Steele (6 page)

Steele asked to speak to her. He wasn’t sure she’d come to the phone, and, to be honest, he was kind of hoping that she’d refuse to talk to him. It would have served him right if she simply moved out and never returned. Steele rubbed the place right over his heart when that thought entered his head.

“What?” She snapped him out of his musing with a sharp bark of her question. “Are you going to call me a simpleton again? Or have you moved on from there? I have several more to listen to. I think the voice mail thing said there were seventeen. I’ve only just started listening, but I could call you back when I’m finished.”

“Don’t. Don’t listen to any more.” He leaned his head against the wall and felt her anger all the way through the phone. “I’m not a nice person, in case you didn’t know that.”

“And?” He laughed and wondered why her agreeing with him made him do such a thing. “I have a job. Not a great one, but I have one. I should have enough money for my own place in a few weeks.”

“You’re not moving out.” He regretted the words and the tone as soon as they left his mouth. “What I mean is—”

“What you mean is exactly what you said. You think that because you’re the almighty Steele Bennett that everyone should just do as you say. Well, I’m sick to death of you barking orders at me. And if you remember correctly, after you fucked me yesterday you said it would be a good idea if I was gone. Something about me making you crazy.” Her snort of laughter made his head hurt. “If you ask me, I think you’re already crazy.”

Steele listened to her breathing. He wasn’t going to argue with her over the phone, but she wasn’t going to leave his house just yet. He wasn’t…Steele wasn’t finished with her. He had no idea what else he wanted to do to her, but fucking her nightly and most of the day was a wonderful way to start things moving in the right direction.

“I’m not able to leave here yet. There are over two hundred dead that we’re trying to match names to the trophies that we uncovered today.” He didn’t know why he was telling her this, but it seemed really important to him that he did. “The police have five hundred of them; over five hundred pieces of peoples’ lives that they don’t know who they belong to, and I’m going to have to stay here until it’s complete.”

She didn’t say anything for a long time, and he thought she’d hung up on him. When she did speak, it was soft and comforting to him. Her words didn’t matter. They were just that, words, but the feelings he got from them felt good.

“Come here. I want you to come here and be with me.” He tried to think how to get her there right now. “I can have the chopper ready to go in an hour. You can be here in less than that after you leave the ground.”

“I’m not going there.” He could hear the surprise in her voice; no anger, but plenty of surprise. “You said that I drive you crazy. Why the hell would you want me near you when you’re working?”

Why indeed. “I need to be buried inside of you. Sink into you so that all this will go away, even for a time. Come here and let me fuck you so I can’t think about this for a while.”

Her silence this time was telling. He knew as surely as he was standing there that she was pissed. Before he could explain more why he wanted her, she spoke again.

“Set it up. I’ll be there soon.” The line went dead, and he felt like he’d just been handed a great gift. Then he thought of how she had sounded and his heart twisted in his chest. He’d hurt her. And if her tone was any indication, he’d hurt her badly. He promised himself that as soon as she got there, he was going to make it up to her. Before he got lost in the Baggies again, he called his pilot and told him what he wanted. Sitting back at the table, Steele tried to think about something other than Kari, and it wasn’t really working. He needed her that badly.

As Drew matched a name to a bag, Steele picked up another one. The man appeared before him almost as soon as he touched the gold lock of hair. Steele waited for him to say something, but the man started sobbing immediately.

“Did you find my wife?” He asked him what her name was. “I can’t remember. I can’t remember anything. They hit me in the head and I can’t…did you find my wife?”

“We’re looking. Was she killed when you were?” The man looked confused for a second and shook his head. “But you’re sure she’s dead?”

“No. I don’t know anything. We were having a nice dinner. And…and….” The man looked around, then back at him. “Did you find my wife? She’s so beautiful. Long dark hair, and she has this pretty dimple on her left cheek.”

Steele tried to think if he’d seen a picture of a dimpled woman and didn’t remember any. He asked the others, who handed him several files. Opening them up so that the man wouldn’t see anything but the picture, he told Steele that none of them were her. When Ray handed him a single file, the man started sobbing again.

“That’s my lovely wife.” He reached for the picture only to come up short. His finger slid right through it and he started to cry again. “I want to see her. Do you think I can?”

“I’m sorry, sir.” Steele felt sorry for the man. “I’m sorry to tell you that I’ve no way to….” He looked at the file and the lock of hair in the bag. Pulling it out, he closed his eyes and searched for her. The moment she came to him, Steele opened his eyes.

“My lovely.” They stood before him, touching. Steele glanced around the room and realized that all of them could see what he was looking at, and that scared him. While he’d never done this before, brought two people together, he knew that he could do all sorts of things that others couldn’t. It wasn’t his mind playing tricks nor dreams getting the better of him. It was two people who had lost each other. The two older people were as real to them all as the other men in the room were to him.

