Touch (Denazen #1)(29)

I watched Alex cringe as she reached up to run a finger through his spiky, white-blond hair. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Kale pick up Alex’s beer. He took a sip and set it down. A moment later he picked it back up and downed the entire thing.

“I’m not—” I started.

“Not going to share?” She gave a mock pout. “You don’t need both of them, do you? It wouldn’t be fair to the rest of us girls if you held both these droolables hostage!”

Hostage…

Maybe that was the answer!

First, I needed to get rid of Little Miss Gropey. I snaked one arm around Kale’s waist and the other, though it pained me to do it, I draped across Alex’s shoulder. “Actually, I am being selfish, but I need ’em both.”

A little disappointed, she gave me a knowing grin. “I’ll bet!” She stood and leaned over the table, winking. She was about to leave, but hesitated, squinting at me. “You’re Dez, right? Aren’t you the girl who did Troy Beldom and Mickey Doon at the Deerfield party last week?”

Oops. I’d started the rumor the day after the party by telling bigmouth Markie Fray. Markie’s mom was Dad’s secretary at the law firm, and I knew the news would get back to him. It’d only taken forty-eight hours for him to bust through the door and lecture me about being the town train. Score one for me. I’d gotten a reaction.

With one last, longing look at Alex, Erica stumbled off in search of more promising prey. Alex pried my hand from his shoulder and glared. Disgusted, he said, “Seriously? Beldom and Doon?”

I bit down on my tongue and slipped both hands under my butt to keep from punching him. “Is there anyone here you trust? Not like casually trust, either. I’m talking trust with your life.”

He thought about it for a minute. “I’d bet my ass on Dax’s loyalty.”

“Is this Dax guy here now?”

Alex pointed to the door, where a tall, well-muscled man in his mid-twenties was entering. Cleanly shaven head and dressed in black from head to toe, he looked like the kind of guy you’d cross the street to avoid. “That’s him.”

I smiled, my devious little mind already working out the scheme. “Oh my God, he’s perfect!”

“For what?” Kale asked, horrified.

“To kidnap me.”

§

The phone rang five times before Dad bothered picking up. Obviously, he wasn’t waiting by the phone with bated breath for his MIA teen daughter to call. I tried to ignore it, but the hurt stuck in my throat. Like trying to swallow stale bread. “Hello?”

“Dad!” I cried, but Dax took the phone from me. He stepped across the room as Alex threw a chair at the wall. I cried out, and Alex yelled for me to shut the hell up. I had a hard time not laughing.

Next to me, Kale picked up his own chair and copied Alex. He heaved it against the wall and turned to me, smiling. “That was fun!” he half whispered.

After Erica left, Kale had ordered another beer. I was pretty sure we were witnessing his first buzz. I fought a grin and tried to focus on my impending abduction.

“Keep quiet and listen to what I have to say, Cross,” Dax hissed into the phone as he paced the other side of the room. We’d moved away from the party to one of the office rooms on the second level. Everything was coated in thick layers of dust. “Obviously, we have your kid.”

Dax was silent for a moment—probably listening to Dad’s colorful reply.

“This will not work,” Kale whispered. “He doesn’t care about anyone. He will agree and double-cross us.”

We’d never gotten along, but up until I found out what he’d done to my mom, I would have disagreed with Kale. He was my dad after all. He wanted me safe. But now? Now I worried Kale might be right, but I didn’t know what else to do. I had to get on Dad’s good side. This was the only thing I could think of.

“He won’t be able to,” Alex said, leaning against the wall. “Dax would see it.”

It hadn’t occurred to me to ask about Dax’s gift. “He sees the future?”

Alex shook his head. “When he hears someone’s voice, he can see their true intentions play out in pictures inside his head.”

I blushed. It’s a good thing he hadn’t been there when I’d been dancing with Kale.

“What I offer is a trade,” I heard Dax saying. “I will exchange your daughter for two of the prisoners you have in your custody. Monica and Mona Fleet.”

I raised an eyebrow in question at Alex. He leaned in and whispered, “They’re Dax’s twin nieces. They were taken three years ago from their schoolyard. They were only six years old at the time.”

“Jesus…”

“Monica was a very brave little girl,” Kale said, turning to watch Dax. I could tell the older man heard him because his shoulders stiffened and his pacing stopped. “She resisted Denazen’s training. Mona begged her to do what they asked, but she wouldn’t.”

On the other side of the room, Dax was as still as a corpse—probably listening to my dad argue two wasn’t a fair trade for one—but he was staring straight at Kale.

Kale turned away. “They separated them after that. I saw Mona several times, but never saw Monica again.”

We waited while Dax made arrangements and finished the call. Obviously, they’d come to some agreement. When he hung up, Dax crept across the room with slow deliberation, brown eyes fixed on mine. I told myself his expression, a mix of pain and anger, wasn’t meant for me, but I couldn’t help feeling like it was.