Not that they would ever suspect him.
He blended in effortlessly.
He was the boy next door.
Racing back over to his car, he hopped in and pulled away. Tonight was an amazing night, and he was about to bring home the first woman who he ever loved.
Finally, patience had paid off.
A few hours later, she awoke.
Her body was inside some make shift cage. As she tried to sit up, she found that her ankles and neck were tethered with duct tape. Her head swam as she tried to figure out what the hell was happening.
“I was worried about you, Melissa. I thought that maybe you struck your head a little too hard.”
She glanced over towards the voice, as her eyes struggled to adjust to her surroundings. “Where am I?”
His laughter filled the room. “You’re in my home,” he answered, as he turned in a circle with his arms out. “I’ve built it just for you and the ones who will join you.”
“Who are you?”
He glanced over at her. “I’m a collector.”
She stared around the concrete room and counted the ten cages. No other ones were filled. She was the only one there. “If you let me go, then I swear that I won’t tell anyone. I don’t know where I am, so I can’t tell the police where you live,” she begged, already hoping that the man could be rationalized with on some level. In the back of her mind, she was memorizing his face. Something about it seemed… familiar.
His laughter said it all.
“Please?”
“You’re a beautiful woman, Melissa, and I am going to take very good care of you. I always do. When I decide to create a collection, I treasure it for a very long time.”
She was horrified.
Yes, she’d seen things like this on the news, but never did she believe that she would end up a victim to such a horrible crime. How did this all happen? Why was she locked in a cage in his basement?
He moved closer to the woman and began snapping more pictures to keep the memories fresh in his mind forever. Now, he could go back and relive this time over and over again.
This was perfect.
“So, you’re going to collect women?” she asked, the horror still evident in her voice. If she could hear it, certainly he could too.
He grinned without offering her a single word.
“Then what?”
That he pondered. Yeah, he couldn’t keep them forever. It would be a financial strain, and he didn't want to damage any of them. “I guess when I finish gathering all my girls, then I’ll do the most responsible thing with all of you.”
She stared at him, her lower lip beginning to quiver. “And that is?” Melissa asked, almost terrified to know.
He shrugged, knowing that he really didn't have many options. “I’ll sell you to someone else that wants to collect or I’ll have to hide you away forever.”
Melissa knew what that meant, and it made her wanted to vomit. When his hand entered the cage to stroke her like a pet, she began to scream.
Again, he smiled. She could call for help all that she wanted. There was no one to hear her or stop him.
He had made sure of that months ago.
“You can yell all you want, Melissa, but it won’t deter me from enjoying you while I can. Finding you and bringing you home took a great deal of work. I plan on taking my time and having fun with my treasure.”
Panic reverberated through her body as she fought against the restraints. She watched him open the front of the cage and pull a hypodermic needle from his back pocket. His handsome features twisted in anger.
“We could have done this the easy way, Melissa, but you had to be difficult.”
She shook her head and tried to avoid the long needle by moving her body as far as she was permitted. God, she couldn’t let him do this! Who knew what was in that hypodermic.
It gave him an iota of pleasure as he shoved it deep into her thigh and pumped her full of drugs.
“Please,” she begged. “Please don’t do this to me. I didn't do anything to you,” Melissa slurred, as the drug began to take effect.
He ignored her words, as he straightened her disheveled club wear and waited until it was safe to take her out and play with her. After all, he liked his women to be kept neat and orderly.
“You did lots to me, Melissa. You made me want you and fall in love with you. Now, you have to be mine.”
There was no reply from her, as her head dropped back and her eyes rolled up into her head.
“Welcome to my collection, Melissa. You have the pleasure of being my brunette.”
With that, he set her free of her bonds and took the time to thoroughly enjoy his newly acquired treasure.
Like any good collector would.
Chapter One
Tuesday Morning
Delta Falls
Owning your own business was both a blessing and a curse. There were days when you woke up and were excited to head into work, and other days when you just wanted to stay in bed.
Today was the kind of day that fell somewhere in the middle.
Julian Littlemoon loved what he did for a living. He had the privilege of being a private investigator and tracker. His job was to find the lost, and he believed that he was damn good at it. Finally, his path in life, with all its ups and downs, had led him right here to this moment. This was the culmination of all his hopes and dreams.
Growing up, he had lived all of his life on a reservation with his mom, two brothers, and two sisters. It wasn’t an easy life, but they had all somehow survived. He attributed that to his mother, Clarissa. She was bad ass to the bone, and everyone knew it. Without her diligence and strong will to make it in life, they would have been just one more reservation failure.
Once he had been old enough to get a job, there had only been one thing that he had wanted to do. Deep down in his soul, Julian knew that he was meant to be in law enforcement. So, when he could, Julian signed up to be a deputy in Red River.
It hadn’t been exactly what he expected. Where he believed it would be a fun and exciting career. It had been the opposite. Mundane days led to boredom and long hours, where he barely could get through it all.
