WHO KILLED EMMALINE?

by Dani Matthews

  “Give me a break. This stuff is gross, and coffins just by themselves are wicked scary. Toss in spikes…” I shudder. “You guys have carbon copies of every kind of torture device known to man. Maybe you guys are weirder than everyone thinks.”

  Cord cocks his head slightly, something flickering in his green gaze as his eyes burn into mine. “First off, they are fakes, so they are harmless. Second, even if they were real, they don’t have to be used to brutally harm someone.”

  His statement has me looking at him blankly as I try to decipher what he’s saying.

  Cord’s eyes turn hooded as something devious flashes within their depths. “Let’s try an experiment,” he murmurs.

  My eyes shift to the array of torture props. “Uh, let’s not.”

  “Chicken?” he taunts softly.

  I want absolutely nothing to do with anything that involves torture devices, but I’m not too keen on admitting to him that I’m frightened of them.

  Cord shakes his head, sliding his hands into his jeans pockets. “Guess all that ballsy pride of yours is just for show.”

  “Hey, that’s not fair,” I protest. “No one wants to play around with torture props unless they are the ones with the evil agenda. You were born with a few screws loose, buddy.”

  “Probably,” he says, completely unaffected by my lighthearted insult. He walks over to what looks like a cross, though it is anything but. It has skeletal designs engraved in the wood, and there are restraints on each end for one’s wrists, and down below, is a flat wooden stand where restraints are used to keep the victim’s legs about two feet apart. He stands beside it and looks at me expectantly. “Come here.”

  I instinctively take a step back. “You want to put me in that?”

  He slowly smiles. “Yeah, I do.”

  At the sight of that seductive smile, my heart starts to pound. I know he’s playing with me, and part of me wants to see more of this side that he rarely shows. Yet the other part of me wants to run away as fast as I can. Cord is after all a suspect in an ongoing murder investigation, and I’m here all alone with him…

  “Do I scare you?” he asks softly as thunder rumbles overhead.

  Does he? Do I really think he’s capable of hurting me? I stare into his eyes and recall the playfulness in his gaze when he’d asked me to humor his experiment. I might be scared of the stuff that’s in this warehouse, but oddly enough, I don’t think Cord is out to hurt me.

  “Can I trust you to release me when I want out?” I ask warily. Am I really going to do this? Looks like it.

  His eyes search mine. “I promise,” he says seriously.

  I stare back at him as thunder rumbles loudly again, shaking the building and rattling a few things on the shelves. The storm outside is definitely not making this any easier. If anything, it’s setting the mood further, and Cord is probably loving it. I sigh loudly, still amazed that I have agreed to do this. “I can’t believe you talked me into this,” I mutter as I walk over to him.

  He stands aside so I can put my back to the device, and I nervously lift my arms, positioning my wrists by the leather restraints that buckle.

  Cord steps forward and carefully begins securing one wrist after the other. He’s standing close enough for me to smell his cologne, and he smells really, really good.

  I swallow my nerves and ask, “Do people really buy this stuff?”

  “We wouldn’t have it if they didn’t,” he says, double checking the fastenings, his touch oddly gentle.

  “Why?”

  “To put mannequins in at haunted houses or live people for a better visual effect.” He peers at me, his eyes unblinking as he studies me. “Comfortable?”

  I glance at my wrists, which are now secure. “What do you think?”

  His eyes gleam. “I’m referring to the restraints? Too tight?”

  “They’re fine,” I grudgingly admit.

  “Are you frightened?”

  “I’m helpless, so yes.” If I’d answered any other way, he would have known I was lying.

  “Do you like it?” he questions, watching my expression closely.

  I look him dead in the eye. “No,” I say firmly.

  He nods and steps forward until his chest is almost touching my own. With him as close as he is, I have no choice but to gaze up at him as nerves flutter around in my stomach. He’s so close that I can feel his body heat. I think I stop breathing when his hands settle on my waist, surprising me. His expression gives nothing away as he moves closer until we’re chest to chest, hip to hip.

