Chapter Thirteen

The plan had been for them to shower and dress quickly in the morning, but as Mia adjusted the spray to a fine mist, the shower door slid back and Dan stepped into the enclosure next to her.

“I thought we were in a hurry,” she teased.

“Trust me. I can be quick.” He took one of her hands and wrapped her fingers around his cock. “But I think I’m in urgent need of attention.” He grinned. “You wouldn’t want me to spend the day in pain, would you?”

“Heavens. Anything but that.” She took the small bottle of shower gel the hotel provided and poured some into her hands. When she’d worked up a good lather she began to rub it into the curls on his chest. “Let me see if I can fix your problem.”

“I think you have just the right touch.” He bent his head and took her mouth with his.

Despite the cooling mist of the shower his mouth was hot and predatory, hungry and seeking. Lust shot through Mia, her nipples stiffening into almost painful points and a hard, insistent throbbing kicking up in her cunt. His tongue dueled with hers before dancing to every surface inside her mouth while his big hands held her in place. With every stroke of his tongue her arousal spiked higher, the walls of her pussy fluttering with need, every nerve in her body sparking. She was drowning in sensation, every one of her senses in total overdrive.

God, this man apparently only had to touch her, and she was fully aroused.

Pinching his nipples, she rubbed herself against him, loving the feel of his hard, muscular body against hers. Her hands traveled down the flat plane of his stomach to touch his cock again, swollen and thick as it jutted from the surrounding curls. One hand slipped between his thighs to cup his sac, drawing a hiss of breath from him.

“You’ve taken care of me,” she told him. “Now it’s my turn.”

Heedless of the water streaming over her, she dropped to her knees, rinsed the soap from his erection, and took him into her mouth. A groan rumbled up from his chest, and his hands dropped to her shoulders. Mia set up a rhythm, stretching her mouth to accommodate his length and width. His cock was as hard and powerful as the rest of him, and the sense of it inside her mouth thrilled her.

She wrapped her fingers around the thick root and timed its up and down slide with the movement of her mouth. Her other hand gently squeezed his sac, rubbing her fingers over his balls. She was bolder with this man than she’d ever been in her life, but somehow he breached all her inhibitions, reached into her sensory nature that had been hiding deep inside her, and made her revel in every act. Every touch.

As he hardened even more in her mouth she wrapped her tongue around his length. Squeezing it between his shaft and her cheeks.

“Enough.” The word burst from him in a tortured sound.

Mia stopped, frozen. Was she doing it wrong? Did he not like it? She looked up at him through the streams of water.

“I want to come inside you,” he rasped. “Not in your mouth. Not this time. I want inside you.” His voice took on a husky tone. “I want to fuck you.”

The phrase, which had been bouncing around in her head since her vision, stabbed into her, and she nearly doubled over with its erotic punch. Dan lifted her to her feet and held onto her with one hand while he reached outside the shower to grab the condom he’d left on the vanity.

Instantly sheathed, he ordered in a thick voice, “Spread your legs.”

Mia widened her stance and he lifted her in his powerful hands, lowering her onto his cock.

“Wrap your legs around me,” he told her. “And hold on tight.”

Leaning her against the wall of the shower, he moved one hand between them, found her clitoris, and worked it with his thumb. It took only a few strokes before she felt the orgasm rising and unwinding inside her. She wound her arms around Dan’s neck and held on tightly while he pounded into her. “Love you,” he ground out in her ear. “Love you. Jesus.”

And that quickly they exploded together, shaking with the force of a climax that was intense and gripping. And Mia held on tightly, just as he’d told her to, unable to do anything else as her body shook with the force of the spasms.

They were both gasping when he kissed her once more, a more gentle touch this time, and moved so her legs could slide to the floor.

“I hope I have the strength to get dressed,” he chuckled, kissing her forehead.

I hope you don’t regret any of this as soon as you’re dressed for the day.

*****

“Two more days,” Mia mused, her forehead wrinkled in thought.” They had finally managed to get dressed and had just finished breakfast. She was drinking a second cup of coffee, trying to pull herself together. Pushing from her mind the intruding thought that maybe none of this was real. That in the light of a second day, Dan Romeo would think he’d made a big mistake and back away. The situation at Carpenter was a safer topic. “Counting today. That’s not much time to find out who’s behind all of this. And I can’t seem to make sense out of the jumble of visions.”

