Scream for Me (28 page)

She held back the moan trying to break from her. She didn’t want anyone in the hallway to hear her.

“I want to take you every way I can for as long as I can.”

Heat pooled in her sex. She knew her panties were getting wet.

“And I will.” Kyle’s mouth came back to hers. His lips were open, and his tongue thrust into her mouth.
Yes
. This kiss was what she wanted.

Only it didn’t stop the ache she felt.

The kiss made it so much sharper.

Footsteps sounded in the hallway. Voices called out just beyond the door. She lifted her hands, wrapped them around Kyle’s broad shoulders, and pulled him closer.

She loved his taste. Talk about craving.

But he was lifting his head again. Dammit. Putting those inches between them that she hated. “You make sure you come back to me, baby.” A hard order. “You make
damn
sure.”

She would.

“I
won’t
let you disappear.”

Then he kissed her the way she’d wanted—completely, totally, sending her heart thundering and her body trembling because there was power and passion and so much need in that one kiss.

She’d be coming back for this. For him.

The bastard out there wasn’t going to stop her.

If there weren’t others a few feet away, if she didn’t hear them coming toward the door—

Kyle’s hand slid down her body.

His fingers were over her breast. Stroking.

She jerked against him.
Feels so good
.

She wanted his hand even lower. On her sex.

In her.

Not now. Not here
.

If she didn’t stop soon…

Her hands pressed against his shoulders.

Their eyes met.

“Come back to me,” Kyle demanded.

She nodded.

He let her go.

Time for me to be bait
.

The killer was keeping close tabs on the FBI. He could be watching her, right then. But just in case he didn’t have her in sight at that moment, she knew exactly where to go in order to draw him out.

The caves
.

The caves were special to the killer. Those tally marks had been left in the cave with Lily because the killer had been marking his territory. He felt safe there, so he’d left a record of his victims.

They’d found the remains of one woman there. If there were others, then the killer would feel compelled to go back…

And he’d find me
.

Since the FBI team suspected the killer was closely monitoring the investigation, Cadence had made a point of informing all the local officials that if they needed her, she’d be back at the caves. She’d even told a local reporter that she was focusing most of her attention on the dark caverns to learn more about the killer.

She’d put out the bait, now the killer just had to act.

“It’s not exactly easy to move several tons of rocks.” Dr. Aaron Peters gazed at the entrance to the caverns. He didn’t look like a buttoned-up professor anymore. Dirt stained his cheeks and hands, and his jeans were ripped in a half-dozen places. He shook his head. “Every time we advance, it seems like we wind up taking five feet back. The place is too unstable. Those detonations—hell, we’re lucky the explosions didn’t create a fifty-mile sinkhole. The bastard could have destroyed
everything
.”

Dark clouds swirled in the air above Cadence and Aaron, blocking out the evening sun. Wind pushed against her cheeks.

“My team can’t stay down there during storms like the ones coming. It’d be too dangerous.”

She knew they couldn’t. The local weatherman had been predicting the severe surge of storms for days. Now the storms were almost on them.

“I heard about what happened in Maverick.” Aaron’s voice was lower now. Sympathetic. “Is the sheriff gonna make it?”

“I think so. He was stable when I left.” She’d never forget the gurgles he’d made as he lay on the sidewalk, drowning in his own blood.

Aaron turned away from the caverns. Focused totally on her. “What makes somebody do this? I mean, how do you get so messed up that you keep women as your prisoners in caves? That you shoot sheriffs and kill without hesitation? Why do you do that?
How
do you do it?”

Her gaze slanted toward him. Cautiously, she began to explain, “There are lots of different theories.” The wind had kicked up even more, tossing her hair. “Some folks think serials are born bad. That’s the nature idea. You’re born evil, and no matter what happens, you’re meant to grow up and kill.”

It sounded like the wind had started to howl.

“Others say it’s all in the environment. Events that shape people into becoming who they are. Things happen. They twist good people and turn them into—”
Monsters
. “Killers.” She paused, intent on gauging what sort of reaction he might have at her words.

Aaron just shook his head, as if he couldn’t understand how a person could be so twisted. “But becoming someone like this?” His lips twisted in a grimace. “Why?”

A flash of lightning lit up the sky behind him. “We believe this individual is a collector, of sorts.”

“When I was a kid, I collected rocks, not people.”

But their killer
did
collect people. “He’s not quite like you.” Their perp wasn’t like anyone she’d ever met or profiled before. For most of the serials she encountered, the kill was the end goal for them. They received satisfaction—fulfillment—from the act of killing their prey. But this guy actually kept his victims alive. Multiple victims, seemingly alive at the same time. Death wasn’t the end goal for him.

