“You aren’t asking for a little. You had me investigated before you ever made your big move on me, didn’t you?”
“Hell yes. I’d investigate the pope if his life touched Jase’s life.” He stood up and put the length of the room between them, his eyes alive with the suppressed rage that was always swirling so close when he confronted his own demons.
She stared up at him for a long moment. “You investigated Jase too, didn’t you?”
“I’m not about to apologize for it either, Doc. You have no idea what our lives were like.” He stopped abruptly, going very still, watching her expression. “Or do you? How do you know things?”
Maia hesitated. She was going to ruin her chances of ever being a permanent veterinarian anywhere if she told him.
“It’s important. Do you really know things? Would you know if Jase drove that horse into the fence? Or if I did it?” How could she know?
Maia caught a glimpse of the fear in him, and it all fell into place. He suspected Jase of being like their father. It made sense. “It wasn’t Jase. The man was too big.” She didn’t want to continue, but she couldn’t let him think such a monstrous thing.
“How do you know?”
“The animals.”
The room went totally silent. Maia shifted deeper into the cushions, trying to avoid seeing the look she knew would be in his eyes. She pressed her fingers into her eyes in an effort to relieve the headache that continued to pound.
Cole studied her face for a long time. “You mean they really do talk to you?” he asked, trying hard to keep skepticism from his voice. She was being serious and waiting for him to scoff at her. Maia Armstrong had secrets; it was there in her eyes, in the way she avoided looking at him, and he intended to find out what they were.
“Not exactly,” she hedged. “Look, do we have to do this? Is it really necessary?”
“You know things about me no one else knows. Hell you know more about the Steele family than most people do. What are you afraid of?”
“I’m a veterinarian, Steele. You think people are going to want some nutcase treating their animals? And that’s what they’ll call me.” She didn’t have to tell him anything. She could stare him down, tell him to go to hell, be stubbornly silent. Maia was capable of all of those things. So why was she sitting there like some sacrifice, waiting for the axe to fall?
“No one is here but the two of us.” Cole was back in front of her, crouching down, his hand on her knee. His piercing blue eyes caught and held her gaze as if to give her courage. “How do the animals talk to you?” Could it really be possible? There was no getting around the fact that several animals had run out in front of his vehicle as he drove through the blizzard to get to the ranch, and each time she had known they were there before they could actually see them.
Maia shook her head, but couldn’t look away from him. There was no escaping Cole Steele and his brother, or their pain, shrieking at her from the depths of their being.
“Telling you the truth about working for the DEA wasn’t so bad once I did it. It was actually a relief to tell you the truth. I don’t talk about the old man and my childhood, but now you know, and I don’t have to worry that somehow I’ll slip up and you’ll find out things that I’ve kept hidden away.”
“It isn’t the same thing, Cole.”
“Just say it, Maia. You know I’m going to badger you until you do.”
It was the way he said her name. A caress. A silky, satin tone that brushed over her skin and slipped inside of her. Disarmed her. He always called her “Doc” and somehow by using her first name it created an intimacy between them. A trust. “I see their memories. I don’t know how, but I’ve always been able to see things they’ve seen. The memories come to me in images, very vivid and, most of the time, very distressing.”
He caught her chin in his hand, forcing her to look at him. “Why would you be afraid to tell me?”
Maia pulled away from him, shrinking back against the thickly upholstered couch. “Most people would just think I was crazy.” She shook her head, her gaze avoiding his. “I know it sounds crazy.” Why had she even admitted it? What was wrong with her? She knew better than to say anything. Cole Steele of all people. What was she thinking?
“Tell me what Wally saw.”