Parallel Desire (19 page)

T
he music inside the warehouse
was little more than a droning, hypnotic beat. Unfortunately, Shelby's tastes ran in an entirely different direction. She kept trying to fall into the techno rhythm, searching for some sort of danceable groove while the throbbing, sweaty crowd pushed her along. So far, no dice—and, so far, no Christina, no Fergie, and sure as heck no Tim McGraw.

She'd dressed for the rave like she would any scorching-hot date: wraparound black dress and knee-high black boots with stiletto heels, her hair loose and curly, falling below her shoulders. When Jake had first seen her boarding the craft to fly them here to Idaho, his eyes had nearly bugged right out of his head.

She'd smiled in pleasure, supping into the seat beside him. He'd rushed to harness himself in, clearly trying to hide something with the large buckle. "You look too damned hot for this mission," he'd complained under his breath. "You're going to jeopardize things for me."

The poor guy—he'd actually sounded like he halfway meant it. In reply, all she'd done was to snuggle closer, giving him a wicked, tempting smile. "Careful with that harness, soldier," she'd teased. "Wouldn't want you to injure yourself. You know, like getting something caught in that buckle?"

"Don't worry, got it covered."

"As it were," she added, eyeing his harness pointedly while he fastened it.

He cursed at her, folding his hands in his lap. Still, she could see the way the buckle of the harness jutted straight up because of the "package" hidden underneath it.

She leaned close, whispering in his ear. "Thought you'd like this dress."

"It's the boots," he barely choked out. "Well, and the dress. Both. Damn you, woman. I knew this idea was shit."

She flashed him a grin. "I have a dagger in my right boot, a mini-luminator in my bra, and am wired totally for sound. I'll be safe."

He muttered something under his breath that sounded a lot like, "Now I really have a stiffy."

Besides, he had plenty of nerve, complaining about how sexy she looked. With his black jeans and cowboy boots and loosely buttoned black shirt, he was smolderingly sexy. In fact, from the moment they'd entered the warehouse, girls all over the joint had been checking him out, and she wasn't sure whether she should feel proud or possessive.

Stepping out of the way of a drunk girl who lurched toward her on the dance floor, she searched the crowd for him. Although they wore concealed earpieces, it was impossible to hear transmissions over the music. Their entire team—Chris, Jake, Jared, and herself—would be meeting in one hour. That didn't give her long to try to scout out her own take on the situation.

Chris had told them that they had two major objectives. First they had to figure out the Antousians' strategy in infiltrating these warehouse parties, from which they had been kidnapping humans and others—in some cases, their intel showed, for the purpose of sex slavery. The task force had speculated that they were drugging their selected targets, but witnesses interviewed by the FBI all claimed that their friends seemed lucid and coherent right up until the time they suddenly vanished. It was as if they were disappearing from the dance floor itself, was how several statements had described the kidnappings.

And second, they needed to find the real Jake Tierny—the human Jake, as Shelby had come to think of him.

Moving along the dance floor, she kept her eyes wide open, all the while doing a damned good imitation of a girl out for a good time. She was just hitting a pretty smooth groove with the techno when the light display suddenly became very erratic. The volume of the music increased sharply, and she felt dizzy and disoriented. Working to block out all the stimulation, she focused on the people around her—what little she could see of them. It seemed to be mostly women bobbing beside her in the sweaty darkness, some of them barely twenty years old.

She thought of her little sisters, how they'd needed someone to protect them during the war, and determined that she'd learn whatever she could tonight on the sex-slavery ring. Reaching about her waist, she loosened her dress slightly, so that the tops of her breasts were more exposed. She also began to move her hips much more suggestively. After all, what better way to get intel than to use herself as a moving target?

Again the music intensified, became confusing; darkness folded in on her, the light show becoming trippier and trippier. Shelby stopped cold on the floor, extending her hands about her in a steadying motion. If she wasn't careful, this sensory overload was going to make her faint. Or worse still, it could trigger an involuntary time-walking episode, leaving her completely vulnerable.

Someone jostled her from behind, nearly knocking her to the floor. "Hey, watch it!" she called out over the noise, turning to see who had just rammed into her.

When she saw his face, it was as if time itself ground to a painful, precarious halt. As if it grew compact, hard and small, then unraveled from the inside out.

She gaped at the person in front of her, wide-eyed, trying to move her mouth, and then her entire world went black.

K
elsey entered the dining hall
, her eyes searching the room. She'd spent the past fifteen minutes trying without success to reach Thea on her comm. It was utterly unlike her friend to ignore her—or anyone else for that matter—and a nagging, bottomless feeling had begun in Kelsey's chest. Jared had told her he'd be staying on the battle cruiser during tonight's operation. She hadn't liked his leaving base, not at all, but she'd understood that such risks were part of the cost in leading his people.

But only a few minutes after he'd left her in the hangar, something had begun to nag at her consciousness. It was the way he'd crushed her against himself, not wanting to release her—and it was the look in his black eyes when he'd finally stepped away. It was the same ruthless, dark expression he'd gotten the other night when her father had relayed the information about the vice president—and with the same terrible air of desperation.

"Jared?" she'd called out, but he'd just given her a little wave as Lieutenant Daniels accosted him. The two men walked together toward the main craft, boarding it as they continued speaking. Her last image was of Jared ducking through the hatch, his broad shoulders barely clearing the space.

After watching the craft catapult out of the mountainside and seeing the hangar door snap shut, she continued sitting off to the side, listening to the hum of machinery and the shouted commands and responses of troops on the deck. A few of the engineers glanced her way uncomfortably while she sat on the bench, both hands perched on her knees.

