Twisted Instincts

by Casey Hagen

  He leaned in, his gaze going straight to her mouth. “Really? That’s how it’s gonna be?”

  “It’s going to be a tough job. The pay will suck. But yes,” she said, tilting her head toward his.

  “This is going to go fast and hard. Are you ready for this?” he whispered, just an inch away from her lips.

  She curled her fingers into his flannel shirt. “Are you talking about finding Tyler, or us?”

  “Both.”

  Uncurling her fingers she smoothed the fabric, stepped away from him, and smiled. “Bring it, Luca. You don’t have anything I can’t handle.”

  Chapter 3

  It had to be some kind of record. Luca hadn’t even made it out the door after taking his initial report before he lost complete control over the case. If his brothers caught wind of this, he’d never live it down.

  And Mason owed them all some shit after the way the brothers had ridden his ass when they found him singing ‘All of Me’ at the top of his lungs.

  He glanced over to where Jasmine sat in the passenger seat of their company car, her one foot on the dashboard and her fingers drumming her jean-clad thigh to the beat of Steppenwolf coming from his speakers.

  She rolled her head to the side and glanced at him. “So, what’s the plan?”

  Did she have to aim those eyes at him, their honey starbursts shooting through slate-gray irises? He’d swear that there was something in those eyes that would make him give up all his secrets—and there was one in particular he’d never uttered to a single soul. Nor did he plan to.

  “We’re heading to Druid Heights to check out this arcade where Tyler and Kelan like to hang out,” he said, refocusing on the road ahead of him.

  “Okay, and after that?” she asked.

  He turned the corner and scanned the area for Leo’s. “That all depends on what we find. You follow your gut instinct, and I follow the next logical sequence.”

  His cell rang with Mason’s ringtone this time. “Hey, what’s up?” Luca asked.

  “Jeff came back with some information on the guy who had Mara. His name was Dan Simmons. He worked at the shipyard from Lily’s vision, where we found Alegra’s necklace. He was a crane operator at one point, until they demoted him after a failed drug test.”

  Unfortunately, Mason had been in the position of kill or watch his lady be killed, so he hadn’t hesitated to put a bullet right through the middle of Simmons’ forehead. Kind of hard to interrogate a dead guy, so the information had come through a bit slower. They’d had to wait for the police to investigate, clear evidence, and connect the dots before Jeff Clare, a lieutenant with the Baltimore Police Department, was at liberty to share valuable information. There was no formal, above-board relationship between Team Alegra and the Baltimore PD, just a shared rage at the victimization of children. The police made huge concessions and allowed a lot of leeway to Team Alegra to operate a bit outside the lines of the law.

  As long as they got results.

  “He should have been fired,” Luca said.

  “Yeah, well, I imagine there will be changes in light of what he was doing on the side. He was a transporter. Curtis Downs snatches them, Dan holds them for a time, waits for the hubbub to die down, and then transports them to the next link in the chain.”

  Luca spotted Leo’s and pulled into a parking space two buildings away. “So, we still need to find out where he kept the victims, who he was transporting to, who’s running the operation, and if there are any ties to any old cases, new cases, or our sister’s case. And here I thought the list of things we needed to accomplish was shrinking,” Luca said.

  “We might be getting closer than you think. They also found a business card on Dan. Brown, with a gold-toned ‘C’ in script on the front and a six-digit code on the back.”

  “What’s that all about?”

  “The police are pretty sure it’s a code to a locker or safe, where instructions are exchanged for transfers.”

  “Fucking business cards to traffic humans? That’s some sick shit.”

  “Yeah, with a pretty ‘C’ scrawled on the front. I can’t wait to see this ring brought to its knees,” Mason said, his tone low and gritty.

  “You and me both, bro. Look, I’m working the new case, so I’m going to have to let you go,” Luca said as he slipped the keys into his pocket.

  “No problem. I expect you were able to shake Jasmine easy enough?”

