Most men she met didn’t take the time to talk like he had, to take the time to just sit and hold her hand. Sure, many of them made comments about her eyes, most of them sexual. The startling green color had been both a blessing and a curse. Still, Emily had never felt like she had actually been seen like the way Reece had looked at her. She’d had an undeniable attraction to him, and she was sure he felt the pull too, but he hadn’t acted on it. Instead, he’d made sure she got home safely, even after she’d rejected his protection, and then left without pushing her for more. Most men would have wanted something more, she knew, and she enjoyed knowing that just for a change, someone was looking out for her.
It was with thoughts of Reece in her head that Emily had finally fallen asleep. Her head had filled with dreams of his face, his strong body, and nothing else. When her alarm had sounded hours later, she awoke with a smile and was out the door in record time. On her way past, Emily called out good morning to Wanda, who had her head bent over a stack of documents. Wanda mumbled something back at her but didn’t lift her head. Emily chuckled at the lack of return greeting as she made her way over to her own space. When it was time to move on she probably wouldn’t miss much about this job, but she would miss Wanda. Outside of the one late-night conversation they’d exchanged few words, but there was something about her that Emily recognized as a kindred spirit of sorts, someone who was happiest buried deep in her own little world. In fact, Emily wasn’t sure she’d ever seen her even leave her cubicle. The way her life was blowing out of control right now, she valued the consistency of Wanda and her silence.
Emily paused as she took in her desk. Someone had made off with last week’s paper stack in her absence yesterday, and her inbox was blessedly empty that morning. Checking the schedule, she also wasn’t on receptionist rotation for the day. For once she could breeze through her daily tasks and maybe she’d have time to continue where she’d left off in exhaustion last night. Her good mood from the blissfully uninterrupted hours of sleep buoyed again, and when her cell rang several hours later, a small thrill ran through here at the name on the caller ID She considered ignoring it—at this rate she’d be able to leave the office after lunch—but when it rang again the caller’s identity made that very hard to do.
“Hey Reece,” she said, smiling down the line.
“Everything go OK last night?” he asked.
“All quiet. I even managed to get a few hours sleep.”
“Good, I’m glad. Listen, we had a meeting about the case this morning and we—”
“Is something wrong? Did you catch the guy?”
Reece sighed down the line. Emily’s heart was doing backflips, both at hearing Reece’s voice again and also at the thought of the man in the dark again.
“No, he’s still out there somewhere, Emily. Something came to light in a meeting, and I’d like to bring you in to meet my partner and go over the case again.”
Meet his partner? Someone was finally taking all this seriously? She wasn’t even sure herself of what was happening to her yet. She replied quietly, “Is everything OK?”
“It’s fine Emily, you’re fine. But I’d rather not discuss it over the phone. Can you come down to the office?”
“I’ll be there in half an hour,” Emily replied and hung up after taking down the address. She sat back in her chair and took a deep breath. She could be there in fifteen minutes really, but she needed a moment to get her head together. Meeting Reece’s partner, going down to the FBI field office and talking to someone about her dreams in an official capacity scared the crap out of her. Well, if she was honest with herself, just the thought of seeing Reece again did that. He’d been dressed nicely enough the day before, but that was in the early morning. What did he wear when he was in full G-Man mode? Emily pictured him wearing a full tailored suit—black, with a tie and a crisp white shirt. Did he wear a suit jacket too, or was that too difficult for field work? Maybe he’d roll his shirt sleeves up to his elbow, she loved a good strong forearm. Emily felt the blush warm her cheeks just before the warmth heated other more intimate areas. Crap! Now was not the time to start that again. Just her luck, Reece’s partner would be a tall leggy blonde like Lily. Oh my god, stop fantasizing about the man! She was doing this for the woman in her dreams, for all the women who hadn’t gotten away. That was it, and it was enough.
Emily walked over to her manager’s office. “Hey boss,” she said as she popped her head around the corner. Despite the industry stereotypes, the woman had been nothing by kind to her since her first day.
