by Lorie O
Perry and the Mexican man with him, who she guessed might be his partner, weren’t in uniform. The two of them stood talking to three store employees along with two other men and a woman who possibly were also store employees, maybe management.
Kylie focused her attention on the cops in uniform, two men and two women. They moved around the crime scene, snapping pictures, talking among themselves, and taking in all the details. Their actions were by the book, which made it easier to follow what they did. If anything, that spoke highly of their department, and she understood better why the Chief got his dander up so easily when it was suggested that one of his own could be their perp. Kylie noted a well-trained unit, recording and documenting a terrible crime. She also noted that none of them appeared to show any peculiar behavior.
Tingles raced over her flesh the moment Perry spotted her. His dark, ominous gaze damn near made her shiver in spite of the warm sunlight on her back. He looked away first, saying something when one of the store employees finished speaking. Kylie edged around the people standing around her, paying attention to their comments and speculation but not hearing anything suspicious. Then backing away from the crowd of spectators, she took in the crowd, studying each face and putting it to memory. Everyone looked horrified and disgusted.
Her cell phone rang and Kylie turned toward her car when an officer ordered the onlookers to disperse. She walked faster, answering as she reached her car.
“Kylie, it’s Paul.”
“What do you got?” she asked, glancing over her shoulder and then unlocking her car.
“Female, age fifteen, student at Holy Mary’s, a private high school in Mission Hills. Her name was Kathleen Long.” He continued with her address, parents’ info, and then paused. “I’ll e-mail all of this to you. Obviously this is pending the autopsy, but the immediate diagnosis was rape and sodomy. It sounds as if she was pretty beaten up. They don’t have a clue why her body was there.”
“Was she dead before she was put there?” Kylie asked, knowing Paul wouldn’t know, but it was the first question that came to mind.
“I’m sure our Chief will have those answers for us soon.”
“You know, you could have filmed that crime scene for a textbook demonstration video,” Kylie commented, moving behind her wheel and closing the car door. “I didn’t notice any odd behavior from any officer working just now.”
“That’s good to know,” Paul said.
“Yeah.”
The ambulance left and another unmarked car followed. Kylie started her engine but kept her fingers on the keys when Perry drove toward her. The squad car stopped, taking two stalls when he put it in park at an angle. He got out of the car, leaving his partner in the passenger seat, and approached her with long, determined strides. It crossed her mind to lock the doors the second before he reached for the door handle and yanked her car door open. Kylie hung up her cell and tossed it to her passenger seat just as strong fingers wrapped around her arm and lifted her out of the car.
“What did I tell you about playing private detective?” Perry growled. He looked pissed, but there was something else smoldering in that dark gaze that heated her insides to a dangerous level so quickly that she couldn’t think of a good answer. “This isn’t a game.”
“I’m not playing.” Her voice cracked when she spoke and she cleared her throat, daring to stare him down in spite of his intimidating glare. “What happened to her?” she asked before she could stop herself. For a moment he looked as though he would growl. A small muscle twitched along his jaw next to that hairline scar of his. “I was across the street. You saw me. I was curious just like everyone else,” she added quickly.
“Someone raped a young girl and beat her so badly that it will be hard for her family to recognize her, I’m sure,” Perry told her, his voice rough with emotion while his gaze moved slowly across her face. “We’re not positive yet, but it appears she collapsed where she was found and possibly laid there for a few hours before she died.”
Kylie saw that he told her these details to terrify her. He didn’t speak as one professional would to another. But then, he didn’t see her as a professional. She bit back the foul taste of frustration that she couldn’t question him the way she wanted, and instead found herself staring at his mouth. If he had killed Kathleen Long, describing how she died, what was done to her, might possibly get him off as much as the act of raping and sodomizing her had. That would make him one hell of a despicable man, and Kylie wondered for a moment if she’d become too jaded from so many crime scenes, so many deaths.
“Who would do something like that to a child?” Kylie heard her mother’s words, arriving in her mind at a rather inopportune moment. If she were searching for her sister’s murderer, she’d searched for too long. Because as she stared at Perry, at his hardened, brooding expression, fire ignited inside her even when she reminded herself she could be staring at a killer.
“A sick and dangerous person.”
“Obviously.”
“Why are you here?” he asked again, and let go of her arm. Instead of stepping back, though, he touched her neck and pushed under her chin with his thumb, forcing her to tilt her head back and stare more directly into his eyes. “This isn’t the closest grocery store to your house. Tell me the truth, Kylie.”
“I already told you. I was across the street at the bookstore,” she told him honestly. “I saw you head over here. I saw the lights and the crowd and was curious,” she said, trying to shift her attention past him to see who might be watching them, other than his partner. She hoped Chief Radisson still wasn’t on scene.
His fingers tightened around her neck until she couldn’t suck in a breath. Staring up at Perry, unable to swallow, she grabbed his hand, scratching to get her fingers between his and her flesh.
“Promise me that’s the last lie you’ll tell me,” he growled, and released his grip but moved so that his lips brushed over hers. “I’d rather hear that you don’t want to tell me than hear a lie.”
