NATE
My intention to leave was ruled out by good manners. I waited outside for a moment, hoping the fresh air would somehow magically make my erection disappear. I hadn’t reacted to a woman like this in a long time, and I was deeply embarrassed by it. I’m a grown-ass man and I should be able to control my body better than this.
Even if Donna was rubbed up against me like butter on bread. Even if she’d let her hair down and smiled at me like I was something worth smiling at.
She was playing games, I was sure of it now. I’d tested her by pushing my thigh back into hers and she fled. Was she scared of me? Or did she just realize she took it too far?
Whatever it was she was thinking or playing, I wasn’t going to have any of it.
I still had every intention of leaving, I just felt like it was only proper to say goodbye first. I’d never left a woman alone at a bar before making sure she was safe and I didn’t intend to start now.
I was starting back in when she walked out, laughing to herself about something. She didn’t see me at first because I was hiding in the shadows a little. She walked by and I watched her, her hips dancing back and forth with each step, her arms swinging loosely by her sides, her hair swinging across her back, mesmerizing me.
“I just stepped out to get some air,” I said to her back. She stopped mid-stride and turned around, her mouth open in surprise, her lips begging me to lick them.
“I thought you left,” she said, as I walked up to her. “I decided to have dinner in my room.”
“Can I walk you to your door?” I asked.
She paused, tilting her head with a slight smile before nodding.
We walked silently side-by-side as she led us to a room around the corner, her door slightly hidden and secluded from the parking lot. She paused and pulled out her key, sliding it through the door reader and opening the door before turning back. The bed beckoned in the background as she smiled up at me.
“Thank you, Nate,” she said. “It was nice chatting with you tonight.” I nodded, speechless and frozen in this unexpected moment. If she was anyone else, I’d have her half undressed and writhing on the bed already.
But she wasn’t just any woman.
She was off-limits.
Which made me want her even more, unfortunately. The forbidden fruit always tastes a little sweeter. I stared down into her eyes, wondering if she’d let me get this close if she didn’t want it, too.
I bent my head, my lips on a collision course with hers. The closer I came, the hotter the heat that welled up inside of me, the stronger the wave of lust, the harder my cock throbbed as my lips came just millimeters from hers.
I closed my eyes, just before I made contact, leaning forward the last bit, the sweetest anticipation of the taste of her mouth washing over me —
My eyes flew open as I heard the door slam in my face. My mouth landed on the cold metal door, a sorry substitute the soft, luscious lips I was expecting.
I dropped my head, sauntering away with slumped shoulders, a very battered ego, and two very blue balls.
CHAPTER 23
DONNA
I slumped against the door, my heart racing. More than anything, I wanted to allow Nate’s lips to fall on mine, but in the time between me walking out of that bathroom, raring to go, and seeing he’d left, I’d closed a door.
Now, I’d closed another one, literally, right in his face. I knew it was rude. But words failed me and the need to remain professional won out over the need for manners.
He was a grown man. He’d understand, he’d get over it. I knew that. I’m sure it wasn’t the first time he’d been rejected and I hoped like hell I wouldn’t have to see him again.
Maybe I’d get lucky and we’d get a break in the case. Maybe the killings would stop and I could leave Nate and all the other Gods of Chaos members in my rearview mirror.
My career. I needed to focus on that and let nothing else distract me.
Giving up on dinner completely, I dressed for bed and crawled under the covers with my laptop, intending to do as much research as I could on Otis Alton. Instead, I started googling Nate’s father’s case, which was probably the last thing I should be doing, but there I was typing in his name and searching through photos from the trial.
Nate and his brother Eli sat behind their father with stony expressions in shot after shot. There was another one of them from outside the courtroom, walking out amidst a sea of reporters shoving cameras in their faces. They both looked distraught, occasionally joined by Fury and some other faces I recognized from the Gods’ clubhouse.
Unfortunately, my eyes kept drifting back to Nate’s face and the memory of the heat of his thigh and the smoldering look of lust shooting from his stormy blue eyes kept flashing in my mind.
If I couldn’t have his lips and hands on me, then I’d just have to be satisfied with having my eyes on his photographs while I imagined my own touch was his. My fingers slid down between my legs, my eyes fell shut, and I lost myself in my forbidden fantasies.
Work could wait.
Tonight, I needed to pretend, for just a few moments, that I was still a woman and there was a man who wanted me.
CHAPTER 24
NATE
In an attempt to return things to normal, Ryder asked us all to go back to work on the cabins. We scurried around like a bunch of ants, hammers flying, nails sliding into wooden beams, sweat forming on the brows of a sea of shirtless, tattooed dudes.
I kept my head down, not just to avoid seeing all the half-naked guys surrounding me, but also to allow myself to retreat into myself a little. My ego was bruised from Donna’s rejection last night, but that didn’t stop me from letting her run through my head like a dirty movie.
If it was possible, I wanted her even more after she slammed the door in my face. Instead of discouraging me, her actions had only made me more obsessed with her.
