She moaned.
“Dana,” he gasped.
She panted, staring into his eyes.
He kissed one of her nipples.
They were so sensitive now that she felt the kiss in her clit, and she clenched around him.
He grunted. “Oh, I can’t…” He was shaking, his body against hers, his body in hers. “I can’t last much longer. I need you to come for me.”
This was different. She didn’t think she’d ever seen Cole out of control, not even when they were having sex. He was usually so in charge of himself—in charge of her. But she could see that he was falling apart. When she looked into his eyes, she didn’t see darkness, she saw desire. He wasn’t in control at all.
She clenched again. Her clit started to burn pleasantly, and she felt like she was ascending to a higher plane of pleasure, climbing to a new plateau.
His hand thrust between their bodies, and he didn’t even find her clit, just her mound. He put pressure against her there, his palm moving in circles.
No… now she was falling apart. She wasn’t at a plateau at all. She was tumbling over the edge of a precipice.
“That’s it, beautiful.” His voice was shaking. “Give it up. Let it go.”
She shook too, and then convulsed—an ecstasy of clenching, pleasure wringing out of her body as she threw her head back and screamed her orgasm at the rainy sky.
Cole’s mouth on her neck, his body rigid against hers.
The rain hitting her everywhere. Hot—no, it was her skin that was hot, and the rain was cold, and…
“Dana, Dana, Dana, Dana.” He was gasping out her name.
Cole’s body trembling.
Her body trembling.
And then she was on her back in the wet grass, and he was on top of her, and their legs were tangled together, and he was still inside her, and they were both out of breath, and the rain was cold needles on her skin, and she was crying.
His mouth was still on her neck.
She shuddered out a sob. She looked up at the clouds. “She’s your daughter, Cole.”
He lifted his head, confused. “What?”
“Piper,” she said. “She’s yours.”
* * *
Cole couldn’t move.
Dana wriggled out beneath him. She extricated her body from his and staggered to her feet.
Cole looked up at her, too stunned to remember how to breathe. What the hell had she just said?
She fished her sopping jumpsuit up off the ground and stepped into it. Her whole body was trembling. She wouldn’t look at him.
Cole couldn’t move.
She ran her hand over her hair—her wet hair. She brushed rain off her face.
Then she started back for the car.
He watched her, striding back through the rain. The car wasn’t close anymore, because they’d run so far from it, and he watched her get smaller and smaller the further that she walked.
When she got in the car, he heard the faint sound of the door closing.
He stayed motionless for a little bit longer, and then he reached for his own jumpsuit. He tugged it on, and the little girl flashed in his memory. She stood inside the apartment, chewing on her fingernail, looking up at him with huge eyes.
Why the fuck would Dana say that?
He started for the car.
Dana was playing him. She was saying it to manipulate him. She thought that he’d only help her find the little girl if he had some sort of stake in her daughter. She thought that he wouldn’t care about Piper if she was Avery’s daughter.
Dana was wrong. He would have helped her find her daughter. She didn’t need to make shit like that up.
He cared about Dana.
Maybe she didn’t think he did, but he was devoted to her, and if she still didn’t understand that, then he didn’t know how he could possibly convince her.
He was angry when he reached the car.
He threw open the driver’s side, got in, and started the car. He pulled back onto the road, squealing the tires.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before,” she said. “I should have. The thing is, I really wasn’t sure. It’s not like I had some kind of paternity test done or something. So, while I was pregnant, I told myself that she could be Avery’s, even though… well, the whole time we were in Brockway, I didn’t have my period, so I must have gotten pregnant that time you and I did it in that trailer, and—”
“Stop,” said Cole. His throat was closing up. He couldn’t breathe. “Just stop.”
She was quiet.
He gripped the steering wheel. He was thoroughly wet, and he felt cold all over, like the cold was seeping into his soul.
Neither of them said anything for several more minutes.
Cole reached down and fiddled with the controls on the car. He wanted to turn on the heat. “I don’t… I don’t believe you.”
She reached over and helped him. “You don’t?”
Hot air rushed through the vents in the car.
“No.”
“Cole, she looks like you.”
He tried to swallow, and he couldn’t. He felt like the car was collapsing on him.
Dana was still talking. “Avery knew it too. We only talked about it once, right before I was leaving with you, but he knew that she wasn’t his. I think it was just easier… You were gone, and I was mated to Avery, and…” She rested her head against the window.
Cole sucked in a breath. Somehow, he was able to fill his lungs.
The heat was too hot. He switched it off.
“Say something,” said Dana.
There was nothing to say. It couldn’t be true. He wouldn’t believe it. She had to be confused. There was no way in hell—
He pulled the car over. He put it in park. He let go of the steering wheel, and then he turned to look at Dana.
She was chewing on her lip.
“Just take it back,” he said.
Her face fell.
“Why would you tell me this now?” he said.
“I don’t know. I just said it.”
“Because I came inside you? Because you were afraid it would happen again?”
