Dark Abyss by Kaitlyn O'Connor (top fiction books of all time txt) 📗

uttered a sound midway between a laugh and a sob. She sniffed and said a little crossly, “I didn’t mean just like me.”

He stroked a finger along the bridge of her nose. “What about this part?”

She summoned the image. “A little broader and longer.”

He touched her cheekbone and traced it down to her jaw-line. “And here?”

Anna felt a warm tingling in her belly. “Not as pronounced, the cheekbones. The jaw’s a little more square.”

“Picture it in your mind.”

She took a calming breath and conjured the shapes in her mind’s eye.

“Now this,” he murmured huskily, tracing her chin.

Hers was more pointed, narrower, not quite as pronounced. She held her breath when he traced her lips, focusing for a moment on the feel of his touch before the image of her father’s mouth rose in her mind—a hard, straight slash, the lower lip slightly fuller but still narrow. When he put his lips together in displeasure they almost disappeared.

She was almost sorry when she completed the image. It had felt … a little strange when Caleb traced her features, but pleasurable, too.

She found herself staring at her father’s face when she opened her eyes, but she didn’t feel the soaring sense of satisfaction that she’d felt when she’d produced the other images. She swallowed with an effort. “It’s him.”

The light limned Caleb’s face as he stared at the image grimly. “We don’t need to adjust it?”

Anna shook her head. “No,” she whispered when she realized he hadn’t looked at her once.

He turned to look at her when she spoke, smiling with an obvious effort. “You don’t look that much like him.”

She didn’t believe him. She knew she did and she didn’t believe he didn’t see how strongly she favored her father—the man they all hated so much.

She tried to conjure images of some of the other people she’d seen at the party, but with indifferent success. Partly, she knew it was because she couldn’t really focus after she’d done her father, but most of it was because she’d been too uncomfortable when her father had dragged her through the throng of people to really look at them.

She was relieved when they finally removed the scanner from her head, exhausted from the effort, and depressed. Everyone thanked her for her cooperation and Caleb and Joshua escorted her out again.

She felt like every man in the station was staring at her and wondered if they really were or if it was just hypersensitivity that made her feel like they were. The trip home was more boring and depressing than frightening. Although Joshua had already shown her the little transport was capable of surprising speed, they had to rise slowly to the surface to allow themselves time to adjust to the difference in pressure and there was very little to see beyond the occasional startled fish darting away.

When they’d left their home and headed to the city, Anna had rehearsed over and over in her mind how to go about asking them to keep her in protective custody, but she discarded the idea after the session with the neuro-scanner. She didn’t think they would refuse only because she looked like the man they wanted, but it certainly occurred to her that they would’ve offered protective custody if they’d thought it was necessary.

She wasn’t convinced that it wasn’t, but she didn’t feel up to trying to convince them that she needed protection especially since it occurred to her that she couldn’t without sounding like she was begging.

Well, she’d made enough of a fool out of herself in front of them! She would be too uncomfortable, she assured herself, to be around them after all that! It would be a relief, actually, not to have to face them.

She would be better off asking for police protection from the Water City PD anyway. At least, if they granted it, she would be able to have some normalcy. She’d be in her own home, surrounded by familiar things, and she could continue her research.

Routine comforted her. She’d heard a lot of people complain about not having enough excitement in their lives, about leading dull, uneventful lives, but she liked hers that way. She liked the quiet nights and days she spent in her lab and her greenhouse, listening to the music she played for the plants.

It would help her regain her equilibrium.

Her neighbors stared at them when Joshua and Caleb climbed out of the submersible and escorted her into her house. To her relief, they passed her in the foyer and checked the house thoroughly. Joshua paused when he reached her again and smiled a little ruefully. “It was a pleasure meeting you, Dr. Blake.”

Anna felt her throat close at the realization that she wasn’t going to see him again.

“It was a pleasure meeting you, Joshua.”

Nodding, he glanced at Caleb and left.

“Was it a pleasure meeting me, too?” Caleb asked teasingly when he stopped to tell her bye.

Anna looked at his achingly handsome face, wishing …. She wasn’t sure what she was wishing for. She tried to return his smile and found she couldn’t. “I want to thank you for being so nice to me,” she said, stumbling over the words a little, feeling horribly awkward. “I know you were just doing your job.” She shrugged, smiled wryly.

“Playing good cop, I guess. But … I was so scared! And it made me feel … better.”

The laughter died in his eyes. For once, he looked completely somber. “I wasn’t playing good cop.”

He leaned closer. Anna lifted her face a little hopefully. She saw his deep blue eyes gleam, either with triumph or amusement. She wasn’t