by Unknown
After they rounded the corner and disappeared from her line of sight, Michelle stood, waved to the bunnies—who all undoubtedly thought she was following Ash back to his room—and slipped out the side door. In a sense, she was following Ash, and would continue to do so until he led her to his room. She needed to keep a close eye on him and to get into his room. Trailing him was purely for research purposes—to determine the depth of his involvement into her investigation into the missing girls, naturally—and had nothing to do with the heat he roused in her or the shivers of warm need rushing through her body and encouraging her to go against her own best interests and give into her womanly desires.
Damn him…
Too bad she couldn’t share her information about Blake Ashen with Detective Dan Shay, her partner on the case. No one at the precinct knew she was a “seer”, nor did they believe in such a thing. If she told her Captain, or Dan, that there was a demon on the loose at the resort, her next assignment would be with the department psychologist.
As she moved through the main lobby she spotted Dan coming in from the slopes, surrounded by a group of bunnies. All dressed in the latest fashion, he was masquerading as a ski jock—not too far of a stretch for him either. She tried to get his attention, but he wouldn’t even spare her a glance. Instead he indulged in the bunnies as they lavished him with attention. Not that she cared if he was purposely avoiding her. She wasn’t a big Dan fan. Michelle was the one who’d pushed for a full investigation into the missing girls. Dan, on the other hand, thought the assignment was a waste of his precious time and had tried to discourage the captain from any further involvement. Since they’d arrived that morning, he spent his time skiing and playing, and subscribed to the theory that women died on the slopes all the time simply because they couldn’t conquer the hills quite like a man.
Which led to her main reason for disliking him. He hadn’t wanted a female partner, or to go undercover with her, the sexist pig. She’d taken down countless demons all by her little old feminine self, so coming up against a man who felt women belonged at home, barefoot and pregnant, irritated the hell out of her. When it came to Dan, she had better places to plant her bare foot.
She turned her thoughts back to Ash, watching him guide Mac to the elevator. Other than Ash being a demon she had no proof that he was responsible for the missing girls. Sine she couldn’t come out and tell Dan that Blake Ashen was her main suspect she knew she was on her own. Soliciting help from anyone else was out of the question, too. After all, to ninety-nine percent of humans, monsters of the nonhuman variety didn’t exist. The other one percent knew better.
Since she was lucky enough—or unlucky, depending on which way you looked at it—to be amongst the minority, by the time this assignment was over she planned to make sure there was one less monster for humanity to contend with.
Chapter Three
Blake nodded to the two guards standing outside Trevor’s office. “The boss is expecting me,” he said, inwardly sizing up the men. Yeah, he could take them down, limb by limb if need be. It might be a tough fight, but certainly doable.
Blake was sure Trevor’s need for bodyguards had something to do with the goings-on in the underground caverns. Otherwise, why would a hotel owner need this kind of protection?
From what Blake could tell Trevor had inherited the resort from his deceased brother a few years ago, right around the time the girls started going missing, or started dying on the slopes as most believed. At least that was how the dates on the coroner’s reports read. Blake suspected that something entirely different was going on and concluded that whatever underhanded dealings Trevor had been involved in before, he must have brought them with him. That, and his connections ran deep.
One of the guards opened the door, turned sideways and cleared a path. Blake stepped through the threshold and glanced around, his gaze coming to rest on the burly man sitting behind a massive mahogany desk.
Trevor smiled and motioned him forward. “Ash,” he said. “Right on time.”
As Blake met the man’s steely eyes, he put on his best “loyal employee” face. “Five o’clock means five o’clock, sir. Anything else is unacceptable.”
That seemed to please him. “So it is, so it is. Please have a seat.”
Blake lowered himself into the plush chair across from Trevor and noted the rather large file with his name on it.
Trevor tapped a thick finger on the manila file and got right to the point. “So it seems you’ve had a run in with the law a time or two. Probably have a real hate for cops.”
