“You don’t mind if I take this, do you?”
Her eyes kept staring at him.
“Don’t worry. I’ll give you another one to replace it.” Because he needed Jessica to understand what was happening. She had to realize who she was and why she mattered so very much.
He pulled the second bracelet from his pocket. Carefully secured it around Alexa’s wrist.
“There,” he said, satisfied, “that’s much better.” Now, he just had to make sure that Alexa was found. “You’ll be different,” he told her. His fingers brushed over her cheek.
So cold, so very cold.
He smiled at her. “I love you, Jessica.”
“IF ALEXA IS alive out there, she’s running out of time,” Sarah Jacobs said as she paced along the eastern rampart at Fort Gaines. She’d been over that fort, again and again, all day as she tried to learn more about the killer.
The chief of police stood a few feet away, watching her carefully. “Does being out here really help you, ma’am?” Trey Wallace asked her.
She stopped her pacing and glanced at him. “I’m trying to figure out why this place was so important to the killer.”
He shrugged. His sunglasses tossed her reflection back at her as he said, “It was a dumping ground, same as the golf course. Easy. Accessible.”
“It’s not always about easy.” She tilted her head as she studied the cop. He’d been withdrawn, so very careful in his conversations with her during the investigation that day. Why? Was he afraid of what he might reveal?
Usually, when folks found out that Sarah was a psychiatrist, they tended to back away, fast. Most of them were afraid she’d take one look at them and somehow magically know all their deepest, darkest secrets.
If only it worked that way.
“If that woman was his first kill, then he chose to hide her body here for a very specific reason. Sealing her up inside, using those bricks . . . that’s a time-consuming process.” She motioned to the water around her. “If he just wanted to dump a body, he could have done that. Instead, he wanted to . . . keep her.”
“Uh, keep her? Like she was some kind of damn souvenir?” Trey sounded both repulsed and curious.
“Yes,” Sarah answered him slowly, as the wind caught her hair and tossed it over her shoulders. “Something like that.” She wanted to head over to Victoria’s makeshift lab and find out what her friend had discovered. Victoria could always learn so much from the dead.
While she herself learned from the killers. And this man, the Lady Killer . . .
You know the island well. You knew when to come in and seal up your prey, knew exactly when the fort would be empty for you and you could work undisturbed.
You’re meticulous. Detailed. Those bricks were laid perfectly. And then . . . you came back. You came back to her again and again. You wrote the other victims’ names right on top of her. Why? Because you wanted her to know about the kills? You wanted her to know what you’d done?
“Uh, Dr. Jacobs?” Trey stalked toward her. “You okay?”
She blinked. Sometimes she got a little lost when she tried to connect with the killers. “I’m fine.” She tilted her head back to stare up at him. He was tall, just like Gabe, muscled.
The right age, the right access to the island . . .
Trey cleared his throat. “If you’re sure that you’re all right, then I need to get back to the station and see how the search is going for Alexa Chambers.”
Sarah nodded. “I’ll be heading back that way soon. I just want to do one more walk-around.”
He hesitated. “The excavation team is still working down there, and if you need them . . . the FBI agents are close by.”
Surprise rolled through her. “You think I’m in some sort of danger?”
He motioned toward her. “You fit, right? I mean, with the guy’s victims? He likes blondes and—”
“He likes green-eyed blondes. Tall, curved. Socialites.” Polished, seemingly perfect women . . . that he tortured and destroyed.
“So what?” Now Trey looked curious. “Since you’ve got brown eyes, you think that makes you safe?”
The wind whipped her hair again. “With killers, no one is ever safe. Even serial killers will break their patterns. They’ll attack when threatened. They’ll kill if it means protecting themselves.” Is that why the guy had killed Pauley McIntyre?
His hand dropped to rest on the handle of his gun, a gun that was holstered at his side. “I thought it was compulsion. They had to make the kills. Same vics, same M.O.’s.”