I’d gone to bed imagining everything I’d do to her and by the time I’d finally tossed one off and was able to drift off to sleep, I awoke an hour later from a dream about her, completely erect again.
Her memory was relentless.
Tossing and turning all night, I’d barely gotten any sleep after that and today I was a fucking mess. My eyes were hot and swollen, my head ached and my stomach was in knots. Each time I wielded the hammer, I could feel my hand shaking.
The last thing I wanted was for anyone to see my weaknesses, so I kept to myself, moving slowly and methodically to ensure I didn’t make any mistakes or call any attention to myself.
“Feels good to be back at it,” Crow said, at one point. He’d been working nearby all day, trying to make small talk for hours, but I kept pretty quiet, replying in monosyllables for the most part.
“Yep,” I nodded.
“Eli mentioned you ran into that FBI chick at the bar last night.”
“Yep.” I bristled at the mention of Donna. Even though she was on my mind, I didn’t want him talking about her.
“Wonder why she’s sticking around?”
“Just doing her job, I suppose.”
“Think they’ll find the guy? The killer?”
I shrugged, “Dunno.”
“Wonder if he left any evidence behind…”
I shrugged again. I didn’t want to talk about the killings or evidence, I didn’t want to talk about Donna, I didn’t want to talk about much at all, in fact, so I kept quiet, hoping Crow would catch the hint and find someone else more receptive to his small talk.
“Seems like he wanted those women found, though, don’t you think? Leaving them in such shallow graves like that? Seems right to me.”
“Maybe.”
“Slade said nothing like this has ever happened here before. Stryker said he bets there’ll be another body soon. Kinda cool it’s happening now, don’t you think?”
“Not really, Crow,” I said, glancing at him sideways. “Women died.”
“Yeah, I know, I didn’t mean it that way,” he muttered. “It�
��s just that Shadow and a bunch of the other guys got me all excited. Real CSI shit going down, you know? Sorry, brother.”
“Whatever, man.” I turned away and the next time I looked back, he was gone. I breathed a sigh of relief. I needed to be alone with my thoughts.
Alone with the images running through my head…
I turned back to my work, Donna’s soft brown eyes haunting me the rest of the morning…
CHAPTER 25
DONNA
The case wasn’t solved, so obviously sleep alluded me once again. That didn’t mean I didn’t try. I tried really hard, but all I could do was toss around under the covers in the darkness, doing everything I could think of to pass out. I counted from a hundred backwards. I tried to name every serial killer I could think of. I did the 4-7-8 rule, where you breath in for four seconds, hold it for seven and exhale for eight. It almost always worked, but not tonight.
Not only was the unsolved case keeping me awake, but the thought of Nate was another huge distraction.
I was doomed.
In fact, I needed to get this case solved and move on, so I could banish both things from my mind. I needed sleep desperately. But once again, the sun rose without any relief and I was up at dawn ordering breakfast brought to my room and searching the FBI’s database on any information I could find regarding Otis Alton.
I hit the jackpot about an hour in.
Mr. Alton had a record. A long one.
Mostly small stuff — traffic citations, a minor assault on a family member over twenty-five years ago, and a misdemeanor charge for drug possession. There was a big charge, though, too.
Two counts of sexual assault of a minor, in the first degree. Twenty years ago. He’d done seven years behind bars and had been clean ever since. I placed an order for all the records of the case to be sent to me immediately and closed my laptop.
If Alton was the killer, then that would put a nice, tidy bow on the case and release me from this hell of lust I’d found myself trapped in. A knock sounded on my door and I brought the breakfast I’d ordered into the room and dug in.
I was famished and by the time I finished, I’d eaten entirely too much.
My phone rang just as I was putting everything away.
“What’s up, Randolph?” I answered.
“I’ll give you one guess,” he replied.
“Are you fucking kidding me? Again?”
“Yep.”
“Fuck. Where this time?”
“They’re moving away from the Gods' property. Heading closer to the coast, it looks like, about two miles west. I’ll text you the location.”
“I’m getting tired of this shit,” I said.
“Me and you both. See you there.”
“Yeah,” I said, hanging up. It was going to be another long day and this meant I wasn’t anywhere closer to getting away from here. I stopped by the front desk on my way to extend my reservation. As I drove away, I glanced over at the bar, remembering last night, remembering Nate’s eyes, remembering the way I’d slammed the door in his face.
Tonight, in the light of day, I knew I’d done the right thing.
That didn’t mean it was easy, though.
As I drove away, part of me wished I let him kiss me. At least I would have had the memory to cling to today, I thought, while I drove myself to the latest crime scene. But it was better this way.
I could focus now.
I could concentrate on what was really important — stopping this killer before he killed anyone else. So far, each crime scene had been left disturbingly clean, with not a shred of evidence found. That meant I needed to start over. I’d probably missed something along the way.
To start over, I needed to go back to ground zero and retrace my steps.
As soon as I checked out this latest scene, I’d call Grace and start from there.
CHAPTER 26
GRACE
I hung up the phone and cradled my head in my hands.
“Bad news?” Ryder asked, as he walked up behind me and wrapped his arms around me.
