by K Pierce
‘Okay,’ Ryan nodded.
‘I’ll go and get us some reinforcements.’
22.
Emily found Nat standing on the back doorstep, her hands wrapped around an empty coffee mug. She was leaning slightly against the door frame and staring out across the garden. Emily allowed herself a few minutes to watch her, taking in the tousled hair and the strong set of her shoulders before moving lower. She was a very attractive woman and Emily felt a huge pang of disappointment at the way things had turned out.
‘It’s usually polite to buy a girl dinner before you blatantly stare at her arse for that long.’
Emily jumped. She hadn’t realised that Nat knew she was there. A hot rush of embarrassment burned the skin of her cheeks. ‘You wish that’s what I was doing.’ She said to Nat’s back, hoping that she could talk her way out of being caught. ‘I was just wondering what you were thinking.’
Nat was quiet. Torn between flirting to lighten the mood or telling Emily what she’d actually been thinking. Right now, stood in her kitchen, Emily looked more relaxed than she had for hours. The light blush and easy smile she was giving her broke Nat’s heart. She couldn’t bring herself to be the one that made that smile disappear by telling her that she wasn’t safe here. Nat wasn’t stupid enough to think that Emily didn’t already suspect it, but she wouldn’t reiterate, wouldn’t cause her any more pain or fear. She turned, opting for humour instead. ‘I was just admiring the view.’ She raised an eyebrow. ‘I wasn’t the only one, apparently.’ Emily stayed quiet, her eyes on Nat. ‘See something you like, Miss Shaw?’ Nat wondered just how far she could push her luck before Emily called a halt to their flirting.
Nat stepped back into the kitchen and pulled the door shut behind her. Emily still hadn’t moved and all that stood between them was Nat’s dining table. She circled it slowly and perched on the edge only a few feet in front of Emily.
‘Maybe.’ Emily said quietly.
‘Feel free to look a little closer.’
Nat was pleasantly surprised when Emily stepped forward and closed the gap between them a little. This was a dangerous game, one she was struggling to stop herself from playing. Neither of them spoke but Nat could see that Emily was breathing a little faster, her eyes darkening as they took in Nat’s face, finally settling on her lips. She took another step forward and Nat couldn’t suppress a groan as their bodies brushed together.
‘Is this close enough, Detective?’ Emily whispered.
Nat swallowed hard. Her mouth was dry. She shook her head slightly and Emily leaned into her, small hands brushing her hips. Nat could feel how hard her nipples were through the hoody she was wearing, and it sent a rush of blood south. They hadn’t done anything, yet she was aching and wet.
‘How about now?’ Emily whispered again. Warm fingers found their way underneath Nat’s top, gently brushing the soft skin they uncovered.
Emily wasn’t sure where this sudden brazenness had come from; all she knew was that the woman in front of her was attractive and she wanted her. Badly. Their flirting had taken a sudden serious turn and Emily couldn’t stop herself. She wanted Nat to kiss her, to touch her, to distract her from whatever was happening. She didn’t want to die and never know what it would’ve been like to feel this woman on top of her, inside her.
Nat’s lips were suddenly against her own, crushing together in the hottest kiss she’d ever experienced. Emily moaned as she felt her arousal grow. Nat’s warm tongue parted her lips, wrestling with her own, as strong arms pulled her even closer. Nat’s hands were everywhere, desperate to feel every inch of Emily.
Nat reversed their positions, gently pushing Emily up onto the table and stepping in between her legs. She grabbed Emily’s backside and pulled her into her, grinding her pelvis in a desperate attempt for friction. ‘Oh fuck.’ Emily groaned into her mouth, sliding her short nails down Nat’s back. Hot, wet lips trailed down Emily’s neck, pausing only slightly to nibble and lick the soft and sensitive flesh there. Grasping the hem of her hoody Nat made short work of pulling it off, dropping it to the floor and stopping to gaze at what she’d uncovered. Emily wasn’t wearing a bra and hard, pink nipples sat proudly on full breasts that made Nat’s mouth water. She leaned in and started to tease Emily with her tongue. ‘Oh my god.’ Emily moaned loudly, her hand grasping at Nat’s hair in a desperate attempt to pull her closer. Nat switched sides and Emily lay back on the table. Her back arched and her lower half squirmed against the woman between her legs. Nat had never seen anything more erotic.