Don’t get him wrong. It wasn’t a bad gig. It just wasn’t the one for him. Julian Littlemoon knew that he had one major character flaw.
He didn't work well with a boss.
Even though he was quiet and got along with everyone, he always knew that he was meant to be the one in charge. That way, when he flipped off the head honcho, he was directing it right at himself.
In life, there were few people who you could trust, and he liked to keep his circle very small. When it came to having someone cover your back, there were only a handful of individuals that he trusted with that honor.
After leaving his job as a deputy, he began the quest to run his own private investigation agency. It had been a long shot and somewhat of a pipe dream, just out of his reach. How was a simple Native man going to afford a building and his own business? He was more the equivalent of small time, working out of his cabin on the Rez.
Until she entered the picture.
Tori Rose Christensen was the game changer when it came to his heart, life, and business prospects.
He had met her on an assignment, as he was being contracted by the FBI to do a job. They had their first run in deep within a swamp in Cypress Grove. She had knocked his ass into leech infested waters and, from that moment on, it was love at first sight.
Well, for him it was anyway.
From there, like anything in life, it wasn’t easy. His fiery haired vixen ran for her life. She didn't want anything to do with him, but with a little ‘Elizabeth Blackhawk intervention’, he found her again. They had been forced to work together and his soldier girl fought tooth and nail.
Thinking back to the last year, his heart ached for her. When he had met Tori, she was broken and in pieces. The war that she so valiantly fought overseas had left her battered and destroyed. Now,
with a little therapy and TLC, she was almost as good as new.
Like with the job, there were good and bad days, but they were expected. While his marriage was amazing, Tori sometimes had a flashback or nightmare. There were moments where she would find herself back in the Middle East, fighting for her life. It didn't matter to Julian. His wife was more than worth the investment, and he was willing to stick with her for the long haul.
No matter what.
But, like many things in Julian’s life, he overcame and so would she. The road back may not be easy, but being married to Tori was nothing but heavenly. Slowly, they were nursing her heart back together again, and in the process Julian was healing the deep wounds to his own. Now, he wasn’t alone on his journey. He was taking it with his wife.
Oh, and his twin brother.
Okay and another ex-deputy.
Yeah, it was his own Native menagerie sprinkled with his outsider babe. His circle was pretty complete, and Julian was more than content.
He was making something of himself, and he hoped that when his father looked down at him, from wherever he was, that he was proud. Julian had kept his promise to put the Littlemoon name on a sign and give it the prestige that it deserved.
His word was golden and that was all that mattered.
It wasn’t all done on his own. Without his wife, he wouldn’t be where he was at that moment in time. Tori was the reason that he could keep his promise and make a life off the Rez. She sold her home to buy into his private investigator business, and he was damn glad. That capital gave them an opportunity that he might not have been able to afford.
Their life was the perfect storm and had lined up effortlessly. From the situations, to the players in the game, it all fell into place.
Each person, who he employed, brought something unique to the company.
Where Julian was full Native American and born to hunt, Tori was a whole other story. She had been a damn good soldier, and could find her way out of the woods in the dark, while carrying a ruck sack or a fallen comrade if need be. Yet, oddly, if she had to find her car keys in the morning, it was an ordeal.
Go figure.
What did Tori bring to the table? Tori was the weapons expert. In fact, she could out shoot him, his brother, and probably his father, had he been alive. There was something sexy about a woman who could be bad ass. Her other skill was she was damn good at working up a plan. If the team needed to find a way into a situation, Tori was their girl. Give her a map and twenty minutes and she would give you a strategy that was worthy of Patton himself.
Not that they needed a major one yet, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
At that moment, Julian wasn’t really thinking about her work skills. He’d been forced to leave the apartment early to handle some paperwork and payroll, and he missed waking up his wife.
After all, they were still newlyweds.
What he wanted to do was crawl all over her. Since getting married, that had become his favorite past time. Who could blame him? Tori was absolutely breathtaking. How some Native from the Rez caught her was a huge mystery. On a scale of one to ten, his wife ranked off the charts. All that red hair and the stormy gray eyes started his heart pounding in his chest. In fact, it made his body respond just thinking about it.
Julian wasn’t a giant of a man. If anything, he was just average sized, and Tori fit perfectly against him, reconfirming that she was definitely made for him. When they were side by side, it was like two puzzle pieces locking together. In his opinion, there was never anyone else who would fit this seamlessly into his life.
Tori was most definitely his other half, and he was a blessed man to have her in his life.
When they had returned from their honeymoon, they immediately went into work mode. The first step was to find a place that they could hang a shingle. The business needed an office and a home base to work out of. As much as they both loved the Rez, and why she did was beyond him, they couldn’t work there.
There just wasn’t enough crime to keep a business going. Red River was too damn small of a community. When the biggest part of the town was a reservation, there was just no way to sustain a budding new business.
