by Ciana Stone
In the next instant, he remembered something else. Willa on the swing at nine years old. Willa at thirteen and the sadness in her eyes when he left Calder County. Willa standing in the light.
“Ever after.”
He sat up, wiped his face and then gathered her into his arms. Her body was limp. Zeb held her for a long time, then kissed her gently. “It’s time, Willa Hale. It’s taken my whole life to get it but now I do. You were right. Way back then, when you were nine. You were right, Willa. You’re my ever after Willa and ever after starts now. You have to come back to me honey. I can’t go it alone. Please, come back. Be my ever after. Let me be yours.”
There was no response.
Zeb sat there for two hours, crying and holding her tight. Not once did she twitch or make a sound. No matter how much he wanted it, he couldn’t will her to come back. He’d lost her.
Finally, he lowered her back down to the bed, kissed her and stood. It taken his entire life to see a love that had been there all along, a love that he would give anything to be able to claim. A love he wanted more than anything in the world and could not have.
“I love you, Willa. No matter what, you’ll always be my ever after.”
Zeb dried his face, turned away, and walked to the door. Just then he heard it. A soft whisper.
“Ever after?”
Hope made him weak. He whirled around. Willa’s eyes were open. She was looking at him.
“You remembered.” Her voice was barely above a whisper.
“I remembered.” He rushed to her bed and gathered her into his arms. “Willa, god, Willa, I thought I’d lost you.”
“I’m sorry. I was trying. Trying to talk to you, to tell you. I heard you. I heard what you said, Zeb. I lived it all again and I loved you all over again̶ and, and you remembered, Zeb. You remembered.”
“I remember honey. I remember it all.”
“And do you mean it? Are you really my ever after?”
“That I am, Willa. That I am.
“Ever after.”
Kade
Book 2 of Rangers: Silver Star Seductions
When Cia Whitehorse walks into Kade Lawson’s office and announces she’s been assigned to help with a serial killer investigation, he’s damn sure he’s never met a federal agent as sexy.
Cia takes one look at Kade and makes up her mind that she’s going to have him in her bed. She might not be interested in love, but sex is definitely right up her alley and Kade looks like the kind of man who can give her just what she wants.
Kade is more than willing to deliver what Cia needs. She gets to him. Tough and sexy, with an unspoken promise in her look that says she’ll rock his world. But that look is covering something. And Kade’s a sucker for a mystery.
The problem is, solving the mystery of Cia Whitehorse comes with a price.
Chapter One
She felt the knife pierce her skin. The pain was white hot, robbing her of breath and consuming her mind with agony. If only it had robbed her of sight. He pressed his face close, his eyes on hers as he pushed the knife in deeper.
Her voice returned in a tortured scream as he wrapped his free arm around her and pulled her tightly against him, hilting the blade in her abdomen. Something equally hard and offensive pressed against her groin and he leered as he ground against her.
If she’d had the strength she would have clawed his eyes out, but darkness was closing in fast and she had nothing left. The monster had won. She would die and then he would kill the girl.
Don’t let me die. It was not so much a prayer as a wish, and not as much for her as for the girl tied to the bed a few feet away. She wanted so much to stop him from what he would do to the girl.
Darkness claimed her, but it was not of the forever kind. The sound of screams and whimpers, of a man panting, drew her up from the darkness. Pain lanced through her and before she opened her eyes, her hands sought the knife. Once her hands wrapped around the hilt, she forced her eyes open.
What she saw brought sickness and the sharp sting of hatred bubbling up inside her. He was raping and torturing the girl.
Strength surged through her from a well she’d never tapped into before. She gritted her teeth, sucked in a breath and yanked at the knife.
Pain beyond anything she’d known nearly sent her careening back into the darkness. Don’t pass out, don’t pass out. You have to stop this bastard.
With one bloody hand clenching the knife, she rolled over and pushed herself up to sit. He was so focused on the girl, he never noticed, not even when she struggled to her feet and dove at his back, both hands gripping the knife.
The first stab caught him just below the base of the neck. He howled and thrashed, turning on her. As he did, she struck again. This time the knife slid in just below his diaphragm.
He fought with her, trying to knock her back, trying to dislodge the knife, but she held on, pushing as hard as she could, wanting to drive the blade into his evil heart.
But her strength was failing. He managed to pull away and fall off the bed. He hit the floor and rolled onto his back. His chest heaved rapidly and blood poured from the wound, each beat of his heart pumping more from his body.
She knew then he was done. She just had to get to a phone. She started for the door and spotted her firearm on the floor where he’d kicked it. She bent to pick it up, heard a sound, and turned.
The girl had rolled over and was staring up at him. Somehow, he’d managed to get to his feet and pull the knife free. She grabbed the gun, swinging it up as his arm arced toward the girl, his hand gripping the knife.
All she had to do was take him down, shoot him in the shoulder or leg. He was too weak. One shot and he'd go down. But blind rage overrode all of her training, all of her humanity and morality. With a scream of fury she fired, over and over, watching his body dance like a marionette whose strings were being jerked and pulled by vicious hands.
