“Nice shirt,” Gaby said.

  “She won’t be long,” Luther said as he stepped into the foyer, “because we have a date. Isn’t that right, Gaby?”

  Groaning, Gaby seriously considered strangling Mort for holding her up.

  Or maybe she’d let him hold her up.

  Whatever. The ramifications of her delay sucked. She had Mort chafing behind her, and Luther provoking in front of her.

  Without looking at either one, Gaby said to both men, “I’ll be back when I’m back,” and she shoved her way around Luther.

  He let her pass, but damn it, Gaby saw the disappointment on his face, and she saw the damn gift bag in his hand.

  A gift. For her?

  Never in her twenty-one years had anyone given her anything before. What could it be? Gaby racked her brain for gift-type items, but she was as clueless in that as she’d been in other matters that involved normal people. She couldn’t see Luther buying her clothes, and the small bag couldn’t have held flowers or chocolates.

  Even Luther wasn’t lame enough to buy her any jewelry. Any fool could see she didn’t wear it.

  So…what?

  Not that it mattered; whatever it might be, she couldn’t accept it.

  She didn’t dare.

  Legs stiff and stride maddened, Gaby went across the sun-baked blacktop street and down a few blocks until the apartment building was out of sight. The nerves in her face pinched and her eyes burned. They were unfamiliar feelings, and she didn’t like them.

  Heading toward an empty park bench, Gaby trotted on. She was too antsy to sit, so she dropped her shoulder against the metal lamppost in front of the bench, near the curb, and venomously crossed her arms.

  The sun baked against her back, dust blew up on her toes, and she sulked in silence until she spotted a hooker. It was the same one she’d seen from her apartment window. The woman leaned into a car passenger window, and Gaby could see her thong underwear.

  Disgusting.

  The driver, pulled up beneath the shade of a large elm tree, kept the engine idling. Eventually, the hooker opened the door and climbed into the car. The man driving gave a quick look around, then adjusted himself—and pushed the woman’s head down.

  Gaby narrowed her eyes and, leaving the lamppost, crept forward. She looked up and down the street, darted around traffic, and gained the opposite sidewalk where the car idled.

  Not bothering with discretion, she walked up to the driver’s window and looked in.

  Irritated, irked, and angry, Luther watched Gaby disappear down the street. He wouldn’t chase her down. He’d done that enough already.

  Mort came up to stand beside him. “I’m worried about her.”

  “Don’t waste your time.”

  “Can’t help it.” Hemming and hawing, his hands in his pockets, Mort said, “She’s different, ya know? Most of the stuff she does isn’t meant as an insult. It’s just…she doesn’t know any other way.”

  Luther sighed. “I know.”

  “You scare her.”

  Luther grunted.

  “I do, too, I think, but I’m not sure. Might just be that I annoy her.”

  Glancing down at Mort, Luther felt compelled to say, “She’s lucky to have your friendship.”

  “Nah. I’m the lucky one and I know it.” He stepped back from the door. “You want something to drink? Some coffee? I can put on fresh. While it’s brewing I can check the store to make sure the guy I hired is doing okay. It won’t take me long.”

  “Sure.” Luther came in and closed the door behind him. “Do you lock this during the day now?”

  “Yep.” Rattling a keychain that hung from a belt loop on his pants, Mort added, “Gaby and I have keys, but if she forgot hers, we’ll be here when she comes back.”

  “If she comes back.” Luther flipped the deadbolt.

  “She will.” Mort headed into his apartment. “She hasn’t eaten all day. Sooner or later she’ll show up for food.”

  Mort went about rinsing out the carafe and preparing more coffee. Luther drew out a chair. He put the borrowed graphic novel on Mort’s table. “I finished it.”

  After glancing back to see what Luther meant, Mort grinned. “Awesome, huh?”

  Interesting plotline and characters, to say the least. It was a page-turner, an edge-of-your-seat reading adventure. The illustrations were incredible.

  But on one level, elements of the novel had disturbed Luther. “I wanted to talk to you about something, but I need your promise you’ll keep it private, especially from Gaby.”

