by Karen Rose
She bit her lip. ‘I forgot protection.’
‘I didn’t.’
She drew a breath. ‘Hurry,’ she whispered.
‘No.’ He pushed himself off the bed slowly and she got the impression he was stripping for her benefit, to give her time to get used to him. Suddenly she needed to see him. She hit a light switch and froze. His lips glistened. Me. That’s from me. It was erotic as hell.
He was shrugging out of his shirt, his muscles flexing with each twist of his body. He dropped the shirt on the floor and she stared her fill. His chest was . . . beautiful. My chest . . . not so much. She closed her eyes.
‘No,’ he said harshly. ‘Don’t you dare go there. Look at me.’
She opened her eyes in time to see him drop his pants. He stood there, his shirt unbuttoned, his erection straining to escape his boxer shorts.
‘Joseph,’ she murmured.
‘Does this look like I have any issues with what I see?’ he demanded, pointing at himself. ‘Does it?’
‘No.’ She looked up at his face, then back down to his shorts. ‘It doesn’t.’
‘Damn right it doesn’t,’ he growled. He shoved the boxers down and bent to find his wallet and pull out a condom. He rolled it down his length and her mouth went dry.
Never taking his eyes from her face, he crawled across the bed until he hung over her. ‘Say yes,’ he demanded.
‘Yes.’ She reared up, kissing his mouth, tasting herself on his lips. Surprising the hell out of him. With a low roar he pushed her down to the bed, pushing into her body with one thrust. She arched her throat. Felt him filling her. ‘Yes.’
‘You’re tight. Feels so damn good.’
‘You’re perfect,’ she whispered. ‘Show me.’
He set the pace, slow at first. She knew when he’d reached the limit of his control because his eyes grew darker than black, the muscles in his jaw bulging slightly, his biceps quivering under the strain.
‘Wrap your legs around me.’
She did, humming when he went even deeper. Sweat beaded on his brow and his eyes unfocused. Then he was pounding faster, harder, teeth clenched until he arched his back, his body jerking convulsively as he found his release.
He sagged, his body heavy on top of hers. She wrapped her arms around him and sighed. He didn’t move, his voice muffled when he said, ‘Good sigh or bad sigh?’
‘Very good sigh.’ He tried to move, but she tightened her hold. ‘No. Stay.’
‘I’m too heavy for you.’
She pressed a kiss to his shoulder. ‘So many years of being alone . . . Feels good to have you be too heavy.’
He kissed her chin, rested his forehead against hers. ‘Anything I want?’
She had to smile. ‘Now you’re asking?’
His lips winged up, then he sobered. ‘When I was . . . tasting you . . .’
Daphne’s cheeks heated. ‘Yes?’
‘You had your fingers in my hair and I liked that. I want to touch you. Everywhere.’ He kissed her temple, brushing her hair with his lips. ‘I’m going to think you’re beautiful, no matter what. Next time . . . will you at least think about taking it off?’
‘Yes.’
He smiled ruefully. ‘You’ll do it or think about it?’
‘Both. Joseph? Thank you.’
Satisfaction gleamed in his eyes. ‘You’re welcome.’
Wheeling, West Virginia, Wednesday, December 4, 5.25 P.M.
Joseph closed the door to her bedroom, leaving her sleeping deeply. He felt . . . damn good. Muscles loose, stress low. He felt like he could run a marathon.
That had been amazing. So many times he’d fantasized about those long legs of hers, wrapped around his waist. It had been better than his fantasies. He already wanted her again.
But first he needed to make the threat to her go away.
He had a team meeting in five minutes, but that should give him enough time to start the ball rolling on a search for the report on the abduction of Daphne’s cousin Kelly. He found the card Detective McManus had given him and called the number.
‘Wheeling Police Department, Junie Bramble speaking. How may I help you?’
‘Hello, Ms Bramble. My name is Special Agent Carter. I’m with the—’
‘FBI,’ she said. ‘Detective McManus said you’d be calling. He said you were interested in an old case. The abduction of the Montgomery girl and her cousin.’
‘Yes, ma’am.’
‘I’ve already started digging. I should have something for you soon.’
‘Thank you.’
‘That was a big case here, Agent Carter. Everyone I knew volunteered to search for those girls. I understand the cousin is with you.’
