Contradiction in Terms (Angel of Death Book 2)

by Suzanne Steele

  He sat down and began the first of what would be a long line of episodes that served one purpose: to fuck with her head. Fear was a wonderful tool to use on people who held secrets they would do anything to keep. It would be more fun to play with her; doing so would ensure he was able to come between the couple. By the time he was finished, he would have a greater hold on her than her own husband did.

  Chapter Five

  Angel picked up her son and cooed at him. His brilliant smile lit up the room and filled her heart with so much love that she felt as if she would burst. She had named him Jericho Jr. after his father, and they called him by his middle name, Heath, so there was no confusion. She had errands to run, and it would have been easier to leave him with the babysitter, but Angel never passed up a chance to spend time with him. Losing her daughter had taught her how precious life was. Each day was a gift, and she wanted to spend as much time with her family as she could. Heath would never take the place of Celeste, but he had helped to heal her broken soul in a way she never thought possible. She felt like she owed the little guy for that. All he knew was he loved his mother and wanted to be with her all the time. He had suffered with bouts of separation anxiety and Angel would do anything to keep him from feeling the anxiety she knew all too well. She folded up the stroller with the expertise of a mother who was used to taking her baby with her, and she then made her way out to her van to secure him in his car seat.

  When she was satisfied he was safe in his car seat, she made her way around to the driver’s side. It wasn’t until she was seated behind the wheel of the van that she saw it; the envelope with her name on it that had been placed under the windshield wiper.

  She attempted to convince herself that the ominous feeling in her gut was just her system overreacting to the unknown. She could feel the tremble in her hands as she opened it. The message was simple but profound in nature.

  I know what you did, and I have a flash drive with a video to prove it. I’m going to expose you for the killer you are.

  There was no greeting, no signature, just a message that made the hair on the back her neck stand up. She’d been careful not to leave any trace of herself. Maybe this person was bluffing, trying to make her admit to something they had no proof of. Why now, though? Why wait for over a year to come out of hiding with a threat like this? She had killed before and would kill again if she had to.

  Jericho would know what to do. She couldn’t call him and take a chance on the call being recorded. Being married to an FBI agent had taught her one thing: how to be a successful criminal.

  He watched her; using all the training the agency had provided him. It didn’t matter that she was his wife. Reading her body language might reveal something to him that he had missed.

  He leaned back on the bed and interlocked his fingers behind his neck. He was a man who was comfortable in his own skin; even under the most stressful of situations, he was a man who had come to grips with his evil nature.

  “You shouldn’t have touched it.”

  She said nothing, just listened.

  “I’ve got your back, babe—always. I’ve got a plan too. Agent Turner is convinced there was more than one mercy killer. We’re going to find out who this is and pin your kill on him. Maybe then we can get back to living our boring suburban life.”

  “Can we kill him?”

  “Absolutely. One thing we’re not going to do is leave loose ends. I don’t want this shit coming back to bite us in the ass years from now. We’ve got kids to think about now.”

  “Kids?”

  “Yeah… I already told you I wanted a little girl, and I always get what I want.”

  He pulled her over in his direction in an effort to sooth her and reassure her he wasn’t going to let this bastard break up their happy home.

  “Why’d you do it? That one kill? Why, babe… why?”

  “I had to. She begged me not to let her live because she knew she was prolonging the inevitable. Living was sucking her finances dry, and she didn’t want her kids being left with outstanding hospital bills.”

  “How did you do it?”

  “I used succinylcholine; it metabolizes in the system quickly so that there’s no sign of it in an autopsy. The family never ordered one because she was dying of lung cancer anyway. Before I administered it, she begged me to walk away, and I did. I could have helped her, but to what end? I told her she was basically going to suffocate, and it would be a terrible death, but she insisted on me using that because there wouldn’t be any evidence left behind. Imagine that. Her reasoning was unselfish concerning her kids and her killer. She was more concerned about me not getting caught than she was suffering a terror-filled, agonizing death. Suffocation is an awful way to die—it doesn’t happen quickly. Can you imagine how long those minutes stretched out into an eternity? It isn’t like what you see on television. After three minutes the patient suffers neural damage… then five minutes, maybe even seven before the eventual end. It’s terrible.” Her expression took on a faraway look like she wasn’t in the room with him anymore. He’d never really thought about how agonizing the death was. He knew shooting someone was nothing like it was on television; the way their eyes glossed over and their breathing became more like a gurgling sound of drowning on blood because they’d been shot in the chest. Death didn’t come fast or easy when it was murder. Whether it was by a gun, a drug, or even a pillow over someone’s face—it was fate’s way of making the murderer never forget what had been seen, what they had done. It was inevitable that guilt would have her way.

  “Babe, we never talk about this again—it never happened. Sometimes things aren’t about what you do, so much as they’re about why you do them. You can’t beat yourself up over this. You did what you thought was right in the moment. Going back and second guessing it is what spawns guilt, guilt grows until it consumes you, and then you’ll do anything to get the weight off your shoulders. This isn’t just about you. It’s about us too.”