“Hey Em,” the woman smiled up at her waving her into the office. “I do believe this is the first time you have actually visited me in person since you started. How are you liking it around here? Made any friends yet?”
The corner of Emily’s mouth lifted, her smile genuine despite where she was headed. “Work is great, thanks…” she trailed off.
“What can I do for you?” her boss prompted.
“I’m sorry about the late notice yesterday, but I was wondering if I could take a little more time off this afternoon?”
“Everything OK?”
“Sure, just a personal appointment I forgot about.” Emily knew she’d likely have to share the entire story with Reece’s partner. She wasn’t ready to tell anyone else yet.
Emily boss smiled her assent, and waved her out the door, Chicago’s cool breeze greeting Emily as she exited the building. When she reached the FBI office, she was met at the security barrier by an agent. After verifying her ID, he signed her in and escorted her to the eighth floor in silence. Emily’s stomach roiled with nerves, and she wished that Reece had been the one to come down and meet her. On second thought, that probably would have been worse.
The elevator creaked its way up to Reece’s office floor. It was a slow ride, and she had no idea what was waiting for her at the end.
12
Reece pocketed his cell after hanging up with Emily and ran his hand through his hair. He’d probably just stressed her out more by refusing to tell her what was going on, but he couldn’t tell her what he needed to over the phone. If he’d told her that the symbols from her dream had shown up in the BAU briefing, that this guy stalking her in her dreams might actually be real? He wanted to be able to hold her hand when he told her that. He shook his head. Because that’ll really help convince Roscoe that you don’t have an ulterior motive here.
Speak of the devil, well his partner anyway. After this morning’s meeting, he wasn’t so sure they weren’t hunting the real one. The rest of the agents had started exiting the briefing, and he signaled to his partner across the hall. She excused herself from the conversation with the visiting BAU consultant and walked over to join him. “What’s up?”
That Gabrielle Roscoe was an FBI special agent came as a surprise to most. Tall but slim, she didn’t look like she could take down a fly. That was most men’s assumption anyway until they found themselves pinned beneath her on the ground. The FBI could still be a bit of a boys club at times, and some of their fellow agents avoided being partnered with Gabi if at all possible. Once they figured out she was more likely to throw them down than let them in her pants that is. Reece felt differently. Gabi was a hell of an agent and she didn’t take any crap, from him or anyone else on either side. Plus, it always helped their interrogations when a suspect assumed she was about as dangerous as she looked. He might be the one that looked intimidating, at six-foot plus and no stranger to the gym, but Gabi knew how to get a confession faster than almost anyone else in the unit. It always unnerved the assholes a little when sweet Gabrielle Roscoe let her alter ego out to play. Hell, he got a little freaked himself the first time. She could be very convincing, and not always in a good way. She’d look after Emily though, Reece knew. There was nothing that drew Gabi’s wrath more than a sleazeball forcing himself on a woman.
“Remember the woman I mentioned last week? The potential witness I visited after a tip off from my friend in New York.”
G
abi nodded. “You mean the psychic?” she asked in amusement.
Reece’s look silenced Gabi’s chuckle.
“I thought you already spoke to her?”
“Turns out there might be more to it than I thought,” he handed over the napkin. “She drew these for me yesterday. Says they were on the knife in her dream. Look familiar? They sure as fuck do to me.”
She turned the napkin around in her hand, frowning. “Are you sure you’re not seeing something here because you want to, Reece? I agree they might fit the profile, but no one’s actually seen these at a crime scene. A real one at least.”
“She’s scared, Gabi, and she’s not lying. I can tell that much. Whatever is going on, she’s telling the truth about what’s in her dreams.”
“Exactly Reece, dreams.”
“She knows about their hair being sliced off. We didn’t release that detail. Talk to her, what’s it going to hurt?”
Gabi sighed in resignation. “OK, I’ll suspend my disbelief. For now.”
