“A lot of guys have hunting cabins out there. Do you think he could’ve had one?” Lu asked.
“I never heard about one,” Colleen shook her head.
“Let me see the notes,” Theia said. “This address is from a case eight years ago. If he did have a cabin then, he might have sold it by now. We can find out through checking online real property records, if that county reports them.”
Theia’s phone rang. The display indicated the call was from a blocked number. She frowned and answered. “Hello?” she said. “Yes.” She sat up straighter. “When?” She paused and listened. “Did they find Rose? Was she with him?” She listened to the caller again. “Did they question him about her?” She paused. “Was there any sign of her?” Theia exhaled and shook her head. “Will he be likely to make bail?” She listened, nodding her head. “Please let me know immediately if he gets released. Thanks so much for the call.”
Theia disconnected, then took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “That was Detective McCarthy. We don’t have to look for Donald anymore. They just arrested him.”
“Where did they find him?” Jack demanded.
“They pulled him over for speeding, ran his license and found a bunch of outstanding warrants. He actually acted surprised when they arrested him,” Theia said. “The detective said he’s not going anywhere anytime soon. If he does make bail, McCarthy will call me immediately, but he really doesn’t see that happening. When St. Louis County is done with him, the City wants him on a warrant, and so do two other counties. Each one will process him separately, and most likely require bail. Does he have a pot of money he can use for bail?”
“Not that I know of,” answered Colleen. “What about my sister?”
“She wasn’t with him,” Theia said, disappointed.
“Did he say where she is?” Colleen asked, about to jump out of her skin.
Theia pursed her lips and shook her head. “He wouldn’t give them anything. The asshole actually pretended he didn’t know anyone named Rose.”
“He what?” Colleen yelled. “Oh, I’m gonna do a jailhouse visit. I’ll get the bastard to talk. I’ll snap his goddamned neck. He’ll tell me where the hell Rose is.”
“I’m with you, girlfriend,” Lu said, “but they’re not going to let you anywhere near him. We’ll have to let them do their job now that they have him in custody. We have to find Rose.”
“Give me those papers,” Colleen demanded, grabbing Theia’s notes and the information Lu got from her office.
She picked up a page, scanned then slammed it down, picking up the next page and repeating the process.
“I can’t just sit here,” Theia said. “I’m getting back on the computer to dig some more. If we turn over enough rocks, we’re bound to find where the snake took her.”
Lu sat with Colleen to argue about things they found in the papers. Jack teamed up with Theia, brainstorming as she did searches on the computer.
After several hours, Colleen rubbed her eyes and stretched. “I hate to say this,” she said, “but I’m fried. I don’t think I could spell my own name at this point. We’ve been at this for hours, and I haven’t found a damn thing.” She put her head in her hands as tears rolled.
“Let’s all get a good night’s sleep and hit this again in the morning,” Jack suggested. “We’ll be more productive after we’ve had some sleep.”
“Agreed,” Lu said, standing.
“Hey, we can’t just quit!” Colleen objected. “My sister’s out there somewhere. We have to find her.”
“We’re not giving up,” Theia assured her. “But we’ll do a better job of finding her if we get some rest.”
“I guess you’re right,” conceded Colleen. “I hate to give up, even for the night, but you’re probably right.”
“At least Donald’s in custody and can’t hurt her anymore,” Lu said. “For all we know she escaped and is in safe hands.”
“Then let’s get some sleep so we can get back to working on this. Come on, roomie,” Colleen said, grabbing Lu’s elbow and steering her toward the door.
Jack walked Lu and Colleen to the car then went back inside. Theia was not in the main room of the suite. The bathroom door was open and the light was off. He checked the kitchen. Then he stepped into the bedroom and found her face down asleep, smack dab in the middle of his bed.
“Great. Well I’m not sleeping on the damn sofa.”
Jack scooted her to one side and threw a blanket over her. He then turned off the lights, pulled off his clothes and climbed into bed, where he lay awake for a long time. Just as he started to fall asleep, he felt a hand on his chest. His eyes flew open. He was now wide awake.
Theia was having a lovely dream. She was sleeping on a great pile of pillows and blankets. There’s a pillow here, she reached out in her sleep, and a pillow here, and a pillow here – wait, this one is warm and has hair. She patted, and heard a man clear his throat. Her eyes opened and she sat up. They looked at each other, surprised.
“What are you doing here?” Theia demanded.
“This is my bed,” Jack said.
“I’m not sleeping with you,” Theia insisted.
“Yes you were,” Jack said mildly.
“Did we … ?” Theia sounded panicked.
“Don’t be stupid. You have all your clothes on.”
“Oh yeah. How did I get here?”
“You walked in and fell asleep,” Jack answered.
“Well I’m not going to sleep with you,” Theia announced.
“Then I suggest you go sleep on the sofa,” Jack replied. “I’m sleeping here.”
“Are you naked?” Theia asked, curious.
“I always sleep naked. Don’t you?”
“I can’t,” Theia confessed.
“What do you mean, you can’t?”
“I sleep walk.”
“You’re kidding.”
“No, I have ever since I was a kid,” Theia explained. “One time my family found me sleep walking outside during a tornado.”
“What was that like?” Jack asked.
“How should I know? I was asleep. I don’t know if it even happened. They could have made the story up as a joke. I have no proof one way or the other.”
“Do you always think like a lawyer?” Jack asked.
“That’s who I am, so deal with it. Now are you going to put on some clothes?”
“Why should I do that?” Jack asked.
“Uh, so I don’t see you naked,” Theia replied, as if he had just asked the stupidest question on earth.
“I don’t have any problem with you seeing me naked. In fact, if you want to go back to touching me, I’d be fine with that, too,” Jack said.
