“Smart girl,” Malachi muttered as he slid his hands under her shirt and palmed her breasts, teasing her nipples with his thumbs.
Kelsey groaned and arched into his touch.
A knock pounded at the door and this one threatened to rattle it from its hinges. “Hate to interrupt but we got a problem,” a grouchy male voice called through the door.
“Tell Duke he’s going to have a big problem if he doesn’t leave,” Malachi suggested, reaching for the buttons of her shirt.
Kelsey caught his wrists and pressed. Blowing out a sigh, she looked at him from beneath her lashes and scowled. “I can’t. You know him—he wouldn’t have come down here if there wasn’t something wrong.”
Five minutes later, she walked down the hall, sandwiched between Duke and Malachi as the shapeshifter spoke. “He’s got a set of keys that belongs to one of the cars the school owns and he’s looking for a woman.”
Pithily, Malachi suggested, “Perhaps you could tell this cop that this isn’t a dating service, but a school?”
Blond hair obscured Duke’s eyes but not the sardonic smile on his lips. “Idea never occurred to me.” Then he flicked his hair back and said, “He knows it’s a school.”
“Exactly what woman is he looking for? Did he give you a name?” Kelsey reached down and caught Mal’s hand, twining their fingers. Her pulse was still bumping along and she wasn’t too enthused about being interrupted but she grasped the problem, even if Malachi still had his head in his pants.
Duke snorted. “Hell, he doesn’t know who. He doesn’t know her name and he can’t give much more than a description besides petite, approximately five-four, long dark hair and slender. I know who it is, though. Cori Lewis. He’s got her scent all over him.”
Malachi stopped in his tracks and since their hands were still joined, Kelsey had to stop as well. “Cori…the librarian?” he asked with a frown.
Duke nodded. “I already know she left the campus last night, headed into town. She did request use of one of the cars…didn’t return it, either.”
Narrowing his eyes, Malachi said nothing.
Kelsey’s head fell back and she stared up at the ceiling, irritation and worry vying for control. “She’s back on campus, though, right?”
Duke shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“Then find out.” Kelsey tugged her hand away from Mal’s and smoothed her hair back, checked her clothes. The sweater and khakis were a little too informal, not exactly the kind of clothing a headmistress would be wearing in the middle of the day, but Kelsey was good at adlibbing. Malachi wasn’t so good at it. Planting herself in his path, she smiled and pressed a kiss to his chin. “Maybe you can go help Duke.”
Dark blue eyes narrowed on her face. “Help Duke.”
“Or go see what car is missing…or something?”
“Or something. Kelsey, love, that’s not entirely subtle.” Cupping her chin in his hand, he angled her head back. “If you want me to get lost so you can go play school marm, just say so.”
“School marm? Please. Fine. Mal…honey…” She batted her lashes at him and drawled, “Get lost. We’re supposed to blend, do low key. You aren’t low key.”
He dipped his head and raked his teeth around her neck, just barely grazing the surface. “You go blend. But be quick about it. I’m hungry.”
It was a low, teasing growl and had heat clenching in her belly as the echo of his hunger stroked against her, caused her own hunger to flare. She locked her knees and watched as he turned and sauntered back down the hallway. Kelsey glared at the back of his head and then sighed, smoothed her hair and sweater down.
She’d faked her way through this sort of thing more than once. Usually when something went wrong on patrol for one of the Hunters. It definitely wasn’t new territory and definitely wasn’t anything she couldn’t handle.
She just hadn’t planned on having to do it today—for Cori, the quiet, shy librarian who’d rather lock herself away in her rooms and be miserable than go to anybody for help.
She found the cop in her office, standing at the window behind her desk, staring out over the grounds. Although it was the dead of winter, it wasn’t quiet outside. Kids ran around, chasing each other, fighting over a basketball or sitting in small groups talking, just like any other school playground.
