There's Always Tomorrow (Immortal Series) (5 page)

Tony’s mouth
slowly drew up at the corners in a sly smile.
 
“Please call me, Tony, Sophie.
 
I love the sound of your voice, actually.
 
The problem you have is that it’s so
melodic; it lulls the listener into a restful trance.
 
I can’t remember the last time I felt so relaxed.
 
I thank you for that, Sophie.
 
You have a real gift.”
 
Tony watched as the concern disappeared
from her lovely face.
 
He had only
bent the truth, slightly.
 
Her voice
was melodic; like a metronome.
 
But
compared to her sexual attraction, it paled in significance.
 
Tony was having a great deal of difficulty
keeping his imagination from picturing her naked and lying beneath him.
 
It had been decades since he had wanted
a woman so desperately.

“Well, Tony,
this isn’t going to work at all,” she pouted.
 
“How can I work for you, if you don’t listen to what I
say?
 
I asked you what you wanted
me to do for you.”

Tony smiled,
broadly.
 
If you only knew
,
he thought.
 
He cleared his
throat.
 

“Okay, Sophie,
I will try.
 
However, I must go on
the record as saying, I find you stunning, and it will be my extreme pleasure
to work closely with you.”

“You know,
Tony, you talk funny.
 
Kind’a like
the men in those old black and white movies.
 
Grant likes those, too.
 
How old are you, anyway?”

Tony sobered
quickly.
 
Age was not his
friend.
 
“It isn’t important,
Sophie,” he said, gruffly.
 
“It’s
time we get to work.
 
There’s a
murderer out there, remember?
 
And
Grant and I—along with your help—are going to find him.
 
Your job will be to coordinate the
information we gather, and search records, vital statistics, and such, on the
Internet.
 
I don’t want you asking
a lot of questions.
 
You do what’s
asked of you, and we’ll catch a mad man.
 
Got it?”
 
His manner had
deliberately turned cool, and his voice was firm.

The beautiful
blonde looked stunned and close to tears.
 
“Sure, but are you mad at me?
 
Did I say something I shouldn’t have?”

Tony stiffened
his neck and gritted his teeth.
 
What was wrong with him?
 
One minute he wanted to make love to this bubbly bit of femininity, and
the next, he wanted to put as much distance as possible between them.
 
“Forget it, Sophie.
 
I’m a moody bastard.
 
Better get used to it now.
 
I’m not as likeable as your boss.
 
Now…finish your salad.”

Tony was well
aware of his problem.
 
For decades,
he had been filled with such self-loathing for what he was, for the freak of
nature he’d become, that he actually yearned to see another’s scorn for him. He
expected to see contempt reflected in her amazing eyes.
 
Freaks didn’t deserve understanding,
nor did he want it.
 
It was best
for all concerned, if he were to remain alone.

* * *

The next
morning began dark and dismal, as a damp mist settled heavily upon the wet
pavement, coloring everything a somber gray.
 
The overall landscape was forbidding and lent a feeling of
hopelessness.
 
Oddly enough, that’s
just the way Tony felt after a long and sleepless night.
 
He couldn’t get the delicious Sophie
out of his thoughts, nor could he forget the despicable creature preying on the
innocents of the city.
 
Hopefully,
Grant would have some ideas on where they should start looking.
 
After a quick shower, fingers through
his wet hair, and a strong cup of coffee, he was ready to face the day.

As Tony opened
the door to Grant’s outer office, a blast of warm, friendly sunshine smacked
him in the face, and completely stole his breath away.
 
Sitting up straight, in her high backed
chair, a smiling, perky, and unbelievably beautiful Sophie waited for him.

“Good morning,
Tony,” she giggled.
 
“You look like
you’ve had a rough night.
 
Want to
talk about it?”

Tony noticed
how open and friendly she was with him.
 
Even after he’d been such a shit the night before.
 
He also noticed how she wiggled around
on her curved, little bottom, causing heat to rush to a certain part of his
anatomy.
 
“Damn,” he muttered.

“What did you
say, Tony?”
 
Sophie looked just the
smallest bit wary, but tried to keep upbeat and pleasant.
 
“What do you want me to do first?”

There were
several things he wanted her to do, but none of them were work related.
 
It was obvious to him that soon, he was
going to lose control and start busting the place up.
 
He crammed his fists into his pockets.
 
It was torture, standing in her sunny
presence, when he felt like the purveyor of gloom and doom.
 
He wasn’t worthy to share her air, so
he growled.
 
“Are you always so bloody
cheerful?”

“No,” she
whispered.
 
Her brilliant smile
disappeared.

Blessed silence
prevailed, and Tony wanted to scream.
 
“I don’t think our working together is a good idea, Sophie.
 
Our styles are just too different, and
I really don’t need your help.”
 
He
noticed the slight downward curve of her sweet, sweet lips and the almost
indiscernible tremble of her chin.
 
She was going to cry.
 
Shit!

“I’ll make sure
you get paid,” he continued on.
 
“This is, after all, not your fault.”

Her lustrous
turquoise eyes filled with unshed tears.

Tony cleared
his throat.
 
“I really do like you
as a person, but I don’t want to work with you.
 
You understand, right?”

She nodded
silently, as a huge tear dropped onto her desk, wetting a sticky note, and
blurring the words together.
 
It
was then that Tony noticed the fresh flowers she had put into a vase, trying so
desperately to brighten the otherwise dreary room.
 
A framed picture of a cat, curled up in a cardboard box, sat
to her left, and a porcelain cup picturing a kitty hanging precariously from a
limb and reading,
Hang in There
, sat to her right.
 
