Flirting With Fate (8 page)

The computer beeped, prompting him for the
password. He typed the letter-number combination he’d watched the scientist
give and released his breath when it worked.

Now for the hard part: Looking for evidence that
these specialists weren’t just making babies but making Specials.

The first twenty files he opened held nothing out
of the ordinary. They appeared to be patient profiles, employee memoranda,
treatment plans for various infertile couples.

Then he hit a password-protected folder labeled
MARTIN.

He stuck his memory stick in the drive and copied
all the files—even Martin’s protected files.

“Oh my God,” Josie said.

Tanner turned and she was blinking down at a file.
“What is it?”

She looked up at him and back to the file. “I—”

The alarm chirped and a door slammed at the end of
the hall.

Josie dropped the folder. The steps in the hallway
grew closer.

“We have to get out of here,” he whispered, but
then he looked down and saw his picture. No, not his picture.

“What are you doing here?”

Tanner looked up. There was a man inside the lab.
How did he get down the hall so fast?

Tanner looked for alternate exits, but the man
narrowed his eyes at him. “Who are you and what are you doing here?”

Tanner gaped, realizing his invisible shield had
dropped. How had that happened?

The man grabbed Josie’s arm and whipped her around
to face him. “Who—” He froze.

Josie blinked at him.

Tanner, taking advantage of the man’s temporary
paralysis, decked him. The man went down. Tanner grabbed his memory stick and
the folder, and he and Josie headed for the door.

When Tanner pulled his truck up to Josie’s
apartment complex, he let the engine idle, but she refused to take the hint.

“Did you ever know him?” she asked because she
didn’t need it spelled out for her. The man in the file was Tanner’s father.

“No.” Tanner didn’t look at her and his tone left
no question about his mood.

He didn’t want company, and he didn’t want to talk
about it.

“You had a rough childhood, didn’t you?” Josie’d
be damned if he was going to push her away when he needed a friend.

Tanner closed his eyes. “You could say that.”

“Did you know your mom?”

“I was five when she decided her next drug fix was
more important than her son.”

Josie clasped her hands together, resisting the
urge to touch him, comfort him. He didn’t want comforting.

“She didn’t fight it when CPS put me into the
foster care system.”

“Where is she now?”

Tanner shook his head and set his jaw.

Josie studied him for a minute, trying to think of
the perfect thing to say. Something that expressed her gratitude for all he’d
done for her this week. Something that let him know she had a clue what he was
going through.

His eyes stayed glued to the dash.

“Tanner,” she whispered. And then, because she
didn’t know how to say what she was thinking, she unbuckled her seatbelt and
turned to him. She brushed his chin with the tips of her fingers, nudging him
to look at her.

When he did, the pain in his eyes shot down to the
pit of her stomach and erupted until she felt it in her throat.

The folder rested behind Tanner’s seat and held a
picture of a man who had to be Tanner’s father. The man’s name was printed
neatly on the back of the picture and his signature was scribbled at the bottom
of the form.

She opened her mouth to say something. But what?
How did you apologize to a man whose parents had wanted him enough to seek
fertility treatments but not enough to keep him?

Since there was nothing to say, she leaned into
him and pressed her lips against his. He simply breathed against her for a
moment, then slipped his hands into her hair. He kissed her back with a hunger
that might have scared her if she didn’t understand it so well.

This was a kiss of someone who felt completely
alone in the world. The kiss of someone who had lost every connection to his
identity. She knew because she was the same person, kissing him the same way.
She parted her lips, took his face in her hands, and returned all the fear and
desperation with her own.

She withdrew and ran her fingers down the side of
his face. “Do you want to come in with me?”

His smile was forced. “For a pity fuck?”

She flinched at the glacial coolness in his voice.
“Would that be so bad?”

His gaze trailed over her body, and his eyes grew
hot before they returned to hers. He grabbed her wrist and yanked her to him.
With a hand fisted in her hair and another pressed against her back, he kissed
her again.

