Feeling far more confident, she relaxed in the chair again and conjured an image of the boat he’d taken her to the party in and then the mansion. She wasn’t particularly happy with the results of those. It had been dark and she’d been uneasy. She couldn’t remember enough details.
Creating an image in her mind of her father wasn’t hard at all. Committing it to the image display proved nearly impossible. Dismay filled her as she realized that he looked like a male version of herself … or vice versa. She hadn’t realized until she’d tried to create the image that she had his face.
She tried not to let on how much it disturbed her, but she couldn’t dismiss the anxiety that they would see the strong resemblance and consequently, she had a hard time producing an image of him that matched her memory.
“Try to relax, Anna,” Caleb murmured from directly beside her, startling her momentarily since she hadn’t realized he entered the room with her. “You’ve been doing so well. What’s wrong?”
She tried breathing deeply and slowly to calm herself. “I look like him,” she admitted finally, realizing there wasn’t much point in trying to hide it, feeling scalding tears slip from beneath her eyelids and run down the sides of her face.
He slipped his hand beneath hers and wiped the tears from her temples. “Well, don’t cry about it, sweety! He makes a lot prettier girl than a man.”
Caught off guard, Anna uttered a sound midway between a laugh and a sob. She sniffed and said a little crossly, “I didn’t mean just like me.”
He stroked a finger along the bridge of her nose. “What about this part?”
She summoned the image. “A little broader and longer.”
He touched her cheekbone and traced it down to her jaw-line. “And here?”
Anna felt a warm tingling in her belly. “Not as pronounced, the cheekbones. The jaw’s a little more square.”
“Picture it in your mind.”
She took a calming breath and conjured the shapes in her mind’s eye.
“Now this,” he murmured huskily, tracing her chin.
Hers was more pointed, narrower, not quite as pronounced. She held her breath when he traced her lips, focusing for a moment on the feel of his touch before the image of her father’s mouth rose in her mind—a hard, straight slash, the lower lip slightly fuller but still narrow. When he put his lips together in displeasure they almost disappeared.
She was almost sorry when she completed the image. It had felt … a little strange when Caleb traced her features, but pleasurable, too.
She found herself staring at her father’s face when she opened her eyes, but she didn’t feel the soaring sense of satisfaction that she’d felt when she’d produced the other images. She swallowed with an effort. “It’s him.”
The light limned Caleb’s face as he stared at the image grimly. “We don’t need to adjust it?”
Anna shook her head. “No,” she whispered when she realized he hadn’t looked at her once.
He turned to look at her when she spoke, smiling with an obvious effort. “You don’t look that much like him.”
She didn’t believe him. She knew she did and she didn’t believe he didn’t see how strongly she favored her father—the man they all hated so much.
She tried to conjure images of some of the other people she’d seen at the party, but with indifferent success. Partly, she knew it was because she couldn’t really focus after she’d done her father, but most of it was because she’d been too uncomfortable when her father had dragged her through the throng of people to really look at them.
She was relieved when they finally removed the scanner from her head, exhausted from the effort, and depressed. Everyone thanked her for her cooperation and Caleb and Joshua escorted her out again.
She felt like every man in the station was staring at her and wondered if they really were or if it was just hypersensitivity that made her feel like they were. The trip home was more boring and depressing than frightening. Although Joshua had already shown her the little transport was capable of surprising speed, they had to rise slowly to the surface to allow themselves time to adjust to the difference in pressure and there was very little to see beyond the occasional startled fish darting away.
When they’d left their home and headed to the city, Anna had rehearsed over and over in her mind how to go about asking them to keep her in protective custody, but she discarded the idea after the session with the neuro-scanner. She didn’t think they would refuse only because she looked like the man they wanted, but it certainly occurred to her that they would’ve offered protective custody if they’d thought it was necessary.
She wasn’t convinced that it wasn’t, but she didn’t feel up to trying to convince them that she needed protection especially since it occurred to her that she couldn’t without sounding like she was begging.
Well, she’d made enough of a fool out of herself in front of them! She would be too uncomfortable, she assured herself, to be around them after all that! It would be a relief, actually, not to have to face them.
She would be better off asking for police protection from the Water City PD anyway. At least, if they granted it, she would be able to have some normalcy. She’d be in her own home, surrounded by familiar things, and she could continue her research.
Routine comforted her. She’d heard a lot of people complain about not having enough excitement in their lives, about leading dull, uneventful lives, but she liked hers that way. She liked the quiet nights and days she spent in her lab and her greenhouse, listening to the music she played for the plants.
It would help her regain her equilibrium.
Her neighbors stared at them when Joshua and Caleb climbed out of the submersible and escorted her into her house. To her relief, they passed her in the foyer and checked the house thoroughly. Joshua paused when he reached her again and smiled a little ruefully. “It was a pleasure meeting you, Dr. Blake.”
Anna felt her throat close at the realization that she wasn’t going to see him again.
“It was a pleasure meeting you, Joshua.”
Nodding, he glanced at Caleb and left.
“Was it a pleasure meeting me, too?” Caleb asked teasingly when he stopped to tell her bye.
