Blood Secrets (6 page)

While she suspected someone might be on hand to guard the lab, it was an opportunity to retrieve the journal she couldn’t let pass. The Johnsons lived only a few blocks from the Nassau County Municipal Center, where the mobile lab was parked. She could easily stop at the lab, grab the journal, and be on her way with no one being the wiser.

In theory. She just hoped her suspicions about guards and security systems were wrong.

As she drew closer, the RV remained a silent fixture in a little-used corner of the Center’s parking lot.

She reached the door and glanced around, expecting someone to appear and question her presence. When no one confronted her, she pulled on the flipper-style door handle.

The lock clicked and the door quietly swung open.

“This is too fucking easy,” Tasha muttered and mounted the steps.

The lab’s interior was cool and eerily still. Again, no one confronted her or challenged her right to be there. Her heart raced inside its bony cage as she moved around the various equipment and stations to the back.

Dozens of bins filled with evidence bags of different sizes and shapes had been crammed into the small lounge area at the rear of the RV. Looking over the ordered chaos, she discovered a small binder cataloging the contents of each bin. She flipped through the pages, scanning for the one item she sought.

Once she located the correct bin, Tasha rifled through the various containers until she found a small brown paper bag sealed with red tape with blocky letters reading
EVIDENCE
printed diagonally across the tape’s surface. She checked the chain of possession grid printed on the front of the bag.

CASE NO.
200911-23-NC    
ITEM NO.
14

DATE COLLECTED:
11-14-2009   
TIME COLLECTED:
13:24

COLLECTED BY:
F. HAVER    
BADGE NO.
9851

DESCRIPTION OF ITEM:
small journal, embossed pink leather

LOCATION WHERE FOUND:
right bedside table, Mindy Johnson’s dormitory room, RM# 2-16

This was the journal she’d been instructed to retrieve. However, now that she had it, what was she to do
with it? For that matter, why did her mystery caller want it?

She hesitated to pick it up. If she took the journal, she would be starting down a path she knew could end her career. If she didn’t, she risked losing something even more precious.

“It’s for Maya,” she whispered. “Think of Maya.”

Her hands closed around the brown bag and freed it from the bin. Stuffing it in an inner pocket of her jacket, she replaced the boxes and catalog and hurried outside, making sure to close the lab’s door behind her.

As she turned to leave, she thought she heard a soft double click. She frowned, fearing she’d triggered some hidden security system, and pulled on the door’s handle.

The door refused to open. She tried again and realized the door was now locked.

“What the hell?”

Her cell phone clipped to her belt beeped with an incoming text message.

Fear lanced her spine. She scanned the lab’s exterior, searching for hidden cameras, but found none. How could anyone know what she’d done, so quickly?

Did it matter as long as the deed kept her from losing Maya?

Her thoughts leapt to the Johnsons, tucked in their home, jumping whenever the phone or doorbell rang, anxious to learn of their daughter’s fate. For ten years, she’d experienced a milder form of their anxiety, separated from Maya by her own inability to stand up to Caleb.

She wouldn’t allow Maya to completely slip away.

Tasha returned her phone to its holder and inhaled the damp and chill November air. Squaring her shoulders, she marched across the parking lot to her car.

If the cost of keeping her daughter in her life was betraying a few vampires, then so be it.

KIRK BELJEAN GREEDILY LAPPED AT THE BLOOD SEEPING
from the girl’s neck. She moaned as he rhythmically thrust his hips. He loved entering her from behind. The position gave him full control of her movements and he could watch as he slipped in and out.

It also meant he didn’t have to see her face. She was pretty enough but the expressions she made during sex were comical. He couldn’t fuck her face-to-face unless she was drunk or high, and then she usually passed out before he finished. It didn’t stop him, of course. In fact, he preferred her that way. That was when he had the most fun.

Of all the blood bunnies in his stable, Piper was his favorite. Not because she was willing to do anything he wanted in bed. Not because her blood tasted sweeter than the others. She was his favorite because she was pliable, easily manipulated. All he had to do was suggest that he wanted something and she would see that it was done.

