by Jessie Cooke
“Oh, Noah, don’t stop, baby. Don’t stop!”
Her body began to contract, hard, over and over. She thought that more than one orgasm ripped through her, and her head was so fuzzy that she thought she might pass out from the sheer pleasure of it all.
She felt his body shake then and he let out a primal growl before simply saying, “Fuck.” Her body continued to pull at him, her muscles contracting around him in tight spasms as he growled again and she felt him release. He was holding her so tightly that it almost hurt, but the lines were so blurred between pleasure and pain that she didn’t care. He moved in and out of her until he was once again empty and then let her slide down so that her feet were touching the floor and she fell into his chest. Her legs felt like Jell-O as he held her there. She felt him kiss the top of her head softly and then he whispered her name.
Suddenly she was exhausted and all she wanted to do was to lie down. As if reading her mind, he slid her around so her back was against his hard chest and he took the soap off the ledge and slowly soaped up her body until she was strong enough to stand up straight and do her own hair. When they both had washed and rinsed, they stepped out and he wrapped her up in a towel. He was so sweet and gentle, so different than the man who had been slamming her into the tile wall only a few moments before. He was an enigma and she loved it.
Once he had her dried off, he took her to bed and tucked her in and then he went back and finished drying himself off. She was so sleepy, but she couldn’t close her eyes because she was afraid he was going to leave…and she didn’t want him to go. When she heard him come out of the bathroom she started to sit up but he stopped her. He sat down next to her on the bed and whispered:
“Rest, Ava.”
“Don’t go,” she whispered, knowing that she would regret the moment of weakness tomorrow. He slid down next to her and the poor little bed shuddered and moaned. Wrapping her up in his strong arms, he pulled her in close and kissed the top of her head and said:
“I’m here, baby. I’m not going anywhere.”
She fell asleep like that, probably instantly. She woke up maybe an hour later…maybe two…to the sound of Noah’s phone screeching. He was leaning off the bed, trying to find his jeans. When he finally did, she heard him say, “Damn it, Hayden!” before he even put the phone to his ear. “What?” he growled.
His face was right next to hers. She wasn’t eavesdropping but there was no way Ava couldn’t have heard Hayden say, “Get off Kimmie and get down to 1st Ave in Roosevelt Row.” Who the hell was Kimmie? Noah had the decency to glance at Ava and look mortified before saying, “Why?”
“There’s been another murder. This time he left a message…for you.”
“Fuck! Okay, I’ll be there in twenty.” He hung up the phone and as pathetic as it sounded in her own head, the first thought Ava had was that he didn’t tell Hayden he wasn’t on top of Kimmie. He kissed her softly on the lips and said, “I have to go.”
Once he was off the bed and she could move, she sat up and said, “I’m going too.”
“No, you’re not.”
“I’m your assistant. You might need some assistance.”
“Ava, it’s late. You don’t need to be out there at a crime scene. You don’t need to see that.”
She stood up and went over to the dresser for clean underwear…unshredded. “There you go, acting like you think you’re one of my brothers again.” She had her back to him and no clue that she had pissed him off until he grabbed her by the shoulders and spun her around to face him. He crushed her mouth with his and when he pulled his face back up he said:
“Are you seriously not convinced that I don’t want to be one of your fucking brothers?”
Breathless and put in her place she said, “I’m convinced.”
“Good. Now, as your boss I’m telling you to stay here. Keep the doors locked and if that freak texts you again, ignore it until I get back.”
“You’re coming back?”
He shook his head at her and she honestly didn’t know what he was thinking. He looked like he wanted to choke her…and kiss her at the same time. She shivered.
“Yes, Ava. I’ll be back as soon as I can. Lock the door and don’t let anyone in until you hear my voice okay?”
She nodded. As her boss, she had seen him assertive and even aggressive with other people, but he usually wasn’t with her. She was strangely turned on by it. As she turned the deadbolt behind him she had one more thought…Who the fuck was Kimmie?
Noah was glad the crime scene was across town; it gave him enough time to get his head together. What the hell did he just do? That wasn’t some barmaid that he had just fucked. That was Ava…and he kept thinking about how he had “made love” to her. Noah hadn’t thought of sex in those terms since he was a kid. He wasn’t a kid any longer and now he had to wonder what the hell was he thinking, letting his hormones take over like that? Ava wasn’t the type of woman to just be used as a booty call. She was the type that a guy could see himself married to one day. She was the type that was made for making babies and setting up a household. She was one of those dangerous types that he had done his absolute best to avoid since he was twenty years old. Jesus. Even with the danger bells ringing in his head, he was thinking that was the best thing that had ever happened to him…and he wanted it to happen again. Damn it! What the hell did I do? He pulled up to the curb and parked his car as close to the cordoned-off area as he could get and then he rubbed his hands over his face to shake off the vision of Ava sitting up on that desk with her skirt around her waist and her ragged breaths causing her chest to heave. God, he was a mess.
