Property Of

by CP Smith

  Definitely an idiot.

  “I’d say the fact that you realized all that and are willing to admit you’re wrong means you’re not an idiot.”

  “Maybe,” I responded, then took another deep breath and rushed out, “I’m sorry I walked away from you last night. I’ll understand if you’re not interested anymore, but I hope more than anything that you’ll reconsider.”

  Dallas stared at me for a moment, not giving anything away with his blank expression.

  His reply to my question . . . “Sign the paper and I’ll take you home.”

  Right, I guess I had my answer. He’d protect me if I needed protection, as for the other; I’d screwed that up by being an idiot.

  We drove to my house in silence. Dallas seemed to be mulling something over if the way he was biting his lower lip was any indicator. I could see from my peripheral that he looked at me a few times, while I kicked myself for being so stupid. I needed to get my car, but the police had cordoned off the whole block until they could finish investigating, which is why Dallas was taking me home.

  When he pulled his car into my driveway, I grabbed the handle and opened the door. When I turned to thank him for the ride, he was peeling his large frame out of the car so I jumped out as well.

  “Thank you for the ride, Dallas,” I told him as I came around the front of his car. When he stuck out his hand and mumbled, “Keys,” I stared at his large hand.

  “Nicola, give me your keys. I’m not about to let you walk in there without checking first.”

  Nodding, I pulled them out, dropped them in his hand, and followed him up my steps and into the house when he opened the door.

  “Stay here and don’t move,” he ordered and this time I listened. It didn’t make sense that someone was after the girls or me. But nowadays, who really knew who you pissed off just driving down the street. And after seeing Toni laid out that way, I wasn’t about to argue.

  It took him more than ten minutes to check my house thoroughly and when he was done, he came back into the foyer and handed me my keys. He looked down at me; his honey-colored eyes with their flecks of green studying me.

  “Which bathroom did that asshole touch you in?”

  “Um,” I responded, confused, and then figured he needed to know for their case against him. I dropped my purse on my oak entry table and said, “This way.”

  When I reached the bathroom in my master bedroom, I stood to the side and motioned him in. Before entering, he looked around my room and took in my king size, rod iron bed that was dressed out in a floral print and a lace bed skirt, my soft pink walls with a hint of coral to them, and the frilly coasters that I’d draped over my lap shades. He also took in the antique chest of drawers in a warm honey oak and my overstuffed floral chair with its down pillows that I sunk into while I read. I’m sure if he wasn’t already done with me, the site of all that frilly, floral romance that I’d created had him thanking his lucky stars he gotten out while he still could.

  When he turned back to me, I noticed he’d rolled both lips between his teeth, which told me he was trying to keep from laughing. Whatever, I liked my room and since I lived alone, I didn’t have to worry if some macho-man detective liked it or not.

  “Show me where you were standing when he came in,” he finally asked so I walked into the bathroom and stood at the counter.

  Dallas moved in close behind me and stared at my reflection for a moment, holding my eyes. Awareness spiked between us—dark and hungry. Without warning, he buried his face in my neck and his hands came up to my breasts kneading them gently as he ran his tongue up my neck.

  “Is this what that bastard did to you?” he whispered.

  My breath hitched as he pinned me further into the sink, his teeth grazing my shoulder, my neck, his tongue trailing its path, soothing the skin. He pulled his hands from my breasts and I mourned their loss as he pulled one side of my sweatshirt off my shoulder. He began the same sensual trail with his mouth as one hand grabbed my hair yanking my head sideways. The other found its purchase on my breast again, his strong hand stirring my body to life as he continued his attack on my neck.

  My legs went weak as his mouth moved from one side of my neck to the other, his hand still kneading and working my nipple, my hair still held tight in his firm grip.

  “Did he touch my pussy?” he growled suddenly as his hand left my hair and moved south cupping my core over my clothes. I inhaled sharply, my head slamming into his shoulder, while the heat from his hand and the tantalizing way he worked my nipple had me grinding against his erection.

  “Dallas,” I moaned as his finger found my clit through the fabric and began to work it with the precision of a man who knew his way around a female body.

  “I’m gonna make you forget he ever laid a hand on you,” Dallas whispered. “You’re mine now. I’m the only one who touches this,” he rolled my clit to make his point, “or touches this,” he pinched and then rolled my nipple, making me groan, “Or tastes those sweet lips,” he finished and turned his head to capture my lips.

  My head was spinning by the time his hand moved up and in between my loose sweatpants and panties, his fingers hitting its mark twice before they disappeared further between my folds. Dallas hissed, “Jesus you’re drenched,” and drove his fingers in and began a torturous tempo. He kept his thumb on my clit while his fingers played my core like a fine instrument, all while I whimpered my approval.

  Without warning, he growled low and withdrew his hand. I cried out at the loss before both hands tugged my sweatpants off and pushed my shoulders down so I was leaning over the sink. Then he kneeled, spread my legs, and put his warm mouth right where I need it most.

  His tongue went to work and I closed my eyes, relishing the feel of his facial hair against my silken skin. I was so primed from his hand that it didn’t take long for his tongue to bring me to completion. I cried out when I climaxed, but I could still hear Dallas grunt his approval as he kept at me until a second wave erupted like lightening in a summer storm.

