Dream Huntress

by Michelle Sharp

  The gravel in his voice scraped across her skin, raising a fine layer of goosebumps. Her thoughts spun out in all kinds of crazy directions, but she couldn’t have put two words together to save her soul.

  His hand slid lower and cupped her. Her breath caught. He didn’t move, just allowed the heat of his hand to sear her. The man was a sadist; it was torture to have his fingers so close to where she needed to feel them. God, did he want her to beg? She started to pant. When she did, she felt his smile against her neck.

  And then he moved.

  He stroked her, just the faintest, slightest touch of his finger, and she jerked as if she’d been shot. God, it had been a long time. Way too long if one slight touch sent her nerve endings into spasms.

  “Jordan.” Her name rolled from his tongue with a low, male groan. Twisting his free hand in her hair, he tugged her head back, devoured her throat with lips and tongue and teeth.

  She couldn’t think. Not when he crushed his mouth to hers and slid one skilled finger into her while gently stroking his thumb over her swollen mound.

  “Ty.” Her gasp for air turned hitching and jagged. She couldn’t remember how to breathe. “Ty, God, ah...” He was using her body against her, sliding his fingers over...in...out...

  Her body shattered, convulsed. She drew him tighter, scrambled for something solid to cling to. Her breath heaved as if she’d just crossed a finish line. But they weren’t done. She knew in her heart, knew from his low, throaty growl, they weren’t done.

  “Christ, I want you.” He stood and crushed her body between his and the wall. Cupped her bottom and lifted her.

  Her legs reflexively circled his hips. He felt so good. So solid. So strong.

  An unwelcome notion sat somewhere in a dark corner in her mind—this is wrong. She was here on an investigation and had crossed a line. It was professional suicide. And if the orgasm he’d shot her to in less than a minute was any indication, she suspected he was capable of knocking her private world completely off its axis, too.

  Ty stumbled his way into her bedroom and fell on the bed while tugging at the tiny cotton shorts she was wearing. They were the only thing standing between her and the biggest mistake of her life, and even so, as he eased them down her legs, she didn’t stop him.

  Her phone rang somewhere in the background. The answering machine kicked on.

  “Jordan, it’s Bahan. Come on, pick up. Why aren’t you answering your cell? I’m sorry I missed your call, but I got your e-mail.”

  Reality snapped back with a big, ugly, ferocious bite. She opened her eyes and popped up on an elbow. Ty’s fingers smoothed along the inside of her thigh—and, oh man—she wanted those very talented fingers doing exactly what they’d done to her only moments ago.

  “I need specifics on that info you wanted.” Bahan’s voice echoed through the room again.

  She leaped, fumbled in the dark room, and turned on the light next to the bed. Fumbling again, she grabbed the phone.

  “Hi, Ted, it’s me.” Turning to Ty, she held up a finger as she stood, then pulled a blanket from the bed and walked to the other room.

  She cut Bahan short, telling him she’d be in touch tomorrow. But the brief conversation was enough to clear the fog and let her normal, rational thinking spring to life. Not once since she’d had her badge could she remember being this impulsive or reckless.

  She took a deep breath, prepared to go back into the bedroom and send him home.

  By the time she returned, Ty sat on the edge of her bed. She sat next to him, but he didn’t look at her.

  “Not a good sign when another man is on your recorder sounding so desperate to speak to you.”

  “Hey.” She turned his head toward her. The brooding gray of his eyes pulled at something inside her. No one had ever scrambled her senses like this man. “Ted’s an old friend. He’s helping me with”—she stumbled all the way—“a project at college. I’m not involved with him, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

  A small smile lit his face.

  “I’m not involved with anyone, because I don’t get involved. Ever. I’m sorry I led you to believe otherwise tonight.”

  His eyes narrowed. “What do you mean you don’t get involved ever? No one has that kind of restraint, baby.”

  She shrugged. “I do. I have very little free time, and I just find it easier this way. No expectations or obligations. No disappointment.” She looked at him, but he didn’t appear convinced. “I’m sorry I let things get out of control. I don’t know what happened.”

