Twisted Instincts

by Casey Hagen

  Text copyright ©2018 by the Author.

  This work was made possible by a special license through the Kindle Worlds publishing program and has not necessarily been reviewed by Desiree Holt. All characters, scenes, events, plots and related elements appearing in the original The Phoenix Agency remain the exclusive copyrighted and/or trademarked property of Desiree Holt, or their affiliates or licensors.

  For more information on Kindle Worlds: http://www.amazon.com/kindleworlds

  TWISTED INSTINCTS

  The Devlin Brothers Series Book 2

  Casey Hagen

  Hagen Novels, LLC

  KENNEBUNK, MAINE

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  Table of Contents

  Blurb

  The Phoenix

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Epilogue

  Blurb

  Jack of all trades, Jasmine Eckert, lives her life on her every whim. After years of working an unconventional range of jobs from construction to hair styling, she’s feeling the pressure to pick a direction, put down roots, and figure out what she wants out of life, once and for all. Before she can so much as give notice on her apartment, she overhears the Devlin brothers talking about a missing child, labeled by the authorities as a serial runaway, and is overwhelmed by a bone-deep wave of kinship for a child she’s never met. Compelled to help, she sets out to prove her skills and life experience are just what the team needs to find their kid.

  The last thing Luca Devlin needs is for Jasmine to swing her hips, flip her hair, and pepper him with barbs from her sassy mouth when every minute leads one step farther away from finding whoever is responsible for Tyler Mishler’s kidnapping. Not that Luca necessarily believes he’s been kidnapped, but Luca intends to humor his brothers’ suspicions, for now. Resentment consumes him at the thought of having their resources wasted on a runaway when real victims waited, precious clues ran cold, and children, just like his lost sister, suffered emotional, physical, and sexual torment while they prayed for someone, anyone, to save them.

  Despite every reason he should turn her away, Jasmine’s abilities could very well give him the edge he needs to prove that this kid is duping them all. Can he work side by side with the enticing Jasmine without ending up skin to skin and losing his skeptical heart?

  The Phoenix

  The Phoenix Agency

  They served their country in every branch of the military – Army Delta Force, SEALs, Air Force, Marines. We are pilots, snipers, medics – whatever the job calls for. And now as private citizens they serve in other capacities, as private contractors training security for defense contractors, as black ops eradicating drug dealers, as trained operatives ferreting out traitors. With the women in their lives who each have a unique psychic ability, they are a force to be reckoned with. Risen from the ashes of war, they continue to fight for those in need. They are Phoenix.

  Chapter 1

  Luca Devlin tipped his beer to his lips and stopped just shy of taking a much-needed sip when he spotted Jasmine Eckert sauntering through Leanne and Davis Wilkins’ front door. Her faded blue jeans hugged her long legs and that gray V-neck T-shirt clung to the curves above it, demanding everyone’s attention. He glanced about the room.

  Or maybe just his.

  For someone who had been in on the Mara Wilkins’ kidnapping case for all of five minutes, she sure as hell had managed to make herself at home with Mara’s family in the aftermath of the nine-year-old being found.

  And she had wormed her way into his company business with her constant presence during Team Alegra’s last case. He and his brothers had worked for years to make their company, named for their missing sister, a success. Then Lily landed in the mix with her visions, and hauled her pain-in-the-ass best friend with her.

  Not that he was bitter or anything.

  She scanned the room, and her gaze stopped the minute it landed on him. With a feral smile and a gleam in those caramel eyes of hers, she advanced on him.

  “Look at that, you grabbed me a beer. Maybe you have some psychic abilities of your own, there, handsome.” She slid her fingers under his, clasped the bottle, and snaked it away.

  Out of the handful of conversations they’d had, they’d never managed anything less than snark and thinly veiled aggression. Not that he knew what her problem with him was. He’d always been nice to Lily, and polite enough to Jasmine.

  “Cute, but I’ll pass on that particular talent, thanks,” he said. He gulped hard as she closed her full, red lips over the mouth of the bottle. A hot image flashed into his head of her on her hands and knees, taking the head of his co—

  “Interesting expression. Don’t know where your mind just went…new case got you all wrapped up?” she asked as she sidled up next to him and bumped him with her sexy, round hip.

  He eyed the cooler holding the cold beer with longing. He should just go grab another, but for reasons he had no interest in examining, he wanted to stay right where he was.

  With her.

  “I’m not wrapped up in anything,” he said. He told himself that it was just a trick of his ears that made him sound like a petulant child, but the unladylike snort she let out said otherwise.

  He slid his hands into his pockets and watched his brother, Mason, hang on Lily’s every word. Just a few weeks ago, his brother had hated psychics, and now, after their last case and the way Lily used her abilities to not only find Mara, but also a clue to their own missing sister’s case from two decades ago, all of a sudden, he was their biggest fan.

  Okay, he fell in love with her, not his fault, but it changed the whole dynamic of the team and had Luca wondering about his place, if their goals remained the same, and what to expect of Mason’s attitude going forward.

