by M K Mancos
“The disenfranchised. The angry. The psychopaths who are out there killing anyhow.”
That wasn’t much of a comfort.
And to think she’d made it her life’s work to help those who had fallen victim to the system. If what Samson said was true, could it be that most serial killers really were hearing voices telling them to kill and not just ones in their heads? Suddenly the entire business of a war between heaven and those who left the fold took on a whole new meaning.
“Particularly vulnerable to recruitment are young men who feel as if they are outsiders. Those who do not fit in, but hang in the fringes, watching others participate in life.” Samson made it sound as if the young men were to blame for their lot. He was awfully judgmental for a heavenly being.
On that point, Keely had to set him straight. “They are only able to recruit them because no one else has reached out to them. Instead of standing in judgment, why don’t you send guardian angels down to protect them from Death, Inc.’s clutches?”
Samson laughed. It was a rusty sound that caused a shiver to move through her. “And you think we have enough of those around these days? There’s not a surfeit of seraphim either.”
“How did things get so bad?” Real fear for the future began to build deep in Keely’s soul.
Samson pointed out the window. “Look out there, Keely. You have only to see what goes on around you to realize we’re losing the battle for man.”
Keely shook her head. “I refuse to believe there isn’t more good than evil in the world.”
“It is not only the truly evil out there seeing to your kind’s downfall, but ambivalence. That is a truer malevolent force than a thousand drug dealers, gangland crimes, and serial killers.”
Shame knocked Keely to her knees. She wasn’t ambivalent. She’d trained her entire life to help people because she wanted to. Because she saw the need and wanted to fill it. Didn’t she live in a crummy apartment in the cheap side of town to be in tune with those she wished to help?
She looked up at him.
It was there in his eyes. She could do more. By rejoining the Scythes, she’d be helping people in ways she’d not be able to help them as a social worker. She could release their souls back to relearn those things they had not time or inclination to in this life.
It was a big decision. Huge.
Samson remained still, waiting for her answer.
“Will you stay until Josiah comes back?”
“I really have no time. I’ll have to reverse the clock as it is, and we try to avoid that as much as possible.”
“Then hold on.” Keely jumped up and ran into the bedroom. Hurriedly, she changed into her Scythe gear.
When she walked back out into the living room, Samson gave her the most dazzling smile she’d ever seen. “Welcome back.”
21
If he ever got his hands on Midnight, he was going to pull the fucker limb from limb and not give a shit about due process. So far, they hadn’t found anything that tied the creep to the scene, but the fact he was there when the body was found, taunting him and Keely, was enough to make him guilty by association.
Josiah sat in the conference room back at the station. His team was all present and accounted for, save Cogland, who had drawn the short stick and was now on stakeout in front of Midnight’s apartment, waiting for the asswipe to return home.
Josiah wouldn’t be surprised if the little shit hopped on the PATH and rode into the City to hide for the next week or so. As it was, he’d already put out an alert and called his buddies on the NYPD in case Midnight did make a run for it.
But there was something about the guy that didn’t sit right—well, other than him being a psychotic clusterfuck with bad hair and the fashion sense of Boris Karloff. He enjoyed hanging around the scenes and watching too much to make a run for it. Or at least too far of a run.
There was a possibility he’d only gone as far as Hoboken or Jersey City. An even more possible scenario was that he hid right under their noses. Hell, he’d been giving them the slip for over a week and still continued to yank their chains. But this time…
“Are you listening, Josie?” Shelia stood at the dry erase board with a black marker in her hand.
Josiah took a sip of cold coffee and winced. “Yeah. I’m listening.”
He hadn’t heard a word she’d said in the last five minutes. It was typical of her to stand at the board and pontificate when they were backed into a corner on a difficult case. Usually he found her tenacity contagious. Tonight, it irritated the shit out of him.
Keely hadn’t answered her phone when he’d called. That bothered him.
The patrol he’d sent over there said his car was parked outside her place, so she had gone home. He’d called Nico’s but was told she hadn’t returned there after her shift.
He hoped she’d only decided to take a long bath or something like that, but knowing she’d buzzed Midnight into her building that morning by mistake had all sorts of horrible thoughts running through his mind.
He looked down at his phone and hit the speed dial.
Her voice mail picked up again.
That was it. He couldn’t take it a moment longer not knowing where she’d gotten to or what happened to her.
He stood and pulled his jacket off the back of the chair.
“Where are you going?” Shelia asked.
“To check on Keely.”
“How are you going to get there?” she yelled as he headed for the door.
As he walked through the squad room, he signaled to a rookie uniform. Shit, it was the Barney Fife character who’d tried to blow his damn head off the night he first saw Keely. The little happy-trigger man owed him one.
“Hey, Barney.” Josiah made purposeful strides through the room, feeling the curious gazes of his colleagues as he approached the now-shaking rookie.
The man visibly swallowed. “Detective Adler. What can I do for you?”
“I need a ride to pick up my car. You’ve just volunteered.”
