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Eleven
“I’m sorry about Salina.”Seemed she was going to be in a perpetually apologetic state with him. She might as well get comfortable saying it. “I’m sorry about your boat and, well,everything.”
Wrapped around her back, his smooth chin resting on her shoulder, she felt Grant shrug as she leaned her face into the spray and rinsed away the soap suds. “She was an asset, not afriend.”
“That sounds a little harsh.” She had no problems with killing someone like Jauhar or Hamisi. She may have lost some of her more delicate senses toward death, but she didn’t think she would be able to compartmentalize the loss of someone who helped her like Salinahad.
Grant shrugged. The heat of his tongue traveled up the side of her neck before he sucked the water from her earlobe, sending shivers racing over her skin despite the blissful heat of the water. “I don’t care about anything else right now except this.” The sharp edge of his teeth raked against the outer shell of her ear; she would have fallen to her knees if his thick arm hadn’t been wrapped around her, holding herup.
She both hated and loved how quickly he could reduce her to a spineless puddle of lust with one look or touch. She wanted to explorehim, findhisweaknesses.Surely he has one.Resolved to keep things on an even playing field, at least for the moment, she spun away and pushed him under the spray, ignoring his grunted protests. Scooping up the soap, she lathered it into a washcloth. The muscles in his back rippled and tensed as she slowly caressed his skin, taking notice of the multitude of scars that marred his sculptedframe.
A sex slave?Grant’s questions wormed their way back into her thoughts. Thalia knew one of Jauhar’s biggest enterprises was human trafficking. Although she’d never met Jauhar, Issa had warned her to never allow herself to be alone with his men or trust them. She never understood why Issa would do business with someone so vile, but she never questioned his counseling. She only wished he’d taken his ownadvice.
“Why did my scars make you think I’d been a slave?” Hot water sluiced down his back, rinsing the soap from Grant’s body, her lips laying claim to the skin on his shoulder as she ran the wash cloth down his back. “Is that something you’ve seenbefore?”
“Yes.” Her fingers followed his spine then trailed along his shoulder blades and around his sides to his chest. Scraping her fingernails across his flat nipples drew a rewarding hiss from his lips before he continued. “I’ve seen pictures of women and children who had been branded and whipped. The marks on your back look like some ofthem.”
The spray from the shower head hit her face when he turned in her arms. Backing her against the wall, Grant leaned down and placed a wet kiss on her forehead, then hernose.
“Branded?” she asked, trying desperately to hold on to her thoughts as his hands cupped and kneaded her breasts, gently twisting her sensitive nipples inreturn.
“Yeah,” he breathed, sucking her earlobe into his mouth again, nipping it with his teeth. “Sometimes the slaves would have their owner’s initials burned into their skin as a mark ofownership.”
Thalia’s blood ran cold as the hazy images from her nightmares surfaced in her thoughts and the suffocating feeling pressed down on her chest.No. Not here. Not with him.Grant pulled back and looked at her. His eyes, dark with need, suddenly filled with concern. Something Thalia didn’t think she would ever get used to seeing. “This conversation is not working for you either, huh?” His hands slid from her breasts and framed her waist. He lowered his head and sucked on the skin between her neck and shoulder, his hips flexing to push the head of his shaft deep between her wet folds. “I say we not talk at all for abit.”
Thank heavens for the timing of her stomach. As her lungs began to seize, a loud growl echoed off the tiled walls. Grant laughed and shook his head. “Looks like I’ve been overruled.” He reached over and cut the water, and then helped her step out of the tub before he handed her a towel. She forced herself to breathe as she dried off; trying to think of a way to get him out of there so she could pull herselftogether.
“Hey, are you okay?” Grant’s hands cupped her neck, his thumbs tilting her chin up to him. She nodded silently and looked over her shoulder at thetoilet.
“Right.” He smiled and kissed the tip of her nose. “I’ll, uh, give you some privacy and go check on dinner. Come to the kitchen when you’re done and I’ll redress your wounds before weeat.”
Again she nodded, her lungs clawing for air as she forced her lips into something resembling a smile. When the door finally closed behind him, her knees hit the tile and she fell to her side, gasping for breath as a single tear trailed down her cheek and splashed onto thefloor.
Car accident my ass.Grant stood outside the bathroom door and listened as Thalia fell apart. It took everything he had not to bust through the door and gather her in his arms, but he already knew her well enough to know she would only kick him right backout.
Fuck!He didn’t know what had set her off, but he would damn sure find out. He threw his towel onto the bed. Forgoing his boxers, he picked up his jeans and pulled them on, then sprinted to the room at the end of the hall. Once inside, he closed and locked the door behind him. One thing about being who he was, he had access to all kinds of neat toys andcontacts.
He mumbled another curse as he took a seat in front of the bank of computer screens and picked up the phone receiver in front of him. It seemed the more answers he got from her the more questions he had. Typing in a password, he accessed the system and pulled up the central departmental search engine as he dialed a number he pulled frommemory.
“Diver.”
“I need you to find something for me,” Grant barked at the familiar voice on the other end of the line. As he spoke, he quarried Jauhar’s file from three different bureaus and hitenter.
“Lieutenant! I thought you were chasing hangovers and pussy in the Caribbean. Or was it Fiji? You miss me thatmuch?
“Get your hand off your dick and listen up.” Grant didn’t have time for social niceties. Thalia would pull herself together quick enough, and he needed to have this wrapped up when she cameout.
“Shoot.”
“I want everything you can find on two unknown Americans killed in a car accident in Mumbai ten years ago. They had a daughter, seventeen, first name Thalia, last name Brezlin, or some derivative. She’s twenty-seven now, five-ten, black hair, greyeyes.”
“Okay.” He could hear Diver’s fingers flying across his keyboard in the background. “Tango-Hotel-Alpha-Lima-India-Alpha.”
“Correct. I’ll get you additional specifics when I can. And find anything you can on a tango, first name Issa, India-Sierra-Sierra-Alpha. May or may not be a relative in Mumbai. Add Mozambique and Madagascar to your searchgrid.”
“So you are chasing pussy.” Diver’s chuckle grated on his nerves. He was in no mood for jokes. “Okay,” Diver drew out the last syllable in feigned agitation. “Perky as usual I see, Lieutenant. I’ll dig up what Ican.”
“Call me as soon as you get anything.” Grant paused before he set the receiver back in the cradle. “AndDiver?”
