by Brenda Novak
“You were shivering,” he muttered. “Don’t make a deal out of this, Ivy.”
No deal. She pulled the coat closer and got back to the business of returning to the crime scene. She was actually relieved to have Bennett with her. Until a few months ago, he’d been working with the FBI’s Violent Crimes division. She didn’t know what had occurred, but he’d left the Bureau abruptly and come back home. Some folks had whispered that he’d gotten burned on his last big case.
She couldn’t ever imagine the guy getting burned.
The parade was over, so that meant that the streets had cleared out—ghost town kind of clearing. That was the routine. Parades equaled people packing the downtown area, but as soon as those parades were over, people vanished. They went home, they went into the restaurants, or they hit the balls.
So it was easy to cut through the streets and find her way back to that terrible spot.
“Right here.” She paused across from the Square, her gaze on the abandoned building. Historic, beautiful, but now seemingly forsaken. The windows were covered with boards, and the ornate railing on the front of the building was coated with peeling paint. “They were right here. I saw the man. I saw his knife.” She whirled toward Bennett. “He stabbed her. I yelled for him to stop. I yelled for help, but no one heard me.”
His gaze held hers.
“He had on a mask,” Ivy continued quickly. “Like mine, but white.” And she could not remember which Mardi Gras society was wearing the white masks this year—but she would be finding out. She wasn’t walking away from this situation, no way. I’m a PI. I can handle this. So she wasn’t a cop with a badge. That didn’t mean she couldn’t help people. She’d spent the last few years of her life taking cases so that she could help.
And atone for the sins of the past.
“His mask covered his full face.” It hadn’t just been a partial mask like the one she wore. “I didn’t imagine what happened. This was real!”
He brushed past her and pulled out his phone. A quick tap on the screen, and a bright light illuminated the scene. Flashlight app. “There’s no blood,” he said.
The cop—Officer Chambliss—had told her the same thing after his big two-second search of the scene.
Bennett kept shining the light. “If someone was stabbed, there’d be—”
He broke off, and his light hit the faint spots on the ground. Spots that had been hit by dozens of shoes as the crowd left the parade. Spots that could be—
“Blood,” Ivy whispered.
Bennett glanced at the building. “You say the guy and the victim vanished?”
She nodded.
“If he was dragging an injured woman—or a dead body—he couldn’t move very fast. Or very far.”
Her gaze cut to the building. “The front door is locked.” There was a giant chain and a padlock in front of the main doors and all of the windows on that side were boarded up.
“Then he didn’t go in that way.” Bennett hurried around to the rear of the building. He slid into the narrow alley way and stopped near a dark door. Bennett reached for the knob, but a quick twist showed that the door was locked.
Dammit. She’d hoped—
“Stand back,” Bennett directed.
He lifted his foot and kicked that door open.
Her jaw dropped when the wood splintered. “Wait! Aren’t you supposed to have a warrant or—”
He was already rushing inside, his light sweeping the floor. So…No warrant. She hurried after him, her steps slower because that darkness inside was so heavy and thick. The place smelled musty and old and when Ivy felt something—not a rat, not a rat!—race across her shoe, she screamed.
Bennett grabbed her and yanked her against his chest.
Get your control. You’re a PI for goodness sake. Act like it.
“Ivy?”
She sucked in a deep breath. “Sorry.” She’d panicked. That happened in the dark when things were coming at her.
He let her go. His light swept the area once more, flying across the dirty, dusty floor. Yellow eyes gleamed back at them as a rat scurried for cover.
That rat ran right across a pale, slender hand.
Ivy’s heart stopped. “Bennett?”
He’d seen the hand, too, and he was already kneeling beside the woman. A woman in a glittering, golden gown. A woman with long, dark hair.
A woman who lay in a pool of blood.
His fingers pressed to the woman’s throat, but Ivy already knew they were staring at a dead woman. I could have saved her! I had the chance…
Bennett slid away from the body. “Don’t touch anything,” he ordered, voice curt. ‘I’ll call this in and get a crime scene team down here.”
She wasn’t touching anything. She was barely breathing, much less moving. When Bennett’s light had fallen on the victim, she’d seen that the woman appeared to be in her mid-twenties. Her face had been chalk-white, her hair thick and dark as it spilled onto the dirty floor.
“All dressed up,” Ivy whispered. And nowhere to go…
***
They’d found the body. Too fast.
His eyes narrowed as he slid back into the shadows. He’d just left his sweet victim there for a little while. The crowd had thinned, and he’d come back, ready to move his precious prey.
But she wasn’t alone.
And all of his plans were about to get screwed.
He hunched his shoulders and turned, hurrying down the street. The night hadn’t gone at all like he’d planned.
Not at all…
His mask was in his pocket. His fingers slid inside and touched it. He felt so strong when he wore his mask. And his victims knew—he was invincible.
The cops won’t stop me. No one will.
Maybe he would show his new prey the mask. She could get up-close to it and then…then she’ll see all of me.
