My eyelids fluttered open , my brain thrusting into gear as a haze of voices filled my ears. We're lucky, folks. It's gonna be cool and misty today, with a high of sixty-one.
Perfect weather for shopping. Right, Helen?
Laughter.
Any weather's perfect for shopping, Jane.
Weights seemed to pin me into the - bed, I realized, the mattress soft and smooth against my back. At least I wasn't on cold, hard ground, chained and forgotten.
I scanned myself through sleep-rimmed eyes. I was still wearing the same clothes I'd left Georgia in: plain black shirt, jeans. My gaze lifted, taking in my surroundings. The room was small but clean. The twin-size beds were pushed against the wall and draped by soft, thick comforters of dusky rose. There were a nightstand, desk, TV - ah, the conversation about the weather made sense now - and a closet, but not much else. Hotel room, I realized.
With the sun streaming in through a crack in the curtains, it was clearly a new day. Which meant the plane ride had started and ended without my ever being aware. Which meant someone had had to carry me in and out of the plane, then into this room. My jaw clenched tightly. Rome, of course. The very person responsible for my impromptu snooze. Where was that bastard? I was going to kill him.
As if my thoughts had conjured him, he strode from the bathroom, Lexis and Sherridan trailing at his heels. What had they been doing in there? And where had everyone slept last night? None of them looked in my direction; they were too busy, the women trying to get Rome's attention, Rome ignoring them. They stopped in front of the room's only window. The drapes were drawn.
"So what's the long black tube thingy do?" Sherridan asked.
Rome threw her an irritated scowl, then shifted his attention to a black duffel bag. He dug inside, saying,
"We're across from Big Rocky's corporate offices, and this is going to help me keep an eye on everything. Now listen. We got here, we were supposed to rest before kicking things off this morning, yet you talked all damn night."
That answered one question. We'd all slept in this room. Maybe I wouldn't kill him, after all.
"You promised you'd give me peace and quiet while I worked," he continued.
"I lied. So what are you looking for?"
He sighed, defeated. "I want to know when Candace Bright arrives, how long she stays and what direction she heads when she leaves. I want to know what she drives, if she has guards and who they are. I want to know if Cody is now supposedly working for her and if so, what he's doing. I want to know why he thought it was so important to get in there, rather than simply take Desert Gall down."
"And before you ask how he can watch for all of this if he's not here 24/7, he can plug into the camera's feed from his phone. Now give him some space to work," Lexis said, her irritation showing, as well.
"I will if you will," Sherridan retorted.
God, I loved my friend.
The two women shared a scowl before backing away from Rome and plopping onto the bed I did not occupy to watch TV. Rome continued to work, hooking cords into outlets, pounding on the keyboards and adjusting lenses. Every so often, he inched the drapes farther apart and looked through an eyepiece.
He would grunt in satisfaction, utterly absorbed with his task.
I couldn't deny such concentration was sexy as hell. Once, not so long ago, all of that focus had been directed on me. I knew how amazingly intense and erotic it could be. The man hadn't let me out of bed until I'd climaxed (no less than) three times.
I wanted to sigh dreamily, but didn't. I wasn't ready to announce my wakefulness. Yet. What if Rome decided I couldn't handle the situation and needed more rest? My hands curled into fists as anger sparked through me. Uh, can you handle the situation? Continue down this anger-path and you'll set the room on fire.
True. I forced my thoughts away from Rome and his actions. My crack team had already erected a tripod and had several computer monitors set up at the desk. How could I have missed all of that, drugged or not? How embarrassing, that I was such a liability. Worse - depending on how you looked at it - pretty Lexis was an asset.
Jealousy summoned the earth, and I didn't want to find myself buried in a mound of dirt, so I forced my thoughts away from Lexis, too. Had there been any sign of Desert Gal? Cody?
"When are we going to see some action?" Sherridan grumbled, reminding me of Tanner.
Tanner. My heart lurched in my chest. How was he? Hopefully awake and raising hell. Had his doctor called me? Maybe there was a voice mail waiting for me.
"Soon," Lexis said. "I feel it. There's something...menacing in the air." Rome stopped and eyed her. "You don't know what?"
She shook her head, dark hair swinging over her lovely face. Her emerald eyes were slightly dulled.
