Found (34 page)

Rast gave her a long look and then shook his
head. “You’re fucking gorgeous, you know? It’s too damn bad all
that pretty has to come with crazy attached to it.”

“Why, you—” Nadiah couldn’t think of anything
bad enough to call him—not in English, anyway. She let loose a
string of curse words in her native language that made his piercing
green eyes widen in surprise.

“I’m guessing that
wasn’t
a blessing,”
he said dryly. “Unfortunately, I don’t have time to stick around
for the translation. Goodbye, Nadiah. Take care of yourself.”

Filled with helpless rage, Nadiah watched him
walk out the door of the HKR building. Damn him, why was he so
willfully blind? So determined not to believe?

Her hands curled into fists at her sides.
Well, he was gone. Now there was nothing she could do but wait for
the prophecy to come true and pray for the AllFather’s next
victim.

Luckily for Lauren, her condo at Pelican
Point was located less than a mile from Saint Armand’s Circle. The
weather was nice—in the mid seventies—so Lauren decided to
walk.

By the time she got to the Sweet Spot and let
herself in, she was almost regretting the decision. Even in the so
called “winter” the humidity in Florida was nothing to sneeze at
and she was overheated from her short trek from the condo to the
shop.

Since it was still fairly early in the
morning, the Circle was mostly deserted with only a few shops
occupied by their respective salespeople. Despite herself, Lauren
shivered as she let herself into the darkened building. It was too
much like the day she’d been abducted by the AllFather for her
liking. Maybe she shouldn’t have left Xairn behind, after all. But
if she’d let him come with her, the day would have been one long
endless stretch of sexual frustration for both of them, and Lauren
needed a breather from all that tension.

Get over it, girl,
she told herself
sternly.
Just do what you have to do. This shop isn’t going to
run itself.

To prove to herself that she wasn’t afraid
and everything was all right, she went straight to the employee
bathroom. “See?” she told her reflection as she stood in the exact
same spot she’d been abducted from. “Everything is just fine.”

Suddenly a face appeared beside her own in
the mirror. “Sure it is,” someone growled in her ear and then she
was grabbed from behind.

Xairn wished he hadn’t waited so long before
deciding to follow her. After learning about the missing girl who
looked disturbingly like Lauren, even the quiet, affluent streets
leading up to the shopping area where she worked looked dark and
menacing. Though she’d left well before him, he could still smell
her sweet, fresh scent lingering in the air. He followed it easily,
telling himself not to worry, that everything was fine. But still,
he couldn’t shake the sense of unease that had settled over
him.

“Never should have let her go to work without
me in the first place,” he growled to himself, walking a little
faster. “It’s the male’s place to provide for his female, not the
other way around.” Not that he minded her working, but he ought to
help in any way he could. From the moment they’d come to Lauren’s
home planet all he had done was take from her. That was wrong. He
needed to give back, to repay her generosity. To—

A muffled scream reached his ears.

Lauren!
He would know her voice
anywhere. But her shop was still far away.
Gods, let me get to
her in time! Please!

Xairn put his head down and ran.

Lauren went crazy.

Kicking and screaming, she fought for her
life, trying her damndest to get away from her assailant. All she
could think was that the AllFather had sent someone after her. He
might not be able to transport her with his molecular beam because
of her altered DNA, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t get someone
else to grab her and take her back to his horrible ship.

“I’m not going back!” she shouted, flailing
wildly. “You hear me? Never!”

As suddenly as they had grabbed her, the arms
released her. “Jesus, Lauren, take it easy!” said a vaguely
familiar voice. “It’s just me.”

“What…? Who…?” Lauren was panting with
exertion, her eyes filled with tears of rage and fear.

“It’s me, babe. Lorenzo.”

She turned to see her old assistant standing
there, hands up in a “don’t shoot” gesture. It seemed like a
lifetime ago that she’d seen him but he still looked the same. With
his sleek blond hair and tan good looks he could easily have been a
model. He stood around six foot one and Lauren had used to consider
him quite tall before she met Xairn. Now he looked puny by
comparison.

“God, Lorenzo!” She blotted her eyes hastily
on her sleeve and tried to pull herself together. “Why did you grab
me like that? Didn’t you know I was abducted?”

