“Shouldn’t you get that?” Damien asked, still leaning into her.
Samantha let out a mournful sigh, “It could be a wrong number.”
Damien smiled. “It could.”
The phone continued to blare in the background.
She made a face and pulled away to grab the phone. “We are getting back to this,” she whispered, before she pressed answer. “Hello.” Her face crunched up as she listened to the voice at the other end and nodded. “Okay. I will be right in.”
“You have to go, I take it.” Damien got up from the couch and stared at her as she dashed around the apartment.
“I’m so sorry.” She bend over and grabbed her keys from the under the coffee table. They, among other things, had gotten knocked around during a moment of passion in the dark. She straightened up and looked regretfully at him. “It was work. Something came up and they need me.”
“It’s okay,” Damien said shrugging on his coat and pulling her in for a quick kiss. “Do you want me to drop you off?”
“Oh no. That’s alright,” Samantha said hastily. Her car was still in the shop for repairs but she had to go to a scene and she did not feel comfortable having Damien drive her there.
“It’s no trouble, you know.”
“I know.” Wanting to distract him from asking any questions, she curled her fingers around his collar and pulled him down for a deep, slow kiss. By the time they separated, they both felt shaky and had wide grins on their face. “I’ll see you soon.”
“Yes, you will,” Damien breathed out. It sounded a lot like a promise to Samantha and she could not help the pleasant shiver that shook her frame. She watched the tall figure climb into his car and peel away from her street, before hailing a cab.
The cab driver accepted the fare as they reached the spot, gave it a curious look and then asked her, “Are you sure this is the place, ma’am?”
“Yes. This is it. Thanks.” Samantha stepped out from the cab and stared at the abandoned warehouse. Her partner Finn had called to say another body had dropped and there was graffiti at the scene that almost matched the ones found before.
“You made it.” Finn approached her from behind. He had been standing in the shade waiting for her. It was barely ten in the morning but the sun was harsh like the afternoon sun. “I hope I didn’t catch you at a bad time.”
“You didn’t,” Samantha lied with a straight face and then gestured towards the place. “What did you find?”
“Call came in last night about a body. Some kids looking to party found this warehouse but they sobered up immediately when they spotted the body. Ran away, leaving behind their liquor stash. Fortunately, someone in the group was sensible enough to place a 911 call before running. The local police scanned the area, saw the graffiti, and put two and two together. And then here we are.”
“Who is the guy?”
Flicking on her flashlight, Samantha followed Finn inside as he led her towards the actual taped off scene. The body lay in the dead center of the empty room and at its head was a huge work of art. Had they not seen the other work of art from the warehouse they had been staking out a while back, they would not have connected the cases.
“There was no ID on him and his prints are not in the system. Haley is on it, though.”
“How long has he been dead?” Samantha asked the medical examiner who was chatting with one of the CSUs.
“Approximately fourteen or fifteen hours.”
“When was the body found?”
“Call came in at about eleven,” Finn replied.
“So he died two hours prior to the discovery. Do you have the cause of death?”
“It’s not conclusive without a full autopsy, Agent Gideon. We’ll let you know as soon as we get to it.”
“Thank you, Phillip.”
“What are you thinking?” Finn asked as Samantha stared intently towards the body.
“They posed this one. Like a work of art.” She started to walk around, staring at the scene from different angles. “They didn’t do that at the bank.”
“We assumed that the body at the bank had been collateral damage. Not part of the plan.”
“Yeah and what if we were wrong?”
Finn frowned and pulled out his phone. “Haley, have you found out who the dead guy is? Are you sure? Okay, thanks. Keep digging.” He turned towards Samantha and shrugged. “She’s got nothing yet. It’s like the guy didn’t exist. But Haley’s good. She’ll find something.”
“Didn’t exist, huh. Could he have been in hiding or something?”
“It’s possible. You only go into hiding if you did something bad and the police are after you or if someone worse is after you.”
Samantha agreed. “If that’s the case, whatever he was hiding from sought him out and got to him. Permanently.” Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she took a quick look. Grumbling, she hit reject and turned her attention towards the work. Someone was definitely sending a message. However, what the message exactly was and towards whom it was directed seemed unclear. They had to figure that out quickly, she thought, before more bodies dropped.
Chapter 2
“So who is he?”
Samantha and Finn were back at the office going through boxes of files over containers of egg rolls and fried rice. They were comparing crime scene photos to see if any similarities overlapped. So far, only the graffiti was their common piece. The two bodies were in no way related to one another. Alexander Wayland and Mathew Kingsley were from two different walks of life and seemed to never have crossed paths. Yet their deaths were somehow linked.
“Who is who?” Samantha frowned at Finn.
“The guy you are seeing.”
“What guy? I’m not seeing anyone,” she said a bit quickly.
Finn rolled his eyes. “So you normally allow tall handsome strangers to just kiss you in the street?”
Samantha’s mind flashed back to the kiss Damien had given her when they had stopped briefly at the coffee place across a day or two ago. Her cheeks tinted. So much for trying to keep him away from her work.