  Mason didn’t realize that Luca knew it, but Mason had held himself in some sort of purgatory ever since their sister disappeared just moments after the boys headed off to fish, leaving her behind. Mason had told her no, and it haunted him to this very day. Luca had other reasons for their sister’s disappearance to haunt him.

  “Okay, then. So, I’m a half-hour late. What did I miss?” Jasmine asked.

  Luca leaned back against the table and curled his fingers over the edge. “Well, Leanne and Adam have made the rounds to thank us all three times. Each time Leanne dissolved into a puddle of tears, which was awkward.”

  “Aww, come on. You guys saved her baby.”

  “Lily saved her baby.”

  She pinned him with a hard stare. “Is that what’s bothering you right now? That you guys have to share the kudos with Lily? I have to tell you, if that’s the case, that’s douchey.”

  “Douchey? What is this, high school?”

  “With that pout on your face, it’s starting to feel like it.”

  “Listen—”

  The sound of Kid Rock’s ‘Cowboy’ filled the air, making Luca cringe. He hated that fucking tune. They’d each put a song title in a hat that they wanted to be their official ringtone for each new case call from their offices, and that was the one drawn. He still didn’t know who put it in there, because none of his brothers had confessed, and they’d all hung their heads in shame when he demanded to know which of his brothers lost control of his inner sixteen-year-old girl.

  He had to wonder if three of the four choices to choose from had be
en ‘Cowboy’ to begin with.

  He caught Jasmine stifling a laugh out of the corner of his eye, proving his point. That song actually repelled women. Well, unless you were Kid Rock.

  “As much as I would love to continue our little volley, I need to take this.” He clicked the button and pressed the phone to his ear. “It’s Luca.”

  “Hey, boss. Sorry to interrupt, but we’ve got a tense one here in the office,” Jasper said. Jasper was their computer expert, and the damned best at extracting information from anywhere. As a matter of fact, they didn’t ask him a whole lot of questions about where he got his info. The less they knew, the better. And the most sensitive information he searched for on his own time, from his own home, where only he would suffer the consequences if caught.

  “What’s up?” Luca asked, catching Mason’s eye and giving him a nod.

  “A couple came in, insists their son was kidnapped. Said the police won’t help them.”

  “That doesn’t sound right,” Luca said.

  “No, and I don’t want to ask too many questions. The mom swings between weepy and ready to skin someone alive, and since interviews aren’t in my job description, I’d rather not put my life on the line, thanks,” Jasper said.

  “Chicken,” Luca muttered.

  “I’ve calculated the odds of my survival if I talk to this woman. They aren’t good. That just makes me smart. So, can I tell her you’re on your way in?”

  With it being late afternoon on a Friday, he wouldn’t have to worry too much about Baltimore traffic, since most people would be on their way out of the city and heading home. “Yeah, fifteen minutes and I’ll be there. Get them settled in my office, offer them coffee, and hang in there.”

  “You got it,” Jasper said.

  “What’s up?” Mason asked, his arm looped around Lily’s shoulder.

  Luca shook his head at the picture they made, Mason standing a good ten inches taller than Lily and outweighing her by at least eighty pounds. You’d think Mason held the power but when Lily spoke, her raspy tone all but brought Mason to his figurative knees.

  Luca got it, but he had no interest in following suit.

  “We have some riled parents at the office as we speak. Said their son is missing and the police won’t help,” Luca said as he slid his phone into his pocket.

  “Sounds like there’s a story there,” Mason said.

  “Yeah, and since it’s my turn to head up a case, I’m heading in to find out what’s up.”

  “You need me to come with you?” Mason asked.

  “No, I’ve got it. Besides, Leanne and Adam want to celebrate. You guys should stay and enjoy it.” Luca patted his pants pockets and sighed. “Shit, I rode with you.”

  “It’s no problem, I—”

  “I’ll take him,” Jasmine said.

  Luca eyed the pilfered beer she held in her hand.

  She glanced down and back up at him. “Relax, I’ve had three sips. I’m pretty sure I’d pass a sobriety test.” She pulled her keys from her pocket, then flicked and spun them on her finger. “Let’s roll, Nervous Nellie.”

  “I’d hurry. She doesn’t look like she’s going to wait. Next thing you know you’ll miss your ride, and by the time you get to the office, she’ll have the case solved,” Mason said with a hearty laugh.

  The fuck she would. This was his case, and he didn’t have time for someone who wanted to play private investigator. When it came to missing children, every damn second counted.

  “Thank Leanne and Adam for me, would ya?” Luca said, before jogging out the door to catch up with the thorn in his side.

  He found her turning the key in her Chevy Impala. Circling around the front end, he yanked open the door and dropped in. “You were going to take off without me,” he said.

  “Nah, actually, I thought it might be fun to wait for you to grab the door handle and then I’d pull forward. Let you walk up, reach out, and pull forward again.” She shifted the car into drive and shot him a grin. “You were too quick for that.”

