Once He Feels (A Claire King FBI Suspense Thriller—Book Four)

By Molly Black

FBI Special Agent Claire King dies chasing a killer—and is resuscitated minutes later to realize she has changed. Dark images flash through her mind in a newfound power, visions leading her towards serial killers. A new serial killer strikes, mailing greeting cards to his victims before he kills them. With this ominous warning in hand, can Claire save the next victim before it’s too late? Or can this killer be leading them astray?



“Molly Black has written a taut thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat… I absolutely loved this book and can’t wait to read the next book in the series!”

—Reader review for Girl One: Murder



Once He Feels is Book #4 of a long anticipated new series by critically-acclaimed and #1 bestselling mystery and suspense author Molly Black, whose books have received over 2,000 five-star reviews and ratings.



FBI Special Agent Claire King has a reputation for brilliance, for being able to crack serial killer cases that no other agent can. Before she died and came back to life, she relied solely on this brilliance. But now that she has this fleeting, newfound power, Claire is confused: should she follow what she knows? Or what she senses? Are visions more powerful than intellect?



Or will they lead her right into a killer’s trap?



A page-turning and harrowing crime thriller featuring a brilliant and tortured FBI agent, the Claire King series is a riveting mystery, packed with non-stop action, suspense, twists and turns, revelations, and driven by a breakneck pace that will keep you flipping pages late into the night. Fans of Rachel Caine, Teresa Driscoll and Robert Dugoni are sure to fall in love.



Future books in the series are also available!



“I binge read this book. It hooked me in and didn't stop till the last few pages… I look forward to reading more!”

—Reader review for Found You



“I loved this book! Fast-paced plot, great characters and interesting insights into investigating cold cases. I can't wait to read the next book!”

—Reader review for Girl One: Murder



“Very good book… You will feel like you are right there looking for the kidnapper! I know I will be reading more in this series!”

—Reader review for Girl One: Murder



“This is a very well written book and holds your interest from page 1… Definitely looking forward to reading the next one in the series, and hopefully others as well!”

—Reader review for Girl One: Murder



“Wow, I cannot wait for the next in this series. Starts with a bang and just keeps going.”

—Reader review for Girl One: Murder



“Well written book with a great plot, one that will keep you up at night. A page turner!”

—Reader review for Girl One: Murder



“A great suspense that keeps you reading… can't wait for the next in this series!”

—Reader review for Found You



“Sooo soo good! There are a few unforeseen twists… I binge read this like I binge watch Netflix. It just sucks you in.”

—Reader review for Found You

• Language: English
• Publisher: Molly Black
• Release date: Jul 28, 2023
• ISBN: 9781094330877

Book preview

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O N C E   H E   F E E L S

(A Claire King FBI Suspense Thriller —Book 4)

M o l l y   B l a c k

Molly Black

Bestselling author Molly Black is author of the MAYA GRAY FBI suspense thriller series, comprising nine books (and counting); of the RYLIE WOLF FBI suspense thriller series, comprising six books; of the TAYLOR SAGE FBI suspense thriller series, comprising eight books; of the KATIE WINTER FBI suspense thriller series, comprising eleven books (and counting); of the RUBY HUNTER FBI suspense thriller series, comprising five books (and counting); of the CAITLIN DARE FBI suspense thriller series, comprising five books (and counting); of the REESE LINK mystery series, comprising five books (and counting); of the CLAIRE KING FBI suspense thriller series, comprising five books (and counting); and of the GRACE FORD FBI suspense thriller series, comprising five books (and counting).

An avid reader and lifelong fan of the mystery and thriller genres, Molly loves to hear from you, so please feel free to visit www.mollyblackauthor.com to learn more and stay in touch.

Copyright © 2023 by Molly Black. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior permission of the author. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictionally. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. Jacket image Copyright Virrage Images used under license from Shutterstock.com.

BOOKS BY MOLLY BLACK

GRACE FORD MYSTERY SERIES

NEARLY MINE (Book #1)

NEARLY SAFE (Book #2)

NEARLY FREE (Book #3)

NEARLY GONE (Book #4)

NEARLY HIS (Book #5)

CLAIRE KING MYSTERY SERIES

ONCE HE SEES (Book #1)

ONCE HE LONGS (Book #2)

ONCE HE TAKES (Book #3)

ONCE HE FEELS (Book #4)

ONCE HE KNOWS (Book #5)

MAYA GRAY MYSTERY SERIES

GIRL ONE: MURDER (Book #1)

GIRL TWO: TAKEN (Book #2)

GIRL THREE: TRAPPED (Book #3)

GIRL FOUR: LURED (Book #4)

GIRL FIVE: BOUND (Book #5)

GIRL SIX: FORSAKEN (Book #6)

GIRL SEVEN: CRAVED (Book #7)

GIRL EIGHT: HUNTED (Book #8)

GIRL NINE: GONE (Book #9)

RYLIE WOLF FBI SUSPENSE THRILLER

FOUND YOU (Book #1)

CAUGHT YOU (Book #2)

SEE YOU (Book #3)

WANT YOU (Book #4)

