by V J Lee
* * *
Trevor grinned and shook his head. Rissa was out like a light. She was the only woman he knew who could find sleep in such an awkward position. As soon as she announced her fatigue and desire to sleep, she did. Her eyes fluttered slightly, and she made quiet snores as she breathed. It was the cutest, most endearing sound—music to his ears. He was fine with her sleeping next to him while he drove. He could pretend they were on one of their spur-of-the-moment “let’s go camping” trips. She was with him now, and he could imagine that they were back together … that they were good, happy, content. He was never as peaceful and right with himself, as when he was with this petite, outrageously beautiful woman.
As he continued down the highway, avoiding bumps in the road that could awaken her, he decided he was always going to love her … that no other woman could ever do it for him the way she did it —like his head was finally clear, for the first time in a long time.
He would keep the promise he made when he handed her that ring. He was the only one who would ever love her the way she deserved to be loved. If only she would forgive him for the things he had done. He had to make her understand that his heart still belonged to her.
In his mind, Trevor started hatching plans to make her forgive him. She would come around eventually, right? He would spend every red cent he had to prove to her that he was her true mate. They could be the parents Jacob deserved, not the kind of parents who couldn’t stand the sight of each other. Happily ever after is what she was going to get—and it was going to be with him. Even if it cost him every last penny of his vast fortune to do so.
“You plan on waking up and working this case … or do I go it alone?” Trevor asked, as he opened the passenger side door to the tiny figure curled up like a cat. How the woman could sleep like that just amazed him. Anytime, anywhere …she just needed about two square feet of solid real estate to lay her head, and she was out. He had once seen her take a nap while they were being shot at by a group of trolls. She had said back then that it was because she trusted him at her back.
He had to wonder if she still felt that way. While she slept, the evening had slipped into night. The stars shone brightly above them, the moon merely a sliver, but it was enough to beam blue light across her sleeping face and shiny hair, making her look like an angel fallen to earth. Wasn’t she just that? His breath caught in his throat.
Rissa bolted upright, the seatbelt choking her. “Shit, is it night already? What the hell time is it? Why did you let me sleep so long? And what the hell have you been doing this whole time?”
He reached in, unlatching the seatbelt and skimming her taut waist as he did. “Calm down. Let’s see … I will try to answer your questions in the order they came at me. Yes, it is nighttime. Nine o’clock. You were just too adorable, all curled up in my car. I hated to wake you. I went in and reserved us a room, then arranged for the files to be brought into a conference room. The suspect they want you to observe are being brought into an interrogation room as we speak.”
Running her fingers through her massive waves of jasmine-scented, golden brown hair, she absorbed his information, then turned to him. “Did you just use the singular form of ‘room’? You must be mistaken.”
Holding his hands out as if to defend himself, he said, “You caught that, did you? No mistake. I took the liberty of taking our bags out of the trunk and putting them in the room. I grabbed your toothbrush and your hairbrush, and I also got you this bottle of water. Oh, and here is a pack of gum.” He noticed the glimmer in her hazel green eyes before she shielded it. He could tell it made her happy that he knew her so well, but at the same time, it got under her skin. He was trying to take baby steps to get back into her good graces. “Come on, Riss. Go freshen up, while I stand guard at the door.” She shot him a look that encouraged further explanation. “Not too close to the door, just close enough not to let anyone else come in.” He understood that she liked her privacy when she prepared herself for work.
She sat in the passenger’s seat, staring at him. With urgency, he said, “Come on! Get your sexy little ass up! Agent Lopez is waiting for us.”
“Cruz is running this side of the case?” He couldn’t answer her before she was on her feet, running through the sliding glass doors to the restroom. She knew where it was. They had been here several times, so he wasn’t worried about her finding her way around. What made him nervous was that they had always been a couple when they came here to work, and now she was as single as a dollar bill, just like Cruz Lopez. And the two had chemistry.
Trevor stood against the opposite wall from the restroom door, waiting for Rissa to freshen up so they could begin. She emerged after a few minutes, fresh-faced, hair up in a ponytail. She was, without a doubt, the sexiest woman he had ever seen. Her mere presence made his cock throb painfully. Her natural pheromones, that musky jasmine scent, which was uniquely her, rushed the blood to his already hardening parts even faster.
“What do we do first? Interview suspects, or go through the files?” Her eyes sparkled with the enthusiasm of uncovering information that would hopefully point them in the necessary direction to solve the case. He took her by the elbow, guiding her down the white tile hallway with overhead fluorescent lights, so similar to their Agency branch that he could probably close his eyes and still find his way around the building.
They made their way to the conference room. A round, cherry wood table in the middle of the room held several stacks of manila file folders. A coffee carafe with Styrofoam cups was available for them on a counter in the corner of the room. Laminate counter tops made to look like granite were lit by a single window covered by tan blinds. Six comfortable looking rolling chairs surrounded the table. Central air pumped in the scent of sweet oranges and had a calming, aromatherapy effect.
