New Revelations: Second Sight Book Two (17 page)

She nodded. “Yes, I thought it was a joke.”

“Well, it wasn’t. The reason I found you was because I thought maybe we could work together.”

“
Work together?
” she parroted back. Kate gave him a sardonic smile as she imagined the possibilities. “
Like host a joint psychic show
and say things like, ‘Someone
who passed is in this room with us.
His name begins with the letter R and he
says
he’s
sorry he didn’t get a chance to say goodbye.’ Because lucky enough
,
talking to dead people is not one of my psychic skills.”

Declan’s laugh was forced
.
He leaned back into the kitchen chair directly across from her.
“No, that wouldn’t be it.
” He bit his lower lip
before continuing.
“
I don’t think it’s came up, but I don’t have a relationship with my family.”

Yikes, she thought, she was really a terrible friend. In the days they spent together, she never asked any questions about him or hi
s personal life. Kate had no clue
if he had any siblings or where he went to school. Between psychic coaching sessions, Declan had made it a point to get to know her
. It made her feel like maybe she was just using him because of what he had to psychically offer.

Kate’s rationalization was
she’d been afraid of developing too close of a relationship with him. Each moment she spent with Declan and away from Jared made her feel guilty. If he hadn’t made that revelat
ion about his future vision, Kate
probably wouldn’t have felt on edge and confused in his presence
.

“Anyway,” he
continued when she didn’t reply.
“A few years back, I found myself at a pretty low point. My family had kicked me out of my house and I had no job exp
erience since the past year had been spent
i
n
rehab for my ski accident. Hell, I never even finished high school.

“
Bu
t I did have one thing that I could do. I was able to have these visions,” he explained. She
bobbed her head
which prom
pted him to continue speaking. “
Well, at that point, I didn’t have any future premonitions. Without being able to tell the future, it’s harder to find a way to make money using our gift. That was until I realized I could help find the missing.
” His brown eyes met hers from across the table and his pitch rose as he asked,
“
Have you ever seen the reward amounts being offered by families that are looking for someone?”

Kate’s
grimace didn’t seem to damper his enthusiasm as he
persisted
without waiting for her to
answer his question. “The figures are astronomical. Some rewards could cover a person’s salary for a year!”
He turned around and gestured to his Hummer outside the window. “Guess how I paid for that?
I got 40K for bringing home a twelve
-year-old boy that was abducted in
Texas
.”

Her hazel eyes followed his gaze out of the kitchen window.
“Sounds like you’re doing fine without me. Why do you need help?”

“Because you know how our gift works. It’s not perfect and there’s no guarantee you’ll be able to se
e what you need to. I figure two psychics are better than one. We could work more cases plus have a higher success rate. Whatever money we get, we could split fifty-fifty.”
Declan finished his explanation with a self-satisfied smirk. It was implicit that he had worked out this set-up in his head before they had even met
.

He had rendered her speechless. In all the potential scenarios she ran through
her mind, this scenario was something Kate
had never suspected. “So, why not just tell me
what you wanted in the first place
?”

“I wanted to be certain it would work out first. I had to make sure you were legitimate and how talented you were. You don’t have a long history of being involved in police cases, so I didn’t know if you could be of any help. Now I realize you were just a recluse for a few years.” He tried to laugh, but stopped when he met her humorless expression.
“Well, I think you do have plenty of potential. With some practice, we’ll be unstoppable. We may end up pulling in well over six figures in no time.
”

Kate had reached her limit. “But that’s so wrong,” she
forced
out.

His body language turned cold. With his arms crossed
his chest, he barked,
“What’s
so
wrong?”

“To use people’s misery for your own financial gain,” she retorted.

“I should’ve known you would react like this,” he
mumbled
.
He rose from his chair and flattened his palms against the table.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You’re so judgmental! Our visions bring us
misery;
the people around us think we’re full of shit, why shouldn’t we get something from all of this?”

“But shouldn’t we just help people
be
cause it’s the right thing to do? Shouldn’t our gif
ts be used for altruistic purpose
s?”

He snorted. “You really are living in a fairytale. Who knows the reason we came back from the dead this way?
We can’t assume
we’re meant to use our visions for good. T
here’s just as much chance
our psychic powers came from something evil.
”

Kate swallowed hard as he voiced one of her fears. Her mother
believed a divine being gifted her with psychic abilities
. However, when Kate’s thoughts turned darker, she wondered if
something more sinister could be responsible.

“That’s such
a jaded way of thinking,” Kate accused.
“
I don’t want a cash reward for bringing someone
back to their family. I
do it because it feels good to help others.”

