He didn’t even know what to say because kind of a lot said so much, yet absolutely nothing.

  “Words are very inadequate when it comes to this,” she murmured. “All I can tell you is that, as you come up against it more and more, it will make more sense, or at least you’ll recognize some of it again.”

  He shook his head at that. “This was very disjointed, very confusing,” he muttered. “And I … I don’t know that I’ll come to terms with it, even in one thousand years.” He dropped his head to rest on top of hers, wondering at this woman who was so completely comfortable in her own skin that she could just walk into a shower like that and hold him close—knowing that he was the one in pain, when he was the one assigned to help and protect her. Something was so open and so understanding in her gaze.

  “I’m sorry,” she began. “Some of this stuff? … It’s just too much, I know.”

  He didn’t even have answers for her, but what he did have was a growing need between them, growing at a rate he could no longer ignore.

  When she gently pressed against him, letting him know that she knew perfectly well what was happening, he smiled and asked, “Is this what you do after every bad session?”

  “If I had a partner, I would be absolutely delighted to,” she murmured, as she kissed him on his chin. “Don’t tell me that you haven’t figured out this is where we were heading.”

  “Thinking we might be heading in this direction is very different from knowing,” he clarified, “and I don’t appear to have your abilities to know this kind of stuff ahead of time. Otherwise I might have come prepared.”

  “I’m prepared,” she replied. “In my business it’s just smart to make sure things like that are always taken care of.”

  “Your business?”

  “I just don’t want any unpleasant surprises, when I’m dealing with so many patients.”

  “Right. … As far as knowing that this is where we were heading? Well, I had an inkling this is where we were heading. Maybe I should rephrase that. I had a hope that this is where we were heading.”

  She looked up at him and tilted her head. “But I do understand if it’s not for you.”

  He shook his head. “I don’t understand anything, but what I do know is that I don’t want to lose you. The whole thing through this whole deal was trying to keep you safe. And, even now, with all these shocks going on, the bottom line is still keeping you safe.”

  “I appreciate that,” she murmured gently, as she kissed him again. “As you can see, I am very safe.”

  “But not because of me,” he noted.

  And she laughed. “Stick around. There’ll be lots of opportunities for you to be a hero,” she declared. “Particularly after what you’ve seen today.”

  He groaned. “I’m not sure my heart can handle much more of that.”

  “That’s quite possibly why Dr. Mendelsohn is in the hospital,” she murmured. “But you know? There’s a good chance I can get Dr. Maddy to give him a shot of energy, and hopefully he’ll be just fine.”

  “God, how many people were affected by this?”

  “Lots,” she muttered.

  “You’re thinking it was Keith? That he slashed your tires, that he put the bug in your back room, that he messed with the security cameras, caused the glitches? Oh my, that he knocked you in the head and stuffed you in a one of the big washing machines in the basement?”

  “It was Keith.”

  “How did that work?”

  “He was always very suggestible. He used to be a patient there, and he was so lost without that guidance and help. So, once he was cleared to go on day trips and such, he always wanted to just stay there. When he was discharged, he had real trouble adjusting, and, to help with the transition, he was hired to do some janitorial type work because it made him happy and secure to be in that environment.”

  “So, even though he said that he wanted to move and to be with you, would he have?”

  “No, he lived with his elderly parents and worked there. He wouldn’t have been able to leave,” she said gently. “But I was interested in the list that he gave me of everybody else who he’d had interactions with.”

  “Who was on that list?”

  “Among others, Rodney,” she declared. “I had no understanding that Rodney had access to somebody like Keith. He shouldn’t have been allowed that close, and that’s the problem with a place like this. If they don’t understand that they are putting janitors with patients, what with all their budget cuts, they are exposing both of them to harm. Then we get into the energy forces, which we really can’t tell them about. Not understanding energy and the forces that these gifted people can actually put onto each other, it’s a disaster waiting to happen.

  “Keith was very susceptible to suggestion, and, once I realized Rodney was there, and he was on that list, then I knew that Keith was quite likely one of Rodney’s pets. Sadly Keith died, but Adam lives and hopefully can be rehabilitated, guided in the right direction to use his gifts for good. So all’s well that ends well.”

  “If you say so,” Gray muttered. “I think I lost ten years of my life.”

  “That might be,” she replied, her hands grabbing the bar of soap, as she gently smoothed it over his shoulders and then down to his groin.

  He shuddered at her gentle ministrations. “You’re playing with fire,” he muttered.

  “I hope so,” she whispered. “The hot water won’t last forever.”

  He burst out laughing, only to have the laughter die on his lips, once her hand slipped around his erection and slowly moved up and down in a motion that had him shuddering in place. “Oh my God,” he muttered.

  He slid his hands down and reached around to her buttocks, lifted her up against the shower wall, until she was almost head height, and kissed her gently at first, then with a fever that nothing seemed to assuage.

  She pulled her head back ever so slightly and said, “We don’t have to rush.”

  “Maybe you don’t,” he replied, “but I feel an outlet needing to happen, and then maybe all this will make sense.”

