by Sable Hunter
Jet and Tyson checked out the small bruise with interest.
“What was his name?” Tyson asked, drawing a little chuckle from Jet.
Saxon scowled at the tattooed man at the far end of the table. “Really? You of all people are gonna laugh?”
Micah and Tyson got an even bigger laugh at Saxon’s comeback, and Jet just buttoned his lip, reminded of the time when his future wife had disguised herself as a boy. Jet had fought off his innate attraction for her, afraid he was being tempted to play for the other team.
Before the topic could be pursued further, the eighty-inch screen hanging on the wall at the head of the table came to life, and the Thunderbird appeared a moment later with baby Paulo sitting on his knee.
“Cool it,” Micah said to the others. “Dad’s here.”
“Very funny, wise guy,” Kyle said from the other side of the screen.
“New member of the team?” Destry asked, returning to the room.
Kyle cuddled the little boy who was munching on a cookie. “He’s teething, poor little rascal. He woke up, and Hannah had a tough day, so I’m coaxing him back to sleep.”
Jet looked at the little human in his friend’s arms and couldn’t help but get emotional. “I love kids.” Sami was getting closer to her due date, and he was looking forward to meeting his little sailor.
“Where are we on this case?” Kyle asked.
“Mindy Nixon.” Micah was ahead of the game. He’d been working on the case for a few hours already, heading to the Equalizers headquarters shortly after receiving a call from Kyle about the situation. Walking up to the big TV, he began to manipulate the screen, shrinking Kyle to half his original size. “We’ve questioned her family and her roommates, tracing her movements over the last twenty-four hours. We need to check her private messages, read her emails, and see who she’s been communicating with on her phone. Anything we can use to track her, we need to be on top of it, pronto. Here’s a list of all her social media accounts. She’s twenty-two, so there’s a ton of them, everything from Twitter and Instagram, to Snapchat and Facebook. Saxon, you need to access these accounts as soon as possible.”
“I’m on it.” Saxon went to retrieve a laptop from his office.
“Miss Nixon is the daughter of Bill Nixon,” Kyle told them. “Bill’s a state senator, a personal friend of mine. He told me she attended a party tonight but was supposed to be home early. It’s now,” he checked his watch, “five after three in the morning and they haven’t heard from their daughter.”
“As far as police policy is concerned, since she’s of legal age and not under medical supervision, Mindy hasn’t been missing long enough for them to be involved.” Tyson cleared his throat, an odd look of resignation on his face. “From personal experience, as you well know, sometimes waiting to search for someone is the wrong decision.”
Silence pervaded the room. Everyone remembered the night they searched for Tyson’s little sister, who’d been abducted and murdered by someone she knew.
“I know how you feel, Ty, but we have to consider everything. Is it possible she met someone at the party and decided to take it somewhere a bit more private?” Jet wanted to know. “No parent wants to think about their little girl doing such a thing, but who knows?”
“Her father assures me his daughter is never more than a few steps away from her phone. She always responds to it. Always.” Kyle held Paulo a little more tightly, thinking how worried the girl’s father must be.
“It’s true.” Micah held up the file folder. “I checked her Facebook page, the girl literally responds to comments on her page within a minute of them being posted. She tweets almost every hour. Hell, she’s probably got backup phones with her in case she loses hers, or the battery dies.”
Before anyone could comment further, Paulo began to cry. “Look, I need to change this little guy and get him back in the bed. Let’s get to work, and I’ll check with you in a little while.” Kyle exited the screen, leaving them to their tasks.
Saxon managed to hack into Mindy’s social media accounts, so he, Micah, and Tyson could sift through her messages and group postings for any clue as to the girl’s sudden disappearance. Jet got on the phone with police officers he knew, and Destry worked with the car company to gain access to the GPS on Mindy’s Audi.
An hour later, Tyson pushed away from the desk. “There are no leads here. Nothing.”
“They won’t budge,” Destry said with frustration. “Mindy isn’t even a missing person officially, and we’re not the cops. There’s no way they’re going to give me anything.”
