by Paige Tyler
If it wasn’t for the fact that Christine was her best friend, Alyssa probably would have been jealous. She still didn’t know how Christine was able to balance an incredibly stressful job with the perfect home life.
“How are our two girls doing?” Christine asked as she neatened up a stack of folders and moved them to the side, then sat back in her chair. No doubt they were more missing persons cases. Alyssa couldn’t help but wonder how many of them were related to Stefan and whatever the hell he was involved in. “You took them shopping to get some clothes, right?”
“Yeah. They’re doing okay for now,” Alyssa said. “I only hope they find someone they trust to talk to soon before everything they’re holding inside comes busting out.”
Christine lifted a brow. “Maybe they’ll talk to you.”
She shrugged. “I made the offer, but I’m not sure if they’ll take me up on it. Those two are so tight with each other it’s going to take someone really amazing to get them to open up.”
Christine smiled. “I don’t know. You strike me as someone pretty amazing. If they’re going to trust anyone, it’ll be you.”
Alyssa appreciated the compliment. Eight years older than Alyssa, Christine sometimes didn’t realize how amazing she was, or the influence she had on the people around her. The woman had damn sure changed Alyssa’s life. But she knew if she mentioned it, Christine would disagree. So instead, she focused on one of the reasons she’d come to see her friend. It was something that had popped into her head while she’d had lunch with the twins.
“Do you need help covering their hospital stay? Or the hotel room?”
Her friend had probably racked up some significant expenses helping her keep the two girls off the official FBI radar—costs she likely wouldn’t be able to put on her bureau credit card.
Christine smiled. “Relax. I’ve been doing this for a little while, remember? I have arrangements with all the local hospitals, a dozen or so hotel chains, the bus lines, and even a few of the airlines. They help me take care of people I come across who need help without a lot of questions being asked. So I got this.”
Alyssa snorted. “Of course you do. Why did I even bother asking?”
“No idea.” Her friend leaned forward, resting her folded arms on the desk. “But if you’re feeling generous, maybe you could fill me in on exactly what the hell you’ve gotten yourself involved in. Who tried to kidnap those girls, and what the hell did that hunk Zane have to do with it?”
Alyssa hesitated, not sure she wanted to get her friend involved in this mess. Because there was no way this wasn’t going to get messy at some point. But Christine had stuck her neck out for her. She deserved a few answers. At least as many as Alyssa could give her.
So she told Christine about what had happened at the club last night and the parking garage today, filled her in on Stefan Curtis and Black Swan Enterprises, then she explained about Zane and the other two SWAT officers from Dallas. The only detail she kept to herself was her suspicion that Zane and his friends were some kind of supernatural creatures. That was something she couldn’t share. Not that Christine would have believed her anyway.
When she was done, Christine got up to close the door of her office. When she sat down at her desk again, she had a worried expression on her face.
“You seriously think an organization as large as Black Swan Enterprises could be involved in this level of human trafficking?” she asked. “Why would they risk getting caught and going to prison? Besides money, of course, which they already have a hell of a lot of.”
Alyssa shrugged. “I don’t know, but my gut is telling me they’re mixed up in all this somehow. That’s why I just spent a buttload of FBI money to rent an office space across the street from that parking garage, so we can stake it out. Stefan is kidnapping people and making them disappear. We’re going to figure out exactly what he’s doing and hopefully find those people who’ve gone missing.”
Christine looked at her like she thought Alyssa was crazy but finally nodded. “Okay, I guess I can understand your reasoning based on the evidence you’ve dug up so far. But seriously, four of you trying to go after an international corporation like Black Swan Enterprises? Even if you disregard the fact that your three SWAT cops have absolutely no jurisdiction here, it’s still insane. Pulling full-time stakeout duty on a garage alone would probably take a dozen people. How are you going to do that?”