She furrowed her brow. “No, I didn’t even think of that. It’s only that… well, you should know. You deserve to know.”
He stared through the windshield. The rain was starting to slow down now. In the distance, he could see a patch of clear sky. “Is that why you hate her?”
“What?” She was shocked. “I don’t hate her, Cole. I love her. She’s the most important thing in my life.”
He put the car in gear again. “You never talk about her. You left her alone to run off with me. And you keep talking about how much you hate me, so it only stands to reason.”
“Cole, that’s not… You know things between us are complicated. But we just made love, and it felt like something changed.”
“Is that what we did? ‘Hurt me, Cole.’ Is that love?” He refused to look at her as he pulled back onto the road.
She sighed. “No, I didn’t mean… I’m not saying we’re in love or something. I don’t think you even know how to love.”
“Oh.” He chuckled. “Right. I’m incapable of emotion. I forgot.”
“You’re are emotionally challenged. You were just saying how it doesn’t bother you to kill people.”
“You know, Dana, when we were in that trailer, you said you couldn’t stand the idea of me getting you pregnant. What did you call it? Oh, I remember. ‘Monster spawn.’” He was pressing down on the gas pedal, and the car was going faster and faster. He couldn’t help it.
“Cole.” She let out an audible breath. “I was angry and afraid, and you do… coerce me into having sex with you. I mean, you just did.”
“Fuck that.” He glowered at the road, the speedometer still easing upwards. “You started that. I didn’t start it.”
“How do you figure?”
“You got me turned on,” he said. She had, hadn’t she? She’d said something o
r done something. Oh. That was right. He winced. She’d started talking about what he’d done to her back in Enoch’s camp. He guessed that was a fucked-up thing to turn him on. “I had to touch you. I couldn’t stop myself. And once I was doing it, you were fine with it.”
She made a flabbergasted sound. “Oh, so I was just asking for it, then.”
“Yes. Maybe.” He pounded the steering wheel with one hand. “I don’t fucking know.” They were racing down the road now, and he was struggling to make it around the curves.
“You’re an asshole.”
A sharp turn loomed ahead of them. He knew he wasn’t going to be able to take it at this speed. He slammed on the brakes, and they careened around it.
Dana clutched the door handle. “Cole?” She sounded afraid.
He slowed the car as they came out of the curve, returning to a sensible speed. He glanced sidelong at her, and he realized he was afraid too. “I… I don’t even know how to be a father.”
“You don’t know how to be anything, Cole,” she muttered.
He flinched.
“I mean, what the hell? How dare you say I was asking for it? You’re a fucking rapist. That’s what you are. And it’s like you’re not even human.”
“You’re not human either. We’re both goddamned werewolves.”
“That doesn’t mean we aren’t human,” she said. “Well, maybe it does for you, but not for me.”
He didn’t feel angry anymore, just terrified.
She kept talking, though. “And I never thought of her as ‘monster spawn.’ I love her more than my life, and I would die for her. She is the best, most amazing thing that happened to me. I’ve never hated her, not for one second. You’re the one I hate, Cole. You.”
“Fine. You hate me.” He sagged into the seat, staring at the gradually clearing sky, and he felt defeated.
Next to him, she let out a heavy sigh. “Look…”
He waited, but she didn’t say anything else. He turned to look at her. She was rubbing her temples.
He gripped and released the steering wheel. “I’m going to help you get her back. I was always going to do that. I heard you when you asked about her during the interrogation with Patton. I know you need to find her.”
Her voice was soft. “What?”
“We’ll find her. I’m sure that Enoch wouldn’t have hurt a kid. So, she’s got to be somewhere. We won’t stop until we know where.”
She was quiet. And then she put her hand on his thigh. “Thank you.”
“Yeah, not a big deal.”
“Listen, I don’t…” She sighed again. “I mean, maybe sometimes I do, but overall, I…”
“What are you talking about?”
“This thing with us? It’s not love, but it’s not hate. I don’t hate you.”
“Good.” He smiled a little. “Because I don’t hate you either.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
They drove into a small town that night. Dana was sleeping, and Cole woke her up to tell her that they were going to need supplies. They didn’t have any money, and they were still wearing their jumpsuits, which made them look like escaped prisoners.
Which they essentially were, of course.
Cole said they were going to have to steal. Dana resisted a little bit at first, but then she figured it didn’t matter. They’d both murdered before. What was a little theft compared to that?
There weren’t many stores in the town proper, but they found a big box store in a strip mall on the outskirts. It was one of those places open twenty-four hours, with everything from stereos to groceries. Dana felt a little apprehensive that the place was open. After all, she’d envisioned her theft happening in a darkened store with no one around.
But it was after midnight, and the store was barely staffed.
They strode in through the doors, and the one person working the registers looked up at them for two seconds before going back to his magazine.
Dana followed Cole’s lead, and he seemed utterly nonplussed about the entire endeavor. He wandered through aisles, grabbing clothes and shoving them in a backpack that he’d also taken off a shelf. They went into the dressing rooms and changed into their newly stolen clothes, tossing the tags on the floor. No one was manning the dressing rooms at this time of night. The whole place had a sort of ghostly feel. Even the overhead fluorescent lights seemed eerie.
