Page 17 of The Devil's Viking

“Huh,” he said. “Interesting.”

Guardian Zachariah was looking to his left down the hallway and Gideon heard approaching footsteps. “Master?”

“What else?”

“Briley Cross is here, Master.”

“Ah, yes. You may go. Wait downstairs.”

Guardian Zachariah bowed, then backed away: nobody turned their backs on Gideon, not ever. It was a rule that was strictly, rigorously, violently enforced.

After his Right-Guardian had gone, Gideon sat silent and for a full minute, observing Briley standing in the doorway, knowing that the scrutiny made her uncomfortable and jumpy. He liked knowing that, and he liked putting her firmly in her place right from the get-go. It was always important to remind her that although she was a respected police officer out in the world, a strong woman who could take down a man twice her size, here in this room she was just another one of Gideon’s toys. Just a dumb whore who carried out his will and bowed to his wishes.

“Well?” he said at last. “What did you find out?”

“The traffic cam footage shows seven vehicles last night that don’t belong to anyone in town,” Briley said without preamble. She knew better than to do anything more than just answer his questions. “Four of them entered the town limits and went straight through and out again, while the other three stopped. The time stamps between their entrance and exit of the limits are several hours in one case, and two days apart for the other two.”

“Show me the three vehicles that stopped and stayed.”

She nodded her blonde head and approached him, holding an iPad. “I made a copy on here for you.” She stood beside him, trying not to get too close. Lazily, taking his time and making his point, he ran his hand up and over her firm ass and although she jumped, she said nothing. “This is the first car.”

“No.”

“…No?”

“No. I’m not looking for a car.” He slid his hand down the backs of her thighs and between her legs, his other hand moved to his cock. “A truck or a van.”

“OK,” she said. Her whole body tensed as he started to rub himself and he smiled as she forced herself to relax. “Well, this one looks like a long-haul trucker who stopped at the Gibson Motel for two days. I asked Meredith at the front desk, and she told me that the guy had engine trouble and so Bob fixed it for him down at the garage. He left town around seven o’clock last night.”

“No. It’s too big of a vehicle. Also, that’s far too early in the evening.”

“So that leaves this one.” She fast-forwarded the video several minutes. “Here. A black van.”

His hands stilled. “Where did it stop? Where did it go?”

“I prepared notes about all that for you. They’re all here in the file called ‘G’.”

“Did you?” he said in a low voice. “Such a good girl.”

“The thing is that the video quality isn’t great, so you can’t see the license plate number. I’m sorry, Gideon.”

“Hmmmm.” He undid his button and zipper, pulled his thick, hard cock out of his pants. “What are we going to do about that, Officer Cross?”

“I’ll check it with some software at work,” she said, knowing full well that the question was double-edged; she was already resigned to what was going to happen in the next few minutes, and Gideon loved that despite her belonging to the world outside the Garden, he was slowly wearing her down to nothing more than an object. “It can really zoom in on details without losing too much quality. I can probably get at least a partial plate for you.”

“That would be very helpful. Now…” He reached for her long ponytail and gripped it hard, then leaned back in his chair. “Get on your knees.”

**

Ten minutes later, Briley was gone and Gideon was staring at the video intently. He squinted as hard as he could, but he couldn’t make out the van driver’s face at all.

His main goal was retrieving his runaway property, of course, but because of Guardian Noah’s photo, Gideon found his interest in the driver piqued. Whoever he was, he had been in those woods for more than just picking up Gideon’s wayward woman-servant – and it looked like the driver’s other reasons were possibly criminal. Gideon would have some of his Guardians dig up the ground, see what had been thrown down there and covered up. Maybe they’d unearth something useful.

For the moment, Gideon could say that he knew one definitive thing about the man who had helped Iris flee the Garden. According to Briley’s detailed notes about the white-and-green license plates with the distinctive Rockies image, the driver was from Colorado.

It wasn’t much to go on, but it was a start.

Chapter Seven

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