Revealed (The Found Book 1) (21 page)

“I had a chance to watch his investigative skills, I wasn’t impressed.”

“We haven’t been impressed with him for years,” an older Johnson brother called out from further along the table. Noah looked up to see Lila Johnson putting a plate of food in front of him.

“Don’t you worry about Tyler, Noah, he’s harmless.”

Noah slid his hand down Kali’s back, feeling much better when it was his warmth touching her. She peered at him, and then rested her head on his shoulder. All of his jealousy smoothed out.

“All of them are harmless,” she murmured.

“Sure they are,” Noah chuckled. “Harmless was the word I was going to use to describe them. Sarah has quite the family.” Noah kept his voice low, and with all the activity and talk going on around them, he hoped they weren’t being overheard, still…

Why out loud?

Oh. Its better now, it was too chaotic before. I was having trouble talking in my head, it was getting kind of jumbled, like I was high. Anyway, I heard Sakuro and Cyrus talking. Cyrus is Sarah’s oldest brother. He’s the task force leader with the Atlanta Police Department. He said he wanted in on whatever the hell was going on, or he wouldn’t let Sarah go. He sounded pretty adamant.

Noah looked around the table and saw the man Kali was talking about. He was the one giving Nate the hardest time. He looked to be the same age as Dave Rydell who was in his mid-thirties.

He is, he was an MP in the Army.

Noah had thought he was shielding, but apparently he was broadcasting.

Nope, I think it is a side-effect of the healing. I’m still cranked up. I swear Noah, I am in the zone. I could win at Jeopardy, bake a cake and give you the best blow job of your life.
Noah choked on the rib he was eating, and reached for his beer.

When can we leave and have sex? I want a lot of sex. I’m so needy. I’m so wet. Please, can we leave now?

Noah took a larger swallow of beer, and looked around the table. Everybody seemed to be talking, nobody was focused on them, but he felt like they must be setting the backyard on fire.

Please?

Suddenly, it wasn’t just words. It was a feeling, the amazing sensation of Kali’s mouth encompassing his cock, her tongue licking up the vein on the underside of tip. Then a picture blasted through his brain of her tied naked and spread eagle to an old-fashioned four poster bed. The beer fell out of his hand, liquid spilling through the cracks of the picnic table.

“Noah, are you okay?” Sarah asked from across the table. “You’re looking flushed.”

“I’m fine, but I’m still worried about Kali. I want to take her to the hotel. I think she needs to rest.” Sarah opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, Kali interrupted.

“Thank you Noah, I do need to lie down.”
Under you.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Why weren’t she and Noah sharing an apartment? When the admiral explained he arranged for their living arrangements in Southern California, Kali had no idea they would be so nice. They took over an entire floor of furnished apartments in Newport Beach. She only had one problem with the living arrangements, she and Noah had separate apartments, and Noah hadn’t said a word when they were each given their own key. Weren’t they going to be living together from now on?

Never in her life was she connected to someone as the night they made love after the Johnson family picnic. It was positively spiritual. But here a week late and a thousand miles away, it seemed like an eternity had passed. What’s more, Noah constantly blocked her now. He would politely knock to telepathically communicate with her, and she would do the same, but she could no longer hear him at all. Rarely could she even sense what he was feeling. She knew he had done it on purpose.

She lay down in the beautifully appointed new bedroom and cried.

* * *

Her tears were ripping him apart. How could she doubt his feelings? God the night together in Atlanta had been everything. She was everything, and that was the problem. Oh, he intended to keep her forever, she was his. But Sakuro and his plan to have Sarah and Kali in California near Rixitron was both ingenious and the worst fucking thing in the world. Therefore, his team, and now Cyrus, had come up with their own plan.

Noah still wasn’t sure how he felt having Cyrus Johnson here with them as part of their team, but he had to admit the man was smart. Sierra had run his background. His record in the Army had been phenomenal, it was no wonder he was a task force leader in Atlanta.

One of the apartments had been converted into a command center. They had briefly considered taking up office space in the bottom floor of the apartment building. The other offices were there, but no one liked the idea of being so far away from Sarah and Kali.

“How are you doing keeping things blocked from Kali? I’m thinking it’s working since she looks like shit.”

“Great Nate, you sure have a way with words.” Sierra sat in front of her computers looking glum. It didn’t give Noah a great deal of confidence. Normally she was the one who provided their intel.

“So no leads on Rixitron?” Kota asked from his seat beside the window.

“That’s not it. I heard from Riley. He can’t find Annie. Not one possible lead. It’s like she fell off the end of the world.”

“What about the Seth Natani? Any word on him?”

“No, and not looking good at all. Lobado and the gang know they’ve been infiltrated on the inside,” Seirra explained.

“Well, it’s a
no shit
kind of thing,” Nate said.

“They’re chasing their tails. Which is good for us, and good for Natani. He came up with a cover the DEA doesn’t even know, but I figured it out.”

Noah thought she might buff her fingernails. “Spill it.”

“I used a facial recognition program, and found him in this bridal magazine of all places.” She turned her monitor and showed them a glossy magazine photo of a couple in a garden, both of them dressed in wedding clothes. There was Seth Natani with a beautiful blonde woman.

“Oh fuck,” Nate hissed. “How can the DEA not know? I mean this is a national magazine, right?

“Actually, only women who want to get married read this type of magazine, it’s because I had the software cranking for days I was able to find it.”

“How did an Indian make himself into a Carson?” Kota asked in disgust. When everyone stared at him, he held up his hands. “Hey, I’m Native American, just saying, I would have come up with a name a little less Anglo Saxon is all.”

“This Portia, how is she mixed up in things?” Noah asked.

