Justice Incarnate (25 page)

Everything. He wouldn't torture them both by pretending any longer. Why deny the bizarre when he recognized the reality in it? "I believed when I saw your face over two dead bodies in your apartment." He took a breath and spilled it. "Your face has haunted my dreams and nightmares since I was a kid." He kissed her cheeks. "I chalked it up to imagination. To the sci-fi and real crime books I read.

"But these eyes have reached across time, haven't they?" His lips floated over each eye. "You've cried for the impossible." His mouth found hers, brushed and hovered. "Now celebrate the possible. Our time. Let's take it."

For a moment, Jaden simply stared at him. Possible or not, she'd waited a thousand years for this. She launched herself into his arms and let time fall away as her mouth fused to his.

If they only had tonight, then she'd make damn sure they both remembered it into the vast expanse of eternity.

She tugged clothing out of her way, desperate to get her hands on his skin. Warm and firm, she traced the lines of him, burning it into her memories, etching it into her senses. In a thousand years there had only been this one man for her.

His scent made her high, his eyes scorched her, his desire clear. His hands raced over her body and he rolled until he pinned her to the mattress. She laughed, pure and simple, for here was the joy she'd longed for.

I'm yours, she chanted, surrendering her body and soul. She gasped, when his mouth found her breast. Arched when his hand teased its mate. And scarcely breathed when he explored lower.

His mouth drifted across her center, his tongue circled and teased. She bucked, crying his name. His big hands anchored her as he sent her flying at will. She pleaded shameless, ecstatic, until she soared free.

Floating, she delighted in the feel of his body brushing against her every nerve as he stretched out beside her. In the glow of loving, she let her fingers explore him slowly. His jaw, the muscled chest beneath crisp, dark curls. She traced the lines of his abs, trailed lower and smiled when he tensed. Oh, yes, this was the man of her heart.

You're mine. She claimed him with her mouth first, thrilled by his approving growl. Then she straddled him and teased them both with a hot, wet slide over his engorged length. Not enough.

Mine.

Yours.

"Now." He gripped her hips and settled her onto his shaft with one smooth, marvelous, deep thrust.

She arched, savoring, before the timeless need ripped though her. Here, at last, was the only union she'd ever wanted. The only man who made her feel.

She rocked, stoking the fire slowly, until his hips pumped beneath her. She matched his primal rhythm, driving them both toward the crest. Looking into his eyes, she saw all that mattered. The climax splintered her senses and the wall around her heart exploded in a brilliant rainbow.

"Got a cigarette?" Brian asked when he could speak again.

Her satisfied chuckle was as seductive as anything she could've said.

She stretched like a cat. "I bet I know where to find one."

"Micky probably stocked 'em around here somewhere."

"Mmm-hmm."

"He's thought of everything else."

"Mmm-hmm."

"You don't care?" He slid his fingers up and down her spine, savored the tremor.

"Nope." She propped up on an elbow and nuzzled his neck. "You really want nicotine?"

Her tongue was doing crazy things against his neck. "Nope. I want you."

Her smile was all cat-in-the-cream. "You've had me."

He paused, mid-kiss. "I have." He tucked her hair behind her ear. He'd had her and thrown her away too many times. He'd be a fool no more. "This time I'm not letting you go."

Chapter Fourteen

Excerpt from Confessions of a Brothel-keeper as told to W.T. Stead, reporter for the Pall Mall Gazette, 1885:

Maids as you call them, fresh girls as we know them in the trade, are constantly in request...I have gone and courted girls in the country under all sorts of disguises...I bring her to London to see the sights...giving her plenty to eat and drink. I offer her nice lodging for the night: she goes to bed in my house and then the affair is managed. My client gets his maid, I get my...commission and in the morning the girl, who has lost her character and dare not go home, in all probability will do as the others do and become one of my 'marks'. Another very simple way of supplying maids is by breeding them. Many women who are on the streets have female children. They are worth keeping. When they get to be twelve or thirteen they become merchantable.

Chicago: 2096

Jaden woke sated and renewed. Who knew a night of such little sleep could be so refreshing? Reaching for Brian, her fingers brushed a note card instead of his hair. He'd gone to the library to see Lorine.

Playtime was officially over.

Jaden rolled from the bed to clean up and go find this mysterious library.

A woman who'd only lived once might be jealous. A woman who'd lived repeatedly, well...she might be jealous too, Jaden realized, grinning at her reflection in the bathroom mirror.

Her eyes drifted over her body, recalling each nuance of last night in Brian's arms. At her hip, eyes paused. He'd done a fine job mending and later teasing the still-sensitive area. No, there was no room for jealousy when a woman gave her trust to a man like Brian.

Jaden's grin faded and she turned away from the mirror, hoping to turn away from the darker thought creeping up on her. Only one thing could come between them. The one thing that had always come between them.

Albertson.

The judge knew Brian was the key to success for both of them. As did she. If Brian stood with her, the judge would be sentenced to hell. But if Brian harbored any doubt, if he sided with the judge, Jaden faced the daunting task of starting her quest once more.

She thought again of Lorine and her beautiful toddler. It seemed there was a case for jealousy after all.

Brian flipped open the Trident II palm sized monitor he'd purchased after confiscating one like it during the arrest of a jewel thief. The gadget was cutting edge, able to monitor up to four wireless cameras or signals simultaneously. The company claimed a maximum range of a two-mile radius, but Brian found a hacker who knew how to piggyback cell signals and didn't like behavior modification needles. They'd made a slightly unethical deal and now Brian's Trident had a ten-mile reach.

