Then the body had been found.
The damn dreams. Sometimes they came to her right before a death, teasing her and making her believe that there was something she could do. Some way to change fate.
Other times, to torment her, they came too late. Minutes, hours after the death.
Too late to do anything but mourn the dead.
“D-don’t…l-leave…m-me…”
Too late. No, she still had to try.
Erin leapt out of bed. She ran for her closet and snagged the first pair of sweats she saw.
“Uh, Erin?”
Shimmying, she jerked them up. Then shoved her hands through the sleeves of a T-shirt.
“Little early for a jog.”
Erin spun around. “I have to leave.”
He blinked. The man looked sleep tousled. Blond hair mussed, eyes heavy-lidded, faint stubble lining his jaw.
She swallowed. Don’t mind waking up to that.
His gaze sharpened. “Where.” Demand, not question.
How to explain this? The long version? The one with all the twisted shit in her past and the roots of her father’s vision gifts—courtesy of her great-grandfather, a Choctaw shaman.
Screw it. Better to just cut to the chase. “I’m psychic, okay? Just like my dad.” Not exactly. “Look, if I don’t get to Old Dobbin’s Bend soon, a man’s going to die.” Could already be dead.
Old Dobbin’s Bend. When she’d turned away from the wrecked car, she’d known that road. She’d been on that winding track once, just last week. She’d ridden with a uniform out to question a witness. No mistaking that long, curving bend.
Jude stared at her for about five seconds, then gave a nod. “Right, then let’s get the hell to Dobbin’s Bend.”
Her jaw dropped. That was it? No questions, just go? “You believe me?”
He swung his legs over the edge of the bed. “Woman, you’re talking to a man who can shift into a tiger. Hell, yeah, I believe you.” He jerked on his pants. When had he brought those upstairs? “Now let’s get our asses over to Dobbin’s Bend.”
Hold on, Lee. The whisper slipped through her mind. The voice in her dream had belonged to Lee Givens, the attorney who usually pissed her off. But now, she was just scared for him.
Sure, Lee could be a real jerkoff, but he didn’t deserve to die alone.
No one did.
Chapter 7
Jude’s hands clenched around the steering wheel. “You sure this is the right place?”
His voice was cool, calm, but Erin’s shoulders tensed. “It’s the right place.”
She’d seen this exact road in her dream. Those trees. The broken pine.
This was the place.
“How long you been having dreams like this?”
Erin wet her lips. “Close to seventeen years now, but I don’t—I don’t have them that often.” If she had them every night, she’d go crazy. No question. “I only have them when…when I know someone—” Didn’t have to be an intimate knowledge, but it had to be someone she’d connected with in some way. The dreams were only about people who’d stirred her emotions, good or bad.
When her emotions were stirred, then the link, or whatever the hell it was inside of her, just clicked on. When it was time for someone she’d connected with to die, the death dreams came.
Her dad told her it was a gift. One passed through generations of his blood by the gods.
Gift? More like curse.
Her dreams sure hadn’t been enough to save him.
“So if you know somebody and—”
“They have to be close to death.” For the dreams to come calling, they had to hear death’s sweet whisper.
“Huh.”
Her brows pulled together. She didn’t know quite what that sound meant. Told him I was flawed. This death dream madness is just the tip of the iceberg.
She felt the glance he gave her. Questioning. Weighing.
She couldn’t worry about that now, not when—“Stop!”
He slammed on the brakes.
Erin shoved open her door and jumped out of the truck. This was the spot from her vision, she knew it. Her body hummed with energy. Here.
“Erin, wait!” The grind of the tires crunched as he pulled off the road behind her. A door slammed.
Her gaze raked the road. The rain had fallen so hard during the night, it would have washed away any signs—
“Sonofabitch.”
Jude saw the markings first. Figured, his senses were better than hers.
Ten feet up the road, then right over the edge…
They ran together, then they went over that edge.
The mud sucked at her tennis shoes, making gulping sounds like it wanted to eat her, but Erin powered on through the falling mist. The broken car was in her sights now.
How can he be alive?
The car had been smashed, crumbled as if by giant hands, then thrown away.
In the distance, the shriek of a siren sounded. Help was coming. The ambulance she’d called before she left her house was getting closer, fast.
Jude reached the car door first. The window was broken, shattered, and inside, Erin could see Lee’s bloody form.
“Lee!” He didn’t move.
“He’s breathing,” Jude said. “But I don’t know for how much longer.” His fingers curled over the side of the door, and he yanked.
The door broke loose and fell to the ground.
Erin crawled inside the car. “Lee! It’s okay. Help’s coming!” Still alive. Finally, she’d reached someone in time.
He flinched and gave a moan.
“It’s okay,” she said again. Voices floated to her. The EMTs. They were running down the ravine now, having the same trouble with the thick mud. But they’d get him out. They’d be able to save him. They could stop the bleeding.
Because his shirt was drenched with blood.
Too much blood. And it trickled from his forehead. From the gash that went too deep.
She swallowed. “You’ll be all right.” Lie.
His eyes opened. “T-Tommy?” Rusty, weak.
“What?” Erin swallowed, fighting to stay calm. “Lee, who—”
“L-love y-you, s-son…” His eyes fell closed. His breath came out in a soft rush.
“Lee? Lee!”
“His heart’s stopped!” Jude’s snarl. He stepped back and yelled, “Get your asses over here, now! He needs help!”
“Lee?” Her whisper.
Then Jude’s arms were around her and he hauled her back. A woman in a blue EMT uniform pushed by her, followed immediately by two men.