  His handsome face morphed into an evil grin. “I think we just happened. Almost. I won’t push you, but you can’t live like a nun just because you’re busy.” He slid a hand up her cheek and leaned in for a kiss.

  She backed away, not at all sure she could stop if things started again. She couldn’t use him, not like that. If he turned out to be a dirty ex-cop, she couldn’t stand the thought of being this attracted to him. If he turned out to be a good guy, she didn’t want to hurt him that way either. “Look, relationships are complicated. I prefer my life simple. Finding Mr. Right isn’t a priority.”

  “I suppose I’d lose points quickly if I told you I’d be happy being Mr. Wrong?”

  She couldn’t stop the laugh that escaped. “Are you offering to be my booty call?”

  “If that’s what it takes. I could live with that. For now.”

  She could damned well live with that, too.

  But instead she thought about Arlo Buck and his greedy ambition to make a dollar at the expense of children. She had a job to do and couldn’t afford a distraction. She’d made a life, albeit a solitary one because of the dreams, but it was a life that had meaning now.

  Why would she ever risk it for a man? Why risk having him turn her world upside-down and then walk out when the truth surfaced? Her life wasn’t perfect, but it worked.

  “How about just a friend?” She got up to put some space between them, went to her closet, came back, and handed him the shirt she’d borrowed the night before. “I washed it today. I think all the blood came out.”

  She walked him to the front door.

  In one quick maneuver, he kissed her, slid his hands down to her butt, and pulled her against him. Her breath hitched, and her thoughts scrambled. The lust he could ignite in a few short seconds teetered on baffling.

  He smiled, cockiness all over his face. “Just think about it. I’m not asking for a commitment.” He leaned in close to her ear. “But I think together we’d really be something.”

  “Out,” she managed with a huge gulp of air and an enormous degree of willpower.

  “But I didn’t get any cheesecake.” He pulled his head back and grinned.

  She went to the table, grabbed the cheesecake, and then shoved the box at him. “Good night.”

  “Good night, Jordan.” He winked. “I’ll be in touch.”

  She heard him whistle when she closed the door.

  It was a goddamned train wreck.

  “Well done, Jordan,” she muttered to herself, crawling into bed a few minutes later. “You really couldn’t have screwed this one up more if you tried.”

  ***

  Her long, dark hair danced on the breeze as the beautiful girl swung in the moonlight under the huge, old oak tree.

  The boy watched, then walked to his car and cleaned football gear out of his back seat. After stashing the athletic bag in his trunk, he grabbed two beers from a cooler and a small vial filled with clear liquid.

  Looking unsure, he poured the liquid into one of the beers, then added a little more and a little more.

  “Free sex, no strings,” he murmured. “Wear a condom. Put her clothes back on. Dump her by the swing and let her sleep it off, like it never happened. She’ll never remember.”

  He opened a small plastic vial, stuck in a pinky, brought a crust of fine white powder to his nostril, and snorted.

  Walking back to the swing, he smiled at the girl. Then he handed her the tainted beer and
teased her for drinking too slowly.

  When she fell dizzy from the swing, he caught her. Laid her unconscious body in his car and drove to the middle of nowhere. When the car was safely hidden in the trees, he killed the engine.

  He moved to the back seat, but she began to groan a woozy protest even before he had her clothes off.

  “Shut up.” Covering her mouth with a hand, he plowed into her quickly. He squeezed her throat to stop her sobs while he rutted like a wild animal.

  She clawed at his wrists and bit his ear. “My daddy will kill you.”

  One blow, then two, the third finally hard enough to stun her into silence. When it was over, he collapsed on top of her. But as he pulled up his pants, the unused condom fell from his pocket.

  “Oh shit.” He’d forgotten the condom. Blood from his ear dripped on the girl’s chest. He swiped at it with his shirt. He’d left his signature at the scene of the crime. They’d have his DNA.

