Possession fa-5

by J. R. Ward

  And then a voice said, “Jim? You okay?”

  Sissy’s voice.

  Jim ripped away so fast, he jumped half across the room without hitting the floor—and as he flew, he watched the vision of Sissy on the bed morph into Devina, brunette waves replacing blond lengths, black shark eyes emerging from blue, huge breasts pushing out the front of that shirt.

  “Jesus Christ!” he barked.

  “Well,” the demon muttered dryly, “you can’t blame a girl for trying.”

  “Jim?” Sissy asked again through the closed door.

  On that note, Devina up and left in a puff of black smoke.

  Out in the hall, Sissy wondered what she was doing bothering the man.

  She’d gotten up to keep reading through that giant book Adrian had given her, thinking she’d have some coffee first and then sit in the parlor while the sun came up. After all, staying in her bed and staring at the ceiling hadn’t been all that productive for the five hours she’d done it for—so she’d figured, what the heck, might as well try to get something done.

  As she’d passed by Jim’s room, though, she’d heard him talking to himself, the heavy door muffling the words.

  She’d been so worried about him, out there alone, doing God only knew what.

  And maybe … she’d missed him.

  She’d not been sure what to do with that one. Or entirely clear why she’d felt compelled to knock and say his name—

  The door whipped open, and for a split second, she wondered why Jim had stuck his finger in a light socket—if his eyes were any wider, he’d have been staring out of the top of his head.

  “Are you okay?” she said, taking a step back.

  His stare flipped around her face.

  “What … why are you looking at me like that?”

  “I, ah … I…”

  For a split second, he focused on her mouth, locking on her lips—then he shook his head and cursed.

  “Was there someone in there with you?” she said, trying not to look past him. Trying not to feel … something … about that possibility.

  It had never occurred to her that he might have some kind of a personal life.

  “No.” His voice was hoarse. “I’m alone.”

  “No offense, you don’t look right.” He looked … good, though.

  Not that she should be thinking about anything like that … still, he’d had a shower and smelled like clean soap, and he was an incredibly handsome man … what with the dark blond hair and all that muscle and—

  Oh, God, she was totally thinking like that.

  “You’re up early,” he muttered, ducking back into his room and pacing around like he had energy to work off or something.

  She peered in, even though it was none of her business.

  The bed was messy, the sheets tangled up—but the pillows were arranged at the base of the headboard, a pair on each side—and both had the imprints of heads on them.

  Had he been sleeping with someone in here?

  Tucking her arms around her chest, she thought, Wow, just when she’d thought things couldn’t get any weirder. Because she really shouldn’t care one way or another.

  But she did.

  Over at the bureau, he braced his hands and leaned into his heavy arms, dropping his head.

  “Jim?” When he didn’t reply, she said, “You’re scaring me.”

  “Sorry, just been a long night.”

  “What’s happening in this round?”

  “Nothing much.”

  How that equated to a long night, she wasn’t sure. Then again, he probably hated the waiting. And yet … waiting wouldn’t cause some to look like he did when he’d opened the door.

  “So you can’t sleep?” he said as he stared at the floor.

  “No.” She frowned. “Is there something I can do to help?”

  “Thanks, but I’m great.”

  “Really.”

  He straightened and turned his back to her. Then he seemed to be rearranging something on himself. When he pivoted around again, he was more in control.

  “You want breakfast?” he said abruptly.

  “Ah, sure. Maybe I’ll cook, though?” Given the fact that there hadn’t been any food in the house until she’d come here, you had to assume that he and Adrian weren’t chef-types.

  “Great idea. Come on, I gotta get away from this room.”

  Why, she thought. And she almost asked—but the expression on his face as he walked by her shut that idea down pretty quick.

  As they headed for the stairs together, tension flared between them and made her twitchy.

  “Did I do something wrong?” she blurted. Maybe Adrian had told him about the book?

  Jim stopped with his hand on the banister. After a long moment, he looked over his shoulder, and said quietly, “I owe you an apology.”

  She recoiled. “For what?”

  “It’s too long a story.”

  “It’s five thirty a.m. How much more time do you need?”

  “Look, I just want you to know that …” He cursed. “I don’t know what I’m saying here.”

  With that, he kept going, hitting the stairs, leaving her with nothing but an unsettled feeling that she was, once again, in the dark.

  Chapter

  Forty-eight

  “I should go.”

  Okay, those were the three saddest words in the English language as far as Cait was concerned. But Duke had a point. It was six o’clock, and she had to guess it was, in fact, time for him to go home.

  They were both lying on their sides with their heads on her pillows, facing each other with the sheets tucked in around their warm bodies. It had been a long, long time since she’d shared a moment like this, a night like this. Such a reminder of why people put up with the stresses of relationships—this communion was about so much more than what they had physically shared.

  “When am I coming back?” he demanded.

  She had to smile. It was not in his nature to sugarcoat things, or beat around the bush—and it was curiously relaxing to always know where she stood with him. “When do you want to?”

  “Tonight.”

  Her response was to lean in and kiss him. “Sounds perfect—oh, wait.”

  “What?”