“Maybe I do,” she shrugged casually, her eyes focused on the file in hand.
“Alright.” Finn threw up his hands dramatically. “I get it. You don’t want to talk about it.”
“No, I don’t. However, if you’re interested in him for yourself…maybe I can work something out,” Samantha said teasingly and then laughed when Finn turned pink.
“You know that wasn’t why I was asking. Alright. But if you need to run a background check on him, just tell me.”
“Why would I need to run a background check on him?”
Finn looked at her blankly. “You’ve never run a background check on someone you have gone out with?”
“No. Wouldn’t that be like violating their privacy?”
“Eh…not really. It’s more like ensuring you’re not going out with a psychopath.”
“I like to keep things a mystery. Plus, it takes the whole fun out of dating if you already know everything there is to know about someone,” Samantha pointed out.
“I guess you’re right.”
“Thanks…you know.” Finn raised a quizzical brow at her so she elaborated. “For offering to check him out. If my inner radar goes off, I’ll ask.”
Finn grinned at her. “No problem, partner.”
“Alright. Touchy moment over. Let’s get back to work. Can you find me this file number?”
They sat sifting through files and making notes till the coffee lost its power to keep them fresh. Yawning, Samantha got up from her chair and winced as her stiff muscles started to stir. She cleared her desk, grabbed her coat and headed for the elevators. She could not wait to get home and under a hot shower to get rid of the entire day’s stiffness.
“Hey Gideon.”
Samantha turned to look at the man standing behind her. Agent Gary was appraising her and he let his eyes linger briefly over her c
hest making her growl at him.
“Seriously, Gary?”
“I’m sorry, what?” Gary asked innocently. “You headed home?”
“Yes,” Samantha said curtly.
Gary had had his eye on her for a while and had been relentless in pursuing her despite her turning him down, repeatedly. She was not interested. Getting involved with someone from work was the worst thing to do and there was a policy in place against that. Or at least she thought there was. Gary took her repeated refusal to heart and turned cold, trying to show indifference while still somehow managing to show interest.
“Isn’t your car in the shop? You know I could…”
“It’s fine, Gary. I have a ride.” Samantha cut him off and after a brief pause added, “Thanks.”
His shoulders tensed a bit and then he muttered something about forgetting a file and walked away. Men. Samantha rolled her eyes and got into the elevator. She waved good night to the security guard and stepped out into the night. The fresh breeze felt good against her skin. She decided to walk a bit before hailing a cab.
She was so immersed in her thoughts she almost did not hear the phone ring in her pocket. Slipping it out, she groaned as she glanced at the number. Not tonight. She did not want to deal with it just then. In fact, it was never a good time when it came to her. She shut off her phone and hailed to the end of the street before getting into a cab.
“We’re here, Miss,” the cab driver’s voice cut through her lethargy.
“Yeah,” she mumbled and got out. She paid him and then buzzed herself in. Sliding the key into the lock, she turned it and pushed the door open, only to freeze.
“Hello dear.”
A short figure drew itself up from a chair in the living room and approached her. As the person came closer, light from the hallway fell on the face. Cropped blonde hair framed the heart shaped face and the red painted lips parted into a hesitant smile.
“Mother.” Samantha ground out, her hand still clutching the door handle. “What are you doing here?”
“Oh, I’m checking up on you, of course. You weren’t answering my calls, so I decided to come look for myself,” her mother said in a saccharine voice.
“I am busy, Mother. How did you get in?” Samantha finally unglued herself from the door and started to inspect it for any sign of forced entry. Her mother should not have been able to get in. Other than a good set of locks, she had an alarm system only disabled by punching in the right code.
“You gave me a key, remember?” the short woman moved forward as though to hug her but frowned when Samantha flinched back. “Come now, dear. That’s all irrelevant. Tell me how you are.”
“I didn’t give you a key. You broke in. You realize the repercussions of breaking and entering into a FBI agent’s house, don’t you?” Samantha said in a hard tone.
“You’re not going to arrest your own mother now, are you?” her mother gasped.
Samantha gritted her teeth. She wanted so badly to put cuffs on the woman and have her spend time in jail but she restrained herself. That would just mean inviting questions, questions she was not ready to answer. She did a quick scan of the room to see if anything was missing and then strode into her bedroom, ignoring the chattering in the background.
“Don’t be like that, Samantha,” her mother said in a slightly raised voice from outside the room. “Is this the way to treat your mother who you haven’t seen in ages?”
Samantha gave her bed a longing glance and then pulled herself together. She was not going to get any peace until the woman was gone. Might as well get rid of her first. Yanking the door open, she looked down at her.
“What do you want?”
“I just wanted to see my baby. Is that so hard to believe?” her mother said with a hurt look. But Samantha knew better. The look was fake, just like the woman. Her mother was only responsible for the DNA flowing through her and nothing else.
“Yes.”
“Your father would be ashamed of the way you’re treating me.”
“Don’t. Don’t bring him into this. You have no right to speak for him,” Samantha spat out.
