Skye's Trail (3 page)

“I’ve got something that’s banana-flavored and something that’s chocolate-flavored. Which one do you want?”

“’Nana.”

Skye got out the power bar and peeled back the wrapper. While Callie ate, Skye pulled the radio off her belt, turned it on, and pressed the button to transmit. “This is Skye checking in.”

“Where the hell are you!” Captain Rivera was back on scene.

“I’ve got the child. She’s okay.”

Rico came on, “You’ve got her?”

“Wrapped in a jacket right in front of me. She had a big drink of water. Now she’s working on a power bar.”

Through the radio, Skye could hear a cheer go up.

Rico asked, “Any idea where you are?”

“I’m closer to the road than to where you are. I’ll backtrack and go out where Callie came in. Are her parents on site?”

“No. We finally got them to go back to their hotel. We’ll send a car to pick them up.”

“Good. I’ll keep the radio on.”

“You do that,” Rivera barked.

Any number of responses flashed through Skye’s mind. She didn’t allow herself to voice any of them.

The child’s trail was long and unorganized and often difficult to follow. Callie had been lost and panicky as she’d crashed over and through the terrain.

The closer they got to the road, the easier it was to hear the cars. The traffic had increased since the grim discovery and Callie’s rescue.

The little girl had stopped shivering. Now she clung to Skye’s back, more asleep than awake.

They kept moving. The trail led out of a thick grove of trees and up a steep incline. Skye could hear a car approaching. She saw its headlights in the distance as she crested the incline and found herself along the road. Automatically she reached for the radio. “I’m on the road. Do you have a cruiser heading back toward town?”

Caldwell jumped in with a familiar order. “Stay put. Hold while I get the captain.”

Skye gritted her teeth. She was tired, battling physical and mental exhaustion. It had been a long night. And now she could see the first hint of light at the edges of dark sky.

Before the radio came to life again, Skye had her answer. The car in the distance turned on its flashing lights and siren. The sound cut across the night air and woke Callie with a start.

Rico’s deep rich voice came over the radio, “A cruiser is heading back toward town. Do you see it?”

“Yes. It’s coming our way.”

“Good. Callie’s parents are in it. Did you locate her entry point?”

“Yes.”

“Okay. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

The cruiser picked up speed and closed the distance in record time. It screeched to a halt in front of where Skye and Callie waited along the road. Within a second, they were engulfed in arms.

“Callie, thank God, oh God, my baby is safe.” The woman’s grip was strong with emotion. The man’s was just slightly less fierce.

Skye stepped away from the hugging as soon as the little girl released her hold and was wrapped in her parents’ arms.

A young female cop stood grinning next to the patrol car. “We’ve been cruising back and forth waiting for you to come out. The timing was almost perfect.”

Skye laughed. Happy despite the grisly find earlier. A child lived. Many searches didn’t end so well.

Sirens blared in the distance. Skye could see two cars coming their way fast. She moved away from the young cop and the reunited family. Once again she allowed herself to become wolfen.

They’d all been here. The five, the niece, the child. Skye could almost picture it. The rental car had pulled into the turnout at the side of the road. The niece may have already picked up the two strangers, or maybe this is where they joined her. Brittany left the rental car, walked to another spot, where another car had parked. The child hadn’t been with her.

All five with the tainted blood had stood here. Only two had gone to or come from where the rental car was parked. Skye went back to where Callie’s steps had disappeared down the steep slope. There was the stench of foul blood several feet away from where the child had been—as though the strangers had started to pursue her but given up after a short distance.

Skye turned back as the unmarked car squealed to a halt behind the first cruiser. Caldwell and Rico climbed out. The captain got out of the next vehicle. “Anything?” he barked at Skye, careful to avoid meeting her eyes. From experience, she knew that he was anxious for her to be gone.

Skye doubted the police would find anything here. But she told them what she suspected anyway. When she was done, Rivera said, “Caldwell will follow up for report purposes. You’re free to go. The department thanks you for your help. Caldwell.”

The detective opened the back door of the unmarked. A clear sign that Skye was to get in.

“I’ll ride along,” Rico said. He shot an angry look at his superior officer. If Rivera noticed it, he let it pass.

Skye slipped into the car, not bothered by the captain’s attitude. Cops were a complication she didn’t need. She’d just as soon not get into bed with them.

Her body tightened in argument as her eyes studied Rico. With one exception. She’d make an exception for him. But even as she admitted it to herself, she doubted that he’d ever cross the line to be with her. He was a cop and she was…a lot of things.

“The department owes you,” Rico said as Caldwell started the engine and pulled back onto the road. Despite trying to clamp down on his anger, he couldn’t keep the hostility from his voice at the way she’d been dismissed. A child was alive because of her. A murder scene was discovered.

