“Hi.”
Angel took a deep breath. He reminded her of the boy who’d uttered that one word to her on the beach. The same smile adorned his face, only his eyes weren’t all bright and shiny. They were wary, unsure.
“Hi,” she whispered, grateful for the solid door behind her back.
Kade moved into the kitchen and picked up the same dish towel she’d thrown earlier and used it to get some of the water out of his hair. His shirt was soaked, as were his pants. A twinge of guilt tried to fester, but he’d deserved it. Sleeping when he’d just steamrolled her.
But he hadn’t really slept for days, had he? He’d been up making sure she was safe. Was it so bad that he’d dozed off when he was probably dead tired?
He tossed the towel in the sink and walked toward her, stopping by the couch. “I need to change clothes, but can we talk?”
She chewed on her lip, hesitant. “I thought you wanted to go shopping?”
“We’ll go shopping, pick out a tree, get some ornaments, but we need to talk first, Angel. Not just about us, about the unsub.”
“What happened?”
“Let me get a shower and change. Then we’ll talk, okay?”
She nodded woodenly, her mind running through every conceivable scenario she could think of, thanks to her Criminal Minds marathons. So many possibilities. Kade was serious. It had to be bad, whatever it was.
Standing here worrying about it wasn’t doing her a bit of good. She needed to call Pops and check to make sure he was good for the next few days. She’d had to call in yesterday because of the package. This was her first weekend off in almost two months, but she’d go in if Pops needed her. Serial killer be damned. A mindless night serving drinks might help settle her nerves down a bit too.
Upstairs, she found her phone plugged into its charger. She could hear the shower, and her eyes flickered to Nikoli’s forbidden closet. Lily’s whispered words mocked her. Like Kade would ever let her tie him up and do whatever she wanted. She could imagine the look on his face if she even suggested it, and the thought made her laugh out loud. He was such a prude.
She powered up her phone and saw several missed text messages and three new emails. She checked the text messages first. All from Jessie, freaking out, wanting to know if she knew anything. She texted her to stay calm and let the police do their work. The girl was a paranoia magnet. Anything could send her spiraling.
Next, she opened her email. A message from her lab partner reminding her that their paper was due for final grade next week, and she needed to get her part done and sent over. That, at least, she didn’t have to worry about. She’d finished it a few days ago, so it was as easy as booting up her laptop and sending the file over.
The next email made her pause. Its subject line read“Foreplay,” and there were files attached. The thing gave her a hinky feeling, especially since she didn’t recognize the sender. Curiosity got the better of her, and she opened the email.
Soon, my angel.
It was him. How did he get her email?
What was in the attachments?
Should she look?
Looking would be a bad idea.
But she found herself tapping the first image.
And immediately wished she hadn’t.
It was the girl, the one who looked like her.
She looked away, gagging. What he’d done to her…her mind shied away from it.
“Kade!”
The word was barely a whisper even though she thought she’d shouted at the top of her lungs. That poor girl. Was this what he planned for her? Was that why he sent her this email? Would she end up in this position? Burned, cut, and God only knew what else?
Her hand shook so badly the phone tumbled from her fingers and hit the floor. He sent her a blueprint for what was going to happen to her.
The shower stopped.
“Kade!”
Again, she barely managed more than a whisper, that poor girl’s mutilated body all she could see. The image of herself covered in burns, her flesh cut and bruised, played like a movie in her head. What kind of person could do something like this to another human being? Bile rose in her throat and she gagged, running for the ensuite bathroom. She barely made the toilet before it came spewing out. God, why had she opened that email?
“Angel?”
She saw Kade standing in the doorway in just a pair of jeans, his hair still wet.
“What’s wrong?” Concern filled his eyes as he wet a washcloth and bathed her face. “I heard you running for the bathroom. Did you eat something that upset your stomach?”
“No,” she whispered. “My phone.”
“Your phone?”
She pointed in the general direction of the bedroom as another wave of nausea struck. Kade frowned, but went out and picked the phone up off the floor before returning to her. “What’s your password?”
“Oh, four twenty-two.”
