Dream Shadow Read online

  “She just knew where to go, just like that?” Brice scoffed.

  “Trust me, Brice. She found your kid,” Jacobs insisted in a low voice that was full of confidence. Too much confidence for Brice to dismiss because the major wasn’t a fool.

  “Fine. Except now I have two missing persons.”

  Which wasn’t promising at all.

  Twenty-four hours later, Brice’s jaw ached from the strain of clenching it. The storm was raging with full fury. Battling with freezing rain and mud up to his kneecaps had him critically short of patience. Jacobs’s confidence that his operative had found Paige Heeley wasn’t worth much if Grace didn’t show her face. What kind of Ranger took off without backup and didn’t check in? At the present moment, if Brice found her body lying dead on the forest floor he just might put another bullet into her for good measure.

  Damn it.

  Thunder rumbled across the sky before echoing over the mountainsides. Brice set his shoulders and climbed another ridge to scan the area below, a favorite among the backpacking community. People hiked through the area during the spring and built small shacks out of any wood that they could find.

  The temperature was dropping again, and the addition of a stiff wind caused Brice to once again curse at fate. Forcing himself up another mud-slicked hillside, he stared down at the lake below. A small shack sat ten feet from the shoreline. He reached for the radio microphone attached to his shoulder.

  “Allen, I’ve got another possible.”

  “Ten-four. Nothing here. I’ll move on to your location, Sheriff.”

  “Copy that.”

  Making his way down the slope, Brice kept his eyes moving. The forest was thick here and there was a good amount of dead wood on the ground. Something caught his attention in a half-fallen tree. It was standing at a fifteen-degree angle, having come to rest atop some large granite outcroppings. Drooping from the trunk of the redwood, the half-dead branches formed a curtain that ran for almost twenty feet. The hairs on the back of his neck prickled up, the feeling intensified with the knowledge he was completely in the open. He inched his hand toward his gun. His gaze slowly covered the curtain of rotting foliage, searching for the one thing that was wrong. He couldn’t find it, but the feeling that he was being watched wouldn’t fade.

  Brice curled his fingers around the butt of his pistol. A slight rustle of leaves drifted on the wind. The figure slowly formed from the wall of rotting tree. It was human, barely. Covered in half-dried mud with pine needles and dead leaves stuck into its head, it stepped from behind the branches, forcing Brice to take another look to convince himself that the tree itself wasn’t moving. The mud and grime even covered its face and all the way down its chest, but the eyes staring out from the filth were a startling emerald green.

  “Hold it right there.”

  Brice leveled his sidearm at it with a steady hand. He ran an assessing gaze over the figure, looking for gender clues. There was so much forest debris stuck to the person. The emerald eyes lowered to the weapon in his hand before returning to his face. The gun didn’t seem to worry the individual. The unconcerned stance seemed almost eerie. Not many people were that comfortable with a pistol aimed at them.

  “You’re not going to shoot me.”

  Maybe there was nothing much to identify her gender, but that voice certainly did. It was clear and almost honey-coated. Brice narrowed his eyes as he looked for the woman beneath the grime. Running his gaze down her length again, Brice noted the compact frame that would have allowed her to fit through a motel bathroom window.

  “Don’t be so sure about that. At the moment, the thought is appealing. You’ve got a hell of a nerve taking off without backup.”

  “I take off when I get a link because I don’t get to choose the timing of those connections.”

  “Since I called you in, you should have waited.” He dropped his gun back into its holster.

  “Oh…I see. A little disappointed you didn’t get to see the witch at work? Terribly sorry, Sheriff.”

  “I didn’t label you a witch.”

  But the snicker outside the motel came to mind, making it a lot easier to understand why she didn’t care about leaving her unit behind.

  “Can we sideline the hostility? I admit some of your unit has an attitude problem, but what matters at the moment is finding my missing citizen.”