“Not always.” She glanced across at the water once more. “But it is the victims who matter. You find out why the killer picks them, and then you know more about the perp you’re after.”
“You must like hunting killers.”
“No.” Her voice was soft. “I actually hate it.” Sarah made herself look back at the police chief. “But I’m good at my job, and I will find this man.”
He rubbed his jaw. “But will you find him before or after Alexa is dead?”
She didn’t have an answer for that question.
“That’s what I was afraid of,” Trey said as he turned away. “I don’t want to find another body on my beach.”
“A STORM IS coming in,” Eve said. She’d gone out onto the balcony because she’d needed to breathe, and she couldn’t breathe in that condo. Or, at least, she didn’t feel like she could. It’s suffocating me. “Not a big one, not yet, but you can feel the storm in the air.”
A streak of lightning lit up the sky. “And you can see it,” she added.
Gabe was at her side. His arm brushed against her shoulder. “The storm will halt the search.”
Her hands tightened around the railing. “I don’t want her to be dead.”
He turned toward her. “You escaped. Maybe she will, too.”
She didn’t tell him that it was hard to have hope. She hadn’t exactly had a lot of that in the last few months.
“Your . . . brother called. He’s on his way down here. He wants to see you, to talk with you again.”
Eve nodded. She didn’t think of Pierce as her brother, though. He was just a stranger, but then she also didn’t think of herself as Jessica, and she wasn’t sure she ever would.
“We should crash for a few hours,” Gabe said. “When the storm passes, I want to head out again on the search. Alexa is running out of time.”
Yes, Eve was afraid that she was. “I don’t want to crash.” She faced him fully. More lightning flashed.
“What do you want?”
To not be so afraid. “I want to be with you.” Was she using him? Part of her was worried that she might be. Whenever her feelings got too strong, when the darkness around her became too great, she reached out for him.
Mostly because she didn’t want to face the emptiness inside of herself. And Gabe—the last thing he did was make her feel empty.
“Eve . . .”
“Don’t you want to be with me?”
“Fuck, yes.”
She caught his hand. Brought it to her mouth. Pressed a kiss to his knuckles. “Then be with me. Please, Gabe, I—I need you.” Something was going on inside of her, and that stupid voice—that low rasping whisper—wouldn’t stop. It’s all for you.
“Gabe?”
Rain began to fall on them. Lightly at first, then in harder, heavier pelts as it drove down. She didn’t move to run inside the condo. Eve stayed right there, letting the rain wash over her.
“I can’t figure you out,” Gabe said as he lowered his head toward her. “Why do you keep pulling me close?”
“Because I trust you.”
“You don’t know my secrets.” Something was there, in the roughness of his voice, something that should have warned her to back away.
She edged closer. Her clothes were getting wet, the fabric sticking to her skin. “I know you’re a good man. You fight to stop killers. To help victims.”
“Maybe I’m not so good.”
Eve
shook her head. “You’re the SEAL, the hero who helps all of us who are lost.” She tried to smile for him. “That’s who you are.”
If possible, his expression became even darker. “I’m not a hero. Far from it.”
She could see he didn’t understand. “You are to me.” She’d already lost her only friend—Pauley. Every time she thought of him, an ache filled her heart. He’d been so good, kind to his core, but now he was gone. Because of me.
The killer had tracked her. He’d taken Pauley’s life, and now Gabe was the only bright spot that she had left. Not a connection to her past, but a link to her present.
“If you knew who I really was, you wouldn’t want me near you.”
His words seemed to be such a strange warning. Especially when . . . “You’re the only man I want this close.”
Lightning streaked overhead. Thunder rumbled, and he kissed her. Kissed her with the same mad passion of the storm. Kissed her with fury and need, and she loved it.
He lifted her into his arms, carried her back inside the condo, but this time, this time, he didn’t take her back to the bedroom.
