by Lorie O
His radio beeped inside his car. “Unit Seven, what’s your ten twenty?”
Perry slid behind the wheel and slowly closed his car door. Grabbing his radio, he cupped it in his palm while continuing to watch Kylie’s home. “I’m here; go ahead.”
“Request ten eighty-five.”
Perry frowned as he reached for the radio on his dash and switched to a different channel. Cliff Miller, the dispatcher, didn’t often ask Perry to move to a secure channel, unless there was trouble.
“Roger that,” he said, and released the button, waiting for Cliff to enlighten him as to what was so serious that they needed to move to a different frequency.
“The owners of that car at the mall yesterday just came in and visited with Rad. Appears their daughter is officially missing.”
“Shit,” Perry hissed, dragging his fingers through his hair. “Get me everything you can on her. I’ll hit the streets.”
“Ten four.” The silence ran for several minutes while Perry stared at Kylie’s home. Something told him he would see the hot, sexy college student again.
But for now, school was out. His nieces would be home. Maybe he’d start with them. He hated dragging them into this, but the reality was that teenage girls were disappearing. Whether his sister approved of him scaring her daughters or not, awareness would protect them.
Cliff came back with Olivia Brown’s home address, the name of her high school, and a list of several girls who were considered her closest friends. “Rad just told me to send you over to the Browns’. They should be receptive to you going through her computer.”
“Ten four. I’m on my way.”
*
It was after seven when Perry’s sister, Megan, called and asked if he’d pick Dani up at the library. Those first few years after David’s death were hard as hell on the entire family. Megan was young, and left alone with four girls to support and raise on her own. Perry jumped in right away, to the point where he helped support all five of them while Megan struggled to find work that paid enough to keep a roof over their heads. Perry was pretty fucking proud of his kid sister. Many women would have crumbled under the life she’d been dished out, but Megan remained strong and brought up four beautiful young ladies. Diane had started junior college last fall, and now if they could get Dani through high school and not have her turn into a wild child like she seemed determined at times to become, Perry was sure they’d be able to get the other two through high school as well.
“There a reason why you’re not answering your mother’s calls?” Perry said in a low, deadly whisper when he approached Dani from behind.
She sat in an oversized chair in the middle of the library and jumped noticeably, spinning around, when he spoke. Her eyes were wide with fear but narrowed quickly when she stared at her uncle.
“You scared the crap out of me, Uncle Perry.”
“Watch your mouth.” He continued staring down at her, letting her know with his hardened look that he expected an answer to his first question. Whenever he was certain Dani would do both him and Megan in with her willful nature, Megan would assure him that Dani was simply incredibly intelligent and would make them both proud someday.
“I got us a computer,” Kylie said, speaking in a soft whisper, as she appeared out of the first aisle of books. She froze, lifting her attention from Dani, who still sat in the chair, to Perry, who stood behind her. For a moment something dark passed over Kylie’s gaze. It disappeared in the next moment and her features softened. “Oh, shoot. Do you have to leave?”
“Apparently visiting hours are over.” Dani stood slowly and kept her back to Perry as she said something that he didn’t hear to Kylie.
Kylie’s sleeveless dress ended at mid-thigh and showed off slender tanned legs that weren’t muscular but appeared toned enough that she could wrap them around a man and squeeze the life out of him while he drove deeper inside her. Her pink fingernail polish matched the color on her toes, which were visible through black open-toed sandals. And her blonde hair, which didn’t quite reach her shoulders, looked soft, like silk, and made his fingers itch to find out if it was.
Kylie lifted her gaze to his and he swore he saw awareness in her bright blue eyes, as if she knew that he wanted her and hadn’t decided yet whether that knowledge appealed to her or not.
More than likely, dressing like that, Kylie was propositioned on a regular basis. That didn’t sit well with him for some reason. There were people with strange kinks out there. It was enough worrying about protecting his nieces all the time. He didn’t need an incredibly sexy college student distracting him and creating carnal needs that were torn between fucking the shit out of her and protecting her as well as his niece.
“Dani, we’re leaving now,” he said, sounding gruff enough that his niece turned around and studied him. “Let’s go.”
“Just a minute,” she said, sounding exasperated. She turned and looked at Kylie as if apologizing with her eyes. It was a quick glance, one he’d miss if he weren’t focusing on the body language between both of them and noting the intense similarities. “Uncle Perry, I’ll be out in like ten minutes, okay?”
“No,” he said firmly.
Kylie interrupted him. “It’s okay, Dani,” she said, her soft voice soothing, incredibly sultry sounding. “We can do this another time. Your uncle is in a hurry.”
“No, he’s not,” Dani grumbled. “He’s just bossy.”
“Dani,” he warned her. His sister might tolerate public mouthiness, but he sure as hell wouldn’t.
“You don’t even want to know what we were going to do?” Dani’s tone turned sweet when she faced him and stared up at him with eyes that remotely resembled the beautiful, intelligent eyes he remembered before she insisted on covering them up with all that black eyeliner. “You’ve got to be just a little bit curious, Uncle Perry.”
