“Well, in that case, would you mind holding me for a while?”
He opened his arms, and she stepped into them, laying her head against his chest and soaking in the warmth of his skin. Real or not, it didn’t matter. At that moment, everything else faded away. She sighed.
Another blanket magically appeared. He lowered her onto it then lay beside her. She snuggled up close against him, laying her head on his chest again, just below his collarbone. She scented fresh salt water combined with that of warm male. The strong, steady beat of his heart lulled her into a state of contentment as he made gentle, soothing strokes along her arm.
“Tell me about Aequoria.”
“It is a beautiful place,” he said softly. “Very much like this. Like Earth, it is comprised mostly of water. However, unlike you, we choose to live in the sea and venture onto land only occasionally.”
“You live in the sea? How does that work? Do you shift into a fish or something?”
“No. We have only one form. Our bodies have simply adapted to use the oxygen in the air or the water with equal ability. However, many of us have domesticated sea creatures as pets, just as humans have adopted canines and felines as companions.”
“Do you miss it?”
“Yes, though I understand now that it was my destiny to leave Aequoria and make my home on Earth. I belong here.”
“Why is that?”
“Because this is where you are, Ryan.”
She smiled against his skin, her heart swelling with an incredible sense of rightness. “Fate must have one heck of a sense of irony, pairing you with someone like me who, you know, has a thing about the ocean.”
He smiled, too. “Fate knows exactly what it is doing, though it does seem keen on making me prove myself worthy of such a gift. Fear not. As our bond strengthens, your fears shall lessen.”
“Don’t hold your breath,” she mumbled.
“You are here with me now, surrounded by the ocean, and yet you are not vexed by it.”
Well, that was true enough. Lying beside Tiberius as she was, she felt none of her usual discomfort, only a sense of peace.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Anything.”
“Why were you exiled?”
He was quiet for a few moments before he said, “I placed my trust in the wrong person. I was blinded by false flattery, tricked into believing I had found my mate by one consumed by greed and a thirst for power. I put my people at risk. Were it not for Quintus exposing her for what she really was, the Aequorian people might now be under the rule of the Celusians.”
She let that sink in. “Did you love her?” she finally asked.
“I thought I did at the time, but not even her powerful dark magic could simulate the depth of what I feel for you.”
Ryan didn’t know what to say to that. She wanted to tell him that she knew exactly what he meant, because she felt the same way, but she suspected he already knew. After all, she was the one who was having trouble accepting things, not him.
She closed her eyes, letting the steady rhythm of his heart and the safety of his arms lull her into a state of complete relaxation. Unlike their last two encounters, their intimacy was based on something other than physical gratification.
Her last thought before she floated off into oblivion was that he always seemed to know exactly what she needed.
Ryan didn’t have any more dreams after that and woke feeling particularly refreshed. That almost made things more difficult. It was hard to walk away from someone who made her feel so good.
She knew she should. She was a police officer, and he was the owner of an elite yet morally sketchy club. Oh, and he thought he was an alien prince from another M-class planet and believed he could breathe underwater.
Smiling, Ryan shook her head. Even that didn’t bother her as much as it should.
The décor at Bait made more sense now. The underwater theme. The floor to ceiling aquariums filled with everything from tiny, colorful sea anemones to sharks.
Sharks ...
Coffee mug midway to her lips, Ryan froze, the pieces suddenly coming together.
“The streets around Golden Beach are a lot cleaner than they used to be.”
“They call him the Shark.”
“He’s a dangerous bastard, but he’s not your average player. This guy’s super slick.”
Holy shit. Could Tiberius be the Shark?
Chapter Twenty
“What have we learned?” Tiberius directed the question to the small group assembled in the conference room.
He felt anxious and on edge. He hadn’t heard from Ryan since she had left his office hours ago. The security detail he had assigned to watch over her had been reporting back frequently with assurances that she was safely tucked away in her apartment, which helped somewhat. He would have much preferred to have his mate with him, but understood that she needed time to assimilate and accept what he had revealed. The good news was, she had unknowingly called to him in her dreams—definitely a positive sign.
“Glitter isn’t the only one missing,” Sugar said. “Diamond and Minx didn’t show up for their shifts tonight.”
“Guards at the door reported denying access to two men this evening, both of whom they described as suspicious,” Jay said somberly. He tapped a few keys on his tablet and displayed still photos of the men in question.
Spice recognized one of them. “That guy on the left is Carlos, Marcel’s brother. Gets off on causing pain. Used to love roughing us up when Marcel thought we needed to be put in our place. Last I heard, he blew town shortly after Marcel disappeared.”
“He had a thing for Glitter, too,” Sugar added, “but he’s not smart or brave enough to have acted on his own. No, if he’s involved, someone else is pulling the strings.”
“That corresponds with what our sources have been reporting,” Quintus said. “Several of those who disappeared shortly after our arrival have been resurfacing. All indicators point to the one known as Black Eagle.”