  “I don’t know about making sense,” she muttered, as she kissed him gently again and again, then started to wiggle against his erection, “but I’m all for an explosion.” Then she grinned up at him. “Besides, I think you still owe me some food.”

  “Great, so you have an appetite for the soul and then what? Food for the stomach.”

  “Something like that, and, if we sleep together, I’ll take that as soothing for my spirit.”

  He smiled and asked, “How about this?” Then he plunged inside, right to the hilt. She cried out, shuddering in place, and he whispered, “Are you okay? I’m so sorry. Did I hurt you?”

  She opened her eyes, and they gleamed in the darkness. “Shh. I’m not only fine,” she whispered, “I’m absolutely wonderful.”

  And then, surprising him, she started to ride. Slowly at first, while he widened his stance to hold her up in a better position, then faster and faster. By the time she collapsed into his arms, he had her pinned against the wall and drove in fast, with rapid movements, once, twice, three times, before his own body exploded as well.

  When he could, he lifted his head and whispered, “You can come shower with me anytime.”

  She chuckled. “Good. I’m not planning on going anywhere for the next few days. How about you?”

  “Not at all,” he murmured. “Although I’m not sure about work.”

  “Ugh, work.” She groaned. “I’m not sure about that either. But I do have a couple messages I need to check into.”

  “Of course we have an active investigation into the center.”

  “Right, so essentially we have all kinds of stuff to deal with.”

  “But that’s not today’s work.”

  “Nope, not today’s,” she agreed.

  He helped her out of the shower, wrapped up her up in a towel, and, as she went to her phone, he added, “I did hear it ring earlier.”

  “I did too, but I ignored it.” She checked her phone, hearing a message from Stefan’s financial contact, saying that he’d found several members of the board all of a sudden wanted to sell their shares, getting rid of their connection to the hospital for good. He believed that something must be going on and wondered if the shares were likely to drop in value soon. He was of the opinion that they could probably pick up a voting majority at a reasonable price, if she was still interested.

  She turned, looked at Gray, and gave him a bright smile. “What do you think? Should I take over the board?”

  He laughed. “It’s definitely where your heart is—or at least where it was.”

  “It still is,” she stated. “I hope you realize by now that the kind of work I do …”

  “I get it,” he interrupted, with a simplicity that surprised him. “Nobody else will really understand it except for people like us, but I’m all for it. So, if that’s what you want to do, I think you should do it.”

  She grinned at him. “Good. If you want to order dinner, I’ll call him back and tell him, Hell yes.”

  “Will do.” Then, instead of walking away, Gray walked toward her, picked her up, and twirled her around, then gave her a big kiss. “Hold that thought for after dinner.”

  She watched as he walked away. Hold that thought was one thing, but hold that thought with him in her life? Absolutely. She couldn’t wait for whatever was coming, and, with joy in her heart, she quickly returned the call, anxious to speak to Stefan’s money man.

  And by the time she was done explaining all that had happened, he was laughing. “Okay, we’ll give it a few days,” he said, “but then I can move in for the kill.”

  “Good. Remember though, some money laundering charges may be coming up in the FBI investigation that could influence things too.”

  “In that case, the majority shares will be even cheaper. I’m pretty sure that, with any luck, you’ll own majority shares yourself.”

  “That would be lovely,” she said. “I would really like to have control over there and get patient care back to where it belongs.”

  “If need be, I’m happy to be a silent partner to help you make that happen,” he offered. “I don’t think patient care should be about dollars and cents.”

  “Oh, I’m really glad to hear that,” she replied.

  She ended the call, then walked into the kitchen to find Gray staring out the window. She murmured in his ear, “Seems it’ll be something we can do.”

  He turned to her and smiled. “Does that mean you’re staying here?”

  “I am,” she stated, then stared at him. “Are you?”

  “Yes,” he replied. “I was thinking so, if that’s all right with you.”

  She opened her arms, grateful when they closed around him, as she laid her head on his chest. “I was kind of hoping you might want to stick around and see how things turned out.”

  His laughter rumbled under her cheek, and he whispered, “Sounds good to me. As long as you’re up for a lifetime. Because I think it’ll take me that long to figure out any of this.”

  She leaned backward and looked up at him. “A lifetime sounds perfect for me too.” Her voice caught in the back of her throat. “You have no idea how much I’ve wondered if somebody was out there for me.”

  “There is,” he declared gently. “I just didn’t know how to find you.”

  “Guess what?” she said. “I’m found.”

  He laughed. “We both are.”

  He lowered his head and kissed her and promised her, “Forever.”

  She smiled and added, “On this plane and the next. Forever.”

  This concludes Book 24 of Psychic Visions: Insanity.

  Read a sneak peek Soul Legacy: Psychic Visions, Book 25

  Soul Legacy: Psychic Visions (Book #25)

  Coming back home to work in the local hospital suits Dr. Cameron Wingford. Buying land from an old woman who’d needed the money cements his plans. Then the old woman’s granddaughter returns home, and all the rumors begin—rumors that connect her to some weird event at the hospital every Halloween, an occurrence he had yet to experience, as he’d just moved there in November of last year.

