Found (40 page)

“What? Why?” Nadiah demanded. “That’s
stupid.”

“I think so too.” Rast nodded. “You know what
the forensics guys said when they finally found Jessie’s body?”

“What?” Nadiah whispered, almost afraid to
know.

“They said there was evidence of…of torture.”
Rast looked fixedly down at his hands and his voice went low and
tense. “They were pretty sure she’d been kept alive for at least a
day after she was taken. Kept alive so he could have his sick fun
with her. Then after he killed her, he dumped her far away.” He
looked up at Nadiah, his truegreen eyes bright with unshed tears.
“If I could have made someone listen to me—made them start looking
for her earlier—they might have gotten to her in time. She might
still be alive today.”

“Oh, Detective Rast…” Nadiah didn’t know what
to say. She put a hand over his and squeezed.

“Rast.” He sighed. “ Just Rast. Nobody but my
mother calls me Adam.”

“Rast, it wasn’t your fault.” Nadiah looked
earnestly into his eyes. “You did everything you could. You
tried
to warn her—I saw it in my dream.”

He shook his head. “Thanks for playing
therapist but I don’t think I’ll ever really forgive myself.
Jessie’s murder is why I do what I do. I keep thinking if I can
just find enough of them before they go missing forever, someday
maybe I can make up for what happened.”

Nadiah was touched. “You take your job very
seriously.”

“It’s life or death.” He sighed and
straightened up. “Speaking of which, I need to try and find the
girl who was taken last night.”

Nadiah shifted in her seat. “If she was taken
by the AllFather then I’m afraid there isn’t much hope for
her.”

Rast shook is head. “I’m still not sure he’s
the one who snatched her.”

She raised any eyebrow at him. “Did they find
her clothes in a heap, like the other one—Tabitha?”

“Well, yes. But don’t forget, Tabitha’s body
was found,” he pointed out with an edge in his voice.

“What was her cause of death?” Nadiah asked.
“How did he kill her?”

Rast frowned. “That’s the strange part. No
cause of death that anyone could find. The coroner said her heart
just stopped for no apparent reason.”

“Were there any marks on her?” Nadiah asked.
“In my dream I saw wires being implanted under her skin—it’s a kind
of torture the AllFather has. He hooks you up to this machine that
projects your worst memories for everyone to see.” She shivered.
“Baird had it done to him.”

“He did?” Rast asked in obvious surprise.
“Actually, there
were
little wounds all over her skin but
none of them were deep enough to kill anyone. The coroner couldn’t
figure it out.” He frowned at Nadiah. “And I still don’t see why he
would return the body.”

“Maybe to send a message?” Nadiah said. “The
first girl he took looked a lot like Lauren—maybe he’s still
searching for her. Does the second girl look anything like
her?”

“Not really.” Rast reached into his jacket
and pulled out a small holo cube. He flipped the bottom switch and
the smiling, life-sized head of a girl with pale creamy skin and
long black hair sudden popped into view. “See?” he said. “She’s
white and Lauren is African American.”

“I see.” Nadiah studied the holo closely for
a moment. There was something about it that bothered her but she
couldn’t quite put her finger on it. And there was no denying that
the second girl who had been taken looked nothing like Lauren.

“So…” Rast clicked off the cube and put it
back in his pocket. “I need to see if I can find her.”

“I hope you do,” Nadiah said quietly.

Rast gave her a sharp look. “But you doubt
it.”

“If she’s the one I saw in my dream then yes,
I’m afraid so.” Nadiah sighed. “Well, I guess I should go and let
you work.”

“I have to do everything I can to find her,”
Rast said seriously. “Even if…you’re right. I still have to do my
job.”

“Of course you do.” She nodded. “Thank you
for taking time to talk to me.”

“Anytime,” Rast murmured. Nadiah started to
get up but he stopped her with a hand on her arm. “Nadiah, look at
me.”

“What?” She searched his truegreen eyes with
her own.

“I mean that. Anytime you have something to
tell me, something you saw or you know or whatever—just call me,”
Rast told her seriously. “Day or night, doesn’t matter.”

Nadiah’s heart jumped. “You mean it? You’ll
listen to what I have to say now?”