“Matthew’s birthday.”
He remembered the nugget’s birthday and the name she’d wanted to give him? She didn’t have time to respond to that tidbit of information before he started cussing. He’d seen the photos. Thankfully, she’d only looked at the first one. The rest were probably worse.
“Are you okay by yourself for a minute?” His face was hard, angry, but it wasn’t directed at her. She nodded, and he all but ran from the room.
Angel sat up and leaned against the cool surface of the bathtub. A headache started right behind her eyes. She sat there for what felt like forever, staring blindly at the white tile flooring, that poor girl’s bloody body playing like a broken record in her mind. The image wouldn’t go away. He took her because she looked like Angel. How was that even fair?
Something had to be done before this sick son of a bitch did this to another girl because he couldn’t get at her.
She blinked, and Kade was kneeling in front of her, all full of concern and sympathy. “Hey, baby. You okay?”
“No.” How could she be okay as long as the sicko was out there torturing women who looked like her?
“I have Jeremy working on it. He’s going to try to trace the email, figure out who sent it and from where. It’s going to be okay.”
“No, Kade, it’s not. That poor girl…all because she looked like me. We have to stop this.”
“We’re working on it.”
“No. That’s not good enough. He wants me. So put me out there, let him try to take me. Set up a sting at the bar, give him the chance to make his move in a controlled situation. Nobody else should have to suffer because of me.”
“Hell fucking no.” Concerned Kade morphed into mad as hell Kade. “You’re out of your damn mind if you think I’m letting you get anywhere near that sick bastard.”
“How would you feel if he was out there taking people who looked like you?” She stared in him straight in his eyes. “You’d go do something about it.”
“Because I’m trained to do something about it, first as a police officer, and then as an FBI agent. Catching these guys is what I do.”
“You’re not having very much luck with that, are you?” Angel regretted the words as soon as they left her mouth. He was doing everything he could, and she knew that. She was just frustrated. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
“We are doing everything we can. He’s making mistakes, and that’s how we catch him.”
“What mistakes?”
Kade stood and reached a hand down to her. “I have a lot to tell you, and I’d rather do it someplace other than a bathroom reeking of vomit.”
She curled her nose and took his hand, but stopped long enough to flush the toilet and rinse out her mouth. Stinky breath was not on the agenda. Angel assumed they’d go downstairs, but he dropped down on the bed and motioned for her to join him. She hesitated. Maybe being on the bed wasn’t such a good idea. Especially with him half naked.
“I’m not going to jump you, moye serdtse.” Kade scooted all the way to the bottom of the bed and flashed her an infectious smile. “I’ll be down here, well out of bone jumping distance.”
Why did he have to be charming? Half-naked and charming was not a good mix. She couldn’t stand there looking like an idiot, so she sat at the head of the bed, as far away from him as she could get. Kade only smirked. How could he be smirking in that sexy way of his when the situation was so dire? After those awful photos? How? Was it some kind of trick they learned in the FBI? He worked for the behavioral analysis unit. She watched Criminal Minds, and she knew he tracked down serial killers. Maybe he had to learn to do it to stay sane after seeing what he must see every day.
“Hey. Earth to Angelique…come in, Angelique.”
She smiled despite herself. Maybe he was being charming to take her mind off that awful photo. If that was the case, it was working. “So what do I need to know, Kincaid?”
His expression became more serious, and he lay back, staring at the ceiling. “The call I got last night was Bailey telling me they found the body of Julie Helton, the girl our unsub took two nights ago.”
“That’s too soon,” she whispered. “He always keeps them longer than that.”
“He’s sped up his timeline, which means he’s escalating, making mistakes. The bodies are usually clean, but they found motor oil under one of her fingernails. He usually takes his time and scrubs them down, but he missed a spot this time.”
“Those photos…I think she was in a garage.” She made herself not flinch as the image swam up into focus. Yes, she was sure of it. The background had been some kind of garage, a professional garage.
“I know. I already told Jeremy. They’re looking into places that might be abandoned in Boston. Sending you those photos was his third mistake. We’ll find him, Angel. There’s no need to put yourself in danger. He’s not getting away this time. I promise.”
