Read Online The Protected (Fbi Psychics) by Shiloh Walker - Free Book Online

she balked about taking that cookie, they would have a problem.
    Not only did he not
trust
people, he expected every damn soul around him to try and hurt him.
    Why
?
    She polished off the cookie in two bites, and even though it was like sawdust on her tongue, she leaned forward and studied the plate, poking through them until she found one of the white chocolate macadamia cookies. “I’ve got to be balanced,” she said. “You made me eat a chocolate chip, now I have to have the white chocolate.”
    She nibbled on it as she eyed him. “You going to share any of those with Alex, or am I going to stand here and be a glutton and eat all the cookies?”
    She felt a ripple roll across her skin just then, but it wasn’t from Gus. He didn’t have a lick of talent in him, unless it was the way he could look at her and make her
want
.
    A minute later, he glanced back behind him. “There he is. He probably smelled the chocolate.”
    “Chocolate.” Alex wedged himself in the door, and for a second, the look on his face was that of just any ordinary kid. “Where is there . . .”
    Then the words trailed off as he saw the plate. “Cookies.” He swallowed and then looked up at Gus. “She made cookies.”
    “She did.” He nodded to Vaughnne. “You should thank her.”
    Vaughnne was already a little tired of this, and if she didn’t already have an inkling about the kind of life these two had been living, she could probably find herself rather pissed off with Gus. But as the kid hurriedly stuck out his hand, she went to shake his, letting some of her puzzled smile show on her face.
    Then she stopped and frowned, swiping her hand down the side of her shorts. “I’ve got cookie crumbs on me,” she mumbled. After she’d dusted them off, she shook the kid’s hand and felt his mental fingers rooting through her mind yet again. He wasn’t as neat that time, and pain ripped through her mind.
    She barely managed to keep a grimace from showing as he broke the connection with absolutely no finesse and no care. The pain increased, and she could feel it rippling through her, growing, and growing . . .
    Dayyum
, he was strong.
    Distantly, she made a mental note. This kid needed training and he needed it fast.
    Even though she’d been braced for him to do something, his blunt probe through her mind left her off balance. She felt like he’d jammed his hands inside her skull, scraped them through her gray matter like it was muck, and then just shoved her to the side. Stumbling, she tried to catch her balance on the doorjamb.
    A hand caught her arm.
    Gus—
    Trying to breathe through the pain, trying to keep her own mental shields in place, she sucked in a desperate breath before she swung her head around to look at him.
    “Are you okay?” he asked, his voice low and tense.
    “Headache,” she said absently, forcing herself to smile. She needed to leave. Get back to the house and sit down. Maybe lie down. Right inside the door would be fine. Shit. The pounding in her head increased, and she thought she just might puke.
    But he was eyeing her oddly, and her instincts were screaming.
Cover
,
she reminded herself.
Don’t break your cover
. “Probably from all the sugar I’ve been sucking in today.”
    Then, because she figured they
both
needed to be aware of the kid’s lack of finesse, she reached up and pressed the heel of her hand to her head. It wasn’t like she was acting, either. It felt like a freight train was trying to rip through her skull, and the nausea churned through her harder and harder with every passing second. She was going to hurl cookies in a second if she wasn’t careful. “Damn, it hit me hard, like somebody just punched me.”
    Alex’s hand froze over the plate.
    Any guilt she might have felt died as the pain just continued to grow.
    “Maybe you should sit down,” Gus said quietly. “Are you well enough to go home?”
    “Sure.” She smiled at them both and pushed the cookies into Alex’s