Nocturne 040 – Scions 02 - Patrice Michelle - Insurrection (17 page)

As she watched Landon load the box into the back of her vehicle, she couldn’t help but stare at the sun glinting off his short, light brown hair, appreciate his strength as his arm muscles flexed with his movements and admire how well his faded jeans fit his nice butt. She gave a sigh of frustration, then moved to the driver’s side and climbed in her car. During the drive to town, Landon stayed quiet, giving her plenty of time to think about them. They might have trust issues, but god she wanted this man with a level of fierceness that should’ve scared her. Instead, it only excited her. She knew her conclusion was irrational. When it came to Landon, she was quickly learning that her emotions weren’t driven by logic, but instead, they sprang from an earthier, more fundamental source she couldn’t explain.

Once Kaitlyn’s car rolled to a stop in front of Landon’s apartment complex, he got out and shut the door. Leaning into the window, a sexy smile tugged at his lips. “Thanks for driving your old-as-dirt boyfriend back to town.”

Heat rushed her cheeks. Damn, he’d heard the entire conversation. She gripped the steering wheel while pent-up frustration fueled her response. “Boyfriend?” She shook her head. “You walked away and left me wanting. I thought older men knew better. Let me know when you decide to grow up.”

K aitlyn’s answering machine blinked as she carried her father’s box of stuff into the office. She squatted and set the box down beside the couch, then winced when a hard, jabbing sensation pinched the top of her leg. Standing, she quickly dug her hand into her right jeans pocket to find the culprit and withdrew a silver chain with a mashed bullet slug dangling from it. She’d forgotten she’d stuffed Landon’s chain in her pocket before she’d passed out.

Turning the bullet slug, she noted some etchings along the surface that looked like letters. She held the metal up to the light and squinted, trying to decipher them, but they were warped and distorted by the bullet’s mangled shape.

With a sigh, she lifted the chain over her head and let it drop around her neck. She’d give the necklace back to Landon the next time she saw him.

Before she checked her messages, the headline in the newspaper she’d brought in caught her eye: The Vampires Are Back! She quickly scanned the article. Amid the hype, it said that two vampires’ burned bodies had been discovered in the alley next to the library and that the local police had contacted the government for help. Where did the new Garotter regime fit in? she wondered as she picked up the phone and dialed her cell phone provider. The last thing she needed was a five-hundred-dollar cell phone bill because some bozo had found her phone and gone crazy with it.

After she’d asked them to suspend her cell phone service until she could either retrieve her phone or let them know it was stolen, the answering machine’s two blinking messages drew her over to the credenza. Kaitlyn pressed the play button.

“Hey, girl,” Abby said in a chipper voice. “You’ve been quiet lately. I called your cell and didn’t hear back, so I’m leaving you a message here, too. How’d your haunted house date with Mr. Hottie go? Hmm? Call me.”

“Hot and cold,” she mumbled and waited for the next message to play.

“I told you I’d keep you in the loop on the subject we discussed,” Ron’s voice came across the machine. “We’re on tonight. Check your cell. I might be sending some images your way as a backup. More than likely we won’t need them if tonight’s the night and this bust goes down the way it should, but I grew up in Boy Scouts. What can I say…it’s ingrained.”

As the line went dead and the answering machine whirred to a stop, Kaitlyn was already on her telephone, dialing Ron’s cell. It rang but went straight to voice mail. “Ron, I got your message. Call me,” she said, then hung up.

Kaitlyn nibbled her bottom lip and stared at the answering machine, wondering if Ron had sent anything to her cell phone. And she’d just suspended it! Not that any of that mattered if she didn’t have the phone, anyway. She’d lost it when the vampire had tossed her across the alley. She had to find her cell phone.

After she quickly changed into a new set of clothes, Kaitlyn grabbed her keys and purse and then headed out the front door.

It was dark by the time Kaitlyn parked down the road from the alley near the library. She shivered and glanced out her window, half expecting more fanged vampires to jump out from behind another parked car.