“What makes you think I’m lying?” she asked, feeling the roughness of his unshaven face under his lower lip. “I saw you and I followed you.”
“Do you always chase flashing lights?” This time, instead of making her come up with an answer to a ridiculous question, his fingers tangled in her hair and he kissed her.
He parted her lips with his tongue and dipped inside, filling her and turning her world sideways. With her eyes closed she still sensed his strength, incredible domination, and a predatory possessiveness. His hands moved to her back, and strong arms wrapped around her, becoming her world.
Kylie had never known a man who could so easily sweep her off her feet and demand her submission. Worse yet, his style, technique, made it damn simple to let go, allow him the control he demanded. Even though her eyes were closed, she sensed his aggressive, dominating, and predatory possessive nature seeping deeper inside her, wrapping around her. If she didn’t break the kiss, he’d be holding her up, because her legs were damn near giving out under her.
His hands moved over her back, and powerful arms enclosed her tighter. He pinned her with muscle, strong like steel. Her insides quickened, his sensuality creating a heat that burned deep in her womb. It was a fire she knew wouldn’t simmer out anytime soon.
And that sucked. As easy as it would be to let go, there wasn’t any way she could let down her resistance. Years of training barely allowed her to hold on to her resolve. But something deeper, engrained in her soul, let out a warning. Let go, and she’d never be able to return to where she stood right now. In his arms or not, Kylie was still in control. She had to be.
Kylie couldn’t let go of the hard, cold fact that Perry could be her killer.
Turning her head, she broke the kiss and sucked in a breath. She filled her lungs with the smell and taste of Perry Flynn. A mixture of danger and domination made for an alluring and way too tempting combination. One that would destroy her if she allowed it.
“Your partner is wait
ing for you.” She tried sliding away from him.
Perry straightened but gripped her arms, refusing to let her move out from between him and her car. “I’ll be at your house at five this evening. We’ll talk more then.”
“Talk?” She dared him with a sharp gaze. It was imperative that he see, right now, that she wasn’t an idiot, and although letting him see how strong she really was might not be her best move at the moment, staring him down was impossible not to do. “If I’m done by five, I’ll be there.”
“We’ll talk, and anything else you want to show me, you can.” He leaned forward and brushed his lips over hers, sealing his words with a promise that surged through her like an electrical current. “And you’ll be there.”
Chapter 9
Perry headed out of the station around six. It didn’t bother him that he wasn’t at Kylie’s at five. She wouldn’t have been there. He saw it in her eyes after he kissed her. Kylie felt power in knowing she held on to some sense of control in her mind. The way she stared at him, determination and resolve lining her pretty face, gave him more insight into her nature than she probably intended for him to see.
“We should have autopsy results tomorrow,” Rad said, catching up with Perry in the parking lot. The worry lines were deeper than usual around his eyes. “This makes girl number four.”
“We’ll get him.” Perry wouldn’t bother pitching for the case. Whatever Rad’s agenda, Perry knew what he needed to do to work the case, and he had every intention of doing it. “That autopsy will hopefully give us more on our perp. We’re building a psychological profile and that’s more than we had yesterday.”
“No more deaths,” Rad insisted, as if Perry could make the call on that one.
But he nodded once and turned toward his Jeep. “Works for me.” Then glancing at Rad, Perry decided to suggest, since he hadn’t heard that anyone had done it yet. “I’ll interview the family and her friends.”
Rad studied him with shrewd gray eyes. There was something more in Rad’s attentive stare than what Perry normally saw. It almost looked like hesitation or lack of trust. He was a pretty good judge of character but knew he was as tired as Rad probably was. And what Perry saw could be the exhaustion, mental and physical, that he felt as well. “O-kay,” Rad said slowly, drawing out the one word. Rad seriously hesitated, but he gave his consent.
Perry didn’t blink. Hiding his surprise wasn’t easy. Rad hadn’t been himself the past day or two. But having a rapist in town was enough to wear on anyone’s convictions. And one preying on teenage girls made the situation even more draining. They couldn’t waste one moment. Perry’s girls moved in the same circles as the victims who had been abducted, beaten and tortured, and then killed had moved in. No one would touch his nieces. No one!
“I’ll contact the family tonight for a list of her friends.” Turning to his car, he parted ways with the Chief without saying good-bye. Whatever had crawled up Rad’s ass, Perry wouldn’t challenge it. Not tonight. He had Rad’s permission to pursue the investigation and that was what Perry would do.
When he headed across town half an hour later, after visiting with the Longs, the list of numbers he needed to contact was already on his clipboard next to him. Ramos had headed home to have dinner with his mother. A cop didn’t get to do that enough and Perry would give his partner the next hour or so before calling him. Rad was all over them all of a sudden to work together. As well, the new policy about logging in with passwords every time they used a computer so that everyone’s actions online would be kept track of bugged Perry, too. It appeared there was suspicion in the department over something, which would also explain the wariness Perry was certain he saw in Rad’s eyes earlier.
