Covert Craving (6 page)

“That’s not an ability.” She snorted and traced
her finger around his nicely defined pectoral muscle. She couldn’t wait to
explore his body more later.

“It is when you can attach smells to certain
people. Like a bloodhound.”

She pushed up onto her elbow and grabbed him by
the chin. “You’re serious?”

“Yep. Weird as hell. Started one summer after I
went to this camp. I spent most of the two weeks I was there laid up with the
worst case of poison oak you’ve ever seen. Not too long after I got back, I
went totally color blind. Can’t see in anything but shades of grey, black and
white. You’re the first person I’ve seen in years in color. It’s why I followed
you to begin with. The thing with my nose started about the same time my eyes
went weird. It’s how I know for sure you were in that apartment this morning. I
smelled you. That’s why I smoke. Helps dull things.”

“Oh, God.” Panic clenched her stomach. “What was
the name of the camp?”

“Camp Sunny Woods. Why?”

***

Daisy Mae closed Chloe’s bedroom door. She’d oiled
the hinges on a regular basis so they wouldn’t squeak. Taping people having sex
wasn’t something she wanted to do, but the Professor demanded visual proof that
his subjects had completed their mating.

The condom wouldn’t do a damn thing to prevent
pregnancy. She’d pricked them all with a tiny syringe after being notified the
operation had been set in motion.

She tapped the send button on the video, gathered
her duffel bag from the living room, and slipped out into the hall. In four
weeks, her plan had come to fruition. Pride surged through her. A few
“concerned” comments about a string of breakins in the right neighborhood,
some jokes about needing a real-life super hero to take care of the mess, and
Chloe’d run off to save the day. Even hiring the young street thugs so Chloe
had someone to bust had been simple.

Jacob Greiff had been located five weeks ago. He
shouldn’t have been lost to begin with, but he’d grown up an Army brat whose
father belonged to an elite unit that often went on classified missions. The
government had whisked his family to a new base too fast for the Professor to utilize
his usual means of control over the subjects in the study.

Then Greiff joined the Army, got into a unit not
dissimilar to his father’s, and fell off the map for several years. With his
unique form of color-blindness, his father had to have pulled strings to get
him in. He’d never pass an eye exam. Unless the government knew about Greiff’s
nose and had orchestrated the whole thing themselves.

She stepped into the elevator and her phone chimed.
“Yes. Visual confirmation as well as video documentation. Heading for
rendezvous point now.”

She ended the call, dropped the pay-as-you-go cell
phone on the ground, and stomped it until it broke into several pieces.

Undressing with quick efficiency, she shoved the
discarded clothing into the duffel. With the drag queen persona shed like an
old skin, he could breathe again as Damien. As his true self.

He breathed a sigh of relief, happy to be out of
the heels and bra. He scrubbed over his face with a pre-moistened face-washing
cloth and stuffed it into the bag as well.

Re-garbing in jeans, a black t-shirt, and a pair
of lace-up boots, he popped on a pair of aviator sunglasses to hide any
remaining eye make-up. The nails he’d tortured Chloe into manicuring peeled off
with practiced snaps of the wrist. They’d been held on with special cosmetic
glue. He closed the zipper on the duffel after carefully gathering the pieces
of cell phone and tucking them inside. It was important to ensure that no
traces were left behind.

Guilt swamped him, but he had to think of his own
family. One more mission using his charisma and ability to become other
personas. One more and he’d get his wife, Jasmine, back. Despair joined the
guilt, but he had to stay focused.

It was too bad about Chloe. The woman was sweet
and friendly. She’d make a great mother.

Until the Professor took the kid.

Chloe paced the room and peppered Greiff with
questions. He interrupted her when she started in about some guy she referred
to as the Professor.

“Wait, slow down, sweetheart. I told you earlier,
I’m not letting this shit go. I want answers. And now you’re telling me there’s
some nut-job who is going to come kidnap me because I went to some summer camp
when I was a kid? Ain’t gonna happen.”