So far, he was unaware of her and she deliberately stepped louder. He turned away from the window, his eyes hidden behind a pair of sunglasses, a heavy growth of stubble on his lean face. Duke had been right too. Kelsey’s senses were nowhere near as acute as a vamp’s or a shifter’s, but she could still smell the faint citrusy lotion that Cori loved. It was literally all over him, in a way that only happened when a couple of people were all overeach other.
With a smile, she glanced out the window at the kids. “Doesn’t matter to them if its a hundred two degrees or twenty-two degrees. The kids want to be outside playing and you practically have to drag them in.”
He shrugged. “I was the same way. Weren’t you?”
“Aren’t all kids?” She crossed the office to meet him as he came out from behind her desk. It was an easy enough way to get around his question without lying. Kelsey hadn’t attended school quite the same way kids did these days. She’d been taught at home and that period of her life had taken place decades before the very attractive cop had been born.
Holding out her hand, she said, “I’m Kelsey Hughes. I’m the headmistress here. I was told you wanted to speak with me?”
“You don’t exactly look like the typical headmistress.” He looked her over from head to toe before taking her hand in his.
“Our sixth grade class had biology outside today. We were down at the pond, checking out the fish. I went along for the trip. I do it as often as I can.”
“Kind of cold for that.”
“That’s the entire point.” She tugged her hand from his and then circled around to take her seat behind the desk. “Fish don’t exactly hibernate in the summer.” She paused a beat and then asked, “So what can I do…? I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name.”
“Levi Marcum. I’m with the police department in Reston.”
“Reston? This is a bit far out for you, isn’t it?” Reston—hell, that was easily two hours north of Excelsior.
“I had business in Richmond last night. Ran into somebody who might work here.” He offered her his identification and she took it, giving it what seemed like an obsessively thorough study. She stroked a thumb over the badge, caught a jumble of flashes and images, nothing that made sense—too quick. But what she caught clearly was pain. A lot of it. Loss—recent—like a gaping, empty wound spilling black blood.
Her heart softened but she didn’t let it show. With a thoughtful frown, she returned his identification and then leaned back. “Is there a problem?”
“Not exactly. I’m just trying to find her.” He settled in the chair across from her desk.
“So this isn’t related to anything official?” She crossed her legs and fought not to smile. He was a cool piece of work—she had to give him that. He kept his face blank and the lenses of his glasses shielded his eyes but he couldn’t hide the spike in his emotions.
“Not exactly. Still, it’s very important that I speak with her.”
Longing. Confusion. Worry. And under all of it, that pain. She could feel a need inside him and the healer inside her wanted to respond to that.
But she couldn’t. “You realize that unless there’s some official need, I can’t really help you.”
Before he could respond, her phone rang. Kelsey squashed the urge to grimace as she reached for it. It was an old-fashioned dial phone, one line, and much less likely to go berserk, but still, she had a knee-jerk aversion to using much of any sort of technical device.
“Excuse me a moment,” she murmured.
It was Duke.
“She’s here. Sleeping like the dead,” he said. “I hope you don’t need her. You know the baby vamps.”
“No. No,
that’s not necessary right now, but thank you.”
He snorted and hung up. With a smile, she lowered the phone back down and then focused on Detective Levi Marcum. “I’m sorry. Business.”
“About this woman…”
“I’m sorry, Detective Marcum, but unless I have a viable reason for sharing employee information, I’m not able to help you.” Kelsey shook her head.
Finally something showed on that stony exterior. A muscle ticked in his jaw and he started to drum his fingers on his thigh. “I really do need to speak with this woman.”
“Can you tell me why?” Oh, bad move. She already knew why. Hell, the air was all but choking with the pheromones coming off him. That, combined with Cori’s scent, and it didn’t take a genius to figure it out—just a witch with a good nose.
“It’s personal, Ms. Hughes.”
“Personal but important,” she muttered. She almost told him to leave a card with her but at the last second she remembered one small detail, namely that he hadn’t shared any details. “Okay, Detective Marcum, why don’t you start with telling me which of my teachers you want to speak with…maybe I can get her a message?”
