Scream for Me (35 page)

“What about what you need?” Cadence demanded. She wanted to scream at him. To break through to him. “Dammit, Kyle,
talk
to me.”

“What I need?” The words were so low, she strained to hear them. “I need him. Dead. In front of me.”

That wasn’t an agent talking. That was a grief-stricken, revenge-driven brother.

“That’s what I’ll have.”

She knew the words were a vow.

Danielle Burton stared at the entrance to the caverns. She didn’t want to go back inside. Ben was already in there, leading a group of local authorities. Searching deep into what she thought had to be the entrance to hell.

The bones were being brought out. Slowly. Carefully.

The FBI’s forensics team had arrived moments earlier. As soon as Cadence had vanished the night before, Ben had ordered the team be brought in.

She wondered if he’d expected to find Cadence’s body.

Dani wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer.

Then Ben appeared, striding from the caverns. His broad shoulders and handsome face were covered with dirt. He was walking fast, and his eyes shone with excited intensity.

He found something
.

“Tapes,” he said as soon as he got close to her. “DVDs, CDs. We hit the freaking mother lode in there.”

Her breath blew out lightly as she tried to keep her expression blank. “You know what will be on those tapes.” There was only one reason for the perp to have kept them.

They were his trophies. The moments of his victims, recorded. Kept.

“I don’t want Kyle seeing them,” Ben said and some of the excitement faded from his gaze. “Not until you have a chance to view them first. See who’s on there. See what happened to them.”

Sometimes, she hated her job. “There aren’t any more survivors?”

“Not down there. We reached the cave-in wall, what I think is the cave-in, anyway, from the explosion at the last site.”

“If you reached the wall, then how’d he get out?” But she knew. Heather had already told her about Cadence’s orders to photograph and get the name of every man at the scene.

He just walked right out. He was beside us
.

Ben nodded, obviously reading her expression. “The SOB is playing with us. I’m tired of playing.”

She didn’t think the guy was playing “with us.” She thought he was jerking Kyle around, and from what she’d seen, it appeared the agent was close to breaking.

Been there, done that
.

“Cadence can go over the tapes with you. She’ll know what to look for.”

Terrible plan. It would be like making Cadence face her own hell, over and over again.

But…
Cadence knows the victims
. Dani swallowed. Some days, she wasn’t sure how Cadence stayed sane.

“I have to go in to the police station,” Dani said. She was surprised her voice came out sounding so normal. She didn’t feel normal. It was one hundred and ten degrees out there, and she had goose bumps. “I need to run the medical records check, and I can’t do it out here.”

The signals were shit. They’d sure gotten lucky they’d been able to trace Cadence as far as they had.

He nodded. “I’ll bring the evidence tapes in to you myself.” Ben turned to leave.

“Why did you lie?” She had to ask. It had been bothering her since Maverick.

Ben stiffened. He glanced over his shoulder. “I don’t know what you mean.”

Since she’d been sleeping with Ben for over a year, Dani had gotten to know him pretty well. Well enough to be able to tell when he lied to her. “That story about the kids who were missing for years—the one you fed Cadence and Kyle—why’d you do it?”

He moved to fully face her, the faint lines near his eyes deepening. “What makes you think it was a lie?” His head cocked. “You haven’t been digging into
my
files, have you, Dani?”

Not yet. It sure was an item on her to-do list now. “You’ve had nightmares.”

He blinked.

“You scream out, ‘Kill me, not the kids!’” The words haunted her.

His lips thinned. “In my nightmares, I don’t get to the kids in time,” he said, stepping closer to her. Close enough for her to feel the brush of his body against hers. “In reality, I fucking did. I got those kids. I saved them. I told that story, a story I don’t tell many people, because I know just how close to the edge Kyle is.” He pulled in a ragged breath. “My job is to make sure he doesn’t go over the edge until we close this case.”

The shower had stopped. It had stopped a good five minutes ago, but Cadence hadn’t come out of the bathroom yet.

Kyle glanced toward the bathroom door. “Cadence?”

He took a step toward the closed door, then stopped. Behind the door, he knew what waited. Cadence. Naked, wet.

No, he didn’t need to get close to her right then. Someone else—Dani, Heather—should have been sent to watch her at the motel.

Not me
.

A rap sounded at the motel’s door.

Frowning, he glanced over his shoulder. He sure as hell wasn’t expecting anyone then.

And as far as he knew, neither was Cadence. This was her room. No one would know he was in here with Cadence.

He checked through the small peephole and saw the detective, Jason Marsh.

Eyes narrowed, Kyle yanked open the motel room door. He made sure his body blocked the entrance. “What do you want, Marsh?”

Jason blinked. “I wanted to see Cadence.”

“She’s in the shower.” Let him assume whatever the fuck he wanted.

The guy’s jaw hardened.
“I was going back to the station. I just wanted to stop by and make sure she was all right.”

Wasn’t that nice of him?

Kyle tilted his head as he studied the guy. “She’s not going to sleep with you.”

Jason’s mouth dropped open in shock, but he recovered fast and said, “Look, man, I was—”

“We both know what you want, and it isn’t happening.” Jason had made it clear what he wanted the first night in Striker’s.

“I was
worried
about her,” Jason snapped.

“I don’t remember seeing you at the caves,” Kyle said as he studied the man before him. “If you were so worried…”

“I was there! Dammit, I was searching, just like the rest of you!”