“Remember what you said last night about the instructions from Faith’s aunt and The Lotus Circle,” Dan reminded her. “Meditate and focus. Blank your mind of everything else. Something is reaching out to you just at the edge of your consciousness. It’ll come.”

“I called Faith while you finished dressing.” She looked across the table at him. Was he about to push her off onto the Hallorans? Erect a barrier between them? “She said she gets up early, so I didn’t think she’d mind if I called now. I told her about the latest vision and asked her if she could call her aunt and see if the women I met could help me figure it out.”

Okay. That I can deal with.

“What did she say?”

“That she’d do it right away. I’m hoping to hear back from her soon.” Mia set her cup down. “I just keep thinking how little time is left.”

“We’ve had tighter schedules than this,” Dan told her. “We’ll make it. Anyway, Oscar’s safe, which is at the top of the list. Chase felt a lot more secure after that second demonstration. So whatever else is going to happen, we’re prepared for it. This is all just so much warfare of one kind of another.”

“They—whoever they are—must be pretty desperate to go around killing people without blinking an eye,” she pointed out.

“You’d be surprised at how little provocation it takes for some people to kill,” he told her. “Or how easily they shrug it off. Whatever it takes to succeed. I’m more concerned with their focus on you.” His eyes suddenly got the movement of her hands, and he looked down at the table. “What are you doing?”

Mia had a thick pad of paper in front of her. Forehead creased in concentration, she was writing numbers in different combinations, using one, five and seven. They were written in strings, in square boxes, on things that looked like boxes.

“Sometimes after a vision that deals with numbers, if I try to play around with them, something jogs my memory or gives me a clue.”

Dan leaned down and placed a light kiss on her lips. “Honey, we’ve got the Dragon working on it. If that piece of machinery doesn’t come up with something, it isn’t there to find.”

“But the human element can often work better, you know. It might be something stuck in my head that this situation has triggered to give me some kind of clue.”

He cupped her chin and turned her face again to look at him. “Nobody believes in your ability to help us more than I do. But I don’t want you making yourself sick over this.” He scanned her face. “Something else is eating at you. What is it? No secrets allowed here.”

She put her pen down and leaned back in her chair. “You know . . .” She stopped, took a deep breath and started again. “About . . . us. Everything.” She waved a hand in the air.

“What about us, Mia?” His voice was edgy. “Are you regretting what’s happening? It sure didn’t seem that way in the shower.”

Her eyes widened. “Me regret? I wasn’t sure . . . that is, if you’ve changed your mind . . . I mean, I know your life isn’t . . .”

For a moment the muscles in his face tightened. Then he forcibly relaxed them. “Going to be much without you in it now,” he finished for her. “Pay attention here. This isn’t just some temporary roll in the hay for me, Mia. I meant everything I’ve said. And I’m hoping you did, too. Why would you think differently? Have I done anything to make you feel that way?”

His brown eyes had darkened almost to black.

“No.” Mia dipped her head, wondering how to tell him that while she might be at the top of her game professionally, in personal situations she was a ragged novice. And this situation with him was just too important. “I was afraid when we weren’t in bed together you might have second thoughts. About, you know, everything.”

“Sweetheart, listen to me.” He put his hands beneath her elbows and lifted her form the chair. “I don’t say anything I don’t mean. Ever. Just like your visions come out of nowhere and rattle your life, that’s how I feel about what’s happened with us. Like you said, sometimes Fate just means things to happen. I think this is one of those times. So let’s get through this case and then plan the rest of our lives together, okay?”

“Okay.” She gave him a small grin.

He brushed a kiss over her lips. “I love you, Mia. It may have happened quickly, but that doesn’t make it any less solid.”

She had truly been worried that he’d only been carried away by the moment. Not many men wanted a permanent relationship with a woman who had powers they didn’t understand. The fact that the words sounded so difficult to say only made them more special to Mia. This wasn’t a man given to expressing emotion easily. Her heart expanded.