While her mouth was occupied Nat allowed her fingers to explore, brushing and touching every inch of soft, creamy skin that they could find. She slipped a hand under the waistband of Emily’s pants, feeling soft curls and Emily’s arousal on her fingertips. Emily was gasping beneath her, lost in a delirium of lust that fuelled Nat’s own. Finally, she took one of Emily’s swollen nipples into her mouth and pushed into her wetness. Emily cried out, gripping around Nat’s fingers as she thrust in and out of her. She could feel Emily tightening, could hear the rasp of her breathing and knew that she was on the edge. With a few swipes of her thumb over Emily’s hard clit she sent the other woman crashing over the edge.
Emily lay still, sprawled across Nat’s kitchen table with the other woman still buried deep inside her. She could feel the throbbing echoes of her orgasm and was reluctant to let Nat move. The delicious ache in her clit refused to be sated and she wanted to repeat what had just happened over and over again. She looked up into eyes that mirrored the lust in her own and smiled devilishly. Nat slowly extracted her hand, sending shivers of excitement through Emily. She wrapped her legs around the flushed policewoman and pulled them together at the edge of the table. Leaning in, Emily took Nat’s earlobe between her lips and nibbled gently, eliciting soft groans from the woman trapped between her legs.
‘Take me upstairs.’ She whispered.
23.
Nat pulled her boots on as slowly as she possibly could. Quinn sat watching a few feet away. She gave him a look. ‘I am not ok with this,’ she muttered. He let out a low meow. She turned and shouted up the stairs. ‘We are not ok with this.’
Emily appeared over the bannister rail. ‘We?’
Nat gestured between herself and the cat. Rounding the bannister Emily padded slowly down the steps, stopping on the one above where Nat was sitting. ‘I’ll be fine. You’ll only be gone for a few hours and the place will be locked up, if I come with you it only increases the risk of him finding me, or,’ she rubbed at a spot on the wood, ‘one of you getting hurt.’
‘Emily-’
‘Besides,’ Emily interrupted, ‘If I’m around you then someone is bound to pick up on what’s happened between us.’
Nat shrugged. ‘It’s what they wanted when they set us up.’
‘Before I became a witness.’ Emily smiled sadly, ‘We both know that if we’re found out then it’ll cause problems for you.’
‘So, we pretend it hasn’t happened?’ Nat ignored the pang of hurt she felt. ‘We act like we aren’t attracted to each other?’
‘All I’m saying is that maybe we keep it to ourselves until we can figure it out properly.’
Nat nodded. ‘Don’t answer the door. To anyone.’ Nat said.
‘I’ve got it, Mum. Don’t talk to strangers, not even a policeman.’
‘Especially not a policeman. Not even the one sat outside, even though technically she’s a policewoman.’ Nat stood and shrugged on her coat. ‘And stop being so blasé about all this.’
Emily laughed. ‘Is that what you think?’ She dropped down another step. ‘You’re my safety net. The only thing that’s keeping me grounded right now, and you’re leaving. I’m terrified. I’m trying to pretend that none of this is happening because if I stop to think about any of it then I’m going to go nuts or try to run or do something equally stupid which will probably end up getting me killed.’ Tears pricked at her eyes and her voice cracked. She took a deep breath. ‘I don’t know why th
is is happening to me.’
Nat’s heart broke at the lost look on her face. She took Emily’s hand and gently tugged her off the last step before enveloping her in a hug and placing a soft kiss on her lips. ‘I know, and I promise I’m not going to let anything happen to you.’
‘Don’t make promises you can’t keep, detective.’
They stood in silence for a moment, neither knowing what to say or do next and neither wanting to let go of the other. Nat didn’t want to leave but Barry needed her for a few hours. They needed a plan.
