00 Mayan Thief (The FBI Paranormal Casefiles)

by Sabine A. Reed

It was all I could manage to say.

  “I came back, and good thing too, because it seemed to me that you were on a suicide mission. What the hell were you thinking? Those people can do magic, just like you. He nearly got you.”

  My heart was beating so loud that I thought he might be able to hear it. Blood was warm and slow in my veins, and it made me dizzy. I couldn’t think, couldn’t form coherent thoughts. He came back for me. “He nearly did,” I repeated.

  If Bryan didn’t show up, I might have died on that roof.

  I would have died.

  Scott Fallon nearly got me. I underestimated him, and I nearly paid for that mistake with my life.

  Bryan stared at me as if he expected a better answer, but when I didn’t say anything, he put a hand on my shoulder. “Well, did you at least get something for your effort, or did you risk your life in vain?”

  My heart battled with my mind, and ordinarily I would have allowed my mind to squash all unreasonable, emotional thoughts, but when I was up on that roof, and Scott was about to kill me, there was one thought that dominated my mind, and it was that I never gave my relationship with Special Agent Bryan a chance.

  Now I had it.

  And I wasn’t a complete idiot.

  Putting my hands on his cheeks, I leaned forward and kissed him full on the mouth. I don’t know which one of us was more surprised but it felt right. It felt perfect. His lips were warm and soft. As he gasped, my tongue plunged in to taste his mouth. The exotic dance made me dizzy. It made my head spin. It was too much, too fast, and yet I couldn’t pull away. All thoughts melted out of my mind as we remained glued together. His arms banded around my waist and drew me forward. My breasts pushed against his hard chest. His hand glided up my spine, and the hot lance of desire that careened through me made me shiver.

  Every muscle in my body quivered. My arms went around his neck. I never wanted to let go. His tongue danced with mine, and we tasted and plundered to our heart’s content.

  It was over all too soon.

  Sanity returned.

  While I never wanted this moment to end, I took a step back. He let go.

  “That was amazing.”

  I glanced into eyes, knowing that he spoke from his heart. I didn’t really deserve a guy like that. He was too nice, too open, and transparent, and I was anything but that. Not only was I prickly and contrary, I was also secretive and not really the ideal material for a girlfriend. The longest relationship I was in lasted for a mere six months. I wasn’t meant for love.

  And yet, when I gazed into his eyes, I felt I was just another ordinary girl who wanted a guy to love her.

  Love?

  No way.

  This was nothing like the fear I felt on that roof; there I’d been scared for my life and here I was scared for my sanity.

  I stepped into the car. “Don’t read too much into it, Ace. It was just my way of saying thank you.”

  He was about to make a smart comment in return. But then suddenly, I saw something in his eyes. It was an understanding, perhaps a realization that I didn’t really mean what I said because he ran a hand over my cheek. The gentle touch unnerved me. He’d the power to render me helpless but I didn’t want that.

  I wasn’t an emotional fool, and I’d never allowed myself to be one over a man.

  And yet, there was something different about him.

  Something special.

  Rather than say anything, he gently tugged me away from the car. “I’ll drive today. You look beat.”

  I was.

  But I wasn’t prepared to admit it.

  And yet, it would be silly to turn down an offer of help when I so badly needed it. There was more work ahead, and I could use some rest. “Sure. I’ve got to email this to Jeremy anyway.”

  “What did you find?”

  “A tablet. I think it was one of the stolen ones. There was some writing on it. Let’s see if we can pin down more of that spell.” I took my seat and yanked the belt in place. “I am all for yanking those thieves into jail.” He sighed. “Oh, I know you don’t believe that Scott is guilty but…”

  “No, I think you’re right.”

  He gunned the car down the road, and it took me a moment to assimilate his words. “What?”

  “I stuck around because I thought you were going to get into trouble, and I didn’t want to leave you…but I believe that he wouldn’t have tried to kill you if he didn’t have something major to hide, so let’s hope that whatever you have found is what we need to expose his secrets.”

