CAPTURED: 9 Alpha Bad-Boys(104)
"What happens in Head Office is dependent on the subject and her power," replied the secretary. "Is there anything else I can do for you, Mr. Marilla?"
She was trying to get rid of him. Well, he didn't really want to talk to her anymore anyway. "No, thank you," he said, feeling anything but thankful as he hung up the phone and tossed it on the nearest counter.
Jack ran his hands through his hair several times. Two days, most likely three, of keeping Cindy under the same roof as him, inside of his house.
He imagined her escaping her chains somehow and burning the whole place down while he was sleeping.
The palms of his hands started to sweat a little. The scars on his back and across the rest of his body burned at the thought of inescapable fire all around him.
Breathe. He had to breathe. Jack sucked in several gulps of air and waited until every muscle in his body didn't feel so damned tight. That was a little much to think about. He wasn't going to be doing a lot of sleeping while she was here.
Jack had to breathe deeply. He needed to relax. He was licensed for this. He wasn't the one who'd done something illegal. He hadn't killed anyone.
So why couldn't he stop pacing? Why did every nerve in his body feel all jittery, like he was the one in a cage? If anything, he was doing Cindy a great big favor by not outing her as the pyro that had started the fire at his house two years ago. If the authorities found out about that, how she'd burned three of their own to a blackened crisp, then there was no going to the labs for her.
She'd be put down immediately. A needle would go into her arm, she'd fall asleep, and then never wake up.
Jack immediately stopped pacing. He closed his eyes and he took in a deep, cleansing breath. He wanted her to go to the labs, and not because he was trying to be nice by saving her life or something stupid like that. Death would be too fast and easy. The secretary was right. So what if she went without for a couple of days? It wasn't like he was considering starving her indefinitely, and she had a little discomfort coming her way after living a good life for two years after killing his entire family..
He scratched the scars on his arms. They felt hot and tingled beneath his clothes from time to time, and now they were acting up again.
"Should've made sure to finish me off," Jack muttered.
He grabbed Cindy's phone, which he'd put on the counter. He wasn't worried about taking out the card that would allow authorities-if any were to be called over a missing paranormal-to track the thing. If any cops showed up, then he didn't have to worry about his target escaping. He'd just show his badge and paperwork, and that would be that. Head Office damn near owned the cops in Lincoln Peak.
Jack unlocked the phone and swiped through her messages and contacts.
Contacts were empty, which meant she had all of her numbers memorized. It was very unlikely she had them written down back at her apartment, and Jack sure as hell wasn't going back there either. He'd already seen more than enough when he'd swept the place.
It was actually very smart of her. A written or digital list of contacts was an easy way for paranormals to give each other away without saying a word when someone was caught.
Someone was always caught eventually, and then, depending on what digital trail they left behind, more tended to follow.
She had very few pictures too. Just some buildings and parks and animals. He didn't find any pictures of himself or her, or anyone else who could be identified. She'd been dressed up pretty nicely when Jack picked her up. She wasn't the type who wore tight dresses and heels on an everyday basis.
Where had she been going? Had to be a date. There were no pictures of men in the phone, but that didn't necessarily mean anything. Who else, aside from himself, would be stupid enough to go out with a paranormal?
Either the guy was a paranormal himself, or a regular person who just didn't have a clue. Whoever he was, it was unlikely had Cindy told him about what she'd done to Jack's family.
He had to find out who she'd been about to go out with.
The last thing he looked through was her messages. She had two missed calls since he took her, and he only hesitated a moment before clicking on her voicemail.
What if it was some worried boyfriend asking where she was? It could be another man she was playing, just like she'd played him.
His stupid jealousy was for nothing, however, since there were no messages left. Whoever had been calling her always hung up immediately after voicemail started.
Had to be a paranormal calling her, then. A normal guy wouldn't think twice about hiding his voice or leaving messages in case Cindy was caught.
Just to see if the guy was dumb enough to answer his phone, Jack got his recorder and tracer ready and tried calling back.
No one answered. When voice mail picked up, it was just a robot voice asking Jack to leave a message at the tone. Too bad, Jack would've liked to bring whoever this guy was in. He'd have to give the phone to the collectors and let them take over. Whoever it was that was calling Cindy might've already dumped their phone into the trash.
Jack put the phone down, and he ran his hands through his hair again, gripping the strands tight enough to cause some pain. That jolt was enough to erase some of the simmering rage that was building within him.
He was tired, hungry, and he wanted a shower. He'd been up most of the night and it didn't look like he was going to get any sleep anytime soon.
There was something he was going to have to do first. The secretary suggested Jack leave her down there and wait it out, but he wasn't stupid. The small room was locked, yes, but it wasn't like he had cameras down there to watch every movement. He was going to have to make sure she didn't try to pick at her locks, or overpower the spelled shackles somehow.
The fear of having her escape, and of setting fire to everything around him was enough to will his tired, heavy body into action.
Jack started getting everything ready.
Chapter Four
Two Years Earlier
Jack hummed a cheery tune, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel to an offbeat melody he made up as he drove down to the place where he and Cindy had met.
He'd only been seeing her for three weeks, yet he couldn't get enough of her. He didn't even mind that they hadn't had sex yet.
They'd stayed up until three in the morning texting. Jack looked forward to each message, and he'd grinned like a fool every time he received one. It was like his first real high school love all over again, only neither of them were in high school.
Cindy was eighteen; she'd graduated a month ago with the rest of her class, though she wouldn't tell him which school she'd gone to.
Jack was a little older. He was twenty-three, and what he really wanted to know was if she'd been accepted into the college she wanted. From her text this morning, written in all caps, he was betting she did.
Jack never had the chance to go to college or university because of the "family business", so his main concern was finding out if there was an art program at that same college so he could enroll with her.
He pulled up to the quiet spot on the hill where they'd first met. He'd been skipping rocks when he noticed a girl watching him. He'd noticed her before, always hanging around the same area.
She never said anything. Never approached anyone or said hello.
She'd been kind of hard to miss with all that red hair, not to mention the cut off jean shorts that exposed a whole lot of her legs, and the tank tops she seemed fond of wearing in the heat.
He'd grown tired of seeing her around without knowing her name. When he called out to her she'd jumped a little and her body went stiff, like an animal about to bolt out of traffic.
How he'd talked her into staying, and then managed to get a name and a date out of that, even he had no idea.
The hill turned into a cliff that overlooked the Pacific, and the sun created all kinds of orange colors which reflected on the water.
Cindy was already there, the blue hatchback-something she'd gifted herself for gradutating-was a dead giveaway in a town where most people drove trucks. Not to mention that she was the only girl he'd seen in this tiny town with hair like that. The only person he'd seen with hair like that period.
He pulled up in his own truck and put it in park. The smells of the grass and salty ocean water on the rocks immediately hit him. Cindy was already rushing around to Jack. She smelled even better than the sea air.
He opened his arms and swept her up in a flurry of kisses and wild red hair. She was always so light in his arms.
"I got in!" she said, all smiles as she held up the crumpled acceptance letter in her fist. "I got in! I got in! I got in!"
"Of course you did," Jack said, and he kissed her again.
He was so damned proud and hugged her tight. Her mouth was soft and pliant against his. Her breasts against his chest, and her slim arms around the back of his neck that clutched him tight as she opened her mouth for his tongue to glide inside of that warm, wet space was exactly how this scene was supposed to play out. There was no way she didn't belong right where she was, and no way he wasn't going with her.