Read Online Chosen (Second Sight) by Hazel Hunter - Free Book Online Page A

head. He should have just stopped at the transfer. She’d seemed genuinely happy to hear about that.  
    Was it just the psychic ability that worried her? Or did it have to do with him?
    He’d lain awake asking himself those two questions over and over without any answers.
    Then again, maybe the answers didn’t matter.
    He’d already made his choice clear. Now it was up to her.
    Martinez nodded at him and Mac was jolted back to the present.
    “They’re already on our radar,” she said. She turned to the closest agent. “Tim, pull up Green Earth’s file.”
    As she, Scanlon, and Mac gathered behind Tim, a young agent who looked in his early twenties, the file and FBI logo popped up on the screen.  
    “Suspected of fraud in 2006 but the investigation turned up nothing,” Tim read. “Geoffrey Girod is the man on the web site. Visitors to it are mostly young women, single. Donations of all types are accepted by the non-profit. Whole bank accounts are transferred. Some estates. Vehicles. Most of it’s sold and the cash goes into the commune.” Tim scrolled down. “The books say they operate at a loss.” He leaned forward and scrutinized the screen. “Yeah, right,” he muttered. “Not with the kind of digital fortress they’ve got.”
    “Digital fortress?” Mac asked.
    “Someone there has some computer savvy,” Tim said. “They have their own internet servers.”
    “They’re their own ISP,” Martinez explained. “We can’t get to their email, what’s behind their web site, nothing. They’ve taken great pains to hide their finances. We haven’t been able to link them to onshore accounts let alone offshore ones.” Martinez turned to Mac. “But my instincts say they’re there. Nobody does this without a reason. I think it’s the tip of an iceberg. The cult spin?” She shrugged, arms still crossed. “That hardly comes as a surprise.”
    “I think I can get in there,” Mac said. “But I’m going to need some help.”
    “Ya think?” Tim said under his breath.
    “Fake identity,” said Scanlon, either not hearing Tim or ignoring him.
    “When?” Martinez asked Mac, ignoring Scanlon.
    “Today,” Scanlon said.
    Tim turned to look at him, an incredulous look on his face.
    “Impossible,” he said. “It takes at least–”
    “I have a window,” Mac said. “And it’s closing as we speak.”
    “Yeah,” Tim said. “Well that doesn’t change the fact that–”
    “We’ll handle it,” Martinez said, cutting Tim off. He began to turn to her but she took the back of his chair and turned him to face the screen. “It’ll be done by midnight.”
    Though Mac wasn’t quite sure what was going on in this turf war, it’d just worked to his advantage.
    “Fine,” Scanlon said, as he turned to leave.
    “Fine,” Martinez said, as she did the same.
    “ Great ,” Tim muttered at the screen but Mac was the only one who heard.

    • • • • •

    As soon as Susan’s doorbell rang, Isabelle raced to answer it.
    “He’s here ,” she called out. “I’ll get it.”
    Mac was just taking off the aviator sunglasses when she snatched up his hand and tugged him inside. She hadn’t tried to explain in her text.
    “Kayla is missing,” she said, closing the door.
    Quickly, she led him past the sunken living room, through a small family room, and up a half-flight of stairs into the kitchen. Susan was standing behind the tile counter, next to the sink, a cell phone clutched in her hand. Her eyes were puffy and red from the crying.
    “Susan called the police and filed a missing person report but they said they don’t have the manpower to pursue it and that most missing adults return in forty-eight hours.”
    “Missing,” Mac said, stowing the sunglasses in the chest pocket of his jacket. “All right,” he said as Isabelle watched him switch gears. “Tell me about what happened at the commune.”
    Isabelle could have hugged him–for more than one reason.  
    The way they’d left