“Well, then. We had better get going,” Erin said.
He heard the soft, faint sigh.
She took a folded jacket from the couch after she had slid her shoulder harness on. The jacket draped so smoothly, so femininely, the line of the gun never even showed. “Are you carrying an extra piece?” he asked suddenly.
“Yes,” she responded.
He moved up behind her, unable to resist and rested his hand on her shoulder. The soft, sweet scent of her teased him, and Seth knew he couldn’t stay away much longer. It had been too long already. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you,” he whispered harshly.
A soft, sad laugh left her lips as she laid her hand on his and squeezed. “I know you’ll do everything you can to keep me safe, Seth. Why else do you think I came to you with the disc?”
* * * * *
She pretended not to notice when Eddie slipped the bug on her. His hand rested lightly on her neck for a moment. He had already put one in her purse and her car. Now there was another one on her necklace. If it would put Seth at ease, then she’d tolerate it. They sat at lunch, and she kept a straight face without even trying. After twenty-plus years of hearing other people’s thoughts, after having unwanted visions and thoughts pop into her mind at the worst possible times, schooling her face was child’s play.
Though she couldn’t feel other people’s emotion, she suspected they were half-afraid she’d notice. Keeping her face bland was not easy. Eddie was as jumpy as a rookie would be at his first bank robbery, his eyes darting everywhere, his hands anything but steady as he went back to pushing food around his plate.
Internal affairs material, he was not.
Seth sat across from her, talking foolishly about anything and everything to distract her and she smiled politely while she waited for the clock to strike 1:30. That was when the meeting with the chief started. And if Seth didn’t watch his temper—Stop it, Erin.
“The media’s hounding the police chief,” Eddie said out of the blue.
“I’m not surprised,” Erin said, lifting one shoulder. The tiny little bug on her necklace seemed to weigh a ton, even though logically she knew it weighed nothing. This one was just a transmitter, didn’t relay any sound or anything, just her location. Not a bad idea, all in all. Eddie had done well, putting it in her necklace. Later they were going to try to talk her into a more permanent one that wasn’t likely to fall off, or get taken off.
She’d agree, if they’d just ask. She didn’t want to die.
“Gloria’s father is an attorney, and the mayor’s golf buddy, her mother is a doctor. Funny, isn’t it? None of the other women seemed to matter as much, but now that one of the city’s more favored children has died, suddenly the people in power are in an uproar,” Erin murmured, shaking her head. Gloria. Her heart wept slow, bitter tears. If she had known…if. What good would knowing have done? Would Gloria have listened? Would she have gone away? No.
“He’s going to try to point the finger our way,” Seth muttered in disgust, shaking his head.
“Don’t let him,” Erin warned quietly. She waited until he was looking at her, until Eddie was glancing away—Eddie would hear the words, but he wouldn’t remember them for long as she did something she wouldn’t have normally allowed. She forced her urgency into her voice and tried to convince him. Not force, or coerce, but convince. She could control some people’s minds, to an extent. She doubted she could control Seth, ever. He was too strong-willed, but he might think back and remember, if she pushed hard enough.
“Seth, don’t let him make you angry. He’s going to push, he’s going to be ugly, nasty, a fucking coward and he’s going to make it look like you could have saved Gloria. He’s going to make it look like you’re supposed to sacrifice me, take whatever risks are needed to catch the killer, anything he can think of to make you angry. I don’t know what and I don’t know why, and I don’t care. But don’t listen, and don’t let him make you say things that are going to turn and bite you on the ass. I need you,” she said.
Seth’s head was spinning, like it did when he’d had too much whiskey, or stepped off a roller coaster after riding it for the fifth time in a row. Were Erin’s eyes glowing? Had her voice just echoed inside his head?
What the fuck…?
* * * * *
“I’d like to know, gentlemen, why we still have no leads on Lancelot,” Chief Colton said. He had big eyes, a big nose, a small mouth, a small head, and a large forehead. All in all, Chief Angus Colton was a very homely man. But he was also a very rich man, like his father had been. He was a smart, conniving man who had been a smart, conniving cop, which was why he had ended up behind the desk as Chief of Police in Avalon.