“What if he takes someone else, though?” She pulled her legs up and wrapped her arms around them. “Then that is my fault.”
“No, it’s not.” He rolled over to face her, propping his head up on his hand. “None of this is your fault. Please believe that.”
She shook her head. He didn’t understand. Kade was in a position to actually do something, while she had to sit and wait. It made her feel helpless.
“Tell me about what you did after you left Miami.” She needed to distract herself, and talking about anything except the serial killer fit the bill.
Kade regarded her curiously. She’d just done another one-eighty on him. “What do you want to know?”
“Anything and everything, as long as it’s the truth.”
Her head was on her knees, and she was curled up so tight, she might snap. Talking about his past might not be the best thing, but it might distract her from blaming herself for things she had no control over.
“The next police academy class didn’t start for two weeks, so they sent me home, to my uncle’s house in Virginia. Dimitri was there, and he kept me company. Kept me out of trouble too. I think I stayed drunk the entire time I was home. I spent six weeks at the police academy in Georgia, and then I was assigned to one of the precincts in Atlanta.”
“Why Georgia?”
“Why not Georgia?” He rolled onto his back, pulling his knees up. “They asked me where I wanted to go, and that popped out of my mouth. I don’t know why. I graduated in Atlanta and spent two years on the force there before I applied to the Bureau. Given my success record undercover and the work I’d done in Atlanta, it didn’t take them long to accept me. I passed my tests, took the classes needed to work in the behavioral analysis unit, and I’ve been there since.”
“That’s the most watered down version of events I’ve ever heard.”
“That’s the gist of it. What else do you want to know?”
“I don’t know. Did you have any serious girlfriends?”
He tensed. No, not a question he wanted to answer. “Did you?”
“Have a serious girlfriend? Nah.”
“Don’t be a smart ass.” He gently kicked at her legs. “Did you have any serious relationships?”
She raised her head so that her chin sat on her knees. “I’m a woman Kade, a healthy woman who enjoys sex.”
“So are we talking like one or two? Or are we talking more than ten?” He hoped she said more than ten simply because it would make him look less of the manwhore Lily accused Nik of being. In truth, Kade was far worse than Nikoli. His little brother let women talk, claim they’d bedded him, when in truth they hadn’t. Kade couldn’t say the same.
“Two serious relationships that didn’t work out.” Her eyes narrowed. “Why do you look so crestfallen? What did you do? Go out and sleep with anything that moves?”
“I wouldn’t say that, exactly,” he hedged. How was he going to say this without pissing her off more than she already was?
“Then what would you say, exactly?” Her eyes narrowed, the green in them almost glowing.
“I started to drink, a lot. It got so bad, my supervisor noticed it. He told me to get clean or get gone. I took some time off. I met a woman. She was everything you weren’t.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
He hurried to explain when Angel’s expression turned hostile. “You were a ray of sunshine, bright and bubbly, full of joy and love. She was cold, shallow, a showpiece. There was no real substance to her.”
“Oh.” Angel looked down at her hands, but Kade caught the small smile she tried to hide.
“Her name was Jessica Frasier. I told myself I loved her. Almost convinced myself too. Until my baby brother decided to hang out for the summer.”
“You’re talking about Nikoli?” Her voice was so soft he turned his head to look at her.
“Yeah, how’d you know that?”
“Lily said something the other day about something that almost tore the two of you apart, but Nik didn’t elaborate.”
“She found out he was loaded and seduced him. Left me for him. I was hurt, angry, but not at her. I couldn’t care less about her. That’s what shocked me, I guess. I convinced myself I loved Jessica, but when she set up house with my brother, I felt nothing but disgust.”
“You were upset with your brother.”
He nodded. “Yeah. She was a gold-digging bitch. She was with me for the prestige of being on the arm of an FBI agent, but when she found out my little brother owned his own gaming company and was worth millions, she turned her predatory sights on him. He was young, stupid, and horny.”
