Authors: Jennifer Ryan
Chasing Morgan
Chasing Morgan
B
OOK
F
OUR
: T
HE
H
UNTED
S
ERIES
JENNIFER RYAN
To my husband and children for your continued support
and taking this journey with me.
To my wonderful editor, Amanda Bergeron, for your
amazing talent. This book and my writing are better
because of you. Thank you for your continued support
and encouragement.
To all the fans of The Hunted Series.
All of you make this possible.
Contents
The Hunted Series by Jennifer Ryan
An Excerpt from
The Governess Club: Claire
by Ellie Macdonald
An Excerpt from
Ashes, Ashes, They All Fall Dead
by Lena Diaz
An Excerpt from
The Governess Club: Bonnie
by Ellie Macdonald
One year ago…
M
ORGAN’S FINGERS FLEW
across the laptop keyboard propped on her knees. She took a deep breath, cleared her mind, and looked out past her pink-painted toes propped on the railing and across her yard to the densely wooded area at the edge of her property. Her mind’s eye found her guest winding his way through the trees. She still had time before Jack stepped out of the woods separating her land from his. She couldn’t wait to meet him.
Images, knowings, they just came to her. She’d accepted that part of herself a long time ago. As she got older, she’d learned to use her gift to seek out answers.
She finished her buy-and-sell orders and switched from her day-trading page to check her psychic website and read the questions submitted by customers. She answered several quickly, letting the others settle in her mind until the answers came to her.
One stood out. The innocuous question about getting a job held an eerie vibe.
The familiar, strange pulsation came over her. The world disappeared like a door slamming on reality. The images came to her like hammer blows, one right after the other, and she took the onslaught, knowing something important needed to be seen and understood.
An older woman lying in a bed, hooked up to a machine feeding her medication. Frail and ill, she had translucent skin and dark circles marring her pain-filled eyes. Her pain washed over Morgan like a tsunami.
The woman yelled at someone, her face contorted into something mean and hateful. An unhappy woman—one who’d spent her whole life blaming others and trying to make them as miserable as her.
A pristine white pillow floating down, inciting panic, amplified to terror when it covered the woman’s face, her frail body swallowed by the sheets.
Morgan had an overwhelming feeling of suffocating.
The woman tried desperately to suck in a breath, but couldn’t. Unable to move her lethargic limbs, she lay terrified and helpless under his unyielding hands. Lights flashed on her closed eyelids.
Death came calling.
A man stood next to the bed holding the pillow like a shield. His mouth opened on a contorted, evil, hysterical laugh that rang in her ears and made her skin crawl. She squeezed her eyes closed to blot out his malevolent image and thoughts.
Murderer!
The word rang in her head as the terrifying emotions overtook her.
Morgan threw up a wall in her mind, blocking the onslaught of disturbing pictures and feelings. She took several deep breaths and concentrated on the white roses growing in profusion just below the porch railing. Their sweet fragrance filled the air. With every breath, she centered herself and found her inner calm, pushing out the anger and rage left over from the vision. Her body felt like a lead weight, and lightened as her energy came back. The drowsiness faded with each new breath. She’d be fine in a few minutes.
The man on horseback emerged from the trees, coming toward her home. Her guest had arrived.
Focused on the computer screen, she slowly and meticulously typed her answer to the man who had asked about a job and inadvertently opened himself up to telling her who he really was at the core.
She replied simply:
You’ll get the job, but you can’t hide from what you did. You need help. Turn yourself in to the police.
None of her personal information appeared on the website, and she’d put a lot of time and effort into keeping her identity and location a secret for reasons of her own. He’d never find her.
A chill ran over her, despite the warm sun on her skin.
She put through the charge and tried to erase the vision from her mind. She’d told him to go to the police. Nothing more she could do. She didn’t have any proof a crime had been committed. You couldn’t make accusations against people based on a vision. Even if she went to the police with what she knew, they wouldn’t take her seriously. She’d learned that the hard way.
The help she provided Tyler and the FBI was different. Her unique link with Tyler allowed her to assist him with some of his cases. Tyler had nothing to do with this man. She could ask him to investigate, but why would he? He had a hard enough time believing what she told him about the cases he was working on. She didn’t want to have to convince him all over again that what she saw was real and true. It hurt to have to convince him every time, despite the ample proof she’d given him on multiple cases. After all this time, he should believe her—believe in her.
