by Mary Eason
“I’m sorry. I’ve been so angry with you, blaming you for everything and I have no right to be. You were right, I didn’t listen to what you were saying to me back then and I should have. What happened wasn’t you’re fault. You were trying to do what was best for us all, I realize that now. I never stopped loving you. No matter what happened. No matter how hard I tried. Through the years. I never stopped loving you. And no matter what happens this time, I need you to know that I’ll never stop believing in you, or loving you, until the day I die.” His lips claimed hers once more. At first gently, but then with each new touch, each whispered word of comfort, the passion they’d both buried deep within their hearts ignited into a need that could no longer be denied.
“Make love to me, Davis.”
As she watched, he drew in a shaky breath. His eyes darkened to the color of the sea after a storm. She pushed her fingers into his hair, bringing his mouth to hers once more. She couldn’t get close enough to him. Six years she’d waited for his touch. Longed for it. She would never be close enough. Her lips urged his apart. He still tasted the same. Her fingers slid to his chest. They shook as she found each button on his shirt. When the last button came free, she pushed it away from his body. Her lips broke free of his long enough to look at him. His body was beautiful. Lean. Hard. The same as she remembered in all of her dreams…
When he looked into her eyes, Davis saw the truth. Suddenly kissing wasn’t nearly enough for either of them. With unsteady hands, he reached for her again. His fingers tightened around her waist for a moment and then slipped beneath her top to touch bare flesh. Davis pushed the shirt away, his thumbs stroking across her breasts. Her body responded to him instantly, shuddering against his touch.
Slowly he lifted the top over her head. For a second they were both overwhelmed with desire. She stood before him wearing only a lacy bra. She’d never looked more beautiful. The first time he touched her she’d still been a girl in many ways. He’d been her first lover. Her body and her responses had matured. She wasn’t the shy young girl he’d first loved.
“Come here.” Davis reached for her once more, no longer content with merely tasting her lips. He wanted all of her, starting with the familiar curve of her cheek, the graceful arch of her throat, the swell of her breast.
“You’re so beautiful,” he whispered against her silken skin, and her body shook in answer to his kisses.
In the past, every time he thought about her, he’d wondered what her reaction would be when he told her he still burned for her. He expected her to tell him to go to hell. But she simply stared up at him with the storm raging within her eyes.
Davis let go of his breath, audibly breaking the silence between them. She’d become accustomed to being alone. Not letting herself feel. Kara’s surrender came slowly but it came just the same.
He tried to force rational thought out of his head. This was the worst possible thing they should be doing right now. But Davis couldn’t let himself think about what the consequences of their actions might be, or the horror that waited for them just beyond the walls of this apartment.
He felt weak with need, trying to force air into his lungs.
Davis lifted her into his arms and carried her inside the familiar bedroom where they’d spent so many hours together in each other’s arms.
Everything looked just as he’d left it the last time he’d spent the night there, and yet everything had changed.
He set her down in front of him, close to the bed.
The blinds remained closed against the midday sun. Filtered gray light reflected his raw arousal, along with her uncertainty. Part of her still didn’t trust him fully. The thought hurt, but it didn’t kill the craving. Or the curiosity.
“Are you okay?” he asked over the thudding of his heart pounding in his ears.
“Kara, are you okay?” he repeated again when she didn’t answer.
“Yes.” She sounded even more uncertain. She tried to steady her voice. “Yes, I’m okay. Davis, please…don’t stop.”
Still he hesitated for a moment longer, and then Kara took the decision out of his hands. She removed the last of her clothing and stood before him naked and vulnerable.
His gaze slid over her slowly, his body growing hard. Then he got to his feet and unbuttoned his pants, stepping out of them. Tension soon became the only barrier left between them.
“You’re so damn sexy,” he said as her arms circled his waist. She laid her head against his chest for a moment. “You feel so good. It’s been too long, Kara.” She lifted her head to look at him. “There’s never been anyone but you. Not in all these years. It’s always been you,” he whispered against her face before his mouth claimed hers once again. His lips devoured hers, filling him with a hunger he’d denied for so long. One that only she could quench.
“God, I want you, but I want you to be sure, Kara. I don’t want to hurt you again.”
Kara trembled with each stroke, each kiss. Each word. “I’m sure.” Her hands drifted over his bare chest, her lips touching his body for the first time.
The last of Davis’s control slipped away on a long, low moan.
He lifted her into his arms again and carried her to the bed. In a moment, their bodies were joined together with a single thrust, robbing them of their breath.
Davis wanted to take his time, to allow them both to become reacquainted with each other. To make this time they had together special. But touching her again made all those things impossible.
“Don’t stop, Davis. Please, don’t stop,” she said into his mouth, pressing her hips closer to him.
His hardness drove inside, her kisses and her soft murmurings becoming an intoxicating drug, stealing all rational thought from him. And yet it wasn’t enough. He couldn’t get close enough.
The fear and uncertainty melted away with each thrust, each kiss. And the world around them was reduced to just the space of one bed, two people. One moment.