“Oh my God, where was I touching you?” Theia was mortified. “Don’t answer that. You’ll probably just make something up, and I won’t …”
“Have any proof one way or the other,” he finished for her. “If you’re going to think the worst of me, I have nothing to lose. Give me your hand.”
“Why?” Theia asked, not trusting him.
“Just give me your hand.” He felt around in the darkness and found her boob.
“Hey!” Theia shouted.
“I’m trying to find your hand,” Jack explained.
“Here’s my hand. Wait, what are you going to do?”
“Put your hand back where it was right before you woke up,” he said.
“No!” she tried to pull her hand away, but he was far stronger. He placed her hand on his chest.
“There. That’s where your hand was.”
“That’s all?” she asked.
“Yes, that’s all. Where did you think I was going to put your hand, here?” he asked as he started to drag her hand south. She started to pull her hand back, then stopped fighting him as his other hand was on her boob again.
“When did you put that there?” she demanded.
“Have you heard of ‘fake high and go low?’ Well, this is, ‘fake low and go high,’ and then low again,” he said. His other hand was no longer holding her hand against him, but had gone low on her.
She didn’t resist, instead arched against him and thrilled in the sensation of being touched. She rolled her head back and remembered feeling like this, enjoying pure pleasure. Her body had not forgotten. His body responded instantly.
In seconds her clothes were off, and they made love with frantic passion, releasing sexual tension that had been building since the moment they met. Theia felt blissfully irresponsible. The stress and fear of the last few days no longer existed, at least in that cocoon of time. She was able to completely lose herself in the existentialism of fantastic sex.
He pulled her against him afterward so her head rested on his chest. He found her hand and put it over his heart. “That’s dangerous,” Theia warned. “That’s how this whole thing got started.”
“Feel free to start another round whenever you like,” Jack replied.
“I just hope I didn’t leave marks on your back.”
Jack smirked in the dark. Theia had always been skeptical of love at first sight, but she was now certain of lust at first sight. Was it really possible that she could be with a man and be happy? She sure felt happy. Hell, she felt delirious. Images of Audrey Hepburn lip-synching “I Could Have Danced All Night” in the film My Fair Lady played in her mind. Theia sighed and absorbed the sensations of Jack’s warmth and his scent. She curled up a little closer and drifted off to sleep with no nightmares.
What had he done? Jack wondered. He’d gone and fallen. He suspected earlier he might be. Well, he had to buck up and face it. He was completely lost. He hoped she wouldn’t make him miserable, because he couldn’t leave her if he wanted to. He wondered what she’d look like as she grew older. He imagined them walking together holding hands like old people in an AARP commercial. He wondered what their children would look like.
Hold it! He started to panic. No need to get ahead of himself. One night of great sex did not mean he had to change his entire life. He needed to slow down and figure out how he felt about Theia. He knew lightning would strike him if he denied caring about her. She got to a place in his heart no one had ever reached. He wanted to be with her and protect her. He wanted to see her smile and hear her laugh. He even thought it was cute when she looked annoyed.
Who did he think he was kidding? He had no more clue what was going to happen than any other guy. All he could do was hope she cared about him as much as he cared about her.
He turned his head toward her and inhaled her perfume. He would have to ask her what kind she wore. It smelled classic. Holding her close, now he could sleep. Now he could dream.
Theia opened her eyes in the morning light. She was naked. There was a big lump in the bed with her. Looked like a naked man. She blinked a few times until her eyes focused. Yes, there was a man in the bed and he was definitely naked. She took a good, long look then the enormity of what she had done hit her. How could she have done this? Hadn’t she learned anything from the past? Men were nothing but trouble. She was such an idiot. She pounded her fist on the bed.
“I swore I’d never do this again,” Theia blurted.
“Do what?” Jack asked.
“Let a man get close to me,” Theia replied.
Jack looked bewildered.
“I know the routine,” Theia said. “Now that we’ve had sex, you’re going to want to go out, and keep going out. You’re going to call me on the phone and want to have long conversations. You’re going to want to have, God forbid, a relationship. And I know how those end up. We need to cut this off at the pass,” Theia said.
Jack looked smug, rolled over on to his back, nonchalantly giving her a full view, and smiled at her. He motioned for her to scoot over to him so he could hold her against him.
Theia scrambled up, wrapped herself with the top sheet that had worked loose the night before during their Olympics, and walked straight into the bathroom without a word. What had she done? How could she let herself care about someone again? Hadn’t she learned anything? She had to end this now, before she got hurt. Her chest ached with unshed tears when she thought about how Jack would feel when she ended it. She didn’t want to hurt him, but if she didn’t, he was likely to hurt her. After all, in her only serious relationship, isn’t that what happened? Better to rip off the bandaid now and get it over with. And don’t think about her own heart breaking.
Finally, he called out, “You okay in there?”
“Yeah, you don’t have to wake the dead,” Theia snapped, irritable about what she had to do. Time to play the part and end this thing.
“I was just checking. You’ve been in there a while.”
“Can’t a person get a little privacy?”
“Sure. I’ll go make some coffee.”
“Fine.”
He stomped into the kitchen. Theia sighed. It was working. She took a quick shower and got herself ready for the day. Stepping out of the bathroom as if nothing was amiss, she strolled over to the sofa and plopped down.
Jack made a beeline for the bathroom. “God, I thought I was going to have to pee in the sink.”
“I’m sure you do when no one’s here.”
“I do not, that’s disgusting,” he said.
“Yeah, right,” Theia rolled her eyes. “Where’s the coffee?”
“What’s gotten in to you?” Jack asked.