’t let me go,” she countered. “But that’s not telling me you love me.”

“Yes, it is.” His expression became serious. “I can’t live without you. It’s deeper than love. It’s complete dependency. Love, a man might go to the ends of the earth for. But addiction? That’s something I’d kill for.”

“You sweet talker.”

He shrugged, but his eyes were glittering with something she hadn’t seen before.

True happiness.

Her own grew glassy with tears.

“What does your lab-coat team think about you getting married?”

He grinned again. “I didn’t ask them. Took that little bit of advice from Grace. She told Slynn she was getting married. I did the same. He’s brushing off his dress uniform.”

“I love you even more.” She moved back toward him and rose onto her toes to kiss him.

Something flickered in his eyes, something he was shielding her from feeling. He finally broke, his lips rising back into that cocky smile.

“According to the blood tests, you’re pregnant.”

Her belly did a little flip as her mouth went dry. Devon smoothed his hands over her lower back, waiting to see her response. The tears escaped from her eyes but her lips rose in a smile that was pure joy.

Devon Ross, the man, smiled just as brightly back.

It was more than a shotgun wedding. It was one with multiple automatic rifles.

Sonya turned around from fluffing her hair in the entryway mirror to look at Kalin. The small chapel was filling up, but she was waiting for an unnamed escort who had claimed the right of taking her down to the altar.

“Do guns make you nervous?” Sonya asked, sifting through Kalin’s emotions.

“No, I was just noting that I seem to be underdressed without one of my own.”

“It wouldn’t go with the dress,” Sonya noted.

Kalin turned to look at herself. The vintage dress was made of the softest silk she’d ever seen. It fell to her feet in a graceful sweep and had a very thirties style to it.

“This was my grandmother’s. I’m afraid to sneeze because it’s so delicate. But it’s not like I had many options.”

“Devon gave you a whole day, that’s more than Grace’s husband did.”

“I think I understand that. You Operatives tend to slip away too easily.”

“They do indeed,” an older man remarked. He’d entered through one of the side entrances of the chapel and had white hair. Dressed head to toe in a dress uniform, he wore an impressive number of ribbons.

“General Slynn,” he introduced himself. “I hope you’ll allow me the honor of taking you down the aisle.” The general peeked through the doors at the interior of the chapel. “It’s not every day I get to see a man I buried get married.”

“My father’s been gone a long time. I think he’d enjoy knowing someone stepped up.”

The Rangers at the door snapped to attention before opening them for the general. The chapel was full of Devon’s fellow Operatives. Grace was there with her new baby held in a sling and her husband by her side. Their first son blinked as he rose on his toes to see over the back of the pew. But it was Devon Kalin was absorbed with. He watched her like a starving man, and she realized she had the same look on her face. She felt it, felt him.

So completely.

So very right.

It was love and it was right on time.

About the Author

You can find me at MaryWine.com. Dream Shadow was the first book I wrote and Grace is very special to me. Drop by my website,
www.marywine.com
, to find out when you can read more about the Campbells and psychics.

Look for these titles by Mary Wine

Now Available:

Evolution’s Embers

Full Disclosure

Let Me Love You

Still Mine

Prisoner of Desire

Dream

Dream Shadow

She doesn’t need backup…until love backs her into a corner.

Dream Shadow

© 2013 Mary Wine

Dream, Book 1

Sheriff Brice Campbell never met a psychic worth a dime. Until Grace. She’s the real deal, an Army psychic tracker with a flawless record for finding her target. And somewhere behind her bristling defenses is a woman he’s determined to coax out into the light of day.

Grace’s legendary ability to keep her emotions walled off from her gift is the key to her success. Unfocused equals unproductive. Only this time, her target is a child that’s gone missing. Worse, an unexpected attraction to Brice is messing with her concentration, big time.

Desire sends them both up in a firestorm of passion, which only makes it painfully clear that the Army’s secret weapon has one embarrassing flaw. In matters of the heart, she’s a rank amateur.

Brice is more than willing to help her navigate these unfamiliar waters, but bringing her heart out of the shadows exposes her to danger neither saw coming. And from which no army can save her.

Warning: Contains a small-town sheriff who isn’t going to let a few emotional walls get in his way, and a woman who can’t help but let him take hers down, brick by brick.

Enjoy the following excerpt for
Dream Shadow:

So, they were here.

More exactly, she was here. Brice observed the three helicopters that currently sat on the asphalt in front of what served as the Benton County Airport. It was painfully easy to pick out the woman amidst the unit of Army Rangers. Even at his current distance, her slight build was obvious compared with those of her companions.

The men left on duty were armed to deadly precision, including night-vision sighters. They knew he was there, no doubt about it. But his cell phone hadn’t rung, so no one had their undies in a twist just yet.

It had taken him almost two days, along with every favor that a living soul owed him on this planet, to get this bunch into Benton County. Pissing them off wasn’t a good idea.

The instructions he had been given were painfully straightforward. The airfield was to be cleared.

It was, but there was no way that he was going to sit by waiting for this group to run him like a dog on a leash. This was his county. He just hoped he was making the right decision.

He turned the ignition over and pulled the jeep back on to the road. There was nothing right about this whole thing. Three years into his first term as sheriff, Brice had seen a lot of things cross his path. Child abduction just wasn’t something that he ever thought to see in front of him. A man could fail to solve a burglary, maybe even a murder, but how could you fail to find someone’s little girl?

Brice closed his eyes for a moment. He was really reaching this time. When it got out he was bringing in a psychic, it could very well cost him his re-election next year. Benton was a small community. Nothing stayed a secret for long. By the end of next week, rumors, if not the whole story, would be all over the county. If this unit failed to turn up Paige Heeley, Brice could more than likely kiss his office goodbye.