“Another body. Two miles up the road.”
“You know this has nothing to do with us, right?” he said, his lips brushing against my ear.
“Tell that to Agent Parrotti.”
“What did she say?” he murmured, kissing my neck.
“She’s coming back here,” I said. “Now. Says she needs to revisit all the details. Wants to interview each of our guys individually.”
“What a nightmare,” he said, his hands cupping my breasts and squeezing gently.
“Ryder.”
“It’s terrible, it really is,” he said, pinching my nipples between his fingertips. I gasped as a shock of electricity ripped through me and turned to look at him, marveling at the devilish look in his eye.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“You’re so fucking tense, babe. I know this is serious. I know it’s fucked up. But you’ve been spinning for days now and you aren’t slowing down. You’ve been on edge and you’re going to break if you keep going like this. I thought maybe, you know, if we took your mind off of everything for a few minutes, you might be able to relax.” His hand slid down between my thighs, gently opening them and finding its way under my skirt.
With a gentle laugh, I reached down and grabbed his hand, pulling it away.
“Not now, she’s going to be here in twenty minutes,” I said. I appreciated the effort, Ryder was so good to me, he loved me so much, but there was no time for me to relax.
“Twenty minutes? That’s more than enough time,” he said, falling to his knees between my thighs with a sexy, mischievous wink.
“Ryder, it won’t work,” I said, unable to suppress a laugh as he looked up at me with wide eyes.
“Won’t work? Hell, I consider that a challenge!” With a huge smile, he dove under my skirt, his mouth soft and warm and perfect.
He was right, it was exactly what I needed.
I lay back on the bed and opened my thighs, letting him love me.
CHAPTER 27
DONNA
“Fuck you, Randolph!” I yelled into the phone.
My day was long and dreadful and completely unfruitful and it was ending even worse. Randolph called me when he got back to the city, and now he was yelling into the phone, somehow finding the gall to blame me for the fact that we’d not made any progress on the case.
Today’s victim was another Jane Doe.
She’d been dumped on an old closed logging road, not too far from a rest stop. She’d probably never have been found, or at least not for a while, if it hadn’t been for a teenage boy with a drone flying over the area. He spotted the body on his camera and called the police, but with no identification and so far, no missing person's reports in the area, we had no idea who the woman was. It would take a while to process the body and attempt to identify her, so all we were left with was another crime scene that was disturbingly clean and another one of those stupid infinity tattoos on her hip to let us know it was all connected.
“Listen, it’s gotta be one those Gods, or maybe even more than one. I told you from the beginning, I don’t trust them. And sometimes, Parrotti, you have to take matters into your own hands to make sure the killer doesn’t strike again.”
“There’s almost two dozen people hanging around the clubhouse. What do you expect me to do? Pick one and plant something on them?”
“That’s not the worst idea you’ve had.”
“Fuck you, Randolph!” I repeated. “You know I’m not corrupt like that. You know that, so how dare you suggest it.”
“Relax, don’t get your panties in a bunch.”
“That’s a really fucking inappropriate thing to say to me.”
“Don’t be a princess, Parrotti. Your old man would expect you to be more of a hard-ass.”
“Hard-ass. Princess. You’re obsessed with labels and putting me down and blaming me for your poor performance. I’m not going to lie. I’m not going to plant
evidence. And I sure as hell am not going to take your shit anymore. You’re just as responsible for finding the killer as I am. So, we can either work together and you can stop your sexist bullshit, or I can tell the Captain what a fucking corrupt, sexist pig you’ve been.”
He paused, the silence on the end of the phone deafening.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” I continued. “Get your shit together, Randolph. Work the case. Do the work. Call me when you have something.”
I hung up the phone and flung it across the room, the loud clang not nearly satisfying enough. I sat down on the bed, wishing for the hundredth time that this dingy motel room had a mini-bar. I stood back up, antsy, unable to stay in one place, my heart racing, my head spinning.
Propping my door open, I walked around the corner to survey the parking lot. I wanted to go to the bar, I wanted to put this day behind me, pretend I’d never seen the eyes of all those dead girls this week, just for a few minutes. Disappearing in a tall glass of whiskey never sounded so good.
I just needed to make sure the coast was clear first.
Scanning the parking lot for any sign of a motorcycle, I sighed with relief when I didn’t see any.
“Sweet,” I muttered, running back into my room and grabbing my wallet and keys before running across the parking lot. Within thirty seconds, I was hiding in a tall booth, nursing the whiskey I’d dreamed about all day, and there was a burger on the way.
As much as I hated it, the events of the day ran through my head like a movie.
I’d stopped at the crime scene first. The sight was becoming familiar. The long blonde hair, the young, toned body, the bruises around her neck. The limp limbs that seemed to somehow splay out in all directions, pointing everywhere and nowhere all at once. And with each one, the small, tiny tattoo.
It must have just taken a few moments to engrave it into their skin. Just a little black ink, a continuous, curving line, each time a little crooked, each one unique, but always the same symbol.
FALLEN GOD_GODS OF CHAOS MC_BOOK EIGHT Page 8