by Lorie O
“I got something to show you,” Perry said, closing the door to the Chief’s office. He swore Rad’s expression turned wary as he leaned back and watched Perry approach. “Remember those Web sites I showed you last week?”
“Yeah.” Rad leaned forward on his desk, resting his elbows over paperwork, and plopped his chin in his hands. “What about them?”
“Take a look at this.” Perry opened his file and pulled out the printed page and then slid a picture of Kathleen Long out next to it.
“Son of a bitch,” Rad hissed.
“Yup. A match.”
Rad let out a loud sigh and leaned back, keeping his focus glued to the two pictures and not saying anything for a minute.
“Did you get her hard drive?”
“Yeah, it’s right here.” He pulled out the ziplock bag and held up the black hard drive. “Where are you sending it?”
Rad focused on him with intense gray eyes that today looked more tired than usual. Reaching across his desk, he took the hard drive from Perry. “I’m sending it over to the FBI field office.”
Perry blew out his frustration. “Rad, give me this case. You know I can work alongside the FBI. We’ve done it before.”
“Yup, we have.” Rad set the hard drive on the side of his desk. “I thought you wanted the Peter case.”
“It’s the same case.”
Rad raised one eyebrow. “You’ve got proof that Kathleen Long was pursued by Peter?”
“Not yet. I couldn’t dig into her hard drive at her house other than glimpsing at where she’d saved her password.”
“And you didn’t see anything?”
Perry shook his head, frustrated. “Give me the case. I can prove their connections, or learn who kidnapped Kathleen Long.”
Rad slid the hard drive across his desk toward Perry. “The case is yours,” he said, but then pointed a finger at Perry. “Keep Carl with you when you’re doing your investigating. Promise me you won’t spend one minute on this case without him by your side.”
Perry grabbed the hard drive and stood, turning toward the door. “No problem,” he said, getting the hell out of Rad’s office before he changed his mind.
“Flynn!”
Perry turned, studying Rad’s hard gaze as the Chief stood slowly. “I’m serious about this. Watch your ass, Flynn. You hear me?”
Perry rested his hand on the doorknob, hearing the Chief loud and clear but not liking his tone. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“You’re a good cop.”
“I’m a damn good cop.”
Rad nodded. “Keep it that way. Don’t fuck me over.”
Perry let go of the doorknob and walked toward Rad’s desk, squaring off with the large man who stood opposite it. “You mind telling me what you’re trying to say?”
“This is my town, Flynn. Not a goddamn thing goes on here that I don’t know about. We’ve got a criminal on the loose and he’s going to go down. And when he does, it’s going to be bad and ugly.” Rad pierced Perry with a fiery glare. “I’m going to see to it.”
“Wait in line,” Perry hissed. “This is my fucking town, too. And if you think I’m going to tolerate a monster preying on teenage girls one minute longer than I have to, then you disappoint me, Chief.”
“I’m giving you this case because I think you’re the man for the job,” Rad said, his voice taking a low, calm tone that was almost unnerving. “But I’ll have some explaining to do.”
“What?” Perry hissed.
“That’s all I’m saying.” Rad pressed his lips into a paper-thin line and wrinkled his brow when he scowled. “You’re a good cop and I believe that, which is why you just got this case. Don’t make me regret giving it to you.”
Perry didn’t have a fucking clue what Rad was talking about and was getting pissed off listening to him ramble. But he had the case and that was what mattered. He headed out of the Chief’s office, forcing himself to relax his grip on the hard drive before he snapped it in two.
“Flynn!” Rad bellowed when Perry had barely reached his desk. “Take that hard drive over to the KCMO 3rd precinct. I’ll call and tell them to be ready for you.”
