Killer's Prey (20 page)

“Nora!”

“I’m serious,” she said tautly. “I can’t survive that again. I
can’t!
”

He tightened his hold on her but didn’t offer any false platitudes. Once had been enough, and despite how much she had forgotten of the torture she had suffered at that man’s hands, she remembered enough, and enough about her lengthy recovery. She couldn’t do it again. Hell, she still wasn’t over the first attack.

“He’ll have to get through me.”

“You won’t always be there.”

“If you want, I’ll staple myself to your side until he’s caught.”

It was such a generous offer, and even in the midst of her terror, swamped by the dark memories, she felt selfish.

“You can’t do that. It wouldn’t be fair.”

“What wouldn’t be fair is something happening to you. And I wouldn’t be able to live with the feeling I didn’t do enough to stop it. Anything. So we’re joined at the hip from here on out.”

It took a while, but steadily she battled her way out of the horror and landed once again in the present, wrapped in Jake’s arms, reassured by his strength, thinking that she could spend the rest of her life on his lap just like this, and then maybe she’d always feel safe.

But reality was reality. That man was on the loose, she had no doubt he would come and Jake couldn’t possibly spend every minute playing her bodyguard. She didn’t say so; she didn’t want to make him feel bad. But it was the truth. She gathered as much courage as she could muster and accepted that she might well have to face the creep again. Alone. With only her own wits and skills to help her.

It was not a comforting thought, but a seed of determination, growing for the past few weeks as Jake had taught her self-defense, had given her a new reason to live, grew stronger now. She would survive. She
had
to.

“You never told me,” he said after a bit, “what you were thinking at the office that seemed to get you down so much.”

“Psychobabble,” she said finally.

“What?”

“Oh, I think I told you I only remember snatches of the attack. A mercy, I guess. But I got to wondering if my interpretation of the creep might be affected by my father. He was never one to put up with defiance, either. So maybe I was misinterpreting his motives. Maybe he doesn’t care that I survived. Maybe I’m scared for no reason. After all, his wife is still alive.”

“And in a coma,” he pointed out.

“Still?”

“Still.”

“God.” She shook her head. “I knew her. She was a nice woman, a good mother. She didn’t deserve that.”

“Neither did you. Bottom line, nobody deserves that.”

The tension had begun to seep out of her muscles and at last she relaxed against him. “You must be so tired of my fears and moods.”

“Hardly.”

“Well, I am.”

“With a lot more reason, I guess.” He paused. “The wind sets you off, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, all I can suggest is you listen to it now while you’re safe. To me it makes a cozy sound. I’m inside, warm and safe, and with you. It doesn’t get much better.”

A valid point. With effort, instead of trying to tune out the sound, she forced herself to pay attention to it and try to knit it into her current experience with Jake.

It wasn’t easy. Paying attention to it brought the memories bubbling up again, but she battled them back, forcing herself to stay in the present. It stood among the hardest things she had ever done. It might even take months or years to achieve what he was suggesting.

But she had learned about desensitization during her education, and accepted the rightness of his suggestion. She needed to become desensitized to the wind, and there could be no better place than where she was right now.

And no better way than to not only feel safe but to feel again the slow, almost springlike emergence of desire once again.

* * *

Jake felt her relaxing, but he wasn’t quite ready to, himself, yet. What she had said about not being able to endure another attack, about preferring to die, had struck him right in his heart and gut.

He guessed she had plenty of reason. He’d seen the scars, and he could still only barely imagine the depths of her suffering, horror and fear. For years to come this would haunt her, and his easy solution of trying to unite the sound of the wind to being safe in his arms right now seemed like a paltry offering.

But he hadn’t been kidding. He was going to find a way not to let her out of his sight. He couldn’t quite figure out how, given he had work to do, but he was going to find a way. Even if it meant tasking one of his officers to stay with her if he needed to be away.

He couldn’t be 100 percent certain that Langdon would come for her, but he wasn’t willing to risk being wrong about that. She, of all people, despite her memory blanks, probably had the best measure of that man of anyone on the planet. Even the judge hadn’t taken Langdon’s measure well enough to keep him in a cell, but had granted him bail.

This whole situation suggested that Langdon was an emerging serial killer, driven by impulses that sooner or later took control of him. The attack on his wife meant nothing if he removed that context.

The man would keep repeating his attempted murders. Sooner or later he would succeed. In Jake’s mind it seemed clear that the compulsion would keep driving Langdon until he was stopped for good.

Unfortunately, Nora might be right: he might still be after her, wanting to complete the job. Whether it had to do with feeling she had defied him by surviving seemed the least of it to Jake. No, what mattered was Langdon’s failure to fulfill his sick compulsion.

He could, of course, hunt another woman. But since his wife there had been no more reports of attacks. So it seemed likely he was going to take care of Nora, perfect his method and madness then move on to a new victim.

