by Danae Ayusso
He shrugged then joined her. “Of course I do, he was my dad and the one who gave me a name, taught me to ride a bike, to plane wood…he taught me what it was to appreciate the silence of contentment, which one could only get from themselves. Regardless of what Ruth said, he was the greatest father a bastard like me could have ever hoped for.”
What he said was sad, but Cat smiled; she could relate.
“Emma says that we need to sleep together…not clothed this time,” Cat said.
Colt chuckled. “That doesn’t surprise me. She’s been trying to get me laid since I was seventeen.”
“That isn’t awkward at all.”
“It was then, but now I’d be disappointed if she wasn’t hell bent on getting me laid. Strangely there’s a sense of contentment in the familiarity.”
She laughed. “And here I thought I had issues,” she teased and knocked into him.
“We all do, some are just worse than others. Case in point, there’s a serial killer running amuck.”
Cat’s eyes widened before she roared with laughter and fell back on the bed.
Colt watched her with a small smile on his face. He’d nearly forgotten what it was like to laugh and joke around with someone. He’d never done that with Vicks; she never got his jokes and once he explained them to her, they weren’t funny anymore. He used to horse around and talk trash while playing football or shooting hoops with the others at the office. He even volunteered to chaperone the high school dances, which was amusing to say the least.
But never had he just sat around and hung out with a woman before; he liked it much more than he could have imagined possible.
Cat smiled when she finally stopped laughing and teasingly knocked into him with her knee. “Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked.
“Because you’re beautiful,” he said before he could stop himself and she cocked an eyebrow and the corners of her mouth pulled up into a smirk.
“Uh huh,” she scoffed. “I bet you say that to all the broads you find in your bed.”
“Actually, I do,” he agreed. “But that’s because you’re the only woman who has been in my beds.”
She opened her mouth to argue with him, but instead started laughing even harder when she realized that he was right; she’d been in both of his beds with him.
Colt found their playful banter torturous and her laugh fascinating. It was deep and slightly raspy like her voice, but it was distinctively womanly and was arousing in all the wrong ways at the moment. The way her light blue eyes sparkled with tears of amusement, how her full lips became even more inviting—the bottom pouting out more and the top losing all its definition as it pulled back over her white teeth into a smile—and her high cheekbones flush a deeper shade of rose that compliment her mauve lips. And at the moment, with her stretched out on his bed, she looked like an angel with her long hair splayed away from her like ribbons of the blackest satin he’d ever seen, and they beckoned him to knot his fingers in them. The smell rolling from her skin caused his breathing to shudder in his chest every time he inhaled when she was so close to him that he only needed to lower his head a mere inch in order to taste her skin, to caress his lips along the length of her long, slender neck, to flood his nostrils with the very distinct scent of her skin—Vicks smelled of delicate rosewater, something that was frilly and classy, but Cat smelled of something completely different: cotton, gun oil, slightly salty, and pure feminine sexuality.
He liked it very much.
“You’re still staring,” Cat informed him.
Colt absently nodded.
She reached out and took his hand in hers and pulled him down. “Well, if you’re just going to sit there and stare at me all night I might as well wrap myself around you since I’m freezing my ass off over here and you’re like a six-three heating blanket.”
Colt chuckled when she shimmied over to him and wrapped herself around him. “Comfortable?” he asked.
“Almost,” she grumbled and awkwardly reached behind her then set the notepad and journal from her pant pocket on his chest.
“And now?” he pressed.
“Almost,” she said and set the gun she pulled from the back of her pants on his stomach.
“And now?” he asked, slightly amused.
She pulled her leg up and rested it across his chest before pulling the leg of her pants up and unstrapped the sheathed Smith and Wesson H.R.T. Military knife that was strapped around her calf.
Colt laughed. “Strangely, that doesn’t surprise me,” he said.
Cat smiled and reached down to her other leg and produced a holstered Taurus PT 25 and put it with the rest of her discarded weapons. “Since I’m confident in your police skill and ability to protect me, I carried light tonight,” she said with a shrug.
