The Lost (Sin Hunters)

by Piñeiro, Caridad

  He narrowed his eyes, considering her. “You learned this in the Marines?”

  She shook her head and said, “No, from my brother who had a private security company. I worked in his office one summer before joining the Marines.”

  “You’ve had an interesting life, I see,” he said, leaned toward her, and kissed her once more.

  “Got to make it convincing, is that it?” she teased when they broke apart.

  “Totally,” he said, and after a brief hug, he stepped away and walked around to the driver’s side of his car. She quickly did the same, heading down the block to where her Sebring was parked. One of Adam’s people had returned it earlier that morning.

  She was about to slip into her seat when her phone chimed to announce a text message. She pulled it out of her pocket. Adam had sent her the address for the dry cleaner.

  Perfect. That would allow her to hang farther back in the hope of spotting the Jeep Wrangler.

  Texting back “k,” she watched him pull away from the curb, eased into her seat, and waited for a moment before taking off in the same direction as Adam. As she drove, she could see him quite a distance ahead of her, but no sign of the 4x4 that had passed them earlier. She continued, keeping a discreet distance and parking several yards away from the dry cleaner on Main Avenue. She exited her car and approached the display for the store closest to her. As she made believe she was eyeing the assorted clothes in the window, she watched the reflection of the vehicles that drove by, on the lookout for the Jeep.

  Nothing, but that didn’t mean anything. Maybe the two men had realized that they had been made and were being more cautious. After a few minutes, her phone chimed again. Another text from Adam with his next stop: the Macaroon Shop in Avon-by-Sea. Even though she had just eaten, her mouth watered at the thought of their almond macaroons.

  She slipped back into her car, and as he came out of the dry cleaner holding his shirts, she pulled out of her parking spot and drove by him. She kept to the right, moving slowly to keep him in her rearview mirror.

  At the bakery he once again stopped, entered the store, and came out with a box while she parked and watched out for the suspicious vehicle. Not a thing, and they repeated their steps, Adam running errand after errand until she finally caught sight of the Wrangler pulling into the parking lot of the local grocery store. It was an establishment she knew well, and after making sure Adam walked in and the two men were waiting for him, she drove to a spot around one corner of the building where there was a little-known entrance, one that was out of the line of sight of Adam’s stalkers.

  Parking the car, she sent a message to Adam that they had a bite and she would meet him in the dairy aisle, which was immediately adjacent to the seldom-used entrance. She went inside, her steps a trifle slow, as her leg had a cramp from the long period of inactivity as she drove around.

  He was waiting for her, and concern swept over his features as he saw her limp. “You okay?”

  “Just a cramp. The good news is, we’ve got them waiting for us.”

  Adam smiled. “I’m assuming we make them wait a good long time and then follow them.”

  She nodded. “You assumed right. But if you can get someone to pick up your car, preferably a mechanic, they’ll think you’re gone and head out faster.”

  Adam’s grin broadened. “You’re good. It’s nice to know you’re on my side.”

  He dialed and she listened in as he asked the mechanic at his garage to have someone pick up his car, detail it, and return it to his home by six. There seemed to be no argument on the line about schedules, availability, or any of the other things that popped up whenever she tried to schedule service. When he hung up, she said, “I guess money talks.”

  He didn’t fail to notice the terseness in her words. “I helped Mike out a few years ago when he was in a tight spot.”

  “You gave him a loan,” she said, deadpan.

  “Mike had an idea for a way to retrofit internal combustion engines to use solar power during low demand performance. I gave him the opportunity to build, patent, and license the technology,” he explained, and some of her earlier tension faded.

  “Teach a man to fish—”

  “And you feed him for a lifetime. Mike doesn’t need to work anymore, but he loves my sweet ride,” he said with a chuckle.

  He was a man full of surprises, Bobbie thought, enjoying their journey of discovery. Snaring his hand, she led him from the store and to her convertible, where she tossed him the keys and said, “We should put the top up. Less visible that way.”

