Master (An Impossible Novel) (Impossible #6)

by Julia Sykes

  Falling into familiar habits, I moved into action to quiet my busy thoughts. Reed wouldn’t approve, but what he didn’t know would hurt him. Or hurt me, rather. I knew I would be in trouble with him if he did realize what I was doing.

  I shook my head and slipped into one of the fluffy robes provided by the hotel before joining Reed in the next room. He was sitting on the small couch, his shoulders slumped and his brow furrowed. Underneath his natural tan, he appeared pale.

  “What’s going on?”

  His head snapped up, and he ran a hand over his face as though to smooth away the worry he had shown. Within moments, his expression had gone from one of deepest concern to caution. He scooted over and patted the couch beside him.

  “Come sit with me, Katie.”

  “Why?” I asked warily, but I was already walking toward him. My knees folded, and his hand immediately found mine when I sat.

  Reed sucked in a long breath and then blew it out slowly. The creases around his eyes betrayed his concern. He appeared deeply shaken, and that scared me more than anything.

  “Tell me what’s happening. Please.” I couldn’t bear his tense silence for one more second.

  “The results on the contents of the syringe came back.” His voice was uncharacteristically quiet, but smooth, almost as though he was trying to soothe me. My dread ratcheted up a notch. “It was Acepromazine Maleate, the same animal tranquilizer that we found in Martel’s house. The one he used to subdue his victims.” My breath caught in my throat as I came to the horrifying conclusion Reed was about to utter. “Your attacker said he was leaving you a clue about how to find him. Katie, I think your stalker is The Mentor.”

  Maybe not, my mind denied desperately. Maybe there was some sort of common brand used by the most heinous criminals. Maybe they all shopped at the same store. Creepers-R-Us. My stalker could be some other sadistic man who abducted and tortured women.

  But deep down, I knew that wasn’t true. Part of me had always known, or at least had always suspected. I just didn’t want to acknowledge it. Somehow, it had been easier to deal with when it was some amateur psycho. It wasn’t just Parnell trying to scare me, like Reed had suggested. Now I knew my stalker was a coolly calculating master criminal who took special pleasure in sexual torture.

  It’s just a case. He’s a case, like all the others. Think. This is what I do. This is my job. I was good at this. If I could step back and think objectively, the crippling terror might go away.

  “What else did we find? Is there anything on the blindfold? What about cameras in the hotel? And what about the prints on the notes he sent me?”

  Reed looked at me queerly, as though he knew I was barely clinging on to sanity. He was right, but I couldn’t think about that. If I did, I would be sick. I would curl into a ball and cry and let Reed protect me and take care of everything. That wasn’t an option.

  “The only DNA hits on the blindfold were your hair and skin cells. Forensics is going to trace the cloth fibers and see if they can figure out the material’s origins. The camera feed in the hotel was down for half an hour around the time you were attacked. There weren’t any prints on the syringe other than mine, and the notes only came up with prints of people in the unit; you, Dex, and Frank. We knew they would show up.” He ran a frustrated hand through his hair. “We should have been more careful with the evidence. Everyone is letting their concern for you cloud their judgment.”

  I nodded my agreement, relived that Reed was insistent on making this less personal. “Yes. We need to treat this like any other case. In a way, this is almost better. It gives us more information about The Mentor’s mindset, and it ties my stalker to the investigative process we’ve already begun.”

  “Nothing about this is good, Katie.” Reed almost snapped at me.

  My eyes narrowed, warning him not to push me. “Some good will come of this, Reed. Based on my attacker’s behavior, we know The Mentor is familiar with investigative techniques. And we know he has a certain weakness when it comes to me. The more he toys with me, the more we find out about his mindset and methods. He’s arrogant. That arrogance might cause him to overplay his hand.” My voice lowered, softening. “This is how I have to deal with this, Reed. Please.”