TAKE YOU (Book #5)

DARE YOU (Book #6)

TAYLOR SAGE FBI SUSPENSE THRILLER

DON’T LOOK (Book #1)

DON’T BREATHE (Book #2)

DON’T RUN (Book #3)

DON’T FLINCH (Book #4)

DON’T REMEMBER (Book #5)

DON’T TELL (Book #6)

KATIE WINTER FBI SUSPENSE THRILLER

SAVE ME (Book #1)

REACH ME (Book #2)

HIDE ME (Book #3)

BELIEVE ME (Book #4)

HELP ME (Book #5)

FORGET ME (Book #6)

HOLD ME (Book #7)

PROTECT ME (Book #8)

REMEMBER ME (Book #9)

CATCH ME (Book #10)

WATCH ME (Book #11)

RUBY HUNTER FBI SUSPENSE THRILLER

IF I RUN (Book #1)

IF I TELL (Book #2)

IF I LIVE (Book #3)

IF I FORGET (Book #4)

IF I RETURN (Book #5)

CAITLIN DARE FBI SUSPENSE THRILLER

COME GET ME (Book #1)

COME FIND ME (Book #2)

COME TAKE ME (Book #3)

COME CATCH ME (Book #4)

COME SAVE ME (Book #5)

REESE LINK MYSTERY

BEYOND REASON (Book #1)

BEYOND REACH (Book #2)

BEYOND REPAIR (Book #3)

BEYOND DOUBT (Book #4)

BEYOND NORMAL (Book #5)

CONTENTS

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

CHAPTER TWENTY SIX

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN

EPILOGUE

PROLOGUE

Sienna didn’t like being on her own. Especially at night. Normally she engineered excuses, made up reasons so it wouldn’t happen. Underneath there was the slight shame of being a thirty-three-year-old woman, a thirty-three-year-old professional woman with a good job and even better prospects, who was afraid of the dark.

But there was enough evidence, beamed into her living room through her television every evening, broadcast out of her Nissan’s small speakers on her way to and from the office every day, contained within the manila files that sat on her desk and every other desk of the law office she worked at, to justify those fears. The world was a scary place, populated by a lot of scary people.

No, she normally would go to great lengths not to be on her own, but that night she really couldn’t avoid it. She had a mountain of work to get done, and if she was going to get that promotion, a backlog come month’s end was the last thing she needed. Especially when Shiny Shoes Kevin could seemingly do no wrong.

She muttered under her breath, admonishing herself once again to stop her mind from wandering. The more she procrastinated, the longer she would have to stay. If she didn’t get it done, she would have to stay late the next night too.

That was motivation enough and she rubbed her eyes, ignored the shadows in the far corners of the room, and started up again on the file in front of her. One benefit was that the air conditioning in the office was way better than the one in her apartment. It was still only spring, but this far south and this far from the sea meant that the rising mercury in the thermometer only told half the story. It was the humidity that was the real sting in the tail.

Her eyes went to the parking lot immediately outside the office. A pair of headlights swept slowly from right to left. Her eyes followed them, a frown creasing her otherwise smooth forehead. They disappeared from her field of view and she waited to see if the car would turn around and leave. That was what would happen, her brain told her, if it was someone who had taken a wrong turn and then saw their way blocked by the wall of the pharmacy that backed into their office.

Her heart started beating a little faster as the bank of windows showed just the low-level lighting from the parking lot.

The car had parked.

Sienna looked around at the deserted office, at the desks, empty apart from the black keyboards and monitors, and the occasional family photograph and drink coaster.

She tried to shake off the unease that was settling in her stomach. Maybe it was just a colleague who had forgotten something. Perhaps it was her boss coming back to finish some of his own paperwork after putting the kids to bed.

Yes, that would be it, her mind tried to convince her. That would be especially good, as he would see her still hard at it, while Shiny Shoes Kevin had called it a day hours ago.

She took a deep breath and turned back to her computer, trying to focus on the document in front of her. But her mind kept drifting back to the car outside, and her fingers had begun to slip over the keys on her keyboard, betraying the sweat that had started to form, despite the best efforts of the air conditioning.

The sound of smashing glass made her freeze. Even the air that had been involuntarily sucked into her lungs in a great gasping torrent seemed to solidify. Her heart stopped. Her stomach, squeezed by an invisible iron fist, sat rooted inside her.

Then the air escaped in a shrill, wheezy whine, her heart began to thud uncontrollably in her chest, and her stomach did a back flip.

She was on her feet without knowing she had even stood up. When she realized she had, her legs almost gave way, and she was forced to hold onto the desk in front of her with shaking hands.

Her eyes, large, white, and bulging from her face, flew around the empty office, looking for answers, help, anything that would deliver her from this nightmare. This nightmare that she had always known would happen.

But the empty chairs tucked uniformly under their desks, the naked coat stand standing in the corner, offered no help, no relief.

Desperately she tried to think what to do, searching the desk in front of her for anything that could help. Anything that would protect her from the menace that she knew would be inside this very office any second.

Finally, her terrified mind came up with an idea.

