The man’s eyes got big.
“Do you think? Can I quote you on that?”
“Are you insane? No, you can’t quote me on that. That’s generally what ‘off the record’ means!”
“Okay, Sheriff. When will the reports be ready?” he asked. “I want to see them.”
“Well, the victims are being released for burial today,” he said, cluing in the two men that if they wanted to keep this hush-hush, they needed to let the women go.
Luke sent a text to Jagger, to relay that information to Roxy. They had to begin covering their trail ASAP.
“How did you know she was dead?” Scott asked. “You rode up, he went around back, and then you ‘found’ her.
“We had an anonymous call.”
He seemed to buy it.
“So my fellow reporter wasn’t on to something about there being psychics here in town?”
“Are you out of your damn mind, Scott? Come on. We all know that psychics don’t exist. I think your co-worker was trying to make a name for herself, and nothing more.”
He thought about it.
“Are they really here taking a newbie out for a test spin?” he asked.
Nate and Luke both nodded to clue the man in.
“Yeah, they are.”
The reporter laughed. “Okay, Sheriff. I still want to know who attacked Tanya Ware.”
He stopped the man from walking away. “Scott, we haven’t told her co-workers or friends. How would you feel if you read about someone’s death online? Can you hold off on it until tomorrow?”
His face softened.
“Yeah, I can do that.”
He was grateful.
The man shook their hands and walked off.
“See how you handle situations like that, gentlemen?” Joe said, heading toward the building. “No one was shot, Tasered, or left in a body bag.”
Nate wanted to make a comment about how freaking gullible the people in Happy were, but he was just grateful the man walked away.
He still had pictures of Avalon.
That was an issue that Jagger was going to have to handle before this case was done.
“Let’s get this wrapped up,” he said, opening the post office door.
It began.
The men let him do the heavy lifting. Sheriff Joe Gilespie did his job and soothed the people who mattered to Tanya Ware. They listened to them tell him everything they knew.
She kept to herself.
She didn’t like to be snuck up on.
She didn’t like to be touched.
Yeah, that sounded about right, considering she was a victim of sexual assault.
When they were asked if anyone was bothering her, they didn’t have a clue. Apparently, she didn’t really say much. They did give the team one name.
Amelie Schmitz.
That was her best friend, and the only person she really trusted.
Since they already had that name, they headed out. Amelie was on their list, but after the other two. She likely didn’t know that her best friend was dead, and they didn’t want to drop that bomb on her quite yet. If they could spare her, or avoid doing a notify, they would.
Nate opted to let town gossip get it to her. She wasn’t family, so they weren’t obligated.
There were bigger fish to fry—in the way of suspects.
Tomorrow, they’d catch her when she was grieving. It might rattle something loose.
That was his hope.
“Where to now?” the sheriff asked.
“We need to find Bob Buck.”
He smiled. “Let me make a call.” Pulling out his cell, he called his office. “Give all the deputies a message,” he told his secretary. “I need to find Bob Buck, and I need him now.”
He hung up.
“They’ll find him. Let’s get a coffee and wait. Happy is a small town. He’ll turn up.”
They hoped so, and before time ran out.
* * * O R A C L E * * *
Morgue
He watched her moving around the room setting it up. Her whole team was out picking up the body, and his wife was getting ready to do her job.
Still, he could tell she was worried.
Her hands were shaking, and she looked to be walking around aimlessly.
She needed someone to help her.
Him.
“You look sexy today,” he said out of the blue, as he held an ice pack to the lump on his head.
“What?”
“You look sexy. Are you going to do the autopsy in a dress? If so, I can’t wait to watch.”
She looked down. “No, I have to change. I just wanted to get the room ready.”
Jagger watched her bend over.
Yeah, he checked out her ass.
He had a way to distract her. “You’d better hurry up.”
She knew he was right. Heading into the office, she grabbed a set of pale green scrubs from the shelf. Beside them were her waterproof shoes that she’d swap for her heels.
When she heard the door click behind her, she looked over. Jagger was heading her way, and he had the look on his face. It reminded her of that first time she saw him.
He looked cocky.
Arrogant.
Sexy as hell.
“Jagger.”
“We got married yesterday, and I’ve yet to consummate our marriage, Roxy. I need you. God, my body hurts so much—that’s how badly I want you.”
She felt her skin flush.
“I want that woman I first met. I need the one who used and abused me in a cooler. I fell in love with her that day. I’m a sick man, but I knew she was the only one who could be what I needed.”
He stopped moving, allowing her to make the decision.
She didn’t hesitate.
Roxy moved at him, jumping up to wrap her legs around his waist. Her mouth found his, and she took everything she wanted from that kiss.
It was like the first time.
