by Monica Owens
He turned his head, his hair falling down around his beautiful face. “Already talked to his mom.”
“She agreed?”
“She didn’t have a leg to stand on.” He pointed to the photo of Mitchell Cannon. “So he’s missing parts of his liver and pancreas, right?”
“Wait,” Trish pulled the photo away. “You’re just taking him?”
Levi pulled himself up from the table and Trish saw the unmistakable flexing of his abs. Wait, no. She couldn’t get caught up in what he looked like—
“Do you have a problem with that, Trish?”
“No, I don’t, I…” She stopped and Levi folded his arms across his chest. The move pushed his biceps out further and Trish almost stopped breathing. “Stop that!”
“Stop what?”
She waved her hand at him. “That!”
Levi narrowed his eyes at her. “I’m not—”
“Yes, you are!” She was losing it. Completely losing it. This town was getting to her. Trish shut her eyes and covered them with her palm. Surrounded by hatred and murder and all she could think about was sex? Sex with a man she didn’t know? Suddenly she felt suffocated, heavy. She moved her hand and shot to her feet, charging past Levi toward the door. “I need a minute.”
But he was right with her. His hand was on her arm. On. Her. Arm. She tried to shake him loose, but he was too strong. He stopped her and spun her around.
“Is this about last night?”
Her lungs seized up. Last night? “When you were on my porch, you mean?”
His eyes traced over her features. Did she imagine the hunger in that gaze? “Yeah.”
“Smoking a joint?”
His eyes twinkled but he didn’t smile. And he let go of her arm. Slowly. Caressed all the way down to her fingers until finally letting go. “We all have our vices, Trish.”
“No we don’t.”
“Yes, we do. Sometimes you gotta relax by listening to music, taking a hot shower, smoking a joint, or hammering a dildo up your pussy when you’d rather a man thrust his hard cock in you. Whatever you gotta do.”
His hand was twisted in her ponytail. “I didn’t…You don’t know…”
“How many you got, Trish? How many vibrators do you need to get the job done?” He leaned forward and brushed his lips across hers. Her hands came up to his chest but instead of pushing him away, her fingers tightened in the fabric, pulling him closer. “I’m gonna have to get rid of them. Replace all of them with something harder, something sturdier.” His lips settled against hers. “Let my hard cock thrust inside of you, rub against your lips, kiss your clit, make you come. You want the real stuff, don’t you, Trish?”
The front door of the sheriff’s office whooshed open and Trish pulled away, startled. Her pulse raced and her body hummed. She watched as Levi put his hands in his back pockets and gave her a half-grin.
“What are you doing?” she whispered.
“You were having a panic attack. I was trying to calm you down.”
“I wasn’t having a panic attack!” she retorted. With her heart racing, Trish ran her hand down her pants legs. Ultimately, her palm rested against her chest, trying to stop her heart from pounding out of her body. “Who calms someone down like that?”
He grinned. Just grinned.
“Detective Redding!”
The screech of Mrs. Feeney’s voice cut through anything pleasurable running through Trish’s mind. Like the pictures Levi had placed there of him doing erotic, heavy petting stuff to her. Trish closed her eyes briefly, then grasped the door knob. She glanced back at Levi.
“Be good, would you please?”
He chuckled and turned away, sauntering back to the head of the table. Trish did not stare at his ass. She didn’t. She might have looked, but she didn’t stare. Long. She gave a frustrated snort and walked out of the boardroom.
*****
Trish stood over the hole in Mrs. Feeney’s backyard garden. It was a hole, all right. Impressive and deep. Trish just wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do about it.
“Mrs. Feeney—”
“Hooligans!” Mrs. Feeney shrieked. Her hair was coming out of her carefully placed bun and Trish saw sticks and grass on one side of her head. And if she wasn’t mistaken, Mrs. Feeney also had a stain of tea on her otherwise pristine blouse.
“That may be, Mrs. Feeney, but if you didn’t see—”
“I don’t have to see to know who it was!” the older woman shrieked again. “This is my garden! Do you know how hard it is for plants to grow out here?”
