Page 42 of Shielding Instinct

The child wasn’t giving in, and Jenny looked away indifferently.

“Yes, well. Our family had a ceremony, a renewal of vows kind of thing, and we wanted the children to be included and have a remembrance that they kept with them, telling them they were loved and part of a bigger happy family.”

The oldest child, a boy—probably eight, maybe seven—turned his head to his mom with his brows knit and a tilt of his head that Petra read as a sincere question about why his mom would say something that wasn’t true.

Jenny purposefully didn’t look his way.

And Petra found that odd.

But before Petra could ask more questions, Jenny pulled a paperback from her bag and leaned back to read. She was done conversing.

For the rest of their hour in the tidepool, Petra ruminated. And watched.

When Beans finally called out that they would start back across the cliff’s edge in ten minutes, Jenny finally roused from the plotline. After pulling the children’s clothes from the bag and folding her towel, Jenny stood and caught her daughter’s eye, then signaled her in.

The daughter scowled at Beans and glared at her mother. Then suddenly, she flicked a glance towards her dad and ran behind a large rock. Leaning back, Petra could see that the girl reached up, grabbed her necklace, and yanked it violently time and again until it finally broke, leaving a red welt along her neck.

Gripping the chain in her fist, the girl lifted her arm over her head and, with a mighty heave, flung the necklace toward thesea. She seemed satisfied with herself as she scrambled toward her mother.

Was it her mother? That was a leap that Petra had made. It could be anyone.

The whole thing was odd.

Something wasoff.

Petra had watched the necklace land. She made her way carefully down toward the water’s edge, where she gathered the chain until the pendant lay on her palm. Taking her first clear look at the design, Petra felt something unsettling mix into her bloodstream.

But in her brain, Petra could sometimes know she knew a thing—a name, a definition, a fact, or a statistic—but thatthingwould hide from her.

If Petra chased after it, working hard to remember, it was like a child on the playground calling, “Come catch me!” and then racing away. A better strategy was to leave the thought alone and move on to something else. Eventually, the information would pop out enough that she could snatch it up.

Why did her brain do that?

Petra had no clue, but it came with her diagnosis. She knew it didn’t just happen to her.

For now, she’d just slide the necklace into her pocket.

“Miss Armstrong?” Lucky was calling her. “Where are you?”

“Here, taking a photo.” Petra pulled her phone from her pocket and pretended to snap an image. “I’m coming!”

But as Petra picked her way back to the group, her head spun toward the sea, where shrieks of horror rode the wind.

Chapter Fifteen

Hawkeye

Hawkeye had memories of vacations near the Pacific Ocean when he went west as a child to visit his grandparents.

As an adult, he’d come up through the Army, to the Rangers, and then the Green Berets.

During his time in the military, they drummed into him the rudiments of staying alive in river water.

But he wasn’t a SEAL like Reaper and some of the other Iniquus operators.

He hadn’t trained for saltwater survival or rescue.

That was the reason Team Charlie was down here in the islands to get the land operators up to the proper skill levels.

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