She ran over to the door, the only thing protecting her from the crazed killer she knew was only feet away. She started dragging the filing cabinet that sat next to it, grasping its cold, smooth metal with her fingers, ignoring the manicured nails cracking and breaking, and pulling it with every ounce of her strength.

It was three-quarters of the way across when she sensed a presence on the other side of the door. Her heightened senses must have picked up a tiny sound, or maybe an infinitesimal change in the light that was just visible in the gap at the bottom of the wooden door.

She let out another whine, again feeling her knees almost give way, but managed to pull the cabinet another few inches, the carpet bunching slightly in front of it.

Suddenly Sienna’s eyes went to the bottom of the door to her left, the only part not covered by the filing cabinet. Something had caught her attention. Something white.

She watched, entranced, her breath once more caught in her throat, as an envelope was pushed under the door. It lay there horribly innocent, but at the same time horribly threatening.

Everywhere was silent apart from the frantic thudding of her heart that was threatening to burst out of her ribcage.

Slowly, with shaking hands, she stooped to pick up the rectangular, white envelope. One corner of it was still underneath the door, and as her fingers clamped onto it, the paranoid part of her brain—the part that accounted for almost ninety percent of it at that moment—suddenly thought that the person on the other side still had hold of it, and if she touched it he would somehow be able to drag her out, through the gap under the door.

She forced herself to lift the envelope up, feeling like a fish taking a bite of the bait though it could clearly see the gleaming metal within it. There was no tug from the other side. Just silence. She could still sense the presence on the other side of the door, and she did everything she could to stop another whine escaping from her dry throat.

She took a couple of steps back from the door, back toward her desk. Her trembling fingers turned the envelope over. There was no writing on it. The flap had been tucked inside.

With fumbling fingers Sienna managed to release the flap. The beating of her heart was filling her ears, and she could taste something in her mouth, in the back of her throat, that she could only assume was fear.

The envelope contained a card, like the greeting cards you could buy at any newsstand, grocery, or stationery store. On it was a cartoon drawing of a man with a downturned mouth.

Sienna studied it for a couple of thudding heartbeats, then opened it.

Inside on the blank card were three words, handwritten in large, flowing script.

I miss you.

Her brain tried to process this information, tried to put it together with the smashing of the glass, but all she could do was stare at the three words, her sweating fingers turning the card clamped within them damp.

Then thoughts of the card were yanked away from her as a tremendous thud shook the door and the cabinet propped against it. A scream escaped her, temporarily drowning out the noise of her heart and the crashing of the door.

Two more thuds followed, the second one accompanied by a terrible cracking sound as whatever was being used to break down the door splintered the wood. Suddenly released from the paralysis that had taken hold of her, Sienna dropped the card and sprinted to her desk. Another crash behind her made her spin around, just in time to see the filing cabinet wobble before settling back against the door, which she could see was now badly damaged.

She grabbed the phone on her desk, the combination of her panicking mind and her useless fingers making the task of dialing 911 almost impossible.

She had managed the first two numbers when the door finally gave way and the cabinet fell inward.

Another scream, this one longer, one that threatened to rip her vocal cords from her throat, filled the office as she spun around.

The phone fell from her hands as she watched the man jump over the filing cabinet and rush toward her.

CHAPTER ONE

Claire King wasn’t sure why she had told no one what she was about to do. She had flown to West Virginia to check the lead on the Artist. The Chief would have sanctioned that no problem. She even could have clocked it up as overtime, this being the weekend, if anything such as overtime existed in her job. Or weekends.

But she hadn’t. She had decided not to tell the Chief, or anyone for that matter, where she was going. Or why she was going there.

The gently undulating green fields, punctuated every now and then by a red barn, white church, or farmhouse, scrolled by outside the windows of her rental. It should have been relaxing, soothing. It would have been a good place to go for a weekend break. A place to get away from everything, to recharge the batteries and flush past events from the mind.

The few days in Denver had been draining. Physically, mentally, and emotionally. Previous to that, the ones in California had hardly been a walk in the park.

There was also the whole issue of dealing with her father again, and digging into the death of her mother. The size of the file she had received on the case meant that was going to be a lot more involved than she had thought. She really should have brought it with her, taken the time on the flight to go through it.

But she hadn’t. She’d gone through, again, the details on the Artist. The work she and Tyler, her former partner—the partner who had been killed by the Artist—had done; the work she and Wilson, her new partner, had done; and the subsequent information that had been collected and collated throughout the country.

It was one of those sources that had thrown up this latest sighting. Unconfirmed, uncorroborated, but an anonymous tip-off had come into the agency in Charleston. One of many throughout the country.

But this one had felt different. She couldn’t put her finger on it. Maybe it was just the years on the job, her experience dealing with leads, both genuine ones and crank calls.

Maybe she wasn’t that convinced after all, and that was why she had made this trip unofficially.

She eased her foot off the gas and made a left turn. She had seen little traffic since leaving Richmond Airport an hour earlier. What vehicles she had come across had thinned out, and heading down the deserted asphalt of this road, she doubted she would see many more.

She wound down the window, allowed herself to breathe in the air, a world