Games We Play

by Isabelle Arocho

  Inside the room Nick asked, “What can I get you?” he neared the kitchenette area.

  “I don’t think coffee is going to cut it.” Sasha dropped her bag to the floor and sank onto the bed. “There’s a bottle of scotch in that cabinet.”

  Nick reached for the cabinet she pointed to and found a pretty big bottle that was in no way part of the mini bar. Looking at the half empty bottle he realized it had been a mistake to leave her alone at night and believe her when she said she was ok. He poured a glass. “Is this wise?”

  “Probably not but I think I can have a pass today. You want to know something funny? I don’t even like scotch.” Sasha smiled lamely at the glass before tossing half of it back. She stood and walked off the burning sensation in her gut by pacing the front of the bed. “We should get back and find out the rest of what Wes knew. Oh, that’s a tongue twister; what Wes knew. Say that five times and your head will be spinning.”

  Nick gripped her arms before she stumbled past him. “Is your head spinning?” it wasn’t the drink that got her off balance, not even close. There was but so many kicks to the teeth a person could handle before cracking at the seams and it was Sasha’s turn to crumble.

  Sucking in a tight breath she shook her head no, her long hair curtaining her face as she looked down at the pale tan carpet. “I’m fine.”

  “I wouldn’t believe that even if I didn’t know you. Who are you trying to fool?”

  “Myself? I don’t know what I’m supposed to do anymore Nick.” Sasha leaned in and rested her head on his chest. “I ran out of time and I couldn’t save her.” Her voice grew thick with unshed tears. “I don’t want to feel this anymore.”

  Nick’s heart raced a dangerously high speed as her hands moved up his chest and her eyes met his again. Her green orbs were pained yet dark with something he could only describe as erotically female. Oh hell, he thought, this would be a pretty big mistake on both their parts. Huge. Yet his hands moved up her shoulders and cupped her face and he lowered his mouth to hers.

  She was grieving her sister and not in the right state of mind. He should pull back and definitely make that cup of coffee but…damn it. The taste and heat of her mouth left him dizzy and for that split second when he gathered enough strength to pull away she widened her mouth and took him deeper, he was a goner.

  Her body pressed closer, molding to all the right spots perfectly.

  He felt the drops of her tears on his fingers and stepped back before the situation got too hazy to escape a second time.

  Sasha looked at him with a pleading look, her chest rising and falling rapidly from the rush of emotions and desire making this moment near impossible to live through. “Nick…”

  Besides feeling like a selfish jerk for wanting her he wanted to make her feel better and that’s what she was asking for in his name. He wanted to let her forget about her insufferable grief and remind her there was still good in the world, good between them, and he wasn’t going anywhere.

  She was on the brink of insanity and he if denied her right now—he wasn’t sure if that was for the better. This certainly wasn’t what either of them dreamt of for their first time together but who’s to say it was the wrong time?

  Nick reached for her again and kissed her deep across the mouth. He reached for the buttons on her shirt and sealed their fate, crossing that line they’d never be able to turn back from—not that he wanted to. He wanted her; he wanted to be that man that eased her grief and showed her just how sex was supposed to feel.

  With the last of the buttons undone he slid the shirt down her arms and to the floor. With soft touches of his finger tips he moved his hands down the curves of her waist and over to the button of her jeans. She tensed but rather then trying to shy away she deepened their kiss with long wet strokes of her tongue in his mouth.

  Holy mother of god, she was going to do him in much ahead of time if she kept that up.

  The jeans weren’t tight and one tug had them falling to her ankles. Nick didn’t want her to feel like the only one exposed and reached for the tie first and then the buttons of his own shirt.

  Sasha finished pulling his shirt free from his wrists and wasted no time moving her warm fingers over his chest. Her touches were soft and slow.

  Nick lifted one leg and pulled the jeans off and then the next one. She was wearing her zebra print panties again and that drove him absolutely wild. Her bra was pink and almost dainty with lace detail over the tops of the cups and a little flower nestled between her breasts.

