“Did you ask them for their badge numbers?” I couldn’t believe these guys could be duped by the oldest trick in the book. “Did they draw a gun on you? Were they actually driving a marked cop car?”
Ray and Luke glanced at each other and shook their heads.
Luke huffed. “Damn them. We’ve been searching a couple of hours for you. Saw the direction the van was headed, toward the beach, but with the delay, we never saw where it actually took you.” He grunted and swore again. “We thought Kendra was in the same van. Both of you came off the boat ramp in wheelchairs and we saw them wheeled up to the back of the van. We parked up the street and saw it from the front, so we didn’t actually see them load both of you.”
Ray groaned. “They must have been on to us the whole time. I never checked our van for any tracking devices.”
“Yeah, they are that good,” I said. “And Kendra could be anywhere…we made a perfect delay for them to unload those girls from the ships or to send the ships out to sea. Call Tressa and see if she’s heard anything from Kendra.”
“We just talked to Tressa, before we found you. I’m guessing she hasn’t heard anything or she’d be on the phone to us.”
“We need someone to go back to that ship. Ask Tressa to contact any agents in the area, have them set up surveillance on both ships. They need to remain docked.” The feeling in my legs strengthened and my muscles engaged. I strode on my own, shaking the guys off me. “We are going to find Kendra. Tell me where you’ve already looked.”
* * *
Kendra
“Here comes a car, Kendra. Stick your thumb out,” Jenna yelled.
My headache had subsided and I didn’t want it to come back. “Okay, I’m right next to you. Stop the yelling.” All the feeling had returned to my legs and arms, and my muscles worked at one hundred percent. I stuck my thumb out for the first time in my life. The car traveled pretty fast but slowed as soon as the high beams highlighted me. I moved to the edge of the road and the car came to a stop beside me. The window rolled down on the red mid-sized four-door car.
“Are you all right, miss? It’s three-thirty in the morning for goodness sakes. Mighty early for a stroll in the park.” A kindly gray-haired woman sat in the driver’s seat. No one else was in the vehicle.
“I’m okay. But I’m not familiar with this area. Am I close to the Wingate Hotel in Wilmington?”
“Get in, dear, I’ll give you a ride while you tell me what happened. Do I need to call the police?” The look of concern etching across her face touched my heart.
“I’d rather not involve them.” I climbed into the passenger side. “Is it far?”
“Heavens, no. I’m on my way to work and that’s just down the road from the hotel.” She wore a white uniform. “I work the first shift at the hospital, but going in earlier than usual. I’ve got plenty of time.”
“That’s very kind of you. Thank you.” I acknowledged her in my head as Divine intervention and turned to look in the backseat for Jenna. Vanilla scented the air but she must have gone invisible.
“Tell me how you ended up in the park dressed like that?” She glanced toward me, and then back toward the road, her speed slowed.
I really didn’t want to say anything and get it reported. But, she needed to hear something.
“Tell her it was a date gone wrong. The guy wanted more than you were willing to give, so you told him to drop you on the side of the road…and he did,” Jenna whispered in my ear.
I passed it on to the nice woman, pretty much the same way Jenna worded it.
“You were actually quite fortunate. Not every man would have left you without having their way with you first. There are so many rapes that come through the emergency.” She shook her head. “I’m glad you’re all right and that you weren’t left to walk into town.” She glanced at me again. “I’m Shelby, by the way.”
“Kendra. It’s so nice to meet you.” The city lights ahead confirmed my drop spot hadn’t been too far away. I hoped that Derek was as close and found his way back to the hotel.
* * *
Derek
Tressa had arranged for a surveillance team to set up next to the dock. She heard back almost immediately, both ships had gone missing. She involved the coast guard, and so far, they hadn’t reported anything.
Luke, Ray, and I combed the shoreline that the guys hadn’t scoured earlier, to no avail.
Then, Ray’s cell rang. He pulled the cell phone from his pocket and checked the screen. “It’s Tressa. Do you want to talk with her, boss?”
I reached for it, and answered, “What have you got?”
“Kendra,” Tressa said.
Electric sparks rode through me like a streak of lightning. “Is she…,” I couldn’t say the rest, struggling to breathe around the knot forming in my throat.
“Derek?” Kendra.
I swore my heart pounded like thunder against my ribs. “Kendra. Are you all right?”
“Yes. Are you?”
A turbulent storm of whatever gripped me earlier washed away and left me standing knee deep in relief. “I will be once I see you. I’ll be there in a few minutes.” I clicked off, afraid I’d say something foolish. The extreme adrenaline rush from one possibility to the other with Kendra…made me want to say something deep…and possibly too true.
“We headed back to the hotel?” Luke plodded over the sand and stopped next to me.
“Yep, let’s head out. We need another plan.” And I wanted nothing more than to wrap my arms around Kendra.
* * *
Kendra
A tap on the hotel door had Tressa rushing to open it. Derek strode in, his gaze found mine and melted my insides.
My gaze dropped to his boxers. “What…?”
“Tell me you weren’t disrobed.” He swept me into his arms and before I could answer, his lips crushed mine.