Erin didn’t like him. His eyes lingered too often on her. He had praised her in uniform, hadn’t done anything to make her dislike him. But she couldn’t read him.
Hell, she couldn’t read Seth either.
But something about Colton made her uneasy. He was a good cop. Avalon had actually become a cleaner city, thanks to him. Fewer drugs, cleaner arrests, cleaner cops. But personally, she didn’t like him.
Everything about him made her edgy, made her feel wrong.
“I think we have a much better lead on him now than we did a week ago,” Seth said calmly, hooking an ankle over his knee, resting his hands on the arms of the chair.
“That’s because he gave it to you,” the chief snapped.
“He didn’t give us his hours. We know that he works a regular job. He has an injury, one that likely will scar and when he find him, we can get a court order for DNA testing to compare to the samples we took from Gloria McBeth,” Eddie said, shaking his head. “He gave us more than he intended, because he was trying to scare Erin. He knew she’d give us the disc, maybe he didn’t care. But we know more. We know he is white, he is a tall man, approximately 6’2”, 180 to 190 pounds, lean frame, and from what the medical examiner said when he looked at the disc, he’s not exactly a young man.”
Seth snorted and said, “Shit, Eddie. I coulda told you that. He ain’t popping Viagra yet, but he’s not a spring chicken any more. He’s probably at least in his fifties, maybe a little older, since he was doing this twenty years ago.”
“I’d like to know how you discovered this perp in Evanston. That knowledge wasn’t given to me in my report,” Chief said coolly, narrowing his eyes. “And how are you so certain it’s the same perp?”
“We’ve confirmed blood types are the same. O-Neg. DNA testing is being run as we speak. As to how we discovered—”
“It’s commonly called police work, Chief,” Erin interrupted without glancing at Seth or Eddie. Hopefully they’d get the clue. “You remember, don’t you? Investigate, look for like crimes?”
The Chief’s face darkened but before he could respond, she continued.
“We’re running profiles,” Erin said, before the chief could say anything else to Seth and Eddie. “We may not find anything. I don’t think this is the average career rapist. But something may show up.” A small, cold smile appeared on her face. “I can say, he may get to me, but regardless, I will be his last.”
“He’s not getting you,” Seth whispered harshly.
“That’s the whole point,” Chief Colton interjected. “For him to grab her so we can grab him. We need solid evidence.”
“Solid as in him taking her off the street, or solid as in him tying her down and beating her and raping her?” Seth snarled, shooting out of his chair and looming over the chief.
“As a cop, she’s trained in self-defense. She understands the risks, and accepts them. She’s to be wired and once we have enough evidence—”
“Fuck that—”
Erin slid out of her chair and rested a hand on Seth’s arm.
“Erin is a policewoman. She understands the risks and…”
The chief’s words trailed off, and he ceased to exist for Seth as Erin’s voice, echoed inside his head, throbbing, intense, deep. Seth, don’t let him make
you angry. He’s going to push, he’s going to be ugly, nasty, a fucking coward and he’s going to make it look like you could have saved Gloria. He’s going to make it look like you’re supposed to sacrifice me. I don’t know what and I don’t know why, and I don’t care. But don’t listen, and don’t let him make you say things that are going to turn and bite you on the ass. I need you.
His head was spinning again and by the time it cleared, Erin was speaking to the chief in a cold, clear voice, the one that could make a statue’s dick wilt. “I don’t recall agreeing to put myself in a position to be raped, Chief. I am the target. Even the profiler you have consulted has agreed that this appears to be exactly what is going on. So you have one chance to stop him, and that is using me. But it is only going to be my way. Otherwise, I’ll disappear. I’ll tell you what I told Seth. You could try threatening to put me in a safe house. But you and I both know I’d get out. And you’d never see me again. Which means you’ll never stop Lancelot.