‘State’s Attorney Montgomery, yes.’
There was a beat of silence. ‘Ex-excuse me? Kelly Montgomery died.’
‘Right. I’m talking about Daphne Montgomery, Kelly’s cousin.’
‘Oh. Daphne wasn’t a Montgomery then. She was a Sinclair. Daphne Sinclair. Her mother was a Montgomery until she got married . . . Oh, right. Simone must have gotten divorced and gone back to her maiden name.’
Joseph remembered the way Maggie’s face had gone hard as stone at the mention of Daphne’s father. ‘Do you know why they got divorced?’
Junie hesitated. ‘He left them, as I recall. So, Daphne’s a prosecutor now? How lovely is that. How’s her mother doing?’
‘Do you know Simone?’
‘I went to high school with Simone’s sister, Vivien, who passed on a number of years ago. She was Kelly’s mother.’
‘Oh.’
‘Yes. It was tragic. Vivien nearly lost her mind when Kelly went missing. And then when the girl was found dead . . . Vivien snapped, poor thing. It was a dark time for our town. I file police reports all day, every day, Agent Carter. I see all the bad, all the ugly. It’s not just victims, but their families and communities. Everyone suffers and here at the police station we hardly ever see a happy-ever-after. I’m glad little Daphne found a good life. Please tell her I said so. I won’t go home until I have your reports to you.’
‘You’re working overtime,’ Joseph said. ‘I wish I didn’t have to ask you do that.’
‘If you can bring closure to that family, it’ll be well worth it. This will be my little part.’
Joseph thanked her, then hung up, curious. No one had ever mentioned Aunt Vivien. And what was up with her father? He’d get the whole story from Daphne when she woke up. Now he had to get presentable as his team meeting was via videoconference through the computer.
He hated videoconferences. He liked the visual anonymity of regular telephone meetings. But the group had some photos that he needed to be able to see so he put some clothes on and set his laptop up. When the call connected, he got a close-up of JD Fitzpatrick’s left eye.
‘Sorry,’ JD said. ‘I’m adjusting the camera.’ He stepped back, his brows shooting up. ‘You might want to . . .’ He tapped his cheek. ‘Before everyone gets here.’
Joseph jumped up and looked in the mirror. ‘Shit,’ he muttered and heard JD’s low chuckle. He had lipstick smeared all over his cheek. He wet a cloth and scrubbed his face. And scowled. The stuff had a half-life.
Still, it had been worth it. He removed most of the evidence and went back to his laptop. Most of the team had filed in. ‘Can we get started? Who’s there?’
‘Everyone except you and Daphne, Deacon, and Hector,’ JD said.
‘I’m calling from the road,’ Kate said through the speakerphone. ‘Simone and Maggie and I left for West Virginia two hours ago. Simone had to finish putting the lights on that big Christmas tree. When she flips the switch, it’ll drain the power grid for the East Coast.’
‘Keeps her off the street,’ Joseph said with a smile. ‘Deacon’s out with the local PD and the Pittsburgh field office. They’re trying to track Ford’s steps to see where he’d been held. Hector’s on break.’
Hector had secured the hotel and handed off the patrol to local agents from the
Pittsburgh field office. He’d been on duty since the morning before and Joseph needed him rested. Just in case.
Joseph had booked the adjoining rooms for himself and Daphne, then a room across the hall for her mother and Maggie. Kate and Hector would each have a room on either side of Simone. Deacon and Hector would share. Everyone had a place to lay their head.
‘Daphne finally went to sleep.’ And Joseph had to work hard to hide his cat-in-cream smile at what had made her tired enough. ‘Ford’s stable. He woke up for a minute or two, then went back to sleep.’ He told the team about the second dose of ketamine and the second tasing.
‘That makes absolutely no sense,’ JD said. ‘Why would Doug pick him up only to drop him off again? It’s like Doug wanted Ford to be found.’
‘That’s my take,’ Joseph said. ‘He lured us here, just like he lured us to the house in Timonium.’
‘I have some information for you on the crime scene in the basement there,’ Brodie said. ‘I ran PCR on the blood on the wall and it belongs to Daphne’s ex-husband, Judge Elkhart. However, it’s frozen blood, like from a bloodbank.’