Earlier today, as she and Diego had hunted down a place for their stakeout, Alyssa had that same thought. There was no way the four of them could maintain a long-term stakeout on the garage and Stefan’s home, not to mention follow Stefan and his Neanderthals when they went out to the clubs to look for more victims. But it wasn’t like they had an option. She couldn’t ask for more manpower to help out. It would take her whole team, and Nathan wouldn’t go along with that until she had something more to go on than instincts.
“We’ll figure it out,” she said. “Somehow.”
Christine regarded her thoughtfully. “You know, I could help you out. Off the books, of course. No one upstairs would have to know. There are some other agents who’d be willing to help, too. People I trust.”
Alyssa’s heart just about melted in her chest. Her friend was too much. Of course, she couldn’t take Christine up on the offer, but it was sweet as hell regardless. “Thanks, but no. I kind of need to keep the official exposure on this operation to a minimum.”
Christine looked disappointed but nodded. “I get it. I know enough about what you’ve gotten yourself into over the past year to recognize you think there’s weird crap involved—weird crap I’m not allowed to know anything about.”
Alyssa tried to play it cool and keep the surprised look off her face but was pretty sure she failed. Obviously, Christine had figured out she wasn’t doing normal FBI stuff anymore, since Alyssa had been the first person she’d called when that corpse had shown up drained of blood in the landfill. Alyssa only hoped her friend hadn’t been digging around too much. She didn’t imagine Nathan or his boss would be too thrilled to have someone poking around their little covert operation, even if it was a fellow FBI agent. It was something that could get Christine fired.
“You don’t have to say anything, Aly. I know you can’t talk about it, so I’m not going to push. But I want you to know that if you ever need help, all you have to do is call me and I’ll be there, no questions asked.”
Alyssa felt like crying. “Thanks. I can’t tell you how much that means to me.”
“Then don’t try.” Opening her desk drawer, Christine pulled out a thick manila folder with the familiar icon of the FBI Medical Examiner’s Office on the cover and handed it to her. “I’ve been holding on to this for two days, waiting for a chance to show it to you. There’s some stuff I know you’re going to find interesting in there.”
Alyssa set the folder down on the desk and opened it. She’d been waiting for the ME’s final report on the body from the landfill since getting to LA and had been frustrated it was taking so long. She knew why, of course. Dead Jane Does with no one to claim them didn’t get much priority.
She slowly flipped through the pages, looking at the photos of the woman’s body in the condition it had been found in at the dump, then after she’d been taken to the morgue. Both versions made her want to cry. How did a young, pretty girl end up in a landfill?
“You know you could have scanned all this and emailed it to me, right?” Alyssa frowned as she tried to decipher the nearly illegible notes. It would take hours to figure out if there was anything in here she didn’t already know. “You realize we do live in the twenty-first century.”
“I know, but the ME made me promise I wouldn’t make copies or let the original out of my hands. There’s some stuff in there that he doesn’t want getting out or associated with his name.”
Alyssa looked up. “Okay, now I’m definitely interested. Spill. Because I know you read it.”
Christine snorted. “It’s scary how well you know
me. But let’s talk about that later because you’re going to freak when I tell you blood loss isn’t the official cause of death.”
Alyssa stared. She did that a lot lately. She hoped it didn’t make her look stupid. “How is that possible? The body was drained of every drop of blood. That has to be what killed the girl.”
“You’d think.” Christine shrugged. “But the ME discovered the true cause of death was heart failure. The blood was drained after the fact.”
Alyssa tried to grasp the implications of that. After a few moments, she decided she couldn’t. “How could she have died of heart failure? She was twenty-two years old and in good shape—at least superficially.”
“You won’t find this part in the report, but the ME thinks the girl had heart failure from being terrified for a sustained period of time.”
Alyssa hadn’t even known that was possible. “But the initial report stated there was no severe trauma, bruising, or other signs of torture.”
Christine reached over and flipped through several pages in the report until she came to a form with the outline of a woman’s body on it—half the page for the front and the other half for the back. The ME had drawn in little dots all over the place.
