Blood Score (25 page)

“
If you feel that way, why are you ashamed?”

Angel knew she had opened a door to a very frank discussion she wasn’t sure she should have with Ethan, but he made sex easy to talk about.

“Not many would understand, that’s all. And I suppose that I’m afraid you might judge me…or think less of me. I know we’ve only just met, but it matters what you think…about me.”

“
I’m here to do my job, Ethan.”

“
Is that the only reason you let me come with you? The job?” He didn’t wait for her to answer. “Whenever we’re alone like this, I feel a connection between us. Am I wrong? The other night on the phone, it felt like you were there with me…in bed. Talking to you helped me sleep. I didn’t feel alone.”

Ethan didn’t make any move to touch her. She stared into his mesmerizing eyes and let her gaze drift to his full lips. With him being blind, she didn’t have to play coy with him. He oozed sensuality without doing a thing. Any attraction she felt
had
to come from her.

He’d admitted to feeling the same, but could she trust him? Olivia had trusted him.

“Are you trying to seduce me, Ethan?”

He hesitated for only a heartbeat before he said,
“Yes.”

Chapter 16

“Come with me.” Angel reached for Ethan’s hand. His fingers entwined with hers and felt warm against her skin.

“
Where are we going?” he asked with a faint smile on his lips.

“
To your room.”

She led him up the stairs and took her time. She expected him to be more cocksure of his seductive ways, but from the look on his face, Ethan appeared unsteady.

Vulnerable.

Young.

“What’s wrong?” she asked. “I thought you wanted this.”

“
I did. I mean, I do.” He stopped in the hall outside his bedroom door and pulled her to his chest. “I can’t believe this is happening.”

“
Believe it, Ethan. I wouldn’t have it any other way.” She ran a finger down his cheek. “You were right. I brought you here for a reason. You trust me?”

“
Yeah, I…guess so.”

Angel ran her fingers through his thick dark hair and kissed him. It felt good to be a woman in a man’s arms again. His skin smelled like herbal soap with a soft touch of masculine cologne. The scent was as comforting as her favorite blanket fresh from the dryer on a cold night. At first his lips were gentle—sweet first kisses, innocent and unforgettable—until he gave in to her completely. He gasped for air as his lips covered hers. When she felt his tongue in her mouth
and his hands on her body, heat rushed through her, even as her skin shivered with goose bumps.

She wanted to savor every second with him, but she couldn’t give in. She had to stay in control.

“Not here,” she panted.

Angel pulled him into the room until he stood by the bed. She’d given him the master bedroom, not only because it was the nicest suite. Angel had other notions about the king-sized mattress and the lavish headboard of the impressive furniture.

“What are you doing?” he whispered.

“
Shh.” She touched a finger to his lips until he understood she didn’t want him to speak.

She ran her hands up his chest and over his shoulders to pull off his shirt, but not before she found his cell phone tucked in a pocket.

“You won’t need this.” She placed his phone on the nightstand and let him hear where she put it.

“
But I might need to call in reinforcements,” he said, breathless.

“
Trust me. You won’t want to share what I’m about to do to you.”

He swallowed, hard, and let her do whatever she wanted. When she pushed him onto the mattress, he sat on the edge of the bed and waited. Angel knelt on the floor in front of him with her hands rubbing his thighs.

“You won’t need these boots either.”

Ethan smiled.
“Probably not.”

She unlaced his boots and took them off, tossing them over her shoulders. They landed with a thud. When she stood, she cupped his handsome face in both her hands and kissed him, slow and deep. In one fluid motion, she pushed him to the mattress and straddled his belly. His chest heaved with expectation for what would come next.

“You trust me, right?” she asked.

When he nodded, without saying a word, she pulled the handcuffs from her belt holster and reached for one of his arms. As cold steel hit his skin, and he heard the click of the restraints, he tensed his body.

“What are you doing?”

He tugged his cuffed wrist from her grasp, and she let him go until he calmed down.