She took no prisoners. He was still that sexy soldier to her, even if now he was a married man—her married man.
She broke the kiss to pull off his shirt. The ripple of flesh beneath her fingers turned the heat up that much higher.
He moaned when she bit him on the neck.
“Like that, Marine?”
It was the same voice, the same attitude, and the same woman who destroyed his control over two months ago.
He wanted her.
Carrying her to the wall, he pressed her back into the concrete block and yanked the front of her dress open. Her breasts came tumbling out in her sexy lace bra.
He began leaving bites across her pale flesh.
“God! Don’t stop!” she begged.
He couldn’t.
He wouldn’t.
With her, it was always about the sex, the heat, and the fire. It’s what lured him in. Yes, he loved her, but he wanted her with something he couldn’t quench.
Staring into her brown eyes, he needed to know. “Like before?”
“Use me.”
That’s all he had to hear.
Jagger dropped her to her feet and worked on his belt and fly. When he got it open, and had his dick out of his cargo pants, he knew what he wanted.
Her.
It would always be Roxy.
He shoved the skirt up her body and lifted her by her hips to get back into position. As he stared at the vee between her legs, he already knew she was wet.
The panties had to go.
He needed his dick in her body, and he needed it now.
He wanted hard.
Jagger wanted rough.
“I’m going to fuck you until you scream my name,” he promised.
She moaned at the heat in his words.
Then she gasped when he tore the panties right from her body. When he drove his rock hard dick into her, she came. That was all it took.
Jagger held on for the ride.
Oh, he was far from done.
Her body milked his, but he was going to win
this time. The last time, she’d assaulted him in the morgue, and now it was his turn to show her how he rolled.
He began moving.
With each thrust into her body, he left nothing to the imagination. His words were profane. His body’s need was evident, and his wife…
She was his.
Jagger took, claimed, and possessed the one woman who made him insane. She was the only one who could ever drive him to delirium with only a look.
Now he was doing the driving.
She gasped with each punishing stroke into the wetness. As she begged for more, he gave everything he had.
He loved her.
God!
He loved her so damn much.
“I can’t,” she began, only to cum again. He still didn’t stop. There was this uncontrollable need to make her beg him over and over again. He wasn’t angry with her for running, but he’d give her everything in him to ensure she’d never do it again.
He found her ear with his teeth, and he teased it.
“I’m going to spend the rest of my life doing this,” he vowed. “I’m going to take you when I want, where I want, and as much as I want. You’re mine, Roxy. You’re all mine. I found you again, and you’ll forever be my prize.”
She gasped.
His hands found hers, and he pinned them to the wall above her head. She couldn’t move.
She didn’t want to.
“Tell me you’re mine. Tell me you’ll never leave. Tell me you need me, Roxy!”
She tried to breathe, but he was pounding himself into her, striking that one perfect spot. She couldn’t think.
All she could focus on was the oncoming orgasm.
It was ready to take her to her knees.
“Say it,” he ordered, even as he fucked her harder and harder. It was a battle of wills. It was Roxy versus Jagger, and it was only ending one way.
“I’m yours. God! I’ll always be yours.”
He yanked free of her body before she could fall again. She made some desperate little sound that turned him on even more.
Jagger was wild.
He had only one thing on his mind.
He was claiming his wife.
Dragging her to the desk she was using as the town coroner, he cleared it with his arm.
“Jagger, what are you going to…?”
She didn’t get to finish.
He bent her over, got into position, and nudged her ass.
“I’m taking what’s mine.”
And he forced his way into her body.
Roxy came so hard her body shook around his. She’d never been invaded like that before, and she loved it.
She loved him.
“God! Please!”
“Please what?” he asked, trying to hold on. He focused on the wall, because if he looked down, he was screwed. “What do you want, Roxanne?”
She wanted so much from him, beginning with Jagger never stopping being Jagger. Roxy loved him just the way he was.
Wild.
Impulsive.
Hard core.
“Fuck me!”
He gave her what she wanted. He rode her hard, brutally, and when he was about to lose it, he found he swollen clit and pushed her off the edge.
They both came, and came hard.
As sanity returned, he was resting over her body, braced on his elbows.
“You’re my girl,” he whispered. “You’re the only one who brings that out in me.”
She laughed.
“Funny, Roxy?”
“Not funny, but eye-opening, Jagger. You’re the only man who has ever brought it out in me.”
“And ever will,” he added.
She wouldn’t argue with that.
How could she?
This wild man was her soul mate.
And she was glad.
* * * O R A C L E * * *
Oh, he wasn’t done—not in the least. In fact, he was fighting the need to go on a killing spree, just to prove a point.
To who?
That bitch, Oracle.
