Through The Veil
Page 1
Through the Veil
Book #1 in the Through the Veil series
by Christi Snow
Published by Christi Snow
Edited by Mia Downing and Sarah Negovetich
Cover Design by AM Design Studios (Amanda Matthews)
Formatting by AM Design Studios (Ann Mauren)
Copyright © 2014 Christina Snow
ASIN (e-book): B00MRGVYPA
ISBN (print): 1500897930
ISBN-13 (print): 978-1500897932
All rights reserved. Except for use in a review, no part of this book may be copied, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form, or by any means, without the express permission of the author. This book is a work of fiction. While sometimes actual locations are used in the writing of this book, they are used in a fictional circumstance and are by no means meant to reflect events happening in those places. Names, characters, events are all a product of the author’s imagination and are by no means meant to reflect actual people living or dead, or any actual events. Any similarities are purely coincidental.
Other Books By Christi Snow
When the Mission Ends Series
(Contemporary Romantic Suspense)
Operation: Endgame (Book #1)
Operation: Endeavor (Book #2)
Before the Mission Begins (Novella #2.5)
Operation: Endurance (Book #3)
When Love Intrudes (Book #4)
Men of Snowcroft Series
(Contemporary M/M Romantic Suspense)
Snowcroft Lost (Book #1)
Snowcroft Safehouse (Book #2 — Spring 2015)
Foxtrot Team Novels
(Contemporary Romantic Suspense)
All Profits Go To Charity
The Shadow of Mudflap (Book #1)
Mudflap Under Cover (Book #2 — Fall 2014)
Mudflap Until Death (Book #3 — 2015)
The Martin Ranch Series
(Contemporary Romantic Suspense)
Right By Your Side (Book #1 — Fall 2014)
Stand-Alone Books
Photo Op Serendipity (Spring 2015)
(Contemporary Romantic Suspense)
Luscious Leather, Scandalous Secrets
(Working Title — Spring 2015)
(Contemporary Erotic Romance)
Dedication
I have a huge team of people who work behind the scenes to help support me as I write. Every single one of them has suffered through the many, many, many drafts of this book until I got it right. They kept telling me that it would be worth it in the end and that no, I wasn’t allowed to throw it away.
This book would not be in your hands without them.
Thank you Sarah and Mia!
Thank you Amy, Anso, Kim, Marion, and Tessa and Sabrina!
And thank you Ben…you’ve listened to me whine most of all and kept telling me that it would be worth it.
Thank you…
You all were right.
I love this story and my Warriors. I hope you do too….
Contents
Other Books By Christi Snow
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Coming Soon
About The Author
Part One
Regrets
Lori – Eastern States
Twelve years after the Veil
“Ms. Renshaw, there’s a Detective Rob Morris from ESIA here to see you.”
Lori Renshaw’s stomach clenched as her secretary’s voice trembled across her intercom system. Relax, they don’t know anything. Teddy didn’t betray her.
She stood, grabbed her fitted magenta suit jacket, slid it on, and fastened the single button right under her cleavage. The power suit with its short skirt and mile-high matching heels fit her extremely well. It exuded an air of professionalism and competency even if she felt nothing of the sort. It also showed off every single one of her feminine curves. She had a feeling she’d need any advantage she could get today.
A visit from a detective from the Eastern States Investigation Agency never signified a good thing. Their investigators were vicious, devoid of compassion, serving as both judge and jury when it came to the law and those who broke it. Judgment and punishment were both swift and brutal.
With a single, deep, centering breath, she touched the intercom. “Send him in, Maria.”
The door opened and a confident, fit man strode in like he owned the place. Lori would guess his age to be close to thirty. Interesting…that made him around eighteen when the Veil fell. There weren’t too many people that age left in their society, and he was too young to have been one of the hidden ones. Regardless, his age meant this man was likely even more dangerous and powerful than the average ESIA agent. Two men followed him into the room, but neither of them looked to be a day over twenty, so she concentrated on the first as the leader of the group.
She stepped up to shake his hand, noting his height. In her heels, she stood just a couple of inches short of six feet, but he still towered above her. He had short dark brown hair brushed back off his forehead, a trimmed goatee, and piercing grey eyes shadowed by his wire frame glasses. They shook hands, his grip warm, firm, and calloused.
His shrewd gaze took in every inch of her appearance, lingering for a moment on her engagement ring with a disconcerting smirk. Something about this man left ice crawling through her gut. She needed him to state his business and then get out.
“Detective Morris, welcome to Savvy Textiles. Are you here for another suit?” She gestured to the custom suit he wore from last year’s collection. Damn, the man filled it out well, but she was surprised that a detective made enough money to afford their extremely pricey, premium line clothing.
He chuckled. “No, unfortunately, I’m here on business today, although I really wish it was for pleasure.” He continued to grasp her hand and added a caress to the inside of her wrist with his fingertip. Nausea churned in her stomach at his touch. She had a fiancé and she knew the detective had seen the large rock on her finger.
