by S. E. Smith
“I really don’t remember Buck being this difficult to train,” Gabe complained, glaring down at Wilson.
“If I were a changeling, I could talk to him,” Magna said, resting her chin on her hand.
Kane frowned when he noticed that she appeared to be favoring her left arm and shoulder. He rose to his feet and knelt on one knee beside her.
“Is your shoulder hurting? I can give you something for the pain, if you’d like,” he offered.
Magna straightened and shook her head. “It is barely throbbing,” she answered with a shy smile.
Kane reached up, his fingers pausing on the buttons of the soft pastel pink, blue, and green blouse he had picked out. The colors had reminded him of Magna. The women in Yachats Mystic Boutique had been extremely helpful. In a few weeks, the three of them could go down to Portland or up to Seattle for anything else Magna might need.
“I’d like to check it,” he said.
She nodded her permission. Kane expertly released the buttons. He’d only released a few of the buttons when he knew she had not tried to wear any of the bras he had purchased. That made sense considering the location of her wound and the difficulty she would have trying to put it on, but damn if it didn’t throw off his concentration!
He was surprised that she had removed the bandage covering the stitches. He swallowed when he saw that not only were the stitches gone, but the only evidence of the wound was a red line. The skin was sealed.
“How is she?” Gabe asked, coming to stand next to him.
“Good,” Kane replied, his fingers delicately probing the tissue around the wound. “It looks like it is almost healed.”
“Healed? She had a bullet in her yesterday!” Gabe exclaimed, bending to look at her shoulder more closely.
Magna glanced down at where Kane’s fingers were before she looked up at Gabe. “I would have been completely healed if I had been stronger and remained in the water,” she said with a grimace.
“The area is still a little warm,” Kane noticed.
Magna nodded. “I can feel the heat in my body. The metal heated the tissue as it pierced me. It is healing, but because I am still weak, it will take longer. If I could go to your ocean, the water would help,” she said with a sigh of longing.
Kane looked outside. The wind was strong enough to blow the driving rain under the covered deck. He could see the shadows of the trees bending and swaying as lightning lit up the sky. The long rumble of thunder had Buck warily eyeing the doors.
“Well, swimming will have to wait for a bit,” Kane chuckled.
“Kiss him, Magna.”
Kane’s fingers froze against Magna’s skin at Gabe’s rough command, his eyes locked on her face as he waited for her reaction. Magna slowly turned her head to look at him. Her green eyes turned darker. Her full lips parted.
“Kiss him, Magna, but only if you want to,” Gabe repeated in a softer voice.
Kane continued to wait. The hand he had resting near her side on the couch slid closer until he was touching her thigh. The next move needed to come from her.
Her delicate fingers rose to trace his face. He couldn’t resist touching the pad of her thumb with his tongue when she brushed it across his bottom lip. Her breath caught, and her eyes locked on his mouth.
His fingers curled when she leaned forward. He didn’t bother to smother the slight growl of frustration when she paused a fraction of an inch from his lips. He could feel her warm breath and wanted more than anything to close the distance between them.
He didn’t. This was her choice. He just wished she’d quit torturing him.
That thought flew from his mind when she tentatively touched her tongue to his bottom lip. Her tongue caressed his lip, touching, retreating, and touching again before she closed the distance. Instead of deepening the kiss, she nibbled on his lip.
“Damn, but she is driving me crazy,” Gabe muttered in a hoarse voice.
Kane wanted to respond, but he was afraid to. Gabe had no idea of the meltdown that Magna was causing inside of him. He was going to have to remember this, because payback was going to be hell if he had any say in it.
His lips parted when Magna continued her exploration. Unable to keep his hands from touching her, he slid the one by her leg up under her shirt while his other hand finished unbuttoning it. His hands cupped her breasts, lifting them as his thumbs ran across the distended nipples.
She pulled back with a cry, arching toward him. Kane took advantage of her movement to bend and capture one nipple in his mouth. He pinched the other, feeling her response as she threaded her fingers through his hair and held him against her.
“Yes,” she cried, her body taut.
Kane sensed Gabe moving to kneel on the couch, then Gabe combed his fingers through her thick hair, tilting her head toward him as he captured her lips in a passionate kiss. Kane continued his heated attack on her breasts, but now he added another element.
His left hand moved down to slide under the long skirt she was wearing. He paused when he reached her knee. Her legs parted, and she moved one leg enough that she could press it against him. Encouraged, he slid his hand up to her mound. He felt smooth skin instead of soft curls.
The knowledge that she was bare was too much. Things were about to quickly get out of control if they didn’t stop now. Releasing her nipple, he pulled his hand out from under her skirt and straightened. Gabe felt his withdrawal and reluctantly released her lips.
“We need to give her time,” Kane stated in a voice that had an edge to it.
Gabe nodded and pushed off the couch. He ran his hand through his hair, not bothering to hide the fact that he was still highly aroused. Kane could see the distress in Magna’s gaze as she looked from him to Gabe and back again in confusion.
“I know, but damn. I’m hard as a rock,” Gabe groaned in frustration.
“Why do I need time? I have had nothing but time. Centuries of time!” she complained, pouting at him.
