Revealed by Desire

by Melissa Stevens

  “Please, I can’t-” she didn’t get any more out before Chris drove deep one last time, sending her body clenching and shuddering once more. He shouted out his own release then collapsed, careful not to put all his weight on her as he tried to catch his breath. It was several minutes before either could move enough to get dressed.

  Together, Rachel and Chris went to the main floor and ate breakfast. Once they finished, they went back to the elevator so they could search Ricky's room. Rachel hit the call button on autopilot, thinking about Ricky and about what she hoped to find. The elevator dinged as the car arrived, and the door slid open. Her eyes were on Chris as she thought about what he'd said about two pairs of eyes being better than one as she stepped inside and stopped cold when she walked into someone.

  “I'm so sorry.” The words were out her mouth before she could turn to see who she'd run into. Strong arms caught her as she stumbled, trying to scramble back.

  “It's all right.” Neo's soft laugh as he set her back on her feet calmed her some. How had she been so stupid as to not check the elevator before trying to step inside? “You're up early if you're already headed back down. Did you eat already?”

  “I did, thanks.” Rachel stared up at him for a moment, flustered and unable to think of anything but Chris having witnessed her stupid blunder. With a sigh, she closed her eyes for a few seconds then started again. “Thank you for not letting me fall on my ass after I nearly bowled you over,” she said to Neo then turned to Chris, “I guess today is just one of those days. I don't know.” The elevator door started to close, but Neo reached out and stopped it with one arm.

  “Are you sure you're all right?” Neo's brow furrowed as he stared down at her, trying to see what was wrong.

  “I'm fine.” Rachel sighed. “The only thing hurt is my pride.” That was no understatement. She couldn't believe she'd just run into him like that. “Thank you though.” Turning back to Chris, she said, “No point in putting it off any longer, you ready?”

  Chris glanced between her and Neo a moment. “Whenever you are.”

  Rachel stepped onto the elevator, and Chris followed her, she looked out the door where Neo watched her with a concerned look as the elevator doors slid shut. After putting her code into the security panel, she hit the button for the living quarters’ floor where Ricky lived, and the elevator started moving. Chris stayed silent as the elevator made the short trip.

  At Ricky's door, Rachel pressed her hand against the access panel next to the door and waited. After a moment, the light flashed green. She pushed the door open and went inside. Nothing had changed since she'd last been here, a week and a half before, except the layer of dust that had settled on everything. Rachel had forgotten that this floor didn't come with the free maid service hers did. Residents on this floor could get it, but there was a monthly charge to have people come in and clean.

  “Where do you want to start?” Chris came in behind her and glanced around the main living space. The apartment wasn't dirty, but it was a little messy. Ricky had never been particularly neat, but he had improved some over the years.

  “I'm not really sure.” She scanned the room. “I don't even really know what we're looking for.” She spotted a desk to one side of the room and headed in that direction. If she were going to write down passwords, that's where she would put them. A mess of paper covered the surface. There were a few opened bills, several unopened ones, a couple blank notebook pages, and a closed laptop on one corner. Rachel pulled out the chair tucked beneath the desk and sat, paging through the bills quickly and noticing that everything was dated for before his disappearance. “Where is the new mail?”

  “What?” Chris's voice came from across the room where he was looking at something; she wasn't paying attention to what.

  “The mail here is all dated before he disappeared. Nothing since.”

  “Well, do they deliver it to each room, or do you have to go pick it up somewhere?”

  “Housekeeping brings mine to me, but from the looks of things, he doesn't pay for housekeeping, so I bet it's being collected for him at the front desk.”

  “There you have it, just go pick it up. There might be something in it we can use.”

  “I'll do that, but later.” Now, she picked up the computer and opened it, hitting the power button out of habit. While she waited for the computer to boot, she opened the top drawer and found a leather-bound notebook about half the size of a sheet of paper. It looked like a diary, but she'd never known her brother to keep one. Her hand hovered over it for a moment as she hesitated, just in case it was a diary, but she was desperate and willing to do almost anything, even read his diary if he kept one, to find him. With a sigh, she picked up the book, slipped the elastic band off, and opened it.

  “Jackpot.” She flipped through the pages. “I think.”

  “What?” Chris came up behind her and looked over her shoulder at the little book.

  “It looks like he kept a book with all his usernames and passwords, all sorted by site. Now we can log into his accounts and see if they help us find him.”

  “This is good, really good.” Chris moved to stand behind her. “Um, do you know the password to get onto his computer?”

  “I have a couple ideas, but let's see if it's in here first.” She flipped through the notebook until she came to the last page. It had Computer scrawled across the top in Ricky's handwriting and several letter/word combinations crossed out. But the one at the bottom wasn't crossed out. “Let's try this one.” She entered the password, careful to get the nonsensical combination right, and hit enter. The computer started loading, so she must not have messed it up.

  “This is a good sign.” Chris sat on his heels beside her chair, putting them eye to eye.

  “Where should we look first? Phone company or bank?” Rachel turned to him for an answer. She assumed he had more experience at all of this than she did. He'd been looking for Emily longer than she'd been searching for Ricky.

