Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 109695 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 548(@200wpm)___ 439(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109695 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 548(@200wpm)___ 439(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
“I guess.”
“There’s also the fact that I’ll probably see stuff I’d rather not, so I hope you appreciate what I’m putting myself through for you.”
That startled a chuckle out of him. “Hey… you’re getting paid very well, so don’t expect any sympathy from me.”
I shook my head. “Fine. Let’s get this over with.” Keeping my gloves on, I followed Stone to the counter, where he explained that I wanted a tour of the facilities, and he’d show me around. The attendant nodded, and I followed Stone to the weights.
He picked one of the hand weights up. “I always use these when I work out. Want to try it?”
He held it out, and I took hold of it. He let go, but did it gradually. Still, I staggered and nearly dropped it on my foot. “Holy hell. This is heavy. Here. Take it back.”
He took it from me like it weighed nothing, and a big grin split his face. “You know it won’t do any good with that glove on.”
“Oh… right.” I pulled the glove off my hand and glanced around at the equipment. Touching the handle of the multi-functional work-out machine, I braced for a vision, but nothing happened. Maybe there were just too many hands on these to get anything. Since that seemed to be the case, I felt along the rest of the machine, but came up empty.
“Nothing.”
“Try this.”
I followed behind Stone, touching all the other surfaces he pointed out, and still got nothing. “Sorry. I’m not getting anything.”
He led me around the rest of the gym, and I got one or two images, but they had nothing to do with Stone or my previous vision of the guy, so I shook my head. “Nothing. Is that it?”
“Yeah. We might as well head to the building with the AC unit.”
“Sure.”
Only a short distance down the street, Stone pointed out where the AC unit had landed on the sidewalk. “It was right here.”
“Okay. But you go stand next to the building in the shadows.”
His brows rose. “Really?”
“Yes… really. Sunshine, remember?” Stone let me push him into the shadows, and I knelt down to touch the cement, hoping for something, but came up empty as well.
I met Stone’s gaze. “Nope.”
He scowled. “Too bad. Let’s head up to the roof.”
I followed him into the building and exited on the roof. “Stay here in the doorway. Just point out where I need to go.”
Stone sighed before pointing straight ahead. “Look for scuff marks.”
I followed his directions and found them. Kneeling down, I touched the marks, but only got a vague impression of anger. I tried again in several different places, but not one vision opened up to me.
Standing, I wiped my hands on my pants, and returned to Stone at the door. “The person who did this has a lot of anger issues, but that’s all I’m getting.”
Stone let out a breath. “All right. I guess it’s a bust.” He checked his watch. “We missed lunch. Why don’t we grab a sandwich and head back to the apartment?”
“Sounds good.”
Half an hour later, we pulled into the parking garage at Vitality Ventures with a couple of sandwiches, and took our food up to the apartment to eat.
At the door in the hallway, I stopped Stone and laid my hand on the doorknob. “It’s clear.”
Stone unlocked the door and we stepped inside, putting our food on the table. I cleaned up in the bathroom, while Stone got a couple of sodas from the fridge.
Grateful I didn’t have to worry about Stone getting shot, I sat down to eat. Just as Stone finished up, his phone rang. He pulled it out and scowled. “I’ve got to take this.” Throwing his napkin on the table, he pushed his chair back and went around the corner to talk in the living room.
From where I sat, I couldn’t hear him well enough to know what he said, but, from his tone, I knew he wasn’t happy.
I began to clean up, grabbing his sandwich wrapper to throw away. He still had some chips left, so I stepped toward him to see if he still wanted them. I came around the corner and caught sight of Stone as he stood in front of the large, plate-glass window. A sudden vision of him standing closer to the glass window filled my mind. A crack sounded, and Stone fell backwards, shock on his face and blood pouring from his chest.
I blinked out of the vision and found Stone standing in the same spot. With the sunlight streaming into the room, his black t-shirt had turned gray, and the light washed the color out of the room, just like in my vision. Shit! Shit! Shit!
“Stone!” I began to move, hoping I could make it in time. “Drop! Now!”
Before he could respond, I barreled into him. A loud crack sounded, and we both fell to the floor. The glass on the painting behind us shattered, and the painting flew right off the wall.