  His grip on my hand eased, going from crushing to comforting. “Okay, Katie,” he allowed. “Our next step is to track down Parnell. We left him to Colton because I wanted to keep you away from this, but now it’s our job. Catching The Mentor is our assignment, and if he’s a threat to you, I want to put all my resources into bringing him down. And you’re right,” he said grudgingly. “You’re his weakness. He wants you to find him, so we’ll fucking find him. Together.” The last word was heavy with significance. Trust me, his hard black eyes demanded.

  “Together,” I agreed.

  “We suspect Parnell’s girlfriend is either sheltering him or at least knows where he’s hiding out. Somehow, the little weasel knows we’re looking for him, and he’s gone to ground. I’ll never understand how sick fucks like this trick women into loving them.” Colton’s lips were curled in distaste as he shoved Parnell’s file across the desk for my examination.

  “It’s camouflage,” I remarked as I flipped it open. “Parnell can be very charismatic. Having a girlfriend makes him blend in with normal people.”

  I was familiar with the file’s contents, but I couldn’t help staring at the dishwater brown eyes that looked up at me from his photograph. If it weren’t for his eyes, he might have been attractive. He was fifty-five years old, but his angular face was only lightly lined, and streaks of dark blond persisted in his greying hair. Most women would consider him a silver fox. Unfortunately for the women he had raped and killed, they hadn’t seen the monster behind the beautiful exterior before it was too late.

  “As much as I want to see him behind bars, I really don’t think Parnell is The Mentor.” I had already told Reed, but I felt the need to share my doubts with Colton. “The Mentor’s notes to me indicate that he cares about being with me in some sick way. Parnell has made lewd comments, but he doesn’t keep the women he abducts. And he doesn’t drug them. He seduces them to get them alone, rapes them, and kills them. He doesn’t hold them for long periods of time and use them up like Martel did. It makes more sense if The Mentor shares Martel’s M.O.” Two years of practice helped me keep my voice neutral. “Parnell isn’t smart enough to be The Mentor. He went through too many women, too fast. That’s how we found him. Based on Lydia Chase’s testimony, The Mentor encouraged Martel to keep his victims alive for as long as possible in order to avoid being caught.” I pressed my lips together, unable to say more and keep my cool façade.

  Colton got that pigheaded look I knew all too well. “Parnell is our best lead. He has a known history of violence toward women, and he hunts in the Chicago area. I’m bringing him in for questioning.”

  “If it isn’t Parnell, at least we can rule him out,” Reed supplied before I could further argue my point.

  “Okay,” I allowed. “Maybe we can get some new charges to stick in the other cases if we question him again.” I still couldn’t believe that the CPD had lost the evidence we needed to convict him. “Do you think you can get to him through the girlfriend?” I asked Colton.

  “If she won’t talk, I’ll put a tail on her. We’ll find Parnell, Katie.” He said it as though that was going to put an end to the investigation. He really believed Parnell was the man stalking me. I didn’t want to waste my time trying to convince him otherwise. Reed was right. Questioning Parnell would allow us to rule him out, at the very least, and maybe we would be able to gather more evidence for a conviction.

  “In the meantime,” I turned my focus on Reed, “I think we should go through missing person cases involving women in the Chicago area. We’ll go back decades if we need to. The Mentor is at least Martel’s age, likely older, so that puts him in his late thirties at the youngest. He knows what he’s doing, so – judging by the fact that he keeps his victims for prolon
ged periods – we know he probably has years of experience. It’ll be a lot of work, but if we locate women who were found alive after experiencing sexual assault, we can bring them in for questioning. It might be that one of them got away from The Mentor.” Even as I said the words, I doubted them. The Mentor was too smart and neat to allow a woman to escape him. But Lydia Chase had gotten away from his student Carl Martel, so I wasn’t going to rule out the possibility. The Mentor had to have started somewhere. Maybe he was sloppier when he was younger.

  “Good idea,” Reed said. “We should get back to the field office and get started. Do you think Dex will give us a hand?”

  I flinched at Dex’s name. I was trying to ignore what had happened between us in the elevator. “I fucking love you, Katie.” So much had happened since then that it hadn’t been as hard as it should have been to push it away. Now it pounded at the edges of my thoughts, demanding to be acknowledged.