She flattened her hair behind her ears, a gesture
he’d begun to associate with nerves, and tucked her hands into her armpits.
“Yes, that’s what I’m saying. You have to get the hell out of here. Get out of
the city. As far away from me as possible.”

“Chloe, I can’t leave like that. I have a job. A
life.” He stood and accepted the crumpled bundle of clothing she thrust into
his arms. “I’m a cop. I was Army Special Forces. I’m not exactly helpless.”

If he hadn’t witnessed her ability to fade from
sight and didn’t have the little issue with his own nose, he’d have been on the
phone calling for an ambulance to take her down to County for a psych eval. He
wanted to learn more about how she healed so fast and disappeared in plain
sight, but the whole conspiracy thing struck him as too damn deep and crazy to
be real. This was real life, not a science fiction movie.

But no matter how nuts it sounded, he knew she
believed it. Every word she said, she thought it was the truth. And part of him
believed it too. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t have the drive to investigate. Plus,
when he admitted it to himself, he wasn’t normal either.

“You have to go. Run. It’s no mistake that we met,
okay? And now…now…oh, God, no—”

She bolted from the room and into the hall. He
followed her. Someone pounded on her door hard enough to rattle the chain lock.
He ignored the knocks. Chloe slammed the bathroom door behind her and the sound
of water running came through the thin panel.

“Hey, are you okay in there?” He dropped his shirt
to the floor and stepped into his pants. Even with the water running, he heard
her vomit. “Chloe, let me in. Why are you so upset?”

“Go away Greiff. Forget you ever met me. Run. Get
out of the city.”

Crazy woman. No way he’d leave her, even if they
hadn’t had sex. He didn’t bail on terrified women.

“I’ll get you a glass of water.”

As he passed the door, the person outside
escalated from knocking to outright pounding. He changed directions and stalked
to the door. A quick glance through the peep hole revealed his partner Spetrino
on the other side of the door, flanked by a thick-necked bald guy. The
expensive cut of his dark suit jacket would hide the lines of his firearm from
the average citizen.

He stepped back, zippered, and buttoned his pants.
The chief had taken his service weapon at the station as part of his mandated
leave after shutting down the attempted robbery earlier in the day. Crap.
Spetrino didn’t look totally comfortable next to the guy. He’d never gotten
good at reading emotions by scent; now he wished he’d spent more time using his
nose and less time trying to dull the damn thing.

The crisp, evergreen smell that clung to his
partner was easy to catalogue and ignore. Sour sweat clung to Spetrino’s skin
below his base scents, but Greiff had no way to tell if the sweat was fresh.
The suit with him didn’t smell like anything.

He backed away and stared at the door knob. Impossible.
Everyone smelled. The oils on skin, perfumes and colognes, deodorants, even the
contact they came into with other people mixed together into a scent.

“Greiff, it’s me Spetrino. I need you to open the
door, man.”

No viable way out of the apartment without super
powers. A nose on steroids didn’t count when it came to needing a way through
walls with no one knowing. And there was the Chloe situation. She hadn’t come
out of the bathroom, and if even a tiny bit of the conspiracy stuff she’d told
him was true—and his instinct told him it was—no way he’d leave her here with
some over-muscled suit.

Fuck. He opened the door, but stood in the
threshold to make it clear that his partner and the guy with him weren’t
welcome inside. Chloe didn’t need to deal with this shit. “Hey man. You lookin’
for another old broad to flirt with? There’s a real doozy of a hoodoo priestess
down the hall.”

Dark suit nodded with a small inclination of his
head. If the other man had had hair, it would have been buzzed into a military high-and-tight.
Greiff returned the gesture and pretended to ignore him. Both men knew the
posturing was crap, but they had to do it. Unarmed, and with a woman to take
care of, he wasn’t backing down and letting the goon in all easy-peasy. It took
all his concentration to try and look relaxed and unconcerned.

Spetrino ignored the dig. “This is Major Rebane.
We need to come inside.”