  When they were ensconced in her car, she guided him back around close to the Jeep Wrangler, where they parked and waited. Mike the mechanic showed up only about fifteen minutes later and loaded the Bentley onto his flatbed.

  As the men noticed what was going on, they pulled out of their spot. Adam and Bobbie followed, making the hunters the hunted, following them as they drove south along Main Avenue until they were past Adam’s Spring Lake home. They were just beyond the town line when the Jeep turned onto one of the side streets and proceeded until they were back on Ocean Avenue and in front of one of the larger multimillion-dollar mansions that were right on the beach.

  They kept on going past the home as the Jeep parked in the circular drive, and the two men entered the home. Even with the bright sunlight, which sometimes bleached out weak auras, Adam could detect the brick-red aura surrounding them.

  “They’re like the men who attacked yesterday. Same field of power, only not as potent,” he advised.

  Bobbie scrunched her eyes together, as if trying to make it out, but then shook her head. “Can’t see it, but these guys weren’t as big and strong as the others.”

  “Their second string, maybe?” he guessed.

  “I guess we did a halfway decent job of taking out the starting lineup,” she offered.

  “Maybe.” Adam made a mental note of the address, intending to go back to his home and find out who owned it. He hoped that might give him a clue to who suddenly had such an interest in him. Glancing at his watch, he realized that their little adventure had eaten up the entire afternoon and that it was almost dinnertime.

  “Are you up for a bite?” he asked.

  “Only if you offer me some of those cookies from the Macaroon Shop,” she teased.

  “I’ll do you one better. I will prepare a homemade meal for you, complete with the world’s most amazing garlic bread—”

  “Garlic. Very romantic,” she jumped in, and he laughed.

  “Okay, nix the garlic, but not the fine vintage from my extensive wine cellar.”

  “How can you say no to a man who has his own wine cellar?” Humor was ripe in her tones. He liked hearing it.

  “We’re off, then,” he said, driving away from the mansion, but vigilant in case someone else decided to follow them.

  CHAPTER

  15

  Andres glared at his two men, almost unable to believe that they had lost Adam Bruno’s trail in broad daylight.

  “This is inexcusable. I cannot advise the Quinchus that we are not any closer to bringing their son to them.”

  “He gave us the slip,” said Marcus, the younger of the two foot soldiers.

  “You know where he lives. Go there. Watch him and guard against the woman,” Andres instructed, and shot a glance at his second in command. He was tempted to send Eduardo with them to make sure they didn’t screw up again, but there was a gray pallor beneath the olive tones of his comrade’s skin. Even with a feeding from the Quinchus, Eduardo’s aura was not as potent as it should have been. It was almost as if his life force was a battery that had been drained once too often and could no longer hold a charge.

  No, he would not send Eduardo with them. He had to keep Eduardo’s experience with him in the event the Shadows attacked their temporary enclave. Facing the two men, he said, “Go. Keep me advised of what you see. I will instruct you on what to do.”

  As the two men left, Eduardo coughed, drawing Andr
es’s attention. “I could have supervised them.”

  “I need you here, my friend. If the Shadows felt that blast of power last night, they could be out hunting. We cannot risk that they will locate us and we will be too shorthanded to fight.”

  Eduardo understood. Above all, the Quinchus had to be protected, since they were the source of life for so many in their clan. For him. He could feel the power dwindling in him. Knew his time on this Earth was short even though he had only just completed his first triad.

  He cursed the illness visited upon his descendants that had him feeding from other Hunters and the Quinchus like a mewling pup. As Andres clapped him on the back, sympathetic to the vibrations of anger charging his aura, Eduardo said, “I hope this man is Kikin. We have sacrificed too much to be wrong this time.”

  Andres said nothing. Just grasped his shoulder with empathy and led him to the Quinchus. While they would not like what they were about to hear, it was their duty to report it.

