by Myla Jackson
“Leave?” Melisande stared up at her as if she’d shaken a screw loose. “Why? I’m happy for the first time in my life. I can come and go as I please, and Yuri is paying for my education. I have everything I could want.”
“But you’re living with vampires.” Had they brainwashed her, was she in some kind of trance? Didn’t she get it?
However, Yuri had been very persuasive, sexy and unlike any other man she’d ever met. The touch of his skin against hers hadn’t been as she’d thought it would be. He didn’t feel at all dead. His body had been warm and pulsing with life, just like one of the living.
Could she be wrong about vampires? Was there such a thing as a good vampire, or was it all a part of his act? Mentally shaking herself, she stared across at Melisande. “Don’t you understand? The two guys in the other room are vampires, creatures of the night. Honey, they’re bloodsucking monsters!”
“No. You don’t understand. They might be vampires, but they’re more human than my father. He was the monster.” She yanked her hands from Reggie’s. “The sun’s up. You can leave now.”
Chapter Five
The door closed behind Reggie with a resounding slam. She hadn’t bothered to say goodbye, thank you or kiss my ass as she left.
And Yuri hadn’t tried to stop her. He couldn’t hold her captive forever. Having promised to let her go at sunup, he wouldn’t go back on his word. Even when his insides screamed he was a fool to let her go.
Why should he care?
“I still think you took a big risk letting her leave on her own.” Torsten leaned against the bar separating the kitchen from the living area. “She could lead others back here.”
“She won’t,” Yuri said, wondering if he was right. Although he’d healed her wound, she hadn’t wanted him to. She didn’t like vampires, and she was bound and determined to kill every last one of them. What made him think she wouldn’t come back with a bunch of her buddies at the PIA and finish him off?
Nothing.
He was living on wishful thinking, and that kind of thinking got a vampire dusted.
“She’s pretty, isn’t she?” Melisande entered the living area from Yuri’s bedroom. “I can see why Yuri’s enchanted by her. Although she didn’t seem to share the sentiment.”
“I’m not enchanted.” He shot a fierce frown toward Melisande.
She smiled.
“I pulled her out of a tight situation, that’s all,” he continued as if he needed to explain himself. As if he ever explained his actions.
“Then why did you make love to her not once but twice and then come out of there with a hard-on the size of Copenhagen?” Melisande’s gaze flicked to Yuri’s pants, still slightly bulging from his tumble with Reggie.
Yuri’s frown transferred to his friend. “I’m not immune to a sexy woman. That doesn’t mean I have feelings for her. She’s a vampire-hating stranger, for the love of God. She tried to kill me.”
“Stimulating, wasn’t it?” Torsten grinned. “I don’t think I’ve seen you this intrigued with a woman. Ever.”
“Enough,” Yuri said, his voice firm. All he wanted was to put her out of his mind. “We have bigger problems to worry about than a PIA agent.” Even if she had hair the color of fire and skin so soft… Yuri forced himself back on track. “Seems our man Andrei is up to his old tricks.”
“Are you sure Andrei’s behind the gang attack last night?” Torsten asked.
“I saw a tattoo on Cesar’s arm.” Yuri’s chest tightened when he thought of the shot they’d fired at Reggie and how they’d hunted her down. “It was Andrei’s mark of the dragon.”
“How bad is that?” Melisande asked.
“We have no idea how many gang members he might have recruited. They’ve already captured over a dozen young women.”
“Damn.” Torsten shoved a hand through his long blond hair.
“We may not have much time.” Yuri stared at the curtains covering the windows, the daylight edging in around the sides making him squint.
Frustration welled up inside him. He needed every hour of the day and night to find Andrei. He was as slippery as they came, and too evil for too long to change.
“Not much we can do until nightfall.” Torsten yawned. “I’m for some rest.”
“What about me?” Melisande asked. “I can go out during the daylight.”
“No!” Both Yuri and Torsten shouted in unison.
