The Marine Next Door
Page 20
Epilogue
The man rubbed the hand sanitizer along every finger, from knuckle to tip.
The newspaper article by Gabriel Knight in the Journal’s weekend edition mentioned that one of the task force members out to catch the Rose Red Rapist had nearly died in a fire in her apartment building. There’d been two other casualties, as well. Two deaths that were of no importance to him tonight.
He massaged the sanitizing gel into his cuticles and beneath his nails and watched the lights go out inside Robin’s Nest Floral Shop.
Even after reading through the article twice, he’d found no mention of any new developments on the task force’s investigation, although the No comment at this time by lead detective Spencer Montgomery made him suspicious. Perhaps KCPD did have some kind of lead that they didn’t want him to know about yet.
The voice in his head chimed in, just as he’d expected it would. That’s exactly why you need to turn this vehicle around and go home. It’s too soon for this. It isn’t safe.
But he wanted, he hungered.
The young woman with short black hair, styled in those sculpted waves that meant she had enough money to go to a salon on a regular basis, came outside and locked the door. She glanced up and down the sidewalk, no doubt concerned for her safety at this time of night. She pulled down the security bars over the front window and doors and locked it, as well.
And then she looked again. Not for lurking danger. She was looking for someone in particular. Someone who hadn’t shown up when they were supposed to.
The man stowed the sanitizer in his pocket and sat up behind the wheel, suddenly interested in the young shopkeeper’s plight.
It’s too soon. You’d be smarter to wait.
She’d made him wait. And then she’d humiliated him. They were all laughing at him.
He needed her to pay. He needed the laughter to stop.
The dark-haired woman was on her phone now, lambasting someone as she marched up the street. Good money said the person who’d just stood her up was getting an earful.
Was she heading home? Going to the bar around the corner? Meeting someone else?
Whatever her destination, he could guess it wasn’t to meet the missing friend. No, this one was too independent to go home and cry or miss out on the fun just because she was alone.
After slipping on a pair of latex gloves from his bag, he fingered the red rose he’d bought earlier today. The rose he’d bought from her at that very shop.
Don’t do it. You have nothing left to prove.
Oh, but he did.
With the voice silenced and the decision made, he started the engine and pulled onto the street, following her into the night.
* * * * *
Look for KANSAS CITY COWBOY,
the next installment in Julie Miller’s
thrilling new miniseries,
THE PRECINCT: TASK FORCE
coming in August 2012 only from Harlequin Intrigue
ISBN: 9781459227620
Copyright © 2012 by Julie Miller
All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
® and ™ are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.
www.Harlequin.com