“No.”
“Bring me the tape. Well, leave it in a plastic bag next to the dumpster at that shopping center where I wanted you to bring them.”
There was a moment’s hesitation before Channing said, “Yes sir.”
“And how did they get the better of you at the B and B?” Harold asked.
“They spotted us, then made a tricky move. She acted like she didn’t see me, and he snuck up behind and brained me.”
Harold thought for a few minutes. He could yell at this guy. He could bring him in and kill him. But that would be counterproductive because he’d just have to find someone else to do the work.
“After you drop off the tape, I want you to go to Houma, Louisiana, and stake out a building in the business district.” He gave the address. “I expect they are going to show up there.”
He thought about what had apparently happened in the van and what he thought might be going on with the children who had been born because of their mothers’ treatment at the Solomon Clinic.
“When you catch them, make sure you separate them. I don’t want them touching each other. Understood?”
“Yes, sir,” Channing answered.
We have to strengthen our powers,Craig said.
How?
When Stephanie caught the suggestion forming in Craig’s mind, she gave him a doubtful look.
Don’t you think that will be effective?he asked.
Probably.
Before she could make any decisions on her own, he took her out of bed and into the bathroom, where he turned on the shower and let the water run hot before helping her into the tile enclosure where a rain shower sent a torrent down on her.
The heated water turned her skin slick and sensitive, and her whole body tightened as he pulled her close.
For long moments, he simply held her, the two of them standing together under the pounding spray.
From behind her, he began to run soap-slick hands over her back and shoulders. As they glided with a total absence of resistance, they sent heat vibrating through her body.
He turned her in his arms and brought his mouth to hers for a heated kiss while he angled her upper body away from his so that he could stroke his soap-slick hands over her breasts, turning her nipples into taut peaks of sensation.
She squeezed her eyes closed, focused only on Craig Branson and the sensations he was creating—and the thoughts pouring from him as he told her how much it meant to him to have found her, how much he wanted her, how much he loved her.
Love.
The word stunned her. She had never expected to love anyone. She hadn’t even loved her parents, she silentlyacknowledged, which was probably why she had let her father persuade her to marry the wrong man.
But everything had changed.
I love you,she answered him, sure it was true, even though she had known him for such a short time. But what had happened between them had changed her life. Had changed everything.
He lowered his mouth to hers for a long hungry kiss as his hand stroked down the length of her bare back, sending heat shooting through her as he caressed her bare bottom.
As his hands slid over her, wet heat pooled between her legs. She knew he felt it, felt it in his own body. And she felt the fullness of his arousal, felt his need to join with her.
The intensity built, pulsing through her and through him in time to the wild beating of their hearts.
She knew what he wanted her to do. Following his lead, she slicked her hand with soap and wrapped her fingers around his jutting erection, starting with a teasing stroke that drew a strangled breath from him. When she closed her fingers tightly around him, the breath turned into a moan.
Looking down, she grinned at the effect she had created. He’d been fully aroused when she’d started. Now he was impossibly hard.
