Dark Guardian. Jan Hambright

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      Chapter One

      Olivia Morgan pulled on her lucky red baseball cap, snagged her ponytail and dragged it through the opening in the back. She grabbed off the seat next to her the tool bag containing a lock-pick set, a screwdriver, an extra flashlight and a water bottle.

      Sucking in a breath to quiet her nerves, she stared out into the moonlit night at the towering facade of gray granite that housed the Black’s Cove Clinic.

      Breaking in to obtain her brother’s medical file was the only way she’d ever know if their treatment had helped him, or put him in a wheelchair and erased the knowledge of basic human functions from his brain. Her own personal question was why her parents had brought him to this macabre clinic in the first place?

      Reaching for the door handle, she pulled it, let the door swing open and climbed out of her car.

      The century-old building looked more like a throwback to Elizabethan England than a medical clinic. It was built in the 30’s and served as a mental institution until the Tray-borne family purchased it in 1956 and converted it into the Black’s Cove Clinic.

      The hair on the back of her neck rose. She pulled the collar of her jacket up a little closer and eased the car door shut just enough to extinguish the dome light inside. Looping the tool bag strap over her shoulder, she prepared for her assault.

      The place had been closed for years, but the newspaper archives she’d been digging through had revealed an interesting fact. The clinic’s medical records were still housed in the basement.

      Slipping out of the grove of aspens she’d hidden her car in, she walked the edge of the cobbled drive and turned on her mini-flashlight. The skinny beam shone against the weed-laced stones leading up to the gatehouse.

      Her hearing went on alert, every muscle in her body firmed in fight-or-flight standby. Why was she so tense? The place was empty. Abandoned. Standing alone in an isolated corner of southeastern Idaho. Getting answers would be like popping in to Jitter’s Espresso shop for a latte. Quick and easy.

      Pulling resolve from that fact, she stared at the massive structure, its upper floors visible above the eight-foot-high stone wall surrounding it.

      A shudder zig-zagged down her spine. She ducked in behind a tall arborvitae, fighting to regain her nerve. She’d taken risks before; it went with her job as a freelance investigative journalist digging for stories on medical mistakes. Ross’s condition certainly fit the description.

      She swallowed and stepped out from behind the evergreen.

      HE KNEW she would come; had seen her in a precognitive vision. And now she was here. Poking around where she didn’t belong, searching for answers he’d stop her from finding.

      High on the stone wall blended with the tree branches and fall leaves, he watched the faint flicker of her flashlight through the window she’d entered, at the top of the fire escape. Coming to his feet from a squatting position, he willed his physical senses to heighten. Pulling in a deep breath of night air, he dissected its components in his mind, sorting threat from nonthreat in the process. He couldn’t sense them, but he knew they were here.

      Sharpening his eyesight, he dragged his stare through the darkness, coming up empty. Concern fired along his nerves; he had to stop them before they hurt her.

      Glancing back at the window, he turned his head slightly to the left, honing СКАЧАТЬ