Dungeon Games (16 page)

“Karina!” He shouted her name as he shoved his cock deep. Over and over he pulsed in her mouth, giving her everything he had.

He held her hair, but it was gentler now, his cock a presence but he’d relaxed as he’d given up his come. She licked and sucked and enjoyed her power. Her orgasm flushed through her system, making the world a lovely place.

“Thank you, gorgeous,” he said softly.

She let his cock slip away, knowing she would have him again. When she opened her eyes, she glanced around. Every person in the club seemed to be watching them. Derek smoothed her hair back. He helped her stand and started to unwind the ropes he’d bound her up in.

“You were perfect.” He whispered the words in her ear.

She was the perfect sub? Or the perfect bait?

She didn’t ask, but wondered all the while who had been watching them.

Chapter Eight

Derek shook his head as he refused a second cup of coffee. Maia frowned at him, her eyes widening.

“Are you sure? You’ve only had one. You usually drink four or five cups before noon. Are you on some weird cleanse?” She kept the coffee for herself, but stared at him, suspicion plain in her eyes.

“I don’t need it. I only drink that crap for the caffeine.” He actually didn’t love the taste, but he needed to wake up usually. He turned back to the door, hoping Karina would waltz back in and save him. No such luck. He’d been left alone in the McKay-Taggart conference room with his ex-wife, the two Texas Rangers, and their insanely obnoxious forensics guy who apparently had exciting news about old e-mails.

He didn’t need coffee. He needed a beer.

Maia sank into her seat, her perfect nails drumming along the tabletop. “I know. You don’t sleep well. Did you finally give in and get a prescription?”

He felt a slow smile slide across his face. He didn’t need a pill. He had Karina. A week in Karina’s crappy bed had his back aching, but it had oddly given him a more peaceful sleep than he’d had in years. He’d had the dream once more since that first night, but Karina had flipped him over and gotten him in a nice nelson hold. When he’d woken up, she’d been cool and collected and had calmly told him to go back to sleep.

Yeah, he’d turned the tables on her and had her screaming out his name in about five minutes. And then he had happily gone back to sleep. Fucking Karina was way better than a sleeping pill.

“I don’t want to know what that’s about,” Clayton Hill said, sitting back in his chair. “Is there anything to report, Lieutenant?”

Now it was Derek’s turn to frown. While he’d settled into a weirdly comfortable domesticity with Karina, they had gotten nowhere on the case front. “We went to the club four of the five nights it was open. She wasn’t even accosted by anyone but a drunk kid outside the building. I even left her alone for an hour on the last night.”

“Did you?” Harris asked. “Because I’m betting you simply took a step back and then loomed over her like a predatory hawk. I saw the tapes from the feed. Your version of letting her be on her own is to walk a step behind her.”

“Well, I wasn’t going to totally walk away,” he grumbled under his breath because there was some truth to Harris’s words. He and Karina had a long argument when she realized he’d never really walked away. What had she expected him to do? Take a break while there was a killer stalking her?

Hill shook his head. “I can’t blame you for that.”

“I can,” Maia said, her temper obviously on a short leash, but there was nothing new in that. “You’re letting this asshole get away because you want to get laid, Derek. She’s not fragile. She’s a tough bitch. She can handle this guy. Look, I let you put O’Donnell and Taggart the Lesser Ass on this. Use them or I’ll pull you from this case.”

“I don’t think that’s really in your purview,” Hill said laconically. He yawned as though the whole argument bored him.

Watts rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I think your part comes later, Ms. Brighton.”

God, he wished she’d changed her damn name.

“My part comes never if Derek doesn’t do his job,” she shot back.

“I’m with the Ice Queen,” Harris said. “The lieutenant is thinking with his dick. That would be fine if his dick had a high IQ. We’re going to lose this guy if we don’t dangle the bait a little harder.”

“I don’t know about that,” Eve said as she walked in the room, following her husband. She was the reason they were meeting at McKay-Taggart rather than in his office or the Grand Prairie Ranger office. Eve sat down when Alex held her chair out and immediately got to the point. “I don’t think having a male around is going to scare this killer off. He’s not swayed by opportunity. He’s goal oriented. He won’t give up because she’s suddenly got a boyfriend. I actually think it will make him work harder.”