“What the hell did you do?” He shook his head at Ray’s whispered question, telling him without words he had no clue. “They’re here. I mean, right here.”

“I can see that.” As the couple turned and looked at him, Steele stood up. “Do you know what happened to you both? Anything at all about how you’d come to be gone?”

“Murdered,” the woman said with a sad smile. “We were murdered, young man. Both of us were. It was our sixtieth wedding anniversary…I’m not sure what timeframe this is. Could you tell us, young man?”

Steele told her the date and year. “We found all this stuff in a building that was to be torn down. We’ve been trying to match the….” He wasn’t sure what to tell her about the trophies, but she seemed to know.

“I would imagine that he took something from each of us. A souvenir, I think they’re called.” She laughed when he nodded at her. “I did watch television, my dear boy. But to answer your question, we have been apart for nearly fifteen years. And we have children, not that I think they’d miss us overly much. They had their own lives to live and rarely had time for us. But we’d like for them to know that we’re gone.”

Steele nodded to her. “I’m sure they’ll be happy to know that we’ve found out where you are. They can have some closure as to what might have happened to you.” She nodded but said nothing more. “We have your names as Stanley and Opal Carter. Is that right?”

“Yes. Our children are Stanley Junior and Memphis. I think that is why he’s never called much. A mistake in calling him that. More so when we told him that was where he was conceived…we were young and silly then. But that’s their names. I wonder…do you suppose they’ve moved into our home or sold it for the money?”

Steele told her he didn’t know but wrote down the names and where they were all those years ago. He watched the couple, wondering what would happen to them now. Stanley smiled at him and nodded.

“We’re going to leave you now. I know you’re a good man, but I wanted to tell you that the woman in your life, she will die without your attention.” Steele stood up, but before he could ask him what he meant, they were both gone.

“What just happened?” Steele looked at Hugh, feeling as if he’d been hit between the eyes. “Did you just summon a couple so they could…I don’t know, be together?”

“I think so.” Steele was more concerned with what he’d been told by Stanley than about what he’d done or not done. “He said that Kari would die without my attention. Did you hear that?”

No one had. He asked them twice more and no one had heard the man say anything but that he loved his wife. Steele tried to think about what that might mean as he pulled out file after file. By the time he was notified that the chopper had landed, they still had a huge stack to review, but he had to go. Ray told him to have fun. Steele didn’t say anything because he wasn’t sure what he could say.

She was here. His mind kept saying that over and over. As he moved into the big rental car that they’d been using, he felt as if he might owe her more and stopped by the rental place again to get a limo. He wasn’t sure what she’d think of it, but he wanted her to have something special. Even if it was only to relieve himself of the guilt of hurting her.

Chapter 5

Kari listened to her instruction on how to exit a helicopter. She was terrified beyond belief that she might chop her head off, but the pilot, Chad, said that she’d be just fine. As she picked up her duffle bag and started out, he stopped her again.

“Miss Kari, it was a pleasure to have you ride with me.” She nodded, sure he was kidding. She must have asked him ten thousand questions on the short ride over. “I’m serious. Most people new to this kind of flying would have white-knuckled it all the way over, not saying a word. You made it fun and enjoyable. Thanks for that.”

Kari smiled at him and got off, keeping her head down almost to her knees. When she was cleared of the fast-moving blades, she took another few steps before turning to wave goodbye. He waved back and took off again. She knew that he had to get back to the house because of something that had gone wrong at the airport where he’d picked her up.

The lobby where she entered was small. Not that she had a lot of experience with airports, but this one seemed tiny compared to all the ones she’d seen on television. Going to the counter, Kari told her who she was.

“Mr. Bennett said to tell you he is on his way. He also asked that we make sure your luggage is ready to be loaded.” She told her she only had the one thing. “Then we did okay. We have a lovely lounge area that you can wait in. There’s a bar, and Mr. Bennett has a tab set up for you.”

“No thanks. I’ll wait over there.” Kari walked over to the window seats and sat down. Exhaustion seemed to be her best friend lately, and she closed her eyes as she leaned her head back. Her appetite was shit too. When Izzy had told her she looked like she’d lost weight that she could ill afford to lose, Kari weighed herself in the bathroom. She’d lost over twenty pounds over the last five weeks, the last two weeks living with Steele. Most of it was due to not having any money at the bar, but lately she wasn’t all that hungry either. And she was so tired.

Someone touched her and she came up quickly. Her fist connected with a face, but she was terrified from being awakened and didn’t see who it was first. Kari hadn’t even realized she’d fallen asleep until then. Steele pulled her to his body even as she tried to get a grip on things.

