Authors: Jaime Rush

The Darkness Within (14 page)

She walked outside, pausing on the landing to make sure the man was gone. No sign of him. She hadn’t screamed. Couldn’t scream. The last thing she needed was having the police dig too deeply into her life. She walked to her Yukon, taking calming breaths.

Her phone was beeping, signifying that someone had triggered her security alarm. She might have known the jerk was waiting for her if she’d taken her phone with her. She was tempted to click on the link, but there wasn’t enough time. A cluster of charms hung from her rearview mirror: an angel, rabbit’s foot, horseshoe, four-leaf clover encased in plastic, and a Star of David, and they dangled back and forth as she maneuvered through traffic.

A quick fix of her face, a brush through her hair, and she looked as normal as she had when she left.

Glen looked up when she walked in. “Must have been a hectic lunch break,” he said with a smile.

Damn, not exactly as normal. “Had to fit in a lot of errands.”

“If you need a couple of minutes to defrazzle, go ahead and take them. I know you’ve got a busy weekend.”

Glen and his wife Toni were great bosses, and even better people. The Tripps ran the store together. She was their only employee, running the storefront, handling calls and paperwork. She was good with numbers. They were stable, dependable, and impersonal. She liked working in small businesses where her employers wouldn’t be bothered as much by her erratic work history. That also meant settling for menial jobs that didn’t pay much.

Toni and the two grade-school Tripps came rushing in at mid-afternoon, as they did every weekday.

“Hey, Jessie!” the girls called as they gushed with enviable energy and innocence, dropping their backpacks on the floor. “Carnival’s tomorrow!”

Toni rolled her eyes as she picked up the packs, as she did every day, and set them behind the curved desk where Jessie worked.

“Yep! You gonna ride the scary rides?” Jessie asked, bending down to their level.

“Will you ride with us?”

“Sure.”

Both girls giggled and exchanged looks. “We might throw up, though,” they said in unison, more like twins than girls who were two years apart.

“Ewww!” Jessie said, pinching her nose. “Then definitely do not ride the scary rides. I’d be tossing my cookies right along with you.”

The girls commenced to making barfing noises until Toni shushed them. She set them on their homework just off the main desk. Jessie watched them asking their mom for help and felt a lump in her chest even as she smiled. When she was their age, she’d had a mom and dad, too. Thank God they didn’t know how tenuous life can be, how all that matters can be ripped away in minutes.

Five other children came in for guitar lessons, and Jessie entertained them until class started. For a few minutes no one was in the front room. Glen was in the repair shop in back and no customers wandered in. Her head still felt light, as though she hadn’t eaten for hours. She logged into the security software and clicked on the link for her system. It recorded any activity once it was triggered.

Her throat tightened at the sight of the man—Magnus’s brother—walking into her apartment. He wasn’t even creeping or sneaking, just walked in like he owned the place. Bastard. He looked around, taking pictures of a couple of pages in her notebook, walking to the doorway of her bedroom but not walking in.

The video quality wasn’t good enough to see fine details. She realized she’d hoped to see his face again. He had dark, thick hair that fell past his shoulders and brown eyes with an exotic slant to them. He was good-looking, yeah, even though she felt pretty stupid thinking of him that way when he’d broken into her home and manhandled her.

Where have I seen him before? Oh, yeah, here!
Right before she’d dashed home for lunch. He was stalking her! Her gaze went to the collection of signed pictures on the back wall. She remembered thinking he looked like one of those rockers from the eighties that Glen was so into, like Kip from Winger. The jerk probably followed her home.

Her attention went back to the monitor. She knew the moment the intruder heard her unlock the door; he ducked inside her bedroom doorway and waited for her. Even though she knew what would happen, watching it was odd, surreal, and scary. She didn’t have this security system the last time she’d gotten a surprise visit.

She watched their fight.
I fought pretty damned good. Not good enough, though.

He pinned her with his body, and she could feel all that muscle and hardness again, crushing her. Especially
that
hardness, which had thrown her, because she’d thought for sure he was connected to Russell, and the man’s erection signified a different threat.

But he wasn’t there for that.
Thank you, God.

She glanced around to make sure no one had come in; she was engrossed enough to have missed it. Then she turned back to the screen. As her fear and anger had heightened, a smoky aura formed around her. But . . . there was something around
him
, too; not smoky, but a blurry form.

What the heck?

She paused the frame. Even studying him she couldn’t make it out. That nothing else had the same blur meant it was attached to him. Either he also had Darkness, or he was some other kind of weird. No matter, he was bad news.

Her abilities had taken the man off-guard. If he, or Magnus, were working with Russell, they would have been prepared. She would be dead. The supposed brother claimed he’d had a vision of her killing Magnus. That was all he seemed concerned about, wanting to know why.

When she continued the video, it hit her: she would see her Darkness for the first time. She steeled herself as she watched the black mass that threw him across the room.
Me, but not me. It just took over; I had no control over it.
She shivered and closed the program. What if the whole seeing-a-vision thing was true? Darkness could kill. Could she?

She picked up her cell phone and called Magnus.
Please let me go to voice mail.

Relief when his deep voice said, “ ’Lo, this is Magnus’s phone. I hate that I missed your call. Don’t make me hunt through the call log. Leave a message.” Both men had a Scottish brogue to their voices. Magnus had told her he was born in the U.S. but got the brogue from his Scottish mother.

“Hi, it’s Jessie,” she said. “You’re off the hook for tonight. I don’t need any help with the carnival, and . . . I can’t see you socially anymore. My life is too complicated in ways I can’t explain. Take care of yourself.”

Her mouth stretched into a frown. It wasn’t like they’d done more than chat at the store, have a cup of coffee, and meet for lunch once. He’d kissed her cheek when he walked her back to the music store and said goodbye. She’d had the sense that he wanted to kiss her on the mouth, though, as his lips had lingered against her skin for a few moments. He probably would have, if the sensible part of her hadn’t made her turn at the last second. She’d wanted the kiss, because she wanted to feel like the women in the romance novels she devoured, just for a little while . . .

You knew better. Why bother starting a flirtation when you’re going to have to back away if it goes any further? Russell’s going to find you eventually. You’re either going to die or run again. No place for a man in that mess of a life.

Yeah . . . complicated. With a sigh, she deleted Magnus’s number from her contacts list.

About the Author

Since she was a kid, J
AIME
R
USH
has devoured books on unexplained mysteries and psychic phenomena. She
knew
she would be published, marry a fabulous guy, and win a Toyota Supra. Missing the romance, relationship drama, and action of her favorite television shows—
X-Files
,
Roswell
, and
Highlander
—she created her own mix in the
Offspring
series.

Jaime loves to hear from readers (unless they’re deranged or don’t have something nice to say). You can reach her at PO Box 10622, Naples, Florida, or through her website at
www.jaimerush.com
.

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A
LSO BY
J
AIME
R
USH

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Darkness Becomes Her

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Excerpt from
Darkness Becomes Her
copyright © 2012 by Tina Wainscott

THE DARKNESS WITHIN.
Copyright © 2012 by Tina Wainscott. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

EPub Edition MARCH 2012 ISBN: 9780062121431

Print Edition ISBN: 9780062184603

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