by Aimee Laine
“Hello, angel.” The man’s voice, deep and menacing, spoke no higher than a whisper and no sweeter than a vulture fending off its kill. A hand clamped over Lily’s mouth, preventing her scream and adding a slight, intoxicating flavor at her inhale—a mix of rum, prunes and rubbing alcohol all in one.
“We’re going to take a little trip, you and I.”
She swayed as her mind kicked into gear.
Run!
2
Cael reached for the door handle, intent on wrestling details out of the ultimate weasel.
“No,” Wyatt said.
With an inward groan, Cael stopped mid-turn.
Wyatt slapped the manila folder against his own hand. “We have three objectives. One: find out what his interest is in Lily. Two: find out why he’s here, if Lily is an aside. Three: find out who he’s working for, which will help many other departments and could be a big boost to your career.”
“I don’t care—”
“Yes, you do. You’re the only Mimic who actually works for the bureau … that I know of.” Wyatt ran a hand through his hair. “You care enough.” He handed the folder back to James. “Your turn.”
“But I don’t work—”
Wyatt took a deep breath. “I know you don’t officially work for us. And this little investigation isn’t on the record, anyway. We three, plus Charley and Lily, want information. That’s it. So for the moment, he’s yours. Cael and I will stay in the booth and listen.”
James pursed his lips before drawing in air and offering Cael a slight nod. “I’ll do what I can.”
“Play good cop, since you’re usually like one.”
James bumped the unlatched door with his elbow. “Good cop? I’m the good cop?”
Cael looked to Wyatt. “Always,” they both said.
Wyatt tugged Cael toward the secondary entrance. Within the confines of the soundproof room, he could have punched his boss, and no one would have known, but reality sunk in—as it always did—with Wyatt in charge.
Cael dropped into the squeaky seat and rolled forward to the table, steepled his fingers and propped his elbows on the surface, preparing to watch the show.
• • •
Strong arms dragged Lily, feet sliding, body unable to alter her position, into the shadow of an alley. What her brain commanded, all her muscles failed to do.
She’d thought to run, to fight, to scream.
None of it happened.
Why can’t I move?
Panic consumed her—right down to nerve endings in her fingers that she could no longer sense. Every ounce of her being said ‘go!’ yet she could do nothing.
Lily wanted to shake her head, but even that failed. Her eyes darted left, right and center as her shoes scraped along the sidewalk. The heavy slide of a metal door preceded her body’s tumble onto a flat surface. Her arm landed underneath her torso. Her head smashed onto something as pain seared her shoulder.
She tried to scream, but her jaw failed to part her lips, and not a sound escaped. Her gaze landed on the man, big, dark and mostly covered, stuffing her into what she deduced as a van.
If tears formed, she didn’t feel them.
If she kicked, she didn’t know.
All feeling in her lower extremities had long since disappeared, though she must have continued to breathe.
“Just sit tight.” He added a low, gruff laugh.
Lily’s eyelids drooped, fatigue taking over until she could no longer hold them open.
The door slid toward its latch. It opened back up just before it clicked. “We have a little bit of a trip before we get you home.”
Her ears ceased to function. A world of complete and absolute silence, and darkness, descended upon her.
• • •
Wyatt’s cell chirped. He unclipped it from his waist, held it out and sent a smile in Cael’s direction as he answered. “Hey there, lovely—”
At his abrupt stop, Cael tilted toward his boss.
Brows furrowed, every line in Wyatt’s face etched into one of distress. “When?”
The one-way conversation had Cael moving closer.
Wyatt scooted back. “Where are you?”
Cael shoved himself nearer still, catching snippets of Charley’s voice through the speaker.
“Don’t go anywhere else.” Wyatt pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head. “Yes, I know you know all the rules. Just stay there. Cael and I’ll come get you.” He clicked off and turned to Cael.
Wyatt’s expression told Cael something happened but not to Charley.
