Strong, Sleek and Sinful

by Lorie O'Clare

  Kylie nodded, unable to lie to Dani any more than her job required her to. “Yes, I do,” she whispered.

  Dani pulled out of Kylie’s arms, wiping her face and brushing her hair behind her shoulders as she straightened and stared Kylie in the eye. “If he got a girlfriend he wouldn’t be over here all the time. Mom couldn’t raise us without him. She wouldn’t ever admit it, but it’s true,” she whimpered as tears streamed down her cheeks.

  “I don’t have any family, not like you do,” Kylie said, the words spilling out of her before she gave them much thought. “If, someday, I committed to a relationship, having a guy with a ready-made family would be pretty cool.” She straightened, sucking in a breath and keeping her focus on Dani even though she felt the heat burning her alive from Perry watching intently behind her. “But there are complications,” she began, swallowing the lump in her throat. They were thoughts she would swear were on Perry’s mind as much as hers. And they needed to be voiced. She would take advantage of his niece’s outburst and say out loud what needed to be said. “So many complications they might not be able to be overcome.”

  “Like what?” Dani’s face lit up.

  Kylie stared at her for a moment, the silence in the room growing. Perry wasn’t going to jump in and help her here at all. Exhaling, Kylie decided she could go out on a limb fairly safely. She wouldn’t insult Dani’s intelligence but felt safe that her next comment wouldn’t jeopardize anything.

  “The FBI have ordered me to stay away from your uncle,” she said quietly.

  “What?” Dani howled, her milky green eyes growing as large as saucers as a slow smile spread over her face. “You’re breaking the law being here? And why would anyone care if you saw Uncle Perry?”

  “I’m not technically breaking the law,” she conceded, just risking her entire future. That wasn’t something she would explain, though. “The FBI is involved with this case, too, apparently. And like you, I’ve been questioned. They believe the man who is kidnapping teenagers in town, Peter, might be a cop.”

  “No way!” Dani jumped back as if Kylie just slapped her, and gawked at her and then her uncle. “My uncle isn’t guilty of shit!”

  “Watch your mouth,” Perry growled, speaking for the first time.

  Kylie jumped to the side, too, unaware that he’d moved off the couch and stood behind her.

  “You’re right. I’m not,” Perry said, his voice still low and menacing-sounding.

  Kylie risked looking into his face and lost her breath when she drowned in his smoldering gaze.

  “I never would have pictured you as a bad girl, Kylie.” Dani was grinning from ear to ear now, no longer shaking and noticeably calmer. Painting herself as a rebel made her cool in the teenager’s eyes.

  “I didn’t know he was here when I headed over here,” Kylie announced.

  “Would you have stayed away if you knew?” Perry demanded, his baritone sending chills rushing over her flesh but at the same time creating a heat inside her she ached to have him take care of.

  “Probably not,” she said truthfully, still staring at him.

  “God, you don’t need to feed his ego.” Dani rolled her eyes and walked around her uncle, returning to the couch. “You know a guy gets off when a girl breaks rules to see him.”

  “And how would you know that?” Perry was wound tighter than usual when he snapped his attention to Dani.

  She seemed to notice that as quickly as Kylie, because she didn’t throw her usual smart-mouthed comment in his direction. “Everyone knows that, Uncle Perry,” she said softly.

  “No rules are going to stop me from seeing Kylie,” Perry announced, facing Dani, who sat on the couch again staring at him wide-eyed. “And furthermore, you’re not going to bully her into not coming around.”

  Kylie wasn’t going to wait for silence to build between her and Perry again. Especially with him standing so close she could feel the tiny hairs on her body standing at attention. Even with the words he had just stated ringing in her ears, she fought desperately to move the conversation over to something that wouldn’t cause her heart to race so fast she couldn’t breathe.

  “Dani, would you tell me what happened last night? You were so upset I didn’t want to press, but I would love to hear the details.” She followed Dani with her eyes when she jumped off the couch and headed out of the living room.