One of the men cleared his throat, and the detective cast him a quick, angry scowl over his shoulder. He let her go and stepped back. “Pardon me, Ms. Renshaw, for my lack of manners. Let me introduce Officers Stacey and Beale.” He gestured to the men who stood behind him. “I understand you have a…” He glanced down at a piece of paper, referring to his notes. “Oh yes, here it is. Dominic Dupree works here, correct?”
No! If they were here for Dominic he was in deep trouble. Her panicked gaze caught sight of Maria standing wide-eyed and pale just outside the door where she unashamedly eavesdropped. Dominic and Maria had been dating for the last year. He planned to ask her to marry him next week, on her twenty-second birthday. This couldn’t be happening.
Maria knew what this meant, too. With a swift nod to Lori, she slipped around the corner and out of the office. Luckily, none of the men in front of her saw the action. Now Lori just needed to stall them while Maria got Dominic away from the factory.
“Yes, Dominic works here. He’s my lead patternmaker and is an excellent employee. What could you possibly need to discuss with him? I can assure you the man has done nothing illegal.”
The detective sneered with an air of superiority that made her want to take him down a few notches.
“Fortunately for
the ES,” the detective said with a sarcastic edge, “you don’t get to make that determination. I do, and Mr. Dupree is guilty of treason.”
Lori gasped.
The detective tensed in disapproval.
She should have hidden her reaction better. You couldn’t show these types of men weakness of any kind.
Dominic had been with her for five years as her right-hand man. They were as close as brother and sister.
Treason held a punishment of immediate death. No chance for exoneration. She wanted to scream at the injustice, but that wouldn’t help Dominic and would just get her jailed or worse.
Black spots danced in front of her eyes and she worked to slow her rapid breathing. She couldn’t pass out now or else they would kill him. She had to think of a way to hold them off so Maria could get Dominic out of here.
“I’m…I’m sure you must be mistaken. I’m sorry, Detective Morris, but you must have the wrong man.”
The two men who had been standing behind the detective now spread out to stand beside him, suddenly looking much more menacing as they pulled out their weapons in a definite threat.
“Ms. Renshaw, the ESIA does not make mistakes.” His voice had hardened and his eyes flashed in anger. “Now, I need you to direct us to Mr. Dupree before you do something that threatens your own freedom.”
One of the flanking men raised his weapon toward her.
She gave a sharp nod of her head as she raised her hands in supplication. “Hang on. Calm down. My fiancé is the ES District Magistrate, Teddy Hale. Please let me call him and find out what’s going on.”
As the District Magistrate, Teddy was one of the most powerful men in this area of the country. Normally she hated it when he used his rank to exert personal power, but this circumstance was an exception.
The detective’s smile turned downright evil as he handed over the paperwork detailing Dominic’s indictment. She quickly scanned it and shock ricocheted through her like she’d been punched in the gut. There at the bottom with the order of death for treason was the signature of the man she was supposed to marry—Teddy Hale.
Pain sliced through her as her heart broke. She thought she could trust him. He knew what Dominic meant to her. Why would he do this and not give her some sort of warning?
“Now, Ms. Renshaw, if you have no further arguments, take us to Dominic Dupree.”
She couldn’t let this happen. She’d deal with the pain of Teddy’s betrayal later. Now she had to concentrate on saving Dominic.
Her power. It might be Dominic’s only chance, but using it would expose her. It would also completely knock her on her ass with no ability to protect herself from the fall-out. Unless…
She grabbed her dark glasses, and placed them on her face. At Detective Morris’s questioning gaze, she said, “I’m sorry. I suffer from migraines when my stress levels rise, and as you can imagine, I find this particularly stressful.” She rubbed at her temple as if to soothe the pain.
The need for glasses was a complete and total lie. Her eyes glowed when she used her power, and if these men caught her in the act, it would earn her the same fate as Dominic. Probable death or worse.
She led the men down the corridor, her heart pounding with fear and adrenaline. “Dominic’s office is on the second floor with the design studios, so we’ll take the elevator down.” As manager and lead designer at Savvy Textiles, her office occupied the top floor of the seven-story building.
The men followed through the elevator doors, and she positioned herself near the control panel. Grabbing hold of the railing around the edge of the elevator, she centered herself. This would take some effort, especially since they couldn’t know what she was doing. After they sank two and a half floors, she concentrated her gift to rearrange the energy running through the circuitry. The car shuddered to a rapid stop, sending a jolt of pure energy zinging and sizzling with electricity through her neurons. Luckily, the men inside the elevator were too concerned with the actual elevator halting to notice her sudden mental jolt and she had time to recover before they glanced at her.
Now to see how long she could hold the energy at bay and give Dominic a chance to escape. “I’m sorry, gentlemen.” She managed to hide the strain from rippling through in her voice. “It’s an old building. Let me call maintenance and see what’s going on.” She lifted the phone out of the call box with her free hand and ignored Detective Morris’s distinctly suspicious gaze.
