Tropic of Trouble

by Wynter Daniels

  “Please what?” He stopped teasing her and met her pleading stare.

  “Please touch me…here.” She settled a hand over her cleft, but he pushed it away. He wouldn’t deny her any longer. He stared down at the tuft of blonde curls shielding her mound. She lifted her hips.

  He spread her intimate lips apart and stared down at her pussy. Her clit was engorged and the folds glistened with the thick cream of her arousal. His balls ached with pent-up lust but he clamped down on his need to take her right then.

  Her pleasure first.

  Skimming his finger along her furls, he delighted in her plaintive moans. He circled his tongue around her nub. She lifted her hips off the bed, wriggled and squirmed so much he finally had to grasp her hips to hold her steady.

  From all her sighs and moans, he gathered she was beyond turned-on, which was right where he wanted her. He slipped a finger inside her, then another and he gradually went deeper.

  Her gasps filled the air. But he wanted more. He yearned to see her let go completely, to make her scream in euphoric delight. With his other hand, he rubbed her sensitive lips in rhythm with the movement of his fingers. Her hips bucked and pivoted. She rolled her head from side to side, her sighs growing louder and more intense.

  “Oh God, oh God. Don’t…stop…please.”

  He felt her inner muscles contract, then came the scream he’d been hoping for, loud and long. She twisted and moaned and shook. When he looked at her face, her expression was nothing less than feral. Panting, she finally settled and smiled as if she’d been to nirvana.

  But he wouldn’t allow her to rest. His own need coiled tighter inside him. He settled between her legs and nipped one peaked point as he strummed the other with his thumb. She smoothed her hands over his hair, his shoulders and neck. “Jason.”

  He stopped what he was doing to glance at her.

  She reached to her night table and plucked a silver packet from the top. He took the condom from her and sheathed himself. If he didn’t fuck her now, he’d burst into flames. When he finally allowed himself to enter her, she let out a quick gasp, then moved with him as they discovered their rhythm.

  He took his time loving her, stroking long and slow, staring into her eyes to watch her pleasure unfold. Each thrust brought him closer to the edge, but he struggled to hold back. She tightened around him and he nearly lost himself in the bliss.

  Kelsey dug her fingernails into his back. She lifted her hips to meet his quickening strokes. He pumped harder and she scratched painfully along his skin, but he didn’t mind.

  Her head rolled back and she let out another scream, nearly as passionate as the first, but longer this time as her orgasm peaked. His balls constricted, tighter and tighter until his control completely shredded.

  Clenching his jaw against the rush of ecstasy, he pumped hard and fast, giving her everything he had. Detonating with bliss, he squeezed his eyes shut and thrust until he’d completely emptied himself.

  Kelsey squeezed her intimate muscles, milking him, loving him. And he knew.

  Kelsey was the woman he’d been waiting to make love to his whole life.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Is she my bodyguard today?” Kelsey pointed to the female officer sitting in a cruiser outside the bookstore.

  Jason pulled in a relieved breath as he parked his truck. Callahan had come through, although he wished he’d have sent a man. He mentally chided himself for the sexist thought. He had plenty of female COs who could handle themselves at least as well as most of his male officers. “I guess she is.”

  He accompanied Kelsey to the door then greeted the cop as she stepped out of her car.

  “Sergeant Jason Jones, Metro-Dade Jail.” He offered his hand.

  The young woman shook with him. “Belinda Jackson. Captain Callahan sent me.”

  “And this is Kelsey Ackerman.” He grasped her uninjured shoulder from behind. “Please don’t let her out of your sight.”

  The officer nodded. “The captain explained the situation.”

  Turning Kelsey to face him, he tamped down the unease roiling in his gut. He knew it wasn’t rational. Not only did she have police protection, but she was armed as well. He wished he could stay with her himself, but if he was able to locate Thomas Hudson, this whole nightmare could end today. “You take care, okay?”

  Her nod was less than convincing.

  “If you don’t want to stay here, no one will blame you for going home. I’m sure Officer Jackson will be happy to accompany you there.”