“Lily didn’t show up for the fitting—”
“One step ahead!” Cael jumped from the chair, grabbed the handle to the door and broke into James’s just-started interrogation with Roy, Wyatt bringing up the rear.
A smile flitted across Roy’s lips.
James positioned himself between Cael and Roy, arms across his chest.
“Where is she?” Cael’s bark would have been heard throughout the building if the room weren’t soundproof. He reached around James and ripped Roy from his chair, holding him aloft again until James broke Cael’s hold and thrust him backward.
Wyatt secured Roy to the side. James walled in Cael.
Roy’s violet eyes shot figurative daggers back at Cael.
“Who asked you to take her? Who took Lily? What the hell are you planning?” Fury coated Cael’s words.
Roy struggled against Wyatt, his chest heaving with each breath.
“Get out, Cael,” Wyatt said without releasing his hold. “Go downtown. Now.”
James tugged on Cael’s arms, shoving him toward the exit.
A quick pull within his own body had Cael’s arms shrinking enough to free them. He raced back toward Roy, prepared to pummel him right through Wyatt if he had to.
His hand raised as Wyatt forced Roy behind him.
Cael stopped, breath ragged. “What’re you doing? He took Lily.”
Wyatt shook his head.
Roy popped out from behind his human shield. He ran a hand over his hair again. “What do you mean … ‘took Lily’?” His squeaky voice didn’t match his reputation—a reputed runner for multiple organized crime families. Roy pulled at the hem of his shirt. “I certainly did not take Lily.”
Wyatt raised an eyebrow. “You’ve been following her. You had a ring made for her. She’s missing. Naturally, you’re the one to ask.”
Roy patted down his shirt. “Naturally.” He moved back to the table, sat and clasped his hands. “But not today.”
• • •
Cael, Wyatt and James reached Charley outside the bridal shop thirty minutes after she’d called.
“Where’s Stuart?” she asked.
“He’s on guard duty, with very specific instruction not to let Roy move.” Wyatt’s position with the FBI and with the intelligence unit gave him enough clout to keep some well appointed oversight on Roy.
“What happened … exactly?” James asked as cars zipped by the downtown street and people meandered on the sidewalk.
“Nothing. That’s just it.” Charley motioned them over to one of the benches. She leaned against the back as Wyatt flanked her, protective at every step of their relationship. “She and I were chatting …”
Wyatt wrapped his arm around Charley’s shoulders, pulling her in tight in the same way Cael wanted to do with Lily as he imagined her panicking and frantic.
“… and she said she’d be here in sixty seconds. After five more minutes, I figured she’d made another stop, but she didn’t answer her phone …”
Cael paced back and forth in front of Charley, running his fingers through his hair. “I knew we should have kept a guard on her. Ever since Savannah. I knew it!”
“So …” Charley continued as if Cael hadn’t interrupted. “I came out, walked up and down the street and … nothing. Absolutely nothing. So I started canvassing. Got in to each of the businesses on this side. No one even saw her.”
“What was she wea
ring?” James asked.
Charley shook her head, dark curls bouncing all around. “That’s actually part of the problem. I have no idea what she was wearing let alone what she looked like today. She’s been trying out different colors, lengths of hair—girl stuff—searching for the one she thinks will go best in pictures at the wedding.”
At any other time, Cael would have laughed at Lily’s silliness, something he admired in her. Even after so many years, she still hadn’t settled on who she aspired to be.
“Based on what she told me last, I’d go with green eyes, a little dash of royal with high cheekbones, and light brown hair with a touch of gold.”
Cael bent toward Charley. “No, this morning she said she was going with blue. Her birthday’s coming up, and her eyes have been getting darker, so she went with what was easiest … until next week at least.”
“Shit.” Wyatt jerked away from Charley and followed Cael’s path. “Why can’t you four just look like your real selves? Why do you have to try out who to be?”
