Watching her body let go pleased Luke more than he could ever explain. Trailing a hand down her chest, between her breasts and over her stomach as it arched beautifully up at him. He lowered his head and tasted from her nipples and moaned with pleasure. His body was on fire, burning to the fullest extent of desire.
When his body threatened to explode he buried himself within the love of his life. He threw his head back and a sound that rivaled any thunder storm ripped from his body. For a while his body just stopped, held in suspension as he tried to bring his mind back from blissful oblivion.
Shuddering sweetly, he let out an almost pained cry as he pulled away from Priety and cradled her against his body. “I do love you,” he whispered against her hair.
“I know you didn’t lie about that, Luke.”
“How do you know that?”
“Your eyes gave you away.”
* * * *
Luke walked into the room and everyone looked up at him. He gave a wave and fell into a sofa heavily while clutching his side.
“Couldn’t you wait a week?” Keegan asked with a grin.
“Not in front of the lady,” Michel motioned to Kerry who was giggling and shaking her head. She got up and walked from the room.
Luke only gritted his teeth and rubbed his side. “And no, I couldn’t wait a week. I thought I lost her… I don’t know what I was thinking leaving her by herself with a serial killer after her.” Luke shimmied deeper into the soft material.
Guilt was still tearing through his body even though Priety told him not to worry about it. It was too bad Chen was acting like he was crazy. Luke wanted to see the man fry but they would probably put him in a nut house for the rest of his life.
Where was the justice?
“I don’t know, man,” Riyu spoke up and took a deep breath. “At what point in a man’s life does he say he is going to go around killing with no regard for human life. I mean, something had to make him snap.”
Luke remained silent as the men spoke around him. He wanted to dwell on Chen but he just couldn’t. He had to focus on getting better and Priety staying with him. The pain in his side faded to a dull throb. They were silent for a while until laughter from up the stairs caught Luke’s attention. A smile snuck across his lips and his head rolled to one side.
“You love her,” Keegan spoke.
Luke didn’t answer right away. He smiled again and turned to look at his brother.
“I can see a brotherly conversation coming on.” Michel stood up and walked over to pat Luke on the shoulder. “I’m gonna go see what’s going on with Chen. I’ll stop by soon.”
Luke nodded and Riyu hugged him goodbye.
“She smells like peaches, you know,” Luke spoke absentmindedly. “Her dimples only show when she’s smiling and I just want her to keep smiling so her eyes will twinkle and her dimples deepen. When she wants me to kiss her she gets this look in her eyes and she leans in….”
“I take that as a yes.”
“Ya damn right that means yes. I am just scared she’ll leave me.”
Luke watched Keegan for a while before sighing and got up from where he sat. He wavered on his feet and Keegan rushed over to catch him.
“I’m fine.” Luke took in a shaky breath. “I’m gonna ask her to marry me, Keegan.”
“You? Talking marriage?”
Luke laughed and moved for the kitchen. He understood what Keegan meant. Luke vowed never to get married. When it came to women he had no clue but with Priety he seemed to know what she wanted when she wanted it. He knew when she wanted to be held, touched, tasted; he could just tell.
Reaching into the fridge he pulled out a bottle of water and chucked it at his brother before grabbing a second bottle. “Drive me down to the jewelry store on Fontaine.”
Keegan nodded and drank his water.
Luke laughed.
Chapter Seventeen
Priety sat cross-legged on Luke’s massive bed when a knock came at the door. Glancing around to make sure everything that had been disturbed during their love making had been put back into place, she smiled. “Come in.”
Kerry tore through the door and dove onto Priety. They both giggled as they hugged. It was a while before Kerry let her best friend go.
“I was so worried,” Kerry confessed. “It was all over the news and I was scared to call you and not only that, I didn’t know where to call.”
Priety nodded pushing hair from her face. Her ordeal had been harrowing to say the least but Luke made it all better. After everything he had taken her into his arms and just held her. He touched her as though he had lost her and couldn’t believe she was there. He held her so tight and even though he was squeezing her she didn’t care. He was there.
“Kerry, I love him… when he touches me everything that is wrong with the world completely disappears. Then all that is left is him. The way he smells, the way he smiles at me.”
“Oh, sweetie.” Kerry pressed a dainty hand to her chest. “I am so happy for you.”
“But he blames himself for what happened. He keeps apologizing even after we just made love all he could do afterward was tell me how sorry he is for not taking me with him. It’s not his fault. Who would have thought, even though the windows and doors were locked, from the inside, he would have gotten in?”
“I get that. But he is a real man, Pree. He thinks it’s his job to protect you and what happened was not him protecting you. Did he tell you he loved you?”
“Yes. Then he touched me to prove it to me. Kerry, what am I going to do?”
“Stay with him, Pree. This man is the real deal. He has proven himself to be loyal, truthful and good in bed, huh?”
Priety blushed and nodded. “He is.”
She tried to think back to one of the times when she had been this in love and couldn’t think of one. She remembered having a crush on Tiger Woods when she was younger and thought she’d never love another man compared to what she was feeling at that moment. She bit down on a nail as she thought about what Kerry said.