Since Mrs. Feeney had told her about five times already, Trish had a pretty good idea. Again, there was nothing Trish could do.
“All right, Mrs. Feeney, I’ll tell you what I’m going to do—”
“Finally!”
“First, we’re going to get you in the house because it’s getting pretty hot. Second, I’m going to take pictures of the crime scene,” Trish put an arm around Mrs. Feeney, gently escorting her toward the porch. “Third, I’m going to put out an APB for the people that did this. No one will get away with this.”
Mrs. Feeney shook slightly as they made their way up the stairs. “Yes, that’s all I need for you to do. Please, Detective. All of this has just made me sick.”
“Yes, ma’am, I know.” Trish reached for the door handle.
Suddenly Mrs. Feeney pulled away and lurched into the door. “No, I can make it inside by myself. You-you go take the pictures.”
“Are you all right?” Trish asked quietly.
“Detective, I have had a garden for years. Years. This will be the first year that I won’t and I just…” The older woman held a tissue to her lips, pressed together as they were. “If you could just find these hooligans…”
“Yes, ma’am, I’ll work on it,” Trish soothed. Trish had never liked Mrs. Feeney, but the older woman’s attachment to her garden sent waves of sympathy through Trish. She guessed everyone had their breaking point. “You go on inside.” Trish watched as Mrs. Feeney did just that, slamming the door behind her.
Trish walked back down the porch stairs, certain Mrs. Feeney was watching her. For that reason, and that reason alone, she approached the garden with her phone out, ready to take pictures.
The hole was smack dab in the middle of the garden. It certainly wasn’t a small hole, either. Trish saw the beaten grubs, the cut in half earthworms. What was under that shovel?
She moved the shovel aside with a stick, not wanting to get too close. The smell in the hole was abominable. She saw the beetles first, clicking and flicking their wings. They moved over a shiny surface, almost black but more red, maroon really. Trish leaned closer, her hand covering her nose. One of the beetles turned toward her. She could see its eyes, see its mandibles cross together. See the drip of…something off the creature’s face. What was that…?
With a small shriek, Trish dropped the shovel and tripped backward, falling on her ass. She lifted her phone and scrolled through her numbers, happy that Levi had the wherewithal to put his number in her phone. Since at the moment he was the only one who could help her.
When he answered, her stomach settled momentarily. “Yo.”
“Levi,” she croaked.
“Trish?”
“I-I found the kidney.”
*****
Olivier watched out of one of the eyes of the old woman. Pure inspiration on his part to throw that kidney in the hole. Had to throw the detective a bone, didn’t he?
He heard her shriek, saw her hit the ground. He cocked his head. This detective was on the comely side, wasn’t she? Too bad they had to run her out of town.
Olivier plucked the old woman’s eye from his own socket, tossing the sphere into his mouth. Delightedly he crunched down as he took in Trish out in the yard. On her phone. More than likely calling Levi. Those two, thick as thieves.
Shame he was going to have to kill them both.
*****
Levi stood behind the crime scene tape, unabl
e to approach his detective. Deputies stood at attention, watching him, their hands on their guns. Like they could stop him if he really wanted to get back there.
Trish was with the coroner, the sheriff, and the mayor. When he’d gotten to the scene, she’d been on the phone with the ME and Levi had gathered most of the story from her one-sided conversation. He’d sifted through the dirt to look at the kidney, but he’d been more interested in the beetles, hungry and angry.
After being unceremoniously ordered off the old woman’s property, Levi retreated, but he hadn’t left Trish. He saw the tremor in her hands from finding that kidney. He knew she didn’t need him to help her solve this. Well, not right now. Right now she needed his strength because her nerves were frayed.
The coroner and his assistant stood, the assistant carefully holding a green bag that could only contain a kidney. There were murmurings between Trish and the ME, then the man and his assistant strode off. Trish ignored the sheriff and the mayor and plodded toward Levi, pulling her latex gloves off.