  Kylie started after her when Perry grabbed her arm. “Give her a minute; she doesn’t do well when embarrassed,” he said, almost whispering.

  “Dani embarrassed?” Kylie said, hoping she wouldn’t blush when she offered him a sly grin. “I’m not the best at laying my feelings out on the table, either.”

  “It was so hard for you to admit you like me?” He moved his rough fingertips over her pulse on her wrist.

  “I guess not.” She straightened but didn’t have the strength to pull her hand from his. Worse yet, the urge to walk into his arms and stretch against that body of steel also made it impossible to move.

  “What complications were you talking about?” he asked, keeping very little distance between them as he stared deep into her eyes, while continuing to brush his thumb over the inside of her wrist.

  She swore she would break out in a sweat, start salivating or even panting with the close proximity between them. The distance she would need to clear to touch him was driving her crazy. Bad enough she could barely organize her thoughts to answer his question, it was on the tip of her tongue to deny any complications.

  “You know what I was talking about,” she said, biding time and finally looking away from his face. Staring at his muscular chest didn’t help matters much, though. He didn’t say anything and she knew he was staring down at her. Something told her pulling out of his grip wouldn’t be as easy as it appeared. She sucked in a breath, filling her lungs with him, and fought for an answer that would sound relatively coherent. “I think we both like being employed,” she muttered.

  He took her chin with his free hand and lifted her face so she was forced to look at his face again. Kylie closed her eyes, knowing it would be a hell of a lot easier taking on a mouthy teenager than it would be Perry.

  “If you want to be with me, we can make this work.” He brushed his lips over hers.

  Kylie melted right there on the spot. No man had ever suggested he would fight the system, not only local law enforcement but also the FBI, just to be with her. Perry’s statement scared the crap out of her and created an excitement inside her that had her floating in the air.

  “Dani is going to come out here and throw a fit,” Kylie whispered, her voice cracking from too many emotions swirling around inside her.

  “She needs to get accustomed to seeing me kiss you.” He pressed his lips to hers again, taking his time and tasting her.

  Kylie couldn’t help feel that the kiss was a challenge. Not only was Perry staking claim, in his sister’s home, as to what would be allowed and tolerated from this moment forward, but he was also putting Kylie on the spot, giving her this one chance to accept the conditions or push him away and negate them. She hated ultimatums.

  “This isn’t the time, or the place, to lay out the terms of our relationship,” she whispered, her lips moving against his while her lashes fluttered over her eyes. She couldn’t focus on him clearly with their noses damn near touching.

  Perry straightened and let go of her hand, then backed up before turning to the couch. She stood there, watching him, feeling a sense of doom twist around her heart when she feared she’d just pissed him off. But damn it, there was too much at risk to just announce how it would be and believe it to be so. He sat slowly, taking his time stretching out his long, muscular legs, before crossing one cowboy boot over the other. Fire burned in his eyes, a mixture of lust and anger, which with Perry she anticipated could be a very dangerous combination.

  “Is there anything to discuss?” His question came out of nowhere.

  “Well, of course,” she stammered, answering without clearly understa
nding what he meant.

  “Then we will discuss it,” he said with firm resolution.

  Kylie headed to the kitchen, feeling numb from head to toe. This was why she steered clear of relationships. If she let her guard down for a fraction of a second, the pain and anxiety would wash over her worse than a tidal wave. And she knew without a doubt her heart wouldn’t be able to handle it. Kylie gave up loving a long time ago when she lost Karen, and then her parents. She’d barely started reconciling that relationship. How in the hell would she find the strength to start another relationship? Especially one she knew without a doubt would kick her ass and inevitably break what little heart she had left. Perry would take everything she had and destroy her, unless she gave all of herself to him.

  Both of them knew there wasn’t any way she could do that.

