Finding Eden (27 page)

"Calder, Calder," I moaned out. There was so much I wanted to say, but none of it would organize itself in my brain. He was holding me hostage on the edge of orgasm and it was glorious and torturous. I was rendered completely useless when it came to any words other than his name.

Calder stroked into me again several times, his thumbs still rubbing over my sensitive nipples. "Yes," I moaned.

"I'm tormented by you, and I'm the luckiest man in the world," he rasped, finally, finally moving faster, bumping the juncture between my thighs at the absolutely wonderful speed I needed it. I panted to his rhythm, my hands grasping at his back.

"I want everyone on earth to know you're mine. And I," he took two quick thrusts, "can't even marry you because I don't even have a name."

My eyes widened right at the same moment my body tightened and pleasure exploded through me, causing me to cry out his name again and again. I came back down woozily as Calder pumped into me fast and hard twice more and then pressed into me, groaning his own climax into my neck.

I stroked my fingernails down his skin softly as he breathed harshly against me, circling his hips very slowly to draw out his pleasure.

After a minute he pulled back and looked up into my face, his expression half tormented and half blissful. I took his face in my hands, kissing his lips softly. "You want to marry me?" I whispered.

"God, yes," he rasped.

I smiled against his lips and brought my arms around his neck. "Then let's figure this out," I said, joy blooming in my chest. "Because if there is one thing I am absolutely sure about in this world, it's that I want to be married to you."

Calder kissed my lips again, smiling against my mouth, and pulled his body from mine. He was silent for a minute as his eyes moved over my face. "I've been thinking, Eden," he paused, running his hand through his hair.

"What?" I probed, putting my fingers on his chin and tilting his face back to mine.

He met my eyes. "What would you say about taking a road trip to Indiana?"

I nodded immediately. "Road trip? Yes." I tilted my head. "But are you sure about Indiana? Why?"

He shrugged. "For the reasons you mentioned it before. Partly to see if you recognize anything, I guess. I know it's a long shot in the dark. But . . . mostly, just to get away from the craziness here, but still be close by. To walk around without being hounded, to be together, to sleep in a bed that doesn't announce my every move to your mother," he smiled, but then went serious again. "To get some freedom."

I bit my lip, warming to the idea immediately. It would be a wonderful relief not to worry about who was outside our door for at least a short while. And maybe by the time we returned, things would have died off. "Yes."

Calder looked relieved. "Thank you."

I shook my head. "No, this is for both of us. Xander mentioned us getting away this morning, too."

He nodded. "We need it. Do we have to tell the police?"

"I don't think so. They didn't say we couldn't leave town." I shrugged. "I mean, we could anyway, just to be considerate, I guess, but I don't think we're required to. And I don't necessarily want them to know where we're going."

"You already told them about recognizing the Indiana sign though."

I nodded. "I know, but I don't want them to think we're going on some vigilante information-gathering mission. Chances are good that nothing at all will come of it anyway."

Calder nodded. "And that's okay. It just seemed like it made sense as far as a location."

"It does." I smiled. "Now go gather my bathing suit before my mom comes home and finds me undressed.”

Calder chuckled and then swam to the other side of the pool where my suit sat right on the edge.

I grinned and then squinted upward as the sun broke through the clouds, casting the gloomy day in sudden light. It felt appropriate, because while before it had seemed as though a cloud was over us, surrounding us, now, everything seemed clearer, brighter. The man of my dreams wanted to marry me, had more hope in his eyes, and light had begun to shine in my heart once more.

********** 

Later in bed as I stroked Calder's hair, cocooned in his warm arms, drifting toward sleep, he suddenly said, "That day, Hector kept calling me Satan's spawn. He said it over and over. What do you think he meant by that?"

I shivered, even though I was far from cold. "I don't know," I said. "Who knows what was going through his sick brain?" Something inside me told me I didn't want to know. I snuggled more deeply into Calder's embrace.

Calder

Once Eden and I decided to take the trip to Indiana, my mood improved immensely. I had felt trapped, confined, and worthless for almost a month. And I had been trying so hard to snap myself out of it. After all, I had Eden back. If someone had told me two months before that Eden would be back in my arms, I would have happily agreed to live in a dark cave with her for the rest of my existence. And now, here I was edgy and frustrated. I felt ashamed of myself. But the simple truth was, I longed to take care of her. I longed to feel like the man she deserved. I wanted so desperately to give her things, to work for her, to provide a home for us,
marry her
. And I couldn't exactly do any of that from the guest room in her mom's house, especially considering how welcome her mom made me feel.
Or not.

All of that, in addition to my apartment being demolished, and seeing Clive on television had brought on a deep despair. I hadn't expected the very sight of his weasly face to plummet me into a spiral of anger and feelings of defeat. But it had. Despite Clive Richter's small stature, he had always held a place of authority and power over me. Physically, I had always been stronger. But emotionally, or rather power-wise, he had always controlled me, and in some sense, that was still true.

We definitely needed to get away.

The day after we'd decided to take a trip to Indiana, and before we could plan a thing, the FBI showed up at Carolyn's door. My heart picked up in speed and adrenaline pulsed through my body when Molly came out to the patio where Eden and I were sitting to tell us. We exchanged confused glances, mine most likely more worried than hers, and followed Molly inside where a heavyset man with dark hair and a tall, African American man, both wearing suits, waited.

"Hello," the heavyset man said, not smiling. "I'm FBI Agent Rivera." He nodded to his right. "This is Agent Glenn. You must be Calder Raynes?" he asked, holding his hand out to me. I nodded and shook both their hands.

