Strength & Power: Dark Paranormal Tattoo Taboo Romance (The Chronicles of Kerrigan Book 10)

by W. J. May

  Rae’s heart sank without her realizing it. She should have known better to hope. By now, she should have known better than to have even begun to hope…

  “It says that?” she asked dully. “Just like that? That he did it?”

  Julian gave her a quick look, but nodded sympathetically. “Yeah, it does. Says that while PC authorities were certain he had committed the crime they were forced to let him go, as there was nothing more than circumstantial evidence. It also says that agents Bethany Kerrigan and Jennifer Jones were sent to investigate the matter further.”

  Rae snorted in derision, more hurt than she was letting on. “Well, we all know how that part turned out, don’t we? Happy endings all around.”

  Julian’s face softened and he gave her shoulder a squeeze. “Hey…you okay? Were you, I don’t know…were you really expecting to find anything different?”

  Her eyes rested on the file and she sighed. “No. I wasn’t.”

  He nodded gently and flipped it shut. “I just don’t get it. Why did your dad want you to read this?” he mused. “It doesn’t exactly exonerate him, and—”

  All at once his body locked into place. His eyes flashed white as his hand simultaneously death-gripped the table beneath him. When he came to a second later, his face was pale. “Shit, Rae—”

  But before he could explain, the door opened behind him and Rae saw what had him so spooked. With the look of someone who greatly enjoyed his work, Victor Mallins did a quick scan of the room, and then made a beeline right for them.

  Jules! she shouted telepathically, palsied with fear.

  “Stay cool,” he breathed, making a visible effort to follow his own advice. “He’s not after me, and I’m the one with the file. There’s a chance he won’t see…” As Mallins approached, he shifted his arm casually to cover up the names scribbled on the top of each case, turning in his chair to nod politely at the president. “Good afternoon, sir.”

  Mallins looked each one slowly up and down, seeming to relish the obvious tension radiating out of them. “Good afternoon, children. I see we’re all hard at work today.” His eyes raked across the table.

  Rae leaned forward into his eye-line with a defiant smile. “Well you know me, sir. I like to keep busy.” She knew his tatù, and this had nothing to do with it. He was up to something. Man, she couldn’t stand that arrogant bastard.

  He chuckled, a sound so splintered and chilling she thought for a moment that he and Janice might make a lovely pair. “Yes, you do. So what are we working on today?”

  He glanced down at the file still open in front of Rae, and she flipped it up so he could see. “Just doing a little follow-up on our mark from last night. Jackman White. I took pictures of his files like you asked and gave them to President Carter last night.”

  Even hearing the name ‘President Carter’ seemed to grate on him, and she took in his discomfort with a satisfied smirk. On her other side, Julian kicked her warningly beneath the table.

  “What about you, sir?” Julian continued respectfully. “It’s not like the president of the Council to come down here and mix with us lowly agents.” He tried for a smile, but was so wound up that it came out as more of a flinch.

  Mallins smiled again. “Just stretching my legs. I was supposed to be sitting through another debriefing, but contrary to what you agents may think we supervisors really couldn’t care less about your professional dramas.”

  These words had absolutely no effect whatsoever on Julian, but Rae was suddenly frozen to her chair. How was it possible that Victor Mallins had just used the exact same turn of phrase that both Luke and Molly had both said in their bedroom just an hour before?

  You’re being paranoid again, the little voice inside her head told her. It’s an extremely common expression. There’s just…no other explanation.

  But looking at the wide grin stretching across Mallins’ crooked face, Rae suddenly couldn’t be so sure. Before she could lose her head entirely, he turned that grin to Julian.

  “What about you, Julian? Working on anything interesting?”

  It was only thanks to years of unabated friendship that Rae was able to guess what Julian was about to do next.

  In what seemed like slow motion, he looked down to reach for the files. In the process, he sent them all ‘accidently’ spilling off the table with his elbow. Rae was quick to catch them, but in the process of handing them back, she held onto one file in particular, her grandparents’, and simultaneously turned it invisible.

  Julian reached out his hand and took them as if nothing at all unusual had just happened, holding them out for Mallins to see.

  “Tresseux, Hilton, Funnel.” He thumbed through them, looking almost bored. “Nothing all that interesting, to be honest. Just going back over a few details.”

  Mallins locked eyes on him, and for a moment Rae was worried the old man might take out a hidden weapon and blast her friend straight off the earth. But he didn’t. He simply nodded once, and turned his attention back to her. “Miss Kerrigan, you’re going to be training later this afternoon, yes?”

  Rae hesitated, a little thrown off by the sudden change in gears. “Yeah, I’m actually headed there right after this.” She glanced at Julian, not sure where this was going.

  “Good. I have you paired up with Mr. Wardell.” He met her look of dismay with a calm mask of indifference. “Should feel just like old times…”

  “That’s great.” Rae forced herself to smile, despite feeling as though she might be sick. “Just great.”

  * * *

  Rae walked into the PC training facility’s gym an hour later, like a child venturing forth into the lion’s den. She couldn’t imagine a situation worse than the one she was about to encounter, and since Julian had stayed behind in the reference center to search for anything they might have missed, she was doing it completely alone.

