I’d already begun to come to that conclusion. The guy was something of a wimp. He was still cowering in that chair—though I wasn’t sure if he was cowering from me or her. Karma, probably.
“Then who was coming out of her hotel room with her that night? Who else would she have trusted that much?”
Randy leaned forward a little, dragging his hands through his hair. “It had to have been one of the other investigators. She wouldn’t have trusted anyone else.”
“There were only a handful of people Rosalie trusted,” Karma agreed. “She was wary of strangers. They made her panic.”
“Panic?”
Karma looked at me. “Her illness. Sometimes she would behave something like a toddler, panicking when people she didn’t know or didn’t trust came around her.”
“She looked perfectly calm on the video.”
“She had to have known the person who came to her that night.”
Randy shook his head. “Everyone was out in the woods.”
“The only other person she might have left with like that would have been her sister or her brother-in-law.” Karma crossed her arms over her chest as she said it. “And neither of them were anywhere near there that night, as far as I know.”
“All I know,” Randy said as he slowly stood up, apparently regaining some of his courage, “is that I liked Rosalie. I never would have hurt her.”
“Someone did.”
“I got close to her because I knew she would lead me to you. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t care about her.”
Karma stared him down. “If I find out you had something to do with this ... clearly, I can track you down a hell of a lot faster than you could me.”
Randy’s face reddened and he took a threatening step toward her, but then he backed off, his glance at me suggesting he’d remembered I was standing there. If they’d been alone, it might have been a different story.
That worried me.
“Let’s get out of here,” Karma said, brushing past me as she headed toward the door. “He’s not worth our time.”
I wasn’t quite convinced, but I followed her just the same. We drove in near silence back to San Diego, both lost in our own thoughts.
“He really isn’t a killer,” Karma finally said. “He’s an asshole and he’s a thief, but he’d never put an innocent person in danger if he could help it.”
“What about you?”
“I’m not innocent.”
“And he’s not a good man.”
She glanced at me. “I guess we each have our dysfunctional families to deal with.”
“I guess so.”
We walked up to our room at the hotel and Karma immediately disappeared into the bathroom once again. I paced for a moment, agitated. I couldn’t just leave things that way.
“I’m gonna go get us some food,” I said through the bathroom door.
I was gone before she could object.
***
The idiot was still in his room, still sitting in that damn chair, probably. I wasn’t about to give him the option of deciding whether or not to let me in. And he wasn’t smart enough to put the security latch in place. I sweet-talked a key off one of the maids and marched into his room, yanked him to his feet, and got into his face.
“You go anywhere near Karma again, I will come looking for you.”
“I didn’t—”
“You ever touch her, ever leave a single mark on her flesh, I will kill you. Do you understand?”
He was shaking so hard that I nearly lost my grip on his shirt.
“Yes. I understand.”
“You will go live your life somewhere far from here and you will not look for her again. I don’t fucking care what you hear or what anyone tells you about her. I don’t care if she goes to the cops and the damn FBI! You will stay the fuck away from her. Got it?”
“I got it.”
I punched him for good measure. And it felt damn good!
***
Karma was curled up on the bed when I let myself back into our hotel room. I set the bags of food on the dresser and went to her, curling up against her back, loving the sweet smell of her hair.
“Did you hurt him?”
My instinct was to deny it, but she touched my hand, running her fingers over my swollen knuckles.
“Not too bad. He’ll live.”
“You shouldn’t have gone back.”
“I couldn’t let him think he could come searching for you again.”
“He would have. He will.”
“He shouldn’t.”
“He’s run out of money. He wants me to help him steal again.”
I kissed the top of her head. “That life is behind you. That life belongs to Erin Myers-King. You’re Karma Myers.”
“I am.”
“You don’t have to do that anymore.”
She moved closer to me, hiding her face against my chest for a moment. “And what if it comes back to haunt me? What if the cops finally find some evidence they didn’t know they’d been sitting on? What if my illegitimate uncle comes after me and throws the book at my head?”
“Then we’ll deal with all that then.”
“We?”
I brushed her hair back from her face, leaning over her, my own hair creating a curtain around us.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
I could see her eyes mist over at those words. She reached up and kissed me.
“You have no idea what you’re getting into.”
Almost as if in response to her words, the reporter’s voice on the television cut into our little bubble of us. She spoke the name of the motel I’d just come from, the motel where Karma’s brother was staying.
“The bodies were found thirty minutes ago by a maid who entered the room to clean. Police have yet to establish a timeline—in fact, they have yet to make a statement at all. But an anonymous sources tells us that the couple was tortured and then murdered. Their bodies were posed on the bed to make it appear that they were sleeping peacefully despite the clear evidence to the contrary.”
Karma groaned. “Can’t we escape the violence of this world for just a little while?”
Chapter 15
Hayden
“What do you mean he didn’t catch his flight?”