“The two puncture wounds in the neck were obvious, since that’s where the killer drained all the blood from,” Christine said. “But when the ME put the body under a black light, he found hundreds of small puncture wounds on the neck, wrists, forearms, shoulders, inner thighs, behind her knees, inside her ankles, stomach, hips, even her breasts. He thinks they stuck her with a large gauge needle, slowly draining her blood in small amounts at a time over the two-year period she was held, letting her heal up in between. Based on the number of puncture marks, he thinks they must have given her something to help her heal faster because it’s the only way to explain how they were able to do it. When the girl’s heart gave out, they drained the rest of the blood.”
Alyssa felt the urge to throw up. Holy crap. The girl had been slowly tortured for two years, poked with needles over and over, her blood drained from her body. Alyssa mentally reviewed everything she either knew personally about monsters, or had read, things she and her team had learned while dealing with creatures that went bump in the night. The only problem was lots of nasty things out there liked human blood. The thing that had tortured the girl could be anything.
Alyssa flipped through the rest of the ME’s report, copying down a few notes here and there as she went. She was so caught up in what she was doing she barely noticed Christine studying her from the other side of the desk.
“What?” she asked when she finally couldn’t ignore the pressure of her friend’s gaze any longer. “Why are you staring at me like that?”
“Nothing.” Christine’s lips curved in a sly smile. “I was just going to ask how your dinner went last night.”
“What dinner?” Alyssa asked, getting a sinking feeling she knew exactly where Christine was going with this.
The smile on her friend’s face broadened. “The dinner at the diner with that devastatingly handsome SWAT cop from Dallas—the one with the sexy British accent. I can’t imagine sitting through an entire dinner listening to a man that good-looking talk to me in that voice. I’d end up drooling on my plate.”
Alyssa’s jaw dropped. “Christine, you’re married! You can’t say stuff like that.”
Her friend laughed. “I’m just messing with you. But seriously, the guy is hot. Just because I’m married doesn’t mean I didn’t notice that. You can’t tell me you didn’t notice, too.”
She almost blushed as she remembered exactly how much she had noticed. Not to mention how good he’d smelled and how much she’d wanted him to kiss her in the diner parking lot.
“Yeah. I noticed. And yes, Zane is very attractive and easy to talk to. I’d be lying if I said he didn’t intrigue me.”
Because he’s a supernatural creature that growls and throws people around like sandbags. And oh yeah, his eyes glow yellow sometimes. She did love the color yellow.
Alyssa pushed those thoughts aside and cleared her throat. “And dinner with him was nice. Okay, it was better than nice. It was also the first time in forever that I’ve sat across the table from a man I wasn’t interrogating.”
That earned her another laugh from Christine. “Do you think the two of you might get together?”
She shook her head. “No way.”
Christine frowned. “Why not?”
It wasn’t like Alyssa could tell her she thought Zane might not be human—or that he might be as dangerous as whoever or whatever had kidnapped and killed that poor girl and tossed her in a landfill. Instead, she went with a lie Christine would most likely believe.
“I’m here working a case. I don’t have time to get involved with anyone.”
Crap. That sounded lame even to her.
Christine gave her a look. “First off, I’m not saying you have to have a deep, meaningful, long-term relationship with the guy. There’s nothing wrong with a roll in the hay to relieve a little stress. You’re both adults. You can do that, you know.”
Alyssa closed the folder, focusing all of her attention on her friend. “Okay, say Zane and I sleep together. What then?”
Her friend arched a brow. “Your love life must be really sad if you have to ask a question like that. But just in case you really are that socially challenged, let me lay out the two most likely possibilities when it comes to a man like Zane. One, the sex is amazing and you keep sleeping with him until the case is closed and you both go your separate ways. Or two, the sex is amazing, and you continue to see your hunky Brit long after the case is solved.”
Alyssa snorted. “And what if the sex is horrible?”
