Intimate Danger (Empire Blue)

by D. C. Stone

  “God,” she choked out, gave a harsh self-depreciating laugh. “I have no clue what I see. You know why? Because I really don’t know you, do I? We’re practically strangers, Trent. You’ve never really let me in. You haven’t given me even a line of trust to hold on to.” She turned to the windows overlooking Broadway, fought like hell to stay under control. “It’s a bitter pill to swallow. But it’s something I brought on myself. It’s okay, seriously.”

  He cursed, but she continued. “As for the man I see? I don’t know which you want me to look at. On one hand, Rossi, you’re this stranger, one whom I think needs help, but battles the need to do what he does. You don’t let anyone in. What more am I supposed to think? To say?”

  He coughed and tried to interrupt. “Do what? What the hell are you talking about?”

  “On the other hand, the man you’ve shown to me is loyal without a fault, gives himself completely to the moment, and expresses his desires in the sweetest way. Yet your words—” She took a step toward him. “Your words can cut deeper than a bullet, even when unspoken.”

  “Charlie, I…” He glanced down at his cell phone when it beeped again and let out a ragged sound. “I need to go, damn it. I have to. I don’t have a choice here.” The words were laced with pain as he closed the distance between them and gripped her shoulders. “We need to talk when I get back. And I will be back, that much I can guarantee.”

  His gaze softened, and he cupped her face. “I can see the doubt in your eyes. I can’t explain anything now, but I will later. I know I can’t ask for this, but I need you to trust me. I’m begging you to give me some time.” Trent kissed her, the softest brush of his lips over hers. The brief connection touched her soul. She hated it, despised that this man could move her so much in such a short period.

  “We’re going to talk about this when I get back.”

  She didn’t answer him, because really, what more was there to say?

  His lips brushed hers again, but this time, he drew her into his arms and tucked her to his chest. She moved with him, but couldn’t respond. This...them, could never be.

  “Charlie, please,” his agonized words whispered past her temple.

  She gave in and hated it, loathed how her arms wrapped around his waist on their own. How she snuggled deeper into his chest, and breathed him in, memorizing his scent. There was a distinct line, a point they could not return to that had been crossed. Despite his words, this moment felt more like goodbye than see you later. She turned her face into him, squeezed her eyes shut, and tilted to fit her mouth next to his ear.

  Each word was a ragged whisper. “Don’t worry, I’m used to being left behind. Goodbye, Trent.”

  With those final words, she spun around, avoided his eyes, and walked out of the room, feeling as if she were leaving a piece of herself behind.

  ****

  His pale-haired beauty hit the concrete floor with a thump. The sound should have disgusted him, but it made him stand taller. Leaving her body to go cold inside of his garage should have turned his stomach, but it made him feel more powerful.

  He wrapped his hands around the bottom of the maroon sheet and dragged the body against the wall. The sheet unraveled at the end, and her head beat against the floor like a hollow drum.

  Thump, thump, thump.

  After tugging her to the corner, he looked down at his latest victim with a surge of satisfaction. Blank eyes, devoid of life, stared up at him. With a grunt, he turned and entered his house, shed his clothing, and got in the shower.

  After a hot cleansing, and donning fresh clothes, he picked up his Blackberry, scrolled through the latest emails, raised a brow at one, and cursed another. The checkpoints Lopez wanted to set up were a problem and one he couldn’t fight without drawing attention—and questions—to himself. His gaze drew past his SUV to the girl lying on the floor. It wasn’t worth the chance. He couldn’t handle disposing of the body quite yet with the checkpoints in place. With the cruiser in the city, he had to use his personal vehicle and thanks to her nosy way, this small trip would slow him down. He would have to go in and handle the matter, try to push her in a different direction rather than chasing the tire tracks. Then he’d come back later to dispose of this body.

  He snatched his SIG Sauer and his badge and tucked them, along with the phone, into his belt. Grabbing his jacket, his mind swayed to Detective Lopez, and like previous instances, especially now that his lust had spiraled and filled to capacity, he went hard again. He couldn’t get enough relief, craved her unlike anything he had before, and considered her a challenge above any other he had taken.