  I’m pretty sure he heard my breath catch in my throat at the feel of his body pressing into mine.

  Warmth spreads throughout me as my heart quickens. His body feels really good pressed against mine, and I can feel the sexual tension rising between us.

  “Are you scared?” Cord asks softly, his eyes penetrating mine.

  Am I? I’m too distracted by the feel of his delicious body against my own. “I don’t know,” I confess.

  “Do you want this experiment to end?”

  “No,” I say quietly. I want to know what comes next.

  His head slowly begins to lower towards mine, and it’s then that I realize he’s going to kiss me. I’m reacting on instinct and going with what my gut is sensing, and I know now that this was his intention all along. I definitely want to know what it feels like to kiss Cord Bodine, so I close my eyes, and when his lips lightly touch my own, I kiss him back. When he senses I’m not going to pull back, he deepens the kiss, and it grows intense as his hands run up along my sides, coming daringly close to my breasts before sliding back down to my hips. As our tongues dance against one another, I wish he’d touch me more. My hands clench in the restraints, and a frustrated sound escapes my throat, and he swallows the sound. The fact that I can only accept what he’s giving me is a major turn-on.

  Cord slowly breaks the kiss, trailing his lips down my jawline, his hands roaming up my ribs again, taunting me. “Are you scared?” he whispers against my neck as he kisses my thrumming pulse along my jaw.

  “No,” I say hoarsely.

  His tongue trails across the sensitive skin between my neck and shoulder, causing me to instinctively shiver. “Do you like it now?”

  “Yes,” I whisper self-consciously.

  His lips lift from my neck, and he peers at me with dark, heated eyes. Then without a word, he backs away from me and starts unbuckling the restraints that are holding my wrists captive.

  Holy crap. What just happened?

  When he releases me, I step away from the device on rubbery legs.

  Cord gives me a sly smile and nods at it. “Still scared of it?”

  “No.”

  “I think I’ve proven my point. You liked being scared to a point, but with the right person, it can become fun. And Halloween doesn’t necessarily have to be terrifying to be scary. It’s what you make of it.”

  My eyes narrow dangerously.

  Cord seems oblivious to my growing irritation. “I also showed you that props aren’t as scary as they might seem. It all depends on how you use them.”

  By the time he’s finished speaking, my temper is boiling. So that kiss was just part of some game? It was the most intense kiss I’ve ever experienced, and for him it was just a means to prove a point?

  Suddenly, there’s a loud crack of thunder that echoes loudly throughout the warehouse, causing me to jump. The warehouse is immediately thrown into darkness as the lights go out.

  “Shit,” I hear Cord say.

  I blink, hoping to see some sort of light, but there are no windows in the building, so it’s pure blackness. “Cord?”

  “Right here,” he assures, his hand brushing along my thigh until he can grasp my hand.

  I’m not a big fan of the dark, and I instinctively move closer to his body. “Are there back-ups?”

  “Dane never had a back-up generator installed because we’re not here enough.”

  “Are we leaving?” I ask, trying to keep
the hint of hope out of my voice. I’m ready to leave all the grisly and hideous props behind. That, and a little space from Cord would be nice after that stunt he pulled with that kiss.

  “The lights might come back on. Until then, we can use flashlights,” he replies.

  “Okay. Where are they?”

  “Dane’s office. Stay right here, don’t move.”

  His hand tugs out of mine before I can process his words, and suddenly I feel alarmed that he might actually leave me alone amongst these horrible torture props. “Wait! You can’t leave me!” I reach out for him anxiously, and my hand connects with his hard chest. I grab a fistful of his shirt before he can dare walk away. I’m not letting him go anywhere without me.

  “It’ll be a waste of time trying to lead you through the aisles. I know my way around this place, so it’ll be quicker if I go on my own to grab the flashlights and then come back for you.”

  My hand tightens around the fabric I have clutched in my fist. “Don’t you dare leave me.”

  Cord’s chest rumbles beneath my clenched fist as he laughs in the darkness. “Are you afraid something is going to come to life while I’m gone?”