“You two treat me like a baby. I’m twenty-three and old enough to make up my own mind.”
“Yeah, and you fit the profile for Andrei’s buyers.” Yuri touched a hand to her cheek. “Young, pretty and alone. We know you can make your own decisions, but we can’t help you during the daytime. Andrei’s been known to get his human minions to work the dayshift for him.”
“Still…” Melisande frowned. “I feel so useless. While Reggie’s out fighting the bad guys, you two keep me cocooned from everything in here. I’m getting bored, and I want to go back to my classes.”
“You will, ma petite, soon enough.” Yuri pressed a kiss to her forehead as he would a child. At twenty-three, she wasn’t much more than a child. “Let us take care of Andrei first. No woman is safe out there right now.”
“You let Reggie go,” she pointed out.
“She’s trained in law enforcement and self-defense,” Yuri said. “Taking care of herself is second nature.”
Melisande’s brows rose. “Then why didn’t you let her leave when she wanted to instead of waiting until daylight?”
Gotcha.
Yuri clamped his lips closed. He wasn’t going down that path. He hadn’t wanted her to leave, but he’d promised her by daylight.
“I think our Yuri has met his match in Reggie. Wouldn’t you say?” Torsten laid an arm across Yuri’s shoulders, a smirky grin quirking his lips upward. “In the meantime, let’s get some rest for the night ahead. We have a lot of work to do in order to find and rein in Andrei.”
* * * * *
Heads popped up over the tops of walled cubicles as Reggie stormed through the offices of the Paranormal Investigations Agency. When she reached Blake Tanner’s office, she marched in without knocking, slinging the door open so fast it crashed against the wall. “Where’s Madison?”
She’d been by their apartment before she came to the station. No amount of calling raised Madison on her cell phone. Reggie’s last hope was that she’d made it back to the station in the time it had taken for her to get from Yuri’s penthouse to the station.
Tanner rose from the chair behind his desk, a phone pressed to his ear and scowl on his face. “I understand, sir. We have our best people on the case and hope to have it wrapped up by tonight.” He nodded as if the man on the other end of the line could see him. “Yes sir. I understand how important the safety of the city is to you. Yes sir, I’ll keep you informed. Thank you, sir.” The line clicked loud enough that Tanner jerked the phone away from his ear with a wince. Then he set it back in its receiver and turned his full attention to Reggie. “Have a seat.”
“I don’t need a freakin’ seat. I want to know where the hell my sister is.”
Tanner looked her square in the eye, one of his better traits. He didn’t waste words or hold back on the truth. “She never came in after the mission went south. I have ten people out combing the streets for some sign of her, and so far I’ve gotten no reports.”
He walked around the desk and reached out to pat her back, the movement awkward but well-intentioned. The man was typical type A and didn’t know an emotion until it slapped him in the face. But not a man or woman on his team had any doubt he’d give his life for every one of them. “I’m sorry, Reggie.”
“Well, sorry ain’t cuttin’ it.” Brushing away a tear, she glared at him through watery eyes. She would not break down in front of this man or any other, for that matter. “She’s my sister,” she whispered, biting hard on her lip to keep it from trembling.
“I know, and we’ll find her.” He turned away, his motions j
erky. The man probably wasn’t used to tears on a team consisting predominantly of men. If she and Madison hadn’t gotten in his face and more or less worn him down, they would never have been allowed on the team. “We recovered Macias and Jones where they’d set up audio surveillance.”
Reggie gulped back her tears, her breath caught in her throat. “Dead?”
“Didn’t even have a chance. Necks broken and both drained. Looked like the work of vampires. Up until you walked in the door, we though you and Madison were going on our list of missing women.”
He didn’t complete the thought. Instead of both of them going on the missing women list, Madison would be the only one unless she miraculously appeared in the next few hours. Where the hell was she?
“I have people out looking for you both. I’ll let them know at least you’re back.” He sighed and sat behind his desk, rifling through the stack of files until he unearthed one. He glanced across at her. “I take it you’re not going to get any rest after being up all night?”
