Freaks in the City (21 page)

Jay and Tyler.

Sixer
.

Delight in her accomplishment crumbled.
But…. He’d promised to leave her alone if she did this one thing
for him—this one little thing.

She straightened her shoulders and tossed
her head, channeling a little of the old Nessa. The en suite
bathroom was as good a place to start as any, she supposed. God
only knew what he expected her to find. Or
not
find—whatever
the hell that meant.

~~~

Jay parked the SUV in the spot reserved for
her vehicle and switched off the ignition. She’d never felt
compelled to apologize for being what she was before. Today had
changed all that.

After a rocky start, Tyler had come to accept
her otherness. Caro had needed no time at all to come to terms with
Jay being a cyborg. Her acceptance had been immediate and
unconditional. Jay believed Michael’s acceptance was intertwined
with his gratitude for Jay extracting him from Caine’s clutches and
giving him back his family. Marissa, however, had no reason to be
grateful to Jay. After all, Jay was the cause of her husband being
recruited in the first place. Little wonder Marissa resented Jay
for what she had to see as taking her son away from her, too.

“I’m sorry,” she said. The words were
inadequate, she knew, but they were all she had to offer him right
now.

Tyler paused, his hand halfway to the
car-door handle. He sank back against the seat. “What the hell for?
You’ve done nothing wrong.”

“I’m sorry this trip didn’t go as you
expected.”

He grunted. “Believe me, I had pretty low
expectations.”

“You had to have known that forcing my
presence on your mother would only aggravate matters.”

“Perhaps if she wasn’t so hormonal she’d
have been easier to deal with.”

“Perhaps.” Jay didn’t believe that was the
case. From the expression on his face, neither did Tyler. “Even so,
I’m sorry you felt compelled to leave straight after dinner rather
than staying the night.”

Another grunt. “I’d have left
before
dinner if Dad and Caro hadn’t begged me to stay. And if we’d been
eating in, you’d better believe I’d have been outta there. No way
was I putting up with that sort of shit any longer.”

By “shit” Jay guessed he meant the comment
from his mother that had been the last straw: “At least we won’t
have to argue about Jay sleeping in your room, because robots don’t
need sleep.” Jay had watched the angry red crawling up Tyler’s neck
and hadn’t been able to think of a single thing to say to deflect
his imminent explosion.

Caro had jumped in boots and all and called
her mother on her “bitchy” comment. Michael backed her. Marissa,
seeing the censure in her family’s eyes, immediately apologized.
But it was too late. The uneasy truce they’d all negotiated had
shattered. As soon as Tyler had calmed down enough to speak without
yelling, he’d claimed to have just remembered he had another
assignment due and they’d have to head home right away.

“At least eating at a restaurant meant we
were all on our best behavior,” Jay offered.

That comment provoked a snort instead of a
grunt—an improvement of sorts. “If best behavior means not speaking
at all, then yeah, some of us were very well behaved over
dinner.”

“The food was good, though. And your dad
paid.”

This time she got a grin. “And you let him.
Miracles will never cease.”

Jay did a Caro and stuck out her tongue at
him.

Tyler jumped from of the SUV and grabbed the
bags from the back seat. Jay waited for him to slam the door before
she locked up and engaged the alarm. She held out a hand for her
bag. When he didn’t comply she figured she had two options: take it
from him, or give him a good reason to do what she wanted. If she
could pull it off, option number two would provide the best result.
She was tired of “discussing” things.

“If I carry my bag and you carry yours, then
we can hold hands on the way home. It’ll be romantic.” She wanted
to be close to him right now, needed physical contact. She was
feeling—

How was she feeling?

Fatigued, despite having eaten well and not
having exerted herself physically. Fragile. In need of comfort.

How strange. Apparently being the victim of
Marissa’s censure—shrugging off the glares, pretending she hadn’t
heard the barbs, biting her tongue against the responses that had
bubbled to her lips unbidden—had drained her both physically and
emotionally. This constant battle against allowing feelings to
adversely affect one’s physical wellbeing…. It was unsurprising
humans succumbed to viruses due to compromised immune systems.

