Chapter 19

Chapter Nineteen

Lark sat in Stone's hotel room, passing papers back and forth as they studied the files Stone and Granger had stolen from Senator Buchanan's home office. Lark was interested in what they held, but he was having a hard time focusing. He couldn't stop thinking about Shine and what her presence might mean for Ebony. Not having touched the woman, he couldn't be certain, but the coincidence was just too much. Stone told him about her black soulless eyes and the shots she'd been taking three times a day all her life. Was Ebony's soulsister sitting in this very hotel, with Granger? Lark hadn't missed the possessive way his friend had treated Shine. It wasn't unusual for Granger to seduce a woman but never had he seemed so taken with one. Granger was usually the one night stand type, the once and out of his system type. But Stone said the two had gotten it on in the airplane bathroom and he had been possessive of her after that, insistent on sharing a room with her and for Stone to keep a distance. It was a massive change in his friend, one that Lark would have celebrated, if it had been any other woman. Someone was going to lose here, and as much as he loved Granger like a brother, Lark didn't intend it to be himself.

"Do you think that Ebony even knows this much about her mother?" Stone asked, pointing to the file Lark was holding marked Henrietta . "I doubt it," Lark said, focusing back on the file in his hands.

"What does Buchannan have to do with Ebony and her mother?" Stone asked.

Lark met Stone's eyes. "I think there's a reason we all assume Shine has the missing piece of Ebony's soul, Stone. I don't think all of this can be a coincidence."

"He searched for Ebony when her mother died but not before. Henrietta's death would have been registered. Do you think she somehow managed to not scan herself until then? Maybe Henrietta was able to live off an inheritance?"

"If Henrietta had some kind of inheritance, maybe, but even then it's doubtful she'd never have scanned herself, and the one person who might have been able to shed light on it is dead as of this morning."

"Dead? Who?" Stone asked in astonishment.

"Glick."

"Oh shit, did you go back there last night?"

"No, and it's worse than that. With no leads, the police are after Ebony for questioning because she disappeared the same night. Who else would they suspect?"

"Damn."

"Yeah, and since we know it wasn't her and it wasn't us. What are the chances that its unrelated to our little mission and that letter we found in Ebony's file?"

"I'd say not good, but why now? Why would Buchanan come after Glick after all this time if he took his word for it that Ebony was dead before? And if all Buchanan was after was another pretty young thing to work for him? It doesn't make sense," Stone said.

"Unless Buchanan wasn't after Ebony just because she's an easy halfling to corrupt. He knew of her mother, maybe he was tracking Henrietta and her daughter specifically. It may have been random women he was looking at hoping to find the one he was really after. And he gave up on the lead of Glick after he was told she was dead." Lark hated to admit out loud what he'd started to think, he'd been the one to put Ebony back on Buchanan's radar. Something about his online searching had triggered Buchanan to go back and look for her and question Glick again.

"Okay, so then we assume he knew Henrietta and he knew she was pregnant when she left Las Vegas, but not where she went. For some unknown reason he specifically wanted her or the baby and all that was before his wife gave birth to what could very well be Ebony's soulsister. Why?"

"Let's assume that, yes. But not only why he was trying to find Henrietta and Ebony, how did Henrietta manage to not be scanned all that time? She couldn't have been working alone, not even if she had money from something. Ebony wasn't even registered until she was five, I saw that in her file and thought it odd. I didn't double check who she was registered to. I wonder if Henrietta used a fake name to keep her hidden."

Stone shrugged. "Maybe Henrietta was working the streets?"

Lark doubted that. "I think there's something more. I think we need to follow that money trail and we'll find something useful."

"Family? Friends? What about Ebony's father?"

Lark stood, "Well, it sounds like you have your hands full with research tonight." He wanted this solved sooner rather than later, but he also wanted to be with Ebony and he had been away from her long enough already.

"What?"

"Hey, you're the only one without a lady in your bed," Lark said with a wink and walked to the door. He stopped there and turned to look at Stone. "Do you think it's really her?"

Stone shrugged. "With all this evidence, I think it's likely, yeah, but I don't understand it. Shine made it sound like they just picked a random who looked like the senator to be the sperm donor and they had no idea she'd end up with such a small sliver of soul. There's no way they would have wanted her to end up like that, all the trouble they've had to go through to hide what she is and keep her alive."

Lark nodded and walked out. There was something they were missing. Some piece they didn't see yet.

He made his way back to his room where Ebony slept. He let himself in quietly and stripped down as he walked to the bed. She was laying so peacefully there. He just stood and stared at her for a moment before sliding in next to her and pulling her into his arms.

Never in his life would he have imagined wanting the feel of a body next to him in sleep, but he was sure he'd never get a wink of rest if she wasn't there. If he couldn't smell her sweet scent and hear her quiet breathing, he would lay awake missing her until the sun rose.