  Chapter 24

  Perry doubted anyone would question his being at the station at night. Hell, he’d been here around the clock more days and nights than he cared to think about. He mulled over a believable story in case questioned as he walked through the “pit” to his desk.

  There wasn’t anyone in the “pit,” which was probably for the best, since his mood had gone from sour to downright pissy after he left Megan’s house earlier tonight. Kylie had hung out, spending most of her time with Dani, after he confronted her about their relationship. But she had slipped out after Megan got home, in the midst of the chaos that always followed when all the women in his family descended in one room after the end of their day. He’d driven by Kylie’s house twice, and she hadn’t been home, which damn near made him decide to stalk her until he found her, instead of coming here and doing what he had planned on doing after leaving his sister’s.

  Rad’s office door was closed and no light streamed out from under it. Everyone had gone home. The evening shift were cruising their beats and would be in and out throughout the night, but mostly downstairs by the holding cells or in Booking. There wouldn’t be as many people here at their desks, although anyone who needed a computer or a space to do reports could always show up and take advantage of the space.

  Or at least they could before Rad password-protected all the computers and enforced strict policy that everyone only use the computer at their own desk. Perry understood now why Rad had implemented these new precautions. The Chief was under pressure to prove none of his cops were Peter. Although it appeared from the ISPs they’d narrowed it down to that one of them was Peter. And whoever it was had used Perry’s computer to talk to those girls.

  Motherfucker!

  Everyone in the department who was innocent would abide by the new policy. Only Peter would go out of his way to not use his own computer when talking to the girls. When he struck again, Perry would be ready for him.

  Sitting down at his desk, he glanced around the “pit” one more time, then stared at the doorway and the lit hallway beyond it. Voices echoed down the hall, probably from the stairwell. Someone was being brought in for booking. Perry doubted anyone would head up this way, but either way he needed to hurry. He didn’t feel like explaining why he was downloading a program onto his work computer.

  Taking the CD he’d used to download the program he had bought online at his house, Perry slid it into the disk drive and waited for the box to pop up, introducing him to the ultimate computer protection.

  Record every keystroke. Know what Web sites your loved ones go to. Read every chat conversation they have while online. The “Online Undercover Detective,” was designed to appease parents who felt a need to watch what their children were doing online and for spouses to catch each other cheating. He clicked on the button to download and then tapped the edge of his desk while the bar slowly slid across the screen, showing the extent it had downloaded so far.

  Perry read each box as it popped up on the screen before clicking next. The software was undetectable once installed. No icons or programs would appear anywhere on the computer to clue anyone into the fact that it had been downloaded. The program would record every document opened, any file downloaded or uploaded even if it came from a CD put in the disk drive. It would take screen shots, and best yet, it would send all the information it logged to Perry’s computer at his home.

  It would be interesting to find out if Pinky could detect the “Online Undercover Detective.” Hopefully Perry would bust Peter before Pinky proved the advertising for the program wrong, if it was wrong.

  He quickly typed in the password he’d chosen, “Kylie,” and clicked “save.” One last box appeared, announcing he had successfully installed the software. It flashed an announcement telling him which keys to press down simultaneously to pull the program up and suggested Perry write down this information for future use, and then the box disappeared. He was done.

  “Trap is set,” he murmured, standing and reaching for the disk drive on the tower to remove the CD.

  Footsteps sounded on the stairs and Perry quickly slid the CD into its sleeve and then tucked it into his inside jacket pocket. He barely sat back down before Rad and the agent Perry had seen at the FBI field office entered the “pit.”

  “What are you doing here, Flynn?” Rad demanded, narrowing his gaze on Perry and then shifting his attention to Perry’s screen. “You took a personal day today, didn’t you?”

  “Yup. Hung out with my niece until my sister came home this evening.” Perry looked pointedly at the man standing silently next to Rad. He was tall, in a suit, and possibly somewhere in his fifties. There were silver streaks through his brown hair, and alert blue eyes studied Perry in return. “She was pretty shook up after last night. The whole family was,” he added, returning his attention to his Chief.

