Undeniable

by Kandle, Tawdra

  Joss shrugged. “Are you thinking Ben is some super powerful witch? Someone along the lines of Marica Lacusta in King?”

  “No, we believe it’s more complicated than that. We’re investigating, and when we know more, we’ll tell you. But the main reason we called you here today is that through our contacts in the police department, we’ve had access to Ben’s papers and his electronics.” Harley glanced at me, and then back at Jocelyn. “We found references to Chatham Defense and the Wolpert Arms takeover. The meeting in New Orleans was specifically mentioned.”

  “What does that mean?” I didn’t want to sound stupid, but the whole thing wasn’t clear to me yet. “This Ben Ryan had something to do with that?”

  “It means what you saw going down at that meeting—the murder of Donald McCall—wasn’t an isolated incident. It could be that there is a larger network of agents working against—well, the good. We think it’s possible that Ryan was part of a movement to train people to kill with their abilities. And it looks like it also means you’re going on your first deep cover assignment, Rafe.”

  Across the table from me, Joss stiffened. Cathryn’s eyes darted to her face as she shifted in her chair.

  “It’s unorthodox.” Cathryn traced the scrolled design on the edge of the polished mahogany table with the tip of her finger. “You haven’t been on many short-term missions, and you’re still new. Volatile. But on the other hand, you’re much more comfortable with your abilities than our typical recruit. The work you’ve done over the years with your father and grandparents has helped you.”

  “But deep cover?” Joss frowned and bit the corner of her lip. “You think he’s ready for that?”

  “Yes, if he has good back-up.” Cathryn smiled a little, and it was first time that day that I’d seen her face lighten. “And we think you’re the best person for the job, Jocelyn.”

  Joss’s cheek twitched, which I had discovered was one of her only tells of deep emotion. “I think you’re right.”

  I wasn’t sure if I were relieved or worried that Joss would be coming under cover with me. On one hand, it would be easier; we knew each other and we worked well with each other. We’d done one short-term job together. On the other hand, if there was something dangerous going on, I didn’t want her anywhere near it. Why I felt that way, I wasn’t ready to think about yet.

  “I thought it wasn’t safe to send us into anything to do with Chatham.” I stared Cathryn down. “You said we’d been made. That we needed to stay away.”

  “If it were directly related to Chatham, yes.” Harley answered for her. “But this is different. This is a recon mission into a group connected with Chatham and with Ben Ryan.”

  “What kind of group? Business?”

  “Not quite.” Cathryn clicked her tablet back on and turned it to face us. “We found a few names in an encrypted file that was linked to several documents related to Chatham on Ben’s computer, and we did some digging. Subtly, of course. Interestingly, all the people on the list have gone off the grid over the past year and a half.”

  “Dead?”

  Harley shook his head. “No, just sort of disappeared. We followed some trails, and it turns out at least four people on the list became part of a commune in southeast Georgia. ”

  “A commune?” Joss’s skepticism was clear, and I was right there with her. I thought they went the way of love beads and flower children in the Sixties. Way before my time.

  “Exactly. There’s a few left, sure, but the idea that Ben Ryan would have something to do with a place of peace, love and...whatever else goes on at those camps just doesn’t make sense. Which tells us that it probably isn’t what it seems.”

  “Which is why we’re sending you in there. If it’s not what is should be, what is it? What’s going on there, and why was Ben involved?” Cathryn flipped a few pictures. “These are the only photos we have of the people from the list who are there. They’re not great, but we hope that you’ll be able to at least identify who they are once you get there, even if they’re using assumed names. Coincidentally, all these people have a few things in common. They come from money, and they were at loose ends when they vanished. Just out of college and wandering, or dropped out of school altogether. We have one who had a confirmed meeting with Ben, at least according to his brother.”

  “So you think Ben was planting people on this hippie farm? Why?” I leaned back, stretching my feet forward and tapping my foot gently against Joss’s. She was spooked, I could see it in her eyes. Something was shaking her up, and until we could talk—alone—this was the only way I could let her know I understood.