***
“No!” Ivy snapped at him and, if it had been brighter, Bennett was sure that Ivy’s brown eyes would be spitting fury at him. “I’m the one who saw the attack! You don’t get to just—just shove me into the back of a car and send me off in the night!”
Sighing, Bennett kept his hold on the patrol car door. “I’m afraid that’s exactly what I get to do.” Blue police lights flashed around the scene. Reinforcements had come running at his call. Unfortunately, they hadn’t come in time to help the victim.
“I saw—”
“You said that you saw a man in a white mask. A guy wearing a tux. You couldn’t tell me his hair color, his eye color—”
“I told you he was tall,” she cut in, her words shooting out fast. “About your height, with broad shoulders. He was fit. Strong.”
Since he’d dragged a dead woman into an abandoned building without anyone noticing, it stood to reason that the guy was fairly strong. And as far as being around Bennett’s height…we’re looking for a perp who is close to six foot three.
“I can help!” Ivy told him. “Let me stay.”
No way. “The crime scene techs need to work.” He inclined his head toward her. “I got your statement, and I’ll follow-up with you tomorrow if I have any other questions.”
Her jaw dropped. “That’s it? I see a murder and you just let me go?”
“What do you want me to do?” He eased closer to her. He had always been drawn to Ivy. “Keep you?” The words hung in the air between them, and he thought about just what he would do if he ever did get to keep the lovely Ivy.
She’d been his first crush, though he doubted she realized it. But then, most of the guys in their class had been drawn to the gorgeous Ivy. It was hard not to look at Ivy and want.
Wide, dark eyes. Full lips. Creamy skin. If Snow White were real and strolling around town, causing trouble, he figured she’d look just like Ivy.
Ivy had high cheek bones, a delicate jaw, and a body that had obviously been built for sin. He’d imagined that body—them together—too many times.
But what he’d never imagined, that
would be Ivy, tangled up in a murder scene. He should have, though. Especially with all the drama that her family liked to cause.
DuLane Investigations. That particular PI business had been in operation since Ivy’s grandfather opened it up back in 1970. It was a business known for attracting scandal and raising serious hell.
“Officer East will escort you home,” Bennett told her, aware that his voice had roughened. Ivy could look for trouble elsewhere. This case was his. “He’ll make sure that you arrive safely.”
“It’s not my safety that we need to worry about,” Ivy argued quickly. “I can take care of myself. There’s a killer out there! We need to focus on stopping him.”
Because he didn’t realize that. His hands curled around her shoulders and he pushed her into the back of that car. “You saw the killer,” he told her bluntly. “Did you ever stop to think…maybe he saw you, too?”
Bennett heard the quick hitch in her breathing.
That’s right. “So, yes, I believe you can protect yourself.” He’d seen her at a shooting range before, and he knew she’d gotten her black belt in Tae Kwon Do by the time she was fourteen. “But you’re getting a police escort home. It makes me feel better, all right?” He eased away from the car.
Her hand flew out and caught his wrist. Her touch was soft, oddly sensual. “I had my mask on, too,” Ivy said quickly. “He won’t know who I am.”
He will if he lingered. If he watched…Bennett shook his head. “If he was standing in that building while you and the cop were outside before, he could’ve heard you talking.” She needed to understand what she faced. “He could have followed you and watched until you took off your mask or until you gave the cop your name.” With that information, it would be too easy to track her down. “You’re getting a police escort home. Lock your doors. Set your alarm. And I will be seeing you tomorrow.”
Her hand began to slide away from his. Bennett’s hand twisted and he caught her fingers in his. “If you need me, call me.”
“I-I don’t have your number.”
What? Bennett shook his head. Sometimes he forgot…despite the tangled web between them, plenty had changed over the years. He gave her the number, then, just to be safe, he scribbled it down on a piece of paper and tucked it into her hand. “Call me.” Anytime. “I’ll come to you.”
Then he made himself pull back. Officer East stood just a few feet away, watching him with wide eyes. He wondered if this was the guy’s first murder scene.
If the fellow planned to make a career out of law enforcement, it wouldn’t be his last.
Bennett had seen too many scenes to count, but those scenes—they often replayed through his nightmares.
Officer East headed briskly toward the driver’s side of the vehicle. Bennett stepped into his path. “Keep her safe.”
Bennett’s guts were twisted over this case, mostly because…hell, when he’d looked down at that woman’s body in the abandoned building, when he’d seen her pale skin and that mass of dark hair, he’d realized—
She looks like Ivy.
Same hair color. Same build. An unease had settled heavily around his shoulders.
Officer East nodded and slipped into his car. Bennett watched that patrol car vanish, and he couldn’t help but remember another time when Ivy had been taken from him.
Years ago. Another car, another place.
That had been the day he broke Ivy DuLane’s heart.
Stay with me, Bennett. I love you.
Her words had haunted him for years. And finally, those words…they’d brought him back home.
But now that he’d finally talked to her again, finally stared into her eyes, he wondered if he’d just followed that dream far too late.
***
Ivy didn’t live far from the murder scene—and maybe that should have made her nervous. If the killer had learned her name, then getting her address would be child’s play. And he could easily access my home.