“Portia, is Portia Benitez of Benitez Shipping, and her father is up to his eyeballs in drug and arms shipping. I don’t know about his daughter. I think Seth is a scumbag who couldn’t resist marrying a beautiful woman,” Sierra said with disgust.

“Did you inform his superiors?” Cyrus asked.

“Nope. There has to be a reason he’s not reporting in. I figured I would keep his secret.”

“I disagree, I think it should to be reported to his superiors, but it’s your op,” Cyrus said with a shrug. “Now let me get this straight. We have three different things going on. One of your people, Dave Rydell, was working on a case with a
found
girl in Taiwan, right? Is he coming back here?”

“Nope, he refuses to leave. He is positive the assholes who took her are going to make another attempt, and he’s not letting her out of his sight.”

“Got it. The second one is Riley—first name or last?”

“Riley Jones, he’s in New Mexico searching for Annie Newman. I thought she was Seth’s Annie,” Sierra said bitterly.

Noah could feel the hurt coming off her in waves. It wasn’t about Riley, it was Seth’s betrayal of Annie. Had she been similarly betrayed at some time?

“So what is Riley’s plan?” Cyrus asked.

“He intends to track down Annie. Rixitron is after her because she had Seth’s baby. They know the baby is the child of a
found
, and are determined to get their hands on her and the child.”

“If Annie is so well hidden, why not just leave her alone?”

“She’s out there in the desert with Seth’s grandmother as protector, it’s not good enough, not with the type of people Rixitron put into play. Once Riley has her located we’ll be called in and bring them here.”

“Got it.” Cyrus went to the kitchen area and grabbed a club soda. “So it leaves the assholes after my sister.”

“The same—all Rixitron. From what we know, their intent is to create a breeding program and propagate the
found
.”

Cyrus slammed down the soda. “That’s just sick.”

“And it’s not everything,” Noah reminded the team. “The people who had Kali weren’t interested in breeding her, it was all about finding out where she came from.”

“I’m sorry Lieutenant, you’re right,” Sierra said. Nate moved from his spot against the wall and put his hand on Noah’s shoulder.

“Just because Sierra didn’t mention it, doesn’t mean she isn’t looking into it. Go ahead, tell him what you’ve discovered.”

“I tracked down who owned the buildings. I had to go through three shell companies, but I finally found a name. Jade Melling Galleries out of New York.”

“How big an operation?”

“Single owner. She’s in her fifties, never been married. An artist who hit it big thirty years ago, and then started representing other artists.”

“What kind of motive would she have to capture and torture Kali?”

“Absolutely nothing I can see. I’m thinking she’s just another link in the chain, but until she comes back from her buying trip in Europe, I can’t be sure. She’ll be back in two days. I figure one of us can go and question her then.”

Noah felt a rush of relief. They were making some progress on Kali’s kidnapping after all.

“There’s still Niko,” Cyrus finished.

“Fuck. Did you have to remind us?”

Nate was not a happy camper. Sierra scowled at Cyrus for the third time that morning. He was definitely usurping her role, Cyrus’ talents as a Task Team Leader were obvious.

Noah?

He shut her out, figuring he’d see her after the briefing. He wanted to discuss how to keep the women safe while they were out doing reconnaissance work.

“What’s he like?” Kota asked Sierra.

“I can answer,” Cyrus said. “Sarah kept a scrapbook on him, like she kept on Kali, Alfred and Mai. He’s a geologist, with a degree in mechanical engineering. He’s been working to help safely develop the natural gas fields in Russia. His work has been adopted in fifteen different countries including ours. He’s saved thousands of lives, and it’s helped stop harmful effects to the environment.”

“Can he afford to be away?”

“He has to. There was an attempted kidnapping. They sent a contingent of men, damn near a SWAT team, but he’s guarded as closely as the Russian President. They massacred those men.”

“Couldn’t they have left even one alive to question?”

“Apparently it’s against policy.” Cyrus laughed.

Nobody said it, but everybody was thinking about all the civilians they were going to have to guard.

“What’s our plan to keep everybody safe?” Kota asked. “Is Sakuro going to give us anymore reinforcements?”

“He still isn’t sure who he can trust. I want to bring in someone from Hawaii,” Noah said.

“What about the other
found
? Are there any others who have backgrounds that might be helpful?” Nate asked.

“What other
found?”
Cyrus asked.

“Sakuro explained there were other governments, including America that knew of
found
children who hadn’t received public exposure
.”
Sierra explained.
“
Each of their respective governments kept them under wraps. As the shit hit the fan with Kali, Alfred, and the others they put them under covert protection.”

“Is there anyone else we can pull in?”

They all watched as Sierra’s fingers flew over the keyboard. “Brice McElyn, SAS from Scotland.”

Yeah, he would work, Noah agreed.

“Get him. I’ve got to go.”

“Me too,” Nate said. They headed towards the door, Noah in front. Before Nate could make it, Cyrus was in front of him.

“Nate, I think you and I need to have a talk.”

“I agree. Let’s go downstairs. I need some air.”

Chapter Thirty

Kali opened the door knowing it was Noah, because he finally opened up to her. She didn’t understand why he had been blocking her, but it hurt.

“Baby, I love you.” He swept her into his arms, and carried her back to the bedroom. When he tried to lay her down, she held onto his neck, not letting go.

“You blocked me.”

“I had to.” His face was resolute.

Letting go she turned on her side, and cried. He was serious, he thought he needed to block her out. She never wanted to lose their connection, but he wanted to sever their ties.

No, Kali, never. But I never want you to suffer like you did when I was in Cancun.

“It was okay when I was lying on the floor in the Johnson’s kitchen? Sarah told me your nose was bleeding. She had to heal you too, but that was just fine, wasn’t it?”