“Why?” His partner took a step closer and Greiff
held his ground. Rebane maintained his position to the back and left of Spetrino.

“This isn’t a conversation to have in a public
hallway, my color-challenged friend.” Spetrino pushed past him into the
apartment.

Unless Greiff wanted to get physical, he had no
choice but to let the other man pass. Unease wormed its way into his gut. The
tone of the comment didn’t fit with his partner’s normal jabs about his
wardrobe. “So, I can’t match my clothes. Who cares?”

“We both know it’s more than that.”

Greiff locked gazes with his partner, who stared
back. Shit was spinning out here in a big way, and without knowing what facts
Spetrino had, silence was the best answer.

Spetrino put his hands on his hips. “Greiff let
him in, man. This is about you and your new girlfriend. You care about her, you
let him in.”

“I’ve seen a lot of weird shit recently, and heard
even weirder. You sure I can trust this guy?” He raised one eyebrow and stared
over his shoulder at Spetrino. It put Rebane out of sight, but he needed to see
his partner’s face.

His partner sighed. “No, I’m not. But—”

“Detective Greiff, I know everything about you. I
know that you lost your virginity at sixteen to a girl named Holly Marie
Thompson. I know that you are color-blind, divorced, and that you lost both
your parents before you turned thirty. I know your little sister lives in Oklahoma
and works too many hours as a nurse.” Rebane’s low voice sounded like the
darkest part of midnight. “And before you say that anyone could have picked up
that information with a little digging, I also know that you have a couple
hundred bucks stashed under a panel in your closet floor. I even know that you
paid another kid to write all your papers junior year in college,” he dropped
his voice to a whisper and leaned in closer, “and that you can see Chloe
Saunders full color.”

The bathroom door opened and shut, and then the
bedroom door closed as well. He stood aside and allowed Rebane to pass. The
desire to warn Chloe warred with his need to maintain a defensive position where
he could keep both men in sight.

“No more posturing. Tell me why the government is
sending their bogeyman here.” Greiff moved to guard the hallway entrance.

Spetrino popped a piece of his nicotine gum. “I
came with him because I wasn’t letting my partner get into something with some
government spook without backup.”

He frowned. They’d only been partners for about a
year. “Spetrino, if even a quarter of the things Chloe told me are true, you
might want to get the hell out of here.”

The bedroom door opened again, and he tensed.
Chloe might think she could take care of herself, but Rebane’s bicep out-sized
her thigh. He glared at the G-man from under his brows and widened his stance.

Rebane smirked. Bright, white teeth flashed behind
his lips. He kept his hands relaxed at his sides and didn’t so much as clench
his fists, his face schooled into placid, lineless planes.

Greiff knew that posture for what it was—a
predator’s ready stance. This guy could pretend all he wanted, but Rebane was
dangerous.

But so was he.

Chloe’s scent reached him, but it had a discordant
note. He resisted the urge to check on her. The fact she was alone and upright
provided little comfort. There could be something he missed because he’d
polluted his nose. He vowed in that moment to never smoke again. As long as she
was in his life, he needed his nose.

“Spetrino.”

His partner tucked his phone into his pocket.
“Yeah?”

“Give me a piece of that gum.”

Rebane’s left eye twitched. Chloe slid into the empty
space between him and the wall on his right side. She concealed her hand behind
his and tucked a small cylinder into his right pants pocket.

Spetrino tossed him the foil and plastic bubble
pack and he popped out a piece of the gum. “Tell me what you want.”

He wanted to tuck Chloe into his side and keep her
close, but had to keep his hands free.

Chloe stared at the spook, and he stared back.

Finally, Rebane spoke. “Has she told you about the
Professor? I’m going to assume she has. Right. He’s on his way. And you have
two choices. Come with me, or die.”

“What? What the fuck? Who are you? Get your ass out
of my apartment. You can’t come into my house and threaten me.” Chloe sounded
furious. But even with the peppermint of the gum clogging his nose, Greiff
smelled the outbreak of sweat in her armpits and at her hairline.