"Means it's going to happen to you," Rome said. He pinched the bridge of his nose, a sure sign of his exasperation. Good. I wasn't the only one who antagonized him. "F*cking great. One more worry is just f*cking great."
Yep, was he in a mood.
"Maybe not." Lexis brushed a piece of lint from her shoulder. "The fact that I know something bad is going to happen suggests that it can't be me who's the target." More danger. Wonderful. I wanted to curse as Rome had done.
"Belle, do you think?" Sherridan's hand fluttered over her heart.
"Belle will be fine. I'll make sure of it." Rome straightened, features blank. "I'm going to check the perimeter, place some cameras in the hall, lobby. That way, if we're found out, we'll know someone's coming for us before they reach us. I want you to stay here, keep an eye on things."
"I will," both women said in unison.
Rome rolled his eyes. "You, too, Belle."
So much for my career as a spy. Gingerly I sat up and frowned over at him. My hair fell around my shoulders in complete disarray. "You take the fun out of everything."
"Not everything." He crossed his arms over his chest and stared down at me. "You gonna stay here and be a good girl like the others, Wrinkles?"
Wrinkles? I gave myself another inspection. Sure enough, my clothing was a mass of creases, and still stained from the car chase. No telling what kind of grass and dirt smudges I had on my face.
All three of them were staring at me. Lexis through narrowed eyes. Sherridan with a relieved grin. Rome expectantly.
"Yeah," I grumbled. "I'll be a good girl."
He nodded. "Good. Then you can remain awake."
"Come at me with another syringe, and I'll add your balls to my trophy case," I told him with a sugar-sweet smile. Hey, being a good girl wasn't the same as being a doormat.
His lips twitched. "I won't be gone more than a few hours." He made it sound like a few hours equaled a few minutes and nothing bad could possibly happen, yet I had a vision of me, Lexis and Sherridan trying to kill one another amid the endless ticking of the clock.
We needed Rome to act as referee.
"Shower and change into the outfit I brought you," he added.
One of my brows lifted. "Outfit?"
"Outfit?" Lexis parroted, paling.
He nodded. "When I'm done with surveillance, the two of us will be attending a party." Oh, a party! What kind of party? And why? "Who put you in charge?" I said, barely stopping myself from clapping with excitement.
"I did. While you were napping."
I flipped him off.
He chuckled, a delicious sound of amusement.
Lexis ground her teeth together. "Why does she get to go?"
His gaze never left me. "Her powers might come in handy. Besides, you and Sherridan will be watching the monitors and calling me if you catch sight of Desert Gall or Cody."
"Like I told Sherri, you can check the monitors from your phone."
"Oh, no, you didn't just call me that," Sherridan said, baring her nails at Lexis. "If you did, you would be dead."
"This way," Rome continued as if my best friend hadn't spoken, "I won't have to and I can keep my attention where it needs to be."
Where did it need to be and why?
There was no time to ask. "Tell Belle what we learned about Candace Bright," he ordered, and strode from the room.
Think about it : me, Lexis and Sherridan trapped in a small space together. For several hours. With nothing to do but wait. I'd taken a shower and dyed my hair black with the temporary color Rome had left behind, and inserted the violet contacts into my eyes. The combination of dark hair and light eyes made me feel exotic, as Lexis must feel, so I hadn't minded the change. Strangely, though, I barely recognized myself. It was as if the dark hair changed my skin tone, lightening it, and colored contacts altered the shape of my face.
I don't think my dad would have recognized me.
Once my hair was dried to a glossy shine, I'd donned the purple push-up bra and equally purple thong Rome had left for me. For a guy who had been over-the-edge furious when M-Squared bought me lingerie, he seemed to have no problem buying it for me himself.
After that, I'd shimmied into the Band-Aid, a.k.a. dress. It was skintight, a daring mix of blue and purple, and hit just below my ass, reminding me of the skirt Sherridan had made me wear the other day.
Were we headed to a costume party?
Feeling naked in the outfit, I had applied a layer (or two) of makeup. On my feet were black leather boots with six-inch heels.
I looked easy. Or expensive. Either way, men would expect to saddle me up and take me for a wild ride. Sherridan approved. Lexis did not.
Oh, and get this. While I was turning myself into a lady of the night, the wedding-dress shop called to confirm my appointment the following day. Apparently, the woman I'd last spoken to hadn't rescheduled me as she'd promised. So I'd had to cancel in front of Lexis, who had whistled under her breath for a good ten minutes afterward.