Anna looked at his achingly handsome face, wishing …. She wasn’t sure what she was wishing for. She tried to return his smile and found she couldn’t. “I want to thank you for being so nice to me,” she said, stumbling over the words a little, feeling horribly awkward. “I know you were just doing your job.” She shrugged, smiled wryly.
“Playing good cop, I guess. But … I was so scared! And it made me feel … better.”
The laughter died in his eyes. For once, he looked completely somber. “I wasn’t playing good cop.”
He leaned closer. Anna lifted her face a little hopefully. She saw his deep blue eyes gleam, either with triumph or amusement. She wasn’t sure which, but even as she began to move away, embarrassed, thinking she’d misunderstood, he caught her chin and closed the distance. The touch of his lips was electrifying. A river of scalding heat poured through her and with it stinging sensation. She clutched at his robe a little frantically as dizziness swept through her, parting her lips for him in mute supplication to give her more. So mighty a thrill went through her as he thrust his tongue into her mouth and raked it along hers and she took his taste and scent into her that she thought for a moment she might have come. Shudders raked her, sapped the strength from her until she began to think she would’ve been in real danger of simply melting into a puddle at his feet if she hadn’t been clutching at him so frantically, if his arms hadn’t been around her, supporting her, holding her against his length.
Disappointment flooded her when he broke the kiss. At the same time, she felt a flicker of relief that she hadn’t embarrassed herself by passing out. She couldn’t seem to unglue her eyelids, though, or stop her eyeballs from swimming.
“I have to go, Anna.”
She managed to get her eyes open at that, realized she was still clutching two fistfuls of his robe as if it was a lifeline and forced her fingers to relax. Nodding a little jerkily, she settled on her feet. “I know.”
She couldn’t think of anything to say even to delay him a few more moments.
When he moved away from her and turned to go, though, she found the speech she’d tried to formulate tumbling from her lips. “I’m afraid,” she whispered.
He froze, swiveling around to look at her.
“I’m afraid he’ll come back for me.”
Something flickered in his eyes. Suspicion? He frowned. “What makes you think that?”
Anna felt her face heat. “I don’t know. I’m just afraid he will.”
He studied her thoughtfully for a moment and lifted his head to look around at the neighboring houses. “I’ll talk to Simon. He can contact the Water City PD and have them keep an eye on you.”
Relief flooded her. She knew they were more likely to listen to another law officer than her. They’d probably just put her fears down as a woman trying to get attention. She’d worried herself sick trying to think of how she could ask for protection without having to tell them the entire sordid mess, worried they wouldn’t believe her even if she did. “Thank you, Caleb.”
He nodded, studied her a moment longer and turned to go again. She was tempted to stand in the doorway and watch him until he was out of sight, but she ignored the urge, closing the door and locking it. For a few moments, she leaned against it, relishing the memory of his kiss and his promise.
* * * *
“I’m not sure it was a good idea to take her back,” Caleb said the moment he entered Simon’s office.
Feeling his belly clench, Simon lifted his head from the report he’d been studying and stared at his lieutenant, trying to decide whether Caleb would buy it if he pretended he didn’t know what he was talking about. “Why?”
Caleb shook his head. “She’s afraid he’ll come back for her. I’m afraid she might be right.”
Simon frowned, trying to ignore the uneasiness twisting in his gut. “We discussed this. I thought we all agreed that it didn’t seem likely.”
Caleb glanced around and finally dropped his long frame into the chair by the door. “I know,” he admitted tiredly, “but I didn’t like it then and I like it even less now.
She’s afraid. I’d like to think it’s just nerves after all we put her through, but I think maybe she’s right.” Crossing his legs at the ankles, he frowned at his toes. “He’s been keeping tabs on her for a while—at least since college. She told us that she’d gotten the grant before she graduated and then found out he was behind it. How long did she say she’d been working on that project?”
Simon frowned. “I don’t think she did and I’m not sure it has any bearing on this.”
“It does if it’s been years. Why watch her at all if he wasn’t … obsessed with her or at least had some kind plan for her? Why not approach her as soon as he found her if it was only a matter of a father wanting to find his only child?”
“What do you think his motive might have been?”
Caleb shook his head. “I don’t know. Do crazy people need motives to do the things they do?”
“They do,” Simon dryly. “Their motives just aren’t rational. I’m not sure Cavendish is insane, though. In fact, I’m reasonably certain the cold blooded son-of-a-bitch is completely sane in the sense that he’s well aware of his actions and the possible consequences. He’s gone to great lengths, in point of fact, to cover his tracks very thoroughly.”
“He’s not done,” Caleb said grimly. “And that means he isn’t done with Anna. I feel it in my gut. I don’t know why he picked this time and place to finally show himself, but he had a reason. What I can’t figure out is how he found out we were coming. Those floating houses can be moved, but they aren’t boats. They move slowly, too slowly for him to have gotten clean away if he’d only discovered we were coming after him when we got to Anna’s place. He left well before we got to Anna’s house.”
“I’m fairly certain he left as soon as the bomb went off,” Simon said grimly.