  “Nick?” damn it, here it came, she was going to realize it was true she was the smarter one between the two of them and this was a horrible idea.

  He stopped breathing. “Yeah?”

  “I’m not worried.” She nestled her mouth just below his ear. “I trust you.”

  Nick sucked in a big breath of air and smiled. “You have no idea what that means to me.” He carried her over to the center of the bed and moved to lie on top of her. He whispered across her mouth as he moved her hands over her head, “Are you sure?”

  She nodded eagerly as he moved his mouth over the exposed swell of her right breast and up the silky column of her throat to lastly her mouth again. He purposefully teased her with his kiss, slowly exploring her mouth and sucking on her tongue as his hands made quicker time unhooking her bra and pushing it out of the way.

  Her hands pulled at his hair, clawed at his back, and he never wanted her to stop.

  Sasha woke sometime later with her head rested on Nick’s arm and her back flat against his chest. She managed a small smile before she remembered the events to transpire that morning. Carolyn was dead.

  She snuggled closer to Nick and took comfort in the strength of his body and the warmth of his touch.

  He woke and laid a kiss over her shoulder. “It’s ok.”

  “Not until he’s locked away for life.” She turned and gave him a quick kiss before getting out of bed. “We really need to get back.” This time Nick agreed and started to dress along with her. She’d much rather stay in bed with him and recreate all the lovely things he made her feel but their time would come, she had no more doubts about that.

  At the police station they went start to the office and found a surprise along with their team mates; Pete Truman. Sasha walked into his waiting arms. “What are you doing here?”

  “I wanted to personally extend my condolences and put an end to this long search.” Pete was one of the only people who knew detailed accounts of her history in Maple Oaks and her struggling relationship with Carolyn. It felt damn good to have him there and she was reminded she did still have family after all.

  Sasha hugged him so tight she might’ve been worried for his bones had she not known he was made of steel. “Thank you.” She stepped back and took in Gage, Wayne, and Noah’s faces. “All of you.”

  Wayne said, “We’re here for you kid, no matter what. We have some news to share if you’re up for it.”

  Sasha nodded and inhaled a deep breath; it was time to jump back into the grisly pool. “Yes.”

  Noah took the helm of breaking down the information. “Wes’ cousin; Jeffery Spears has served in the military but we’re not sure on his status. Pete called in a favor and we’re waiting for Jeffery’s records. Wes told us about how strict his father was with Jeff to the point of abuse and when Wes left back to live with his mother it got worse for Jeff. To cut a long story short there really isn’t any doubt he’s our guy.” He wanted Sasha to take peace in the fact they were closer than ever, not only did the facts line up so did the DNA.

  Gage nodded and took over. “Jeffery’s mother suffered traumas to the same seven spots the victims are stabbed. Jeff was twenty seven at the time of the first cycle here in Maple Oaks and until his mother died and his uncle started dragging him all around the country this is where he called home.”

  Sasha sat as she absorbed what they were telling her. It burned that they were too late to save her sister but her death wouldn’t be in vain. Thi
s bastard was going to be caught and rot in jail before he could hurt another person. “What exactly are we waiting for?”

  Pete answered, “Transcripts of his active duty to see if they line up with the kill cycles and a better idea of where we can find him here in town.”

  Noah finished. “Like Wes said he has no contact with his cousin and there are no records of him having a residence anywhere in Texas or even a bank statement. He’s been lying low off the radar since his uncle died.”

  “Could his uncle’s death be a stressor of some sort to give him the idea to bring it back around to Maple Oaks?” Sasha asked, looking at Pete and Nicholas for the answer as the question lay in their expertise.

  Pete sat in the empty chair next to her and answered, “I think his uncle’s death has given him a sense of freedom. His actions have been much bolder for this cycle. He doesn’t seem to care to show his face and use his home as his kill grounds.”

