Maya Banks - Colters’ Lady

Michael surged to his feet, adrenaline spiking sharp through his veins. Seth came barreling out of the hallway and then ducked into the dining room. He came back out, face set in stone.

“What the hell is wrong?” Michael demanded.

“While you and I were out here discussing Lily, she took off.”

Michael’s eyebrow went up at the urgency in Seth’s voice. “Won’t she be back?”

“No, goddamn it. She’s homeless, Michael. She doesn’t have a place to stay. I found her between two cardboard boxes on the fucking street. She’s scared and alone, and she has no place to go. It took me forever to convince her to come here, and now she’s run scared.” Michael’s stomach bottomed out with a thud. “Homeless? What the fuck?” Seth whirled around like he couldn’t figure out what he needed to do first. He grabbed up his keys and then shoved his feet into his shoes.

“Yeah, homeless. I served her in the soup kitchen yesterday. I volunteer there once a month. She came in and bam. I mean I still don’t know what happened. When she left I followed her because I couldn’t stand the thought of her having no place to go. I found her in an alley, cold and alone.”

“Son of a bitch,” Michael muttered.

Seth pointed a finger at him. “Right now I don’t give a damn about what you feel for her or think you feel. I don’t give a shit about some fucking Colter gene that you think we got from the dads. All I care about is getting her back. Here. Where she belongs. Get your ass out to your Jeep so you can help me look.

Everything else is just going to have to goddamn wait.”

Seth punched in Michael’s cell number as be backed out of the drive. Michael picked up on the first ring.

“She can’t have gone far, Michael. We’ll skirt the perimeter of the house and make our way downtown. She’s probably heading back to the only place she knows.”

“I’ll keep my eyes peeled.”

Seth hung up and focused his attention on the streets. At each intersection, he crawled forward, glancing each way for any sign of her.

For an hour he traversed the streets around his neighborhood, gradually falling away to the cityscape of downtown Denver. She could have caught a bus. She could have walked the entire way. Or she could be at any point in between. Cold. Alone.

Gentle rain began to fall, almost certainly a precursor to sleet and later snow. Seth cursed as he turned his wipers on. Not only would it make it nearly impossible to see her, but now she would be cold and wet with no protection from the elements.

“Where are you, Lily?” he murmured as he turned down a narrow street just a few blocks from the café where he and Lily had hot chocolate. “Why did you run? What are you running from?” At the end of the street, he slammed on the brakes as he was confronted by a sea of flashing blue lights. Patrol cars were everywhere. Two SWAT vans were blocking traffic on two streets. Several unmarked cars were mixed in with the ambulances and fire trucks. It looked like the entire world had gone to hell around him.

Recognizing his lieutenant, Seth jammed the gear into park and then bolted from the truck, dodging through the rain as it slid down his neck.

“ll.T.!” he called as he ran up.

Lieutenant Monday turned, his expression startled as he saw Seth. Then he scowled. “What the hell are you doing here, Colter?”

“What’s going on?” Seth demanded.

Monday rubbed an irritated hand through his hair. “Fucking drug dealers went to war over turf. I wish the fuckers would just kill each other and be done with it, but they insist on taking down innocent civilians with them. I’ve got bodies over eight blocks. Most of them the assholes in question, but I’ve got at least three bystanders in body bags and two more en route to the hospital.”

Seth’s stomach tightened into a knot. “Shit.”

His lieutenant looked up. “Why are you down here?”

“I’m looking for someone. Her name is Lily. Short. Maybe five-one. Short, curly black hair. Vivid blue eyes. If you saw her, you’d remember.”

Monday frowned. “Don’t recall, but then I’ve seen a damn lot of faces today. Check with Houston over there. He has a list of the people we’ve ID’d.”

“Thanks, ll.T.”

Seth hurried over to where Carl Houston stood barking orders into his radio.

“Hey man,” Seth said as Carl turned around. “ll.T. said you have a list of casualties.”

“Looking for someone?”

“Yeah. Young woman named Lily. No last name.”

Carl picked up a clipboard and flipped through the pages. “We have two women accounted for so far.

One is a Jane Doe. Older. Bag lady found dead in an alley. Caught in crossfire. Other is a hooker named Star.”

