Third Grave Dead Ahead

Chapter 4

I flashed my ID at the guard standing duty at gatehouse of the Penitentiary of New Mexico. He waved me through and I parked in visitor parking, close to level five, the maximum-security unit of the prison. The minute I stepped inside the turquoise-trimmed building, Neil Gossett walked up to me, took the coffee out of my hands, and threw it in a wastebasket. Right. Bad idea.

“Hey,” I said breathlessly, butterflies dive-bombing the lining of my stomach, “what’s up?”

Neil and I went to high school together, but we didn’t hang in the same social circles and we certainly weren’t friends. He’d been an athlete, which only partially explained his asinine behavior toward me throughout our high school careers. Not that it was entirely his fault, but blaming him was healthier for my self-image.

I had trusted my best friend Jessica Guinn when I was a sophomore with my most prized secrets, not the least of which involved the words reaper and grim, and not necessarily in that order. I should have known better. It shouldn’t have been such a surprise when she blabbed it to the whole world and dropped me like a hot potato — when I was clearly much more the couch potato variety — and branded me a freak. I didn’t argue that point, but neither did I appreciate my sudden reputation as a leper. And Neil had been right in the middle of it all, joining in on the harassing and name-calling and eventual shunning.

While Neil had never believed in what I could do back then, he’d since changed his mind when our paths crossed again. As he was the deputy warden of the prison where Reyes Farrow had spent the last decade, I’d had no choice but to look him up in my quest to find the man most likely to win the Sexiest Son of Satan on the Planet award. And because of an incident that happened when Reyes first arrived here ten years ago that involved the downfall of three of the deadliest gang members the prison population had to offer in about fifteen seconds flat, Neil was beginning to believe there really were things that went bump in the night. Whatever Neil saw left an impression. And he knew just enough about me to believe I knew what I was talking about. Poor schmuck.

He turned and started walking away, which I thought was really rude. But I followed nonetheless.

“He just wants to talk?” I asked, hurrying to catch up. “Did he ask you to call me? Did he tell you why?”

He led the way past the security posts before answering. “He asked for a one-on-one with me,” he said, glancing around to make sure no one was listening. “So I went to the floor, you know, fully expecting to die since he was so angry at being bound by a mutual acquaintance of ours.” He cast a quick glower over his shoulder. “So I get to his cell and he says he wants to talk to you.”

“Just out of the blue?”

“Just out of the blue.” He led me through a couple more checkpoints, then into a windowless interview room with a table and two chairs, like the kind they used for meetings with lawyers. It was tiny, but the bright white cinder block walls made it seem less so. It looked like the only form of visible monitoring from the guards would be through a postage stamp window in the door.

“Wow.”

“Exactly. Are you sure you want to do this, Charley?”

“Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?” I sat at the table and laid a file folder I’d brought on top, surprised he’d let me keep it.

“Well, let me think.” Neil was agitated, started pacing back and forth. He still had a fairly nice physique despite the tragic onset of male pattern baldness. From what I’d gathered, he’d never married, which came as quite the shocker. He’d always had hordes of girls after him in high school. He glanced at me as he made another pass. “Reyes Farrow is the son of Satan,” he said, starting the count off with his thumb. “He is the most powerful man I’ve ever met.” Index finger. “He moves at the speed of light.” Middle finger. “Oh, and he’s pissed.” Fist at side.

“I know he’s pissed.”

“He’s pissed as hell, Charley. At you.”

“Pfft. How do you know he’s mad at me? Maybe he’s mad at you.”

“I’ve seen what he does to people he’s angry with,” he continued, ignoring me. “It’s one of those images that haunts you forever, if you know what I mean.”

“I do. Damn it.” I pulled my bottom lip between my teeth.

“I’ve never seen him like this.” He paused and placed his palms on the table in thought. “He’s been different since he got back.”

“Different how?” I asked, alarmed.

He started pacing again. “I don’t know. He’s distant, more distant than usual. And he isn’t sleeping. He just paces like a caged animal.”

“Like you’re doing now?” I asked.

He turned to me, not amused. “Remember what I saw when he first got here?”

I nodded. “Of course.”

The first time I’d visited, Neil told me the story of how he became aware of what Reyes was capable of. He’d just started working at the prison and was on the floor in the cafeteria when he saw three gang members heading toward Reyes, a twenty-year-old kid at the time who’d just been released into gen-pop from Reception and Diagnostics. Fresh fish. Neil had panicked and grabbed for his radio, but before he could even call for backup, Reyes had taken down three of the deadliest men in the state without breaking a sweat. Neil said he moved so fast, his eyes couldn’t follow. Like an animal. Or a ghost.

