The Promised One (The Turning Stone Chronicles) (10 page)

Chapter 17

“Did you give the description to the police?”

Alexi shut her bedroom door and whispered into the cell phone to Sylvia. “Who did you shift to?”

“Someone who owes me a big favor.” Sylvia sounded casual, as if they were talking about a new dress, not someone’s life.

Her laissez-faire attitude rankled Alexi.
Did the woman have no heart?
“Big enough to go to jail?”

“Bigger. He’ll take the fall for Baron’s murder, too.”

Alexi inhaled sharply at what Sylvia suggested. “You can’t do that. He’ll get life, or worse, for a crime he didn’t commit.”

“You’re such a sanctimonious sissy.” The words came out as an annoyed sound that reminded Alexi of a hissing iguana. “You forget who I am.”

“Another crooked political appointee?” Alexi said, referring to Sylvia’s high-ranking Homeland Security position.

“Who
we
are,” Sylvia added.

Alexi knew who she was, at least who she’d been before this cloak-and-dagger Turning Stone stuff had started. “I’m a homicide cop trying to find my uncle’s killer. Who are you?”

“I’m a Turning Stone member, Alexi. Just like you. We have a great responsibility on our shoulders. We’re members of a secret society that holds the balance of good and evil in our hands.”

“Seems we’re heading the wrong direction on this one,” Alexi said, unable to hide the contempt in her voice.

“This is for Society good.” Sylvia’s frustration thrummed across the phone line. “Didn’t Baron teach you anything?”

“Apparently not the same things he taught you. My uncle stood for all things good and just. He taught me the Turning Stone Society, and the power it wields, should be used for the good of mankind.

“The power we’ve been entrusted with is not ours to use as we want. Baron would never use it to frame someone, and he’d never go along with what you’re proposing.”

And he wouldn’t have identified an innocent man.
Guilt suffocated her like water suffocated a drowning man. “I have to tell the truth. I don’t want this man’s blood on my hands.”

“Don’t be such a bleeding heart. He won’t get the chair.”

The fleeting thought that death might be easier than imprisonment ran through her head in spite of her earlier protest. She’d sent her fair share of
guilty
perps there. “And what about his freedom?”

“He’s well compensated. Besides, the end justifies the means.”

Alexi gripped her cell phone so tight her hand hurt. Who was Sylvia to play God with a man’s life? Indignant, she ground a response out between clenched teeth.
“
Nothing justifies sacrificing an innocent man.”

“Who said he was innocent?”

Sylvia’s comment set Alexi back. Who was she dealing with? A woman who ran with criminals? Someone who believed anything could be done for the sake of the Society?

“Do you want to catch Baron’s killer and get the ring back . . . or not?”

“Of course.”

“Then you have to trust me on this.”

Alexi inhaled to hide the snort of doubt threatening to erupt. Sylvia’s actions, so far, tipped more toward caginess than confidence. Every instinct inside her screamed,
Run!
Get as far away from this woman as you can before she drags you down.

But who else could she rely on?

Sylvia’s tip provided the first real break in her search for Baron’s killer. If he hadn’t thrown his take all over the sidewalk, she would have collared him. Because of Sylvia, she had a description of the guy. All her police contacts had netted nothing.

As much as she hated to admit it, she needed Sylvia. Somehow, she had to figure out how to walk in the dusk that spanned their ethics, yet keep her integrity intact.

“Alexi,” Sylvia said when she didn’t answer right away. “Are you with me?”

“Do I have a choice?

“No.”

Sylvia’s smug tone scraped Alexi’s sense of principles like a dentist scaling teeth, sending a chill up her spine. This was not going to be easy.

“Lexi?” Rhys’ knock interrupted her phone conversation.

“What?” Alexi raised her voice to be heard through the bedroom door.

“Captain Williams called. They got the intruder. He wants you to make a line-up ID.”

“That was quick,” Alexi whispered into the cell phone.