  Man!

  Oh man!

  I could really fall for this guy. He sure knew how to make me shut up. Rather than say something that would let him know how grateful I was for his physical and emotional support, I attached the picture to the email and sent it to Jeremy.

  There it was.

  Now it was in Jeremy’s hands. If he found something, we would have a new lead, otherwise this case was dead. Without evidence, I couldn’t push anything forward. Rather than worry and sweat over the future, I chose to close my eyes. It was time to take a nap, more so because it would give me some space from the man who dominated too many of my thoughts.

  Life was too complicated.

  If something didn’t snap soon, I was afraid I might do so.

  Chapter Fourteen

  It was nearly ten in the morning when I looked up at the building that housed the country’s smartest. We were back at the FBI’s head office. Given that I was told to stay off this case, this was the last place I should have shown my face, but I was desperate. FBI housed a detailed database of criminals, and I wanted to know more about Max and Scott Fallon.

  “Are you sure this is the right move?”

  Special Agent Bryan was both brave and foolish. It surprised me to realize that he was willing to support my crazy ventures. “You don’t have to come with me.”

  “We’re in this together.”

  It was nice to know that he stood beside me, and yet I was scared to read too much into his intentions. Where he was concerned, my mental compass was screwed. I was too emotionally involved.

  Blah!

  It pained me to feel such thoughts in my head; nothing like this ever happened before. Maybe it was some kind of a disease and if I ignored it, it might go away.

  Yep! Good plan.

  I squared my shoulders. “Just follow my lead. Don’t talk to anyone. We should be in and out before Jones realizes what we are up to. And if he asks anything, just say that we’re tiding up some loose trails of the case. Tell him we’re catching up on paperwork. He’ll love that.”

  “He is nobody’s fool,” mumbled Bryan even as he walked beside me. After we strode in, we took the elevator up to his office. The small cubicle offered some insight in his personal life. The picture of the three women who stood close to each other made me pause. “Family?”

  “Two sisters and a cousin. We’re a pretty tight family.”

  “I thought you were an only child?”

  “Only son. Got two sisters. Both older, so I’m the baby of the family.”

  And he was pretty close to them all. There were pictures of kids on the board; nieces and nephews I presumed. This world was so alien to me that I didn’t even want to sneak in a toe. “I want you to access Max Fallon’s file, please.”

  After sitting on the chair, he began to do his work and I moved away to give him some privacy. “Here we go. Max Fallon. File’s been classified as closed since he is dead. Not much to go on here.”

  I read the information. It was all we knew already. “Can you open these attachments?”

  “Those are just scanned copies of the personal belongings that were taken into custody when he was caught once, but he got away on a technicality.” He opened the documents. “Not much here. Copies of letters he wrote to his friends about that theft. That’s what nailed him. They kept records. I don’t think he ever made such a silly mistake again. And this is a journal, or well a few pages of it.”

  “Can
you magnify this?”

  I read what was on the screen. Seemed fairly straightforward. He talked about his coven. The FBI must have found that bit interesting. Maybe they thought he was training thieves or forming a gang. “What’s that in the bottom?”

  Bryan leaned forward. There were almost two lines in there, but it certainly wasn’t English. “Seems gibberish to me.”

  “It seems like Mayan to me.” My heartbeat accelerated. “Take a print out, please.”

  As soon as the paper came out of the Pinter, I took a picture of it and emailed it to Professor Desmond. “We’ll see if the professor can translate that.”

  “What are you both up to?”

  I turned to face Jones. “Nothing, sir. Just tying some loose ends and filling in the paperwork. We wouldn’t like the new team to miss out on any details.”

  His gaze flickered to the computer screen. “And that?”

  “We’re just filling in the details for Max Fallon. Simply making sure the new team gets the best we’ve to offer.”

  Jones raised an eyebrow. Perhaps I was piling it on too thick. Oh well, too late now. At least Bryan kept his mouth shut. I didn’t think he had much of a capacity to lie. “I hope that you’re both not still involved in the case, because if that was true, I would certainly not look the other way. Do I make myself clear?”

