Chapter 33
33
CAS
“ I ’m moving out,” Peters grumbled from under the throw pillow on the couch. “I can’t hear you two anymore. It’s making me horny as fuck, and I’m too damn busy analyzing this bastard we’re after to go out and find someone to relieve my issue. Fuck.”
I chuckled as I moved to the kitchen. “Suck it up, fucker. Did you figure anything out with the note that crazy chick left?”
The pillow tumbled to the floor as Peters swung his feet over the cushions and sat up. “Nothing new, but my gut tells me there’s something different about this one.”
“Different how?” I cracked six eggs into a bowl for myself and added two more for Alta.
“I’ll take six too.”
“You get the last four. We need to go to the store. We’re running out of food, and I don’t want her out in public. Too many unpredictable scenarios.”
“Agreed. I’ll go later so you two can have some more alone time.” His eyes rolled to the ceiling. “You seriously like this girl? I mean, she’s cool as shit and all, but….”
“But what?” I gritted out as I whipped the eggs with more ferocity than needed.
“She’s not the type of girl who’ll let you go easily. Are you prepared for that?”
“Prepared for what?”
“The end, when we leave and don’t come back. This will end, you know. We’ll catch this bastard, and we’ll go home to DC. The longer you do this with her, the harder it’ll be for her.”
“What the fuck are you saying?”
“Put more distance between you two so you don’t crush the poor girl. Have fun, but remember it’ll end.”
Mulling over his words, I tossed the last few slices of bread into the toaster and flicked the lever down. “What if I don’t want it to end?” I said to the pan full of raw eggs instead of Peters. “What if I don’t want to let her go?”
His resigned sigh tightened my grip on the spatula.
“Then you’ll figure it out. It won’t be easy, but you’re a stubborn jackass who's used to getting his way, so I don’t doubt that if you don’t want it to end, it won’t.”
“Thanks?” I said with a laugh. “And I’ve got this covered here, if you do need to go out tonight to take care of the problem your eavesdropping caused.”
“Fuck you. It’s not eavesdropping when the walls are fucking rattling.”
I smiled at the pan as I flipped the eggs over.
Both our heads turned at the slight creak of the door. Fully clothed, hair in a high ponytail, Alta tiptoed out of the room on her sock-covered toes toward the bathroom. The moment the door shut behind her, I turned to Peters, my features set in hard stone.
“Don’t you tease her about this shit, got it? I will end you, slowly.”
He raised both palms in silent surrender. “Got it.” His words said he did, but the mischievous fucking twinkle in his eyes told me he wasn’t taking the threat seriously.
“Good morning, Chandler,” Alta said as she emerged from the bathroom and slid onto the stool beside him. My focus zeroed in on the too-small gap between them. “Sarah texted me.” She held up her phone for emphasis. “She said she needs to come back to Estes, that her friend is kicking her out.” She chewed on the edge of her thumb, her gaze focused on the phone in her hands. “I don’t want her staying alone. I kind of feel responsible for the mess she’s in now that we know I’m the one this guy is after.”
“Sleep well?” Peters asked, closing the small space between them by wrapping an arm around her shoulders. I waited for her to tense, pull away or show any sign of discomfort in his touch, but none came. As much as Peters touching her pissed me the hell off, I relished in the fact that this was yet another growing point for her. Whatever we were together was curing us both.
“Can she stay here?” she asked, avoiding his question. I smirked and nodded before returning my attention to the eggs. “Just until we figure all this out, or….”
“Or what?” I divided out the eggs and slid them onto three separate plates.
“Maybe I should consider going home to Texas, and maybe take Sarah with me. Then I’d be?—”
I chucked the dirty pan in the sink, the clang vibrating in my ears as I gripped the counter. “Then you’d be away from us, completely exposed, and moving this guy to a different hunting ground. No.”
Alta stood from the stool to come around the counter. Standing toe-to-toe with me, her determined hazel eyes tipped up to meet mine. “I don’t think you?—”
“You’re the one not thinking.” The muscles in her small arms flexed under my tight grip around her biceps. “Here, you have Peters and me to watch out for you. Here, we have the upper hand because we know his end game—you. If you leave, who knows when this bastard will show up again. Months from now? Years? You’re. Not. Leaving.”
Her eyes blazed into mine before flicking to Peters, who was watching with rapt attention. “We’ll discuss this later.” After snagging the plate with the least amount of eggs, she rummaged through the drawers for a fork and stomped toward the living room.
With a groan of annoyance, I ran my injured hand down my face and rubbed the long scruff growing along my jaw.
“The note,” I said, staring at the plateful of eggs waiting to be eaten. “You said it was different. How exactly?”
After shoving half the plate into his mouth, Peters said, “This one didn’t feel right. Everything about it was right, but… I don’t know. It could be her. I think she’s just crazy enough to put a note on her car to get that dumbass’s attention.”
“But we have to consider it a real threat,” I mumbled. The slightest sway of her ponytail from her perch on the couch’s arm gave away the fact that she was listening. “I agree though. Wouldn’t put it past her. So what does that leave us with?”
“A deranged duo who enjoys the hunt as much as the kill and, bonus, have their eyes set on me for something I can’t even remember doing,” Alta chimed in. “The initial profile doesn’t matter anymore. We’re not looking for their next victim or why he targets the women he does. Now it's time to figure out why me and work backward from there.” Turning, she faced us. “I’ll call my old boss and see if he remembers anything big from that last year in the Smokies. You two focus on the files and the recent cases.”
We nodded in unison.