  “Uh, yeah, about that—”

  “Garrett said you went on one hell of a tirade the other night about her. He bet Talon that you’d be hooking up with her before spring,” Mason said on a laugh.

  “I guess that depends on what Jasmine has to say about it,” Jasmine said, giving Luca a pointed look.

  “Oh, um, yeah, I guess it would. Look, I’m going to hang up now,” Mason said.

  “Yes, because a minute ago would have been the wrong time to end the call. Thanks, bro,” Luca said deadpan, earning a snort and muffled laughter from Jasmine.

  He hung up and let his head fall back against the headrest.

  “Damn, that had to have been embarrassing,” Jasmine said.

  “You have siblings?” he asked.

  “Nope.” She grinned.

  “Of course not,” he muttered. “Come on, let’s do this.” He pushed open the door and put the call out of his mind.

  “You’re embarrassed,” she said as she caught up with him around the front of the car. A humid breeze whipped through the air, picking up pieces of her sleek, dark-brown hair and tossing them about.

  He scratched the back of his head. “No,” he mumbled.

  She linked her arm in his and winked. “Yes, you are. It’s actually kind of cute, a big guy like you and all.”

  “Thanks. Just what a Marine wants to hear, that he’s cute.”

  Her grip loosened, and she leaned away from him and surveyed him from head to toe. “You were a Marine?”

  “No, I just use that line to pick up women,” Luca said.

  “See, that right there, you’re so much of a smartass, I can’t picture you following orders.”

  “I spent six years doing nothing but following orders, which is why I’m a smartass.”

  “So, this is a ‘what came first, the chicken or the egg’ kind of thing?”

  “Pretty much,” he said as he scanned the area around Leo’s, looking for the places most likely to have security cameras. Leo’s had them but that was understandable. Teenagers could be assholes, and between that, the location, and the nature of the business, it ranked right up there on the risk scale of being robbed.

  He’d guarantee the convenience store half a block down also had a few.

  “Okay, time to earn your place as sidekick. I’m willing to bet the arcade and store have security cameras. You see anything else that might?”

  She pointed to a two-story structure with boarded-up windows and a swath of black graffiti spray-painted on the corner. “The space for rent down there. It’s sitting in a questionable area. It’s old. Looks easy to break into. A good place for kids to duck in and do drugs, or for squatters.”

  “You’re not half bad at this.”

  She tightened her arm once again and patted his shirt. “High praise.”

  “Come on, smart mouth. Let’s go see if we can find the owner of this place.”

  They started down the sidewalk, the sound of their shoes crunching over sand and gravel that had been laid for traction on the slippery ground after the last snowstorm. Despite being a northern city, Baltimore was known for pretty mild winters, where storms could bring upwards of a foot of snow but melted within days and would not be seen again for weeks. Unfortunately, the leaves still died and fell to the ground, leaving the city a stark, desolate sea of gray more often than not, with an almost constant fine drizzle falling in the humid air. Fall, winter, and spring shared so many similarities, they were a hodgepodge of soggy seasons everyone suffered through, waiting for the reward of summer.

  The sound
of their footsteps disappeared under the assault of raucous teens and the electronic bells, whistles, and sound effects of the games they played inside. He opened the steel door with the bars over the windows and waited for Jasmine to head inside before following her.

  He blinked a few times, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the dim lighting and the flash of colored bulbs from various machines around the room. A counter to the left looked like it had been the cash register area at one time, but now had smaller games and claw machines situated on the counters.

  “It smells like jock sweat and lollipops in here. I’m confused,” Jasmine said as she glanced around the place.

  “Try not to think too hard about it. God, this place looks like it hasn’t been touched since the ’80s,” Luca said. He reached out his hand. “Come on. Let’s go see if we can find out who’s in charge.”

  They followed the perimeter of the place, dodging wary glances from sullen teens along the way.

  “Hostile environment. Has a whole Lord of the Flies vibe to it,” Jasmine said.