This time, none of the vulnerability from before
flavored the kiss. This kiss was a kiss of a man who knew what he wanted and
went after it. This was the kiss of a man who would make your toes curl and
your inhibitions shatter as you explored every physical sensation the body
offered.

When he broke the kiss, they were both breathing
hard.

“When I’m inside you for the first time,” he said,
tilting her chin up with one finger, “it’s not going to be because you feel
sorry for me.”

No, she didn’t imagine it would. She ran her
tongue over her swollen lips. Her thighs already wanted to spread for him.
Moisture gathered between her legs, and she could hardly get her mind off the
needy pulsing of her clit ready for his touch. That had nothing to do with
pity.

“Good night, Wiley,” she said.

She was still thinking about the kiss when she
unlocked her apartment.

When I’m inside you for the first time...

It was a promise she suddenly prayed he’d keep,
and she was so lost in the fantasy of it that she didn’t register that her
apartment had been torn apart. She didn’t even notice the intruder until he’d
slammed her face-first into the wall.

“Where’s the journal?” A man’s voice. Deep and
agitated.

She choked back a whimper, but pain shot down her
jaw and arm, red-metal hot. “Take my money,” she said. “There’s a safe in the
bedroom with five hundred cash.”

He slammed her against the wall again and she
cried out. “I don’t want your fucking money. Where’s the journal?”

She tried to turn to see her attacker—who knew
about her mother’s journal?

He punished her for trying to get a glimpse of
him, ramming his knee into the small of her back.

She wanted to double over, but he held her still.
Her purse hung from her arm. She’d slid the journal in there before she’d left
tonight.

Could she find enough strength to pull it against
her chest and run?

As soon as she thought it, he’d ripped her purse
from her arm. “See? How hard was that?”

He pressed his palm against her forehead. “This
never happened,” and she could feel his energy change, knew, as well as she
knew her arm was broken, that he was a Special and he was going to erase her
memory. She fought against him. She would not forget the man who stole her
mother’s journal—the only meaningful piece of her family she had left.

The next thing she knew, some invisible force was
pulling her attacker off her and throwing him out the front door.

Tanner materialized in front of her. “You okay?”
he asked, breathless.

She managed a nod, and Tanner turned back to the
door, but just as quickly as Tanner had appeared, her attacker had disappeared.

When the nurses wouldn’t let him accompany Josie
back in the ER, Tanner had done what any reasonably concerned friend would do.

He’d discreetly made himself invisible and
followed anyway.

Her skin was already beginning to bruise on the
right side of her face and a series of X-rays had revealed a nasty break in her
right arm. After the doctor had set it and put it in a cast, a police officer
was sent in to take her statement.

The man was looking at his paperwork when he
walked into the examination room, but blinked and took a step back when he saw
Josie.

Josie had that effect on guys when she was in her
Stiletto Girl get-up, but not when she was dressed like a cat burglar and
looked like she’d been hit by a Mack truck.

This wasn’t the reaction of a man who was just
attracted to Josie. Tanner narrowed his eyes. Sadness mixed with lust and
regret. This was the reaction of a man who recognized an old flame.

The officer looked back down at his paperwork and
when he looked back up, he’d wiped away any sign of his reaction to her. “Josie
Bovard?” he said, as if he expected her to correct him.

Josie nodded. “That’s my name.”

The officer held out a hand, a half smile on his
face as he looked at her through narrowed eyes. “Sergeant Greyly,” he said.

He was one of those smooth guys who looked at
women like he’d already seen them naked—and completely approved. He had one of
those smooth-guy smiles that said he’d like to do it again.

Tanner hated him immediately.

“I wish I could say it’s nice to meet you,” Josie
said, “but you’ll understand if those aren’t my sentiments.”

“Of course,” Greyly said softly. “Listen, we’ll
get through this as fast as we can so you can get home and get some rest.”