Cat expressing that she trusts him and thinks that he’s a competent detective, even if he’s doubted that himself for the past five years, meant more to him then she’d ever know.
****
Colt was stretched out on his back with the pink diary in one hand, the other was absently caressing the long, medium olive toned body that was wrapped around him. Softly he read aloud the diary entries from his best friend and fiancée. He didn’t want to read her private and personal thoughts, he thought that’d it resurrect demons that he had just finally laid to rest, but it didn’t. Sharing Vicks with the woman in his arms felt right…he knew that Vicks would have been okay with it.
The fireplaces had, as promised, heated up the cabin so the covers were kicked to the end of the bed, and discarded clothes were piled up on the floor. Underwear and a tank top was more than enough for one of them, and the other wasn’t complaining in the least and donned a tank top and cotton pajama pants. Long black hair spilled across Colt’s arm, and as Cat nuzzled closer to him, she made herself more comfortable, wrapping herself around him even tighter. Her face was completely hidden from the intrusive eyes glaring at them through the narrow slit between the curtains which gave a nearly unrestricted view of the bed from one of the windows.
You brought this on yourself, Fury.
“This latest victim,” Agent Gerard from the FBI said, flipping through the file in his hands, “had no ties to Eureka?”
“Miss Hubbard was from Seattle,” James said for the tenth time, his attention going between the apparently bored FBI agents and the seemingly not interested in the case Detective who hadn’t said anything since meeting the three FBI specialists sent to aid in the case. In fact, Colt just sat there slowly drinking the thermos of cappuccino that Cat gave him when he dropped her off at the cabin. She made them a quick breakfast since she said it’d be a cold day in hell when she ate deer or quail or whatever it was that Montanans hiding in the mountains ate while Colt showered.
He couldn’t fault her for that.
“Detective, will this be a conflict of interest?”
Colt looked up. “Excuse me?”
Agent Gerard gave him a look. “Have you been paying attention?”
Colt cocked an eyebrow. “This isn’t elementary school so get off your high horse. We’ve lived and breathed this goddamn case for five very long years. It’s taken much from everyone in the community and even more from those in this very room. Will it affect me? No. It hasn’t and won’t. I have accepted that she’s gone, I have buried her, now the only thing left to do it to catch the sick sonuvabitch who killed her. That’s where you three come in. You’re here to lend us your expertise in the matter, not to bark orders at us and to get you coffee. So, if you will excuse me, I’m tired of the dog and pony show and have an appointment with the M.E. If your forensics guy wants to accompany me, grab your stuff because I’m leaving.”
Agent Gerard motioned with his chin and a short man stepped forward. “Take Salvati with you,” he said.
The ride to the M.E.’s office started out quiet but it quickly turned into a one-sided getting to know you thing.
“Montana, that was pretty ballsy,” Salvati said, watching out t
he window as they drove through town. “Not many people have the balls to tell Gerard to stick it up his ass. He’s kind of a hot head.”
Colt nodded.
“I’d like to interview the person that came across the most recent body-”
“That isn’t possible,” Colt interrupted.
“And why is that?” Salvati pressed.
“Because Miss Rogers is in shock and no longer remembers even coming across the dumpsite. Once I got her statement, and the reality of the situation hit, she completely lost it. Mrs. Paterson has been keeping an eye on her and will notify me if there is any change in her condition. If you like, I will see if possibly she’d be willing to speak to you on the phone.”
Salvati shook his head. “That won’t work. I get it, where I’m from dedication to the neighborhood is important, but at what cost? Another body?”
Colt noted the heavy flare of an accent. “Miss Rogers isn’t a local.”
“Person of interest?”
“Hardly,” Colt scoffed. “Neighborhood...Bronx?” he asked.
Salvati chuckled. “Why does everyone automatically think Bronx when they hear an accent?”