  Brice considered his swamp creature. This sort of cover was applied for survival. Not a single millimeter of her skin showed. No hint of hair color. Instead, those intense eyes stared out at him from a mask of thick greenish, black mud. Applied in stripes, the different shades of mud formed an extremely effective camouflage. It was a skill only the elite of the armed forces ever learned. It should have looked ridiculous on a woman. Instead it made her enticing. Brice considered the surge of sexual energy that pulsed through his brain in response to her survival skills. Maybe the modern world might label him a savage for thinking that way, but Brice didn’t care. The truth was, a woman that radiated strength made a man itch to get between her thighs.

  “You’ve got a hell of an attitude for a Ranger.”

  “I’m not a Ranger.”

  “Meaning exactly what?”

  She looked more like an Army Ranger than half the men he’d watched Jacobs command that morning. Except for the rather full front of her shirt. Instead of a set of tight pectoral muscles, she clearly filled out her clothing with a pair of breasts. That sense of awareness caught Brice again as he considered the tight little nipples stabbing into the front of her shirt. Hunting brought out a primitive edge in the best of men. It looked like it brought out the same in this woman. Brice felt his nostrils flare slightly in response.

  “I’m an operative.”

  Males were such irritating creatures. They were control-seeking, career-hungry and always cock-led beings. Grace could see the arousal in his eyes. But she didn’t turn away just yet. There was an odd curl of excitement in her belly. His gaze dropped to her breasts and Grace felt her breath catch. She almost felt his eyes touch her. Grace didn’t think she’d ever been so conscious of a man’s gaze in her life. Her breasts actually lifted under his stare, making her shift as sensation coiled inside her belly.

  Grace turned away from him as she ducked back through the tree branches. The need to escape became pressing. There was too much aggression in this man. It bled off his body like a scent that she could smell.

  Grace reached for her burden with gentle hands. There was something almost hypnotic about this child’s innocence. She was actually going to miss her. Giving her over to the care of the local law enforcement was almost sad.

  An odd, unexpected instinct to love and be loved in return. There was no place for it in her life.

  Thunder rumbled in the distance as the wind whipped the tree branches. Angling Paige’s sleeping form against her chest, Grace adjusted the jacket that she’d wrapped around the child to shield her from the rain. Sleeping within the cocoon, Paige was oblivious to the cat-and-mouse chase being carried out.

  The sheriff was quickly following her, so she turned and emerged from her hiding place, causing the man to jump back before he collided with her.

  “And I’ll keep my attitude any way I like it. This case is finished. Here.”

  Grace thrust Paige forward, forcing him to grasp her or let her drop.

  The sheriff didn’t disappoint her. He closed his arms over his burden as he rocked back on his heels to avoid touching the grime Grace was covered with. She smiled as his eyes lit onto the fact that his current burden was also covered in mud and leaves.

  Brice drew his brows together. “It can’t be that simple…” Hefting the bundle into one arm, Brice moved the top of the fabric back to look inside.

  Brice sucked in his breath as he uncovered the small head of dirty blond hair. The child made a slight face as the cold night air rushed in at her. Brice flipped the jacket back over her head while settling her more firmly into his arms.

  “How in the h
ell did you find her?”

  Thunder cracked across the sky a bare second after Brice all but roared his question. Paige erupted into a screaming bundle of frantic movement. Brice ripped the jacket away but Paige squirmed out of his distracted hold.

  The second her feet hit the ground, she raced away from him at top speed. She disappeared behind Grace and clutched at her legs.

  “That was brilliant.”

  “Maybe you could have warned me before handing her off like that.”

  Grace considered the man in front of her. His face was tight with anger as his brown eyes moved over her again. There was a precise way he moved his eyes. The sharp edge didn’t miss a single detail. She might admire it, if she were in the mood to indulge any feelings about him.

  Which she wasn’t.

  “You asked for action, Sheriff. I delivered.” Grace reached for the two hands that were clamped onto her calves and lifted the child onto her back. The second Grace felt Paige wrap her arms around her collarbone, she set her feet forward. Paige’s laughter drifted up as Grace began to climb out of the ravine.

