Torrent (Cosmic Forces Book 1) (6 page)

A
lyssa covered
the windows and lit some candles as darkness approached. She had to leave to teach later tonight, and she normally wouldn’t have candles lit on a night she had to leave—not a risk she wanted to take. But it seemed that sitting in total darkness while a man tried to visit with his son for the first time ever wouldn’t be appropriate.

Alyssa had saved some of dinner. Actually more than a little. She’d saved enough for two men.

Omar.

—if he returned.

Torrent.

—if he even showed up.

It was late already. Gillie’s eyes were closing.

No Torrent.

Still.

Jesse gave her a look but didn’t say a word. The look said it all.
Are you sure about this? About him?

Alyssa looked away, turned to Gillie. “Let’s read a book.”

Gillie ran off and returned with his favorite book, a story about a bunny. It was falling apart, the glue coming loose, the pages dog-eared. His plump little fingers grasped it tightly. He dropped it in her lap and crawled up after it.

Alyssa situated him, nuzzling his freshly washed hair. As much as he loved the book, she knew he’d be out, fast asleep, in no time at all.

“Again, again,” Gillie prompted after she’d read it for the second time.

With a heavy sigh, she opened it up to page one again. “Last time, Gillie.” She kissed his forehead. “It’s getting late.”

Before she could read a word, a soft knock came from the door.

Jesse’s head snapped her way. She knew they were expecting Torrent, but at the same time, Omar had stormed off without keys. Could it be him? Or had Omar actually made connections within the privateers and they were here now?

Alyssa shrugged and indicated the door with a nod.

Jesse rose, waving Belinda and Sonya back. The two women backed up behind the screen that separated the kitchen from the living area.

In Alyssa’s line of sight, Jesse opened the door.

Tall, muscled, blond. A slow smile grew on his face, emphasizing his perfect teeth and blue eyes.

Torrent.

Extraordinarily handsome—more than a man should be able to be. Her heart skipped a beat. Alyssa mentally cursed herself for being so foolish about this man.

Was he her sister’s ex? A one-night stand? Why did her feelings for him leave her in such a conflict? She shouldn’t want her sister’s man. But her sister was dead, she reminded herself. Maybe he wasn’t her man, anyway. Could it have been a one-night mistake? Were Melissa and Torrent lovers, or was it a one-time thing? Or were they in school together and they’d had one night of passion, in the midst of… what?

Ugh. She was tiring of trying to think this through. She should just ask him.

Yeah, right. What would she say?
Hey, did you love my sister, or was it a one-night hook-up?

Jesse was unmoving, staring at Torrent, sizing him up. That part was easy. The man was giant-sized.

“You must be Torrent.”

“You’re Alyssa’s brother…”

“Jesse. And that’s Belinda and Sonya. You already know Alyssa.” He stepped aside so Torrent could enter, then closed the door behind him.

Torrent stuck his hand out. Jesse shook it.

Belinda and Sonya were both staring at him as if they’d never seen a man before. Alyssa could understand that completely. She’d probably done the same thing when she first saw him, until he asked about Melissa and Gillie.

She looked down at Gillie.
Damn.
He’d fallen asleep. With a half-smile, half-grimace, she shrugged and looked at Torrent. “He just fell asleep.”

“Sorry.” Torrent whispered so as not to waken Gillie. “I wanted to make sure that the coast was completely clear.”

“We appreciate that,” Jesse said. His tone told Alyssa he was suspicious.

Torrent stepped closer to Alyssa and Gillie. “He’s a big one, isn’t he?”

“Just like his daddy.” Alyssa wished she could bite her damned tongue. She hadn’t meant to say it. She didn’t want to put pressure on him to like Gillie.
Oh, shit
. Then it hit her and a shiver ran through her.

“You don’t plan to…” She struggled with forming a sentence, and even after she did, the words were trapped in the sawdust of her fear. “Do you intend to take Gillie away from us?”

T
orrent froze
, staring at the beautiful, curvaceous brunette on the sofa with the little boy in her lap.

“What?”

How the hell did they know his mission? Why were they being so friendly if they did?

“It’s a valid question.” Jesse stepped closer to Gillie and Alyssa. “You’re his father. It would stand to reason you’d want to take him wherever you live. Is that your plan?”

Torrent wiped away the sweat that had sprung out on his upper lip. He fumbled for an answer. “I hadn’t thought that far ahead. You’re the family he knows. How would I raise a child by myself?”

“So you won’t take him?” Belinda approached, wariness in her eyes.

“You need to prove you’re his father before you even think of taking him away.” Alyssa had fire in the dark depths of her eyes and steel in her tone.