Skye half-smiled. “Think the department will pay if I send a bill?”

Some of the tension left Rico. He laughed. “No. Rivera has been bitching about budget cuts all week.”

She slipped the radio off her belt and handed it to him. Their fingers touched briefly and flashed icy heat up Rico’s arm. His eyes locked on hers. He could swear he saw a flame deep in their centers.

“Don’t want to get charged with theft of departmental property then.” Her voice was lazy, soft, amused. It was like velvet against sensitive skin. To Rico it was a siren call that had his cock hardening. Frustration rippled through him. This was why Rivera had ordered Cia to drive Skye home.

¡Carajo!
He’d see her all the way to her apartment and finish this. He’d take her as soon as they got out of sight. To hell with what Caldwell might think. To hell with what the captain might say. He was on personal time now.

Caldwell hit the brake and swerved just enough to break the contact between Rico and Skye. He sent her a dark look. Her lips tightened into that disapproving line he was growing to hate. “Sorry, something ran out in front of the car,” she muttered then turned her attention to Skye. “The crew at the murder site found a pentagram carved in a tree near the circle. What do you know about that kind of thing?” Her voice made it clear that she thought Skye had more than a passing acquaintance with black magic.

Skye shivered even though it was warm in the car. She leaned her head back against the seat. Whatever had transpired in the woods last night was dark and evil, something to be avoided. “They drained her of blood. Probably in the circle.”

“Shit,” Rico muttered. “Shit.”

Caldwell whipped her head around. “How do you know that?”

Skye shrugged and didn’t attempt an answer. She said, “What do you know about the niece, Rico?”

“Not much,” he answered. “Just that Brittany was having some family problems.”

“What kind of trouble?”

“Typical stuff. My take on it is teenage rebellion. That your take on it, Cia?”

“Yes. Black clothes. Black fingernails and lipstick. Multiple body piercings—nose, ear, tongue, probably more but that was enough to make me lose my appetite.”

Skye laughed, which earned her a dark look from the detective. “Drugs?”

“Not that anyone knows about,” Rico answered.

“Friends out here in Vegas?”

“Again, not that anybody knows about. Her parents are supposed to be going through her e-mails to see if she’d made any connections.”

Skye looked at Rico. “You have a picture?”

“Yeah.” He pulled the visor down, retrieved a picture and passed it to Skye.

She studied the punked-out kid who favored black even for her body jewelry. Brittany looked like a hundred other kids that Skye had seen in ghettos and high-end clubs alike. Lost, searching, sometimes heartbreakingly hopeless. “Okay if I keep this?”

“No,” Caldwell said instantly.

“Keep it,” Rico said at the same time.

“It’s an ongoing police investigation, stay out of it,” Caldwell managed through gritted teeth.

“I’ll make a note of that,” Skye said.

“You’d better.”

Rico started to chide the other detective then thought about the last case and wondered if he’d done the right thing in letting Skye keep the picture. “You’ll pass on anything you come across, right?”

“Of course. Always.” Amusement rippled through her voice.

Rico tensed, sexual frustration making him edgy. He almost asked her to return the picture. Almost.

The radio in the unmarked came to life. Rivera’s voice barked out an order for Rico to get back to the station as soon as the civilian was dropped off.

Caldwell visibly relaxed. Rico wanted to howl with frustration. Even for the fuck of his life he couldn’t disobey a direct order. Unwillingly, he glanced back at Skye. Her mouth turned up in the half-smile that made him want to take her down to the floor and shove his tongue past her lips while his cock tunneled in and out of her cunt. He wanted to ride her so hard that the only smile she’d give him was soft and contented, not challenging or amused.

Fuck. Why couldn’t he fall for one of the “nice” girls that his parents were always inviting over for dinner? Or at least one of the women who liked to hang out in cop bars and put out for guys wearing badges? Why’d his dick crave this particular woman?

Skye had them stop the car several blocks away from her apartment. “It makes the neighbors nervous when they see too many cop cars coming and going,” she said as she gracefully slid from the unmarked.

“I’ll contact you later today,” Caldwell said, “for the report.”

“Give me at least twelve hours to sleep.”

Caldwell nodded, anxious to get away from Skye…anxious to get Rico away from her.

Skye’s eyes met Rico’s and darkened slightly. “See you around,” she said before shutting the door and heading down the street.

He watched as she walked away. He wanted to follow her home and fuck her, then curl up around her body and sleep for twenty-four hours.

Shit. He couldn’t take much more of this.

* * * * *

Skye rolled her shoulders in an effort to relax and let the events of the night fade. Even though she was physically tired, her body was tense, edgy.