Dire Wants Read Online Free PDF Page B

Josie and exiting the apartment building using the stairs.
    Closed spaces, like elevators, hadn’t worked for her since the car accident ten years ago. She liked being free. Most of the time, drawing gave her that freedom. She’d had both her artistic talents and the ability to move objects when angry or agitated for as long as she could remember, but reading minds had come only after the accident.
    In the years between the accident and the attack, she’d simply hidden that new ability so she wouldn’t appear to be the freak she felt she was. After the attack, when she’d sat with a sketch artist who tried patiently to get her to remember any details, she realized she could use the mind reading thing to help others. At that point, she allowed herself to use the ability for good. The victims asked nothing of her but a sketch that could help them and Kate’s job was done.
    She wasn’t sure of her rate of success, didn’t want to ask, but assumed that since Officer Shimmin continued asking her back, she must be doing a good job.
    When she reached the door that led to the outside, she stepped into the cold air. She didn’t call a cab, thought Josie’s apartment was close enough to the police station to walk. But as dusk fell, she quickly realized she shouldn’t have.
    Light snow swirled on the concrete, dancing around her ankles. The white dusting on the lawns and roofs made everything look enchanting, and for a moment she paused to breathe in the slightly smoky scent that always accompanied snow.
    It was then that she heard the mocking laughter. The cruelty in the sound made her brand burn again.
    The group of boys looked to be in their late teens. Separately she might not have thought twice about them, but together they had a menacing, pack-like mentality that made her go cold. She turned away, but not before she unwittingly caught the biggest one’s eye.
    “Hey, gorgeous—looking for us?” one of them called. The others started saying things, too, that would gradually escalate to the obscene.
    She was already almost a block from Josie’s. It was too late to go back inside and call a cab—those boys were now nearly in front of the door to Josie’s apartment and following closely. She started walking as she fumbled for her cell to call Officer Shimmin and noted the battery was nearly dead. Again.
    She and electronics did not get along. Something in her body drained batteries, and it drove her crazy.
    She managed to get a call through to him—voice mail—and left a message with her location. He’d come for her; she was sure of it. Whether or not it would be in time . . .
    She dropped the phone, and before she could bend to retrieve it, a shape appeared in front of her. She stepped back as a man—a handsome, tall man who had her cell phone in his hand—stood motionless, watching her.
    He was an impenetrable wall of protection housed in the most ruggedly handsome casing she’d ever seen. He was well over six foot six and broad, wearing all black, with a leather jacket and motorcycle boots.
    He appeared aristocratic and street at the same time—he wore both looks well.
    Men like him just didn’t exist in the real world, and come to think of it, he was even larger than life than actors on the big screen. She didn’t know if she could ever truly do him justice with a sketch, but she really wanted to try. To draw him, she would need to shadow the chisel of his cheekbones, the strong jaw, the dark hair disheveled by wind.
    Something inside of her both calmed and surged simultaneously. She took the phone back from him, her fingertips brushing his.
    The voices behind her grew softer, more sinister, and she realized how alone she’d been. But nothing looked like it could get through her new savior, and that’s what she believed him to be.
    But how could she be sure of anything?
    “I’ll get you home safely.” His voice slammed through her like an unexpected orgasm. She took a few steps back, but somehow he