The Lost (Sin Hunters)

by Piñeiro, Caridad

  As before, Kellen didn’t doubt as he grasped her hand. A mother, after all, knew her child better than anyone else.

  “Such an affinity is rare, but powerful. That would explain what we are experiencing,” he agreed as he sampled the energy buzzing through his body.

  “But what about the woman, Quinchu? Could she be one of us?” Marcus asked, directing his gaze at Selina.

  Selina sensed no trace of Shadow power within the energy they had just absorbed from their cadre member, but she was still uncertain what abilities, if any, the woman with her son possessed.

  “She must have some of the hunting gift, otherwise she’d be dead. But for now, we must focus on bringing Adam back to the fold peacefully,” she said, leaving no doubt from her tone that she would not tolerate another incident like the one that had happened tonight.

  The cadre members dipped their heads and saluted before leaving Kellen and Selina alone. Blissfully alone, Selina thought as she slipped her hand into her husband’s, the power within her rousing passion and the need to share her life force.

  With a coquette’s half glance, she swung his hand playfully. “The night grows short, my love.”

  Kellen smiled and hauled her close, his eyes beginning to glow brightly as he released his power and it surged into her, nearly bringing her to a climax from its strength.

  “Then let’s not waste another second,” he said, backing her toward the wall, where he raised the long skirt she wore and eased his hand over her naked sex. With another release of power against that sensitive flesh, he pulled a climax from her that had her shaking in his arms and grabbing hold of his shoulders for support.

  He met her gaze, shimmering silvery gray as she laid her hands on his shoulders and exacted sweet revenge. He barely had time to push himself into her before the exquisite female energy of her yanked orgasm after orgasm from the both of them as her stronger power looped through them.

  He would willingly die like this, snared in her embrace, he thought before her words echoed in his brain.

  “So could I.”

  CHAPTER

  21

  It surprised Adam to find his father on his doorstep bright and early the next morning.

  It also clearly shocked his father to find Bobbie sitting at the kitchen table, hungrily devouring the bacon, eggs, and waffles they had cooked together just moments earlier.

  “I called your office, but they said you were taking the day off,” his father said, shooting a condemning gaze from Bobbie to Adam.

  “Would you like some breakfast, Mr. Bruno?” Bobbie asked, and rose, pulling an extra plate and cutlery from the cabinets as comfortably as if she had lived in Adam’s home all her life.

  With a curt slash of his hand in refusal, his father turned to him. “What’s going on, Adam?”

  “Why don’t you pull up a chair? Have some coffee.” He walked to the table and dropped a kiss on Bobbie’s cheek before sitting beside her.

  His father’s eyebrow shot up at the telling display of unity, but Adam had never been one to mince words. “Is something wrong, Dad?”

  Blustering, his father said, “You’re letting the events of the other day—”

  “How about the two men in the Jeep shooting lightning bolts at us last night?” Bobbie said, trumping Adam to the big reveal.

  “What? What are you talking about?” his father mumbled, and staggered forward, dropped heavily into a chair by the table, his color a deathly white beneath the Sicilian olive of his skin. Worry drove Adam to his father’s side.

  “Are you okay?” He squeezed his father’s shoulder in a supportive gesture.

  “Is it true, Adam? What she said? Is it true?” Salvatore pressed, looking not at Adam, but almost through him, as if he were seeing a ghost.

  “It’s true, Dad. There was another attack last night.”

  “This should not be happening.” His worry was obvious in his tone and in the fretful way he clasped and unclasped his hands like a frail old man. In reality, his father looked as if he had aged a dozen years in the last few seconds, or as if he were Atlas and the weight of the world had suddenly come tumbling down onto his shoulders. It created unease within Adam, and suddenly he was wondering if he really knew the man who had raised him for twenty years.

  “Is there something you need to tell me?” Adam asked, and his father snapped out if it, his daze replaced by the kind of sharp-eyed scrutiny Adam recognized well.