“I’ve never been there,” Colt said dismissively, but his mind was scrambling to figure out how in the hell to get Cat out of this. It was much too dangerous for her if the FBI nosed around into her past. And even worse, what if Salvati knew her?! Yes, NYC was huge with hundreds, if not thousands, of members of law enforcement, but Colt wasn’t willing to risk it.
“I’ll admit, you’re right. Morris Park, Bronx,” Salvati said. “Born and bred, 49th Precinct beat cop that worked his way up, eventually signing with the FBI. Never did I imagine it’d take me all the way to Eureka, Montana, though.”
“Remind me to give you the grand tour later,” Colt dryly commented.
Salvati laughed. “Montana, you’re amusing. I like that in a brother in blue.”
“Are you hitting on me?” Colt asked and Salvati laughed even harder. “It has been suggested that I am a hot piece of ass that badge carrying members of law enforcement apparently flock to.”
Salvati wiped away the tears that had formed in the corners of his eyes. “That’s too much! No, I’m not hitting on you. I like women. But that is so something that Ros…” his words trailed off and he shook his head. “Never mind.”
Colt, sensing there was something more, wanted to press it but knew that he’d have to do it in a roundabout way. “I heard that Agent Marrows would be joining the taskforce, but I didn’t see her.”
Salvati shrugged. “She was supposed to take over as the lead on the case but she got pulled at the last minute. It’s weird. Marrows is a real ball breaking broad, and serial killers are her specialty. Obviously something more pressing came up…no offense.”
“None taken,” he said. “What did Morrows do before finding her calling in serial killers?”
Salvati cocked an eyebrow. “Why the interest in Marrows?” he asked.
Colt looked completely uninterested in the discussion. “I suppose it would have been nice to have an expert in serial killers here since we have one running amuck, in case you hadn’t heard. And since whatever the supposed expert was pulled away to deal with was something more pressing, it makes me curious if the agent was even worth being pissed about getting the brush off from … That’s the opinion of the man who was supposed to marry the first victim. The opinion of the detective heading the case is no, don’t worry about it. We got this.”
Salvati looked at him curiously. “Spoken like a true bitter New Yorker,” he said then laughed.
“Why is everyone assuming I’m from New York?” Colt grumbled.
Salvati shook his head. “There’s no mistaking that you’re from Montana, Montana, but your attitude and the way you say things sounds as if you’ve been playing in streets of NYC. That’s all. It’s not a bad thing. Just makes me curious about what you’re hiding…or who,” he said ominously before wagging his brows.
Colt shrugged indifferently. “I’ve read a lot of crime novels, and since NYC is the place to stage a crime spree that takes thirty-five chapters before the boys in blue can figure it out, it’d make sense that most are based there. Obviously I’ve allowed them to warp my mind if I’m giving off the vibe of being from the Big Apple.”
“Uh huh,” was all Salvati said.
Obviously I need to stop hanging around with the mouthy New Yorker who slapped my ass so hard before I left that I have a handprint on the left cheek now.
While they waited for the M.E. to join them, Colt stood back with his arms crossed over his chest as Salvati looked at the body of Five with a confused look on his face. Colt wasn’t entirely sure if he liked this Bronx bred FBI agent being so close to Cat and her hiding place, and Colt’s odd behavior and questions had already made Salvati suspicious of him; two things that Cat couldn’t afford. If they discovered her true identity it would force her to run and it might cause those she’s hiding from to show up on her doorstep.
He couldn’t allow either to happen.
“Colt! Good to see you again,” Dr. Marks beamed as he joined them, his attention going between Colt and the unfamiliar man eying the body.
“FBI,” Colt said.
Dr. Marks nodded. “So they’re finally here in the flesh and ready to stick their noses in our asses. Lovely. The one on the phone was annoying enough, but now they sent…never mind. At least they could have sent a woman. I wouldn’t mind spending time going over notes and reports with a woman.”
Salvati chuckled. “I like you twos attitudes,” he said with a smile.