“That’s why I’ll be watching through that camera,” he said, pointing to the device in the corner, “and I’ll have a team just outside this door, waiting for the word.”

“Neil,” I said, leveling a warning gaze on him, “you can’t send them in and you know it. If you care anything about your men.”

He shook his head. “Maybe if something happens, they can at least stop him long enough to get you out.”

I stood and stepped next to him. “You know they can’t.”

“Then what am I supposed to do?” he asked, a hard edge to his voice.

“Nothing,” I said pleadingly. “He won’t do anything to me. But I can’t make the same promise for your men if you send them in with batons and pepper spray. He might get a bit miffed.”

“I have to take precautions. The only reason I’m letting this happen is—” He lowered his head again. “—you know why.”

I did know why. Reyes had saved his life. Out in the real world, that was saying a lot. In prison, the weight of that statement multiplied exponentially. “Neil, you never even liked me in high school.”

He scoffed humorously and raised his brows in question.

“I’m a little flattered you’re worried, but—”

“Don’t be.” He grinned. “Do you know how much paperwork is involved when people get killed in prison?”

“Thanks,” I said, patting his arm, really hard.

He pulled out my chair. “You sit tight. I’m going to help bring him in. I don’t want any incidents along the way.”

“Okay. I’ll sit tight.”

And I did. My stomach churned with excitement and adrenaline, fear and too much coffee. It was hard to believe I was finally going to see him. In the flesh. Conscious. I’d seen him in the flesh before, but he was either in a coma or unconscious from being tortured. Torture sucked so bad.

A few minutes later, the door opened and I scrambled to my feet as a man in handcuffs stepped halfway in, then turned back toward the burly corrections officer who’d followed. It was Reyes, and his presence took my breath away. He had the same dark hair in desperate need of a trim, the same wide shoulders straining against the orange fabric of his prison uniform, the sleeves rolled up and the sharp, crisp lines of his tattoos visible, curling up his corded biceps to disappear under the faded material. He was so real, so powerful. And his heat, like a signature, snaked toward me the minute the door opened.

The corrections officer looked at Reyes’s cuffed hands then at his face and shrugged. “Sorry, Farrow. Those stay on. Orders.”

Neil walked up then. Reyes was only slightly taller yet seemed to tower over him.

He lifted his cuffed hands. They were attached to a chain that clasped on to a belt around his waist and led down to lock to another set of cuffs at his feet. “You know these won’t make a difference,” he said to Neil, his deep voice washing over me like warm water.

Neil glanced past him toward me. “It’ll buy me a few seconds should I need them.”

Then Reyes looked over his shoulder. For the first time in over a decade, I was looking into the eyes of the real, in-the-flesh Reyes Farrow, and I thought my knees would give beneath me. I’d seen him several times in a much more spiritual sense, when he could come to me incorporeally, but this in-the-flesh thing was fairly new. And the last time I’d seen his corporeal body, he was being ripped apart by a hundred spidery demons with razor-sharp claws. He seemed to have healed nicely, if the surge of sensual adrenaline that now coursed through his veins was any indication.

While I could feel his reluctance to break eye contact, I was sure he could feel the lust that crept up my legs and seeped into my abdomen, a Pavlovian response to his nearness, and somewhere deep inside, I was embarrassed. But I could also feel his desire to tear off the cuffs, partly to spite Neil and partly to remove the table that stood between us. And he could have done it, too. He could have removed the cuffs like papier-mâché. But I could also feel his unabated anger, and I was suddenly glad for the camera, for that extra sense of protection, as ridiculous and noneffective as it would be should it come to that.

He stepped to the table, and the light illuminating his face sent my pulse into double time.

His features had hardened since high school, matured, but those mahogany eyes were unmistakable. He’d definitely grown up, in some places more than others. He was still lean, but his shoulders were broad. Their width seemed to make wearing the cuffs even more uncomfortable.

His dark hair and unshaven jaw framed the most handsome face I had ever seen. His mouth was full, sensual, and his eyes were exactly as I remembered. Like chocolate accented with gold and green flecks and lined with impossibly thick lashes. They shimmered even in the unnatural light above us.