  “It may not be possible to do that, just let it go. I’ve got someone who’s convinced I killed that woman, and we may have to discuss it to find out who it is. We have got to find this guy, or I’m going to prison. I’m scared, Jericho.”

  He leaned over and kissed her forehead. She was right. It was a form of denial to not talk about it. Part of him felt like if he didn’t talk about it, then it never happened.

  He allowed his fingers to trail down and then make their way back up and under the nightshirt she wore. He slid her panties over strategically manipulating her clit. He knew when her hips began to slowly rock she was getting turned on.

  He took a moment to pull the jogging pants he wore down. He lifted her up with ease, placing her down on his hard cock.

  “Now’s as good a time as any to get started on that baby girl.”

  She tossed her head back, causing her hair to flow over one shoulder and exposing a breast. He reached up, tweaking the nipple and then spit on a finger, rubbing it over the taut nipple as he blew air on it, causing it to peak to a hard point.

  “It’s okay, baby. This is good news. You’ve got a real killer to pin that patient’s death on. We just have to find out who he is.” His expression was direct when he spoke again. He could feel the love in his heart like some all-consuming fire that was engulfing him in flames of devotion. “I’ll keep you safe. I’ll protect you. I love you, babe, and if keeping you means breaking the law or killing… I’m all in.” She knew him, knew how much that oath he’d taken when he became FBI meant to him. She felt like she was dying inside because she had put him in this situation. She never would have intentionally done it.

  Angel pushed the thoughts out of her head and gave into the moment. She moved her hips up and down in time with his. The rhythm of their movement was in synch, and she could feel the familiar fluttering in her lower abdomen. Her body clamped around him, pulling his seed and the promise of another child from him. When he pressed his lips against her forehead, the words came from some deep place in
her she never knew existed. “I love you too, Jericho, and if circumstances ever demand me to break the law, or kill for you, I’m all in too.”

  Chapter Six

  He waited in the parking lot for her, and when she didn’t show up, he could feel the rage begin to build. He needed to keep his head and not react. Maybe the mercy killing nurse was running as a way to avoid the inevitable. The note had gotten to her. He wished he would have been able to see her face when she realized someone besides her husband knew the secret she’d tried so hard to hide. The realization that he shared a part of her that only her husband knew stirred something deep within him. He had a secret too; one that would be revealed to her in time. They would form a bond throughout his stalking of her. It always happened. It was unavoidable; they would form an attachment, a connection, and yes, even a relationship. She wouldn’t realize it was happening. It would be a subtle union. One day she would look up and realize she was looking for him, waiting for his next letter, and ultimately waiting for the day he would reveal his identity. Right now, he held the power because he knew so much more about her than she knew about him. At this point, all she knew about him was that he existed—he existed to take over her world. In that taking over of her world, he would also invade her lover’s life. That’s when the real fun would start. Because it would make her husband enraged, and there wouldn’t be a damn thing he could do about it. That was the ultimate power trip for him; taking an alpha male like Jericho and rendering him totally helpless. Taking control of a man like that and getting into his head was something most couldn’t do. But he was a killer, a planner, and a stalker. Now… it was a battle of wits. He needed to prove to himself he was smarter than the agent.

  Sure, the big bad FBI agent would do all he’d been trained to do, and it would be to no avail. Failure wasn’t an option because the killer was too far gone. She had created him, brought him forth, called him out of hiding by her wicked, vile deeds. She held no control now, though. He was out of control, but when it came to her, he was in control. He’d keep her around—for a while. She made him feel good because she gave him the ability to be the master of her universe. Yeah… keeping her around for a while was a good idea. It was a great ego boost for a man like him. He’d seen the way the nurses at the hospital looked at him, ordering him around like he was some fucking gopher boy—go for this and go for that. Who the fuck did they think they were, anyway?

  He looked up and viewed the nurse who worked with Angel making her way out to her car in the parking garage. What was her name? Ah yes, Jenny; that was it. Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad night after all—at least for him, it wouldn’t.

  “He won’t stop. You’ve given him something he desperately needs, and you’re going to have to fight to get it back,” Jericho breathed out hard in exasperation.

  “What are you talking about?”

  He ignored the question at first. “You’re in for the fight of your life. I wish I could fight this battle for you, take your pain, your fear, but this is one fight I can’t win for you. You’ve given him a sense of being by unwittingly giving him control,” he said, finally answering her question. “We can use that against him. I just haven’t figured out how yet. For now, we need him to trust you enough to interact with him. It’s the only way we’re going to find out his identity. You’ve got a stalker—possibly a killer who has taken an interest in you.” He shook his head in anger. “When I find out who this sonofabitch is, he’s going down!”

  In an effort to calm him down she minimized the issue. “I don’t want you doing something stupid, Jericho. I can do that. I can get this sick fuck to trust me. It’ll be like undercover detective work.” Angel could feel a flutter of excitement at the thought of working with her husband.

