by S. E. Smith
Locking the front door, he pocketed the keys Patty had reluctantly handed him. He crossed the sidewalk, unlocking the white SUV rental car with the touch of a button as he went, then opened the door, and slid in. Pressing the start button, he shifted and slowly reversed out of the parking space. Ruth Hallbrook had given him permission to search the house with the understanding that nothing was to be disturbed or destroyed in the process. She planned on being here in a couple of weeks and would be staying in the house.
Asahi honestly didn’t expect to discover any new information from the house. He had already been there once before. No, his best opportunity would come from talking to Ross Galloway. He hoped the man was in the mood to share what he knew.
Ross applied the brakes and used his turn signal before turning into the narrow driveway of his mother’s house. It was a small, wooden structure painted in a dark sea blue with white shutters. The house wasn’t much, but it was in good shape for its age.
He shifted the truck into park and turned off the ignition. Sitting in the dark, he lit up another cigarette. His mom hated that he smoked so much, and out of respect for her, he never did so in front of her. He inhaled a deep breath, letting the addictive nicotine fill his lungs, and looked at the house with a critical eye.
The right shutter was drooping again. He needed to replace the hinge and make sure the wood wasn’t rotting. He’d just finished painting the damn place three months ago. There was always something that needed to be repaired. Between the boat and this house, it was a never-ending job.
He knew he was procrastinating. As much as he cared about his mom, he hated going in the house. It brought back too many bad memories, even after all these years. Dropping the remains of his cigarette into the can he used as an ashtray, he released a tired sigh. Tonight would be a short visit. He’d see what new project his mom wanted done, then make an excuse to leave early, and head down to the Underground for a bite to eat and a beer or two before he headed back to his own place.
He had a lot on his mind. Without any conclusive video of the strange woman he’d seen today, he would have to find another way to cash in on what he knew – without getting killed. Hell, with the disappearances of Carly Tate, Jenny Ackerly, and now Mike Hallbrook, everyone was walking around looking over their shoulders.
Pushing the door to his truck open, he slid out and shut it behind him. A frown creased his brow when the front porch light didn’t come on. Usually his mom turned the light on the moment the lights from his truck flashed in the living room window.
He walked around the front of the truck and up the short walkway. Taking the steps two at a time, he paused and rapped on the front door twice. Concern tugged at him when there was no answer.
Gripping the doorknob, he pushed open the door. The house was dark. His hand slid down to the knife at his waist. He pulled it free. There was no way his mom would have left the front door unlocked if she had gone anywhere.
“Mom,” Ross called out, his eyes moving over the immaculate living room.
His hand tightened on the handle of the knife when there was no answer. At the end of the hall, he could see the soft glow of a light. He silently walked down the hallway, his footsteps muted by the worn rug.
A smothered curse escaped him when he looked in the room and saw his mother lying on the floor. Sheathing his knife, he rushed forward and knelt beside her. His fingers trembled as he gently rolled her over onto her back and felt for a pulse. He released a sigh of relief when she moaned softly.
“Hang on. I’ll call for help,” he softly ordered, pulling his cellphone out of his back pocket and dialing emergency services. “Yes, this is Ross Galloway. I’m at Margaret Galloway’s house on Main Street. I need an ambulance.”
“Ross,” Margaret murmured, her voice thin and barely audible.
Ross gripped his mother’s hand when she moved it. “Yes, I’ll stay on the line,” he said to the emergency responder. “I’m here. What happened?”
Margaret Galloway’s eyelashes slowly lifted to reveal tired eyes filled with pain. Ross could feel the weakness in her grip. She tried to smile, but instead moaned.
“Fell. I… love… you, Ross. I always have,” she murmured before closing her eyes.
Ross released her hand when he heard the siren. Rising to his feet, he hurried back down the hall and opened the front door. The next twenty minutes were a blur as he answered questions as the paramedics attended his mom.
Standing to the side, he watched as they wheeled her out to the ambulance. He automatically locked the door as he followed them. A numbness started to fill him as he slid into his truck.
His mind wandered as he followed the ambulance, falling farther behind when he had to pause at the red light. He watched it disappear around the corner and wondered when life had become so complicated. Unexpected sorrow hit him when he realized that he could lose the one thing in the world that actually mattered to him – the only person who gave a damn about him.
Asahi nodded and thanked the nurse. When he’d gone to the Underground Pub, and Ross had not shown up, he had been disappointed. It wasn’t until he had been about to leave that he had heard Dorothy, the waitress, ask a man who entered where Ross was. The man had said he’d seen an ambulance leaving Margaret Galloway’s house with Ross following behind it.
After careful consideration, he’d decided that while it might be insensitive to still attempt to talk to Ross, people tended to be more forthcoming with information when they were in stressful situations.
Though he and Ross had never met, Asahi recognized him from the photo in the office file. Ross was farther down the hall, sitting in one of the hard chairs outside one of the doors. Tired, troubled eyes looked up at him when he drew closer. Asahi motioned to the seat next to Ross. The other man shrugged in response.
“Are you a doctor?” Ross asked, sitting forward and resting his elbows on his knees.