Ten years in prison. In this place. My chest tightened at the thought, and a bizarre sense of protection swept over me.

Unfortunately he felt it. He offered a frigid stare. “Tell him we’re fine,” he said, and only then did I realize Neil was still in the room.

I took in a deep breath to gather myself. “We’re fine, Neil. Thank you.”

Neil hesitated, pointed at the camera to remind me, then left, closing the door behind him.

“That’s sweet,” he said as he folded himself into the chair, taking note of the file I had on the table. His chains rattled against the metal when he placed his hands on top of it.

I sat, too. “What?”

He gestured toward the door with a nod. “Gossett.” Then, with an expression of disapproval, he added, “You.” A trace of a humorless grin lifted one side of his beautiful mouth.

I knew what that mouth was capable of, from my dreams, from our encounters, but never in the flesh. “What about Neil and me?” I asked, pretending to be offended. I was too taken aback by him to be much of anything but stunned. “We went to high school together.”

He arched a brow as though impressed. “Well, that’s convenient.”

“I suppose.”

Just then I felt my chair being pulled forward and gasped. He’d wrapped his foot around a leg and was easing me closer to the table.

When I started to protest, he placed a finger from his cuffed hands over his mouth. “Shhh,” he whispered, mischief sparkling in his eyes. After he pulled me to the table, he dropped his gaze to my chest.

The table had stretched my sweater tight, defining Danger and Will Robinson more fully.

“That’s better,” he said, appreciation shimmering in his eyes. Just as I was about to chastise him, he asked, “How long has he known?”

His inquiry threw me. “Who? Known what?”

“Gossett,” he said, glancing back at my face. “How long has he known what I am?”

His question knocked the air out of my lungs. I stuttered as I tried to come up with an answer that wouldn’t get Neil killed. “I … he doesn’t know anything.”

“Don’t.” It was a quiet warning, yet I flinched as though he’d yelled at me.

“How did you—?”

“Dutch.” He tsked and tilted his head, waiting, and I realized there was no getting around the truth.

“He doesn’t know, not everything. He’s not a threat to you,” I said, trying to convince both of us. When I’d blurted out the fact that Reyes was the son of Satan to Neil on my last visit, I had put the deputy warden’s life in danger. I knew it the moment the words left my mouth. This was different from my telling Cookie or Gemma. Neil was locked in the same place with him day in and day out. It was honestly one of the stupidest things I’d ever done.

“You’re probably right,” he said, and I almost breathed a sigh of relief. “Who would believe him?” He glanced up and looked right into the camera, the smile he still wore dripping with a silent threat.

I felt as though I hardly knew him, which in truth was the case. Our encounters were always brief and to the point. We rarely had heart-to-hearts, and when we did, they always ended the same way. Though to say I regretted for a moment having sex with a being forged from the fires of sin would be a bald-faced lie. His body — both corporeally and incorporeally — was like molten steel, his passion insatiable. And when he touched me, when his mouth pressed against mine and his body pushed into me, everything else fell away.

The mere thought caused a visceral tightening between my legs, and I sucked in a soft breath.

He watched me close as though trying to read my thoughts, and I wrapped my fingers around the file I’d brought, tried to calm myself. The file held the transcripts from his trial, a copy of his arrest record, and the contents of his prison jacket, the parts Neil could share with me anyway. The psychological profile had been off-limits. And I know they’d tested his intelligence. What’d they call it? Immeasurable?

I decided to get my questions out of the way before we got to the real reason I was there. Reyes had been physically and mentally abused by the man he’d gone to prison for killing, yet none of that history was brought out during the trial. I wanted to know why. I straightened my shoulders and asked, “Why weren’t the issues of your abuse at the hands of Earl Walker addressed during your trial?”

He stilled. The easy smile disappeared, and a wall of distrust forced its way between us. His posture shifted ever so slightly, turned defensive, the set of his shoulders hostile, and a wary tension thickened the air.

My fingers tightened around the file folder. I needed to know why he’d just sat back and let them send him to prison without so much as lifting a finger in his own defense, in defense of his actions. “They weren’t brought up at all,” I said after a quick gulp of air, charging forward.

He glanced at the file, a malevolent glint in his eyes. “So you know everything about me now?” The idea alone seemed to chafe him.

“Not hardly,” I assured.

He thought a long moment before responding. “But everything you want to know is in that file. All neat. Orderly. Small.”

The power of his gaze siphoned the breath from my lungs, and I had to fight for air under the weight of it. “I think you’re underestimating yourself.”

