Parallel Desire Read Online Free Page B

business down here isn't finished. I have to find Jake Tierny, the one who murdered Hope in the future, and stop him from killing her again—in this timeline."
    She nodded thoughtfully, but still he knew that some kind of snappy retort would be forthcoming. The only surprise was that it took about fifteen seconds, not two. "So, sir, you were what? Just renting that body back in Wyoming? The one that still belongs to Scott Dillon? That wasn't you?"
    He flopped back against the pillow, staring at the ceiling. "Where is this going?"
    "I'm just trying to be clear on why you won't go by your proper name, that's all, sir."
    Jake bolted upright in bed, clasping Shelby's arm tightly. His fury always simmered just beneath the surface, ever since the day of Hope's murder at the hands of the real Jake Tierny. "I died when I took his body," he snarled. "Don't ever ask about it again. Do you understand?"
    She met his steely gaze with an unwavering, purposed one of her own. Never flinching, never backing down. "Understood, sir."
    "And don't call me sir. Not for the reasons you're doing it."
    "You weren't still serving our king in the future?"
    Of course he had; and he'd been a lieutenant, too—but she was trying to make him into Scott Dillon, someone he'd long ago ceased to be. "Call me Jakob. Or Jake. Either one, and I'll answer."
    She chewed on her lip, glancing down at where he still clasped her arm. He released her, holding a palm up to indicate his desistence.
    "I've got some aspirin for you," she volunteered, popping to her feet. In a few seconds, three tablets were extended toward him in the center of her palm, and a bottle of water was held out with the other.
    "You take nursing pretty seriously, huh?" He downed the medication, tossing his head back.
    "Very seriously. But there's one thing I'm even more serious about, and that's following my king's directives."
    Jake lifted an eyebrow. "That again?"
    "If you aren't going to come back with me, I need to know what to tell him. I know you, sir, and I also know how you love Jared Bennett. I can't imagine you'd want to hurt him or defy him—not at all."
    And of course she had him strung up like a roped calf. He sat up in bed, leaning his back against the wall. "What did Jared say exactly?"
    Shelby walked across the room to a desk and pulled a chair out, and then she dropped into it right beside his bed. "Well"—she drew in a breath, and he guessed it was because she wouldn't stop talking anytime soon and needed to store up—"our lord has been increasing with his intuitive abilities since our queen became pregnant. They're tuned to each other, their respective gifts heightening." She sucked in another breath and dove back in. "Anyway, he's been plagued by bad visions concerning you, quite frankly, sir—uh, Jakob."
    "Bad visions, huh?" He rolled his head against the wall and wished like hell that the aspirin would start their work. "That's pretty general, Medic Tyler."
    "Call me Shelby."
    "Shelby, why should bad visions concern me? My whole damned life is a bad vision at this point."
    There was a long, heavy silence, so profound it caused Jake to open his eyes again. "He's foreseen your death, Jakob," she told him softly, her gaze never wavering from his face. "Here in Texas. It's why he wants you back."
    Jake returned her stare for several silent moments, then sat up in bed. "All right, fair enough. But before you insist that I return with you, there are a few things I need to show you first."
    S helby stared at the battered wallet and other documents that Jake had spread across his desk. They'd left her motel room, riding in his mud-encrusted pickup to his place on the far side of town. If you could call Hell's Creek a town. More like an opportunity—or a state of mind—but surely not a real town, not from what she'd seen so far. It was a windy dust bowl dotted by sagging doublewides, abandoned storefronts, and a main street that consisted mostly of