“Trust me, Wyatt, if you had the teen years we did, you’d understand. Not everyone is as confident in themselves as Charley, Cael and I,” James said. “Even Roy keeps his natural eye color but changes his form all the time.”
“Roy keeps his eye color because it’s his signature. His mark. He wants people to know it’s him because they can’t ever catch him,” Charley said.
“Or if they do, he knows how to keep his mouth shut,” James said.
Charley tapped her foot on the ground as a horn sounded behind them. “When are you guys going to give me a chance to talk to him?”
All three of them held out their hands, waving her question away.
“Lily’s missing.” Narrowed eyes accompanied Charley’s start. “The one guy who probably knows something is in custody, and you’re going to play macho men with me? Are you serious?” Despite her lack of shapeshifting abilities, Charley still commanded their group. They needed her as much as she needed Wyatt. “And you …” She directed her rant toward Cael. “Lily doesn’t need a babysitter. We all already agreed on that.”
“She’s right, you know.” James earned a glare from both Cael and Wyatt. With his hands in the air, James stepped back. “I’ve told you from the beginning, Wyatt. Charley’s asked you. It’s time to bring her back in to this.”
“He’s right.” Charley stepped in Wyatt’s direction. “I need to talk to Roy.”
“No. You don’t.”
“Don’t play that game, Wyatt,” James said.
Wyatt’s shoulders drooped. He, like Cael, ran a hand through his hair. “Why does it have to be you? If he’s already masterminded Lily’s kidnapping, why do you need to talk to him?”
“’Scuze us, boys.” Charley took Wyatt’s hand and dragged him farther down the street. Her calm meant a storm brewed inside.
Cael turned to James. “Roy’s involved in this, right?” Cael’s hand fisted against his forehead. “I can smell her out here, James. I can breathe her in, but I know she’s not here.”
“You smell her everywhere because you’re too close to the situation.” James nodded toward where Wyatt and Charley stood, she talking, he with his arms crossed over his chest. “Wyatt’s right about Roy. You need to step back.”
“No. Ever since last month—” Cael stopped at James’s head shake.
“This is different. What happened last month was specific to Wyatt and Charley. If Roy’s working for someone … if he’s involved in Lily’s seeming disappearance, he’ll have the answer.”
Cael waved toward the shops along the block. “I’m going to go through the stores.”
James didn’t alter his stance, his gaze stuck in Charley and Wyatt’s direction. “Charley already did.”
“I know. Just call me when they’re done, and she gets her way.”
James chuckled as Cael took off down the street.
With the five o’clock hour, people milled all along the sidewalk. The almost-summer temperatures kept the area busy with shoppers, diners and tourists taking in the old-time feel of downtown.
Cael entered the yogurt store, the newest shop to open, but found no Lily. He traipsed to the counter and rang the bell.
An Asian woman came out, wiping her hands on an apron with a giant smile on it. “Can I help you?” she asked in perfect English.
Cael fished his wallet from his back pocket and pulled out the one photo of Lily he’d hidden inside years before. “Have you seen this woman?”
The clerk took the paper from his hand, angling it right and left before shaking her head. “No. This the one looking for her child?”
“Uh …”
She offered Cael another head shake. “Seems like I saw her yesterday. Darker hair, though. Something along the lines of a coffee with light cream. I’ll show you.” She picked up a pot, poured coffee into a cup and added a drop or two from a massive, spiraling ice cream bin. With mug in hand, she returned and set it on the counter. “That color. You want to try some?”
“Uh … not a big coffee drinker myself.”
“Yogurt then?”
Shit. “Yeah, sure.” A glance at the menu board gave him a view of at least a dozen different flavors. “How about strawberry?”
One scoop, three dollars and five dings of the bell over the door later, Cael left.
Charley met him on the sidewalk, James and Wyatt on either side of her. “She got you, too, huh?” Charley poked her head over the cup. “You hate strawberry.”