  “Yeah, I don’t imagine a lot of these kids get their money from their allowance,” Luca muttered. He scanned the room and stopped when he spotted the round counter in the center of the room. “Over there. Let’s go see what we can find out.”

  He held her hand tighter, something about the energy in the place bothering him. These kids, with their distrustful glances, didn’t go to homes like Tyler had. They were probably lucky if they went home to food in the fridge, but the majority of them likely spent most of their time on the streets.

  Which made him wonder why Eric and Stella allowed Tyler to hang out down here. They must have never stopped to check out the place, because whether Kelan was a good kid or not, there was no mistaking the hostile energy in the air.

  An older guy, about sixty, wearing a dirty, white T-shirt, blue jeans, and reeking of cigarette smoke, sat behind the counter. “The name’s Leo. Can I help you?” he asked with narrowed eyes and a voice that sounded like his throat had been shredded by broken glass. His dull gaze went to Jasmine. He blinked, sat up straighter, and straightened his shirt.

  Dude, in a million years you don’t even have the flicker of a chance.

  “Yeah, I have a few questions about a boy named Tyler. He went missing on Tuesday. Word is he spent a lot of time here.” Luca slid the picture across the scarred Formica counter.

  “Yeah, I’ve seen the boy. He’s the high score over there on Speed Racer,” the guy said with a nod in the direction of the corner.

  A kid in a jeans jacket slammed away at the machine, muttering curses as he went. “Who’s that over there?”

  “Kelan Carson. Spent a lot of time with the boy you’re looking for.”

  “Do you know if Tyler was here on Tuesday?”

  “I’m not sure; Kelan’s brother, Will, was running the place for me,” he said, nodding toward the kid playing Speed Racer. “I had some business down at the Social Security office.”

  “Any chance I can speak to Will?”

  “Sure, if you can reach him. Seems like he’s always busy doing something, that one. I’ll get you his number.” He thumbed through his phone and scrawled the number on a slip of paper.

  “Thanks. I appreciate it. Look, one more thing…I see you have security cameras. Any chance you’d be willing to review the footage and see if Tyler was here on Tuesday? Just between us?”

  “I guess I could, but why wouldn’t you just ask Kelan or his brother?”

  “Call it a hunch. And if I go ahead and view that footage, the Baltimore PD won’t have to.” Luca flicked a hundred-dollar bill from his wallet and slid it across the counter. “For your trouble,” he said.

  “Sure. Follow me,” he said, sliding off his stool and raising a portion of the counter on hinges, like a bar counter.

  He led them to an office in the back. Leaving the door open, he flicked on the light and punched a series of keys on his computer to unlock it.

  Jasmine leaned over, putting her mouth to Luca’s ear. “Tyler was here Tuesday.”

  He met her eyes. “You’re sure?”

  She nodded, the movement making her hair slide in front of her view. Before he could think much about why it was a bad idea—and, after all, he’d already kissed the air right out of her lungs—he smoothed the strands and tucked them behind her ear. “You’re upset,” he whispered.

  “Agitated,” she mumbled.

  He took her hand, linking his fingers with hers, and kissed the back. “We’re almost done.”

  She gave him a jerky nod and pressed closer.

  The whole “I just know” was a bit hard to swallow until he witnessed the physical tension building up inside her. Now, he wished there was something he could do to stop it, almost as much as he wished there was a way to call on her ability whenever it suited him.

  He hoped that didn’t make him a bastard. After all, she had a stake in this. Her past compelled her to help, probably just as much as his.

  “Well, that’s weird.”

  “What?” Luca asked.

  “I see Tyler standing outside, he looks like he was about to come in, and then my cameras died. I have to scroll forward almost ten minutes before they came back and there’s Will; he looks like he’s watching someone leave.”

  “Can you go back and show me?” Luca asked, leaning over the computer.

  “Sure.”