  “That’s why you’re going undercover, Rafe. We want you to find out what Ben, or whomever he was working for, is up to there, and what the connection is to Chatham. We know there are regular shipments moving through a warehouse owned by a subsidiary of Chatham going out to that same area. We can’t be sure it’s connected to the commune, but it seems like too big a coincidence.”

  “What’s our cover?” Joss spoke up for the first time in several minutes. “Who will they think we are? And won’t they be suspicious of two people wandering into their pseudo-camp?”

  “They shouldn’t be.” Harley laced his fingers over his stomach and grinned at us. “You’re going in as yourselves. Rafe, you’ve done an excellent job the last months setting yourself up for this mission, traveling around the country and having, ahh...” He looked uncomfortable for half a minute. “Adventures.”

  Joss snorted, and I used the foot I’d been rubbing along her leg to give her a little kick in the shin. She jumped and bit her lip, but I could see the grin in her eyes. At least laughing at my expense was distracting her from worrying.

  “Are you all right, Jocelyn?” Cathryn raised an eyebrow.

  “Sure.” She straightened and tucked her feet under her on the chair, shooting me a look.

  “As Harley was saying, anyone who looks at your recent past will see your travels, and then they will see that you met Jocelyn in New Orleans and moved in with her here in Florida.”

  “What about my job with Carruthers? And you said before that Joss could be linked with the Institute, too. How do we get around that?”

  “We have people working on it now, erasing everything that would connect either of you here. Clearly, the records are already buried fairly deep. It doesn’t always behoove us to have our agents on paper as working for us. But you’d be surprised how few people look. We’re assuming that in this situation, it’s more likely to happen.”

  “We’re giving our team some time to tweak records before you go in. Meanwhile, get everything together, make plans to drive north.” Cathryn turned to me. “Rafe, you might want to visit your grandparents or have them come up. We’d like you to drive your own car, so there will be one less connection to us. And since it could be months before you can be in touch with them again, you’ll want to talk to them. Of course, they can contact me at any time with questions, and I’ll be happy to update them as much as I can.”

  I swallowed over a lump in my throat. Gram wasn’t going to like this. Telling her I was going undercover might be the most dangerous part of the whole mission.

  “You should go home now, start preparing. We’ll send you more information via the encrypted channels, but we won’t meet again in person before you go. Again, minimizing our connection.” Cathryn tightened her lips and blinked. “I don’t have to tell you, I hope, that this is a delicate situation. You’re there to observe and collect information. No acting. You can manipulate minds to retrieve what we need, but neither of you are equipped to deal with what we’re afraid these people are doing.”

  “I’m not sure any of us are ready for that yet,” Harley added, his eyes dark. “They—whoever ‘they’ are—have changed the game. And we don’t know the new rules yet, if there are any at all.”

  ***

  JOSS AND I didn’t talk about the mission on the way home. We’d driven in to Harper Creek together, but somehow, neither
of us wanted to bring it up as we drove back.

  “Are you relieved Tasmyn’s okay?” Joss glanced at me sideways as she unlocked the door and let us into the townhouse. “Cathryn told me that she’s not working for Carruthers anymore, either.”

  I thought for a minute. “I’m glad she wasn’t hurt, yeah. Maybe if I had known about this job she was doing, I would’ve been worried about it. But then again...” I shrugged. “Maybe not. Don’t laugh, but I might be a little more sane lately.”

  Joss smirked, but she held back the full laughter. “Are you healing, Rafe?” She did a dead-on imitation of Zoe, complete with wide, knowing eyes, and I swatted at her shoulder.

  “I know it sounds all touchy-feely. Let’s just say I’m getting over her, how about that?”

  “If you’re happy, I’m happy. I honestly thought you were going to freak out when Cathryn was reading the report.”

  “I was kind of surprised I didn’t. I was thinking about a couple of things.”

  “Care to share with the class?”

