Dark Obsession

by Sydney Somers

  Parker’s brows shot up. “Assassin?”

  “That’s why the other file is classified. All files pertaining to A-class Destroyers are.” Adrian’s tone suggested they let the subject drop.

  Rae ignored the not-so-subtle warning. “His main file indicated he’d been tainted when he was initiated by the stealth demon.”

  “He was, to some extent. Enough to make him the type we needed.” He sank into the chair opposite Rae’s desk. “We don’t have time for this, Rae.”

  “My father’s obsession with the gatekeeper fits into all this somehow.”

  Adrian crossed his arms. “According to Burke.”

  “Where is Linc now?” Rae wasn’t going to let it go.

  “So you can talk to him and ask him if he’s going to open a permanent gateway between our world and the Shadow Demons’ prison realm? Even if you could find him, assassins usually aren’t the fanciful type.”

  “But you’ve been looking for him to find out,” Parker guessed.

  “Yes.”

  “Do you know where he is?”

  Adrian hesitated. “Not exactly. The last time we thought we knew he was in South America, but that was months ago. Look, once we have your father in custody and the kids safe again, I’ll give you whatever resources you need to find him.” He glanced back and forth between Parker and Rae. “Okay?”

  Parker turned his head to look at Rae, who finally nodded. “All right, but there can’t be any more network secrets, Adrian. We can’t do our jobs if we don’t have all the facts.”

  “Agreed.”

  “Good.” Rae moved behind her desk, missing the almost sad look Adrian slanted in her direction.

  Before Parker could wonder what prompted it, Rae’s said, “There’s something else you should know.”

  Parker’s gaze shot to Rae. Had she changed her mind about keeping his mystery calls from Adrian?

  “My father called me last night.”

  The tightness across Parker’s ribs eased, and he listened as she filled Adrian in on her phone call with Hurst. She’d barely finished before her phone rang.

  “It’s Gage.”

  All three of them straightened up. They needed good news. Badly.

  Parker at least didn’t have to wonder what was being said. Rae answered and set the call on speaker, setting the phone in the middle of her desk.

  “Tell me you’ve got good news.”

  “Not exactly,” Gage answered. “Vanessa Pembrook isn’t here. She’s been gone for a couple weeks. Neighbor says she’s been coming and going a lot lately, something about a sick relative maybe.”

  Rae leaned over her desk. “Any idea where the sick relative lives?”

  “The guy I talked to wasn’t sure, but said a woman across the street probably knows. Our girl always leaves a spare set of keys over there in case of emergency. The woman is an early riser though and I already missed her. I’m hoping she’ll be back before long.”

  “Let us know what you find out.”

  “Will do.” Gage hung up, leaving the three of them staring at the phone.

  Rae studied the wall of symbols until her vision blurred. She’d been alone for a while now, Adrian having disappeared to make some calls to see who had been close friends with Vanessa when she’d worked for the network. Gage still hadn’t touched base with Vanessa’s other neighbor the last time he’d checked in.

  The longer they went without uncovering any leads, the less likely it felt that they would.

  “You’re making me dizzy again.”

  She turned to find Parker in the doorway. He held out a muffin. “Eat.”

  “I can’t.”

  “What you can’t do is continue to pace around this room for another two hours.”

  Sure she could. She surveyed the muffin. “There’s a bite missing.”

  He shrugged. “That’s all I could stomach eating watching you walk back and forth from my desk.”

  Knowing he’d try to force two muffins into her if she didn’t look like she was making an effort, she took it and managed a small mouthful. It settled in her stomach like raw dough.

  “It’s been three days since we started looking for him and we’ve got nothing. We don’t know where he is or where the kids are. We don’t know a goddamn thing.”

  Parker shook his head. “We know he’s nervous. We know that he thinks he’s protecting you from something.”

  “He could have just been saying that.”

  “He could have said a lot of things.”

  She pulled off another piece of muffin but couldn’t quite bring herself to put it in her mouth. “I used to watch him work, you know. When my mom was still alive his office door used to be open all the time. He had this enormous desk and he’d have notes all over the place.”

  The next bite of muffin didn’t sit so heavy in her stomach. When Parker stepped in her path, anticipating another pacing session, she slid into her chair.

  “He had this stool right next to his chair that I’m climb up on. I’d sit there for a while, but always ended up in his lap. Sometimes I think he forgot that I was there, he’d be concentrating so hard on whatever problem or theory he was playing with at the time, but he’d always feed me.”

  “You were supposed to eat it, not destroy it.”

  Rae glanced down to find pieces of muffin covering her day planner.

  Parker snatched up the biggest piece and popped it into his mouth. “A real man never lets good food go to waste.”

  She smiled, and realized that was the reaction he’d hoped for when he stuffed the food in his mouth.

  Sitting opposite her, he picked up the rock paperweight on the corner of her desk. “What did he say to you, that he couldn’t protect you if you didn’t stay out of it?”

  “Right.”

  “Then that’s what we use.”