Gabe pressed her to the wall just inside that condo, right past the balcony’s doors. Held her there with his body. His mouth was hard on hers, his tongue thrusting past her lips, and as he kept her there, Eve felt the long, hot length of his cock pressing against her. Gabe wanted her, just as much as she wanted him.
He pulled his mouth from hers, his breath coming out in ragged rasps that she loved. Then his gaze slid over her. The wet clothes stuck to her like a second skin, and her nipples were tight with arousal, jutting out toward him.
He wrapped one arm around her waist and lifted her up again, holding her effortlessly, and his mouth closed over her nipple, right through that wet shirt. She gasped at the contact because a bolt of pure electricity seemed to spike her blood. His tongue laved over the aching tip, then she felt the rough edge of his teeth in a sensual bite. A bite that had her sex clenching in anticipation.
Then his mouth was moving to her other breast, caressing her through that wet cloth, and he was making her crazy. Need shouldn’t be so strong, so consuming. She wanted to rake her nails down his back. Wanted to tear his clothes off and feel him, flesh-to-flesh against her.
She wanted to forget everything else—every single thing—but the passion he made her feel. The pleasure that they gave to each other.
She felt like an animal in lust as she fought to shove his clothes away. He lowered her back down until her feet hit the carpet, and her fingers immediately grabbed for the button of his jeans. She managed to unsnap that button and yank down his zipper, and then his cock was in her hands. Eve wrapped her fingers around him, his thick size spilling over in her grip. He groaned at her touch, his teeth scraping together, and she could see the hot desire on his face.
I want everything from him.
Eve eased down in front of him, moving slowly, and then her knees hit the floor.
“Eve?”
She leaned toward him. Put her mouth on his cock. Licked the head, tasted the salty moisture there.
“Eve, baby, you don’t have to—”
She took him inside her mouth.
I control the pleasure. I make the choice. My lovers. My pleasure. Me. Me!
She licked him, took him in deeper, and wondered why control mattered to her so much. She loved the way he shuddered. Loved it when his hands fisted in her hair and Gabe groaned her name.
He can’t watch me anymore. He can’t stop me.
Eve licked the head of Gabe’s arousal once more, then she was pulled back. Stared up at him. “Fuck me.” She barely recognized her voice. Something was happening inside of her. Something that felt . . . wild.
Wrong.
No, nothing with Gabe can be wrong. Not with him.
“Fuck me now. Right here.”
He pulled her back to her feet. Grabbed for a condom from his wallet—the man was so prepared like that—and then he locked his hands around her waist. His strength should have scared her.
It didn’t.
Her legs curled around his hips, and he drove into her. Deep and hard.
I can fuck who I want.
Even as that thought pushed through her mind, Eve shook her head. No, no, that was wrong. She didn’t want to fuck just anyone—she wanted Gabe.
“Eve?” Her name was a guttural demand from Gabe. “What’s wrong?”
She shook her head. Her legs locked even tighter around him. “Nothing.” Eve kissed him. Dark shadows were whispering in and out of her mind. She hated those shadows. “Make it stop.”
“What?” He stopped.
No, no, she needed him to move. “Gabe, please!”
His body was rock hard, his cock embedded in her, but he wasn’t moving.
He caught her hands. Pushed them back against the wall. “Eve, look at me.”
Her eyes were closed. I don’t want him seeing . . . so tired of him seeing—
“Eve! Fuck, wherever the hell you are in your mind, come back to me, now.”
Her eyes flew open. “I’m with you.” With him—that was the only place she wanted to be. She hated the shadows in her mind. The weird whispers that had started in the fort and just wouldn’t seem to stop. “Make me forget everything else.” She squeezed her sex around him. Held him as tightly as she could. “Make me feel the way I did before.”
Lightning flashed outside of their balcony. She heard a loud crack, and the room plunged into darkness.
He started to pull away from her.
“Fuck me, Gabe, please . . .” She needed him more than anything else.
And . . . he withdrew.
“Gabe?”
He thrust into her. Hard enough to steal her breath. Deep enough to make her moan.
