Scream for Me (14 page)

He was on her in the next instant.

The mattress sagged beneath their weight. He caught her in his arms, twisted her, then trapped her on the bed beneath him.

“I wanted…to be different…with you…” He barely managed to growl out the words. They were the truth. In his fantasies, he’d seduced her. Spent hours enjoying her body and the sounds of pleasure that came from her lips.

But his control was nonexistent. All he knew was raw lust. A desperate craving for her that was driving through him.

Black silk. That was what he’d seen. He wanted to rip the silk away and find wet, hot, pink flesh.

Wanted to taste that flesh.

He would.

“I don’t want you to be different.” Her wrists were held by his.

He kissed her. Let the hunger rage out of control as his mouth took hers. He’d thought she tasted good before. He’d been wrong. Her taste was phenomenal. Sweet, hot, better than any wine he’d ever had. Making him drunker than any wine.

Making him crave more.

“Next time.” His words were whispered against her lips. “I’ll…go easy…” He’d try to. He’d seduce. He’d—

“Why?” Her head tilted back. Her hips surged against him, riding the hard arousal thrusting against her. “I like you this way.”

His control shattered.

If she liked this…

He’d make her love what came next.

His hand pushed between her spread legs. Felt the dampness already coating her panties. Then he ripped them away. The rip of fabric seemed too loud in the darkness.

It made him even wilder for her.

Kyle pushed his way down her body. Spread her legs wide. Knew he had to taste before he took.

When he put his mouth on her, Cadence’s body arched. He locked a hand around her hips, stilling her and forcing her closer to his mouth.

He’d thought her mouth was heaven. Her sex—
yes
. Even better. Even. Better.

He licked and wanted more. She was gasping now, pushing her hips against him, and he wasn’t stopping. He wanted deeper. Wanted more.

Wanted everything Cadence had. Everything she’d
ever
have.

Her nails sank into his shoulders. He liked the sting of pain.

He liked it even better when she came against his mouth, gasping his name.

Tasting her pleasure was the best rush he’d had in years.

When the trembles eased from her body, he pulled back. Gazed up at her.

Her eyes were wide, gleaming.
Still hungry
.

Staring at him, she lifted her shirt. Tossed it aside.

Her nipples were tight. Pink. So perfect.

He slid between her legs. He still had on his jeans, the fabric stopping him from sliding deep into her.

She reached for him.

He caught her hands. Pinned them on the bed.

He liked the faster pants of her breath.

He hadn’t expected this from her. Cadence liked it when he took her control away. It turned her on. Anything that turned her on—

He loved it.

His mouth took her breast. He let her feel the score of his teeth. The blood seemed to be boiling in his veins, and he knew he couldn’t wait longer to take her.

He’d waited too long already. His tongue licked. Sucked.

“Kyle!”

His name was breathless, desperate.

He yanked for the protection he’d shoved in his back pocket after he’d jumped from the shower. He ditched his jeans and had his cock at the entrance of her body in seconds.

All that wet heat. Just waiting for him.

He held his body still, even though all he wanted was so close. “No going back,” he told her. The words were a promise. A warning.

He thrust into her and was lost.

Control was gone. Thought was gone. There was only Cadence. Beneath him. Around him.

He grabbed her silken legs, opened her wider. Thrust deeper.

His heart thundered. In and out, in and out.

Her sex squeezed him. Tight. Heaven. Too good.

He couldn’t last.

Couldn’t—

Cadence cried out beneath him.

He wanted to roar.

Instead, his mouth took hers as he erupted, a flood of release stronger than anything he’d ever felt before.

A release that left him gasping, desperate—and ready for fucking more.

More was what he’d have.

Kyle wasn’t going to stop, not until he’d taken everything Cadence had to give him.

Every. Damn. Thing.

The ringing of a phone woke Kyle. He stretched and realized he wasn’t alone.

Cadence was curled next to him.

Naked, tangled in the sheets with him. Exactly where she was supposed to be.

The phone rang again. The sound was faint, drifting to him through the connecting door he’d left open.

Carefully, he slid from the bed. Cadence kept sleeping.

He stalked toward his room. Found the phone he’d left on the bed. A quick glance showed that the call’s ID had been blocked. What the hell?

Maybe it was James. Had to be.

Who else would be calling at four thirty in the morning?

“McKenzie,” he said, answering the call even as his body tensed. He knew a call at this hour couldn’t be bringing good news.

A whisper came over the line. A click of sound.

“
Kyle…
” The voice was distorted, far away.

His brows pulled low. “This is Agent McKenzie.”

“
Kyle, save me
.”

His grip almost shattered the phone. “Who is this?”

“
Help me!
” The voice had risen to a scream. “
Kyle! Kyle! I want to go home!
”

Ice crystallized in his veins. Staticky, distorted, but he
knew
that voice. There were some voices a man never forgot. “Maria?”

She was screaming on the phone now, her words no longer intelligible.

“Maria!” he shouted.

But she didn’t answer. There was only silence on the other end of the phone.

“Maria?” His voice was low, lost, even to his own ears.

There was no answer. The line was dead.

Frantic, he tried to call the number back. It just rang and rang and rang.

“Kyle?”

