Hell Transporter (Between) (27 page)

I made a derisive sound and walked to the corner of the pool. “He means nothing to me.” Derek threw me a suspicious look, but I must have passed his flawed lie-detector test.

“Come on in. The water’s fine, though not as fine as you.” His eyes stroked my body like a physical touch and I bit back a scream.

“Can’t. I didn’t shower first. Thought maybe you’d like to get wet with me.” Licking my lips, I stuck out a finger and beckoned him closer.

His laughter echoed through the open space as he leapt out of the water. Dripping, he advanced on me like a tiger stalking its prey. If I had any doubt he was buying this charade, his miniscule swimsuit provided clear evidence where he stood.

“I don’t really care if you’re wet or not, to be honest,” he said before he grabbed a fistful of my hair and crushed his mouth to mine. His slick torso coated me with a moist film while he ground his hips against me, poking me in the stomach and making me want to retch. Opening my mouth to his kiss, I let his tongue in and nearly lost it at the taste of chewing tobacco. I called upon all my strength to suppress the shudder of revulsion that threatened to expose my deceit. The piercing in his tongue scraped against mine like a ball we passed back and forth while his hands dropped to my breasts and twisted my nipples hard. I dug my fingernails into his back, hoping to draw blood in payment for the torture he was making me endure.

Suddenly, Derek’s mouth left mine and he was ripped from my grasp. Shock formed his lips into a silent
O
as he went flying backward by his hair. Aiden’s face was so contorted with rage, he could’ve easily been the hell transporter himself. He swung a vicious punch at Derek’s face. The sound of bones crunching seemed to boomerang across the pool. Blood splattered the concrete as Derek scrambled to get away from Aiden’s punishing fist. Derek finally managed to get to his feet.

“You bitch! You set me up!” he screamed while he and Aiden circled each other.

“You had your chance at the cabin!” I spat back. “Like I’m going to sit back and wait for you to kill me!”

Derek risked an incredulous look in my direction. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

Aiden used the momentary distraction to land a brutal jab to Derek’s gut. He bent double, coughing up blood. Aiden’s movements were swift, vicious, and precise. Every time Derek straightened up, Aiden cut him down again. I couldn’t breathe. All I could do was watch and wait for Derek to morph into the beast.

But he didn’t.

Unease ate at me, like this was all wrong. I didn’t know why, but I knew something wasn’t right. I wrenched my face away from the fight and squeezed my eyes shut.

Why didn’t he change? Why didn’t he turn into the hell transporter? That creature was stronger than Aiden and could have fought back. And why did act like he didn’t know what I meant about the cabin? He’d even mentioned the cabin when we made this date for the pool. He said Aiden had saved me from the rattlesnake.

Only, Aiden didn’t save me. He saved Micah.

Of course Micah lied about what happened at the cabin. He would have looked bad, so he must have told Derek that it was me…

A hard shove from behind propelled me forward into Aiden’s arms. Derek ran from behind me to the metal rack in the corner that held the extra lane dividers, long chains of blue and white plastic used to cordon off sections of the pool for laps. Grunting, he tipped the rack forward and flung the ropes at Aiden, who slipped on the wet floor and went down. Derek leapt on him, swinging his fists and screeching like a wounded animal.

Derek grabbed the front of Aiden’s shirt and rolled with him into the pool. Aiden’s clothes weighed him down and Derek took full advantage, finally in his element. He grabbed Aiden’s hair and pressed his face into the water.

“Stop it!” Everything was going wrong. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Derek was supposed to turn into the hell transporter, Aiden was supposed to kill him and we were supposed to be free.

“Let him up!” I screamed but Derek ignored me. The tattoos on his arms looked warped in the water. Aiden’s face finally emerged and a whooshing breath of relief burst from my chest. He cracked an elbow to Derek’s temple. Derek’s face went slack and he dropped like a stone.

Aiden gulped huge breaths of air and all of a sudden it hit me like a hammer to the forehead.

