by Alexia Reed
* * *
She was warm, her entire body relaxed. Lips curved, Amy rolled over onto her stomach. When her body collided with another’s—hard and yet oh-so-deliciously smooth—she opened her eyes and found herself being watched by a gorgeously naked man with gold eyes heated with passion.
“Welcome back to the living.”
She pressed her cheek against the damp skin of his chest. When his hand skimmed up her spine, she became all too aware of her nakedness. Her cheeks went hot and glancing down, she caught sight of the tangled sheets at their feet. “It wasn’t a dream.”
“No.” His eyes darkened to amber and she found that incredibly arousing. That she could make a man as strong as J.C. want something so much was rather addicting. “How do you feel?”
Like she was drugged. Arching her neck, she gave his wandering mouth access as he placed a line of kisses along the column of her throat. Her lips curved into a satisfied smile. “Mmm.”
He moved, rolling her and suddenly she was on her back, half under him, the heavy weight of his leg over hers. “That’s not an answer,” he reprimanded and nipped her lips.
“I feel great.” She tried focus on his mouth and the feel of his hands on her skin, but she couldn’t help the small niggle of a worry at the back of her mind.
She had always known she was going to lose her mind. What if this was proof of it? This couldn’t really be happening. She didn’t get this lucky. She shook the thought away. But still, while this all felt real, what if the reality was that she was still in the psych ward under hallucinogenic influence or in that virtual reality state? What if she was still in the coma with Dare? “J.C., how do I know this is real? What if I’m really broken?”
His mouth paused a moment, hovering over her pulse. “You’re not. Stop worrying over nothing.” His teeth scraped along the mark he’d left behind on her shoulder and heat spilled through her body.
To please herself, Amy trailed her fingertips along the muscles of his arm. She sucked in a breath when he moved down her body, his teeth nipping and his tongue soothing. Her nerve endings were sensitized to the extreme and the combined sensations made her toes curl. “What exactly do you think is going on with me?”
His tongue ran along the upper slope of her breast. “I don’t know. I think you’re just beginning your psychic maturation.”
Swallowing, she tried to think. “Psychic maturation?”
“You’re starting to explore these abilities of yours that were given the chance to develop outside of a laboratory setting.”
His hand stroked her side, settling in the hollow of her waist. She found herself holding her breath in anticipation when he nuzzled her stomach, pressing kisses to her exposed skin. She clenched her fingers, finding that they were suddenly in the soft strands of his hair.
“Do you really want to talk about this? Because I’m about to be busy.” Amusement was back in his voice. He turned his head, pressing a kiss to the inside of her thigh.
She thought to answer, had every intention of it. But his hands slid beneath her bottom and he was inching his shoulder between her thighs, nudging them apart. With a murmur that was more sound than words, he tasted her. Amy gasped at the first slow lick.
Somehow, she knew that this time he would be unhurried in taking her. He lapped at her and her entire body tightened. She could barely breathe as she vibrated from the sensations. This was what it was like to be insane with lust, with pleasure so complete that she saw stars because of it.
His mouth ravaged her with a rough tenderness she had no defense against. All she could do was roll her head back, close her eyes and feel.
It always came as a surprise, that quick and startling explosion that shook her body with a cry of gratification. Her fingers tugged at his hair, urging him up her body until he was braced over her. She had to feel him inside her, didn’t think that she could survive without him.
When he slipped inside her, it was a seduction of her senses. He moved in a slow, sensual rhythm, his hand cupped beneath her, holding her at an angle so that she could feel him deep within her. She had no choice but to let herself be taken completely, mind and body by a man who needed the pleasure as much as she did.
Chapter Eighteen
That morning, before the caffeine had even kicked in, J.C. found Amy lost in thought…a memory. Ajay was missing. No, missing was too light of a word. She was taken. Was possibly dead. A team member was in trouble and he wasn’t there to offer his protection.
Again.
Under the gray sky, search teams had already started combing through the mountains, searching for any piece of evidence.
By the time early evening rolled around, J.C. knew they weren’t going to find her by searching on foot. There was too much ground to cover. There were only so many teams the Council let them use. Low on manpower and time, Ajay couldn’t afford them going through every crack of the mountains and every shadow of the Centre.
They didn’t have an idea of where to look. If they could pinpoint the approximate area she’d been seen last, they might have a chance. The problem was that she hadn’t logged into the system in over two days.
It was stupid to waste time when they had Stefan in custody. The Council and Broderick had been dodging him all day and that was unacceptable.
He was headed to the cell where Stefan was being kept when Amy caught up with him.
“What’s the plan?” The tension from being outside without the band for periods of time was starting to take a toll on her. There were dark circles beneath her eyes and more than once today he’d caught her rubbing her temples.
“Now, I go see Stefan.” The Council wouldn’t like it, but he was wasting time otherwise. He reached down for her hand. “I’m going to make him talk to me. You should stay behind and rest.”
“J.C., stop trying to protect me. I want to help.”
“I know, but, Stefan’s dangerous and you have the most history with him.” Her fingers were warm against his as he slid his palm along hers. “You don’t need to see him.”
