Chapter 28
Parker
Isat in the conference room with just my laptop.
I needed to buy a new notebook since I’d destroyed the last one, something I thought I’d regret a whole lot more than I found myself doing.
I still hadn’t found anything that would resemble the start of a life dedicated to killing young women.
All I could assume at this point was that the man was a transplant.
Doing a nationwide search for a random woman who was killed between ten and twenty years ago would take years, and I’d likely still never come across the first victim.
I sighed, feeling defeated. I rubbed my temples, feeling the pain of a headache begin creeping in from the stress. I woke up this morning surrounded by warmth. I knew as soon as I opened my eyes that I’d probably made a huge mistake.
After we’d all come down from the high of amazing sex, I’d tried to escape again. But yet again, the men managed to convince me to stay for dinner. Granted, it took very little convincing on their part. I truly didn’t want to leave, but it was the right thing to do, the only thing to do.
After a simple meal that we ate in the bedroom together on the bed, we simply sat together and talked about everything except the important stuff.
There was no mention of death, murders, my job, or leaving.
Instead, I learned more about the ranch and what Gage and Dante did all day.
I had no idea so much went into the taking care of farm animals.
I also found out that there was an entire crew that worked for them, many of whom were from town and arrived before the sun came up.
Apparently, there was a whole other side entrance further down the road where they all parked.
The ones who actually lived on the ranch had two-room cabins they shared.
I must have simply drifted off during our conversation, because the next thing I knew, I was waking up sandwiched between two hard male bodies. Dante was nowhere to be seen, but Ry was pressed right up against me, his arm reaching across my body with his hand resting on Gage’s back.
I’d obviously never woken up with a man before, let alone two of them. A part of me wanted to relish the moment. No matter what my brain was screaming at me, my heart still wanted them desperately. The other part, the rational part, told me to get my naked ass out of there.
It found how impossible it was to escape a giant bed with two huge men blocking both sides without being detected.
The moment I tried to slither under the covers to make my way to the end of the bed and freedom, a hand stopped me.
I blinked up, my head half covered by the blanket, to see dark brown eyes peering at me with amusement.
“Going somewhere, pretty girl?” Ry drawled lazily as he shifted beside me. His voice must have woken Gage, because the next thing I knew, I had a huge, golden god hauling me back up, ruining all my escape progress.
“Were you going to leave without saying goodbye, Cherish?” Gage asked, his words raspy with sleep.
I couldn’t lie. “Uh huh,” I cleared my throat as I felt both their hard cocks pressing against my hips. “I have to take a shower and get ready for work.” It was a lame excuse, but a good one, nonetheless.
“Okay,” Gage said, surprising me, right before I was pulled across his body until my legs rested on either side of his hips.
His hardness fit perfectly between my legs, and I didn’t dare look down, knowing the sight of the head of his cock so close to my clit would have been devastating to my control.
“You can go. But first…” He lifted his head and gave me a gentle closed mouth peck on the lips, which I was grateful for since I obviously hadn’t brushed my teeth yet. “Good morning, beautiful.”
“Good morning,” I replied shyly. Ry ran his fingers over my back.
“We’ll let you escape this time. Next time, come prepared so you don’t have to leave.”
I tilted my head as I eyed him warily. “Next time?”
Ry smiled. “Bring your bag with you. There’s plenty of room here. No need for you to stay in the cabin.” The disbelief must have been obvious as I sat there frozen because he chuckled. “You’d better get moving, Special Agent Parker. Your ride will be ready to pick you up soon.”
Those words had me scrambling to get off of Gage’s incredible body.
Likely to avoid any damage done to his still hard appendage, Gage lifted me effortlessly by the waist and set me on the side of the bed so I could slide my feet to the floor.
I held onto his forearms longer than necessary, lost in my admiration of the way the muscles moved and flexed with the effort of lifting me.
Finally snapping out of it, I quickly grabbed my clothes and bolted for the door.
A sharp rap on the conference door jolted me from the memory of running my hands over the thick veins of Gage’s arms. Everyone looked expectantly as the door opened to reveal a young officer, out of breath and wide-eyed.
