I bumped into Tanner in the master bedroom. He oomphed, but didn’t remove his attention from the far wall. He had something long and blue in his hands. When I saw what held him enthralled on the wall, though, I forgot to ask him about the blue thing.

“My God,” I said.

“Do you think I could, like, take some of this with me?”

“Eww. No. That’s gross.” The good doctor obviously enjoyed S and M. Whips, spiked collars, crops and black leather abounded. Not to mention the silver chain harness hanging from the ceiling. No wonder Lexis had said the man had a wild sexual side. Just how “friendly” had she pretended to be with him? I shuddered.

“Look at this.” Tanner held up the long, blue thing. “What is it? What are the beaded things?”

“Tanner!” My cheeks heated. “That’s a vibrator.” I whispered the last word, embarrassed even to be saying it.

“Really?” Grinning, he shook it. The batteries rattled. “Cool.”

“Put that down right now!”

“Hell, no. I found it on the floor, in plain sight. Finders keepers.” Grin widening, he rattled it some more-and the end fell off. A sheet of paper drifted to the floor. “Hey, what’s that?”

I frowned, bent down and pinched the paper between my fingers, shining my flashlight over it. When I realized what it was, I gasped. A note. From Dr. Roberts to… me. Well, to the Person Who Drank the Formula-my name wasn’t specified. Still, my mouth fell open in shock. He’d known I would come here. Or maybe he had hoped.

“What does it say?” Tanner asked.

“It says ‘I’m sorry.’” I swallowed and read the rest. “‘I’ve done a terrible thing to you. I was weak and let a threat to ruin my public reputation influence my work. I should have destroyed the formula when I first discovered how dangerous it was. By the time I realized the error of my ways, it was too late-the formula had been perfected, and was just about to fall into the wrong hands. Evil hands. Unfortunately, the best hiding place I could think of on such short notice was… you. You were convenient, nearby. Please don’t hate me. I’ve left you a present in my office, which is in a secret lab directly across from Utopia Café. Watch for prying eyes.’”

I paused, looking around. I could almost feel those prying eyes on me just then. “‘P.S. Sorry about the sordid hiding place. I couldn’t risk OASS finding this note, but I knew PSI would be hot on your heels and I hoped they’d know where to look.’”

“Wow,” Tanner said. “You’d think since OASS knew he was a sex fiend, they’d have looked in the vibrator, too.”

“I wonder why they didn’t.”

“They’re dumbshits, if you ask me.”

“Hey! Lexis told me the doctor was a pervert, but I didn’t think to look in the vibrator, either.” Tanner opened his mouth to comment, but I pointed a finger at him. “Don’t say it.”

He grinned. “Hey, this means the good old doc considered the employees of PSI pervs.” He wiggled his eyebrows. “Belle hooked up with a perv,” he sang.

“That means you’re a pervert, too, since you’re the one who actually found the note,” I shot back.

His grin widened. “I know! Isn’t it great?”

I shouldn’t have been surprised by his happiness, the horn-ball. If I didn’t change the subject, though-vibrators, for God’s sake-we’d never get anything done. “So how’d Dr. Roberts get back into his house to hide this note?” I said, thinking aloud. “How’d he get past the OASSholes?”

“The who?”

I waved my hand through the air. “Never mind. Just ignore me.” He could have planted it before he made his escape, knowing he was going to give the formula to someone.

Tanner shrugged. “Maybe there’s another note around here, with more instructions.” He began searching the rest of the “toys,” whistling in tune with his movements.

I tapped a fingertip to my chin, wondering just what kind of confession was left for the doctor to make in a second note. I’d cause a world-wide flood if I wasn’t careful? I’d have to live in an igloo for the rest of my life just to control the fire inside me? There was a depressing thought.

“I doubt we’ll find anything else,” Tanner said a few minutes later, his voice heavy with disappointment. “None of the other toys open.”

“Just keep looking,” I said.

Tanner ran his hand over the inside of a drawer, probing for a hidden compartment. “Have you found a live body yet?”

“No,” I grumbled. I had to admit, in all my many jobs, many interviews, many hours spent scouring the classifieds, I’d never pictured myself doing this. Was there even a title for it? Certified Body Finder?

I should have preferred serving coffee to snobs. Should have preferred tweaking the odometers of used cars or making stupid balloon animals for ungrateful kids. Hell, I should have preferred sweeping disgusting balls of hair off the salon floor.

I didn’t.

I kind of liked my current position, I realized. Maybe I wasn’t ready to go back to my normal life. Sighing, I stuffed the doctor’s note in my pocket. What would Rome say when he saw it? Maybe it would bribe him out of his Taser-induced bad mood when he finally came around.

As I trudged down the stairs, I ran my fingers over the bullet holes in the wall. Where was I going to find a living bad guy? The answer came to me instantly, surprising me. Grinning, I hopped over Rome ’s body-which had begun the slow process of returning to human form. Big patches of fur had fallen out, leaving gaps of tanned skin and sleek muscle. At the moment he resembled a hideous man-beast. I tried not to grimace.

“Be back in a jiff,” I told him with a false, breezy air. I sailed outside. The neighborhood was calm, as if the shootout had never happened, but the man next door was standing on his porch, scratching his head as he stared out at the hail and snow covering the ground.

He saw me and said, “You one of Roberts’s girls?”

I was very thankful the two sleeping (or dead) agents were hidden by the SUV. “Yep.” I wiggled my eyebrows suggestively, as I thought a hooker might do.

“Always weird stuff going on in that house.” He motioned to the ground with a tilt of his chin. “You ever seen anything like this? Snow this late in spring, of all things.”

“Very weird,” I said, just standing there.

After a moment, he shook his head and went back inside his house.

Hurry, hurry, hurry! Before he comes out again. I raced the rest of the way to the SUV. The two men were slumped at the tires. One of them, the one I’d hit directly with lightning, was in the same condition as his cohorts in the house.

I lost a little of my giddiness. I’d killed him. Another victim of my powers. Don’t think about it, Jamison. Remember, he was one of Vincent’s men. He wanted to kill Rome. And capture you. With shaky hands, I checked the second man for a pulse. At the first touch of my fingers, he moaned. I sighed in relief. He, at least, was alive.

I anchored my hands under his arms and dragged him toward Dr. Roberts’s house. He weighed a freaking ton (more than Rome, even, the fatty), and I strained under the burden. He had black streaks on his face and shirt, as if the lightning bolt had ricocheted off his friend, frying him, too.

By the time I heaved him onto the porch, gooey mud covered him from head to foot, splattered over his skin and clothes. I huffed and puffed from exertion. Amid his moans, I held him up with one hand and opened the front door with the other. Thankfully, the neighbor never came back out.

My gaze immediately sought Rome. Except he no longer lay in the entryway. The only sign that he’d been there was the mountain of fur he’d shed.

Should I call for him or not? He might be searching for me, ready to attack the moment he saw me, in retaliation for what I’d done. He might-holy shit-round the corner and storm toward me, death gleaming in his expression. He was in the process of jerking a black T-shirt over his head. A pair of black slacks already encased his lower body. How many spare pairs of clothing did this man have?