“I can handle it.”
His lips curved at the stubborn look that crossed her face. He nodded. “All right, but stay back. He’ll be chained and will have neutralizing drugs in his system but that doesn’t mean he isn’t dangerous.”
Dropping her hand, J.C. shoved the door open and felt against the wall for a switch, turning the light on. Like the Council room, the interrogation chamber was dark. They liked to think it made the prisoner feel isolated. Stefan’s cell stood in the middle of the room, the light directly overhead. It was a room designed for torture. If one was to look through the shadows, they might see the tool boxes and other equipment used to inflict the most pain.
Stefan sat on the floor, looking gaunt and broken. In his lap, a small cat was curled against him. When J.C. unlatched the cell door and eased the bars open, Stefan didn’t move, his fingers methodically stroking the cat’s fur.
He kneeled beside dried blood on the floor, curling his fingers in Stefan’s hair to lift the man’s head. Empty, dull eyes opened, Stefan’s gaze going right through him. They were the eyes of someone who wanted the torment to end, someone who had given in to his fate.
“Come to finish the job and kill an innocent man?” Stefan seemed to find that funny. He laughed, a dry, cracked sound.
They didn’t have the time to listen to denials, not when a woman’s life was in jeopardy. Every second wasted, they were losing her. If she wasn’t already dead. He refused to think like that.
He wasn’t going to lose a member of his team.
Leaning close, J.C. waited until Stefan’s eyes focused on him. “Tell me where she is.”
“I don’t know.” Blood bubbled from a cut along Stefan’s mouth. Jerking his head free from J.C.’s grasp, he coughed and more blood spilled down his chin. Ex
haustion colored dark circles under his eyes. “Leave me alone, J.C. I’m tired and nothing I tell you will make you happy.”
“I’ll go when you tell me where Ajay is. Is she alive?”
He needed to know. Please let her still be alive. Teams were out searching, but they were wasting time when Stefan could tell them where she was.
Bruises marred the man’s throat, darkening over ribs and kidneys. Someone had beaten Stefan recently with no regard for whether they cause internal bleeding or not. The sight should have disgusted him, but J.C. was hard pressed to feel sympathy for a killer.
But a part of him did feel something for the boy he’d once known.
“This can all end, Stefan. All you have to do is tell me what I want to know.”
He hated that Amy was witnessing what was done. She didn’t leave though, sticking by his side, no matter how frightened she may be. After everything she had gone through, Rick and Dare hadn’t taken her spirit.
He glanced back to where she stood, her brows knit in concentration as she tried to get into Stefan’s head. She bit at her bottom lip, her body braced.
“We both know this will never stop.” Stefan’s lips twisted, his eyes unfocusing. “It doesn’t matter what I know or don’t, the Council will never leave me alone. Are you happy? You’ve officially got me out of the way.”
“Tell me where she is.”
At Stefan’s silence, J.C. directed his next question to Amy. “Can you get into his head and pull it out?”
He felt the brush of her body as she stepped around the sticky mess on the ground to Stefan’s side. Her hand shook as she reached out, touching Stefan’s face lightly. “He’s pumped full of neutralizing drugs. Even if I could get past that, there’s all those blocks.”
He swore softly. There had to be a way to get inside Stefan’s head. Drugs weren’t an option at the moment. Any more and Stefan wouldn’t know his own name. They needed access to those memories, but they didn’t have the time to wait for the drugs currently in his bloodstream to leave his system.
Ajay didn’t have the time.
J.C. was grasping at thin air. He was about to lose it when Davan burst into the room, charging toward Stefan. Out of everyone, Davan had taken Ajay’s disappearance the hardest. As he went to intercept, Davan smoked out of view then reappeared in the cell, slamming Stefan back against the wall with enough force to rattle bones. The cat had jumped aside but was now hissing at Davan. “Where the hell is she?”
J.C. set a warning hand on Davan’s arm, knowing that if he didn’t act, the other agent was going to kill Stefan. As much as J.C. agreed that Stefan needed to die for his crimes, they weren’t going to find Ajay like this.
“I don’t know!” Stefan yelled. “I’d never hurt her.”
“Excuse us if we think you’re lying,” Davan snarled. “That knife wasn’t used for cutting your dinner steak, Stefan. We typed the blood. It’s human.”
The DNA results had come back negative for any of the known victims. How many bodies had they yet to find? At this point, he would let Davan do what he wanted if it got them answers. He didn’t know what else he could do, other than outright torture, to get the information.
“Stop it.” Amy shoved at Davan, moving between him and Stefan. “You’re not going to get him to talk this way.”
“He took Ajay,” Davan growled.
“His energy signature doesn’t match what I found. J.C., I don—”
Davan gaped at her. “Then you fucked up. I’m sure you thought you knew what you were looking at but obviously you were wrong.”
“I know exactly what I was looking at. I may not be able to read him right now, but I know what I know. It doesn’t match.”
