The Missing (3 page)
Authors: Shiloh Walker
Tags: #Contemporary, #Romantic Suspense, #Romance Suspense
In slow motion, he saw it as the wave came up, smacking the little boat the same way a kid might play with a tub toy. There was a high-pitched scream that ended abruptly as the boy went over into the water. Cullen was still too far away. He swam faster, pushing his body harder than he’d ever done before. He ducked under, trying to see the boy. Salt water stung his eyes. Nothing. He was aware that more people had joined him. He kept looking and looking until his lungs burned and he had to surface. He dove again and again. But the third time he came up, he knew he’d been too late. Others continued to dive, and he heard their voices, heard somebody crying, and knew it was the boy’s mom.
“Shit.” Cullen didn’t know who had said it, but he echoed it wholeheartedly. His heart felt like a leaden weight, and he took a deep breath, prepared to go under again.
She burst out of the water looking like a mermaid. Water dripped from her hair, her nose, her cheeks—and from the boy she held in her arms. The mermaid legend seemed even more apt as she looped an arm around the boy’s upper body and started to swim for shore.
TOO many people, Taige thought. She didn’t fight the water, just let it carry her and the still child closer and closer to shore until she could put her feet down and walk through the sand. It dragged at her, slowing her down, when she knew she had to hurry.
Hurry.
Hurry.
A distant echo in her mind, Taige knew the kid was fading away, that she almost hadn’t made it. Still might not. She dropped to the ground, the boy hitting the sand harder than she’d meant. Immediately, she bent over him and pinched his nose. She blew into his mouth. Stopped, checked to see if he was breathing. His pulse was there, but it was faint, and she administered rescue breathing again.
Behind her, she heard somebody crying, felt somebody trying to grab her. “My baby, let me have my baby!”
Taige turned her head and snarled. “Can I get him breathing first?” Then she focused back on the boy. Focused on the feel of him—not physical, but him, the ethereal part of a person that remained long after death. The soul. All she had to do was keep the soul inside him until she could make him breathe on his own.
She felt it, that tiny spark, as his breathing kicked in, and she shoved him onto his side and stroked his back as he vomited up salt water.
He was crying and choking by the time he was done, but he was breathing. He was going to be fine. Taige whispered a prayer of thanks, and then she stood.
If she could just get out of sight before she collapsed, she’d be okay.
AS the boy wrapped his arms around his mom’s neck, crying and whimpering, everybody around them breathed out one huge, collective sigh of relief. Cullen turned to look for her, the girl who had saved the boy’s life.
“Miss, there is no way . . .” The father turned to look for her about the same time that Cullen did.
But she was already gone. Down the beach, where the land curved inward, he could see her, walking with long, fast strides. Quietly, Cullen separated himself from the mass of people and started jogging down the beach. His legs felt damned heavy, and the fine, sugary sand seemed to turn into quicksand, pulling at his exhausted legs, but he kept going.
There was no way he wasn’t going to talk to her this time, not after that.
He hadn’t even realized she had been on the beach, and he had been looking. How could he not have noticed her? He’d been waiting for another glimpse of her since he’d seen her that first time three days earlier. He wasn’t going to sit around hoping for another one.
He caught up with her just as she reached the boardwalk. “Hey, wait a minute.”
She barely paused. “Go away.”
She didn’t even look at him, just kept walking along the sand with her head down and her arms crossed over her belly. She looked sort of sick, her dusky skin a little gray. She was walking fast, but now that he was close to her, he could see she was wobbling a little. She stumbled, and he reached out to try to steady her, but she jerked away. She tossed her wet hair back from her face and gave him a hard, cold glare. “I said go away,” she snarled again.
Didn’t seem possible, but her voice was every bit as sexy as the rest of her, even as hot and angry as it was. He stared into her eyes, hardly even aware of what she had said. Gray eyes, a pale, almost surreal silvery gray that glowed against the soft caramel color of her skin. Her lashes were long, thick, and curly.