Control was.

“How do you do it?” Aaron wanted to know as he narrowed his eyes. “How do you go after these guys without the nightmares driving you crazy?”

Behind him, Aaron’s team and the authorities on hand were leaving the caverns. Securing the area.

How do you do it?

Late at night, she wondered the same thing. “I put them in cages. I lock them up. When I know the killers are off the streets, I sleep much better.” Not the total truth, but Aaron didn’t need to know about her nightmares.

Thunder rumbled in the distance.

Aaron turned away. “All right, guys!” His voice rose. “I’m calling it for today! Let’s get out of here before the first storm comes through!”

The local weatherman had predicted the line of thunderstorms would roll in just before sunset. They were supposed to last all night.

The storms would slowly make their way up to Maverick, Tennessee.

The wind and rain would wash away any recent evidence the killer had left behind. Now they even had Mother Nature working against them.

She glanced toward their makeshift parking lot. Search teams who’d been in the woods were already piling into their vehicles. Getting ready to go home.

She headed for the line of trees. Voices floated behind her. Aaron, talking to his team.

She knew the path led back to Death Falls—the falls that had offered her freedom before, when she’d been trapped in the darkness.

Her steps were fast as she hurried toward them. The woods were silent, the voices of the men soon disappearing behind her. The trees swayed. Lightning lit up the sky in hot flashes every few moments.

Then the thunder of the falls reached her. It seemed louder, stronger than it had been before.

She stopped and stared at the water. It was beautiful, but when she saw it, Cadence could only think of death.

The name of the falls was damn fitting. Swallowing, she glanced away from the thundering water. Cadence looked to the left. The right. She was sure the killer had used this exit from the caverns. Sure he’d come here, over and over.

Awareness pushed through Cadence. There had been no sound to alert her to someone else’s presence. But…

I’m not alone
.

Cadence spun around, her gun out and aimed in an instant.

The gun was pointed just a few inches from Aaron’s face.

He blinked. “I was just making sure you were okay.” His cheeks flushed. Even in the weak light, there was no missing the bright red. “I saw you come over here by yourself. You don’t want to get trapped up here during a storm. The water there”—Aaron inclined his head—“it gets rough pretty quick. One misstep, and you could be in trouble.”

She lowered the weapon. Lowered it, but didn’t holster it. “Sorry.”

He took a few quick steps back, putting some distance between them. “The crew’s leaving. You heading back with us?”

For now, she was.

More thunder rumbled.

Or was it just the falls?

She stepped toward Aaron.

His hands had clenched into fists.

Her own body tensed.

“I know what you’re thinking,” he said. “What you’re
all
thinking.”

Lightning flashed over him.

“I was here, just a few years ago, I should have seen something.” He shook his head. “But I swear, I didn’t. I searched those caverns as much as I could. I searched in the area where you found Lily.
There was nothing
.” His breath heaved out. “I keep wondering—dammit, did I miss something? Could I have stopped this?”

Rain began to pelt down on them.

Aaron swore.

They both began to jog back to the base, back to the waiting cars.

She knew guilt ate at him.

It ate at her, too.

For her mother.

For all the victims she hadn’t been able to save over the years.

They stopped at the cars. She had an SUV of her own now. She’d picked the rental up on her way out of Maverick. Aaron waved to her once she was at her vehicle, then he headed over to join his group.

“Dr. Peters!” She called out his name over the rising storm. The rain drove down in a hard blast now. Her hair stuck to her; her clothes were already drenched.

He looked back, water streaming down his face.

“It doesn’t do any good,” she called out to him. “To think about the coulds.” On all the things they both could have done differently. On what could have changed. “Just focus on what you can do now.”

He stared at her a moment longer, then gave a hard nod.

Maybe her words would make it easier for him to sleep at night.

Maybe not.

They didn’t usually help her. It seemed all she could ever think about was the
coulds
in this world. She’d just given him advice she’d never be able to take on her own.

They’d all run away. Leaving the caverns. The woods.

Fleeing the storms that promised to beat so hard and long against the town.

There would be no searches that night. No one stumbling where he or she shouldn’t for the next ten hours or so.

He watched Cadence’s SUV disappear around the bend. She was on her way back to the motel. Back to the little place at the edge of town.

Only McKenzie wasn’t with her. Not yet.

Not. Yet
.

It was a terrible mistake for the agent to make.

She’d driven about ten minutes when her windshield wipers stopped working.

Cadence’s hold tightened on the steering wheel. The rain battered down in a torrent that just wouldn’t stop.

She couldn’t see a damn thing.