“I’ve got you. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have startled you like that.” Kari tried to pull away from him, awake now that he held her. “Just a minute longer, please. You scared me too.”

“I was asleep.” She felt stupid for saying that and felt her temper rise up. “I hit you again. You’d think you’d learn to just not touch me. Let me go, will you? It’s not right that you try to hold me all the time.”

“You’d think that, wouldn’t you…that I’d learn?” He laughed a little, then pulled back. He stared at her for several seconds before he spoke again. “What’s wrong with you? You’re pale and there are dark circles under your eyes. And have you lost more weight? I think you have.”

Kari pulled away from him and picked up her bag. “If you’re ready, so am I. I have to be back so I can go to work day after tomorrow. I told Chad, but he said you had to okay him coming back for me. I have to work.”

He looked…well, she thought he looked hurt, but was sure that wasn’t it. “I’ll make arrangements for you to be picked up. Come on. I’ve a car waiting for us.”

By car she assumed his car, but it was a limo. A long, black, sleek thing. Kari paused in mid-step when the driver got out and came to take her bag. She looked at Steele, who was frowning at her.

“I’ve never…why didn’t you just send a cab or something?” He only shook his head at her. “Do you have to show off every time you come and see me for some reason? Or is this part of your job perks?”

“No, I hired him for the time you’re here. Are you going to get in?” She moved to slide in as the driver took her bag. She wasn’t sure what to think when he went to the back of the thing and shoved it in the trunk. It had all her money in it and most of her clothes. When Steele got in and sat across from her, she watched the window behind him slide upward. They were alone again, and it made her nervous and afraid at the same time.

“I’m not used to this kind of living.” He nodded, and she could tell he was distracted. “If you want to get back to work, I can find me a place to stay.”

“I have a hotel for us. I want you to stay with me.” He shifted on the seat, and she could smell him. His scent was like a drug to her. “I want you. I’d like nothing more than to take you right now.”

She nodded. There was no way she was going to admit how much she wanted him as well, but it was for entirely different reason than he wanted her. He needed sex; she needed him. It was dangerous, especially considering that he wanted nothing to do with her beyond sex. She needed the sex too, but she was sure a good deal more than he did. When he shifted on the seat again, she moved across the seats to him to kneel in front of him. Her body needed him to be inside of her…she needed him right now.

“Do you have protection?” He nodded, and she unbuttoned his shirt. “Do we have time to have sex now?”

He knocked on the window once, and when the window lowered about two inches, he told the driver to take the scenic route. Almost as soon as the window was closed, he was pulling her to his mouth.

“Ride me.” She wanted to have him naked inside of her, his cock filling her tightly, but moved back while he reached into his pocket for the condoms. Her heart broke a little, her cat growled at her. But she would do as he wished until she could get away. Kari kept telling herself it was for the best, but she and her cat knew that it wasn’t right. Not like this.

She freed his cock and her mouth watered to taste him. Instead, she wrapped her hand around him while he rocked into her palm. When he handed her the condom, she rolled it over him and moved her skirt up over her hips so she could pull her panties off. Before she could figure out how to do that, he put his hands into the tiny lace and yanked them off her.

“Ride me, please? I want to feel you over me.” She moved over him, stood up on her knees, and lowered herself slowly onto his cock. Every inch of him felt like paradise to her, his thickness rubbed erotically over the walls of her sheath, and she moaned as she took him. When she was settled over him, his cock so deep within her that she could feel him at her throat, she rolled her hips forward as slowly as she could. She didn’t want to rush this, needed to make it last, so that she would be with him for as long as she could.

Steele pulled her blouse up and over her head. Her bra came next, and he buried his face between her breasts. The ride was becoming quicker and the moment he suckled at her nipple, nibbling on the tip, she held him to her and dug her fingers into his shoulder. Kari felt her teeth shift in her mouth, her cat snarling at her to take him. It was all she could do not to bite him, take his blood into her mouth and drink from him. Then she was suddenly on her back.

“Come for me.” Kari wrapped her legs around his hips and rose up to meet each of his thrusts as he moved in and out of her. “Come, Kari, come now.”

She couldn’t. Her cat was holding her back, her body craving something he wasn’t giving her. So instead of screaming out a release that wasn’t there, she pulled him down to her mouth and fucked his mouth with her tongue. He roared out his own release, came pounding deep inside her over and over until he dropped limply on top of her. Kari held him to her as her eyes filled with tears and her heart broke a little more.

When he lifted his head from her shoulder, she almost begged him to bite her. He looked so delicious, and she was falling in love with him. She had tried her best over the last several days to convince herself it was just that he’d rescued her, even if it was for his own personal gain, but he had and she was falling. When he kissed her nose, he shifted over her and her body screamed for more.

“Are you okay?” She asked him why he asked. “Because you do look a little pale and you’ve lost some more weight. Are you eating okay? I can have Izzy make you something more to your liking if you want.”