Cullen was still staring at her, almost dumbfounded, when she snorted. “You got a hearing problem? I told you to go away.” She shook her head, mumbled under her breath, and turned on her heel, stalking away from him.
“Hey, I just wanted . . .” His voice trailed off. Wanted to what? Tell her that he had dreamed about her? Tell her that what she had just done was amazing? Ask her out? All of the above? But she just kept walking on, her body stiff.
Over her shoulder she called out, “Yeah, I know what you want.”
He heard the innuendo in her voice as clear as day, and oddly, it stung. Yeah, that sort of thing had crossed his mind. How could he look at a girl who looked like that and not think about it?
But it wasn’t just that. There was more to it.
Considering the way she kept moving away from him, like she couldn’t stand to be on the same stretch of beach, Cullen suspected he wasn’t going to get a chance to find out what it was.
“YOU damned that boy.”
Wearily, Taige opened her eyes and saw her uncle standing in the doorway. “I saved him from drowning, Uncle.”
“God wanted him, and you stole that child from His arms with that evil inside of you.”
Baldly, Taige responded, “If God wanted the boy, then He would have taken the boy.” She wanted to roll over and go to sleep. Her entire body ached, and she couldn’t get warm. It was like that anytime she did this, reaching out to another person using her mind. It was a hell of a lot easier to pull a drowning person to shore than it was to pull a fading soul back into life, and saving a drowning person wasn’t all that easy.
If you’d been faster, he wouldn’t have been so far gone,
part of her whispered.
That boy almost died because of you.
part of her whispered.
That boy almost died because of you.
“That boy was meant to die! He cheated death, and now all his life, evil will follow him. Just like it follows you.”
Taige smirked. “Only thing following me is you, Uncle. Does that mean you’re evil?”
Leon Carson, unlike most of the locals, was pale as death. He spent his days inside his office or inside the little ramshackle church off of Highway 20. He rarely went outside, and it showed in his pale, almost pasty skin. Now that pale skin flushed an angry red. “Evil. You insult the Almighty when you insult one of His servants.”
“I insulted you, Uncle. Not one of God’s followers.” Knowing he wasn’t going to leave her alone anytime soon, Taige forced her aching body upright. She still wore the tank suit and shorts she’d had on earlier, and the shorts had dried stiff and felt scratchy on her body. Her teeth felt all fuzzy, and she had a feeling she stank to high heaven. She wanted a shower, but she wasn’t taking one here.
When her uncle was in one of these moods, the only safe place to be was far, far away.
She pushed her aching, stiff body out of bed and slid her feet into a worn pair of tennis shoes. Leon continued to rant at her, punching at the air with his fists, threatening her with fire and brimstone. He took up most of the doorway, and rather than risk brushing past him, she opened the window over her bed. She heard him moving closer, and she shot him a warning look.
He fell silent, and she smirked, knowing that he was remembering her promise. “Someday you will have to pay for all your sins, girl,” he whispered. He shook his head and even managed to give her a mournful look, as though the thought hurt him.
“At least I know my list of sins will be shorter than yours, Uncle dear,” Taige muttered as she ducked out of the window. It was a good drop. Like most of the houses this close to the water, Leon’s house was set on stilts. The ground was probably a good twenty feet down, and she hit hard, the jolt rattling her entire body. Still, it was better than staying in that house one more second.
Behind her, she heard Leon railing on about the sins of being a demon child. Tuning him out, she headed off in the direction of Rose’s. It was a good three miles on foot. If Taige hadn’t left her bike at the beach, she could have made it in less than thirty minutes. But on foot, it was probably going to take a good hour. At least she was away from Leon. Her legs were heavy and leaden. Each step felt like she was slogging away through mud instead of walking along the roadside.