“She told us he’d been trying to arrange another meeting with her, though,” Caleb countered, frowning. “You think she lied to protect him?”
Simon shrugged. “I could be wrong, but I don’t think so. I’ve been going over everything we found. I don’t think the bomb was supposed to go off—not when it did. I think that was a fuck up on the part of the man that planted it. It’s possible he didn’t even manage to plant it where they’d intended to or it would’ve done more damage than it did.
“From what I can see, Cavendish had spent over a year carefully placing his agents where they could do the most harm. That was the confusing part. It didn’t make sense just to blow up the desalinization plant when he already had men in place in other critical sites—the power station, communications. When it finally occurred to me that the blast might have been an accidental detonation, that it was intended to coincide with others, then it all made sense.”
“You’ve got confirmation they were his men, then?”
“No, unfortunately. If I had proof, they’d be in jail now. We found the missing man, though. Well, his hand. Looks like the sharks got to him first. It’s hard to determine the cause of death when that’s all we have, but I think he panicked when the plans went south and tried to run and the other two, or one of them, killed him. I think Cavendish knew his plan had fallen apart when he heard about the explosion and removed himself to a safer location, probably to establish an alibi. It fits.”
“Neatly,” Caleb said, “But it’s still just a theory until and unless we get proof.”
“We’re working on it. In the meantime, I have Spencer and Roach under close watch and we’re tracking a couple of others that look suspicious.”
“What about Anna?”
“Take Joshua and head back to her place. Scan it for electronic surveillance and plant a few transmitters of our own. That way we can keep an eye on her without being underfoot.”
Caleb studied Simon assessingly. “You know damned good and well we’d never reach her in time from here if we heard anything, Simon,” he growled. “About all that kind of stakeout is going to get us is evidence … maybe.”
Simon’s face darkened. “I also know you aren’t going to do her any good dead, and you’ve got a hell of a lot more on your mind that just watching her.”
Caleb flushed. “I know what I’m doing, Simon.”
“Do you?” Simon asked tightly. “I don’t think so. If you did you wouldn’t be thinking what I know you’re thinking.”
“How do you know what the fuck I’m thinking?”
“I’ve seen the way you look at her.”
“And you assume I’m thinking the same thing you are?” Caleb growled.
“She’s a land dweller, Caleb, an air-breather, and nothing you, I, Ian, or Joshua have to say or to offer is going to change that fact. And that’s assuming she isn’t just plain repulsed at the idea of fucking mermen!”
“I didn’t get that impression when I kissed her,” Caleb drawled coolly, though he couldn’t subdue the anger glittering in his eyes. “In fact, just the opposite.”
The stylus Simon had been holding in his hand snapped. Dark color flooded his face as he looked down at it. “Gratitude isn’t desire,” he managed after a moment, “but since you brought it up, that makes my point. You were supposed to escort her home, not try to seduce her.”
Doubt surged through Caleb and anger sprang from it. “If I’d been trying to seduce her I could’ve had her then. It’s been a while since I was with a woman, granted, but it sure as fuck didn’t feel like gratitude to me.”
Simon stared at him furiously for several moments, wrestling with the impulse to dive across the desk and choke the life o
ut of him and wipe the smug look off of his face.
When he had his anger under control, he spoke again. “She has a deep-seated revulsion of mutants even if she doesn’t want to admit it,” he said tightly. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you and do take this to heart, Caleb, because I mean it. You can take the sub and setup an observation post within five minutes of her place, but if I find out you’ve been ‘watching’ from her bed, you’ll be on suspension.”
Caleb stood. “I think you’ve got it backwards. I think you have a deep-seated distrust of humans in general and Anna in particular. I’m just not sure if it’s because of her father or because of that bitch, Roxanne, that cleaned you out and headed back landside. I will tell you this, though, Joshua’s in and Ian’s in. I think we have enough credits without your input.”
“You’ve forgotten one critical detail, Caleb,” Simon growled when he opened the door to leave.
He turned back to glare at him. “I don’t think so.”
“I know so. She isn’t on the market.”
He could’ve lived without that fucking reminder, Caleb thought furiously as he stalked out of the station!
Joshua met him in the atrium where they’d docked the sub upon their return from Anna’s house. “Shit! He said no?”
Caleb stared at him without comprehension for several moments. “No,” he said finally, striding to the hatch and climbing down into the sub. “He gave us a green light.
He also said he’d hand our asses to us on a platter if we camped on her doorstep.”
Joshua, who’d followed him down, stared at him in disgust as he settled into the pilot’s seat. “Well how the hell is that going to help us if we can’t get within a mile of her?”
Caleb shook his head. “We’ll be close enough to protect her if Cavendish comes after her. That’s the most important thing at this point.”
Simon had pissed him off so thoroughly he hadn’t thought to point out that it was going to be damned impossible to scan her place for bugs and plant some of their own without getting near her. Especially if she spent all her time in the house like she’d said she did or at least suggested she did. Her garden, lab, and living quarters were in the same house. There wasn’t a lot of reason for her to go out.
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