“Deputies, remove the tape,” Trish barked out.
Neither looked as though they wanted to comply, but for now, Trish was still their boss. They glanced at each other, then wandered off.
“Preliminary blood test confirms it’s the same blood type as the body missing the kidney,” Trish told him. “But why is it here?”
“Did you get a beetle?”
“The coroner did,” Trish agreed. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small glass vial. The beastly beetle barely fit. Trish shook the vial and the beetle clamored inside. “Ugly little bastard.”
Levi took the vial and looked at the bug. The thing looked back. He could see the blood on the mandibles. The wings flapped ineffectually at the glass. Levi took his phone out and snapped a picture.
“Here,” he said, handing the vial back. “Keep it. I’m going to go make some phone calls. Meet you at the station?”
He met her gaze. “Phone calls?”
“About that bug.”
“It’s just a bug,” she said with a shrug.
“Is it?”
Out of the corner of his eye, the curtain in the kitchen twitched. He looked over but saw nothing. The sheriff stood with the deputies and the mayor was climbing the back porch stairs. Levi scooped his hand under Trish’s elbow and moved her further away, crunching through the dirt back to her car.
“I think we’re taking a risk in staying here,” he said under his breath.
“I can’t leave that boy’s murder unsolved…”
“I didn’t say you should. But I think we need to call in reinforcements.”
“Reinforcements,” she said woodenly.
“I know some people—”
“Levi—”
“Trish,” he said evenly. They made it back to her car. He opened her door and ushered her inside. Once she was seated, he leaned down, one hand on her door handle and the other on her seat. “Meet you at your house in ten.”
“My house?” She frowned. “But you just said the station—”
“Yeah, and now I think about it, it’s probably crawling with bugs. And not the kind you have in your pocket.” He nodded to her jacket. “There are some things you need to know.”
Her rich brown eyes searched his face, his soul, for answers. When she saw nothing but the shuttered look he chose to give her, she sighed. “Levi…”
“I swear, I’ll tell you everything.”
He felt her capitulation. Felt it more than saw it. He wasn’t the only one who could have a shuttered look.
“Ten minutes,” she said softly.
He nodded once and stepped back. Trish reached out and shut her door, powering up the car. She drove out of the driveway as Levi pulled his phone out.
The crunch of footsteps stopped him.
He turned, meeting the mayor. The sheriff and deputies were clearing up the scene, including sending home whatever lookie-lous that showed up. The mayor had full rage mode churning and Levi braced himself for whatever this crazed politician had up his sleeve.
But the mayor stopped and said nothing.
Levi waited, but the mayor remained quiet.
“I got shit to do, Mayor. Want to wrap this up?”
“I want you out of my town.”
A rumble of thunder passed over them, the growl rolling along the sky and down into the valley around them. The ground shook slightly as another fork of lightning spread across the sky.
“I’ll be gone in a few days.”
“I want you gone now.”
Levi chuckled, the sound containing no humor. “Might I remind you who called me here? Because that would be you.”
“I still want you gone.”
Levi narrowed his eyes, and the curtain in the window flicked again. This time he caught glimpse of a dark shape inside Mrs. Feeney’s house. A dark shape and a hint of red where eyes would be. He slowly moved his gaze back to the mayor. “What are you hiding, Mr. Mayor?” Levi mused.
“Gone!” The mayor hissed.
“Don’t you want these murders solved?”
“Not by you!”
“Why?”
“I know what you are!” the mayor seethed. “And I want you gone!”
Thunder groaned through the sticky air and fat raindrops splattered on the ground around them. Levi crossed his arms over his massive chest. Was that what this was about? Who was telling all of Levi’s secrets? “Thought you knew what I was when I came here?” he asked idly.
“You’re a demon from hell.”
Levi’s eyes lazily moved back to the house, now quiet and still. “Tell you what, whatever shit you got in this town? I’d advise you to stop conspiring with it.”
The mayor’s face turned red. “You have no right—”
“I don’t?” Levi moved closer, the wind beginning to whip around him. “You asked me here.”