  I pulled out a kitchen chair and sat down. “First, when she was talking about tying Emma with the plants, it reminded me of something that happened last spring. Tas used a vine to tie me to the ground when we were in my grandparents’ garden.”

  “Oooh.” Jocelyn waggled her eyebrows. “Your girl was into the kink, huh? I thought you told me she had a strict hands-off policy.”

  “Pretty much. Nah, she was just playing, experimenting. With the plants and her powers, not with me, sadly. I suggested something a little more fun, but typical Tas, she backed off.”

  “Uh-huh. So you like being tied up? You know I do have handcuffs upstairs.”

  The thought of cuffing Joss to the bed while I did wicked and wonderful things to her body made me harden instantly. She laughed and shook her head.

  “You said you thought of a couple of things. What else?”

  I crossed an ankle over my knee and messed with the fraying cuff on my jeans. “It’s going to sound corny, but I was thinking it was cool Tasmyn saved herself this time. She didn’t have to be rescued. She used her powers, it sounds like, and she took control. She was kind of messed up there for a while, so I guess maybe in a way I felt proud of her.”

  “That’s not corny, it’s sweet. She was your friend first, right? Before anything else? You can be proud of a friend.”

  I smiled. “I guess so. I’m proud of you a lot. And you’re my friend, right?”

  A flicker of emotion crossed her face. “Of course I am. Your very good friend, I hope.”

  “The kind of best friend you’d share your handcuffs with, maybe?”

  “If you play your cards right.” Joss dropped to the sofa with a sigh and covered her face with both hands. “So are we going to talk about this mission?”

  “Do you think we should? Here?” I glanced around. “Is it safe?”

  She tilted her head over the back of the sofa and smiled at me upside down. “Yes, silly, it’s safe. Carruthers comes out here—to all of the townhouses—two or three times a week and does a safety sweep. Didn’t you know that? They check for bugs or any other kind of listening or tracing devices. Plus, I know how to set up a parameter around the house in case anyone is using extraordinary abilities to try to eavesdrop in our heads. I do it every time we’re here.”

  I couldn’t resist the column of her throat any more, stretched out there, just begging me to lick down it. I hunkered behind the couch, a hand on either side of her face, and dropped my mouth to the expanse of white skin.

  “What are you doing?” Her voice was low and intimate.

  “Nothing, just tasting you. Ever since you mentioned the handcuffs, I’ve been, um, interested.”

  She rolled her eyes, but moved one hand to cover my head, running her fingers through my hair. “You’re always interested, Rafe.”

  “True. More interested, then.” I rose up to trail my lips over her collar bone and then teased the tops of her breasts, just barely visible beneath her round-necked tee.

  “The mission, Rafe. We need to discuss it.”

  “Now?” I slid my hand under the neck of the shirt, let my fingers dip beneath the satiny cup of her bra. She always wore silky, slippery lingerie, and I had to admit, sometimes just seeing it in the laundry when I did it turned me on.

  “We should...ah...” Joss’s words dissolved into a moan and she closed her eyes as I found her nipple and rolled it between two fingers. Her lips parted, and I covered them with mine, coaxing her mouth open with my tongue. My hand palmed her breast, my thumb making lazy circles over the most sensitive point.

  “You were saying?” I murmured into her ear.

  “I was saying...maybe we should do something to unwind before we tackle this subject.” She reached up to pull my mouth back to kiss, holding me prisoner. It was an awkward position, standing over the back of the sofa, but I wasn’t complaining: I had both hands inside her bra, full of her softness and making her writhe.

  I ran my tongue around the interior of her lips and then broke contact to kiss the corner of her mouth, down her cheek and to her ear. I tugged the lobe with my teeth, circled it with my tongue and then whispered to her.

  “I want to help you unwind. I want to see you hot with pleasure, hear you scream when I make you come...and come again.”

  Her breath caught, and she arched her body nearly off the cushions. I pulled my hands free from her shirt then vaulted over the sofa, landing next to her. Joss opened her eyes and rolled her head toward me.