“Good call on the eyes,” Dr. Marks continued, not trusting the Fed invading his space. “The preliminary report isn’t back yet, but I ran some tests myself and you were right: the eyes contained fluid from the sodium hydroxide family and it effectively lightened the petechial hemorrhaging, almost as if bleaching it out.”
Colt nodded; Cat was right, not him.
“I wasn’t sure if you got my request or not,” Colt said. “Your assistant was high as hell when I called, and if he wasn’t, I would fire him.”
Dr. Marks looked at him curiously. “I can’t fire him, he’s my sister’s kid. And yes, he was most likely high off his ass...I’ll talk to him about it, but I did get your request. I left a message with Jimmy to tell you that I sent the samples off to the lab and that I found something. Didn’t he tell you?”
“It must have slipped his mind,” Colt said, trying to keep the irritation from showing.
A lot has been slipping Jimmy’s mind when it pertains to the case.
“What else did you find out?” he asked.
Dr. Marks smiled. “Following your lead about chemicals being used to, not only hide trace evidence but, change the appearance of the victims, I ran additional topical tests and found traces of ammonium hydroxide under the nail beds. It might have been rinsed away before the initial examination if you wouldn’t have told me to pull my head out of my ass and look deeper...professionalism at its finest, Detective.”
Colt pushed his hand through his hair. “It was a sound suggestion and tact has never been my strongpoint.”
“But,” Dr. Marks started.
“But it’s untraceable,” Colt finished for him and the doctor nodded. “Too common to narrow down, but too specific to be coincidental,” he continued.
“Pretty much,” Dr. Marks agreed. “It’s still more than we had before.”
“Fresh eyes...fresh perspective helps,” Colt agreed. “Was there anything else you mentioned to Jim...Sheriff Lake that might have slipped his mind?”
Dr. Marks forced a smile that quickly fell. “Unlike the others, I think that the time of death... Colt, she was alive when he left her there.”
Colt stood up straighter. “Excuse me? That isn’t possible.”
Salvati looked between them. “ Doc, why do you say that?”
Dr. Marks went over to the body then pulled the mobile light down more and angled it towards the
side of Five’s face. “I didn’t see it until I followed up on your request, Colt. See that?” he asked, pointing to the slight discoloration leading from the corner of her eye. “It’s the path of a tear, and that’s only possible for the living. Joanne Hubbard was alive when she was placed in that field. Her heart was barely beating, and she was down over two liters of blood so there wasn’t much to pump out from her thin body. Even if Cat would have found her sooner, most likely she wouldn’t have made it. There’s no sign of struggle; no trace evidence under the nails, no bruising, no ligatures marks...just like with all the others.”
Salvati stroked his chin. “Obviously she didn’t feel threatened by the perp. Which would have made sense for the first four, since they were locals, but the fifth wasn’t,” he said. “She was a young woman from Seattle, attended an all-girls Catholic school, was a devout Catholic who pledged her life to her Lord and Savior. And yet she didn’t struggle or fight back? Even to a rookie beat cop pounding pavement in the Bronx that would seem a bit unbelievable.”
Cat said the same thing, nearly verbatim and with the same accent...I wish she was here right now. God, I miss her. Colt’s back stiffened. I miss her?! That...she’s the last person I should be thinking about right now, especially with the naked, mutilated body of a young woman only inches from me. This is wrong. Pull it together, Fury!
“Montana?” Salvati said. “Is something wrong?”
Colt looked over at him.
“You look like someone just punched you in the gut,” he commented.
“Feels like it,” Colt admitted. “If you find anything else, let me know first,” he said, looking to Dr. Marks and he nodded his understanding.
Salvati gave a little two-finger salute as he followed Colt from the room. “Doc, whatever you find we’ll send to the boys back at the lab if you need the support. We have a seventy-two hour turnaround time.”
Dr. Marks smiled. “I’ll keep that in mind, Junior.”
Once they were headed back to the station, Salvati broke the silence. “You’ve already deduced that it’s someone in a helping field.”
