I groaned.
“Ignore it.”
But I couldn’t. I extricated myself from her touch and reached for the phone, nearly ready to throw it across the room when I saw my grandmother’s number on the screen.
“What?”
“My family. They’re a little needy.”
She took the phone out of my hand and rolled away. I chased her, trying to grab it back, but I was too tangled in the sheets to reach her.
“You don’t want to do that,” I warned her, but she was already speaking.
“Hello, Mrs. Thomasson ... he’s here, but I wanted to introduce myself. I’m Karma Myers ... yes, ma’am, I’m a friend of Kasey’s ... no, ma’am, we haven’t met ... no, Kasey’s with me ... he’s on a work assignment ... yes, ma’am, I’m sure he’ll be willing to come look at your roof as soon as he gets home ... I understand, ma’am, but he has to work for a living ... yes, ma’am, I’ll tell him ...”
I sat there and listened, wondering how long it would be before my grandmother made Karma lose her patience. But she didn’t. She kept right up, her tone never changing. I’d never seen anything like it.
When she hung up, she turned to me and smiled. “Nice lady.”
That had to have been the most shocking thing I’d ever heard.
“You were talking to my grandmother, right?”
“I assume so.”
“And she didn’t say anything offensive? She didn’t annoy you?”
“Of course not.”
Karma seemed genuinely confused by my question.
I got up and tugged her close to me, studying her face to find the teasing light in her eyes or the frown line of annoyance. But it wasn’t there. She actually seemed genuinely okay with the conversation she’d just had.
“Most people find my grandmother tedious. I occasionally find my grandmother tedious.”
“She just wanted to let you know the wind blew some shingles off the roof this afternoon.”
I tilted my head slightly. “And you don’t find it odd that she would call about such a thing after midnight?”
Karma shrugged. “Maybe it slipped her mind until now.”
And then I knew. I knew this woman was the one woman I’d been waiting all my life to find.
I lifted her up, making her laugh as I spun around and tossed her onto the bed, diving after her.
“You are fucking amazing,” I said as I crawled on top of her gorgeous body. “Every other woman I’ve ever known had hated my family on first acquaintance. But you? You talk to my grandmother and actually get her off the phone in less than five minutes. Five minutes! That is a fucking miracle!”
She laughed. “If I’d known that was the way to win your heart, I would have done it the first time we met.”
I brushed the hair out of her face and kissed her roughly. “You are amazing.”
Chapter 13
Hayden
I paced behind Waverly, listening to her fingers work over the computer keyboard. It reminded me too much of standing behind Sam, waiting for her to fix the computer virus that had corrupted our only lead on the rogue CIA agent who had made our lives a living hell five years ago. And she’d done it, working until an hour before she died, revealing truths that none of us had been prepared for.
Was Waverly doing the same, even though she had every right to have turned down my request for help? Dragon hadn’t exactly shown any gratitude for her willingness to share her skills. Nor had I.
“Here it is,” she finally said, rolling back in her chair so that I could see the computer screen. She’d been tracing a phone call made to Rosalie Matthias’ sister, a phone call that had apparently come from someone who wanted me involved on Rosalie’s case. I had no idea why or who it might be behind this call. But now I knew where it came from.
A hotel in San Diego, California.
“Can you take a peek at the hotel’s records and see who made this call?”
“One step ahead of you.”
Waverly moved close beside me and tapped on the keyboard again, bringing up another screen with a list of names, credit card information, and room numbers. She tapped one entry in particular with the tip of one long fingernail.
“The call came from this room.”
The name on the hotel records was Daniel Preston. I’d never heard it a day in my life.
“Can you do a background check? Figure out who this person is?”
“It’s probably an alias.”
“Probably. But any information you can get for me would be helpful.”
Waverly sat back down in her chair and studied my face. “I’ll need access to the databases at Dragon.”
“No one can know about this. The security team is running diagnostics—”
“I can get around them.”
“No one can know about this.”
“You’ve said that once or twice.”
“It’s important enough to be repeated.”
She crossed her ankles, her eyes dropping to watch her hands smooth the material of her skirt over her thighs.
“You’re asking a lot. If I lose my job—”
“I’ll talk to Megan.” I reached out and touched her cheek without thinking. Waverly turned her beautiful eyes toward mine, waiting. It was time for me to give her something. Anything.
“Waverly, I’m sorry.” My hand lingered on her cheek. “I’m sorry that I turned the suspicion on your department.”
Her voice was husky. “They would’ve looked my way eventually.”
“I’m sorry that I didn’t stand up for you.”
Slowly, her hand came up to cover mine. The edge of my thumb caught the hint of one lone tear before it winked away in her left eye.
“You don’t owe me anything.”
“But I do.” Leaning down I tipped her chin up and kissed her very softly before stepping back and trying to get my emotions under control again. I reached for my usual front: business.
“Will you do this?”
She tilted her head again, her eyes on her lap once more. Then she sighed.