The skin over Derek’s shoulder blade was smooth. No scar.

When the hell transporter had held me suspended at the cabin, planning to snap my neck, Aiden’s dirk had torn through its shoulder, leaving a trail of blood on the ground. Derek would have had a scar, a red mark,
something
, if he’d been the one who’d tried to kill me that night.

It wasn’t him.

Aiden started to get out of the pool and I realized Derek was still underwater.

“Get him out. Get him out!” Near hysteria washed over me.

“What?” Aiden’s stare told me he thought I’d lost my mind.

“It isn’t him. He’d have a scar on his shoulder from the cabin and he doesn’t. He’s going to drown. Get him out!”

Aiden let loose a roar of Gaelic curse words and dove into the water. He dragged Derek’s unconscious body out of the pool and began beating him between the shoulders. The CPR class I’d taken in high school started to come back to me and I moved to take his place, but Derek came to just then, spewing water and sucking in a ragged breath.

“You… pulled me out.” Derek’s raspy voice sliced through the silent room.

A muscle moved in Aiden’s jaw before he nodded. “Aye, I did. Don’t make me regret it. Stay clear of her.” His voice was tight but lacked the fury that had fueled him earlier.

Derek tossed a look of disgust in my direction.

“No problem.”

Chapter 35

Back in the locker room, I pulled my shirt and pants on over my suit, wondering what had just happened, how we could have been so wrong and where that left us.

Back at freaking square one.

With Derek as the transporter, we had someone to blame, someone to fight, some way to make progress against the threat that hovered over us every minute. And now we had nothing. And almost worse than that, I’d let him kiss me. I worked furiously to try and erase the memory of his fingers kneading my breasts.

A buzzing in my jeans pocket cut off the geyser of frustration that threatened to erupt from within me. I yanked the cell phone out of my back pocket and swiped my thumb over the screen to see the text.

My heart dropped into my shoes.

Grabbing my bag, I ran out to the hall to find Aiden waiting for me in clean, dry clothes. His face changed immediately when he saw the terror in my eyes.

“It’s Steph.”

I held out the phone, barely able to breathe. Aiden’s eyes moved over the text message.

Micah followed me home. Hiding at Al’s. Bring Aiden. Hurry.

He swore under his breath and asked, “Who’s Al?” I shook my head and explained that Al’s was a car parts manufacturing plant at one time, but now it’s a mostly empty warehouse on the outskirts of town. It was a popular place for college kids to go and make out in their cars when the weather was good, but no one would be there on a night like tonight.

Aiden said something in Gaelic to himself that I didn’t understand, but the tension in his body was clear, which only added to my panic.

“I don’t suppose I could convince you to stay here and let me take care of this,” he said.

“Not a chance.”

He sighed heavily, making it clear he didn’t like this one bit, but at last he opened the door and followed me out into the rain to the car.

A thousand horrifying images ran through my mind during the torturous drive to Al’s. Rather than risk getting stuck behind a red light or pulled over for speeding, I screeched through the back roads, praying we weren’t too late. When we finally pulled into the dark parking lot adjacent to the building, there was not a car anywhere to be seen—not even Steph’s, which I thought was strange. Did he run her off the road somewhere close by? Did he chase her into the warehouse? My stomach burned with unanswered questions and I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself. When I killed the engine, Aiden turned to me with a frown. I could tell he was going to ask me to stay in the car, so I jerked the door open and got out before he could stop me.

The back door to Al’s was propped open with a rusty can. A bulb with a broken glass cover flickered feebly in the rain. Aiden moved in front of me, his eyes darting around the perimeter of the building. He stepped inside and scanned the interior, then gestured for me to follow. A dim bluish glow coming from around the corner helped my eyes adjust to the dark, cavernous space. We moved slowly toward that light with Aiden walking in front, listening intently. It was eerily quiet. I wanted to call out to Steph, but I knew that would be a mistake.