  Shit.

  He didn’t believe me.

  I pursed my lips. “Yes, sir. Abundantly, so.”

  Jones simply sneered. He glared at Bryan as if he expected him to confess and then strode off. I didn’t like this. If we were caught snooping around or doing much else, he would come down hard. Augusta would kill me if I jeopardized things with FBI. Or rather, I would have to kill myself because I would die if I were stuck mulching and weeding. More so, I needed the FBI because without them, I would never get a lead on the murders of my family.

  “Hey, Cleo. Doing good work, I heard?”

  I turned to look at Graham as he leaned against the door. The man was a menace. “What do you want?”

  “Oh, nothing much. I was merely passing by here when I heard Jones give a dressing down, and much to my surprise, it was you two. You’re both off the case.”

  Taking a step forward, I glared at him. “And who made you Chief?”

  He looked down at his nails. “Haven’t you heard? I am on the new team. It’s my job to find those thieves now.”

  Damn that man.

  “How nice for you. Well, we gotta be off.” If he’d a slightly more open attitude, I would have shared this piece of information with him, but then I didn’t have the translation as yet, and there was no point talking to Graham. He would likely run to Jones and report us. “Take care.”

  “Not so fast, Cleo. I heard that there was some trouble at Scott Fallon’s temple. He complained to the police about an intruder.”

  Scott Fallon. That son of a bitch.

  He sure had some nerve.

  Probably he realized that he could get me into trouble, but that meant Scott knew I was off the case. No surprises that Scott Fallon had an inside line into the FBI. But it couldn’t be Graham. Annoying and arrogant as Graham was, he wasn’t for sale. He was a straight arrow, and perhaps that’s why we couldn’t get along all that well despite the initial sparks.

  And now Bryan was a straight arrow.

  But he had enough guts to break some rules.

  “What? Cat got your tongue?” Graham walked closer. His eyes narrowed as he glanced from one to another. “Which one of you did that?”

  “Don’t be silly, Agent Graham. We’re both off the case,” I recovered fast enough to reply. “We’ve updated all files so you should be able to get some results on the research we did.” I couldn’t help that jibe. His eyes narrowed. I didn’t care. He was the one who took the first shot. Satisfied, I smiled. “I guess we should be off. We’ll leave you to do the excellent work that you’re known for.”

  “You…” Graham sneered. “It’s good you’re off the case. You wouldn’t have been able to handle it. These thieves have guts, and now that we know what they are capable of, we can handle them without mages. It’s a simple matter of identifying them or catching them. Too bad we missed them last night.”

  Bryan switched off his computer and stood. “Last night?”

  “Yeah. They hit another museum last night.”

  My breath wheezed out of my throat. Perhaps they as yet didn’t have enough to complete the spell. That was good news indeed. “What did they steal?”

  “The usual Mayan stuff.”

  “Do you have pictures?”

  He raised an eyebrow. “You’re off the case.”

  “Come on, Graham. We may be able to offer some insights.” I didn’t think he would agree. The man hated me now. It was too bad really. Sometimes we had to work together, and it was a pain to do so with an ex. Maybe getting involved with Agent Bryan was a bad idea too. Why couldn’t I find someone elsewhere? Of course, my choices were limited; it was either the men in the farmhouse, the FBI whom I dealt with, or the thieves and wayward types I chased. The men on the farm were more like my pals, my family, so that narrowed the pool considerably. Still, Agent Bryan was a bad choice. But I wasn’t supposed to be thinking about him. “Come on. Just one look at the pictures.”

  Graham stared at me. It was beyond my dignity but my eyes pleaded with him. He cursed. “Damn it. Fine.” Taking out his phone, he swiped it and opened the pictures. “Guess there isn’t any harm in this. Look at this stuff. It was stolen. It’s Mayan, alright.”