Rast sighed. “Yes. From now on I’ll listen.”
He looked down. “I’m sorry I treated you like you were crazy
earlier. It’s just…it was hard to believe anyone could actually
have a talent like your…”

“My gift,” she finished for him. “The
Sight.”

“The Sight. Right.” He nodded. “Well, come
on.” He rose and held out a hand to her.

Nadiah took it, feeling her heart start to
pound as he drew her to her feet. “I’m sorry if I upset you,
talking about your sister,” she said softly, looking up at him.
“But I needed you to believe me.”

“I understand.” He nodded. “You know I
haven’t talked about her to anyone for
years.
”

“Really? Not even your parents?”

He shook his head. “Especially not them. It’s
a forbidden subject in their house.”

“But how sad,” Nadiah protested. “She was
such a beautiful girl—so vibrant and full of life. Someone like
that shouldn’t be forgotten.”

Rast’s eyes flashed. “I’ve never forgotten
her I just…never had anyone I could talk to about her before.”

“You can talk to me about Jessie—if you want,
I mean.” Looking down, Nadiah realized her hand was still loosely
cupped in his.

Rast seemed to realize it at the same time
because he dropped her hand abruptly and cleared his throat. “Well,
I’d better go. Call me if you have any more information.”

“I will.” Nadiah nodded, feeling like an
idiot. Of course he didn’t want to talk about his dead sister! To
dig up such an old and painful memory. Why had she offered such a
thing? “Uh, thanks for listening,” she said, feeling foolish.

“You didn’t give me much choice, did you?”
Rast said dryly. He sighed. “Well…goodbye.”

“Goodbye,” Nadiah echoed.

Rast nodded and walked out of the HKR
building with a swift, businesslike stride. She watched him go,
wondering why she wished she was going with him.
He’s just a
human,
she reminded herself.
And a cranky, irritating one at
that.
But she couldn’t get his look out of her mind—the bright
sheen of unshed tears in his green eyes when he’d talked about his
sister. There was tenderness in Detective Rast—buried somewhere
beneath the hard outer shell, she was sure of it. But who or what
would ever be able to draw it out?

Nadiah shook her head. “Only the Goddess
knows. But not me, that’s for sure,” she murmured to herself. Then
she sighed. It was time to be getting back to the Mother ship
before anyone found out she was missing. By the time she got back
it would be almost time to go to bed.

She shivered at the thought of another night
of unrelenting nightmares. Still, at least now she knew that if she
saw anything, Adam Rast would listen to her and take her seriously.
With a last look at the detective’s broad, retreating back, Nadiah
headed back for the shuttle which would return her to the
Mothership.

“I can’t believe it’s only been a week—it
feels like we’ve had her forever.” Lauren smiled affectionately at
the little bundle of black fur curled up on Xairn’s broad chest. He
was reclining on the couch watching some sporting event on her
battered flatscreen, and Little One was sleeping on him, as
usual.

“She found her way into our hearts almost at
once.” Xairn stroked the puppy which gave a sleepy yawn and flipped
over so he could scratch her belly. Lauren watched as he caressed
her glossy fur gently, careful as always with the tiny animal.

It
did
seem impossible to believe that
Little One had been with them only a week. At first Lauren had been
a little apprehensive about taking in a stray puppy, especially
when it seemed her relationship with Xairn was crumbling apart. But
now she could honestly admit that Little One couldn’t have come to
them at a better time. Both of them had put aside their worries in
order to concentrate on the puppy and as a consequence, their
relationship had grown quietly almost without them realizing
it.

Xairn’s no touching policy was still in
effect but he didn’t flinch anymore when Lauren brushed against him
by accident or casually touched his arm when she forgot. It was
almost as though the puppy had brought out the best side of his
nature and enabled him to find his self-control just by being
there. Or maybe he had just buried the Scourge side of himself in
order to care for the little canine with the gentleness and warmth
he sensed she required.

