Chapter 3 #4
She stared straight at him, then nodded.
Unease had his gut tightening. He couldn’t predict Lily’s actions, and that worried him. The woman could be very dangerous to him, he knew that. She was smart and far too much of an expert when it came to killers.
What will she do when she sees my full darkness?
As he stared at her, her hands darted behind her back.
“Lily—”
She dropped the hospital gown. The paper gown fell, and Lily stood before him wearing only a white pair of panties and a white bra that cupped her breasts ever so wonderfully.
What in the sweet fuck is happening right now? Why was Lily stripping for him? Not that he was complaining. Oh, hell no, he was not. If she wanted to strip completely, that was totally the woman’s prerogative. She could go right ahead.
“I kept my underwear on for my physical exam with Dr. Owen,” she said. “No sense in ditching them.” One eyebrow quirked at him. “And I thought one scar sharing deserved another.”
A long, twisting scar cut across her stomach. It had taken him a moment to notice the scar. Sue him, he’d been distracted by her breasts.
“My mother didn’t give me this, of course.
” Her fingers fluttered along the scar. “She never used knives. She preferred poison. A more delicate method of death. At least, that’s what she always said.
But when you’ve seen people vomiting blood and screaming in pain, and you watched their whole bodies lurch forward and heave as they fight for survival, well, I personally don’t think there is anything delicate about that method of death. I think it is quite brutal.”
His dick was saluting. Her breasts spilled forward against the bra she wore.
The panties—bikini cut. Hugging her hips.
Leaving far too little to the imagination.
Desire poured through his veins. He wanted to grab her, lift her up, put her on that exam table, and fuck her until she screamed his name.
But…
Rage twisted in him. A dangerous, seething beast. And when Atlas stepped forward, lust wasn’t controlling him. That rage was. His hand lifted and touched the twisting scar on her stomach. Not red and angry. White, faded. Old. “Who the hell did this to you? Who put a knife in your skin?”
A name was all he needed. Once he had the name, he had enough power to easily find the individual. Then death would come.
Because you did not take a fucking knife to Lily.
“It was my first interview with a serial. Well, with a serial who wasn’t my own mother.” Her hand reached down, and her fingers curled around his. “Take a breath, Atlas. It’s okay, I promise. It doesn’t hurt me any longer.” Softer. “You don’t have to be so careful with me.”
But he thought that he did. “James Hadley.” He knew the first serial she’d interviewed. Madman Hadley. She’d interviewed him back when she’d been a resident and on her journey to becoming a psychiatrist.
“You have been researching me. Consider me impressed.”
Researching. Stalking. Learning every single detail. That was what he did with his enemies. But, she wasn’t going to be an enemy. She would be something far more complex. “There was no record of him attacking you.”
“That is because a public reporting of that incident would have been highly embarrassing for the warden at James Hadley’s maximum security prison.
” Her lips pulled down. “James was kept in isolation. He should have been thoroughly searched by the guards before coming into the interview session with me, and, yet, somehow, he managed to conceal a shiv he’d carefully sharpened.
The guards didn’t put cuffs on him. I remembered thinking he should have cuffs.
We were talking one moment, and in the next instant, he was across the table, and he was on me. The shiv slashed across my stomach.”
“He’s dead.”
“Yes, I was present when the doctor administered the midazoluam that relaxed him, the pancuronium that paralyzed him, and the potassium chloride that stopped his heart.” Flat. Utterly emotionless.
His fingers brushed over the scar. “What happened after he slashed you?”
“I broke his nose. I grabbed the shiv and attacked him with it. He thought he was going to get one more victim before he went to the grave. He was wrong.”
She stood before him, clad in her underwear, seemingly defenseless, vulnerable, but he realized exactly what she was doing.
She was showing herself to be just as much of a predator as Atlas was.
How fantastic.
“The guards pulled me off him. And in return for me not blasting that particular tale to the media, the warden gave me full access to any prisoner I wanted to interview.” She shivered. “Turns out, I like all-access passes.”
But goosebumps had risen on her skin.
