Tribes of Man: The Beginning [Tribes of Man] (Siren Publishing Classic)

by Kiel Nichols

  “A ghost?” Gideon couldn’t keep skepticism out of his voice.

  “If you’re going to suspend disbelief, then suspend it, Gideon. I know it wasn’t the same man as in the dream, yet I know he wasn’t human, just like I know that this entire thing makes you crazy. You have to deal in concrete things, but this isn’t. We’re mixed up in something supernatural.”

  His mental bullshit was so loud that she heard it even without touching him.

  “It isn’t bullshit. I’m not crazy and neither are you, but I do think that I’m in danger. I can’t guard myself against something if I don’t know what it is.”

  “You’re not going to guard yourself against anything. It’s my job to protect you, and that’s what I’m going to do.” Gideon sounded angry. “We’re in this together.”

  Raina just sighed in relief.

  “OK, then, what do we do now? What’s the next logical step?” Gideon asked, leaning back in his seat.

  “I’m not sure. I think we should go on with life while we try to figure it out. You were going to see someone this morning. I have to work this afternoon. We can meet here tonight.” Raina’s hands shook only slightly when she lifted her mug for a sip of tea.

  “What about Bryce?” Gideon asked. “What should we tell him?”

  “As little as possible. I think he’s in danger if he knows too much,” Raina replied.

  “I need him to keep an eye on you when I’m not around.”

  Raina laughed. “I’ve been keeping an eye on myself for a long time. I think I can handle not being followed around. I’m a big girl.”

  To Gideon, she seemed too delicate for this situation. “Do you have a cell phone?”

  “Of course.” Raina walked over to the shelf by the back door and started fishing in her purse for it.

  “Before I go, I’ll program my number into it. You call me right away if something happens. I also want Bryce staying with you at night for a few days.” He swallowed hard around the lump in his throat on that.

  Raina handed him the phone, but didn’t sit. She stood next to the bulk of his body. Finally she laid her hand on his arm. “Why can’t you stay and keep an eye on me?”

  Gideon stiffened at her question. It was obvious to him why he couldn’t stay with her. It should be obvious to her, too. You know why.

  No, I don’t. I want you to stay with me.

  Gideon gave out a short laugh. No, you don’t. If I stay I won’t be able to protect you.

  I hardly believe that, she thought. I have no doubt that no one will hurt me when you’re around.

  He stood up abruptly. She didn’t let go of his arm. I’ll hurt you. He shuddered with the thought.

  You would never hurt me.

  There was so much trust in that one sentence that Gideon wanted to shake her or scream or both. He grabbed her shoulders tightly. Don’t trust me!

  You would never hurt me, she repeated.

  Damn it, do you have any idea what I want to do to you? he asked, shaking her slightly. Images flashed through his mind—Raina splayed out for Gideon while he drove his tongue into her again and again, his fingers plucking at her nipples, and her writhing in ecstasy.

  She gasped. Yes.

  Gideon and Raina stood together while his fantasies poured into her.

  Gideon pulled her into his arms and ravaged her mouth. His tongue thrust between her lips, and she met it with abandon. He pulled her into his arms tightly, lifting her off her feet. She wound one leg around him and pushed her aching mound against his erection. Her soft pants were rubbing against the head of his cock that was still hard and peeking over the top of his shorts. He had forgotten that his jeans were still slightly unzipped until she pushed against him.

  Gideon moved her back against the refrigerator and began to grind against her. He grasped her breast, kneading it. When he pinched her nipple she let out a loud, keening moan.

  He moved her slightly to rest her bottom on the counter and stand between her legs. Gideon kissed down Raina’s neck, her curls tickling his nose. He pulled the fabric of her tank top down until her firm, full breast was revealed. The white strand curled around the tip. Gideon moved it aside with his nose and began sucking on her pebble-hard nipple.

  Raina tried to give herself relief by grinding into Gideon, but the position she was in didn’t allow it. He knew instantly what she needed and slid one hand down between their bodies. He didn’t hesitate, but slid his hand inside the waist of her pants. He slid his finger right over her, making them both groan.