  “Piggyback! Piggyback! Piggyback!”

  The little girl bounced up and down with her chant. Paige had begun talking the second she could and had not stopped until she’d dropped off into sleep. The nap seemed to have recharged the child. Her small voice chattered about birds and trees and an infinite amount of other items.

  “Let me carry her.” Brice reached for Paige but pulled his hands back as she let out another ear-splitting scream. Grace twisted around to aim a scathing look at him.

  “I found her, I’ll carry her.” She made a perfect half turn and resumed her steady pace up the hillside.

  Unique wasn’t really the right word.

  Bitch came to mind but not completely in a negative way.

  Her steps were steady and strong. Brice watched her as she continued with Paige on her back without a hint of strain. Brice couldn’t think of a single woman he knew that was that well conditioned. At the moment, Jacobs’s operative wasn’t even breathing hard.

  It was a level of endurance Brice expected of every single man in his department. But seeing it encased in a woman half his size was slightly troubling. Shaking his head, Brice closed the distance between them. So the woman was in excellent physical condition. At the present moment, he ought to be thankful for it.

  Besides, it was a good three-hundred-yard climb to the top of the ravine. She was leaning forward just a bit to make sure Paige didn’t slip off her back. The posture gave him a clear view of her tight backside. Brice enjoyed the surge of arousal as it hit him again. This time, he felt his staff twitch and rise in appreciation. He was being a pig, but after two weeks of worrying about Paige’s fate, he welcomed the surge of sexual interest that proved life was returning to normal.

  Blissful silence was left behind as the last of the search units entered the emergency room. Grace watched the glass doors slide closed behind them and sighed with relief. Raising her face upward, she encouraged the rain to help rid her of some of the cover that clung to her body. She wiped her face and flung the leaves aside.

  Although it was cold, she enjoyed the feel of the rain as it worked its way to her skin. Life was contained inside the drops of water, and as they slid across her they seemed to confirm her own link with their never-ending cycle.

  The asphalt of the parking lot broke that circle as the water was forced to run off into storm drains. Grace opened her eyes and looked out into the dark forest. Despite the fact that she had recovered Paige, she still felt the call to return, but the summons was not nearly as strong as it had been the night she arrived. The news was getting out into the community, releasing the tension that had held it.

  Still, something lingered. It was just as intense but coming from far fewer people, which decreased the volume.

  Grace lifted her gaze to consider the forest. Emotions were disruptive to her abilities. Feelings easily cut through the best concentration and always destroyed her mental links.

  Tonight was a blatant example of that lesson. She needed to sleep, yet her mind was still tossing the tangle of emotions around. Even the sheriff’s face was flashing around inside her head.

  A shiver shook her body. She was far too aware of the man. In fact, she recalled the details of his face. The way he’d used his eyes to touch every inch of her body. Not many men were that intense. Most were slaves to their lust. But this man enjoyed his inner beast. He’d wanted to look at her breasts and been pleased she’d noticed.

  Grace hissed softly under her breath as she considered wanting to see him again. The desire mocked her logic. But temptation was cruel. Grace felt her breasts tingle slightly with just the memory of his brown eyes.

  Whatever she might want, it was going to have to wait until she appeased her fatigue. Then her discipline could subdue her rash physical responses.

  Sitting down on the curb, she continued to enjoy the slide of the rain along her face. Buildings were stale. The walls blocked out every ounce of life. The very air became heavy inside their walls. Right here, there was the sweet sound of rain and the night was crisp and fresh. Pulling in another lungful, Grace sighed. Here, she could relax.

  No judgment. No performance rating.

  A second shiver shook her, closely followed by a third. Grace paid the evidence of her decreasing body temperature little attention. She was always cold after tracking a vision. Nothing would chase the chill from her body but sleep. Leaning her back against a large potted plant, she absorbed the last moments of clarity her weary mind could take in.

  Her ears drank in the sound of the rain as the smell of it filled her lungs.

