The Yearning (13 page)

Violet pleaded, “Don’t let anything happen to her.”

“I won’t.” He ushered them into the hall, closed the door on their scared faces and turned the lock.

The sound seemed final. Mike regarded Jasmine. Her face and body bristled with what went on inside. She fought it, her jaw clenching. His heart rate climbed at the nightmare he was witnessing, his foreboding focused fully on her now. To distract her and possibly lessen her misery, he said, “Tell me about Desiree.”

She gestured to the pictures and laptop with a shaky hand. Her voice seethed with frustration. “She’s beautiful and insane.”

He grabbed the color printouts. Jasmine had enlarged Desiree’s image in the photos, some candid and some posed, taken at a mobile home park and at a variety of storefront businesses. The grainy quality didn’t compromise her impact. She had an unholy beauty that didn’t look real. Mike could recall only two other women with the same perfection: Liv Tyler and Angelina Jolie. Hollywood stars with makeup people, hairdressers, professional lighting and award-winning photographers.

Desiree didn’t need any of it. Her wheat-colored hair, caramel-colored skin, and green eyes—so pale they looked see-through—would have generated envy in a starlet or an angel. Her expression, though. Mike saw obsession, anger. Jasmine’s earlier comment returned. “She blamed me. I tried to fight it and stop, but…”

He asked, “How did you meet her?”

“I didn’t. I met the man she wanted.”

His face lifted at the slight change in her voice, its dull, absorbed quality. She’d stopped fisting her fingers. They ran down her robe, opening it so he could glimpse her nudity. “What man is that?”

Her fingers slowed. “Connor.”

“How did you meet?”

“Why?” Ben asked.

Mike wanted him to shut the fuck up. His Glock in the boy’s hand warned him not to be too blunt or to make any unnecessary moves. “I’d like to understand what’s going on.” Certain Ben would question him—as he had on every other point—Mike spoke quickly to Jasmine. “Did Desiree see you and Connor together?”

“Not at first.” Her gaze turned inward. Rain streamed down the panes, creating shadows on her cheek that looked like falling tears. “I met Connor in Miami at a business management seminar. He runs, or rather ran, a financial services business. I was at the conference to get some ideas on operating my sisters’ dress design shop.” Her brows drew together. Renewed shame rose in her eyes. “I didn’t want to lie to you, Mike. I just couldn’t allow them to be involved.” She leaned forward suddenly, her hand on his ankle. “It was my idea to bring you here. I only wanted to do it until I could find Desiree and stop this. When it’s over, promise me you won’t tell the authorities about my sisters. I don’t care about me, but I can’t let anyone hurt Violet and Lily.”

Too many questions played in his mind. Stop what, exactly? How and when would it be over? “No one will know about them or you.”

Her hand remained. She lowered her face.

He could see she didn’t believe him any more than he’d believed her a few minutes ago. The mounting lust he’d seen in her eyes had changed his opinion on one point—no actress could produce the agony he kept witnessing. “You met Connor at a seminar?” he asked, wanting her to talk so he could gain her trust.

Her hair bobbed over her shoulders with her nod. “I had some questions about one of the presentations. He explained it to me over drinks and got to talking about his job in financial services. I didn’t understand a lot of the jargon he used, but I didn’t let on. I was flattered he would even be speaking to me. Every woman there thought he was so hot. They called him the eight-by-ten glossy, referring to the headshots actors use as they try to get parts. As far as I was concerned, he was better-looking than any actor I’d ever seen. When he asked if I wanted to have dinner when we returned to the Keys, I said yes. I didn’t know about Desiree.”

“Because he didn’t tell you,” Ben said, then spoke to Mike. “That bastard didn’t do squat to protect Jas. He lied about knowing Desiree. When she started stalking Jas, and we needed to know what he knew about her, he disappeared suddenly. Poof. It’s like he fell off the face of the earth.”

Mike followed the boy’s flailing arms, the pistol swinging wildly in his hand. “Connor’s missing?”

Jasmine answered. “Shortly after Desiree saw us at the restaurant for our date, she started to follow me. I figured then that Connor had to know her and they were involved. Why else would she be behaving so irrationally? I called his office to find out what I was dealing with. His secretary said he’d taken a leave of absence. She didn’t go into detail, but it sounded like his departure was unexpected. I got his address and went to his condo. He didn’t answer his door. His neighbors said they hadn’t seen him. I looked for his car in the lot. It wasn’t there. I kept returning at various times during the day, thinking he’d have to return. He didn’t, but Desiree was always nearby, watching me from beneath a tree, the street, or the next building.”