“And perhaps I should make this clear—I will not lie back and become a victim while waiting for somebody to come to my rescue. I’ll work with Seth and Eddie, and we’ll figure out what to do. You haven’t worked the streets for years, and it’s not your safety at risk—”
By this point, the chief’s face was blood-red and he was at the point of exploding. Erin arched a brow and Seth had to fight back the urge to laugh. Only Erin could so neatly emasculate the Chief of Police without breaking a sweat, and not have to worry about losing her fucking job.
Erin Sinclair was as likely to lose her job as she was to sprout wings and fly—the captain was her uncle, she had two cousins who were city councilmen and an aunt who was a judge. The Vincents, her mother’s family, could have owned Avalon, if they had chosen.
“Are you quite done?” Colton growled.
“Not yet. You are the one who just insinuated I was to allow myself to be raped and beaten to stop a killer so I’d suggest you keep that in mind before you say anything else.” She was putting her neck on the line to keep the chief’s anger focused on her, instead of Seth. He wouldn’t fire her. He had brought them in here, for some reason, to fire Seth. He wanted Seth gone. If she kept him focused on her, then Seth’s mouth couldn’t get him in trouble.
And right now, Seth’s dark-chocolate eyes were dancing with amusement, so it looked like her plan was working. “I never said you should—”
“You said enough evidence. I know that all we really need is him. We have DNA. But something tells me a bit more than that, for some reason that is beyond my comprehension. You don’t seem to want my help in the capture. You seem to want a victim out of me, for me to wait and gather evidence while waiting for backup.” She saw the truth in his eyes and she felt her belly roll. “No. I’m telling this you this now. If it comes to me being trapped with him, I’m killing him. I go nowhere unarmed…ever. I. Go. Nowhere. Unarmed. He touches me and I get cornered, he dies.”
“I want him alive,” the chief said.
“And if he has me cornered and I think I might be raped or tortured before backup arrives, he will die,” Erin promised, watching as his face turned blood-red and his breathing increased.
“Gloria McBeth’s parents deserve to look at their daughter’s killer.”
“And I deserve a chance at a full life,” Erin drawled. Then she linked her hands through Seth’s and Eddie’s arms and pulled them, forcibly, from the room.
Seth’s amusement at seeing the bastard lambasted quickly faded as his anger surged back to the fore. He followed Erin out of the office, his head still feeling rather rattled, anger churning in his gut. He wanted to storm back into the office and slam Colton against the wall and demand answers, and tell him he was keeping Erin safe and that was what mattered. But he still had that odd, muffled feeling in his head, accompanied by a pain that increased with every step he took, and he kept hearing the echo of her voice.
Seth, don’t let him make you angry. He’s going to push, he’s going to be ugly, nasty, a fucking coward and he’s going to make it look like you could have saved Glori…
I need you.
I need you.
I need you.
I need you.
“Hey, man, you okay? You look kinda pale.”
Seth shook his head, pressed the heel of his hand to his temple and shook off the trance-like state that seemed to have fallen over him. Eddie was staring at him with worried eyes, while Erin continued on into her office.
Fuck. The woman’s made of ice, he thought when she didn’t even spare him a glance while he tried to hold his splitting head together. Why in the fuck are you surprised she doesn’t care that you’re going crazy?
The pressure, the daze seemed to finally be receding as he stood leaning against the wall, eyes closed against the harsh fluorescent light. He was startled when he felt Erin’s soft, cool fingers on his cheek. She pressed a canned soft drink into his hand as he stared into her unreadable eyes.
A mask.
Why did it always seem like there were two people living inside her skin? The cool, clinical cop who didn’t give a damn about anything or anybody, and the soft, sexy, sweet woman he had fallen in love with…the one he had convinced himself didn’t exist.
“Headache?” she asked levelly.
“Yeah.” He popped the top on the drink and downed it even though the headache, or whatever in the hell it was, seemed to be nearly gone.