  Squaring her shoulders in that obstinate way she had, she raised her chin. “I’ll be fine here. I refuse to let Lilith intimidate me.”

  He followed the women into the store then pulled Kelsey aside. “I’m going to try to find Hudson.”

  Her brows lifted. “How? You said you don’t have his address.”

  “But I have his former address. Maybe someone there can point me in the right direction. Callahan says he tried that, but the police are limited in ways I’m not.”

  “Like?”

  He didn’t want to tell her he was more than willing to pay for information. “No worries. Just wish me luck.”

  Giving him a wary scowl, she kissed him goodbye.

  Armed with Thomas Hudson’s booking photo, Jason headed to North Miami. After conversations with three tenants in the building and sixty bucks worth of greased palms, he got a lead. One of Hudson’s former neighbors swore he saw the man going in and out of an apartment a few blocks away. For an extra twenty, the man led Jason right to the building.

  Jason knocked on the door to the locked building office. After several minutes, a middle-aged woman opened the door wearing flip-flops and a flowered housecoat.

  She looked him over. “I got no vacancies.”

  “I’m not looking for one. I was hoping to find this man.” He handed her the photo of Hudson with a fifty.

  “You a cop?” She glanced left and right. “I don’t want no trouble.”

  “I’m not a cop. I just want to find my brother.”

  Squinting, she gave him back the picture then stuffed the money into her bra. “Two-F. And tell him he’s three days late on his rent. Unless you’re gonna pay it for him.”

  He peeled two more bills out of his wallet and held them just out of the woman’s reach. “You wouldn’t have a spare key, would you?”

  She slammed the door shut and he thought he was out of luck until it reopened. The woman dangled a key in front of his face then snatched the money faster than he thought humanly possible.

  “Thanks,” he said to the closed door. Key in hand, he circled to the back of the building until he found a staircase.

  Pulse racing, he climbed the steps and found the apartment halfway down the exterior hallway. Curtains blocked his view into the only exposed window. He knocked, ready to draw his weapon, and waited. Pressing his ear to the metal, he didn’t hear anything. He knocked once more before using the key.

  The place was dark and smelled faintly of sulfur and bleach. Leading with his gun, he checked each room then returned to the living room and tucked his Glock back into his belt. He found a switch on the wall and flipped it, illuminating the dingy room.

  Everything appeared clean and neat except there was a six-foot-long bundle on the floor next to the couch. The cover appeared to be a bedspread. He tried to shake off the sick feeling in the pit of his stomach.

  Using the barrel of his gun, he pushed back one corner of the fabric and gasped when he caught sight of toes peeking out at him. Swallowing back his revulsion, he touched the back of his hand to the corpse’s foot. Cold, but not smelly yet. The man couldn’t have been there for very long. He moved to the other end and eased the bundle open. The kid’s eyes stared up at him.

  Damn it.

  He backed away, unclipped his phone and called Mike.

  “Callahan,” his friend answered.

  “It’s Jason. I just found Thomas Hudson.”

  * * * * *

 
; Kelsey wrapped her customer’s candle in tissue paper, slipped it into the bag with her book, then handed it to the woman. “Thanks so much. Please come again.”

  Officer Jackson held the door open as the woman left. She strolled to the counter and sniffed one of the candles on display. “All I smell is that coffee you just made.”

  “Can I get you a cup?” Kelsey moved out from behind the counter. “I was going to fix one for myself anyway.” When the officer hesitated, Kelsey added, “It’s the good stuff, Hawaiian Kona. My friend Jenna gave it to me for my birthday a couple months ago.” She’d decided to break it out to lift her mood.

  The officer smiled. “Well, okay. Black is fine.”

  Kelsey went to the back room to fix two mugs. After she stirred five packets of sugar and some flavored creamer into hers, she poured a cup for the cop then headed up front.

  An elderly woman came in with the assistance of a thick wooden cane, holding a big satchel purse.

  “I’ll be right with you, ma’am.” Kelsey set her mug down on the counter then continued toward the officer carefully carrying the other cup. “Can I help you?” she asked the customer.