Jake could understand people getting mad beyond all reason and reacting violently. He understood how most people could kill in the right circumstances. What he would never understand was a mind that stalked and hunted victims for the sheer pleasure of it.

But from what little he’d read in the police and medical reports, probably far more than Nora remembered, at least in the medical descriptions of her injuries, he perceived that this guy got pleasure from what he did.

The most dangerous killer of all.

* * *

Gradually Nora felt her reaction to the sound of the wind changing. Maybe because it wasn’t exactly what she had heard in the woods that night as she had made her desperate crawl toward the road. Maybe because Jake’s hold was so comforting.

Regardless, the memories were fading away, and her awareness of the present intensified. Desire, at first a mere seedling, had begun to grow. She wanted him again, and she wanted him now. She wondered if he felt the same, then realized there was only one way she could find out.

Taking every ounce of courage into her hands, she murmured, “I want to make love with you.”

“I thought you’d never ask.”

She had sensed a somberness in him, but that vanished instantly.

“I was hoping you’d ask,” he added.

“Then why didn’t you say something?”

“Because,” he said wryly, “sometimes a guy likes to be asked, too. Because I wanted it to be your idea. It feels good.”

She got that instantly. She tilted her head back and smiled at him. “What are we waiting for?”

“You to get off my lap so I can chase you upstairs.”

That was exactly what happened. She slid off his lap, and soon was giggling as he chased her up the stairs, his laugh following her.

There was little finesse as they pulled at each other’s clothing, but a lot of laughs and smiles. A wholly different mood than before. No caution, no surprises, just an eagerness and sense of freedom as if she had cut loose from the darkness that haunted her days.

Such a short time ago she had believed she would never have the guts to let a man see her naked body, or even the desire to, but look at her now.

They tumbled onto the bed, happiness still enveloping them along with the rising scents and heat of desire.

She could smell it. She had smelled it last night, but today she knew what that musky scent was, and it enhanced her pleasure. Life, she was sure, didn’t get much better than this, and to think she had waited all these years to learn that.

But Jake was in no hurry despite their eagerness. He lingered over her breasts, driving her nearly insane as he licked and sucked her nipples until they engorged so much even the whisper of the air felt sensual, until they ached with their fullness. He trailed kisses all over her, much as when he had dealt with her scars, but he didn’t just attend to her scars this time. And when he parted her legs...

Shock shot through her as he kissed her there. She wasn’t a complete innocent, but it was an utterly new experience for her to feel his fingers stroke and part her petals, and then his tongue start flicking the nub of nerves. The first few touches were almost painful in their intensity, but after a few of them the pleasure overrode everything else.

When at last he nipped her gently, she thought she was flying to the moon.

Desperate now, she tugged at him. He didn’t argue, broke away just long enough to get a condom and then he slid up and over her, filling her with himself in a way that answered a deep craving, filling a place that had never felt filled before.

He didn’t move in her, though. Not immediately. He kissed her and teased her breasts some more, even as her hands clutched at him and stroked whatever she could reach.

Then a wicked impulse seized her, and she pinched his nipples gently. Encouraged by the groan that drew out of him, she pinched a little harder.

“Witch,” he muttered, and at last began to rock into her, meeting her rising hips with his own plunges. He slipped one of his hands beneath her rump, holding her steady for him, controlling the movements of her hips just enough to draw the minutes out.

It was as if he was determined to wring every last drop of pleasure from their union. Aflame with desire, nearly out of her mind, Nora forgot everything except Jake and the blaze he was building in her.

Nothing else mattered. Nothing. She could have died a happy woman right then.

But she didn’t die. She exploded finally in a cascade of completion that ripped through her entire body. Lights sparked behind her eyelids. Her brain seemed to freeze in ecstasy.

A few moments later, he jerked and groaned, following her to heaven.

* * *

Later she lay on top of him, beneath the blankets, reveling in the close contact. He held her, running his hands gently over her back and buttocks. Their breathing had calmed, the perspiration had dried and now she began to inch downward over him, learning his body the way he had already learned hers. She listened to his sighs, to his quiet moans, felt the way his muscles tightened then relaxed at each touch.

She liked being able to make him respond the way he did to her. It made her feel good, but also gave her such a sense of power. Jake, trembling at
her
touches. An old dream revived, and so much better than the dream had every been.

Finally he laughed and rolled her over. “I’m going to need a warmer room if you want to keep exploring.”

She smiled from the corner of her eye. “You don’t mind?”

“I’m loving it.” As if to prove it, he threw the blanket back and revealed his full glory to her hungry gaze.

But it was chilly. As if the wind had sucked the heat from the house despite the heater that pumped almost continuously.

She gazed on him, feeling her own insides clench with pleasure, even as goose bumps started rising on her own skin.

“Too cold,” he said, and pulled the blanket back up, cocooning them. “Just you wait until the weather improves.”

