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T revor Ackers deplaned at the airport and hopped into his rental truck and headed out toward Bullard’s place. He didn’t know if anybody had warned Bullard that Trevor was coming, but he hoped so. It was all about preparation in their industry, and certainly some things one needed to be prepared for.

Now, Tangerine, on the other hand, was somebody nobody could really be prepared for. He’d met her in the past. She was a free spirit who came from a very wealthy family of citrus growers, hence her name. Her personality and her work mode and her abilities were all very unconventional. Regardless, she was definitely out there to help people. Still, most people didn’t take well to her free-energy-wielding spirit.

Trevor couldn’t imagine the taciturn Bullard handling her at all, particularly if she’d just shown up unannounced at his door, which was what apparently happened. Showing up without any warning didn’t sound like a good approach at all when working with Bullard. For his part, Trevor was looking forward to seeing her again—Bullard too, for that matter. Tangerine and Bullard would definitely get on each others’ nerves, simply because they were both fairly dominant. Although, according to Terk, things had calmed somewhat, now that Bullard was married with kids himself.

That blew away Trevor. To even see the progress these men had made in their personal lives was something Trevor wasn’t accustomed to. He should have been, though. He knew an awful lot of people in the industry and had certainly noted the movement toward stable relationships and having kids. That included people he didn’t think would ever go in that direction, like Levi.

And now almost everybody who worked for Levi was married with children too. Trevor felt old all of a sudden, questioning where he was going and why he’d been so determined to not go into that deeper level with someone and to have a special relationship on a permanent basis. That was a whole different story, completely different than a hook-up or the short-term relationships that were a great—but temporary—break from the realities of life.

Trevor drove toward Bullard’s compound, knowing he still had a couple hours on the road, but he already felt something shifting inside him. Sensing something dead wrong, he put his pedal to the metal to speed up. He didn’t have the same talents that a lot of Terk’s team did. Trevor received more of a global suspicion of things that were wrong in the world, and he now definitely got a lot of negative energy coming from the direction of Bullard’s place.

It more than came from that direction. It had been very specifically parked there, as in he could tell that something was very wrong. Tangerine had been right. Tangerine was never wrong. The problem was that she wasn’t terribly subtle in the way that she let people know. She figured everybody should automatically believe her, even though nobody had a clue who she was. Plus, she presented herself in such an odd way that a lot of people more or less mocked her instead of listening to her warnings.

Not only were her mannerisms that of a free spirit, but her tight carrot-top of curls were distracting. The last time he’d seen her, her hair had been a little past her shoulders. Yet she had that air about her that was all business, all science, all data. Still, at first glance, people just couldn’t quite handle her eccentricities. She was very much the opposite of the conventional business types, the nerdy scientists, and certainly the data-driven accountants. Trevor grinned in anticipation, knowing that he would see her again.

According to what he’d been told, Bullard hadn’t let her into the compound, but she was staying close by until somebody else arrived to verify her. That it would be Trevor was a bonus and added to his anticipation. Those were the thoughts that occupied his mind as he raced to his destination.

Eventually, as he pulled into the main driveway to the compound and waited for somebody to respond on the security intercom at the gate, he couldn’t stop grinning as a vehicle pulled in right behind him.

The driver looked very much to be Tangerine. She drove a white SUV and appeared to be alone. He quickly spoke into the security box, and the gate opened. He drove in, and she came in right behind him without any hesitation. So either she was expected or… she did one of her energy tricks. At least that’s the way he saw it. Things like electronic gates, she could open regardless of what security lock was on them. Trevor was a little surprised that she had let that gate stand between her and Bullard. Trevor also didn’t think she had the patience to wait almost a day for him to show up. Maybe she had mellowed too? He doubted it.

Trevor pondered all that, also wondering if Tangerine’s gifts or abilities had clued her into Bullard’s predicament. Trevor would ask her about it sooner rather than later. He pulled up in front of the compound and hopped out. Several men stepped outside. Trevor grinned as he recognized a bunch of them, even Dave, somebody he hadn’t seen in a long time. Multiple handshakes and bro-hugs ensued. Then he watched as everybody fell silent. At that point, he knew Tangerine was here. He turned to face her. “Hey, Reeni.”

She stared at him, and her face lit up as she threw herself into his arms. He gave a big laugh and hugged her close. “I forgot how exuberant you were.”

“How could you forget?” she asked, frowning at him, as she quickly hugged him again. “Not to mention the fact that it’s so nice to see a welcoming face,” she whispered.

He chuckled and turned to the others to see astonishment and a sense of relief in their expressions, since he’d obviously recognized Reeni. He smiled at Bullard, who’d just arrived too, and reached out to shake his hand. “Hey, long time no see.”

Bullard eschewed the handshake and wrapped an arm around him. “So glad you could come. It’s been a while.”

“I hear lots of changes are afoot.” Trevor grinned. “You could have blown me away when I found out Terk had twins.”

