by Tiana Cole
Back and forth she went with herself, until finally she came to the conclusion that a glass of wine would help her decide. Well, a glass or three. She sat down the now empty wine glass as the ringing tone sounded again and she made her way to the door, peeking through the peep hole before answer.
Her heart stopped as she saw him. The man she had hoped for and dreaded all at the same time. Ayden.
Before she could second guess herself, she threw open the door and froze, just staring at him as he was staring at her. She drank in the sight of him. He was so handsome, even more so than she remembered, so much so that it hurt to look at him. But then she noticed the bags under his eyes, the haggard lines of stress carved into his face that hadn’t been there before.
Without thought she stepped back, opening her arms, and less than a second later he was in them, his own arms wrapping around her so tight she could barely breathe, but it was exactly what she needed. He was exactly what she needed. And she was tired of denying it. Tired of denying herself.
Alicia wasn’t sure how long they stood there, just holding each other, offering one another the comfort they both so desperately needed. She would never be sure if it was the wine that had lowered her inhibitions or her own desire, but the next second she was kissing him. And there was nothing she could do to stop it. Nothing she wanted to do when he returned the kiss, his mouth slanting over hers in a way that had lust driving through her like a wildfire, burning her out of control.
The rest of the world just disappeared, falling away around her until all that was left was him. His lips moving voraciously against hers, his hands suddenly everywhere, his touch like a brand wherever he could find an inch of bare skin. Her breath was like a bellows, each one spurring her lust higher and higher. Alicia had never needed anyone the way she needed Ayden then.
With a moan of need, Ayden pulled her body even closer and she could feel the hard length of him even through the denim of his jeans.
“Ayden I…”
“I know,” he responded huskily when she couldn’t finish her thought, her words swallowed by Ayden’s mouth as he kissed her harder, hungrier. It burned through her, that kiss, setting every nerve ending on fire and there was nothing she could do to resist him even if she’d wanted to. And she definitely did not.
A moment later, her entire world shifted as Ayden pulled her toward the couch and gently laid her down, drawing his body over hers like hot honey.
She reached out her hands to find any expanse of bare skin that had her moaning right along with him. He wasted no time in stripping her of her short black cotton dress, his touch everywhere at once, pushing her higher and higher as he teased his fingers at her center. He sighed in approval at the wetness he found there. She was more than ready for him.
Ayden paused just a moment, holding off the inevitable for another torturous minute when all she could think of was having him inside her. When he came back she wrapped her arms and legs around him, drawing him closer to her body, to that part of her that so desperately needed him.
“Please, Ayden, don’t make me wait anymore,” Alicia whispered huskily.
“I won’t, my love.” His breath tickled at her ear and a moment later she cried out his name as he thrust deep. In one motion he was inside her, pulling out just enough to slide back in again.
The rhythm he set had her writhing beneath him as ecstasy grew through her in tingling waves that built and built inside her. Every nerve ending he hit sent electrical shocks firing across her sensitive body, and soon he had her crying out as she flew over the edge into pure, unadulterated bliss.
Ayden thrust faster and faster, gritting his own teeth against the pleasure of her body, and soon she felt another wave, even bigger than the first threaten to overwhelm her.
Alicia didn’t even realize that she was chanting his name over and over in time to each slick slide of his hard, hot length pounding inside her and this time when she hit her climax, he came tumbling over with her. They both tensed for a long moment, and she could see fireworks exploding behind her eyelids before he finally collapsed on top of her with a muffled curse.
Alicia couldn’t help the sultry chuckle, satisfaction suffusing her at the knowledge that she could please him just as much as he did her. And boy, did he know how to please her. Most of the effects of the wine were gone and all she could feel was Ayden. It enveloped her in a warm comfort, like the blanket from her childhood, the one she’d always kept with her, and for the first time in weeks, a sense of peace settled through her.
Ayden said something softly, but it was too muffled for her to understand.
“What was that?” she asked sleepily, exhaustion already threatening to pull her into unconsciousness. Ayden propped himself up on his elbows, staring down at her and she was struck by the emotion she could see swimming in their dark blue depths.
“I said I…I love you, Alicia. I’ve been in love with you for a long time now it just, well, it just took me a little longer to tell you than I would have liked.” He said the words quietly but she could see his sincerity.
“I love you too, Ayden.” Alicia forced the words out in a rush before she could second guess herself. Nerves exploded within her, but Ayden’s radiant smile wiped them all away. “I love you,” she said again, tasting the words. But then Ayden’s smile slowly faded.
“What are we going to do?” he asked, and he had no need to say what he was talking about, Alicia already knew. The only problem was that she didn’t have an answer. Neither of them did.
***
“Hey, Calder, it’s Banksy,” she spoke quietly into the phone, using the nickname her old friend had given her back in college. James Calder had been top of their class, or he was until he dropped out, saying he had better things to do with his time than sit in some stuffy classroom. He was the best hacker that she knew, but their paths had gone separate ways, his to the less than legal.