Tyler handed over her bag without further
demur. He shouldered his own, and slung his spare arm around her
waist, hooking his thumb in one of her jeans’ belt-loops. “My turn
to apologize.” He pressed a kiss to her temple.

Her skin warmed beneath his touch and her
breath eked out in a breathy sigh when he pulled away. “What
for?”

He ushered her toward the elevators. “I let
Mom hide behind the whole pregnancy thing because I didn’t want her
to stress out any more than she already was. But I hate that I
didn’t stand up for you more.”

She butted her head against his shoulder. “I
can stand up for myself, you know.”

“I know.” He jabbed the Down button.

“And I felt the same way you did. I didn’t
want to cause any more upset so I ignored her behavior rather than
calling her on it.”

“I pity Dad right now,” Tyler said.

Jay’s senses ratcheted up to high alert.
Something was not right. “Me, too.” she said, keeping her tone
normal so she didn’t alert Tyler while she scanned her
surroundings.

The elevator dinged and the doors slid open.
Jay wriggled from Tyler’s embrace and motioned him ahead of her.
She cast her gaze quickly about the level. Concrete. Vehicles. The
harsh lighting cutting intermittent swathes in the shadows. Faint
odors of oil and gas, rubber and leather and vinyl, decaying food
and old coffee mingling with ink from newspapers stuffed in the
trash cans, and—

The faint whiff of an odor she could not
identify.

No movement. No other people on this level
of the parking building. They were alone, just the two of them.
Even so, she backed into the elevator and stood just in front of
Tyler, protecting him. Only when the doors shut and the elevator
began to descend did she allow herself to relax somewhat.

The elevator doors opened onto the street
level and they wandered out onto the sidewalk. Jay inhaled the
night air deep into her lungs. Nothing. She was “imagining things”
as humans would say. And perhaps that was natural considering
recent events. She released the expectant tension from her
muscles.

“Something wrong?” Tyler asked, his brow
creased with concern.

“No. Everything’s fine.” She summoned a
smile for him, and the smile became genuine when he moved in close
to her side and took her hand in his again.

“Wonder if Nessa’s left us anything to
eat—or anything at all, for that matter.”

Jay hip-popped him—an action she’d observed
girls do to boys on occasion, and which seemed appropriate at this
moment. He veered off the sidewalk. Oops.

“How can you possibly be hungry after that
huge meal you ate at the restaurant?” she asked.

He yanked her wrist, tugging her in close to
him again. “I must have worms.”

“As Caro would say,
eeeuuuwww
. Me? I
can dose you for that if you’d like. It won’t be pleasant
though.”

“Pass.”

“I figured as much.”

“Smartass.”

“Of course. But that’s what you love about
me, right?” She fluttered her eyelashes at him.

He held her gaze. “Always.”

One word. It picked her up by the scruff of
her neck, shook her like a newborn kitten, and deposited her back
on the sidewalk beside him as though nothing had happened and her
world hadn’t tilted on its axis.

Jay had always known words had power. How
could she not when words her creator had uttered compelled her to
end his life? No sentient being forced by words to act against its
will could deny their power. But Tyler’s words…. His words were
terrible in a wholly different way. His words had the power to stab
her through the heart, make the whole world seem bleak and
lackluster. Or make her quiver with joy and the hope they could
both overcome insurmountable odds and be together forever.

Like now.

Should she kiss him as she so desperately
wanted to do? She would be making a public spectacle of herself.
Worse, she would be lowering her defenses, leaving herself
vulnerable because he would flood her senses and wreak havoc with
her ability to detect danger.

Abruptly she didn’t care. Her bag dropped
unheeded to the pavement as she raised up on tiptoes and wound her
arms around his neck and pressed her lips to his.

She heard his heartbeat escalate, felt his
hesitation. And then there was a dull thud as his bag hit the
ground, the tensing of his muscles and the searing warmth of his
palm against the small of her back, her own pulse rate speeding up
to match his as he caught her up against him. His kiss became
harder, more demanding. She responded in kind. Their kiss turned
urgent, lips and tongues dueling to gain the upper hand, then
surrendering and softening to something sweeter and gentler but no
less devastating.