‘And the judge is very much alive,’ Grayson said. ‘I got a visit from him this morning. He was upset that we’d sent the FBI out to his estate like he was a “common thug”. I asked him if he was going out to see Ford in the hospital and he said that Ford’s mother was there and he wasn’t needed.’
‘Did you ask him if he froze his blood?’ Joseph asked.
‘No, because we didn’t have that info then.’
‘I called the judge’s mother,’ Brodie said. ‘She confirmed that they did put blood away for emergency surgeries because the judge had one of the rarer blood types. It was supposed to have been stored on estate grounds, but it’s not there.’
‘Doug is a sick puppy,’ Joseph said in disgust. ‘Did we find any sign that he was there watching Daphne at the barn?’
‘We did,’ Kate said. ‘Scott Cooper showed us the places a man could stand and get the best view of the barn. There was evidence that someone was there today. Fresh footprints in the snow. We were probably being observed the whole time.’
‘Shit. How close are we to having a picture of this asshole?’
‘Not close at all.’ JD sounded disgusted. ‘We’ve had uniforms canvassing every place up and down the college strip, restaurants, bars . . . nobody’s got him on video. This guy is careful not to get his picture taken. The police artists we’ve used have given us nada and it’s not their fault. The teacher who saw him in Timonium gave a description that could be anyone.’
‘What about the girl in Philly?’ Joseph asked. ‘The one who saw her au pair killed?’
‘She’s still under sedation,’ JD said. ‘We did get the photos the Philly mall’s garage camera picked up. This is Doug getting out of the black van on Monday night.’ The team flashed away, replaced by the still photo.
Joseph leaned forward, frowning at the sight. ‘Fuck him. Daphne used to wear her hair that way.’ Doug wore a wig that had been teased into Daphne’s old beehive hairdo. ‘One more check in the this-is-personal column. How are we doing on her caseload files? Did you find anyone who hates her this much?’
‘None that fits Doug’s description,’ Grayson said. ‘Lots of hate, though.’
‘See if anyone she prosecuted died or had a family member die,’ Joseph suggested. ‘That fact that Doug is this personal and focused indicates that he blames Daphne for more than a few parking tickets.’
‘We will,’ Grayson said. ‘Have you heard from Bo?’
‘Not since this morning,’ Joseph answered. ‘They’re planning the raid on the Antonov warehouse, which should be going down tonight. If Doug is Antonov’s employee, we might get info on him as part of what’s recovered in the raid. How’s the search for Doug’s house coming?’
‘Got it narrowed to thirty properties owned by anyone with Doug, Douglas, and even McDougal in the name. Until I know a little more about Doug, I’m stuck. I started checking out the thirty though. Maybe something will pop. So far, nothing.’
‘Keep looking. Kate, since you’re with Simone, ask her about her older sister, Vivien. Vivien’s daughter was Kelly, the cousin who was killed. They lived here, near Wheeling. I’d like to get the story from Simone so I can compare details to the newspaper reports I requested from the local PD’s archives. I’ll be asking Daphne when she wakes up. We’ve obviously been lured here. I want to know why.’
‘I will,’ Kate said. ‘I’ll contact you when I have that information.’
‘Thank you. Hopefully we can get Ford up and moving so we can bring him home. I’m very uncomfortable being here at Doug’s invitation.’
And you want to have Daphne in your own bed. Well, yeah. Duh.
‘Keep in touch and keep your phones with you. I’ll text you any outcome from the search to backtrack Ford’s trail to where he was held. Kimberly and her sister are still missing, so the priority is finding Doug’s house and wherever Ford was held. Let’s connect at seven tomorrow morning unless we have a breaking lead.’
Joseph disconnected and went straight to the bedroom. Daphne was so deeply asleep, she hadn’t moved. He’d thought she’d be more comfortable in the dark for their first time together. He’d been utterly stunned when she turned on the light. More stunned when she kissed him full on the mouth when his lips were covered in her juices. She surprised him at every turn.
He dropped his pants, shrugged out of his shirt, selfishly hoping her son slept a little longer, because he wanted to be surprised again.
Baltimore, Maryland, Wednesday, December 4, 7.40 P.M.
