Lacey's Luhpynes [Beyond the Veil 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage and More) (27 page)

“You both are so very good to me,” she told them with an honest and open smile. “You make me so happy. Thank you for being you. For being in my life and for loving me enough to give me time to pull my head out of my ass. Life will be good, right?”

“We knew you’d get there eventually,” Zhubin said, flopping onto the bed on one side. “And if not we would have started to send you emails with directions and helpful hints.” Smiling, he lay back, hands behind his head, and closed his eyes.

She began to laugh. Lordy, if anyone would do something like that it was her men. They would totally have sent her step-by-step instructions on how to get over life and simply live in the moment. “I’m glad that I have you to show me instead,” she told him with a smile.

“We do like demonstrating better,” he said with a chuckle. “Besides, you got there all on your own, thank the Gods. And you never once even had to throw anything at our heads to warn us off. Though we were a bit worried that one day when you were going on about the…Shit, what was it, Ansell?”

“Mm.” He frowned and stole a chunk of her cheese to nibble on. “I think the first time was that big-ass tape dispenser that was on the boss’s desk. The second time was the chair she had been sitting in, the metal one with the sharp edges. The third and fourth time were the pair of razor-sharp scissors she used for nearly three months to stab at the corner of her desk because we were ignoring her. The fifth time through the tenth was the clock someone sent her for her birthday. And pretty much after that it was anything right at hand that she would brandish in a threatening and yet adorable manner.”

“You guys are such dorks,” she told them with a grin. “But yes, I was about to brain you both with the nearest hard object I could find if you didn’t stop moving the stuff on my desk around. I swear I was ready to kill you both. Mostly because I was in desperate sexual need, you asses. You never failed to heat me up when you were around and I was trying so hard to fight it.” Like an idiot.

“We know,” Zhubin said. Shrugging when she looked his way he smiled. “We always knew when you were thinking of sex. Of course, so did every other person of the races that worked in the same area. But we’ll just avoid thinking on that too heavily as Ansell and I can’t kill them like we want to.”

Lacey began to blush. “Well hell. I keep forgetting that you guys can scent a woman’s need, and even when she is ovulating and everything. Crap. I need to figure out how to hide my scent I do believe or else I’m going to be carrying around a cast iron skillet to bang some heads with.”

He chuckled and shook his head. “You are mated, they won’t touch you, sweetheart. They know the consequences of touching you without permission. Which, in our culture, is harsh. A mate is a sacred being, especially when she or he is not of the races. To be cherished and protected, inappropriate contact except in a life-or-death situation where there is an imminent threat, can get the perpetrator of the offence killed.”

“I’m not talking about touching. I’m talking about the looks,” she said with a smirk. “It’s the looks that those damn boys get on their faces, especially when they sniff the air. Asshats forget that I can still taze them.” She wouldn’t, but it was a matter of pride for her, or something like that. “Crap, they will smell the pregnancy on me now, won’t they?” she asked suddenly.

Zhubin nodded but Ansell was the one who answered. “They likely already know. The gossip mill is the fastest form of communication even with all the technological advances in the world. Someone would have caught your scent at some point, figured out there was a change and put two and two together. By the time you come back to work you should have a very large stash of things going in the office. The races tend to be big on the gift giving for pregnant mates.”

“Very big on it,” Zhubin muttered. “We’ll be dragging shit home pretty much every single night, I’m sure.”

That had her grinning. “But they won’t try to keep me from working for a while, right? I mean yes I know that I will eventually have to go on medical leave and all that but I’m not ready to yet. I need to help you guys find this asshat. Please?”

“You won’t have to go on medical leave until Briar says so. But you are off for at least a month, your body needs to recover from what he did to you and she needs to monitor the baby. Which, I probably should mention, she will do some at the office but otherwise she will be here,” Ansell said.

“Good. As long as she is able to take care of us that’s all that matters. As long as our babe is fine then life will be good.” She honestly didn’t know if she would continue to work after the baby came along, but that was to think about then. “And when the baby comes along? Will we live on this side of the Veil or the other?”

