Shattered Souls Read Online Free

shirt where it bit into his thick neck. “If this is what I think it is,” she said, pitching her voice low, “in all likelihood, the killing ends here.”
    “How do you know that?”
    “Gut.” She shrugged, impatient enough to lie to be away from there. “You know, what you wanted me here for.”
    “Not good enough.”
    She dragged her arm away from his grip and flexed it. She’d have bruises. Kind of sexy. Her breath caught for just a moment. “I don’t have the kind of expertise you need to track this thing.”
    “But you know who does.”
    An image formed in her mind—musty bookshelves, gaslit spaces…her gaze slid away. “Maybe.”
    “Maybe’s all I’ve got.” His gaze continued boring into her.
    Cait could feel her will crumbling. The thought of working with him again was tempting. Damn, she’d missed him. Even surly like he was now, he made her feel alive.
    Although she hated admitting it, she wanted to agree just to spend time with him. But wouldn’t she just be opening herself up to more heartache?
    “I can’t guarantee a thing. It’s been a long time since I ran in those circles, and I burned some bridges.”
    “Take me along,” he said quickly. “Give me an introduction.”
    So he could dump her and go it alone? She lifted her chin. “I would have to make contact on my own.”
    Sam shook his head. “Not happening. Soon as I let you loose, you’re gonna head to the nearest bar. I might track you down in a day or two, but the trail will be cold. We go now.”
    One last time she wavered, stalling as she sought more arguments that didn’t sound like lame excuses. But wouldn’t working this case to find the monster responsible for Henry’s murder finally prove to Sam she hadn’t lost it two years ago? Maybe she couldn’t turn back the clock on their relationship, but she could prove she wasn’t nuts.
    “If I help you…” she said slowly, “if we do this…it has to be my way. There will be some places you can’t follow me.”
    His jaw flexed. “Fine. Since you’re laying down rules, I have just one of my own. No booze. Not for the duration of our investigation.”
    No booze! Her eyes widened, and she inhaled a deep breath. She doubted she could make that promise.
    Sam’s expression turned hard as granite. “I need your word on it, Cait.”
    She kept her gaze averted, firming up her mouth because the quiet intensity of his voice was doing a number on her. She wanted more than anything to feel his arms wrap around her and hold her close. Wanted him to make this all go away. In his presence for less than an hour and already she ached for what they’d had before the voices bested her.
    “Cait. I mean it. Not a drop.”
    She nodded, because she didn’t trust her voice and was ashamed he had to extract a promise like that in the first place.
    “All right,” he said, sighing. “Where to first?”
    “I have a friend. She might get me a bead on the man we need to see.”

     
    Sam set the mike back in its bracket in the dashboard of his car and turned to Cait. After a fifteen-minute drive, they’d parked outside a palm reader’s shop. The neon sign flashing above the door said “Psychic Inside.” He grimaced but was careful not to let Cait see. She was still grumbling over the fact he had become her shadow.
    Cait didn’t work well with partners. Not when it came to the woo-woo shit anyway.
    She’d just have to tough the situation out because too much was riding on this for him, personally and professionally, to let her out of his sight. The moment he’d heard her voice when he’d played back the message on Henry’s voice mail his heart had stopped. More than just a detective’s need to follow a clue had him hotfooting it to her apartment to confront her. He’d been more frightened than he’d ever been in his life that she might have been caught up in the violence that occurred in that room.
    Not until he’d stood over her still form as she slept, breathed in the