Tyler closed his eyes, resting his forehead
against hers, one hand cupping the nape of her neck, the other
palming the curve of her hip. “Whoa.”

Jay giggled. And then caught herself. She’d
never giggled for no reason that she could discern before. Not
ever. And then darned if she didn’t giggle again.

“What is wrong with me?” She pulled from his
arms and clapped a hand over her mouth.

Tyler grinned. “Gee whizz, Jay. I’d say
you’re doing a stellar impression of a girl who’s just been kissed
to within an inch of her life and enjoyed the hell out of it.”

She lowered her hand to scowl at him because
he was right. His grin got wider. She snatched the bags from the
sidewalk and stalked up the path toward her house. Tyler’s laughter
chased her and she couldn’t help but smile. Secretively, of course,
so he couldn’t see.

She unlocked the door and keyed in the
security code to deactivate the alarm. “Nessa’s not home.”

Tyler glanced at his wristwatch. “It’s
pretty late. Looks like she’s finally done a runner. Yay.”

“You’re incorrigible,” Jay said, relishing
the word Caro had used earlier. The syllables had a lovely rhythm
to them. “At least check her room before you jump to
conclusions.”

“You check her room. No way I’m barging in
there. What if—”

“I’m wrong? What if she didn’t remember she
could set the downstairs-only alarm if she was freaked about being
alone, so she set the full alarm and then sprinted upstairs before
she could set it off, and she’s tucked up in bed?”

He favored her with his “so sue me for being
cautious” look. “Yeah. What you said.”

“I’m not wrong.” Jay bounded up the stairs
and pushed open the door to Nessa’s room. It was in an unusual
state of disarray, with clothes strewn over the bed. Her shoulder
bag—the one Jay had bought for her because girls like Nessa needed
a bag to carry all their “stuff” around in—was gone. The wardrobe
revealed the remaining neatly hung new outfits and the worn duffel
filled with the few items Nessa had brought with her.

Tyler stuck his head through the doorway.
“Verdict?”

“She’s not done a runner. She’ll be
back.”

“Yippee Skippy.”

Jay allowed a hint of rebuke to color her
gaze but if Tyler recognized it he remained unrepentant. “Have you
done any digging?” he asked, leaning against the door jamb with his
arms folded in his “I’m putting you on notice I’m not happy about
this” pose.

“She wasn’t fired from Time-Out, she quit.
She gave no notice so she’s not the most popular person with her
former employer right now, and if she comes begging for her old job
again he’ll have a thing or two to say to her. She told her
housemates she’d come into some money and was getting the hell out
of Snapperton. She gave them two weeks rent in lieu of notice.
There’s a box of her possessions still at the house. They’re a
little hazy as to whether she’ll come pick it up herself or
organize a courier pickup when she’s settled. They’re happy for
her. They’d do the same in her shoes.”

Tyler blinked. “Good work. So.... She
deliberately sought me out. And you were right. She does have an
agenda.”

“Yes.”

“And?”

“And, perhaps her sole motivation was to
insinuate herself into your life because she wants you back.”

He snorted. “In her dreams. Reckon I’ve
thoroughly disabused her of that notion.”

“Me, too.”

“Oh?” His gaze turned speculative. “Went all
jealous beyotch on her ass, huh?”

“I might have.”

“Wish I’d been a fly on the wall for that
conversation.”

She folded her arms. “Be grateful you
weren’t. It wasn’t pretty.”

He puckered up and blew her a
kiss—retribution for the one she’d teased him with on the trip
down, no doubt. “Awww, I feel all warm and fuzzy thinking about you
warning a predatory female off li’l ole me.”

She rolled her eyes ceiling-ward. “Men.”

“There’s still something off about
this.”

“Agreed.”

“Okay, so what happens next with Nessa and
her somewhat super-secret agenda?”

“She’ll either reveal it, or we’ll figure it
out and go from there.”

“You’re being very laid back about
this.”

“Yes.”

His gaze settled on the clothes scattered on
the bed. “Where do you think she’s gone?”

“Job interview would be my guess.”