“No, CIA,” Asahi responded.
Ross’s head jerked up and for a moment his expression was devoid of everything but surprise. Then a sardonic smile curved Ross’s lips for a brief second.
“Are you here for me or for my mom?” he asked with a neutral expression and a slightly sarcastic tone.
“Would your mother know anything about the disappearances?” Asahi asked.
Ross stared at him for a moment as if he had lost his mind, then he suddenly rose. Asahi’s gaze followed the other man as he turned in a circle, releasing a string of colorful expletives. Ross finally came to a stop, faced Asahi, and crossed his arms.
“What do you want to know?” With visible effort, Ross managed to keep himself from yelling in the small hallway connecting rooms of sick people, but his resentment was obvious. “I told Mike Hallbrook,” he continued without waiting for a response, his fingers twitching with agitation, “that I had nothing to do with Carly Tate or Jenny Ackerly’s disappearances, then he up and disappears, too. I’ll tell you the same thing I told the FBI when they came, I didn’t have anything to do with any of their disappearances!”
“I know,” Asahi calmly replied.
That clearly threw Ross for a loop. The man opened his mouth, then closed it, a frown darkening his expression. Asahi rose from his seat as Ross finally responded.
“You know? How do you know?” Ross demanded, dropping his arms to his sides.
Asahi glanced down the hall where several nurses were standing, then politely motioned to the chair next to him.
He wasn’t sure if Ross would sit at first. After several seconds of silence, Ross released another curse and walked over to sit down. Asahi sat down set to him.
“Mike Hallbrook called me several weeks after he disappeared,” Asahi began.
Ross looked at him with a hint of suspicion. “Then why are you here and why was I being grilled by the FBI about his disappearance?” he demanded in exasperation. He ran his fingers through his short hair. “Hell, everyone in town thinks I’m either a serial killer or a bad luck magnet. Well, the
y already thought the last, but I’m not a murderer.”
Asahi’s lips twitched at the incredulous expression on Ross’s face. “Mr. Galloway, have you ever noticed anything out of the ordinary, possibly extraterrestrial, in the area?” he asked.
The sudden flare of unease was noticeable in Ross’s face before the man turned his eyes away. Asahi’s gaze narrowed on Ross’s clenched hands.
“I don’t know what you are talking about,” Ross lied, then rose from his seat again and stepped away, looking up and down the hallway before his gaze turned to the closed door next to them. His mouth was tight.
Asahi rose from his seat. “I think you do. What have you seen and where?” he pressed.
“Listen…, I’m not sure….” He stopped when the door opened.
“Ross, you can go in now,” the doctor said, his gaze sweeping from Ross to Asahi and back to Ross.
There was a look that passed between the doctor and Ross, and as the doctor stepped out of the room, the brief glance he sent Asahi was brimming with suspicion.
“Thanks, Kane,” Ross mumbled, nodding to both of them before he disappeared through the door.
Asahi glanced at the name tag on the doctor’s white coat – Dr. Field. He made a mental note to do some research on the man. His thoughtful gaze moved from the doctor to the closed door and back again.
“Can I help you?” Kane asked, his jaw tight with tension.
“No, thank you. I believe I have everything I need for the moment,” Asahi quietly stated with a bow of his head.
He turned and retraced his steps down the corridor to the exit. A tingling between his shoulder blades told him that Dr. Field was watching him. He would have to reread the reports. There was more going on here than Mike Hallbrook had discovered. He was sure he had found another piece to add to the puzzle, and as his grandfather had once told him, each piece to a puzzle helped clarify the overall picture once you knew where it connected. The key was to be patient and diligent.
Chapter Sixteen
Over the course of the next two and a half weeks, life began settling down into a pattern. Magna helped Gabe out on the boat during the day, and the nights were spent in his and Kane’s arms. She was grateful that there had been no sign of Ross yet.
She hummed under her breath. The daily swims, good food, and incredible nights were having a positive effect on her both mentally and physically. Mentally, she felt stronger, healthier, and happier than she had since the night the alien creature took over her body.
She would be the first to admit a large part of her healing had come from Gabe and Kane. Their tender caresses, teasing, and acceptance was helping calm the nightmares she still had. Though at first, she had been afraid to share the horrors of the things she had been forced to do, worried that it would turn the men against her, that fear had died when Kane had shared some of the things he and Gabe had gone through overseas. She had become ever more certain that they truly cared and wanted to help her, and she had hesitantly shared some of her memories with them. When it became too difficult to speak, she had shown them through a memory spell.
After each event, they had held her. Sometimes they would talk about it, sometimes they would merely hold her while she cried. Other times, they would sit on the deck and stare at the ocean in silence or go for long walks with the dogs until she was ready to store the memory away.
The good food, exercise, and loving had also physically benefited her. She was no longer frail and skeletal. Laughter, something she had missed, came more easily each day. It was hard not to laugh between the antics of the dogs – especially Wilson – and the two men. She was gaining weight, the dark circles and gaunt look had disappeared, and she could use her magic again without feeling exhausted. For the first time in centuries, she was happy.