“This ought to get lover boy off you,” Sylvia said. “Maybe then we can get down to business. Call me when you’re free again.”

The line went dead and so did a piece of Alexi’s soul.
If I keep doing whatever you want me to, I’ll never be free.
She shoved the phone into her pocket and opened the bedroom door. Rhys stood on the other side, grinning.

“He confessed to Baron’s murder, too.” Rhys picked Alexi up and swung her around. “You’re safe.”

Just like Sylvia promised.
What kind of woman was she dealing with? The answer came unbidden.

A very powerful woman.

Alexi kept reminding herself that the man she pointed out in the line-up had already confessed to two crimes. He knew the risks. She wasn’t framing him.

In spite of that knowledge, her conscience assaulted her. She had never told lies of this magnitude. She’d been tight-lipped to protect others’ privacy. Avoided topics to guard secrets. Skirted issues to keep from lying. But these bold-faced untruths laid a heavy burden on her heart.

I’m sorry, Baron. I’m letting you down. But I can’t let your death go unpunished, and if this is the only way to be free to search . . . well, you’ll just have to forgive me.

“You’re certain that’s the man?” Captain Williams asked.

“That’s him.” Anxious to escape the object of her deceit, she moved away from the two-way mirror. “Can I go now?”

“Sure,” the captain said.

She started to leave then stopped. “Now that we’ve got Baron’s killer I’d like to come back to work.” The captain didn’t answer right away, and she hurried to reinforce her request. “I’m going stir-crazy staring at four walls . . . and Rhys . . . all day.”

Rhys clutched his chest. “I’m wounded, Lexi.”

“I’m an independent woman. Having you on my back twenty-four-seven is killing me.”

The captain raised his eyebrows at Rhys. “Twenty-four-seven? What are you doing, Temple? Sleeping on her?”

“Something like that,” Rhys said, as the corner of his mouth quirked upward in a tiny smile.

Alexi hoped she was the only one who noticed the gleam in his eyes that accompanied his veiled comment to their first time as lovers.

“Let her come back. Captain.”

Williams nodded. “Report back tomorrow morning. Both of you.”

“Not today?” Alexi asked.

“Take the rest of the day off and celebrate finding your uncle’s killer.”

“Come on, Lexi,” Rhys said.

The way Rhys’ eyes twinkled told her what kind of celebration he had in mind.

Rhys’ stockinged foot working its way from her ankle to her knee disconcerted Alexi so that she dropped her Chinese takeout on her lap.

“Finished?” he asked, as he slid his half-empty paper plate across the kitchen table.

She shoved in another mouthful of fried rice and mumphed out a barely articulate, “No.”

A shiver of delight trailed behind his touch as Rhys’ foot climbed her thigh. She hastily swallowed the rice and swatted at his nudging digits. “Are you trying to choke me?”

His foot dropped off her leg. “Following orders. Captain said celebrate.”

“I think he had dinner and a movie in mind. Not the horizontal mambo.”

“Don’t you want to?”

She couldn’t stop her smile from spreading. She wanted to.

“That’s all I need to know,” Rhys said as he pulled her into his arms.

Chapter 18

Kissing Alexi was becoming like breathing. He needed it to feel alive. Lips glued to hers, Rhys fumbled with the tiny blouse buttons marching down the front of her chest.

As his hands brushed her breast, she gasped, then broke contact and started stripping off her watch and jewelry.

He groaned as her body left his. Cupping one hand on her bottom, he drew her hips against him, his fingers fumbling with the blouse buttons.

“Couldn’t you have worn a zipper?” he whispered as he nuzzled her neck. He shoved her blouse sleeve down, popping buttons off as the sleeve slid over her arm, knocking the items in her hand onto the floor as he stripped off the garment.

“Rhys,” she whispered. “You’re ruining my clothes. Slow down.”

Desire raged in him and he couldn’t get to her quick enough. He slowed his caresses to match her needs, removing the rest of her clothing, and his, in a slow, deliberate manner, until nothing remained between them. The fire that burned at the base of his spine raged by the time they were naked.

