Vengeance Borne by Amanda Bonilla

was going to be sick.
    “Sorry.” The word rushed out too fast as if she’d been caught doing something she wasn’t supposed to. Well, technically, she guessed she had. But seriously, what would Libby do if she found Jacquelyn slacking at her non-job? Take away her birthday? “I was sort of zoned out there for a minute. I didn’t even hear you walk in. Pump five, right?”
    The man didn’t answer but stared at her with a concerned expression, his brow furrowed, full lips parted, and Jacquelyn’s breath left her chest in a hasty rush as if running for cover. His power was so immense it knocked the air right out of her. Ho-ly shit. A Bearer . Magical energy emanated from him like a Fourth of July sparkler, washing over her senses in a way that made her skin warm and tingly.
    “Number five?” he asked after the silence became uncomfortable.
    Did he know what he was? If he had, he would have gone to see Trish—the territory’s head honcho. But Jacquelyn hadn’t heard of any Bearers passing through. “That’s your RV, right? One hundred and eighty-five dollars.” His eyes were the color of old oiled leather, accenting his darker olive skin. He brushed a hand over the quarter-inch of stubble that shadowed his shaved head. A tough guy. Or at least, tough looking.
    Impulsively, he reached out for Jacquelyn’s cheek and ran his fingers in a gentle caress along the butterfly bandage before she could pull away. A delicious heat, followed by a tingling sensation crawled over and under her skin, the intrusion too intimate for her to feel comfortable. She knew the invasive feeling of a Bearer’s power all too well. “Are you all right?” he asked, his eyes lingering on her jaw. “I was worried.”
    Oh yeah. He was a Bearer all right. The touch confirmed it. She could already feel the effect of his magic flowing through the bandage into the cut, her skin becoming tighter by the second. He’d healed her and probably didn’t even realize it.
    “You were worried?” Jacquelyn asked in a soft but facetious tone. This Bearer was obviously a few eggs short of a dozen. He was worried about her? She’d never seen him before in her life. “Do I know you…?”
    “Micah,” he murmured, his gaze trained on her face.
    “Do I know you, Micah?”
    “No. I guess you don’t.”
    A rogue Bearer could be trouble, and a crazy one, disastrous. Jacquelyn had a full enough plate already. “Are you passing through, Micah?” she asked, as she indicated his RV in an effort to coax a little info out of him. Like what he was doing here for starters.
    “I don’t know,” he answered as though distracted. “Maybe I’ll stick around for a while.”
    With his eyes still locked on her face, Micah handed over several folded bills. Jesus, he looked at her like he’d seen a ghost. Jacquelyn’s brain raced, as she tallied the odds of an unrealized Bearer—meaning that he’d yet to recognize and identify his abilities— wandering into her territory as she counted out the necessary change, filling his hovering and empty hand.
    “Fourteen dollars and twenty-two cents change.”
    “Thanks,” Micah answered as if waking from a dream. He stared down at his hand and stuffed the bills in his pocket. “Have a nice day—” he paused to look at the coffee shop name tag still pinned to her chest “—Jax.”
    “Right back at ya—Micah,” she said, perplexed.
    Without even taking his drink with him, she watched the disoriented Bearer wander out the door to the RV. Through the window she observed him, just sitting in the driver’s seat, staring straight ahead. He was still frozen in time when Libby walked through the door.
    “What’s up with the hottie in the motor home?” she asked, shooing Jacquelyn out from behind the counter. “He looks lost.”
    “He is.” Jacquelyn’s eyes remained focused on the gas pumps and the RV outside. He just doesn’t know it yet .
    “Well, hot piece of ass or not, he better get the hell out of