Relief crushed him. “Okay, thanks, Carl.”

Seth turned to walk away, and Carl called out to him. “Hey, what are you doing out here anyway?” Seth ignored him and kept on going. He flashed his badge at the group of officers who had cordoned off the street and then ducked under the tape to get back into his truck.

He punched Michael’s number and hoped to hell his brother was having better luck than he was.

Michael ignored the angry horns as he slowed to a stop to look down the intersection. Sirens in the distance told him something big was going down. Probably a downtown pile-up. He shuddered as he accelerated toward the next block. He hated the city. Hated traffic. Hated people. Most people anyway.

Animals were much better company.

He found a place to park curbside and got out, pulling his jacket up around his ears. He’d never see anything from the truck in this weather, and he could get into the nooks and crannies on foot.

His phone rang, and he pulled it out of his pocket.

“Any luck?” Seth demanded.

“No. I just got out to search on foot. Rain makes it hard to see shit.”

“Be careful. Fucking drug dealers had a turf war. It’s going to make finding Lily even harder with everything in chaos.”

“I’ll holler if I find her,” Michael said before punching the end button.

He frowned as he turned down another side street and shivered as rain slid down his neck. It was crazy that he was turning downtown Denver over looking for a woman he’d spent all of a few minutes with. Even more insane that his heart was about to pound out of his chest over the thought of not finding her.

After an hour, he was clenching his teeth in frustration. He strode through an alley that cut between two of the main streets and almost missed her.

He caught movement from the corner of his eye and stopped in midstride, his gaze drawn to the small woman huddled against the side of a dumpster, her head down to her knees.

Adrenaline spiked in his veins. The hairs prickled at his nape in sudden awareness. It was her. It had to be her. She wore a worn, knit cap but her rain-slicked hair peeked from the edges.

She’d made herself into the smallest ball she could manage, and it had almost worked. He would have walked right by her, and many others probably already had, never seeing her and if they did, they didn’t care.

“Lily?”

She reacted violently to her name. Her head came up, and wide, frightened eyes met his.

Automatically she surged up as if to flee.

“Lily, it’s me, Michael. Seth’s brother. Remember? I’m not going to hurt you. I’m here to help you.” Slowly she slid back down the wall, one hand going to the cracked pavement. The other arm she held tight against her chest in a gesture that screamed self-protection.

“Why are you here?”

He crouched down so he could look her in the eye. “I want you to come back with me, Lily. Seth is worried. I’m worried. You don’t need to be out here. It’s cold and raining. You’re going to make yourself sick.”

She stared at him, her eyes cloudy with confusion. “I’m used to it.”

“But you don’t have to be.”

“It was only for one night,” she whispered.

“It doesn’t have to be.”

She cocked her head, unease sliding across her face. He ran his fingers gently over her cheekbone.

Whether she meant to or not, she nuzzled into his palm and closed her eyes.

The gesture told him a lot. He also knew the moment she realized her slip. She stiffened and drew away, but not before he saw the longing in her gaze.

In a lot of ways she reminded him of the animals he loved so much. Wary. But starved for love and affection. Both needed an extremely gentle hand.

He tried a different tack. “Lily, honey, it’s cold and wet out here. Seth is running all over downtown freezing his ass off, and he’s worried sick about you. Come with me so we can all get out of the weather.

I’ll make some hot chocolate and we’ll get you into some dry clothes. My hot chocolate is better than Seth’s anyway.”

She frowned and shifted slightly then grimaced. His brow furrowed as he stared at her in question.

“Are you all right? Are you hurt?”

She shook her head. “No. No, I’m fine.”

He held out his hand to her, hoping she’d take it, that she’d agree to come with him. He hadn’t exaggerated the fact that it was damn cold.

Instead of slipping her hand into his, she pushed herself upward with the hand on the ground but kept the other arm tight against her chest. Her posture was awkward, and his frown deepened as she staggered to her feet.

For a moment she stood, hand resting against the wall of the alleyway, and she leaned, head bowed as if catching her breath.

He waited, not wanting to press her, but he held his breath as he watched to see if she’d agree to come with him.