  “Just looking.” The old woman let out a hacking cough.

  Officer Jackson reached for the mug. An instant after Kelsey handed it to her, a cracking noise filled the air. The cup dropped to the floor, shattering. Hot coffee splashed Kelsey’s ankles, stinging for a moment.

  The officer moaned and crumpled to the ground.

  “What…”

  The old woman straightened, pulled off a white-haired wig and gave her a cold smile. She wasn’t elderly at all. “Hello, Kelsey. Finally, we meet face-to-face.”

  Lilith. Cold terror flooded her senses.

  The silver blade of a long knife glittered in Lilith’s hand as she tossed the cane to the floor. She stepped over the cop’s body as if it were nothing more than a sack of trash in her way.

  Kelsey backed against a bookrack. “Let’s talk about this, Lilith. I know we can work it out.” Her heart pounded and hot-cold shivers racked her entire body.

  Lilith’s gravelly laugh filled the air. “I’m through talking. Tell me, where is the book?”

  She stole a glance at the officer, prayed the woman was okay.

  Please, wake up!

  “She can’t help you. She’s out cold.” Pointing the knife downward, she touched the tip to Officer Jackson’s neck. “Maybe I should finish her off so we don’t have to worry about her anymore.”

  Kelsey gasped. “No! Please don’t.”

  Lilith’s smirk held more evil than Kelsey had ever seen. She stood, took another step. “Did Jason tell you? He wants to be with me, not you.”

  Jason!

  Thoughts of him kicked her into action. She suddenly remembered the gun in her waistband.

  Lilith moved closer until she was a mere two or three feet away. Her dark eyes were wide and menacing.

  Gathering all her courage, Kelsey went for the gun. She aimed it at Lilith and sucked in a small measure of relief. Curling her finger around the trigger, she prayed she wouldn’t have to shoot. “Drop the knife.”

  Then all hell broke loose.

  * * * * *

  Jason paced outside Thomas Hudson’s apartment waiting for the cavalry to arrive. He tried to block the image of Hudson’s blue eyes staring up at him, cold and terrified. In his years at the jail, he’d seen his share of corpses, but this kid looked so young. A shiver rolled over his skin.

  He’d banked all his hopes on Hudson spilling what he knew. Now how were they going to find Lilith? Maybe it was Lilith who’d killed the kid.

  The bodies were beginning to pile up. How long would it be before one of Lilith’s attempts on Kelsey’s life was successful? Good thing she had police protection, at least for a couple days.

  Still, he couldn’t help but worry. Grabbing his cell, he hit her number and was sent to voicemail. Next he tried the shop phone, but the machine picked up.

  He watched a police cruiser turn into the lot below, then a Crime Scene Unit minivan pulled in beside it. He’d told Callahan he’d wait for him, but now he didn’t think he could.

  Something was wrong, he knew it in his bones. He couldn’t just stand here and wait while Kelsey could be in trouble.

  Callahan would have to understand. As soon as the uniforms came upstairs, he directed them to the apartment. As they secured the scene, he slipped away. Taking the stairs two at a time, he raced toward his truck.

  “Hey, where you going? We need your statement,” one of the cops called to him.

  He pretended he didn’t hear as he climbed into the truck. Getting to Kelsey was way more important than hanging around a dead guy. He glanced at the clock on his dash, prayed his instincts were wrong this time.

  * * * * *

  Kelsey gasped as a man in a suit burst through the door. Her mind grappled for answers.

  Who is he? A cop? A passerby who noticed the commotion inside?

  Shifting her gaze between Lilith and the man, she tightened her grip on her weapon. “Drop the knife,” she shouted at Lilith, but the woman’s eyes were huge and focused on the man.

  Panic and confusion fogged her senses. “Who are you?” she yelled to him as she inched away along the bookcase, shifting her aim back and forth between them.

  “It’s okay.” He held his hands in the air. “Can I get my badge from my back pocket?”

  “No!” Lilith, still holding the knife, started shaking.

  After Kelsey’s nod, the man reached behind him and produced an official-looking gold badge. All she could read was Dade County, Florida, but that was good enough for her. She lowered the thirty-eight a little, kept it trained on Lilith.

