by M. J. Eason
There was so much love in his eyes that Kara found it difficult to breathe properly. She just wanted to be alone with him but more than that, she wanted this nightmare behind them so that she could spend the rest of her life with him.
****
“Call me crazy but I still I can’t help but believe this key of Frankie’s is important to the case. We should focus on that.” Davis told her once they got into the car. He wanted to remain positive but it was becoming impossible when each new piece of evidence seemingly linked him to the killer.
“That’s probably a good idea.”
He started the engine and smiled at her, a little more of his confidence returning. It helped knowing she would be beside him through it all. Not matter what happened.
“I may no longer be part of the official investigation but there’s nothing keeping me from performing one of my own, now is there?”
The Blake ranch was a sprawling, hundred-acre piece of prime real estate outside Donovans Corner.
It had been an equestrian ranch at one time, but over the years, the Blakes sold off most of their stock.
“Victoria told me Frankie loved coming here to ride when he was a kid.”
Kara turned in her seat, watching him as he drove along the blacktop leading to the property.
“You did a good thing—keeping in touch with Frankie’s friends and family. You made them feel important in all this. No one else did that for them.”
“Honestly, I felt bad for them. They were victims as well. The press pretty much butchered them, saying they should have seen this coming. But how could they? Frankie didn’t show any of the normal signs of a killer.”
Davis had called ahead to let Victoria know they would be stopping by. She made sure the staff knew to expect them since her parents were out of the country.
“According to Victoria, the tree where she found the key should be on the southeast side of the ranch. We’ll have to walk. You up to it?”
“Don’t worry about me. Usually when I’m home I jog five miles every day. I’ll keep up.”
They found the tree in question easily enough thanks to Victoria’s description. She said it leaned to one side and had an enormous split running halfway down the tree.
Davis watched as Kara stood close and tried to connect to Frankie.
“Anything?” he asked finally and saw her shake her head.
“It’s hard to imagine the same person I feel here as being the one who did so much brutality. This man was sweet.”
Davis moved closer to the tree to examine its crevices.
“Nothing.” He took the key from his pocket and handed it to Kara. “Here, try this. Maybe something will come to you from it.”
But nothing did. Frankie Stephens was becoming nothing but a series of contradictions. The sweet person Victoria spoke about didn’t fit with the super intelligent person capable of such random acts of cold-blooded murder.
“None of this adds up.” She handed him back the key.
“I know.” He walked around the tree looking for any sign that the earth might have been disturbed. But after so many years, there would be nothing left if it had.
“The files we have on Frankie all say his intelligence was off the charts. But the person I’m feeling here is just an average young man. Did you ever talk to his mother and Victoria about this?”
“Yes, it came up several times, and they were both shocked. His mother wasn’t aware of Frankie having an unusually high IQ but then she worked a lot, so chances are she wouldn’t have known everything happening in her son’s life. But Victoria actually laughed at me when I told her about it. She remembered him as sweet like you indicated but said he struggled with his grades. His school records backed her up on this. Frankie was an average student at best.”
“So how does an average student become a genius overnight? And how do we even know what his IQ tested out to be?”
“Because we have proof, Kara. Frankie tried to join the Bureau remember? They do IQ testing on all applicants.”
“I’d forgotten. But I don’t see it. I just can’t picture Frankie as a genius.”
“Well, according to the records he was.” Davis stopped in front of her. She had that stubborn look in her eye that she got when she challenged something he said.
“Do we know who administered the test?”
“Kara, let it go. It’s legit. There’s no way he could have faked the test. You’re going down a dead end.”
“Maybe.” She still didn’t believe him. “I don’t know. I’m just trying to find the mistake. There’s one here somewhere, Davis. Something got overlooked.”
She was fighting so hard to prove the boy innocent. Davis took her in his arms and held her close.
“It’s okay. I know you’re trying. We’ll find it. It’s there, I know it is. We’ll find it. But for now, we both need to get some rest. And I for one want to talk to my daughter.”
****
“We can’t go back to the house. The press will be all over it by now.” He answered her unspoken question as they headed in the opposite direction from his quiet neighborhood.
When he turned onto to the familiar street that she’d once called home in the Westminster area, she looked at him in surprise.
“What are we doing here?” she asked as the car slid to a halt in front of her former apartment building.
“We’re going inside.”
All he did was smile at her confusion but didn’t say anything further as he opened the door for her. She didn’t budge.
“Please. Just trust me.”
Kara took his hand and stepped out of the car. Painful memories of all the times they’d spent together in her tiny apartment crowded in. She couldn’t speak. She waited quietly beside him as he unlocked the door and held it open.
Everything about the apartment remained the same as the day she’d left it that last time. She walked through each room of her former home while Davis stood silently waiting for her by the door.
“Why?” She somehow managed to get the word out over the painful lump that formed in her throat.
His expression said it all. For the first time she truly understood how difficult her leaving had been for Davis.