Cole checked his gym bag, making sure he had everything he needed. Cell phone, charger, GameBoy, box of ammo, T-shirts, clean briefs, spare set of keys to the van. And a ziplock bag full of cash, money he’d grabbed by the fistful from Mitch’s stash.
Two thousand dollars in small bills. He hoped they were unmarked. He had no idea where to look for a mark. He hoped nobody he planned to buy stuff from knew where to look either. There was something wrong with money you could grab by the fistful like candy at Halloween.
I need to get out of here before the cops come. He’d wasted a lot of time planning, but it was cold outside and he needed to know exactly where to go. First to the bus station and then thirty miserable hours with a Greyhound full of people who hadn’t showered in a week. Rico, Cole’s pal from his old school in Miami, would pick him up at the bus station there. Rico lived in a condo complex that was three-quarters empty. There were plenty of abandoned units that Cole could hide out in while he figured out what to do.
I never should have taken the stupid gun to school today, he thought miserably. What was I thinking? I’m just a stupid kid, like Mitch says. Cole looked in the mirror, unimpressed. He’d grown six inches since the summer. Six inches. I should be king of the hill. Instead the guys still wouldn’t leave him alone.
He hadn’t planned to take the gun to start with. Hadn’t planned to take it to school, for sure. But that fat-ass Tulio wouldn’t let it go. He kept pushing and pushing . . . Calling me names. Threatening to . . . Cole swallowed, his hands going clammy just thinking about the stairwell and how they’d pushed up against him.
So he’d taken the gun to school just to show them. Just to scare them off. Because they wouldn’t leave me alone. But that fat-ass Tulio had called his bluff and grabbed the gun right out of Cole’s hand and wouldn’t give it back.
Enough of the guys had seen Tulio walking around with it. Of course the principal had seen them. That old guy had eyes in the back of his damn head. They’d scattered, but the principal had seen the gun. There is no way any of the guys will lie for me. The principal would tell the cops and the guys would give Cole up in less than a heartbeat.
So I’m outta here. But he didn’t want to go empty-handed. He’d gotten used to the feel of cold metal at his back. He wouldn’t take a gun to school again, but he sure as hell wanted one when he walked into a bad neighborhood. He’d
lost the first one he’d taken, but he knew where to find more.
Cole didn’t want to know why Mitch kept a bunch of guns and thousands of dollars in that little room in the basement – the hidden room that Mitch didn’t want him to know about. Mitch had his hands in some serious shit and Cole did not want to follow in his brother’s footsteps. ‘Ex-con’ didn’t look good on your permanent record.
But this once, he needed the help. There had been fifteen normal guns plus some that looked like antiques. He’d left the antiques alone the first time. He wouldn’t touch them this time either. Just a normal pistol. That’s all I need.
He crept down the stairs, grateful that Mitch was gone, leaving Cole all alone in the house that had more nooks and crannies than an English muffin. Mitch thought he was too stupid to know about all the hidden corners and rooms.
Cole knew about them and more. He pushed the boxes away from the wall and frowned. Then his heart started pounding even harder. The door had a new padlock.
Oh no. Hell, no. Now what?
A clatter upstairs had him jumping away from the supposed-to-be-secret door.
‘Mitch! Where are you? Goddammit, you motherfucking sonofabitch, where the fucking hell are you?’
That couldn’t be Matthew. Matthew didn’t swear. But it was. Stowing his shock, Cole replaced the boxes and listened. Matthew charged up to the second floor, so Cole jogged up the basement stairs. If he hurried, he could slip out through the garage before Matthew came back down, because he didn’t want to listen to another one of Matthew’s rants about what a problem Mitch was becoming.
Cole had gotten through the kitchen when a hand clamped his shoulder. He turned and looked down into Matthew’s glaring face. Matthew was bigger than Mitch. But I’m bigger than them both. Why do I have to be such a fucking loser? ‘What?’ he snarled.
‘Where’s Mitch?’ Matt demanded.
‘Not here. Said he had a job. He took the Jeep, left the van.’
Matthew looked away. ‘Damn him. Damn him to hell.’
Don’t ask what’s wrong. Don’t ask. ‘What’s wrong?’ Dammit.
Matthew was pale. ‘Mitch set Dad up with some dangerous men. Stole from them, made it look like Dad did it. Fucking nightmare.’