A startled laugh escaped her when Kane wrapped an arm around her waist, and pressed a heated kiss to her neck. It was Saturday morning and he was off for the weekend. Thankfully, the doctor who had been on vacation had returned yesterday, so he would have more time to spend with them.
He had been asleep when she had quietly crawled out of bed. Poor Gabe had been woken up an hour earlier by the two dogs, and whispered to her to go back to sleep while he took the dogs for a run. She tilted her head and pressed a kiss to Kane’s cheek when he peered over her shoulder.
“What are you doing?” Kane asked.
“I am trying to understand the directions in this book,” she said with a sigh. “I used a spell to translate it so I could read it, but it still doesn’t make much sense.”
She made a face at him when he chuckled. The food she was making looked nothing like the picture above the recipe. She was trying to make pancakes from scratch. There was flour, sugar and eggs all over the counter from where the mixer had flung the ingredients in the large bowl she had found in one of the cabinets. So, now she knew that you should not raise the tool when the blades were still moving.
“Let me help you,” he murmured, brushing his lips along her shoulder where the oversized t-shirt had slipped down. “Can you turn it back to English?”
With a frustrated sigh, she waved her hand over the page. The words shimmered and floated off the page before settling back down into a pattern and sequence that he recognized. He read the instructions, and saw that she had placed all the ingredients into the large bowl like she was supposed to. It looked like it was the mixer that was causing her problem.
“Here, let me show you how to use this,” he offered in a quiet voice, motioning for her to pick up the handheld mixer. His hand enveloped hers, and he covered her thumb. Together they pushed the button until it moved to the first line. “Start like this, moving it in a slow circle.”
Warmth spread through her as he gently moved her hand with his. He slid his other hand around her waist, pulling her close, and she shivered with need. She liked cooking like this. A satisfied smile curved her lips when the mixture in the bowl turned into the creamy liquid shown in the pictures. When all of the ingredients were mixed, he slid the button down until the mixing tool turned off.
“And that, my beautiful mermaid, is how you use a mixer,” Kane said in a husky voice.
“If you keep showing her how to use my kitchen appliances like that, she’ll be laid out on the table with us eating her up,” Gabe said dryly from the door.
“Or I could be eating both of you,” she said before her eyes widened in amusement. “What happened to you?”
She fought the urge to laugh. Gabe stood on the thick mat in front of the door leading outside. A small, but growing, pool of water dripped from his body. It took a moment for her to realize that there was a light rain coming down outside. A giggle escaped her when both dogs suddenly shook, sending a shower of wet droplets all around them and pulling an irritated curse from Gabe.
“Wilson decided he would take the scenic route this morning,” Gabe muttered with a crooked smile. “I need a shower.”
Her lips twitched at the blatant invitation in his eyes. Shaking her head, she held up the spoon and grinned. It was hard to resist him when he looked at her like that, but she knew what would happen if she ended up in the shower, and it wouldn’t be breakfast.
“I’m cooking,” she stated proudly. “A thing called pancakes. They sounded very interesting.”
Gabe’s lips drooped and he gave her a pouty look. She had fallen for it once already. Remembering what had happened when she did caused a heated blush to rise up her neck.
“Kane can cook them,” Gabe said with a twinkle in his eyes at her red cheeks.
“No…,” Magna started to say when she felt a little push from Kane.
“Go on,” Kane said with a grin. “I’ve got this. You need a shower, too. You’re covered in flour and egg yolk.”
Magna swallowed at the predatory look that came into Gabe’s eyes.
“Gabe,” she whispered in anticipation.
Something told her she was about to be well and truly loved, again. Her cheeks weren’t the only
thing that started to warm up when he took a step closer to her.
“You’re all mine this time, Magna,” he said with exaggerated wickedness. He glanced at where Kane was rolling his eyes. “Don’t be in a hurry to cook them. This might take a while.”
Kane raised an eyebrow and returned Gabe’s look. “If you take too long, I might just join you.”
“Doesn’t taking the dogs for another run sound like more fun?” Gabe teased, grabbing Magna’s hand.
She barely had time to glance over her shoulder at Kane, worried he would be upset. Instead, he winked at her with a genuine smile and turned away, murmuring just loud enough for them to hear that ‘unlike some people’, he knew better than to go running in the rain.
Gabe scoffed and called back, “Just give us a head start!”
Magna giggled as Gabe pulled her along behind him down the hall to his bedroom. Her heart raced when he firmly closed the door.
“I don’t mind if Kane comes in, but those damn dogs are going to have to wait to get any attention from you this morning,” he growled, pulling her around and pressing her up against the door.
The sound of clothing being torn pulled a startled squeak out of her. He kissed her until she was breathless while he pulled the remains of the old t-shirt away from her body. Her hands ran up his chest to the back of his head as his lips moved to her jaw and he cupped her breasts.
She half-closed her eyes. This is way better than trying to cook, she thought with a sigh.
Gabe knew he should probably go easy on her, but he wanted her so damn bad. He and Kane had talked about the need to go slow, to give her time, but all of their best-laid plans disappeared out of his mind the second he put his hands on Magna. Hell, if he had his way, they might never get out of the bedroom.