Even though I was once again working with Rome, my life was still crumbling around me.
Now Sherridan and I sat at the desk and pretended to play chess, even though neither one of us knew how. (Lexis had brought the game for her and Rome. Bitch.) Between moves, Sherridan threw questions at Lexis and I studied the monitors.
Lexis stood in front of the window, watching the day pass through the lens of Rome's telescope.
"Now would be a good time to tell me what you learned about Candace," I said during a lull in my conversation with Sherridan. The other times I'd asked, Lexis had told me she needed to concentrate, that she might have found something. She hadn't.
Now, she popped her jaw. "I did some research on the plane." Finally, we were getting somewhere.
"Candace bought Big Rocky about three months ago. Came into some money unexpectedly. Vincent's, I'm sure. Anyway, her first week, she fired half the staff and replaced them with employees of her own choosing. We're guessing scrims. We also think, because her power is so connected to water, she needs more of it than the average person. Running a supplier like Big Rocky, she has an unlimited source." All of that made sense and made me feel foolish for not having considered that type of angle. "I really wish Cody had just knocked her out and brought her in." After all, if Candace was the bad guy, it seemed a little backward that the only one getting knocked out and brought places was me.
"Knowing Cody as Rome and I do," Lexis said, and I just loved how she put herself and Rome together as a couple, "we think Desert Gall has more people locked up and he wants their location before he strikes."
"Uh, Cody and Rome texted," Sherridan said. "That's how you know there are more people locked up."
Lexis tossed her a scowl.
"That's all that was learned," Sherridan told me, apparently deciding it was better to fill me in herself.
"Well, except that Candace Bright is a redhead and Desert Gall is a blonde. Dyeing her hair is as dumb as, like, removing her glasses to switch her personas. No offense to your own fantastically colored black tresses, Belle. So anyway, what superpower will I get?" she asked, changing the subject to her favorite topic before a catfight erupted. "And when will I get it? I'm tired of waiting." There was so much for me to absorb, I was grateful for the reprieve.
Lexis didn't bother turning toward her this time. "I told you. I don't know."
"I thought you knew everything." She tapped her chin as she studied the pieces. "Well, everything except when to quit chasing after a man."
Gold star for Sherridan. But speaking of knowing everything..."Any idea when Tanner is going to wake up?" After my shower, I'd called his doctor. There'd been no change, but then, Lexis could tell me more than a doctor could when it came to a long-term prognosis.
"He's going to come out of it," she said, flicking me a glance. Her eyes were haunted.
"Really?" I chewed on my bottom lip, joy bursting through me, almost afraid to hope.
She adjusted the lens. "I have seen bits and pieces of his life. It does not end with him in PSI's hospital, drained of energy."
That was exactly what I'd needed to hear, and just like that a terrible weight lifted off my shoulders. I might not like Lexis at the moment, but I was suddenly grateful to her for sharing that. She could have kept it to herself, watched me suffer and laughed about it behind my back.
She wasn't a cruel woman. Not deep down. I knew that. She just loved the wrong man and was going about winning him in the wrong way. Would I have done the same, if the situation were reversed? I liked to think I wouldn't, I'd even told Lexis I wouldn't, but...
"Pay attention, Wonder Girl." Sherridan moved one of her horses to a square at the right of the board.
"Your move," she said.
Now I stared down at the pieces, shrugged and used one of my horses to jump her...queen, I think the piece with the crown was called.
Lexis threw us a quick glance. "You're playing wrong," she said irritably. I think she even muttered idiots.
"We're playing Bellidan style," I said. Belle plus Sherridan equaled greatness. "So we're playing the right way."
"There's no such thing as Bellidan."
"Yeah, there is." Sherridan tossed her a sympathetic smile, then moved one of her pieces to the left. "It's sad that you're so ill informed."
Silence.
Wait, no. I heard the gnashing of teeth, which reminded me of the way Elaine had acted during the first few minutes of our meeting. And speaking of Elaine..."You have any visions about our energy vampire?" I placed my queen in the square Sherridan had just taken, scooting her horse out of the way.
Lexis's brow furrowed as she turned a dial on the scope. "Who?"