“Yes, sir. I hope that doesn’t affect my position—”
Trevor leaned forward, his pale, cold eyes cutting him off. “Oh but it does.”
“Sir, it—“
Trevor held his hand up. “Relax, Ash. What it gets you is a promotion.”
Blake didn’t have to fake relief as his mind raced, pleased at the prospect of being brought into Trevor’s organization. It was his ticket to uncovering the truth, finding his sister and exposing this place for whatever it really was.
“A promotion?”
“You see, Ash.” Trevor paused to push back in his chair. The leather squeaked under his weight. “I’ve been watching you. Carefully.” With a nod, Trevor glanced at the door where his guards stood waiting. “Had Lex and Neal watching you too, and you’re just the man I’ve been looking for.”
Blake offered him his best hardass face. “No matter what it is, I’m your man.”
Trevor flashed a grin and said, “That’s exactly what I wanted to hear.” He stood. “Come with me.”
Blake, along with the two guards, followed Trevor to the bowels of the hotel where they met with two other guards. Blake had seen the guards traveling to and from the basement numerous times before, but had never gone beyond the hotel boundaries himself. After all, very little got past him and he’d been kicking around long enough to know that Trevor and his goons had been watching him, which was why he’d never attempted to explore the underground himself. He was trying to prove his loyalties, and if he got caught snooping, it would surely blow his chance of being brought into the organization.
A long cold cinder-block corridor led them to a back room. Trevor nodded to the guard to open the door. Once inside it took two locked knees to keep Blake upright, and an iron-clad stomach to keep his lunch down. Fuck, no… In less than a heartbeat, Blake had figured out what the sick bastard was up to.
Shivers moved down his spine and he felt like he’d been sucker-punched as he surveyed his surrounding and took in the bed, props and camera equipment. As emotions rose sure and swift, they clogged his throat and caused his insides to shake. He worked to tamp down his emotions. Jesus Christ, now was certainly not the time to let his demon loose. He needed all his human wits about him and couldn’t afford to let his defenses down if he was going to protect the innocents and save them from Trevor’s monstrous hands.
As his blood curdled and everything inside him dictated that he rip these three to shreds here and now, he worked to school his features. Fuck, there was a special place in hell for guys like Trevor. Blake vowed then and there to make sure no woman ever set foot in the place again. His new mission was to expose the bastard and make sure Lucifer lavished him with the kind of attention a bastard like Trevor truly deserved.
His nostrils flared, his body tightened, and with effort, he resisted the urge to blink his eyes in distress as he thought about the suffering Trevor was inflicting upon all these innocent girls. And so help him, if he’d touched a hair on his sister’s head, he’d personally torture the monster until he prayed for death.
Trevor turned to speak to one of the guards and Blake took that opportunity to pull himself together. Trying for casual, yet feeling anything but under the circumstances, Blake drew deep breaths, straightened his shoulders and tried to keep the disdain from his voice when he turned back to face his boss. “Nice place you got here.”
Trevor laughed, the sound menacing. “I thought you
might like it.” He shot Lex a glance and ordered, “Roll the reel.”
Oh, sweet fuck, no…
Lex dimmed the lights, pulled down a projection screen and flicked on the projector.
Blake’s nostrils flared. Knowing Trevor was carefully gauging his reactions, he folded his hands under his arms and widened his stance to keep himself from wavering. It took all his effort to keep himself together and fight the urge to look away. For one agonizing minute he listened to screams wailing from a nearby speaker and it took every ounce of human willpower he possessed not to let the rage unfurling inside him take over. The sound boiled his blood and raised his anger to near uncontrollable proportions. But soon those screams turned into tiny sobs and those tiny sobs ended on a gasp. Instantly, his vision went fuzzy around the edges. As his entire world tilted on its axis equal mixtures of sadness and shock moved through him. Fuck, it was worse than he thought. The bastard wasn’t just filming x-rated flicks, he was making snuff movies.
