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Gray Vecello and Cooper Key are back in the last book in the Precog in Peril series. Snatched by PsiOps, a covert arm of the government, they’re offered training in exchange for their psionic help. Will they take the deal, and if they don’t, what will PsiOps do to them?
Gray and Cooper meet new friends and enemies in this final chapter of
the trilogy. The story takes the reader from New York City to Ely,
Minnesota, and back to Gray and Cooper’s marina in Red Wing, where they
will face the ultimate test of their powers. Someone will live… and
someone will die.
B&N
Excerpt:
Chapter 1
The sound of a key in the door made us
swivel our heads. The knob turned and the door was pushed open. My heart rose
in my throat.
“Oh, good, you’re awake,” said Jolly
Roger, eye patch firmly in place. “I think it’s time you met the real SOS.”
I was stunned... for about five
seconds. Then I said harshly, “You’re behind our abduction? Those were your men
who assaulted us outside Richard McCollough’s building?”
Cooper gasped softly and slid over
next to me. “We were snatched. You snatched us.”
The implications of his words were not
lost on me. When the SOS grabbed you, you weren’t seen again, or so the rumor
went.
Roger stepped into the room, gesturing
at someone behind him. A cart was wheeled in by a man wearing a skin-tight tank,
cargo pants, and boots. He parked it near the nightstand and left. Roger closed
the door behind him.
“Figured you’d be hungry by now.”
Fetching the desk chair, he set it down at the foot of the bed and straddled it
backwards, folding his arms across the top and fixing us with a sharp eye. “You
have questions. Ask them.”
Neither Cooper nor I reached for the
food. I gazed back at him with so much anger in my eyes, I’m surprised it didn’t
shoot out and burn him to a crisp. “You talk first. Start with why we’re here.”
I glanced around the room. “Wherever ‘here’ is.”
“You’re still in New York City. This
is a safe house we maintain.”
Cooper said, “Why do we need to be in
a safe house?”
“You don’t, really. It was convenient,
that’s all. A quiet place to talk.”
“We could have done that at our hotel.”
Roger snorted. “Yeah? So if I’d
strolled up to you on the sidewalk, you would have come with me without
question?” My sour expression told him my answer. “Yeah. That’s why I had you
brought here.”
“Are we prisoners then?” Cooper asked,
and I heard a tremor in his voice.
A surge of protectiveness went through
me and I wrapped an arm around him, drawing him close. He sagged against me and
I was grateful for his warmth.
Roger rolled his eyes. “I find what
might be one of the best psionic teams ever and just my goddamn luck, you’re
fucking fruit flies. Could you not touch each other, please? I find it offensive.”
“Fuck you,” I said clearly, taking
Cooper’s hand in mine. “You lied to us, betrayed us, shot us full of drugs, and
threw us into what has to be one of the ugliest rooms in the city. You don’t
have the right to tell us to do anything. Plus, you didn’t find us. Graham sent
us to you.”
“I want to leave,” Cooper said in a
small voice. “Can we go?”
Roger huffed a bit as he straightened.
“You’re not prisoners. You’re... guests of the federal government. We want to
talk to you about some things. I want
to talk to you.” His gaze went to the nightstand and then the floor. “This is an ugly fucking room. Better quarters
await, I assure you.”
“We don’t care. We want out,” I
insisted stubbornly. The smell of food was nauseating. Under the anger, I was
still scared. “I don’t understand what’s going on. I have to understand. Do you
hear me?”
“I hear you,” Roger said almost
soothingly. “I apologize for our methods in getting you here but you’ve already
admitted you wouldn’t have come voluntarily.”
“Who are you? Who’s ‘we’?” I asked.
“I work for a government division
known as PsiOps. You call us the SOS.”
“Arcanum isn’t SOS then?”
“No, they only think they are. Arcanum
is comprised of a group of the wealthiest people in the world. Three Americans
belong, as well as a man from China, someone from Japan, and an Arab from the
Middle East.”
“And they have an interest in people
with abilities.” I bit my lip. “They use them, right?”
“Pretty much. You met Damon Winter,
who works for Richard McCollough. He’s a good telekinetic.” Roger pointed a
finger at the cart and the silver lid lifted off a plate and floated in the
air. “So am I.” The lid spun lazily, stopped, and then whizzed off, crashing
into the nearest wall with a clatter. “My guys had to knock Winter out fast to
prevent him from using his ability on them.”
“You’re much better now than when we
met,” Cooper observed. “Or was the demonstration at the bar meant to convince
us you didn’t have much power?”
Roger grinned. “Very astute. Yeah, I
purposefully made you think I was still learning. Truth is, I’m very good at
wielding the power.”