  Mort went still, his hands hovering over the coffee machine, his shoulders stiff. Then he broke into inane chatter and nervous activity. “Yeah. I mean sure. Let me check the store first and we can talk when I come back.”

  He rushed off before Luther could decipher the crux of his anxiety. Surely keeping a secret from Gaby wouldn’t send him into vapors.

  And thinking of Gaby, as if he ever did anything else, what the hell was her problem?

  While waiting for Mort to return, Luther simmered in his own discontent. How dare she rush off right before he was due to arrive? It couldn’t have been more obvious that she wanted to avoid him, that she didn’t intend to honor his wish to take her out.

  Damned bothersome brat.

  He should give her a taste of her own medicine and leave before she returned.

  But she’d probably be relieved, not distressed, and damned if he’d do anything to assist her in her efforts to deceive him.

  One way or another, he would figure out the elusive Gabrielle Cody.

  Mort inched back into the room. “So.” He cleared his throat. “Everything’s fine at the store. Lots of sales today. Everyone loves a good graphic novel.”

  “Good. I’m glad your business is doing well.”

  Tension eased from Mort’s shoulders. He went to a cabinet and retrieved two mugs. “Want a cookie? I bought some at the bakery yesterday. I thought they’d tempt Gaby into eating, but they didn’t.”

  “Tempt her?”

  Mort filled the mugs. “She hasn’t taken a meal that I know of in two days. I don’t know how she stays on her feet.”

  “That’s probably why she’s so thin.”

  “Yeah.” Mort set the mugs on the table and opened a drawer to get the cookies. “Probably why she’s so surly all the time, too.”

  Luther indulged a cautious sip of the coffee before looking at Mort over the rim. “That’s just her temperament and we both know it.”

  Grinning, Mort shrugged. “I suppose.”

  “And that brings us full circle. Can I have your word that you won’t share what I have to say with Gaby?”

  “Yeah, I guess. That is, I mean, she won’t ask me about it anyway, right? She won’t know that I know whatever you plan to say?”

  Luther took his measure. “What’s the matter, Mort? Are you afraid she’ll beat it out of you if she knows?”

  “She wouldn’t have to. I’m a sucky liar. Guilt always shows on my face.”

  Luther flipped over the Servant novel he’d borrowed. “She won’t know.” He turned the comic toward Mort. “You say you’ve been reading these for a while now.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Haven’t you noticed any similarities?”

  “To what?”

  Suppressing his suffering at Mort’s obtuseness, Luther sighed. “To Gaby. The heroine in the graphic novel and Gaby share some unique personality traits.”

  “No way.” Mort looked dumbstruck.

  “Yes, way, Mort. Check it out.” Luther flipped to a certain page. “I know she doesn’t look like Gaby, but haven’t you seen that exact expression on her?”

  “Actually…” Mort drew the novel around and closer. “Yeah. I have.”

  Going out on a limb, hoping he could trust Mort, Luther ventured, “Do you think it’s possible that Gaby emulates the character?”

  Mort’s jaw went slack.

  “Maybe,” Luther continued, “given her unconventional upbringing, she didn’t have anyone to look up to, so she chose a fictional character.”

  “A kick-ass invincible character.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Geez. I don’t know.” Going back to the novel, Mort turned a page, then another. Eyes wide, he gazed up at Luther with crestfallen chagrin. “Anything’s possible, I suppose.

  “It would explain a lot.”

  Falling back in his seat, Mort slumped. “Yeah, it would.” He rubbed at his eyes. “Only thing is, I’ve never seen Gaby read the series. I’ve never seen her read anything, really.”

  “That doesn’t mean she hasn’t.”

  “No. She’s so damn private.”

  “So secretive,” Luther prompted. “Here’s what I want you to do.”

  “Do?” New alarm drew Mort back upright at the table.

  “Relax. It’s nothing to unnerve you.” Luther cleared the table between them and leaned forward to engage Mort’s confidence. “I want you to keep an eye on her, that’s all. Especially when the next novel comes out. After you’ve read it, watch for similarities between the characters and things Gaby says happen in her life and how she reacts. If you notice anything, let me know.”