Jay’s eyes went wide. “Black Eagle? That guy is bad news. I mean, really bad news. Human trafficking, Colombian drug cartels, and an underground network with tentacles in some very strategic places. If he’s in town, we need to be on high alert. Not that I don’t think you guys can’t kick his ass,” Jay was quick to add, “but he plays dirty. He doesn’t care how many people get caught in the crossfire. In fact, the more, the better.”
“Which means,” James said quietly, “that Bait and everyone in it could be in danger.”
RYAN SAT BACK IN HER chair and stared at the half-dozen open tabs on her computer screen. The more she researched, the more she was convinced that her early morning epiphany had been right on the money. Tiberius and the Shark were one and the same.
The question now was: what did she do about it?
Her stomach rumbled, reminding her that she hadn’t taken time to eat.
Unable to sit still any longer, Ryan got up, grabbed her purse, and set off for the deli just down the street.
A few weeks ago, the answer to her question would have been a no-brainer. Now, it wasn’t quite so simple.
Forgetting for a few moments that she was personally involved with Tiberius, her research had revealed some surprising, irrefutable facts. Among them: vice-related crimes had been steadily declining over the last year in the Golden Beach area, as had drug-related incidents among local high schools. The most stunning stat: non-vehicular homicides were down a whopping eighty-three percent.
That corroborated what Drew had told her about some of the major players being taken out of the game. Maybe not all of it could be contributed to the Shark but numbers didn’t lie. It seemed way too much of a coincidence to believe that things had just improved on their own, conveniently beginning right around the time Tiberius and Quintus purchased the old cannery.
And, moral compass aside, things had improved.
When Ryan had first entered the academy, she had been so idealistic, seeing the world
in the simplest of terms. Things were either good or bad, black or white. Over the years, however, some of those hard lines had blurred. It was impossible to be a police officer and not see how extenuating circumstances had to be considered. Sometimes, doing something “bad” might actually result in a greater “good,” just as a strict, blind adherence to the rules could result in doing more harm than good.
Adding to her moral dilemma, she was personally involved.
Was Tiberius odd? Absolutely. Was he a few bricks shy of a full load? Possibly. Was he a bad guy? Her instincts, along with her heart, said no.
Somewhere along the line, despite her best efforts and his ridiculous claims, Tiberius had managed to find his way through her defenses and make her question not only herself but her everything.
While waiting for her order, Ryan’s phone rang. She looked at the caller ID and saw Betty’s number appear. Talk about good timing! A girls’ night in with Betty was exactly what she needed. Betty had a unique way of looking at things. Talking things through over Chinese takeout and a bottle of cheap wine might just help her put things into proper perspective.
She swiped the screen and brought the phone up to her ear. “Hey, Betty, I’m glad you called.”
“Oh, Ry!” Betty cried. “You’ve got to get over here!”
Through the phone, Ryan could hear sirens wailing in the background. “What’s going on? Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” Betty assured her, “but Bait’s gone.”
Sandwich forgotten, Ryan ran out of the shop. “What do you mean, Bait’s gone?”
“I mean, it’s gone. I was putting the finishing touches on the cake for a sex toy party tonight and there was this loud BOOM. When we ran to the window, all we saw was a pile of rubble where Bait used to be!”
Ryan looked out the window to the south end of town. Sure enough, dark, billowing clouds of smoke were visible in the sky. Her phone chimed again, signaling an incoming call.
“Betty, I have to go. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
Disconnecting that call, she answered the one from her captain. “Winslet, we’ve got a possible bombing at a nightclub called Bait. Get over there now.”
“On my way ...”
Ryan wouldn’t let herself think about what she might find when she got there.
Chapter Twenty-One
The scene was surreal. A black shell, charred and smoking, rose from the rubble where Tiberius’s club used to be. An entire section of the western wall, where the bar had been, was completely gone. Smoke and dust filled the air. Lights flashed and cut through the haze from cop cars, ambulances, and fire trucks.
Ryan pushed through the crowd of curious onlookers then dipped beneath the police tape.
A beat cop off to her left saw her approach and waved. “Detective Winslet.”
“What have we got, Dominguez?”
“Initial reports from eye witnesses say that the place just exploded. The club was mostly empty, except for some daytime staff. Firefighters were able to get the blaze under control pretty quickly after arriving.”
“Any casualties?” Ryan asked, her heart in her throat.
The detective nodded, his gaze going behind her and to the left.
Looking over her shoulder, Ryan could see a trio of long, black body bags on the ground.
“Got a few, but no IDs yet. Staff who didn’t make it out in time, most likely. The rest of the injuries are minor. The EMTs are having a look at them now.”
Ryan’s stomach clenched at the sight of the bags. She refused to think about who they might contain, not yet.
Dominguez then pointed to the open back of one of the ambulances where Ryan saw a familiar face. It was the man who had escorted her to and from Tiberius’s office! He was sitting there with an oxygen mask over his face.
Ryan thanked the detective then sprinted to the ambulance. She skidded to a stop in front of the behemoth, who was nearly as wide as the emergency vehicle.