Oh, he wanted to make her bleed. She thought she was better than him, but she wasn’t.
She’d just got lucky.
That’s all it was.
Nothing more.
While he might not be able to get the coroner, thanks to Oracle, he could get the last woman on his list.
The ten people who had gossiped, made life miserable, and been deserving were almost all gone.
There was only one left.
Then his bases would be covered.
There would be safety.
All he could do now was hit them when they were too weak to see it coming.
While it drained Oracle, it wasn’t fazing him. He didn’t have to save them. All he had to do was scare them and let their pathetic minds do the rest.
Oh, he wasn’t weak.
He was strong.
In the end, he’d make them all see what it was like to be him. In the end, he’d win.
They were liars, gossipers, and whores.
And they asked for it.
Chapter Twenty-One
While Avalon and Lucian slept, Bishop sat on the floor with all the files from Roxy’s and the sheriff’s initial investigations. She was reading over just about anything she could find on the women.
Nothing was tying them together.
Was that possible?
In a town that small, how did they not connect? She had the list of the first five women, and she was scanning it.
Raizy Lowery was young. She was only twenty-four when she died. She lived at home with her parents, and her mother found her unresponsive in bed.
Marian Hawkins was the same age. The report stated she’d worked that morning as a stock clerk in the local general store. She went home from work, took a nap, and never woke up again.
Both women had been seen with Jared Walker.
He called them sluts.
Was this about sex?
Was this about the last girl who died?
She was curious.
Grabbing a tablet, she started searching online. Since Tanya Ware’s assault happened sometime in the last ten years, that put her from high school until time of death at the post office.
She Googled the local school, hoping she’d find something to give her a better lead.
There was a website.
Bishop clicked on the past years, trying to find their victim. When she searched the name, she found Tanya Ware had graduated from the school.
Know who else she found?
Raizy Lowery and Marian Hawkins.
They were students there at one time too.
Her interest was piqued. It looked like she found exactly what she was looking for to tie them together. They did know each other. They had to have been acquainted in that high school.
She kept scrolling.
At the bottom, she found a list of teachers. That’s where she stopped and made screen shots.
She found Bernice Parry.
The woman had been a teacher there. Not only that, but her student teacher?
Brianna Moyer.
Bishop had managed to connect five of the people to the school. The odds were they all connected. More than half had the possibility of knowing each other, and that narrowed the possible ways to connect them.
It was starting to come together.
She really thought she was on to something.
This was the first connection they had to half the list. It had to be in there. It was simply a matter of digging deeper.
She’d find it.
Yeah, this killer was running out of time.
* * * O R A C L E * * *
It didn’t take long for Deputy Kirk Oliver to find Bob Buck. While he was out on patrol, he found the man at the local church cemetery working on the graves.
Once he did, he called it in to his boss.
When the three men got there, Bob Buck was cutting some grass around the graves.
“This place loo
ks old,” Luke stated. “I bet it’s creepy at night,” he offered.
Screw that.
It was creepy during the day. The cemetery was filled with ancient markers, tipped in awkward angles as if the ground was rebelling and trying to expel the graves. Most were in decent condition, but you got the feeling you were being watched.
It was uncomfortable.
“Yeah, it is. When I was a kid, the local troublemakers would sneak in here and have sex in the mausoleums at night because it was badass. I’m not saying I didn’t try to get a few girls back here, but I struck out more than I got to first base.”
Nate was pretty straight-laced. He liked his suits pressed, his tie straight, and his woman over a decade younger than him. He never did anything like that when he was a kid.
His mother would have kicked his ass.
His sister…
God.
She would have unmercifully rode it.
He was going to miss calling Callista whenever he needed a profile, to talk, or for woman advice. He was going to be flying blind for a while, and he hated it. Nate hoped she’d be okay. When she saw him, if she ever did again, she was going to kick his ass for what was going down.
“Nate?”
“Sorry. I was thinking about Callie.”
“Who’s she? I thought you were with the blonde, or is that what you call the redhead? Does she have a split personality?”
Nate glared at him as he talked trash about Avalon. “Callie is my sister.”
“Oh.”
Luke knew it was time to head this one off at the pass. He saw his partner getting red. It was time to move this train to the next station, before someone’s ticket was punched.
As for what station…Apparently, it would be the creepy one where nut jobs were talking to the dead people in their graves.
Yes, Bob Buck really was doing just that.
“I know, Matilda. I hope you like the flowers that are growing on your grave. I watered them so they’d be pretty.”
They all looked at each other.
“I’ll check on you next week, Matilda. You have a good day,” he said, turning around.
They startled him so much that he shouted and swung the shovel that was in his hand.
Oracle Saving (The Phoenix Files Book 3) Page 36