Just what she wanted.
He kept her hands against the wall, kept her in place with the power of his body. In and out. Over and over. The pleasure was so close. So maddeningly, achingly close, and she needed it. She needed him. Her sex was quivering with every stroke, wet and swollen, and he glided deep into her, claiming every inch of her in the darkness.
“You’re with me. Stay with me. Only me.” His voice was all she heard. His body all she felt. The strange whisper in her mind was gone. There was only Gabe. Just the way she wanted it to be.
Pleasure hit her. Crashing over her in a fast, shuddering wave that swept over her entire body. She gasped, trying to pull in a breath, because the climax hit harder than she remembered. Her sex was pulsing, quivering, trying to hold tight to his cock—
But he’d withdrawn. “Gabe!”
In a flash, he spun her around. Her hands slapped against the wall.
“We’re not done,” he growled.
And he was lifting her hips, arching her back toward him. She turned her head, trying to see over her shoulder, trying to see him, but he was a shadow in the darkness.
The shadow follows me . . .
Fear quivered inside of her even as her sex still shuddered. “Gabe?”
His hands grabbed her hips, and holding her from behind, he slammed into her. “Couldn’t . . . touch you . . . like I wanted . . .” And his right hand left her hip as he thrust and withdrew, thrust and withdrew.
That hand snaked around her body. Slid between her legs. Found her clit.
When he touched her there, her hips slammed back against him in a frantic roll.
“Much better.” His mouth found her throat. He kissed her. Licked her. Sucked the skin.
And kept stroking her clit.
Her nails were about to scratch their way down that wall. “Gabe!” Another orgasm hit her, this one even stronger than the first, so strong she totally lost her breath because all she could do was moan and arch back against him.
“That’s it . . . that’s what I needed . . .” And Eve felt Gabe erupt into her. Her sex squeezed him as he came, and he kept stroking her clit, moving his hand so skillfully even as he groaned her name.
When it w
as over, she felt limp. Hollowed out. He withdrew from her, and Eve’s knees did a little jiggle. She was pretty sure that she was about to wind up on the floor, but he caught her before she fell. She thought he might have carried her to the bedroom. Or maybe she just stumbled in there. Things were kind of hazy.
Then the bed creaked beneath her. The soft mattress touched her head. She shouldn’t be in bed. Not naked. She had to get her clothes. Eve tried to push her way through the sated lethargy that had swept over her. “Have to . . . dress . . .”
“Not for me you don’t.”
He moved away. She heard the faint rustle of his feet.
Eve tried to shove back the covers. Have to dress . . . he sees . . .
“Eve? Baby, lie with me.”
He pulled her back into the bed. It was so dark there. The power must still be out. Shadows were all around them.
“Need my clothes,” she murmured.
“Why?”
“Because he sees me.”
She felt his sudden stiffness against her. “Who sees you, Eve?”
“He watches me . . .”
“Who?”
Her eyes were sagging closed. Maybe they were already closed. It was so dark—because the power was out? Or because she was sinking into dreams? She hated to sleep near him, but her body had other plans. “Sorry . . .” She tried to get the words out. “If I scream . . .”
“EVE?”
She didn’t stir.
Gabe brushed her wet hair back from her cheek. Eve was asleep in his arms.
His phone rang, and keeping one arm around her, he reached for the device. He’d tossed it on the bedside table moments before. “Spencer,” he said, keeping his voice low.
“What?” Wade’s sharp voice demanded. “Man, are you whispering?”
He was, because he didn’t want to wake Eve. By her own admission, she hardly ever slept. But she was sleeping with him, her body soft, sated, her breath passing lightly from her lips. “What do you want?”
“The outage hit half the island. The police chief says that the condo should be on a generator, though, and he’s got a man working to bring it online in—”
Lights flashed on—lights in the den, not the bedroom.
“The generator’s working,” Gabe said, still keeping his voice low. “What’s happening with the search?”