“I’ll do it. And I don’t want you going to Megan on my behalf. I don’t want my job if I’m not welcome there. I can find another job.”
“Then what do you want?”
“I want to know why you’re doing this. I want to know what your fascination with those murders is. And I want to help.”
I pushed away from the desk and began to pace, moving away from her elaborate computer desk and crossing to the space between the television and couch in her living room. I’d been here a dozen times before, but I’d never spent much time in any room but the bedroom. There were pictures in this room I’d never bothered to look at, examples of a life Waverly had that I knew nothing about. I didn’t want to know about it.
I didn’t want to admit that I was using this woman and treating her like an object. I didn’t want to be forced to admit that Waverly was a human being with emotions and her own past. Because then it hurt too much to know everything I was stealing from her by continuing to give her false hopes.
I should walk away. I had tried, unsuccessfully. And now it would be even harder to set her free
“Okay,” I said abruptly, cutting into my own thoughts.
“Okay what?” she asked.
“Okay. I’ll tell you whatever you want to know. But first you have to help me get as much information on this Preston as possible.”
“I can do that.”
She rolled her chair back in front of the computer as I watched, wondering what the hell I’d just gotten myself into.
Chapter 14
Kasey
Karma was standing by the windows when I woke, the faint light streaming in from the cracks in the curtains flowing around her like an aura. I wondered if when she looked at other people she always saw that sort of light around them. Must be distracting, because I was pretty sure I’d never seen anything quite so beautiful in all my life.
When she turned I could see the sw
elling had gone down on her nose, but the bruises were darker and larger, spreading over both eyes and down along her cheeks. But she was still beautiful, still breathtaking.
I climbed out of bed and went to her, drawing her against my chest as I dropped a kiss on the top of her head.
“You sleep okay?”
She shrugged. “I couldn’t get comfortable.”
I ran my hand slowly down her back. “Do you want me to go get you some sort of pain killers?”
She shook her head. “I’m okay.”
“Tough lady.”
“Not tough. Just used to it.”
“No one should be used to this kind of pain.”
She kissed the center of my chest, her lips grazing the top edge of one of my tattoos. “You seem to have a high pain threshold. Look at all these tattoos.”
“That’s different.”
“It’s all relative, babe.”
I smiled, loving the way the endearment sounded on her lips. I kissed her forehead and began to work my way down to her lips—grazing the bridge of her nose, kissing the tip—when my phone began to ring again.
“I should turn that damn thing off!”
She laughed even as she slid around me and went to retrieve it. Tension burst across her shoulders as she picked it up, answering the call like it belonged to her.
She listened for a moment, then said a curt thanks before disconnecting.
“What was that?”
“He’s in Coronado.”
***
The motel was familiar. It was less than two miles from the Naval Amphibious Base in Coronado, the base where I’d survived Hell Week in my goal to become a Navy SEAL. We pulled into the lot and both of us just kind of looked up at the building, each lost in our own thoughts. I was remembering a visit to this building that had included some drunken behavior that I wasn’t entirely proud of. I was sure Karma’s thoughts were a little less juvenile.
She slid her hand into mine.
“You don’t have to go up. I can do this.”
She shook her head. “I need to know the truth.”
We sat there a few moments longer, then she sighed and pulled away. She was out of the car in a moment, moving quickly as though she was afraid she might change her mind if she didn’t.
He was clearly not expecting visitors. He opened the door, but he left the security hook in place.
“How did you find me?” he demanded.
“How do you think?” Karma asked.
He was tall and slender, blond and blue eyed, an all-American boy kind. I could imagine how, with a little charm, a guy like him could get a girl like Karma to do just about anything, especially when she was just a teen. But I disliked him on sight.
“Let us in,” Karma demanded.
“Why? Why are you here?”
“They found Rosalie last night.”
His eyes narrowed and he studied her for a moment as if he thought she were lying. Then he stepped back and undid the safety latch, holding the door open so we could go inside his small, economy motel room.
“Where did they find her?”
“Like you don’t know.”
He didn’t respond. His movements were sluggish, his pupils dilated. It was obvious he’d partied a little too hard last night.
“Where did you have her all this time, Randy?” Karma demanded. “What did you do to her? What were those symbols all over her body? Why would you do something like that?”
Karma’s voice rose higher and higher as she spoke. The man she called Randy—wasn’t his name Jake?—spun around as she spoke, his eyes narrowing with every word.
“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”
“Of course you do! You murdered her!”
Karma slammed her finger against his chest. He backed up, falling onto the bed.
“She’s dead?”
“Don’t play games with me, Randy!” Karma cried. “I know what you did. They have you on security tapes breaking into my room and then breaking into hers. They saw you walking her out of her room the night she disappeared! I know you had her.”
“No, I didn’t.” He sat up, pushing Karma back with his hands on her hips before he stood again. “I went to her room that night, but I didn’t take her anywhere. When I left, she was sitting in bed, talking about calling her sister. We made plans for the next morning, but she was gone when I got there.”