Reece smiled at her. “Play nice,” he replied, just as the elevator dinged and the doors opened to reveal Emily and her escort. He shot another glare at an amused Gabi, warning her to behave.
“Hey,” he called to Emily as she stepped off into the hall. He nodded at the agent by her side and placed his hand on Emily’s back, guiding her to the conference room. “I thought you might have changed your mind,” he whispered.
“Not as long as this interview doesn’t end up with me in a cell, either a 6 by 8 or a padded one,” her eyes caught his and she looked at him dead on. “I’m trusting you Reece. I wouldn’t be here otherwise.”
“I’ll do right by you Emily, I promise,” Reece smiled and gestured at Gabi. “Emily, this is my partner, Special Agent Gabrielle Roscoe.”
Gabi greeted Emily with a smile, as confident as ever as the two women shook hands. Emily couldn’t help by smile back, he noticed. He was glad she was feeling at ease around Gabi. Perhaps she might reveal something she hadn’t told him to a female agent.
Gabi led Emily to a seat at the table, then walked across the room to the mini fridge in the corner. “Do you want something to drink, Emily?”
“Just water would be great, thanks.”
Gabi grabbed two and sat down across the table from Emily. “I’ll let you get your own coffee, Reece. That sludge you drink is going to eat through the mug one day.”
He chuckled and sat next to Emily, taking a closer look. She looked tired, and a longing to wrap her up in his arms swept through him. Yeah, that was not a good idea right now. Emily’s gaze slid sideways, and she caught him staring at her. When Reece failed to start talking, Gabi cleared her through and took charge.
“OK Emily,’ she said, cracking open her bottle of water, “hit me with it.”
Reece watched them both carefully as Emily hesitantly recounted her story again. Gabi was taking her seriously, jotting down notes with her mouth set in a grim line when Emily got to the part about seeing a face looking at her through her apartment window. He really hoped that Gabi could get something out of this, something he might have missed. Emily finished her recount and took a long drink of her water, looking between him and Gabi nervously. Reece gave her what he hoped was a reassuring look, and then spoke. “From what Emily’s described to me, I think we need to look more closely at the possibility of a ritualistic killing.”
Gabi’s eyes narrowed slightly. She didn’t agree. “Seemed all a bit too random and detached to me. Outside of the throat slitting there’s been no desecration of the bodies and no sign of any religious or ritual relics at the scene. This guy strikes whenever and wherever he wants, there’s no pattern or ritual to the murders.”
“Except for the lock of hair he takes.”
“Yeah, but just about every serial takes a trophy of some sort. That doesn’t mean that the killings are linked to any sort of ritual,” Gabi turned to Emily “Did you see anything else in your dreams? Candles, crosses, any religious symbolism at all?”
“I saw the symbols on the knife,” Emily answered tentatively. “He uses the same one every time. That’s got to mean something, right?”
Gabi spoke first, “Maybe, but that’s not real evidence. We don’t have any proof—” she stopped abruptly as Reece glared at her over Emily’s shoulder. She stared back, shrugging as if to say ‘What’d I do?’
“Hang on a moment Emily,” Reece said. “I just need to grab something.” He exited the conference room and stepped quickly down the hall to where they’d held the meeting earlier that morning. A couple of printouts from the briefing were still lying on the table. He picked them up and returned before Gabi could start in on the validity of Emily’s dreams again. Emily’s trust in him was hanging on by a thread, and he wasn’t going to give her any reason to regret coming forward. They needed her if they were going to solve this; he could feel it in his gut.
Emily and Gabi were chatting quietly when he entered the room again, Gabi doing most of the talking. Reece thought he heard the name Malano Blahnik, but he had no idea who that guy was. Girl stuff, who could figure it out. At least, Gabi wasn’t accusing Emily of lying, or worse, losing her mind. He spread the papers from the briefing out across the table, each sheet with a printout of the ritual symbols the BAU agent had briefed them on. “Do you see anything here at all that matches your dreams?”