  She did love the night, rainy ones the most.

  His third cup of coffee in hand, Brice turned the corner into the nurse’s station. His head dipped in a nod as the night staff sent a murmured bunch of greetings his way. But something about the hospital staff was subdued. Which didn’t make sense. They should all be elated with the outcome of the search-and-rescue mission. He was still having trouble absorbing the fact that his wild-card idea had paid off. Guess that meant he would have to lay off the psychic jokes out of respect. He still didn’t have a clue what Jacobs’s operative was, but normal definitely wasn’t it.

  The subdued feeling followed him into the emergency room. Raising the coffee to his lips, he ran accessing eyes around to discover the cause. Two orderlies stood to the side of the double-door entrance. With their heads pressed together, they whispered while staring out at something just beyond his view. Lowering the coffee, he stepped closer to the door to discover just what was causing the apprehension.

  Grace.

  In all the excitement she had simply escaped everyone’s notice. She sat on the curb with her back set against a large planter, completely oblivious to the downpour that was soaking her. Her crossed arms lay propped on top of her knees that she had drawn up to her chest. She was so still. Brice felt a prickle of worry run over him.

  Jacobs and his unit were searching the far north end of the county. They also used different radios so it hadn’t been until after he’d arrived at the medical center that Brice had made contact with them. Two nurses walked by, their heads turned in unison as they cast nervous looks outside.

  “For Christ’s sake. Hasn’t anyone even offered her a cup of coffee?”

  “That woman ain’t normal,” one of the orderlies remarked before making the sign of the cross over himself.

  “Look at her. Sitting out there like a penguin in a Jacuzzi. Don’t look like she wants any coffee to me.” Both orderlies refused to budge from their observation point.

  He’d known the local populous would get wind of the details, but somehow he just hadn’t expected such open animosity.

  “You know, Scott, there are times I’m ashamed to admit we have the same chromosome count.” Brice slammed his own coffee down before he grabbed his rain jacket and pulled it on. “She brought in our missing person. I’d think that was worth a litt
le common decency.”

  Maybe the woman wasn’t normal, but that didn’t mean she was some kind of witch. She was…well…unique.

  That was one word for it.

  Walking out of the door, Brice gritted his teeth against the chill in the air. Another ten degrees and they’d be plowing the roads come morning. Normal or not, the woman was still human. A chill would kill her as sure as the next person.

  He crouched down beside Grace. The rain had washed most of the dirt from her face, but the continued drenching was causing dirt to run out of her hair in muddy rivers along the sides of her face. She held her face angled upward into the rain to keep it out of her eyes. He studied her for any sign of life. He’d seen corpses that looked more alive than she did right now, but there was a slight rise and fall to her chest. So slight he almost missed it.

  There was no missing the shiver that shook her frame a moment later. Just why she elected to remain outside in the cold, he didn’t know. But she was going inside right now before she ended up in shock from exposure.

  “Grace?”

  Not even a flicker of an eyelash. Brice reached for her hand and gave it a shake. She reacted to the touch with the same violence that a pressure-activated land mine did.

  Brice was treated to a view of stunning emerald fury before she planted both feet squarely onto his chest and kicked him away from her body. She may have been small, but what there was of her was solid muscle.

  Reflex kicked in, causing Brice to brutally retain his grip on her body. Her attack sent him rolling across the asphalt, while his grip on her arm pulled her along with him. His brain reacted instantly to his vulnerable position. He flipped her over to her back before she had the chance to think.

  “Get off me!”

  “What’s your problem? I’m the one getting soaked now. When you kick first you have to expect violent reactions.”

  “Fine. My guard was down and I responded without assessing the situation. Get off me.”

  Her emerald stare was searing in its anger. Brice held it for a moment before pushing himself to his feet, pulling her along with him. The hospital parking lot wasn’t exactly the place to explore just what her body triggered in his own. Even if he liked hearing her say she’d responded to him. It wasn’t professional, wasn’t even acceptable in a modern world.