A bank of fluorescent lights hummed in the silence. Empty wire racks had labels with part numbers on them where the stock had once been neatly organized, but a thin film of dust covered them now. Tall black filing cabinets and a large air compressor lined one wall that ended in shadows. Broken down workbenches, chairs and crates were scattered about, and I scanned the room, trying to divine where Steph might be hiding.

Aiden stopped abruptly at the foot of a metal staircase and his body stiffened. I’d been following him so closely that I nearly crashed into him. In the dark, against the foot of the stairs, a security guard sat slumped over in a pool of his own blood, his glassy eyes still open with shock. A dark red stain covered the front of his generic blue uniform. I had to bite my hand to keep from crying out in sheer terror. I never thought Micah would go after Steph with a gun, let alone kill someone to get to her. I started to shake uncontrollably.

I’m taking you back to the car. Lock the doors and if you see him coming, drive away as fast as you can.
Aiden took my elbow to steer me back the way we’d come.

A moment later, my head was filled with a low, angry growl and my stomach plummeted to the floor. The sound was both instantly familiar and terrifying. I looked at Aiden, whose eyes flew heavenward as if to say “Really?” and knew he’d heard it, too.

My mind raced, unable to comprehend what was happening. Did the transporter follow us here? Where was it? Where was Micah? Who killed the guard? My head swiveled around as I wildly searched to try and find the source of that awful noise. What the hell was going on?

Suddenly, the growl was gone, replaced by a smug nasal laughter I knew all too well, but had never heard in my head before. Mona descended the stairs regally, like a queen before her groveling peasant subjects. Her face shone with triumph at her own superiority and power. A long, filmy black dress hugged her curves, ending in strappy high heels that laced around her ankles. As always, her nails and lips sported a matching shade of deep red color. The corners of her mouth pulled up in a self-satisfied sneer.

“You ain’t going nowhere, toots,” she said to me, though she was pointing a pistol at Aiden’s chest. We backed up slowly as she approached.

“You,” Aiden breathed, disbelief etched on his face.

“Fooled you, didn’t I?” Her eyes flashed blood red at us and I realized in that moment that she’d lured us here, that she must have stolen Steph’s cell phone. I felt a momentary wave of relief that Steph was safe, but it was short-lived as the reality of the situation sunk in.

Mona—the hell transporter.

I could barely wrap my mind around it, but the pieces started clicking into place, one after the other. She always seemed to be gone when Aiden was away. That first week of school when Aiden went to Salem to get his papers, she’d disappeared and didn’t come back until he returned. Ravi had said Mona’s grandfather had died.

“Your grandfather didn’t die. You didn’t go back to New York. You went after Aiden,” I said aloud as I worked it out in my head.

She laughed, a joyless grating sound that echoed in the empty room. “The Sicilian mafia took out my grandfather for embezzling funds long before you were even born. I haven’t been to New York since Tony Maranzano shot me dead in 1939. Bastard,” she added, her face twisting into a sneer.

“And the cabin! It was you in the woods!”

She glared at me. “One more second and I’d have been rid of you.”

“What do you want, Mona? You want to kill me?” I asked, trying to sound brave.

She shrugged, like it was no big mystery. “It’s just as I told you all along. I want your man.” She gestured with her chin to Aiden and waved the pistol at him. He looked more angry than afraid.

“I’m the one ye want. Let her go,” Aiden said.

She tilted her head to one side as if he were a young child who’d said something very sweet. “Aw, aren’t you cute? Somehow, I just knew you were going to say that. Though I don’t think you’re in much of a position to be making demands of me, Scotty.” The sound of her laughter surrounded me like a swarm of biting insects.

Just then, another familiar voice called across the darkened room. My heart gave a sudden lurch.

“Mona! What are you doing?!” Ravi shouted as he came around the corner to witness our little scene. Mona didn’t turn her head to look at him, but kept her eyes locked on Aiden. Her lips pursed with displeasure at his intrusion. This was definitely not part of her plan.