He didn’t remember seeing the guy. His gaze raked Jason’s face. “How’d you get that scar? Looks like it almost took out your eye.” Cadence’s theory pushed through his mind.
The killer had spent time in darkness
.

Jason rocked back on his heels. “Car accident when I was a teen. And yeah, I almost lost the eye, but that’s ancient history.”

Kyle wasn’t so sure. “You knew where the caves were. You took us right to the body.” Suspicion was tight inside of him. This guy just came right up to Cadence’s room? Who the hell did he think he was? “You took us there. Then you left us when the walls caved in.”

“I went for
help
.” Marsh’s cheeks flushed. “If you don’t believe me, ask Anniston! I called the captain as soon as I got out, and I told him that you were trapped down there! You should be thanking me, not—”

“What’s going on?” Cadence’s voice. Worried.

He hadn’t even heard the bathroom door open.

Kyle glanced over his shoulder. Her hair was wet, her pale skin scrubbed clean, and she wore a terry-cloth robe.

She needed more fucking clothes on then.

Jason shoved Kyle aside as he stormed into the room.

Wrong move
.

“Your partner is accusing me. Hell, I think he believes
I’m
the Night Hunter!”

Cadence’s gaze sharpened on Jason. “Are you?”

“What? Hell,
no
.”

Kyle grabbed Jason and spun him around so the two were eye to eye. “Where were you last night, when Cadence was taken? Just where the fuck were you?”

His hold was unbreakable as he trapped Jason in place.

The man’s face mottled with fury. “Where were
you
?” Jason tossed right back. “You’re her partner! Shouldn’t you have been with her?”

He wanted to break the bastard’s arm. Actually, that sounded like a damn good idea.

“I was at Striker’s!” Jason shouted as Kyle’s hold tightened. “Ask the waitresses! They saw me. I was there until I got the call to join the search for Cadence!”

Easy enough to check. Kyle planned to do exactly that.

He shoved the man aside. No, he shoved the fool right back out the door.

“I could write your ass up for assaulting an officer,” Jason threw at him.

Kyle’s brows climbed. “Let’s see how that shit works out for you,” he dared.

Jason’s gaze tried to cut over Kyle’s shoulder. Back to Cadence? “I’m sorry about what happened to you. This dick”—he pointed his index finger toward Kyle—“isn’t gonna stop me from saying that. I thought you were damn brave to face off with that perp, and if you need me, if you need anything…” He gave a nod. “You call me.”

Kyle imagined driving his fist into the guy’s face. Hearing the crunch of bones.

“Thank you,” Cadence said. “I will.”

Jason gave a jerky nod, then he was gone, hurrying down the steps to the parking area.

Kyle slammed the door after him and yanked the flimsy lock back into place.

Then he felt Cadence’s fingers on his arm. He didn’t turn to her, not yet. Instead, he grabbed for his phone and had Ben on the line in seconds. “I want you to run another check on Jason Marsh’s background.” They’d checked before, but they damn well needed to do it again.

“What’s happened?”

He’s too interested in Cadence. Too focused
. He cleared his throat. “Cadence has a new theory on injuries the perp may have sustained. Dani’s checking, but—tell her to look at Marsh’s background. He fits.” He quickly explained about Marsh’s accident.

Do you like the darkness, Detective?

A huge part of him wanted to race out of that door and go after Marsh but…

Cadence came too close to death
.

He couldn’t leave her now.

“I’m on it,” Ben assured him. “That guy won’t move tonight without me knowing exactly where he’s at, every second.”

That was exactly what he wanted to hear. Kyle ended the call and tossed the phone onto the small nightstand.

“You think I can’t see what’s happening to you?” Cadence demanded, her voice low. “Kyle, you’re ripping apart right in front of me.”

Fifteen years’ worth of grief was ravaging through him, twisting up with the rage and fear of nearly losing Cadence.

His eyes squeezed shut. The useless movement didn’t stop the vision. He saw Cadence, bathed in his light. Blood on her face. Fear in her eyes.

If Cadence died, he would truly be lost.

I love her
.

No, it was more than love. Too hard and dark and dangerous for love. Too consuming.

She was his drug.

His breath.

His fucking everything.

“Talk to me,” she whispered.

Grief and rage and fear twisted inside of him and made it damn hard to think. All he could do was feel.

I can make her feel, too
. But maybe he could be careful. Maybe he could show her.

He turned in her arms and found her staring up at him with the eyes that had always seen straight through him.

“I need you,” he said, pushing the words out. Those growled words were more true than she’d probably ever realize. “I can be careful.”

She pulled him toward the bed.

This room. This bed. Her.

He’d touched heaven here.

Then found hell waiting in the dark.

“Lie down,” Cadence told him.

Kyle slipped down onto the mattress. The bedsprings groaned beneath him. He wanted fury and flesh. Desperate passion. A release that left him hollowed and hungry.

But he couldn’t hurt her.

Wouldn’t.

She let the robe fall to the floor. There were bruises on her flesh. The sight of the darkened blue and brown marks made him even angrier. He wanted to kiss that skin. To take all of her pain away.

“Don’t see the pain,” she said.

Her voice had his eyes rising to her face.

“It doesn’t matter.”

It mattered to him.

“You. Me. This minute. That’s what I want you to think about,” Cadence told him.