“But it still hurt that he’d do that to you.” Angel’s voice had gone soft, the compassion evident. After what he’d done to destroy her family, he always felt he deserved what happened to him. Fate’s way of slapping him up the side of the head for being a jackass.
“We figured it out and got past it, but it taught him that most women only wanted his money. He never told anyone at school who he was. He refused to date a woman. He only fucked them once and moved on. Until Lily.”
Angel laughed, and he glanced at her. “What?”
“That boy ended up in my bar so many times during those first few months with her. Railing at the injustice of not being able to screw anyone else. It was one of her stipulations, and she had the gall to ask for his car in their bet.”
“Bet?”
“He didn’t tell you?” A grin spread across her face. “They had a bet going. If he got into her pants, he got Lily, if she stayed out of his bed, she got his car. He was so appalled.”
“The Cuda?” Nikoli loved that car. He wouldn’t even let Kade drive it.
“Yeah. Apparently, Lily knows cars. Her dad was some kind of famous NASCAR driver or something. He said she lusted after that car more than she did him. It drove him nuts that she could resist his charms.”
“I’ll bet.”
“We’re off topic, Kincaid. You still haven’t explained that look to me.”
Damn it. Here he thought he’d sufficiently distracted her. “You really want to know this?”
“I really want to know this. I have to know the whole truth. No more lies, Kade. Not if you want me to forgive you. I need to know it all.”
“So you’re considering giving us another chance?” Hope bloomed to life, that tiny little kernel that had refused to be doused all these years.
“I didn’t say that.”
“But you did.” He couldn’t stop the shit eating grin that took over his face. Whether she wanted to admit it or not, she was thinking about giving him a second chance. That was all he needed to press his suit. Dimitri was right about one thing. He’d made her love him once, and he could do it again.
“Why are you always trying to tell me what I’m thinking?” She looked exasperated.
“Because I can.”
“Answer the original question, Kincaid. What don’t you want me to know?”
He sighed. He might as well tell her. “Like I said, I drank a lot, especially after the situation with Nikoli. And I fucked a lot. I drowned in booze and women. The one thing I learned was that no one was you. No matter what I did, they never measured up to you. I gave up trying to find a relationship. I just fucked ’em and moved on.”
“So you’re as much of a manwhore as Nikoli?”
He sat straight up and looked at Angel. “I am not a whore.”
“Well, if you’re fucking anything with a skirt, then you are kinda are.”
He glared at her. She was laughing at him. It was better than her being pissed, he guessed.
“You’re a prudish whore.”
“What?” he growled. Prudish whore? What the hell was she talking about?
She pointed to Nik’s closet, unable to contain her laughter. “Oh my God, if you could have seen your face when you saw his container of butt plugs!”
“Why would anyone want a big piece of metal shoved up their ass?” He still couldn’t come to terms with some of his baby brother’s needs. Why the fuck did he need to tie up a woman to get off? It made no sense.
“Well, it serves two purposes.” Angel released her legs and leaned against the headboard. “They prepare your ass to be fucked by your man, and they can enhance sexual pleasure for both partners. It mimics double penetration.”
“How the fuck do you know this?” His eyes narrowed.
“I read, asshole.” She rolled her eyes at him. “Besides, there is something inherently sexy in being tied up and fucked.”
“So you’re telling me you’d let me tie you up, shove a plug up your ass, and fuck you senseless?”
“Only if you let me tie you up first.”
“Nobody is shoving anything up my ass!”
Angel laughed. If only she could record this conversation. His entire face was the color of a firetruck. It reminded her of the guy she fell in love with, and for a minute, she let her guard down, she let herself laugh and bask in the glow of Kade.
“You never know, Kade, you might enjoy it.”
“Bite your tongue, woman. Seriously, though. Have you ever tried that? Been tied up?”
“No. I never had the courage to do it. I didn’t really think about it until I started reading erotica. Then you start to wonder what it would be like, but I never trusted anyone enough to let them tie me up.”
“And all that other stuff?” He gestured toward the closet.
“I don’t know. Some of it, definitely not. But that’s not to say I wouldn’t try other things.”
“You’re a closet freak, that’s what you are.”