With a curse, he bent and buttoned her shirt with fingers that weren’t quite steady. He grimaced when Magna slapped his fingers away and waved her hand. The shirt closed and buttoned itself.
“As your doctor, I have to think of your health – both physical and mental. You’ve been through a traumatic event, have been basically held hostage for more than a….” His throat tightened at the thought of actually voicing the length of time.
“Centuries,” she snapped.
“Centuries,” he repeated with a heavy sigh. “I think Gabe and I need to be clear about the type of relationship we want with you, Magna. It is rather unorthodox.”
“We both want you – as in a threesome. Me, you in the middle, and Kane. Any and every way possible, and as often as I can reload,” Gabe stated in a blunt voice.
“Geez, Gabe! Can you be any more of an ass?” Kane complained.
“What? She might as well know what to expect,” Gabe retorted.
“She is recovering from a horrific ordeal, has been thrown into an unfamiliar world, and doesn’t even know who in the hell we are! You could try being a little more compassionate and a little less crass,” Kane growled, crossing his arms and glaring at Gabe.
Gabe turned to look down at Magna with a raised eyebrow. “Are you offended?” he asked.
“No, it all sounded good to me,” she replied with a grin.
Kane shook his head. “Neither of you are thinking rationally,” he muttered, just as his cellphone vibrated. “Why do people decide to get hurt during the worse possible moments? I have to go back in.”
“Take my truck. It’s in the garage,” Gabe said, pulling his keys out and tossing them to Kane.
“Thanks… and…,” he started to say, stopping when he saw Gabe’s wry grin.
He didn’t need to say anything. Gabe knew how much this meant to him. If they were going to make the relationship work, they needed to trust each other and respect the unspoken rules – one of which was they would both be there for Magna the first time they came
together.
“I might be late getting back,” he warned.
“We’ll be here,” Gabe said.
Kane looked down at Magna. She had grown quiet. Wilson and Buck were now on each side of her on the couch. She was stroking them behind their ears. Bending down, he captured her chin in his hand and tilted her head back slightly.
“We want to take care of you, but you also need to take care of yourself. You come first – always,” he murmured before brushing a kiss across her lips.
He straightened, then paused when she reached out and grabbed his hand. His throat tightened when she lifted his hand to her mouth and pressed a kiss to his palm.
“Thank you,” she whispered, her eyes dark with emotion.
Kane caressed her cheek before turning and heading for the mud room door off the laundry. He pressed the garage door opener before he pulled open the door to Gabe’s four-wheel drive diesel truck. He inserted the key and started the engine. For a moment, he stared blindly at the door to the house, wishing for once he’d picked a different profession. Then he shook his head and shifted the truck into reverse. Who was he kidding? If he hadn’t been a doctor, he would never have met Gabe or Magna.
“Now that would have been the true tragedy,” he muttered under his breath as he slowly drove down the driveway.
Chapter Nine
Los Angeles, California: CIA Building:
* * *
Agent Asahi Tanaka stepped into his office in the Central Intelligence Agency’s Los Angeles office. He had arrived earlier than usual this morning because he had a flight out of LAX to Seattle at ten o’clock. He didn’t bother with the overhead light. Instead, he turned on the small desk lamp positioned on the corner of his desk and he pressed the power button on his computer.
He walked over to the large set of windows and looked down at the street while he waited for his computer to boot up. The city never truly slept, but the early morning, and the fact that it was a weekend, meant the downtown area was relatively empty. His mind was not on the day-to-day life found in Los Angeles, though. He was thinking of a small town along the coast of Oregon.
Turning away from the view, he returned to his desk, pulled the chair out, and sat down. He quickly typed in his password. Opening the file drawer next to him, he pulled out the file titled ‘Missing Persons – Yachats, Oregon’ and placed it on his desk. The contents of the file – like everything else about him – were in meticulous order.
He opened it to the first page, the transcript of his last conversation with Detective Mike Hallbrook of the Lincoln County Police Department. He carefully reread the transcript, already knowing what it said by heart.
The call from Mike had come at 4:48 on a Wednesday morning. He remembered every detail of that morning, but had documented it as well. He had been residing in the Fireside Motel in Yachats while he investigated the most recent disappearance – that of the man who had called him.
He’d seen Mike’s name appear on the caller ID and known immediately he was about to get the first big break in a series of disappearances that had started nearly four decades before he’d begun working on it. He had answered the phone on the first ring.
Asahi turned the page and looked at the documents Mike had left behind. On one notepad Mike had written two words: Ask Ruth. Mike had retraced the words over and over until they were bold faced. Looking up, Asahi clicked on the encrypted folder on his desktop.
Inside was a video file of his interview with Ruth Hallbrook, Mike’s older sister, and an audio file of the phone message Mike had left her. A smile tugged at his lips when he saw the video’s placeholder showing Ruth Hallbrook’s skeptical expression and determined eyes. She was going to do everything she could to find her brother, and Asahi hoped she would be successful. He directed the pointer to the audio file and clicked on it. Sitting back in his chair, he stared out of the window as he listened to the incredible story that her brother had left on her voice mail.
