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Chapter 1

June 27, Olathe, Kansas

Theto stand by and watch while Helen burned to death liked his coffee black

Helen looked up fro there, not twenty feet away He was the man of her dreams--or more accurately, of her visions Technically it was just one vision Over and over She was going up in fla at her

"See so you like?" asked Lexi, the diner’s only waitress on duty She’d been working at Gertie’s Diner for only a couple ofabout her thatperson knew, including Helen’s vision of her own death "Cook’s gone for the day, so all we have left is meat loaf, baked chicken, and pot roast Pick your poison"

Across from Helen, her dinner coe-hunched shoulders barely cleared the table Her gnarled hands gripped the laminated menu, which wavered somotion sickness

"How’s the meat loaf?" asked Miss Mabel

Lexi was a petite twenty-so with a killer body and a brain totables in Olathe, Kansas, living in her car, was a total mystery to Helen--one Lexi refused to solve no matter how many times Helen asked She’d offered to let Lexi stay with her until she found a place, but Lexi said she wouldn’t bring trouble to Helen’s doorstep when she clearly had enough of her own

Lexi leaned down until her short, white-blond spikes threatened to poke Miss Mabel in the eye "You’d be safer eating two-day-old roadkill, which is what I’ Paulo used toquestions about it Smart man"

Miss Mabel blanched a little "Definitely no meat loaf I’ll take the pot roast"

Lexi winked and wrote it down on her pad of order slips "How ’bout you, Helen? What can I get you today?"

Helen tried to focus on her menu as she held it up to shield her face so Vision Man couldn’t see her Her hands tree of panic If he caught her watching him, she was sure she’d lose it completely

Helen wanted to screa coffee into his lap and run away Instead, she fought her rising panic for a chance to learn so the vision She sank lower in her seat and tried to pretend that everything was fine, which she did with flying colors Helen had a lot of practice at pretending everything was fine

"I’ her hands would stop shaking so hard she could read the ment, she eased the ined it was him

Nope It was Vision Man In the flesh

He listened to what one of thewhile he sipped his coffee One thick arm was sprawled out across the back of the booth and she could see so out from under Vision Man’s T-shirt sleeve Strands of hair, maybe? Vines? She couldn’t be sure at this distance and she didn’t think staring long enough to figure it out was a s She didn’t want him to notice her, period

He had thick brown hair that was just getting long enough to show off a bit of curl And that was the only thing about hih, almost sharp cheekbones with deep hollows beneath His mouth was pressed into a hard, flat line as he listened to his friend, his expression gririnding his teeth, and Helen had the distinct impression that he was in pain Lots of pain

Good It served hi her die Not that he’d committed that particular crime yet, but he would She knew it like she knew the sun would set in a fewfake or distorted about her vision She’d tried for years to find some flaw, some speck of doubt that what she saas real Tried and failed And now she knew that her time was nearly up The man in her vision was thisto die soon Maybe tonight

Grief and fear swelled up in her chest and she fought the each little ertips She’d learned the technique fro from some sort of delusion All she had to do was face it and it would go away Well, she was facing it now and it wasn’t going anywhere Fifty thousand dollars and many years later, she was still just as deluded, but at least she could keep the fear at bay Breathing and relaxing was the only way she knew to control the panic The only way to keep herself fro alive What a fucking gruesome fate

She’d tried to prepare herself for this, but she’d obviously failed It was too soon She wasn’t ready to die yet There was still so much work left to be done So many people who needed her help

"You okay?" asked Lexi, her pale forehead puckering with a frown She glanced over her shoulder to where Helen kept trying not to look Vision Man and two others sat drinking coffee and eating pie as though they had all the time in the world Man, wouldn’t that be nice

"Those guys bothering you?" asked Lexi, sounding more worried from Helen’s lack of response

"Uh, no" Just breathe That’s all she had to do Breathe in Breathe out "I’ll have the pot roast, too"