  Living on the fringe of society, Danica’s strange family was an oddity that everyone in the community either mocked or avoided. She had never felt welcome, especially after being suspected of killing her own mother. She hated returning home. Hated everything about it—except for her grandmother, her last living relative. And now, her dying grandmother’s request cannot be ignored. Keep the property intact. That meant approaching Dr. Cameron about the piece he’d bought, an act her grandmother regretted … and an open wound to their legacy.

  Open wounds bleed, and, as Danica finds out, this wound can only be healed in one specific way. Even then, a huge sacrifice is required …

  “Tonight is a lovely quiet evening.” Dr. Cameron Wingford beamed, as he glanced around the emergency room. This was his first Halloween at this hospital, and he’d expected more craziness than this. But it was a small town, so maybe they would dodge that particular bullet. “How odd for a Halloween night. No one’s here.”

  “Sure, there is,” the orderly said, nodding toward the big emergency room door.

  Cameron turned to see a blood-covered woman standing on her own, with a shell-shocked look in her eyes.

  Two nurses raced to her.

  She held out her hands and then slowly, ever-so-slowly, like a cartoon, crumpled to her knees and then to the floor, before the nurses could catch her. Cameron raced to her side, checking for wounds. A moment later, puzzled, he sat back, frowning at his patient, then looked to his nurses, and shook his head. “She doesn’t appear to have any open wounds. Let’s move her to a bed and do a full workup.”

  They quickly laid her on a gurney and wheeled her into the next open cubicle. After transferring her to a bed, they did a full workup to see just what was going on.

  The patient opened her eyes a few minutes later and stared up at him. She reached up a bloody hand, grabbed his lab coat, and whispered in a pained tone, “Help.”

  He gave her a reassuring smile. “It’s all right. You’re in the hospital now. Take it easy. We’re trying to figure out what happened. You don’t appear to have any injuries, but you’re covered in blood.”

  “Not my blood,” she whispered.

  He knew that. He could see that. But where had the blood come from?

  “My head hurts,” she murmured.

  “Right. It does appear to have some bruising, but I don’t see any open wounds.”

  “Inside,” she whispered. “My head’s pounding inside.”

  “Where’s the blood from?” he asked, trying to keep the urgency out of his tone. “Tell me who’s injured.”

  “Accident,” she whispered. “There was an accident. She’s been hurt.”

  Cameron frowned and asked the nurse, “Where did she come from? Do we have any idea what kind of accident? Was she alone? Have the police been called?”

  Behind him, the other nurse said, “I’ll go find out,” and she took off.

  Cameron looked down at the young woman. “What’s your name?”

  “Daisy,” she whispered. “Daisy. Danica. Daisy. Where’s Danica?”

  She kept repeating both names, so he tried asking again. “Is your name Daisy?”

  She stared up at him. Her eyes grew wider and wider, and then a weird cry erupted from deep inside her throat, like a high-pitched whine. The unholy sound rattled his soul.

  He immediately tried to calm her down, and then, without warning, the sound shut off immediately, and she collapsed back onto the bed, unconscious. He immediately ordered a CT scan to see just what was going on with her head, plus an X-ray to confirm any internal injuries they might have missed. The swelling on her head was his main concern. But he needed to know how bad it was and if she had any other injuries he couldn’t see.

  With her stabilized and barely conscious, he stepped back, as his patient was quickly wheeled out of the room. He looked over at a nurse, standing there, a notepad in her hand, frowning.

  “What you find out?” he asked her.

  “The police said they received a call of an injured woman covered in blood, walking on the street. They found her. She was alone and barely coherent and was calling out for Danica. They called an ambulance for her, but she disappeared into the trees somehow, and they’ve been looking for her since. They have no idea how she got here.”

  He looked for the hospital bed, rolled down to the end of the hallway, waiting for the elevator. “Do they have a name for her? We didn’t find any ID on her.”

  At that, a security guard came in through the emergency double doors and said, “I followed the blood.” He took a moment to shake his head. “There’s quite a trail all the way back out the parking lot and across the road, before disappearing into the trees.”

  Cameron had that thought running through his mind, as he added, “So she may have walked here on her own.” He stood here, staring down the hallway at the woman who’d now disappeared into the elevator. Something about her was familiar and yet distant. He couldn’t quite explain it. Her cry had been unnerving, but the fact that she was completely coated in someone else’s blood, with only a slight head wound? Well, that was an odd one for him. He glanced back over at the nurse to see her studying him oddly. “What’s the matter?” he asked.

  “I don’t know,” she said hesitantly. “When did you change your lab coat?”

  “What do you mean?” He grabbed his coat by the front edges and gave it a shake. “I didn’t change my lab coat.”

  She frowned, glanced at his lab coat again, and then dropped her gaze to the floor.

  He looked at his lab coat and at the floor where she was staring and said, “I don’t get it. What’s wrong?”

  “She grabbed your lab coat,” the nurse said quietly, her gaze darting to his face and then away. “Remember that bloody hand?”

  “I know,” he bit off. “Of course I remember. What’s that got to do with anything?”

  “Your lab coat. … It’s clean. As if she never touched it.”