“Fuck!” Saxon cursed. “Move!” He pushed Micah out of the way and started tapping on the keys of his computer.
“What are you doing?” Micah asked.
Saxon ignored the question. “What’s her license number?”
Tyson opened the file folder on the table in front of him. “Uh, it’s RNH 6926.”
“An Audi?”
“Yea. A tango red, Audi TTS Coupe.”
“Where was the party?”
“It was just off campus.” Tyson read the information. “On San Gabriel street. What are you doing?”
Saxon didn’t bother answering. “The Neil-Cochran House Museum is off San Gabriel.”
“Yes, it is.”
They gathered around the computer while Saxon worked. He didn’t offer any details as to what he was doing, but the plan was evident by what was showing on his screen.
“Got it!” Saxon proclaimed ten minutes later with triumphant.
“What happened?” Kyle asked from the TV screen.
Micah looked up from Saxon’s laptop. “Saxon hacked into the Neil-Cochran security system. We picked up Mindy’s car heading north on San Gabriel at ten o’clock tonight. Now, he’s tracking her by using the city’s camera system.”
Kyle frowned and huffed. He didn’t approve of them hacking into government computers without acquiring proper permission, but there were times when their missions required them to venture into a gray territory to gain justice. If Saxon were caught, he’d smooth it out, but the Governor had higher political ambitions, so he needed to distance himself from anything that wasn’t completely above board. “I’m going to check on Paulo and take a shower. Keep me posted if anything big happens, Micah.”
“You got it, Thunderbird.”
They stood, crowded around the laptop for the better part of an hour while Saxon sifted through camera footage. Even at night, Mindy’s car was hard to miss, and they followed her as she traveled north on Guadalupe. She disappeared east, but soon they picked her up getting onto Duval Street. Three cameras caught her going North on I-35, where she exited at W Howard Lane and pulled around behind a Home Depot, out of sight of the cameras.
“There!” Jet said with a point. “She’s still at the Home Depot.”
“Kinda late for plumbing supplies,” Micah quipped. “Tyson, call the police and have them go take a look. Saxon, see if you can find me another angle. I want to see if the car is still there.”
They waited while Saxon worked, hoping for good news, hell, for any news from the police and when word came in, it wasn’t good.
Tyson took the call from his police contact. “They found the car in the nearby FedEx Shipping center parking lot,” he told his friends.
“What about Mindy?” Micah asked.
“They found her too.” Tyson looked distraught. “She was sitting in the passenger’s seat. Somebody strangled her. She’s dead.”
All the air went out of the room.
Saxon slumped in his chair, holding his head in his hands.
“It’s okay, buddy.” Jet put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “We did the best we could.”
Jet was a man of few words, but when he did speak, his words meant more. Unfortunately, the comfort he offered did little to alleviate the sorrow Saxon felt in his heart. They’d all worked to find Mindy Nixon, but it had been his computer skills which finally located her. If he’d had his phone on, ma
ybe he could’ve gotten on the case earlier, and they would’ve found her alive. Guilt flooded his heart, but he couldn’t be sorry about meeting Olivia. Being with her had been amazing, and he couldn’t wait to hear from her again.
CHAPTER FOUR
After unlacing her boots, Alivia kicked one foot out in anger, and the buckle broke with the force, sending the footwear flying across the room to knock a prototype robot arm she’d been working on right off the sofa table.
“Great.”
“What’s wrong? Your blood pressure is elevated, and your brain’s amygdala is overreacting, blood is rushing to the frontal lobe. I think you’re having a heart attack. Lay down; I shall call 9-1-1.”
Alivia looked up to see Savvy rolling in. The chip she wore under her skin allowed the robot to continually monitor her body’s vital statistics. “I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not. Something’s wrong. You are very late, and I was worried.”
