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let him think such a monstrous thing.
"How do you know?"
"The animals."
The room went totally silent. Maia shifted deeper into the cushions, trying to avoid seeing the look she
knew would be in his eyes. She pressed her fingers into her eyes in an effort to relieve the headache that
continued to pound.
Cole studied her face for a long time. "You mean they really do talk to you?" he asked, trying hard to
keep skepticism from his voice. She was being serious and waiting for him to scoff at her. Maia
Armstrong had secrets; it was there in her eyes, in the way she avoided looking at him, and he intended
to find out what they were.
"Not exactly," she hedged. "Look, do we have to do this? Is it really necessary?"
"You know things about me no one else knows. Hell you know more about the Steele family than most
people do. What are you afraid of?"
"I'm a veterinarian, Steele. You think people are going to want some nutcase treating their animals? And
that's what they'll call me." She didn't have to tell him anything. She could stare him down, tell him to go
to hell, be stubbornly silent. Maia was capable of all of those things. So why was she sitting there like
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some sacrifice, waiting for the axe to fall?
"No one is here but the two of us." Cole was back in front of her, crouching down, his hand on her
knee. His piercing blue eyes caught and held her gaze as if to give her courage. "How do the animals talk
to you?" Could it really be possible? There was no getting around the fact that several animals had run
out in front of his vehicle as he drove through the blizzard to get to the ranch, and each time she had
known they were there before they could actually see them.
Maia shook her head, but couldn't look away from him. There was no escaping Cole Steele and his
brother, or their pain, shrieking at her from the depths of their being.
"Telling you the truth about working for the DEA wasn't so bad once I did it. It was actually a relief to
tell you the truth. I don't talk about the old man and my childhood, but now you know, and I don't have
to worry that somehow I'll slip up and you'll find out things that I've kept hidden away."
"It isn't the same thing, Cole."
"Just say it, Maia. You know I'm going to badger you until you do."
It was the way he said her name. A caress. A silky, satin tone that brushed over her skin and slipped
inside of her. Disarmed her. He always called her "Doc" and somehow by using her first name it created
an intimacy between them. A trust. "I see their memories. I don't know how, but I've always been able to
see things they've seen. The memories come to me in images, very vivid and, most of the time, very
distressing."
He caught her chin in his hand, forcing her to look at him. "Why would you be afraid to tell me?"
Maia pulled away from him, shrinking back against the thickly upholstered couch. "Most people would
just think I was crazy." She shook her head, her gaze avoiding his. "I know it sounds crazy." Why had
she even admitted it? What was wrong with her? She knew better than to say anything. Cole Steele of all
people. What was she thinking?
"Tell me what Wally saw."
Maia's gaze jumped to his. Held there. "A young boy dragged from the stable, kicked, beaten around
the head and shoulders. Something thin and long hitting the child over and over. The boy screaming. The
man was about your height, but thinner. Once he dragged the boy out by his hair. He slapped him
repeatedly in the face." She swallowed, rubbed her hand over her face as if to clear away the memories.
"The boy was Jase and the abuse didn't just happen once." She pressed her fingertips against her eyelids
again as if she could shut out the vision. "I hate that I know these things because there's never anything I
can do about it."
Cole's palm curved around the nape of her neck, his fingers massaging the tension out of her. "It never
occurred to me that animals would be witnessing crimes."
"Just because they can't talk doesn't mean they don't see things."
Cole turned over her revelation in his mind, over and over. It was a fascinating premise. Could it be
true? He had his hand on her, could feel the tension running through her body. She was waiting for him to
scoff at her, yet the idea that she could really "see" memories of an animal was bizarre. She could easily
have guessed the things that had happened to Jase.
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"What about the attack on the horse? Who drove him into the fence?"
"A large man, tall with wide shoulders. It couldn't have been Jase. He's small and thin, and Wally likes
him."
"Tall like me, you mean," Cole said, his voice cool.
"Yes, but Wally likes you too." It sounded so stupid. Utterly ridiculous. Maia shook her head, her face
flaming. "I know it sounds weird. Go ahead, tell me I belong in a mental institution."
The pad of his thumb absently stroked her pulse. Each brush sent small tongues of fire licking over her
skin. Electricity seemed to leap from his skin to hers. She forced air through her lungs, waiting for him to
react. Waiting for his condemnation.
"Who told you that you were crazy?" he asked quietly.
She flinched. She tried not to, but she couldn't prevent her reaction. "Does it matter? It does sound
crazy."
"I think so."
She lifted her chin, her turquoise eyes blazing into his. "A man I dated. Another vet. I thought we were
close, and he asked me how I managed to figure out what was wrong all the time with wild animals, and I
was dumb enough to answer him."
"And he said you were crazy?"
"I don't blame him. Unfortunately, he told everyone at the clinic, including the pet owners, and I was out
of work. That I did blame him for."
Cole leaned in close and brushed his lips, feather-light over hers. Her heart somersaulted. "He was the
idiot, Maia." He pulled back slightly, blinking so that her attention was drawn from his mouth to his
lashes. He was so masculine, but for those incredible eyelashes. She wanted to touch his face, to feel his
skin. Cole Steele was totally mesmerizing, and she could see why women fell so easily under his spell.
"You're way out of my league, Steele. Sit over there somewhere and stop touching me." She pointed to
a chair across the room.
"Am I getting to you?" A ghost of a smile flickered over his mouth for the briefest of moments.
Maia's heart stuttered in reaction. She'd never seen him smile, and she couldn't actually call the curve to
his lips a smile, it hadn't lit his blue eyes, but it was enough for her to know if he ever did, she would melt.
"Yes."
Cole didn't move, his gaze going hot as it moved over her face, focusing on her mouth. "It's about time."
"Stop that." His mouth was only a scant few inches from hers. She could feel the warmth of his breath.
His body leaned into hers, his chest bumped against her knees. His palm was still curled around the nape
of her neck, and his thumb swept over her jaw. Her stomach tightened. "You're dangerous." Her voice
came out in a whisper. An ache.
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