A Little Harmless Submission 6 (20 page)

“I find that hard to believe.”

“Before you, there wasn’t much of a reason.”

He shook his head and kissed her. “Come on, let’s go back to bed.”

She followed him happily.

· · · · ·

Two hours later, it was Rome’s phone that woke them up.

“Yeah. Carino.”

“Detective Carino. This is Officer Akito. We have another woman.”

He stood, his mind on the work to be done. “Location.”

After hanging up, he looked at Maria. “Another woman.”

She nodded. “I’ll wait here.”

Her hair was a mess, a tangle of curls dripping over her shoulders. She was naked. He sighed and gave her a quick kiss.

Traffic was light because of the early hour, so it took him no time to get to the scene. It was another alley, not too far from where he’d taken Maria to eat breakfast that first morning. Shit. There was already a crowd.

He stepped through the crowd, ignoring the questions from reporters. When he reached the alley, a young uniformed officer stepped up. “Carino.”

He nodded. “What do you have?”

“Woman, twenty-eight, strangled, ME thinks she was raped.”

“Do we know her identity?”

“Amy Walsh.”

His heart stopped for a second then dropped to the bottom of his stomach.

“What did you say?”

He gave Rome a strange look and repeated the name.

Amy.

“Are you sure?” he asked, trying to keep his emotions under control, but he could already feel his stomach roiling.

Officer nodded. “As much as we can be without a personal id.”

Rome nodded and walked forward. Each step felt heavier. He had recognized the women, all of them. But Amy was different.

He walked up to Tim and his CID crew.

“Same MO?”

Tim nodded. “Looks like. This one though, he left an id.”

He sighed as he looked down at Amy. He could still remember the joy on her face when she talked about her new man. She wasn’t stupid, that was for sure. There was no way she would go with someone she didn’t know in this part of town. Hell, he wasn’t sure she would have come with someone she knew well. Even him.

“We’ll get a positive ID.”

“It’s her,” he said.

Tim looked up, studying Rome. “You know her.”

“Knew. I knew her.”

He pulled back in his emotions, knowing that he couldn’t help her now. There was no saving Amy from whoever had done this. But he could make sure the bastard would pay.

With that last thought, he slipped on his gloves and started the job of looking for clues.

· · · · ·

A long three hours later, he was summoned to the captain’s office.

“Shut the door.”

He did as ordered and sat down and waited for the captain to sign something.

“You knew the victim.”

Rome nodded. “She hadn’t been at the club for the last few months. She’d met someone. He didn’t like playing at the club.”

His boss didn’t waste time getting down to the particulars. “Was she a member of Rough ‘n Ready?”

He nodded. “As I was telling Tim, she hadn’t been there recently.”

The captain studied him for a moment. “You were involved with her.”

He looked at the captain and nodded. “But we broke it off a few months ago. Amicably. She’d met someone outside of the club. A Dom, but not a member of the club.”

“I’m going to have to get personal here.”

“Go ahead.”

“For people of your persuasion, is it odd to meet someone outside of the club scene?”

He shook his head. “Not really. Easy enough to find people online. There are some dating sites that cater to just about anything.”

“Shit.”

“Which means, of course, that our suspect list just got longer.” He thought over the murders, how they were women he had interacted with, but this one spoke of frustration. “The ME said it was more violent, he’s escalating.”

“And he seems to be getting closer to you.”

He studied the captain’s face. “No. Don’t even think of taking me off the case.”

“I’m not. Okay, yeah, I thought about it, but I’m not going to take you off. You’re apparently working well with what’s-her-name.”

“Maria. Agent Callahan,” he corrected.

“Keep me up to date. Find out who she was seeing, too. Make sure that it isn’t another copycat.”

He nodded as he rose and walked out of the office.

“Hey, Rome.”

He was jolted out of his thoughts by Jack. “Hey, what are you doing here?”

“Final out processing. I had a few papers to sign.”

Rome nodded, already closing down his computer so he could leave.

“How’s Maria?”

“What?”

“The woman you introduced me to the other day. Maria.” Jack’s smile widened. “Let me guess. You’ve moved on all ready.”