“This is what I want.” She leaned closer to him and kissed his face and neck. When she had him under her control again, she nuzzled his ear and said, “But I won’t restrain you unless you want it, too.”

Ethan’s body responded as his penis stiffened against his jeans. Angel felt it on her legs as she straddled him.

“Is that your answer?” she asked. “Tell me. I want to hear you say it.”

“
Yes, whatever you want. I’m yours.” He reached both wrists to her and surrendered all control.

Angel cuffed his hands to the elaborate wood and metal headboard of the king bed. When she clamped the handcuffs tight enough and knew he couldn’t move, she ran her fingers under his T-shirt, feeling the warmth of his taut belly and played with his belt buckle until she stopped and slipped off the mattress with a sigh.

“What’s happening? What are you doing, Angelica?”

“
You made me realize that you’re too big of a temptation for me, Ethan. I’m sorry, but I had to make sure you wouldn’t get in my way. I’ve got work to do.”

Ethan had done his best to seduce her, but she was monogamous, and she had already said ‘
I do
’ to the job. She loved being a cop, and she had a partner who needed her. She hadn’t decided what she would do with him—to keep him out of her way—until Ethan gave her the idea of using her handcuffs when he came on to her. She had to move now. She couldn’t be distracted by him.

At the door to his bedroom, Angel took one last look at the most beautiful man she had ever seen, sprawled spread eagle on a king-sized bed in a remote cottage in the woods, wearing her handcuffs.

“You can’t leave me like this.”

“
Yeah, you’re probably right.”

Angel ran for the master bath and grabbed a plush washcloth off the counter. She rolled it into a tight ball before she stuffed it into his mouth. The last thing she needed was to hear him yelling at her while she searched McFarland’s lake house. Ethan’s cries were muffled by the towel as he tugged at the restraints and squirmed on the bed.

“I sincerely hope I have to apologize when this is all over, Ethan. I’d prefer that over arresting you.”

Before she headed downstairs, Angel grabbed his cell phone off the nightstand and went to her bedroom. Ethan would never miss his phone now. She checked his cell and saw that he had his GPS locator live. It didn’t take long for her to find an app that allowed him to network with a ‘friends and family’ plan. If someone else had the same app installed with linked phones, they could track his movement like a parent wanting to know the whereabouts of a child—or an obsessed publicist who overstepped her bounds to serve a client she had feelings for.

Maybe Ethan had the cell tracker app for security reasons, something a blind man might find useful if he ever got into trouble. Angel couldn’t be sure who he had linked to his cell either, but the fact that he had the software downloaded on his phone told her all she needed to know. Angel couldn’t be sure if Ethan had lied to her about Rachel and Bryce not knowing what his private life was like, or if he had been flirting with her to get what he wanted—for her to find McFarland’s secret recordings for him. She didn’t want to believe he had deliberately tricked her or that her instincts about him had been wrong, but Ethan didn’t have to tell Rachel or Bryce where he was going.

His phone would broadcast his position, whether he’d done it on purpose or not.

Although her partner wasn’t a tech guy, Gabe had counted on the killer tracking them from Chicago to Lake Zurich. The high tech means that Ethan had on his phone would make that easier than to risk being spotted in a rear view mirror.

“
Are you a good guy with lousy taste in friends or are you in on this, Ethan?”

In truth, Angel didn’t know. The decision she’d made to keep Ethan out of harm’s way had been a tough one. She wanted to trust him, but she couldn’t afford to. He could’ve been using her, plain and simple. And if he was innocent, she didn’t want to worry about him getting hurt.

In her bedroom, Angel unzipped her overnight bag and retrieved her second weapon, a Glock 19, with her duty holster. She had a communication unit with an ear bud to stay in touch with her partner and the patrol car down the road. In case someone would be watching her from a distance, she wore a loose fitting work shirt over her CPD T-shirt that would conceal her duty gear and Kevlar vest. After checking the 9-mil Sig she had strapped to her ankle, she clipped her com unit and ear bud where it couldn’t be easily seen and concealed her Glock at the small of her back in a holster. No sense telegraphing that she was an armed cop expecting trouble.