“Your choice,” Zhubin said. “It really doesn’t matter to us but it is something to consider. We have the ability to live worry-free for the rest of our lives in either place. This place is paid for in full and we’ve got a good bit in the bank, so…” He shrugged.

“But which side is the safest?” she asked quietly. “Honestly. Which side is safer? I love my job, I love what I do but I’m not sure that when our child comes I will want to continue to work. Does that make sense? I mean don’t get me wrong, I’ve never thought I would be a motherly type, but since finding out we were pregnant I can’t help but to sit here and think about what’s going to be best for our child.”

“Well, think on it, Lacey. You don’t need to make the decision today. We’ll just have to weigh the pros and cons of our options out when the time comes to make the choice. There is good and bad to both, we just have to decide which we feel is best for our family.”

“We have plenty of time. I’m in no hurry,” she said with a smile. “Somehow we will figure this all out.” One day. They had plenty of time to figure everything out. Plenty of time. “For now, we will just deal with the right now.”

“Exactly. Now, eat your dinner and then we’ll talk and hopefully form some sort of game plan for drawing this shit out of the woodwork and onto our turf. I’ve had more than enough of him and he’s seriously starting to piss me off again.”

“That sounds perfect to me. The sooner that we get this ass off the streets the happier that I will be. I just want to get this guy gone. I need for him or her to be gone well before our child comes along if you would please.” The sooner that they could handle things, the better.

They just stared at her. Right, she was supposed to be eating. Apparently neither one was planning on saying anything until she did eat. Men, so damned cute, so damned annoying at the same time. Ansell grinned at her, a knowing look.

Lacey just smiled, that was all she could do. She winked at them and began to eat, knowing that they were waiting on her to eat as well. Just another of the things she loved so much about them. She loved that they would always wait for her, that they would always ensure that she was taken care of.

When she was done they moved the tray off the bed. Then they both settled next to her, their shoulders to hers, their large bodies close to hers. “So, we did some extra digging around and found out you had some not-so-nice fan mail in your first few months with the AEDA. Stuff that you were apparently never told about because it was deemed a non-credible or low-risk whack job. Their words, not ours. We got the original letters and read them. Apparently your fan was literally a fan in the beginning, thought you were amazing, raved on about you and so forth. Then about six months in he started going creepy weird talking about your hair and such things,” Zhubin told her.

Ansell shook his head and picked up from there. “Two months after that the letters took on a decidedly not-so-much-a-fan-anymore tilt. He basically was pissed that you were ignoring him and that he would just have to show you how he was the better choice for you to mate with. It progressively got worse from there and then the letters stopped. Exactly, to the day, one month before the first murder in our district. Two months after that murder there was another letter, this one berating you for not seeing his work for what it was. Another letter two weeks later asking why the hell you weren’t doing it right, whatever
it
was. He never specified.”

“One month later again, another kill,” Zhubin told her. “What we do know from the letters and those first kills, it’s definitely a male and definitely a Luhpyne. We spoke to Briar and she gave us a few other details. She figures he’s about six-four, two hundred and eighty pounds and we know for a fact that he’s got dark brown hair. Samples found on the first three bodies that were all identical and showed a chemical breakdown that can only come from living on the other side of the Veil,” he said when she looked his way.

“After that he got smarter which was the last time he actually sent a letter. From there he switched to the gifts after each kill. Something we verified with the logs and the records,” Ansell said. “Not all the kills made it onto the radar because of certain gang factions and still-happening scuffles between the various groups. So, some were deemed collateral damage, innocents in the wrong place and all that, or drug addicts who didn’t know when to duck in a fight. Unfortunately the guy who had been running the ME offices before Briar took over fully was an idiot, a lazy idiot.”