Hill sat up, giving Eve his full attention. “You don’t think we should make Ms. Mills a bigger target?”

“I think he’s picked his target and he won’t be swayed,” Eve said.

Alex sat down beside his wife. He was dressed in a suit, an odd sight since Alex McKay tended to be a bit more casual. He and his wife were both dressed for some sort of business meeting. “The worry is that he’ll be patient. The longer he waits, the more you and Karina will tend to let your guard down. I want you to really think about this. How does this work if he waits a month? Two months? Six months?”

The idea put a knot in his stomach for more than one reason. The chief one being it didn’t sound so bad. He wouldn’t be able to leave her so he would have to move in. He couldn’t keep living out of his gym bag. He would pick up his things and hang them next to hers in the closet because it was the practical thing to do.

Of course, if it lasted too long, they should just move. Her place was cramped. He needed an office. They should look at two bedrooms closer to the station. He hated to have to drive to work. No more than two stops away would be ideal.

He stopped because he wasn’t moving in with Karina.
Fuck.
He was getting comfortable with a woman he knew damn well wasn’t good for him. He was making all the same mistakes again. He’d put up with Maia because it was easier than doing the hard thing and taking the hit.

Although Karina was turning out to be so different than he’d expected.

“Derek?” Maia huffed a little. “Are you going to join us?”

“I was thinking.” About anything but the fact that someone was stalking Karina. “Little Tag and O’Donnell can’t watch her the way I can.”

“Oh, for god’s sake, Derek. You’re acting like she’s a civilian. She’s not. She can handle herself. Slap a bug in her tits and get her out there. I want this guy brought in. I am not going to wait six months for my case.” She stood up, her face a bright red. “And I will use my influence to have you pulled off the case if I have to because don’t think I don’t know what’s going on. You’re behaving in a wholly unprofessional fashion.”

“Yes, because fucking on the job is so out of fashion in your world.” He was glad Karina wasn’t in here now because she likely would have been embarrassed. He just expected Maia to lash out when things weren’t going well.

She stared at him. “I can handle it, Brighton. I can handle it because I would never let it affect my work. She’s fucking with your head. What are you doing? Do you even know?”

“I’m doing my job, which is to make sure she doesn’t get killed.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. It’s your job to catch this fucker, but you seem to have forgotten that. You should remember or you’ll find yourself off the case.” She stormed out in true Maia fashion.

Harris sighed and sat back. “It’s like watching a soap opera. It’s kind of beautiful. She’s the villain by the way.”

Yeah, he didn’t need anyone to tell him that. “You’re not exactly the hero yourself, Harris.”

The little shit grinned in a way that let Derek know he’d just fallen into a trap. “Oh, I don’t know that I’d say that. Did you realize Karina has a couple of e-mail addresses she doesn’t check very often? There’s the address for her business and she has a personal address, but seriously there’s almost nothing on that one. She’s all business, although surprisingly huggy for a tough private investigator. I was expecting her to go all Mickey Spillane on everyone, but it’s mostly hand holding and shit.”

He should have known someone would dig into her e-mail. “Is there a point to this?”

“She has an account from a few years before.” He frowned a little. “Interesting stuff. Let’s say she had some seriously unsavory contacts back in New York. And her record. Yeah, gotta love a chick with her issues. I’m going with the Ice Queen on this one. That girl can handle herself.”

Record? Karina had a police record? “What are you talking about?”

“Harris, you say another word and I’ll fire you myself. Those records were sealed for a reason and they have nothing to do with this case,” Watts said, his eyes narrowing.

“Firing him would be too much paperwork.” Hill’s words came out with lazy menace.

“I hate it when they do that. It really freaks me out. Fine.” Harris frowned. “I won’t spill on her deeply interesting youth, but I am going to talk about her e-mail. Our boy isn’t as patient as we thought. He’s sent her two love notes.”

A chill went across Derek’s skin. He wanted to protest and say that any goddamn record of Karina’s was relevant as hell to him. Sealed records. There were only a couple of reasons for them. She was underage when she’d committed the offense or she’d made a hell of a deal.