  “No,” I said, my voice tight. “He’s still busy with the client list from Dusk. You and I should handle this until we have some solid leads.” My gaze found Colton’s again. “Keep me updated on Parnell.”

  “Will do. We’ll bring him in soon, Katie.” Again, I got the sense that he was certain Parnell was The Mentor. I resisted the urge to shake my head. I knew deep in my bones that he was wrong. Parnell could never devise the horrors The Mentor indulged in. He was greedy and didn’t think beyond the quick kill, the little burst of pleasure he found in tormenting women. The Mentor savored them.

  I couldn’t suppress a shudder. Reed’s hand gripped my elbow in a show of support. I realized all the blood had drained from my face.

  It’s just another case. It’s just another case. The reassurance was hollow, because all my cases haunted me. I hate my job.

  By the time Reed and I entered his hotel room late that night, I was exhausted and sickened. Spending a day pouring over sexual assault cases will do that to a person. We had spent hours going through missing person cases, and we had barely scratched the surface. The number of women who had been found alive was far too small. The cold cases and murders, on the other hand, were available in abundance.

  Reed looked just as weary as I felt. Days like today sucked. Really, all of my days sucked. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could keep this up without crumbling.

  Without warning, his arms closed around me, and he pulled my body up against his chest. I almost protested that I didn’t need a hug, but that would be a lie, and Reed didn’t tolerate lies. Besides, there was a desperate tautness to his muscles that let me know I wasn’t the only one who needed to be held. The show of vulnerability was shocking. I let out a shaky laugh to cover the depth of my emotion.

  “I didn’t think big bad Doms needed hugs,” I teased weakly.

  He gave me a wan smile. “I’m still human, Katie. I need my sub’s strength just as much as she needs mine.”

  My sub. My heart fluttered at the sound of that even as my gut clenched.

  In the space of a second, his tired eyes turned reproving. “Don’t do that,” he ordered. “Don’t hide from me.”

  “I’m right here,” I evaded the truth.

  He tapped the center of my forehead with a long finger. “Don’t hide from me, Katie.”

  I pursed my lips and looked away so that he couldn’t look into my soul. But he had no mercy for me. He sensed my weakness in my exhaustion, and he took advantage. I let out a little surprised squeak when the world tilted around me, and I found myself cradled in his arms. He settled down on the couch, keeping me in his lap with his arms wrapped around my waist and shoulders, pinning my arms in. My head seemed to find the crook between his chin and chest of its own accord, and I breathed out a long sigh. Being held by him like this felt undeniably good.

  “Talk to me,” it was a low command. “Why do you feel like you have to hide your emotions from me? Why are you afraid to be vulnerable? You should never be afraid of me, Katie.”

  I peered up into his gorgeous face, taking in the open earnestness of his perfect features. “I’m not afraid of you. I’m afraid of failure. I’m afraid of being a disappointment.” I caught my lower lip between my teeth, worried I had confessed too much.

  “Who are you afraid to disappoint?”

  I hesitated. “Frank,” I admitted softly. “He took me in after my father died. He’s…” I fumbled. “Well, you’ve met him. He’s a very hard man. With a strong sense of right and wrong. He’s completely devoted to his job. But he can be different around me. Sometimes, he’s gentle. He was my father’s partner, and he held me when I cried after he was killed. I was so in awe of how he was able to pull his life together and devote himself to his work, to a higher cause. I felt I needed to do the same. If I followed his example, I would be able to go on without my father, too.”

  “Did Frank tell you to join the FBI?” Reed quietly prompted me to keep talking, to keep spilling my deepest secrets. Now that I had started, I couldn’t seem to stop. It felt too good.

  “He kind of guided me to it, made sure I was accepted to Quantico and got a good position working for him. But he never told me I had to do it.”

  “If you told him you’re unhappy with your job, do you think he would tell you to stay?”

  “I…” I had never thought about it like that before. “I don’t know. He’s proud of the work I do. I can’t imagine doing anything else.”

  “Can’t you?”

