Strings of Fate (Mistresses of Fate) (29 page)

Spreading her thighs resolutely with his hands, he bent down and tugged her panties to the side with his teeth, seeking the heart of her with his lips and tongue.

“Oh, fuck, yes.” She eased up on her elbows so she could look down at his head between her legs. He used his left hand to hold her panties aside as he kissed her in earnest, his tongue probing and licking her delicate sea-scented flesh.

“You are delicious,” he told her, the vibration of his voice thrumming over her most sensitive part, making her moan and arch upward.

“I don’t think I can wait,” she gasped as he bent and gently suckled, making her cry out.

He straightened again, tugging her panties off almost roughly. Motioning with one finger, he indicated that she should turn so that she was lengthwise on her small bed, climbing directly after her and settling himself between her thighs. He didn’t enter her, though. Chris punched him in the shoulder. “Damn it, Helmer, fuck me.”

“So impatient.” He laughed and kissed her, holding her head still when she tried to turn away.

“I want you inside me,” she growled at him, curling one leg high over his hip. “Now.”

His cheeks were flushed, his eyes dark as he obeyed, reaching down to position himself between the slippery eager flesh that waited for him, sliding into her slowly, inch by inch, the pleasure so intense that Chris wanted it to slow down so that she could mentally record how amazing it felt.

“God, that’s good.” She laughed breathlessly.

He was long, going deep until she was afraid she wouldn’t be able to take him, but he was careful—she was starting to really appreciate a careful man. When he was all the way inside, he kind of sagged, like all his bones had melted with pleasure.

Biceps bunched, he held himself slightly above her, his chest muscles tight and rock-hard to her touch as she stroked him.

After a moment of recovery, she undulated against him, tightening the inner muscles of her hot, wet clasp, imagining that she was in class, breathing deeply as she slowly tightened her core.

“Oh, fuck.” He stared at her. “What are you doing?”

She grinned a little wickedly. “You like it.”

“Honey, if I liked it any better, this would already be over.”

“Well, we wouldn’t want that.” She slid her hand into his hair and pulled him down for a kiss.

He laughed and began matching her motion as their tongues tangled. Chris felt her climax rising, and amazed delight had her smiling fiercely as she climbed closer and closer, her body rising easily toward fulfillment. He was the first time she’d ever tasted ice cream, the first time she’d dived in a pool on a summer day, the first time she’d ever run through the woods with her three best friends. Being with someone had never felt so effortless before, never felt so natural and right, as if his smell and taste had always been hers and she’d rediscovered him after a long absence.

When she came, he came with her, his body arching deep and shuddering with the force of his climax.

In the aftermath, they lay together, breathless, their bodies entwined on her small bed. He shifted slightly to the side so she could breathe and wrapped an arm around her so she didn’t fall off the bed.

They lay without speaking for several minutes, the only sounds their breath and the patter of a light rain outside. The muted glow from her monitors and indicator lights outlined his face as she turned her head to look at him.

“We should do this at my house next time,” he informed her, stroking her arm lightly, as if he couldn’t bear not to touch her.

“What, you don’t like working on a twin bed?”

“I feel like I’m at work a little, with all the computers glowing.”

Chris glanced to the side. She hadn’t really thought about it, but she supposed it was odd that she surrounded herself with her search, even while she slept. She certainly hadn’t planned the room with another person in mind. She’d been thinking of convenience. When she couldn’t sleep, she simply got up and started working.

“I could move them into the living room if I rearrange some of the furniture,” she offered.

He nodded. “Maybe I can help you after all this is over.”

Chris’s eyes stung. He wanted her . . . enough to plan for what would happen when the case was over, enough to ask her to his house, enough that he expected her to rearrange her life to make room for him. No one had ever asked Chris for these things; she’d never been willing to even consider it for anyone else.

“Can you sleep like this?” She slid her leg into a more comfortable position on his hip.

“I’m so tired I could sleep naked on a park bench,” he murmured, “but sleep doesn’t seem likely.”

“Really?” Chris did a little investigation. “Well, maybe we should explore this insomnia a little further. Figure out a root cause.”

“Check a few inches to the left.”

“Why, Mr. Helmer, I do believe I’ve discovered some localized swelling.”

“Does it seem serious?” His voice sounded more gravelly, a little breathless.

“Oh, I’m afraid it’s very serious.” Chris laughed and tilted her head.

35

RYAN’S PHONE RANG
at six-thirty in the morning, waking him from an unusually deep sleep.

Chris was wrapped around him, her arm over his waist, the warm weight of her making him reluctant to move.

He stroked her arm in apology and stretched to reach his phone, tugging it off the nightstand. It was Midaugh. Ryan answered it quietly, sliding her arm off his waist and sitting up. He felt her fingers stroke over his back, sliding along the bumps in his spine, making him close his eyes in pleasure.

“Helmer,” he answered.

“Hey, kid, we have a possible sighting of the unsub in Fate.”

Ryan straightened away from Christina’s touch, already standing as he reached for his boxers, tugging them upward while holding the phone to his ear using his shoulder.

“I’m here at Ms. Pascal’s house.”

“Good. According to the tip, someone in a white van with a cable company logo on the side pulled into an apartment building in Fate. I’m sending you the address. It’s not far from Ms. Pascal’s place.”

“How solid is this lead?”

“It came in this morning. The caller didn’t give a name, but mentioned that he’d seen a man and a woman.”

