Priceless (3 page)

“
At least I can find them! More than you slackers ever manage
,
”
I snarled back. I hoped my breath smelled bad.
Damn, would flirting with this man really
work
?

“
Slackers?
”
His voice got soft, and I knew I touched a raw spot. I couldn
’
t help poking some more at it.

“
Glorified
donut-
eating cops. The only difference is you get to dress in Gucci
,
and the cops have hand
-
me
-
down uniforms.
”

His eyes nearly bugged out
,
and he grabbed me by the shoulders. I went limp in his hands.
“
Assault on an unarmed woman
,
O
’
Shea? Now that won
’
t look good on the old permanent record
,
will it?
”

He didn
’
t drop his hands, not right away.
“
Since when do you go anywhere without your blades?
”
He took his hands off my shoulders and flipped my jacket open
; his
fingers
brushed
underneath my breasts even,
sending a shot of awareness through me, the perv
. I let him. I certainly wasn
’
t going to tell him all my weapons were waiting for me in the Jeep. But I had nothing
on me
at the moment.

Wiping his hands on his pants
,
as if he
’
d touched something nasty, he said,
“
I know what you are
,
Adamson. You
’
re a fraud and a child killer.
”

I
’
d had enough of his tirade, enough of the memories he stirred up. I leaned forward
until
we were nose to nose again
,
and gave him the eye contact I knew most people couldn
’
t handle.
It was time to put Milly
’
s suggestion to the test.
When you have chocolate eyes laced with gold and emerald
green
, it either freaks people out or turns them on. I was
banking on them
freak
ing
him out.

“
You know what I think
,
A
gent O
’
Shea?
”
He blinked at me and I took advantage of the proximity of his lips. I planted a big fat kiss on him, slipping my tongue through his teeth and flicking it along the roof of his mouth. He didn
’
t fight me
, and
for a split second his lips softened on mine
, the taste of mint lingering on my tongue as I pulled away from him. O
’
Shea swayed,
and
t
hen scrambled away from me, dark eyes wide
.
His
hand
went
to his gun.

“
I think you just like to follow me around so you can watch my nice tight ass wiggle. You
’
ve been watching it for nearly ten years, haven
’
t you?
”
I blew a kiss at Mini-Me and hopped into my Jeep.

The kiss did what nothing else could have
, what nothing in ten years had managed
. It shut him up
. I
’
d be buggered, Milly was right!
I left from our encounter whistling a tune, a smile on my lips.

*-*-*-*

“
Slackers
,
”
O
’
Shea shouted,
and
then muttered under his breath when Martins, his new partner
,
scuttled away to his desk with wide eyes. O
’
Shea knew he was the talk of the office, knew the other Agents looked sideways at him for taking this obsession with Adamson to a whole new level.
Ten years he
’
d followed her, ten years he
’
d learned her habits, her training, even her taste in food. All so he could drag her down.
He didn
’
t care
what the other agents thought, never had, but knew it made life just that much more difficult when it came to getting the higher ups to agree to requisitions
. Taking slow breaths, O
’
Shea calmed himself, not wanting to admit the true reason for his anger.

That kiss had set him on fire. He could still feel it, the pressure of her lips, the dainty flick of her tongue over his. He let out a groan and slid into his chair. The worst thing possible for any officer of the law was to get hung up on a suspect, and that
’
s what Adamson was, a suspect. It didn
’
t matter that the case was cold.
It didn
’
t matter that there was literally no proof she
’
d killed her sister
;
he had a gut feeling something was off about her
,
and he was sticking with his instincts.

“
Hey, partner.
”

O
’
Shea lifted his eyes to see Martins fiddling with his tie, nerves coming through with every twitch of his fingers.
“
I was thinking, maybe we should tail her. See where she goes.
”

Shaking his head, O
’
Shea pointed to a tracking device on his desk that blink
ed
a muted red.
“
I
’
ve already tagged her Jeep. Goes on the fritz now and again, but we can follow her anywhere.
If it
’
s working.
”

Martins lit up like a freaking Christmas tree.
“
Awesome, let
’
s go then.
”

God, O
’
Shea hated the young ones. Had he ever been that ridiculously eager? Like a dog just waiting to be set on a bird?