So, they had to look at the surrounding areas. The only place that appealed to them was a medium sized town called Delta Falls. It was almost two hours from home, so the building they bought had to have an apartment above it where they could reside. When they weren’t working, or the schedule cleared, they headed home to the Rez. When they were busy making a living, they called Delta Falls their home. It was convenient, and ensured that they were never late to work.
Well… usually.
At first, Julian waited for Tori to be unhappy with their new existence. Here was a simple man, giving her a simple job, and a very simple life. She was vibrant and sparkled, and he never wanted to extinguish that. She had left a good career at the FBI to follow him through life and it scared him. What if she changed her mind or saw the truth?
Deep down, he feared being unworthy of everything that the Great Spirit had handed him, and that included Tori.
Even after months of marriage, he was still a little bit befuddled. How had he gotten so lucky in his life?
That was probably a mystery he would never be able to solve. Not in this lifetime, anyway.
The same was true on their business acumen, or as he liked to call it, luck. They opted to place their business smack dab in the middle of the bustling town. At first, they had speculative glances, but being the only private investigative agency in the area, business eventually started to pick up.
Then, it grew exponentially.
Within weeks, they had to hire on contractors to help carry the workload.
In came Justin Littlemoon as their first employee. He held a special place in both of their hearts, and when he didn't reenlist for the military, he was their obvious choice.
In fact, he held more than a fondness for them both. He was Julian’s twin and their third wheel. If you needed to find Justin, just look for his brother and there he would be.
It was very reminiscent of their childhood. Frick and Frack were together again, and instead of getting in trouble, they were finding the lost.
Julian and Justin looked the same and sounded the same, but that was where the similarities ended. The two men behaved NOTHING alike. Well, unless it came to Tori. Justin had an attachment to Julian’s wife, and it was entertaining to watch. When he would make some inappropriate comment, Tori would generally slug him or hand him his ass. A few times, Julian had the pleasure of watching his flame haired babe school him like no one ever had before. The best part was when his twin found himself on his back, dazed and confused.
Thank God that they didn't have an HR department, because there were constant flagrant violations always going on.
The beauty was that his brother would never think to lay his hands on a woman in retaliation, so it made it that much more interesting. The tough Marine had a very soft spot in his heart for Julian’s Army babe. So much so, that he took the roughhousing without batting an eyelash.
In fact, one might say that his brother was a masochist. Justin loved to rile Tori up, only because he enjoyed the way she would tease him back.
It was very brotherly and sisterly, and something that was very familiar in their family. As a Littlemoon, it was sink or swim, and his wife was treading water with ease.
If you dug down beneath the truth of it all, Justin had ulterior motives for his antics.
Since Julian’s wife was ex-Army and his brother a Marine, he loved to push her buttons. He had warned Justin that it was like taking a powder keg and placing it beside a lit candle, but it fell on deaf ears.
Justin wouldn’t stop his torment, and it was always only a matter of time until something exploded and hilarity ensued. For the Littlemoons, it was expected. The people he loved had a power struggle going on to prove which branch of the services was far superior. He cherished every second with them and didn't mind the t
easing. Deep in his heart, he knew the truth. Tori was his and forever would be, and Justin would never cross the line. This battle was won, and Julian had gotten the girl, and he knew she was never leaving his side.
That would be happening over his dead body.
Besides Justin and Tori being part of the team, he had hired Kane Redwolf. They had worked beside him in an assignment for the FBI. The man had been a suspect in the ‘Skinwalker’ killings, but turned out to be innocent. While working with him, they saw the character of the man and decided to give him a try.
Before signing on, he had been tasked to run the reservation police department until the old chief of police recovered from his wounds. He’d done it well, and that spoke volumes to his ability. Kane thrived in the chaos, and that was probably a good thing, because Littlemoon Investigations was a hot bed of craziness at any given time.
When Kane’s position came to an end, he didn't want to go back to being a deputy. The interaction with the FBI and the killer had added a new desire to his life.
Didn't Julian understand that completely?
Kane Redwolf didn't want to merely exist. He wanted to experience it all. What he wanted was to live on the edge and have fun in life and that meant moving on, much like Julian had done.
They had hired him to do some of the undercover jobs with his brother, but mostly to be the ‘muscle’. You wouldn’t think that you’d need to have some big beefy man as backup as a private investigator, but there was safety in numbers. There had been a few times that an angry husband, who had been caught cheating, had opted to kick the shit out of the messenger. Having Kane there was like carrying a gun.
You had protection and intimidation.
Speaking of sidearms, Julian didn't believe in carrying one. He never felt comfortable in a fight, knowing that he could lose his weapon to someone and end up dead. It was his personal decision, and left the rest up to the team. If they were willing to take that chance, so be it.
Blood Red Rage (LIttlemoon Investigations Book 1) Page 2