Thirty minutes later, her hands trembled, her heart raced, and sweat beaded under her glasses. “Whew, it’s getting a little warm in here, isn’t it?”
The men glared at her, but didn’t respond. They’d abandoned small talk minutes into their entrapment which had been the only thing about the situation she could be thankful for. Her energy almost completely depleted, she finally released the field she’d been holding to keep the elevator trapped between floors. Immediately upon her mental release, it chugged and groaned, crawling downward.
“Oh, thank goodness.” She sighed, trying to act the part of someone simply distressed about a non-working elevator and not completely and totally wrecked with exhaustion.
When the doors finally opened on the second floor, her maintenance man stood there full of apologies and confusion. “I have no idea what was wrong with the system, Ms. Renshaw.”
“Don’t worry about it, Jerome. Call the elevator service guys to look at it and shut it down for today so no one else gets trapped. For now, we have other issues that need my attention, so we’ll leave you to it.”
She led the men down the hall toward Dominic’s office, trying not to trip with her fatigue and praying he’d escaped. Relief swamped her when she saw the lights off in his office. She stopped one of the seamstresses walking past. “Do you know where Dominic went?”
“Yes.” She stopped and shuffled the bolts of fabric teetering in her arms. “His girlfriend had an emergency at home so they left early, but I saw him clock out, Ms. Renshaw, so his timecard should reflect that.”
“Thank you, Beatrice.” She shook her head ruefully at the men behind her. “I apologize. If you’d like to go back up to my floor, I can get you both of their addresses out of our files.”
One of the officers blanched at the thought of getting into an elevator again.
“It’s okay.” She reassured them. “We can use one of the other elevators or the stairs if that would make you more comfortable.”
“No, thank you, Ms. Renshaw,” Detective Morris gritted out. “If you just give us the name of the girlfriend, we can find the address in our system. But believe me, your cooperation will be notated in our files.” Detective Morris’s sarcastic tone stated exactly what he thought of her help. “I’m sure we’ll be talking again soon.”
The three men strode off. As they rounded the corner to the stairwell, Lori collapsed against the wall, trying to stave off the sleep that her body so desperately demanded.
They’d made it. Maria had gotten Dominic out of the building and maybe they would be able to stay one step in front of the ESIA. Relief flooded her even with the fear that it may just be a temporary reprieve for her assistant. She knew he had family to the north where there were rumors of rebellion. Maybe he could make it there and he’d have a better chance of hiding.
She’d done all she could and now she needed to get someplace where she could sleep. She couldn’t cave into it yet or she would be next on the ESIA’s kill list.
* * *
An hour later, Lori arrived home, practically crying with relief and exhaustion. Teddy’s defection had shocked her and she wasn’t sure how she should proceed anymore. Her entire body shook with a mix of fear and adrenaline, shock and disbelief. As she dragged herself inside, she saw the note from Teddy on the kitchen counter.
Working late tonight. Don’t wait up. –T
Oh, thank God. He wouldn’t be around tonight. After this afternoon, she needed a few hours to recuperate and come up with a plan. Obviously she couldn’t trust him. His betrayal devasta
ted her, but she couldn’t dwell on her broken heart. Now she had to figure out how to stay alive. Damn, why had she told him about her power last week? If he could order the death of her best friend, would he do the same to her?
She’d been weak, wanting a family—a place to belong—so badly that she’d been willing to accept a man that she knew in her heart wasn’t her soul-mate. But he’d been kind and sweet and thoughtful in their two year relationship. Yes, maybe he was a little too focused on his political aspirations, but she’d accepted that because his devotion to his job seemed to mean good things for the ES. What an idiot she’d been. She curled her arms around her waist as if that would help hold the pain inside, a pain that warred with anger. That anger pulsed within her like a flash-fire, lashing out over her own stupidity and at Teddy for his duplicity.
She’d managed to keep her gift hidden for so many years, but if she could trust anyone, it should have been him. They were getting married. At the time she told him the truth, of course he’d been shocked, but he immediately promised to hide her secret. She would be an idiot to believe that now.
Dark spots edged her vision warning her that she was minutes away from passing out. She couldn’t think it all through logically now though with her brain flowing like sludge. After a few hours of sleep, she could make more sense of her options. She barely managed to peel off her suit and crawl onto the bed in her panties before she slipped into an exhausted sleep.
* * *
Several hours later, voices seeped into her subconscious.
“If my girlfriend had an ass that looked like that, I sure as hell wouldn’t be sending her off somewhere else.”
Lori tried to open her eyes, but it was like they were glued together. She attempted to move, wiggle her fingers, anything. Panic caused her heart rate to pick up, but even with the surge of adrenaline, she still couldn’t make her muscles respond. What was wrong with her?