  “Bank.” Chris sounded certain. “Someone could have taken his phone and could be using it. While the same is true with his bank card, it will give us a better idea of a location to look, and if the pin has been used, even better. That's more likely to be him.”

  “All right.” She pulled up the bank's website from his bookmarks and put in the password. Tapping impatiently on the desk, she waited while it processed that and loaded the account information. After scanning the page, she pointed to the screen. “Look.”

  “I see it.” Several withdrawals at ATMs scattered all over town. She didn't see any pattern.

  “So, good news and bad news.” Chris propped his elbows on his knees as he leaned forward.

  “Tell me what you're thinking, because I'm not sure we're on the same wavelength.”

  “Well, good news is it's being used with a pin, so the chances it's him are good. Bad news is he's all over town, literally, so it doesn't give us any better idea where to look.”

  “Have you been able to get into Emily's banking or anything else?”

  “Not yet. I sent a message to the tech guy I use, but,” he glanced at his watch, “it's still early, I don't expect him to call for a couple hours at least.”

  “All right.” Rachel's fingers moved with practiced ease over the keyboard, and she pulled up the website for his cell phone and logged in. “Just a second...” She let her words trail off as she scanned the site for the link she was looking for. It took her a couple minutes but before long, she had Ricky's call log on the screen. No calls since his last bill, two weeks earlier. “Hmm...” with a few more clicks, she found the record of his text messages. “Oh, this is odd.” She leaned closer to the screen as she inspected the list.

  “What do you see?”

  “Look here,” she pointed to the screen. “Incoming messages have no real pattern, but outgoing... that's different. Think about it, you get a message, you respond, you get another, but that's not what's happening. See?”

  “He'll go two or three
days with no sent messages, then send four or five in a ten-minute space, then nothing again for a couple days.” Chris turned and looked at her. “That's really odd.”

  “I can think of a couple reasons... either he's turning his phone off, possibly to save battery, and only turning it on every few days, responding when he does, or he could be somewhere without signal.” She was quiet a moment, staring sightlessly at the screen. “That could be why I never get an answer when I call, and he never calls back, which isn't like him. If his phone is off, or somewhere without signal, it's not telling him he's missed calls.”

  “Have you tried texting him?”

  “No, it didn't occur to me. He and I don't text, we talk.” She pointed to the top of the list of texts. “He just sent this batch last night, so it may be a couple days, but I'll text him right now.” She pulled her phone from her pocket and sent her brother a message.

  Call or message me now. I've been searching for you. Very worried.

  “There, it's sent.”

  “Are you going to stop looking and wait for him to call now?”

  “No. I can't rely on it being him with the phone. For all I know, someone else has it and will never respond.” Rachel shook her head. “I can't just give up and wait. I have to keep looking.” With a sigh, she stared at the computer for a moment. “Is there anything else to do on this thing right now?”

  “Not that I can think of, but you might want to take it with you so you can use it later.”

  “I planned to.” Rachel closed the laptop, put the notebook full of account information on top, and reached for the power cord. “All of this too. What else should we look for while we're here?”

  “What did you look for last time?”

  “I didn't look for anything in particular, just for him. I came in and looked around. He wasn't here, and there was nothing out of place that I could tell.” Rachel held both hands out, palms up.

  Chris glanced around the room as if trying to spot something. “He's not the housekeeper you are, I see.” Chris pushed himself to his feet and circled the room, looking more closely.

  “He never has been, but my apartment comes with maid service, these don't. If I had been gone, things would be neat and dusted. Obviously, he doesn't pay the extra for it.” She stood and went to the kitchen counter, once there, she leafed through the stack of papers. It was a couple old bills, notes, a newspaper, and a couple of receipts, nothing remarkable. Next, she wandered into Ricky's bedroom.

  The bed was unmade and there were clothes piled in one corner, but the mess in the room looked like a normal Ricky mess, not as if someone had come in and torn the place up searching for something. Without making a bigger mess, Rachel went through the drawers in the dresser. She was surprised to find two of the five drawers were filled with women's clothing. Still frowning, she went to the closet and opened the doors. Nearly half the rack in there was women's clothes as well.

  “Chris?” she called out.

  “Yes?” his voice carried clearly from the other room where he still looked. “You need something?”

  “Have you been to Emily's apartment?”

  “Yes, why?”

  “How's your sense of smell in this form?”

  “Far better than a normal, but not as good as when I'm a wolf, why?” His head appeared in the doorway. “You need something?”

  “Come look at this.” She couldn't help but frown as she continued to stare into the closet. Chris came into the room and stopped beside where she stood in front of the open closet doors, her hands still on the doors holding them wide.

  “I'm gonna guess Ricky's not a drag queen?”

  “Not that I'm aware of, and I can't imagine he would keep something like that from me.” Rachel turned to him. “I was wondering if maybe they're Emily's... if maybe you could see if you can scent her on them.”

  “That's actually a good idea.”

  Rachel released closet door, and he stepped closer, pulling one t-shirt toward his face and sniffing. He dropped that one and went to a dress a few items away. “Yes, they're hers, but the scent has faded, as if she hasn't worn them in a while. But that fits, doesn't it? Since she's been missing for a month.” He turned and scanned the room. “Did you find anything else that might be hers?”