If what Gabe had suspected was right—that someone in Ethan’s inner circle had incentive for locating the videos of Tim McFarland to cover up two murders—Angel had to locate those recordings fast. She’d have company very soon.

As she headed downstairs, Angel switched her com unit on and said, “You read me, Gabe?”

***

Minutes later

Wearing camo BDUs and tactical gear, Cronan had staked out a corner of the property that gave him the best view into the back windows of McFarland’s lake house, the side he figured would be most vulnerable. From his vantage point, he had a look through the lodge and could see the front door and part of the stairs to the second floor. Even though he could watch Angel from where he was, the stark light coming from the bungalow messed with his night vision. He had to avoid it if he wanted to do Angel any good.

He felt like crap having to watch her play house with a guy who looked like Ethan Chandler. She’d even fed him pizza. Cronan’s stomach growled as he used his night vision binoculars to check the perimeter for any signs of movement. Angel had gone upstairs with Chandler, and she’d been gone long enough to make him wonder what she’d been doing.

“You read me, Gabe?” Angel’s voice came to his ear like a whisper, as if she were right next to him. She’d finally activated her ear bud.

“
It’s about time, Ramirez. Did you tuck him in?” Cronan kept his voice low.

“
Yeah, I guess you could call it that. He’s handcuffed to the bed in the master. Call it protective custody.”

“
What?” Cronan smiled. “Never mind. Good call.”

“
He has GPS on his cell and a tracker app. It’s active,” she said. “I figure we’ll have company soon. Watch your back. I’m searching for the digitals now. I’ll hit you back when I find something.”

“
Roger that. Save me a slice of pizza.”

Cronan hunkered in the shadows and took cover in the trees near the waterline, grateful for the simple things like spray-on mosquito repellant. He kept his eyes and ears alert for anything that moved.

No matter how things played out, it would be a long night.

***

Angel focused her search in the living room where McFarland had his media set up. Gabe told her how he’d found a secret compartment where the man hid his surveillance equipment. She eventually extended her search to the upstairs, but had no better luck.

As she’d knocked on the walls and looked for hidden compartments, she thought about other ways McFarland could’ve recorded Ethan that would’ve eliminated the need to hide saved videos. He could have linked his feed to an online account synced to his camera. If he’d done that, they might never have found out about his illegal activity. With the video feed uploaded automatically, he wouldn’t have needed to hook up his TV to his camera to watch or record. He’d only require online access to view the video files whenever he wanted from anywhere, but the fact that the guy had a lower tech solution rigged at his home told her more.

Uploading sensitive material like that onto the Internet would have left McFarland open to being discovered, similar to the way pedophiles are caught by the feds. Angel knew he must have thought about the best way to keep his activity secret where only
he
would have access.

After two hours of searching—and listening to Ethan rocking his headboard upstairs and cursing through the washcloth in his mouth every time she made a noise—Angel stopped to think. She pictured McFarland inheriting the choice real estate, realizing he had a way to stash his illegal activity away from his home in the city, but one thing bothered her enough to break radio silence with her partner.

“No luck so far,” she whispered to Gabe. “But here’s a thought.”

“
Talk to me, Goose.”

His low voice coming over her ear bud made her smile.

“McFarland rented this place through a property management company, probably so he could afford the upgrade in lifestyle.”

“
That makes sense.”

“
Well…why risk hiding his illegal stuff in the lake house, where it might get discovered by the Winnebago crowd on a National Lampoon Vacation?”

“
Bonus points in the pop culture category. Keep talking.”

“
I bet this guy found a damned good way to hide it,” she said. “It’s gotta be locked away, somewhere only he would have access to it.”

“
What are you thinking, Angel?”

“
I saw a small shed on the property as we drove in.”

“
You want me to check it out?”

“
No, I’ll do it. If someone is watching the house, it’s best they only see me on the property.” Angel headed for the front door and made sure she still had the key in her pocket. “I’ll check it. Sit tight ‘til you hear from me.”