“Dani, it’s okay.” Kylie shook her head at him and laughed softly. “There’s nothing to be curious about.”
Perry easily noticed his niece was working him. That didn’t spark any curiosity. What did intrigue him was how suddenly Kylie didn’t want him to know. In fact, to the point where she made eye contact with him for the first time and held it, while he focused on her bright blue eyes. They were intense, almost the color of sapphires, and they didn’t change color the longer he held her gaze, no darkening or lightening or anything that often happened when moods changed in people. It hit him that she might be wearing contacts-the kind that changed a person’s eye color.
“Uncle Perry is one of the best cops in the Kansas City area,” Dani bragged, shifting her attention to Kylie. “He’s always curious about everything.”
“Is that so?” Kylie’s voice returned to its soft, alluring, come-fuck-me tone.
He’d give her this: she was one unique woman. As much hesitation and trepidation as he swore he read in her body language, there was something else there, too. In the way she watched him, the tilt of her head, the way her hands moved from clasped in front of her to her palms brushing over her thighs. Perry made his living reading people, and this woman either didn’t know her own mind or was intentionally covering up sexual interest with other emotions to throw him off guard.
Dani shifted her attention from him to Kylie and then back to him. “Kylie’s never seen how people chat on YouTube, you know, in the comments section?”
“Dani, your uncle doesn’t care about this,” Kylie whispered.
He cared now. “Better show her before someone else takes your computer,” he said.
Dani looked surprised and Kylie wary. All the more reason to witness this little scenario play out. “You can show me, too.”
“You already know,” Dani grumbled, and turned, grabbing her backpack off the table and then leading the way through the stacks toward stairs that took them to a row of computers set up for public use.
Kylie glanced at him and he gestured for her to follow his niece. He brought up the rear, and didn’t mind the view of her miniskirt
swishing back and forth and her ass swaying in front of him. He didn’t doubt for a moment that she gave him a show intentionally. And he found it interesting that as he watched, he imagined what Kylie would look like in tight-fitting jeans, high heels, and found that image much more arousing.
Dani hopped down the stairs and Kylie followed, her sandals slapping against each stair as she ran her painted fingernails over the banister like she was stroking it on her way down.
“Why do you care about comments on YouTube?” he asked her before they reached the bottom of the stairs.
“For my thesis.” Kylie didn’t look at him until she reached the bottom of the stairs. “It helps hearing Dani explain in her words.”
“How so?” He walked alongside Kylie now but focused on his niece, who was several paces ahead. “She really knows something about YouTube that you don’t?”
“I’m about to find out,” Kylie said, glancing up at him with a sly smile before moving around Dani, who’d already plopped into a chair at a computer. Kylie pulled the chair from the table behind them over and sat next to Dani. “I really appreciate you doing this, Dani,” she said quietly.
“It’s no big deal,” Dani said, shrugging off the gratitude. “I just wish Uncle Perry weren’t making it feel as if it was.”
He stood behind them, fixing his attention on the computer screen, and crossed his arms. His niece and the college lady sat close, heads almost touching, and whispered to each other. He managed to catch almost everything they said.
“You’ve been to YouTube before, right?” Dani asked Kylie, turning her head so the two of them stared at each other briefly.
“Of course,” Kylie said in that soft, sultry tone of hers.
“What videos do you watch?”
Kylie’s grin was almost apologetic. “I check to see if episodes I like are on there. Sometimes there are news reports or different angles on current events.”
Dani rolled her eyes. “Boring,” she drawled, and then shook her head while making a tsking sound with her tongue. “You have so much to learn about being a teenager,” she began.
There was something akin to a satisfied smile on Kylie’s face, her expression pulling more curiosity out of Perry as he studied her while she focused on Dani.
“What would I watch?” Kylie asked.
“Music videos, dude.” Dani opened the main page to YouTube and then clicked so the cursor blinked in the search bar. “And the videos linked to our Facebook profiles or Twitter.”
Perry growled and Dani quickly waved her hand dismissively in the air. “I don’t have a profile of me on either site. But I can show you one we all made up and use it to link to YouTube videos. Personal videos are the bomb, though.”
“Personal videos?” Kylie asked.
“Yeah. Some of them are so obviously bogus.”
“Okay,” Kylie said slowly. “What are personal videos?”
Dani looked over her shoulder at Perry and then leaned back to survey Kylie. “Dude, you know what personal videos are. Everyone knows what personal videos are.”
“Show me,” Kylie suggested, nodding to the screen.
“Okay.” Dani placed her fingers over the keyboards and then her fingers moved expertly, proof again that teenagers these days seemed to be born with secretarial skills intact. A new page opened and then the video began. “I don’t know these people, so don’t throw a fit, Uncle Perry,” Dani said, and pointed at the screen. “Some guys I know know the people who made this.”
“These are the kids’ names in the video?” Kylie pointed to a description of the video on the side of the box where a group of boys and girls danced in a parking lot to a rap song.
“Beats me.” Dani shrugged. “But this is what I was talking about.”