  I use my free hand to smack him across his shoulder. “Don’t be an ass.”

  His laughter fades, and he lets out a drawn out sigh. “Seriously, it’ll be faster if you stay put.”

  “You can’t leave me here by all this…stuff. It’s not funny, Cord.”

  “Would you rather I leave you by the giant animatronic spider you have yet to meet? Or maybe leave you with Darius?”

  “Ugh, I hate you.”

  He chuckles, and his warm hand wraps around my fist gripping his shirt. “Let me go. I’ll be back in five.” His fingers gently start prying my fingers away from the fabric. “I promise.”

  Very reluctantly, I release him and clench my fists at my hips. “Okay. But you better hurry,” I grumble.

  I can hear him move, and his footsteps fade as he leaves me where I stand. This is so not what I envisioned when I was scheduled to help transfer merchandise. I thought everything would be all boxed up already and all we would have to do is load the van. It looks to me like not only do we have to box some of the stuff up, but we’ll have to take apart some of the larger items.

  Instead of concentrating on my pounding heart and the fear that has climbed up into my throat, I think over how Dane plans on decorating Cordane’s. He mentioned last week that he’s bringing one animatronic to the store, and it’ll be a life-sized, skeletal reaper with glowing eyes. I guess he wants to install thunder and lightning effects, and even a fog machine for the hallway outside the fitting rooms. His goal is to turn the back half of the store into a cemetery, and fake trees are even on the list of props to bring back. I guess last year the back half of the store was clown-themed. I shudder at the thought of those clowns I’d seen earlier standing around at the store, their beady eyes missing nothing. I would have hated to have to work around those things. At least I’ll only have the reaper to contend with.

  How long have I been standing here?

  I cross my arms over my chest, my head turning to the left and then to the right as I try to peer through the blackness. Shouldn’t Cord be coming back by now? My ears strain to hear any sound, but there is just a low rumble of thunder in the distance.

  “Cord?” I call out, and I flinch as my voice echoes around me.

  Only silence answers me.

  I begin to fidget. What if he’s left me here as a prank? No, he wouldn’t. Would he? “Cord!” I call out sharply.

  Still no answer.

  He’d told me to stay put, but if he is pulling a prank, I’m not going to fall for it and stand here for thirty minutes while he snickers in Dane’s office. With a nervous shiver, I lift my hands and hold them straight out in front of me and visualize the way we’d come. I’ll start making my way to the side door or until I see Cord with the flashlights.

  Feeling anxious, I force myself to breathe in and out slowly. It’s a freakin’ warehouse with stupid fake props. Nothing to be scared of, right? I shuffle along slowly, my arms out and reaching so I don’t run into anything.

  I’m feeling better, even confident really as the minutes tick by, but the second my palm touches long, stringy hair, I gasp and leap away from whatever I was about to run into. My foot connects with something firm, and I quickly change direction, then tumble backwards into something as my scream echoes throughout the warehouse. Whatever I’d fallen into feels like a narrow box, with an edge digging into my back and then another below my knees. I am on my butt, legs propped up slightly.

  “Krista!” Cord yells from somewhere within the warehouse, his voice bouncing off the walls. “Stay where you are! Don’t move!”

  “Hurry up!” I yell back as my hands run across the bottom of whatever I’d fallen into. The fabric across the bottom feels like satin. Oh no… I lean to my right, searching for the other side of the box, and I realize it’s long and narrow on each side of me. A shriek escapes me as it dawns on me that I’ve fallen sideways into a coffin.

  “I told you not to move!” Cord shouts.

  With a horrified gasp, I struggle and manage to pull myself out of the coffin. Then I fall to the warehouse floor on my hands and knees. I’m going to have nightmares for days to come over this.

  “Krista!”

  I look up to see a flashlight racing towards me, and I squint and watch as Cord’s shadow kneels down beside me.

  “What happened?” he asks, his eyes roaming over me to make sure I’m okay.

  “I fell in a fucking coffin,” I say through gritted teeth.