  “Ah … I have a funeral to go to today. Not sure what kind of mood I’ll be in.”

  He frowned, and stroked her hair back. “Anyone close to you?”

  “A student of mine. She died … unexpectedly.” Yeah, ’cause you didn’t exactly schedule getting abducted and murdered. “It’s going to be really emotional.”

  “Shit. He or she must have been really young.”

  “She. And she was nineteen. It’s a tragedy. You may have read about it in the paper—Sissy Barten?”

  “I’m not really up on the news. But I am sorry.”

  “So young to have lost her life. It’s just … I don’t want to get morbid or anything, but it’s a huge reminder of how easily people’s destinies can get off-track through no fault of their own. I mean, she was in a good college and keeping her nose clean. She worked hard and was crazy talented—everything was going so well for her. And then one night she goes on a random errand, and it all ends. I don’t know how to make sense of it, and I can’t imagine what her family’s going through. Life is just so short.”

  Duke was quiet for a while. “You’re right.”

  “Anyway, I don’t know how I’m going to be. Maybe tomorrow night?”

  He shook his head. “I take you as you come. If you don’t want to see anybody, that’s one thing. But if you’re feeling like you’ve got to front for me? Not necessary.”

  “Thanks.” She smiled at him. “Why don’t we play it by ear and see how I do? Would that be okay?”

  “Yup.”

  “You are … pretty wonderful, you know that?”

  “Not really, but if you think so? All that matters.”

  At that, he kissed her the way he always did, taking over, owning her in so
me indescribable way. But then he was getting out of bed, his naked body gleaming in the light from the hall—

  Shoot, the man dressed with disarming efficiency.

  She could have used a longer show.

  And maybe he was right. After the funeral, maybe getting together was a good idea, a way of taking her mind off things…

  All too soon he was standing at the foot of her bed, looming with that body of his, dressed in what she’d taken off of him.

  “Can I make you coffee on my way out?” he said.

  “I think I might go back to sleep.”

  “Oh, man, did I keep you up last night?”

  “You don’t sound very sorry about it.”

  He came around and ducked down. “That’s because I’m not.”

  The kiss was a lingering one, telling her more than words could how much he had valued the night before … and however many nights might be coming for them in the future.

  “This is the first time in a long time …” She hesitated.

  “What?”

  “I just … I haven’t really been looking forward to the future.” As it dawned on her how that could be taken, she rushed ahead. “Wait, wait, not that I’m thinking anything nutty—I swear. It’s … I don’t know. I love my jobs and my life, I really do. I just haven’t been excited about anything for a long while.”

  Duke stared into her eyes for the longest time. “Me neither.”

  By nine a.m., the sun was rarin’ to go, rising up over the tree line and throwing out the kind of BTUs that suggested winter was well fucked, and summer not just a hypothetical.

  Having pulled into work, Duke parked his truck where he always did in the lot beside the Shed—but instead of getting out and moving along to clock in, he just stared through the chain-link fence at that great, rising fireball.

  With a slow, deliberate circle, he ran his hand around the steering wheel, even though he wasn’t just in park, his engine was off: nowhere to go, but driving anyway.

  After he’d left Cait’s, he’d gone home, and found Rolly out cold, but breathing on the sofa. At that point, he’d listened to a message from his supervisor, left sometime the night before, and discovered he was pulling a full shift in the morning—good news. And then Alex Hess had texted him that she was putting him back on the schedule at the Iron Mask next week—better news.

  Ordinarily, he hated free time.

  Although … with Cait on the horizon? Wasn’t so sure about that anymore. Especially because nights were when they were likely to see each other.

  How much had she slept in? he wondered.

  God, how long had it been since he’d thought like that? Since Nicole.

  Yeah, and you know how that worked out, a part of him bitched.

  “Shut it.”

  When his brain didn’t cough up anything else, he smiled harshly. Nice change of pace—you argue with yourself and sometimes you could really get through to the other guy.

  … it’s a huge reminder of how easily people’s destinies can get off-track …

  Fuck. That one sentence had been banging around his head since he’d pulled away from the curb in front of his woman’s house. Over and over. To the point where it was driving him batshit.

  Taking his phone out, he put in the password, went into his voice mails, and just looked at the list. Nicole’s newest had been the third he’d received while he’d been at Cait’s, and unlike the other two, he’d listened to what she’d left a number of times.

  As he stared at his phone, he thought, See, this was why you stayed in your comfort zone. You started making a connection with someone, your ice got broken … and then you started doing stupid fucking shit.

  He probably would have been okay if Cait hadn’t brought up that student of hers. For some reason, that was hammering in his head, too.

  “I’m losing my mind,” he said as he looked out of his truck’s windshield again. “Losing it…”

  As with his attraction to Cait, he couldn’t exactly explain why things were so different for him all of a sudden. Well, not completely different. He was still focused on payback when it came to his brother. But it seemed as if some other hand was on his steering wheel, turning him this way. That way. In a circle.

  Refocusing on his phone, he watched from what felt like the distance of a mile as his thumb hit … call back.