The last thing O
’
Shea wanted was to see Adamson again. Auburn hair, gold, green and chocolate eyes that could skewer a man at ten paces
, not to mention a body lean and hard from
the rigorous r
egime she followed. He could still feel the brush of his hand under her breast
, and he clenched his fingers to fight of
f
the sensation
.

F
uck
!
H
is pulse hammer
ed
. He
’
d been after he
r
since she was sixteen
;
what had happened this time that was so different? He
’
d frisked her before
.
Running h
is hands through his hair
, he
tried to think about how she
’
d killed her little sister, but all he could see was the pain in her stunning eyes
w
hen he
’
d accused her of the crime.
How soft and vulnerable she
’
d looked in that moment.

Adamson
’
s little sister
’
s
body had never been recovered, but Adamson had run from the scene, gone into hiding for two weeks before they found her. Of course, they couldn
’
t make any of the charges stick, but he
’
d been trained to see guilt. And that was the whole crux of it. Adamson was guilty
.
H
e knew
it
, she knew it
;
the only problem was
he just couldn
’
t prove it.

Making a decision, he stood up.
“
Martins, let
’
s go. She
’
s not going to slip past us this time.
”

No matter how good of a kisser she was.

3

Before I went any further with the search, I did what had become more than a habit for me
—
something closer to a ritual. I had two stops to make. The first one was the local toy store,
“
Hannigans Shenanigans
,
”
where I purchased a large stuffed elephant. It was m
y required gift for the second location I was headed to.

The house I parked in front of could
barely
be called a house. A
shanty
or
a shack
was a better description; it had
just enough insulation to make it through the coldest part of our winters here in the badlands. The whole thing was on a slant, tilted crazily to the left, seemingly propped up by the pile of junk reach
ing
the eaves on that side of the house. The
floorboards
groaned under my weight and the smell of rotting wood filled my nose.

“
That you
,
baby girl? I thought I told you not to come around till your momma cleaned you up some. Crazy blue socks everywhere.
”
Her soprano voice echoed through the thin wood and I shook my head. Obviously not one of her more lucid days.

As far as adults went, Giselle was one of the few who had my sympathies. She was born with the ability to see a person
’
s past, present
,
and probable future. But just like a carpenter that only has so many hammer swings in him before his elbow blows
,
she only had so many viewings in her before her mind broke.

There isn
’
t a lot for me to say about Giselle. She
’
s a broken woman, still in her prime
,
but aged prematurely by her calling in life. Since her mind wandered
,
there were very few people she would see, but she had an affinity for stuffed animals. And I didn
’
t get all freaked out by the voices that showed up on occasion around her. Not ghosts, but some sort of leftover from
the
guides she
’
d acquired in life. Above all that, she was my mentor and the closest thing I had to a mother
now
.

“
It
’
s just me, Giselle. Rylee. I brought you a new stuffed toy. An elephant, I know you don
’
t have one of those.
”

I pulled the large grey
velvet-
covered elephant from behind my back. She came to the screen door
,
and I got a good look at her. I hadn
’
t seen her for some time
;
I
’
d been
so busy
with tracking that
at least a month had gone by
since our last visit,
and
the time
hadn
’
t been kind to her. She
’
d lost weight and there were patches of skin show
ing
through her clothes, skin that was
no longer
a healthy pink
,
but mottled and age
-
spotted. Dirty blond
e
hair pulled
back
into a severe bun, stretching her features even more, leaving her sunken cheeks and vacant brown eyes the only thing notic
eable
. My heart sank at the sight of her. I didn
’
t want to believe I was losing her to the madness
, even though she
’
d warned me about it when she
’
d first taken me under her wing
.

“
Rylee? Ah, I remember now. Rylee. Yes, come inside dear; show me what you
’
ve brought for Giselle.
”