  “You’re so wet,” he muttered.

  “Touch me, please.”

  Unable to resist her plea, Gideon made long strokes between her wet hole and the nub that begged for his attention. He quickly found a rhythm that had her panting. It seemed like just seconds before she began to convulse and shake for him. He prolonged her pleasure by taking slightly stinging nibbles of her breast and rocking his finger over her clit. He never slid his finger inside of her, afraid that if he did, he wouldn’t be able to stop until his cock was buried there.

  Still shaking, Raina slid her hand down his body until she could touch his erection. She ran her hand over him, and he groaned. When she lightly pinched the head of his cock, he thought he was going to come right there. He felt her spread the bead of pre-cum on his head and tried to step back away from her. His movement made her stop her ministrations to hold onto him so that she wouldn’t fall. She clung to him like a burr.

  He kissed her gently and tried to set her down on the floor. “I have to go.”

  “I want you to stay with me. Make love to me,” she said, one leg locking around him so that he could feel her wet heat. She licked at his neck as though trying to get a taste of him.

  He groaned again at the feeling of her tongue.

  Unable to take anymore, he pushed away from her. “No, I can’t! My brother is half in love with you. I’m not a poacher.”

  “And I’m not a rabbit!” she nearly shouted. “I don’t want to be with Bryce. He’s only a friend.”

  “It doesn’t matter if he’s only a friend to you, he’s my brother.” His voice was filled with despair.

  Raina spoke in a calm tone, in contrast to Gideon’s harsh breaths. “What was this then?” Raina gestured to her body. Her nipples were still hard, and the scent of her desire was in the air.

  “I got carried away. Once I got a taste of you, I didn’t want to stop.” Gideon let out a long breath. “I just can’t do this to my brother.”

  “I understand that, Gideon, but we both know that Bryce will move on from his interest in me fairly easily. He doesn’t stay attached for too long. I can’t speak for you, but as far as I’m concerned, this is more than just a passing fancy for me.”

  “Bryce means the world to me. I can’t...” He trailed off. “He’s my brother.” He didn’t understand what was happening, but he knew that he couldn’t risk losing his brother over a woman. Any woman. He grabbed both her shoulders with his hands.

  “It’s all right,” she gasped. “We’ll figure something out.” Gideon let her arms go. Raina felt the loss when he stepped away.

  The room fell to silence. The only sound was the hum of the refrigerator and the rasp of Gideon’s breath.

  After a moment, Gideon spoke. “I’ll put your phone in front of your purse after I program my number into the very first slot so that you don’t have to scroll through to find me. I’m going to meet with my friend this morning. Where do you work?”

  Recognizing Gideon’s need to focus on concrete details, Raina answered evenly, “I work part time in the reference library at the school.” Raina’s voice was almost impersonal in tone, but she was rubbing her arms as though she lost all her body heat.

  “How do you manage to do that?” he asked, amazed at her resourcefulness.

  “I can lead students to different sections, help with advice on how to search for things, and I have a voice recognition program on the computer if I need to look things up.” She sounde
d humble about what must have been an enormously difficult adjustment.

  “Amazing,” he said, sincerely impressed with her ability to overcome her disability. What was more, the mundane conversation helped to cool the heightened emotions in the room. “Can we meet back here tonight?”

  “How about six? I get off at five. We can order pizza and go over what we know.”

  “Sounds good,” he said, turning toward the door. “I’m going to head back to my place to shower and change. Call me if you need me.”

  Raina nodded and let out a huge sigh.

  Chapter 4

  Bryce awoke to the smell of fresh coffee. He knew he wasn’t in his apartment because his roommate Tony always made the coffee strong enough that the spoon stood straight up. The running joke was that only Tony could make coffee bad enough that it even smelled gross. He looked at the clock and saw that it was after nine. He had a ten o’clock class and tried to decide if he should skip it or hustle to make it.

  Although he would normally just throw on a pair of sweats and a baseball cap before heading to class if he was running late, he decided to take a quick shower. He knew it was foolish since Raina couldn’t see him anyhow, but at least he would smell good.