I slammed the door to my office and listened to Mag—who was just a few floors below me at that moment—explain how Kasey Thomasson hadn’t taken the flight home that she’d arranged for him yesterday. As she chatted in my ear, an alert sounded on my computer. I touched the mouse and watched the screen come to life, a news story about a murder in California blaring.
Couple found murdered in Coronado, California, motel.
I’d set the alert to let me know whenever something hit the news that fit a certain criteria. I hadn’t expected it to happen now. Not this soon.
The other murders had been weeks, months, apart. This was too fast.
“Is the jet busy?” I asked, interrupting Mag’s explanation.
“Not as far as I know.”
“File a flight plan for California.”
“Are you going to retrieve him yourself? I’m not sure he’s still in Smyer.”
“What makes you think that?”
“He checked out of the motel last night. I called to verify.”
But I wasn’t going to Smyer, so it shouldn’t be an issue.
I hung up and dialed Waverly. “Anything new?”
“Not yet.”
“Stay on it. I’ll be in touch.”
I was going to Coronado.
There was a murder in the town where my father grew up. There was a murder in the town where my grandparents moved after the notoriety of the trial. And now this.
These murders were an exact reenactment of the way my parents died, of the way they were murdered right in front of me.
One was a coincidence. Two was concerning. But three?
By messing with the people in my life, someone was trying to get my attention
They had it.
Chapter 16
Karma
I took the remote from the side table and shut off the TV, tired of the bad news in the world. Right now, I just wanted a moment alone with this new man in my life, this man who had the potential of changing everything.
“You’re not afraid of the uncertainty of my future?”
He caressed the side of my face in that way he had of making me feel like I was as precious as a piece of fine china.
“No.”
“What if the police do catch up with me?”
“I’ll hire the best lawyer money can buy.”
“And if that doesn’t help? If he can’t get me off?”
“Then I’ll wait patiently while you go to jail.”
I smiled, an image of him waiting patiently in some dark waiting room—not that I imagined he would spend the next twenty years in a waiting room—tickling something deep in my soul.
“Why would you make a promise like that? You barely know me.”
“You don’t know me, but you handled my grandmother like a pro.”
“I talked to a kind old woman.”
He snorted, a sound that turned into a full guffaw of laughter. “You have clearly never met her.”
“I’d like to.”
“Don’t be in too much of a hurry.”
I leaned close and kissed him. “I want to know everything about you. All the people in your life, all the things that are important to you.”
“And I simply want you.”
We kissed for a moment, the way I imagined teenagers might do. I’d never had the same kind of experiences I imagined that most teens have. My childhood was cut short with the death of my father and the overwhelming loss my mother suffered in court when she sued my grandfather. We were destitute, unable to pay our bills, unable to so much as put food on the table. It was a fluke, really, that Randy discovered I could pop a lock—any lock. That’s when Mom pulled me out of school and Randy taught me everything I needed to know to make it work. We were caught—I was caught—more often than I should have been those first few times. But then we got smart and we made a hell of a lot of money. And I lost my childhood.
If this was a little bit of that ... I hoped it would last long enough for me to enjoy it.
Kasey tugged me closer to him, a smile on his perfect lips as he studied my face.
“I can’t get enough of you.”
“You’ll get bored with me eventually.”
“I don’t think so.”
I pressed my face to his chest, my heart heavy even with the television turned off and my brother’s role in Rosalie’s death explained. It still bothered me, the question of who could have done such a thing to her. I didn’t understand how someone could have hurt Rosalie. She was a broken woman, but she was kind and gentle. She wouldn’t have hurt a fly unless she thought it was for the greater good. Yet, someone had hurt her. Badly.
“I can’t imagine what she went through over the last month.”
“Who?”
“Rosalie.” I pulled back and looked at Kasey. “To put those tattoos on her, just to hold her against her will. It must have been terrifying for her.”
“This sort of thing is rarely pleasant.”
“I don’t understand why someone would do this to her.”
He kissed the center of my forehead. “The cops will figure it out.”
“Will they? Even we made assumptions that are clearly unfounded. What if the cops come after Randy, too?”
“They’d have to find him first, put it all together, and figure out that he’s Jake.”
“It probably wouldn’t be that hard. My brother was never the brightest bulb in the package.”
Kasey chuckled. “They will probably want to question him. But I don’t think they’ll narrow their investigation to just him.”
“Who else could it be?”
“For all we know, Rosalie was seeing someone else. Or it was someone she knew from one of her other investigations.”
“I knew everyone she knew.”
“Then maybe it was someone new she simply hadn’t told you about yet.”
I sighed. “I almost hope she did keep something from me like another man in her life. I really hope this isn’t someone I know. I just ... I can’t imagine I could possibly be friendly with someone who would torture a woman for a full month like that just to kill her.”