“You got that right. I can’t rest until I know where Madison is.”
“Good, then you can follow up on a lead we just got. An A. Skirko owns a warehouse on the waterfront. Word on the street has it that he might be involved somehow with the disappearances. I want you to take Humberto and check it out. And this time, don’t lose your partner.” His words weren’t said with malice, but he meant it nonetheless. The rule in this business was to fly with a wingman and never let him out of sight.
Reggie understood, but her reckless sister didn’t always play by the rules, and sometimes that came back to bite her. Hopefully, this time the bite wasn’t from a vampire.
“By the way, where were you? Why didn’t you report in?” Tanner pinned her with a stare. “You had us all worried.”
Now was the time to tell her boss she’d been detained by a vampire and held until dawn. If she were a good agent, she’d do it without hesitation. An image of Yuri Kovak sprang to mind. The image where he wasn’t wearing a shirt and she was naked. Her body tensed all over again. “When I lost Madison, I hunkered down in a safe place until daylight.”
His attention was back on the stack of documents in front of him. “Smart move. Next time, try to get a call in to me.”
“Yes sir.” She spun on her heel and headed to her desk. Once seated, she gathered her thoughts. Where was Madison? The only leads she had were the Dragóns and the folder Tanner had given her.
The Dragóns were a diverse group of gang members, primarily from the poor neighborhoods. Kids who’d been left to run the streets by parents who were either too spaced-out on drugs or just didn’t give a damn. Those kids grew into criminals, running in packs like rabid dogs, ripe for any illegal way to make a buck. Nothing was off-limits to them. Stealing, killing and kidnapping women would be right up their alley. But was there a bigger fish to fry at the core of their work?
Reggie pored over the file of A. Skirko, foreign-born businessman with substantial financial holdings in the Houston area, including shipping ties and warehouses along the waterfront. She jotted down the addresses of the places that might be used to hold over a dozen—make that fourteen women, counting Madison. Reggie refused to believe any one of them was dead, and her sister was only waiting for her to find her and save her sorry ass.
And she’d kick it from here to tomorrow, after Madison was safe and sound back home.
“Bert?” she yelled as she rose from her desk.
“Yo, Reggie, good to see you back in one piece. Like the shirt.” He nodded at the cleavage no amount of tying could cover.
He was a notorious yet harmless womanizer, but all in all not too bad. Reggie had worked with him on occasion when Madison was out sick. “Keep it in your pants, Casanova. We have work to do.”
In one of the agency’s nondescript gray sedans, they traveled east along the congested highways crisscrossing the metropolitan spread that was Houston toward the inland waterways and ports. When they turned onto the road where one of the warehouses was located, Reggie caught glimpses of the water between the rows of buildings.
Clouds churned in the sky, blotting out the sun and turning the water to a perpetual dark gray.
Reggie parked the car three buildings shy of their target, pulling around back, out of sight. When she got out, she was hit with the full force of the coastal humidity the air conditioner had effectively cut up to this point. “Remind me why I live in Houston?” she grumbled.
Her family had been in Houston as far back as her great-great grandfather. They’d settled in this area, coming all the way from Ireland to start over in the new world. Why couldn’t they have found a cooler, drier place to start a new life?
With her sister’s life hanging in the balance, she had to hurry. Reggie broke into a jog, covering the distance between the buildings with Bert barely keeping up.
All the warehouses looked pretty much the same, and she feared she’d lose count or get the wrong one. Then she recognized the symbol painted in bold black across the back door of one of them. She’d seen it in the file and on Cesar’s arm in the form of a tattoo. It was a circle made of the coil of a snake’s body with the head and tail of a dragon. “I’ll take door number one.”
“Sure this is it?”
“Absolutely.” She grabbed the doorknob on the off chance it would open, only to be disappointed. The door was locked.
“How do you suggest we get in?”