“Another woman was reported missing this morning.” I shot to my feet, and over the commotion as everyone else jumped into action, I heard a vicious curse coming from the other side of the room.
“Where was she taken from? What information do we have?” SSA Walker started shooting out questions.
The officer shook his head. Then looked down at his hand, where he held a piece of paper. “Melanie Jackson, age 22. Left with a male from the Lazy 8 last night around eleven p.m. His description matched the one the other victim had given her babysitter.”
SSA Walker turned to the room. “Garcia, Hanson, head to the bar. Get that security camera footage. See if we can catch his face.” It was a long shot.
From our previous attempts at scouring the footage, we’d found the guy seemed to know where the cameras were located.
He also wore a hat pulled low over his eyes.
After our last victim, every inch of footage had been gone over, but there wasn’t a clear enough shot to tell the unsub from any other Tom, Dick, or Harry in Selene.
“We’ll go too,” Ry said as he stood up. I glanced over to see him standing next to a clearly irate Detective Morris.
I raised a brow, surprised at how angry he was.
It was the first time I’d seen him show any emotion over the case.
I didn’t think he had it in him to be pissed that another victim was taken so quickly.
Ry shot me a look of concern before striding to the door, his keys already in hand.
I turned to my supervisor. “This is an extreme escalation of the timeline. As far as we know, he’s never taken two women so close together before.”
SSA Walker nodded, his jaw tight. “If he’s shortening his time between victims, he’s likely going to escalate the torture as well.
We have to find this woman quickly.” He turned to SA Thomas, who was standing on the other side of the long table.
“We need to head to the victim’s home and talk to her friends and family.
Find out if she’s been in contact with the unsub prior to last night. ”
Finally, he looked at me as I stood there quietly fuming inside.
During the entire time we’d been in the field, Walker had kept me practically locked inside this room, doing nothing but research on the town.
The only time I’d helped outside of the police station was when we had combed through the surrounding area looking for sales on prepaid cell phones.
“Stay here and monitor the phones. If any new information comes in, call me immediately.”
He turned to leave, but I called out to him before he could walk out the door. “Sir, I can help look for Melanie Jackson.” He was already shaking his head. “I need you here, SA Parker. It’s too dangerous, and you don’t have enough experience yet.”
As I stood there with my mouth agape at his audacity, he was already moving out the door. “That mother fucker,” I seethed under my breath.
“Uh, ma’am,” the officer who brought us the information looked hesitant as he turned to watch SSA Walker step onto the elevator. “The woman who called in the missing persons report is on her way to the station to give an in-person report. If you’d like to talk to her yourself.”
I took a long look at him. He was young, probably in his first year as an officer with the Selene police force. I nodded my head. “Thank you, Officer Blake,” I said, eyeing his name tag. “I’ll be happy to talk to her.”
I followed him to the elevator and stepped on.
We stood in silence as he stared at the wall, his shoulders straight, and his chest puffed out.
I understood. The man also needed a task to make him feel important.
Leading me to an interview room to talk to a potential witness had provided him with something important to do other than taking phone calls all day, which likely consisted of neighbor disputes and minor altercations.
When he held open the door to a small room for me, I smiled. “Thank you for your help, Officer Blake.”
He gave a brisk nod. “I’ll escort her in as soon as she arrives. It shouldn’t be more than a couple of minutes.”
I paced the small room for no more than three minutes when I heard footsteps, and a young woman, no older than twenty-two, stepped inside.
Officer Blake gave me a nod, then began to shut the door, leaving us in privacy.
“Officer Blake, I called out. Could you stay and take down all the information? It seems I left my pen and paper upstairs.” Blake’s ears turned red, but he agreed immediately.
“Of course, ma’am. Give me one moment to get what I need.” Then he rushed off. I knew he’d be quick, likely taking no more than thirty seconds before he’d be back.
I walked over to the woman and held out my hand. When she offered her own, it was shaking. I took in her appearance. Her pretty face was flushed and puffy from crying. Her blonde hair was a mess, as if she’d been swiping her hands through it repeatedly.