  “Who else knows? Who else was involved in what happened last night?” His words were sharp, accusing. He cast a caustic eye in Bobbie’s direction.

  “The police chief is a friend.”

  “The police are involved?” His father jumped out of his chair, sending it skittering across the kitchen floor.

  “Easy, Dad. As far as the police know, it was a simple accident,” Adam replied, trying to keep his tone calm. The reaction seemed severe for someone who wasn’t involved.

  Unless his father knew more about his attackers than he was admitting.

  “What do you know? What is it that you’re not saying?”

  His father raked his fingers through his thick hair. Was Adam imagining it, or were there more traces of gray there? Were they from the worry that Adam had sensed over the last few months, which he suddenly guessed had a lot to do with him?

  “I’m not at liberty to say,” came the terse reply.

  “We were almost killed last night and you’re not at liberty to say?” Bobbie retorted, her body tense beside him. But Adam knew his father too well. Salvatore Bruno would never reveal anything before it was time. If they wanted any information, they were going to have to find it out for themselves.

  Laying his hand over Bobbie’s as it rested on the kitchen table, he shot her a half glance. “It’s okay. My father will tell us when the time is right.”

  He skewered his father with a stony glare. “Right, Dad?”

  Like a quick-change artist’s, his father’s entire persona altered. Salvatore pulled his shoulders back and inclined his head at a determined angle. His smile thinned, becoming a knife-sharp slash.

  “I would never risk your life, Adam. I hope you believe that.”

  Although his father mouthed the words, Adam wasn’t quite so certain anymore. His silence alone was jeopardizing Adam’s safety. After Adam’s reluctant nod, Salvatore executed a militarily precise about-face and exited the room.

  “I guess we’re on our own,” Bobbie said, and twined her fingers with his, her touch more comforting than he could have ever imagined.

  Adam turned his attention to her and smiled despite his concern. He didn’t want to worry her, but as he took note of her steadfast features, he realized she wasn’t the kind to fret. She was the kind of woman who took action, the warrior ready to protect her own, much like he was ready to defend her as he had the night before.

  He tightened his hold on her hand and dipped his head in the direction of her plate. “Eat up. We’re going to need to be ready for whatever we plan.”

  A slow, wicked grin inched across her full mobile lips. “Will that plan include some time in your bed again?”

  His gut immediately tightened into a knot of need at the thought of making love to her once more. Bending his head, he licked the edges of her lips, sweet from the maple syrup on the waffles. She responded, opening her mouth and running her tongue along his, deepening the kiss and threading her hand into his hair to hold him close. She met his lips and tongue again and again until they finally broke apart, breathing heavily, desire unleashed and needing fulfillment, until common sense intruded.

  “Later,” he promised.

  “Sooner,” she replied with a grin.

  There was one rule Bobbie had learned as a Marine that she considered paramount: Know your enemy.

  The problem was that they understood little about whoever had attacked them. The one person who she suspected could provide that information—Adam’s father—was clearly keeping it close to his vest. Which meant they had t
o get the information on their own.

  The mess that Adam’s little electrical experiment had created two nights before had been cleaned up, and luckily the surge protectors on the various computers, servers, and devices had kicked in with the overload, safeguarding the equipment, for the most part. The monitors that had blown out had been replaced the day before by techs from SolTerra.

  Adam motioned to one of the workstations. “I can give you access to the security tapes from the other afternoon. You can refresh your memory while I wait for my security chief. I asked him to come by to see if he could help us.”

  She nodded, needing something to keep her busy while her mind processed all the information she had so far.

  Focusing her attention on the video, she played it again and again, examining the actions of the two assailants for some hint of who they were and memorizing their features. As she paused on one frame where both of their faces were visible, she mentally compared their faces to those of the men in the Jeep last night.

  Negative match, she thought.