“The only one in this room underestimating me is you.”

The hair on the back of my neck stood up with that statement. “I don’t think so.”

“Gossett didn’t want to leave you alone with me. At least he’s got the sense God gave a walnut.”

I chose not to address his insult. He was angry and taking it out on me. Hadn’t my own father done that very thing only an hour earlier? Men and their inability to cope with their own emotions astounded me. My gaze dropped to his hands, fatigue and stress taking their toll.

He planted an inquisitive stare on me. “You’re not sleeping.”

I blinked in surprise. “I can’t. You’re … there.”

The tension in his shoulders eased ever so slightly and his chin lowered as though ashamed. “I don’t mean to be.”

“I can tell.” His confession stunned me. Though I hid the pain of that statement from my voice, he had to have felt the emotion churning inside me.

“What do you mean?”

“You’re just … you’re angry.” I bit back a surge of humiliation and admitted, “You don’t want to be there, to be with me.”

He looked to the side, annoyed. It gave me a chance to study his profile, fierce and noble at once. Even in a prison uniform, he was the most powerful being I’d ever seen, like a beast who lived on strength and instinct alone.

“I’m not angry because I don’t want to be there, Dutch,” he said, his voice soft, hesitant. He pinned me to the spot with the seriousness of his gaze. “I’m angry because I do.”

Before my heart could soar too high with that tidbit, I decided to address his earlier claims. “This morning when you came to me,” I began, my cheeks suddenly burning in embarrassment, “you said that it was all me. That I’m summoning you. That I’ve always summoned you, but that’s impossible.”

After a long pause that had me almost squirming in my chair, he said, “Someday you’ll figure out what you’re capable of. We’ll talk about it then.” Before I could question him on that front, he spoke again. This time his voice was little more than a harsh whisper. “Unbind me.”

I cringed in reaction. I knew it would come to this. I knew it was the reason he wanted to talk in the first place. Why else? Like he would actually just want to see me. I lowered my head. “I can’t unbind you. I don’t know how.”

“Actually, you do,” he said, watching me with a practiced eye.

I shook my head. “I’ve tried. I just don’t know how.”

The chains rattled against the table as he leaned in. “I won’t—” He glanced at the camera self-consciously. “—I won’t try what I attempted to do the last time you saw me.” Meaning, he wouldn’t try to rid himself of his corporeal body by essentially committing suicide. “You need to know that. You can’t undo what you did unless you trust me.”

“I told you, I tried. I don’t think trust has anything to do with it.”

“Trust has everything to do with it.” He rose from the table, knocking his chair back, and fought visibly to control his emotions.

I raised a hand toward the camera, letting Neil know it was okay; then I stood as well. “I’ll try again,” I said, forcing my voice to stay calm.

“You have to unbind me,” he whispered, his voice laced with desperation.

It occurred to me that this was about more than his being set free. He had a goal, a purpose; I could see it shimmering in his eyes. “Why?”

The heat that forever radiated off him seeped into my clothes and skin, causing a flush of unwanted desire to wash through me. Clearly Reyes had better things to contemplate than me and my pathetic crush.

He stared hard and spoke through clenched teeth. “I have unfinished business. And if you think these chains will keep me from it, you’re gravely mistaken, Dutch.”

Though the table was still between us, I stepped back warily. “Neil will be in here in two seconds.”

He lowered his head, watched me from underneath his dark lashes as though I were a meal. “Do you have any idea what I can do in two seconds?”

The door to the interview room burst open and three guards rushed in, batons in hand. Neil stepped past them and looked from me to Reyes, then back again. “This is over.”

Reyes didn’t lift his head. He just turned it and offered Neil an incredulous stare. The blood drained from Neil’s face, but he stood his ground, impressing everyone in the room who knew what Reyes was. The guards stood oblivious, ready for a fight. They were clearly new.

I’d barely taken a step when Reyes’s attention snapped toward me again. He stood there, so still, my mind conjured a cobra ready to strike.

“I think we’re finished, Neil. Thank you.” My words were breathy with a combination of fear and adrenaline.

Two of the guards stepped forward and took Reyes by the arms to lead him out. To my utter astonishment, he let them, but just before he crossed the threshold, he turned back to me and said, “You leave me no choice.” After a quick glance at Neil, he stepped out and let the men escort him down the hall.

Neil turned an ashen expression on me. “So, it went well?”