Read The Touch for Free Online Page B

tight in one hand.
    Damn. He’d never expected them to find him.
His home address and his identity were supposed to be kept so
confidential that only those with the highest clearance knew where
to locate him. The one he’d given at the arts fair had been fake,
in case he’d been overheard, because the operative had already
known his true address.
    Adrenaline surged through his body and his
heart pounded. How many mercenaries were here? He reached into his
front pocket for his cell to call for backup.
    The power went out.
    Chandra gave a soft gasp. Wade crouched as he
moved toward her at the same time he punched in the number for his
backup team. Glass crunched beneath his boots. Without thinking, he
reached for Chandra and grasped her hand and yanked her from behind
the chair. He felt her body vibrate and she tried jerking her hand
away, but he wasn’t going to release her.
    “Hurry, but keep down,” he ordered her at the
same time he brought the cell to his mouth.
    His partner and close friend, Mike Fields,
answered on the first ring. “Need backup?”
    “My place. Now,” Wade said before snapping
the cell shut and shoving it back into his pocket.
    He yanked Chandra into his bedroom. They
hurried through the darkness, and several shots echoed in the house
just before the crack of door mountings met his ears. His front
door burst open.
    The mercenaries charged inside.
    Heart pumping he dragged Chandra toward his
room-sized closet.
    Her breath caught and she squeezed his hand
tight. “They have night vision wear,” she whispered.
    “How in the hell—?” he started, but then
clamped his mouth shut and hurried toward the large closet, keeping
low. The bastards might be able to see in the dark, but he had an
advantage they couldn’t know about.
    Chandra could hardly focus as Wade kept a
tight grip on her hand and dragged her through his home. Image
after image assaulted her and a tingling sensation ran up her arm
from the contact of his fingers around hers.
    In her vision she knew that mercenaries were
attacking. They prowled through Wade’s home, their guns sweeping
the great room as they stealthily moved through the darkness with
their night gear on. Glass crunched beneath their shoes.
    Goose bumps pricked her entire body and her
heart pounded in her throat. Her palms and knees ached from
crawling across the glass that had sliced into her skin.
    Wade had dragged her into a bedroom. Through
the windows, the light from the moon illuminated a bed and other
pieces of furniture. The next moment they were in darkness. Again
through a quick vision, she knew she was in a massive closet.
Clothing brushed her bare skin on her right side.
    When they reached the back of the closet, he
slid his fingers along the wall. A metal ladder extended from above
their heads and planted itself firmly on the floor at the same time
a square door opening appeared. Above she could make out nothing
but a blue glow.
    “Climb up,” he ordered at the same time he
released her hand and pushed her toward the ladder.
    The visions immediately stopped when he let
go and her heart stopped along with the images. The last thing she
had seen in her mind were the mercenaries approaching his bedroom.
They were close, too close.
    The metal railing was cold against her
fingers and bare feet as she hurried up the ladder as fast as she
could. Thank goodness it was only about five steps to the room, or
attic, wherever they were headed.
    When she reached the top and pulled herself
into the room, a ball of coarse cloth zoomed up and she barely
caught it. The idiot had grabbed a shirt for her instead of
climbing up the ladder. She clutched the cloth in her fingers,
backed up, and moved away.
    A shot sounded below her, muffled. Then
another shot and another. The smell of burning cloth immediately
hit her nose and her senses went wild.
    Wade? What happened to Wade?
    In the near darkness she saw a shadow slip
from below and ease to the side.
    A hard thump and a