His head whipped up. Cadence, wearing her FBI T-shirt again, stood in the doorway. She turned on the lights.

He could see the worry on her face as she asked, “What’s happening?”

“
She’s not dead
.” His voice was a rasp.

Cadence stepped toward him. “Who isn’t dead?” There was a strange note of hesitation in her voice.

“Maria.” He had to get a trace on the call. Had to pinpoint the location. “It was Maria’s voice on the phone.” He was staring into Cadence’s eyes when he said his sister’s name.

Shock rippled across her face even as she shook her head. “Kyle, that’s not possible.”

She still didn’t have hope. Even after they’d
saved
Lily, she still couldn’t hope.

“I know my sister’s voice.” She’d called him. She was hurting. Maria needed him. “She’s
alive
.”

“He’ll be coming soon, Maria,” he whispered as he tossed the phone into the woods. It would be found, eventually. “But the agent won’t find you.”

Maria had been his too long. There was no going back for her.

He slid into the driver’s seat. Turned up the music. Music silenced the screams and he hated the sound of screams. You
could drive right through town, your radio blaring, a girl in your trunk screaming, and no one would hear.

They’d just pay attention to the music.

Not the screams.

It shouldn’t have been time to find new prey. Not so soon. Hunting now wasn’t right.

Lily should have stayed with him longer.

As long as Maria had stayed.

He turned up the radio. The driving sound seemed to beat in his blood. Loud, so loud…

Not like in the caves. When he had silence with his girls. That perfect quiet.

Soon, he’d have his new prey within his sights.

The agents would be so fucking lost, so busy, they’d never even notice his attack.

And too late, they would understand just how powerful he was. He’d outsmarted the FBI. He’d hunted for years…and they’d only discovered the truth…

When I let them
.

He was the one who should get the glory. He was the one with the power. It was time everyone realized that fact.

CHAPTER SEVEN

The burner phone was lifted and carefully placed in the evidence bag. Early morning sunlight drifted through the trees, glinting like the fingers of a ghost in the woods.

The phone had been ditched just twenty feet from Death Falls.

Cadence shook her head. Twenty feet. After their discovery of the entrance to the caverns—the entrance behind the roaring water—guards had been stationed at the perimeter. Someone should have seen
something
when the phone was ditched.

No one had.

“He wanted me to know she was still alive.” Kyle stared down at the evidence bag. “The bastard has had her, all this time.”

Even in the rising heat, Cadence shivered. She didn’t think Kyle was right about what was happening in Paradox. Fifteen years was a long time to hold a victim prisoner. She’d heard of it happening, just a few times, but the perp didn’t usually take other prey when he had a living victim.

He only took a new woman when the other victim died
.

The thirteen tally marks had been carved on the wall for a reason. “Kyle, are you absolutely sure it was your sister’s voice?” She wasn’t sure. She’d just caught the end of the call. Heard his shout. Seen his fear.

Kyle leveled his stare at her. The same stare had burned with passion hours before, but now, it was almost like she was looking into the eyes of a stranger.

Part of him had shut down. He was too focused now.

Obsessed.

With a ghost.

“I’m sure,” he said, certainty cracking the words.

Cadence shook her head, even as she handed the evidence bag to the tech next to her. With word of Lily’s rescue, reinforcements had arrived courtesy of the FBI and the task force that was forming to capture Lily’s abductor.

Lily’s abductor—the man they suspected had taken and killed eleven other women.

“It’s been fifteen years.” She tried to keep her voice emotionless. “You said yourself the connection wasn’t good. It could have been some kind of recording, a trick to make you believe you were talking to your sister.”

“She called my name.” A muscle jerked along his jaw. “She was begging for me to help her. To take her home.”

“Maybe that’s what he told her to do. Maybe…” It had to be said. “Maybe he’s already got another victim. Maybe he
made
her call you, got her to pretend to be Maria.”

Kyle stalked toward her, closing the small distance. “Why?”

“So you’d lose your focus. So you’d make this investigation just about her.” It hurt to tell him these things, but they had a case to work. Eleven cases. “So you wouldn’t be able to do your job.”

When emotions were involved, the job always suffered. And the obsession Kyle had?
You can’t catch the killer when you’re like this
.

Their boss and Dani were both flying down to Paradox. Geologists and an excavation team were already trying to make their way into the caverns.

This killer hadn’t just splashed his way into the media. He’d exploded.

Paradox was about to come under a serious deluge of nonstop attention.

“I can do my job,” he gritted. “I’ve always done it.”

She knew he’d never stopped looking for Maria. That was who Kyle was. If their positions were reversed…

I’d do the same thing
.

Which made it even harder for her to say, “I think he’s screwing with you.” Blunt words.

He shook his head. “He took her.”

“Yes, he did.” She believed it with every fiber of her being. There were too many signs pointing to the killer. Lily’s abductor and the man who’d taken Maria—Cadence definitely thought they were one and the same. “When Lily wakes up, she’s going to give us a description of the perp. We’re going to post his picture everywhere. We’re going to track him.” She waved behind her, to the caves. “They’re going to get inside that sick freak’s torture chamber.” What was left of it. “We’re going to find a fingerprint. DNA. Something we can use in there. We are going to
get
him.”