Mike looked down. Jasmine was twisting the sheet in her hand, her face filled with pain and animal longing. The linen slipped from his navel to his hips as she stripped him slowly, deliberately. He slanted a gaze at Ben to see if the boy noticed. No. The gap in Jasmine’s robe held his attention. “Where’s Desiree now?”

The sheet moved another inch. “I don’t know. After she cursed me, I tried to find her to explain again that I barely knew Connor. I had no idea he was involved with her. I wasn’t trying to steal him away.”

With his free hand, Mike held on to the sheet so it wouldn’t fall below his groin. He didn’t want Ben going ballistic at the sight of his cock. “She cursed you?”

Tears welled in her eyes. “You don’t believe me. How could you? I can barely believe it myself.”

Mike kept his tone and manner nonjudgmental. “How did she curse you?”

She released the sheet. Leaning forward, she ran her hand up his calf. “She watched me first. I changed my routine, thinking it would help. It didn’t. No matter when I went out or what route I took, she found me. I got so spooked I decided to stay home for a while, thinking I’d be safe.” Her free hand flew to her head, the heel against her temple, the words wrenched from her.

“When I went out on the front porch to get the mail, she grabbed my wrist. I hadn’t seen her to the side of the door. Her eyes were wild. I wanted to run, but I couldn’t move. What I felt was worse than fear. My sisters and Ben were gone. The neighbors were all inside their houses. The street was empty. No one was around to help me. I tried to explain that she had it all wrong. I wasn’t stealing her guy. He didn’t want me. I wasn’t pretty enough for him. If anything, he asked me out so he could talk about himself. Guys like that use women like me all the time as adoring fans. She wouldn’t listen. She chanted in a language I’ve never heard. I clawed her arm, trying to get away. I shouted for her to leave me alone. She smiled. I know this sounds nuts, but in the same instant, I felt something slice through me, hot and cold at the same time, like being on fire while encased in a block of ice. I started to shake. She let go of my wrist and murmured, ‘He is mine.’ As she backed away, she told me I’d want as she did. Like her, I’d never have any peace. I’d know only insatiable lust.”

It blazed in her eyes now. In a normal world, her intensity and ravings marked her as a lunatic. Mike knew better, in spite of his previous misgivings. From birth, his mother’s mysticism and his telekinesis tied him to a shadow existence. “How long has this been going on?”

“An eternity.”

“Five months,” Ben mumbled. “She’s tried everything to get rid of it. Chants. Potions. Self-proclaimed witches. Prayers. Nothing’s worked.”

Jasmine’s words caught on her hitching breath. “It started slowly at first. For reasons I couldn’t understand, I’d be drawn to guys completely different from Connor, men I would have never chosen in the past. And yet one thing didn’t change. It seemed as if Desiree wanted me to crave men who wouldn’t give me a second look. They preferred someone sexier, prettier, less reserved. It wasn’t like I could pick just anyone. I had to feel a connection with the man or I wouldn’t get even a second’s relief from the yearning.”

The floor creaked beneath Ben as he shifted his weight. Mike suspected he’d already offered himself to help her out and she’d refused. “The guy on meth that you told me about, was he someone you chose?”

Ben answered first. “The prick could’ve hurt her. We couldn’t risk that again. We had to control the situation.”

By bringing him here and keeping him prisoner so he’d be available to relieve her craving. He’d wanted to know why she’d chosen and lured him. The truth didn’t make it any better. She’d felt a connection to him because of the curse. She’d found him attractive for the same reason, the only reason. He told himself he shouldn’t care, but he did. Last night, she’d touched his soul in a way he’d never experienced and so he acted like Super Cock, needing to pleasure her as no man ever had. He wanted her to find him special. He knew now he could have been any of a hundred other men.

The reality of it should have made him feel differently about her, only it didn’t. Like a lovesick adolescent, he still desired what she obviously would never be able to give. Suppressing a sigh, he asked, “You said you don’t know where Desiree is. You went to where she did live?”