He looked at her, his eyes widening in both recognition and hope. “Detective Winslet.”
“Are you all right?”
He pulled the mask from his face. “Yeah. We were in the process of evacuating the building when the place blew.”
“Evacuating? Why?”
The man looked left and right before answering, lowering his voice. “Q got wind of something; said we had to get everyone out ASAP.”
“And Tiberius?”
“Took off; said he was going to find you and make sure you were safe. He didn’t find you?”
A wave of relief rushed through her. “No, I must have missed him. Where’s Q now?”
“I don’t know,” he said, his voice thick. “Last time I saw him, he was still inside. Said he wanted to make sure everyone was out. I’m not sure if he was caught in the blast or not.”
“Ryan!”
Ryan felt a huge wave of relief when she saw Tiberius running toward her. She didn’t think twice about wrapping her arms around him. Even in the midst of chaos, his presence centered her.
“Thank the gods you are safe,” Tiberius said, holding her tightly.
“I’m fine,” she assured him, stepping back, “but there were casualties.”
Tiberius frowned. “Who?”
“Q’s missing,” the security man said heavily. “Everyone else is accounted for.”
Tiberius’s face darkened, and Ryan felt a wave of worry crash over her.
“Don’t go jumping to conclusions,” she told him. “The bodies haven’t been identified yet.”
“I must know.” Tiberius turned on his heels, heading toward the casualties, but Ryan stopped him with a hand on his arm.
“It’s a crime scene,” she told him. “You can’t just walk over there.”
“I must know.”
She looked into his eyes and nodded in understanding. “Then come with me.”
“He’s with me,” she told Dominguez as they stepped beyond the yellow, plastic tape. Their feet carried them toward the area where three black bags were laid out on the ground.
“Quintus is not in one of them,” he said quietly. “Quintus cannot be in one of them.”
Ryan wondered if there was more to that declaration than the sheer desire for it to be true. She hoped, for his sake, that he was right.
Kneeling, Ryan took a deep breath and opened the first bag. The face that stared up at her wasn’t familiar. She looked to Tiberius, who shook his head.
“He is not one of ours.”
“Are you sure?”
“I know everyone in my employ, and he is not one of them.”
She moved to the second bag.
The face was unrecognizable, a jumbled mass of blackened, charred flesh. However, the ear that remained relatively intact and the tattoos still visible along his neck were enough for Tiberius to identify him.
“That is Enrico. He applied for a security position last week, but he was not hired.”
“Why not?”
“Questionable affiliations.”
Holding his breath, Tiberius reached out and stilled Ryan’s hand before she could check the third bag. He reached out to do it himself. With his thumb and forefinger squeezing the zipper, he closed his eyes.
“Please,” he whispered as he drew his fingers downward, “let this not be my brother.”
Ryan held her breath, too, feeling Tiberius’s anxiety and dread as if it were her own. Then, when his breath released in a whoosh, hers did, too.
The face that stared back at him with vacant eyes was not Quintus’s, but that of an unknown woman.
Ryan looked around, her eye catching on what looked like a partially intact security camera atop one of the giant hooks hanging precariously from the rubble. “What about the security cameras?” she asked. “Do you record footage on site?”
“Yes,” Tiberius said, “but we also have it streamed to an offsite server with all our other data in case this location was compromised.”
“Good. We need to access
the videos from the last twenty-four hours.”
“Ryan, you must know that some of the things you might see on the video could put you in a comprising position.”
The fact that he had said “you” and not “me” was not lost on her. Could he really care more about her than his own interests?
“I’m already in a compromising position,” she told him truthfully, “but I’m only interested in anything that will identify who is behind this or what will help us find Quintus.”
Tiberius stared deeply into her eyes then nodded. “As you wish. However, understand that I must answer this grievous attack my way.”
His words reminded her of just who she was dealing with.
Just as Ryan was about to ask him point-blank about that, Haines and Kowalski pulled up to the scene, and with them, the two FBI agents who had been at the docks when they had found Phil.
Making a spur of the moment decision, she grabbed Tiberius’s arm and pulled him away from the scene before the others saw them. She refused to analyze the sudden urge to protect Tiberius, choosing instead to add it to the list of things she would deal with later.
When they reached the curb on the opposite side of the street, she released him.
“I must find Quintus.”
“I know you do,” she said grimly, “and I’m going to help you. Do you have the access codes for the security video?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Then let’s go.”
“Where are we going?”
“First, we’re going to stop by Betty’s and see if Q is over there. Then we’re going to use her computer to look at the security camera footage and see what it can tell us.”
He paused. When she turned to look up at him, she saw a smile ghost over his lips.
“You are helping me, possibly to your own detriment.”
“Yeah, well, don’t read too much into it,” she told him. “I still haven’t made up my mind about you yet.”
And wasn’t that the understatement of the year?
Close Encounters of the Sexy Kind: In the Stars Romance Page 11