Chapter 25
Chapter Twenty-Five
“You can’t be here.”
Lily ignored the quaking between her thighs. She had her panties back on, her dress in place, her shoes on her feet, and she hoped—truly hoped—that it was not apparent that she’d just fucked Atlas in the back of his limo.
The fire inspector frowned at her and Atlas. Sebastian Santiago had flashed his ID and blocked their path as they approached the charred remains of the cabin. “This is a closed crime scene,” Sebastian informed them. “No way do civilians get to prance up here.”
Yes, a closed scene. She got that. But she had not been prancing. She’d been walking very carefully. Trying to ignore the fact that aftershocks of pleasure were still going off in her core.
“I’ll have to call the Feds if you don’t leave,” Sebastian continued with a dogged nod.
“Federal Agent Gage Emerick knows that we are here,” Atlas assured the man in a bold-faced lie.
He lied so very easily.
And fucks so incredibly well.
“He told Dr. Gallo that she could get a quick sweep of the area,” Atlas added.
Gage had done no such thing.
“Well, he told her wrong,” the inspector snapped back.
“It’s not safe here, and I’m not going to risk anyone’s life.
The structure is too weak. The level over the basement was reinforced, yes, but it could still come crashing down, and I don’t want anyone getting hurt at my scene.
Bad enough that we lost a detective to this freak.
We won’t lose anyone else. Not on my watch. ”
She admired his determination. And appreciated the fact that he had just told her something useful. “So the basement wasn’t destroyed.”
“Not destroyed. Not yet. Fire was all in the front, focused mostly near the entrance of the structure.” He threw out his hands in a heaving gesture as he explained, “Erupted outward, in a targeted blast. Took out the windows, the front part of the roof.” Sebastian’s hands stopped shoving forward and dropped to his sides.
“That’s why the poor bastard died. He was just steps from the entrance door.
If he’d been near the basement door—see it’s over near the back…
” He raised his right hand to jerk his thumb vaguely toward the blackened hull of the cabin.
“That would have given him a fighting chance.” A shrug as his hand fell again.
“Didn’t happen. Burns were all over his body. ”
She stared at the blackened remains that had once been the cabin’s front walls.
“What in the hell?” More annoyance from the inspector blocking their path. Only that annoyance was not directed at her and Atlas this time. His glare was focused beyond them as he demanded, “Are those reporters? I already told them to stay away.”
Yes, but the reporters had probably followed her and Atlas so…
“Everybody needs to stay the hell back!” The inspector marched toward the arriving crews, waving his hands. “Back!”
Atlas glanced at Lily. “Discover what you needed to know?”
Yes, she had.
“Then shall we get back in the limo, or do we want to pose for the camera a bit longer?”
She hadn’t realized they were posing. But now…
Atlas’s body stood protectively near hers. Her dress blew in the faint breeze, and the darkened remains of the cabin were waiting right in front of them. The whole scene probably made for one very dramatic photo. Or video.
“This image will be everywhere,” he added. “If you were trying to bait the killer…” A brisk nod. “Congratulations.”
They had told Desmond before that they wanted the killer’s attention. But…bait. The word whispered through her mind. Atlas had used himself as bait before, to draw the killer to him. Atlas had deliberately put himself in a vulnerable position, his guards not close, so the killer would attack.
She didn’t want Atlas being bait. Not ever again.
Lily wasn’t even sure that their killer would come after him. But…
Will you come after me? “Don’t congratulate me yet.” Nerves trembled through her. She didn’t normally seek out attention. This was far from her realm of comfort. “Hold the thought.” And she hurried after the inspector, heading straight toward the small throng of reporters.
“Dr. Gallo!”
“Lily!”
Shouts from the reporters as she drew closer to them.
“Why did you come back to the scene of the crime, Dr. Gallo?”
“Lily, Lily! Is that an engagement ring you’re wearing?”
“Dr. Gallo, what do you know about the killer?”
Atlas had followed her. He curled his arm around her, putting it over her upper chest and pulling her back against him. “Sweets…” A breath in her ear. “What are you doing?”
She was going to do what had to be done.
She and Atlas both wanted the killer to know they were hunting him.
There was certainly one very direct way to do that.
Just tell him. Tell the world. “I am engaged to Atlas Bennett.” Her voice was a little too husky.
A bit too breathy. She cleared her throat.