“God, you feel so good,” he whispered once more against her ear, his teeth grazing along the pulse point at the base of her throat. Davis’s hands clutched her thighs, shifting her farther beneath his weight, allowing him to plunge deeper inside her warmth.
Each thrust gave more pleasure and brought him closer to losing his fragile control. He could feel her body tightening and releasing around his. He watched her pleasure, the pressure within him spiraling out of control. A thousand different convulsions rocketed through his body. Kara’s broken whimper mingled with his groan of satisfaction. His hands framed her face, his mouth capturing her cries of surrender into a kiss.
She said something so softly that he didn’t catch the words. He rolled over onto his back, taking her with him. Gathering her close, he waited for the world around them to stop spinning once more.
It wouldn’t matter how many times he made love to her, it would never be enough. Six years was a long time to need someone.
“Tell me about your life in Texas,” Davis asked much later as they lay exhausted in each other’s arms while the afternoon shadows lengthened.
“What do you really want to know?” Kara smiled against his chest.
“You know.”
“There’s no one else. Only you.”
“God, I hate that I’m thrilled by that, but I am. Do you have any idea how crazy it made me thinking about you with someone else? Married to someone else. Starting a family.”
“Davis, I fell in love with you in DC and I haven’t been able to think about being with another man since. When I came back to Texas and discovered I was pregnant, I was so afraid. I wanted to tell you…”
“I know,” he said quietly.
“I don’t think I accepted it fully until I moved to El Paso. I tried living in Austin again but I never felt safe there.”
“And you did in El Paso?” he asked in disbelief, and she laughed.
“It’s true. The people there accepted me for who I was. They didn’t ask any questions and they didn’t know anything about my
past. To them, I wasn’t a freak.”
“You’ve always hated the gift, haven’t you?”
Davis was the only person she’d let get close to her and yet still he didn’t understand why she hated it so much.
“Yes. It’s hard to fit into normal society. It’s hard to explain, but I don’t want that for Ava.”
“I know that, love. But it is a gift. And if you didn’t have it then you and I would never have met, we would never have fallen in love, and we would never have made that beautiful child.”
“Yes, those are the only good things to come from it though. It scares me to think about how fragile the events of our life really are. It’s all a game of chance.”
“Maybe not. Maybe this is who we are meant to be. And maybe you and I are supposed to be together. Maybe this case was meant to be ours to solve.”
“I so wanted to believe we solved it the last time, but I guess, deep down, I’ve always known it wasn’t finished.”
“So, what do you do to make yourself happy in the middle of a reservation in the middle of a desert?” he said, trying to lighten to mood.
“I have Ava. She’s my life—was my life. I tried to hate you, Davis, but I couldn’t. I’m so glad you came for me.”
“Yes, I am too. I’m glad Ryan paid you that visit. Against my wishes, I might add.”
“Davis, why did you keep the apartment?” She lifted her head so she could look into his eyes. It was a long time before he could answer.
“When you left, well, in the beginning, I thought I might just go out of my mind.” His mouth twisted into a bitter smile. “God, Kara, you have no idea how much I missed you. Only Ryan knew how bad it got. And Rachel. Ryan kept me going. I ended up spending most of my time here. It helped. Being here where you and I spent so much time together. I felt close to you. Even after I bought the house, I couldn’t give the apartment up.”
“I’m so sorry. So sorry. I never realized you loved me too, Davis. I knew you cared about me, that you wanted me physically, but I never knew you loved me.”
He stroked the hair from her face and kissed her mouth. “Shh… It’s okay…I should have told you. I wanted to,” he whispered softly, and then Davis stopped trying to comfort her with words. His lips touched her body in all the familiar places once more. Just for one second she hesitated and then she too was struggling to touch him as well.
And for the first time, Davis actually believed this time would be different. He felt it in her touch. This time they had a chance at something permanent. This time he actually believed they could have a future together.
Chapter Nine
Sometime just before dawn, Kara finally slept. And as always, he came to her. His presence in her life had become more frequent and powerful than ever.
But tonight, there were no victims standing between them. Just Kara and the Angel.
She struggled to wake from the dream but couldn’t break his spell. With each kill, he’d grown stronger.
“You see me and yet you don’t know me. I’m close to you and yet you have no idea who I am. Who is the one with the gift now, Kara? I’ve grown stronger while you ignore your talents until they become atrophied. You aren’t much of a match for me anymore. You’re not making it a game, Kara.”
“What do you want? Why are you doing this?”
“I want to become the greatest of them all. After all, I am superior to all others, including your precious Davis Martin. No one can challenge my power, not even you, Kara. You’ll never stop me. Until I’m ready for this to end, it will keep on going, victim after victim. Rachel, Jessica, Ava, Davis…you.”
“No!”
“Kara?” She could feel Davis trying to shake her from the dream but the Angel wouldn’t let her go.
“He’s your greatest weakness, Kara. And you will be his ultimate downfall. I’ll make sure the girl pays for your crimes. You can rest assured once you’re out of the way, the child—your child—will become mine. I will bring her to death very slowly and you and he, wherever you are, will experience every single part of her pain.”