She scrolled down the page while the video continued playing. The sound was low enough that Perry couldn’t quite catch what was being said. He had a feeling he didn’t want to hear it, though. He moved closer, resting his hands on the back of Dani’s chair, and leaned over her to read what she pointed to. “See, people talk on YouTube.”
Underneath the video, there were posts, individuals making comments about the video and commenting on what other people said in response to the video. It was similar to reading a printed conversation, although the posts were typed in slang with intentionally incorrect grammar and spelling. Several of the comments came from people who appeared to know those who made the video. There were several others, though, that seemed to come from strangers, with comments typed that suggested how they would love to do sexual acts with some of the girls in the video. Perry fought a growl as he read through some of the lewd and incredibly inappropriate comments made toward high school girls who were most definitely underage, judging just by the looks of them.
“Learn something new every day,” Kylie said, and then moved her chair to the side, away from both of them. “Thank you, Dani.”
“No prob.” Dani X’d out of YouTube and turned sideways in her chair, sliding her backpack over her arm. “I guess I’ll see you around.”
Dani slid out of her chair and walked into Perry. He backed up as she grabbed his arm and started guiding him to the stairs.
“Bye, Kylie,” she said over her shoulder.
“Suddenly in a hurry to leave?” he grumbled under his breath, noticing how obvious his niece was being in dragging his ass out of there.
“You’re in the hurry.” Dani didn’t let go of him when they reached the stairs.
But Perry stopped her and then turned to see Kylie slowly raising the strap to her purse up her shoulder. She looked up, meeting his gaze, and for a moment he saw how lost in thought she was. Her expression relaxed almost immediately. The easy smile she gave him would make most men think she didn’t have a care in the world. He knew better.
He understood how time-consuming and difficult it would be to balance keeping grades up along with working enough hours to survive and pay bills. Even though he only spent two years and got his associate’s degree before entering the police academy, he remembered the all-nighters studying for exams. He’d also helped his sister finish her college degree and respected the hell out of her for sticking it out. There was more than drive and confidence in those bright eyes that took him on without blinking. Perry saw interest. Whether it be simply that he was the apparent guardian of a teenager Kylie was interested in or something else, something erotic and enticing, he didn’t want to speculate.
He waited until Kylie approached them. “Did you learn everything from my niece that you needed to know?” he asked, keeping his voice quiet and pleasant sounding.
Dani glared at him and then stomped up the stairs.
“Your niece is a wonderful young lady.” Kylie held his gaze for only a moment and then followed Dani up the stairs. “I’m sure there is so much I could learn from her.”
“Oh, really.” He opted to follow a few paces behind.
The view was mouthwatering. That short dress Kylie wore showed off slender legs all the way up to her thighs. If her dress were less than an inch shorter, he’d have one hell of an ass shot. As it was, he found himself wondering what kind of underwear she wore underneath it.
“What else is there you hope to learn from her?” he asked, once he and Kylie hit the main floor.
“As much as she’ll share with me.”
“About what?” He glanced ahead as Dani pushed open the glass doors and disappeared outside.
“About being a teenager.” Kylie didn’t elaborate.
Perry held the door open for her and searched the dark parking lot until he spotted Dani heading for his Jeep. He pulled out his keys and pushed the button, causing his Jeep to beep and unlock. Dani didn’t flinch at the sound but reached his Jeep, pulled open the passenger door, and plopped down inside.
“How many other teenagers are you interrogating?”
Kylie paused at the curb and turned to look up at him. “Is there some law you’re concerned that I might be breaking?”
&
nbsp; “I have a feeling you would know if there was.”
“You think so?”
“If you’re doing your job right, yes.” He searched her face and was impressed that nothing changed in her expression.
Kylie laughed softly and then ran her fingers over her blond hair, brushing a strand behind her ear. “There are days when writing a thesis feels like a job. I’ll leave Dani alone if it bothers you that I’m talking to her,” she offered. Her lips curved into a small smile, one that he swore appeared victorious. “But you’ll have to explain to her why I’m not seeking her out anymore.”
“And what if I told her the sensuality seeping from you might be more than I want her exposed to at her age.”
Kylie’s smile didn’t fade. “I have no doubts she’d give you an earful regarding her opinion on that matter.”
Chapter 4
Kylie suggested she would leave Dani alone but never actually agreed to do it. Perry didn’t take her up on the offer. Therefore, she wasn’t harassing the teenager. Dani agreed to meet her after school. Kylie was anxious to talk with her. Especially after spending the day surfing from profile to profile, matching kids she’d met so far with comments she found online. She glanced down at her handwritten notes and then back at the main door to the library. Dani would be arriving any minute.
“Crap,” she hissed when the library doors opened and Perry sauntered inside.
He was damn near the sexiest cop she’d ever laid eyes on. There was a badass look about him, and a dangerous glint in his eyes when he studied her. Every inch of her screamed caution whenever he graced her with that intense stare of his, and it wasn’t because he might blow her cover. It was more because she could so easily fantasize blowing him.
Which was insane. Perry was a cop. Whoever their online predator was, more than likely he was a police officer, or at least worked at the Judicial Center in order to have access to the computers there. With as little evidence as she had right now, Perry could be her perp.