  Nevertheless, there was something similar between their two afternoon attackers and those who had tried to grab them last night. All had large, powerful builds and moved with the kind of masculine authority found in military men. Considering their MO, it would be too coincidental that the four men were not somehow associated with one another.

  “Find anything?” he asked, his fingers stationary on the keyboard, making her wonder what he was doing.

  “Just a hunch. They seem to be ex-soldiers, except for the balls of energy. But where would they get that kind of power?”

  “They took it from someone or something else,” he replied, and swiveled in his chair to face her, a shuttered look on his features.

  She mulled over his words, almost fearing what would be the most likely explanation. “Are you telling me that you can like suck the energy from other living things? Or machines? Is that why you were going all Computer Whisperer?”

  A deep ridge erupted on his forehead and he glanced at her through slitted eyes. “Sounds awful when you put it like that. Like I’m some kind of vampire.”

  “Do you? Take energy from other beings?” she put out there, needing to understand more about who and what he was before she became even more involved than she was.

  He looked away then, obviously uncomfortable. When he spoke, an underlying hint of anger vibrated in his voice. “I can connect with electrical things directly, and as for living things… I could take their power. I usually don’t, except possibly here, when I do my experiments.”

  She glanced around the room as if seeing it for the first time, now aware of its real purpose. “You were trying to gather energy for yourself the other night.”

  He nodded. “And test a new battery concept. One which can store electrical energy taken from naturally occurring sources, like lightning.”

  Much as she had earlier with his father, she got the sense it was only a partial answer, that there was more to his powers and what he did with them that he wasn’t saying, and in a way, she understood. Even though they had made love twice and spent the night in each other’s arms, they were still essentially strangers. Whatever trust existed was built on the rocky foundation laid down by the events of the last couple of days. Before a more solid footing could be found, they needed to learn a great deal about each other.

  “Did it work? The new battery?” she asked, diverting the subject to one that she hoped would be less antagonistic.

  Visibly relaxing, he offered up a wry smile. “It gave me enough juice to nearly fry myself and maybe even shoot those power balls.”

  “You’ve never done that before?”

  Shaking his head, he shifted the chair until they were face to face and knee to knee. “No, I haven’t. Just like I never healed someone or made love to a very desirable and very beautiful woman before,” he said and punctuated his statement by grazing the side of her face with the light brush of his fingers.

  She imagined he could feel the heat of the blush created by his words much as she could once again sense the buzz of power against her skin. “I find it hard to believe you’ve never made love—”

  “Not like last night. Not with someone like you,” he immediately clarified, and shifting his hand to her lips, traced the edge of them with his index finger, igniting want with just that simple caress.

  Leaning forward, she kissed him—just a barely there skip of her lips along his, eyes open to watch the changing emotions in his. Seeing the already deep emerald darken, get swallowed up by the blackness of his irises as she continued to tease her lips along his.

  The loud ring of the doorbell yanked them apart, drawing their attention to a monitor, which flashed to a picture of someone at the front door.

  Adam held his hand over his computer and after an abrupt wave said, “I’m opening the front door, Rand. Come down to my lab.”

  The man immediately entered and less than a minute later, he stood before them at the entrance to the room, hands clasped together, back ramrod straight. He had a bulldog’s face, all craggy and saggy in spots, although she suspected he wasn’t much older than fifty. It was a face that had seen a great deal and judging from the salt and pepper buzz cut and his stance, he was either ex-military or ex–law enforcement.

  “Rand. Thank you for coming so quickly,” Adam said and rose from his chair, motioned for the man to enter.

  “No problem, sir. I sensed there was trouble.” There was no doubt about his feelings as the man glared at her.

  She stood, feeling a kink bunch up in the middle of her thigh, causing her to falter a bit when she faced the man Adam had called Rand.

  “Do you have a problem with me, Mr.—”

  “Cunningham, ma’am. Randall. Chief of Security,” he replied precisely, wasting not a word.