  As the man approached her, Kelsey noticed something in the glint of his eyes, a darkness that frightened her.

  Too late.

  He took the barrel of the gun and eased it out of her hands. An evil grin curled his lips.

  “No!” Lilith howled again.

  His laughter didn’t make sense. Why was he laughing? This was all wrong.

  Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Lilith move. Lilith charged toward the man, both fists tightly clenched around the hilt of the knife, screaming like a banshee.

  He moved out of the way at the last second. She stumbled into a cardboard display, knocked it over and fell on top of it.

  The man quickly wrested the knife from her then whacked the side of her head with the butt of the gun. She groaned then curled into a ball on the floor, clutching her wound.

  Kelsey backed against the counter, heart thundering. What the hell was going on here? “Why did you hit her?” Cops didn’t do things like that, not when they’d already disarmed a suspect. Officer Jackson moved her leg along the floor. Kelsey immediately ran to her and crouched by her side. She helped the woman sit up.

  “Are you all right?” Kelsey asked.

  The dazed officer reached behind her head, wobbling a little. The man hurried over, slipped his hand into his jacket pocket and lifted something out closed in his fist. A pen?

  Stooping beside the cop, he jabbed the cylinder into her neck. Her eyes widened for a few seconds then she teetered and went limp. He pushed her onto her side then tossed away an empty hypodermic needle.

  Oh God. Kelsey scuttled away, tried to get to her feet.

  “Stop!” he commanded, pointing her own gun at her. “I have no qualms about killing you.”

  Panic drummed in her ears. “Who are you? Why are you doing this?”

  Lilith whimpered nearby.

  “Get up.” He circled toward the door, locked it, keeping the thirty-eight trained on her.

  She did as he said then watched him go behind the counter, knock things over. He picked up the phone and sent it crashing against the back wall.

  “Package tape. Where is it?”

  She thought about keeping quiet, but didn’t dare. “On the left. Behind the stapler.

  “Good girl. You take direction well. I
like that in a woman.”

  Bastard. She didn’t bother to school the revulsion from her expression. “Who are you?”

  As he approached her with the tape, a glimmer of hope broke through her terror. If he was going to tie her up, he probably didn’t intend to kill her.

  Lilith’s cries grew louder.

  “Shut up,” he shouted.

  Kelsey didn’t know if he meant Lilith or her, but she didn’t want to take any chances.

  “Turn around and clasp your hands behind your back.”

  She did as he instructed, then felt the tape wrap around her wrists.

  He spun her around to face him, touched a lock of her hair. “I like your hair.” His leering grin made her stomach lurch. “But I don’t like your mouth.” He tore off a few inches of tape, secured it over her lips. “Now, sit.”

  When he pushed down on her shoulder, she sank to the floor. He bound her ankles together as he had her wrists. He turned toward Lilith. Her whimpers rose in volume with each step. He landed a kick into her side and she let out a pained yelp.

  Kelsey glanced at the desk, wondered if he’d notice if she moved toward the counter. Her purse was back there with her cell inside. But her attention was drawn to Lilith when he pulled her up by her dark hair as she screamed.

  “The girl wants to know who I am,” he said through clenched teeth. “Should I tell her, Lily?”

  Lilith tried to cower, but he shoved her chin up with the barrel of the gun.

  “My wife here is your boyfriend’s lover, if you didn’t already know.” He pushed the gun into his pocket, stepped behind Lilith and set his hands on her shoulders. “And I am Jones’ boss, Dave Farley. And what neither of them know is that I’ve been watching them.”

  The shock of his words vibrated through her body. Tears stung her eyes. She wanted to scream, to beg him to stop, but all she could do was shake her head.

  “You don’t believe me?” he continued. “I saw them together. They were trying to get that Shakespeare book from you. Art Stephens told me so. Right before I killed him.”

  Kelsey swayed with the realization that he’d murdered Art. Had he also killed Margaret? He had nothing to lose by killing again. Trembles skittered over her skin and her stomach ached with terror.