Josie smiled and melted into her chair a little.
Jealousy burned through Tanner’s veins. For six months, he’d tried to get her
attention and not once had she looked at him like she was looking at Greyly
now.

That was, until he’d kissed her. He smiled. She’d looked
at him differently after he’d kissed her. He’d have to do that again.

“Can you describe what happened?” Greyly said.

Josie licked her lips. “I walked into my apartment
and someone was there.” She shook her head. “I should have seen him, but I
didn’t realize I wasn’t alone until he’d thrown me against the wall.”

“Did you see him at all?”

“I tried but he was strong. Really, really
strong.”

Tanner knew what Josie wasn’t saying. She was
professionally trained in the martial arts and strength trained several times a
week to keep in prime condition for Stilettos, Inc. Even though her strength
might not match that of a well-conditioned man, it would take a man much
stronger and more agile than average to overpower Josie’s maneuvering.

“You’re sure it was a man?”

Josie smiled. “I like that you don’t just assume
strength equals male. Kudos to you, Sergeant.” Her smile dropped and her face
turned like she smelled something vile. “His voice was really deep, and…” She
closed her eyes. “He was turned on. I could feel his…erection…I could feel it
against my back.”

So the prick got off on beating on girls and
throwing them against walls? If Tanner hadn’t already been set on finding the
guy and pounding the shit out of him, that would have done it.

Greyly took a note and moved his hand down his
form. “Did he say anything? Give you any indication of what he wanted?”

Josie met Greyly’s eyes. “No.”

If Greyly could tell she was lying, he didn’t give
any indication. But Tanner knew.

What the hell was she hiding now? What had the guy
wanted? Tanner would bet money the intruder had been a Special. There was a
general consensus among Specials that they should keep their existence a secret
until the time was right. Of course, the Ascendants didn’t see it that way, but
even they wanted certain controls in place before they revealed themselves to
the rest of the world. Namely, they wanted to be controlling it.

“I told him where my money was, but he said he
wasn’t there for my money.” She closed her eyes. “I hate to imagine what would
have happened if my friend hadn’t come up to the apartment and thrown him off
me.”

Tanner clenched his fists.

She wasn’t lying about that. He could see in her
face that her relief was real, and Tanner’s stomach had been churning with the
same thought all night. He’d been too tied up in his own grief to see her up to
her apartment, and none of this would have happened if he’d gone in with her.

“Do you know of anyone who would have a reason to
want to hurt you? Anyone who wants something you have?”

Josie shook her head.

“And what happened when your friend appeared?”

“Tanner threw the man off me. He asked me if I was
okay, and when he turned around to get the man, he’d run away.”

Greyly looked at Josie’s arm and frowned. “I’m
sure you haven’t had a chance to look through your apartment, see if anything’s
missing?”

She shook her head again. “Came straight here,”
she said, attempting a smile.

“What were you and your friend—what’s his name
again?”

“Tanner Wiley,” she supplied.

He studied her, almost sadly. “And Mr. Wiley
is…your boyfriend?”

Tanner willed her to say “Yes.” He wasn’t deluded
about his relationship with Josie, but he sure as hell didn’t want Greyly
pursuing her.

Josie opened her mouth, closed it, then tried
again. “Our relationship is complicated.”

Greyly flashed her another charming frat boy smile.
“Yeah, I understand complicated. What were you doing that got you home so
late?”

Josie blinked at the officer.

“When someone comes home at four in the morning to
find their apartment ransacked and an intruder there, we have to wonder where
that person was in the preceding hours. Who would have known you’d be away from
home last night?”

Tanner held his breath as he waited for her
answer. She’d need to be careful. They didn’t have an alibi for tonight and
wouldn’t want to give Greyly any reason to connect them to the break-in at the
fertility clinic.

“Tanner and I were at his place.” She chewed on
her bottom lip and looked up at Greyly through her lashes. “At which point we
quickly get into the
complicated
part.”

Tanner released his breath. What was he worried
about? She was a pro.