Despite her upset, she couldn’t help but smile, Savvy was an amazing example of Artificial Intelligence. She was learning, responding, and showing more emotion than Alivia ever expected. “I got…detained. I appreciate your concern, Savvy, but I’m just upset, not dying.”
She hobbled over to the damaged arm with one boot still on. Picking the delicate apparatus up, she placed it on her couch and sat down to remove the other boot.
“Do you want me to pull?”
“No, thanks, the last time you did that, your rollers scooted out from under you, and I almost didn’t get you back upright. You’re like a turtle when you’re down.”
“Am not, I’m grace personified,” Savvy said, rolling right upside Alivia. “What do I smell? It’s not your perfume; it’s…different.”
Damn, she could smell Saxon. “Savvy, stop.” She’d built in an olfactory sensor that could collect and identify smells, but she hadn’t anticipated this.
“Hmmm, hold on, let me check my database.” She tapped one elegant finger on her cheek. “Ralph Lauren Blue, a man’s cologne.” Savvy lowered her arm quickly and leaned forward, causing Alivia’s eyes to widen. “How did you manage to get a man’s cologne on you?”
“I bumped into a guy. It was a mistake, I assure you. Turn off the lights, Sav, I’m going to bed. I’m tired.”
“All right. Goodnight. Call me if you need anything.”
“Thanks. See you tomorrow.” Alivia gathered her things and headed to her bedroom at the rear of the house. The few moments of lighthearted banter with Savvy had done little to ease her heartache. Every step she took, his words kept coming back to taunt her.
Shouldn’t you be getting back to Falcon’s Lair before he notices you’ve left?
I knew you’d taste like heaven.
Little wanton.
Ride me, baby. Ride me.
How about a cuddle?
“God, Alivia,” she sneered, hurling the offending boots across the room. “I’m such an idiot.”
Saxon just seemed so perfect. He’d listened when she talked, and he’d responded to her, not only with intelligence but as if he cared about what she had to say. They’d spoken the same language. For a person like her – that was a big effing deal. From the very first, he’d set butterflies to fluttering in her stomach, and they’d continued to flap their tiny wings right up until the moment he’d proven to be a world-class sleaze.
“He’s probably at home with his girlfriend right now. Arms around her, snuggled up tight in their bed.” Saying the words out loud replaced the butterflies in the pit of her stomach with something else – disgust. Unfortunately, the distaste she felt wasn’t aimed so much at the man who’d hurt her, but at herself for being so stupid. There was a reason she didn’t put herself into scenarios like this, and now she’d been painfully reminded of that reason. Romance was not for her.
Falling onto the couch in her bedroom suite, Alivia spread her arms out wide and laid her head back, squinting her eyes closed. “But he was so cute,” she whined, a sad smile making her lips quiver. “And the sex...” she moaned, her arms coming to cross over her chest when she felt her nipples respond to the memory. “No!” She refused to let him off the hook based on nothing other than dimples, rock-hard abs, and the most intense orgasms she’d ever experienced. Alivia was just about to go to war with herself and her self-doubt when the phone rang.
“Hello!” she answered gruffly, the anger at herself and Saxon still very near the surface.
“Hello. May I speak to Mrs. Hart?”
“This is Ms. Hart.”
“I apologize. I also apologize for the late hour of my phone call. This is Dr. Beth Reese at Seton Hospital.”
Alivia suddenly forgot her anger and began to worry. “Dr. Reese? What can I do for you? Is everything okay?” Since her mother lived in California, her mind automatically went to Violet. Had her assistant been in an accident?
“There’s no cause for you to be alarmed, Ms. Hart. We do have a situation we’re hoping you can help us with, however.”
“All right.”
“There was a car crash on the interstate about an hour ago. A little girl was involved in the wreck, and she is currently under my care. I stabilized her, but she’s in desperate need of a blood transfusion. We, currently, don’t have any RH negative on hand, we just used the last pint this morning in surgery. Ms. Hart, I spoke with Ms. Weber over at the blood bank, and she informed me that you regularly donate your own blood for emergencies. Considering your rare type, I’m not surprised. This little girl is in a very bad way. She needs your blood, or we’re going to lose her.”