Checking that her gun was securely snapped to her hip, she grabbed her flashlight and got out of her car. Her steps slowed as she neared the alley. Yellow crime scene tape that had cordoned off the area now hung limply at the sides of the buildings.

Trying not to dwell on the thought of what had happened to her the night before, she turned on her flashlight and swiftly moved the beam of light back and forth along the alley. Between the teenage punks, the homeless, the police and firefighters that went through this area yesterday, she’d be lucky if she found her phone. Still she had to try. There were a few parked cars blocking her view of the roadside. Kaitlyn walked behind the first car and squatted, sweeping her flashlight under the car.

Nothing.

She crawled on her hands and knees to the next car and flashed her light underneath it. Someone yelled and Kaitlyn’s heart jumped in her chest. Her free hand went to her gun, hovering on the snap that held it in place.

“I want my beer back, you prick,” a teenaged kid snarled in anger somewhere down the road.

Kaitlyn let out a sigh of relief and returned to her search. Hamburger wrappers blocked her view and she used the end of the flashlight to move the paper.

Still nothing.

She was just about to get up from her hands and knees position and move to the next car, when someone peered around the car’s front end. He was crouching on the same level with her.

Kaitlyn let out a small yelp. Glaring at Landon, she leaned on one hand and shone the light into his face with her other. “What are you doing here?”

Landon’s green gaze locked on the bullet swinging back and forth around her neck. “I lost my necklace the other night. I hoped I’d be able to find it.”

Feeling like an idiot, Kaitlyn quickly stood and lifted the necklace off her neck. “I crawled over it last night and recognized it as yours. I tucked it in my pocket before I passed out,” she said as put the necklace in his hand.

When he clasped his fingers tightly around the chain, she asked, “Why do you wear a bullet around your neck?”

He took a step closer and slid his finger down the V of her sweater and along her cleavage. She gasped at his intimate touch and was taken by surprise when he lifted her necklace and dangled the silver wolf in front of her. “Why do you wear a howling wolf around yours?”

She pulled the necklace and charm off his finger. “It was a present from my father.”

“Me, too,” he said with an almost regretful look as he lowered his necklace over his head to lie against his khaki T-shirt.

His father had given him a spent bullet? How bizarre. Maybe they’d hunted together or something.

“Why are you here?” he asked.

“I’m looking for my cell phone. I lost it out here somewhere when I was attacked.”

Landon’s jaw tensed. “I’ll help you look for it. It’s not a good idea for you to be hanging around dark alleys by yourself.”

As they both circled around the third car and squatted to peer underneath it, Landon said, “I highly doubt your cell’s still here. If the fire hoses and clean-up crew didn’t sweep it up, then some locals might’ve taken it. I hope you’ve reported it stolen.”

“I did, earlier.” Crap. She hadn’t thought about the deluge of water that had probably swamped the alley last night.

“Nope, not seeing anything,” Landon said as he straightened to his full height.

Kaitlyn stood up and moved to the center of the alley. Sweeping the flashlight across the asphalt once more, she thought about Landon’s earlier comment about the fire hoses.

Her flashlight followed the street’s natural decline. When she saw the leaves and trash clogging the storm drain at the end, she ran over to the drain and began to push the gunk out of the way with the toe of her shoe.

Her light reflected off a splash of silver and Kaitlyn pushed more leaves and trash out of the way with her shoe until she saw the edge of her cell phone.

Bending, she quickly lifted the cell phone and cast Landon a triumphant smile. “Found it.”

“For all the good it’ll do you.” Landon came to a halt next to her and chuckled as water dripped down the side of the phone.

“The leaves could’ve protected it. I might get lucky.” She flipped open the phone and tried to turn it on. Nothing. It was deader than dead. Now what was she going to do?

“You can always buy another one.”

“No. I need this phone,” she said and snapped the phone shut.

“I get the feeling this is about more than a dead cell phone. What’s wrong?”

Kaitlyn’s gaze snapped to his. A concerned expression had settled on his face. How dare he act like he cared. She wanted to shake him for being the nice guy, for being there for everything but them.

