Dr. Stone, Xander, and Isleen stared at him, killing kindness on their faces. Evanee’s brother paced around the space like a caged animal ready to attack. Why the hell was he here with them anyway? Was he friends with Xander and Isleen?
Thomas stalked toward him, his face splotchy and red. “I’m with the Bureau of Criminal Investigation—”
So that’s how he knew Xander and Isleen. Xander worked with the guy.
“Everyone is looking for her. We’re going to find her.” Thomas’s face went cartoon, blow-your-top red. “She’s all the family I’ve got, and we’re going to fucking find her.”
At least one other person felt as strongly as he did about getting Honey home. Lathan wanted to believe the guy could find her, but it wasn’t that simple or he already would have.
No one else spoke. What was there to say? Sorry a killer took your woman? Sorry she’s probably dead? Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help out? Words would only make it worse. “So why the fuck are you all here?”
Isleen flinched at his tone. Xander pulled her closer to his side at the same time he delivered a look of anger—deserved anger—at Lathan. Isleen was a tiny thing with expansive ocean eyes full of shadows. And Lathan had just scared her.
He felt like a shit. “Sorry. I’m… Fuck… I don’t…”
Isleen moved toward him, dragging Xander with her and nudging him in the ribs.
“Back when… were working Isleen’s case. When they called… in after she was taken… I’d been shot, right?”
Lathan missed a few words, but knew what the guy was talking about. He felt his head nod on his shoulders. He wasn’t sure he could speak beyond the grief for Honey jammed in his throat.
Xander lifted the hair off his forehead. “I caught mine in the head.” A round scar dimpled at his hairline. “It’s amazing what our girls can do.”
It’s amazing what our girls can do. Can do? The guy talked like Honey was alive. Hadn’t anyone informed him that she was dead?
“This thing between us and our women, the strange abilities we all have—it kinda makes us a family or something. And family backs up family.”
“Too little, too late, man. It’s over. She’s…” Lathan couldn’t force that word—the word that meant the end—from his numb lips.
Isleen tipped her head up, waited until his attention focused on her. “She’s alive.”
Her words cut him deeper than any knife ever could. He couldn’t correct her. He might fucking start sobbing if he opened his mouth. The best he could manage was a jerky shake of his head.
Isleen reached out to him, then dropped her hand like she knew he didn’t want to be touched. “I dreamed about her. My dreams are never wrong.”
Lathan’s joints went melty. He slumped down and sat on the stairs. “You’re saying you dreamed that she’s alive? I don’t mean to be a bastard, but don’t do this to me. I don’t have the mental space for false hope.”
Dr. Stone moved in next to Xander and Isleen, hovering over him.
“Isleen is the other dreamer I told you about.” Dr. Stone settled his hand on Isleen’s shoulder. “I can vouch for the accuracy of everything she says. She’s never been wrong.”
Lathan wanted to ask for more information, but couldn’t make his mouth work.
“She’s in a windowless space,” Isleen said. “Reminds me of a basement studio apartment. Her face is badly bruised, but she’s alive. There’s a guy there… She calls him James. He’s taking care of her. Not hurting her. They seem like friends.”
Lathan couldn’t help it; his gaze darted to Gill. He read Gill’s expression—I told you. She’s working with the Strategist. Lathan shook his head. She couldn’t be teamed up with the Strategist. He’d have smelled her deception. He knew, he fucking knew in his DNA, that she loved him. But, if she actually was alive, why hadn’t she called? Sought him out? Come home?
Did he really believe she was alive?
Didn’t matter. All that mattered was finding her. Dead or alive.
“Something inside me tells me where Isleen is when we’re not together.” Xander’s protective arm around her tightened. “It’s like an urge, a tugging that guides me to her. I’m sure you have the same thing. You just have to recognize it and listen to it. For too many years, I ignored that feeling and Isleen suffered because of me.”
“There is no urge. No tugging inside me. Only the constant drilling ache from being shot.” Despair burned Lathan’s eyes and nose. He gulped back the urge to rage on himself, harm himself—fucking carve her name on every square inch of his skin.
Dr. Stone spoke. “As long as the light shines in one of you, the other will live. That’s why you aren’t dead and neither is she. Wherever she is, she’s alive. When you find her—and you will—stay together.”
“You have to be touching to be truly safe.” Xander glanced down at Isleen. “When you know that, really understand it, it’s hard not to be touching.”
“The answer is inside you.” Dr. Stone’s clear-blue gaze locked with Lathan’s as if that simple gesture would make his words true. “You just have to find it.”
Lathan wanted to believe. But belief was as solid as a cloud. He smelled the Strategist. Knew the Strategist had taken Honey. But he didn’t know that she was alive. Didn’t know how to find her.
Lathan sat stuck to the stairs, unable to utter a word as everyone left the house.
Whether he believed Isleen or not, he needed to find Honey. Gill would help him—if for no other reason than to prove Honey was working for the Strategist.
“Find out Dr. Jonah’s location. He’s fucking going to help me find the Strategist.”
Hope could be a dangerous dream.
Chapter 19