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Lynch sighed. “Which is why we need to find her first.”
Kendra stood and turned back toward Babs. “This is important. Can you give us any idea where she might have gone?”
“No.” She frowned. “Except…”
“Yes?”
“It has to be someplace she has access to a pool. No matter what, she’s going to keep training. She’s not going to throw it all away now.”
Lynch shook his head. “I’m afraid that doesn’t narrow things down too much.”
“It’s all I got.” She shrugged. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay. Thank you.” Lynch handed her a card. “Call if you think of anything else, okay?”
“Sure.” Babs turned back to Kendra. “You know, she really liked you. She wouldn’t have tried to hide anything from you if she could have seen her way clear.”
Kendra’s gaze was drawn back to the darkness under Tricia’s bed, where the girl had kept those wicked blades to protect herself. She shivered. Then she forced herself to smile. “Well, it seems she couldn’t see her way clear this time. But thank you for telling me. If you run into her, let her know that we’re only trying to help her.” She kept her gaze away from those boxes as she headed for the door. “Let’s go, Lynch.”
***
They got back to Kendra’s condo at a little after midnight.
Lynch closed the front door but didn’t turn on the lights. “You haven’t said a word since we left the dorm.” He gently cradled her face in his hands. “Are you going to tell me why?”
“Maybe I can’t forget all those exotic weapons we pulled out from under Tricia’s bed,” she whispered. “She’s an athlete. She’s young and brilliant and yet life twisted her until she felt it necessary to gather all those terrible weapons to keep herself alive. Sometimes life can be shit.”
“Not as long as she has someone like you to untwist her.” He kissed her gently. “It’s all a question of balance. We had a tough day, but we made some discoveries; tomorrow we’ll make a few more. Maybe one of them will show us the way to get Tricia to sit down and listen to us. She told you that she’d call you. Give her a chance.” He kissed her again. “Are you going to send me home? I promise all I want to do is hold you and make you forget those damn weapons.” He chuckled. “Well, maybe that’s not all, but we can discuss that later. May I stay?”
She could feel the vibrantalivenessof him in the darkness. Whenever anything went wrong Lynch was always there to strike that balance. Lord, she needed that tonight.
She slid her arms around his neck. “I think that would be a very good idea,” she said huskily. “I want very much to have you hold me tonight, Lynch…”
***
The call came at three forty in the morning.
“Hello, Kendra,” Milo said mockingly. “I hate to disturb your rest, but I felt I had to touch base with you. You must be feeling very upset, and I wanted you to know I’m always here to reach out to you. I understand you’ve lost our swimmer. How sad for you.”
She fought the shock, shaking her head to clear it. “How kind, Milo.” Then when she felt Lynch stiffen against her, she pressed theSPEAKERbutton. “But I don’t need anything from you. If you’re talking about Tricia, you’re the one who lost her all those years ago. Was she your only failure? I was wondering why you were so determined to bring her back.”
“She wasn’t my failure,” he bit out. “If I’d been doing the kill instead of Barrett, I would never have lost her. I was always the master and he the pupil. Now I have to go to the bother of cleaning up his mess.”
“I thought you did that at Pine Valley,” she said caustically. “That was also a disaster.”
“No, it wasn’t. If you hadn’t stepped in, I wouldn’t have had a problem. But I don’t regret it, you’ve been very exciting. That’s why I called you tonight. I want to make certain you know that right after I take care of Tricia, you’ll be next. She won’t be alone for long.”
“You’re bluffing,” she said scornfully. “You don’t even know where she is.”
“I don’t have to. She’ll tell me. Do you believe I’d spend all these years learning to be the perfect Alpha and not be able to read one young girl? She thinks she’s so intelligent that she can bring me down. It won’t happen. I’ll watch and wait and then I’ll pounce.” He chuckled. “And then it will be your turn. Good night, Kendra. I’ll see you very soon…”
He ended the call.
She took a deep breath and then sat up in bed.
Lynch muttered a curse and then watched her as she slipped on her robe. “Come back to bed. He just wanted to disturb you.”
“Well, he succeeded. But you know…I think it’s more than that.”