The stupid bitch even believed he loved her.

It hadn’t taken much. He gave her the attention she’d never gotten from human guys. Made her feel as though she was special to him and in return she gave herself over to his will.

Thinking of how easily he’d twisted her into his personal suck and fuck threw off his concentration. The flood he’d been holding back broke free. He roughly
grabbed her hips, his fingers digging into her flesh, and held her tightly against him.

“Not yet, Kirk,” Piper pleaded. “I’m not close. Just a little—”

A primal roar burst from his throat as he ignored her pleas to wait for her to climax with him. He bent her forward, burying her face into the pillows, and rammed himself into her.

Piper’s muffled squeals and violent thrashes spurred his blood-hunger as well as his lust.

Kirk grabbed her long blond hair and pulled her head out of the pillows.

She gulped for air as he sank his fangs into her neck. Blood spurted, hot and sweet, into his mouth. The rush of memories from her life forcing themselves into his mind proved too much for him. He buried himself within her, riding the waves of his climax until his pleasure fully drained from him. Shaking, he withdrew and collapsed next to her on the blood- and semen-stained bed.

Breathing heavily, she rolled onto her side and draped her arm over his chest. “That … was a-fucking-mazing.”

“I wasn’t asking for your approval.” He shoved her away and reached for the pack of cigarettes on the nightstand.

The hurt from his rejection passed quickly and she smiled, drunkenly. “So what’s got you in such a good mood, sweetie?”

“None of your damn business,” he grumbled, blowing smoke in her face. He stretched while she coughed.

“Can’t you give me a teensy weensy hint?”

Muttering obscenities under his breath, he grabbed his wallet from beside the bed and opened it. He pulled out a wad of cash and tossed it at her. The stack of
hundreds and fifties bounced off her chest to scatter over the rumbled sheets.

Piper blinked and then the sight seemed to finally register and she shrieked in delight. “Where did you get all of this?”

“New client.” He took a draw off his cigarette and blew the smoke out his nose like a dragon. “He has a very specific taste and is willing to pay out the wazoo to satisfy it.”

She gathered the bills and laid them on top of her naked form, creating a sort of money blanket. “What does he like?”

“Redheads.”

Piper’s expression froze. “When did he pay you?”

He didn’t answer.

She looked at the money and then at him. “Did you send Mindy to him?”

He thumped her forehead and made her flinch. “What have I told you about asking too many questions?”

“I’m sorry,” she whimpered.

He stabbed out his cigarette on the edge of the nightstand. “Mindy was scheduled to meet him but that dumbass cousin of yours flaked out and didn’t show. Now I’m going to need you to find me a new redhead.”

“Where am I supposed to do that?”

“I don’t care, just find one, by tomorrow night.”

“Tomorrow?” She sat up, spilling money across the bed and floor. “Why so soon?”

Kirk yawned and stretched again. “I’ll have to break her in before I can send her out to clients.”

Piper’s eyes flashed angrily. “Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why do you have to break in every girl?” She pouted. “Aren’t I enough for you?”

He laughed and pulled her on top of him. “Darlin’,
I’m not gonna fuck her. Those bunnies are just the warm-up for the main event. You know that.”

She straddled him and wiggled her sex against his growing erection. “And I’m the main event, right?”

“Damn right.”

“Prove it.”

His arms snaked around her, crushing her to him as he kissed her. He rolled her over onto her back, hundred dollar bills crunching beneath them, and gave her the proof her body craved.

Allen and Leah Johnson lived in a Victorian manor in the heart of Jefferson’s Old Towne district. Tasha had always loved the eclectic mixture of elegant antebellum mansions, brightly painted Victorians, and earthy mid-century bungalows. She’d even dreamed of the day she, Caleb, and Maya would own a home in the coveted neighborhood.

It was a dream that would never come to fruition now, and she found herself settling for a rented cottage in one of the fringe areas surrounding Old Towne.

As she guided her unmarked police cruiser into the driveway beside the Johnsons’ stately home, she couldn’t help feeling a twinge of jealousy. She pushed aside the resentment and made her way up the front walk while the various possibilities behind their daughter Mindy’s disappearance ran through her mind, a new one forming with each step.