“It’s not a threat. I will kill you to prevent the
man you refer to as the Professor from taking you into custody.” He clasped his
hands in front of his groin, left hand over his right wrist. “You have five
minutes before I have to make the decision for you. We prefer for you to come
peacefully, but if you fight…well, accidents happen.”

Chloe stepped back and retreated a few steps down
the hall. “I’m not going to be someone’s lab rat.”

“Ms. Saunders, before you decide to leave by the
fire escape, you should know a few things. The building is surrounded by my team.
They have the technology to see you if you decide to exercise your ability.”
Rebane blinked, and tucked his hands in his pockets. “And they will shoot you.”

“I knew there was a reason I didn’t like spooks.” Spetrino
moved to his right, out of the direct line of sight afforded by the living room
window and closer to Greiff. “Hey man, I didn’t know anything about this. I
just didn’t want this guy coming after you without someone who had your back
with him.”

Greiff maintained his position in the hallway entrance.
If he retreated, the walls would be too close to afford freedom of movement. If
he entered the living room too far, he’d be easy pickings for a sniper. He took
the gum out of his mouth and held it between his thumb and forefinger. The next
few moments hinged on what he smelled, and he needed to be certain he’d gotten
the right information. “Thanks, lover boy. I appreciate the sentiment, but it
was a dumb move. And I’m not leaving with some government lackey without more
information.”

Fury flashed over Rebane’s face before he schooled
his features into a cool façade again. “You come in peacefully, and we’ll tell
you everything you need to know. Detective, you know how these things work.
Make the smart decision.”

Grieff snorted and rolled his eyes. Yeah, he knew
how this kind of shit worked. And it wouldn’t be to his advantage or Chloe’s. A
single, deep breath flooded his senses with information. He couldn’t sort all
of it out, but it told him Spetrino’s cologne mixed with a tang…of something.
Nervous as hell, but he was too. No, that spunk or whatever it was told his gut
his partner lied.

He flicked a glance at Rebane and back to
Spetrino. Rebane didn’t have a scent, so there was nothing to judge him by,
other than the cool demeanor.

“Spetrino, how’d you know where I was?” The cool,
slim canister fit up nice and tight in his palm and he dropped the gum. He
leaned one shoulder against the corner of the wall. “I didn’t tell you anything
about my location earlier today.”

“What do ya mean? You were involved in a shooting
at the corner store. There aren’t many apartment buildings around here. Wasn’t
hard to figure out where you’d gone.” Spetrino swallowed and the funky tang in
his scent spiked.

“But this specific apartment? Who were you just
texting?” A movement Rebane made, a tiny twitch in the pocket of his pants
caught Greiff’s attention, but he didn’t remove his gaze from Spetrino. “You’re
lying, man.”

There was a crack and the pop of displaced air.
Spetrino clutched his chest, and fell face-first on the floor. Chloe screamed. Greiff
rushed to his partner and rolled him over. A large hole marred his shirt front
and blood pumped from the wound in the center of his chest.

Rebane spoke, “You have two minutes left. Your
partner was a double agent working for the Professor and a special government
division. Decide, now.”

Shit, there wasn’t a single good way for this to
end. But he’d be damned if he’d go willingly. “The only thing I know for sure, Major,
is that you jerks are going to kill us or turn us into lab rats or some shit.
How long have you had your eye on Chloe? On me?”

Rebane kept his hands relaxed at his sides. “We
intercepted a video transmission by Ms. Saunders’ roommate about an hour ago. The
information obtained changed the status of our mission. I cannot tell you more
unless you come with me. One minute, thirty seconds left.”

Right. The government would lure them in with
promises and feed them bits and pieces to keep them in line but still in the
dark. It’d be like drinking ocean water. The more you got the more you wanted,
until it killed you.

He adjusted his grip on the canister, yanked it
into the open, and depressed the small button on the top. A fine mist sprayed
into the spook’s face. Before the other man recovered from his involuntary
reaction to the pepper spray, Greiff tackled him around the middle. They hit
the floor hard.