He didn’t trust her enough to tell her what he knew, yet he expected her to share with him? But the truth was, she had no one else to talk to. Landon had proven he could keep secrets. He already knew about her Tacomi case and he wasn’t involved with the force, so she could trust he wasn’t the mole. She rubbed her forehead, trying to decide what she should tell him. Damn, how’d all this get so complicated? Landon’s finger tilted her chin up. He’d moved closer, his tall frame and warmth invading her personal space. “What’s wrong, Kaitie? I want to help if I can.”

It was dim in the alley but she could still see the sincere look on his face. His earthy scent, mixed with the smell of his leather jacket, teased her senses. When he called her Kaitie…the intimate name made her skin prickle in response.

Kaitlyn started to speak but Landon’s lips met hers, cutting off her words. His kiss was reverent and slow as if he wanted to savor the way she tasted. It was the kind of kiss, full of banked intensity, that made her knees threaten to give way.

When he ended their kiss, his smile was tender yet his eyes held an amused glint. Glancing down at her hands, she realized that in the throes of his mind-numbing kiss, she’d gripped his coat lapels with the flashlight and cell phone still in her hands and pulled him closer. Her fingers quickly uncurled from his jacket and she smoothed the crumpled leather. “Um, sorry. I don’t know what came over me. I—”

Landon’s knuckles brushed her cheek and he lifted a strand of her hair, slowly winding the wavy red lock around his finger. Admiration reflected in his eyes. “You have to admit…we make a great team.”

She wasn’t sure if he was referring to them on a professional level or a personal one, but she did know she trusted his honest offer to help. Nodding, she stepped away to regain some control of her jumbled thoughts and emotions. Landon always threw them into chaos whenever he went all “hot” on her. She didn’t want to get caught up in his heat again only to be on the receiving end of a rejection once more.

“I don’t want to discuss it here. Follow me to my house and I’ll fill you in.”

By the time Kaitlyn reached her house, her hormones were calmer and she was able to think clearly. Landon drove up behind her and followed her inside.

When he started to speak, she held up her finger and indicated he should follow her to her home office. Kaitlyn pushed the replay button on her answering machine and backed away to lean against the desk while she waited for Ron’s message to play, but Abby’s message came up first.

Abby talked so fast, she was already at the part where she asked about Mr. Hottie. Kaitlyn choked back her yelp of embarrassment and rushed to pound on the stop button.

Landon raised his eyebrows and crossed his arms.

Refusing to acknowledge his low chuckle, Kaitlyn quickly pushed play once more.

When Ron’s voice came across the line, Landon’s amused expression changed. He lowered his arms and listened intently until the message ended.

His gaze snapped to hers. “Have you heard from Sparks since he left this message?”

She shook her head. “I called and left a message on his cell phone but I haven’t heard back. He left me this message last night.”

Landon glanced at her ruined cell phone sitting on the desk. Shrugging out of his jacket, he tossed it onto the cushy reading couch underneath the large window and then pulled his cell phone from the clip on his hip.

“If the water didn’t fry your card, we can still make this work,” he said as he slid the back of his cell phone off and pulled out a white chip. Setting the card and his cell on the desk, he picked up her cell phone and slid the back cover off hers.

“What are you doing?” She moved to stand beside him.

He popped a similar slim white card out of her phone and held it up.

“Your card was pretty tight in there. Hopefully, that kept the water out. This card holds all your cell phone information. Theoretically I should be able to just slide your card into my cell phone and it would act as if it was yours. If people dialed your cell phone number—” he held up his phone after he’d slid her chip into it and closed the back “—then this phone would ring.”

Understanding dawned. She took his cell phone and turned it on. “You’re saying I should be able to receive any unread messages or voice mails from this phone now, right?”

He nodded. “As long as my phone is ‘unlocked,’ yes, this phone would now act as if it were yours.”

As his cell phone cycled through the start-up sequence, she slid him a sidelong look. “And you know all this because…”

He flashed a wicked smile. “I’ve needed information from a cell phone for a case here and there.”

“You P.I.s bend all the rules, don’t you?” She shook her head and laughed as she dialed her cell phone number then punched in her passcode to check her voice mails.