“I wasn’t planning to. I don’t have anyone who can help me with him when I… when I’m at work or traveling.”

“So what do you do for work?” Jesse crossed his arms over his chest. He was clearly not ready to trust Torrent.

Torrent hadn’t thought this through. Hell, it wasn’t for him to think through. He didn’t belong at a family reunion. Now he was pissed at himself for going through with this charade. He was supposed to come in here and get the package and get the hell out.

Package. No. Not package. Stop calling him that even in your head or you’ll screw it up and say it out loud. Gillie. Gillie. Gillie
, he reminded himself.

“I freelance.”

“For who? What do you do?”

Alyssa came to his rescue. “Can’t some of these questions wait a while?”

Jesse turned a dark look her way.

“I think they can, too,” Sonya said.

He breathed a sigh of relief. “Wasn’t there another cousin?”

The family exchanged looks, making Torrent wonder what that was about.

“He’s out.”

Torrent wanted to ask if he was a teacher in secret as well, but he didn’t want to spook them with how much he knew. What else would he be doing after curfew, though?

The little one in Alyssa’s lap stretched and rolled over, dark curls shifting as he turned to face Torrent. He emitted a little laugh in his sleep, his little lips curved into a smile, plump cheeks rounded and with a touch of pink on top of the café au lait skin.

“Can I touch him?” Now why the hell had he said that?

Too late now. Alyssa was nodding.

He reached out and put his hand on the little boy’s crown of curls, enjoying the way the softness curled into his palm and around his fingers. Gillie’s head was tiny compared to Torrent’s palm, and practically disappeared beneath his hand.

“Isn’t he precious?” Alyssa was looking directly into his eyes.

The look in her brown eyes made his heart beat faster. Her heart-shaped face, with a set of cheeks that reminded Torrent of Gillie’s cheeks, was irresistible. He wanted to lean in and kiss her, regardless of the toddler in her arms.

“Take him.” She held the little one out.

“Really?” For some reason, Torrent was nervous. And for more reasons than one. He didn’t want to come to care for the boy. He had to think of him as cargo to transport.

Torrent clenched his jaw to keep his frustration with the situation from showing.

A
lyssa was confused
by the look on Torrent’s face. His jaw muscles were working overtime. Was he upset about holding Gillie? Why would he be? She shifted closer to the edge of the couch and put him in Torrent’s arms. Torrent kept his eyes glued on Gillie’s face, and his jaw muscles began to relax. He turned away from Alyssa and began to pace the room slowly, his eyes never leaving Gillie’s face.

After a long moment of pacing, Torrent looked up. “So you do most of the… You take care of him, mostly?”

Alyssa gave him a sideways nod. “I do a lot of it, but only because the girls help me out a lot. They work my shifts at the factory so I can be home with him.”

“Isn’t that risky?” Torrent glanced at Jesse’s hand on her arm.

Alyssa stepped away from Jesse. Torrent was Gillie’s father. He had a right to know this. He was as good as family now; they shared blood. Gillie was part Torrent and part Melissa.

“I don’t mean to intrude on your family business.” Torrent handed Gillie back to her.

“Do you mind if I put him in his bed? If you can come during the day sometime, you’ll get to see him at his best.” She smiled at him.

When Alyssa returned from laying Gillie down, Torrent was standing by the door.

“What’s going on? Are you leaving already?”

“I should. I have things I need to look into. Can I return tomorrow, maybe?”

“Of course,” Alyssa said, finding that the idea of his return made her pulse race and her heart want to sing. “Let me walk you out.”

“Not downstairs,” Jesse cautioned.

“Don’t worry.” She smiled at her protective baby brother. “I’ll be on the other side of this here door.” She poked at Jesse’s arm.

She and Torrent stepped into the hallway.

“So, what’d you think? About Gillie, I mean. Isn’t he the spitting image of Melissa?”

“Yeah.” Torrent seemed preoccupied.

Alyssa bit back her gasp and her response. Gillie looked nothing like Melissa. He looked more like her. How well did Torrent even know her sister?

Was it one night only? Had he and Melissa known each other at all, really? She blew out a breath. “You and Melissa weren’t really close, were you?”

“Truth? No. Not really.” Torrent said. “I’m sorry. I know you’d like to hear that we were… more… something…”

“No. No. It’s not like that at all.” Relief flooded through her. And she felt sick that it did. Was there something wrong with her that she felt this way about a man that her sister had slept with, even if they weren’t much of anything?

Self-loathing coated her mouth, leaving behind a vile taste.