  Judging from the neat look of him, with his pristine dark suit, white shirt, proper rep tie, and buzz cut, Mr. Cunningham, Randall, Chief of Security, was not a man of excess anything.

  “And no, Sergeant Carrera. I have no problem with you. It’s just that your presence was… unexpected,” he advised with a measured dip of his head and finally a glance at Adam, an almost parental I-hope-you-know-what-you’re-doing kind of look.

  “No longer a sergeant, Mr. Cunningham. Bobbie will do,” she said and held out her hand to the man.

  He took it and after exactly two shakes, pulled it away and said, “Bobbie. Once a Marine, always a Marine, Bobbie.”

  With those words he made himself clear. He was always faithful, not only to the Corps, but also to Adam, his employer. If she posed a threat, he would protect Adam from her. If she wasn’t a risk, he’d have her back also.

  “I need you to know you’re my man on this, Rand,” Adam said and came to stand by Bobbie, sending his own message. Randall shrugged shoulders that stretched the fabric of his serviceable dark suit as he clasped his large hands in front of him. “Your father might have recommended me, but you pay the bills, Adam.”

  “Good to know,” Adam replied, and then continued. “We’ve got photos of the men who attacked us the other day. I want to run them against whatever databases are available.”

  “VICAP, CODIS, as well as the secret stuff, I’m assuming?” Rand asked without blinking an eye.

  “You can do that?” Bobbie pressed.

  With a slow dip of his head, he said, “I can, but I’m assuming you don’t want it to track back to either you or SolTerra.”

  “That would be correct,” Adam confirmed.

  Rand reached into his suit jacket pocket, took out a business card and pen, wrote down something, and then handed the card to Adam. “Someone trustworthy. You’ll be able to snoop around all you want without sending up any signals.”

  “And what will you be doing while we’re snooping?” Bobbie asked.

  Rand gave an uneasy shrug. “I detected some unusual network activity the night before.”

  “You’re saying someone broke into our systems?” Adam dra
gged a hand through his hair, clearly distraught.

  “Not really a break-in,” he said, annoying Bobbie with his obtuseness.

  “Can you be a little clearer?” she pressed.

  “I think they came in through a back door,” Rand advised.

  Silence followed for long seconds before Adam pushed away from the workstation and paced back and forth before rounding on Rand. “You’re saying it was an inside job?”

  With a quick dip of his head, the security chief confirmed it. “Could be a simple case of someone trying to steal trade secrets.”

  “Nothing simple about that and unlikely given that it happened on the same day as the attack,” Bobbie offered up for consideration.

  Adam’s gaze narrowed, but then he inclined his head. “Get to it, Rand. I’m hoping it does turn out to be nothing more than corporate espionage.”

  With little wasted motion, Rand excused himself and left.

  Bobbie approached Adam and cupped his cheek. “He seems like a capable man. I’m sure he’ll have something for us soon.”

  “Is it still an ‘us,’ Bobbie?” he said, and wrapped his arms around her waist.

  “For now,” she answered immediately, because that was the only thing of which she was certain. For now because she wasn’t sure she was ready to live in another war zone, always having to watch her back. For now because whatever was happening between them was still too new and inconstant.

  Adam smiled tightly. “I understand. I won’t press.”

  Because she appreciated that, she inched up on tiptoe, swept a quick kiss across his lips, and said, “Let’s go visit Rand’s friend.”

  CHAPTER

  22

  The address his security chief had given him was for a souvenir shop located in one of the older buildings on the Asbury Park boardwalk. Centered between the renovated Paramount Theater complex and the still in a state of disrepair Casino along the southernmost edge of the boardwalk, it was in a high-foot-traffic location. Great for selling T-shirts, but maybe not so great for the apparently clandestine activities in which the store’s owner also engaged, Adam thought as he peered at the boardwalk. Even on a Friday in the off-season, there were a goodly number of people strolling, jogging, and bicycling along the strip or enjoying a meal at one of the many food kiosks and restaurants nearby.