“I love you, too,” she whispered.

“Good. Get any other thoughts out of your mind.” He gave her one last light kiss. “If we’ve got that settled I want to call Andy and see what the Dragon has coughed up.”

But before he could do that his cell phone rang.

“Mr. Romeo, this is Frank Petrino, at Dr. Fleming’s house.”

“Yes, Frank?”

“We, uh, have a little situation here. Besides the media, I mean.”

While he was talking, Mia’s phone rang and she dug it out of her purse.

“Mia, honey?” The woman’s voice on the other end sounded distraught. “This is Mrs. Goodman.”

Her neighbor two doors down. One of the few people on her street she felt comfortable with.

“Oh, yes, how are you?” Mia frowned. Why was the woman calling her? And why did she sound do upset?

“Honey, those people are back. You know the ones with that woman?”

The woman whose child I couldn’t find. Mia closed her eyes and swallowed. “Yes, I remember. Is she causing a problem?”

“Oh, Mia, she’s got a bunch of people with her, yelling and screaming. There’s some man at your house trying to make them go away. But Neil, you know how he gets . . .” Her voice trailed off.

Mia bit her lip in impatience. “Yes? Did Neil talk to them?”

“He tried, but one of them pushed him and . . .”

Oh, dear God.

“Mrs. Goodman, is Neil all right?”

“He-he fell and hit his head. I think he’s okay, but can you come and talk to them? All she wants is to yell at you. I know that. After she gets that out of her system, she goes away, just like always.”

Mia could hear Dan carrying on a conversation in low tones next to her. She was sure it had to be with the guard he’d left at her house. He’d pitch a fit at what she was going to do, but she really had no choice. It was bad enough that she was a target of this venom, but having her neighbor hurt was unacceptable.

“I’ll be there within thirty minutes. Just stay in the house and don’t let Neil go out again, okay?”

“Oh, thank you, dear.” Her relief almost crawled through the connection. “I hate to bother you with all the trouble you’re having now . . .”

“It’s all right. Don’t worry. I’ll take care of it.”

She clicked off her phone and turned to Dan, who looked at her face and shook his head, a stubborn look on his face.

“I’m guessing that call is about what happened at your house and what you want to do. The answer is no. Under no circumstances. Absolutely not. How many ways can I say it?”

“It isn’t as bad as it sounds,” she told him. “The same group of people has done this a lot of times. It hardly ever even makes the papers. There’s a woman who asked me to help the police find her child, but by the time she came to me it was already too late. The visions I had were of her child already dead, and she blamed me.”

“A perfect reason why you should stay away from her,” Dan insisted.

“All she wants is to yell at me for a few minutes, and have her friends yell at me, then she’ll go away.” She touched his arm. “Please, Dan. This woman has never dealt with her grief. If yelling at me makes her feel better, it’s the least I can do.”

“Mia.” He was in full Phoenix mode now, his face like granite, his eyes hard.

“And my poor neighbor got shoved down on the sidewalk, trying to break them up. That’s never happened before, so this time they must be even more agitated. I have to get them away from the people who live there before anyone else gets hurt.”

“What about when you get hurt?” he demanded. “Do you think I’m the least bit willing to risk your life? We’ve got you staying here so the idiots and the media can’t find you. Now you want to put yourself in their line of sight?”

“Call your man back and have him get backup from the local substation,” she suggested. “They’ve done it before. They’ll keep everyone back from the house, and you can stand right there beside me while I calm them down. Carol Denoyer just wants another chance to act out her grief. Please,” she begged. “I really have to do this. If you don’t take me, I’ll find a way to go myself. Don’t you think you’d rather be in control of the situation yourself?”

“Jesus Christ on a crutch.” He ran his hand over his head. “All right. But give me a few minutes to make arrangements. And you do exactly as I say. Got it?”

“Yes, sir. And thank you.” She stood on tiptoe to kiss his cheek.

In less than five minutes he’d made the calls he needed to, assured himself he’d done what he could to keep things under control, and they were rolling out of the garage.

“Don’t go down my street,” she told him as the reached her intersection. They could hear loud voices all the way to the corner. “We’ll go in through the back.”

