Crossroads (23 page)

‘Do you want me Jake?’

‘More than I want my next breath,’ he murmured.

‘Then take me to bed,’ she watched him carefully, ‘stop worrying about tomorrow, we’ll deal with it another time.’

He shouldn’t, he knew he shouldn’t, but he just couldn’t stop himself. She deserved better than him but it was true, he was selfish, and right now all he wanted, all he could think about was her and to hell with the consequences.

He slid into her slowly, wrapping his arms around her as his mouth found hers once again soft and slow. Her arms snaked around his neck and as his hands slid down to her hips he lifted her against him so she could wrap her legs around his waist. He turned and headed towards the bedroom, kicking the door shut behind him, after all Beau was too young to see what they were about to do. He dropped her down beside the bed and stepped back. Removing his gun, he ejected the magazine and checked the safety, before laying it on the top of her dresser. He kicked his boots off and slid out of his jacket, laying it over the chair she had propped in the corner of her room. Moving back towards her, slowly pulling his shirt from the waistband of his pants, he watched her, watching him.

‘Are you sure this is what you want?’ he asked as he moved to stop in front of her.

‘What do you think?’ she whispered as her fingers began to unbutton his shirt, peeling it slowly from his shoulders and revealing more of his body. She sighed softly in appreciation as her smooth inquisitive fingers stroked his skin, tracing all the dips and curves of his hard muscled body. When she reached his waistband she unhooked his belt and rolled his zipper down. Hooking her fingers in she pushed them slowly over his hips, taking his boxers with them and letting them drop to the floor.

She gasped as her mouth fell open.

‘Jesus Christ.’

The man was just beautiful everywhere.

‘Thank you,’ his mouth curved into a cocky grin.

He kicked out of the rest of his clothes until he was totally and unapologetically naked.

‘My turn,’ he smiled as he lifted her easily and deposited her on the bed so that she was kneeling up against him.

His fingers raked tantalizingly down her ribcage and grasped the bottom of her tank top, pulling it up and over her head in one swift movement. His eyes flashed appreciatively at the sight of her naked flesh.

‘You are perfect Roni ‘he murmured, taking her mouth again as he filled his hands with her beautiful plump breasts.

She moaned into his mouth when one of his hands skimmed down her torso and under the waistband of her pajama pants finding her naked beneath. His fingers stroked her lightly in a teasing glide.

‘Jake please,’ she gasped against his lips.

‘Tell me what you want,’ he whispered.

She placed her hand over his and pressed him more firmly against her most sensitive flesh. He circled teasingly as her body trembled against him and just when she was about to cry out in frustration he slid one finger inside her, followed by another and then curled them slowly. Her eyes almost rolled back in her head and she could do nothing but rock against his hand, as her body instinctively sought the slow build and blinding release that was so close.

‘Christ Roni,’ Jake broke their kiss, breathing heavily and pressing his face against the soft heavenly scented skin of her shoulder. Nipping the skin lightly he felt her tense around his fingers and growled, pressing his hips against her firmly. ‘If you don’t stop making noises like that it’s going to be over before it starts.’

‘I’m sorry,’ she gasped, ‘I just…’

She threw her head back as he hit a spot deep inside that made her go blind and without realizing it she let loose a loud moan of intense pleasure.

Jake’s control snapped with an almost audible ping. He pulled his hands free and tossed her back on the bed ripping her pajama pants down her legs and tossing them aside before crawling between her thighs and taking her in his mouth.

Roni arched off the bed and her hand reached down and tangled in Jake’s hair as he ruthlessly drove her body up to the highest peak and held her there. Her body hummed like a finely tuned instrument as he nipped and feasted on her. When he finally drew that tight little bundle of nerves into his mouth and sucked hard her orgasm ripped through her, white hot and blinding, and she let loose a scream.

Roni lay staring up at the ceiling as Jake slowly slid up her body resting comfortably between her thighs, a cocky grin curving his lips.

‘I’ve been thinking about doing that to you for weeks,’ he slid his arms under her back pressing her breasts against his chest, ‘didn’t peg you for a screamer though.’

‘I’m not usually,’ she mumbled her face flaming red.

‘What’s that?’ he smiled against her lips, kissing her softly.

‘God, the neighbors probably heard that,’ she breathed in mortification.

