Liar! There’s something about him that gets you.

Damn!

She couldn’t think about Jay McKnight as a man. That part of their relationship was long over. Still…she found the way he pushed his hair from his eyes endearing, the boyish hint of a smile in the corner of his mouth fascinating, and the way his eyes darkened with humor or interest compelling. Dear God, she was a mess when it came to that man.

She told herself that she didn’t want him before and she couldn’t want him now. The whole forbidden fruit thing? Totally overrated. Yet she was thinking about him in ways she shouldn’t, and that really ticked her off.

Reaching the edge of the pool, she glanced up at the clock. Forty-three minutes. Long enough. She was breathing hard as she pushed her hands on the side and pulled herself up to the concrete pad. What was it about Jay that got to her? Grabbing her towel from a hook near the locker room, she dried herself vigorously. Needed to rub Jay out of her life.

She glanced over the water’s aquamarine surface and realized the old man who had been swimming laps when she’d dived into the pool had already left. She was alone in the pool house with the steamy windows. Outside it seemed as if night were descending, late afternoon shadows creeping through the windows.

She suddenly sensed that someone was watching her through the glass, someone she couldn’t see. Her body shivered convulsively. Chiding herself for her fear, she dabbed at her face.

Don’t overreact. All your research on the missing girls is getting to you.

Inside the women’s locker room, she tore off her wet swimsuit, showered, and changed into jeans and a sweatshirt. As she left the building, once again she wished she had her bike instead of having to walk across campus. It wasn’t as if she were alone; plenty of students were on the walkways heading to a late class or the library or their dorms. A lot of the people she passed were in groups or listening to iPods or talking on cell phones. Nothing was out of the ordinary, except that she caught a glimpse of a tall, blond girl she’d seen in some of her classes, and the girl’s skin changed in front of her eyes, the color leeching from her skin.

This was nuts!

Hadn’t Kristi just convinced herself that the whole gray pasty look was just some trick of her mind? Ariel was still alive. Her father was still walking the earth, chasing bad guys for the New Orleans PD. This black/white thing was a figment of her imagination, her problem. Still…