Every one of my nerve fibers, muscles, arteries, veins, shoved me against his body, molding us together. His hands slipped up the back of my sweater and pressed me harder into his chest.
“Oh, my. Get into the bedroom for Gods sakes.” Jenna stared at me from over the top of Derek’s shoulder. “You two need to answer your siren call to each other once and for all. Get it done.” She shimmered out of sight.
I was totally on fire, barely able to breathe and close to the point of no return. I groaned, just a little, but it came out loud, sounding more frustrated than sensual.
Derek stepped back. “Did I hurt you?”
Unable to speak, I shook my head.
“After you got back, you changed your clothes? They didn’t leave you somewhere in only your underclothes, right?” His eyes narrowed, but I couldn’t stop from lowering my focus to his lips, still tasting them on mine.
Movement in my periphery stole my attention. Tressa and Ray were all over each other next to the door. Luke had gone and sat on the couch, leaning back with his eyes shut. He appeared to be sleeping.
Derek glanced at Tressa and Ray, and then at Luke. “Let’s get a bit of shut-eye before we meet. It’s going to be daylight soon. Want to shoot for seven o’clock, breakfast in this room?”
I checked the digital clock next to the couch, four-thirty. “Yeah, I could use some rest. It’ll come easier now that I know everyone is safe.” And then the young girls came to mind, and, no, everyone was not safe. My focus dropped to the floor, and I wondered why my head hovered in the clouds right now.
Derek lifted my chin, his brows drew in. He leaned to my ear and whispered, “I want you in my room.”
I nodded, leaning to his ear, and whispered, “I’ll be there in a couple minutes.”
Luke got up and walked toward the door. “I’m all in, going to the room for some sleep.”
“I’ll be there in a minute,” Ray said to Luke as he passed by.
Derek kissed me on the forehead and left.
Tressa walked over to me. “Are you going to Derek’s room?”
I nodded, expecting some sort of
resistance.
“Good. I’d like Ray to stay with me tonight, but I don’t think he will if you are here.” She smiled and wiggled her brows.
“Gotcha. See you in the morning.” I watched Ray’s mouth drop open on my way by and closed the door behind me.
Derek opened his door before I knocked. He grabbed my hand and pulled me into his room, every disturbed feeling flowing through my brain remained in the hallway. His lips caught mine as our bodies slammed the door closed. He lifted me, our lips entangled in each other, promising more. I wrapped my legs around his waist and he carried me to the bed.
He growled as he released me and I bounced onto the mattress. “You never answered me. Did those bastards undress you?”
“No. All of my clothes were on me when I awoke,” I whispered, my words thickened with unrequited passion. Desperation whipped inside my chest, drawing me like a wild force of nature to him. My mind had been convinced at one point that I’d lost him, and seeing him, feeling him, kissing him, enforced an inner need to intimately have him…all of him.
He turned off the light beside the bed, so only the bathroom lighting illuminated the room. “I’m going to shower the sand off, only take a second.”
“You better hurry or I’ll have to start without you.”
He blew me a kiss and hurried into the bathroom.
The shower spray drew me to the doorway. A shadowed form of his body showed through the shower curtain. “Are you spying on me?” His head poked through one side of the curtain.
“I actually was thinking of joining you.”
“I’m done.” He disappeared behind the curtain and the water shut off.
I handed a towel through the opening and he grabbed it out of my hand. A moment later, he stepped out with the towel wrapped around his waist. “Are you sure about this, Kendra?”
“Never sure of anything more in my entire life than this night, with you.” I walked back to the bed, pulled my sweater over my head, dropping it to the floor and unclipped my bra, also tossing it on the floor. I shimmied out of my jeans and underwear, kicking them off.
His breath caught in a groan.
“How about you, Derek?”
He allowed the towel to slip from his body. His hard response in the soft light sent a shiver through me. My body turned into a flow of lava as he ripped open a small foil package, rolling the plastic sleeve into place. He pulled the covers from beneath me, leaving a pile at the end of the bed.
I stretched back, naked on the bed. His roving eyes boiled my insides.
“Something sweet yet bold.” With his fingertips, he outlined the purple heart shape at my center. His skin grazed mine as he leaned over me.
An explosion of earnest tension poured from my soul. Every part of my body trembled with anticipation as his warm fingertips smoothed over my cheeks and down my front, sending a rush of goosebumps skittering across my skin, ahead of his touch.
“You are so beautiful. Inside and out.” His body lifted and then sank, encompassing me in his warmth as his lips captured mine. “I want you more than life, Kendra. And, I thought I’d lost you…forever.” His words swallowed my breath.
I explored his mouth with my tongue, and his moan undid me. He flipped me to the upside, on top of him, and I wasted no time hopping on board…
Chapter Sixteen
Derek
I never fell asleep. Kendra’s back pressed against my chest and pelvis, with my arousal nestled between her buttocks, my hand cupping her breast. It took all of my willpower to let her sleep when every cell of my body hollered to feel her climax one more time and to hear her breathy rising gasps.
She turned me on without even trying, like right now. Her body lifted such a small degree with every one of her breaths, making me rock hard. She pushed into my groin, and I concentrated on anything I could to keep from ejaculating.