  Rae dumped the remaining muffin crumbs in the garbage. “I’m not following.”

  “He’s either tapped into the network or is in contact with someone who is. How else would he know that you’re looking for him and what you’re into?”

  Knowing how resourceful her father could be, he could have any number of ways of finding that out, but Parker’s assumptions were the most likely. “And we use that to find him how exactly?”

  “We don’t.” He grinned. “We use it to make him come to us. If he really believes that it’s dangerous for you to be digging into the gatekeeper myth, then we plunge you right into the middle of it.”

  “That’s not what we’ve been doing?”

  “Blair and Cass have been subtle about it. If you start asking questions yourself around the network, beyond Adrian, make it look like you’re not letting it go, it might prompt him to contact you again.”

  “Except this all hinges on him thinking he actually needs to protect me.” Considering she was the science byproduct of just how much he’d wanted to protect her, it was hardly a sure thing in her mind. But at least it was something.

  Parker frowned, shook his head. “Maybe we jumped the gun a bit.”

  “What?”

  “What if he’s not the only one who comes looking for you? He said you already knew too much, so going forward we run the risk that whoever he thinks he’s protecting you from, could make a move against you.”

  “You mean like another mole in the network?” The last one had been enough of a headache, literally.

  “I don’t know. Maybe.” He scrubbed a hand over his face.

  Braxton sailed into the room. “Either you guys picked a really bad time to send me on some kind of wild goose chase, or the same person is screwing with both of you.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Both calls you guys wanted to me to check into came from the same number.”

  “No name or billing address attached to the number?” Parker asked.

  “No. My guess would be that it came from a prepaid phone or disposable one. I don’t have the kind of hacking skills to take it beyond that tho
ugh. But I know who to ask for help if you want.”

  “Do you have the number?”

  Braxton handed her a piece of paper. “This has to do with Hurst, doesn’t it?”

  “Probably.” Parker sent her a meaningful look. Like why was a woman calling him from her father’s phone, claiming his mother hadn’t really killed his sister?

  “Still nothing else from Gage?”

  “Not yet.” She looked at the number. “If someone on the other end picks up, is there any way to trace the call?”

  “Hypothetically sure, but in your case not likely.” He cringed. “That number isn’t in service any more, and it’s a funny story actually how I know that. I was tracking a few more supplies that Hurst might be using, seeing if they ended up with Vanessa Pembrook. I had half a dozen contact numbers written down and ended up calling your mystery number by accident.”

  “Is there any way we can trace anyone who calls my phone from here on out.”

  “That’s a bit more extensive than dealing with a faulty tracker, but give me some time to get it worked out?”

  She nodded, and Braxton left. “I guess we’re sticking with Plan A then.”

  Although it had been his idea, Parker didn’t look as thrilled about it now, and when his expression turned hopeful at the sound of her phone ringing, she knew he was optimistic they could avoid luring her father out that way.

  Rae didn’t recognize the number right away, but still answered.

  “You have to get rid of your damn cat.”

  “Mrs. Farnsworth?”

  “Your damn cat has been howling its head off for ten minutes. You said he was quiet, Rae, and I swear if he dies in my building, you’ll be the one paying to have it fumigated.”

  Fumigated?

  A click sounded in Rae’s ear, and she stared at the phone. What the hell? Either the woman was wasted, or something was wrong with Nico. “We’ll finish forming the plan as soon as I get back.”

  “Where are you going?”

  “To check on my cat.” She made it as far as the elevator before Parker caught up with her.

  “What’s up with Hellspawn?”

  “I don’t know yet. Don’t get too excited. He probably just caught your scent on my silk robe.”

  After they’d left the building and walked for a few minutes in silence, she glanced at him. “Tell me what you’re thinking.”

  “Besides why your father had some woman call me?”

  “Which makes even less sense than anything else. My father had already gone AWOL by the time your mother died.”

  They crossed the street, and Rae nearly stopped in the middle of it. The same sensation of being watched made the hair on the back of her neck stand up.

  “What is it?”

  When she reached the curb, she paused, half expecting to feel the Scion push to get inside her head, but nothing happened.

  “I don’t know.” On edge, she hurried the rest of the way to her apartment building.

  Inside, Mrs. Farnsworth was coming out of her first floor apartment.

  “Is Nico still making a racket?”

  “Nico?”

  “My cat,” Rae reminded her.

  “Making a racket? I thought you said your cat was quiet. That was the only reason I let you have him in my building.”

  Rae shook her head, really wishing the other woman would lay off the vodka. “You called and said—”

  “She high or something?” The dragon lady glanced at Parker, even managed a scary smile—scary since the woman looked like she was about to flirt with him—before shaking her head at Rae. “I didn’t call you.” She rubbed the center of her forehead. “My head hurts too much to spend all day arguing with you.”

  Headache? Rae’s head snapped up a second before Parker tensed. Hostile.

  “Sorry. My mistake.” She tried not to knock the woman on her ass trying to get by.