The flame intensified as he lowered Alexi onto the bed, racing up his back, through his arms, and back down into his groin. He deepened his kisses, waiting for the explosion that coursed through him the last time he’d made love to her.

He flipped her to the top, keeping his eyes open as she rode him. Trying to maintain control so he could watch what happened to her when she climaxed. Their last time together had freaked him out, but when she’d told him their body shifting meant they were soul mates, he realized he wanted to be her soul mate. As bizarre as that experience had been, he now wanted their bodies to exchange. Wanted confirmation that she was the only woman for him and he was the only man for her.

A shudder ran through Alexi as their passion exploded. She dipped her head toward his, the curtain of her black hair sweeping across his face as she bent toward him. He struggled to keep his focus on Alexi. Fevered hazel eyes stared at him. Her eyes. Not his. As she collapsed against him, he briefly wondered what had happened.

Where was the exquisite pain?

The shooting prism fireworks?

That scary atom-by-atom meltdown?

Where had his soul mate gone?

Alexi rolled off Rhys, and snuggled under the covers against him. “That was nice,” she murmured. “No, more like great.”

He grunted a response—not negative, yet not the same enthusiastic reply he’d given her the last time.

“What’s wrong?” Alexi asked as she rose onto one elbow.

“Nothing, sweetheart.” He eased her back down into the crook of his arm. “It’s just that after last time I thought there’d be a more . . . power.”

Power? What the heck did that mean? If you wanted power, maybe you should have taken the top.

Miffed that he found her lacking, she shoved away from him. “Maybe it would help if I start doing manly push-ups. How many a day would make it better for you?” She heard the sarcasm in her voice but no way would she apologize. He’d hurt her feelings.

He propped himself on his elbow and laid his hand on her arm. “Don’t take it like that. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

“Just what did you mean?”

“That morphing thing that happened in the hotel.”

She shot out of the bed, dragging the covers with her. “The hotel? I . . . we. . .?” She hadn’t been with him in a hotel.

But Sylvia had.

That explained the sexy tee shirt remark he’d made after Sylvia sucker punched her. At the hotel, he’d thought Sylvia was her . . .
and he thinks we . . . but it was really
.... She took a deep breath and held back her rising temper.

She was going to kill Sylvia.

“What are you talking about?” She tried to keep her voice even and light.

“Don’t you remember?”

“No.” And that was the truth. Time to play the amnesia card. “Maybe the intruder knocked that memory out.”

“Too bad,” Rhys said. “Quite a romp. Scared the hell out of me the first time.”

“First time?” Alexi echoed. She was
definitely
going to kill Sylvia. “You experienced it more than once?”

“No.” He shook his head. “I’d hoped it would happen again. Tonight.”

“Why, if it scared you so bad?”

“The soul mate thing.”

“You think we’re soul mates?” She softened toward him. How could she stay mad at him when he thought they were soul mates? “Why?”

“That’s what you said.”

“Because . . .”

“We changed into each other.”

Alexi felt her eyes pop open wide. “Changed into each other?” He’d shifted into Sylvia’s form?
Wait
. He had to have shifted into her form if he thought she and he . . . But how had that happened?

“I’m sorry you don’t remember.”

“Me, too.” She let him tug her back against him. Better keep her surprise at his confession a secret.

Just one more secret to hide from him.

But how could she tell him he’d cheated on her when he thought they’d experienced some soul-mate-bonding thing? Was it really cheating if he thought it was her?

“Rhys?”

“Humm?” he murmured as he nuzzled her neck.

“If it doesn’t happen again, will you continue to believe we’re soul mates?”

The gold flecks in his green eyes sparked into fiery stars as he entangled her hair in his hands. The room tipped.

“We’ll keep trying . . . even it takes the rest of our lives.”

His declaration reassured her and she closed the gap between them, nestling her body against him.

No matter how much she needed Sylvia’s help, if she ever touched her man again, the bitch would die.