“Yeah, your mom said something like that when
she stopped by. The police asked me some questions too.” He
shrugged. “It’s a good thing for me I got lucky the night before.
The girl I brought home from The Green Iguana was still with me in
my apartment when you got snatched. So don’t worry, it’s all
good.”

Lauren stared at him in disbelief. “No it is
not ‘all good.’ You have no idea what I went though, how frightened
I was. You can’t go grabbing someone from behind like
that—especially someone who went through what I did.”

“Sorry,” he said, looking completely
unrepentant. “But you’re back now, right? So all’s well that ends
well and all that shit.”

“Fine.” Lauren ran a hand though her hair.
Obviously she wasn’t getting through to him. “I guess so, if you
want to look at it that way. Why are you here, though? Did my mom
tell you I was back?”

“Nope.” He shrugged. “I’m just here for my
regular shift. I’ve been coming in every day, turning on the lights
and the AC, making sure everybody knows we’re still open.” He
grinned. “Aren’t you glad I was here to hold down the fort while
you were gone?”

Lauren nearly groaned. On the way over she’d
been thinking about all the bills which had accumulated while she’d
been gone. Her one consolation had been that the electric bill at
the Sweet Spot—which was always pretty big—should be next to
nothing since she’d been gone so long. Now Lorenzo was telling her
he’d been running the lights and air conditioners for hours every
single day, ensuring that her electric bill would be as big as
always without any profits to help pay it.

“Why did you do that?” she asked, shaking her
head. “Why open the shop when we had nothing to sell?”

“Well because…” Lorenzo looked hurt. “You
didn’t want everyone to think we went out of business, did
you?”

“No, but you could have put up a sign saying
we were on vacation or something like that,” Lauren pointed out.
Sighing she walked briskly back to the kitchen area and flipped on
the lights. “I mean, not that I don’t appreciate the effort but the
electric bill is going to be sky high and—” She stopped short as
the room came into view. “What the hell is this?”

Every available space, including the
stainless steel counters and the island in the middle of the
kitchen, was covered in trash. Empty beer cans, some still leaking
beer, half-empty pizza boxes, bottles, bags, and cigarette butts
were everywhere. Even worse, everything was coated in a fine layer
of white. It looked like someone had gotten into her bin of cake
flour and flung it
everywhere
. One of her two professional
grade convection ovens, which had cost an arm and a leg and which
she was still paying off, was standing open. When Lauren walked
closer, leaving footprints in the flour, she saw that hardened
cheese was dripping from all its racks.

“What happened?” She turned to Lorenzo,
feeling bewildered and betrayed. “Were we robbed or…or
vandalized
or something?”

“Oh this?” He shrugged uncomfortably. “Nah,
nothing like that. I just had a few buddies over the other night.
They wanted to see where I worked, you know? We had a few beers and
one of their girlfriends wanted to see how the ovens worked. So we
reheated a pizza in that one.” He pointed to the open convention
oven. “Came out real nice too—crispy.”

“And the flour?” Lauren demanded. “What
happened there?”

Lorenzo had the grace to look slightly
sheepish. “Uh, well that was kind of an accident. Some of the guys
had too much to drink and started fooling around. Sorry.”

“Sorry?” Lauren turned on him. “You used my
shop as your own personal party pad while I was gone and trashed it
and all you can say is
‘sorry?’”

“Hey, don’t get so touchy.” Lorenzo frowned.
“I
said
it was an accident. Besides, I’ll help clean it up
in a little while. You get started if you want and I’ll man the
front. I’ll help you once the morning rush dies down.”

“There is no ‘morning rush’ when we don’t
have anything to sell,” Lauren pointed out through gritted teeth.
“And forget ‘helping’ me clean up your mess—I’m sure you’re as good
at cleaning as you are at everything else.”

“Hey.” Lorenzo’s blond eyebrows drew low on
his forehead. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means I want you out. Right now.” Lauren
pointed in the direction of the front door. “But first give me your
key. You’re fired.”

“Hey now, babe, you don’t really mean that.”
Giving her his most ingratiating smile, Lorenzo put an arm around
her shoulders. “Come on, we’re a team, aren’t we?”