Nat had considered telling Barry what they’d been doing all afternoon but the fear of being taken off the case, or even worse separated from Emily, was just too much. The fact that they’d crossed a line, a very personal line, was something that Nat was reluctant to admit to out loud, especially to her boss. Emily was right, her slip in professionalism had just made things more complicated.
Finally, Emily pulled away and Nat felt an aching coldness in her chest. Without another word or even a glance backwards Emily disappeared through the living room door.
Nat turned to Quinn who had been watching the exchange with more interest than she’d ever seen him exhibit before. ‘Look out for her.’ She said. He grumbled and then wandered in Emily’s direction.
***
The station was almost deserted when Nat got there. She took the stairs two at a time, feeling a not unpleasant ache at the exertion. Emily had been insatiable, and a small part of Nat couldn’t help but wonder if it had been more of a distraction than anything else. Stepping into the corridor outside the office she almost ran into Ryan who was balancing three coffees, a folder and what looked like a DVD case. She relieved him of the case and the folder and held the door open for him.
‘Thanks.’ He sounded tired and she wondered how much sleep he’d had in the last few days.
‘Where is everyone?’ she asked, gesturing to the empty office.
‘Massive pile up on the motorway, two stabbings and a shop on fire across town. Plus, we have two out sick and we’re already one down since…’ He didn’t have to say Phil’s name.
‘Busy day.’
‘Yep, we can’t all be lazing around on the sofa watching Jeremy Kyle.’ He smirked. She raised the folder to smack him with it, stopping when he held up the cups as a shield.
‘Now, now, children.’ Barry sat behind Ryan’s laptop at the head of the table. ‘Nat pull up a pew. How’s Emily?’
The question was innocent enough, but she blushed at the images Emily’s name conjured up. ‘Confused and terrified. I don’t think she’s quite sure how to feel. Or how to wrap her head around it all. I’m not wild about leaving her alone.’
‘I know,’ Barry started, ‘but we can’t force her to come in and we’re close to being out of ideas. We do have this though.’ He pointed at the laptop.
Nat sat next to him and glanced at the screen. It showed the empty space in the car park where Emily had parked her car on the day her brakes had been tampered with. ‘What are we looking at?’
‘We went through all of the footage after he tampered with her car. There was nothing else.’ Nat’s heart sank. ‘Ryan went through all of our building’s CCTV, but nobody stands out so he’s either really good at staying out of sight or he never actually came in here.’
Nat looked from Barry to Ryan and back again. ‘So, you brought me in to tell me we have nothing?’
‘You’re so impatient sometimes.’ Barry said.
Ryan opened the case on the desk and took out a DVD. ‘We were looking at the footage of when he messed with her car. He went straight to it, so he obviously knew it was hers.’
‘Which got us thinking.’ Barry chipped in. ‘We’ve read through all of the dead girls’ messages and we know that they talk about where they live. Our doer is great with technology, so it makes sense that he wouldn’t have a problem getting to them at home, but he always kills them outdoors. Why?’
Nat thought about it. ‘Less forensics. Less witnesses. He can take his time.’
‘Exactly,’ Ryan continued. ‘He knows where they live, he knows where they’ll be, and he knows when and where there’ll be witnesses.’
‘He’s a watcher.’ Nat said.
‘He is. He gets to know them through their messages and then he stalks them. He knows their routines, where they go, when and where the best place to intercept them is.’
Nat looked back to the screen. ‘He was watching Emily the day we brought her in for questioning.’
‘I think so. Probably even before that. That’s how he knew her car, how he knew the date was a setup and how he knew where they broke down. He was here.’ Barry pushed the laptop towards her. ‘This is when she arrived to get set up for the op.’
Ryan tapped the trackpad and the video started. Nothing happened for a few minutes and then Nat watched Emily reverse her car into the space by the hedge. She sat behind the wheel for a long time.
‘Wait for it.’ Barry whispered.
‘Wait for –’ Before she’d finished the question a man strode into view. He was carrying a duffle bag. Walking purposefully up to Emily’s window he tapped and made a gesture with his hand. ‘Dark coat, dark pants, big lad.’ Nat muttered. The man appeared to be talking to Emily, his broad back blocking their view of her inside the car. On the left side of the screen Nat saw her own car pull into a space and watched as she stepped out and grabbed her things. The man concluded his conversation with Emily and walked away as Nat moved in their direction.