  Salvatore swept his binoculars across the grounds of the large mansion from his protection behind the sea grass on the dune. He hadn’t really known what to make of his son’s rather cryptic attitude that morning when they had discussed his little experiment of the night before and the attack. It was what made him sneak the GPS device onto Adam’s Bentley, worried as he was by his sudden weirdness.

  That had led him to Ocean Grove and his son’s date with Bobbie. For good measure, he had tagged her car as well while she and Adam were having lunch. Of all the things Salvatore had expected them to do, conducting a classic covert surveillance operation had not been one of them. But he had realized that’s what they were up to after his tracking software indicated that the two cars were following each other.

  Which had led him here to the gorgeous oceanfront mansion.

  As he scoped out the various windows visible from the beach, he caught signs of activity in one and zoomed in closer with his binoculars. He immediately observed the man from the photos, the man who had attacked Adam the day before. Beside him was the second perpetrator who had been involved in the incident.

  They were clearly speaking to someone, but whoever it was could not be seen.

  Interesting, he thought. He had researched Alexander Sombrosa quite carefully and had turned up only one private residence in this area—a nearby mansion in which Alexander’s son Christopher lived. Not this location.

  Rising from his position on the dune, Salvatore brushed the sand off his black suit and hurried back to his car. He needed to do a little more investigating before he either confirmed or ruled out Sombrosa’s responsibility for the attack. Once he did that, he would decide whether to proceed with their original plan or go with the alternate which had occurred to him: use Bobbie as the Eve for his Genesis project.

  Adam’s attraction to Bobbie was already there, and with modern advances in stem cell and gene therapies, he might be able to harvest just what he needed.

  Genesis would proceed one way or the other, and Adam would be none the wiser about Salvatore’s deceit.

  Bobbie rubbed her belly, feeling replete. As Adam had promised, the meal had been homemade, the wine wonderful, and the company even better. She had enjoyed working beside him in the kitchen, sharing stories about helping her mom and sister prepare a meal, and listening to his story of how Salvatore had patiently shown him the Bruno secret recipes for Sunday sauce, meatballs, and chicken parmigiana.

  “That was delicious,” she said, and took one last sip of the wine.

  “I’m glad you liked it. It’s not often I get to cook.”

  She smiled as she heard what he hadn’t said—that he hadn’t cooked for many other women in his home. She kind of hoped she was special that way.

  “Well, I appreciate it. I haven’t really been doing much socializing myself,” she admitted, and he grinned, likewise understanding her meaning. A slight pang of guilt gnawed at her about Gil, but then again, she and Gil had been done as lovers long before that morning in Baghdad.

  “Do you have room for the cookies?” he asked as he stood and began clearing off the table.

  She did, but their leisurely pace in making and eating dinner had already made it a late night. Her stamina wasn’t what it used to be, and the drain of the long day was dragging on her.

  “As much as I would like a cookie—”

  “I know it’s late. Take them with you. I’ll drive you home,” he said, and came to stand beside her. Reaching down, he stroked his hand along her hair before tipping her face up and bending to kiss her.

  The kiss, gentle and caring, made her want to reconsider leaving. And then came the even gentler push of his vitality, somehow recharging her flagging energy.

  “That feels good,” she said, and he jerked away, his aura bright around him, those amazing eyes nearly electric as they settled on her face before he reined in the power.

  Certain that he would prefer her silence about his lack of restraint, she rose from her seat and draped her arms over his shoulders. She inched up on tiptoe to kiss him before running her fingers through his hair and murmuring, “Thank you for dinner, but you don’t have to drive me home. Again.”

  He shook his head and smiled, then eased his hand upward to stroke his index finger across the sensitive skin beneath her eyes. “You’re not just tired. You’re exhausted. I can see it.”

  “You’re going to insist on taking me home.”

  “Definitely, so there’s no sense arguing about it,” he said, dipped his head, and brushed a kiss across her forehead.