“Oh crap,” she whispered. “I never received any letters, anything at all. So I have some sort of stalker guy out there who is killing because I haven’t replied to his letters?” She didn’t know what to think about this. At all. “So the question will be, how can I get his attention again? How can I get him to come after me and leave others alone? And no, I’m not idiot enough to really want him to come for me but to walk into a trap. But how? That’s my question.”

“Oh, he’s well beyond that now. That’s why he’s trying to kill you, darling,” he said softly. “He sent one last letter about three weeks ago which, had it not been flagged and bagged on getting to the building, we would have a heads-up and been prepared. We tore a strip out of the captain and the asshole security folks over that too so if you see them limping, kick them in the balls. He stated that if you didn’t give him some sign that it was over and he would ensure that no one got you if he couldn’t have you.”

“And that’s the cleaned up version of the rant on paper he sent in,” Zhubin muttered.

“Wonderful,” she whispered in horror. Crap. Her hand went to her belly and she just watched them. “So what do we do? How do we keep him from hurting me and in turn, our child?” Her child, their child. That being was the most important right now. “How do we ensure that we are able to find this man? How do we ensure that we are able to get this man caught and destroyed? Not brought in but utterly destroyed?”

“That’s what we’re trying to decide now,” Zhubin said with a sigh. “The issue isn’t so much finding him as making it a situation we can control. We need to draw him to us, to a play that works only for us and traps him.”

“We know he’s getting information from somewhere, not directly from the AEDA but somewhere on the periphery. We just have to try and figure it out so we can feed him intel that doesn’t sound like we’re feeding him and have him come right into a trap,” Ansell explained.

“So if not from someone in the AEDA, then where? Do you think…” She knew that this was going to sound crazy but she asked, “Do you think that perhaps they might be someone that we would never think of? I mean think about it.” She looked around. “Who cleans for us? Who changes the trash and the little things that we don’t think of because we are always out in the field or doing our reports? Does anyone ever think about them?”

They both nodded slowly, deep in thought. “That’s actually something to check on. I know that everything is supposed to be shredded before it hits a bin but I also know that there are some that are lazy or forgetful. So…” Ansell scratched his chin. “That could be it right there. But really, if it’s someone up high enough they could even get into restricted areas.”

“You are missing the point.” She shook her head and smiled. “The cleaning crew. They empty the trash bins, they are here at the deepest of night, they push carts, clean counters and desks. Think about it. Have you ever, ever cleaned anything in your office? But it’s never dirty. Right? They are here and most people never pay them the first moment’s notice.”

“No, he’s not missing the point, love. He’s got a point,” Zhubin said, sitting upright. “We’re paranoid about such stuff, our desks never hold anything of even a semi-sensitive nature. Everything is in the locked safe and we personally take anything to be destroyed to the incinerator. But we’re also relatively low-level. We’re conscious of those around us, we have to be. But the higher-ups, the ones in the secure areas think they are secure. But that is also where the most sensitive and highly detailed information is. The stuff that we never even know unless we personally dig it up ourselves. The sort of thing that, if someone just shredded their stuff and didn’t drop it into the incinerator chute each night, could be pieced back together. The sort of thing that could give up a lot of personal information.”

“Right.” Ansell sat up to stare at him. “We never have the most sensitive of information and anything we do get we keep in the safe which only we can get into. But those up behind the big doors with all the cameras and security, they still get a cleaning crew through. Are they as paranoid about the information as we are or are they thinking because of that security, nothing would ever be taken? A cleaner could easily see something on a desk while dusting and slide it into a dust bin. They empty it and off they go with something they can sell. And he is right too, with enough patience, you can put shredded documents back together again. We all know the higher-ups don’t drop their own garbage, ever.”

“Crap,” Lacey muttered. “So how do we figure this out? Do we go one higher-up at a time? Do we ensure that we give false information through the chains of command? What should we do?” She was typically on her game but right now she was having issues concentrating.

“We have to make a decision,” Zhubin said. “I think we need to create a case, as real as we can possibly make it, a body and everything. We’ll need Briar’s help on this, so we’ll have to tell her the plan. Whatever the fuck it ends up being.”