  The girl groaned again. “You’ll pay. I know who you are,” she whispered. “I’ll always remember what you did.”

  “It wasn’t supposed to end this way, but fuck, you left me no choice.” He pulled her from the car, put his shaking hands around her neck. “I’m sorry.” Sweat and tears streaked down his face. “You can’t remember. I can’t let you remember.”

  Chapter 5

  “You can’t even get a good cup of coffee in this stupid, flipping, one-horse town.” Jordan ranted and slurped down an energy drink after the teenage disaster with a nose and tongue piercing at the Stop and Go said, “We stop selling coffee at three o’clock.”

  “Idiot,” Jordan rambled to herself as she walked back to her car. “It’s like three-oh-four, honest to God.”

  After her rotten luck with Lewis, her rotten judgment with Ty, and the rotten nightmare that apparently wasn’t going to quietly go away, her mood was, well—rotten. God help the drunken ass who laid a hand on her today.

  Her eyes felt gritty and swollen with fatigue. The nightmare had started the second her head hit the pillow. In the past, she’d normally get a couple hours of sleep before they’d begin. Not willing to risk an encore performance of the gruesome vision, she’d stayed up the rest of the night searching the database.

  Nothing.

  She didn’t usually feel this out of sorts so early in an investigation. Maybe by the end of a case she’d find herself down a few pounds and on the verge of exhaustion. That was to be expected. But she’d only just begun this mission, trying to get a feel for the town and the people, and already the mental and physical fatigue were whispering in her ear.

  The injury and concussion were unexpected. So was the disturbing and graphic nature of the latest dreams. Normally, they came slower, in bits and pieces, but these had shot right out of the gates with a powerful, sickening vengeance.

  Victims communicated with her, it was just a fact. A reality she couldn’t escape.

  It followed that the more violent and disturbing the crime, the more violent and disturbing the vision. But this girl, the beautiful one in the dream, just wouldn’t let go of her. Even after she woke, the girl’s soft, innocent eyes and long, dark hair were constant visuals in her mind. It was bad enough dreaming about these people, but it was something else entirely to realize she felt a connection with this girl. A bond she’d never had before. Some kind of link that went deeper than the murder.

  Jordan pulled into the parking lot of Buck’s at three-twenty. Her shift didn’t start until four. Since she’d never had a dream in a car, she figured maybe she could get through a ten-minute power nap without the beautiful mystery girl staring her in the face. She dozed off until her cell vibrated.

  “Hello.” She wasn’t completely coherent when she answered.

  “Explain.”

  “What? Who is this?” Jordan asked.

  “Who the fuck do you think it is?” The angry slap shot through Bahan’s voice and stirred Jordan awake. “It’s the person that’s getting ready to end you if you don’t have a damned good reason for ignoring my instructions.”

  FBI Special Agent Ted Bahan was skilled, connected, organized, and had more experience and seniority than just about anyone she worked with. She had complete confidence in his abilities.

  The fact that he had worked with her for almost ten years and didn’t return the sentiment still rankled. Not once had she given him a reason to doubt her capabilities. But when two of her guys—cops from her department, men she worked side by side with—had been killed in St. Louis while in deep cover on this China White investigation, Bahan had tried to pull her from the task force.

  She’d busted her ass for the last year hunting the prime source of China White, while Bahan had been content on the bureaucratic outer edge until her colleagues had been killed. Unfortunately, understanding his argument that she was too emotionally involved did absolutely nothing to fix the betrayal in her gut.

  “Chill, Bahan,” she said. “First of all, you’re not my captain. We’re supposed to be partnering on an investigation.”

  Silence. Bahan’s mouth could cut just as sharply as hers, so she knew the silent treatment was not a sign of good things to come.

  “Second,” she continued, “you may be heading up this thing, but that sure as hell doesn’t mean I’ve surrendered all authority and my right to make a decision on the fly when I feel it’s necessary. I’ve been doing this kind of work damn near as long as you have.”