J.C. didn’t know what to think. Davan was right. The signature was the least important bit of evidence. “Amy, are you sure?”
She nodded.
The blood. The knife. The fact that Stefan was a teacher and drew in energy from around him. It all fit.
Davan’s lips twisted. “Of course you’re taking his side. You let her be taken.”
“Stand down.” J.C. moved closer. Lowering his hand to Amy’s arm, he drew her back behind him. Davan was combustible with fear for his partner’s safety. “Amy isn’t at fault.”
“We could have kept Ajay safe! What good is having a fucking telepath around when she can’t do anything?”
“I’m warning you, Davan, watch what you say next.” His voice hardened as he shot a warning glare. He understood that Davan was worried and would do anything to find Ajay, but there was a line and he was crossing it.
“If Ajay dies, it’s on her, J.C.”
“No, it’s on Stefan,” J.C. snapped. “I’m not going to let you shove Amy into the cross-fire. We have more important matters at hand. We need to find Ajay. Got it?”
Because right now, they didn’t have the time to argue and fight with each other.
Chapter Nineteen
“You need rest.”
Amy shook her head, leaning forward to press her forehead against his throat. “Davan’s right. I should be able to find her. We can’t give up.”
“We’re not, but we need to rest.” J.C. circled an arm around her waist, offering support when her knees trembled. He hated that Davan had put it in her head that she was at fault. Just because she was a telepath didn’t mean she had to know what everyone was thinking or planning to do at every moment of the day. “We’ve been at this for seventy-two hours with only a few hours of sleep. I’m running on caffeine fumes and you’re close to overloading.”
He took a deep breath. Dawn had yet to break out over the mountains, but a pale orange was beginning to creep through the heavy dark clouds and over the rough ridges. Pine, fir and spruce stretched over towering granite cliffs.
With one hand pressed lightly to the small of Amy’s back, he directed her toward the narrow, faint ribbon of an animal path. Wet ferns brushed against his legs, grass and hay clinging to his ankles. He wanted to take her away for a little while and give her a chance to re-energize.
“Where are we going?”
“Not far. We both need a break. Even if it’s not to sleep, you need to shut it off for a bit.” He paused when he felt more than heard the building of an argument and moved to head it off. “We’ll find Ajay. I believe that. But if you aren’t careful, your headache will only get worse and you’ll crash.”
“How—” When she began to turn her head, he shifted his hand on her back, skimming it up to touch her cheek.
“You’re an open book. It’s in your eyes. We’ll clear our heads for a bit but we both need rest. At least for a couple of hours. Go to the right.”
He took her deep into the forest, not stopping until they were far enough away from the Centre. He glanced up at the tree line toward the wooden platform that had been set up, one of the many lookouts that’d been installed long ago.
“J.C.?”
He nudged her, giving her bottom a light pat until she began to climb. “These used to be lookout posts.”
“Used to be? They aren’t anymore?” She stopped midway on the ladder, glancing down until he nudged her again.
“Not as much.” At the top, he watched with amusement as she lowered herself onto her stomach and crawled to the edge to stare down at the thick canopy below. Her fingers clenched on the wood, so hard her knuckles stood out.
“It’s dizzying.”
“You won’t fall. They built these things to be sturdy. Unless there’s rot or a storm, it’s not coming down.” He leaned back against the tree trunk, looking off into the mountains at the orange glow that made the leaves look like they were on fire.
“This is amazing. I can’t believe I’m here right now. Do you know what I would have done to get out and see this?” She looked back at him, her eyes wid
e. It was an experience watching her. He’d never seen anyone so expressive, even after everything that had been done to her.
“You don’t have to wonder anymore. You’ll never have to worry that you’ll be locked away again.” He would fight to make sure she kept her freedom.
When he held out his hand she reached for it, curling her fingers around his so that he could lower her between his drawn up knees. Wrapping her arms around his legs, she relaxed against him, setting her head against his chest.
She was silent. J.C. rubbed his fingers over her shoulders to the back of her neck. “How about you close your eyes for a bit? It’s been a long few days. Your mind could use the break.”
He massaged the knots, rubbing at them until her breathing evened out. He didn’t fool himself into thinking she was asleep yet. As much as she needed to shut down for a bit, she kept pushing herself.
“J.C.?” No, definitely not asleep.
“Yeah?”
She turned, looking up at him. He slid his lips along her forehead, watching as pink stained her cheeks. After everything they’d done, she still blushed at small gestures, and it made him feel ridiculously powerful.
“Tell me about Leila. I know you two were an item, but was it serious?”
“What, you mean you didn’t see it in my memories when you were in there messing around?” he teased lightly.
“I didn’t mess around with them.” That biteable bottom lip of hers stuck out, looking adorably sexy. “No, seriously. I know she meant something to you. You cared.”
“I did. I met her when I was twenty. She was up in some trees, taking notes as my squad worked out in the training yard.” He had gone over to tell her to leave, but she flashed him a grin and told him that if he wanted her to go, he would have to come up and get her down himself. Somehow, when he did get her down, he’d ended up not only with her name, but also her squad number.