New Revelations: Second Sight Book Two (16 page)

“Declan gave me a ride home,” she answered shortly.

Her mother made a noise that distinc
tly sounded like “harrumph.” Kate inquired
, “You don’t like him?”

“Well, I don’t really know him, honey. We
only met briefly the other day.
”
Her mother waved her off.

Like that mattered
, Kate thought
. Her mother could
nail someone’s character down in under a minute. One of the reasons she had confidence in her relationship with Jar
ed was because her mom held him in such high regard
.
Jared wasn’t being coy when he said that Kate’s mom liked and trusted him completely. Otherwise, Darlene would hav
e never permitted Jared to be alone with Kate in her bedroom that morning.

“Well, you obviously have an opinion
and I wouldn’t mind hearing it,
”
Kate responded.

There wa
s
no defensiveness in Kate’s tone—
sh
e truly
wanted to know what her mom
thought about Declan
.
Kate may be the psychic, but her mother was more intuitive. A part of her was fearful about her mother confirming her own fears. De
clan wasn’t dependable and
Kate would be better off trying to find Max on her own.

“I don’t want to judge too hastily, but I’ve met
a lot of Declans before
. I mean I’ve
slept
with more than a couple Declans in my day…”

Kate cut her off
,
“Mom, I think we may be over-sharing here.”

“Anyway,” she continued pointedly, “I know Jared is your first boyfriend in a long
time and you’re somewhat
inexperienced with men.”

That was an understatement.
At eighteen, s
he had only one
serious
boyfriend for a couple of months that dumpe
d her right after they had sex.
In high school, she had dated a few boys but had always avoided going too far with them.
Her background
d
idn’t exactly q
ualify her as an expert on men.

Kate gave her
mother
a nod to continue.
Her mother bit her lip before continuing
,
“And I just have a fear if you spend too much time with this boy, both your pants and your self-respect will end up on the floor.”

“Mom…” she stammered out. It took Kate a minute to recover from her mom’s shocking statement. “Don’t worry.
It’s only
a psychic friend thing with Declan. My heart belongs to Jared.”

“That’s good to hear because sometimes you
keep thinking there’s something better out there and miss what’s standing right in front of you.”

By the sound of her voice, Kate realized her mom was speaking from personal experience. She hoped it wasn’t about her father.
Her mother
went through
a difficult time with the divorce—especially when her father’s infidelity was revealed. Although her parents were civil to each other, Kate still had some residual anger over the way her dad had treated her mother.

Kate’s thoughts were interrupted
by the chime of her
cell
phone.
Kate grabbed the phon
e from the counter and saw a text message alert
from an unrecognized number.

They found Max. I can’t talk now, but I’ll call you as soon as I can. You’re an angel on earth and you have my ever
lasting gratitude. Farrah Santo

She turned to her mother. “It’s a message from Max’s mom! They found him!”

Without a second’s hesitation, her mother engulfed Kate in her arms
.
Smoothing down her hair, she whispered,
“You’re amazing, you know that?”

Tears sprang to Kate’s
eyes. Her mother could make her feel special
and less of an anomaly
at moments like this. Like what she could do was miraculous and didn’t make her an outcast. “I finally feel like I’m on the right path and this is what I need to do.”

She cupped Kate’s face in her hands. “You’re going to use your gifts to help so many people in this world.”

“No pressure or anything,” she cracked
with a half sob
.
Wiping at her tears, she took a shaky breath before speaking.
“I’m going to check out the computer and see if there’s anything about
Max online.”

There were so many questions in her head. Did they have Ally in custody? How was Max doing? With a quick peck on her mother’s cheek, she headed to their den to scour the internet for as much information about Max as possible.

About fifteen minutes later, her mother wandered into the den. Kate sat perfectly still with tears running down her face. “Kat
i
e, what’s wrong?”

She couldn’t tear her eyes away from the screen. It was a photograph from a
local
newspaper. It was taken yesterday after Max had been found and reunited with his mom. He was wrapped around his mother’s waist and
tears of joy were visible on Farrah Santo’s
face.

Max had no tears. His face was haunted, probably with memories of his time with Ally Seldon. His eyes stared into space as if he was disconnected from reality. He had a black eye as well. Something Kate had yet to witness in her visions and couldn’t fathom what type of monster would do that to a helpless child.

Her stomach heaved as she read the accompanying story. Max had been taken by Ally at the mall when the boy wandered off from his grandmother. She
had pretended
to be a caretaker appointed by his mom and kept the boy docile with physical violence.
Since the family lived in
Blaine
, which bordered
Canada
, authorities had thought the abductor had somehow snuck
out of
the country with Max. In reality,
Ally had taken Max two hours south to an apartment in
Seattle
. She had rented the apartment under a false name. This was the reason Max wasn’t located immediately
after Kate had given the police Ally’s name and history.