Emily’s eyes widened as she took in the papers. It didn’t take her long to pick out the same ones that had looked very familiar to Reece. It was the ones that had caused his heart to race when he’d seen it during the briefing. The runic markings were almost unmistakable. She picked up the paper and held it out to him with shaking hands. “That’s it, that’s the one. They’re on the knife.”
Gabi took the paper from Reece’s hands. “You’re sure, they’re similar?” she asked Emily.
The pallor of Emily’s face was enough for Reece to be sure before she even spoke. “I’m positive. They’re not just similar, they’re exactly the same. They’re carved into the knife he tried to kill me with. That was real, and I’ll never forget it,” she met Gabi’s stare and held it.
There’s my girl. Shit what? My girl?
Gabi nodded briskly. “They’re Santeria symbols,” Gabi looked over at Reece again, and the meaning behind her stare was obvious. This was it. There was something more than just killing for fun here, and now Gabi knew it too. It wasn’t much, but now they knew what they were up against he could protect Emily better. He didn’t know what was going on, hell he’d only just met the girl, but she brought out all his caveman instincts. He couldn’t pick her up and drag her away from danger right now, but he was damn well going to keep her safe until he could.
Emily felt drained as Reece walked her back to the elevators. She’d said a vague goodbye to the other agent, her thoughts stuck on the images from the printouts Reece had shown her. There was something more to all this than a random man hunting her, more than just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. She had felt it in her bones, and now she had proof. The longer she went without proper sleep, the more she was afraid of what she would come when she finally couldn’t stay awake any longer. Reece may not be a believer in the supernatural, but Emily was starting to think her grandmother had been onto something. She didn’t want to know what else would find her in her dreams.
She remained silent through the elevator ride down to the ground floor with Reece. His presence helped stall some of the panic mounting inside her, but not all of it. Emily glanced at him, he wasn’t entirely calm either. Reece’s jaw was clenched and his hands were fisted in his pockets. He stood stiffly, his weight on his heels, no doubt trying to appear relaxed, but he wasn’t fooling her. The fact that her dreams might have been right about this all along, and that the FBI had been looking in the wrong direction for months, must have thrown him.
Reece finally spoke as they exited the elevator, his hand touching her lower back again to guide her exit. His touch felt better than Emily wanted to admit.
“Thanks for coming. I know it couldn’t have been easy.”
Emily smiled. Despite almost having her fears confirmed, she still felt an aura of safety around Reece. She couldn’t explain it, but she’d take what she could get at the moment. “Thanks for inviting me. I hope what we discovered will help you find this guy.”
“Do you want me to take you home?” he asked, returning her smile. A feeling of warmth seeped through her at the thought of Reece in her home again. Emily almost said yes, but then hesitated at the last minute. Despite the fact that Luke was a friend and he had recommended she talk to Reece, she was sure his recommendation had been only business. Plus, she’d only met Reece a few days ago. She wasn’t ready to take that step. Better to keep any interactions strictly professional.
“No, thanks, though. I’m just going to take a cab,” even as she spoke, Emily was mentally kicking herself. It’s the right decision. She only hoped she still agreed with that when the sun set again. Reece insisted on walking her out to the curb, and they made their way out to the front of the gleaming glass building. As Emily walked to the curb, a man dressed in jeans and a ball cap roughly pushed into her, knocking her bag from her hands.
“Watch where you’re walking!” he shouted back at her. Emily didn’t recognize the man and ignored him. Just your everyday moron making the rounds. Reece was not so relaxed about it. Before Emily realized what he was doing, he grabbed the man by his shoulder and forced him to stop. When the man turned around, Reece stood inches from him, blocking him from Emily’s view. “How about you show some respect and apologize to the lady,” he said through gritted teeth. He looked like he was fighting the urge to pummel the guy.
Emily (Dreamcatchers Romantic Suspense Series Book 1) Page 8