The young cop, whose name tag read Dalton, nodded then almost tripped over his own feet trying to move ahead of Josiah to open the door for him.
As they walked down the hallway to the exit, Josiah tried to put the kid at ease. And kid he was. Dalton didn’t look to be a day over twenty-one. “How long have you been on the force, Dalton?”
“S…six months, sir.”
“Don’t call me sir. Sir was my father after twenty years on the force. Just call me either Adler or Josiah.” He followed Dalton across the parking lot to a squad car on the far side of the lot. He could see it now, the guy got the crappiest car, the worst parking space—he was being shit on by the other uniforms.
Jesus, what sucker bait.
Josiah didn’t need to be entertaining the thoughts inside his head. It had been a very long time since he’d taken on a project of such magnitude. But man did he ever hate seeing an underdog.
He took a deep breath and stepped into the mentorship breach. “You like being a cop?”
Dalton looked over the top of the car at Josiah. “It’s not at all what I thought it would be.”
They drove for a few minutes. The silence only violated long enough for Josiah to give Dalton brief directions to Keely’s house.
When they pulled up outside Keely’s building, before Josiah could get out, Dalton turned to him. “I’m sorry about holding you at gunpoint.”
Josiah gave him a stern look. “Given the situation, I would have probably done the same. You had no idea what you were heading into in that alley and you were alone. Caution and good judgment will never steer you wrong.”
Dalton gave a jerk of his head in understanding, but said nothing more as Josiah got out and shut the door.
Keely’s neighborhood was quiet. The lights at Nico’s were off. Damn, what time was it anyways? He glanced at his watch and winced. He’d been on scene and at the station longer than he thought. So why had Keely not answered her phone if it was so late?
> As he started for the outer door, there was movement in his periphery. Walking down the block were two people—one tall and broad, the other short with hair that shone under the streetlights.
Anger boiled under the surface of his calm exterior. His hands fisted as his sides. She’d told him she wasn’t working with Samson any longer, so what in the hell was she doing dressed in the Gothwear and out walking the streets with him at such a crazy hour?
Samson nudged Keely as they grew closer. She looked up and Josiah watched her shoulders slump.
He didn’t speak. Let her explain the meaning of her black outfit and the golden sickle she didn’t hide so well in her utility belt.
“Josiah,” she began then stalled.
He waited, giving her a raised brow.
Samson put a big hand on her shoulder. “Tell him.”
A sensation not unlike the one garnered from rocketing down a big hill on a roller coaster settled somewhere under his heart. Whatever Keely had to tell him wasn’t going to be good.
She shrugged Samson off her. “I will. Don’t rush me.”
He nodded a salutation to Josiah then turned and walked back into the night.
“I know what you’re thinking, Josiah.” She put the key in the lock then hip-checked the door to get it open.
“Then tell me, because I’m kind of at a loss here.” Not really, he’d more or less caught her in a lie and it burned him straight down to his wingtips.
“That I lied to you about quitting work with Samson.”
Okay, so she nailed it.
“The evidence speaks for itself, Keely. You told me you were no longer going out running the streets dressed like death and damn if I don’t catch you doing exactly that. But hey, it’s not the first time I’ve been made a fool of by a woman. I doubt it will be my last.”
They entered her apartment and she shed her coat and belt. “It wasn’t a lie. Not at the time I told you that, but after seeing what happened in the park tonight…” her voice trailed off. She couldn’t meet his eyes.
“How does finding a dead jogger connect to your running all over town, giving people ceremonial death rites? I don’t get it.”
“I don’t expect you to. I didn’t get it at first and I’m the one they recruited.”
“You aren’t making sense.” Frustrated beyond endurance, he put his hands on his hips and looked down at his shoes.
“I know. I’m going to tell you everything, but I think it might be easier if I show you.” She rested her hands on both sides of his face, forcing him to look at her. When their gazes met and held, he saw nothing but torture in hers. “Come with Samson and me tomorrow night and see what I am. Know the truth and purpose of what I do.”
Somehow, he didn’t find her willingness to cooperate comforting.
At least she promised to clue him in. If she was doing something illegal, she damn sure wouldn’t bring a cop in on it.
She leaned in closer, pressing her body to his. “I’m really sorry. I had such a wonderful time tonight, until the park. I don’t want to mess things up with you. I think there might be something really good here.”
Josiah thought so, too. He wanted to spend all his free time with her. She was interesting, funny, sarcastic, and damn sexy.
“Are you going to stay a while or do you need to get home to Pugsley?”
Looking at her mouth brought out all the male instincts in him. Memories of what her mouth was capable of turned him on. “No, I have a neighbor who watches him if I’m away too long.”
She rubbed her lips against his. “So you can stay?”
Fire ignited in his veins. “I can stay.”
“Good.”
Her hands worked the buttons of his shirt free. They hadn’t moved from her entranceway yet, but if she wanted him to make love to her between the front door and the coat rack, he’d oblige. He’d take her wherever he could get her.