She tried not to pry to deeply into her friend’s past. She understood that sometimes, you had to do whatever it takes to survive, and she couldn’t fault him that.
“Banksy! It’s been a long time. I hear there’s been a little trouble in paradise.” She just shook her head. She should have known that he would already know about the murder, even though the police had been trying to keep it quiet.
“Listen, Calder, I need a little help. I need you to get me any information you can on the Marquette case. I’m at a dead end here.” Alicia had dug as far as she could without raising any red flags, but she didn’t want to cast any more suspicion on Ayden – or her – than there already was. And besides, Calder was the best.
“No problemo, mi amigo,” he said, and she could hear the clacking of keys from the other end of the phone. She glanced over the still sleeping Ayden. After their incredible reunion, he had slipped into a peaceful sleep, but her brain had refused to shut off, repeating his question over and over again. What are they going to do?
“Hey, I think I’ve got something. It looks like a security feed from that night. I’m sending it to you now.”
“Thanks, Calder. You’re a life saver.” Alicia sighed in relief, glad to have made at least a little progress.
“You just be careful, all right? Don’t go getting yourself hurt playing superhero. I know how you like to do that.”
Alicia snorted at her friend’s words. Her. Superhero. Right.
“Take care, Calder.” With that, she hung up the phone, already opening the attachment that had just appeared on the screen of her laptop. Alicia played the video from the security camera and was immediately struck by the image of the woman crossing the street. She was lithe, with an athletic figure and dark brown skin. Her hair was dark and cut into a shoulder length bob, and her high cheekbones and wide forehead, and even her big, dark brown eyes were all strikingly familiar. The murder victim looked just like her.
Chapter 16
Three days later found Alicia back at the precinct, once again staring at the screen of another murdered woman.<
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“I don’t understand, I thought you said the account was locked,” Officer Harrison said with a sneer and she cast him a look over her shoulder as she continued to type furiously.
“It was.” She quickly checked, shaking her head. “Someone hacked into the system and unlocked it from the inside.”
“But, how is that even possible?” Thomson asked, as always his voice was calm and patient. Alicia just shook her head again.
“They would need all the passwords, all the security codes. And they would have to know what they were doing, but it just doesn’t make sense.” Alicia typed a few more strings of commands into the keyboard, and ran into yet another dead end. Frustration filled her. She had just gotten Ayden back. She didn’t want to lose him again. Alicia typed in yet another command and drew up the account of the latest victim, a young woman found just last night. She bit back the pang of regret and pain at the pointless loss of life.
“There has to be something you can do,” Harrison said, his voice once more condescending as he looked on over her shoulder, “I thought you were supposed to be one of the best programmers in Los Angeles.”
“The best,” she corrected, staring up at the screen and the profile picture of the second victim. Alicia froze. Short, black bob. Dark brown skin and high cheekbones. Large, chocolate brown eyes. Once again, Alicia couldn’t help but recognize the similarities between her and the victim’s of these terrible crimes, but finally, she shrugged it off. It had to be just coincidence. But a niggling doubt filled her.
Both times that the murder had happened, Ayden had only had a flimsy alibi. The first was that his cook had seen him at home, the second that he had gone out to dinner with clients. But even he admitted that he left the dinner at ten that night, and the murder had occurred around midnight, giving him ample time to commit the crime.
Alicia shook her head, not letting herself continue down that path. She trusted him, she loved him. There was no way in hell he could do something like this.
“There is one thing I can do,” she said softly, pain cutting through her at what she was about to do, but nothing was worth any more lives being lost because of her, because of the program she had created. “I can shut it down.”
Alicia glanced over at Thomsen before continuing.
“It will cut off the killer from finding a new victim, but it is your call.” Thomsen looked from her, to the screen and then back again with a slow nod of his head.
“Do it. Shut it down.”
Alicia felt like crying as she typed in the command to take the site offline and sat back in the chair with a small sigh. She watched as all of her work, all of her time and energy and effort slowly disappeared as if it had never been.
***
“I don’t know, Alicia. It sounds so unlike him.” Charlotte said from the other end of the phone call. Alicia was standing on the roof of her condo, overlooking the city as the sun slowly set. It painted the sky with furious reds and oranges that looked liked a violent fire that matched her emotions perfectly. She had just gotten off the phone with Ayden to let him know that she had shut down the site after the most recent murder. He had been so understanding, so calm and loving about the whole thing that she had immediately discounted her earlier fears.
But she couldn’t totally eradicate the sense of doubt that remained despite her best efforts. And so she’d done the one thing that she always had when she needed some good advice, or just to vent. She’d called her best friend.
“I know, but I can’t help but worry. I don’t know where he was during the time of the murders, and he has access to the site. He knows all the passwords and codes needed to activate the account again.”
“But why? What reason would he have to murder those women?” Alicia shook her head at Charlotte’s question.
“I don’t know. That’s the part that doesn’t make sense. But it’s creepy, Char, the women who were killed…” Alicia paused, not really wanting to say the words out loud, but finally she forced herself, “They all look like me. The same figure, the same haircut. Maybe it’s just coincidence, I don’t know. But it’s weird.”