Perry nodded, not trusting himself to speak at the moment. He didn’t like being told to watch his ass and not being told why. Worse yet, there was obviously something wrong, or Rad wouldn’t have spoken to him that way. If someone had told the Chief something about Perry, he had a right to know what it was. But Rad wasn’t asking him to justify his actions, just watch himself in the future. Perry didn’t like it. But he didn’t have a problem taking the hard drive to the KCMO precinct instead of the FBI field office. At least this way, he could get answers faster.
Carl walked over toward Perry, a question in his eyes although he didn’t say anything. Perry preferred running alone, but whatever was bugging the crap out of Rad, if he pushed him Rad looked wired enough to yank him right back off the case, just to cause a fight.
“Let’s go,” he grumbled, not bothering to elaborate. He’d credit Carl for having enough sense not to ask questions but simply follow him out of the station.
He’d run over to the Kansas City, Missouri, precinct, hang there while they tore through the hard drive, then drop Carl off at his car. They’d have some answers today. One way or another Perry would know if Kathleen had been involved with Peter.
After he had that information, Perry planned to seek out one hot little blonde. Player or not, she had a right to know the man she had tried meeting was running in a car with illegal tags. Perry wasn’t seeking her out to fuck her but out of his sworn obligation to protect his community. If Kylie wanted to be an idiot and meet men in dark parking lots, that was her business. He wouldn’t be able to live with himself if she got hurt and he didn’t warn her. And that was the only reason he would seek her out.
Chapter 11
“You know what, go to hell!” Kylie shoved her chair back from the table, pushing hard enough with her legs that it squeaked loudly across the floor. She couldn’t hold her anger in any longer. “Don’t ever suggest that I don’t know how to do my fucking job,” she hissed, gritting her teeth together so hard her jaw hurt.
“What I’m suggesting is that you keep a safe distance from anyone who might be viewed as a suspect,” John Athey said. He remained seated at the opposite end of the long, narrow conference table, his tone as cool as his expression. “Especially in light of what happened last night. It seems rather odd to me that Lieutenant Flynn just happened to be at the exact location you agreed to meet this Peter.”
“Last night I verified that PeteTakesU is not a teenager, that he drives a black Suburban. Sitting here going over everything that didn’t go right, instead of seeing what did go right is a waste of my time.”
“How do you know your guy was in that Suburban?” John demanded, his cool tone almost more annoying than his idiotic line of questioning.
“He sat there in his car with his brights on me for several minutes before approaching.” Kylie shoved her chair back further from the table in the meeting room at the FBI field office. It made a loud screeching sound against the floor.
“What proof do you have that Flynn wasn’t the one there to meet you?” John demanded, ignoring her comment. “Why the hell would he just happen to show up in that parking lot at the same time you were supposed to meet someone?”
Kylie had no idea why Perry was there last night. But the next time she saw him, he would get a piece of her mind, and his ass kicked if he pulled any macho crap on her.
“Are you sure you got the tag number right?” Paul held his hand up defensively, stopping her before she could bite John’s head off. “If you did, it’s fake.”
Kylie slapped the table with her palm and glared at John. “More proof, if you ask me, that we’ve got our guy. I’ll flush him out again. At least we know we’re on the right trail.”
“Kylie,” John said when she turned toward the door, making her name sound like a warning. “We already k
now our guy is a cop. Flynn was there. Maybe you should think twice before you believe you are chasing some black Suburban that just happens to have illegal tags. That’s hardly the same level of crime as raping and killing young girls.”
She ignored him, stepping out of the conference room at the FBI field office. The last thing she would tell any of them was that Perry probably had followed her to the bowling alley, since he had promised her he would return last night. More than likely he saw her leave her home. But offering that bit of information would open a can of worms. And she wasn’t going to go there. It was bad enough getting chewed out because her meet didn’t go down right.
There wasn’t anything to tell John anyway. Perry knew her because of her involvement with his nieces. End of story. She blew out an exasperated breath, knowing there would be a confrontation with him soon and unable to quit speculating as to how that meeting might turn out.