  She looked around uneasily as she crossed the empty, echoing floor. There was something weird about this. Something that went beyond her just not wanting to spar with Devon right after their tragic—

  “Hey.”

  She jumped about a foot in the air, and came down clutching her chest. Then, with a look of scarcely concealed embarrassment, she turned slowly around.

  Devon was walking slowly towards her, holding out something in his hand.

  Her lips parted for the standard greeting, but just as she was about to speak a sudden chill ran up her arms.

  My dream… This is exactly like my dream…

  Once she recognized what it was that was setting her so on edge, it was impossible to shake it. It was as if the recurring nightmare had simply come to life; all the players and positions were the same. The only difference was that in place of a roaring crowd, the gym was dead quiet.

  After one excruciating second, she decided she would have preferred the noise.

  Devon walked towards her slowly, still holding out that same something in his hand. She almost forbade herself to look.

  If it was a knife she was flat out bolting from the room, no questions asked.

  “You okay?” he asked with a frown, automatically tensing up upon seeing her frozen expression. Before she could answer, he tossed something her way.

  She almost shouted in relief when she caught it.

  It was a water bottle. Not a knife. And her subconscious was officially driving her crazy. “Thanks,” she smiled politely as she unscrewed the cap and took a swig. “Sorry, I just wasn’t…I wasn’t expecting to do this today.”

  His face clouded and he dropped his eyes to the floor. “Me neither. I mean, I was set up to train, but I thought…” His voice trailed off and she finished his sentence with a wry smile.

  “You thought you’d be doing it without me.”

  All at once, the air between them was super-charged. His eyes hardened ever so slightly as he looked her up and down. Then, with a coldness she hardly ever saw from him, he lifted his chin and shook his head. “This wouldn’t be my choice, no.”

&nb
sp; Her mouth started to fall open, but she caught herself sharply instead. I can’t believe he just said that. I can’t believe he just looked me in the eyes and—

  “Shall we get started?” He headed to the wall where they kept the spears—his favorite weapon.

  Without a word, she threw down the water bottle and headed there herself.

  He wanted to fight it out? Fine, they would fight it out.

  She wasn’t too bad with a spear herself…

  “I hope I didn’t take you away from anything important,” he began cryptically, touching the tip of his blade to hers to acknowledge and begin.

  Without any preamble she took a mighty swing, causing him do duck almost to the floor if he didn’t want to lose his head. “What would you have been interrupting?” she asked sweetly.

  His eyes flashed and he pulled himself slowly to his feet. For a moment, neither of them moved. Then at the same time, they began slowly circling each other.

  “I saw that you and Julian were in the reference center earlier,” he explained. She took another swing at him and he blocked it so hard, the handle vibrated in her hand. “Didn’t know that you two were planning on working there today.”

  Faster than the eye could see, she dropped down and whipped the spear in a wide arc towards his legs, knocking him backwards a step. “You saw us in the reference center? Well, you should have come over and said hi.” She got to her feet, and marched towards him, spinning the weapon like a quick-moving propeller above her head. “Unless, of course, you didn’t want us to see you there.”

  With the skill of a master, he planted his spear in the ground and used it to spin his body around through the air. He came at her feet first, kicking her squarely in the chest and knocking her onto her back. He landed beside her with a smug grin. “And why wouldn’t I have wanted you to see me there?”

  Throwing her spear aside she kicked him in the back of the knees, bringing him down to the floor beside her. “Maybe because you told Julian you were going to be somewhere else? Or maybe it was Luke this time.” She tilted her head to the side, a glare on her face. “You’ve been telling so many lies lately, it must be hard to keep track.”

  He clenched his jaw and pushed away from her, getting to his feet in one fluid motion. She copied the movement behind him, ignoring it when he offered her a cursory hand up. “I’m the one telling lies?” he countered, tossing aside his spear as well so they could engage in hand-to-hand combat. “Tell me, Rae, what exactly were you and Julian doing in the reference center? And don’t say catching up on old case files, because I know for a fact that you didn’t even know we had a reference center until today.”

  With a cry of frustration, she flew towards him. He met her in the middle, and they both went crashing to the floor.

  “Why can’t you just talk to me?” she hissed between her teeth, straining to get the upper hand. At the last second, she was able to roll their bodies so that she was on top, straddling him.

  “Like you talk to me?” He flipped them back around and came down on top of her, pinning her wrists to the mat above her head. “You’re the one sneaking around.”

  “We’re both sneaking around,” she argued, trying and failing to free herself.

  His eyes lit up in triumph. “So you admit it! You and Julian are up to something!”

  She kneed him in the stomach and he rolled off of her with a groan.

  “I admit nothing.” Without another word, she started heading to the door. She didn’t know exactly where this fight was going, but she certainly wasn’t sticking around to find out.

  She had made it almost all the way out, when she heard a sudden rush of air behind her. Her body tensed, and she turned around just in time for Devon to slam her up against the wall.

  All the air rushed out of her body as she hit the plastic padding. Her body tried to crumble automatically forward, but Devon was right there, pressing his body against hers to keep it straight.