Yeah, but it’s Lily’s favorite. Cael handed it to James. “She thinks she saw Lily in one of her look-a-like activities yesterday.”
Charley shook her head as she scooped out yogurt with her finger. “Nope. Lil was with me all day yesterday.”
“It was a long shot, anyway, since the description wasn’t right on,” Cael said. “What’s next? More doors? More people?”
Charley and Wyatt advanced toward each other as James withdrew the spoon from his mouth. “You and I …” James started, “… are going to go door to door. Charley and Wyatt are going to go have a chat with Roy.”
Anger at the lack of trust and Wyatt’s need to push him to the outside made Cael want to spit, but he held back.
“Keep us in the loop,” Wyatt said.
James gave him a nod as Cael headed in the direction of the next shop.
3
The back of Lily’s head throbbed. A smack of her lips found them parched. An unlit room welcomed her burning eyes. From the slight bubble of light under the door, she gathered that she lay on a queen-sized bed, in a king-sized expanse of space, with a door more than twenty feet away.
She pushed up, wiggled her way to the edge and draped her feet over the side. The room wavered, a nausea-inducing disco snatching control of her ability to focus. Even as she fought off the dregs of whatever drug coursed through her system, she knew she needed to find her way out.
Lily stared at the glowing lines under the door until they merged into one continuous stream of light. She inched her way off the bed, testing her weight on one foot before standing fully upright on both. When the little bit of light didn’t swirl again, she took a tentative step.
The floorboard beneath her creaked. “Shoot!” Her hands covered her mouth a second later as movement outside her confined space reached her.
A look back at the bed and she considered faking sleep again, but instead, vowed to be strong and courageous, like Charley had when she’d been attacked a month before. Lily took a deep breath as the shadows under the door darkened in two places.
Feet.
She blew air out as she steeled herself for what would come.
A small creak accompanied more light.
The door opened wider until a silhouetted form appeared in the middle, no higher than four or five feet—smaller than Chase, her eight year old nephew.
Lily held her breath, trying to gauge whether she could run around the person, bowl them over, or how much it might hurt if, despite the small stat
ure, he or she had more strength than Lily.
“Okay?” The whispered voice held no malice but a distinctness of youth.
Lily had no idea how to respond. Before her stood her captor, yet she couldn’t make out any details other than what looked to be mussed hair—also like Chase.
A child?
The thought had her staying in place, though the memory that she’d been kidnapped urged her to run.
The door widened, and the form made its way across hardwood floors.
Lily shifted to the right, prepared to bolt around him but stopped. Her inner gasp managed to stay contained.
A child, as she’d suspected. Half Chase’s age at best, he stood in front of her in Superman pajamas and slippers.
“Mommy? Are you okay?”
• • •
Cael dropped to the couch at home as the chime of midnight rang through. He’d walked into and out of every building downtown, crossing paths with James half a dozen times. Other than the yogurt-shop lady, no one had seen Lily, or no one had seen anyone who matched Lily’s latest description, or any others Cael could remember.
James set a bottle of beer on the coffee table. “Drink.”
Charley and Wyatt followed, taking the loveseat—a perfect place for the two of them, about to get married after sixteen years apart.
Cael had known Lily for over forty years, and with the exception of their first encounter, he’d migrated straight into friend-land and stayed there. She’d needed him. She’d become his sister. Only when he realized just how much he loved her had she disappeared.
He took a swig from the bottle, letting the hops coat his throat. With a tip back, he downed the entire twelve ounces. “I need another.” He hurried into the kitchen and opened the fridge.
Lily’s fridge. With her organized containers, each labeled for contents yet not a bit of them leftovers. None of them worried about weight, so they never left any food on their plates.
He grabbed a beer and closed the fridge door, darkening the room around him.
Lily’s kitchen. Her space with her touches.
Cael leaned forward, dropping his forehead to the cool, marble surface.
