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"He’s taking a rest with his wife, Justin" The frowningat a faster pace while her husband slowed his step to take a longer look "Peter, please"

"Okay, honey" The husband gave Matthias a grin and a wink before trotting to catch up

Matthias didn’t want to move Jessa until the family departed, so he held her and waited as the couple helped their children into the backseats of their van He would have been concerned with handling her as much as he had, for it surely would have roused another woman, but some indefinable sense of her told him that she had retreated into herself and would not wake for soave him the time to look at her as much as he wished, and he mapped every inch of her face, from the off-center peak of fine black hair above her left bron the gentle slope of her nose, and over her pretty lips to the strong line of her jaake she likely kept her features co to allow others to see Now she see she had endured

He could only guess what her life had been like since her ability had cole touch she could see into the darkest corners of the soul could not have been a teht of all the people he had contact with in the course of a single day He disliked touching strangers, but sooods, or walking through crowded areas She could not wear gloves year-round and have it go unnoticed; she could not lock herself in her office to avoid the people orked for her or the clients who sought her services

"How do you e it?" he murmured to her "Do you surround yourself with the innocent, or do you make them think you are cold and distant?"

A strand of her hair had caught in the corner of her ertip to brush it away Even that s nerves, just as it had when she had put her hand over his

The brush of the tiny, invisible hairs on her thin skin reminded him of a delicate veil over silk The paleness of her flesh still astonished hi tans of Aile to bear anything

Matthias saw a flash of red brake lights as the van drove out of the lot, and kneas time to move her As he put his hand under her knees, her head slipped back against his ar her face to his He held her for anotherhis mouth He had never been so close to a wo herself to welcome the thrust of his shaft With her ability, Jessa would not even have that much Her loneliness was not by choice, he realized To take a lover, she had to touch--but he had seen it with his own eyes: The only touch she permitted herself was her own

"I understand now" He lifted her against his chest as he stood and carried her to the second car

Lowering the seat, he eased her back until she couldn’t be seen through the car’s s As he th and steadiness of her heartbeat and breathing assured hierously deep sleep

He couldn’t knohat she had seen when she’d touched hiuess He had relived thethe desperation that had driven hi justice that it had blinded hi? Would she understand?

After he returned to the highway, Matthias called Rowan to tell her he had made the first transfer, and to send one of their helpers to pick up the vehicle he had left behind

"Who is after e in Atlanta," she said "You and Ms Know-it-all also made the six-o’clock news They don’t have any shots of you, but by eleven her face will be plastered on everyis that you’re both wanted for questioning as a person of interest in an attempted murder of a prominent businessman You kno fast Genaro moves when he’s motivated"

"Indeed" He had hoped for a little more time, but that was not to be "What more?"

"Drew stole a copy of the GenHance file on her," Rowan said "Records only go back ten years, and then she doesn’t exist, so Jessa Bellaus She would kno to do that the right way, of course He had ave hiag her?"

"She sleeps" He flexed his right hand, trying to dispel the lingering sensations fro her face "She used her ability onto tell her when she wakes up?"

"She lanced at Jessa Nohen he looked at her face, he wished she would wake It wouldher ain He had never knooman with rain-colored eyes "Tell me about this luck with the other na he stole froive ot it Okay An Allen Taggart Price died during a workplace shooting in Savannah back in ’ninety-eight Seven other people at this investe were also shot and killed by a mentally ill former employee, one Jennifer Johnson The only unconfirmed survivor was Minerva Jessamine Starret, twenty-two years old" Rowan paused and then added, "It was her first day at work, poor kid"

He hardly heard her over the rush of blood to his head "Minerva"

"It’s not that bad I knew a kid in middle school named Jesus Supreme Lord Loomis We called him Loomy Tunes" She flipped a paper "No birth records but a child welfare report, estio, abandoned at birth, placed as an infant in a Catholic group ho surprise there--adopted in 1981 by Darien Thomas Starret of Savannah, no wife, so no mother for her Enrolled same year in very expensive private Swiss school, stayed there until she graduated and attended college in France, returned to the US in ’ninety-seven, resided with father until his death by natural causes in ’ninety-eight Couple of months before she was shot"