She was his everything now, she may as well hold his entire soul because he didn't want to exist without her.

Granger stared down at Shine as she slept. The sun was up and soon they would have to go down to breakfast and introduce her to someone who quite possibly wanted to kill her.

It would kill him to know that she was Lark's soulmate.

Of course, there was a possibility that Shine could win the battle, but then she would belong to Lark. The two women were probably equally matched for a hand-to-hand fight, neither particularly strong or muscled. Granger wondered if either woman would have what it took to kill the other in soulbattle.

Granger didn't care that she would never be his soulmate, that they would never have a life together recognized by the government. It didn't matter that they didn't have some stupid electrical input that told their bodies this was the one best suited to make babies with.

Fucking ridiculous curse of the gods anyway.

He wanted to spend the rest of his life worshiping her body. He wanted to take away the pain of growing up with an asshole father and no freedom. He wanted to show her how to really live, outside of the bubble she'd been kept in her whole life and without the restraints her father had put on her.

He gazed at her mouth. He would have to solve one very big problem though.

A sensation filled him that was unexpected and erotic as he envisioned one way he could take care of that need of hers. He imagined opening his flesh and having her drink from him. It made his dick hard and he really hoped she'd let him try.

"Fuck, I hope you're not who I think you are," he whispered, running his hand over her body, deciding she'd had enough sleep. He hoped like hell he was wrong and she had nothing to do with Ebony or Lark so she could be all his.

Shine startled awake and then smiled at him. "Good morning, Granger," she said huskily.

"It is indeed," he agreed, pulling the sheet back and revealing both their naked bodies. His was up and ready to go. She raised an appreciative eyebrow when she noticed. "I've been waiting for you to wake up and thinking of all the things I would do to you when you did."

"I hope one of those things involves my mouth and that cock," she said, grabbing it and giving it a playful squeeze.

He gave a guttural groan and thrust his hips slightly, fucking her hand. "It definitely involved your mouth, but I had other ideas of what I'd put in it."

"Really?" she whispered, crawling down his body and doing exactly what she wanted anyway.

Granger didn't have it in him to argue. He gripped her hair and enjoyed the ride as she took him all the way and swallowed him down.

When she crawled back up his body with a grin on her face, he pulled her in for a deep kiss before flipping them around and returning the favor with her legs wrapped around his shoulders.

"I could get used to waking up like this," she said when they lay satisfied and breathing heavy on the bed.

"Every goddamn day we possibly can," Granger agreed.

She turned and propped up on an elbow, gazing down at him with dark eyes that drew him in. He hated to think she'd be putting her contacts in again soon and she'd be covering her pretty face with that stupid veil. He reached up and ran a hand through her blonde hair. Then an idea struck him.

"What if we dyed this and you just left out the contacts? It would probably be enough to keep anyone from knowing it's you. The eyes themselves would probably do enough, no one looks too closely at eyes that dark. But if we were to also hide the hair. You'd be passably disguised to anyone who only knew you from television."

Shine bit her lip and touched her hair, sitting up fully. "My hair?"

"Or we could just cover it, put it up and throw a hat on. I'd hate to see you go around in that veil in this heat."

"And I don't really want to sit in here all day, either," she agreed.

An hour later they were showered and dressed, ready to meet the others downstairs. He hadn't been able to bring up the question of blood needs while she'd distracted him with her delicious body, but he didn't want to take her out of the room without it being resolved.

She sat on the bed with a fresh face and hair up in a tight bun looking beautiful, no need for makeup. She was in the same clothes as last night; he'd have to take her shopping as soon as possible. He didn't want her to feel a lack of anything. She smiled at him but there was a worry in her eyes as he put a hat on her head and pulled it low to shadow her face and cover all her hair.

"I wonder how mad my father is. He'll know by now that I'm not at home being watched by Nurse Reagan."

"But he won't know you're so close to him. Probably will think you're hiding in DC somewhere, don't you think?"

She looked down at her hands and rubbed them nervously. "Probably," she agreed. "It seems so odd to be away from home and the schedule I'm so used to."

"Away from the nurse," he nudged.

"Yeah," she said, not meeting his eyes.

"Shine," he said quietly and waited until she raised her dark gaze to meet his, he liked the rawness he saw in them without the contacts. "Do you need blood?"

Her cheeks reddened and she looked away. "I don't know," she gritted out. "How dumb is that! I don't even fucking know what it takes to keep myself alive. All I know is that they gave me three shots a day and I didn't consume much else. I could and did, especially around others, but it wasn't necessary." She looked back at him, and her eyes were filled with anger. "He kept me helpless."

Granger nodded. "And he'll pay. But I want to give you what you need."

She just shook her head. "I don't know what it is, and I hope I figure it out before it matters, but for now, can you just—" she hesitated, biting her lip and looking down, "can you just stay close. I trust you."

"You couldn't get rid of me if you tried," he said with a smile, loving that she wanted him around.