The Powerful Pride of an Immortal (Immortal Supers Book 4) Kurtis Eckstein (psychology books to read TXT) 📖

storming out. He immediately halted in his tracks, since we were blocking his way, looking at me for half a second in confusion, like he just wasn’t expecting me to be here. His gaze then abruptly shifted to Winter, openly gawking at her for way too long, as if he was mesmerized by her pale green gaze for a few seconds, only to turn to look at me with a scowl.

Winter unexpectedly spoke up, her tone and expression nearly emotionless.

“Yes. I am.”

Radley immediately looked at her in confusion, prompting her to speak again.

“Yes. I can.”

His shock then transitioned to anger, and I immediately was afraid Winter was going to be affected, but surprisingly her expression remained neutral. Did the latching thing really work that well? It must, because this guy was about to blow up, and she seemed perfectly fine.

Deciding it was best to move out of the way, so that the pissed-off Radley could be free to leave instead of making a bad decision, he glared at me again, only to begin marching past me.

Instantly, all of the wiry muscles in Winter’s body rippled like a spring being unleashed, and she swung around at the speed of lightning. Her fist barreled straight into the side of Radley’s head, rocketing him directly through several dozen desks, sending him flying almost to the other side of the room.

Monitors, keyboards, tablets, papers, and furniture went flying everywhere like a small bomb had gone off.

Several people screamed.

Once the debris began settling, it became obvious that no one seemed to be hurt, including Radley, since he was a Cinderblock.

Instead, he just looked stunned, sitting up with a bewildered expression, seeming almost confused by the fact that he’d just been launched across the room like a ragdoll.

Winter raised her voice to be heard, but kept it just as even as before.

“That’s why. You’re weak. And selfish.”

Jackie suddenly popped out of her office, just as shocked as everyone else. “What in the hell happened out here?!” she demanded.

Winter immediately turned toward her. “I’ll do this job for free.”

Jackie gawked at her for half a second, before she stood up straight and composed herself. She then smiled. “Okay, no big deal then.” She glared in Radley’s direction. “And you, start cleaning this mess up!”

“B-But–” he attempted.

“I don’t want to hear it,” she snapped. “Ms. Fowler is a guest here. If you provoked her into hitting you, then this is your responsibility.”

He gawked at her, completely in disbelief, only to look away. “Yes, ma’am.”

Holy shit. Was this really happening right now? And how much did they pay Winter for this to suddenly be ‘no big deal?’ And how in the hell did I not know Winter was so strong?

Like seriously. Damn.

Jackie focused on the two of us again, ushering us into her office. We followed her inside, and she closed the door, only to surprise me by sincerely apologizing to Winter.

In response, the badass just shrugged nonchalantly. “It’s fine. Please give us the details.”

Jackie nodded, moving to her desk to do just that. She proceeded to hand me a single page paper document, while beginning to explain. “As I’m sure you’re aware, we haven’t had a problem identifying most of the perpetrators in these attacks. The problem is making a connection to the target. Thus far, we’ve had virtually no leads, and the possible lead we’ve discovered is a dead-end.” She paused, looking at Winter. “However, what’s a dead-end for us might not be one for you.”

“Yes,” Winter agreed. “What did you find?”

Jackie nodded. “The guy who took Lexi’s younger sister on that date used his real name, so discovering his identity was simple. More so than we anticipated. Unfortunately, we were never able to identify the man who attacked at the mall, because Ms. Dodson basically cremated him to ashes, and the security cameras went off for thirty minutes during that time. However, we were also easily able to identify the airport worker who handed Lexi a bomb.”

“And?” Winter prompted, seeming a little impatient. I suspected that being able to hear Jackie’s thoughts meant she was more up to date than I was at this point, and that Jackie was taking the time to explain things verbally for my sake.

“And,” Jackie continued with a nod of understanding to speed things up. “Cross-referencing their lives, including locations they’ve both visited – which is not as an improbable occurrence as you might suspect, when dealing with two people who live in the same city – we discovered something that stuck out to us.” She paused. “They visited the same out-of-state hospital. Grandview Memorial.”

“And that’s a lead?” I asked seriously. “That they visited the same hospital?”

Jackie gave me a sympathetic look. “We did look into it, including getting a court order to view the records of all the patients admitted during those timeframes, and there’s nothing notable. And yes, you’re correct that it could just be a coincidence. This kind of thing actually happens a lot. It’s kind of like the birthday paradox.”

“What’s that?” I asked in confusion.

Winter answered for her, clearly impatient now. “It’s a counter-intuitive statistical fact. If you have a group of twenty-three people in a room, then there is a fifty percent chance that at least two people were born on the same day of the year. If you have a group of seventy-five people, then it’s virtually a hundred percent chance.” She scoffed, glancing at me. “You’ve probably noticed it before. I’m sure that at least two people at your old job had the same birthday. Point is, it’s not much of a lead.”

“For us,” Jackie corrected her. “For you–”

Winter cut her off. “Is that really all you have? I was hoping for more than this. What are the timeframes? When, and how often, did these people visit?”

Jackie didn’t respond verbally, but Winter’s eyes narrowed.

Her tone was immediately harsh. “So, then this really is just a coincidence. They both had family hospitalized there. This is bullshit. Maybe I should make you pay me, for wasting