T
orrent scanned her face
, her features imprinting on his memory and his interface. He wanted to lean in, put a hand on each side of her and trap her against the wall. He wanted to lock his lips onto hers and claim her. He wanted his tongue deep within her mouth, her body. He wanted every bit of her, unharnessed, unleashed.

He leaned closer. Her lips were irresistible. “Does it bother you…?”

“No.” She pushed on his chest and turned her back on him. “No. You don’t know me. Don’t go assuming what bothers me.”

When she turned his way again, there were tears in her brown eyes.

Confused, Torrent put his hand out.

She slapped it away. “I have to go.”

With that she opened the door and vanished behind it, leaving behind an open-mouthed and perturbed Torrent. He knew she had to go. She probably had to teach tonight. All right: he’d guard her on her journey. That was the least he could do, especially when he was going to steal away the child she’d come to consider almost as one of her own.

Feeling like a bastard, Torrent headed down the stairs.

A
lyssa walked back inside
. She needed to get on the road. Teaching night.

Her stomach was a mess, in knots over Torrent and the surge of emotions that had traveled throughout her body. She was conflicted by his role in her sister’s life, though it seemed minimal, and the idea that he had the power to take Gillie away.

At the same time that she was in all this turmoil, she felt a sense of peace that Torrent wouldn’t do anything to hurt them. He wouldn’t do anything to hurt Gillie. He’d saved her life, after all, and he didn’t have to do that. If he really wanted to take Gillie away, he could have let the privateers kill her and then come to the apartment and taken Gillie.

Hell, he could have come up here and killed them all quickly, quietly, and efficiently, then taken Gillie and not a single soul would have noticed.

She leaned against the door and touched her finger to her lips. He was going to kiss her. She was certain of it. And a part of her—a very big part of her—wanted that. God, did she ever. A flush of heat saturated her chest, then traveled up her neck to her face. She put her hands over her cheeks. They were hot. Desire? Embarrassment? A combination?

“Where’d you meet him?”

She jerked her head in the direction of Jesse’s voice. He was in a dark corner, leaning against the wall, arms crossed over his chest.

“Well?”

She shook her head to clear it. “He came here looking for Gillie and Melissa.” More Gillie than Melissa, she told herself.

“And the lifesaving shit you talked about?”

Alyssa summed it up for him, brought him, Sonya, and Belinda up to date with what had transpired in as much detail as she could offer without revealing what was going on deep inside her.

She felt like a liar, though it was a lie of omission. Her feelings weren’t something she was ready to share. She wasn’t quite sure what those feelings were yet. She wasn’t sure she even had the right to have these feelings.

“We’ve never seen you like this.”

“I’m not like anything. That’s Melissa’s—Gillie’s—that’s wrong. Just plain wrong.”

“Melissa’s not around anymore,” Jesse said.

As if that makes what I’m feeling right.
Was her brother trying to make her feel better? Did he really know how she was feeling?

“Alyssa.” Sonya put her hand on Alyssa’s shoulder. “If Torrent and Melissa… if Melissa had really cared for Torrent, if there’d been anything there worth mentioning, don’t you think she would have?”

Alyssa nodded. Sonya did have a point. She felt a little better.

Belinda stepped closer. “We were her closest friends. We’d have known. Think it happened that summer when she volunteered to help with the war effort?”

“Where’d she go? That would help us figure something out,” Sonya said.

“Melissa couldn’t say. She said she was sworn to secrecy,” Alyssa reminded them.

“I think she came back pregnant,” Belinda added. “She really did seem different, didn’t she? Quiet, even moody?”

“Women. Hormones,” Jesse scoffed and ducked away as Alyssa and Belinda swung at him though they knew he was playing.

“Seriously, I’m late. I have to go.” Alyssa shoved her arms into her dark, hooded garment.

T
his night was
a short teaching night. The kids were eight blocks away, and they would all have been seniors, if they’d been going to high school. The kind of high school that used to be, before the war.

This was Alyssa’s special class. Small in numbers, much more advanced than the other students. It made her heart ache to imagine their talent would be wasted in a factory for the rest of their lives.

She made her way slowly and cautiously after the last couple nights’ events. The last thing she needed was to meet up with privateers tonight. A part of her hoped that Torrent was somewhere nearby, just in case. Stupid thing to hope for. As if the man didn’t have better things to do than save her ass every night.

Two blocks to go. They held class in an abandoned building close to the kids’ homes. That way at least she didn’t have to take them traipsing through half of Houston to get to class.

“Where you headed, little lady?”