“Get off me!” Lauren shrugged his arm off and
faced him. “I’m not kidding, Lorenzo, I knew you were a flake but I
didn’t think you’d do something like this. I want you gone.”

His smile turned into a sulky scowl
immediately. “Fine, I’ll go. Just pay me my salary and I’m out of
here.”

“Your
salary?”
Lauren couldn’t believe
his nerve.

“Sure, for all the time I worked while you
were off.”

Lauren looked at him incredulously. “First of
all, stop talking like I took some time off for a cruise or
something. I was
abducted,
Lorenzo.
Abducted,
got
that? I was kept naked in a metal cell and nearly raped several
times. I was imprisoned. I was maimed. I was
cloned
for
God’s sake! And after all that I come home and find
this.”
She pointed at the kitchen. “And you have the nerve to ask me for
money? For keeping the shop open when there was no product to sell?
Not to mention that you
trashed
the place while you were at
it. I can’t believe you!”

He frowned mulishly. “Facts are facts. You
never told me not to come in for my shift. I was just doing my job
and I ought to be paid for it.”

“You’re unbelievable.” Lauren shook her head.
“Get out. Just get out.”

He took a step forward, looming over her.
“I’m not going without my money.”

Lauren crossed her arms over her chest and
glared up at him. “I don’t think so, Lorenzo—I’ve dealt with a
whole lot scarier than you lately. I don’t give a crap what you say
or do, you’re not getting a cent. And if you don’t leave now I’m
calling the police and filing charges against you for the damage
you did to my shop.”

Lorenzo’s normally handsome but vacuous face
turned suddenly ugly. “Listen here,
bitch.
You’re gonna pay
me now and pay me good or I’ll make whatever happened to you when
you were snatched look like a walk in the park.” He started toward
Lauren, his eyes narrowed menacingly.

She stood her ground, her hands curled into
fists. After everything she’d been through, she didn’t intend to
let a brainless, arrogant bastard like her former assistant
intimidate her. “You can try it,” she said, glaring at him. “But I
guarantee you’ll regret it.”

“You certainly will.”

Suddenly Xairn was standing behind her
ex-assistant. His eyes were a steady red-on-black and every muscle
in his huge body was tight with anger. His hands were balled into
fists bigger than Lorenzo’s head and he looked ready to use
them.

“What?” Lorenzo turned to see who was
speaking. He looked up…and up…and up. “What the hell?” he demanded,
staring at Xairn.

“Did he hurt you?” Xairn looked at Lauren,
ignoring him. “I heard you scream.”

Lauren shook her head. “He scared me but I’m
okay.”

“Hey man, I just threatened her a little,”
Lorenzo put in. “I mean, I put in my time—I should get paid,
right?”

“Did you do this?” Xairn nodded at the
mess.

“Well, yeah. But—”

“Then I will be more than happy to pay you.
Both for the damage you’ve done to Lauren’s place of business and
for scaring and threatening her.”

“No need to get all upset,” Lorenzo
protested. “And who are you, anyway?”

“I am Lauren’s.” Xairn took a step toward
him.

Lorenzo, very unwisely Lauren thought, held
his ground. “Lauren’s what? Her boyfriend? What?”

“Just Lauren’s. I am hers and she is mine.”
Xairn glared down at the smaller man. “And you are leaving,
now.”

Still Lorenzo didn’t take the hint. “Dude,
what the fuck is wrong with your eyes?” he asked, still staring at
Xairn. “I mean, that’s seriously messed up, you know? Are those
some kind of contact lenses?”

A low, rumbling sound filled the room and
Lauren realized after a moment that it was Xairn—he was
growling.
There was murder in his red-on-black eyes as he
took another step towards Lorenzo.

The small hairs on the back of Lauren’s neck
stood up. If she didn’t do something quickly, she was going to have
a lot more than flour and beer cans to clean up. “Lorenzo, please
just leave,” she pleaded. “Go
now
while you still can.”

Lorenzo took one more look at Xairn’s large,
menacing frame and finally wised up. “Fine, I’ll go,” he said,
edging around Xairn and heading for the door. “You can pay me
later.” He started to walk out the door.