He pulled a chair out for Rissa so she could start sifting through the paperwork, then tended to their need for caffeine at the coffee station. Two packets of sugar, no creamer—they took their coffee the same way. Certain details about the ones you love are simply unforgettable, and Rissa’s impeccable taste in food and drink was one of them. He set the cups down side by side on the table, and took his place in the chair next to his love. She had already started meticulously going through files, and didn’t seem to notice how closely he placed himself to her.
Taking a sip of the hot liquid, she had already drawn conclusions about their case. “Details regarding the missing men are almost identical to our missing women. No one close to the victims seems to know they’re gone. The Loveland agents interviewed them, and the families all keep saying how they ‘had just talked to them’ or ‘just saw them.’ They have no idea they’re missing. It’s so strange … people who only see them every once in a while, are calling in to report them missing, that they haven’t come into get coffee, prescriptions or beer.”
“You still thinking Vamps?” Trevor asked.
She shrugged. “It’s hard to tell. There are Others besides Vamps who hypnotize or implant false memories. These people haven’t used their credit cards or gotten any cash and there’s been no cellphone usage. Also, the GPS tracking on their cars and phones have been disabled. It’s like they just vanished off the face of the earth …”
“But no one close to them seems to know they’re missing,” Agent Lopez finished her sentence from the doorway.
He leaned up against the frame, arms crossed over his massive chest, his black T-shirt pulling tight across his biceps. Intimidating tattoos, looking like they were done from the business side of a prison kill-fence, wrapped around his neck and down his arms, extending all the way to each knuckle. His onetime gang affiliations were on display. Most men would have had them removed, but not Cruz.
When he was young, he did everything he could to survive on the streets. He made it through the hard times, but had done some truly heinous shit in the process, and now he was trying every day to atone for his sins. He wanted the adolescents he dealt with to know he came from a similar backgroun
d, so they’d better not feed him a line of shit, or he would have no qualms about taking them down a peg or two. The same tattoos that told the story of his own blood-spattered gang years, and helped him relate to young people, also showed he was badass enough to put his money where his mouth was.
“Glad to see they sent in the beauty and the beast.” He grinned at the pair at the table.
“So glad to see you, too, Cruz. It’s been awhile. Is there anything at all that these men had in common?” Rissa asked.
Cruz pushed himself off the door jamb with a booted foot. “Wow … no, ‘you look hot, Cruz,’ no, ‘how are you doing? Are you hungry? Do you want to go to dinner with me?’ None of that, huh? Just straight to business with you, no pleasantries?”
Clearly, Cruz knew they weren’t together any longer. Good news traveled fast, even between counties.
“Cruz, we’re here to work, not play, so answer the damn question,” Trevor found himself growling out.
Rissa placed her hand on his thigh and squeezed lightly, letting him know his temper was getting out of control. If this fucker didn’t stop the Rico Suave routine, they would both get a taste of Trevor’s rage.
“The only thing we came up with, is that they’ve all donated sperm and blood recently.”
Furrowing her brow, Rissa thought a moment, before saying, “So, seeing how they’re all single, I would assume they all have some sort of financial difficulty, or they have a drug problem.”
“Wouldn’t the blood bank refuse their donations if they found drugs in their system?” Trevor asked.
“Not necessarily.” Cruz shook his head as he went to the other side of the room to get his coffee. “They check for drugs, but many users can wait long enough ’til it’s out of their system before they go in. And plasma banks don’t even care.”
“Have any of the missing men gone to the same banks?” Rissa was getting agitated, making Trevor grin.
“There are tons of blood banks around, but only one sperm bank in town, and yes, all of the missing men donated swimmers there. What about the women? If there is someone affiliated with the sperm bank abducting men, could it be possible that the women were taken while selling blood or eggs?” Cruz asked.
Trevor leaned back, placing his arm on the back of Rissa’s chair, and shook his head. “We found nothing in common with the women.”
“We’ll have to go to the sperm bank to do some poking around. If this is how the men were given up, then it’s safe to say someone in the medical field had a hand in this. When we get back, we’ll need to check all the women’s medical history. Maybe they all crossed paths with the same medical professional. If they went to an urgent care or one of those small clinics in drugstores, they could have seen the same person. A lot of their personnel are there on a volunteer basis,” Rissa said. Man, she wasn’t only beautiful, she was super smart. “Do you mind if we take these back to the hotel and read through them tonight?” she asked, indicating the files.
Cruz nodded. “Go ahead, just bring them back tomorrow. I’ve got a gang member in the interrogation room if you want to go in and talk to him. Just so you know, there has also been a rash of cattle mutilations lately. A lot of the locals are saying aliens, but I think these kids had something to do with it.” He shrugged his big shoulders. “But that’s just a hunch. I don’t have any proof … yet.”
Agent Lopez crossed the room, opening the door for Rissa. “After you, Ms. Jackson,” he said, as he waved her through the door.
“It’s only Ms. Jackson if you’re nasty. You can call me Rissa.”
“So, Ms. Jackson, it’s down the hall … first door on your right,” the smart ass said with a gleam in his eye and an evil grin.
“Thank you, Agent Lopez,” Rissa shot back.
“It’s Lopez if you’re nasty. Cruz works if you’re not … God, I hope you call me Lopez.” His smile was smoldering.