"Elaine Daringer. You know - " ugh, I can't believe I was going to say this " - Draino." A new name was definitely needed, and it was time I put my immense brainpower into thinking of one. Let's see, let's see...The Zapper? No, that still had a negative connotation and she wasn't a negative girl. She was sweet and needy, and had probably been made to feel unworthy all her life for something she could not help or control. Princess Draina?
"No," Lexis said. "Nothing on her. But then, I haven't really spent any time with her. Haven't touched her, which even I can't do. And to learn something, I'd at least need to go near her, which I don't - "
"Great. I'll make arrangements when we get back."
Finished with the equipment, she threw herself against the mattress, staring up at the ceiling. "You are so pushy. I don't know what Rome sees in you."
Truth be told, all the months he and I had been together, I'd wondered the same thing. I wasn't easygoing like Lexis. I was more trouble than a school of unsupervised four-year-olds. (If only the first step to recovery was admitting it.) But for some reason Rome loved - had loved - me, and hadn't wanted to change me.
I'd come to think he liked the excitement I brought to his life, the amusement. I mean, I wasn't just another of his lackeys. I didn't take everything he dished. Didn't do everything he commanded. Well, some things I took, some things I did. But only in the bedroom.
Was that what Memory Man liked about me, as well? I found myself wondering.
"Like you're an angel," I told Lexis, making one of my horses kiss one of Sherridan's horses. "But I don't want to rehash the fact that you've stabbed me in the back, betrayed Rome with your lies and destroyed Tanner's heart. Actually, you don't get to talk badly about me." She banged a fist into the comforter. "You don't have a child with Rome! You don't know what it's like, tucking your daughter into bed at night and having her ask you if her daddy can come over and read her a story. You don't have to watch in horror as your daughter mists through walls you can't reach, just to find her daddy. You don't have to hold your crying daughter at night and take care of her by yourself when she's sick."
"No," I conceded softly, "I don't." And now, because of her, would I have the chance? Yeah, my heart ached with each picture drawn by Lexis's words. But..."Believe me, I know what it's like to grow up with only one parent. But, Lexis, Sunny is lucky. She has two parents who love her. Two parents who will always be there for her. And you know, deep down, that you and Rome are not meant to be. You once told me that yourself."
Sherridan tapped her chin as she studied the board, as if she were deep in thought about her countermove.
Another thought slammed into me. If the world righted itself, meaning Rome's memory returned and we ended up married, would I want to have a child? I mean, I didn't know if the little tyke would inherit my powers, since they weren't actually part of my genetic makeup - or were they now? We also had to consider Rome's powers. If we had a four-elements-wielding, jaguar-shape-shifting kid...wow. Just wow. Sunny placed herself in danger every time she walked through walls. How much more danger would my kid be in? My stomach twisted, shooting a sharp pain through my chest.
I wanted so badly to talk to Rome about this, get his opinion, but he might freak at the thought of me with a child. In his mind, we were practically strangers. Strangers who had made out against my bathroom door, but strangers nonetheless.
I wanted to interrogate Lexis, too, but wasn't sure she'd tell the truth. She'd told me I would end up marrying someone else, after all, and I knew that wasn't going to happen. Ever.
"Anyway," I said, "Rome's a good father. He runs to your side anytime you call. He phones Sunny every night, goes to see her every day. You don't do everything on your own. He and I have brought medicine and stayed with her, too. At your house, no less. If that girl even sniffles, Rome and I are at her side as fast as we can get there."
She had no reply to that, so Sherridan and I continued our "game" in silence, our pieces practically making out with each other. My mind continued to swirl, though. If Rome ever got his memories back, he and I would need to have a long talk about this baby thing. Did he want to have one with me? Maybe even more than one?
Those were the kinds of questions couples needed to discuss before they walked down the aisle. I'm not sure why we hadn't. Or maybe I did know. We were crazy in lust with each other, and sex seemed to be the only thing we concentrated on when we were together.
Was that a good thing? Don't get me wrong, that kind of passion was a must for any romantic relationship. But what kind of things did we have in common, aside from our powers and PSI? He liked action-adventure movies (when he wasn't critiquing them and telling me "that could never happen"). I liked romantic comedies. Well, he pretended not to like those, but it was really only his tears during those black moments that he hated. He listened to crappy classical music - I know, it had surprised me, too - and I listened to rock.