Alivia was struck by the request. Her blood type was RH Null, the rarest blood type known to man. There were only a handful of people in the world with RH Null. Her blood was often called Golden because not only was it extremely rare; it could also be used by any person with an RH type. Her blood was considered universal and could save countless lives, but the reverse was not true. She could only accept RH Null, and finding someone to donate to her would be virtually impossible. Since her blood was so rare, Alivia was forced to store pints for her own use, in case she needed a transfusion.
She thought about the request for no more than a second. “Of course, Dr. Reese. Use what you need.” She knew the hospital was legally bound to call and ask her permission to use the blood, and Alivia was relieved she’d been available to take the call. “You have my verbal consent. Save the child. I’ll go online right now to complete the consent forms.”
Dr. Reese was gone the minute Alivia consented, and she understood why. The little girl needed blood immediately. The physician couldn’t afford to risk the child dying to stick around and be polite.
Alivia knew all they required was her verbal consent, but she still went to her computer to fill out the permission forms. The situation was horrible, but it did take her mind off Saxon for a few minutes.
The sun was coming up when she finished on the computer, clicking ‘send’ to transmit the necessary paperwork to the hospital, Alivia breathed a sigh of relief to know she’d done her part to save an innocent. Tired from the long day and the interrupted sleep, Alivia headed to the bathroom. She didn’t have any appointments until after lunch, so she could afford to sleep for a few hours. As she undressed and brushed her teeth, thoughts of Saxon crept back into her head. In the shower, she found herself scrubbing her skin so hard it felt raw. If she could forget how good his hands had felt on her body, maybe she could move on.
Resting her too warm face on the cool tile wall, Alivia acknowledged how confused she felt. Again, she reminded herself that this was partially her own doing. She’d been so ready to keep their association on a first name basis, then somewhere along the line, she’d let herself feel more than she should. Feeling embarrassed, Alivia was forced to admit that the enjoyable sexual encounter she’d instigated had left her feeling cheap and empty. In the cold light of day and despite her best intentions, she found herself disappointed Saxon hadn’t wanted to see her again.
Once she was in b
ed, she rolled and tumbled. Sleep would not come. All she could do was lay there, hurt and angry at herself for getting into such a situation.
Just after ten the next morning, she flung back the covers and left the bed, heading to her office to crank out a quick 10K on her stationary bike.
“Good morning, Alivia. Are you feeling better?”
“Yes, Savvy, thank you.”
“What would you like for me to do today?”
She smiled at the android, who’d joined her in the sunroom. “Actually, I have a new project for us.” During the next few minutes, Alivia outlined an idea. She’d been mulling the possibility over in her mind, but since Dr. Reese’s phone call a few hours ago, the idea kept pushing its way to the forefront. “I want you to comb the internet and all academic resources you can find to accumulate information on engineering a viable blood substitute. There have been attempts, but none have been successful that I know of; see what you can find out.”
“With your rare blood type, this would be a very good thing.”
“Yea, a doctor called right after I got in last night, a little girl was in a wreck and needed some of my blood. There’s still a few pints in storage, but I need to get down there soon and donate some more.”
“I’ll make a note of it; this is important.” Savvy began to back up. “I’m going to plug myself in and recharge while I begin the information scans.”
“Why didn’t you recharge overnight?”
“I was too busy watching the garbage cans. I found out it wasn’t a dog, after all. It was a man. I think he was going through your trash for a purpose. When he left, he took some envelopes with him.”
“A man? Really?” Alivia frowned. “An attempt at identity theft, maybe? I shred everything important; there shouldn’t have been anything of worth there to find.”
“I bet it was a reporter or an industrial spy. Someone might be trying to find out information on Dragnet…or me!”
When Savvy’s artificial eyebrows rose in surprise, Alivia laughed. “Possibly. You’re a marvel, for sure. That’s why I have you insured for megabucks.”