  While he was in the shower, he debated how to approach telling her about his feelings for her. He didn’t know if he was in love with her, but he liked her enough to find out. He just couldn’t decide if he wanted to just lay it on the line, hint about it, or show her maybe. He liked the idea of actions speaking louder than words, but he didn’t want to make her uncomfortable with him either. He’d already decided to tell Gideon about his feelings for her, so maybe he’d ask for advice as well. It would be a good way to show Gideon how serious he was about Raina.

  Although he didn’t want to admit it, he was also a little worried about the way she acted around Gideon. Gid might be a good ten years older than her, but he wasn’t so old that Raina would see him as a father figure. And since she couldn’t see him, his scars wouldn’t turn her off either. Gideon wasn’t hideous or anything, but some women might find the scarring on his face and shoulder a little off putting.

  By the time he got out of the shower, he had made the decision to be a little less subtle about his feelings and to start touching her more. Nothing that would make her uncomfortable, just enough to let her know definitively that he was interested.

  Bryce hurriedly got dressed and ran his fingers through his unruly hair. He was going to have to get it cut soon, or he’d start looking like a girl.

  If he didn’t leave in the next five minutes, he would definitely be late. He rushed down the stairs and pushed open the kitchen door. Raina sat at the kitchen table, laptop in front of her, headphones on. She stopped typing when the door closed and looked up. “Bryce?”

  “Yep. Who’d you think it was?” Bryce actually found it kind of creepy the way she always knew when someone was in the room, even though she couldn’t see them.

  She gave him a smile. “Since you’re the only one in the house, I rather hoped it would be you.”

  Even though he knew what she meant, it made him feel good to know that she was glad to see him.

  “Do you have class today?” she asked, unhooking one end of her headphones and going back to typing. Bryce could hear words coming through the end of the headphone and figured that she must have been using the program that read back what she typed.

  “Yeah, at ten.” Bryce stepped to the cabinet and took out a mug to fill with coffee.

  Raina checked the braille clock by her side. “You’d better hurry. It’s almost quarter of ten. It’ll take you a good fifteen to get there.”

  “I know,” he said. He took a deep breath for courage before saying, “I just wanted to spend a few minutes with you before I left.” He walked over and laid his hand on her shoulder.

  Raina went very still.

  “You look beautiful today,” Bryce added, squeezing her shoulder before sitting across from her. “What are you working on?”

  “I’m still trying to wrap my mind around my thesis,” she said. Although she lost her sight, she was still a PhD candidate in the Classical Studies Department.

  “Are you still focused on Clytemnestra?” Bryce asked. Agamemnon’s wife in Greek mythology had always been interesting to Raina.

  “I think I’m going to focus on her role in the death of Cassandra.” Raina frowned when she added, “I’ve been focused on Cassandra ever since I lost my sight. I find it fascinating that she could see, even though no one believed her.”

  “Cassandra’s been done to death, but if you make the connection to Clytemnestra I think you’ll be entering an area not often covered by scholars.”

  “I hope so. I found an obscure text written in early Greek to support my dissertation,” Raina said, referring to the copy of the scroll she’d be working with.

  “I have faith that you can pull it all together.” Bryce finished his coffee and rinsed his cup before placing it on the drain. “Gotta get to class. See ya.” Before leaving, he stepped behind Raina and kissed her on the top of the head.

  “Yeah, see ya,” she said faintly.

  Bryce was humming as he left. When the door closed behind him, Raina just laid her head on her arms. She understood that he was basically declaring his intentions. “Now what am I going to do?”

  * * * *

  Gideon looked at the modest little Cape Cod cottage with a white picket fence and a beat-up Ford F-150 in the driveway. The man who lived there knew over one hundred ways to kill a man and had probably done more than half of them. The only reason he hadn’t tried the other half was that killing had always been a business to him, and he didn’t see any reason why assassination had to be accompanied by torture or pain. Most of the time.