  “We’re not done sparring yet,” he breathed, wrapping his fingers around her wrists and pressing them into the wall. His shoulders rose with quick, shallow breaths, and his muscles strained with the effort of keeping her there.

  At first, her temper flared up and she wanted to scream at him. She wanted to push him away. She wanted to pry open that infuriating head and get at all the secrets there.

  But as she stared into his eyes dilated with adrenaline, she found that she could do none of those things. All the strength and power seemed to rush from her body, and she heard herself speaking in a small, vulnerable voice. “Why did you kiss me?”

  He took a step back at once. All the fight left him, as at the same time all the color seemed to drain right out of his face. He opened his mouth several times to speak, but nothing came out. “I just…I didn’t…”

  Rae held her breath, every fiber in her body aching for him to finish that sentence.

  But he couldn’t. He just ran his fingers back through his hair, and when his mask of composure finally crumbled, he was quick to turn his face away. “Sorry about the spears,” he muttered and paced back across the gymnasium floor, leaving Rae standing there next to the far door, frozen in the exact place where he’d held her...

  Silent tears streaming down her face.

  * * *

  A few hours later, Rae had collected herself and finally pushed open the door to the penthouse. After Devon had left her, she’d found herself suddenly unable to head home. Instead, she went through one of the tunnels that led to the Oratory and, finding it empty, she’d tossed up a rope and climbed to the top of the high domed ceiling, nestling in the wooden rafters like she used to.

  Like they used to. When they used to talk and not just throw spears at each other.

  Her purse dropped to the floor with a muted thud as she dragged her feet across the carpet to her room. It was only five or so in the afternoon, but she was ready for lights out.

  Bed was a safe place. A place where nothing bad could happen to her, and this wretched, endless day couldn’t possibly stretch out any further.

  Her eyes closed wearily as she pushed open the door, ready to sink down into her amazing comforter and let the rest of the world just fall away—

  “Finally, you’re back!”

  She leapt back against the door with a strangled shriek. Julian was sitting in the center of the bed, staring at her impassively. With a glare she peeled herself off the wall, taking off her jacket and throwing it with no real conviction towards her closet. Her tatùs were supposed to protect her from surprises. Why the hell was she always jumping around like a scared rabbit? Probably because you’re exhausted. And depressed. You have issues and your tatùs don’t know what to do with you. “If this is payback for this morning with you and Angel, you’ve terrible timing. As it’s been made repeatedly clear to me today, I am, most definitely, single.”

  “It’s not about that.” For the first time, Rae noticed the sense of urgency in his voice. “Rae, I found something in the files…”

  Chapter 12

  “It’s not what was in the files so much as…as where they were,” Julian explained with a frown as Rae sat down beside him. “The other files that were with them.”

  She followed his troubled gaze down to his hands. There were smudges of ink all over them, hastily scribbled beneath the table. She picked one up and smoothed it out with concern.

  “What is all this?” she asked softly, lifting it higher to read the writing. The dark lettering trailed out over his skin. “Or should I say…who are they?”

  The names were seemingly endless, lacing from one end of his hand to the other. The ones at the top were larger, and easier to read. But the more he’d found the more distressed the script seemed to become—frantically trying to make them all fit.

  “I don’t…” He trailed off, shaking his head. “I don’t know who—”

  “Hey,” Rae cut him off with alarm. She hadn’t realized how upset he was, but the hand she still held in her own was suddenly s
haking. She wrapped her arms around him without another thought, holding him tight until the trembling finally abated. When he had finally calmed down, she pulled back and searched his eyes carefully, trying to understand the emotion there. “What is it, Jules? What’s wrong?”

  He took a deep breath and tried started from the beginning. “I don’t know who they are, because they weren’t anywhere in the computer system. Not anything relevant at least.” He shook his head with a weak smile. “Janice probably thinks I’m a freak; asking for people that aren’t there. I guess it’s probably for the best, though. If they didn’t have files, then I couldn’t be caught requesting their files…”

  Rae shook her head. “Wait, I don’t understand. If they didn’t have files, then how did you even find out about them? How did you get these names?”

  “When I went back to return your grandparents’ papers, Janice asked me if I’d like to take a look at the others that had been filed along with it. Well, files are never ‘filed together’ in any sort of category, so I got curious and said yes. She gave me these names.” He stared down at his hands once more, his dark eyes clouding over. “All that was there were the basics. Year of birth. Year they came to Guilder. Year they graduated. And then—nothing. So…” he finally lifted up his head, “I tried to see them.”

  It suddenly clicked. The reason he was feeling this so personally. The emotions that had shaken him to the core.

  Rae closed her eyes and rubbed him gently on the back. “Of course you did.”

  “But I couldn’t.” The words flew out of him now, fast and confused. And afraid. “After reading the files, I knew their age. Their stories. I saw their pictures and had their faces floating in my mind.” He turned to Rae slowly and carefully enunciated each word. “There is simply no reason why I wouldn’t be able to see where they are now. Or what happened to them. It’s like…it’s like they all just disappeared.”