It took a few days for the press to really blow up the story but at this point, coverage had peaked into mass reporting. The crime scenes were swimming with cameras and journalists, huge trucks with even bigger antennas camped on the side of the road, blocking traffic, fighting with the cops all day about how close they could be or where they could park.
It was a circus - a circus with no end in sight and one that I couldn’t wait to get away from. I retreated to the God’s clubhouse seeking relief. The chaos of the clubhouse was nothing compared to the madness of the press.
And then I spent the rest of the day attempting to interview the Gods. Only a handful of them were there, and the ones that were weren’t talking. Nate was there, hanging in the background, his head down as he worked on the house, shirtless and hot, the sun beat down on his muscular back, distracting me each time I glanced at him.
I removed myself from the situation, talking to the others on the porch of the clubhouse, completely out of view of Nate. And then, I opted not to talk to him. I spoke with Crow, Stryker, Shadow, Slade, who was still flirting with me, Bullet, Colt, and Ryder, Riot, Grace and Wreck. All the others were off the premises.
The ones that I had spoken to were completely cooperative and polite. Even Grace was in a completely different mood than last time. Today, she was holding Ryder’s hand and even smiling a little, as she greeted me and let me interview her again. They each ensured me they wanted to do whatever was necessary to help with the investigation, and I couldn’t help but recognize the goodness that was clearly in each of their hearts.
These people weren’t killers.
They were saviors.
By the time the day was over, I was paying my respects to Grace and issuing a half-assed apology.
That’s why it pissed me off so much that Randolph would suggest I screw them over. They were the last people in the world that deserved something like that. And I was the last person in the world who would ever do it.
I left without seeing Nate again, as hard as it was to fight the urge to walk back to where he was. I didn’t want to see whatever his face would reveal. Anger, disappointment, the lingering remnants of whatever I’d made him feel the night before. I just didn’t want to face it.
I couldn’t do it then, and I couldn’t do it now, which is why I was so thankful he wasn’t in this bar tonight.
My dinner arrived and I devoured it like an animal, realizing I’d not eaten since breakfast. When I finished, I ordered another drink and sat there in a daze, staring off into space as I went over the details of the case, trying to piece everything together in my head.
The killer’s methods had remained the same. The only thing that changed from the first time was that each of the next victims had been alone. All pretty girls in their early twenties, they’d all been tattooed. Each one was strangled and then buried in a shallow grave, not far from the side of the road. We now had extra state troopers patrolling the area all night long, and all of the bodies were being processed for DNA evidence and except for the latest Jane Doe, they’d been identified and their families were being interviewed.
I’d requested the reports for Alton and we were investigating his background and also the backgrounds of each of the members of the Gods and Solid Ground. Profilers at the office were scouring the intelligence reports of other cases, looking for any connections or similarities of any previous crimes.
There weren’t any rocks left to turn over.
All I could do tonight was wait for the reports I’d requested, which probably wouldn’t arrive in my inbox for another day or so.
Waiting was the absolute hardest part of my job.
I spent a lot of time sitting alone with my thoughts and doing just that. Waiting for search warrants to be approved, or waiting for reports to come through, like tonight, or evidence to be processed, or simply waiting for the sun to rise so I could go back to work and find something else to obsess over.
The front door opened, a loud bell jangling out over the bar.
I was so lost in my own thoughts, I didn’t even glance towards the door. Staring off into space, I was a million miles away as a couple of boots came shuffling my way. A low grunt broke through my trance and I looked up in confusion.
All day long I’d avoided that face, in person and in my mind, pushing it away every time it popped up in my head. But there he was, walking up to me as if I’d invited him.
And that fucking grin on his face told me he expected me to welcome him with open arms.
“Fancy seeing you here again,” he quipped.
“Hello, Nate,” I said, trying to hide my irritation.
“Still slumming?” he asked, lifting a brow.
“It’s easier to work from this location,” I said.
He slid in the other side of the booth as if permission was foreign to him.
“Still no break in the case?” he asked.
“No,” I replied. “Do you come here often?”
“Damn near every night,” he nodded.
“Oh.”
“Disappointed to see me?” he asked, flashing me a sexy half-grin that made tiny little wrinkles appear on his temple.
“That’s not what I meant.”
“Right,” he said, nodding, the directness of his gaze completely disarming me. The bartender brought over a beer and a shot for him, proving he was a regular. I should have known. Privacy wasn’t really something that existed in this world. Let alone in this small town tavern in the middle of nowhere.
“I’m sorry about last night,” I blurted out.
“Not the first time I’ve French kissed a door,” he shrugged.
I laughed despite myself.
“It’s best if I keep business and pleasure separated,” I offered.
“You think I’m pleasurable?” he winked.
Heat rose to my cheeks as I silently contemplated his question.
“I’ll take that blush as an answer,” he replied, leaning forward across the table. “Truth is, Donna, I don’t give a damn about your business or mine. But your pleasure — and mine — that’s something I’m definitely intrigued by. So, when you change your mind, you make sure to let me know, okay?”