He tried to keep his temper in check. Knowing there was a chance their killer had ties to the FBI or the police, he had to act normally. Nothing out of the ordinary or it would gain attention. He leaned back in his chair and studied his old partner. They had never really been good friends. Jack wasn’t a bad cop, just a lazy one. He didn’t go the extra mile to do his job, something that Rome did.

He shrugged, realizing that Jack was waiting for an answer. “Nope, still having fun with her.”

“Just let me know when you’re done with her. She looked like a hot piece of ass. Where is she from?’

He wanted to punch the son of a bitch in the face, but he knew that it would draw attention to them.

“Florida. Or Georgia, not really sure. With a woman like that, you don’t ask too many questions.”

Jack chuckled, and it grated down Rome’s spine.

“I bet you don’t. But then you like them all submissive, ready to do what you want.”

Rome had to bite back the snarl, along with a swift right hook. Jack had always been an asshole, but his latest divorce seemed to have taken it to a whole new level.

“I heard there was another girl found last night. You might want to start thinking with your big head so that you can possibly solve the case. Having a repeat of what happened in Seattle might not be good for your career.”

He offered Jack a nasty smile. From the time they were stuck together, Rome hadn’t liked the bastard. He had no respect for anything, the badge especially, and Rome had been thrilled when his latest wife had decided to divorce him. Knowing the ass was leaving soon, Rome shrugged.

“Don’t worry about me, Jack. Especially when you got enough on your mind as it is. I mean, how much is Tina gonna take you for?”

A flush of red darkened Jack’s face, and his fingers curled into his hands. Rome knew he had punched a few buttons, mainly Tina. She was already involved with another man, happy as a clam.

But when Jack noticed the room had gone silent, he visibly pulled himself back from the rage Rome had seen in his eyes.

Rome said nothing else as he brushed past him on his way to Maria. He hadn’t had much of a conversation with her earlier. Just the limited information he could tell her over the phone. He got into his car and started off to his house, thinking about Jack’s comments. His old partner was an asshole that was sure, but there was a bit of the truth in what he said. Since Maria had appeared on the island, Rome had seemed to lose his focus. They were working on the case, but was he working on it enough?

He knew the answer to that, and it was a big fat no. Damned woman had him so tangled up, he didn’t know how to react, and he was screwing up possibly the most important case of his career. He did have that one mark against him from Seattle. He didn’t know how Jack knew about it, very few did, and he didn’t truly get in trouble. Not even a reprimand. But he knew it was his fault for being so infatuated with Renee. The woman had screwed his brain while she’d been on the take. The only reason she had been with him was because of that. And working with the FBI to take her down should have satisfied him, but it hadn’t.

He pushed those old memories away and concentrated on the present. He had to get his head back in the game before any other women got hurt.

Chapter Fifteen

Maria glanced around the club and tried to hold back the irritated sigh that seemed to be hovering in her constantly. It had been two days since they’d found Amy, and Rome was even more distant than ever. It wasn’t anything anyone else could see, but it was something she could feel. He rubbed his fingers down her arm and leaned closer.

“You’re supposed to be having fun,” he said.

His warm breath feathered over her ear, and she had to fight the shiver. She would not show him anything. Two could play at his game.

She turned to him then and her heart hurt. He was so gorgeous with those dark eyes and sculpted cheekbones…but he was being an ass. Just like all men were. It had just taken her longer to find out how big of an asshole he could be.

“Am I?”

For a second he didn’t say anything. “Are you what?”

“Supposed to be having fun?”

He pulled back just an inch or two, but it might as well have been a mile. Then he glanced around. “We’re supposed to at least be pretending to have fun, you know, catch the killer.”

She wasn’t going to win the battle. Not here, not at his place, not ever. For some reason, he had decided to be distant, to barely touch her except when they were in public. Maria didn’t understand, but she rarely did. Men didn’t explain, though. They just made you fall in love with them and then dumped you.

“I can pretend. But I’m not a party girl. I’m not a lot of things.”

Before Rome could say anything, Micah intruded. “Hey, Rome. Maria.”