Fierce rage came on the heels of his realization. It prowled through his bloodstream and elicited a tremor from deep within. As chaos erupted inside him it became harder and harder to think. Jesus H. Christ, he’d seen a lot of shit in his day, but never had he witnessed anything so inhumane and barbaric. Like he’d always known, sometimes it was hard to distinguish who really was the monster.
“So you like what you see?”
Blake watched the way the bodyguards hovered nearby, ready to draw their weapons if Blake showed any sign of protest. He cleared his throat but also noted that his voice didn’t quite sound like his when he said, “What I see is money.”
Trevor nodded his approval. “Good. Your new job is to audition women. I’ve seen the way they watch you. Christ, they’re drawn to you like flies to shit.” When Trevor laughed at his own expression, the guards laughed with him. A show of respect, he presumed, for a man who deserved none. What he deserved was a life of pain and suffering and Blake wanted to be the guy to give it to him.
“I’m pretty good with the ladies,” Blake said, biting down on his temper. He would have exploded then and there, tearing the bastard to shreds, but that wouldn’t help him discover his sister’s whereabouts. And if he wanted to protect all the other unsuspecting women by putting a halt to Trevor’s productions, he had to play along. For the time being.
“We’re looking for women with little to no family, but if they’re really good,” he stopped to wink, and then added, “thanks to the coroner, we’re able to work around it. If you know what I mean.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean. I know exactly what you mean,” Blake said. Under the guise of anticipation, he gave a wicked grin and scanned the room, memorizing the layout in case he needed to draw on it later.
After they exchanged a few more instructions one of the guards herded them all back out into the long hallway, locking the doors behind them. Darkness had already fallen by the time Blake was guided back to the main lobby and given the understanding that he’d begin auditioning women immediately.
Trevor turned to him. “I’ll be away for the next few days. You can check in with Lex and Neal to let them know how things are progressing, and now that you’re on the team, we’re moving you onto the top floor, to our VIP suite.” He handed him a new keycard.
“My room is fine,” he assured him.
“Take it,” Trevor demanded. “Nothing but the best for all those working on my special project.”
When Blake reluctantly accepted the key card, Trevor nodded toward the underground entrance. “They’ll be waiting.” Before Trevor turned to make his way back to his office he added, “And we’ll be watching you, Ash.”
With those words of warning bouncing around inside his head, and fighting down a surge of rage, Blake made his way back to his old room to sort through matters. Had the bastards gotten their hands on his sister? Cass sure fit Trevor’s specific requirements. A low growl rumbled in his throat and he began to think, to strategize, to figure a way to shut down his operation for good. Not just for his sister, but for all those poor, unsuspecting women who’d gotten more adventure than they’d bargained for.
When Blake opened the door to his room, his skin prickled in warning. Two faint yet distinct scents curled around him. One was from a demon. The other was the enticing aroma of vanilla.
Preparing himself for a confrontation, his gaze darted around the small room, but his search came up empty. Blake stepped inside and closed the door behind him. The demon he couldn’t do anything about. It had probably tried to find itself a fix without having to go through the hassle of dealing with Blake. The bastard would find him sooner or later, when he was desperate for drugs, although Blake had never dealt heroin for them in the past, nor did he intend to do it now. What he did intend to do was drive that fact home in a manner the demon and its friends would never forget.
The vanilla, on the other hand…
If Blake disliked the thought of a demon invading his space, he hated the thought of a cop even more. Especially when he was now hip deep in something that could not only get his ass nailed to the wall, but leave him dangling there like a poster boy for fucked-up good intentions.
* * * * *
Except for a picture of a striking woman with physical characteristics similar to Ash’s, the search of his room turned up nothing. As Michelle committed the picture to memory she wondered if Ash was related to the woman. She replaced the picture, her mind racing, noting how familiar she looked. Was she one of the missing?
After a quick trip back to her own room, Michelle logged onto her computer to check through her reports. Less than a half an hour later she’d found the woman’s picture, and learned that Cassandra Smith had gone missing a couple of months ago. Her disappearance was reported by a man she’d dated only a few times while working at the resort. With no known family to contact, her file was simply added to the rest of the missing cases.