“Um, okay,” I answered, completely taken aback by his frankness.
“In the meantime, I’m going to avoid the probability of eating metal again and wait for you to give me a sign, deal?”
I laughed and nodded.
“Deal,” I replied.
“Great,” he winked again, the sexiest gesture I’d ever seen in my life. “In the meantime, how about we forget about work and get down to the business of getting hammered?”
“I’m halfway there,” I said, lifting my glass.
“Girl after my own heart,” he mused. “I’ll catch up quickly, don’t worry.”
He downed his shot and gestured to the bartender, “another round, Joe!”
Joe appeared in a flash and he kept them coming the rest of the night.
“Tell me something about you that I don’t know, Donna,” Nate said, his dark eyes peering intensely over at me.
I paused, staring over at him. Desperately, I wanted to open up to this beautiful man. It had been so long since I’d had real personal interaction that didn’t involve dead bodies or some other horrific subject. And there he was, sitting across from me, devilishly handsome and so incredibly sexy I could feel the heat rolling off of him.
Not to mention the sparks flying between us.
It may have been a while, but I recognized chemistry when I felt it. It was so strong, it was almost too much to take. I fought the response to flee the danger I knew he came with. He was an entire package. Even as a one-night stand, he’d be a huge threat to my career, not to mention the fact that he would most likely wreck my body in the best way possible, and probably leave my heart shredded and bloody in his wake.
No, opening the door for a man like him in my life was a risk too great to take. So, with that decision made, I stared across at him �
� still there, still waiting patiently for some nugget of information about me — and contemplated what in the world I could say to a man like him in a situation like this.
“I come from a large family,” I blurted out.
“Oh yeah?” he asked. “How large?”
“I have three brothers,” I replied. “We’re all in the FBI.”
“You mentioned something about that the other day.”
“Yep,” I said. “Okay, your turn.”
“What?”
“Tell me something about you,” I said, the alcohol hitting me all at once as I smiled over at him.
He paused thoughtfully, staring up in the air, his ocean blue eyes on full display.
“Hell, I don’t know,” he finally said, scratching his chin. “Ain’t much to tell. Grew up in Salem, joined up with my old man’s club soon as I learned to ride a bike, and that’s been my life ever since.”
“Was it hard for you to switch clubs?” I asked, remembering the photos I’d seen of him in court looking sadder than any man ever should.
“Yeah, at first. Working with the Gods is a world different than anything I’ve ever known. It feels good, though, you know? Doing good for once.”
I nodded, my heart melting.
“I understand,” I replied.
“I bet you do,” he said. “You do the same thing. Finding the bad guys and keeping them behind bars.”
“Not every biker would agree with that statement,” I quipped.
“Well, true. But I don’t mean it as a blanket statement. I’m talking about the real fucking monsters. The killers and rapists, the worst of the worst. I’m assuming the FBI isn’t really getting involved with petty drug crimes that result in outrageous sentences.”
“No,” I replied. “Tell me more about life with the Gods.”
I didn’t want to talk about me at all tonight, so I quickly switched the subject back to him. I wanted to know everything about him.
He laughed and shook his head.
“What?”
“Well, at first, it didn’t go so well.”
“What happened?”
“Well, Grace needed help on this job. Just muscle. Someone to be a big presence behind her while she went undercover in a dangerous situation. I was picked to accompany her,” he paused, running a hand through his hair and looking up at me before continuing.
“We’re in there and one thing led to another and I ended up locked outside the building Grace was in, where I was supposed to be glued to her side and protecting her. It was my first job and I wanted to impress her and here I was locked outside like an incompetent fool.”
He laughed and his whole face lit up. I beamed over at him, my eyes devouring the sight of him.
“I didn’t want to call her. I didn’t want her to know, so I just figured I’d climb over the fence and go back in the front door. I don’t know what I was thinking. I get halfway up the fence and then I hear a bunch of barking, quickly coming closer.”
“Oh, no!” I laughed.
“Oh, no, is right! So, there I am, halfway up the fence, deciding if I should come back down or go up and over faster when a huge pack of pit bulls round the corner. My boot gets stuck in the fence and I can’t move at all. In fact, I’m about to fall down completely and the dogs look very hungry.”
I burst out laughing, my sides aching.
“I’m glad this is amusing you,” he winked.
“Go on! What happened?”
“I managed to get my footing and I launched myself over the fence, but not before the biggest, baddest dog took a huge, bloody chunk out of my ass.”
“Oh, no!” I said, laughing even harder.
“Yeah, yeah, go ahead and laugh. Everyone else did, too. Especially when they saw the video.”
“There’s video?” I exclaimed.
“Not anymore!” he said. “I had it destroyed.”
“Oh, man,” I said, tears streaming down my face. “So, how’s your ass?”
“Scarred for life,” he said, with a wink. “Wanna see it?”