“There has to be a way.” She scanned the walls of the steel-and-metal-sided building. Without so much as a window close enough to the ground to crawl into, the place was a veritable fortress.
A truck rumbled along the street out front, slowing to a stop.
Reggie ran toward it, calling back over her shoulder, “Come on.”
Tucked in the shadow cast by the morning sun, Reggie and Bert skimmed along the sheet metal siding to the front where a delivery truck stood. The driver honked three times and waited.
When the giant doors rolled open, a man stepped out to speak to the driver.
“Be ready. We’re going in,” Reggie said, never taking her gaze from the truck.
“What? Are you crazy?” Bert whispered. “We don’t know how many people are inside.”
“A chance we’ll have to take.” Especially if her sister was inside. “I tell you what, you stay out here and keep your eyes peeled for trouble.”
“I can’t let you go in by yourself.”
“Better just one person than two. That way, if I get in trouble, you can go for help. If I’m not back in twenty minutes, call Tanner.”
“I don’t like it.”
“Tough. I’m going.” The truck’s engine rumbled and it rolled past the building and then backed in. Reggie crept up to the passenger side and crouched low, walking inside with the truck until she passed the doorway, at which time, she ducked behind a stand of crates on pallets.
Her heart hammered against her rib cage as her eyes adjusted to the darker interior of the warehouse. As soon as the truck cleared the entrance, the giant doors closed.
Good. She was inside, and the alarm hadn’t gone up. Male voices echoed in the cavernous interior. Reggie peeked around the corner of the crate.
Eight men stood around the newly arrived delivery truck, all looking like one or the other of Cesar’s thugs—tattooed, earring-wearing muscular guys in black. Great. Her nightmare from last night. Only this time there would be no vampire to rescue her. He was safely tucked in his apartment until sunset. Definitely a limitation in her book. Not that she wanted him to save her.
While the men focused on the truck, Reggie moved away from the door and farther back into the warehouse half the size of a football field. Stacks of wooden crates rose to ten feet high, creating a maze for Reggie to work her way through one row at a time. Until she came to a solid block of containers thirty feet wide and thirty feet long. Reggie edged her way around the periphery until she found an entry into the stack.
Voices carried to her, sounding cl
oser than before, and she could hear footsteps moving her direction.
Before she could think, she ducked into the wall of crates, finding a neat row of more wooden boxes. Only these weren’t stacked. Fourteen of the coffin-sized containers lined the walls, each with the tops off and white blankets covering the contents.
“Are they ready for shipment?” a male voice asked. “The boss doesn’t want any more screwups.”
“They’re ready.” Reggie recognized Cesar’s voice from last night. Damn she was right in the middle of something.
She ducked behind one of the crates in the shadows of the far corner and held her breath. If they caught her, it would be up to Bert to get word back to the PIA. By then, it might be too late.
The footsteps halted in her little room and paused in front of one of the boxes.
“When do you want us to seal the containers?” Cesar asked.
“Not until the last minute. Each box is ventilated, but we don’t want to risk keeping them confined for too long. Our customers want them fresh not suffocated.”
What were they talking about? Reggie tried to read between the lines. Were they discussing fresh foods or the missing women? Anger boiled inside her. How could these animals play with lives the way they did? But she knew how psychopaths worked. They had no remorse.
“Are they drugged?” Cesar said.
“Sort of. The boss put them in some kind of trance. They’re asleep until he wakes them.”
“Must be nice to be a vamp. Wish I could use that trick on my old lady.” Cesar laughed.
The other man remained silent.
“Well, anyway, the boss oughta be happy with this shipment,” Cesar continued, all humor wiped from his voice.
“He’d have been happier if you’d gotten the other sister last night.”
Reggie smothered a gasp. Although she’d guessed they’d been talking about the women, hearing reference to her sister almost made her blow her cover. As angry as she was, she could take two men, but the other six, and who knew how many more there might be, could take her out, and where would that leave her sister and the other thirteen young ladies being held hostage?