Chapter Six #2
She had leaned toward him, her lips parted in open invitation as her scent eddied in his head.
Damn, he had wanted to kiss her again but was now thankful that he’d managed to keep his control.
Kissing Dominique was dangerous because he knew it would only make him want to kiss her again…
and again. Even though it would be wonderful, it wasn’t appropriate for their relationship as friends.
He had just drifted off when his phone rang. He grabbed it from the end table next to him. “Madison,” he answered.
“Luke…it’s…it’s me. I… I need you to come to my shanty.” Her voice was shaky and it sounded like she was crying.
“Dominique, what’s wrong?” he asked, all lingering vestiges of sleep falling away.
“Please…just come here as soon as you can,” she replied and then hung up.
He jumped up from the chair and shoved his cell phone into his back pocket. He then hurried into the kitchen where he strapped on his shoulder holster, grabbed his keys and then raced out of his apartment.
He didn’t know what was going on, but he had never heard her sound the way she had. It was obvious something had tremendously upset her and all he wanted to do was get to her as quickly as possible.
He drove as fast as he could, given the other traffic on the road. What on earth had happened to her? He couldn’t imagine and he refused to allow his imagination to roam free. He just needed to get to her as soon as possible and find out what was going on.
It didn’t take him long to reach the swamp’s entrance, where he jumped out of his car and headed in. He moved quickly along the paths that were now fairly familiar to him.
It seemed like it took him forever but he finally reached her bridge and raced across it to her front door. “Dominique, it’s me,” he called out.
He heard her unlock the door and then it opened and she half collapsed into his arms. Her sobs tore at his heart as he held her tight for several long moments. At least she didn’t appear physically hurt.
He moved her farther inside and then closed the door behind them and led her to the sofa. She remained clinging to him as she continued to weep.
“Hey, hey,” he said softly as he caressed her up and down her back in an effort to comfort her. He gazed around the room to see if anything looked amiss. But the room was as neat and tidy as it always was. “What’s happened? Tell me what’s going on, Dominique.”
She finally released her hold on him and sank down on the sofa. He sat next to her as she drew several deep breaths in an obvious effort to get her tears under control.
“I—I was walking back here a-after work,” she began. Although the sobs had finally stopped, tears still oozed from her eyes. “I wasn’t paying a-attention. Th-that was my mistake because I never heard him come up behind me.”
Her words instantly made all of Luke’s muscles tense and a chill walked up his spine. He reached for her hand and she grasped his tightly, as if it was a lifeline. She released a deep, shaky breath and stared down at the coffee table as she continued to speak.
“He came up behind me and pulled what felt and smelled like a burlap bag over my head. Oh Luke, I was so terrified. For a moment I just froze. As he tried to pull the big bag down farther on my body, I fumbled in my purse and managed to grab my knife. I started stabbing out all around. I guess he didn’t expect me to have any kind of weapon. ”
The words now tumbled from her, nearly tripping over each other as she continued to relay what had happened to her. Her fingers squeezed together with his even tighter as tears once again filled her eyes.
“I… I think I managed to stab him somewhere because he let out a low grunt. I kicked and stabbed and tried desperately to get the bag off of me. I fought as hard as I could and then I heard him running away. I pulled the bag off my head and tried to get a look at who it was, but he was already gone.”
She released his hand and instead swiped at her tears, then finally gazed at him. The fear was still in the depths of her eyes and her lips trembled slightly. “I don’t know if he wanted to rape me, kill me or kidnap me.”
He reached out and gently drew a thumb across her cheeks to wipe away the last of her tears. His heart still thundered in his chest with fear for her. “Thank God you managed to fight him off, Dominique,” he said. “And now I need to call Daniel. We need to make an official police report of this.”
She nodded and he pulled his phone from his pocket to make the call. Dominique looked so small, so fragile half curled up in the corner of the sofa. All he really wanted to do was hold her and comfort her until the residual fear was gone from her beautiful eyes.
Once he made the call to Daniel, he did just that. He reached out and pulled her into his embrace. She came willingly into his arms. They didn’t speak. He just held her and occasionally he felt a small shiver go through her body.
She finally moved out of his arms and leaned back against the sofa. “I just can’t believe this happened to me.”
“Thank God you managed to get your knife out of your purse,” he replied.
“If I hadn’t, he would have had me.” She wrapped her arms around herself, and once again looked small and vulnerable. She sat there for a long moment and then got up. “I’m going to go change out of my work clothes. I’ll be right back.”
As she left the living room and disappeared into her bedroom, Luke leaned back and released a deep sigh. Who had attacked her? It had to have been whoever had left her the note. Unfortunately, Clay had been unable to pull any prints from it.
You will belong to me.
The words now took on a far more ominous meaning. Whoever had written the note had been the man who had attacked her, Luke was sure of that. It had been a very bold move considering it had taken place in the middle of the afternoon and other people could have been around.
However, surely if anyone had seen her being attacked, the person would have come to help her. The fact that nobody had come to her aid let him know there were probably no witnesses to the assault.
She came back into the living room, now clad in a housedress that was dark with light blue flowers.
It appeared there were snaps that ran from the neckline to the bottom of the garment.
It skimmed her body and she looked beautiful and casual in it, except for her eyes.
They remained dark and haunted with fear.
“Feel better?” he asked.
She nodded and returned to the sofa. At that moment there was a knock on the door. “I’ll get it,” Luke said and got up. He assumed it was Daniel and he was right. Clay was with him, along with Roger Teasdale, another day cop.
They all came inside where Daniel sat in the recliner facing Dominique on the sofa and the other two men stood on either side of him.
“Hi, Dominique,” he greeted her softly. “Are you okay?”
“As okay as I can be,” she replied.