When the headlights splashed on the road beside her, Taige felt a chill dance up her spine. The car went on by at a snail’s pace, and Taige refused to look toward the driver or the passenger. It kept on down the road, and Taige started to run. Adrenaline burned away some of the exhaustion, and she fell into a quick, easy pace. She saw a car come around the curve, and she knew it was the same car. As it started toward her, she darted off the road into the grass and ran through, heading for the Paradise Dunes, one of the privately owned resorts. The lights shone brightly, but it was a good half mile away, and behind her, she heard a couple of car doors slam, followed by an obnoxious male laugh.
One quick glimpse into their minds told her they were drunk, and as one of them called to the other, she recognized the voice and the name: Joey Rosenberg and Lee. She couldn’t remember Lee’s last name, but she knew them. They were trouble.
Worse, they were fast. Taige still felt half-dead, and she wasn’t moving very fast at all. She put on an extra burst of speed just as one of them tried to grab her. She felt the rush of air on her neck and heard him swear as he missed.
Just a little closer. The resort probably had a security guard, and he would be along the entrance road just ahead. If she could just—Joey tackled her, and Taige’s shriek was muffled against the grass. He shoved a knee into her back and fisted a hand in her hair, keeping her pinned.
Oh, no. This is not going to happen—
Rage and fear mixed inside her as he struggled to pull her cutoffs away. Taige hissed and tried to flip over. “Grab her, Lee,” Joey panted. “Strong little bitch.”
Just as she started to get some leverage, Lee grabbed her wrists and jerked her flat. She felt Joey’s hands, sweaty and slick, as he managed to jerk her shorts down. He used his weight to pin her legs, his knees digging into her thighs while he fumbled with his own shorts.
Nonononono!
Taige could hear the scream building in her head. Building in her throat. Rage burned red inside her, chasing away the fear, and it was like she had taken a step outside of her body. She could see the ugly, violent scene unfolding like she was watching some movie playing out before her, instead of having it happen. She could hear her harsh, strangled breaths; she could see how Lee knelt in front of her, holding her wrists in one of his hands and using the other to keep her face pressed into the sandy earth. She gagged on it. She could feel the grit and the sand in her mouth as clearly as she could feel Joey’s hungry, excited pants as he bent back over her. She could see his bony white butt, too, as he bent low and fought to spread her thighs, struggling with her swimsuit.
Taige could hear the scream building in her head. Building in her throat. Rage burned red inside her, chasing away the fear, and it was like she had taken a step outside of her body. She could see the ugly, violent scene unfolding like she was watching some movie playing out before her, instead of having it happen. She could hear her harsh, strangled breaths; she could see how Lee knelt in front of her, holding her wrists in one of his hands and using the other to keep her face pressed into the sandy earth. She gagged on it. She could feel the grit and the sand in her mouth as clearly as she could feel Joey’s hungry, excited pants as he bent back over her. She could see his bony white butt, too, as he bent low and fought to spread her thighs, struggling with her swimsuit.
Everything inside of her stilled. Everything stopped and then slowly, like some slumbering monster, she felt it wake inside her: something powerful and potent surging, and life resumed its normal pace. But she didn’t feel Joey on top of her anymore. He was no longer trying to pry her thighs apart, and he was no longer laughing. Instead, he toppled off of her, his hands digging at his throat.
She could feel his throat, almost like she had her hands wrapped around it, and she felt his hands like he was trying to claw her away. Except they were no longer touching. The only hands on hers were Lee’s. Lee was too drunk to realize something was wrong. All he knew was that she was there half-naked, and he was horny. He pounced on her as Taige shoved up onto her hands and knees, choking on the sand and half-numb with shock. Confused, numb, and terrified, she felt that power in her. It was almost like somebody else had control, and that somebody else was trying to choke the life from Joey.
Tighter and tighter, the power wrapped itself around Joey’s throat. His pulse started to stutter, and his eyes rolled back in his head.
Lee pressed his wet mouth to her shoulder, and the power snapped, rushing back to her, ready to seek out another target. Off to the side, Joey sucked air, and he snarled, “Little whore!” Something hit her in the head, and pain bloomed red like a flower inside her skull. Everything grayed, and Taige sagged to the ground.
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