Yachats, Oregon:
* * *
Ross Galloway stood on the dock staring moodily at the old fishing trawler that he had inherited from his dad. It had long since lost its varnished finish. Now, scars from years of use covered the tired surface. He pulled in a drag of his cigarette before exhaling the smoke into the early morning fog.
God, he hated this place. It was cold and depressing. Why anyone wanted to live along the Oregon coast where it could go from being clear and sunny in minutes to gray and damp with fog so thick you could barely see your hand in front of your face was beyond him. He would have moved away years ago if he could have afforded it. The only reason he stayed was because he was waiting for his mom to die so he could sell the house. It was the only thing worth something; the boat sure as hell wasn’t.
Turning, he watched as Nathan Grumby stepped onto the dock and walked toward him. Nathan gave him a toothy grin and held up the device in his hand. Ross grunted and tossed his cigarette butt into the water.
“You’re late,” he said as Nathan climbed on board the trawler.
“Hey, at least I showed up! My brother was showing me some of the stuff he’s found with it. It’s pretty cool,” Nathan replied with a shrug. “He also told me he’d kill my ass if I didn’t bring this back in the same condition he loaned it to me.”
Ross glanced at the expensive underwater metal detector. He gave Nathan a brief nod. Hannibal Grumby would probably do it, too. Nathan’s brother was known for his hot temper. He had seen Nathan use his fists more than once down at the local tavern to beat the shit out of some overconfident preppy who thought putting on a leather jacket and riding a Harley made him a badass. Personally, Ross liked to think he was smart enough to avoid assholes like Nathan – even when he was drunk.
“Put it below, then release the ropes. I want to get the engines warmed up. We should have been out on the water a half hour ago,” he stated.
Ross climbed on board the trawler, and up the short steps to the wheelhouse, then slid the door open, and walked over to the console. He turned the key to start the engines. The low rumble of the engines shook the old trawler, making every loose nut and bolt rattle. He impatiently waited for Nathan to cast off the dock lines. As soon as the boat was free, he carefully pulled away.
Nathan climbed back down from the bow of the boat and stepped into the covered bridge, rubbing his hands together to warm them before turning back to navigate out of the marina’s narrow channel. Once they were clear of the ‘No Wake’ signs, he pressed forward on the throttle.
“So, what are you looking for that you needed Hannibal’s metal detector?” Nathan asked.
Ross debated whether he should say anything, then shrugged. It wasn’t like it really mattered. Whatever he found while diving would be his and only his.
“I saw something the other day and want to check it out,” he said.
Nathan shook his head. “Unless you marked it, I don’t see how you’ll be able to find it again,” he replied with a shrug. “What was it?”
“I don’t know, and I did mark it,” Ross retorted. “It was dark, though, so I didn’t get a good look at it.”
“Well, it’s your boat, dude,” Nathan remarked, glancing around. “Did you bring some food and something hot to drink? I didn’t get a chance to grab anything and I’m freezing my ass off.”
Ross jerked his head toward the cooler set to the side. “There’s coffee and doughnuts in the cooler. Just save me some or you’ll be swimming back,” he warned.
Nathan chuckled as he turned. “I’ll save you one or two,” he promised.
Ross ignored his friend. Instead, he focused on the GPS position he had programmed in the other morning. Two nights ago, he had been fishing when a bright streak and loud splash had startled him. Something had fallen from the god-damn sky! Cutting his tangled net free, he’d cursed when it slipped over the side before he could grab it. The large fishing net would be a pain in the ass to replace, but it was old and had more than one hole in it. He’d hated leaving it
behind, but had been afraid of losing the location of whatever in the hell it was that had fallen from the sky. He would have to come back out and see if he could locate the net when there was more light.
Following the rippling waves to the center of the area, he’d seen something interesting before he’d even focused his large spotlight down. A bright glow under the water had lit up an area half the size of a football field under his trawler before it slowly faded until only the pitch blackness of the ocean surrounded him. The spotlight hadn’t helped him see more. He’d have to go down there. Afraid he would lose the location, he had programmed the spot into his GPS.
It had taken him two days to get the dive equipment he needed ready. He had to get his tanks checked and filled. They had been ready last night. While he was at the dive shop, he saw the metal detectors on display. He couldn’t afford any of the nice ones, but remembered Nathan’s brother had one for his work.
He had recently read an article online that mentioned a meteorite was worth its weight in gold. From the size of the splash, he hoped that it was one the size of his trawler. If it was, he would be retiring at an early age to Hawaii.
It took them nearly an hour to get to the spot where he had marked the impact. They had passed several other boats heading out, but he ignored them. He slowed, turning the boat in slow, circular patterns until he was about ten feet from the spot. Shutting off the engine, he dropped the bow anchor first. Once he knew which direction the current and the wind were blowing the boat, he nodded to Nathan to drop the stern anchor.
“Now, what?” Nathan asked, taking a sip of his coffee.
“Now I suit up,” Ross said.
A shiver ran down Nathan as he looked at the chilly dark water. “Better you than me,” he muttered. “I’m glad I never learned to dive.”
