“Let me clean up first and then we’ll talk,” I told her calmly and walked into the bathroom to clean myself up.
I’d dry-fucked her like a savage animal. Her hand on my cock pushed me over the edge, and I couldn’t stop from grinding against her sex. Her arousal called to me on some deep level I simply could not deny. It was like I would physically hurt if she needed me sexually and I didn’t do anything. Blue balls times ten.
I changed into another set of clothes and found her waiting at the table with two cups of what smelled like tea.
“You know the term soul mates, right? One special person that was made for the other?” I asked as I sat down. She nodded, waiting for the rest of what I had to say before deciding if she’d run or not.
“Well, with my people, finding your soul mate is pretty rare. To be perfect together you need matching energies, and most don’t ever find someone who is equal to their own power. So they settle with someone who will strengthen their bloodline. I am the strongest of my people. I never expected to find someone that matched me, and I didn’t want to settle. That’s part of the reason why I left. You have the energy of every animal on earth inside you. You are my match…my equal.” I took a sip of the tea she made me and watched her digest my words, rolling them over and over in her head.
“How do you know?”
A reasonable question.
“We sparked. That little current you feel when we touch—it’s our energy flowing as one. Only happens with mates.”
I prayed she understood. I meant what I’d said last night: I was choosing her, even though predetermined destinies made me jumpy.
She sipped her tea and was quiet for a few minutes, just looking at me and apparently trying to figure out what to say.
“Wish you had a different soul mate?” I teased, but I knew she saw through the humor down to the true vulnerability lying there. Did this change things for her? Was I not what she dreamed for a soul mate?
“Are all electronics going to blow up every time we are intimate?” she asked so matter-of-factly, like we were talking about the weather.
“Never had a soul mate before. But I’d be willing to experiment with you. See what chaos we could create together.” I couldn’t help but use humor as a shield. Thankfully she just rolled her eyes and drank some more of her tea.
After another three minutes of silence, I had to know how she felt about all of this. I knew it was a lot to take in, that soul mates are real.
“I’d like to hear your thoughts.”
“Do you fear having a soul mate?” She chewed on her lip, and I shook my head.
“I was at first, but I can see that we are perfect for each other. It’s just weird, thinking I was never going to have this in my life, and you just showed up outside my bar. I still chose you, though. We’re like penguins, mates for life. Even if you decide not to claim me as yours, you’ll always be it for me.” That was the honest truth. She was my only, and I knew, no matter what, I’d never want anyone else.
I felt completely okay with that.
But hopefully she would still choose me too, and then I wouldn’t have to pine after a woman I loved but couldn’t have.
My body tensed, realizing what I just thought, and I knew she caught the movement.
“What?”
Tell her I love her, or keep it in for a bit longer?
“I’ll tell you later. First I need to hear if you want to accept the position that the universe has offered you.”
We’ll focus on that instead of confessing my love right now.
“It’s hard to even imagine that this thing between us was preordained, if you will.”
True. Very true. If you didn’t believe in soul mates, this would sound unbelievable, maybe even ridiculous.
“I feel it; I think I always have. But even letting someone in is new for me, and it’s hard enough without the title of soul mates attached to it. Can we just…” She tried to think of how to put her thoughts into words, and I was frozen to that chair waiting to hear what she wanted.
“Keep doing what we’re doing. I want to be with you, learn about you, date you. I haven’t done this before.” She chewed on her lip nervously, as if that wasn’t going to be okay with me. Like it wasn’t enough.
“Of course. I’m happy you’re giving this a shot at all.” I reached over and touched her hand, my thumb rubbing little circles over her soft skin.
“Good.” She smiled a little and intertwined my fingers with hers.
We were staying as we were, and that gave me the chance to make myself that indispensable person in her life…the one she couldn’t imagine living without.
“What time are you going to the station?”
“In an hour. The lawyer should be there and have had time to talk to Robert. You staying?” She removed her hand from mine and got up to put her cup in the sink.
“Yeah, I’ve got to take care of some business stuff today. So, I’ll be around here.”
It was great running a business, but sometimes it sucked. Like the business part of it.
My eyes were on her hips as she swayed over to me and leaned down to give me a soft kiss.
“Thanks for this morning,” she purred as I wrapped my hand around her neck and held her lips close to mine.
“We should do it again sometime…maybe sans clothing?”
She giggled for a moment before our lips met in the middle and gave me a taste of what was to come.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Echo
Robert sat quietly in the interrogation room with his pudgy, short, bald-headed lawyer.
Chief and I were ready to get this resolved and find out if the bad guy was here with us or still on the loose.
I was going to be the bad cop, because we both knew I was a bitch naturally, and he was my boss, so he had to be nice.
I tossed the pictures of Amanda’s cut-up body before him on the table. Then the pictures of my parents, and the ones before them. All cut up, with slits on their backs or foreheads.
“Mother of God. Why are you showing me these?” Robert cringed, but I knew killers that were excellent actors.
The lawyer started to spout off about how we were harassing his client and had no proof to tie him to this case.
“The drug you have stashed in your desk is the same drug that was used to subdue all these victims. Amanda was friends with your wife; she volunteered at your church, working with children. And she was a woman with special powers. We both know how you feel about people with powers. So, what is it? You hurt them before they could hurt you?”
His face paled, and his lawyer told him to be quiet. I could see he was a man that would stay quiet until told not to. Maybe I just needed to scare him a bit more to open up.
“Or maybe you’re protecting someone else. Something is going on between your wife and you. Was Amanda getting in the way? Pretty coincidental that Amanda is murdered, and you are suddenly called to California for your sick mother. The sick mother who is doing fine in Texas. Stop me any time, Robert. Tell us why you have the date rape drug in your desk. Why did you murder Amanda Johnson?” My voice had gotten louder, and Robert ignored his lawyer, his voice echoing in the room.
“I didn’t kill the girl. I have the drug because, yeah, it’s scary having people around you that could hurt you with a thought or a flick on your head. I just wanted some kind of protection, that if one of those people got rowdy, I could calm them down until the police arrived.”
“Where were you when Amanda was murdered? We know for a fact that you were not with your mother. What is your alibi?” I asked with a completely bitchy look on my face.
“I was—” He started to speak, but the lawyer told him it wasn’t necessary, that the burden of proof was on us.
Robert looked at his lawyer then back at me.
“I have faith that my mistakes will be forgiven. But the death of this girl is not one of them.” He sighed, then spoke again.