  When my legs sagged with exhaustion, Dallas flicked my clit one more time, causing a tiny tremor of arousal. He nipped the inside of my thigh, my butt, kissed my hip, then rose from the floor and pulled me to him. When I sagged against his front, he picked me up and carried me to my bed, laying me gently on the covers as I caught my breath.

  He didn’t lay down with me. Instead, he grabbed the blanket off the foot of the bed and draped it over my half-naked body before sitting down on the side. Dallas ran a hand through my hair until I opened my eyes. When I looked at him, I felt a warm flush run up my neck. He must have caught the color rising to my cheeks because he grinned a half-grin as he watched my face turn pink.

  “You still think I’m not interested in you?” Dallas asked as he leaned down, cupped my face with both hands, and kissed me twice before pulling my bottom lip between his teeth.

  “I’m beginning to see the light.”

  “Good, ‘cause I have to get back to the office. But I didn’t want to leave before I had your full attention.”

  “Oh, you have my attention, detective,” I assured him as I wrapped my arms around his neck.

  “I want you to stay here today and keep your alarm on. I’ll get someone to bring your car to you. I don’t know how late I’ll be, but once I’m done, I’ll come to you.”

  “Do you really think that someone is after us, or are you just being cautious?”

  “Right now I’m not ruling anything out. Promise me you’ll stay here with your alarm engaged.”

  “Ok, I’ll stay put today. But I have a book club signing I have to go to tomorrow that I can’t cancel.”

  “We’ll work something out for tomorrow. I just need time today to sort through this mess,” he explained.

  “Ok,” I acquiesced since he was being accommodating.

  Smiling at how easy he gained my cooperation, no doubt, Dallas kissed me once more before rising from the bed. I sat up and wrapped the blanket around my waist s
aying, “Hold on I’ll walk you out.” I ran to the bathroom and grabbed my lacy panties from the floor. Once I’d pulled them on I turned to leave, and I found Dallas leaning against the door, his eyes focused in the vicinity of where my ass had been.

  “Jesus, I didn’t see what you were wearin’. I’d have taken you hard against the sink if I’d known.

  I looked down and saw my black lace boy shorts that sat low on my hips and made my butt look curvier than it was. “These old things,” I teased as I sashayed past him looking for my robe. I got about a foot past him when a strong arm grabbed my waist and hauled me back into a large erection.

  “You feel this?” he hissed in my ear as he grabbed my hand and placed it over his steel-like erection “I have to spend the rest of the day with that ass burned in my brain and the taste of you in my mouth. When I come back tonight you’re gonna help me work it out.”

  Alrighty then . . .

  “Um, you’re pretty sure of yourself,” I answered, wishing later was now.

  “Babe,” he replied, “You give me a couple of hours and I’ll make that sweet body of yours burn.”

  “Only a couple of hours?” I scoffed.

  “For starters.”

  “Really?” I asked in awe.

  “You better fuckin’ believe it.”

  Twelve

  After leaving Nicola, Dallas had one destination in mind and it wasn’t his desk. He turned down the hall that led to the office that Agent Parker had sequestered. When he reached his door, he didn’t knock; he grabbed the knob and opened the door, walking straight in and around the desk, until he had Parker within his grasp. Not giving a fuck if he got suspended, Dallas reached out, grabbed the agent by his jacket, and yanked him out of his chair.

  “Tell me you didn’t set her up. Tell me you didn’t use her account without her knowledge and bring this fucker to her door?” Dallas thundered.

  Parker had been expecting this confrontation ever since he’d heard about Nicola and her friends. Parker wasn’t about to provoke Vaughn for the simple reason he knew if he was in the same situation, and had a woman he cared about in danger, he’d react the same way.

  “I’ll give you two seconds to take your hands off me then I’ll explain,” Parker threatened.

  Dallas didn’t need two seconds he needed answers. Shoving Parker back, he moved to his door and slammed it shut, leaning against it. He crossed his arms then took a deep breath to calm his rage, while he waited for Parker to pull off his suit jacket and loosen his tie.

  After he’d let Nicola walk away from him the night before, giving her space to sort out her head, he’d gone home. Between wondering what the hell Parker was thinking trying to enlist Nicola for his investigation, and fighting the urge to drive to her house, he hadn’t slept. Wide-awake he’d come into work early. From the moment he’d heard the 911 call over his police ban Dallas hadn’t been able to take a deep breath. Even now as he stood there waiting, his lungs felt constricted. These murders were connected to Nicola and her friends he had no doubt. What he needed to know is if it was because of her online accounts, and the FBI’s interference with them, or something else.

  “We received a request from your captain two months back asking for assistance,” Parker began. “We studied the file and then handed it over to one of our computer experts. We were able to ascertain that your Shallow Grave Killer found his victims through the online websites Plenty of Fish and Sub Seeking Dom. This guy is good, Vaughn, he covers all his bases. That’s why you haven’t been able to pin him down. However, your last victim, Stacy White-Cline, she’d changed phone carriers about a week before she disappeared and her old phone was found at her home. When your computer techs uploaded her files, they found a mobile app called Kik that she used to communicate with your killer. The killer’s profile was taken down about the time she disappeared, but we were able to trace it back to the original source.”