  “Nearly half the stuff in the dresser is hers, or at least, I assume it's hers; it's women's clothes. That's all I've checked so far.” Leaving the closet open, she went to the table on one side of the bed and looked in the drawers before checking the other as well. Condoms, lube, a few toys she had no desire to know her brother had been using, but nothing else. Next, she checked the bathroom. There were two toothbrushes in the cup next to the sink and an army of women's toiletries on the counter but nothing that she could tell was missing. If Ricky was planning to be leave, he would have at least taken his toothbrush, wouldn't he?

  “Find anything in here?” Chris poked his head into the bathroom.

  “Nothing remarkable. Between the clothes and this,” she waved one arm over the bottles and tubs of makeup, lotions, and ointments, “I'd have to guess that Emily was spending probably at least as much time here as she was at her place, if not more, but there's nothing that jumps out at me as missing or shouldn't be here.”

  “I'd probably want to stay here over her place too. It's not much, barely more than a studio with no kitchen. I offered her a place at the Obsession, but she refused. She wants to be on her own, not beholden to me or anyone else... her words.”

  “From the sound of it, I'd want to be here too.” Rachel looked in the tub, but didn't see anything remarkable and went back into the bedroom, Chris backed away from the door to let her through. “Did you find anything else in the living room?”

  “I didn't.”

  “All right, let's grab his computer and go back to my place. I can leave his things there and grab my purse before we head out.” Back in the bedroom, she picked up the stack she'd made earlier and together they left.

  Glad she hadn't had to go through her brother's apartment alone, Rachel was hurt Ricky hadn't told her that Emily was all but living with him. Although, thinking about it, she had to admit she'd been busy the last few weeks. First with planning Teya’s birthday party, then the legend contest Teya wanted help spreading the word about. Apparently, as legend had it, there was a mate who could communicate with your dragon... Rachel hadn’t had as much time for Ricky as he was used to.

  “Stop thinking so hard.” Chris's voice drew her back to the present. They were standing in front of her apartment door. She'd made the trip from Ricky's apartment on autopilot and didn't remember a single step. Pressing her hand against the security panel, she waited until the lock flashed green, then let them into her apartment.

  “I'm sorry. I was lost in thought. Were you talking to me? Did I miss something?”

  “No, but you were thinking so loud even I could hear you.” Chris took her shoulders and spun her around to face him. “It doesn't matter how busy you were, it's not your fault Ricky disappeared. It's not your fault he hasn't been in touch, or that he's missing.” A finger under her chin lifted her head until she met his gaze. “We all have responsibilities, jobs and things that have to get done. No one can blame you for doing them. I understand you feel responsible for him, but Ricky is an adult, and if something has happened to him, we'll figure it out. All right?”

  “You heard what I was thinking?” Rachel tilted her head as she watched him. When he'd touched her chin, a spark of recognition had shot through her. That spark sent heat through her body, and memories of the night before flashed in her mind.

  “Clear as a bell.” Chris looked surprised. “It was almost as if you were deliberately using telepathy, but you've not done that with me before, and what I was hearing didn't feel like you were talking to me. It felt like you were berating yourself. That's why I spoke up.”

  Rachel pulled away and let her head hang for a second as she tried to recover her wits. After taking a deep breath, she lifted her
head and met his gaze. “Thank you. I'll be more careful.” Turning away, she took the computer and the rest of the things from Ricky's apartment to the table where the files they had gone over the night before still sat. “Give me just a minute; I need to make a call.” She picked up the in-house phone that connected all the rooms with the rest of the resort and hit 0.

  “Front desk. This is Wendy, how can I help you?”

  “Wendy, this is Rachel Tao, can you look and see if my brother, Ricky Tao, has any mail he hasn't picked up?”

  “Sure, I'll check if you'll give me a moment?”

  “Of course.” She waited while Wendy put her on hold. A couple of minutes later, the girl came back.

  “Miss Tao?”

  “Yes.”

  “There is quite a large stack of mail here for your brother, is there something you'd like me to do with it?”

  “Is Howard in?” Rachel hesitated a second.

  “Yes, I think so. At least I saw him about an hour ago.”

  “Great, if you could have him take Ricky's mail to my office? I'll pick it up there.”

  “Will do. As soon as I see him again, I'll send him down with it.”

  “Thank you.”

  “No problem. Have a nice day.”

  “You too, Wendy.” Rachel gently placed the earpiece back on the cradle. “She said there was quite a bit there for him. Ricky obviously hasn't picked it up in a while.”

  “I heard.”

  Rachel frowned.

  “You're hearing is that good in this form?” Rachel tilted her head to one side. “We already determined your sense of smell is stronger, what other senses are more intense for you?” She watched him with new interest. She knew other kinds of shifters exist, wolves, cougars, bears, and that there were werewolves, but she'd never known any and didn't know exactly how they differed.

  “Just scent and hearing mostly, though our vision is a little better. Are your senses not enhanced in your human form?”