“I’m going to look into the guy from ten years ago too,” Peters said as he stuffed the rest of the eggs into his mouth. Shoving the plate across the counter, he stood from the stool. “I know you said he didn’t have any connections, but that was what the local police could gather, I have more resources. I’ll do some digging, and if all this is any way connected to that, I’ll find it. And—” His attention fell to the phone ringing in his hand. “Hold on, it's my boss. Gotta take this.”
Marching from the room, he shut his bedroom door with a quiet click, leaving Alta and me alone.
“Listen—”
She cut me off before I could get another word out.
“I get it. I do. It?—”
Rounding the counter, I make it to her in two strides, hauling her off the couch to make her look at me. “You don’t. Last night, for the first time in years, my nightmares weren’t contorted memories.” My grip on her shoulder tightened as the onslaught of last night’s visions floated back to the surface. “It was all about you and being taken from me, and it hurt, Alta. It physically fucking hurt.” Gripping her hand, I held it over my racing heart. “Nothing can happen to you, do you hear me? I wouldn’t survive it. I wouldn’t want to survive it.”
“Okay, okay,” she said in a calming tone. Her fingers loosened from mine to splay across my heart. “I won’t do anything stupid. I won’t go anywhere.”
Clasping the back of her head, I tugged her close, holding her cheek against my chest. Pushing my fingers into the depths of her hair, I raked them down, easing the tangles as I went.
The door to Peters’s room flung open, nailing the wall. Both my head and Alta’s turned at the sound. He stood just over the doorframe, staring blankly at the phone in his hand.
“That was my boss.”
“What’s wrong? What happened?” Alta’s voice quivered. We both felt the unease rolling off him, even from across the room.
His eyes flicked up, looking from her to me and back to Alta. “A tip came in.” The pregnant pause irritated my anxious nerves. “Someone said they knew where all the bodies were buried in Tennessee. They’re sending a team out to the site to investigate, but my boss seems to think we need to take it seriously.”
“Why?” I asked.
“The caller had his voice disguised, and at the end of the call said, ‘We had so much fun.’”
“Deranged bastard,” I spit out. “What’s he playing at? Why tell you now?”
Dread settled in the pit of my stomach, making me nauseous at the look on Peters’s slack face. “My theory isn’t a good one,” he said.
“What?” I demanded, tugging Alta even tighter.
“Two down, one to go.” Alta convulsed in my hold, a shiver of dread shaking her entire frame at Peters’s words. “He knows I’ll have to leave to be a part of the investigation. If this is true, if those bodies are where he indicated, it could give us the missing pieces we’ve been looking for. I have to go.”
“When?”
Peters looked to the phone in his hand and cringed. “Two hours. I have to leave in two hours to catch the jet. Listen, Mathews; I’m not questioning your ability?—”
“Yes,” I said before he could finish. “Yes, I want additional help. Anyone the local FBI can spare. Especially if Sarah will be staying here. I can’t keep watch twenty–four seven.”
Peters nodded, his thumbs flying across his screen as he typed out text. “I’ll let you know who I can get. In the meantime, I know you don’t want to hear this, but we could use John’s help. He can fill in for me until we get you some backup.”
I grumbled into Alta’s shiny, soft hair. Her head tipped back, allowing me to see the smirk pulling at her lips. “Fine. But not until you leave.”
Peters smiled as he shoved the phone into his shorts pocket. Striding past us, he tugged on his coat and grabbed the keys from the side table. “Running to the store. I’ll get enough food for an army so you don’t have to run out again. I agree with what you said earlier, too many unpredictable scenarios out there. This guy is upping his game, which makes me think he’s planning to move fast. His end game is in sight.”
Her.
Lady.
My Lady.
The moment the door shut behind Peters, I strode forward, Alta’s hand never leaving mine, and flicked the deadbolt. Every step through the house, I tugged her behind me, not daring to let her out of my sight—hell, out of my grasp. The nightmares from last night were quickly becoming a terrifying reality.
“Is that necessary?” she asked around the thumb between her teeth. Her eyes flicked between the loaded assault rifle and shotgun. “You’re already armed.”
“Yes.” There weren't enough guns in this house to make me relax. “I’m not taking any chances. Peters was right—he’s circling, focused on his end game. The past year has built to this, and I’ll be ready the second he makes his move.”
“Does this mean showering together is out?” Two of her fingers pressed beneath my chin, lifting my attention from the guns to her.
I pursed my lips. Vulnerability swirled behind her hazel eyes. Rejecting her would hurt her and me, but keeping her safe was always priority number one. “I’ll be out here.” Her gaze fell to the floor. That time it was me who drew her attention back up. “It has nothing to do with not wanting to.” Reaching forward, I gripped her hand and pressed it against the hard-on I was sporting beneath my mesh shorts. “I’d fuck you until you begged me to stop, but when I’m inside you, when you’re with me, I’m only focused on us. Nothing else matters, and that can’t happen right now.” My eyes slammed shut as her fingers wrapped around me over the shorts. “Lady, get in the damn shower. Now.”
I missed the heat of her palm, the closeness of her body the moment she stepped away, smirking. “Fine, have it your way. But so you know….” She paused at the door and turned to wait until I looked up, giving her my undivided attention. “I’ll be thinking of you.”
“Go,” I said through gritted teeth, the word barely recognizable with my restraint stealing the strength from my voice.
The hiss of the shower turning on tensed every muscle. Not being in there with her was the hardest thing I’d ever had to do, but I wouldn’t cave. No, I’d stay strong for her to remain clearheaded and alert.
Beneath my shorts, my dick throbbed.
“Fuck,” I groaned against the hand over my face. The scrape of facial hair against my palm centered me.
I would be strong.
I’d resist the beautiful, naked woman in the next room.
I’d resist in order to keep her safe, even if it physically hurt to hold back.
I’d resist because her life depended on it, which in turn meant mine did too.