She wanted to beat the crap out of Perry, knock some sense into him, show that dominating, aggressive man that he couldn’t push her around, or follow her and yell at her from across a parking lot. That’s what she wanted to do. Pound some kind of acknowledgment into his thick, sexy skull and make him see who he was messing with.
Kylie stopped at her car, pinching the bridge of her nose and closing her eyes. Blowing out a frustrated sigh, she fought to get her temper under control. Daydreaming about taking her fists and beating that steel chest of his wasn’t doing a damn thing but getting her hot and bothered. Pissed and horny was a bad combination.
“Kylie,” Paul said, hurrying out the door. “Wait up a minute.”
He hurried toward her, his straight brown hair falling in thin strands over his forehead. Paul pushed his glasses up his nose and offered a weak smile.
“John’s got a hot temper. He’s not a bad guy, though. He’ll simmer down quickly.”
“I’ve got a temper, too,” she said, not apologizing. “And I don’t like being told how to do my job.”
She turned from Paul, unlocking her car, and threw her purse over to the passenger seat.
Paul held her car door when she slid behind the wheel. “I’ve got the live feed running surveillance on your home,” he began, suddenly sounding awkward.
Kylie remembered Perry telling her he wanted to see her surveillance equipment. “Yeah? And?” she said, knowing where this was heading.
Paul sighed. “If it’s any consolation, when John questioned Chief Radisson about Perry Flynn the Chief got all hot under the collar, too. If there’s a bad seed in his department, the Chief is putting his neck on the line swearing it’s not Flynn. Apparently he gave him the Kathleen Long case today.”
“Okay,” Kylie said, managing to sound indifferent. If Perry was assigned the same case she was, though, they were going to start crossing paths a lot more often. She hated not being able to come forth with him. “If he did that, why is John all bent out of shape about him? You’d think if the police trusted one of their men enough to put him on this case, we could work together.”
“You could suggest it to John. He seems hell-bent and determined not to trust anyone down at the station, though. He damn near got into a screaming match over the phone earlier with the Chief for putting Flynn on the case.” Paul shook his head, letting go of her car door and taking a step backward. “If it’s any consolation, from what I’m seeing, Flynn seems to be more in your corner than out of it.”
When she looked up at Paul, he looked away, apparently unwilling to admit he’d seen her kiss Flynn. She needed to find out if every room in her home was bugged. “I’ve got a criminal to catch. Is there anything else?”
“Actually, there is. What are you doing now?”
“I thought I’d get online and see if I can’t get Mr. Pete to give me a rain check.”
“Good. When you get him online, call me. I’m going to run a check through all city office computers and find out who is online when he’s talking to you.”
“Good idea.”
“Some advice?”
“What?” She glanced up his slender body, not built up at all like Perry was, although Paul wasn’t a bad-looking guy. She smiled, still feeling irked over her lecture from John, but seeing Paul was doing his best to be diplomatic.
“Go somewhere other than your house so that you aren’t…” He hesitated, staring down at his shoes. “So you aren’t interrupted.”
She fought not to smile when Paul blushed. “Maybe I’ll find a good coffee shop and set up camp there for a while and work off my laptop. But I’ll call you once I’m online.”
Kylie leaned back in the black metal chair while nursing a damn good mocha latte. The richly flavored aroma drifted around her face as she licked her lips. She stared at her laptop and her buddy list. PeteTakesU wasn’t online.
In spite of the years she had behind her on the job, sitting and waiting and doing nothing was damn hard. More than likely John also viewed the live feed from her house. He saw her kissing Perry. And it was more than just a kiss. She raised her gaze to the street in front of the coffeehouse Paul had suggested. Kylie was the only one sitting on the brick patio in front of the small café. Across the street, a new-wave bookstore seemed to do a decent amount of business. There was a buy, sell, and trade record and game store next to it. On the corner, cars drove in and out of a gas station. Business as usual for a growing, progressive town and suburb of an even larger city.