“Ma’am?” Officer East turned to stare at her. “You want me to come inside with you?”
She glanced at the house. Far too big and rambling. Far too many spaces in there that would make perfect hiding spots. “You’re damn right I want you in there.” She’d inherited the house when her grandfather died. Part of the place had been renovated and was completely livable—the other part? Not so much.
Ivy remained in the foyer while the cop searched her house. She pulled her coat closer—Bennett’s coat. She’d forgotten to give it to him before she left the scene, but he’d said that he would see her the next day, so she could always return it to him then. She’d return it and grill him about the case. Because if that guy thought she was just walking away from this situation, he needed to think again.
“Clear.”
The cop’s voice made her jump. He’d done one very fast sweep of the house and the guy stood near her door now, looking eager to leave.
“Thank you,” Ivy told him.
Officer East just nodded, and a few moments later, he was gone. She locked the door behind him, then hesitated, hating that heavy silence around her. Normally, she actually liked the quiet. It let her think. But right then…
A glittering gown soaked with blood. A woman on the floor, blood around her.
Ivy hadn’t been able to do a thing to save the other woman.
She turned away from the door, walked through the foyer, and headed for the stairs. Bennett had told her to set her alarm, but she didn’t actually have one of those in the house. Not yet. She’d be making an alarm system an immediate priority, though.
She’d only taken a few steps up the stairs when her doorbell rang. The long, loud peal echoed around her. Frowning, her gaze cut back to the door. Had the cop forgot something? She hurried back to the entrance and her fingers fumbled as she unlocked it. Then she hesitated. Surely…if the killer had tracked her down…he wouldn’t just ring the doorbell…would he?
Someone pounded on the door. “Come on, Ivy, open up.”
Relief had her shoulders sagging. She knew that voice. It was her friend, Cameron Wilde. She finished unlocking the door and she swung it open—
A tall, broad-shouldered man stood on her porch. A well-cut tux covered his body and a white Mardi Gras mask hid his face.
“Hello, Ivy,” Cameron said from behind his mask. The sight of that mask chilled her. “Are you ready for a night you won’t forget?”
Her porch light glared down on them as she backed up, her heart racing.
Chapter Two
Ivy grabbed the door and tried to shove it closed, but his fingers curled around the wood.
“Uh, Ivy?” he said. “If you don’t want to go to the ball, that’s—”
The ball? Ivy let go of the door and grabbed his mask.
Cameron Wilde blinked at her. Even under the harsh light, he was perfectly handsome. Perfectly styled. His blond hair swept back from his high forehead, giving him an even more polished look.
“I thought you were changing out of that outfit,” he said as his gaze slid over her body. “But if you want to go straight to the ball in—”
“Your Mardi Gras ball is tonight.”
“Right.” His brows climbed. “That’s why we had a date, remember?” Now he sounded annoyed. “That would be why I did that whole ‘night you won’t forget’ bit before.”
She stared down at the white mask she now gripped in her hands. It was exactly like the mask that the killer had worn. And Cameron—he was about the right height. His shoulders were broad and strong.
With the mask on, and with him wearing that tux…Cameron looked just like the killer.
Only Cameron wasn’t a killer. She’d known him since she was six years old. They’d been lovers just once—one desperate night—and friends for so long that she could barely remember her days without him.
And yet…as she stared up at him…a shiver slid down her spine.
When I opened the door, it was as if the murderer was standing right before me. Ivy edged back
toward her house.
“Ivy? What’s wrong?” Then Cameron laughed. “Why are you looking at me like I’m some kind of killer?”
Because I’m trying to figure out if you are. But she didn’t tell him that. Instead, she asked, “D-do all of the men in your organization wear these white masks?”
“Those are the ones we picked this year.” He shrugged. “I didn’t ride in the parade tonight, so I’m not in costume.”
Each year, she knew members switched up and different folks would ride in the floats so that all organization members would eventually have a chance to be in a parade. The man she’d seen that night—he’d been in a tux and a mask, just like Cameron’s. Because he’s in the same Mardi Gras society? Because he was one of the men not riding in their parade?
Cameron was in the Order of the Pharaohs, one of the oldest groups in Mobile. They’d paraded right before her group, kicking off the night. Their ball was already rolling, no doubt packed out and…
Is the killer there?
Because it made sense. Maybe he’d been planning to attend the ball with the woman in the gold gown. But he’d killed her instead. Would he now show up there, just to give himself some kind of alibi?
“Are we going to the ball?” Cameron asked. “Remember the plan, we hit your party, then my ball? Double the fun in one night?” When she didn’t respond, his face hardened. “Ivy, what’s happening?”
Trust him. She shouldn’t be afraid of Cameron, but she was. Because he was the right size and that mask…she thrust it back into his hands. “Where were you earlier tonight?”
He motioned behind him, and she saw the limo idling by the curb. At his cue, the door opened, and another man in a black tux waved toward her. Only he didn’t have on a mask.
Her twin brother smiled up at her. “Come on, Ivy!” Hugh yelled. “Don’t take all night.”
“I was with your brother,” Cameron said.