“Oh, Davis.” She ran into his open arms. “I’m so sorry.”
He held her as if he believed she might leave him. “I know. It’s not your fault.”
“It is!” She realized she was crying. “I didn’t listen to what you were trying to tell me. All I heard was you were going back to Rachel.” She pulled back a little so that she could see his expression. Her tears tore at his heart.
“Don’t. Please don’t cry, Kara. Please.”
She brushed away the tears and tried to tell him the things she needed him to understand. “I’m okay. Please, just listen.”
“I’m listening.” And he was. He was hanging on every one of her words.
“I never stopped loving you. No matter what happened. No matter how hard I tried. Through the years. I never stopped loving you. And no matter what happens this time, I need you to know I’ll never stop believing in you, or loving you until the day I die.”
His lips claimed hers once more. At first, gently but then with each new touch, each whispered word of comfort, the passion they’d both buried deep within their hearts ignited into a need that could no longer be denied.
“Make love to me, Davis.” As she watched, he drew in shaky breath. His eyes darkened to the color of the sea after a storm. She pushed her fingers into his hair, bringing his mouth to hers once more. She couldn’t get close enough to him. Six years she’d waited for his touch. Longed for it. She would never be close enough. Her lips urged his apart. He still tasted the same. Her fingers slid to his chest. They shook as she found each button on his shirt. When the last button came free, she pushed it away from his body. Her lips broke free of his long enough to look at him. His body was beautiful. Lean. Hard. The same as she remembered in all of her dreams…
**
**
When he looked into her eyes, Davis saw the truth. Suddenly kissing wasn’t nearly enough for either of them. With unsteady hands, he reached for her. His fingers tightened around her waist for a moment and then slipped beneath her top to touch bare flesh. Davis pushed the shirt away, his thumbs stroking across her breasts. Her body responded to him instantly.
Slowly he lifted the top over her head. For a second they were both overwhelmed with desire. She stood before him wearing only a lacy bra. She’d never looked so beautiful. The first time he touched her she’d still been a girl in many ways. He’d been her first lover. Her body and her responses had matured. She wasn’t the shy young girl he’d first loved.
“Come here,” Davis reached for her once more, no longer content with merely tasting her lips. He wanted all of her, starting with the familiar curve of her cheek, the graceful arch of her throat, the swell of her breast.
“You’re so beautiful,” he whispered close into her silken skin and her body shook in answer to his kisses.
In the past, every time he thought about her, he’d wondered what her reaction would be when he told her he still burned for her. He expected her to tell him to go to hell. But she simply stared up at him with the storm raging within her eyes.
Davis let go of his breath, audibly breaking the silence between them. She’d become accustomed to being alone. Not letting herself feel. Kara’s surrender came slowly but it came just the same.
He tried to force rational thoughts out of his head. This was the worst possible thing they should be doing right now. But Davis couldn’t let himself think about what the consequences of their actions might be, or the horror that waited for them just beyond the walls of this apartment.
He felt weak with need, trying to force air into his lungs.
Davis lifted her into his arms and carried her inside the familiar bedroom where they’d spent so many hours together in each other’s arms.
Everything looked just as he’d left it the last time he’d spent the night here and yet everything had changed.
He sat her on her feet and steadied her.
The blinds remained closed, shutting out the midday sun. Filtered gray light reflected his raw arousal, along with her uncertainty. Part of her still didn’t trust him fully. The thought hurt to consider but it didn’t kill the craving. Or the curiosity.
“Are you okay?” he asked over the thudding sound of his heart pounding in his ears.
“Kara, are you okay?” he repeated when she didn’t answer.
“Yes,” She sounded even more uncertain. She tried to steady her voice. “Yes, I’m okay. Please…don’t stop.”
Still he hesitated for a moment longer and then Kara took the decision out of his hands. She removed the last of her clothing and stood before him naked and vulnerable.
His gaze slid over her slowly, his body growing hard. Then he got to his feet and unbuttoned his pants stepping out of them. Tension soon became the only barrier left between them.
“You’re so sexy. So damn sexy.”
Her arms circled his waist. She laid her head on his chest for a moment. “You feel so good. It’s been so long.” She lifted her head to look at him.
“There’s never been anyone but you. Not in all these years. It’s always been you, Kara,” he whispered before his mouth claimed hers. His lips devoured hers filling him with a hunger he’d denied for so long. One that only she could quench.
“God, I want you but I want you to be sure. I don’t want to hurt you.”
Kara trembled with each stroke, each kiss. Each word. “I’m sure.” Her hands drifted over his bare chest, her lips touching his body for the first time.
The last of Davis’s control slipped away into a long, low moan.
He lifted her into his arms and carried her to the bed. In a moment, their bodies were joined together with a single thrust, robbing them of their breath.
Davis wanted to take his time, to allow them both to become reacquainted with each other. To make this time they had together special. But touching her made all those things impossible.
“Don’t stop, Davis. Please, don’t stop,” she said into his mouth, pressing her hips closer to him.