Her fingers circled his knee. “Where the Wanderers lived. They left the Keys months ago. I thought she did too, she’s one of them, but I couldn’t locate her in Louisiana where they relocated. The papers called the group modern-day nomads. There were numerous articles about them a few years back. Violet and Lily remembered the pieces and made the connection to Desiree after I told them what happened.”

Mike put the computer on his lap, moving his knee away in the process. Jasmine’s hand fell to the mattress. He stopped himself before he laced his fingers through hers, an unconscious attempt to console, and concentrated instead on the screen. It showed one folder titled Desiree. He clicked it open and read the file tags. Three bore the names of area newspapers. Others sounded like ordinary places of business: Tatiana’s Speedy Alterations, Nick’s 24-Hour Plumbing, Susanna’s Home Care. “They operate scams?”

“They don’t have to.” She went to her knees. Her robe fell open as she crawled to his side.

Ben’s stony silence evidenced his disapproval. Mike wasn’t willing to chance a look at the younger man’s face. “What do you mean they don’t have to?”

She reached across him to touch his tattoo. Her proximity brought a trace of her still-soapy scent, just as intoxicating as he recalled. He didn’t allow himself to inhale too deeply.

“Not in the ordinary sense,” she said. “Though the newspaper articles never quite say it, what makes the Wanderers such a success is their skill in the occult.” Her fingers followed the eagle’s outline. The muscle beneath it flicked repeatedly. He tensed his arm to stop it.

Jasmine continued, “Some of their customers can’t explain why they willingly paid far more for the services than what had been agreed upon. A few didn’t remember calling or visiting the establishments, yet they freely gave large sums of cash to these people, verified by their receipts and the photos of them smiling as they stood next to the Wanderer who’d done the work.” As she moved closer, her nipple dragged from his arm to his pec.

Mike squeezed his fist to keep himself from touching her and setting Ben off.

Her fingers moved to his biceps, her stroke tender and seductive. She kissed his collarbone.

He inhaled more sharply than he wanted.

Her lips lingered, damping her words. “Those customers who were foolish enough to complain fell ill with a variety of mysterious ailments. One woman said the alternations on her husband’s suits were so shoddy even he could see it. Two weeks later, the man went blind. The doctors couldn’t find a brain tumor or other disease. Idiopathic, they called it, of unknown origin. The wife knew otherwise. She stopped complaining.” Jasmine’s hand crept beneath the sheet, heading for his groin.

“Jas,” Ben said suddenly, his voice beseeching. “You need to sleep.”

Heedless of his comment, she wrapped her fingers around Mike’s cock. Her fingers burned with energy and heat. His erection blossomed. Shortened breaths pumped his chest. “Jasmine, listen to him. You should rest.”

“No.” A whisper spoken against his lips. Grasping the computer with her other hand, she flung it across the mattress and yanked down the sheet to straddle his lap, her robe floating around them.

To ward off Ben’s jealousy and his own response to her enticing warmth, Mike talked fast. “Jasmine, if you want this to be over, listen to me. I can help.”

“Yeah sure,” Ben challenged. “How?”

Mike held her face in his free hand, praying she’d hear him out and believe. Both sisters said she was dying. What if it was true? What if the curse kept escalating until it took her life? Fuck. He couldn’t stand by and let it happen. “I have friends in the government, one in particular, a woman I trust completely. Erica still works with the service. With her help, we can find Desiree. The government has resources you couldn’t begin to imagine. No one can hide from them. Once we locate her, we’ll deal with this.”

Jasmine’s eyes widened in hope, which faded quickly. Brows drawn together, she whispered, “You can’t help. No one can.”

“I will, if you’ll let me.”

“You want to be free.”

“I know you don’t trust me, so let me tell you how to protect yourself. Get me a disposable cell phone. It can’t be traced when I contact Erica. Listen in on the call. Monitor every word I say.”

Her bottom lip trembled. “I can’t let you go.”

“Honey, it’s not about letting me go. It’s about freeing and saving you.”

Head shaking, she ran the pad of her thumb over his brows and lower. Against all reason, her sweet, gentle touch persuaded his lids to close. Her other hand returned to his shaft, her hard pulls forging it into a rigid column. In danger of losing his self-control, Mike said the only thing he could. “Ben, if you don’t leave now, you’re not going to like what you see.”

The boy breathed fast.