“Luke told me a little bit of what was going on, but I want you to tell me exactly what happened,” Daniel said as he pulled a notepad from his pocket.
As she once again relayed the afternoon event, Luke’s muscles tensed up all over again. He wanted to find the man and beat the hell out of him for touching her…for frightening her so badly. He wanted the man in jail for what he’d done to her.
Once she was finished telling Daniel what had happened, Daniel began to ask her questions. “You didn’t see him at all?”
She shook her head. “By the time I got free of the bag over my head, he was gone.”
“Did you smell anything? Maybe cologne or something else?” Daniel asked. She paused for a long moment and then shook her head.
“All I smelled was the burlap of the bag,” she replied.
“Well, it’s obvious the note that was left for you is connected to this. I would guess he intended to kidnap you,” Daniel said. His words shot a new fear for her through Luke.
Daniel continued to question her, including asking her where, in the swamp, this encounter had taken place.
Once he had a good idea of that, he sent Clay and Roger out to see if they could find anything that might help them identify the perp.
If they were lucky, he might have dropped something that would give them some clarity.
Once they left, Daniel continued questioning Dominique. “I want you to think of any man who has been giving you attention lately. Not only in your personal life, but in your work life as well.”
“There’s nobody in my personal life except Luke,” she replied.
“What about at the café?”
She frowned. “I’ve got three regulars who instantly come to mind. They are flirty with me, but it’s all in good fun. I can’t imagine any of them being responsible for this.”
“Names?” Daniel asked.
Another frown tugged across her forehead. “There’s Burt Stanfield. Second is Austin Colbert and the third is Jacob Benoit. They’re all regulars of mine and they all flirt with me, but it’s nothing deep and I still just can’t imagine one of them attacked me this afternoon.”
Daniel wrote the names down. “The three of them are a good place to start my investigation. We’ll check out their alibis for the afternoon and see what we come up with.” He looked up at her at her once again. “What about old boyfriends? Who was the last person you dated?”
“Oliver LeBoeuf, but that was almost a year ago,” she replied.
“Who broke up with whom?” Daniel asked.
“I broke things off with him, but we parted on a friendly basis. I can’t imagine him being behind all this, either,” she protested. “This is all my fault,” she added miserably, the words surprising Luke.
“How on earth could it have been your fault?” he asked incredulously.
“I should have been more aware. I should have heard him come up behind me long before he was close enough to put a burlap bag over my head. But I was into my own head and distracted. Had I been paying more attention this probably wouldn’t have happened.”
“That’s not true,” Luke said, jumping to her defense. “No way should you take on any responsibility for what happened to you.”
“And I definitely agree with Luke,” Daniel added. “Nobody is responsible for the attack on you except the perpetrator, and I promise you I’m going to do everything in my power to find out who that is as quickly as possible.”
Dominique opened her mouth as if to say something, but then she grasped the locket that Luke now knew from one of their previous conversations held some of her mother’s ashes, and bit her bottom lip.
Luke could guess what she wanted to say. Daniel had promised the very same thing concerning her mother’s murder and here it was a little over two months later with nobody in jail for the crime.
At that moment, the door opened and Clay and Roger returned. Clay carried with him a large burlap bag. “We found it right in the area where Dominique told us she’d been attacked.”
“Did you find anything else around that area?” Daniel asked.
“No, nothing more,” Roger replied.
“And we checked the area very thoroughly,” Clay added.
“Get the burlap sack into an evidence bag,” Daniel said with a frown. “I don’t know how well burlap retains fingerprints but hopefully you can go over it to see what you can find,” he said to Clay.
“I doubt you’ll find anything,” Luke said. “We didn’t find any prints on the note that was left so I would imagine the person wore gloves.”
“You’re probably right, but we’ll check it out anyway,” Daniel replied. “And the first person I intend to talk to is Jacob Benoit. Fishermen often use burlap bags to keep their fish in.” He stood and Luke did the same while Dominique remained curled in the corner of the sofa.
“Dominique, I’m so sorry this happened to you,” Daniel said sympathetically. “I’ll be in touch, and if you think of anything that might help us identify who did this to you, then don’t hesitate to tell Luke or call me.”
“I will,” she replied.
“I’ll be in touch as soon as I have information or more questions for you,” Daniel said.
Luke walked with him and the other officers to the front door. “I’ll also be in touch,” Luke replied. The men all said goodbye and then they left.
Luke relocked the door and then turned back to Dominique. At least some of the color had returned to her cheeks and she didn’t look quite as frightened as she had when he’d first arrived.
He sank back down next to her and she moved closer to him. “How are you doing?” he asked gently.
“A little better now, although I still can’t believe it all happened. He tried to kidnap me,” she said softly. She gazed into his eyes. The gaze was so intense he felt as if she was looking into the very depths of his soul. “Luke, will you hold me again?” she asked.
“Of course,” he replied. He pulled her back into his arms and she buried her face in his shoulder as her arms wrapped around his neck.
Her heart beat against his own and the scent of her eddied in his head. He was there to comfort her, but he couldn’t help how the closeness to her half dizzied his senses.
They remained that way for several long moments and then she raised her head and once again gazed at him. Her eyes held a winsome plea. “Kiss me, Luke. Please, I want… I need you to kiss me.”
He shouldn’t. It wasn’t right. The rational thoughts tried to find purchase in his brain, but it was impossible with the flames he saw in the very depths of her eyes. It was impossible with her luscious, full lips so close to his.
He knew her lips would be sinfully soft, and even knowing it was wrong, even knowing he would probably regret it later, he couldn’t fight against his own desire to taste her lips.
She was a fever that burned hot, a rush inside his blood. He’d sworn he wasn’t going to kiss her again, but here he was…about to kiss her once again.