Of Shadow Born Read Online Free Page A

binoculars without a care. He had his hands in Farris’s shirt and the other man pulled up onto his toes in a second, their faces so close he could count beads of sweat on his startled partner’s face. “Who. Is she?”
    Kade heard Farris’s swallow and watched his pulse kick like a panicked rabbit’s in the hollow of his throat. The other man got his hands up between them, palms flat against Kade’s chest, a little cushion of space. “Which she are we talking about right now, buddy?” His voice hummed with nerves. “Your girl or mine?”
    In the moment, he’d forgotten the lively little companion. Hell, in the moment, he’d apparently lost his mind. He let go of Farris and pivoted away, taking a breath, taking a second to get his head on straight. This. This was why he didn’t work with partners. This was why a new assignment was destined to fail. He didn’t belong in the field with his mind playing tricks on him. What had just happened was more than impossible. It was crazy.
    And yet his nerves were still singing, demanding he do something. “I don’t know.” He tried to keep disgust out of his voice. Failed and went on anyway. “Both of them. Neither. It doesn’t matter. I’m not doing this.”
    “She’s your assignment,” Farris countered. He didn’t give an inch when Kade glared down at him again. He gestured toward the distant pier. “The woman. The one who just freaked you out for some reason? Her name’s Melanie Kendrick. She’s the job.”
    No. Yes. It made sense and he didn’t want it. It couldn’t be this easy to draw him back in. “How do you know? You don’t know,” he accused. “I didn’t tell you which one I meant.”
    Farris shrugged, then stooped to pick up the binoculars, inspecting them with a faint frown before glancing up again. “I’m good at guessing. I also know only one of them is on target.” His lips quirked into a lopsided smile. “And if you’ve suddenly got a thing for Noura, we’re going to have words, partners or not.”
    Kade balled his hands into fists, dug his nails into his palms. He wasn’t ready to joke and laugh. He still had ghosts to deal with. He still had things to prove.
    He could still feel her gaze on his, feel the pull to find her. Help her. Save her.
    He closed his eyes. He could give in and follow his instincts or he could destroy himself. Wanting to deny the truth didn’t make it so. He’d committed in that first half-second when their eyes met and there was no going back. “Tell me.”

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Three
    Melanie stayed silent all the way back to the office. Noura fussed at her for clamming up and threatened to call an ambulance if she didn’t say something, but what would she have said? That she’d had a moment with someone she couldn’t see but had to find?
    Being outside in the sunlight had definitely helped for a while. She was breathing easier, laughing with Noura. She didn’t even mind the hot dog vendor’s horrible pick-up lines. Noura’s easy laughter in response kept Melanie smiling, until her paranoia had come crashing down again.
    No, not paranoia. Earlier that morning, yes, perhaps she could have put that name to the unexplainable feeling she was being studied. On the pier, though, she’d confirmed someone was watching her. For a moment, she swore she caught a glimpse of him. Tall and dark and inviting her to huddle in the safety of his shadow.
    She couldn’t admit that.
    That sounded crazy, and though she might have lost her mind, it wasn’t something a smart employee admitted out loud. She needed this job, yes, but more to the point, she loved her job, and she wasn’t going to risk it over a minor psychotic break.
    So despite the itch to go back to her project and figure out what exactly she’d been piecing together, which would ordinarily have soothed her jangled nerves, she made an important decision. She wasn’t going back into the lab, to lose herself in her work and ignore