Who in the hell are you, Erin?
She heard him, clear as day, as she walked back into her office. She was lucky enough to have claimed an office for her own, even though the tiny closet didn’t exactly meet her definition of an office. But she had her own space, and she could have quiet when she needed it. When Seth and Eddie crammed in behind her, taking up the two chairs she had managed to fit in with her desk and computer, there was no room left.
Seth dropped wearily into a chair, staring at her with dark eyes.
Who in the hell are you, Erin?
She sighed, wearily, rubbing the curve of her neck absently before booting up her computer. “Colton is going to see my butt fired if I live through this,” she said grimly.
“You are going to live through this,” Seth said through gritted teeth.
Eddie didn’t comment on that part, merely laughed and said, “He won’t dare fire Captain Vincent’s daughter. Even if he outranks the Captain, he won’t dare. Shit, girl, half the city government is your blood kin.”
She smiled and sighed again. “Fucking bastard,” she said, too tired to even notice the surprise that flared on each man’s face. “Thinks I’ll actually let myself come that close to being raped?”
They spoke briefly about the chief, then ran some reports. Seth took a list, Eddie took a list, and Erin took the rest, but they knew it was more for show than anything else. Their man wasn’t on this list. They had to wait until he moved on Erin. She looked at the other files on her desk and said, “I’ve got some other things I need to get done.”
They read the easy dismissal and Eddie trooped out, but Seth lingered in the doorway until she finally looked up at him, a faint line of irritation between her soft, tired eyes. He said gruffly, “We need to talk.”
“We just spent the past several hours talking, Seth.”
“You and me.”
“Why? Seth—”
He came back in, closed the door behind him and dropped his file before he came behind the desk. Erin watched him with wide, startled eyes as he dropped to his knees in front of her and buried his wide-palmed, long-fingered hands in her hair, staring intently at her as he slowly lowered his mouth to hers.
Oh, hell.
When she didn’t pull away, his lips came down on hers with bruising, hungry force that took her breath away, his tongue driving inside her mouth. One hand tangled and fisted in her hair, holding her head still and steady while the other slid down her nape to her back. Bringing her to the edge of her chair and aligning her body to his, he spread her thighs and jerked her already wet
, aching sex into contact with his rigid cock.
Erin whimpered low in her chest as he started to rock his body into hers, his free hand on her butt, holding her tight against him as he ate at her mouth. He caught her tongue, sucking it greedily into his mouth and she sobbed when he bit down on it before tearing away and jerking her head back. Working his hot, avid mouth down her neck, down the vee neckline of her vest-top, he used one hand to open the buttons.
He tore her bra open and Erin stared down at him as he caught one swollen, pink nipple in his mouth, sucking it with deep, hard draws, while he lifted his eyes to meet her gaze. One hand was still buried in her hair, holding tight, as he slowly trailed his other hand down across her abdomen. He pulled away from her nipple to stare into her eyes as he freed the button on her trousers.
“Seth…” she whispered shakily.
“I can smell how hot you are,” he said softly as he slid his fingers inside her panties. He traced the hard, swollen bud of her clit and groaned roughly in approval as she whimpered and rocked against his hand. “You’re already wet.”
He slid his hand lower and plunged one thick finger inside her. He shuddered as she closed tightly around him, fighting the slow invasion of his finger as he withdrew only to thrust it in again. “Oh, baby, you’re tight,” he murmured, leaning forward to catch the fleshy lobe of her ear in his mouth. “How long has it been for you, Erin?”
She was silent, hardly able to think past the feel of him inside her, stretching her. He pulled out, pushed back in and Erin buried her face against his neck to stifle the low moan that fell from her lips.
He pulled her back, still using the grip he had on her hair, loving the soft, silky feel of it. He had loved seeing it spread out all over his pillow while they made love, loved feeling it on his thighs as she sucked on his cock, loved feeling it on his chest while they slept. “How long, Erin?” he asked, driving his finger back inside, and starting to circle his thumb around her clit.
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