  Hope was a tricky thing, she had given up on it so many times but now the more she learned and accepted they were on the right track, hope was all Sasha had. “Do we have a picture of this guy? I was here when he was killing the first time and I’ve been paying good attention to everyone I’ve encountered during this trip. Maybe I know him.”

  Wayne shifted through all the files on the desk he sat behind and pulled one free laying next to Gage’s laptop. “Here we go, this was printed from Jeffery’s driver’s license issued in 1988 and he hasn’t renewed it since.”

  Sasha grasped the printout and couldn’t believe her eyes. She leaned in closer and as she studied every angle of his face her heart stopped and her blood boiled. “That’s because he stopped going by Jeffery Spears and started going by Jim Carson two years prior to meeting my sister.”

  Chapter 27

  On the ride to Carolyn’s home Sasha replayed very encounter with the unsub and noted his voice had seemed too deep like it was something he was forcing while Jim had more of a regular almost high voice. Never once had she thought the killer was Jim but she hadn’t really been thinking about him in those terrifying moments either. She didn’t like the guy one bit but to call him a serial killer? Again she stared at the picture; it was indeed him.

  “Did you notice anything in his neck?” she asked Nick as he drove, Pete and Noah were in the back seat.

  “That sweater he had on covered his neck but from what I could tell there was no bandages or anything like that.”

  “It wasn’t deep enough that he’d need one.” Sasha didn’t want to believe her sister had been married to a serial killer for the last several years or that she was involved with him during the first cycle but the facts didn’t lie and they were sitting on a whole lot of facts. “He said he was closer than I thought and boy he wasn’t kidding.” She voiced her thoughts out loud as she fantasized about wrapping her hands around his throat and watching the life go out the same way Carolyn had no life left in her eyes.

  At the house they decided to go in smooth not to alert Jim they were on to him. Sasha got out of the car with Nick and knocked on the front door while Noah and Pete acted as back up if necessary.

  Sasha knocked again and when there was no answer she reached on top of the window seal for the spare key. Carolyn always kept a spare in the same spot because she frequently would leave the house without her keys. “His car is in the driveway but he’s not here.” She was bitter to point out the obvious as they stepped inside the house.

  “We could have CSU do a complete sweep of the grounds.”

  “You call them, I want to take a quick look around.” Sasha started upstairs in her sister’s bedroom and the first thing to hit her was that familiar scent of perfume. She could close her eyes and pick her sister out of a crowded room because of that scent. Tears welled up in her eyes as the loss struck her raw, Carolyn was never coming home.

  Opening her eyes she saw a white sheet of paper lying on the blue comforter. A bad feeling settled in her chest as she reached for it.

  ‘Sasha I know you’re probably the one reading this. I heard about Caro and can’t be here anymore. I’m leaving town to try and process the loss of my wife.’

  “You fucking bastard.” Sasha scoffed at the fake words written across the paper in black ink meant to add a personal touch to emotionless words. The good news was he didn’t suspect the law was on to him and that worked greatly in their favor. The cycle wasn’t over and there was no way he’d leave before finishing his work. His derangement was going to be his biggest downfall.

  Sasha folded the note and put it in her pocket. She moved over to her sister’s jewelry box and opened it for the main reason she started with the bedroom; their mother’s locket necklace. It had been in their family four generations and it was the last link connecting them.

  “CSU are on their way.”

  “Jim left a note saying he needed time to mourn Carolyn’s death.”

  “He wants to finish his work in the shadows.”

  “That’s what I figured. He doesn’t know we’re on to him and we need to keep it that way and catch him off guard.” Sasha wasn’t sure how deep Jim’s connections ran in Maple Oaks or who he called friends.

  “Right now no one knows of his identity except our team. We’ll keep it to ourselves and Sheriff Howard. With an official murder investigation going on it doesn’t look uncommon for us to want to search the house, he should think nothing of it.”