  “Oh.” Relieved, Mort composed himself. “Yeah, I can do that.”

  “Great.” Luther glanced at his watch. Gaby had been gone only fifteen minutes, but that put her past the time he’d set. He should leave. Just walk out the door and not come back.

  But he knew he couldn’t.

  Some innate incorruptibility beneath Gaby’s ballsy, indomitable exterior compelled Luther to keep chipping away at her defenses.

  He finished off his coffee and stood. “I have to go, Mort.”

  “Go?” Mort rose, too. “But where? I thought—”

  “I’m going to go find her.”

  “Oh.” Mort followed him to the door. “She won’t like that.”

  Luther grinned. “Yeah, I know.”

  “But you’re going to anyway?”

  “That’s right.” He dug a business card from his pocket. “Do me a favor. If she shows back up before I’ve returned, give me a call on my cell. But don’t tell Gaby.”

  “If I told her, she wouldn’t let me call you.”

  “Right.” Luther clapped him on the shoulder. “Thanks for everything, Mort. You’ve been a big help.”

  Morty glowed beneath the praise. “Glad I could lend a hand.” He leaned out the door as Luther went down the steps. “Luther?”

  Luther turned back. “Yeah?”

  “Gaby is a good girl and she has a really enormous heart. It doesn’t always show, but it’s there.” He tapped the business card against his thigh. “To tell you the truth, she’s the best person I’ve ever met.”

  “I know,” Luther said, and oddly enough, he meant it. Then, as much to himself as to Mort, he added, “She’s also the saddest. But I plan to change that.”

  Morty nodded. “Good luck, Luther. I have a feeling you’re going to need it.”

  Chapter 15

  The girl whined and sniveled, drawing forth a modicum of sympathy—but not nearly enough to thwart plans already in the works. The doctor tightened latex-covered fingers in her hair. Surgical gloves came in handy for hiding fingerprints, and adding extra traction to a grip.

  “Don’t you understand? Gaby Cody has to go before she ruins everything. And you’re going to help me. Crying about it won’t change anything.”

  Between meager, gasping breaths, the girl pleaded, “Please…”

  The laugh came without humor. “You’re beseeching me for pity?” The fist tightened, snapping off hairs, pulling at the scalp so that whimpers turned to hysterical squeals.

  But here, deep in the woods, no one would know.

  No one would come.

  No one would care.

  “Stupid child. Your wishes mean nothing to me. There are grander purposes at play here beyond your pathetic life.”

  “Oh God—”

  A harsh slap cut off the prayer. “Enough.”

  As a red-welted handprint rose, the girl gulped down her noisy pathos.

  Uncaring if she understood or not, the doctor verbalized concerns. “Attempts to get rid of the cop haven’t worked—because of Gaby. Instead of the officer keeping Gaby safe, it was the other way around.”

  The doctor paced—and dragged the girl along with each step.

  “I need you to ensure that neither Gaby nor the cop will breach my dedicated plans. They can’t trespass where I work. They can’t hinder my sacred experiments.” Stopping, the doctor drew the girl up. “They absolutely cannot meddle with scientific medicine.”

  After Gaby had damn near blundered onto a disposal in the woods, further experiments had been halted. It didn’t matter that the disposal had been necessary and right. Anyone could see that the cancer had run amok and decimated all functioning brain cells.

  But a woman like Gaby Cody wouldn’t see it that way.

  She wouldn’t understand that the host body had become too unpredictable, too loud and unstable.

  Someone like Gaby, a simple woman instead of a brilliant doctor, would never accept that it was best—even humane—to remove all life from the skeletal remains that had once been a person.

  Remembering infuriated the doctor to a dangerous degree. Both fists tangled in the girl’s hair, wrenching her head back, sending hot salty tears to leak down her bloodless cheeks.

  “No more interference can be tolerated.”

  Wracking tremors coursed through the girl. “Okay,” she whispered. “Please. I’ll do whatcha want. I swear I will.”