“Not just Terk, but several others on his team had twins too.” Bullard shook his head. “Something to do with all that energy confined in one place.”

At that, Trevor contemplated it for a moment, then nodded. “You could be right about that. I hadn’t considered the side effects.”

“Oh, I don’t think they did either,… until it was too late.” He gave Trevor a sly grin. “I know they’re all trying to figure it out before round two gets underway, but everybody, absolutely everybody from his original team, has wives and family now. And all of them were pregnant within the same few months.”

Trevor laughed and laughed. “That is amazing and seems very appropriate.”

Wrapping his arm around Tangerine’s shoulders again, Trevor looked at the gang and announced, “I see you guys have already met Reeni.”

Curiosity filled most of their expressions, and some remained reserved. Nervous laughter came from some, as several of the men nodded.

Trevor smiled. “Reeni and I certainly aren’t strangers,” he admitted. “We’ve worked together on a couple research projects.”

“And they were fun,” Reeni interrupted, beaming at everybody. “You guys are so lucky to have him. If I’d known he was coming to handle this, I wouldn’t have stepped in.”

He looked at her and grinned. “Are you kidding? Stepping in is what you do best, particularly when nobody’s expecting you and you’re not invited.”

She rolled her eyes at that. “You make me sound as if I’m always in the way and bursting into places where I don’t belong.”

He belted out a laugh. “Lots of times you are,” he declared. “On the other hand, you’re all heart, and that’s important.” At that comment, he gave Bullard a very pointed look.

Bullard nodded, a smile on his face, his shoulders relaxed. “In that case, we do need to do a little bit of work because I don’t know what the hell’s going on.”

Trevor asked Tangerine, “Did you find a source for this problem?”

She shook her head. “No, I could tell it was coming from here but not necessarily how or why. The source of the problem is still here,” she noted, looking at each of the men gathered out front. “In the time that I’ve been here, I haven’t found the culprit.”

“Everybody here doesn’t want a culprit found among them,” Trevor pointed out to her.

“Yeah,” she muttered, with an eyeroll, “but life doesn’t work that way.”

Such a note of age-old weariness filled her tone that Trevor frowned at her.

She gave him a small smile. “Let’s just say that life hasn’t been all that easy for me over these last few years.”

He hated to hear that because one of the things he’d always admired about her was her consistently upbeat attitude. “Surely you didn’t let life beat you down, did you?” he asked.

“No, sometimes family just likes to beat you down.”

He winced. Family was one thing he did know she had trouble with. Her family had a big, important, well-known name, and she was, well, he didn’t want to say an embarrassment to them, but, yeah, an embarrassment to them. “Still razzing you, huh ?” he asked.

“They’ll never understand me,” she declared, facing him.

“No, they won’t, and, as I told you the last time, you need to accept that they won’t change, then just do what you need to do.”

She didn’t say anything to that. She turned to the others and beamed. “Any chance I could get some coffee?”

Dave laughed. “Absolutely. We’re just waiting for the okay from the boss.”

She squared her shoulders and faced Bullard. “You’re the boss. Is that an okay or a no?”

“It’s an okay,” he replied, staring at her with mild curiosity. “You really do that energy stuff too, huh ?”

She shrugged. “I’m not sure I do anything, though apparently that’s what my family considers to be my eccentricities,” she replied, with a note of asperity in her voice. “But, if you listen to Trev here, you’ll find out I can do quite a bit. It’s all electrical stuff. But the rest?… Well, I don’t understand the rest of it.”

“And yet it’s all related,” Trevor added. “One thing I never quite understood is how you could only deal with electrical signals, when energy is energy.”

“Says you. You’re the one who floats up to the bloody sky and looks down on top of the world to see where there’s trouble.” She stared at him. “How can you possibly say you don’t understand, when I’m only stuck on electrical energy?”

He grinned. “Okay, touché on that one.”

She glanced at the others, rolled her eyes, and laughed. “We’re attracting attention,” she muttered to Trevor.

“No, that would be you,” he clarified, with a grin. “You’re very good at that part.”

She glared at him. “I am not, and I don’t do it on purpose. So,” she warned, “don’t you even go there.”

“Of course not,” he said. “That orange hair and that love-of-life attitude, there’s really no going anywhere with that. You’re a free spirit, always have been, so you just need to accept it and go on.”

“I have,” she declared, poking his chest for emphasis. “It’s other people who have a problem with it.”

He smiled, looked over at the group of men staring at the two of them in fascination, then told her in an audible whisper, “Don’t look now, but I think we’re drawing a crowd.”

She sighed. “I should be used to it, huh ?”

“You should be, but you aren’t, so that’s no different,” he noted cheerfully, then motioned at the door. “Shall we go in?”

At that, the group all moved back, and Trevor nudged her forward. She stopped in the entranceway, took a big deep breath of energy, and sighed. “Clearly a lot of love is in this place.”

“There is,” Bullard agreed, studying her intently. “And we want to keep it that way.”