“Let me see the note he sent.” It didn’t matter. Her secrets were hers and he didn’t give a shit. Except he’d told her his secrets. He’d lain in bed with her and talked about Afghanistan and all the shit that happened to him there. She wouldn’t even talk about her marriage. He still had no idea what had gone wrong because he’d made the decision to live in the now. The past didn’t matter. They had no real future. He’d wanted to indulge in the intimacy of the moment, but even that was coming back to bite him in the ass.

Harris passed over his tablet.

Hello, bitch. Did you think I wasn’t watching? I see all the whores. All your perverted ways are open to me as you will be open to me when I take you into the final judgment. You will be bound and found guilty of your sins. I’m watching. He can’t save you from me. Tell your friends, I’m coming for them, too.

He took a deep breath to banish the sick feeling in the pit of his stomach.

“Derek?” Eve held out her hand.

He passed the tablet and sat back. Somehow the danger surrounding the case had seemed a distant thing until that moment. It had been quiet, peaceful even. “How would he have found that e-mail account? And why now? He didn’t send notes to the others.”

Eve sent the tablet down the row, giving everyone the joy of reading the fucker’s message. “He’s reacting to stimuli. He’s obviously noticed something is different and he’s upping his game. Or perhaps he truly wants her and us to understand why she’s going to be killed.”

“You just said he was patient. This doesn’t seem patient to me.” Sometimes Derek hated the whole profiling thing. He understood the need, but it was a little like reading tea leaves in his opinion.

“He can be both,” Eve replied. “And this is a good thing. The more data he gives us, the better chance we have to figure out who this is.”

And the quicker he would have to make a serious decision. If there was any decision at all to be made. They had agreed to take it easy. Once the case was over there really wouldn’t be any reason for him to stay at her place except the sex. If she could go back to Sanctum, would she want him anymore? Or would she go back to playing around with the Doms there?

Would he be able to watch her? Would she be under Simon Weston’s flogger the minute he got back from England?

And what the fuck had she been arrested for?

He hated not knowing. He hated the fact that the Rangers knew more about her than he did.

Fifteen minutes later, they were breaking up but there was still no sign of Karina. She’d walked off to look for O’Donnell and now his brain was playing a nasty game with him. They were comfortable together. She was far more comfortable with O’Donnell than she was with him.

Alex McKay shook the hand of Tyler Watts as he was the last one to leave. Eve had led them out and through the glass windows of the conference room, he could see her talking to them.

“How are you holding up?” Alex leaned over the conference table, gathering his notes.

“I’m fine.”

“I heard you moved in with Karina.” Alex was only a year or two older than him, but Derek suddenly got the feeling this was going to be more of a big brother talk.

“I didn’t move in. It’s a long-term stakeout and protection gig.” The last thing he needed was a bunch of gossip. When this was over, he didn’t want the members of Sanctum doing a postmortem on his non-relationship with Karina.

He didn’t want them talking about how it was more of a relationship than he’d had in years. It was work and a little casual fun.

“So you’re sleeping on the couch then.”

Yeah, Alex was definitely in big brother mode. “That’s really none of your business. That’s between me and my sub.”

Alex’s eyebrow rose. Shit. He was a mess. He wasn’t thinking about what he was saying. “Your sub? I thought this was a job.”

Derek stalked to the window, wishing like hell Alex had just walked out and left him alone. “We agreed to play together for the duration of the assignment. I thought it was best she not be left alone at night. We both realized it would be hard to keep our hands off each other, so we made a mature decision to enjoy the time we have.”

“Yes, mature. Nothing about this is mature, Derek. Look, Ian should be the one having this talk with you, but he’s living out his fantasy in a giant floating dungeon in the middle of the Baltic, so it has to be me.”

“I’ve already gotten the lecture from O’Donnell and Little Tag. I don’t need another one.”

“Yeah, Li and Sean are going to come down on Karina’s side because they don’t know you the way Ian and I do. I’m worried about both of you, but mostly you.”

Derek frowned and turned around. “Why the hell would you worry about me?”