  Still more silence. He’d be sitting at his desk, knee bobbing like a jackhammer, jaw clenched. She’d seen him like that before, but his temper wasn’t usually directed at her.

  “Okay, look,” she said. “We agreed that we couldn’t all roll into town at the same time without throwing up red flags. It’s a small community; people notice things. You need to trust my judgment. We also agreed I could apply for the job at Buck’s just to see if he’d hire me. I had no way of knowing he’d ask me to start immediately.”

  “Really? I thought we agreed that if he hired you, you were going to tell him you couldn’t start until after Thanksgiving, until I had time to safely integrate my surveillance team.”

  “That was your plan. Mine was to get my foot in the door any way I could. He was short-staffed and wanted someone right away,” she explained. “I couldn’t take the chance he’d find another girl for the job.”

  “And it simply slipped your mind to update me? Listen, hotshot, I don’t roll this way. I know you’re pissed at me. I get it. And I’ve seen you pull some risky stunts before, but this is over the top, even for you. This borders on asinine. You’re in a strip club, in the middle of nowhere, not wearing a wire, with no backup. I’m not sure what it is you’re trying to prove—”

  “I have backup.” When she realized she’d yelled at him, she took a deep breath and choked back the anger. “I saw an opportunity, and I took it. The two local cops involved with the case said they’d back me up, just until you get here. We’re talking what, a week until Thanksgiving?”

  “Oh, well, fuck me then. What in the world am I worried about? Two country cops and a renegade detective. What could possibly go wrong?”

  His sarcasm made her temper flare. “You know, the FBI always claims they’ll partner with local law enforcement, work as a team, but there’s no partnering with you guys. It’s your way or no way. It was my information that led us here.” She took a breath, tried to level out her voice. “It was my two cops who were killed trying to pinpoint where the flood of China White was coming from, and knowing all that, you still tried to yank this case away from me.”

  They were both silent, the only sound was Bahan’s heavy sigh. “It won’t bring ’em back, Jordan. You can fuck yourself up seven ways to Sunday, and it won’t accomplish a damn thing other than one more dead cop. I won’t sit back and let that happen. I fought for control of this task force, because I was worried about your objectivity. Looks like I had just cause.”

  He sighed into the phone again. “You lie to me one more time, and you’re
done. Completely done.”

  “I didn’t lie to you,” she growled, knowing full well that she had. “Buck asked me to start. I said yes.”

  “But you didn’t tell me, Jordan.”

  “I’m training. Just a few hours a night, a couple nights a week. You have no reason to worry, and he has no reason to be suspicious, because I really am only waiting tables at this point.”

  “Still, you ended up in a hospital and didn’t report it.”

  Damn. The information the man could gather was just scary. “I didn’t need to. I’m fine.”

  “So that’s the game we’re playing now?” Someone who didn’t know him might have said the question sounded calm, almost passive. But Jordan recognized the danger lingering in the cool words. “You want to challenge me, hotshot? I’ll be in your chief’s office so fast, you won’t have time to blink. How’s he going to like it when I tell him his golden child has been removed from a federal task force for being unwilling to follow simple safety procedures?”

  “You wouldn’t dare. This is my investigation.”

  “Wrong. This is our investigation, partner. While you’re in Titus, I’m responsible.”

  She was familiar with this particular tone of voice, knew she wasn’t going to win. Better to cut her losses and suck it up. “All right, all right. Let’s both just calm down. I got pushed by a drunk customer and stumbled and hit my head. That was it. Some guy drove me to the hospital to get a couple of stitches. I don’t know where you got your information, but it wasn’t anything more than that.”

  “Hello, McFly. You’re still not listening. The lab confirmed the heroin confiscated in Titus matches the stuff your people confiscated in St. Louis last month. Arlo Buck has a nasty and powerful connection. His drugs are fingering off into bigger cities. He’ll have a game plan. He’ll have plenty of people watching his back. More than likely a few of them will be local cops. Trust no one.”

  “Bahan, I get it. I have about ten minutes to get somewhere, and I can’t be late.”