The Missing

aware of that than me.”

    With a grimace, Taige murmured, “I don’t know.” Jones hadn’t shown up, but she knew it was just a matter of time. He knew there was something strange about Cullen’s daughter, otherwise he probably wouldn’t be on this case. Strange was his specialty. Taige wasn’t so certain that boded well for the little girl. “Jones is going to want to talk to her.”

    “He’s already tried.” A weird sense of déjà vu moved through her as he added, “That boss of yours is an asshole. He wants to talk to her, but neither the doctor nor I are willing to let him wake her. He wasn’t too thrilled with it.”

    Shaking it off, she glanced up at him and said, “He will need to talk to her.”

    Cullen blew out a harsh breath. “Yeah. I know. And if she can, I want her to help. I don’t want another parent going through . . .” His gaze locked with hers.

    The weird sense of déjà vu exploded into something else entirely. Something that shook her to the core. His eyes narrowed, and he reached up, caught her chin in his hand, staring at her.

    She was pale, and Cullen thought she looked every bit as shaken as he felt. “The dreams,” he muttered. He caught her face in his hands and forced her to look at him, staring into her pale gray eyes. The ugly, dark bruise around her left eye made her iris seem that much paler, and as he watched, the pupil flared, enlarging until just a sliver of gray was visible.

    Taige tried to jerk away, and he wouldn’t let her. “You had the dreams, too, didn’t you?” he demanded.

    Her voice shook as she reached up with one hand to jerk on his wrist, trying to break his hold. “Let go of me.”

    Slowly, he shook his head. “You have,” he whispered, dismay spreading through him. Dismay—and something else. She’d always held herself apart from him in those dreams. But through those dreams, he’d gotten to know her, gotten to know the woman she had become. She was pulling away from him not because she was angry at him or because she didn’t want anything to do with him.

    She pulled back because she still loved him.

    She hadn’t ever stopped. That knowledge hit his system with the equivalent of an electric charge, setting his blood on fire and making him itch to touch her, to pull her close and cover her trembling mouth with his. He leaned in, desperate to kiss her—for real, this time, not just through some dream connection. As hot, as powerful as those dreams had seemed to him, it wasn’t the same as really touching her.

    Slowly, he slanted his mouth over hers, using his grip on her hair to angle her head up and back. He didn’t close his eyes; after this long, he wanted to see her, wanted to see if he affected her the same way she still affected him. Her lashes fluttered over her eyes, and she moaned into his mouth, a hungry, kittenish sound. Slowly, he pushed his tongue into her mouth and gorged on the taste of her. Too damn long, he thought distantly.

    God . . . Taige . . .

    He wished they were someplace else—wished things were different so he could have the time to hold her the way he wanted, time to strip her naked and make love to her, over and over, until the ache inside him eased. Until he’d erased the pain from her eyes, and, maybe, magically undone the damage he’d done to her all those years ago.

    But instead, he pulled away, slowly, his lips lingering on hers until he had to either step back or lose control.

    He pushed a hand through his hair and swore, his voice shaking. “Damn it, Taige.”

    She swallowed. He could see her throat working as she did it, and then she licked her lips, her lids drooping as though his taste affected her, just like her taste was enough to turn him into a raving lunatic. “What are we going to do about this?” he asked, his voice quiet but intense. He stared at her, waiting for her to look at him.

    But instead, she turned away. Walked away. She reached the door, and without looking back at him, she said softly, “Nothing, Cullen. There’s nothing to do.” She started to open it, and then she stopped.

    She did look at him this time. One quick glance. “Jones is going to try to get your daughter.”

    Startled, Cullen repeated blankly, “Get?”

    Taige nodded. “He came looking for me in college. He’s recruited some kids straight out of high school, and I’ve heard rumors that the FBI finds some kids even younger than Jillian and watches them, waits for them to grow up,