A rap on the connecting room door brought a moan from Kendra. She snuggled deeper into me, and I had to move or take action. I climbed from the bed, pulling on my boxers, and attempted to tame the beast before answering the door.
I unlocked it and cracked it open. Luke stood on the other side.
“Isn’t it time for our meeting? Where’s Ray?” He pushed the door, but I stopped it.
“Ray stayed with Tressa. I also have company. I’ll let you know when we’re ready to go over to Tressa’s room.”
He stepped back from the door. “Okay, I’m going down for a cup of java. Text me when you’re ready.”
“Gotcha.” I didn’t want to share that Kendra was here, for her personal propriety. Hopefully, when she woke up, she wouldn’t have any shortcomings over our night together. That thought struck inside my chest like a stabbing icicle.
I turned away from the door, and my breath caught when I looked at Kendra. The sheet draped her waist, leaving her breasts exposed. I ambled over to the bed, fighting with myself not to touch but to pull up the sheet until finally, I covered her. Then I hightailed it into the bathroom for a cold shower.
* * *
Kendra
I woke naked in Derek’s bed. Thoughts stirred in my head of our night here. My face blazed as did other areas of my body. My downstairs burned like angel-fire from the attention it wasn’t used to getting, and damned if it wasn’t yearning for more. Good grief!
The shower shut off.
I swung my legs over the edge of the bed and wondered if Derek felt the same way as me. Guess there was only one way to find out. I rushed over to the bathroom door. “Anyone in there that might want a shot at a lost-woman?” Where in the hell did that come from? Peter Pan and the lost-boys?
The door swung open and Derek stood, dripping wet, a towel around his waist. I stood naked as the day I was born. Hmmm. Honestly, what was I thinking?
He grabbed my hand and pulled me inside, slamming the door. His towel dropped, and his stamina apparently was not to be questioned.
My breath sucked in on a gasp at his full-frontal exposure.
He tilted my chin up with a toothy grin on his face.
Uh-oh, caught, staring at the goods.
“Are you scared or excited?” he asked, his voice husky and his eyes half-lidded. “Well?”
“I’ll let you know in the shower.” I smiled right back, looking forward to another romp as he followed me into a stall large enough for two.
* * *
Derek and I sat at the round table. Luke, Ray, and Tressa filled their plates from the breakfast food platters spread across the counter on the other side of the room. I grabbed the pot of coffee and poured a cup for Derek and me, and then set the pot near Tressa’s place, next to me.
Seeing everyone in serious conversation as they gathered their food brought the mission back to me in a dump of thoughts and memories. I had to wonder about what happened last night with me and Derek. Why would I allow myself to forget the mission? I glanced at Derek, my eyes wide and searching, maybe for reassurance that I had not been negligent of the case.
His smile warmed my insides. He patted my hands that I had folded in front of me on the table, and then leaned to my ear and whispered, “It’s tough to compartmentalize, but especially when dealing with cases involving kids. What happened between us last night meant something deep, but it also allowed us to escape for a while. I thought I’d lost you, Kendra. I didn’t mean to take advantage of the trauma-shock you were going through.”
“I thought I’d lost you, too, and I knew exactly what I was doing last night. But, thinking about it in the light of day…intensifies the case and alludes to my gratification as selfish.”
“We experienced a needed break, and now we get back to business.” He squeezed my hands, kissed my cheek, and then sat back in his chair as the others came back to the table with full plates.
Vanilla fluffed through the air around me, and I took a deep breath knowing Jenna was close. She spoke into my ear opposite of Derek, “Everyone handles trauma, near-death experiences, and most especially cases involving children in d
ifferent ways, Sparky. Intimacy is a good way if it’s with someone you love, and I’m certain that you and Derek are on the same page in that category.” She slipped between Tressa and me to sit on the table. Her brows drew in a bit as she studied my face. “You both needed something real and positive to void the real and negative. You aren’t selfish, far from it. If I were to grade your behavior as an FBI consultant, you’d receive an A-plus for finding a grounded way of handling a traumatic situation and holding yourself together despite it.”
Her words sank in, gave me pause, and released most of the gathered tension in my body.
“Jackson called in after midnight to see what happened,” Tressa said. “He got concerned because he didn’t hear from you.” She stopped for a moment, poured coffee into her and Ray’s cups, and then continued, “He’s sending reinforcements right away, in fact, he considered a flight down here to question Gimbel. That all went down before I heard you were okay.” She tilted her head forward and glanced directly at Derek. “I called him as soon as Kendra came back, but I think he’d already made up his mind about personally talking to Gimbel.”
Derek’s brows shot high. “So, what time does his flight come in. Someone should be there to meet him at the airport.”
“He told us to stay on task. He’ll let us know when he arrives and what his plan will be.”
“So, let’s eat and then make a plan.” Derek took a couple bites and discussion picked up around the table of what happened last night.
I stepped away to use the bathroom, but mostly for a chance to speak with Jenna alone. She had placed herself across the table from me, behind Luke, and followed me through the bedroom and into the bathroom. “I want to know how many children we lost last night. There were two ships, and I’m thinking they both had the same sort of layout. Do you agree?”
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