Marcum’s hesitation was almost imperceptible but she caught it. She wondered at it until he said, “I’m not exactly sure of her name.”
Confused, Kelsey shook her head. “I’m a little lost here. You don’t know her name but you think she works here. Perhaps you’ve seen her before at a school function or something? Why don’t you describe her for me?”
“Petite. Probably five-four.” A slight hesitation, like he wasn’t quite sure. “Caucasian, dark hair. Long, to her waist. Probably about one hundred twenty pounds.”
“Age?”
Another hesitation. “I’d say twenties, early thirties but I can’t be sure. Ya see…I didn’t get the best look at her.”
Kelsey kept the startled laugh behind her teeth just through years of discipline. You got close enough to get her smell all over you but not close enough to see her? This was getting more and more interesting. “Detective Marcum, I’m getting more confused. If you didn’t get her name or that good a look at her, then how do you know she’s a member of my staff?”
“I don’t know. It’s just an educated guess.” He lifted the car keys, spun them on his index finger.
Kelsey eyed the keys but gave him a vague smile. “I’m sorry but you’re going to have to do more than wiggle a set of keys at me.”
“Keys to the car she was driving. She dropped them but never came back looking for them. I want to make sure she got here okay, make sure she isn’t hurt. I had the tags run and it’s registered to the school.” He laid his hands flat on his thighs but something about the way he did it made Kelsey think he was just trying to keep from fidgeting. “So here I am. I want to make sure she’s okay and see why she didn’t bother coming back for her car.”
Well, I wasn’t a fly on the wall but I’d bet you had something to do with that, Ace. Kelsey smiled. “That’s very kind of you, Detective. I can check with the garage, see who borrowed a car. Hopefully I can get some answers. This could be problematic. I just don’t understand…” she let her voice trail off and rubbed her temple. The indecision was practiced but the headache wasn’t. Her instincts were humming.
Problematic. Understatement. Yeah, this could pose problems, all right. Something about this guy—she knew it in her gut. “So you didn’t quite catch her name. All of the teaching staff have permission to use the cars, providing they follow procedure, so I can find out for sure who it was. I know everybody employed here and I have an idea or two. Once I know which staff member used the car, is there a message I should give her?”
Once more, he started drumming his fingers on his thigh. “No chance you could just have whoever it is come in here for a few minutes? I don’t mind waiting until lunch or I could come back after school is over.”
“Detective Marcum, I really don’t feel comfortable doing that,” Kelsey said. Another understatement. Un-comfortable didn’t even touch it, but it had nothing to do with issues of confidentiality. Marcum would find out who Cori was or at least who she was now. He was a cop and if Kelsey’s instincts were any good, then she’d bet he was a good one.
But she wanted him out of her school.
He smelled of sex, pain and need and that was just a bad, bad combination from where Kelsey was sitting. He sat there, staring at her and she could feel the weight of his stare, the strength of his will pulsing in the air. He was probably a force to be reckoned with out there in the mortal world.
He blew out a breath and reached up, pulling his glasses off. He stared at her with brooding amber eyes. Whiskey eyes, she thought absently. She’d bet those eyes could be every bit as intoxicating as the liquor too. She was married, so in love with her husband that she was stupid with it…but she wasn’t dead.
“Look,” he said, rubbing a hand over the stubble that darkened his jaw. “I’m worried about her. It was late, wasn’t the best of areas. I want to know if she’s okay. If you won’t tell me who she is, can you at least tell me if all of your staff are accounted for? Everybody’s okay?”
Bad news, she thought morosely. All around bad news.
* * * * *
Levi stormed out of the school to where a black car waited for him. He’d had some fucked-up idea that the woman from last night would be…hell, he didn’t know what he’d expected but he’d at least thought he would be able to see her face.
Not only had he not gotten to see her but he hadn’t so much as gotten a name.
He eyed the sleek black coupe with disgust and wondered why he’d wasted half the day over this—over a woman with a face he hadn’t seen, a name he didn’t know. Returning her car, making the two-hour drive south of Richmond just to be stonewalled by a smiling schoolteacher.