There was something else that annoyed the crap out of Perry and had since he saw Kathleen Long lying crumpled behind the Dumpster earlier this afternoon. He wasn’t sure if she was one of his nieces’ friends, but the young girl looked familiar. Her parents had shown him pictures of a very pretty girl, who was in the same grade as Dani.
The image of the child, and yes, damn it, a fifteen-year-old girl was a child, lying on the ground, abused to the point of death, curdled his stomach. It also pissed him off. That teenage girl would never know the wonders of life, of adulthood, of falling in love, going to college, getting married, having a family and a good job. All of that was robbed from her by a motherfucker Perry couldn’t wait to get his hands on.
He turned onto the street where Kylie lived and slowed in front of her house. Parking, he bounded up the sidewalk toward her house, trying to put the case out of his mind for a few minutes at least while he spoke to Kylie.
He walked past her green hybrid and touched her hood. It was warm. She hadn’t been home long. He wondered where she’d been as he climbed the one step and then stood at her front door, rapping his knuckles against it.
Kylie was quickly making a habit of not answering her door right away when he knocked. It could be that she did it on purpose to get under his skin. Something told him that she didn’t think about him enough for that. He stepped away from the front door, glancing both ways at the front of the house, and then headed away from the drive, taking in the outside of her home and the windows.
Blinds were closed over each window. The white siding was slightly dirty but in good shape. The small bushes along the house had been trimmed back, probably a landlord’s doing before she moved in. She hadn’t said, but he put money on the fact that she hadn’t lived here long at all. Her house barely looked lived in and wasn’t homey. Kylie struck him as the kind of woman who would make a place her own given time. It was part of her need to feel in charge of her life.
Power lines extended from the street pole to the house, and it looked like someone, at some point, had drilled cable into the house to accommodate different rooms. Perry turned slowly toward the front door and squinted, noting a small wire under the roof overhang just above the door. Walking closer, he followed the wire with his eyes to where it disappeared inside the home. He traveled the length of it, looking up as he moved closer, and then stopped, gawking at the small, barely noticeable camera that was secured at the edge of the overhang.
“Fuck me running,” he muttered under his breath, moving past it to the front door and paying close attention to every detail of the rest of the house. “I wouldn’t have guessed this about you.”
He made a show of knocking on the door again, although there really wasn’t any point. Kylie knew he was out here, knew it without looking through her peephole. She had her entire home wired with some incredibly expensive-looking spy equipment. Studying the back side of the tiny camera, noting that it didn’t move but remained focused on the side of the home he’d just walked down, he turned around slowly, prickles attacking his spine, as he already felt the sensation that he was being watched carefully.
“There you are,” he whispered, spotting the other camera down the length of the house, just underneath the guttering. “Damn.”
He ran his hand over his hair, taking this new bit of information in about Kylie, and turned his attention to the doorknob when the lock inside clicked.
The door opened and he stared at her flushed face. Sleep had made her eyes slightly puffy and her lips were full, moist, and reminded him of how much he enjoyed kissing them. But it was her hair, tousled and turning in small waves that caressed her slender nape, that made him instantly hard.
“You’re late,” she murmured, her voice scratchy, further proof that possibly she hadn’t been inside watching him but instead asleep.
“You weren’t here at five,” he said, and knew instantly by the slight twitch of her lips that he was right.
She licked them and then raised her baby blues to his eyes, looking a lot more alert than she did a moment before.
“And I can’t stay,” he added.
“What do you have to do?” The scratchiness in her voice was gone and she moved around her door, pulling it open farther so he could enter.
Her curiosity didn�
��t surprise him. He knew he’d pegged her right when he’d listened to her question his nieces. Possibly she was working on a thesis. But there was another side of her, a side that craved action, adventure, and even a mystery. More than likely when she had picked up on teenage girls being abducted and showing up dead she decided to become a private detective.
His protective instincts kicked into overdrive as he stepped inside and let his gaze drop to the swell of her breasts, accentuated by how her oversized T-shirt draped over them. The fact that she didn’t wear a bra and if she had shorts on underneath the large shirt they weren’t visible made it damn hard to keep his cock from getting hard as a rock. Her long bare, slender legs and no shoes or socks somehow made her even sexier.
“Work,” he said, knowing not elaborating bugged the crap out of her.
“What are you working on?” She combed her blonde hair with her fingers and pulled her attention from him, looking into her home.
Her living room looked exactly like it did the last time he was here. Not as much as a cup on the coffee table, pillows in the corner on each end of the couch, and no media on anywhere. She spent all of her time back in her bedroom, and probably in that middle room she kept locked. He took a moment to glance toward her hallway, betting that room probably held the equipment for those cameras outside. No wonder she kept it locked.
“I get to go talk to the family of the young girl we found earlier today.”
“Oh.” Pain registered on Kylie’s face as if she actually knew what it was like to talk to parents of a child who’d just died. “Do you want something to drink before you go?”
“No time right now.” He looked down the hall. Both bedroom doors were open. “I stopped by for this.”
Kylie fascinated him, sexually and otherwise. There really wasn’t room in his life for any kind of serious, long-term relationship, but he was compelled to pull her in close, tighten the reins he decided needed to be put on her, and keep a close eye on her.