Something just didn't feel right about this mission, even more so now, as she thought back on those last moments, and Jared's silent wave in her direction. But it was more than that: For the first time in her relationship with Jared, she had the feeling he'd lied to her. That he was far more deeply involved in this op than he'd let on. So after hailing Thea without a response, she'd come to a very disturbing conclusion: Jared had put himself directly in the line of fire.

Around the dining hall, the loud din of voices fell quieter as she moved down the aisle, navigating the rows of tables. It was Friday night, so that meant those who were off duty got served alcohol and were allowed to let it all hang out for a while. For ten p.m. things seemed fairly tame so far, but it was obvious that her unexpected presence had the gathered soldiers at a loss. Some bowed over their tables and some rose and bowed, even though she tried to wave them off. Suddenly, she found herself standing in the center of the mess hall, surrounded by at least a hundred bowing and genuflecting Refarians.

She lowered her head and muttered under her breath. Even the music had stopped, leaving her stranded like a tall pregnant island amidst a sea of her people.

"Please … please, just go on with what you were doing. No bowing. I—I … am just looking for Lieutenant Haven. …" She had the sense that she'd wandered into some sort of demilitarized zone, a no-man's-land for queen-types, and it was all she could do not to back out of the hall as quietly as she could.

"Kelsey!" Thea trotted across the room, darting between tables.

She wanted to weep with relief at the sight of her friend. Thea reached her, slipping an arm through the crook of her elbow. Under her breath she whispered, "You're not supposed to come in here, my lady."

"Don't 'my lady' me, Thea," Kelsey shot back. "You're in on it."

Thea tugged her by the arm. "Look, they don't know how to respond. Jared never comes here, and it's not a good idea for you to visit this place, either."

"
You're
here."

Thea shook her head. "That's different."

"Because you're Refarian?"

"Because I'm not their queen," she explained, practically dragging her toward the door while more of her people bowed around her.

Kelsey tried to disengage her arm without letting the gathered soldiers see how upset she was. "I'm still pissed at you because I know you're in on it," she told Thea under her breath, "and you're also changing the subject."

"Wait until we get outside."

At last they reached the exit door, and as it closed behind them, Kelsey practically collapsed against it. "Don't worry," she told Thea, "I won't be repeating that maneuver again anytime soon. And if I'd been able to reach you on the comm, it wouldn't have happened at all."

Thea looked at her with a composed expression. "I never heard you."

Kelsey gave her friend a light shove on the shoulder. "Please. Don't you lie to me, too. I know he's going in on that op."

"I'm not sure I know what you mean," Thea answered blandly.

"Oh, really? You don't realize that Jared plans to go into that warehouse with the team? You mean you never heard that stupid, idiotic, asinine plan pass my husband's lips?"

Thea sighed, staring at the ceiling. "I can't lie to you. Not you, Kelsey. It wasn't fair of him to ask me to do it."

Kelsey felt the world grow unsteady all around her, the lights of the hallway swimming before her eyes. "So I'm right."

"He didn't want to upset you, not with the baby due so soon. He didn't want to worry you."

"But he was willing to put himself right in the line of fire!" she shouted, throwing her hands in the air.

Thea tried to put an arm around her, but Kelsey shook her off, storming ahead of her down the corridor. She didn't even want to hear Jared's lame excuses, and she sure as hell didn't want to argue with Thea about why she'd allowed him to endanger his life.

"Kelsey, please don't leave. Let me talk you through this." She could hear Thea's booted footsteps echoing behind her.

That was it. Finally, after all the past weeks of tension, the endless churning and discomfort in her belly, and now this knowledge that Jared might get himself killed—the dam inside of her soul gave way. Something simply crumpled right in her center, gave way until she was free falling, sobbing uncontrollably in the middle of the hallway. Wrapping her arms about her round belly, she hugged herself, hugged Erica. Wished she could hold Jared tight in her arms, and kept on sobbing.

Next thing she knew, Thea was tugging on her arm; Kelsey just dropped her head and wept some more. "Kelsey, please," her friend whispered, but Kelsey gave her head a little shake, feeling a current of nausea overtake her.

Thea placed a hand against her back, whispering something she didn't understand. Refarian words that were useless to her right now, only … they soothed her somehow.

"Wh-what are you saying?" She sniffled, turning slowly to look at Thea.

"I'm praying for you. Sending words of comfort from All to you."

Dimly aware of a few soldiers walking past them and keeping a wide berth, Kelsey wiped at the hot tears that kept streaming down her cheeks. "And now our people are going to think I'm crazy. I just … I made a fool of myself in front of at least a hundred Refarians in the mess hall, and Jared's in such danger …"

Thea stepped forward, wrapped both her small arms about Kelsey—quite the feat with her large belly—and held her tightly. "Shh, now. The people love you. All our people love you.… Shh, you're the Beloved of Refaria."

"But Jared—"

"Is a fantastic soldier. All these years he's been fighting, and he's only been captured one time."

Kelsey winced, stepping out of Thea's embrace. "That's what I'm thinking about—the things that Veckus did to him over in Idaho."

Thea's expression grew grim; she opened her mouth to speak, then closed it, and finally opened it again. "You're married to a military commander, Kelsey," Thea told her slowly. "It's not an easy road for you … or him. But you did sign on for this. You knew what his life was like when you mated with him."

Kelsey wiped her eyes angrily. "I don't need a lecture, Thea. In fact, it's the last freaking thing I need right now."

Thea took hold of her shoulder, looking up into her eyes with an intense expression. "It's not a lecture. I'm reminding you of who you are. You are our queen. Your people need your strength right now; so does Jared. And most of all, so does Erica."