  Deception with her proved to be a fun task, and no one had been the wiser.

  He jumped in his Range Rover and pulled out of the drive, headed down the winding path toward town. Green trees, dusted with sprinkles of gold and red, dotted the highway. Stores spread sparsely throughout the dense forest on his way into town. The small road opened to a two-lane highway into Nyack. He rounded a corner and clamped his jaw tight as a sea of red lights popped before him.

  Cars stacked in a line along the road, and patrol officers coated the side in pairs. He studied the reflection out of the back of his car in the rearview mirror, contemplating turning around and going another way when a car pulled up behind him. The vehicle held one very round Detective Peter Coulter.

  He cursed beneath his breath. Shit, if the detective didn’t bypass this wait, then he would only draw attention by attempting to leave.

  Heat licked along his brow, and he tugged at his white, collared shirt. A suffocating tightness clamped in his chest. He didn’t want to get caught. The time wasn’t right. His mind spun with ideas on how to get through this without rousing suspicion.

  The patrolmen worked as a team, one stepped up to talk to the driver while the other officer checked the tires from behind in an attempt to match tire treads. He watched the process take place and pictured it all going to hell when he pulled up to his spot in line. His heart beat like a wrecking ball attacking a derelict building. He understood what they were doing and what they looked for. The damn email review bumped back through his mind. Of all the luck. He needed to handle his final task, and then get the hell out of town.

  Fuck!

  Thankful he didn’t bring his latest treasure along for the ride, he tried to remain calm and inched his vehicle forward. He tugged a napkin loose, wiped the sweat from his brow, and took deep breaths. With both hands on the steering wheel, he followed the pace through the line, anxiously awaiting his turn.

  As he pulled up to the cop, the young male’s face lit with recognition.

  “Hey, sir.”

  He glanced to the nametag on the kid’s chest. “Officer Shants, how goes it?”

  Shants glanced up and down the line, then leaned his arms on the window and dropped his voice.

  “Truthfully? It’s like we’re running a game of cat and mouse. I don’t know what they think to accomplish by this little task.”

  He nodded, maintaining what he hoped was an outward calm, when instead his stomach was pitching in on itself. “How long are you all doing this? Anything in particular you’re looking for?” Any information he could get out of this idiot would help. Stupid kid was clueless.

  Shants nodded. “You haven’t heard? I figured with you working the case and all—”

  He cut him off. “I’ve been focusing on other matters, but spoke with Detective Lopez and the chief earlier.”

  Light dawned in the officer’s eyes. “Ah.”

  What an idiot.

  “Well, we’re running the checks at all points to get in town and looking for the vehicle, in particular the tires linked to the scene down at the Thorngood’s property.”

  He nodded again. “Roger. Any luck so far?” Leaning to the side, he eyed the other member of this little team as he stepped behind his vehicle and dropped to check out the tires. A fist clenched inside his gut.

  “Nope.” Shants seemed to be at home and leaned against the sid
e of his truck. “Again, I think it’s a lost cause. The guy can’t be so stupid as to show around here after leaving his tracks in that field. Media has already released what the police know, so again, he’d have to be ten kinds of idiot.”

  His grip tightened on the wheel, and he visually pictured landing a meaty fist into Shants’ face. The gush of blood would be so satisfying.

  The kid at the back stood. A pulse pounded in his ears as he watched the frown tug at the kid’s mouth before he walked up to the window. He turned and glanced at the new officer, breathed out a breath of relief when recognition lit his face, too.

  “Oh, hey, sir. I didn’t realize it was you.”

  He nodded like a goddamn bobblehead. God, he needed to get the fuck out of here. Idiots, all of them.

  “All right.” Shants slapped the side of his door. “Go on and get out of here so we don’t waste anymore of your time. We’ll let you know if we find anything.”

  His skin clammy with the sweet sense of relief, he put the SUV in drive and pulled away.

  Christ, that was too close.