“What a thing to ask a woman.” She smacked him playfully on the arm when he smiled at her. Kari looked out the window of the car and saw her reflection. She did look terrible. “I guess you’ll be going back to work now.”

“I told Ray I was going to spend the evening with you. Unless you want to go out and see what little they have to offer here, we could go to my hotel room, order some food, and make love all night.” He sat up and brought her with him. His cock was still semi-hard and she rolled her hips over him. “Christ, I can’t seem to get enough of you.”

He moved her off his lap and onto the seat. She wanted to protest, but he told her that they had to check in. So she turned her back while he dealt with the condom and she straightened her clothes. It also gave her a chance to gather her wits. The man was breaking her heart, and he really didn’t have a clue. When he told the driver to take them to the hotel, Kari moved to the other seat again. He leaned back on the seat and closed his eyes. Kari watched him until the car stopped.

“We’re here.” She nodded and moved to the door when it opened, but Steele stopped her before she could get out. “You never answered me. Either time. Are you okay?”

“Yes. I’m just fine.” She moved out of the car and onto the sidewalk before he could ask her anything else. Kari looked at the pretty little house in front of them and then at Steele when he got out.

“It’s a bed and breakfast. I thought it would be nicer than a hotel.” She nodded, not sure she could say anything. As they entered, an older woman came out to greet them. Kari plastered a smile on her face and tried to tell herself that it was only for one day.

~~~

Steele was worried. She looked beautiful, of course, but she really was pale, and she was too thin. When they’d had sex in the limo, he had put his hands around her waist and they’d touched. He was sure he’d never been able to do that before. All he could think about was what Stanley had said to him…that she would die without his attention.

Instead of going up to their suite, he led her to the dining room. Mrs. Smyth had told him before he left that she’d whip them up a meal, it was her pleasure. Upon entering, he could smell the roast beef and gravy, and he realized how hungry he was. Pulling out the chair for Kari, he smiled at her when she looked up at him.

“I’m not sure what to do.” He was confused, and it must have shown on his face. “When you’re nice to me like this. I mean, it’s not like you have to make me happy to have sex with me. I will. Willingly. I don’t need all this other stuff.”

He sat down and tried to reason with his heart. The pain there was more than he’d experienced in a long time. Rubbing it slightly, he realized it was beating. It was silly to think that it hadn’t been all along, but it had been a while since he’d thought of the thing and was surprised to think of it working. He’d considered it dead to him since Aster was killed.

“I just thought you’d enjoy a nice dinner out. I should have taken you out before now.” She only shook her head and played with the water glass. “We’re not just in this for the sex either.”

“Aren’t we?” She looked at him, and he could see her eyes fill with tears. He wanted to tell her he was sorry for making her cry, but she spoke before he could figure out why he thought he was the one who had brought them to her. “We don’t like each other. We barely speak. The only time we’re together is for sex, and even then it’s done quickly and without much to it.”

“I think it’s pretty fucking fantastic.” He remembered then that she’d not climaxed. “You might enjoy it more if we had waited to get to the room. I’m sorry we were so rushed.”

Mrs. Smyth brought them their salads and told them what they were having. She was gushing over how lovely Kari looked, and Steele looked at her again. She was lovely. Her eyes were the most beautiful shade of brown he’d ever seen, and her dark hair hung down to her shoulders in a straight line. He realized then that it was the first time he’d seen her with her hair down. Usually she kept it pulled back in a ponytail.

She moved the lettuce around on the plate and took tiny bites. He wanted to shove her hands out of the way and feed it to her; not because he was pissed at her, but because he was really worried. He asked her if she wanted something different.

“I’m a cat.” He frowned. “Cats do not eat veggies, Steele. We are meat eaters. Predators that chase down their food and eat it raw.”

Steele stared at her for several seconds as what she said sunk in. She was a panther. And while he’d seen her as one, he really never thought of her as being one. When Mrs. Smyth brought them a bowl of soup, he realized then that maybe that was her problem. She wasn’t getting enough red meat. Satisfied that he’d figured it out, he decided to call Izzy and let her know to put more red meat on the menu.

He enjoyed talking to her. She was smart and funny, and even if she was a little distant from him, he liked telling her about his day. As he finished up the story about the Carters, leaving out the part about the warning, he realized that he’d finished his entire meal while she’d only eaten a few bites. Steele wasn’t as worried, but he still was enough to have him ask her again if she was all right.

“Please don’t ask me again, Steele. I’m fine. I’ve lost some weight, so what? It’s not that big of a deal. Once I start working and being by myself again, things will work themselves out.” She drained her glass of water, her fourth since they’d sat down. “I’m really tired. Do you think we can be finished here?”