Walking into the living room, Ryan dressed quickly, pulling on the pants and shirt he’d worn yesterday, but leaving it unbuttoned. He’d left his vest in the car. He’d have to put it on.

“That could be our missing girl.”

“That’s what we’re thinking. Preliminary tests on the dog found both male and female human DNA, but it’ll take time to get anything more back from the lab. The dog does match the description and pictures of Martha Cooper’s dog, but there was no collar and no chip. The dog was killed with a nonserrated knife by someone clumsy and unpracticed. I’m betting the killing wasn’t the work of the unsub.”

“What about the other case, the Martin Hays case?”

“I called over there this morning. Apparently Ms. Collins’s dogs located the body of Tabitha Lopez in the woods five miles from Mr. Hays’s home. When they went to the home of Mr. Hays, however, he was gone—as in, taken-his-stuff-and-left-town gone.”

“They have a description of his vehicle?”

“They do. The plate, too, but if he has half a brain he ditched it.”

“Sounds like he was warned.”

“It does, doesn’t it?” Midaugh confirmed. “I let Atlanta PD know that our paths may have crossed here. I’m having Sandeep get in contact with their cyber guys to see if there’s any overlap in communication, but he believes the unsub is effective in using the Undernet and may have been in contact with Martin Hays through a hidden website that caters to child pornography.”

“I thought Atlanta PD had him under surveillance.”

“Apparently he had a basement and a separate exit. He left out the back and went through the woods. So far they’ve found evidence of at least two other girls in that same basement room.”

“Well, that’s just fucking great.” Unconsciously Ryan glanced back at Chris’s bedroom. He didn’t want her to know that Martin Hays might have slipped through the fingers of the police, something that never would have happened if they’d taken her earlier tips more seriously. She’d wanted him caught long ago.

“Who’s meeting me at the site where the van was spotted?”

“I sent two of the deputies who were working the roadblocks to the location. They should be meeting you there now.”

“Sounds good. Any word on whether the media has gotten wind of it yet?”

“Not yet, but the tip line has been blazing since last night’s coverage aired. The tip seemed solid, unlike some of the others, but you should keep in mind that the unsub himself could be sending us on a chase.”

“I won’t forget it. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case. There aren’t that many residential buildings in this part of town; I’m sure he would have been spotted during one of the canvasses.”

“What about commercial buildings?”

“What?” Ryan paused.

“Your girlfriend lives in one, right? A loft in the building that was converted to an apartment?”

“Yeah.” Ryan glanced around at the big open room with the tall ceiling. “She does.” He walked to the window and glanced out at the buildings that ringed the circle. It was still dark outside, a misty gray had barely begun to lighten the sky, but the streetlamps were burning, and he confirmed that most all of the buildings were two- to three-story redbrick structures. Some had been storefronts with offices, but others had housed manufacturing businesses. It was possible that the unsub could have leased a commercial space.

“Can we get a list of all the owners and call to find out if anyone fitting the description of the unsub rented a space within the past six months?”

“Yeah, I’ll have someone check into it and call you back. You on your way?”

“Yeah. Call me back with any updates.”

Ryan hung up and sat quickly to put on his shoes, wishing he’d had the foresight to get up early and take a shower.

Chris came out of the bedroom wearing a pair of pajama bottoms, a bathrobe, and a T-shirt, her hair in wild disarray, a love bite near her collarbone. She looked delicious, like a present all wrapped up in flannel and soft cotton.

“Have to leave?” She rubbed her face.

“Yeah.”

“You’ll be careful?”

“Yeah. Listen, you need to stay here, keep the tape over your computer cameras, and stay off the Internet. I know you want to find this guy, but you don’t need to endanger yourself to do it.”

She glanced away, as if she didn’t quite agree, but her eyes, when they met his, were clear and bright. “I hear you.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know.” Chris stuck out her bottom lip in a pout. “Maybe catch up on my reading? Tavey won’t open Dog today after what happened yesterday, so I can’t walk down and visit her, and Raquel went into the office to help with the Martin Hays case.”

“Okay. That sounds good. There will be a deputy downstairs. They’re rotating shifts. The chief sent down a couple more to help out while all this is going on.”

“Has there been any more activity with my identities?”

“Not that we’re aware of; his focus seems to have shifted entirely to you.”

Chris nodded. “That’s good. At least he’s not killing anyone.”

Ryan didn’t have the heart to tell her about the homeless man they suspected the unsub had slaughtered for the sole purpose of drawing their attention away from Fate, away from Chris. She didn’t need to know.

“Exactly, so I suppose we owe you one for calling his attention to you.”

“I suppose you do, Ryan Helmer, but you can repay me . . . personally.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he agreed, and tugged the bottom of her shirt to pull her in for a kiss.

When he released her, her lips were flushed and soft-looking, enticing.

“Go catch the bad guy.”

THE LOCATION MIDAUGH
had sent to his phone wasn’t far at all, it was actually a small apartment building with a covered lot next to the railroad tracks on the other side of the circle from Chris’s house. He could have walked it. Some of the reporters, the ones who hadn’t followed him, were walking across the street from their camp in the center of the circle. There was a library across the street with a small cemetery behind it. He was met by two deputies who had been assigned to assist in the case. Also present was a young woman, Agent Bennett, who said she lived near Fate, and her partner, Agent Honeycutt; both were carrying their flashlights.