  “Then bring the bastard in,” Dallas responded immediately.

  “We would if it linked back to an individual.”

  “Who the fuck does it link back to?”

  “The Tulsa Police Department,” Parker answered, and watched Vaughn closely for his reaction.

  Parker came to Tulsa with an open mind. Knew when he started investigating, he’d have to consider everyone a suspect. However, after talking with Vaughn he’d instinctively known that the man was innocent. He’d lay is reputation on the fact that he was dealing with a clean cop. He’d talked with enough of his fellow detectives to know Vaughn worked outside the law. Parker knew he did what needed to be done to catch killers, short of manufacturing evidence like some overzealous law men had done in the past. With that in mind, and in the light of what had happened this morning with Nicola and her friends, he decided to bring Vaughn into the fold, so to speak.

  Parker wasn’t there for the Harvest Killer case like he’d told Vaughn. Though he wished he were, that psychopath needed to be exterminated with extreme force as soon as humanly possible. Parker was there to investigate the possibility that one of Vaughn’s own was a serial killer.

  Parker watched as Vaughn sucked air into his lungs, then let is out slowly. Moving from the door, he covered the distance quickly and got nose-to-nose with him.

  “Are you tellin’ me I have what amounts to the devil in my house, in my fuckin department?”

  “No, what I’m telling you is that whoever is committing the murders routed his activity through the department’s computers. I can’t tell if it’s internal or external yet. And without more evidence, I have to conclude it’s internal until I can prove otherwise.”

  “All right, well get back to that in a minute, right now I want your word you didn’t hack into her account and attract this fucker.”

  “I’m not in the habit of bending the law, Vaughn. Until Nicola agrees to cooperate, I won’t touch her accounts.”

  “Accounts? As in plural?”

  “Yeah, she has one on Sub Seeking Dom as well. That’s why she we noticed her when we were digging through the websites. Didn’t she tell you?”

  “No,” Dallas bit out, “but she’s taking them both down tonight.” Dallas studied Parker, gaging the truthfulness of the man. He saw no sign of deceit. “Christ, if you didn’t contact this guy through her accounts and she hasn’t talked with anyone but you, according to her statement, then I don’t know what the fuck I’m dealing with. I don’t believe in coincidence, Parker. That fact she and her friends knew both women—”

  “Agreed,” Parker interrupted. “If it were my case I’d go with that conclusion as well. Let’s assume the connection isn’t Nicola and her friends for a minute, but the first victim. She was a loan officer, correct?”

  “Right,” Dallas responded.

  “Check and see if she denied a loan to anyone who was irate about being declined, or loaned at too high an interest-rate causing the owner to be foreclosed on. It could be that your yoga instructor saw something she shouldn’t on Friday and he came back to keep her quiet.”

  “The evidence suggests rage was involved, that it was personal. The way he hacked her to pieces doesn’t fit with keeping her quiet.”

  “Was the second kill more aggressive than the first?”

  Moving to the corner of the desk, Dallas leaned his hip against it and nodded. “Yeah, it was extreme, off the charts rage.”

  “He might have let loose with the second because he enjoyed the kill so much he got off on it and couldn’t stop.”

  “Developed a taste for it? Jesus, that’s all we need, another psychopath roaming the streets. Can you throw the file at one of your profilers so I can see what I’m dealing with?”

  Parker considered the request and figured it would go a long way toward inter-agency relations. Feeling charitable, Parker shrugged and told Vaughn, “Forward the file. I’ll put my guy on it and see what he comes up with.”

  Nodding, Dallas stood from the desk, but he wasn’t going to leave until he had more answers.

 
“You wanna tell me why you pushed my buttons last night?”

  Parker smiled. Vaughn was sharp, but he wasn’t about to give him the full truth.

  “Not particularly.”

  “You were testing me and I want to know why.”

  “In due time,” was the only answer Parker was going to give. There was one aspect of the investigation Vaughn didn’t need to know until the killer was found.

  Nodding, Dallas clenched his jaw and then turned to leave.

  “She’s an intriguing woman.”

  Dallas paused and looked back at Parker, his hackles rising at the interest in the man’s voice.

  “You don’t find women like that where I’m from,” Parker continued

  “Nope,” Dallas agreed, “you find women like Nicola in your dreams. Lucky for me, I found her first. It’ll be unlucky for you, if you so much as look at her again.” Dallas held the agent’s eyes for a moment, making sure he got his point across, then turned on his heels and left.

  Dallas was scowling when he left Parker’s office, though he grinned when he heard Parker laugh. He knew the man might be interested in Nicola, but he was also a man who knew better than to step on toes.

  When Dallas reached his desk, Reed was waiting for him. He tossed his keys to his partner, and kept right on walking toward the exit. Reed followed without questioning where they were headed.

  “You’re driving.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “To pick up Nicola’s car and return it to her.”