“And
what about wanting something more for yourself
? You
go
to a community college
and slave away at a minimum wage job.
” His biting summary of her life caused her to flinch in response. Declan was working himself into a fervor and didn’t seem to care about the hurtful words he was slinging at her.
“
What are your hopes for the future? Stay in
Franklin
for the rest of your life and hope your small town detective marries you? You’re meant for more than that. With the amount of money we can get our hands on, we can live whatever life we want.”

“I’m happy w
ith my life, thank you very much,” Kate
snapped
.
“
Maybe if you were happier with yours, you would realize how wrong you are
.”

“Then, I guess we’re done here.”

Kate was again taken aback by
his tone. He was making her feel like she was the one who was wrong. However, how could she agree to be involved with someone who only wanted to use their gifts for monetary gain? What if they came across a case where a reward wasn’
t offered? Would he not
help because the people weren’t going to pay them?
Her conscious would never allow her to do something like that.

Wordlessly, Kate exited the kitchen. Declan followed close on her heels and opened the front door before she had the chance to reach the knob
.
Regret set in as she wondered if this could be goodbye
forever
.
She began
,
“Declan, we could still be friends…”

He cut her off. “Sorry, I’m taking back both the job offer and the offer to help you control your visions. I have enough people
in my life who look down on me—
I don’t need another one.
Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.
”

Any loss she felt over the ending of their friendship dissipated. A cold fury made her want to smack him across the face.
“Sorry I’m not completely morally bankrupt.”

His laugh was harsh. “Take a long look in the mirror before you try and judge me. If I remember hearing correctly, didn’t you start sleeping with the detective who was investigating the disappearance of his
girlfriend’s
sister?”

“Go to hell,” she breathed. Stalking ov
er to her car, she glared at him one last time
.
Mockingly, she called,
“
Thought we were supposed to end up together,
future boy
?”

In reply, he flipped her the bird and slammed the front door.

***

The one upshot of being starved was it c
ooled her anger quickly
.
It was kind of hard
to be livid
when Kate could barely keep her
eyes open.
After leaving Declan’s house, Kate camped out on the couch and caught up on two weeks worth of shows recorded on her DVR.
Watching TV helped distract h
er from both not eating for the day and the
argument with Declan. An hour before her movie date with Jared, she gained enough motivation to take a shower and throw on a pair of jeans and a tank top. Deciding she looked way too boring for a date with her new boyfriend, she dressed up the outfit with a funky gold necklace and matching hoop earrings
.

Jared’s arms around her when he arrived to pick her up for
their date felt like a welcome
balm to her problems.
She held on for seve
ral minutes while he trailed a
finger down her b
are arm
.
She shivered under his touch. He inquired softly,
“Are you sure you’re up for a movie?”

“Two hours to turn my brain off sounds heavenly,” she sighed.

S
he filled him
in
on Max and her angst over not being able to help him sooner.
Throughout the day, Kate
had
kept seeing Max’s tortured face in her head. She wondered how much of the abuse could’ve been prevented if
she
had only revealed his abductor sooner. Jared
said all the right things and agreed with her mother’s assessment of her putting too much pressure on herself to save everyone
. During the exchange, Kate purposely hadn’t brought up Declan.

Jared would
agree with her reaction to Declan’s unconventional job offer. Yet,
something was holdi
ng her back from admitting everything to him. It made Kate
consider the idea tha
t
a part of her wanted to accept his proposal
. Working with another psychic would mean more cases could be solved. Not to mention, he was right about her
future
prospects. Her part-time job at the doctor’s office didn’t pay much and she was majoring in English
at a two-year college
. Since a teaching career didn’t feel
like a
right
fit
for her, sh
e wouldn’t have many job offers
onc
e she did graduate. Although Kate
loathed admitting it,
maybe some of her father’s past accusations had merit.
He
had
told her to stop floundering and start making
some serious decisions about her future. However, collecting reward
purses was probably not what Robert Edwards had in mind
.

When they arrived at the movie theater, Jared possessed another
piece of her heart. Although Kate
insisted he get a snack, he skipped the popcorn since she refused to get anything.
They grabbed a couple of seats in the rear and she immediately rested her head against his shoulder. “How do people do this?
” she moaned.
“
I would definitely get kicked out of any religion where fasting was involved.”

“How about we get something to eat after here?
” Jared suggested and kissed the top of her head.
“
I think you’re good, it looks like you lost at least ten pounds today.”

She lifted her head and faced him. “Really?” His smirk made her punch him on the arm. “You’re such a bad liar. But I think you’re right, I must have really low blood sugar or something. I bet
ter eat,” she said nodding. Hurriedly, she added,
“
You know
,
for health reasons, of course.”