Free Touching the Past by Ilene Kaye Page A

station.” He sounded…uncertain? “It’s over. Everything turned out all right. I thought…I’d let you know?” The upward inflection made it sound as if he wasn’t sure he’d done the right thing. As if he hadn’t been sure she’d want to know.
    Mallory held the receiver with both hands, cradling it to her face. Her grip tightened on it. “I’m glad you did. I was waiting.” She was almost as startled by the low, husky, sexy sound of her voice, as she was by the realization she had been waiting for him to call. She had no claim on him. There was no reason for him to call and tell her he was safe. But she’d been waiting—hoping—for it all the same.
    There was a beat of silence before Zac’s voice came back through the line. “Then I’m glad I called.”
    Now it was Mallory’s turn to be silent. A shiver slid down her spine. There was nothing special about them. They were just words. But something in the deeper pitch of them made them seem…intimate. Her toes curled in the carpet. “Me, too,” she whispered, hardly knowing what she was saying.
    There was silence on Zac’s end. It went on.
    Mallory choked back a giggle as the humor of it hit her. They were like two kids waiting for the other one to hang up first.
    In the background she heard a banging sound. She took a breath, but before she could speak, Zac beat her to it. “All right.” His tone was brisk and impersonal. “I’ll talk to you later, then. Good night and—” His voice softened and lowered. “Thanks.”
    “You’re—” It was too late. He’d hung up.
    Mallory listened to the buzzing in the receiver a long time before she hung up.

Chapter 9
    Zac looked around the Grande Ballroom of Saginaw’s Four Points Hotel. He hadn’t been sure what to expect of the psychic fair, but it wasn’t this. Tables had been set around the paneled room. Some held books. Others were covered with cards. Crystal rocks and statues filled other velvet-covered tables. Despite the heavy rain and high wind gusts outside, the fair seemed well-attended. There was a waiting line at every table, and more people wandered about the room.
    Behind the tables, women in sweater ensembles and jewel-toned blouses and men in suits read tarot cards, charted horoscopes, and worked numerology patterns. Eyeing them, Zac wondered which ones Beth, Daniel, and Kim had visited. A check had confirmed all of the participants at this fair had been present at the earlier Midland one, but which ones his missing persons had visited was anyone’s guess. There was also the possibility that the vendors had nothing to do with the disappearances at all. Someone attending the fair could have taken them.
    Zac punched his thigh. If he only knew what the connection between the three was, he might be able to narrow it down.
    “Hey.” Mallory brushed his fist, her hand warm. “You okay?”
    “Am I okay?” He raised his eyebrows. “You’re the one going into a room full of psychics.” He waved a hand. “And whatever, trying to look into their pasts to see a kidnapper, and you’re asking me if I’m okay?” He shook his head. “Are you okay?”
    She gave him a half grin. “I’ll admit, I’d rather be doing almost anything else, but I can handle it.” She turned to look at the room, lifting her shoulders. “Really.”
    It sounded as if she was trying to reassure herself as much as him, but Zac didn’t press it.
    She was an incredible woman. She didn’t have to do this. After listening to her explain how using her ability affected her, he didn’t understand why she even was doing it. She should have thrown him out when he came to her. She should have told him to drop dead. But she hadn’t. Instead she was helping him.
    I was waiting.
    The memory of her voice when he’d called her that night made his blood run hot. He’d hesitated about doing it, the rational part of him arguing there was no reason to let her know the domestic dispute gone very bad had been resolved