If this psychic bloodhound turned up the missing little girl, Brice didn’t give a damn about his office. Paige was just four years old, and Brice would gladly take the heat once the family was reunited.

The entire idea of a psychic being helpful still stuck in the back of his throat. Swallowing that concept was going to require some hard evidence.

This one might be different. Whatever his own feelings about the paranormal aside, he was left with one hard fact—the United States Army didn’t tend to waste its time.

For some reason, this woman was part of a Ranger unit. Brice was about to wager a great deal on her being half as good as the rumors he’d heard about her.

Now if they just managed to turn something up. Brice had every able-bodied man out searching, and they hadn’t turned up so much as a hair ribbon. After two weeks, any hope of recovering the child alive was almost gone. The forests surrounding them were one-hundred-percent unforgiving.

Well, Brice wasn’t ready to give her up to the mountains. Paige Heeley was out there and maybe, just maybe, he had found the means to finding her.

Maybe it was simple frustration that drove Grace to seek out the vision again. Maybe it was pure distaste for the stale confines of her motel room. Whatever the cause, Grace slid from the bed just half an hour after lights out and sat poised on her knees while she tried to assemble the bits of feeling she held into a recognizable picture. It needled her, refusing to be completely shut out by the walls surrounding her. Like a song that you could almost hear, the melody was familiar but the lyrics were muffled.

Major Jacobs could get his six hours of sleep. She knew better than to care about a mission, but she’d already committed the sin of curiosity. Letting that small scrap of emotion get into her head was going to keep any type of sleep well and truly separated from her tonight. Part of her just didn’t care about the consequences.

There was too much emotional bleed-out from the community. Anger, fear, hope and half a dozen other feelings were floating through the night. Grace couldn’t just feel it—she was almost drowning in it. She inched closer to the window and the night air blew in. Chilly and full of the scent of the forest, it filled her senses and turned the volume of the music up to full blast.

Grace forced her mind into sharp control. She needed to focus to keep it all from blurring. This time, the connection with her mind was clear. The vision blossomed into full color commanding her complete attention. It was like a bubble and she happily stepped into it.

She could see every single hair on her target’s head. The emotion of curiosity crumbled away and left Grace with the unmistakable feeling of need. Her vision wasn’t a target any longer. It became a child, and Grace could see her as clear as day. The night was literally singing. Grace was impatient to become a part of the harmony.

Holding the vision at bay, she stood and moved toward the room’s door. Her feet faltered as she sensed one of the Rangers. There was always a perimeter sentry posted at night. The spinning, music-filled bubble floated away from her, dropping her harshly into reality.

It was like being kicked in the gut. She wanted to get back inside the vision, needed it with the same force of an addict’s addiction.

Slipping alongside the window, she pulled the curtain away a bare inch to catch sight of the man. It wasn’t that she held any true dislike for Clark, but the man thought she was a witch. He wasn’t alone in that. Half the men that made up Jacobs’s unit thought she was some sort of devil’s handmaiden.

Tonight, the ugly label stirred her temper. She didn’t want to share the pure innocence of her vision with men that wanted to condemn her as a heathen. She wanted to connect with this child, immerse herself in the uncomplicated bliss of early childhood.

The unit could be damned. Grace wasn’t in the mood to be judged and she wasn’t going to wait for daybreak. Reality stung while the vision promised bliss. She concentrated on escaping. It wasn’t about right or wrong, reconnecting had become a need.

One she intended to feed.

The feel of the truck was as suffocating as the motel room had been, but Grace needed the machine and the speed it could give her. She forced herself to maintain enough of her rational mind to control the vehicle.

It wasn’t what she wanted.

This vision was almost painfully clear. For some reason, she was drawn to it with absolute dedication. She really didn’t care what repercussion might result from following her instincts.

Reality was too harsh. She didn’t want to ignore the opportunity to indulge herself in something else.

The sweet blue eyes were so clear. Innocence radiated from her in thick waves, that cheerful bliss that children alone seemed to have rights to.

Something Grace didn’t have any memories of anymore. Details of missions and more missions crowded inside her head until there was no room for anything else.

She was sick unto death of it.

Reaching the end of the road, Grace abandoned the truck. She preferred to walk anyway. The smell of the forest was rich with life, intensifying the clarity of her link with Paige. She took only a moment to grab the most basic of survival gear and shrug the backpack on.

Now she could follow her yearnings. Let them take her away from the dull ding of reality.

The slight sound of the night creatures kept her company as she moved through the darkness. Time melted away as Grace gave her attention completely to her link. It had been so long since Grace’s tracking skills had led her to anyone that she’d wanted to find.

Grace’s fascination with her vision made her pace swift. There was still an hour remaining until dawn when she stopped in front of her target. While her vision of Paige was overwhelming in its sweetness, the wall that surrounded it reeked of something different. Just exactly what intruded eluded her grasp, but it was enough to cause a wave of wariness to cross her mind. Casting her eyes over the cabin that sat some two hundred feet away, Grace drew back from Paige for a moment.

She might not like reality, but it had its uses when it came to not walking into a trap. Her muscles ached but Grace ignored her fatigue. Something else was here.

And it stank of hatred.

Considering her target, she probed further into it. Emotion was twisted around the cabin in front of her like a squid’s tentacles. Maybe Grace found the target desirable, but that didn’t mean she was going to walk into a kidnapper’s hideout.

Besides, the emotions and the facts weren’t making sense. Why would someone abduct a child if they hated her? Murder was the obvious result of such a blaze of emotion.

Grace ran an eye over the surrounding forest. The cabin was quite literally in the middle of nowhere. Paige wasn’t going anywhere. The clouds were beginning to lower again with the promise of rain.

Perfect. A good downpour would cover Grace’s tracks very efficiently. Time was something she needed. Time to watch and listen.