Christine looked at her like she was insane. “I’ve seen the man, honey. Horrible sex isn’t anything you have to worry about with him. I’m sure of that. It’s simply a matter of whether you’re looking for short-term pleasure or long-term gratification.”
Both options worked for her, but unfortunately, the first was unlikely and the second a complete pipe dream.
“Long-term wouldn’t work,” she said. “I’m always on the road, and Zane’s a cop in Dallas. Even if we worked at it, we’d never get to spend any time together. Why even bother?”
“I’ll give you a good reason to bother,” Christine said. “Having nothing in your life but your work sucks.”
“I like my work,” Alyssa insisted. “And I have friends.”
Christine let out an impatient sigh. “I like my work, too, but that doesn’t replace the human connection that comes with spending time with the person you’re meant to be with. And as much as I appreciate you as a friend, it doesn’t compare to my hunky husband serving me breakfast in bed after a night of serious lovemaking.”
Alyssa had met Christine’s husband—many times. While he was handsome, it was weird to think about him and her best friend having sex. “But you guys are married and work in the same field office. That’s not like my situation at all.”
“We weren’t always married.” Christine shrugged. “And we weren’t always in the same field office, either. We had a long-distance thing for the first four years of our relationship, but we made it work because having a chance to be with him—even if it was only now and then—made everything else worthwhile. I’m not saying that’s the way it would be with you and Zane. Heck, once you spend some time with him, you may discover that there’s absolutely zero chemistry between you regardless of how incredible the sex is.”
Alyssa let out a little snort. There was definitely some chemistry there.
“Look,” Christine said. “I’m just saying you shouldn’t let a few miles between the two of you deter you from even trying. You have to hang out with him anyway. Why not sit back and see where it leads? If there’s a spark, go with it and have some fun. If there’s more than a spark, maybe give that a chance, too.”
Alyssa didn’t mention the part where Zane might grow fangs and eat her for fun. Instea
d, she stood up. “Speaking of Zane, I have to get back to my hotel and clean up. We’re pulling stakeout duty together tonight. I’ll text you later. Give the hubby and kiddo a hug for me.”
Christine came around her desk to walk Alyssa out. “I will, but promise me you’ll give what I said about Zane some thought. And also promise me you’ll be careful. If you’re right and these disappearances are connected to Black Swan Enterprises, then this might be more dangerous than you think. They’re big enough to make people like you and your SWAT cop friends disappear without a peep.”
Alyssa had a sudden vision of Zane and his two friends dressed in Easter Peeps costumes calmly being led away to slaughter by Neanderthals in dark suits. The image didn’t fly with her. She was pretty sure they’d make one hell of a peep.
She was almost out the door when a thought struck her. She turned to look at Christine. “You know those hotels you said you have an arrangement with? Any chance you could swing three expensive rooms for Zane and the two SWAT cops with him? They’re staying in a fleabag with gigantic bedbugs. I was hoping to get them out of there.”
“Three rooms?” Christine asked with a smile. “Sure you don’t want to make that two, since Zane will be sleeping in your bed at the Westin?”
Alyssa didn’t dignify that with a response, but instead gave her friend the stink eye and walked out.
Chapter 6
It was 10:00 p.m. by the time she and Zane arrived at the office space across from the parking garage to take over for Rachel and Diego. Normally, Alyssa would have driven herself over for their nighttime stakeout shift, but they wanted to limit the number of vehicles sitting in front of what was supposed to be an empty office complex, so Zane had driven them over in his SUV. She hadn’t minded. Besides not having to deal with LA traffic—which sucked yellow lemon balls—he’d suggested stopping by In-N-Out Burger to pick up takeout for dinner. She’d never complain about eating more french fries. Besides, Zane made her laugh most of the drive over, telling her stories about growing up in London. She’d almost peed herself when he described the uniforms he’d worn for school. For some reason, she’d had visions of that guitar player from AC/DC. A young Zane must have looked so damn cute in his proper little shorts.