Micah was studying her, as if trying to figure out what was going on. If he did, she would pay money to know what the hell was wrong with Rome. She had a feeling the club owner knew something was up between the two of them, but he was too polite to say anything.

“Rome, I was wondering if we could have a chat alone.”

Rome looked at her. “Well, Maria—”

“Is a big girl, and she can take care of herself,” Maria said, cutting Rome off. She needed a break from having him touch her.

“Okay, don’t go anywhere.” He leaned in and gave her a simple kiss. She could feel the heat of his body and could smell the wonderful unique scent of him. Then he pulled away. She watched them walk up the stairs together and sighed. The plan had been hers, all hers, and she had no one to blame but herself.

“Now, you don’t sound very happy, hun.”

She wanted to jump the moment she heard Eli St John’s voice, but Maria forced herself not to. Slowly she turned and found him standing behind her.

“Of course, I’ve just been left at a table by myself.”

He chuckled and sat down without invitation. She raised one eyebrow.

“If I waited for an invite, you might never ask me. This way, I can get my objective done and fast enough so I don’t have to deal with your boyfriend.”

She blinked. “I don’t have a boyfriend.”

He cocked his head to the side and studied her. “Looked like it from where I sat.”

He’d been watching her. It didn’t give her the same feeling as when she knew Rome was watching her. This made her feel…dirty.

“What do you want, St John?”

He laughed then, a loud one that boomed off the walls. It was so loud people at the surrounding tables heard it over the music.

“I sure do like you, Maria. Why are you wasting time with Rome Carino?”

“You think I am? Why is that?”

“Word is that he doesn’t last too long with women. A few weeks here and there, maybe a month or two, then he tosses them aside.”

Was that what he was doing? Probably. But she refused to let St John know. He wasn’t a suspect, so she relaxed against the seat and decided to flirt. It would be good if the killer saw her being flirty with another man. It might draw more attention to her.

“And what is it you’re offering?”

“Well, now, I can offer some fun on a ranch. Do you like horses?”

· · · · ·

Rome could feel his skin crawling. It felt as if there were thousands of ants climbing all over him. He rolled his shoulders and tried to pull himself back under control.

“So you have no other evidence?” Micah asked.

“No. He’s getting bolder and more violent. Much more violent.”

Micah nodded as Rome rose and started pacing the office. He couldn’t sit still. Granted it was his fault. He hadn’t touched Maria in the last two days other than their time at the club. If she knew just how each little brush of his fingers on her flesh drove him insane, she gave no indication. Worse, it put him in the mood for a fight. He needed some kind of physical release.

“You need to just give in, bra.”

He stopped and frowned at Micah. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

Micah grinned. “Jesus, you’re as bad as Evan. Give up, you’re lost to her now.”

“I’m not lost at all.”

“You’ve been up here less than five minutes, and you can’t stand it.”

“She’s made herself bait to a killer.”

“And she’s in the middle of a club. He didn’t abduct them from a crowded area. We would have heard of that by now.”

That much was true, but he didn’t care. “Still.”

“There is something else bothering you. And it has a lot to do with the woman and not the case.”

“They’re one in the same.”

“Really? So when this is done, you won’t touch her again.”

“I’m not touching her now.”

Micah snorted. “You don’t have to lie to me.”

“I decided two days ago I’d lost my focus.”

For a moment, his friend said nothing. “And so you decided to pull back, to not touch her.”

Rome nodded once.

“Romeo, you definitely don’t live up to your name.”

“Fuck you.”

“Well, two uses of fuck in one night? You really are frustrated.” Micah shook his head. “You’re focus is for shit because all you can think about is her.”

That was a little too close to the truth, so he did what he could. He growled at Micah.

“Hey, I’m just observing what’s going on here. You’re in love with the woman, and you’re screwing it up. I understand you have a job, but you need to make sure you don’t lose her.”

Panic clutched at his throat. He wasn’t in love with her. He couldn’t be. She was…not right for him. He wasn’t ready to settle down. And she had a life back in DC. Not that he couldn’t transfer there to be near her.