Where were the cameras in her house? She knew there was one in the living room and two out front. But she wasn’t aware of any that were installed in the back end of her home. It actually surprised her that she didn’t pay closer attention to where Paul had installed them. In her defense, she’d been busy as well that evening, working to get her computer going and setting up passwords and screen names. It had been a normal day preparing for undercover work, and one she would do exactly the same if she were to do it again. But then she didn’t anticipate Perry sweeping her off her feet.
Was that what he’d done?
Kylie scowled. She was a professional, one of the best in her line of work. Her record was impeccable. There wasn’t an online predator she’d gone after that she hadn’t nailed to the wall. A local cop sniffing around her wouldn’t hinder her investigation.
“Damn,” she sighed, blowing out her frustration with a loud sigh. She was thinking about Perry as if he were lower on the totem pole than she. Yet picturing him, remembering how he grabbed her, damn near swept her off her feet with a kiss more powerful than anything she’d experienced in a long time, made him seem anything but inferior. The way he kissed her, touched her, got her off more than sex had with some of the men she’d been with in her past. She fidgeted in her seat, feeling her jeans rub between her legs, and closed her eyes, imagining Perry touching her there.
The chime from her laptop made her jump and she damn near spilled her latte in her lap. Not the kind of heat she was looking for, she thought, scowling at her computer screen.
You are so sexy.
Kylie stared at the words that appeared on her screen. She bit her lower lip, switching gears quickly, and posed her fingers over the keyboard. Nothing pissed her off more than getting her ass chewed, especially when she was doing her job. She didn’t like how John had brushed off the Suburban, indifferent to it having illegal tags when that appeared to her to add suspicion to her guy. She’d had cases in the past where her perp hunted young girls using an alias as well as being illegal in almost every aspect of his life. It was common for a sexual predator to live somewhere where his name wasn’t on a lease, the car he drove was not registered, and all efforts were made to keep his identity hidden. If John refused to acknowledge that, possibly he wasn’t doing his job right.
She stared at her computer screen, forcing herself to calm down and think only about being the bait this sick monster fed off, and bringing him in.
My mom might see you talk to me like that. Kylie clicked “send” and then glanced at her buddy list, which was empty since his was the only name
on it. She added quickly: Why can’t I see you online?
I can see you, but you can’t see me.
She typed a quick, LOL, and then sat back, forcing a calming breath into her lungs, and reached for her latte. Glancing toward the small parking lot next to the café where she sat and then up and down the busy street, she saw life was as usual around her. She returned her attention to the screen. PeteTakesU wasn’t typing.
Maybe a bit of encouragement was in order. I didn’t get to see you last night. Then thinking quickly, knowing she needed to offer some kind of explanation for Perry, she took a sip of her latte and licked her lips as she grinned. I’m sorry about my friend’s uncle.
I saw you, though. You’re hot as hell. The bait worked. He accepted her explanation.
She watched the bottom of the box where it said: “PeteTakesU is typing a message.” May I ask you a question?
Sure.
Are you a virgin?
Kylie ground her teeth, outrage covering her with a feverish rage. Instead of dwelling on how this bastard preyed on innocent girls, she forced herself to focus on how Dani might talk to him. With her flippant, know-it-all attitude, she wouldn’t take crap off anyone.
Are you?
No. Sex is the best thing in the world. Do you know that?
Kylie envied Dani and her sisters. They were so socially adjusted, with one another to help out. Kylie imagined they fought. For a brief moment she remembered fighting with her own sister. Karen used to yell at Kylie for how she dressed, telling her repeatedly no one would ever ask her out if she refused to brush her hair and take care of herself.
Did her sister know how much worse Kylie looked after Karen died? No one noticed Kylie, and if they did they sure didn’t talk to her. She coasted through high school like a ghost, ignoring everyone around her and doing her best not to do anything to draw attention to herself. It wasn’t until college that she pulled out of that shell, once she left Dallas and decided she would rather live attacking life than running from it.