  Sasha nodded. “I’ll call him and leave him a message that makes it sound like I understand and give him a false lead on the killer. He’ll think we’re chasing our tail and drop some of his guard. He’ll be hunting looking for number five and if he sticks with his pattern the diner is where we can catch him.”

  “Not with the deputies lurking close. I’ll talk to the sheriff and have them pulled off and we’ll get a plain clothes keeping a look out.” Nick was already reaching for his phone.

  “A false sense of security.” It was a tactic they used a lot to trip up their perpetrators and more times than not it worked. All killers had one thing in common; their ego.

  Back at the station house the rest of the pieces started to fall together. Pete’s friend in the white house sent over Jeffery Spears sealed military records and transcripts by courier.

  Taped inside the back flap of the thick folder was the most recent picture they had of Jim, he was in his uniformed greens with murder in his eyes. They started to compare the information of Jeffery with the most recent search Gage ran under Jim’s name.

  Jeffery served in Texas, Maryland, Hawaii and Arizona before retiring from the military all together. Under his alias Jim Carson he was in Illinois working with an up and coming brokerage firm where he reconnected with his past girlfriend and future wife Carolyn Madden.

  “Sasha,” Pete began. “tell us about Jim from your point of view.”

  “I’ve never really known the guy. He started dating my sister when she was in her senior year of high school and I remember my parents being mad he was so much older than her by eight years. I can close my eyes and hear so many arguments about how she was an adult and had a right to make her own choices but my dad forbid her to see him.

  “Our parents were killed in a car accident about two months after that. Caro engrossed herself in Jim for months after their death as her own way of coping but they broke up and he left town. I never heard about Jim again until she told me they got married.

  “Back then I knew he was older and my parents hated him so I hated him. I never knew he was in the army or anything really about him.” Sasha sat there as an accomplished adult but it wasn’t easy to forget your childhood memories and remembering them now left her sad. So many times she wished for Jim to go away so her sister would grieve with her, love her, tell her somehow it’d be alright.

  Nick asked softly, “You weren’t there for the wedding?” it was hard for him to accept family could live with such a big distance between them.

  “No. I think Caro remembered how much I disliked Jim and decided
to have a quick small ceremony at the justice of peace.”

  Pete asked, with a small leather bound notepad in his hand containing all his private notes. “Has Jim ever shown aggression that you remember?”

  “Yeah, he used to smack and push me around. He would always make Carolyn tell him who she was hanging out with in school and get mad if he saw her with another boy. She never told me but I always believed he used to hit her too.” Nick grabbed her hand and squeezed, the simple action bringing her back to reality and all the ways she was no longer a scared little girl. He made her feel strong and loved for the first time in a very, very long time.

  Pete finished writing and pocketed the notepad. “I called in the local field office for some help covering all our bases. The diner is being watched and so are other establishments like it just in case he got scared away from his usual hunting ground by the uniform presence. How are you doing?” he glanced down at her and Nick’s hand and gave away his true meaning behind the question.

  It was absurd under the circumstances but Sasha managed a smile. “I’m trying to go one minute at a time.” Carolyn’s lifeless face and bruised body wasn’t far from her mind’s eye but it was getting better as they got closer to nailing the son of bitch to rob her of life. Jim would never be Caro’s husband again as far as Sasha was concerned.

  Wayne nodded, clicking his tongue as he pointed at Sasha and then Nicholas. “They’ve been acting different since we got into town.” Out of the small group of friends Gage was the only one not surprised by the latest development and turned his attention back to his computer. Sasha had already told him where her head and heart was last week.

  Noah crossed his huge arms over his equally huge chest. “Do we have to start planning a real wedding?” he nodded to the ring still on Sasha’s finger.

  Sasha’s face turned beet red. Wedding? Now that was just past the point of good humor and well at the point of insanity. “Oh god.” There was no masking her embarrassment and she knew it. “You guys are worse than a soap opera. I need some air.”