Whatever the reason, the result had been much
less tension between them and for that, Lauren was incredibly
grateful. Having a happy and balanced man instead of a
self-loathing, tormented one was more than worth a few puddles and
“presents” on her tile floor from time to time as they tried to
housebreak Little One. Although to Xairn’s credit, he was training
her incredibly quickly. She could already sit and stay when told to
and was even learning a few tricks.
It’s like we had a baby,
she thought, watching as Xairn tickled the puppy under her chin and
let her gnaw on his finger with her tiny milk teeth.
He’s gone
from Scourge warrior-mode into daddy-mode. Now if only he could
find a happy place somewhere in between…

But she sensed the warrior was still there,
lurking just below the surface. Despite the lack of tension between
them, she could still feel him watching her with hungry eyes. And
she knew he was still relieving his own needs in the bathroom. She
wished again that he would let her help, that they could find a way
to be together without his instincts taking over and turning any
sexual encounter between them into something out of a BDSM
porno.

Do you really wish that?
whispered a
little voice in her head.
Do you
really?
Lauren pushed the thought away uneasily and went to stand in front
of the kitchen sink where there were still a few dishes from
breakfast to be done. Absently, she stared out at the warm, late
afternoon sunlight slanting down into the crystal blue waters of
the pool. But though she was staring at the water, her mind was
miles away.

The way it felt when he flipped me over, the
press of his big body against mine, pinning me down. The sound of
his voice when he growled in my ear, when he told me exactly what
he was going to do, how he was going to take me…God!

She shivered. She’d been replaying the scene
from the Sweet Spot over and over again in her head during the past
week and it never failed to fill her with dark excitement.
But
it shouldn’t excite me, should it? It wouldn’t have been rape—no
matter what Xairn thinks. You can’t rape the willing and I was
plenty willing. But it would have been rough and I
was
frightened of him. He gets so scary when he goes
all Dom like that. Scary but incredibly hot too.

Lauren was a feminist to the core but every
time he started acting that way it seemed to do something, to flip
some switch inside her that no one else had ever been able to flip.
It made her so damn hot all she wanted to do was submit and let him
do anything he wanted. But that wasn’t right—she shouldn’t
want
to be treated like that. Shouldn’t crave Xairn’s
dominance or fantasize about sexual submission to him. Should
she?

Unbidden, an image popped into her head.
I’d be down on my knees in front of him, kneeling before my
master to show my submission. His large hand, stroking my hair,
guiding me toward him, toward his hot, hard cock.
She could
almost taste his warm, salty skin, could almost smell the delicious
masculine musk of his big body as he fucked her mouth.

But maybe she wouldn’t suck him just right,
the exact way he wanted her to suck him. Maybe he would have to
punish her. Lauren imagined him putting her over his knee and
pulling down her panties, baring her ass for his big hand. He would
spank her, spank her until she writhed and begged for mercy.

Then he would tie her to the bed, her arms
and legs spread wide so that she was helpless beneath him. Helpless
and unresisting as he fucked her, fucked her so hard and long and
deep she wouldn’t be able to help moaning his name, begging him to
take her, to never stop, to make her come…
Stop it,
Lauren
scolded herself.
Stop thinking like that. You’re only making
things hard on yourself.

But the forbidden fantasy had raised such a
mixture of desire and shame inside her, she could hardly hold
still. Uneasily, she shifted from foot to foot, feeling like her
pussy was on fire. God, she
had
to stop thinking like this.
But telling herself to stop was no good—it was all she’d been able
to think of ever since their last physical encounter. Why was she
so interested in this, anyway? She’d never fantasized about being
punished before. Never wanted to let anyone tie her down or spank
her.

Lauren bit her lip, frowning. It was
frightening to discover this dark corner of her sexuality she had
never even begun to explore before. Frightening and more than a
little confusing. What the hell was
wrong
with her,
anyway?

“Are you all right?” Xairn’s deep voice broke
her train of thought and Lauren whipped around guiltily to see him
staring at her with narrowed eyes.

“Fine, I’m fine. Just thinking,” she said
brightly, trying to smile.

“Thinking what, exactly?” He raised an
eyebrow at her.

Lauren shifted nervously. “Nothing. Just that
this is probably the last warm day we have before it starts getting
cold. Well, cool, anyway. I think I want one more dip in the pool
before it’s too late.” Once the words were out of her mouth she
knew it was a good idea. Nothing like immersing herself neck deep
in the chilly water to douse her unwanted desires.