  The camera footage was grainy, but still left no question that it was definitely Tyler he saw on the screen. He stepped up to Kelan and did some fancy handshake. They talked for a few minutes and both turned toward something off-screen before hustling inside the arcade. And just like he said, ten minutes later Will stood on the sidewalk, watching something in the distance. Luca couldn’t get anything from his stance, and with Will’s back turned, he had no facial expressions to work from.

  “What about the rest of the cameras? Is Tyler still inside when Will is outside?” Luca asked.

  “Let me check.”

  The screen split into six images: each of the four corners of the arcade and two aimed toward the counter in the center.

  No sign of Tyler anywhere.

  “He’s gone.”

  “Yeah. Can you send that footage to me?”

  “Sure. I don’t want any trouble, so I’ll do whatever you need me to do.”

  “I appreciate it. Here’s my email,” Luca said, slipping him a card. “As soon as you can, so I can have my computer guy study it.”

  “You got it—just give me a few minutes, and it’s yours.”

  “Thanks. If you don’t mind, I’m going to go have a quick word with Kelan before we go,” Luca said.

  “Go ‘head,” he said, turning back to his computer.

  “Your gut was right,” Luca said, making his way to the kid playing Speed Racer. “Kelan Carson?” he asked.

  The kid jumped and clung to the machine, his game forgotten. “What?” he said, his eyes darting between the two of them.

  “Hey, easy. You’re not in any trouble. We’re just wondering when you saw Tyler last.”

  Kelan shrugged, avoiding eye contact. The blood drained from his face, and he practically shrank before their very eyes. “I don’t know, a while I guess,” he mumbled.

  “Okay, so this week? Last week?”

  He shook his head, his movements jerky. “I haven’t seen him this week.”

  Lie.

  And this is where Luca had to tread carefully, because now he had a minor who was definitely involved in a disappearance—at least to the degree that he knew something—and it terrified him. And he didn’t have Kelan’s parents’ permission to interview their kid.

  “So last week, then?” Luca asked.

  “Yeah…last week,” Kelan agreed.

  “Okay, thanks for your help.” Luca turned to Jasmine, and Kelan took the opportunity to run out of the arcade like his ass was on fire.

  Jasmine stared at the wall past Luca’s shoulder.

  “What is it?”
he asked.

  He shot a look over his shoulder just as she reached out and plucked the edge of a business card from where it lay tucked behind the doorframe of the rear emergency exit.

  A brown card with a gold-toned ‘C’ and a code on the back.

  Chapter 4

  A sense of foreboding lodged in Jasmine’s gut like never before. The only thing she could figure was, by choosing to tap into her gifts instead of just letting them pop in and out at their leisure, things had changed.

  It left her unsure of herself.

  Something she had never been a day in her life. She had never hesitated to go after what she wanted. She supported herself. She protected herself.

  She molded life into what she needed it to be.

  She faced life head-on and memorized every moment.

  Energy skittered along her nerve endings, making her so sensitive that the leather of the seat, the dry heat from the vents, the thump of the bass from the stereo, and the heat flowing off Luca’s skin attacked her from all angles. She drummed her fingers on the door, tapped her foot impatiently, and glanced repeatedly at her phone to see how long they had left until they got to the office.

  They had only left the arcade two minutes earlier.

  Luca tapped his phone and dialed Mason.

  “Hey, Luca. What did you find?”

  “Trouble. The owner of the arcade is sending me the footage from that day. It shows Tyler outside and then it glitches,” Luca started explaining.

  His voice faded into the background as Jasmine flipped the baggie holding the business card between her fingers.

  A buzzing grew louder between her ears, and an image flashed in her mind, so vividly she shot out a hand to the door handle as the sensation of being pulled into the past made her desperate to hold on to the present. Seeing visions had always been Lily’s gift. Not Jasmine’s.

  The little girl stood there, clutching a stuffed panda bear to her chest. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she watched her brothers disappear from view.