Hunger gripped him with fierce claws, making it impossible to get enough of her mouth. He’d thought about making love to her all day. It had been all he could do to stop himself from clearing the dishes off the table at dinner and throwing her on it to feast on her. Only the fact they were in a public place had stopped him.
Keely tore away from him. “I worried about you tonight. I was afraid Midnight would come back.”
Josiah had to touch her face, couldn’t keep himself from cradling her jaw in his hands. He gazed into her fathomless eyes. “I called you all night long. You scared the shit out of me when I couldn’t get in touch with you. All kinds of horrible things went through my mind.”
“I’m sorry. I had my phone with me.” She smiled at him, but it looked more like a wince. “It was on vibrate. I probably didn’t feel it through the utility belt.”
“I’m just glad you’re all right.” Even if she was still hanging out with gorilla without a cause.
“I know you’re upset about Samson, but I didn’t want to be alone. I didn’t feel safe.”
The thought alone of her in danger gripped him by the balls and refused to let go. It crippled, eviscerated and tried to consume him. “If you ever question your safety, call me.”
“You sent me home. So I called Samson.”
“Tonight, I know. But in the future, I want you to call me.”
“I promise.” She leaned forward once more, kissing him long, slow and hot. The things she did with her mouth should have been illegal in at least the forty-eight contiguous states. Instant heat moved through his body, pounding in his groin. He’d never hated a zipper so much in all his life as the one in his pants. It constricted and choked his much-needed room for expansion.
He backed up a bit from her. His hand busily worked to unfasten his fly.
“You in a hurry, Detective?”
He knew his smile was a little on the chagrined side. “It’s all about the comfort, babe.”
Keely pursed her lips in sympathy. “I have something for you that will comfort.”
Did she ever! “I’m listening.”
But she didn’t say a word. She slid her hand in his, leading him into the bedroom.
He loved this room. There was so much of Keely’s personality in it, more so than the rest of the little apartment. Maybe it was the hot memories of what went on in there the night before that made him so fond of it, but there was definitely something different about the air.
She stopped at the edge of the bed and turned to him. “You know I’ve thought about this all day.”
“So have I.” He shook his head with regret. “This evening sure didn’t turn out the way I planned it this morning.”
“Shh.” She placed her fingers on his mouth He didn’t blame her. He really didn’t want to talk about what they found in the park. Stumbling upon a murder sure had a way of putting a damper on an otherwise perfect date.
In silence, they slowly undressed one another. Each laid claim and worshipped new expanses of bare skin as they worked. Josiah’s hands shook slightly as they moved across the tops of her breasts. The woman was unlike any other he’d ever been with. If he could have made her special order for him, she would have not been any different. It was as if God had plucked her straight from all his dreams and deposited her on that crowded street directly in his line of sight that night.
She shivered as his fingertips grazed across her. He loved the little arch of her back she probably wasn’t even aware of. It begged him to move lower, to stroke the hard nipples.
He didn’t disappoint.
Her sexy mouth parted on a sigh.
He replaced his fingers with his tongue.
Keely’s back arched more, offering herself up to him.
It took very little forward momentum for him to get her onto the bed. She cradled his head between her hands, encouraging him to continue his attentions.
Never had he met a woman with more sensitive breasts. He was almost positive he could get her to come by the simple act of sucking on her taut nipples.
She shifted under him. He
r legs came around to hold him in place. The soft brush of her silky hair against his belly drove him crazy. When she moved her leg higher, it exposed her just enough so he felt the gentle glide of wetness against him.
He moaned in torment. He couldn’t help it. How could he when she was so wet and hot on his skin? If he wasn’t careful, she’d burn him alive. But he had to get inside her. Sink into that sweet oblivion of her.
Kissing his way back up her body, he paused at her mouth, distracting her while he reached in the nightstand for the condoms. When he started to place it on himself, she surprised him by plucking it from his fingers and sliding it down his shaft in a slow, torturous roll. When she reached the hilt, her delicate hands caressed him lower, trailing down over his balls to massage them in a gentle yet effective manner.
It nearly blew the top of his head off. Both of them.
He slid into her, trapping her hand between them. It was good, but frustrating, since he couldn’t seem to go deep enough.
“Wait.” Keely pushed him back a little. “Let me on top.”
Oh, hell yeah!
He quickly reversed their positions, letting her climb on top of him. A satisfied smile lifted the corner of her sexy mouth. A delicious gleam shone from her eyes. The little sex kitten wanted this all along. She wasn’t fooling anyone.
With slow precision, she slid down the length of his cock.
She leaned back, moving as if sitting in the bucket seat of a fine automobile and began to stroke him with the long, hot slide of her tight passage.
A ragged moan tore from his throat.
Her soft hand supported his balls, massaging them with deep, even pressure.
Christ, she was trying to kill him.
If so, he was going to die so freakin’ happy it wasn’t funny.
“Does that feel good?” Like she even had to ask.
He ran his hand from where it held her hip to slide between her legs. The sweet thrust of her clit jutted out all hard and wanton. “Does that?”
Her head fell back. Her mouth opened on a long moan. He’d take that as a big yes.