‘I wouldn’t worry about that sweetheart,’ he chuckled as he nibbled her jaw lightly, ‘because we’re not done yet.’

He took her lips again, kissing her deeply as she felt him press against her. Lifting her hips slightly he slid into her slowly, inch by deliriously delicious inch and just when she thought he couldn’t get any deeper he tensed up and pressed further.

‘Jake,’ she breathed against his mouth.

‘I’ve got you sweetheart,’ he rolled his hips against her setting a slow deliberate pace, ‘just relax.’

Her arms tangled around him pulling him in as close as possible. She wasn’t by any means a virgin but the few disastrous relationships she’d had, hadn’t even come close to making her feel the way Jake did. She wasn’t kidding when she said she didn’t usually make any noise; she’d never really felt the need to. She simply let them satisfy themselves and roll over to sleep. She had wondered at one point if she was just defective, maybe she wasn’t capable of feeling that level of passion. Jake however, made her feel like her skin was wired into the mains electricity. She could do nothing but feel every raw nerve and jagged edge of pleasure. He owned her body in a way she hadn’t even known was possible. All she knew was she wanted more, she wanted deeper, faster. Now she’d experienced it she was greedy for it.

She drew her legs up his thighs, past his hips until she was wrapped around him like a pretzel. He growled and set the pace faster and grasping her leg he hooked it up over his shoulder. She was so close; she could feel it just dancing out of her reach. Her body arched and yearned towards it as his hips ground against her. It built viciously in her core and when she couldn’t hold on anymore she let go and clamped down hard. Jake gasped in pained pleasure and fell against her, his hips slowing as he drew out the last of the pleasure, until they collapsed in a sweaty pile of limbs and gasping bodies.

‘Jesus Christ’ Jake panted, ‘you’re bendy.’

‘Yoga,’ she managed to gasp out.

‘God bless whoever invented it,’ he laughed against her skin, burying his face into her neck and breathing her in deeply as she chuckled against him.

The insistent ringing startled Jake out of sleep and he fumbled on the nightstand for his phone.

‘Jake here,’ he mumbled as he pressed his face back into the pillow.

‘Jake?’ Mac replied, ‘you still asleep? I figured you’d be up by now’

Jake lifted his head and stared at the blinking numbers on the clock by the bed. It read 9pm.

‘Jesus,’ he rolled over and scrubbed his hand over his face. He’d slept most of the day away.

‘Listen,’ Mac continued, ‘I need to speak to you about something important. Can you come by the station?’

‘You still there?’ Jake frowned.

‘Yeah,’ Mac replied tiredly. ‘Oh and I want to speak with Veronica, so find her and bring her with you if you don’t mind.’

‘No problem.’

He hit the disconnect button. Dropping his phone back down on the nightstand he rolled over, at least he didn’t have to look far to find Roni. He smiled as he wrapped his arms around her warm naked body and pulled her in closer, nipping her shoulder gently with his teeth.

She sighed and rolled into him, snuggling sleepily against him.

‘Who was that?’ she yawned.

‘Mac.’

‘Umhum…’ she drifted back off to sleep.

‘Roni,’ he smiled shaking her slightly.

‘What?’ she murmured.

‘It’s nine o clock.’

‘Humm.’

Suddenly her eyes flew open and she sat up abruptly, the covers pooling around her waist.

‘Nine? what in the evening?’

‘Uh huh,’ he replied enjoying the sight of her naked body.

‘Damn it,’ she hopped out of bed and pulled her robe on.

‘What’s wrong?’

‘Beau will be starving by now which means he’s probably chewed through everything in sight.’

He watched in amusement as she yanked the door open and disappeared into the other room. He let loose a small chuckle when he heard her voice.

‘Bad dog! Bad!’

Rolling out of bed himself with a yawn, he reached for his pants and pulled them on. His stomach growled loudly and he realized with a frown he hadn’t actually eaten in over twenty-four hours and he was ravenous. Perhaps it was just as well Mac had woken them up. This way they could grab something to eat, see what Mac wanted to speak to them about that was so important, and with any luck he could seduce Roni back into bed by eleven, eleven-thirty at the latest. Smiling to himself he pulled on the rest of his clothes.

Mac looked up as Jake opened the door and strode in, with Roni following behind him yawning slightly.

‘Still don’t know how to knock then?’ he asked dryly.

‘Hey you invited me,’ Jake smirked.