Cia woke, drenched in sweat, her breath as hard as if she’d been running and her heart hammering way too fast to be healthy.
She clawed away the damp sheets and swung her legs over the edge of the bed.
“Had the dream again, did ya?”
The gravelly voice, flavored with the Deep South, had her looking toward the door. Joe stood watching.
She was none too politely as she gathered her wet hair and wound it into a knot on the back of her head. “What are you doing here?”
“You ain’t never gonna have peace if you keep runnin’ from what’s stopping you from latchin’ onto it.”
“I’m not ever gonna have a night’s peace if you don’t stop coming into my home uninvited.”
“You invited me in a long time ago, Gracie. You just don’t like admitting that you need me.”
“I need you like a root canal.” She got off the bed and brushed by him. Once in the kitchen, she hunted through the cabinets. “And my name is Cia. Did you move my Jack?”
“Drinkin’s the last thing you need. And your name is actually Allagracia, a variation of Altagracia, which interesting enough is a reference to the state of high grace of Mary, the mother of Jesus.”
“So now you’re an educated redneck? Where’s my Jack, Joe?”
“Couldn’t say.”
“Damn!” She stomped back to the bedroom, pulled on a pair of jeans, and jammed her bare feet into her boots.
“Where you going in the middle of the night?”
“None of your damn business!” She marched by him, snatching up her keys from the table by the door.
She made it behind the wheel of her car before she lost it. At first, it was just tears, but within seconds, sobs racked her body. She’d never admit it to him, but she was scared. Scared that if something didn’t change she was going to lose it completely. She couldn’t go on like this forever, fighting the demons that came in her sleep or trying to drink herself stupid every night so that she couldn’t dream.
Cia wasn’t an idiot. She knew she was on the fast track to nowhere
good, but she couldn’t seem to turn back. The truth was, she wasn’t sure she wanted to. Maybe she deserved everything she was getting. Maybe Joe was wrong. Maybe she didn’t deserve to be redeemed.
After all, she was a murderer.
Chapter Two
Week-old pizza left on the counter looked better than she felt when she parked her car in her designated space. Cia twisted the rearview mirror and grimaced at herself. Joe would have probably remarked that she couldn’t expect to drink herself stupid and look good the next day. Thank God he hadn’t hitched a ride with her this morning.
She’d barely taken a sip of the scalding hot, thick-as-syrup brew that passed for coffee before her superior was standing in front of her desk, giving her an assignment. Not one in D.C., but in a small town a couple of hours east of El Paso, Texas.
So less than fifteen minutes after arriving at work, she was on her way back home to pack. Her hangover had vanished. That was no surprise. The moment she’d been assigned the case, energy had burst inside her. That’s the way it always was.
This case was definitely intriguing, and if the initial assessment was correct, could be linked to a series of murders that had occurred across the country the last five years. She wouldn’t know for sure until she got there, but she was hopeful. She and every other member of state and federal law enforcement would love to nail the sick bastard that had killed over two dozen women in the last five years.
More importantly to her, this could be another chance to stop something far worse than a mere serial killer, if the case demonstrated characteristics only she would recognize.
It took her less than twenty minutes from the time she walked in her front door to be loading her things into the backseat of her car. She opened the driver’s door and slid in.
“No speedin’ this time.”
Cia blew out her breath and looked at Joe, all buckled up in the passenger’s seat, a bottle of Mountain Dew secured between his legs and a bag of Cheetos open and already leaving orange crumbs everywhere.
“Did I invite you?”
“Do you ever?”
“Joe.” The warning tone of her voice had been known to give pause to more than one man.
Not so with Joe. He smiled, lifted the Mountain Dew for a long swig, belched and smiled. “Well, what’re you waitin’ on? We got us a case to solve.”
This time the breath she blew out was flavored with several colorful expletives. Joe clucked his tongue and wagged his finger at her. “That kinda talk leads straight to hell, Gracie.”
Cia ignored the comment. The way she saw it, she already had an engraved invitation to hell. But before she got there, she was going to take down as many of the scumbags as possible. Including the one that had left a woman mutilated and dead in Bumfuck, Texas.
* * * * *
Kade had just finished going over the reports when one of the local detectives tapped on the doorframe. “Feds are here.”
It was lucky the guy looked behind him at that moment or he would have seen the frown that creased Kade’s forehead. As he had stated more than once since they’d received notice that the Bureau was sending an agent, with the Texas Rangers on the case, there was no need for Feds.
But since this case looked to be connected to a serial killer known as the Carver, the FBI was going to want to mark the territory as their own. As much as no one wanted to admit it, in times like these, despite the common goal, various organizations still went through pissing contests to see who was top dog.
Kade turned away from the computer screen and stood. A short woman with dark hair pulled back from her face in a long braid entered the room. She was dressed in faded, low-slung jeans, a tight black t-shirt with words in white printed across her breasts that read “Yet despite the look on my face, you’re still talking.” Obviously old motorcycle boots, and an equally worn short leather jacket completed her outfit. Surely, this wasn’t the federal agent?