  She bolted up the short flight of stairs. If the hostile she sensed close by so much as breathed on Nico, she was going to tear it apart. She stopped in the process of digging out her keys when she realized her door was ajar.

  Her hand slid beneath her jacket, and she withdrew her kukri from the harness at her back. Parker pushed the door open as far as it would go, but they had to step all the way inside to have a full view of the room.

  The curtains had been drawn, but she didn’t have to backtrack for the light switch. Parker took care of it.

  She moved around the edge of the door at the same moment pain cleaved straight through her skull. Tightening her grip on her kukri, she focused every spare thought on fortifying her mind. Parker staggered next to her and it was a miracle they managed to stay on their feet at all.

  Her vision turned spotty and nausea sank its greasy claws into her stomach.

  Scion.

  “That’s not necessary,” someone said, a man.

  The pain began to ease, and she spotted two figures near the corner of the room.

  “We agreed you wouldn’t hurt her.”

  “Dad?”

  Her father stepped forward, but didn’t get too close when he glanced at Parker beside her. “How’s your head?”

  “Where’s my cat?”

  The Scion, a blonde with flawless features suited for a Victoria’s Secret catwalk, gave them a cool assessing look, almost as if she were bored. The red-rimmed eyes were the only thing that betrayed she was a demon. Her attention drifted to Parker, her lips parting in an unconscious pout, as if the demon was as drawn to Parker as everyone else.

  Rae shook her head at her father. “So you’re working with them now?”

  “Yes and no.”

  “That’s not an answer.”

  Parker eased closer to her. “They’re together.”

  “I can see that.”

  “No, I mean together, together.”

  Her gaze shot to her father’s. “You’re sleeping with it?”

  “She,” her father corrected. “And her name is Amara.”

  “She?” As if talking to her father for the first time in ten years wasn’t surreal enough, they were tossing around personal pronouns like the demon in front of them cared about anything but the emotions it could feed on.

  “She can answer for herself,” the Scion corrected in an almost chiding tone.

  What the hell was this? She glanced at Parker, saw her own disbelief mirrored on his face. Demons stalked, terrified, maimed and tortured, primarily because those emotions gave them the biggest rush. They didn’t play house.

  Her father pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “I didn’t come here to discuss my s—”

  “I swear to God if you say sex life, we’re going to have a serious problem.” Why was it so much easier to accept that her father experimented without a conscience, but she wasn’t sure she could handle him intimately fraternizing with the enemy?

  “That’s not why I’m here. I asked you to stay out of it, Rae.”

  “I can’t do that. Not when there are kids involved.” Another stab of betrayal caught her in the chest. Damn it, he’d promised he wouldn’t experiment on another child the way he had her.

  “We’re after the same thing.”

  “The gatekeeper?”

  The Scion smirked.

  “Rae, you’ve got to let this go. There are people in and outside the network that wouldn’t hesitate to take you out if they thought you were going to get in their way.”

  “People like who?”

  “Like me.” The Scion—Amara—smiled coldly.

  Ignoring her, Rae took a step toward her father. “Where are the kids, dad?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “You lost them?” Her father frequently lost track of what happened around him when a project consumed him, but there was no way he could lose track of seven children.

  “I had nothing to do with their abductions. I haven’t run those experiments since…” Something a lot like regret drew his brows together. “I made you a promise, Raelan. I s
wear I’ve kept it.”

  A smile touched the Scion’s face. The bitch was basking in the rising emotions, right up until her father sent her a sharp look.

  Rae wasn’t sure if she was more stunned by her father’s bold move or the fact that the Scion almost looked…guilty?

  Wanting to shake her head to clear it, she tried to stick to the important parts. “You didn’t deny having them on the phone.”

  “I would have if I’d thought you’d believe me. What I did to you and the others…” He stopped there, squaring his shoulders. “Even if I did manage to convince you, then whoever did take those kids will know to watch their back, making it that much harder for you to figure out who really has them and what they’re after.”

  “And what do you think they’re after?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe the same thing I was once.”

  “And what was that?” Parker asked, and Rae held her breath.

  “A way to keep my little girl safe.”

  “I know you’re scared, honey. But it’s the only way. I can’t lose you like we lost your mom. I need you to do this for me. I need you to be brave so someday the monsters will be scared of you, so none of them will ever be able to hurt you. Can you be brave for daddy, sweetheart?”

  The memory came out of nowhere, and she hissed out a breath.

  Parker’s arm snapped around her, and he glared accusingly at the Scion. “What the fuck are you doing to her?”

  “Helping her remember.”

  “Rae?” Her father moved toward her, stopped only when Parker shot him a scathing look.

  “I’m okay.” At least she would be once she had time to figure out if all of this was a dream, because there really was no explanation for how screwed up everything was.

  Her father cleared his throat. “If someone is trying to duplicate my experiments then they might be running into some problems.” He sighed. “I kept detailed notes in those journals, more extensive than just my regular files. If someone is experimenting and running into problems, then they might go looking for the journals.”