Well, a little more than a schoolteacher. He’d checked up on the ritzy private school before heading out here and knew that Kelsey Hughes, aged 43, had been running the school for eight years and had worked there in a teaching capacity for ten years before that.
He was also running the names of the staff, because whether or not Ms. Hughes liked it, he was going to find the woman. That was the plan. His focus. Because if he focused on her today, he wouldn’t have to think so much about Owen.
He was going to have to think about Owen plenty tomorrow.
Stop it. He came to a halt at the curb, watching as the driver door opened. A tall man—black, probably mid-thirties—climbed out and circled around the car. He gave Levi a friendly smile. “Detective Marcum? I’m Grady. Ms. Hughes asked me to drive you where you wish to go.”
“Rio.”
“Rio?” Grady blinked and then lifted a brow. “Well, that might take a little bit longer than expected but I’m game if you are.”
Despite himself, Levi smiled. “Just head toward Richmond. I’ll figure out where I’m going when we get closer.”
The problem with that line of thinking was that they had to drive by the area where Owen had lived.
The nearer they got to the exit, the harder it got to think about anything but Owen. Even her—as sweet as she had been, as much bliss as he’d found when he sank his dick into that slick, hot pussy, as much oblivion as he’d found during those few minutes, he couldn’t lose himself in that anymore.
“This exit,” he rasped, tension snaking through his body until he was sitting stiff as a board in the back of the car. Staring sightlessly out the window, he closed his hands into fists, fought the urge to pound against the window until blood sprayed across the glass. He’d welcome the pain, welcome the distraction.
“Turn left.”
The car slowed and turned but instead of speeding up, Grady pulled over to the side of the road. “You okay, Detective?”
“Fucking-A. Drive. Turn left in two miles.”
An odd silence fell and Levi zoned out until the car once more started to slow. “I can’t head down there, sir. They’ve got police tape up.”
&n
bsp; “Fine. Let me the fuck out. I’ll walk.”
“Detective Marcum—”
Levi jerked on the handle but it had those damn safety locks on it. “Let me out!” he roared, slamming a fist into the window. Again. Again. And he saw blood splatter across the glass.
The locks clicked and Levi shoved the door open, all but falling outside. He desperately sucked air in, staring down the pitted, narrow drive that led to the run-down trailer where Owen had lived. Four years ago, Owen had been at the top of his class. He’d been a brilliant man, working through his internship.
Bright, smart enough that he’d gotten a free ride to college. He’d had his entire life ahead of him and then, in one fucking day, it had all gone straight to hell.
Corinne had broken up with Owen.
Levi didn’t know what had possessed her to go and talk to Owen that night. It would have been midnight before she got to the hospital and Owen couldn’t leave unless there was an emergency. The exact details of that night would never be known, but somebody had attacked Cori, cut her bad enough that she’d lost a massive amount of blood. Too much blood. And Owen had been beaten nearly to death.
When he came out of a weeklong coma, he’d never been the same. Withdrawing into himself, dropping out of school, giving up on every dream he’d had for most of his life. He ended up moving away from Reston, roaming around the state until he eventually settled in Richmond, talking crazy, crazy shit. Claiming that Cori hadn’t died—she’d been attacked and he was going to find who’d done it. He had become such a recluse that Levi barely recognized him at times. And the last time he’d seen Owen…
He sucked in a breath of air so fucking cold that it burned his throat. Numb, he stared down the long gravel drive. At the end of that drive, hidden by the trees, rested Owen’s small trailer.
“Detective Marcum, this isn’t your home.”
“No. Now get the fuck away from me.”
A hand came up and caught his arm and Levi spun, striking out with all the fury he had trapped inside him. Grady deflected it. They ended with Grady trapped between Levi and the car. On some level, he realized the other man wasn’t afraid, didn’t seem at all worried to have a cop slamming him into a car. On that same level, Levi realized that Grady could probably break free but for some reason, just didn’t want to do it.
Belonging Page 5