  “Might be a good idea to bring her in for questioning. I’ll have Barker or Richey talk to her.”

  “I’ve questioned her thoroughly and can type up the report for you tonight if you need it.”

  “I’m not saying you haven’t,” Rad said, his expression serious and unreadable. “But it would be a good idea for her to be debriefed on the situation by someone who doesn’t know her. You don’t have a problem bringing her into the station, do you?”

  “Nope.” Perry would even go as far to agree it was a good idea. Someone who wasn’t family might pick up things from Dani he might miss. He wouldn’t tell Rad that Kylie had already recorded the conversation she had with Dani earlier today at the house. “She even drew a picture of Peter.”

  “You don’t say?” the man in the suit said.

  “Flynn, you remember John Athey.”

  “Lieutenant,” Athey said, not smiling or changing his expression but nodding once.

  “What are you two doing here?” Perry asked, returning his attention to Rad.

  “We came down to go over the files on the Peter case, figured we would use my computer to see if we can find any more similarities we’ve overlooked.” Rad looked past Perry at his computer. “And what are you doing here?”

  “Just logged in. Figured I’d take a look at what fun I missed out on today.”

  “It was relatively quiet. Go ahead and type up that report on what happened the other night when your niece was almost abducted.” Rad started toward his office. “I also want a copy, or better yet the original, of that picture she drew of her abductor. And bring her down tomorrow after school or as soon as you can. We’ll have either lady talk to her. What was her name again?”

  “Danielle. She goes by ‘Dani.’ ”

  “Good. Dani. Bring her in tomorrow and get me that report.” Rad walked away from him without saying anything else.

  John Athey gave Perry a final appraising look before following the Chief. “I’ve heard a few things about you,” Athey said gruffly, his comment sounding anything but complimentary.

  He would learn now Perry wasn’t easily intimidated. “Can’t say I’ve heard a thing about you,” Perry told him.

  “How good of a look did your niece get of this guy?”

  “She ID’d him pretty well.” Perry leaned back, crossing his arms
, and stared into John Athey’s face. Something dark passed over the man’s expression, a tightening of the lips, a narrowing of the eyes.

  If the man hated Perry that much for seeing Kylie, he would get over it like everyone else. Athey wasn’t Kylie’s father. And even if he were, Kylie was a grown woman, free to make her own decisions, and Perry knew beyond any doubt she wanted him.

  “You think you could ID him if you saw him?” John asked.

  Rad turned, before reaching his office, and listened, shifting his attention from John to Perry and waiting for his answer. Perry wouldn’t let the FBI man make him look like an ass. Standing slowly, he sized the man up, noting he was a good inch or so shorter than Perry. John didn’t have Perry’s build, making him look a lot smaller than Perry, although in truth he wasn’t that much shorter.

  Tugging on his T-shirt, Perry let his arms fall to his sides, relaxing his body but keeping a shrewd look in John’s direction. The man wasn’t easily intimidated, but Perry would have been surprised if Athey was, considering his position.

  “Like with any victim who offers a description of a suspect, there are cracks that needed to be filled in,” Perry said slowly, not caring if his tone sounded a bit condescending. The motherfucker wasn’t his boss. “He never got out of his SUV, so when she tells me he is tall, I appreciate the fact that she never saw him standing. He wore a baseball cap, so when she tells me his hair is dark, I don’t know if he’s got a thick head of hair or is damn near bald. The only thing she was very adamant about is that he had blue eyes. Hell, for all I know Peter could be you,” Perry added, searching John’s face and noting the dark hair and blue eyes.

  John’s expression twisted quickly as he puffed out his chest and growled, as if he would attack.

  “Flynn, get that report typed up for me now,” Rad bellowed.

  Perry squared off, ready for anything John might dish out at him. He didn’t take his gaze from the man when Rad approached, touching John’s arm and nodding toward his office.