‘Do you remember this?’ Barry asked.
She nodded. ‘Shit. He was right there!’ Barry put a hand on her shoulder. ‘I could’ve fucking had him!’
‘How were you to know it was him? He’s dressed like one of us coming to work, nothing suspicious about any of it.’
Nat wasn’t listening. ‘He was right there,’ she said again.
Ryan opened the disk drive and slipped in the DVD he’d been carrying. ‘The video ends shortly after you two enter the building. We went back through the night footage and that stops about an hour and a half before he touches the car, so we have a window of a couple of hours while we were all inside getting ready that we were just about to check.’
‘Why are we watching DVDs? Why aren’t we just on the server?’
‘We didn’t want to risk letting anyone know we’d logged into it on the server and give them the opportunity to erase anything. We keep a couple of weeks of footage on DVD in the security office, just in case the server goes down and we need access, then it gets written over and we have no choice but to go into the server,’ Ryan explained.
The video showed Emily’s car in the fading light. The odd car or person passed by but there was nothing much to see. Nat was draining the last of her coffee when she saw it. ‘Wait, go back.’
Ryan tapped the computer, ‘How far?’
She watched the video in reverse. ‘There.’ She pointed.
Barry hunched closer. ‘What are we looking at?’
‘Not Emily’s car,’ Nat said. ‘Mine.’
Ryan played the video again. This time she knew what she was looking for. On the far left of the screen, almost out of frame, she watched as a man knelt by the rear of her car. He looked like he was tying his shoe but before he stood he slipped his hand beneath her wheel arch.
‘Play it again.’ Barry said.
They all watched the same thing happen. ‘Shit!’ Nat said pushing herself up so fast she toppled her chair.
‘Nat! Wait!’ Barry shouted after her, but it was too late.
She ran through the stairwell door and down the concrete steps. The desk sergeant stumbled out of her way when she burst into reception and nearly barrelled into him, the flyers he’d been pinning to the noticeboard fluttering to the floor around him. She ignored his muttered cursing and ran out into the cold autumn sunshine. When she neared her car, she heard footsteps on the tarmac behind her and Ryan telling her to wait. She ignored him too.
‘Nat, it could
be a bomb or anything.’
She took a breath, heart pounding against her ribcage. ‘It’s been here for days, if it was a bomb then it would’ve gone off by now.’ She panted. ‘We both know what it’s going to be.’
She dropped to her knees. Ryan’s phone began to ring in his pocket. ‘It’ll be Barry.’ Nat said. ‘He knows I won’t answer mine.’
He answered it as she fumbled around the wheel arch. Her fingers hit something hard and rectangular that was caked in mud. She tugged it free and stood up. It didn’t look like much but when she met Ryan’s gaze she knew she wasn’t wrong. It was a tracker.
‘He knows where I live.’
24.
Emily looked at the clock. Half an hour since Nat left for work but it seemed like she’d been forever. Emily mentally calculated the route to the station and disappointedly realised that Nat would’ve only just got there. She knew the empty feeling in her chest wasn’t only down to how safe the dark-haired woman made her feel. Emily genuinely liked Nat. She was funny, clever, confident and sexy as hell but at the same time Emily’s head was at war with her heart. She shouldn’t be having any kind of feelings, especially romantic ones, not when she was in the middle of this crazy situation. The more she thought about what her life had come to, and how close it could be to ending, the more she realised just how lonely she was. Yes, she had Fiona and Kat and she could fill her days with work and other acquaintances but what did she go home to every night? And who did she wake up to every morning? She wanted to feel close to someone else, to know that someone considered her and thought about her, she wanted someone to surprise her with coffee in bed and soppy little love notes on the kitchen counter. Granted, the raunchy afternoon they’d spent exploring each other wasn’t exactly the domestic bliss she fantasised about, but it could be the start of something. She realised that she wanted it to be the start of something. And now it could all be too late. She gave a bitter chuckle. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.