“Priety!” Luke called up the stairs and Kerry giggled when Priety gasped.
“Yes, honey?” Priety replied as she got up and moved for the door with Kerry close behind. They went down the stairs and Luke instantly wrapped his arm around her.
“You all right?” she wanted to know.
“Yeah. Riyu and Michel went down to see Chen and they say he wants to talk to me. Something about his mother.”
“I don’t trust that man,” Priety voiced. “With everything that he’s done? He’s probably going to lie to you.”
Luke pressed his lips into a thin line and leaned in to kiss her. “You would have been a wonderful cop.” He smiled down at her knowingly. “But Keegan did a check on his mother and it seemed she fell off the face of the planet years ago.”
“My God—do you think he did to her what he did to the others?” Kerry wanted to know.
“His own mother?” Priety asked and pulled closer to Luke’s side.
Luke knew exactly what Priety was thinking but with a psycho like Chen there was no telling what he was capable of doing. But Luke also knew that if he didn’t go down to see Chen, it would bug him forever. Taking in a deep breath he walked into the foyer and reached for his jacket. He couldn’t even put on his own jacket. The wound on his shoulder had been agitated in his fight with Chen and that made him want to kill the man even more.
“Priety, help me into this?” he asked her.
While she helped him, he gritted his teeth and held his breath. He turned to Kerry and smiled. “You’re welcome to stick around here until we get back.”
“That’s all right. I have a fiancée to go home to that’s probably freaking out.”
Luke reached in to kiss Kerry’s cheek. “We’ll see you later.”
When Kerry said her good-bye to Priety, Luke took her hand and placed his car keys into it. He never let anyone drive his car but he was in no condition to drive; the doctors had him on Morphine
for the pain.
Priety wasn’t just anyone. He willingly trust her with everything. She is the woman he wanted as his wife. The thought made him smile like a mischievous prankster, making him feel alive. Kissing her head, he wrapped his arms around her and led her toward the car.
His mind was all over the place as he stroked her thigh absentmindedly. Turning his head against the head rest, he watched her lovingly. She was busy watching the road as she drove and he took that moment to take her in. He loved the way her dark hair cradled her face, the soft way her chest rose and fell. The silly way she tilted her head to the side when she thought no one was looking.
I really love you.
Chapter Eighteen
Walking back into the station was like walking to his doom. The hallways were eerily silent. The hallways used to be noisy with Chen yelling and other officers making whispering bets when the chief would have a heart attack. Chen’s office door was blocked off with the yellow police tape that Luke had seen so many times but inside of a police station it only made his heart sink. He always thought cops were supposed to uphold the law and not obliterate them. He took a deep breath when Priety squeezed his hand and he looked down into her face. He could see in her eyes she was there for him and that made the trip down the corridor toward interrogation two that much shorter.
Glancing through the one way window, he saw Chen seated at the cold table with a guard in the far corner. Michel and Riyu were also standing outside the glass looking in.
“What does he want?” Luke questioned.
“Something about his mother,” Michel shrugged.
“What does it have to do with me?”
“He says he will only talk to you.” Riyu frowned.
Luke looked at Priety who had her arms wrapped around herself as she stared at the man sitting feebly at the table. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into his chest. “This won’t take long,” he whispered against her ear. “I don’t think it’s a good idea you being here.”
“No. I want to be here,” Priety spoke, nodding her head. “I want to see the man that can never harm us again. I want to look into his face and really see what evil is.”
Mouthing for his friend to keep an eye on her, Luke released her reluctantly and moved into the room. He walked toward the head of the table. He felt dirty breathing the same air as Chen but Luke swallowed the lump in his throat. Leaning against the far wall, he folded his arms across his chest.
“What do you want?” Luke got out on a low rumble.
When Chen looked up at him, Luke would have felt sorry for Chen if he didn’t know what he did. The man looked beaten, down on his luck with a cut above his left eye. The right side of his face was puffy where Luke had slammed his fist. Chen had a bandage around one wrist and against his chin.
“I figure I have nothing left to lose,” Chen spoke. “A better man beat me and I just have to accept that.”
“You’re wasting my time, Chen.”
“That’s chief to you.”
“Like hell.”
The room fell silent as Luke watched him. Even after everything, he still wondered why Chen did what he did. But asking Chen would never happen. Luke knew Chen would lie and he’d only end up punching his former captain in the face. Pushing away from the wall he walked for the door.
“Wait!” Chen called.
Luke stopped and turned to face him slowly. “What? I really don’t have the patience for this.”
“My mother… I didn’t want to do it. I really didn’t. But she just—she made me do it.”
“Made you do what?” Luke asked.”
“I know cops who spend their entire careers wondering why. Don’t you want to know why I did it?”
“I don’t particularly care.”
“It started out with me just wanting to get back at my mother for what she made him do to me,” Chen muttered, barely audible. “But then—then it got so much bigger than me and what I was doing. It turned into something that I craved and one turned into another and then another and then I just couldn’t stop it.”