  “Smooth move, slick.” She reached to lay her hand on my cheek, and I turned my head to kiss her palm. Her eyes clouded, and I saw her throat work. Tenderness was not something Joss and I did. We did hot, we did wild, but emotion wasn’t part of our relationship.

  But now, looking down at her face, her long body spread in front of me, I wanted to give her more. Something caught in my chest, an ache I couldn’t explain and wasn’t ready to define.

  I leaned forward and brushed my lips down her throat again, this time feather light. Sliding my hands beneath her shirt again—from the bottom this time—I cupped her breasts, touching the stiffened peaks with the barest graze.

  Joss ran her hands over my hair, down my neck. I lifted her shirt and let my mouth rest above her navel for a beat before I kissed my way up to meet my hands. Sucking one nipple into my mouth through the material of her bra, I reached around to unhook it and eased it up, out of my way. She moved restlessly on the sofa, trying to reach to touch me.

  “Uh-uh.” I laid my head on her chest. “Be still and let me make you feel...just feel.”

  She groaned, either in appreciation or frustration, but she stopped wriggling. I took advantage of her now-freed breasts, pulling each nipple into my mouth in turn while my fingers circled the other.

  When I made my way back down her stomach, Joss was panting, her head still leaned back and her lips open. I smiled and traced her mouth with one finger, hissing in a breath when she sucked it inside, teasing the pad with her tongue. I pulled it loose and ran it over her flat abs, down to the waistband of the skirt she wore, and then lower, to the top of her lace underwear. I eased the skirt off, trailing it down her legs and tossing it aside.

  Positioning myself between her legs, I leaned to cover her center with my mouth, licking through the lace. I let my tongue stroke upward, putting just light pressure on her clit. Joss sobbed a breath, knotting her hands in my hair again. I used my teeth to push the fabric aside and reached her wet core at last.

  “Rafe.” Her voice was pleading, and the pounding between my own legs was starting to tunnel my vision. I found the spot that made her shriek and thrust her hips upward as she gripped the edge of the cushions.

  “Oh my God...Rafe...” Her legs collapsed and she melted into the couch. I moved my mouth out of the way, replacing it with my fingers, rubbing against the swollen button and then sliding two within her warm slickness.

  She twisted and her body pulsed around my hand, spasms of
pleasure and aftermath coming together in a powerful squeeze. She climbed fast and peaked again, her body stiffening and her breath short. Across the room, in the kitchen, a pot left on the counter went flying across the room and crashed into the floor, and several spoons spun through the air.

  I couldn’t wait anymore. The throbbing between my legs was driving me to be inside her until I couldn’t think of anything else. I unzipped my jeans and kicked them off, meeting Jocelyn’s eyes as she opened them. She watched me root in the drawer for a condom, and her lips curved in appreciation when I rolled it on.

  I lowered myself over her, my hands on the back of the sofa, my body between her legs. She reached up, touching my length, and I gritted my teeth.

  “If you touch me any more, it’s going to be all over.”

  “I’m just trying to help.” She guided me to her entrance and raised her hips. I didn’t have a minute to think before I sank into her, feeling still the last pulses of her orgasm.

  She rocked up until we were pressed against each other, and I plunged deeper. Joss dug her fingers into my back, moaning my name.

  “Jocelyn.” I held her face between my hands and fastened my eyes on hers. We lay there, suspended for a breath of time, until she tightened around me and I couldn’t hold back.

  A shout ripped from my throat as my body tensed into one mind-blowing climax. The minute I could breathe again, I was kissing her with a madness that scared me.

  “Rafe...God...that was incredible.” Joss pulled back and looked up at me, her eyes wet.

  I swallowed hard and dropped onto the sofa next to her, gathering her close to my chest. “I guess it’s the idea of impending doom, huh? Kind of makes you want to, um, embrace life.”

  “You embraced it big time.” Her voice was muffled against me.