  Cord is silent a moment, and then he dares to smile at me. “Now that you’ve been in one, did it conquer your fear?” he asks with amusement.

  I jerk away from him, rising to my feet. “I’m filing a complaint when we get back,” I snap at him.

  “Against the coffin for deliberately getting in your way?” he laughs as he stands up.

  “No, because you’re an asshole.”

  “Go for it. Dane will get a kick out of it, I’m sure. Here,” he says, holding out a flashlight to me.

  I snatch it from him and turn it on. “What took so long?”

  “I couldn’t find the flashlights. Dane or Owen moved them since the last time I was here. Ready to get to work?”

  For the next hour, Cord and I work together to track down the items Dane wants brought back to the store. Cord grabs a cart, and as he loads it up, I mark off the items on the sheet. Soon, we’re loading up the van and then taking off to head back into the city.

  It’s still raining in a steady downpour, and the drive back is silent except for the constant whooshing of the windshield wipers. I’m not quite sure what Cord’s thinking, and it doesn’t really matter since my mind is busy with my own thoughts as I stare out the window.

  Cord kissed me.

  And I’d lit up like the fourth of July.

  Dang.

  When I’d started eating lunch with Cord, I never thought that anything would develop between us. Sure, he’s real nice to look at, but I’d known that he was only watching my back so that he could irritate Riley. That’s all this was supposed to be. Oh hell. A chill runs down my spine as I recall Jenna mentioning that Cord wore masks during sex with Emmaline. Yeah, I’m not into that kind of kink.

  My face scrunches up into a scowl. Why the heck am I even acting like the kiss mattered? It was nothing. He proved his point, end of story. Slowly, I begin to relax as it sinks in that I am overreacting. People kiss all the time. Look at all the parties I’d been to back in South Bend. Those parties were packed with teenagers hoping for meaningless makeout sessions with whoever caught their attention for the night. I was even prone to messing around once in a while if I didn’t have a boyfriend.

  The kiss meant nothing, so why worry over it?

  Seven

  On Monday, I find Cord waiting for me at my locker before lunch. This is nothing new, he usually finds me first an
d waits so he can walk me through the lunch line. Today feels a little different for me though since he’d kissed me on Saturday, and I try to calm my jumbled emotions at the sight of him. I’d told myself over the weekend that it meant nothing, and that I need to ignore that it ever happened. Cord sure did a wonderful job of that on Saturday. We hadn’t discussed the kiss, and the rest of my shift had gone by smoothly.

  I certainly have no intention of ever bringing it up, but it does annoy me that he seems so unaffected by it. I’m also embarrassed that I’d succumbed to him and his advances so easily. The guy is like sex on a stick. He’s hot, sexy, and he knows it. No wonder why Emmaline couldn’t help herself. All Cord has to do is flash that seductive smile of his, and you instantly feel like you want to give him whatever he wants.

  Ugh.

  I manage to keep my emotions off my face as I approach him. He doesn’t say anything—which is the norm. He just patiently waits for me as I twirl the dial on my locker and open it. Something falls from my top shelf and drops to the floor. I look down and find a very realistic looking penis at my feet.

  Damn Riley.

  Snickers echo around me, and my face burns as I bend down and quickly pick it up.

  “Here,” Cord says simply.

  I promptly drop the penis into his hand, and he calmly unzips his backpack and drops it inside. After I close my locker, we head to the cafeteria so I can grab something to eat. No one talks to us, but the other students are always watching us curiously. Last I’d heard, there’s an actual bet going around as to how long it would be before I end up dead.

  Cord and I go outside, and I quickly regret not bringing my jacket. The temperatures are beginning to decline now that it’s October, and for the first time, I wonder where Cord spends his lunch when it’s too cold to sit outside. We settle on the grass by the tree, and I try not to shiver as a gust of wind picks up.

  Cord frowns at me. “You should have brought your jacket.”

  “I was distracted by the unwelcome gift in my locker.”

  He opens his backpack and pulls out his black, hooded sweatshirt. “Here. Put this on.”