  “I won’t argue. You’re not going to do anything stupid after you drop me off, like go back to that mansion?”

  The question of what to do about the two men had lingered in the back of his brain all night long, creating the start of a monster headache. But he still had no plan. “I need to know more before I do anything.”

  “Agreed. Just don’t go it alone,” she said, rubbing the back of his head playfully.

  He arched a brow and considered her. “I suppose you want me to call you?”

  Her eyes darkened to the color of rich maple. Sadness crept in to replace the earlier light in her eyes. “I’m not sure that I’m ready for battle mode anymore, Adam. I’ve had enough fighting and death to last me a lifetime.”

  And yet she had helped him today, he thought, but didn’t press. As strong as she was, her emotions were obviously still fragile about that, which was understandable considering what she had survived.

  “I’ll drive you home so you can get some rest. Maybe you’ll feel up to dinner tomorrow?”

  The hint of a smile drifted across her lips and her eyes brightened, losing some of their gloom. “Sure. How about my place? I make some mean Mexican food.”

  That she was willing to let him into her space was a welcome sign. “I’d like that.”

  After another kiss that had him doubting the wisdom of letting her go that night, he walked her to his car for the drive home.

  “They’re on the move,” Marcus mumbled, and nudged awake Lucas, the other cadre member, in the passenger seat beside him. Lucas was instantly alert, tracking the Bentley Continental as it pulled out of the driveway. The aura of the two people—a deep royal blue and a paler sky blue—was bright in the dark of the night and quite visible since the top was down on the vehicle.

  “We should alert our captain,” Lucas said as Marcus pulled away from the curb to follow the other car at a discreet distance.

  Lucas dialed Andres, who immediately answered. “Do we have a problem?”

  “The man and woman have left the house. We’re following them.”

  “Get as much info as you can on the woman. We need to know who she is.”

  “What if there is trouble? What are our orders?” Lucas asked, risking a half glance at Marcus as he drove the Jeep.

  “They are aware of the threat now, so we need to be circumspect. We must not raise alarm until we are ready. The Quinchus wish to approach him peacefully and speak with him,” Andres ins
tructed, in keeping with the change of plans they had decided upon earlier that night with Kellen and Selina.

  “Yes, my captain,” Lucas replied, pumping his right fist to his chest in a salute ingrained in him after decades of service.

  Marcus gripped the wheel tightly and turned his head for only a second to ask, “What are we to do?”

  “Follow for now and find out what we can about the woman.”

  “The woman?” Marcus questioned, his voice rising with worry. “What about the man? Adam?”

  “The Quinchus have decided to go talk to him, so we must not endanger him.”

  With a nod, Marcus drove onward. It was not his place to question the Quinchus’ orders, but he was a warrior, and the thought of allowing a Shadow to gain the upper hand left him troubled. Trying to contain his doubts, he followed the Bentley as it rolled along the quiet streets of a cool spring night.

  Bobbie glanced in her side-view mirror again. The Jeep was still on their tail. It was the same kind of automobile as the one from this afternoon that they had followed to the mansion in Sea Girt. She had noticed its headlights almost as soon as they had turned out of Adam’s driveway.

  Glancing nervously at Adam, she realized he had seen the Jeep as well.

  “They’re back,” he said.

  “It’s time we did something,” she replied, and whipped out her cell phone.

  Adam quickly reached over and covered her hand with his. “What are you doing?”

  “Calling for help. My brother and cousin are cops.”

  He shook his head vehemently. “I can’t have the authorities involved.”

  All her life Bobbie had respected those authorities, but she understood. For people like Adam, people who were different, the institutions she cherished could be a threat to their existence.

  “Let’s see if they really are following us. That’s a pretty popular brand of car in this area. Make a left up there.” Bobbie pulled down the passenger-side sunshade to reveal the mirror. Opening it, she angled the mirror so she could keep a better eye on the Jeep.