Michelle then proceeded to do a check on Blake Ashen. Shock watered her limbs. He had a rap sheet a mile long, which meant he’d walked the daylight hours of the mortal world for a very long time. A hot temper as a youth had earned him a place in a correctional center. Michelle spent an extra moment absorbing that tidbit of information. She had to admit, Ash’s clear, dark, straightforward eyes didn’t give him the look of a seasoned criminal. At least, not a human one.
Michelle grabbed her parka, strapped her dagger to her hip and then went to meet up with Dan to discover if he had any new information to share. Except when she found him in the bar, still surrounded by bunnies, she suspected he hadn’t even tried to investigate, and undoubtedly considered this trip nothing other than a vacation.
Disgusted with her partner, she made her way back to the main lobby, sat on the sofa and grabbed the newspaper. If Ash made a move, she planned to follow.
For the next two days while Dan did what he did best, avoid her while he indulged in all the resort had to offer, she watched Ash, studying his habits and his movements. When he ate, she ate. When he slept, she slept. When he worked at night, she sipped drinks with the other bunnies, keeping tabs on him. She’d yet to see him with a woman. In fact, he seemed to be going out of his way to avoid them.
Watching him all the time was having a seriously bad effect on her. There was something undeniably primal about him. Everything from the way he moved to the way he licked his fingers clean after eating had her blood pulsing hot and aroused her libido to the point of distraction. Never had her nipples tightened so painfully, her pussy throbbed so hard, clamoring for his undivided attention. If she wasn’t careful she feared she’d lose herself in him and allow him to do the most delicious things to her body. As her mind went off in an erotic direction she pictured their hot naked bodies coming together, his mouth taking possession of hers as his cock drove inside her, pushing deep, driving hard, filling her in a way she’d never been filled before. The truth was, Ash made her feel ravenous, carnal and completely out of control.
Damn him.
She shook her head to clear her lusty, yet dangerous, wanderings, and glanced around the table. Once again she found herself sitting in the corner booth the bunnies had claimed, twirling her glass and sipping the awful fruity drink Tabby had ordered for her, as well as for everyone else, and tried to maintain a professional detachment. Difficult, considering everything about him screamed sin, seduction and danger. Pure sensual delight raced through her veins whenever his eyes turned her way, forcing her to fight off unwanted shivers of longing. In spite of herself, her mouth watered and she once again let her mind drift for one glorious minute, imagining what it would be like to feel his naked body climbing over hers. To feel that sensual mouth graze every speck of her flesh, licking and sucking and rehydrating himself with her cream. Her sex muscles fluttered in eager anticipation.
Oh God…
She knew it had to be the allure of the demon that caused her salacious mind to conjure up such erotic images because it certainly wasn’t in her nature to be drawn to a suspect. And it should sicken her to know that a demon could do this to her.
But her mind kept flashing back to the way he’d taken such painstaking care of Mac a couple of days earlier. Surely a soulless monster wouldn’t have cared if the guy drank himself to death. She recalled the look of sympathy that had come over him, and the way he’d switched Mac to soda pop. Not to mention that he hadn’t done anything out of the ordinary. As far as she could tell he kept his nose clean, and kept to himself. Deep in her gut she suspected that Ash had nothing at all to do with the missing girls and that she was simply attracted to him, the woman in her drawn to his charisma and charm. She pushed herself deeper into the booth and bit back a moan. He had to be involved, he just had to be. Because all demons were monsters. Even ones that could walk during the day. Weren’t they?
Michelle decided she’d had enough of watching him for now. A long day on the slopes had tired her out more than she’d expected and sitting at the bar with the bunnies for the rest of the night was more than she could take. She pushed the last of her drink away with her fingertips and excused herself, pleading a headache when the other women protested. The headache wasn’t too far from the truth. She was sick and tired of listening to them talk about their sexual games and knew it wouldn’t be long before they’d put the pressure on for her to join in.