  Just as the ringing started, he caught a flash of movement out of the corner of his eye. It was the blond-haired man who had tailed him yesterday, stepping out from behind another parked truck. With all the nonchalance of someone who held most of the cards, he put a cigarette between his teeth and flicked a Bic, leaning into the flame.

  As he exhaled, he lifted his hand in a wave.

  “Hello?” came the response through the phone.

  Hang up, Duke ordered himself. Hang the fuck up—you don’t want to do this…

  “Hello,” he heard himself say.

  Chapter

  Forty-nine

  “So you can understand why we’re curious about where you were.”

  As the question came at G.B., he kept his cool, smiling at the detective who was sitting across the interrogation table from him.

  First thing this morning, he’d gotten the call to come down to the Caldwell Police Department, and of course he’d complied. He wasn’t stupid.

  And he’d watched enough episodes of The First 48 to know how to act.

  “You’re just doing your job,” G.B. said with a casual shrug. “But I don’t have anything else to tell you.”

  Detective … what was his name? de la Truz? … smiled back. “Well, you could explain why you didn’t think to mention that you and Jennifer Espie had been in a relationship.”

  G.B. linked his hands in his lap and was careful to hold eye contact steadily. “That’s because we weren’t.”

  “If you want to mince words, fine. But you didn’t tell us you two were sleeping together.”

  “It wasn’t a regular thing, Detective. Come on, I’m so busy with work, I have no personal life. She and I have some friends in common, and yeah, sure, we hooked up a couple of times, but it wasn’t anything serious. I just didn’t think it was relevant.”

  “The girl was murdered in the theater you both work in, and you didn’t consider the idea that disclosing your past relations might be a good idea?”

  “What can I say. I’m a singer, not a lawyer.”

  The guy flipped through his little notebook. “I hear you’re an actor, too.”

  “Rent’s my first musical.”

  Brown eyes lifted. “The director says you’re a natural.”

  “That’s really cool of him.”

  “He says you’re able to summon emotion on a dime.”

  “Well, that’s part of the gig, isn’t it?”

  De la Whoever smiled again. “Yeah. It is. Which brings me to another question I have. One of the promoters for that jazz concert you sang backup in … what was that singer’s name? Millicent?”

  “Millicent Jayson.”

  “Yeah, that’s the one. Anyway, the promoter said before you went onstage that night, he saw you and Jennifer arguing in her office. You know, the one with all the glass?”

  G.B. had expected this. “She was upset with me.”

  “And why was that?”

  “Like I told you, we didn’t have a regular thing going. She wanted that, though. And she got all up in my face.”

  “About what?”

  G.B. made a show of rubbing his jaw. “I had a woman come to see me that night, someone I was actually interested in. I asked management if I could use one of the comp tickets they’d reserved for VIPs—you know, if they had any left. They did, and Jennifer was supposed to leave it at will-call for my date. She was also supposed to get me backstage clearance. When I came to get the tags for backstage, she just went off on me.”

  “Cait Douglass, right?”

  Okay, it was a little surprise that they had that name. “Yeah, that’s her. The w
oman I invited, that is.”

  “She was also supposed to meet you for lunch yesterday.”

  “Yeah, she and I were going to grab a quick sandwich down in the break room. Obviously, because of what happened … we didn’t, yeah, you know.”

  How in the hell did—

  The detective pursued the fight angle for some time, prodding, prompting, clearly trying to trip things up. But G.B. just stayed on message and on tone—calm, cool, helpful and collected.

  Eventually, the guy shut that notebook. “Well, there’s only one other thing I’ve got for you, then.”

  “Fire away.”

  “Why were you down in the basement the night Jennifer was killed?”

  G.B. frowned. “I’m sorry?”

  “I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but security cameras were installed about a month ago. The crime in that part of town has been rising, and the owners of the theater became concerned about break-ins. The stairwells are all monitored now. We have tape of you coming up the back about ten p.m.”

  Fuck … him.

  Wait a minute.

  G.B. smiled and shrugged again. “I went down to do vocal exercises.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “I’m assuming you’ve been down in that hall, right?”

  “Yes. I have.”

  Because that was where the body had been, duh. Not that G.B. let on about that—after all, one of the easiest ways to incriminate yourself was to cop to details not provided to you.

  “Well, then you know that it extends forever, like, almost from one end of the theater complex to the other. Naturally, it has the best acoustics in the building. I went down there to practice scales—the echoing is incredible; you can practically do a barbershop quartet with yourself.”

  The detective’s eyes narrowed. “No one has reported hearing any singing that night.”

  “But that’s the point. If you close the fire door at the base of the stairs, the sound isn’t going to carry.”

  “You expect me to believe that you went down there to yodel on the same night that girl was murdered, and no one saw you or heard you singing.”

  “Look, straight up? This production of Rent could be my big break. Yeah, Caldwell is a regional market, but I had to beat out fifty guys my age with my vocal range for this fucking part. The director is a prick—everyone knows it—but he’s also got a national reputation. If I don’t hit those notes? He’s going to throw me out and fill the part with somebody else.” He leaned. “And you actually think I wouldn’t be practicing late at night to get it right?”