As soon as he stepped out of the car he heard, “Well, well, we can all go home now. Dick Tracy is here to solve the case.” Michael James stood with three uniformed officers outside of the yellow police caution tape. Noah ignored him and started towards it. Before he got there, he felt an arm come out and bump into his chest. “Where do you think you’re going, Dick? You’re not a cop anymore, remember? Not that you ever were much of an excuse for one.”
“Get the fuck off of me, James!” he growled. Michael James was not a bright guy. He let his arm drop, but he stepped in front of Noah. He had to hold his head back to look up at him and when he did, Noah could smell the Scotch on his breath. “Get out of my way.”
“You can’t go back there. If you insist on trying, I might have to have you arrested.”
Noah grabbed the front of his shirt and that’s when he heard, “Noah! Over here.” He looked up and saw Hayden standing on the inside of the barrier. Keeping his hand wrapped up in the old detective’s shirt, he moved him aside and went over to where Hayden stood. When he got there Hayden said, “Ignore him.”
“I tried,” Noah said. “What do you have?” Hayden had a roll of Rolaids in his hand and he popped one in his mouth and offered them to Noah. “No thanks,” Noah said, with a chuckle. Hayden shrugged and said:
“Follow me. You might be changing your mind in a minute or two.” Noah stepped over the tape and followed him back into the alley. It looked like a movie set with its brick walls on either side and the floodlights the police crime techs had set up. Noah could see the shape of a body at the very end, propped up against a green dumpster. When he got close enough to see her face, he gasped. “You see it too?” Hayden asked. Noah saw it and suddenly wanted to vomit.
“You said he left a message?” Noah didn’t want to say it out loud…that would make it real.
Hayden handed him a piece of paper. It was an old bio from when he was a detective on the force. There was a photo of him in a suit and it told about his background and commendations underneath. At the very bottom, written in what he was afraid was blood it said, “Catch me if you can.”
“Fucker!”
“Yeah, my sentiments exactly. Were you following Peterson today?”
“Shit! Yes…but I lost him.”
“You lost him?” Hayden sounded surprised. It was rare that a mark got away from Noah.
“Yeah, he took off and caused a fender bender on Grand Avenue. By the time I got around them, he was gone. Shit!”
“You think he made you?”
“I didn’t, until now…”
“And what about the fact that she looks so much like…”
“Don’t say it.”
“But she does, right? She could be her twin. This guy is messing with you, Noah. We need to figure out why he’s spent all of this time being so careful and now suddenly he’s leaving notes and picking certain girls. Look at her, Noah. This one isn’t a junkie. That needle in her arm, I’d be willing to bet, is the first one that ever graced one of her otherwise healthy-looking veins.”
Noah ran a hand through his hair. He heard what Hayden was saying, but he didn’t want to process it. If the killer knew this girl would affect him…then he would also have to know how Noah felt about Ava…Oh God! Ava!
“I have to go!”
“Noah!” He heard Hayden call after him but he didn’t stop. James said something as he passed him, but he still didn’t stop. He had left her alone. What if the killer knew Hayden would call him? What if he knew that Noah would be there and Ava would be alone? He could feel the panic building like an avalanche in the pit of his stomach as he got behind the wheel of the car. His heart was slamming inside his chest and he could actually feel the adrenaline beginning to build up inside of him. His brain was firing off one crazy thought after another and he couldn’t stop them or control them. He reached for his phone as he started the car, and he could feel the sweat building up underneath his arms and running down the sides of his face. His skin was on fire as he pushed the call button for Ava’s number and waited. The arguments happening in his head were so fast and so disturbing that his brain threatened to shut down all together. Ava wasn’t answering. It was ringing three times…four…five… “Hi, this is Ava. Leave a message or I won’t call you back.”
“Shit!” The panic settled itself around his throat as he drove, gripping him tightly, squeezing and constricting so hard that he could barely breathe. He was light-headed by the time he made it to her apartment building. He had no idea if he shut off the car or not. He just remembered jumping out and running through the lot, across the sidewalk and up the stairs. When he made it to the top he could see her door hanging open and he knew that he was too late. He let the panic seize him then and he fell to his knees and gulped at the air. He left her alone. She wanted to go with him and he’d said no. This was his fault and he had no fucking clue where to even start looking for her.
9
“Team one, check in! What’s going on in there?” Collin was standing outside the burning four-story office building, next to the truck that he’d driven there twenty minutes earlier. The bottom half of the building was engulfed in flames, and there was just enough wind blowing that it was spreading fast. Collin’s job that night had first been to get them there quickly and safely. Once they were there, he readied the hoses and while Sean and his team prepped to go inside and clear the building floor by floor, Collin had strung up the lights and got them ready to take in, then readied the hoses; and once they began advancing inside, he monitored the pressures and gauges closely. It was all routine to him…right up to the point where his brother stopped answering radio calls. “Team one! Kelly, come in!” The howl of the fire was so loud that Collin told himself the three firefighters inside just couldn’t hear him. He was doing his best to stay calm…but those were his brothers inside…one of them, literally.
He and Sean did all their shifts together. Sometimes Daniel worked with them too, but for the most part he was on the opposite shift, working when they were off. Sean was the brother that Collin was closest to, and part of the reason he’d grown tired of the job. The idea of being there if his brother didn’t come out, and having to be the one to tell his parents Sean was never coming home, had just gotten to be too much for him.