  ****

  Darkness cast shadows over the office. Muted sounds of activity could be heard both in and outside the precinct. Charlie let out a weary breath and rubbed at her eyes. The checkpoints barely turned up anything and were a complete failure. The chief was in a raw and grumpy mood, huffing and puffing about a waste of resources, money, and an altogether horrible idea.

  With the established pattern of activity, tonight was the night. If it hadn’t happened already, the next attack was bound to happen soon. It wasn’t something she knew, but more something she felt. Her intuition screamed at her to lock the town down until they caught this guy. She spun in her chair, and stared at the white rolling board covered in pictures and notes, listing each crime, the timeline of events, and clues—or lack thereof—upon it. The escalation of crimes was staggering. The spree had only lasted a few weeks, but with everything laid before her, the very distinct visible increase in violence was evident.

  She stood, walked to the board and tried to put the clues together, see if she missed any details. A dozen breaking and entering crimes failed to give her much more than the guy’s penchant for lingerie. After checking with the surrounding towns, and using the FBI’s Crime Tracker, they’d deduced his focus as centered on anyone within city limits. The age and description of the victims did not help much, either. Each woman was different, unique in her own way. Some single, some married, old and young. She grimaced and remembered the thirteen-year-old victim. Her stomach still churned with nausea over it.

  The sexual assaults came next. The victims, again, didn’t give her much to go on, other than the fact that they lived alone. A mix of looks and descriptions, and all reported their attacker as exceedingly calm and polite, using soothing tones but relishing in his dominant control. As long as they followed directions, he didn’t harm them. He took pictures of them in their clothing and toward the end, used their own vibrators on them, bringing the woman release, much to the dismay and guilt of each victim.

  Years of counseling would consume this town after all was said and done.

  Charlie clenched her fists at her sides and struggled to control the rising fury. She didn’t want to think that Trent had any part in these crimes, and really didn’t at this point, but the coincidences were pretty damning. She didn’t want to think that a man who had held her with such care, stroked her into such a passionate frenzy, would be capable of such crimes. She didn’t want to know he could be the one to cause mental and physical anguish, when her mind replayed their time together with such sweet emotions.

  “Charlie?”

  She looked over a shoulder and blew a breath in and out of her oxygen-deprived lungs. The chief focused on her with concern.

  “I’m okay.”

  The look in his eyes said he believed she was anything but. She turned away and heard a chair’s wheels rolling across the linoleum floor before something brushed the back of her knees.

  “Sit.” An order.

  She fell into the leather and glanced at the board again. “So many victims, Chief.”

  In her peripheral vision, he turned to study the board, too. “Yeah, the guy is some piece of work. In all my years on the force, I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  “You don’t think we’ll catch him?”

  “I didn’t say that. I think we’re going to need to be smarter than he is. He’ll make a mistake sooner or later, and you and Rossi will be there to grab him.”

  Rossi.

  Dear God.

  How the hell could she allow this to go on?

  She swallowed, forced down bile, and motioned to the board. “I’ve been trying to see if I’m missing something. It’s obvious he’s been building his crimes slowly, and I’m beginning to wonder if all the Peeping Tom cases a few months ago may have been linked to him as well.”

  The chief made a noncommittal sound, so she went on.

  “Then you have the B&Es with lingerie taken, the sexual assaults until that, too, couldn’t hold him. We’ve got him moving on to rape and then murder.”

  He nodded and shoved his hands in his pockets.

  “Anything stand out to you? You’ve got the eye for puzzles, always have.” A smile played along her lips as memories of the three of them, her, her father, and the chief putting together Princess puzzles as a kid. Such big, tough guys, yet the two of them always indulged her with acts of play.

  She closed her eyes. The name of whom she suspected hovered on her lips. Her mouth opened, but no words came out. Her breaths were choppy and anguished at lying to someone who she considered her only remaining family.

  “Nothing that hasn’t already been identified,” she choked out. “Our guy knows his stuff, manages to get rid of the evidence left at the scene. He’s organized and very well disciplined. We’ve had two murders we’re aware of at least, and still, this guy hasn’t managed to give us one detail of who he is.”