Luke made a face. “This is me playing the world’s smallest violin for you.”
“You don’t understand!”
“You damn right I don’t understand!” Luke thundered. “I can never understand how a person could just kill someone to satisfy some perverse little urge.”
Luke moved forward then and bent over the table to level his eyes on Chen. “Now you listen to me—I am going to make it my mission that you get fried.”
Pushing from the table, Luke once more made an effort to leave. There was a sick feeling inside him telling him Chen had murdered his mother but he just didn’t want to know.
“She’s buried in my backyard.”
The confession stopped him in his tracks and Luke moved to the table again. This time he grabbed Chen from his chair. Hoisting him up against the wall Luke pressed against his neck. “You bastard!” he growled and felt a hand on his shoulder. Luke’s brown eyes continued to stare at his capture not loosening his grip. “Your own mother? I thought…”
He could not believe what he was hearing. Letting Chen go, the man fell to the ground like a sack of potato sputtering for air and grabbing his throat. Luke backed away from him, crashed into his brother who’d stopped him from pummeling Chen into the ground. “You’re going to hell,” Luke whispered. “You’re sick.”
“You—you have to find her,” Chen pleaded. “Her eyes are on my dresser!”
Luke turned and stared at the window. He couldn’t see her but he knew Priety was watching. He didn’t understand how a man could kill his own mother; no matter how horrible she had been to him. He was always told the mother is the greatest gift God gave to man. The love of a mother surpasses the love of everyone else and the prayer of a mother is stronger. Squeezing his eyes shut he ached to hold his mother.
“Luke?” Keegan asked.
“I’m fine.”
“Can I leave you in here alone with him?”
Luke took a deep breath and nodded.
“Okay then…”
He watched his brother’s back until the door closed behind Keegan. He turned once more to Chen.
“Explain something to me,” Luke spoke. He still refused to take the seat across from Chen. He knew it would be too close to not want to reach out and snap Chen’s neck.
“One of the things that bothered me during this whole disgusting ordeal is, of all the other parts to the human body, why did you pick the eyes?”
There was silence in the room as Chen fiddled with his thumbs. Luke stood there waiting for an answer. He was truly baffled how a man could do something like that. Even after dealing with criminals for so long, Chen was a new breed. The thought that Chen was such a high ranking officer made Luke feel as though the walls were closing in around him.
“She never loved me,” Chen started and Luke growled. Chen glanced up at Luke before looking down at his fingers. “Every time he beat me she would watch and do nothing. The first time it happened, she handed me over to him. It was her or me and she was only too happy to hand me over.”
“You make me sick,” Luke spat, moving in to face Chen. “You go around killing perfectly innocent people who had nothing to do with you. They didn’t even know you existed and you thanked them for their trouble by putting a bullet between their eyes and cutting their eyes out. If it was up to me, you would be getting the same courtesy. But don’t worry ,karma’s a bitch so you will get yours.”
Priety saw Luke’s anger and it frightened her. She gasped and pulled up against Michel’s side. When Luke came back to them she rushed over to him. “Do you believe him?”
“That would explain where his mother has been all these years,” Luke growled like a pissed off bear. “His own mother. We couldn’t find a death certificate on her so legally she’s still alive.”
Priety bit down on her lower lip. What she wouldn’t give to have her mother by her side at that moment. There was nothing in the
world she wouldn’t give for a single hug or smile from her mother. She sighed and pressed her face into Luke’s chest and allowed her tears to soak his shirt. She felt him wrap his arms around her and she stepped even closer and tightened her arms around him.
“It’s going to be fine,” he whispered against her ears, and she believed him. His words rang true to her heart even though her head was yelling at her.
How can this ever be fine? Women are dead, his mother is dead. Chen’s a dirty cop!
Not fine! Never fine!
“Michel, take Riyu and a couple of CSIs and head over there. Find those bones,” Keegan ordered and instantly the other two friends were off and heading down the corridor. “Come on you two, let me take you home. I’ll have your car towed to your place, none of you are fit to drive right now.”
Priety lifted her face from Luke’s chest but she didn’t move far from him.
* * * *
Sitting alone in the huge house with Priety was a lot more satisfying than Luke thought it would be. With all the drama that engulfed them lately, he hadn’t really had time to just sit back and hold her in his arms. Crickets chirped outside and soon the soft patter of rain could be heard on the roof. Shifting slightly, he sighed and pressed a kiss to her head.
“Will there be a trial?” Priety asked.
“Maybe. But Chen already began laying grounds for his defense. He may act crazy so he won’t have to go to jail.”
“Don’t go to jail? Where would he go?”
“Psych ward.”
“They can’t believe that. He knew what he was doing. I mean you can’t go around killing people because you weren’t loved as a child!”
Luke went silent again. He agreed whole heartedly with Priety what kind of man went around killing people because his mommy never hugged him as a kid? So your mother was mean to you, suck it up, get some counseling or something and get over it. He couldn’t believe humanity’s knack for blaming other people for things.
See No Evil Page 14
