Page 52 of Encircled in Darkness
Chapter 16
James
Iheld Amaya as sheslept - soothing and caressing her whenever she would whimper or twitch in her sleep. She had broken down in my arms and I expected her to fall apart many times before she found her way back from the fucked-up situation she’d lived through. Staring at the ceiling, I felt her snuggle deeper into my chest and the monster purred happily.
Closing my eyes, she settled against me, still and silent, and I exhaled the worried breath I’d been holding. I fell into a dreamless slumber, not wanting to miss her needing me, even when she was asleep. The phone ringing startled Amaya awake, and she sought her phone in a groggy panic.
I kissed her and silenced the ringing as she snuggled back under the covers. Feeling her naked body pressed against mine, I read the text and glanced at her. Not knowing exactly what Devlin needed me for at almost five in the morning, I urged her to go back to sleep before I went into the living room.
Looking at the text again, three simple words stared at me.
Devlin: Get to three.
I pulled on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt from the clean basket of clothes in the washroom and wrote Amaya a note. Gripping my phone tightly, I left her alone in the apartment and took the stairs to the third floor. Pressing my code into the keypad, I waved my watch over the security sensor and walked into the server room.
Devlin was sitting with Freddie and Skid at the bank of monitors when I walked in. All three looked to me and I couldn’t tell if they had good news or bad and on instinct, I went on alert. Pulling the phone out of my pocket, I used the app to see Amaya moving to the back patio with a cup of coffee and the note sitting on the kitchen counter.
Skid stood and walked into the kitchen, returning with a green smoothie as Devlin sipped on a cup of black coffee. I sat down with them and Devlin crinkled his nose.
“Why do you insist on drinking those nasty fucking things? I swear they look like liquid grass clippings and smell like baby shit.” He made a disgusted face as I finished it and tossed the cup into the trash.
“They fuel the machine. You should try it. Maybe Elise would appreciate you having more... stamina.” I chuckled and Skid barked a laugh into the chilly room.
“My lamb gets all the stamina she could ever want.” He smirked and set his empty cup on the table.
I held my hand up, not needing the conversation about my sister to go any further. His shoulders shook with delight before his entire demeanor changed. Leaning forward, he rested his forearms on his knees. I knew my brother and for him to be away from Elise in the middle of the night, even two floors below her, it was serious.
“Did you ever run the DNA test on Amaya?” he asked, his blue eyes locked with mine.
Confused, I shook my head. “No, I didn’t. From what I learned about her mother, there were too many men to be a possibility, and I never wanted her to know what kind of deplorable mother she really had. Why?” My tone was deadly, and I clenched my hands, feeling they had kept something hidden from me and suddenly becoming defensive.
Devlin turned to Freddie and nodded. I looked at Freddie and tilted my head, my eyes narrowed, waiting for him to tell me what the fuck was going on.
“When I went to gather her stuff from the car and plan for it to be towed to the storage lot, I took a sample of blood from the steering wheel. I wanted to make sure it was hers and not whoever took her, and I had my contact run the sample on a rush. The results came back and when they did, they made a connection to someone in our system. I called Devlin and he asked for us to come in to verify the results.”
Leaning forward, I looked to Skid, who had a small smile on his face as he ran his hand through the long top of his hair. Crossing his arms, his eyes lit up and I glanced at Devlin. My brother had a rare smile on his face, and I questioned him.