It was a very domestic scene, and
rather sad and lonely.
 
Was she
all alone, too?

“Dammit,
Sophie.
 
You’ve got no business
chasing psychos.
 
Why don’t you
spend time with your family?
 
Go
out with your friends and leave hunting fugitives to the professionals?”
 
He was digging himself deeper and Tony
felt sick about it.

“Don’t worry
about me, Mr. Barton,” she stiffly replied.
 
“I don’t work for you, anyway, and Grant has faith in me,
even if you don’t.
 
As far as I’m
concerned, you can just kiss my behind.”

Tony could
barely restrain the laughter he felt building inside.
 
Kiss her behind?
 
I’d like to do more than kiss her perfect behind,
he thought to
himself.

Throwing his hands
in the air, in a futile attempt to defend himself from the lovely termagant, he
conceded, “Okay, Sophie.
 
I
apologize, dammit.
 
I didn’t sleep
well last night, and I’m in a hell of a bad mood, today… even for me.
 
Get me some coffee and maybe I can try
to make all this up to you.
 
Can
you forgive me?”

Sunshine once
again filled the drab little office, as Sophie smiled brightly.
 
“Yes, Tony.
 
I can forgive you being a terrible grouch, and I can get you
the best coffee you ever drank, too.
 
On the first floor, there’s a little coffee shop that very few people
know about.
 
Their coffee is
heavenly.
 
What do you take in
yours?”

“Black and very
hot.
 
That’s it, darlin’.”

She blushed at
his casual endearment.
 
No one
actually took the time to say personal things to her.
 
Sophie couldn’t remember anyone ever saying they loved
her.
 
She prayed, that one day, she
would hear those words.

“If you’ll
watch my desk, I’ll leave right now.
 
Be back in a flash, Tony.”
 
The young woman blushed again, as she grabbed her purse and slipped past
the very tall, dark and handsome, Anthony Barton.

No sooner had
Sophie left to fetch coffee, than Grant rushed in, leaving the door ajar.
 
“Good to see you, old man.
 
I’ve had some luck.
 
Couldn’t sleep last night, so I started
walking down by the docks.
 
I do my
best thinking when I’m close to the water.
 
Go figure.
 
Anyway, I
saw
the little kid.
 
He’s naked, but he appears to be healthy.
 
The really odd thing is…he glowed
green.”

“Green?” Tony
repeated.

Grant
grinned.
 
“Yeah, but it’s perfectly
normal for someone with night vision.”

“You mean…we’re
looking for a brother that has built-in night vision?
 
What the hell?”

“Hey, we’ve all
got something special, right?
 
My
guess is,
that
is his gift.
 
It explains why he can live in total darkness and why it’s so difficult
for the authorities to find him.
 
Have you had any luck hearing him?”

Tony shook his
head.
 
“No.
 
I hear grunts, sniffs, even something
that sounds vaguely like laughter.
 
I thought I heard a horn blast, but it was over too quickly.
 
Could have been a boat, I guess.
 
I’ll take a walk down past the docks
this evening.
 
If I can get close
enough, I’ll hear inside his head, whether he wants me to or not.”

“You going down
to the docks?”
 
Sophie walked in,
balancing three cups of coffee in her hands.
 
“I’ve got muffins in my pockets, if anyone is interested.”

Grant grabbed
for the muffins, while Tony took his cup.
 
“How much did you hear, Sophie?”
 
He popped the lid off the hot brew and took a long drink, mindless of
the scorching temperature.

“I heard you
tell Grant that you’re going to the docks to listen to someone’s head.
 
I’ll go with you.
 
Two sets of ears are better than one.”
 
She grinned brightly.
 
“Is this the guy that snatched the
baby?”

Grant wiped the
crumbs from his lips and nodded.
 
“Yeah, could be.
 
He’s a bad
one, Soph.
 
I don’t know if you
should get too close.”

“Hell, no,”
growled Tony.
 
“If you want to
help, then stay right here, and wait for the phone to ring.
 
I’ll call and have you notify the
police…or whatever.
 
The last thing
I need is to have to worry about you getting into trouble.”

Sophie stomped
her foot and pouted prettily.
 
“Grant said I could help, and as you pointed out so clearly,
he
is my boss.
 
I take my orders from
him.
 
Besides, the baby will need a
woman to care for him, while you take down the monster that kidnapped him.
 
I can take care of myself, Mr. Barton.”

Grant looked
from Tony to Sophie, and then back to Tony.
 
Sexual tension filled the room, sending bolts of electricity
through the air.
 
It had been many
years since he’d seen his friend seriously interested in a woman—and what
a woman she was, too.
 
Sophie was a
man’s erotic dream, come true.
 
Men
found her innocence highly seductive.
 
In her presence, a man desired to be her protector and own her, all at
the same time.
 
There had been
times when even he had lusted for the ripe little piece of baggage.

“Sophie.
 
Maybe, this one time, you should stay
here.
 
The man we’re after isn’t
your average criminal.
 
He’s much,
much, more, and neither Tony nor I want to see you get hurt.
 
Can you promise to stay here, while
Tony and I go out in search of him?”

There was no
doubt in Sophie’s mind that these two big and very handsome men had their minds
made up.
 
On this, they would not
relent.
 
Chewing on her bottom lip,
she let her breath out slowly, and agreed.
 
“I’ll stay…but you’re making a big mistake.
 
I could help,” she pressed.
 
Sophie was not one to give in easily.