Victor pondered that briefly. “I’ll try to persuade her to assist in the investigation, but I’ll warn you right now, she might refuse. The Rancourts left a nasty reputation for the Foundation behind. We’re still dealing with the fallout. As far as Olivia is concerned, she has no reason to trust you.”
“I’ll deal with Olivia.”
Lucas looked skeptical. “How do you plan to do that?”
“Simple,” Harlan said. “I’ve got something she wants, and I discovered long ago that’s more than enough to gain someone’s cooperation.”
Lucas’s eyes got very cold. “What do you have that she would want badly enough to make her willing to cooperate with a Rancourt?”
“A lead on her mother’s killer,” Harlan said.
CHAPTER 3
Not what I expected,” Lucas said.
“No.” Victor contemplated the door through which Harlan had just left. “He’s not his father or his grandfather. But he is quite possibly a lot more dangerous.”
“The interesting thing is that he doesn’t look like much of a threat.” Lucas thought about Harlan Rancourt’s surprisingly normal aura. “He’s definitely got some talent, but nothing special. Most of our security and research personnel are stronger. I’d say he’s probably an average intuitive talent.”
“If the rumors are true that he handled security for his father—not the routine enforcer stuff—Harlan tracked down the monsters. They said the bad guys never saw him coming.”
“That was over five years ago,” Lucas said. “We’ve always considered the possibility that he was there that night and that the blast was meant for us. We figured something went wrong with the timing, right? The bomb exploded prematurely? If Harlan was nearby, he might have been wounded by the blast. The shock waves could have done permanent damage to his energy field.”
Victor tipped his head to one side and squinted a little. “That might explain why he is no longer a high-end talent, assuming he was in the old days. But just because he lacks some serious psychic power doesn’t mean he’s not dangerous.”
“Granted”—Lucas exhaled—“it’s easier to commit murder with a gun than it is to do it with some exotic monster talent.”
“But the gun or a knife or any other weapon always leaves evidence,” Victor said. “Regardless, what worries me now is that we don’t know his full agenda. I’m convinced he’s as desperate to locate Vortex as we are. But then what?”
“One obvious possibility comes to mind,” Lucas said. “Revenge. He probably blames us for the death of his father and the fact that we are now running the Foundation. We stole his inheritance. He knows as well as we do that his job as the director of the Agency for the Investigation of Atypical Phenomena doesn’t give him any real power. We could cut the Foundation free tomorrow. If, in addition to everything else, he lost his talent five years ago, he’s got one hell of a motive for vengeance.”
“Five years is a long time to wait to take revenge.” Victor paused. “But you know what they say.”
“A dish best served cold. Larissa Whittier certainly took her time about the business. Speaking of Whittier, I think Rancourt was telling the truth when he said he only recently learned that she existed and that they were related by blood. He certainly didn’t seem to be interested in her.”
“Maybe,” Victor said. “I’m not so sure.”
“Really? You picked up some nuance that I missed? You’re the one who makes a point of ignoring emotions and subtle social signals.”
“That’s just it. There wasn’t any emotion. No nuance. No subtle social signals. Nothing to ignore. But what do I know? I’m just the guy who connects the dots.”
Lucas looked at the man who was his soul mate, the man he had never expected to find—the love of his life. He hadn’t been looking for love when he sat down at the poker table on that long-ago night. He had intended to pick up some easy money—he was very good at poker—and then hit a certain nightclub.
The vibe of the man sitting on the other side of the table had changed his plans for the evening. By the following morning, his plans for the rest of his life had changed. He had known that even if he never saw Victor again, he would never forget him; would never want to forget him. Their blowout Las Vegas wedding had put a public seal on the unshakable connection between them.
“I can’t believe he managed to sneak up on us the way he did,” Lucas said. “Got to admit I never expected him to show up at the front door.”
“Huh.”
Victor got to his feet and went to stand at the bank of windows overlooking the Strip.
Lucas watched him. “What?”
Victor clasped his hands behind his back and watched a vintage pink Cadillac cruise the Strip. “Five years ago, he disappeared without a trace. The next thing we know he’s not only at our front door—he’s in charge of the government agency that is our one and only client. We should have seen him coming.”
“Can’t argue with that,” Lucas said.
Victor snorted. “It’s enough to make me wonder if the old story about him is true.”
“Which story would that be?”
“The one that claims he has the ability to make himself invisible,” Victor said.
“There’s no such thing as a talent for invisibility.”
“That we know of. There’s so much about the paranormal that we haven’t begun to discover. Theoretically, a talent for manipulating light waves might make some form of invisibility a possibility.”
“Maybe,” Lucas said. “But that would require an incredibly powerful talent, and powerful talents have powerful energy fields. Harlan Rancourt’s field looked so damn normal. Low-grade psychic at best.”
“That’s good, I suppose. It means he won’t scare the daylights out of Olivia when they meet.”
“Trust me, if she walked past him on the street, she wouldn’t look twice.”
CHAPTER 4
If I disappeared tomorrow would you walk into hell to find me?” Olivia asked.
She did not look up from her phone. She wasn’t supposed to be on it. The rules of the speed date event were quite specific about that. All phones, watches and assorted tech were to be powered down for the evening. But she had concluded the event was a waste of time, so she had palmed her phone from her handbag. She was now holding it under the edge of the cocktail table, where the event coordinator could not see it.