She froze. No. This wasn’t happening. It couldn’t happen. She turned around slowly.

“Got one.” The voice was far from friendly. “This way.”

It was a sole privateer, dressed in denim pants and a red top, hair greasy and tied back. Except it didn’t seem he would be solo for long, not after his last statement.

She hunched down, ready to make a dash, but another arm grabbed her.

“You’re not going anywhere,” a second privateer said.

Two more approached from down the block, swaggering in the middle of the street, not worried about hiding their appearance. Not worried about breaking the law, since they were sanctioned by the law.

The second privateer pointed toward his approaching comrades.

“Let’s go have some privacy.” He jerked her toward the door to one of the buildings. The first privateer went to hold it open.

Alyssa opened her mouth to scream, but he clamped his hand over her lips. His fingers smelled unwashed, a mixture of old food, grime, and sweat.

“Don’t even think about it.” He dragged her, kicking and flailing, toward the door. When her fist caught him in the face, he jerked her his way and popped her in the mouth. “Quit that.”

Once she was in the building the other privateer closed the door, leaving the three of them alone. He flicked his lighter on and lit a torch attached to the wall, completely unafraid of being found.

“You know who killed my brother. I want him. Tito said he used soldier moves. Who is he? Tito said there was a woman there. You fit the description. Who’s the soldier?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” As if she’d give Torrent up.

He approached, a sinister smile displaying a glimpse of teeth that were broken, uneven, and had not seen a toothbrush in a long time. “You lie.” He slapped her with the back of his hand. A ring caught on her cheek, tearing the tender flesh. Alyssa’s hand flew to her face as her blood flowed warmly.

The door opened and another privateer came in.

“Tito. This the one?” the privateer who had slapped her asked.

“That’s her.” Tito approached. “Where’s your boyfriend?”

“Fuck you. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Bitch. We’ll see if you feel the same way in a few minutes.” The third privateer reached for his belt buckle and unfastened it.

Alyssa sized them up. She couldn’t take them, not even two of them. She’d have to make a run for it. She looked at the elevator shaft, and past it at the stairs. That was her best bet, as the fourth privateer was bound to be right outside the front door.

A hand grabbed her jacket from behind. The first privateer. “I told you, don’t even think about it.”

She heard a tearing sound and realized he’d sliced her top from behind as soon as the cool air hit her back.

Alyssa turned around and swung for his face, catching him on the jaw with a punch that rendered her hand numb.

“Oh, she’s a fun one. I want dibs,” he said.

“No. I got dibs.” The second privateer closed in on them.

Alyssa heard the door open. “Get the hell away from me!” she screeched at them while the door was still open.

“Alyssa?”

She tried to look past the privateers surrounding her. “Omar?”

“What are you doing with my cousin?” Omar’s voice was shaky. It reminded Alyssa of when Omar was a little boy and had been caught misbehaving.

“Your cousin?” One of them turned toward Omar. “She’s your cousin? She’s the one who was there when my brother was killed.”

“Your brother? But you said he was killed by a soldier.” Omar turned toward Alyssa. “Do you know what they’re talking about?”

“Why are you hanging around with these thugs? What the hell is wrong with you?” Alyssa shook off the privateers holding her. She was surprised they allowed her to do it. “Why are you with these—” She gasped.

The one whose brother Torrent had killed pulled a pistol out. She recognized the long tube on the end. A silencer.

He aimed it at Omar and pulled the trigger.

Alyssa screamed when a red bloom of blood appeared on Omar’s leg. Omar grunted and leaned forward, grabbing his thigh.

Alyssa ran toward Omar. “You’re bleeding too much. God. Give me something to stop this. I need to make a tourniquet.”

“The next one is gonna be in his stomach. Now talk.” The privateer who’d been holding turned toward the other two. “I got this. You go to their home. Get answers. Hostages. Whatever. If you have to, kill them all.”

“No. Stop. I don’t know. I don’t know his name. I don’t have a clue.”

The two privateers slipped out. Alyssa started after them.

“Stop. Or he gets it. Now.”

There was a soft whistling sound, then the granite flooring near Omar popped. Then there was a third sound, and Omar clutched his arm, blood seeping from under the short sleeve.

“Bastard,” Alyssa hissed, running back to Omar.

The one with the pistol grunted. She looked up at him. The pistol wasn’t in his hand anymore and there was a blond head behind him.

Torrent grabbed the pistol.

“Oh, God, they’re going to the apartment. Two of them. They’re going to kill everyone.”

“I heard. You take care of him.” Torrent pointed with the pistol. “I’ll take care of the others. Trust me.”