Another muffled curse came, and then an unrelenting pressure to the back of my knees made me drop.

“Stop, baby, please stop. You’re going to hurt yourself. You’re safe. I

promise, you’re safe.” The words penetrated my horrified haze.

Terror pulled back enough to realize I was bent double, unable to move or breathe. Gasping sobs filled the room. Me. They were coming from me. I choked

them down. Behind me Kayden’s voice continued to whisper reassurances, his presence a bulwark against the other noise in my head. As fast as it hit, the fear

receded, leaving me too tired, too drained to take advantage when he shifted his

weight and loosened his hold on my wrists. We were on the floor, me in his lap,

cradled against his chest. I buried my face against him, listening to the harsh edge of my breath. He rubbed small circles along my spine, and his lips pressed

against the top of my head.

“I need to take her to the safe house.” Kayden’s voice rumbled under my ear.

“We can’t leave this for the cops to find. The minute they get in here and poke around they’ll issue an APB on her. With the meet tomorrow, we’re

running against the clock.”

Wolf was right. My gun, my phone, and chances were, my prints were all

over that chair and God knew what else. Somehow, I didn’t think offering the cops a psychic bogey man would help my case, nor would a second claim of amnesia work, no matter how true it was this time around. Besides, if Ellery was

meeting with Hobbes tomorrow, we needed to dig out what was in my head.

And if that didn’t work?

I ignored that voice and gathered my shredded courage. “I need to remember

what happened.” Silence descended and under my hands, I felt Kayden’s sudden

stillness. I shoved against his chest until he dropped his arms, then I used his shoulder for balance and got to my feet. “If you take me back to the building, I

can retrace my steps.”

Kayden’s face darkened. “No.”

His instant refusal set my back up, but I struggled for calm because one of us

had to be rational. “Without Ramirez we don’t have a lot of options. Just because

I can’t remember it, doesn’t mean I won’t be able to pick up who was with

Ramirez, and follow him.”

Kayden rose. “No, you’re not in any shape to handle this.”

“I’m fine.”

“You are so far from fine, you wouldn’t recognize it if it came up and slapped you,” Kayden snapped, as he ran a hand through his hair. “Christ, Cyn.

Did you miss what just happened?”

“I’m fine,” I repeated through gritted teeth. “Do you have a better option?”

“I’ll figure one out.”

“Really?” My hands went to my hips. “How?” I flung one hand toward

Ramirez’s body without looking at it. “We’re kind of at a dead end.”

“Children,” Wolf chided. “Can we get back on track?” He waited for us to give him our attention. “What do you mean ‘pick up who was with Ramirez’?”

I turned to Kayden. “You didn’t tell him?”

He shook his head. “Need to know basis.”

“I think this qualifies,” Wolf grumbled.

Yeah, I had to agree. “I’m a retro-cog.” Wow look at that, the world didn’t end.

“It might work.” Wolf folded his arms and leaned against the door jam. “But

Shaw’s right, it could do more damage, considering…” He pointedly looked at

the bloodied tissues on the floor.

Feeling ganged-up on, I snapped, “Give me another option.”

“You’re going to the safe house,” Kayden cut in. “Call in a cleanup crew, Wolf. Give Delacourt the basics but hold off on the gun and phone until we figure how what the hell is going on.”

And if we couldn’t?

“Then you’re seriously screwed.”

Instead of reigniting my earlier freak-out, this time Wolf’s dry observation had me lifting my head to glare at him. “Get out of my head.” Then I did what I

should’ve done the first time, I put up as many mental barriers as I could to keep

him out.

His lips curved, not a complete smile, but the bare beginnings of one.

“Better, but you’re going to need to be faster than that.”