After trying Sean’s team once more with no response, Collin changed the channel on the radio and said, “Captain Barnes, team one isn’t responding. The radio has been silent for three minutes. I’m going in.”
“No!” was the immediate reply over the radio that Collin was clutching. “Ladder 5 is in position with hoses in front and 8 is around back. Orders are to set up lines and suppress.”
“Captain…”
“I don’t want to hear it, Kelly! Orders are coming from the Battalion Chief. Follow them. See if Ladder 5 needs your help, but do not go into that building…are we clear?”
“Yes, sir,” Collin said. He tucked the radio into his coat, flipped the visor down on his helmet, and took another look at the building in front of him. The dark gray smoke was thick and filling the air around them fast. He could hardly see through it up to the third floor, where he knew Sean and his two teammates had been when they sent their last radio communication. He wasn’t stupid enough to believe he could run inside and up two flights of stairs on fully involved floors. But so far it didn’t look like three was fully involved, which meant he could get inside one of the windows…from the bucket of the search and rescue truck that was pulled up in front of it, dousing it with water.
Collin went over to the driver’s side of the truck. He knew the man inside, it was someone he’d worked with for a while before the man transferred out to Station 5. “Markus, I need a lift to the third floor.”
Markus frowned at him and said, “No fucking way, man. I heard your captain to tell you to stay put.”
“My brother is in there, Markus. No communication for five full minutes. If it were your brother, would you just sit and fucking wait?”
Collin felt a little bad. He could see the man was torn. Markus looked up at the building and then back down at Collin. He was about to say something when Collin heard the commotion…Team One, looking like something from outer space, covered with their shelter-in-place tarp and moving as one like a multi-legged insect, was rushing out the front door, through the flames. Collin took a deep breath out of his own breathing apparatus before rushing over to make sure Sean was okay. Another crisis averted…the last one, he decided. It was time to man up and tell his parents he couldn’t do this shit anymore.
Ava had lain in bed after Noah left, trying to convince herself that it was okay that they had made love. She told herself that it wasn’t going to ruin their friendship. Lots of people had friends “with benefits,” why not them? Her head failed to realize that was a rhetorical question and began giving her reasons: Maybe because he was her boss for starters. What kind of ho sleeps with her boss? She felt like the classic example of a secretary from one of those creepy porn videos that Brian used to make her watch. Damn it! Brian…he was another reason. Once Noah found out all of the things Brian really had on her, she was sure he was going to regret what they had done. He was going to find himself wishing that he’d hooked up with that Kimmie person…whoever she was.
Ava shuddered at that thought. She knew it was ridiculous, but after one passionate encounter she was actually jealous. She could hardly bear the thought of his being with another woman. She told herself that she needed to get over that, and quick. Noah Campbell was not a one-woman type of guy and she knew that before she threw herself at him. What they had done wasn’t about a relationship or love…it was about need. She had a deep, almost primal need for his body and he gave it to her. Now all she needed to do was convince herself of that. It was just sex and she had to find a way to accept that it wouldn’t happen again…it shouldn’t happen again…he was her boss, for crying out loud!
She closed her eyes then and remembered how he touched her. His touch was so gentle and yet firm in all of the right places. He was the best that she’d ever had and she had a feeling that what they experienced that night was only skimming the surface. She shuddered as she thought about the way he’d used his lips to pleasure her nipples and she couldn’t help but wonder what it would have felt like to have them on…
That thought was interrupted by a loud knock on her f
ront door. It was only ten or fifteen minutes after Noah left, so she knew it was too soon to be him. She was suddenly frightened…it was the middle of the night. Who the hell would be knocking at her door? She got up off the bed and slipped into a pair of shorts and a t-shirt and then cautiously made her way into the dark living room and towards the door. The knock came again and just as she was about to look through the peephole she heard someone whisper her name. The voice was deep and raspy and she didn’t recognize it.
“Ava?”
“Who is it? What do you want?”
“I want you, Ava. I want you the way Noah had you tonight.” Fuck! Who was this? How did they know Noah had been here? It didn’t sound like Brian, and it was obviously not just a stranger since he knew her name and he knew that she’d just been with Noah. Her mind was racing and she didn’t know what to do. “Come on, Ava, open the door, baby. You won’t be sorry. We’ll be so good together.”
She felt a wave of nausea hit her and suddenly couldn’t remember where she had left her phone. Shit! Where was it? She was searching the dark living room for it when she heard him bump up against the door once…and then twice. She saw the phone on the little table near the kitchen and headed towards it. Everything happened so quickly after that. She heard the door splinter open and the sound of someone behind her. She reached for the phone and was grabbed from behind. Two strong arms were suddenly wrapped around her arms and chest. She was kicking her legs and trying to scream, but he was squeezing her so tightly that the air was cut off and no sound was coming out. She was trying to process what was happening but it was all happening too fast. He dragged her back towards the door and she knew that if he took her out of there, it was likely that she wouldn’t survive. No one would know who had her, or where to find her.