Kidnapping for money had been ruled out. More than forty-eight hours had passed without a single ransom demand made. Of course, money wasn’t the only reason people were abducted. Even though Mindy’s car had been found the possibility she’d left town of her own volition couldn’t be ruled out. However, as the
days fell away without the girl contacting her family, it seemed unlikely.

The most likely scenario involved foul play. Tasha started her law enforcement career as a street cop a few years after high school and worked her way up through the ranks. Over the years she’d honed her investigative instincts and her gut told her Mindy wasn’t being held. It told her the girl was most likely already dead but she couldn’t voice that opinion. To give it voice would ripple through the cosmos and make it reality.

Leah Johnson answered the door before the final chime of the bell had faded. “Lieutenant Lockwood,” she said, brushing a strand of coppery hair from her face. “Has there been any word on Mindy?”

“I have some news.” Tasha avoided directly answering the woman’s question. “Is Allen home?”

“Yes, he’s home.” She stepped back, opening the door wide to admit Tasha. “Please, come in.”

Tasha entered the home’s small foyer and then a cozy room to the right as indicated by Leah.

“What’s the news? Did you find Mindy? Is she all right?” Leah’s questions came rapid-fire, burning with the same strained hope that filled her jade-like eyes.

“I think it’s best if I tell you and Allen together.”

A shaking hand fluttered up to cover Leah’s mouth. “Oh, sweet Jesus. She’s dead. Isn’t she?”

Tasha realized how her previous statement could’ve been misconstrued and moved quickly to correct her mistake. “No, Leah. We don’t know that. We’re still looking for her, but we
did
find her car.”

Leah made a sound somewhere between a relieved sigh and a mournful sob.

“I have some follow-up questions for you and Allen, if you’re up to it.”

“Yes,” Leah said, nodding. “Of course. I’ll let Allen know you’re here.”

Tasha took a deep breath and released it slowly while Leah made her way up the stairs lining the left side of the foyer. The Johnsons’ living room sported high ceilings, denim blue walls, comfortable furniture perfect for watching movies on the big screen plasma television, and dozens of family photos. She paused to look at a framed portrait of Mindy in her high school graduation cap and gown.

The smiling girl in the photo was a younger version of her mother. Coppery red hair curled around a peaches and cream face. Jade green eyes twinkled with excitement and the promise of the life that lay ahead of her.

Tasha had seen that same excitement in Maya’s eyes in the last photo she’d received. She was twelve in the photo, but had turned thirteen a few days after it was taken. Looking at the proud display the Johnsons had created for Mindy, Tasha felt a pang of guilt. She didn’t display Maya’s photo at home or on her desk. She kept it tucked away with her badge, her secret guardian angel and a reminder of why she risked her life to make the world a safer place.

Another picture of the entire Johnson family caught Tasha’s eye. It was a snapshot from what appeared to be a vacation at the beach. Leah and Mindy knelt on sandy towels, hugging and laughing. Allen sat on an ice chest nearby, smiling and watching mother and daughter as they mugged for the camera. The perfect example of a familial happiness Tasha had never known.

“Lieutenant,” a man’s voice called from the foyer.

Tasha looked up from the photo and was greeted by an identical smile plastered on the living face of Allen Johnson.

“I’m sorry to keep you waiting. Leah says you found Mindy’s car.” He directed her to an overstuffed and
oversized armchair while he and his wife took positions on the opposite sofa.

“It was left in front of the women’s dorm at the community college.”

As they sat, Tasha scrutinized the couple. The Johnsons were a study in contrasts. Leah was petite, fair-skinned with equally pale red hair and green eyes, and a youthful glow that made her age difficult to determine based solely on appearance. Thick muscles rippled under Allen’s mahogany skin, creating a solid girth to match his height. Naturally wiry hair had been tamed, cut close to the scalp but retaining the salt-and-pepper characteristic of a man in his late forties. His eyes were a light golden brown, sharp and piercing in their intensity.