  Mason had done that shit to him once upon a time. The thought of her doing it made his face burn, something he hadn’t been prone to since puberty. “Aren’t you too old for bullshit games?”

  She hit the gas and pulled away from the curb. “God, no. I hope I’m never too old to have fun,” she said.

  “You’ll have to excuse me if I don’t find humor in game-playing when a kid is missing,” he said, more bite in his voice than he intended. Without even trying, every word out of his mouth only served to prove he was, in fact, turning into Nervous Nellie, just like she had called him.

  Mason had had one serious case of stick-up-the-ass for years. Now that he’d met Lily, apparently he had passed the stick and shoved it right up Luca’s.

  Her smile slipped. “Hey, I’m not trying to make light of it. I’m just trying to keep my mind off what could be happening, when I don’t know the details, and there’s nothing I can do,” she said quietly.

  “It’s not your job to do anything. I just need a ride, that’s it. Then you can go,” Luca said.

  “Ouch. You know, I’m not trying to steal your thunder, but I might be able to help,” she said, seemingly unfazed by his harsh dismissal.

  Luca took a deep breath and reminded himself that he hadn’t been born an asshole. Hell, he hadn’t been an asshole a few weeks ago. But ever since he met Jasmine, he’d been telling his body to heel, and at thirty the need to do so embarrassed the hell out of him.

  “Look, I’m sorry. I just need to focus, and that’s hard to do with you around.”

  “Really?” she said.

  “Yes,” he bit out.

  “Why is it hard to focus with me around?”

  “Jasmine,” he growled.

  “Luca,” she said with a grin.

  “Don’t you have a job you need to be getting back to?” he asked.

  “Actually, I’m thinking of moving here. Maybe I’ll start up a salon again, or I might put my CDL to work.”

  Huh?

  “You drive trucks?” he asked.

  “I have. It’s been a couple of years, but it’s just like riding a bike,” she said.

  “Don’t you have a life elsewhere? Roots? A mortgage? Or a lease, at least?”

  She made a right and shot him a grin. “I don’t like roots. They’re too messy. I have a month to month—and right now I’m not working, so it’s the perfect time.”

  “We get snow here, you know. Most people hate that.”

  “We get snow in Virginia, too…difference is, Virginia is shit at taking care of their roads. And I miss Lily. I didn’t realize how much until I was here visiting. I hated leaving. When she got in trouble, it was easy to jump right into the car and head back.”

  Much like the way Luca was with his brothers…the way he would have been with their sister. Too bad he hadn’t been that protective then.

  When it mattered.

  “You guys seem more like sisters than friends. Women have a way of being tight with each other that’s amazing and terrifying all at the same time.”

  “I guess in a way we are. If it hadn’t been for her…” Jasmine pressed her lips together and shrugged.

  “What?”

  She shrugged and kept her eyes on the road. “No one ever believes it when I tell them anyway. You won’t be any different.”

  He shifted in his seat to face her. “That’s not fair. I think, as an investigator, I’m more likely to be objective than most.”

  “Like your brother was objective with Lily?”

  “God, no. He has hang-ups where the psychic thing is concerned. Things happened to him that made him that way. I don’t have his issues. I just don’t want to live with that kind of ability.”

  “Okay, well, how does this sound? Lily is the reason we have our abilities.”

  So, she was a total nut. A hot nut. But definitely a full-blown nut. “Excuse me?”

  “We’ve been friends for forever. She had a vision when we were kid
s. Visions of your brother with his friends. They cut their thumbs and did the whole blood brother thing. She wanted to do that with us. So, we did. Up to that point, Lily was the only one with any psychic ability.”

  “You think you caught it? Like a cold?”

  “I don’t know. I know how it sounds, but there’s no other explanation. We aren’t all the same. We have different abilities. Lily is clairvoyant. I’m claircognizant which, by the way, is a total pain in the ass. Sage is clairsentient, and Ivy is clairaudient.”

  “Why is being claircognizant a pain in the ass?”

  She glanced at him before pulling over in front of the Team Alegra offices. “Because there’s no way to explain it. No proof. It’s not even possible to have a witness. Most of the time I choose to keep my mouth shut, because it’s not worth trying to prove myself over and over.”

  He really needed to get inside, but he just had to know. “Not even if it’s going to save someone?”

  “Who is it really going to save? If they ignore me, that doesn’t help the victim. If they do hear me and choose to ignore it, they live with regrets. There’s no win all around.” She shrugged. “Helping is Lily’s thing, not mine. Unless, of course, it’s helping Lily. I will always be there for her, no matter what,” she said.

  “I would think it would be worth it on the off-chance that someone is willing to listen,” he said.

  “Would you listen?”

  He honest to God didn’t know.

  The silence grew between them and that shine in her eyes dimmed. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

  She checked her side mirror before throwing open her door.

  He jumped out and hustled to catch up with her as she ate up the distance between the car and the front door. “Hey, where do you think you’re going?”

  “Inside—I might be able to help. You don’t seem to have any interest in my abilities, but I’m another head working the problem at the very least.”