His hand came up and a moment later,
Cooper was yanked away from me and lifted into the air, legs dangling a foot
above the bed. Roger held him there without effort while Cooper struggled impotently
against invisible hands.
“Put him down,” I ordered, fear
rocketing through me. “Please.” Roger lowered Cooper until he was once more
beside me on the bed. He collapsed against me, shaking. I was dazed, thinking
about the implications of someone with that much power walking around, and if
there was one, there had to be more. “Can Damon do that?”
Roger’s grin got toothier. “Yeah. Why
else would Arcanum want him?”
“Are we common then? People with
abilities?”
“Not at all. Part of PsiOps job―part
of my job―is to find you, try to
figure out why there are any at all. It’s still relatively rare and there are
people studying the phenomenon.”
“You told us you didn’t want to be
poked and prodded,” Cooper reminded him. “When we met, you said that’s why you
kept a low profile. You lied to us.”
“I stretched the truth. I do keep a low profile, and I was poked
and prodded plenty when I was in the Marines.” He leaned over the chair back
and narrowed his good eye at us. “But you know about that, don’t you?”
“We know you were in a special unit,”
I said. “You were observed moving a glass of water across a table and General
Pritchard brought this to McCollough’s attention.”
“McCollough didn’t tell you that so
you must have seen it on the plane.”
“How do you know he didn’t tell us?”
Cooper asked.
Roger blinked. “What?”
“You said McCollough didn’t tell us
about Pritchard. How do you know that?”
“Jesus!” I burst out. “His office is
bugged, isn’t it? Is that all you people do all day, eavesdrop on each other
and play games? Christ.”
Roger laughed. “It’s all a game, don’t
you know that? Every morning, McCollough has his office swept for listening
devices. His pretty little secretary, who works for us, plants a bug when she
brings in his morning coffee and removes it before going home at night.”
Appalled at the duplicity, I moved
back against the headboard, taking Cooper with me, belatedly realizing I was
trying to put as much distance between us and Roger as I could, not that it
would do us any good given the strength of his telekinesis. “You’re all
assholes, you know that? Why doesn’t he know you’re PsiOps?”
“The department is covert. Almost no
one knows about us.”
Shaking my head, I closed my eyes in
disgust. “So you work for both sides and collect two salaries.”
“Pretty much. It’s the American way,”
he said flippantly before getting serious again. “Look, I paid my dues. I
earned this. When they found out I could move things with my mind, they put me through
a series of tests, some of them painful, as they tried to figure out why I was
different.”
If Jolly Roger Dean, a marine trained
to withstand extremes, was saying the tests they used on him were merely
“painful,” I figured they’d probably come close to killing Cooper and me.
“That lasted a while. Hell, it lasted
too long. There was a time when I wondered if I might be crazy. Then they
ordered me to apply telekinesis in certain instances, on special missions. I
was in the Marines. I did what I was told.”
“But it pissed you off, so why are you
cooperating with them now? Why put us in the same position?”
A shadow crossed his face, so briefly
I couldn’t swear it had been there. “PsiOps recruited me straight out of the service.
They made it worth my while. I believe they’re doing good or I wouldn’t be here.”
“Shut up. I don’t want to hear any more.”
I couldn’t look at him.
He sighed and lightly tapped the top
of the chair back. “You’re not ready to listen yet.” He stood. “Think about
what I said. Eat, rest, I’ll be back later.” His eyes went to the cart. “The
food’s not poisoned, if that’s what you’re wondering. Neither of you are worth
a damn to me disabled or dead.”
Just before he walked out the door, I
said, “Is this room bugged?”
He paused, the muscles in his back
tensing. After a moment, he turned, crossed to the nightstand, and yanked
something free of the lamp. “It isn’t now.” He left quickly, slamming the door
behind him. I heard clicks as he locked it.
“This is fucking nuts,” I said
heatedly.
“Shhh....”
Cooper moved his lips against my ear. “I bet there’s more than one bug.”
“Damn it,” I hissed. “You’re probably
right.”
We tossed the room and found a small
square device with a tiny antenna in one of the bed rails. With great pleasure,
we took turns jumping on it until it was smashed flat. Then we flushed the
pieces down the toilet.
“That ought to do it,” I said. Having
exerted control, however limited, over our situation, and knowing we had to
keep up our strength, I added, “Let’s eat.”
Releasing 1/13: The Lightning Struck Tower, Precog in Peril, Book 3
Released 11/12: Knight of Wands, Precog in Peril, Book 2
Released 9/12: Three of Swords, Precog in Peril, Book 1
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