“Now I’m asking you to leave.”
Levi glared at the mayor, attempting to stare him down. Finally the portly man flinched and his eyelids fluttered. He glanced around them and Levi relaxed somewhat.
“You think whoever you’ve got in that house is bigger and badder than me?” he asked.
The mayor narrowed his eyes.
“Is that what you think?”
“It’s what I know.”
Levi moved his arms, muscles bulging, faces churning. The mayor noticed the movement and took a step back. He stumbled in his expensive Italian loafers and Levi shoved his face into the mayor’s.
“If that’s what you think,” he said stiffly. “Then you haven’t seen anything yet.”
The rain began to pound down harder, the thunder and lightning flickering all over the valley Magnolia lay in. Levi turned on his heel, unconcerned with the storm, and charged to his truck. He and Trish were getting out of here and he was sending in the Hunters. Even if she didn’t like it.
*****
Rain pelted his truck and made the drive to Trish’s house last longer than it should’ve. He saw her car in the driveway so at least she’d listened to him. Just as a crack of thunder exploded in the sky, Levi jumped out of his truck and raced through the muddy path to her front door. He saw the open storm door and wrenched open the screen door.
“Trish!”
He stood in her living room, his clothes dripping wet, when she appeared. She stood in the hallway, wearing just a camisole, underwear, and socks.
“I got caught in the rain,” she was saying as she came down the hall. She rubbed a towel over her head, her thick hair drenched. She paused when she saw him. “Levi?”
His mouth went dry. He tried to remember that she wasn’t ready. She told him she wasn’t ready, just last night. He tried to remember that the town they were in was crawling with some sort of evil. He’d glimpsed it in the mayor when the fucker had told him he was a demon. He tried to remember that Trish found a kidney in a hole in the ground, along with some sort of beetle he’d never seen the likes of. He tried to remember the kid ho
led up in his apartment.
But Trish had on just a camisole, underwear, and socks. Wet hair. Wet…
A groan ripped from his throat and he lifted his gaze to the ceiling. “Trish.”
He felt her move closer. “What’s the matter?”
“The matter?”
Even to him his voice was thick and raspy. Trish had given him no reason to show she was interested. But she was strong. Strong and resilient. That seemed to be turning him on like he would have never believed.
He shook his head, water flicking around him. He couldn’t be here, not now. She was strong, but could she handle him?
“Levi?”
She’d stopped moving toward him and her voice was questioning but not frightened. Maybe that’s why he did what he did. Maybe it was the scent of her. Maybe it was the danger that they most assuredly were in. Whatever it was, he lowered his head to look at her, his nostrils flaring. Her brows were knit in concern, but she didn’t cover her body when she could have used the towel. His lips peeled back in a hiss when he saw the shadow of her breasts under her camisole. He couldn’t have stopped himself if he’d tried.
Using his boot, he caught the door in his heel and slammed the motherfucker shut.
Thunder rumbled all around them.
Chapter Fourteen
Trish gasped as the door slammed shut and Levi came at her. It didn’t occur to her to run or move out of his way. His arms went around her waist and she was hauled up, up into his arms. She squeaked at the feel of her feet leaving the floor, but she immediately wrapped her legs around him for purchase. Her hands clutched his shoulders and he backed her into a wall.
He was wet. Hair drenched, skin wet, clothes soaked. The very core of her was pressed against sodden denim, right over the pounding heat of him.
“Trish,” he said quietly.
“Levi,” she whispered back.
“Only gonna ask once, baby.”
Trish’s heart skipped a beat. His fingers tightened on her waist and his hips flexed forward. She hadn’t been ready. She’d known it would be like this. So…hot. So intense. She wasn’t ready for all that. Yet…she licked her lips and watched his gaze arrow to her mouth. Those beautiful eyes of his, drinking in the sight of her. His hands moved lower, to her hips and around to her ass. His fingers squeezed. He opened his mouth to ask, ask just that one time, his breath puffing out onto her heated skin.