“We came back here because we are not going to let the killer get away. We know who he is.”
Lots of shouts exploded in the air. Furious exclamations. Demands for more information.
“He is weak, and he is evil,” she emphasized that point, deliberately.
“He is standing in judgment, delivering so-called punishments when he is the one who should be punished. When he is the one with sins tainting his blood. And he is the one who will pay.” Her gaze swept over the reporters.
She was being filmed. Good. Probably even live-streamed.
The better to deliver her message. “Smoke and fire don’t fool us.
We know who you are targeting. The Feds know.
You are the one that is going to be caught.
The handcuffs will be on your wrists, and there will be no escape.
You’re not doing some kind of righteous work, no matter what lies you feed to yourself.
You are the monster. And we will stop you. ”
“Dr. Gallo! Dr. Gallo! Do you have a name for the suspect? Who is the killer? What does he look like? What does—”
“Lily is done,” Atlas’s voice, cutting through the yells instantly. “And the bastard who took us will soon be begging for mercy.” He backed away, pulling her with him, as he guided her to the limo. More shouts followed them. So many more voices.
“When is the wedding?” A quick high-pitched question.
Lily glanced over at the reporter. A woman with short, red hair. “I—”
“As soon as possible,” Atlas replied. “Might even fly to Vegas tonight.” Then he steered Lily to the waiting limo with even more demand in his touch.
She didn’t fight him. She’d said what needed to be said.
She and Atlas ignored the other questions hurled at them. Carl opened the side limo door. “About time we left, sir,” Carl noted.
“Yeah, working on it.” Atlas gently pushed her in the vehicle first, then he climbed in after her.
Carl slammed the door.
She took a deep breath. One, then another.
“What. The. Fuck, Lily?”
She blinked in surprise. “I…thought that went well.” A delicate clearing of her throat. “There is something I need to tell—”
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
“You…we…talked about getting his attention.” The killer’s attention. And about the killer—
“Consider his attention fucking caught.”
She blinked. That was the third fuck in a row from Atlas.
Not a good sign. “You’re angry? With me?
” Anxious, confused, she glanced around the limo.
He took me there. Right on that seat. Drove into me fast and hard, with barely any foreplay, and I still came for him.
Came so easily when I could never let go for others.
Atlas touched her, and she yearned.
Soulmate. That term had pierced straight to her heart. Her mother had mocked her with that same word. Lily had never, ever expected to find someone who could know her so well, who could match her so well, who would make her feel so much.
Until Atlas.
“Hell, yes, I’m angry with you. So angry that I’m tempted to spank that sweet ass.”
She frowned. “I’m not into that.” The conversation was out of hand. She had to tell him—
“Don’t knock it until you try it.” Gruff. “Dammit! Don’t get me off track!” A muscle jerked along his jaw. “I didn’t see it coming. Not until we were standing right there. And it’s not going to happen, understand me?”
“No, I do quite not understand you.” She wrapped her arms around her stomach. “You’re making love to me one moment and yelling at me the next, and frankly, it’s quite confusing.”
“It wasn’t making love. It was fucking.”
Pain crashed into her heart. “Sorry. Yes.” She looked away, staring through the window. They’d left the crime scene behind. The reporters were far away. But those reporters would do their job. They’d spread the video of her and Atlas far and wide. And in response to that video…Will you come for me?
“Lily?”
Her skin felt chilled. They needed to turn on the heat in the limo. “You said it was fucking.”
He leaned forward and caught her chin. With a careful touch, he turned her face back toward him.
“Making love is soft. Sweet. Tender. Fucking happens when I drive my cock into you before you’re ready for me.
When I dig my fingers into your waist and pound into you as you’re screaming in the back of a limo. Fucking, not making love.”
Had she screamed? Lily didn’t remember that.
Perhaps, though. Possibly. Either way, she should let this discussion go.
It would only bring more pain. Just because she felt something, it didn’t mean that Atlas shared the emotion.
It didn’t mean he could feel the same way.
But…Why should I pretend that I don’t finally feel this way?
“Maybe it’s just fucking to you, but it’s making love to me. ”
He let her go at once, as if he’d been burned.
He hadn’t been. Benedict had been the one to burn…
Benedict.
She looked down.
“It’s making love…” Atlas’s rough voice. “Because you’ve convinced yourself that you’re falling in love with me?”