“I’ve learned a great deal about deviant behavior since that encounter. About predators.” She wet her lips.
He wanted her mouth. “And now you’re here. Wanting to get in my head. Wanting to know all about me.”
“Are you deviant, Atlas? Do dark desires run in your veins?”
Plenty of dark desires were surging through his veins right then. Mostly, the urge to fuck her until she shattered into a million pieces. Until they both did. Was that so much to ask? He didn’t think so. “Guess you’ll find out,” he finally said because…
That was the deal, right?
The all-access pass. Probably a horrible mistake.
He didn’t care. His head lowered toward her. Her head tilted back, and he was also sure that her toes pressed into the floor so that she rose up toward him, just a bit.
He didn’t take her mouth, though, not yet. Because if he did kiss her, he wouldn’t stop, and their first time to fuck shouldn’t be in a hospital exam room. When she started screaming, he didn’t want orderlies or that prick Dr. Owen trying to rush inside.
“I am going to take you,” he told her. Very clearly. There should be no confusion between them. “You leave this hospital with me, and I will fuck you eventually.”
“I don’t typically fuck my subjects. Not my modus operandi. But thanks so much for assuming the worst about me.”
Had she assumed the worst about him? “Your subjects are usually psychopathic killers.”
“And you’re not?”
So she had assumed the worst, but he replied, “You tell me.”
A little roll of her shoulders. “I guess I’ll find out.”
Yeah, they needed to get the hell out of there, now. “Get dressed, Lily.”
She quirked a brow at him. “Why do you seem afraid of little old me? Here I am, making myself vulnerable. You’re partially dressed. I’m partially dressed. You showed me your scars. I showed you mine. I am putting us on completely equal footing.”
Bullshit. She was attempting to manipulate him. Soon enough, she would learn that he wasn’t easy to manipulate. “This some sort of shrink tactic so that I’ll reveal all to you?”
“All your deep, dark secrets?” she elaborated.
Yeah, those. He had so many of those that they often threatened to pull him down into the ground. Bury him.
Her hands rose. Her fingertips sank into the thickness of his hair. “I don’t have to use any sneaky tactics. You’ll reveal everything to me no matter what.”
“And why would I do that?” It was interesting that she thought he’d just go straight to being an open book with her. Interesting. Na?ve. Perhaps a shade past delusional.
But she just blinked those amazing eyes of hers. “Well, because, in your very soul, haven’t you always wanted someone to see the real you? To know the real you?”
The real him would terrify most people.
“I’m that someone,” she said.
She shouldn’t be touching him. Shouldn’t be tempting him. “Run away.” A rasp. One he had not meant to make. But some part of him, a faint glimmer of what could have been goodness, wanted him to protect this woman.
Protect her from myself.
“Run away while you can,” he added roughly. Because if he had her…
Atlas already knew he would not let her go.
Love at first sight didn’t exist for monsters. Not a thing. Mostly because love wasn’t a real thing. But obsession was, and he already knew she was going to be his greatest obsession.
She’d stripped to match him.
She’d shared her scars.
“Why would I run away from you?” Lily asked as her head tilted to the right. “I’ve been working to get you alone for the last month.” But her fingers slid out of his hair. Dropped back to her side. “You are taking me home with you?”
“If you weren’t sporting a bruise around your wrist, I’d be handcuffing you to my side.” True story.
“Handcuffing me seems rather excessive.”
“I’m an excessive kind of person.”
“Obsessive?” she asked, sweetly. “Sorry, did you say excessive or obsessive?”
Lily knew exactly what he’d said. Atlas took a step back. “The bastard who took us wasn’t caught.”
She reached for the new sweatshirt. Yanked it over her head. It fell to mid-thigh luckily, covering up his temptation.
“Not a perfect fit,” she noted, “but super soft. I’ll be sure to thank Desmond.”
He had the feeling she knew plenty about his head of security. Excessive or obsessive? Ah, but he was betting she could be quite obsessive, too. Although she might prefer the term thorough.
She tugged on the sweatpants. They fit her perfectly. Her feet shoved into the tennis shoes Desmond had also brought in the bag.