"Please, call me Calder. And this is Eden," I said as Eden came up right behind me. She shook their hands, too.

"Nice to meet you two," Agent Rivera said, the serious look still on his face. "We need you two to come down to the local FBI field office where we can interview you. Sound all right to you?"

My hands were suddenly clammy, but I reached out for Eden's anyway. I had no idea what this meant. When I gripped her hand in mine, she looked over at me, a small crease between her eyebrows.

"Is it necessary?" I asked.

"It really is. We're responsible for numerous missing children's cases and we need to close yours out. Plus, we need to discuss a few other things that I'd rather get into when we get to our office."

That last part had my blood pumping swiftly through my veins, but I nodded. What other choice did we have?
This is not like last time. This is not like last time.
The last time we'd been in a police car for reasons we didn't entirely understand, we'd been coerced, tricked—and we'd been led straight to hell.
This was different.

Carolyn came rushing into the room and introduced herself to the detectives. Molly must have told her they were here. "Does my daughter need a lawyer?" Carolyn asked, her eyes darting between them and Eden. I noted that she hadn't mentioned me.

"If she feels more comfortable having her lawyer present, he can meet us at the field office," Agent Rivera said.

"Mom," Eden said, "they just want to close out our case." She looked nervously at me.

Carolyn shook her head. "I'll have my lawyer meet you at the office. It'll make me feel better. It's the smart thing to do."

The detectives nodded and Eden looked annoyed, her lips pressed together as she squeezed my hand.

"Do you want to call a lawyer, too, Calder?" Agent Rivera asked. I glanced at Eden and shook my head and then glanced at Carolyn.

"I don't have anything to hide," I said.

My nerves spiked again as we were escorted to Carolyn's driveway, where a police car waited.
This is not the same, this is not the same
, I kept repeating. Just the sight of the police cruiser alone made my fight or flight instinct kick in and I pulled Eden to me. She gripped me back. Whether she was scared, too, or whether she was holding me so tightly because she knew I needed it, I wasn't sure. I had thought I had let go of some of the fear of the police after sitting through the questioning about Acadia recently. But in that moment, anxiety assaulted me because I didn't understand what was happening. Once again, I felt like everyone except me had the upper hand.

We sat huddled together in the back of the cruiser as the officer in front drove us to the downtown field office, the agents following behind. I could only imagine that if my blood pressure had been taken right then, it would be sky high.

When we got there, we were hurried in a back door and brought into a small room with nothing more than the table we were sitting at, two chairs, a TV in the corner, and another table with a coffee maker and coffee making ingredients sitting on it.

I scooted my chair closer to Eden's and held her hand under the table. "Are you okay?" I asked, looking at her and forcing myself to take a deep breath.

She squeezed my hand. "Yes, I'm okay. Are you?" She looked worried.

"I will be," I said, managing a small smile.

The door opened and our heads turned in unison as Agent Glenn walked into the room.

He nodded at us as a woman walked through the door right behind him. Agent Glenn said, "This is Agent Malloy. She'll be interviewing Eden."

I frowned and glanced at Eden. "I thought we'd be interviewed together."

"It's easier if we interview you separately," Agent Glenn said. "And it will go a lot more quickly, too. Plus, Eden's lawyer just arrived."

Eden leaned over and kissed my cheek, squeezing my arm. "It'll be fine. I'll see you right outside, okay?"

I let out a harsh exhale. "Okay." I turned to Agent Malloy, "She'll be close by?"

Agent Malloy smiled. "Yup, right next door. It shouldn't take long." I frowned, but nodded and the agent escorted Eden out the door. Eden gave me a small, encouraging smile before she walked out.

I looked back at Agent Glenn. He came and sat down in a chair at the end of the table, directly to my right.

"Calder, I appreciate you being willing to give an additional statement to us. We're happy to be able to close a case that so many of our agents were involved in back when Eden was taken." He looked at me very directly. "We haven't found any evidence that you yourself were abducted from a different family, but I know that you've indicated you believe that to be the case."

I cleared my throat. "I do, but I don't have any concrete evidence. Mostly comments from others who are no longer able to shed any light on what they said to me. Truthfully, Agent Glenn, half the time I don't know what to think."

He nodded. "Please, call me Floyd. And I know, we're having trouble, too. There are no records of those who lived at Acadia, other than the ones Hector kept on the council members. As you already know, it's been three years, but we still haven't identified so many of the adults, and identifying the children who were born there posed even more of an impossibility. As far as society knows, they never even existed."

My heart clenched with pain. I felt responsible for that. "If I would have come forward years ago . . ." I trailed off.

He shook his head. "You wouldn't have been asked to try to identify the bodies. They weren't recognizable." He looked pained. "The list you gave to the police of all the children you remembered, their ages and descriptions, was very helpful. And between you and Eden, you accounted for all of them. We can at least give some of them names now." He studied me for a minute and then stood up and went to the TV in the corner and pressed a few buttons, bringing a remote control back to the table with him. "We don't have the most advanced technology here." He laughed. I forced a small smile back, my heart still pounding way too quickly in my chest.

"I'm going to record this interview, is that all right with you?"

I nodded, bringing my hands together on the table in front of me.

"Would you like a cup of coffee or some water before we start?"

"No. Thank you."

He turned to the TV and pressed a button on the remote and then turned back to me.

"Will you state your name, please?"

"Calder Raynes."

"Thank you, Calder. I know you've given a statement to the local police about what happened at Acadia beginning several weeks before and leading up to the murder/suicides that took place there." He looked up at me. "Will you please take us through those steps, beginning with Officer Richter and Officer Owens locating you and bringing you back to Acadia?"