  “Nothing on the DVD he left?”

  She shook her head. “No, just a sick son-of-a-bitch who apparently got off on taping the entire ordeal. Right on down to having the camera catch the light leaving his victim’s eyes.” Her phone buzzed in her pocket and hope bloomed in her chest as she wrestled to get it free. She hated that she wanted it to be Trent, that she wanted to be near him. Of course she excused her behavior on the fact that if he was with her, at least she wouldn’t be suspicious of if he could hurt someone. She would know.

  Perhaps she could be whom he needed.

  Like an anchor dropping in the ocean, her hope fell as the caller display revealed a number she didn’t recognize.

  She flipped it open. “Lopez here.”

  “Detective.” Dark sensuality oozed over the line, and she fought a shudder.

  “What’s up?”

  “We’ve got another victim, I’m afraid,” Echols relayed. “I just got the call and was going to head out, but Agent Rossi seemed to have taken the cruiser for the night. It’s just outside of Nyack, but I’ve arranged for us to get into the crime scene to check things out. If we can make the connection to our guy, then we’ll take over the investigation.”

  With the mention of Trent’s name and yet another victim, her heart sunk lower than she’d thought possible. That heavy feeling, like concrete sitting on her chest, returned. “I’ll come get you at the hotel.”

  “I’m not staying at the hotel, Lopez. Didn’t you know?”

  She frowned, and a suspicion tickled at the back of her neck.

  “I didn’t,” she said slowly. “Give me your address.”

  He rattled it off, and she snapped her phone shut, and then glowered. She lost focus and scowled at yet another crime occurring, and Trent being nowhere in sight.

  “Who was it?”

  “Special Agent in Charge Echols. He said there’s another victim, one right outside Nyack, but he needs a ride.” She stood, grabbed her brown leather jacket from the back of her chair.
/>   “Where?”

  She paused, then shrugged into her jacket. “I didn’t catch that, but once I pick him up, I’ll let you know.

  He cursed and reached for her arm. “Look Charlie, maybe you should let me take this one.”

  She turned to face him and gave him a gentle smile. “I love you, I really do, Uncle Woo. But I’ll be fine. I need to work out a few things in my head. None of those things will affect tonight and my work on this scene. If this guy has left anything behind, maybe this will be our chance to catch him. We’ll talk as soon as I know more.”

  Woolsey looked like he wanted to argue, but apparently seeing her resolve, let it go.

  “I’m here if you need me, Charlie. And not just as your boss. I hope you know that.”

  She smiled, and impulsively tossed her arms around him. Her face turned into his shoulder, and the scent of butterscotch brought memories gushing in a rush. He was home to her, a comfort that reminded of sweet memories, happy ones. “I’ll be fine, and I know.”

  He gave her a quick, hard hug back, then released her. She stepped away and heard him call gruffly, “Be careful. You’re all I have left, too, Charlie.”

  With a last wave, she stepped out of the building.

  Chapter Sixteen

  “I’m sorry, Mr. Rossi, but I’m going to have to insist you move her to a more secure location. It’s for her safety more than anything else.”

  Trent sighed, turned from the bed, and glanced up at the plump assisted living agent standing in the hospital doorway. Susan Delaney had been working with him for the past year, ever since the day he’d found his mother bloodied, bruised and laying in a heap on the floor—all at the hand of his step-father.

  “I understand, Susan. And I think I’m beginning to get an idea of why. If you have any suggestions, I’d love to hear them.”

  She smiled, and her face transformed from harsh lines into a classic beauty, one that spoke of what she must have looked like in her youth. Brown hair was highlighted with gray and sat in an impeccable bun, not a strand out of place. Her face was devoid of make-up and the only jewelry adorning her tall, thin frame was a single gold band on her left ring finger. “Of course.” Her focus moved to the woman next to him, and her expression softened. He’d seen a stronger version of that look on Charlie’s face hours before. “We all care for her. We’ll do whatever we can to help.”