Her friend was silent for a long time and Alicia could practically here the gears turning all the way from the other end of the line.
“You know,” she started slowly, and Alicia could tell already that she wasn’t going to like what her friend was about to say. “You know, there is another guy who is madly in love with you. Who has been since the moment he started working for you.” Alicia rolled her eyes.
“Not Marcus,” Alicia said almost immediately.
“He has access to the code, to the programming and the website. He probably knows the passwords, right?”
“Yeah, but after what had happened the first couple of weeks he only has limited access. Besides, I just can’t picture him being a cold-blooded killer, you know? He’s soft, he’s like a puppy.” Alicia gave it another moment’s consideration before discarding it. There just was no way he was the killer. Sure, he was a pain in the ass, but a man capable of murder? She shook her head. No way.
“If you say so. You just need to be careful, all right?” Charlotte said, making Alicia grimace.
“Why do people keep saying that?” she asked softly and she could practically see the eye roll that Charlotte would be giving her right about now.
“Look, I’m just worried about you. With all of this weird stuff happening and it seems like you are right smack dab in the middle of it. You said it yourself, you even think the victims look like you and that’s just plain weird. Just promise me you’ll take care of yourself, okay?”
“Cross my heart and hope to die,” Alicia automatically repeated the words they used to use as children.
“Stick a needle in your eye?” Charlotte said, and Alicia couldn’t help the soft burst of laughter that caught her by surprise. It was one of the reason’s she loved her friend so much. No matter what, no matter how bad things go, Charlotte could always make her laugh.
“Yeah, yeah. Stick a needle in my eye,” Alicia finished the childhood saying with another laugh. “Goodnight, Char. And don’t worry about me, all right? You know I’m tougher than I look.”
“I know,” Charlotte sighed, “Night, Alicia. Call me tomorrow?”
“You got it.” Alicia slowly hung up the phone, letting her gaze drift out over the darkening city. Somewhere, out there, was a man who was hurting women, murdering them. She shivered, a chill racing through her despite the warmth of the evening. And they all looked exactly like her.
Chapter 17
Alicia finally walked down the narrow flight of stairs back inside her condo. She knew she should work, but her thoughts circled like buzzards in her mind and she couldn’t seem to make herself focus on anything. Well, anything except the spree of killings that had turned her life upside down.
An image of Ayden popped into her mind and she shivered again despite the warmth of the night. She knew there was no way he could be involved, but there was a tiny nugget of doubt in the back of her thoughts that she couldn’t seem to make go away.
But then that other voice would argue that there was no way Ayden could be behind the killings, no way the man that she knew could be capable of such terrible crimes. She shook her head. Arguing with herself was going to get her nowhere, and besides, even Charlotte agreed with her that it couldn’t be Ayden. Alicia snorted softly. No, she thought it could be Marcus. Hah. A least likely killer she had never met. Marcus couldn’t stand confrontation of any sort and, as far as she knew, was mostly a loner.
Alicia walked into the kitchen and looked at the clock flashing above the oven. It was only nine o’clock in the evening and she knew she would be up for many hours yet. Probably many sleepless, restless hours.
She grabbed a bottle of half-full red wine and a glass as she made her way to the living room. Maybe she could finally get some work done. As she poured herself a glass of wine a pang of sadness and regret stole through her at the memory of shutting down th
e website. They had put so much work, so much love and time and money and tears to make it the best of the best, and it had been. And whoever was behind these crimes had murdered that as well.
She knew it didn’t compare, a human life and that of a computer program, but to her the systems she designed were living, breathing things and it still hurt her to have to destroy it.
Alicia took another big gulp from the wine glass, watching as the ruby red liquid swirled around the bottom and dripped down the side. It had morbid thoughts rising in her beleaguered mind; the last thing she needed at the moment.
Another drink of wine and second later she had her laptop pulled up onto her lap and was typing away, her fingers flying over the keys as she input some new code on a program she had fallen behind on. Soon, she lost herself in the rhythmic sound of the clicking keyboard and the hypnotic string of numbers and symbols that flew across the screen. Alicia wasn’t sure how much time had passed when a knock on her front door had jumping from her seat on the couch, subsequently spilling the little bit of wine in her glass that she had forgotten about.
“Damn it,” she cursed quietly as she swiped ineffectually at the stain that was already starting to set on the leg of her pants. Alicia just shook her head, about to walk into the kitchen for a towel when the knock sounded again.
Maybe it was because of the late night, or because of the crimes that had been never far from her thoughts, but a surge of panic flew through her and she stopped, looking towards the door. She took a single step closer, and then another before stopping. The knock came for a third time.
“Alicia, I know you are in there. I can see your car out front. And I know you’re awake. Probably working.” Ayden’s voice swept over her like a soothing balm and she immediately reached to throw open the door.
“What are you doing here so late?” She took the final step forward and was in his arms before she even had the question all the way out. His embrace swept around her holding her close as the night air closed in around them.