“Someone was making a statement with Rosalie’s death,” Kasey said softly against my temple, his hands gentle on my body. “It was personal—at least for the killer. It was meant to say something to someone, meant to make an impression. And we may never know what that impression was meant to be or who it was meant for. But, if someone does, it will lead to the killer.”
“I wish I’d been there. I wish I’d known this would happen. I wish I’d tried harder to find her.”
“I’m sorry,” Kasey said gently. “I know this is hard to accept. I know she was your friend.”
“She was. I’ve never had real friends, not like I’ve had since traveling with these investigators and meeting Rosalie and the others. I hate that this happened.”
“I know.” He kissed the tip of my nose. “I lost quite a few buddies over in Afghanistan. Even though I knew that was part of the deal and was a possibility, it was always hard to accept. I can’t imagine how this is for you.”
“I just want to make things right, somehow.”
He lifted my chin and kissed me gently. There didn’t seem to be anything else to say.
We moved together, our hands going to places that were quickly becoming familiar, but were still new enough to be deeply exciting. I kissed his neck, his jaw, my lips sliding down along his chest as I slowly unbuttoned his shirt. There was something about the smell and taste of him that only made me want more.
I slid my hands over his bare flesh, loving the feel of the mountains and valleys of his abs. He was probably the fittest man I’d ever been with. It was like crawling into bed with a model from a men’s magazine. GQ or something like that—I hadn’t looked at a lot of magazines lately—or with an actor from some action movie. Brad Pitt. That’s who had come to mind the first time I laid eyes on Kasey even though he looked nothing like the actor. There was just something about his build, and the confident way in which he held himself that brought him to mind.
I couldn’t believe he kept coming back to me. Men like this ... I’d always just assumed I was out of there league. I’d grown up being told to stay off the radar, to stand in the back and make myself disappear. Yet here I was, the object of this hot man’s affections, this man who drew attention everywhere he went just by existing.
I didn’t know how long this would last or how long he would want me. But I intended to enjoy every second of it for as long as he did.
I kissed my way slowly down his chest, touching every tattoo, tracing my tongue along every line. He ran his hand over the back of my head, pulling me closer, these little sounds slipping from between his lips that told me exactly what he thought of my touch. And I loved it. I wanted to make him cry out, wanted to hear him lose control. I wanted to please this man in ways no other woman had ever managed to do.
I wasn’t very experienced. There was James ... but that was brief and long ago. I knew Kasey was experienced. The way he touched me ... hell, just the way he looked at me. He’d never had to go to bed alone if he didn’t want to. It made me feel inadequate. And that made me more determined to please him.
I moved slowly down, my fingers following my mouth, my fingers caressing every square inch of his incredible abs. And then my fingers began working on his jeans, tugging that frustrating button out of the way. But just as I slid my hand inside, he grabbed my wrist and pulled me back.
“You’re driving me crazy,” he mumbled against my mouth.
“I want to please you.”
“You do, darlin’, more than you could possibly know.”
“Then let me.”
&nbs
p; He groaned, his fingers sliding into my hair to tug my head closer to his. Our lips met and it was heaven, the taste of him, the feel of him. His hands were urgent now as he moved them to the hem of my dress and began to tug, pulling it up over my head. My bra was next, my full breasts falling heavy against his chest. I’d always hated my breasts, feeling like they were the only thing anyone ever noticed about me. But I liked the way he touched them, the way he slid his rough, stubble covered jaw against them as he took my nipple into his mouth. He worshipped my breasts and that created an all new appreciation for them in my mind.
I’d been trying to please him, but the tables were quickly turning. He moved his hips against me, one hand sliding between our bodies. He brushed a knuckle against my clit and I cried out. I couldn’t help myself. It felt like the best thing ever, the little pressure he created there, the pleasure that burst through my lower body.
My panties were still in the way even as he tugged his erection from his pants. He was desperate now, pressing against the material so that it rubbed deep against my cunt. And that ... was this what it was like to be a teenager and make out in the backseat of Dad’s car? Was this what they called bump and grind? I wasn’t sure, but I knew it felt like nothing I’d ever known before.
I leaned forward, taking a little control as I moved my hips in a slow, careful grind. My clit began to sing, my muscles quivering as pleasure danced up and down my spine. But even that, after a few minutes, wasn’t quite enough. There was a hollowness deep inside of me that screamed to be filled. He said I was driving him insane, but I was pretty sure the shoe was on the other foot.
I climbed off of him, off the bed, the groan of disappointment that left his lips increasing my need tenfold. I smiled as I faced him, moving my body in a little shimmy that made my breasts bounce and allowed the material of my panties to slide down my hips just a little. He reached for me, but I stepped out of reach, teasing him with just the slightest movement of my panties, the slightest peek of my natural mound. He reached again, nearly grasping my hip, but I bounced out of the way, laughing as I did.
“You’re cruel,” he said.
“Am I?”
DRAGON SECURITY: Volume 2: The Complete 6 Books Series Page 56