Depression settled heavily on my shoulders. What if Rome's memory returned, but we realized we were never meant to be together? Not like I'd done any planning of said wedding lately, anyway. I didn't have a dress, hadn't ordered invitations yet, hadn't reserved a church.
Was all of this an omen?
Had Lexis been right, after all? In the end, would Rome walk away from me? Would I marry someone else? I wondered, no longer quite so confident that it couldn't happen.
I swallowed bile. Felt tears burn my eyes. Stop it! If you cry, you'll ruin Rome's equipment - not to mention the outfit he bought you.
"Speaking of Rome, where is he?" Lexis asked on a sigh, distracting me. "I'm worried about him." I was beginning to worry, myself. By now, Rome had been gone three hours. "A few" equaled no more than two in my book. I wiped my eyes with the back of my wrist, saying, "Still have that brooding feeling?"
"Yes, but it's not about him."
Was she trying to convince me? Or herself? Could he be - No. No, I couldn't think like that.
But the tears returned, faster, hotter, my mind so used to painting the blackest picture. I forced them to slow, then stop, turning my mind to happy thoughts. I had a party to attend. What kind of party, I still didn't know. What I'd do there, I didn't know either. What I did know was that my current state of mind would not help the case in any way. And the party would be for the case. Otherwise, Rome would not take me to it.
At the door, there was a slide, a click and a whoosh. Rome strode inside the room. All three of us sat at instant attention, our focus riveted on him. He had soot on his cheeks and his pants were ripped. He was panting and sweating, as if he'd been running.
I jolted to my feet, meaning to race to him, wrap him in my arms, but managed to stop myself in time.
"Everything okay?"
His gaze raked over me, pupils thinning, elongating. His hands fisted. Imagining them in my newly dark hair, perhaps? Under that intense scrutiny, my nipples hardened and my legs trembled. My blood heated.
Even though he might very well be turned on because I now looked liked Lexis.
Ouch.
I was back to wanting to kill him.
"Everything's...lovely. I decided to test Big Rocky's security and see how many guards would come running if one of their alarms was blown from the inside."
I didn't want to contemplate how he'd gotten an alarm to blow. "And how many was that?" We hadn't noticed anything on the monitors.
"A lot. But I did manage to get a camera in there." His gaze shifted to Lexis. "Get Sunny on the phone. I want to talk to her just in case we aren't able to make calls later on." Just in case things got complicated, he meant.
A few minutes later, Lexis was laughing with her little girl and my chest was aching again. After she said her goodbyes, she handed the phone to Rome.
He was already smiling as he sat on the edge of the bed. "How's my ray of sunshine?" The ache spread, deepened.
They spoke of cartoons and Sunny's uncle - Rome's brother - who watched her while her parents were away. They laughed about a booboo Sunny had gotten while riding her bike. They argued about Sunny practicing her ability to mist through inanimate objects. But then Rome frowned. "I know I promised, honey, but now is not a good time. Fine, all right, you win. You always do. She's right here," he said.
"Hang on." Hesitantly, he handed the phone to me.
I gripped it, hating how stiff my knuckles were, how trembly my chin was, and said, "Hey, baby girl.
How are you?"
"I miss everyone." There was a pout in her sweet five-year-old voice. "I want to see you."
"I'll come by the moment I'm back in town. Swear."
"When?"
"A week," I said, giving myself ample time.
"Two days. Did you not hear how much I miss you?"
My lips curled into a grin. Always a bargainer, this one. But then my gaze caught on Lexis, who was twisting the comforter of the bed so tightly the material would surely unravel. "Two weeks. And I miss you, too."
She sighed. "You still don't know how this works. You're supposed to say five days and I'm supposed to say four and then you're supposed to say we have a deal. Daddy'll have to teach you how to do it, I guess."
My cheeks colored as I remembered the last time Rome had tried to teach me how to bargain.
Nakedness and orgasms had been involved. "I'll tell him."
"Love you."
"Love you, too, sunshine." Arm shaky, I handed the phone back to Rome, who was watching me with the sweetest, most tender expression.
He said his goodbyes, his voice a mirror of that beautiful expression. I loved watching him interact with his daughter because he was the kind of father every girl dreamed of having. When he finished, he threw the phone back to Lexis and looked at me, all business again.
"I'm going to shower. Be ready to go by the time I'm done."