  “Of course. I believe you.” The grip softened. Fingers brushed the girl’s pallid skin, moved over her quivering lips, swollen and damp. She was plump and round, with so much lush flesh to feed, to breed…In other circumstances, she’d have made a great addition to the experiments. “Hush now. Hush.”

  Sobbing, she didn’t fight the doctor’s embrace, and obediently put her head atop a comforting shoulder when guided to do so. “You’re destined for great things, child. You’ll be assisting in an exalted scientific breakthrough against diseases, a puissant force in the scheme of future life and death.”

  But first, Gaby Cody had to go.

  “Now, listen carefully to what I want you to do. If you do everything exactly right, I might let you live.”

  The girl collapsed to her knees, nodding, sniveling.

  “If you falter, if you in any way break from my instruction, I’ll make you regret it more than you can even imagine.”

  Gaby watched the byplay in the car with interest. The guy had his eyes closed and his head back—and his slacks around his knees.

  Huh. So this was what that rapist had hoped to do to the girl? Only the girl hadn’t been willing, and this whore, given her squirming and enthusiastic slurping, categorically was. Her head bobbed and Gaby heard the most obnoxious sounds.

  Her stomach lurched.

  Then her muscles tightened.

  Suddenly the driver opened his eyes and saw her. At first, he went still with shock, and then in a flurry of motion he shoved the whore away and tried to readjust his pants.

  Gaby barely saw him. Drawn inward, she focused on an increasing, familiar pain.

  A calling.

  Finally.

  Just as the last few had, this summons came on her with the force of a tsunami. She needed privacy. She needed time to accept and welcome the anguish that would guide her.

  Through the recesses of her mind, she heard the man shouting. “What the fuck is wrong with you, lady?”

  Everything.

  Gaby shook her head and managed to move her legs enough to back away. She could see, but only in tunnel vision, directly ahead of her, and what she saw was a very angry male who’d had his pleasure interrupted.

  Tough. If he didn’t back off, and quick, she’d lay him low by habit, and then the poor schmuck would know real agony. When Gaby put a man down, he tended to stay down for a while.

  “Get lost,” Gaby tried to tell him.

  “You interrupted me, bitch. If you wanted to join, you should have asked. Otherwise—”

  Gaby took one more step away from the fuming man, ready to brace for an attack

  She bumped into something hard.

  Something familiar.

  Strong arms went around her. Oh shit.

  “Luther?”

  “Shhh. I’ve got you.”

  He really did. He had her hook, line, and sinker and she might as well quit fighting it. Even now, with Luther close, the pain became manageable. His effect on her was such that even in the grip of a calling, her vision expanded, her senses opened to her surroundings instead of her inward torment.

  Somehow, some way, Luther clarified things.

  Into the line of Gaby’s vision came Luther’s arm, muscles bunched, knuckles white. “You.” He pointed at the man in front of Gaby. “Back off right now.”

  The man didn’t. “Just who the hell are you?”

  “Detective Luther Cross.”

  “Oh.” The man backpedaled. “Hey, I didn’t know. I was minding my own business when—”

  His voice a mean snarl, Luther shoved him farther back and said, “Get in your car, and drive.”

  “Right. Sure.” The man hesitated, eyeing Gaby with the same fascination he might give a strange animal in the zoo. “Is she fucked up in the head or something?”

  Gaby would have flattened the man for that, but Luther reached for him first. Using only his left arm—because his right still held her—he hauled the man up to his tiptoes and rattled his brains.

  Poor Luther. He seemed as much in the grip of an overpowering force as Gaby herself. Not wanting him to suffer the same lack of control, Gaby collected herself enough to stop him. “He’s not worth it, Luther. You know that.”

  Luther paused. She heard his deeply indrawn breath, then watched as he shoved the idiot away, sending him to sprawl backward on the sidewalk.

  Gaby smirked as the man scuttled up and into his car with prodigious haste. “Jerk.”

  Luther’s hands cupped her face and he looked at her. “You’re okay?”

  Oddly enough, the pain blanched, then neutralized as if faded away. Never had that happened before. “I don’t know. I don’t understand.”