Free a Touch of Intrigue by L. j. Charles Page A

up.” Malicious arrogance coated Fred’s words.
    My gut clenched, and I barely kept my morning coffee down. “How?” I spat the word at him as soon as he’d gained his feet.
    “That’ll have to remain my secret. Just something to make you more cooperative.”
    He was so damn snide. No wonder my mother tried to kill him on sight. Probably it was good that Pierce had taken the Kimber away from me, because this was quickly turning into a like-mother like-daughter scenario. I smiled at Tynan. “How well-versed are you in torture techniques?”
    My legs froze again. Sweat broke out on my forehead, and hard as I fought it, I panicked. “I can’t move, Pierce. He’s doing something to trap my legs.”
    Pierce had him in a neck lock before I finished my sentence. “What the fuck, asshole?”
    A series of gurgling sounds came from Fred, and Pierce adjusted his hold. “Again.”
    Abruptly my legs were free. I shook them out, then jogged in a circle, thrilled to be moving. And then I got in Fred’s very red face. “Never again you freaking jerk. Stay out of my head.”
    Another shaft of pain shot into my skull. I screamed, rubbed furiously at my scalp, trying to stop the agony.
    Pierce let go of Fred, and let him drop to the ground.
    The pain stopped. Another burst of panic exploded in me. “He has control over me, Pierce.”
    “That I do, Ms. Gray. The mechanism has been in place since you were knee high to a grasshopper.” He smiled at the old-fashioned colloquialism, then cocked his head and stared at me. “But I haven’t been using it very long.”
    A chill raced along my spine. “The pain in my neck?”
    He pointed his finger at me. “Smart girl.”
    Pierce shifted position.
    Fred whirled, turning the finger-point toward Tynan. “Whatever you do to me, I can do worse to her. I don’t think you want to test that now, do you Tap?”
    Pierce’s aura glowed red.
    Mine matched his. I was sure of it. Knowing that this man could subject me to that much pain on a whim had knocked my temper into revenge mode. But I’d learned a thing or three about revenge. “Why? What is it? And how do I get my freedom back?”
    He chortled, sly. “Xola and Jayme made the decision to put me in control.”
    My gut immediately rejected that idea. “Surely you can come up with a better lie than that.”
    Fred shrugged. “Take it or leave it. That’s all I’ve got.”
    Pierce was so pissed off he’d gone icy calm. And that was a whole lot scarier than anything Fred could come up with. You gotta diffuse this, Everly.
    “A word, Pierce,” I said, taking several steps away from Fred.
    He followed me, shoulders stiff, hands fisted, and waves of seething anger banked so tightly it bathed the air with teeming energy. His jaw was clenched, silent.
    “I want to play along with him until we know exactly what’s going on. We need time to read through all those papers I appropriated from Fion Connor’s car, and we need to ensure Cait’s safety. Exactly how much power, and the freedom to use it, does Fred have?”
    “Infinite until death.” Pierce’s tone left no doubt that Fred should be at least part way through writing his epitaph or it wouldn’t get finished.
    “Don’t kill him. At least not until we figure out how he’s controlling me, and if the ability can, or has, been transferred to more people in Fred’s organization.” That unwelcome edge of panic nipped at me, pushing me to keep Fred in spitting distance in case his death left me permanently controllable by outside sources.
    Pierce’s grunt was noncommittal, but he didn’t shoot Fred on the spot, so I sucked in a breath and went toe-to-toe with my new nemesis. “Start at the beginning. No detours. No lies. What do you want from me?”
    Fred’s eyes sparkled with what I could only guess was excitement. I barely kept from breaking his nose. Played it out a few times in my mind, then smiled, and snuck a sideways glance at Pierce. He must have been all over what