Rissa fluttered her long, dark eyelashes, and replied, “Hmm … maybe we will discuss that later.” A smile that lit up her whole face had Trevor clenching his teeth so hard, he thought he would crack his molars.
The three of them walked the short distance down the hallway, and even under overhead fluorescent lighting, Rissa was beautiful. She stopped short, causing Cruz to ram directly into the back of her. He growled like an animal. It was time Trevor neutered this fucker.
Rissa gasped, then looked up at Cruz with hazel green eyes gleaming. “I think it would be best if you guys let me try this myself.” When Trevor stepped toward her in protest, she put her hand up to stop him. “Listen, you two are going to go in there playing your macho shit, causing the kid to get his feathers all ruffled. Let me talk to him. If he causes any problems, you two can come storming in to save the damsel in distress.”
Lopez nodded. “She’s right. These kids have a tendency to get tight-lipped and puffy-chested when a guy interrogates them. We can observe from this room.” He pressed some numbers on the keypad to the room the suspect was in. The door clicked, but before Rissa could step into the room, Cruz grabbed her arm.
“Please be careful in there, Corazon,” he said, as he ran his fingers down her velvety soft cheek. Trevor understood they knew one another and had a good working relationship, but he had no idea their feels ran toward the personal side. However, the affection in Cruz’s words and tone would suggest otherwise.
* * *
Trevor followed Cruz into an identical room, adjacent to the one Rissa had entered. It was set up so a two-way mirror allowed them to look into the other room. A long metal table and two metal chairs were the only things in the room. There was a U-bolt in the center of the table that anchored the suspect’s handcuffs in front of him so he couldn’t harm the interrogators.
The guy in the chair across from Rissa was not what Trevor was expecting. He was a Caucasian male on the thin side … hell, he was downright scrawny. Thick glasses covered most of his face, the remainder covered in a scraggily goatee. He had tattoos on his neck, and three teardrop tattoos descended from the corner of his right eye. The orange jumpsuit he wore swallowed his slight frame, until he saw Rissa walk into the room. Then his chest puffed up, his shoulders went back, and he even straightened up in his chair, in a feeble attempt to appear taller.
Rissa didn’t look at him. She just sat her coffee cup on the table, keeping her nose buried in his file.
Not looking at Lopez, Trevor said, casually, “You know, if you ever call her ‘sweetheart’ again, I will stick a size thirteen boot up your ass. If you ever touch her like that again, I will cut off your balls and stuff them down your throat.”
Lopez snorted. “So, you know Spanish, do you? Although ‘sweetheart’ isn’t a direct translation, the intention is the same. You know, I don’t think you have any say over who touches her or what anyone says to her. Last I heard, you had a fiancée … oh, and a kid. So why don’t you let her decide who she wants touching her? ’Cause I have a feeling it isn’t you, cabeza de mierda.”
“You better watch who you call a shithead, you fucktard.”
The tension in the room was so thick, Trevor could have taken his Glock out and shot a visible hole through it.
“I’m glad to see that they sent in the ‘big guns’ for me,” the kid said, eyes directed with laser precision on Rissa’s breasts.
Rissa didn’t miss a beat. “So Josh, why don’t you tell me about you and your little group of buddies?”
“Boner.”
“Excuse me?”
“Boner. Everyone calls me Boner. I don’t go by or answer to that other name anymore.”
“Yeah, I’m not going to call you that. Why would I call you Boner, when your name is Josh?”
“’Cause I got the biggest, baddest boner any woman has ever ridden. Josh is my past, Boner is my future.”
Rissa smirked. “So, Josh, tell me what it is you and your little gang are into.”
“Well, I’m in women a lot,” he chuckled to himself. “We’re not a gang; we’re a pack.”
“What does that mean?”
“Listen, I like you. You’re not like that other asshole who hauled me in here or that guy next to him, giving off some menacing bullshit through that window.”
“How do you know there are two of them in there?”
His eyes flashed a gold color then back to hazel. “I can smell their arousal for you and their aggression toward me.”
“I want to know why you consider yourselves a pack and not a gang,” Rissa pushed.
“I’ll tell you if you sit on my face.” Rissa turned to walk away. “Okay, I’ll let you blow me for the information.”
Whipping around so quickly her ponytail slapped her in the face, she said, “If I gave you a blow job, you would be spouting out secrets you didn’t even know you had.”
Rissa walked over to the window. Trevor could feel her eyes staring into his. Even though she couldn’t see him, they could sense each other. He watched in horror as she pushed the little black button on the side of the wall. Trevor heard a hiss, but couldn’t tell if it was air through his clenched teeth, or the metal shield activating to cover the two-way mirror.
Trevor and Cruz stood slack-jawed as they were met with nothing but silence on the other side of the glass. She had turned off the sound. When they tried to exit the room, they discovered that the door was locked from the outside. How the hell did she manage that one?
“What the fuck is she thinking?” Cruz ground out. “Do you really think she is about to blow him?”
“No … at least I hope not … I don’t know. Fuck, I don’t know what she’s up to,” Trevor responded. He was ramming his shoulder into the door, over and over, trying to get out of the room.