My laughing faded away quickly and I stared over at him, biting my lip, because hell yes, I wanted to see it. I wanted to see it, touch it, watch it do all kinds of things.
He stopped laughing when I did, staring over at me with suddenly serious eyes and the tension between us returned, as thick and heavy as ever.
Breathless, I bite my lip harder, unable to speak, unable to breathe, unable to do anything but stare back at this man and imagine the sight of his ass.
It was unbearable.
A slow smile spread across his face, that mischievous glint returning to his eye.
“You’re thinking about my ass and it makes you uncomfortable,” he stated.
“Maybe,” I said, smirking.
“Should I tell you about the time I was camping and a snake almost bit my —.”
“NO!” I shouted.
He burst out laughing, and it was contagious. Instantly, the tension disappeared and we smiled over at each other.
“I should probably head back to my room,” I said, knowing full well that if I stayed here drinking any longer with this man, I’d never be able to keep my hands off him.
“I’ll walk you,” he said, downing the last of his whiskey and licking his lips, proving my point completely. The entire walk to my room, all I could think about was tasting his lips.
Apparently, he was thinking along the same lines, because this time, he didn’t hesitate. As soon as I opened the door and turned back to him, his lips crashed into mine, igniting the inferno of desire I’d been struggling to keep under control.
My lips parted, allowing his tongue to slide between them, allowing his heat inside, allowing everything I’d said I wouldn’t allow to happen, happen. His massive arms wrapped around me, pulling me close, his body pressed against mine, every inch of him throbbing against me, white-hot and rock-hard.
The world disappeared. Time stopped.
With magical precision, his kiss washed away every thought and concern and inhibition that plagued me, leaving me drowning in the sweetest, purest pleasure.
This was what life was about.
That connection.
That intense, heated desire.
The passion that two people can possess for one another, the driving, unadulterated need, the yearning to get closer that pulls you in like the most beautiful siren’s call.
Nate’s kiss lingered, suspended in time, so real it became a dream.
CHAPTER 28
NATE
Donna’s lips were pure ambrosia.
Succulent, sweet and velvety soft, she tasted just as I’d imagined she’d taste. My body screamed for more as I stood in her doorway, watching her open the door that she’d slammed in my face last night.
There was no way in hell I could walk away from her without touching her tonight. I knew she wanted me, too. I didn’t give a damn about her job. I didn’t give a damn if Grace disapproved.
We’d work all that out.
But tonight? Right here in the glow of the lights from the parking lot of this rundown motel? There was nobody here but the two of us and that’s all that mattered, as far as I was concerned.
The rest could be dealt with later.
Right now, I needed to kiss this woman, if it was the last thing I ever did.
And after doing so, I realized quite clearly that if it was the last thing I did, I would die a very fucking happy man.
It was epic. Like something out of some damned cheesy romance novel, I felt my insides fucking quiver as soon as my tongue met hers. Quiver!
For fuck’s sake…
This wasn’t supposed to happen to a man like me.
Wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am was more my flavor, if you know what I mean. A man like me doesn’t fucking quiver.
But there I was, fighting the urge to push her into that room, my hands trembling, my stomach feeling like it was filled with a billion butterflies.
After a while, I pulled
away gently, staring down at her beautiful wet lips, slightly parted, swollen, inviting. Her eyes dark filled with a desire that I knew matched my own.
I smiled down at her, knowing the right thing to do — the gentlemanly thing to do — was to say goodnight here and now.
She’d had a taste.
When she was ready, I knew she’d let me know.
“When you’re ready,” I growled, reaching up and cupping her chin, peering deep into her eyes. I ran a thumb over those swollen lips, my cock throbbing painfully. Swallowing hard, I pulled my hand away, taking a step away from her, before turning and walking away.
And that fucking quivering?
Goddammit, that shit lasted all fucking night…
CHAPTER 29
THE FALLEN GOD
“Stop wiggling!” I growled. As soon as I pulled out my battery-powered tattoo gun in the back of my van, she’d begun thrashing around like a fish out of water. I put one hand around her neck and her eyes widened as she quietened, her loud, muffled screams turning to a soft, pleading whimper.
“That’s better,” I whispered. “Now shut the hell up.”
Putting the needle to flesh was profoundly satisfying.
She yelped, like an injured dog, then grew quiet, her terror-filled eyes pleading silently for mercy.
I’d give it to her.
In time.
But not the way she wanted.
I could never give them what they wanted.
Once I had them, setting them loose was never an option.
No, no, no — we must see this to the end. Every single time.
I’d learned my lesson that first time, with the girl that escaped. I’d been meticulous with all the other details, thankfully — leaving no trace or evidence behind. There was nothing they could find that would lead them to me. But still, leaving a live witness was just asking for trouble.
I whistled while I worked.
The song drifted up from deep in my memories, making me think of my old man again. Doing all this, going through with it, living it, feeling it, smelling the fear of the women — it all made me feel closer to him. We were finally sharing an experience, a meaningful experience, something profound and rare and deep.
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