  “I don’t like it, but if it means saving the mother of my children, then I have no choice. I refuse to be anyone’s sitting duck waiting to be taken out. We need to get in front of this thing and gain some kind of control over this mad man.”

  “What is it that’s motivating him?” She teased him, lightly punching his arm. “Use some of that FBI body reading training you have and give me the why of the issue.”

  “The same thing that motivates all of us: control. We’re all wired to want control. For some, the motivation is fear, and for others, it’s power. For this guy, it’s all about the power. He probably has a job that society views as not being prestigious. This is his way of showing the world he’s just as good as everyone else.”

  “He left the threatening note on my van. How ‘bout I leave him a message in the same place?”

  “That’s a good idea, baby girl. You need to cater to his ego, get him to trust you, and he’ll come out of hiding. Give him the illusion that he has you backed into a corner—that he has the power. Don’t act scared. I’ve got the feeling this guy wants you to have some balls. It gives him even more of a sense of power. If you’re some passive wallflower that anybody can walk over, then he’s nothing special, but a woman with guts makes him special.”

  She leaned over, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek. “Baby, I can assure you if there’s anything I know how to do it’s to cater to the male ego. I do have to admit, the way this guy thinks is crazy.”

  “That has me worried.”

  Chapter Seven

  Suddenly it hit him, like some epiphany sent from the unknown. Why hadn’t he thought of it earlier?

  He fingered the syringe he had in his pocket; the one that had been meant for Angel. This idea was better anyway. It was going to put him on the path of becoming infamous—everyone would know who he was by the time the six-o-clock evening news aired. He would be a household name, holding the city of Louisville in the grip of fear. That kind of power could be intoxicating to a man. This was even better than he’d imagined. This was a whole new level of power, one that went far beyond controlling an FBI agent and his wife. At first, he’d been motivated by those heady, high-minded fucks at the hospital, but now this thing he was pursuing had gained a life of its own, and it was going to make him famous.

  He didn’t want to take a chance on being caught on surveillance, so he followed Jenny out of the parking garage at a safe distance. He tossed around the idea of how he would get her to pull over. He could play the tire ruse, pull up beside her and tell her one of her tires was low on air. She might not go for that, though, or she could pull into a lighted area, and that would serve no purpose.

  He decided to go with his second thought. He waited until she was on a lone, dark highway and tapped her back bumper. She did exactly what he knew she would.

  “What in the world were you thinking?” The nurse jumped out of her car with her hands raised in the air in exasperation.

  He stifled a laugh at the way she was waving her arms around dramatically. What a drama queen. You’re perfect for what I have in mind.

  He got out of his car and stood with a baffled look on his face. This is fun. Maybe I should be a fucking actor. “I’m so sorry.” He held his head down in mock remorse. She seemed to soften somewhat at the body language she thought she was picking up on. The poor guy just seemed so humble; no sense in making him feel like a dumbass because he tapped her bumper. It wasn’t like the car was totaled or anything.

  “Well, let me go get you the contact information you’ll need.” She turned to walk back to her car. She hoped the poor guy didn’t get his rates raised for this.

  “Big mistake turning your back on me.”

  “Excuse me?” She stopped walking and turned, looking at him, as she tried to process if the bastard had just threatened her. She couldn’t understand what she’d just heard because it made no sense. It was one of those what the fuck just happened moments. She made the mistake of trying to reason, rather than relying on her primal instincts of fight or flight. It only took seconds for her head to be barraged with a cluster-fuck of thoughts. This would prove to be a situation where hindsight would be the mother of regret, the bitch who made her go over and over in her head how she cou
ld have done things differently if she’d only known.

  She never felt the pinch of the needle pressing through flesh. He tossed her over his shoulder and threw her in his back seat like she was nothing more than a feed sack, and in his mind, she wasn’t. She was a means to an end.

  He made a u-turn in the road before anyone could see him and headed in the direction of his home. He had bought the place to suit his needs for abduction. It was a small house located far out in the country so a victim’s screams couldn’t be heard. Sometimes he liked it when they screamed, and sometimes it just got on his nerves.

  He heard her moan and make a slight movement, but the drugs he’d given her would ensure she was out long enough for him to reach his destination. He had so many plans for her, so many plans for his dear Angel too.

  Chapter Eight

  A knock on the door interrupted Angel where she was standing at the counter making coffee.

  “Can you get that, babe?” She turned around looking at Jericho who was still rubbing sleep from his eyes while sitting in front of the laptop he had in front of him. Most people read the morning paper. Her husband read the news online. He looked so damn good sitting there with his bed head and five-o-clock shadow in nothing but jeans that were unbuttoned at the top.

  “Keep looking at me like that and I’m going to try for that little girl I want.” Amusement crackled in his eyes, lighting them up like tiny flashes of light were going off in them, flashes of light that very seldom showed up lately due to the seriousness of life they’d been dealing with.

  She rolled her eyes and turned back to the counter, taking advantage of the fact that Heath wasn’t awake yet. She waited until she heard the door shut before she called out to him again.