She didn’t want to think about Tyler right now. He’d be in Colorado today. Close. Their connection that much stronger, and the harder he’d ignore it and push her away. Maybe she should give in and go see him.
Why couldn’t he stay in San Francisco?
It wasn’t time for them to meet again. She sighed and tried to put him out of her mind. Not possible. They were connected on an elemental level, and had been for a long time.
Why did things between them have to be so complicated and difficult?
Dealing with her customers was simple. They went to her website and clicked on the link to ask a question. She charged fifteen dollars for requests she answered. If she couldn’t answer the question, or wouldn’t answer, she didn’t charge and sent a standard reply, telling the person she couldn’t help.
Either the person believed in her enough to pay the fifteen dollars, or they didn’t.
Sure, they had to accept her terms and conditions. After all, what she “saw” was open to interpretation and the result may not be what the customer expected. In short, if they didn’t like the answer, they couldn’t shoot the messenger.
She specifically informed customers to beware what they asked, and how they asked it. You may get the answer to a question you hadn’t intended.
If you suspected your spouse of cheating on you, don’t be surprised if she confirmed it, and that the other person was your best friend. She wouldn’t lie, or tell you only what you wanted to hear.
In a few cases, she simply refused to answer. People often wanted to know when they were going to die and how. In her opinion, this kind of information did more harm than good. It usually altered the course of a person’s life, and she didn’t want to be responsible for changing one’s fate and destiny.
One thing she knew for certain, life had a pattern. Mistakes are repeated until the lesson is learned. Knowing something ahead of time didn’t necessarily mean you could change the outcome. Some things were meant to be and nothing could stop them from ending the same way she saw them, even if the path that led to that end took a detour first. That wasn’t to say the course of the future couldn’t be altered. It could. She’d done it several times. For Tyler’s family, she’d do it again.
J
ACK’S GAZE LOCKED
on her as he made his way out of the trees, across the wide expanse of pasture and to the house. He’d spotted her sitting on the porch with her laptop. The rain of golden hair drew his eye. Thick and slightly wavy, her hair dropped almost to her waist. The color so bright, the sunlight seemed to glow out from the mass of waves.
“Hello, Jack.”
How did she know his name?
Her voice threw him again. A sultry voice from such a fresh face. She looked to be in her early twenties. Probably five-foot-seven, she had a slim build and curves made to keep a man up at night. Her skin was lightly bronzed from days spent in the sun, and her striking blue eyes reminded him of the color of a clear, clean azure sea.
It struck him that he also saw a lifetime of wisdom in those eyes.
She has an old soul.
He hadn’t known what that really meant until now. As he looked at this young, vibrant woman, her eyes spoke volumes.
Nothing else to say to describe her. Some sort of essence emanated from her he couldn’t name. Words wouldn’t do her justice. He wondered what such a beautiful woman was doing living in the middle of nowhere—seemingly alone.
“Um, hi. I’m Jack Turner. I own the Stargazer Ranch that borders your property. Uh, we’re neighbors.” He shifted nervously in the saddle. Not like him at all, but something about her unsettled him.
“Howdy, neighbor.” A strong, sturdy man. It made her secretly laugh to see him a little out of sorts with her. She knew a lot about him, impressions from Tyler of his good friend, Jack. She hadn’t expected him to be discombobulated by the sight of her.
Her casual country joke brought out a smile. She laid the computer on the table and poured a glass of ice tea from the tray. He never took his eyes off her as she came off the porch and walked to him with the glass. His penetrating gaze unsettled her.
“For you. You look a little hot. Have some iced tea.”
She handed him the glass when he came down off the horse. Interested in the beautiful animal, she took his head in her hands and gave him a scratch behind the ears and under the leather bridle. The horse bent to her and laid his head to her chest. If he were a cat, he’d have purred.
“He usually doesn’t take to people. In fact, he only responds like that with my wife, Jenna.” He took a deep sip of the cold drink before adding, “He likes you, though.”
“He knows a good thing when he sees it. Blue loves your wife because he knows she needed him at one time, and now he trusts her. She’s kind to him.”
“How’d you know his name? Do you know my wife?”
“Sort of.” She stepped back from the horse and looked at the tall man standing beside her. A good man, dedicated to his family and his ranch. He was happy. That came to her clearly and washed away the last remnants of the murderous vision. She wished she had that same feeling in her own life. Jack had everything he wanted, his wife, his children, his family of friends, and love.