He yanked on his shirt, too. His body ached, and he was pretty sure the skin along his ribs was about a dozen different colors. The bastard who’d taken him had played damn hard.
“Be careful with that head of yours,” she chided. “You were hit with a tire iron. You’re lucky you didn’t die right then and there.” She bit her lower lip. “Maybe Dr. Owen had the right idea about you staying longer for observation.”
She’d talked plenty with the cops who’d come rushing to the scene. Those cops had all known Benedict, and they’d been furious, worried, desperate.
The firefighters hadn’t let anyone get close to the cabin. And even the bomb squad had come rushing to the scene—eventually.
Lily had given a statement to the cops even as the EMTs had examined her. She’d told them about seeing Atlas get attacked, about calling Benedict for help, leaving her phone turned on as she ran to help Atlas…
Then getting knocked out by the attacker, too.
They’d eventually been dragged into the cabin. Dragged, carried—he had no clue. According to her tale, Lily had woken up when they were near the basement door, just as the perp had cuffed them together.
Then Lily and Atlas had taken their joint tumble down the stairs.
“Atlas?” Lily prompted.
He swallowed. Realized he’d clenched his hands into fists. Lily could have broken her neck on the tumble down the stairs. He could have woken up to find himself cuffed to a dead woman in the basement.
What in the hell would he have done then?
“You’re staying with me,” he rumbled.
She blinked. “For the rest of the night?”
Not like there was much night left.
But Lily nodded. “Okay, that’s good. I am a doctor, just saying.”
“I am aware.” Of so many things about her.
A quick sigh escaped her. “I meant that because I am a doctor, I could keep an eye on you. If you won’t stay here at the hospital, then at least you’ll have me to make certain nothing bad happens to you. I can monitor your condition.”
Plenty of bad things had already happened. And would happen again. “He got away, Lily.”
She inched toward him. “The cops are looking for him. He probably left evidence behind.”
Seriously? His brows shot up. “You mean evidence, in the cabin that must have burned down to its very foundation?”
“Yes.” A wince. “In there.” Then a nibble along her lower lip. “If it burned to its foundation, we won’t find anything.”
Obviously. Thus the reason the bomb had been a very wise plan of attack. A good way of covering the perp’s tracks. “He will know who you are.”
“Not like we exchanged names during our short fight scene—”
“The press is already spreading the story about what happened tonight. Your name will be featured prominently. I’m big news. You’re big news. Pair us together, sweets, and we’re the lead story everywhere.”
She swallowed. “I don’t like being the lead.”
“‘If it bleeds, it leads,’” he quoted. “That’s the way it’s always supposed to work in the news. I’m bloody. A detective is dead. A killer is on the loose. There is no getting around the fact that everyone will be talking about us.”
Her delicate nostrils flared.
“When we leave, photos will be taken of us.” He probably could have avoided the photos. He didn’t want to do so. The sooner that the world knew Lily was under his protection, the better.
“So he knows who I am.” She nodded. Her voice was very level. No fear from Lily. “He knows who you are, too. Not to tell you your business but…you were the target, not me. You need to get Desmond to step up your protection detail.”
Oh, he’d be stepping up his detail. “You’re staying with me.”
“Again, yes, I’ll stay tonight—”
“No, sweets.” He cut through her words. Even smiled at her.
Her gaze dipped to his mouth. “Your smile is scary.”
She was the first who’d noticed that.
“But I still like it,” she added.
And I could like you.
“How long will I be staying with you?” Lily asked him, voice thoughtful, as her gaze lifted to pin his once again.
Forever. That was the reply that wanted to spring to his lips. But forever with him would be a very dangerous thing. So Atlas compromised and said, “Until our attacker is caught.”
“Caught? By the police?” A pause. “By the Feds? Because I’m sure we’ll be seeing them soon.”
He stared at her. He really liked the gold in her eyes.
“Or by you?” she whispered.
He let his smile stretch. She had been doing her homework. Someone deserved a gold star. “You’ll stay with me,” he repeated. “Until he’s caught…or until I put him in the ground.”