“You took her!”
“I didn’t!”
He grabbed Karma’s arm and I couldn’t let him do that. I moved between them and forced him to let her go.
“Who the fuck are you?” he demanded.
“The guy who’s not going to let you hurt her anymore!”
“You have no right! Neither of you have any right, coming in here and accusing me of something I didn’t do!” He tried to move around me, but I wouldn’t let him. “You know me, Erin! You know I would never hurt anyone! I steal. I lie. I cheat. But I don’t murder!”
“You were with Rosalie.”
“But I didn’t hurt her! I cared about her.”
“Bullshit!”
“Not bullshit. She was growing on me.”
Karma moved away, pacing over toward the hall door. The guy tried to move around me, but I pushed him back, making him stay as far from her as possible.
“I didn’t hurt her.”
“If you didn’t do it, who did?” Karma finally asked.
“I don’t know.”
, The three of us stood there. He paced in a small circle, clearly agitated, and Karma paced in the narrow hall that led to the door. I stood there feeling like some sort of bouncer in a club, growing more and more outraged by this guy who seemed to think it was okay to beat this woman for no particular reason, but was upset that she would accuse him of murder.
Who the fuck was this guy?
“When was the last time you saw Rosalie?” I asked.
“I told you, the night she disappeared. I was with her from like five o’clock until a little after ten. Then I left because I wanted to go out to the woods to see what everyone was up to.” He glanced around me at Karma. “It was actually kind of fascinating, what those people were doing out there.”
“Why didn’t Rosalie go with you?”
He shrugged. “She was tired, she said. She’d been tired a lot lately, complaining about headaches and some sort of infection. That’s why I left when I did, because she wanted to sleep alone.”
“Did she mention meeting anyone else? Did she say that she was planning on hanging out with friends that night?”
“She was ready for bed.”
He tried to look around me at Karma again, but I shoved his shoulder. “Don’t talk to her.”
He pushed my shoulder. “You can’t tell me when I can and cannot talk to her!”
“Watch yourself,” I warned, my tone lowering of its own accord.
“You have no right to keep me away from her!”
“You beat the shit out of her, you asshole! You really think I’m going to stand here and watch you do it again?”
“Try and stop me.”
I shoved him back as he tried to move around me again. He came back, his hand balled into a fist. He swung and I caught his wrist easily, tugging him around as I pulled his arm behind his back. He cried out as I yanked him back hard enough to pop his shoulder out of place. I didn’t. But I could have.
“You’d better calm the hell down,” I said next to his ear. “I’m just seconds from beating you into a pulp.”
“Let him go, Kasey.”
I glanced back at Karma. As I did, the guy yanked forward, trying to get free of me. I pulled back, twisting his arm until he cried out in both anger and pain.
“Kasey!” Karma rushed over, her hands on my arm. “Don’t hurt him.”
“Have you seen your face recently?” I asked in disbelief. “He broke your ribs.”
“He’s my brother.” She stared into my eyes, begging me without saying the words. “Le
t him go.”
“I won’t stand here and let him hurt you.”
“You won’t hurt me, will you, Randy?”
“No!”
I jerked the guy’s arm just because I could, then pushed him away, watching him stumble across the room and fall into a convenient chair.
“He’s your brother?”
“Who’d you think he was?”
I didn’t want to say that I’d been eaten up with jealous since yesterday when I saw marks on her face. I’d thought he was a lover, someone intimately close enough to her that she let him do what he’d done. It had never crossed my mind that he could be her brother.
“Why didn’t you just tell me?”
“Why didn’t you just ask?”
“Hey!” Randy cried from across the room. “Can we get back to Rosalie?”
I wanted to punch him then more than I had before. The guy didn’t know when he had it good.
“She’s dead. She was found in the woods with all these tattoos on her body,” Karma said, reluctantly pulling her gaze from mine.
“Tattoos? Rosalie didn’t have tattoos. She told me that she was afraid of needles. Maybe they were just body paints ...?”
“They were tattoos,” I said, staring into Karma’s eyes. I couldn’t express how relieved I was that she wasn’t intimate with this asshole. I wanted to kiss her, to claim her as my own. And this little spark came into her eyes that suggested she knew exactly what I was thinking.
“Rosalie didn’t like needles,” Randy repeated. “She couldn’t have allowed someone to do that to her. But who would put tattoos on someone against their will?”
Karma turned around, something about what he’d said catching her attention.
“He has a point. She was deathly afraid of needles. I tried to give her a B-12 shot once, and she panicked. It took me an hour to talk her out of the bathroom.”
“Whoever did it would have had to knock her out first.”
“It would have been a long, drawn out process,” Karma said. “To put those marks all over her body ... it would have taken the whole month she was gone. It would have taken a lot of patience and it would have been terribly painful.” She looked hard at her brother. “He couldn’t have done it.”
DRAGON SECURITY: Volume 2: The Complete 6 Books Series Page 55