“Kara! Kara, wake up!” The authority in Davis’s voice finally freed her from the Angel’s hold. She sat up in bed, shivering from fear and dread.
This dream had been clearer than ever before and far stronger than all the others. It had proven there would be no avoiding this final showdown no matter how unprepared she was for it.
“What happened? You were screaming. I couldn’t wake you. God, Kara, I’ve never been so scared.”
Davis held her close. She felt safe in his arms. Safe enough to talk about him. For a long time she clung to Davis’s strength and prayed when the time came, she could remain strong for him. For Ava.
“It was him. Davis, he wants Ava. He’s coming after Ava.”
“Shh…I’m not going to let that happen, Kara. Don’t worry. I won’t let him hurt her or you ever again.”
“How are you going to stop it from happening? Whether Frankie is working alone or with this Alec person, he’s effectively taken you out of the game.”
“Yes.”
She knew she’d hurt him. Davis seemed to withdraw further from her. But Ava’s safety must be the most important thing to both of them.
“Davis, he knows Ava is your daughter. He’ll go after her because of us.”
“Sweetheart, I promise I’m not going to let anything happen to Ava.”
“We don’t even know where to look for him! Davis, it’s almost time for him to take his next victim.”
“Ava is safe, Kara.”
“I want you to check in with your dad.” She got out of bed and reached for her clothes. “Don’t tell me any of the details. Just do this for me, okay? Please, Davis. For my peace of mind.”
He sat watching her for a long time before giving in. “All right. I’ll call Dad right now.”
“Thank you.” She came back to bed and sat down next to him while Davis reached for the phone and then stopped suddenly.
“I don’t want to take any chances. This line could be bugged. I’m going to use the payphone down the street. Stay here.”
“Not a chance. I’m coming with you! Ava is my daughter too. If anything happens to her, it will be just as much my fault as yours.”
He drove to the corner store where the clerk directed them to the payphone located around the back of the building. He stood close to Kara as the clouds that threatened during the day gave way to predicted thunderstorms. He started to dial his father’s number then spotted the glazed look in Kara’s eyes. It was happening again. The Angel was trying to reach her.
“Oh God.” Kara closed her eyes and turned away.
“What is it?” he asked frantically.
“He’s close to her. I can feel her fear…”
“Where, Kara? Can you see where she is?” Davis tried to keep the panic from his voice.
“I don’t know.”
After the third ring, his father picked up.
“Are you okay?” Davis tried not to panic his father, but one glance Kara’s way told him she was worried to death. The Angel was taunting her with Ava’s safety.
“Yes. Everything’s fine here. She’s safe, Son. No one short of a large army is coming near that little girl.”
Davis brought Kara close. “Thank God. She’s fine. Dad, has anything out of the ordinary happened today?”
His dad seemed confused by the question. “No, nothing at all. They’re both okay. What’s this about, Davis? Do I need to be concerned?”
“Hang on a second, Dad.”
Kara shook her head. “He’s laughing at me. He never intended to go after Ava. It was just part of the game. He’s using her to get to me.”
Davis had to agree, but it was better to be safe than sorry. “Dad, look, I need you and your friends to do something for us. Hang on a second, okay.”
He covered the phone and answered Kara’s unspoken question. “We can’t be too careful. I’m moving Ava and Maggie just to be safe.”
>
“Tell me what you need, Son,” Davis heard his dad say.
“Take Ava and Maggie to a new safe house.”
“Where do you want us to go?”
“Don’t tell me. I can’t know anything about where you’re taking them, okay? Just use your cop’s instinct and get them somewhere safe. Then stay there, don’t tell anyone where you are and don’t use the phone. I’ll be in touch when things are safe again. Do you understand?”
“I do. Don’t worry. I’ll take good care of them for you.”
“Thanks, Dad. When this is over, I owe you and your buddies a steak dinner at the very least.”
“Are you kidding? This is the most excitement we’ve had since we retired from the force.”
Davis hoped he wasn’t making yet another bad decision by not taking Kara and going to protect their child. He’d never felt so torn. Would the Angel read Kara’s thoughts and follow them if he did? Or would he be expecting Davis to make this very move and track down Ava on his own. Dear God, he hoped he hadn’t just gambled their daughter’s safety by betting the Angel would go after another victim with the initials AM, just has he’d done with Jessica.
“Thank you, Davis,” Kara told him once they’d returned to the apartment.
“She’ll be safe. Those guys are the best. You could break through the security at Ft. Knox easier than you could get to Ava. Trust me, no one’s coming close to our daughter or Maggie. That’s the only thing about the case I feel good about. I just wish you’d let me take you somewhere safe as well. I have some friends who could help.”
“Davis, you know it wouldn’t matter. He’d find me. I’m as much a part of this game as the Angel is. We have to finish it together.”
That was what he feared the most. “What if I can’t protect you?”
She understood his fears better than anyone, and she knew the answer. Kara would be the one to have the final showdown with the Angel. It had been destined from the beginning. And it would be up to her to use the one thing she hated the most, her gift, to survive this thing.