The extent of the abuse was being kept under wraps and the boy was meeting with
child psychologists for counseling.
Ally was arrested and also meeting with mental health professionals. Her ex-husband Lincoln cooperated with police and helped them track down Ally. He explained his ex-wife had become violent and unpredictable following the death of their son less than a year ago. However, in the newspaper article, he expressed shock over how much she had lost touch with reality. The tip about Ally being involved in Max’s abduction was credited as coming from an anonymous source.

“Katie?” her mom prompted in a worried tone.
She walked closer and Kate breathed in her perfume as a way to comfort her.

Kate couldn’t find the words to explain
why the visual of Max was affecting her in this way.
“It’s a story about Max,” she stammered as she wiped at her face. Looking over her shoulder, her mom scanned the article.
Darlene’s
frown deepened as
she took several minutes to read the story.

“There are people in this world that are truly reprehensible,” her mother breathed. She gave her an awestruck look. “It’s a miracle you were able to save
the boy. She probably would have killed him eventually if it wasn’t for you.”

At that moment Kate
didn’t feel like a savior. If anything, she felt like she
had
failed Max. She should have been able to find him sooner. While she’d been living her life and making out with her boyfriend, a
little
boy
had been
suffering.
Kate should’ve donated
every free minute to finding him
.
Rising to her feet, she almost knocked the
office
chair to the floor. “I have to talk to Declan.”

“Katie, what’s going on?”

“I should be work
ing on controlling my gifts. I might have been able to find him before she laid a hand on him!” Kate cried and grabbed her purse.

Her mother reached for her and gave her a stern look. “Don’t do this to yourself. There are terrible people in this world that do horrendous things, even to children. You can’t save everyone.”

“I sure as hell can try.”

The drive to Declan’s house was a blur. Once she pulled up to the address she checked her phone three times to make sure she got it right. She was expecting a small apartment or maybe an older row house in the city. His house was nice.
Really nice
. She was certain Declan had mentioned he lived alone.
It baffled her to imagine how
an unemployed twenty-one
year old afford
ed
a Hummer and
a suburban two bedroom home.

Declan
seemed unfazed when she texted him to annou
nce her impromptu visit. He
sent her his
address without asking for an explanation
or
the reason she urgently needed to see him. Kate could never be that laidback of a person.

Declan
greeted her at the door
after Kate rang the doorbell twice
. His eyes were tired and his clothing rumpled. She gave him a tight smile. “Did I wake you?”

He stifled a yawn. “
I fell back asleep after I got your message.
Didn’t sleep well last night. Finally conked out after five.”

“Did you have a vision?”

He waved off her question. “Yeah
, but nothing about Max’s
case. Do you want to come in?”

The interior put her more at ease. It wasn’t a complete crap hole, but it wasn’t as immaculate as her mom kept their home. Cereal boxes cluttered the kitchen counters, a few dishes were left in the sink, extra blankets on the couch. A pile of clothes were pushed to the side of the living room. It made her
visualize
it being a collection of castoffs from the girls Declan brought home. She put her purse down on his kitchen table and took a seat.

“Thanks for letting me
just barge in on you like this,
”
Kate started.

“Your text said it’s important. What’s up?”

S
he sighed and stared
out of the window. “They found Max yesterday. Of course, I’m happy about it, but I feel…”

His dark eyes watched her with intensity. As reluctant as she wanted to admit it, she had developed a connection with Declan. No one else could possibly understand what it was like to have no control over the things that ran through your head.
Invading people
’s
thoughts was never a skill she would wish
on anyone.

Regaining focus, Kate
continued, “I just feel that I should’ve been working harder to find him. I should have been freaking meditating for hours each day until he was found.”

Declan shook his head in disagreement.
“Kate, you need to live your life too.”

Kate didn’t deviate from the speech she had planned in the car on the way over to Declan’s house.
“The reason I came here was because I want to know everythi
ng you do. No more bullshit. Lie
all of your cards on the table right now.”

Kate
met his eyes and tried to convey how deadly serious she was. If he had some tricks up his sleeve, she wanted to know them. If she was going to be stuck with these powers, she better at least start learning if there was a way to decide whose memories she could access.

He leaned back in his chair and rubbed his palms over the scruff on his face. He folded his hand
s
in front of him and then gave a tight nod. He was mentally weighing something in his mind and seemed to come
to a decision before answering.

“Maybe we shou
ld talk about this another time,” he suggested.
“
When you’re less emotional.”

“Jesus Declan, just let me know the damn secret psychic handshake already.”

He nodded. “It’s not exactly a secret…
and there’s not much else I can tell you about controlling your powers.
”
Declan stopped talking for a long minute. Finally, he muttered, “But there is something I haven’t told you yet.”

She leaned forward and gave him a piercing stare
. “Just give me a straight answer. Why did you want to meet me?”

“It’s nothing bad, if that’s what you’re thinking. It’s just…
” he stopped and then asked, “
Remember
how I told you being psychic is my job?”