  The two words were the final blow to my walls, and I revealed my deepest-held secret. “Before my father died, I wanted to study to be a vet. I hate my job.”

  “I know you do.” He paused. “I didn’t know your father, Katie, but do you think he would want you to be unhappy?”

  “No,” the word came out on a soft sob. My tears wet Reed’s shirt, and he traced reassuring patterns on my upper arm with his thumb. The gesture was soothing, hypnotic. My tears stopped flowing when I fell asleep in his arms.

  Chapter 12

  “You don’t have to go in there, Katie,” Colton told me, his voice gentle.

  Claude Parnell stared through the one-way mirror in the CPD interrogation room. Rationally, I knew he couldn’t possibly be looking at me; there was no way he could see me through the glass. But the smirk on his face and the mocking light in his eyes was the same as I remembered. This wasn’t a man who was afraid of me, despite my position.

  “Agent Byrd,” he called in a singsong voice. “I know you’re out there. Come in and play.”

  I did my best to pretend I hadn’t heard him. “Where did you find him?” I asked Colton.

  “The girlfriend’s house. We managed to go in with probable cause, but it’ll be hard to justify once his lawyer gets here. I was a little, um, aggressive about getting in. If we don’t get him to say something incriminating, he’ll walk out of here in a few hours.”

  My resolve hardened. Even though I didn’t believe Parnell was The Mentor, I wasn’t going to let him get away again. He would hurt more women, and he would know to be more careful now. I wasn’t going to let that happen.

  “I’m going in,” I declared.

  Reed’s hand closed around my arm, stopping me short. “Katie. Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

  “Yes. He’s a sick bastard, but that’ll work to my advantage. He won’t talk to you guys, but he might slip up if he’s taunting me.”

  I hate my job. The hard press of Reed’s lips let me know he had read my thoughts, and he didn’t approve of my decision. I had revealed too much in his arms the night before. I couldn’t do my job properly if Reed’s understanding dark eyes kept tempting me to break down and let him handle everything for me. The prospect of allowing him to protect me was too tempting for me to contemplate. I had to protect myself, or I would never make it out of this alive. Or worse, I would find myself alive and in the hands of The Mentor.

  I suppressed a shudder. Parnell isn’t The Mentor, I reminded myself. He couldn’t be. It didn’t fit with his M.O. And it was too easy to pin it on him. If
anything, The Mentor hoped we would arrest Parnell for his crimes. He would make an ideal scapegoat.

  “I need to do this, Reed.” I pointedly extricated myself from his grip.

  “I don’t like it,” Colton crossed his arms over his chest. “Last time-”

  “Last time, I let him get to me. That won’t happen again.” Because I’ve faced worse since then, and Parnell isn’t The Mentor.

  I took a deep breath and schooled my features to a professional blank before stepping into the interrogation room. Parnell’s eyes found mine instantly, and a slow smile bared his teeth. His gazed raked down my body in a leisurely progression from my face down my legs and back again, lingering on my sex and breasts.

  He’s not The Mentor. He’s not The Mentor. If I told myself enough times, I might just remember it. The reassurance threatened to fly out of my head as Parnell’s dirty dishwater eyes settled on mine again. My stomach churned as my primal mind recognized a predator. I had been conditioned to fight, but my nature was inclined towards flight.

  Calling on my training, I consciously chose fight. I lifted my chin and sat in the metal chair across the table from Parnell. It was far too narrow. I could smell the tobacco on his breath, could see every dark hair in his five-o-clock shadow. The fine lines around his eyes deepened with his leer, revealing the monster that hid behind the handsome mask.

  “It’s been a while, Katherine,” his voice was low and sensual, almost melodic.

  “It’s Agent Byrd,” I corrected him coldly. “Where were you Wednesday between the hours of seven and eight PM?” During the time when I was assaulted.

  His grin widened. “I like a strong woman, Agent Byrd. They’re so much more fun to break.”

  “Where were you Wednesday between the hours of seven and eight PM?” I repeated in a monotone. I couldn’t allow him to divert me from my purpose.