A brief look of regret crossed the older woman’s face and then she said in a hard voice, “I carried you in me and raised you. I deserve some respect for that. I’m not one of your criminals. So don’t treat me like that.”
Samantha laughed derisively. “Not one of my criminals? You’re right. You’re not. You’re worse. You’re a woman who abandons her own flesh and blood at the first glimpse of riches, uses her teenage daughter as bait for her scams and then tries to pretend that she cares.”
“I do care. I do,” her mother said softly. “However misguided it might seem, whatever I did was for you. I did for you.”
“And how many times have I heard you say that? It means nothing to me.” Samantha held back the ‘just like you’ part. It hurt her to say things like that even after all the pain that her mother had brought upon her family. “You wouldn’t be here unless you wanted something. So,” she squeezed her eyes shut briefly and then opened them, “please tell me what you want now. I had a long day. I just want to go to bed.”
Her mother opened her mouth to say something and then closed it. Shaking her head, she stepped back towards the front door. “I’m sorry,” she said softly. “This can wait, I guess. I’m going.”
“Good. You know the way out.” Samantha turned her back to her.
“Samantha…”
She waited to hear further but then she heard the door click shut. She glanced around the room and sure enough her mother was gone. She closed her eyes and sent a quick thank you upwards. She enabled the security alarm and deadlocked the door before heading to her bedroom. First thing tomorrow, she would change the locks on her door. She could not trust the woman not to break in again.
Chapter 3
Gina frowned at her friend who was determinedly dodging her questions. Black circles under her eyes were evident despite the attempts to hide them with make-up. Something was bothering Samantha and that was making Gina restless.
“Is it work?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, it’s not work.” Gina chewed her bottom lip in concentration.
“Did the meaning of yes change overnight or something?”
“You forget that you’re a bad liar.”
“I’m not,” Samantha protested.
“You are. Just ask anyone. Aha!” Gina snapped her fingers and pointed behind her. “Is it that hot boy toy of yours?”
“Boy toy?” Samantha asked in amusement and then followed her friend’s line of sight behind her. “Oh God, what is he doing here?”
“Hello, Samantha,” the dark voice greeted her and then made her flush when he added with a tiny smirk, “I wasn’t stalking you, I swear. I am meeting up with a friend.”
“A friend, huh?” Gina leaned forward and looked intently at him. “Is he as good looking as you?”
“He looks better,” an English accented voice interjected from behind them.
Damien rolled his eyes. “Down, Zack.”
“Ouch. It’s not fair. Just because you have a beautiful lady on your hand now, you can’t impede my progress towards one myself,” the man said with a cheeky grin, his eyes trained on Gina.
“Samantha, this cocky guy is Zack. We go way back. Zack, this is Samantha.”
The stocky man took a dramatic bow. “Pleased to finally meet you, ma’am. I have heard so much about you.” At Samantha’s raised eyebrows, he grinned. “All good things, love. All good things.”
“Nice to meet you, Zack. I’m afraid I haven’t heard much about you.” Samantha could not help but laugh when he threw Damien a mock look of hurt. “Damien, Zack. This is my best friend, Gina.”
“About time. I thought I was never going to get introduced.”
Damien nodded politely at Gina while Zack lifted her hand to his lips and brushed them against her skin all while maintaining eye
contact. A shiver passed through Gina and much to Samantha’s surprise, her friend blushed.
“It’s lovely meeting you, Gina,” Zack said in a low gruff voice. The two seemed to have eyes only for each other and as though in sync, they separated themselves from Samantha and Damien and moved to the empty corner of the room.
“Wow,” Samantha looked at her friend in surprise. “They seem to be hitting it off.”
“Yeah,” Damien observed. “Zack has that effect on women.”
“I can see that.”
Damien cleared his throat and diverted her attention to him. Samantha tried to stifle her grin as she spotted the slight look of jealousy on his face. Reaching up, she placed a quick kiss on his lips. His eyes softened and he cupped her chin to prolong the kiss.
When they separated, her fingers were clutching the front of his shirt and his lips were twisted in a sensual smile.
“If it helps, you’re better looking than him,” Samantha whispered making him grin broadly.
“Thanks.”
They leaned in for another kiss and then suddenly Samantha sprung away from him.
“Guys, get a room!”
“I thought that’s what you two were doing,” Samantha said teasingly and almost laughed when the unflappable Gina flushed once again.
Damien snaked out an arm and pulled Samantha flush against his side. “Do you want to get lunch together?”
“All of us?” Zack piped up. “I don’t know mate. Aren’t we going to be late for the…”
He cut off suddenly and Samantha looked curiously at Damien who was giving his friend a warning look.
“It’s alright. Another time?” Samantha said quickly. “We have something to get to as well.”
“We do?” Gina frowned.
“Yeah. It’ll come to you.” Samantha squeezed Damien’s hand and pulled away. “I’ll see you later?”
Damien stared at her blankly for a moment and then broke into a smile. “Certainly. Good to see you again, Gina.” He nodded at them both and pulled Zack along with him to the other side of the room.
Promised Box Set Page 84