His body lunged within her, her kisses and her soft murmurings becoming an intoxicating drug, stealing all rational thought. And yet it wasn’t enough. He couldn’t get close enough.
The fear and uncertainty melted away with each thrust, each kiss. And the world around them was reduced to just the space of one bed, two people. One moment.
“God, you feel so good,” he whispered by her ear, his teeth grazing along the pulse point at the base of her throat. Davis’s hands clutched her thighs, shifting her further beneath his weight, allowing him to plunge deeper within her warmth.
Each thrust gave more pleasure and brought him closer to losing his fragile control. He could feel her body tightening and releasing around his. Watching her pleasure, the pressure within him spiraled out of control. A thousand different convulsions rocketed through his body. Kara’s broken whimper mingled with his groan of satisfaction. His hands framed her face. His mouth captured her cries of surrender into a kiss.
She said something so softly that he didn’t catch the words. He rolled over onto his back taking her with him. Gathering her close, he waited for the world around them to stop spinning once more.
It wouldn’t matter how many times he made love to her it would never be enough. Six years was a long time to need someone.
“Tell me about your life in Texas,” Davis murmured much later as they lay exhausted in each other’s arms while the afternoon shadows lengthened.
“What do you really want to know?” Kara smiled against his chest.
“You know.”
“There’s no one else. Only you.”
“God, I hate that I’m thrilled by that but I am. Do you have any idea how crazy it made me thinking about you with someone else? Married to someone else. Starting a family.”
“Davis, I fell in love with you in DC and I haven’t been able to think about being with another man since. When I came back to Texas and discovered I was pregnant, I was so afraid. I wanted to tell you…”
“I know,” he said quietly.
“I don’t think I accepted it fully until I moved to El Paso. I tried living in Austin but I never felt safe there.”
“And you did in El Paso?” he asked in disbelief and she laughed.
“It’s true. The people there accepted me for who I was. They didn’t ask any questions and they didn’t know anything about my past. To them, I wasn’t a freak.”
“You always hated the gift, didn’t you?”
Davis was the only person she’d let get close her and yet still he didn’t understand why she hated it so much.
“Yes. It’s hard to fit into normal society. It’s hard to explain but I don’t want that for Ava.”
“I know that, love. But it is a gift. And if you didn’t have it, then you and I would never have met, we would never have fallen in love and we would never have made that beautiful child.”
“Yes, those are the only good things to come from it though. It scares me to think about how fragile the events of our life really are. It’s all a game of chance.”
“Maybe not. Maybe this is who we are meant to be? And maybe you and I are supposed to be together. Maybe this case was meant to be ours to solve.”
“I so wanted to believe we solved it the last time but I guess, deep down, I’ve always known it wasn’t finished.”
“So, what do you do to make yourself happy in the middle of a reservation in the middle of a desert?” he said, trying to lighten to mood.
“I have Ava. She’s my life—was my life. I tried to hate you, Davis, but I couldn’t. I’m so glad you came for me.”
“I am, too. I’m glad Ryan paid you that visit. Even though I told him not to.”
“Why did you keep the apartment?” She lifted her head so that she could look into his eyes. It was a
while before he could answer.
“When you left, well, in the beginning I thought I might just go out of my mind.” His mouth twisted into a bitter smile. “God, Kara, you have no idea how much I missed you. Only Ryan knew how bad it got. And Rachel. Ryan kept me going. I ended up spending most of my time here. It helped. Being here where you and I spent so much time together. I felt close to you. Even after I bought the house, I couldn’t give the apartment up.”
“I never realized you loved me too, Davis. I knew you cared about me, that you wanted me physically but I never knew you loved me.” He stroked the hair from her face and kissed her mouth.
“Shh… It’s okay… I should have told you. I wanted to,” he whispered softly and then Davis stopped trying to comfort her with words. His lips touched her body in all the familiar places once more. Just for one second she hesitated and then she too was struggling to touch him as well.
He actually believed this time would be different. He felt it in her touch. This time they might just have more than just a few stolen moments.
This time he actually believed they could have a future together.
Chapter Nine
Sometime just before dawn, Kara finally slept. And as always, he came to her. His presence in her life had become more frequent and powerful than ever.
But tonight, there were no victims standing between them. Just Kara and the Angel.
She struggled to wake from the dream but couldn’t break his spell. With each kill, he’d grown stronger.
“You see me and yet you don’t know me. I’m close to you and yet you have no idea who I am. Who is the one with the gift now, Kara? I’ve grown stronger while you ignore your talents until they atrophy. You aren’t much of a match for me anymore. You’re not making it a game.”
“What do you want? Why are you doing this?”
“I want to become the greatest of them all. After all, I am superior to all others, including your precious Davis Martin. No one can challenge my power, not even you, Kara. You’ll never stop me. Until I’m ready for this to end, it will keep on going, victim after victim. Rachel, Jessica, Ava, Davis…you.”