“Okay. Tell me where to go.”

She directed him to the street parallel to hers. A nature preserve ran the length of the block, leaving minuscule backyards but a thick covering of trees. Dan parked the car and he called someone on his cell to let him know where they were. They made their way through the trees to her back porch where Lloyd Wells, the other Phoenix man stationed at her house, was waiting for them. He took Mia’s keys from her, unlocked the door and hustled them inside.

Through the windows they could hear voices shouting at the house, some of them screaming loudly, calling her names.

Dan looked at her and shook his head. “This is such a bad idea.”

“Please,” she begged again. “You promised.”

“We called the substation like Dr. Fleming suggested and they sent two cops who set up barricades and stationed themselves in front of them,” Lloyd told him. “There’s one woman who appears to be the ringleader. Frank’s been waving all the neighbors away whenever they came out and assuring them it would be over soon.”

“Okay.” Dan turned to Mia. “We’ll open the door with Lloyd on one side of you and me on the other. Do not go out on the porch. Say your piece from the door, do what you have to, and we’re out of here.” He looked at Lloyd. “I called Mike to fly air cover, just in case. He should be here in a minute. As soon as he arrives, we’ll do this.”

Mia’s eyes widened. “You think I need a helicopter to protect me?”

“Honey, someone involved in this mess wants you dead. I’d call in the entire US Marine Corps if I thought it would help.”

Soon they heard the distinctive sound of the chopper’s rotors, and the miniature radio Dan carried in his pocket crackled.

“D’Antoni.” The voice sounded sharp and clear. “I’m in place.”

“All right,” Dan told him. “We’re opening the door now. Look sharp.”

Mia had to swallow a couple of times to get enough saliva in her mouth to speak. As often as this had happened, it was impossible to completely conquer her fear. Especially now. She nodded at Dan, pulled the front door open and stood in the frame, one man on either side of her.

“It’s her, it’s her!” a woman screeched. “She killed my child!”

“Hello, Carol.” She had to shout to be heard. “I’m here to talk to you if you can calm everyone down.”

“Her little boy died because of you,” a man hollered.

“I can’t speak to you unless you all stop shouting,” she yelled back, hands up.

Despite her appearance of bravado she was shaking. She was glad Dan was holding her tightly against him, infusing her with his warmth and his strength.

The uniforms and Frank managed to quiet the crowd. Carol Denoyer stepped as close to the barricade as they’d allow her.

“My child is dead, and you’re the reason,” she insisted. “What are you going to do about it?”

“Carol, we’ve had this conversation before. If I could do something, I would. If any of you had come to me earlier, I might have been able to help find him. Might have. I’ve told you before, this isn’t an exact science.” She stopped and drew a breath. “I was the one who found his body with the police. That scene will haunt me forever, so please don’t think I’m cold and heartless. If I could change things, I would.”

“I’ll never forgive you,” the woman cried.

“I can hardly forgive myself. But please, don’t hurt my neighbors. They have nothing to do with this. Please go home. Carol, let your friends help you.”

She stood there for perhaps another five minutes, letting Carol vent her anguish, supported by the people with her. One man finally apologized for hurting Neil Goodman, and the others began to murmur agreement, embarrassment in their voices.

“We’re sorry,” the man said again. “We just wanted to let you know how your mistakes have hurt someone.”

“I know, and I’m sorry.” Mia clenched her fists tightly to maintain her calm, digging her nails into the palms of her hands. “But please go home. This isn’t doing anyone any good.”

Then the woman broke down in tears, her friends led her away, and it was all over.

Dan slammed the front door shut and pulled Mia into his arms.

“You did a very brave thing,” he murmured in her ear. “That took a lot of guts.”

“It tears me apart when I can’t make my visions work,” she sobbed. “Or when I misinterpret the information. That was my first case with Captain Holcomb. I don’t blame him for thinking I’m a fake or a kook.”

Dan stroked her hair and her back. “Nothing is ever perfect, sweetheart. All we can do is the best we can.”

He noticed Lloyd’s eyebrows rise slightly as he watched Dan with Mia, but he kept his face carefully schooled and said nothing. The Phoenix men were well trained for all occasions.