“Can I help you?” Kade figured she had to have wandered into the wrong place.
“I’m looking for Officer Lawson.”
“You’ve found him. How can I help you, Miss…?”
“Agent Whitehorse. Cia Whitehorse.” She pulled her identification from her jacket.
He gave the identification a look as he rose. “Nice to meet you, Agent Whitehorse.” He came around the desk and extended his hand.
“Cia.” Her grip was firm and her gaze steady as she took his hand. Kade held on a moment longer than necessary, his eyes locked to hers. There was a lot you could figure out about a person by their eyes.
Like this one. Her gaze never wavered, her eyes never blinked. It was the stare of a predator as well as that of a person in hiding. There was defiance in her eyes, which probably explained the unconventional dress. Either she was out to make her mark by being one tough bitch, and daring the world to stand against her, or she was someone running from herself and using her job as a place to hide from her own demons.
He wasn’t sure which, but either way, when he added those observations to the sexual energy pouring off her, she spelled one thing. Trouble.
“You gonna let go and get down to it, or ask me to go steady?” The look in her eyes changed with the question. It was a clear message that he was crossing a line, but one delivered in a slightly offhand sexual manner.
He smiled and released her hand, watching the slow smile on her face. Funny, but it never reached her eyes. Another clue. This was definitely a woman with secrets. Damn bad thing for him because he was a total sucker for mysteries.
However right now, there were more important matters on the table. “We’ve got you set up over there.” He gestured to the desk adjacent to the one he’d been assigned. “Everything on the case has been loaded onto the computer. I’ll get you set up and after you’ve had time to—”
“I’ve already been over all of it on the way here. I’d like to see the scene and the body.”
“Where first?”
“The scene.”
He gestured toward the door. “After you.”
She pivoted and led the way. Kade followed, trying not to notice the enticing sway of her ass in her jeans. Of all the luck. He got assigned lead in one of the biggest cases of his career and was saddled to temptation in denim.
Well, he’d just have to resist temptation. How hard could it be? It wasn’t as if she was likely to jump his bones. Although, that thought did bring a few lascivious thoughts to mind that were likely to return in detail when he was alone in bed tonight.
Chapter Three
Cia was angry and tired by the time she and Kade left the medical examiner’s office three days later. The final report was as bad as she had expected. The sick bastard they were hunting deserved far worse than the lethal injection that Kade advocated. The latest victim, eighteen-year-old Carmen Miller, had died horribly. Cia couldn’t imagine the physical agony she had suffered, or the overwhelming terror and utter hopelessness she had endured.
If only they had a lead. At this point, they had nothing and feeling ineffectual was driving her mad. There had to be some clue they’d missed, something they’d overlooked. She and Kade had gone over it for three straight days and they were no further than when they started.
It was enough to have her needing to lash out. To break something or someone. She knew that wasn’t going to change anything and in the long run wouldn’t ease her anger, but right now that didn’t matter. She needed some kind of diversion.
Lucky for her, diversion presented itself in a tantalizing package.
“So, you want me to drop you at the station to get your car, or you want to go grab something to eat and maybe a couple of beers?” Kade looked over the hood of the dark sedan. “I don’t know about you, but I think I could use an hour or two away from the case.”
“I could eat.”
“Or drink?”
She gave him a smile. “I can always drink.”
His smile was as pretty a temptation as she’d ever seen and she knew in tha
t instant that she’d end the night in bed with him. She didn’t know why she was so certain or how it would come about, but she’d put good money on it.
And that brought a sense of excitement that helped dampen the dismal mood the afternoon had bestowed on her.
Kade was one fine-looking man. A couple of inches over six feet, he was lean but obviously fit with an ass and legs that made a woman want to stand up and applaud. His chiseled features, smoke-gray eyes added up to a bad-boy-lethal look that never failed to excite her.
And he was definitely one intense man. She’d watched him for the last three days, at the crime scene, the morgue, and scouring over the evidence. His attention was like a laser beam, totally focused and taking in every detail.
What was more interesting, he seemed to pick up on details that ordinarily wouldn’t be noticed. She wondered what gave him such keen and unique insight. If she was smart, she’d focus on those qualities, rather than the enticing way he filled out his pants, or how her legs threatened to turn to mush when he focused that laser-beam gaze on her.
But libido often overpowered reason, and right now, it had a good ten-second lead. Shrugging away thoughts of what would be wise, she slid into the passenger seat of his car. The bar he took her to was one she’d consider a local hangout. Small and not terribly crowded, it was the kind of place that attracted patrons who’d been coming for some time, a place to grab a beer after work, socialize with friends, or indulge in a friendly game of pool.
They found a table, ordered drinks, and for the next hour went through the dance of small talk about where they were from, what they were into, what they disliked, and what they loved. Everything but what was uppermost on her mind. Would he be good in bed?
Finally, after a bowl of good chili and a couple more drinks than she should have had, she decided it was time to up the game.