“You can’t do that,” the other one protested. “That’sillegal!”
Before panic could take hold of them, both went rigid in their seats, eyes wide and glazing over as they stared blankly ahead. Kyle glanced at Katie, watching as her brow furrowed slightly inconcentration.
Ready?sheaskedhim.
Always,Kylesaid.
Her presence in his mind expanded, tangling through his thoughts and pulling him into a strangely out-of-body experience for a brief moment. Kyle closed his eyes as images cascaded through his mind, foreign memories and trace thoughts that didn’t fit right in his head. They sucked him under, the world shifting as he looked through someone else’s eyes in the past. He felt the shift in his stomach as his head throbbed from Katie’s telepathy. The ache lasted only a second before Kyle’s own healing power wipeditaway.
The foreign memories were blurry at the edges, fast-forwarding through moments of time that had no relevance to the situation at hand until the car was driven into the parking garage tower. Kyle frowned, straining against the hold Katie had on his mind as he tried to force his brain to work in a way it couldn’t. He didn’t care about the lead-up; he wanted to see hisbrother.
We need to see it from the beginning,Katiesaid.
Kyle reluctantly relented, drifting along at the mental pace Katie set. Watching the event unfold in his mind was surreal and left him feeling helpless as he watched the women park and check that their neuro-jammer gun and the high-powered tranquilizer gun were fully powered andloaded.
In his mind’s eye, they got out, chatting and laughing about a party that night which didn’t exist, keeping a discreet eye on Alexei and Sean as they walked past. Kyle had the absurd desire to yell a warning at them even though he knew what he was seeing had happened yesterday. Trying to save them in someone else’s memory wasuseless.
His hand in the memory lifted the tranquilizer gun, aimed with a sureness Kyle could feel in his fingers, and pulled the trigger. She hit true, and Sean went down, stumbling into Alexei, who caught him. Fire exploded in the air between the women and Alexei, but even before it reached where they stood, her partner in crime fired the neuro-jammer gun. The airborne fire dissipated into nothing with no power or control to keep italive.
Kyle had a moment—frantic and furious—where he wanted tokill. Watching Alexei go down hard hadn’t been easy to watch, and Kyle had no outlet for his fury and pain. The reaction was more hindbrain instinct than anything else, and after a few seconds, he was able to shove it to the background of histhoughts.
The two women hurried toward the sprawled bodies on the garage floor as an SUV came skidding out of the nearest exit. It braked to a hard halt nearby and four men who weren’t Cillian or Declan got out. They were definitely associates, either Sons of Adam or ex-employees of North StarInternational.
“Good job,”the driver grunted as he hooked his hands underneath Alexei’s armpits to lift him up.“Now get out of here. The loop will only hold for another five minutesorso.”
“What about payment?”her partnerdemanded.
“Payment will be wiredtonight.”
The women didn’t stick around. Kyle only got a bare glimpse of the men carrying Alexei and Sean’s unconscious forms to the SUV before the memory dissolved once she turned her back on them. Kyle opened his eyes, blinking away the spots that floated across hisvision.
Kyle felt Katie release the women from her power. Both of them seemed dazed and ill, but Kyle didn’t care. Katie rapped her knuckles on the table, catching the JAG Corp representative’sattention.
“They’re all yours,”shesaid.
Kyle clenched his hands into tight fists as they left the interrogation room, wishing they’d come away with more. A name, an address, something or anything that could help them track where Alexei and Sean had been taken. He had no doubt the SUV in question was probably abandoned and swapped out for a different vehicle out of sight of CCTV security within fifteen minutes or less after the kidnapping had happened. Kyle felt an overwhelming sense of guilt for not being there to watch his brother’s six, despite knowing it was misplaced. In all the years he’d carried it, guilt had never been a rationalthing.
“Well?” Nazari wanted to know as the door slid shutbehindthem.
Katie shook her head. “No leads on where they were taken, but those two in there were part of the initial kidnap. I’ll write up an affidavit regarding their memories. They got the drop on Delaney with a strong sedative tranq and used a neuro-jammer gun on Dvorkin. Some of Declan’s men put them in an SUV and drove out ofthere.”
No one spoke for a long moment, the silence draped over everyone like a weight. The desire to call Jamie cut straight through Kyle, settling in his chest with an ache his power couldn’t touch. But Jamie was in Boston, tied to his family and trying to keep his father safe. It didn’t matter that the director had finally updated Jamie on the situation this morning. Jamie couldn’t return and lead the team when the entire country expected him to stand by his father’s side at the campaignrally.
That didn’t stop Kyle from wanting to feel Jamie’s arms around him, to lean into thatstrength.
“Sir.”
The clear soprano voice drew everyone’s attention. Kyle turned around and blinked in surprise at the newcomers. Mercedes, the MDF’s second-strongest telepath, headed toward them with Phaedra at her side, one slim arm draped protectively over the young girl’sshoulders.
Mercedes’ riot of honey-colored curls framed her head like a halo, green-hazel eyes standing out in her medium-brown face. She was in uniform, and when she came to a stop, she saluted the directorcrisply.
“Sir, you need to know what Phaedra has seen,”Mercedessaid.
“She’s a minor, Gaouette. Please tell me you haven’t broken the law where Ms. Armstrong is concerned?” Nazari asked in a deceptively mildvoice.
Despite not even coming up to Kyle’s chin, Mercedes wasn’t fazed at all by Nazari’s piercing stare. “No, sir. She acted on her ownaccord.”
Phaedra was looking more than a little wide-eyed, chewing at her bottom lip nervously, the skin there ragged. Kyle stepped forward and opened his arms, all the silent permission she needed to dart in for a hug. Phaedra twined her skinny arms around his waist and hugged him tightly, forehead digging into hischest.