Just enough reach for what he had in mind.

Currently, camera one showed the van, still watching his empty apartment. Camera two had been re-programmed to receive input from Jaden's new transmitter. And camera three was about to record the small-screen debut of Dr. Lorine.

"All set?" he asked.

She answered with a satisfied smile. "Anything to knock Uncle Leo off his high horse."

And maybe take a certain judge with him, Brian thought. And when that bastard was in a cell with his own personal attitude-adjusting needle, Brian would personally oversee a lethal overdose.

"You okay?" Lorine interrupted his dark fantasy.

"Yeah. A lot on my mind."

He felt like a volcano ready to blow at every turn. The handwriting analysis proved he and Byron shared an uncanny likeness in penmanship as well as names. Jaden's 'memories' were documented tragedies throughout history. And he'd fallen in love with the object of a professional investigation, which had been personal from the beginning.

He pushed all but the juicing issues away for now. "Let's run this like a deposition. Start with your name and credentials please."

She did. Lorine epitomized the professional witness as she ran through the studies, the results, and the discrepancies between actual findings and reported findings.

Apparently once she'd broken the code, the false front Kristoff had painted for the public fell away to reveal the truth.

Lorine continued to prove the case against her uncle. As she spoke, Brian wondered at the audacity of Kristoff and Albertson. To use the finest soldiers in the country as guinea pigs was bad enough, but then to apply them to a personal power agenda? He shook his head.

Appalling how they'd exploited the unexpected side effect from juicing: the vulnerability to mind control. He took notes on the timeline Lorine provided. He'd run a thorough search later into the secure database and see just what chaos Kristoff had inflicted in America or elsewhere.

Brian lit up the laptop and checked his own draft record. He'd served the two mandatory years plus a third before turning his interests to protecting his close community rather than the world community. Within moments his personnel and medical files were available. It may have saved his life. Though he'd stayed away from the original juice, at Albertson's request, he'd missed the service-wide obligatory administration of the new juice.

"While human growth hormone has been used as a performance enhancement for our troops," Lorine intoned like a tenured professor, "this new formulation adds a dangerous level of serotonin and invariably results in an impairment of a soldier's ability to reason and discriminate logically."

She continued tearing apart each previous study, showing how the results were compromised.

She'd earned her new life. And she'd need it. If her family didn't care for her earlier choices, they'd sure be furious that she tore down their connection to influence.

As Lorine wrapped it up, she made a passionate call for Kristoff's resignation. For everyone's sake, Brian hoped the man listened, because his life was about to get ugly.

"Good job, doctor." Brian stopped and saved the recording.

Lorine shrugged out of the lab coat they'd used for staging. "I used to crave that title."

"Not now?"

She gave him a glowing smile. "Now I prefer 'Mommy'. And am I ever ready for a nap."

"You want a new bank account? New ID?"

"Will this play for the masses?"

He shook his head. "Don't think so, but I can't promise it won't get leaked to the media."

"Then just use plain old me. If Uncle Leo crashes and burns, I'll be the least of their worries."

"But your research brought him down."

"My family disowned me four years ago. To hunt me down means I exist. Trust me, they won't bother."

The Trident II beeped and Brian swiveled the angle on his home camera. The van was gone. Even idiots catch on after awhile.

Curious, he checked the status on Jaden. And smiled to see she was still in the suite where he'd left her. Safe, within reach, and oblivious to the tag he'd attached while she slept.

She considered meeting Brian at the library, but that smacked of checking up on him. So she sat at the table with her coffee, the diary, and a Chicago map. Occasionally, she toyed with the setting on her watch that revealed Brian's current position in the northwest corner of the third floor.

She smiled. Two could play the tracking game. Oh, she'd accepted, even understood, why he'd asked Loomis to plant the device on her at the funeral. And she might've felt a twinge of regret over tossing good equipment to the fishes.

But in the misty hours before dawn, she'd tagged him with a device of her own and she had every intention of keeping him in 'sight' until she disposed of Albertson.

A hand rapped on the door.

Jaden couldn't abandon her security habits. She got up to check the peephole and her heart leaped to see Leigh, the young girl hurt so terribly by Albertson. She owed this girl plenty, just for surviving enough to put her hot on the Judge's trail.

"Come in!" she said, opening the door and her arms.

Leigh blinked, and then her mouth curved into a cautious smile. "Hi. I wasn't sure...the girls have said all kinds of things."

"Girls usually do." Jaden gave her warmest smile. The girl was still so fragile. "You look better. Want some coffee?"

"Sure. I just wanted to thank you personally." Leigh followed Jaden to the kitchen and accepted her coffee mug with steady hands.

Much better. The first time they'd met, the girl couldn't keep anything down. Jaden hadn't been sure Leigh wouldn't take her own life during those desperate days.

"I–I -" She gulped the hot coffee and started over. "I came to offer my services."

She directed Leigh to take a seat, shoving the diary and map aside. "What kind of services?"

"Anything you or the Chief need. W–without you both I wouldn't be here."

Jaden felt her brows shoot to her hairline and composed herself. "You don't owe me or anyone else. You've been through a horrendous experience."

"And I'm useless if I can't overcome it." She swallowed and chewed her lower lip. "I still haven't been outside. But–"

"Healing takes time," Jaden interrupted. "There's no schedule, Leigh. You can't rush it."

"You've done it."

Jaden nodded. "I've had more time." What an understatement.

"I'm gonna get the brand removed. To hell with his 'insurance'. If I ever see him again, I guarantee he won't live through a repeat performance from me."