She giggled. “At least I’m not a prudish whore.”
Kade scooted closer, watching to see if she paid any attention to how close he was. Fortunately, she was too distracted with laughing at him instead of paying attention to the wolf about to pounce Little Red Riding Hood.
“Just because I think good old fashioned sex trumps all that mechanical and plastic shit doesn’t make me a prude. Personally, I think if a man needs all that to get his woman hot and bothered, he’s not doing something right.”
“But all that mechanical and plastic shit enhances the experience,” Angel countered, her eyes twinkling.
Kade saw the girl he’d fallen for and knew he had a chance. She wouldn’t be sitting here teasing him if she hated him as much as she claimed. Maybe their conversation last night had broken down some walls she wasn’t aware were gone. Or maybe his charm was getting to her. Either way, he’d take it.
He inched closer until his knees bumped hers and she went still. He saw her eyes shoot to where they were touching then widen in alarm. But he also saw the barest spark of desire kindling to life in those green depths.
“What the hell are you doing, Kincaid?”
He watched her breathing quicken ever so slightly, her tongue dart out to wet her lips. She leaned as far back as the headboard would allow, but it only served to thrust her breasts higher, and her nipples hardened. She wasn’t wearing a bra, only a thin t-shirt.
“Kade…don’t look at me like that.”
“Like what?” He heard the change of tone in his voice and let that lazy smile she used to love turn up his lips.
“What happened to staying far away from bone jumping distance?”
He leaned closer, until there were just a few inches between them. Her eyes were wild, and he saw the shock, the fear, the desire all swirling around. She was afraid of getting too close, shocked that he’d snuck up on her, but she wanted him.
Angel didn’t know if she wanted to run or if she wanted to close the distance between them. Confusion wracked her. What should she do?
His hand snaked out and he pressed it against her chest, right where her heart rested.
“You want me, Angel. You know you do.”
She shook her head, unable to speak. His hand felt like a white hot iron against her.
“Your breathing is heavy, your heartbeat is wild, and your eyes are all sleepy, moye serdtse. You can lie to yourself all you want, but your body doesn’t lie. You want me to kiss you. You want my hands on your body. You want my mouth on those nipples of yours already standing up and begging for the hot, moist heat of my lips. You want my fingers stroking you.”
Angel dragged in a ragged breath, the images his words inspired assaulting her. His voice had gone all gravelly and his eyes burned with a heat she craved. What should she do?
He pushed closer, his lips nibbling along her jawline. The scrape of his stubble scratched at her as heat started to pool in her belly. His other hand slid up her arm and then back down, the movement gentle and feather light. Her breathing became more labored. The hand on her chest shifted so that it cupped her breast, his fingers tugging at the already hardened nipple. A ripple of desire shook her.
Angel knew this was a bad idea, knew she should push him away, but the moan that slipped out of her laughed at common sense. This man had always been able to make her ignore her better judgement.
Kade feathered kisses down her neck, pulling her t-shirt aside so his mouth could trail kisses along the exposed skin. The whimper that sounded in his ear had his other hand sliding under her shirt and caressing the heated skin of her belly.
“Kade.”
He ignored the husky sound of her voice. She wanted him. That was all he needed to know. Despite his own body’s protest, he pulled back and placed his hand on her heart again. The rapid beating was the sweetest music he’d ever heard. She looked up, confused, the growing lust making her eyes sleepy, and he reminded himself he needed to take this slow.
“Kade?” Angel frowned at the devilment dancing in his eyes. What was he up to?
Kade pulled his hand away from her heart and jumped off the bed. He stood there grinning like an idiot.
What the hell?
“Let’s go shopping.”
“What?” she asked, her voice strangled.
“Christmas shopping.”
“But…”
He leaned down and kissed the end of her nose. “You can jump me whenever you want, Angel, but I’m not touching you until you decide to touch me. Now, get your ass up, get dressed, and let’s go shopping!”
She watched as he strolled out of the room, leaving her in a mess of want and need.
Bastard.
He’d put the ball squarely in her court. Now what the hell was she going to do?