After getting clothes, they went to the electronics section of the store, where Cole looked at prepaid cell phones. Unfortunately, the phones were locked up behind glass. There was one worker back there, but she wasn’t at the cash register. Instead, she seemed to be covering the entire back end of the store, wandering from the shoes to the electronics to the fabrics.
Cole grabbed her on one of her passes. He smiled at her. “I need to look at the phones.”
“Sure,” she said and went to get her keys.
Once she’d unlocked it, Cole grabbed her from behind. He pinned her against his body with one arm, and the other arm went to her neck.
Dana hadn’t been expecting that, and she backed up—backed all the way into a DVD display. She nearly knocked it over, but caught it before it toppled.
Cole was talking to the woman in a soft voice. “All I need to do is tighten my grip on your neck, move just one inch to the right, and you’ll be dead in seconds.”
The woman’s eyes bulged. She was a portly woman in her mid thirties. She had dark hair that hung to her shoulders in tight curls.
“But I’m not going to do that,” said Cole. “Not as long as you cooperate. Do you want to cooperate?”
The woman nodded furiously.
“Very good,” said Cole in a tone that sounded disturbingly like the one he used during sex. “Let’s go over and open the cash register, then.” He turned to Dana. “Grab at least ten of those phones, beautiful.”
Dana wasn’t sure she liked this. She thought they were just stealing things, not hurting people. But she couldn’t back out now, so she went over and began stuffing phones into her backpack.
While she was doing that, Cole and the woman were opening the cash register. He never let go of the woman. He made her take all the money out of the register and put it into his backpack.
“Got the phones?” Cole asked Dana.
She nodded.
“Good,” he said. “Go on out, then. I’ll meet you at the car.”
Dana bit down on her lip. What the hell was Cole going to do to that woman? “I don’t know if you should—”
“Go,” said Cole.
She went.
She was worried, since she was carrying a backpack full of stolen clothing and phones, and she struggled not to look at the worker at the front of the store as she hurried out.
But nothing happened. No alarm sounded. The worker didn’t come after her.
So, she went to the car, and she waited for Cole.
In a moment, she saw him loping out of the store, taking his sweet time, as if he didn’t have a care in the world.
He grinned at her.
She got into the car.
He joined her.
“What did you do to that woman?” she said. “Did you kill her?”
“Nah,” he said. “I made her go into the employee storeroom and count to two hundred. She was too scared to do anything, anyway.”
“But you said that if you moved one inch to the right—”
“That was bullshit, Dana.” He backed the car out. “I made it up.”
“Oh,” she said. The thought hadn’t even occurred to her. He was very convincing.
They drove out of town, putting about an hour between the store and themselves. Dana was glad to be out of the jumpsuit. She was more comfortable. She watched the dark scenery outside of the window.
After an hour, Cole pulled the car over. “Give me a phone,” he said.
She got one out of her backpack. “What do you need a phone for?”
He took the phone from her and began opening the package. “Well, we c
an’t just drive around aimlessly. We need a destination. For all the hell I know, I’m simply taking us further and further away from wherever they’ve got Piper. So, I need to get some idea where she is.”
“And you can do that with a phone?”
“Maybe.” He peered into the backseat. “Hey, can you reach the backpack I took? There should be some prepaid cards in there. I got our little friend the cashier to activate them for us. Learned the hard way that those things don’t work if they don’t get rung up.”
Dana reached back and fished out the prepaid cards.
“Thanks.” Cole took one and finished assembling the phone. “Damn it.”
“What?” she said.
He made a face. “I’m realizing that I need another phone to activate this phone.”
“Why do you need to activate the phone?”
“Because I want to try to call Booth—the guy I called before, when we tied you up and sent that picture. Maybe he knows where Enoch is.”
“You said that your bridges to Enoch were all burned,” she said.
“Probably they are,” he said. “But it’s one thing to try contacting him for the SF. It’s a completely different thing when I’m trying to find your daughter.” He turned the phone over in his hands. “Our daughter?” He looked up at her. “That just sounds weird.”
She’d actually liked hearing it come out of his mouth. It had made her feel… good somehow. Connected to him. She cleared her throat. “You think it would work? That we could find Enoch that way?”
“We have to try,” he said.
She nodded. “So, we need another phone.”
“Yeah.” He took a thoughtful breath. “Actually, did you grab any of those android phones?”
“Maybe.” She rummaged through the bag. “There was only one that was prepaid. I think I… Yeah, there it is.” She got it out and handed it to him. “Why does it matter?”
“Well, this will connect to a wireless network if I can find one. And then I can activate this phone online.”
Of course, there weren’t any wireless networks where they were parked. So they drove around until they found a fast food restaurant, and they pulled into the parking lot. Wireless network? Check.
She perched in the passenger seat while Cole activated the phone.
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