  Gideon knew James Dean since he joined the Seattle police force fifteen years before. Gideon had been SWAT, and Jimmy had become their sharpshooter as soon as he was accepted into the elite SWAT team. Some of the others were skeptical that a “new” recruit could get the job done, but after their first mission, they realized that they were totally outclassed by the newcomer. Before joining the force, Jimmy had been a sniper for the Army Rangers. The fact was that he’d been places most Americans had never heard of and done things most Americans couldn’t imagine. They learned to respect his abilities and to fear his icy temper. Jimmy may have seemed like an easygoing guy, but those who made fun of his name by referring to the actor or the sausage soon learned that his affability masked a formidable enemy.

  Gideon knocked on the door to the house.

  “Who is it?” came the muffled question. Gideon knew that Jimmy could see him through the Judas hole, but the man was nothing if not cautious.

  “Hey, Jimmy, it’s Gideon. I came to pick your brain,” Gideon replied, loud enough to be heard through the closed door.

  The door slowly opened, but Gideon couldn’t see Jimmy in the open space. He stepped into the house with his hands out to the sides. Jimmy was right where Gideon had expected him, behind the door with his Glock 20 in his hand.

  Jimmy closed the door behind Gideon, looked out through the Judas hole again, and relocked the door. Only then did he put the gun in the holster he wore every day and hold out his hand.

  “Hey, Gid. How’s it hanging?” Jimmy was a short, thin, dark-haired man who looked like he couldn’t win a fight with a ten-year-old. He was wearing a Hawaiian shirt, tattered jeans, and his ever-present modified shoulder holster. Even though he only had one gun in it, it was modified to have a gun under each arm, in case either arm became incapacitated, and a holder on his back for his Dakota T-76 Longbow sniper rifle.

  “It’s hanging. Still taking precautions, I see.” Gideon took off his jacket.

  “Hey, you don’t want to carry a piece, that’s your funeral.” Jimmy stepped back and gestured into the living room, a charming little room with hardwood floors, a fireplace with a mahogany mantle, and a big-screen television. Jimmy didn’t let Gideon go to be polite. He just
didn’t want to leave his back unguarded.

  “I’ve got my clutch, good enough for me.” He knew Jimmy would want to know if he was armed but would never have asked. Gideon told him out of courtesy. Jimmy would know that his clutch piece would be a Ruger in an ankle holster. Jimmy relaxed perceptibly. Gideon wondered, not for the first time, what would happen if Jimmy ever slipped a gear. He was perfectly sane for an assassin, but if he ever went crazy the world would be in trouble.

  “What can I do you for?” Jimmy asked after Gideon took a seat on the plush couch.

  Gideon handed Jimmy a file. “I have a client who might be in a bit of trouble. She was attacked in her home, her roommate was tortured and killed, and she thinks someone may be following her. She was hit by a weapon that I think you might recognize.” Gideon handed Jimmy the police report.

  After a few seconds, Jim said, “Oh, shit.”

  Gideon handed him the crime scene shots of Michelle. Jimmy held them up almost to his nose and moved the angle of the paper as though trying to see around her body. “Wish I could have seen the site,” he said. Gideon didn’t take offense. Jimmy’s interest in what happened to Michelle wasn’t sick joy. It was cool logic and an eye for death.

  Gideon handed Jimmy the copy of Raina’s MRI picture and Michelle’s CAT scan. “Take a look at these. Are they caused by what I think they’re caused by?”

  Jimmy opened a small drawer in the coffee table. Gideon caught sight of another gun, a revolver this time, a pack of playing cards, and some M&M’s before Jimmy pulled out a small magnifying glass. He looked at the two pictures for a long time before looking up at his friend. “The girl’s fucked, Gid.”

  Gideon’s stomach dropped. “I had a feeling you’d say that.”

  “No, man, you don’t get it, the girl is seriously fucked.”

  After his pronouncement, Jimmy walked to the closet and stepped inside. From the couch, Gideon could see a wall open in the back. Hanging behind the false wall was Jimmy’s arsenal. He pulled his sniper rifle off the rack as well as another pistol and what looked like a grenade. It wasn’t the guns that made Gideon realize that the situation was even more serious than he feared, it was the grenade. If Jimmy Dean was spooked, Raina really was fucked.