‘Take a seat both of you,’ he said seriously.

‘What’s going on Mac?’ Jake suddenly frowned at the Chief’s expression.

Once they were settled in the chairs in front of his desk he rose and began to pace slowly. ‘It seems we have a bigger problem than we originally thought, the five victims of this Charun or Soul Collector or whatever you want to call him.’

‘Five?’ Roni interrupted in a startled voice.

‘I didn’t get the chance to tell you earlier, but there have been another two victims admitted to the hospital with the same symptoms as the others,’ Jake told her seriously.

‘Who are they?’

‘The Baxter twins.’

‘Ted and Jan Baxter’s girls?’

‘You know them?’

She nodded. ‘Jan volunteers at the museum. Jesus the girls can’t be more than eight years old.’

‘I know,’ Jake replied soberly.

‘God. He’s taking children now?’

‘They’re not the first,’ Mac replied quietly.

‘What do you mean?’

Mac turned and picked up a tall stack of files and dropped them on his desk. Picking up the first one, ‘Juliet Smith age 62, Georgetown deceased’. He picked up the next one, ‘Loretta Johnson age 16 Georgetown coma of unidentified causes’. He dropped it and picked up the next one, ‘Aaron Williams age 43 Georgetown coma, Della Jones age 38 Georgetown deceased, Derek Brown age 47 Lawrence deceased, Adrian Taylor age 19 Lawrence coma, Joley Wilson age 4 Andover deceased, Lewis Anderson age 87 Boston deceased, Lilly Martinez age 15 Boston coma.’

He continued picking up file after file and dropping them on the desk.

‘Lawrence, Andover, Ipswich, Cambridge, Boston, North Reading, Quincy, Weymouth, Plymouth…the list goes on. Unexplained deaths with no known cause, comas of unidentified causes leaving the patients on permanent life support. Over one hundred and thirty-four victims so far and that’s just the ones we know about. Forty-seven fatalities and all the others still in comas. This son of a bitch has been hunting the whole of Eastern Massachusetts.’

‘What?’ Jake frowned as he began to pick up random files and leaf through.

‘The first one we can trace it back to, was February. This bastard has been stealing souls for months.’

‘February?’ Roni frowned, ‘that would put the time line at roughly around the time the gateway was left open. He must’ve been one of the first to come through.’

‘Exactly, and he was either powerful enough, or clever enough, not to get dragged back through when it was closed.’

‘There could be a lot more victims than this,’ Jake frowned as he continued to look through the pile.

‘I know’ Mac replied, ‘which is why we have to do something and soon. Where are we at with contacting Olivia and Theo?’

‘We harvested the willow during the full moon last night,’ Veronica told him, ‘that was the last thing we needed. We’re pretty much ready to go.’

‘Good,’ Mac nodded, ‘contact Fiona and set it up for tomorrow. I’ll be there too and then we’ll see if there’s a way to kill this son of a bitch.’

The shaking gradually subsided and Theo crawled out from under the table, followed by Olivia and Bridget.

‘That was worse than the last one’ Olivia frowned, as she looked around at the devastation.

Furniture was broken or overturned, and pots, bowls and plates had crashed to the floor and lay in pieces. But the worst of the damage was the main beam which had started to split and bowed alarmingly. Bridget surveyed the damage with a calm detachment, her gaze drew up to the ceiling and her eyes narrowed on the broken beam. Olivia and Theo both watched in wonder as the beam heaved itself back into place with a resounding crack and smoothed out as if it had never been damaged.

‘How did you..?’ Theo began.

‘It’s this place Theo,’ she told him, ‘if you can imagine it you can make it real.’

She bent down and picked up an overturned chair before retrieving her broom and beginning to sweep up fragments of pottery.

‘If you can make anything you want happen can’t you just…I don’t know…wish it all clean? I mean why clean up at all?’ Theo asked curiously.

‘Why do anything?’ she shrugged, ‘Why cook if I don’t have to? Why clean? The answer’s simple Theo, because I want to. Because I enjoy it.’

‘Why would anyone enjoy that?’ an amused voice spoke from behind them.

Olivia turned around and caught sight of Sam who was sitting comfortably in one of Bridget’s chairs with a cocky smile on his face.

Bridget’s eyes narrowed in annoyance. ‘You,’ she made a small sweeping gesture with one hand, ‘out!’