  Quickly, I glanced at the pictures. Oh yes, it was Mayan alright, but as far as I could see there wasn’t any writing on any of the artifacts. The pictures were from good angles so there was plenty of time to be sure of my theory. I glanced at Bryan. His frown told me he’d detected the anomaly. “I think they stole these to throw you off the track.”

  “What track?”

  “They are gathering a spell,” I said. “Jones knows that. We’ve told him this.”

  “Yeah, he said you predicted that they are trying to rip open some pathway to an alternate universe.”

  I ignored his sneering tone. “It’s a pretty dangerous endeavor, especially for the world because while they may be able to travel through such a portal, the aftermath of its creation would be huge for the rest of the population. The portal won’t really close. It will spin through our world like a giant cleaver, tearing apart people, buildings, and infrastructure. Think of it as a giant tornado that will unleash its power, and I am pretty sure it will pack the punch of a few dozen nuclear bombs.”

  His gaze told me he thought I was cuckoo.

  Maybe I was.

  But I’d read up enough theories about such portals to suspect the worst. There was a reason no one ever tried them. It was said that the reason for the disappearance of some civilizations such as Clovis and Olmec was that their mages tried to open a portal and unleashed chaos in the communities. These civilizations disappeared almost instantly and to this date, the archeologist can’t find a true, valid reason – and of course they won’t unless the mages come out of their closets.

  Which we were not about to do anytime soon.

  Graham shoved the phone in his pocket. “Don’t be so dramatic, Cleo. Just because you can do magic doesn’t mean you can intimidate the rest of us into thinking we know nothing. Such a thing isn’t possible. They would be stupid to try it.”

  “They are trying it,” I insisted.

  Why wouldn’t anyone believe me?

  What I predicted might take place if we didn’t do something to stop them. “Cleo, I think you need a break, some rest.” Graham took a step back. “I would recommend to Jones that he gives you some time off.”

  “I don’t need time off. What I need are answers.”

  “And we will get them for you. Be patient. And no more unauthorized ventures into private property. Next time, I will go straight to Jones,” he said.

  He knew it was me who did it. Probably Scott submi
tted some evidence. I should have been grateful that Graham wasn’t going straight to Jones. Perhaps, despite his prickly behavior, he still had some respect for me.

  But I didn’t feel any sense of gratefulness.

  Instead, I felt thwarted, frustrated.

  It was only when Bryan nudged my hand that I got the message. We were done here, at least for now. After getting out, we drove back to the farmhouse. “I’m sorry I dragged your into it.”

  “I’m a big boy, and I can make my choices.”

  “You’ll get into trouble.” I had no doubt that Jones would likely take me off the list of people he was willing to work it if he discovered that I disobeyed his direct orders. It was better to stay off the case, especially because no one believed me. But I was convinced that I was on the right path, and surprisingly enough, Bryan was willing to stick with me. “You might lose your job.”

  “And if we don’t stop Scott, he might destroy this world.”

  “But…”

  “No buts,” he said in a voice that invited no further discussion. When he deserted me last time, I was pissed, and now that he was with me, I was worried for the repercussions that he invited due to his loyalty to my cause and me. I was truly messed up in the head about this guy, and the annoying thing was that I didn’t have time to sort through my mercurial emotions. “We’ve had this argument a hundred times. Concentrate on that which is more important,” he said in a matter of fact voice.

  Turning around, I looked at him. As always, the punch of lust went straight to my gut, but I couldn’t let him get an idea of my real feelings – at least not until I made sense of them.

  “Since when did you get wise?”

  “I think it was since Looney Wal swung me upside down.”

  I punched his arm and settled back into the seat. “I did apologize for that.”

  “He led us to Scott Fallon, so I guess you’re forgiven.” He looked at me and grinned. And I found myself staring into his clear eyes. Man, he was cute. I wanted to gobble him in one, quick bite, but oh boy, he was so wrong for me.

  Once again, I was thinking about him when I needed to concentrate on the project at hand.

  Man.