“I’m better,” Mia said after a few moments, pulling back and wiping her face with her hands.

“Doesn’t it seem strange that she showed up at this particular time?” he asked. “Almost as if someone suggested this would be a good time to strike.”

Mia shook her head. “She’s done this about a half dozen times. Maybe the media coverage triggered it.” She swallowed hard and leaned into Dan. “I always feel as if my home has been violated afterward, but it’s the least I can do for her.”

“Then let’s get out of here.” He nodded to Lloyd, who led the way to the back door.

They had just stepped out onto the porch, Lloyd first, then Mia, with Dan behind her. She caught her heel on the doorsill and lurched forward to grab Lloyd’s hand for balance just as a thunk! sounded in the air. Mia stumbled and fell back into Dan’s arms.

“Gun!” Lloyd hollered, crouched, and began scanning the yard with his own gun in his hand. In seconds he was off and running, crouching low, heading into the trees where the shot had come from.

“Be careful,” Dan shouted to him, then turned back to the woman in his arms. “Mia? Sweetheart? Oh, Christ!”

Her entire front was covered with blood, the red liquid still seeping from her body. Dan kicked the backdoor open and carried her inside. Laying her on the floor in the hallway, he yanked off his jacket and used it to make a pressure bandage, tying it in place with the sleeves.

He grabbed his radio. “Mike? Get your ass down here, now.”

But Mike was already landing the chopper in the backyard. Frank had run around from the front to see what was going on.

“The police have got almost everyone cleared out.” He looked at Mia. “Oh, sweet Jesus.”

Dan pressed his fingers against the hollow of her throat and felt a faint but thready pulse.

Feet pounded on the porch, then the back door opened. “I’d need an army to find whoever it was,” Lloyd told him.

“Son of a bitch,” Dan swore.

“Mike’s down,” Lloyd told him. “Come on. We’ll cover you. That was a silenced rifle, and he could still be out there, high up in a tree, waiting to pick us off one at a time.”

Mike had set down as close to the house as he could. Trying not to jostle Mia, Frank held her while Dan climbed into the cabin, then placed her gently in his boss’s lap.

“I’ll get some of the cops to help me check out those woods,” he told Dan. “That’s where the shot came from. One of the guys from the substation called his commander for the SWAT team. But it’s dicey if he’s still there by the time we get enough people to help. And he could still easily pick us off.”

“Do what you need to,” Dan told him, his eyes never leaving Mia’s still form. His heart was racing so fast he felt as if someone had given him a triple shot of adrenaline. But he knew in this case it was fear.

Mike was lifting off almost before the door was closed. He handed a set of headphones to Dan.

“St. Luke’s has a helipad,” he told him through the communications system. “I radioed in as soon as Frank got hold of me.”

“I need to get hold of Mark and Rick,” Dan said.

“Already done. Mark’s headed to Carpenter Techtronics to put a lid on things there and make sure everyone’s okay. Rick’s on his way to Mia’s house to get a situation assessment. Then he’ll get with you.”

Dan held Mia as carefully as possible, his fingers on the pulse at her neck the entire time.

The moment they set down at St. Luke’s, glass doors to the roof swung open, and a full trauma team rushed out, rolling a gurney and carrying equipment. In seconds they had Mia on the gurney, an IV drip started, a blood-pressure cuff attached, and were rushing back through the doors.

“You want me to hang around?” Mike asked as Dan jumped to the rooftop.

“No. Check in with Rick and see what you can do to help with that mess at Mia’s. You may be able to spot something from the air, if he’s still around.” He groaned in frustration. “Damn it, I should have had you do that first.”

“No,” Mike argued. “Getting her to the hospital was the top priority. An ambulance would have taken far too long with a wound like that.”

A wound like that. Dan thought his racing heart would freeze up and stop beating.

“Make damn sure no one gets into the house,” he told Mike, his eyes never leaving the doors where the emergency team had taken Mia. “I may have to go outside to use my cell here, but I’ll get with everyone as soon as I can.”

Mike gave him a long look. “She’ll be fine, Dan.”

Dan nodded and took off for the hospital doors at a run.