A promise? She hoped so as he drew against him again. He was a heater himself, rapidly filling their little cocoon with his warmth, easing the chill on her skin.

Tucked away in her memory now, though, was Jake’s well-muscled, perfect body, offered to her until the cold intervened. She liked what she had seen and promised herself that one time soon she was going to explore every inch of that territory. Learn it. Memorize it.

It was only then that she realized the keening wind no longer made her edgy. It simply made her snuggle closer. Another demon had been defeated.

Smiling, she pressed her face into Jake’s shoulder. She just wished that creep wasn’t still out there.

* * *

The wind had eased. Langdon stood at the motel window, watching snow whip across the street out front, but it wasn’t rising very high into the air any longer. He could see the businesses across the way, and the night sky was no longer gray and yellow with reflected light. It looked black and cold.

He turned on the small TV on the rickety stand and found some weather reporting. The worst conditions were over; tomorrow promised to be sunny and calm.

Smiling to himself, he decided he’d leave before dawn. He might make it all the way to Conard County tomorrow, and then all he’d have to do was locate Nora and get her at the right time.

Just the thought of getting his hands on her again was enough to make him harden and nearly salivate.

But first things first. He needed a meal since he’d slept a lot of the day, and a stroll in the cold to clear his head. Then, later, when the last of the locals were safely tucked in, he’d change his plate with a truck similar to the one he was driving. There was one that had spent the past few days in the motel parking lot. Best to get that plate before the owner decided to move on, too, with the improving weather.

Another day. Then maybe a day to find the woman and figure out his plan. Soon.

Then he’d be off on his grand adventure.

He had to struggle a bit with the compulsion to start out right now, but he won. He was still in control.

For some reason that made him feel very, very good.

Chapter 13

T
he light of morning was harsh, almost blinding, bouncing off the snow and shattering into a thousand colors. Grass still poked up, uncovered as yet, but the blades looked brown and lost amidst the sparkling white scattered everywhere.

Without the wind, the day felt warmer. The horses seemed delighted as Nora led them from their stalls and into the corral. They nosed around at the ground, but then made their way to the troughs full of hay. Even though they’d had food all along, being outside seemed to enhance their appetites.

She returned to the barn and made a stab at helping Jake and Al muck out their stalls. Rosa’s breakfast was still warm in her belly, and the activity made her feel good.

Even though last night had been anything but inactive. She smiled inwardly, thinking of all the fresh memories she now possessed of Jake. She wished the whiteout had lasted longer, that she could claim just one more day alone with him.

But it was not to be. He had to work, and so did she. Real life had returned. She tried hard not to think about the parts of it that would upset her and focus instead on the fact that she liked the archival work Emma had given her. She’d have fun today, just a different kind of fun.

It struck her then that she was enjoying herself for the first time since the attack, and doing so without any hindrance. If that guy were just behind bars again, she was certain she’d be able to throw her arms wide and embrace all of life with joy.

She just hoped that wasn’t only because of Jake, because he sure hadn’t promised anything. Not really. A few references to the future, but casual ones that could be meaningless.

Tucked away inside her, the memory of his rejection all those years ago remained. She couldn’t believe that it would be different now, even after what they had shared.

Maybe that was for the best, she thought. Could she really trust that she wasn’t just feeling dependency? Enjoying the escape he offered? What if the blossoming, deep feelings she was experiencing turned out to be illusory?

At this point she couldn’t tell.

What’s more, she decided not to worry about it. She had enough to deal with now that the cover of the storm had passed. That creep could be moving closer again. And nothing, absolutely nothing, had changed her mind about whether he would pursue her. He was sick. Of that she was sure, and sick people who felt compulsions were rarely rational when it came to their compulsions.

Her view of him was shifting as she thought more about him and about what Jake had theorized, but none of it suggested that the creep was just going to head for the border and never be seen again.

Something about him going after his own wife was like a red flag in her head. She couldn’t quite put her finger on why, but it seemed to bear out her feeling that he wouldn’t give up on her. Maybe because the attack on his wife indicated that he no longer cared whether anyone knew what he did.

He had, after all, been found out. She had survived and had been able to help identify him. She had made it out of those woods when he was absolutely convinced it would be years before anyone came across her scattered bones.

So he had nothing to hide anymore. Only scores to settle. And she figured she still loomed large on his score sheet.

The weight of those feelings settled over her as she and Jake drove toward town on what should have been an absolutely gorgeous early winter day. The feeling of dread weighed on her even though he held her hand nearly the whole way.

It weighed on her even more when they reached the library.

“I have to go in to the office,” he said. “I can take you with me or leave you here with Miss Emma. Your choice. But if I leave you here, I’m going to make sure one of my men is outside.”

“I can’t be following you everywhere like a lost lamb,” she said, even though it was hard. At some point she had to face up to this. She couldn’t remain a prisoner of her fears or be dependent on Jake every single moment of the day.

“You can,” he said firmly. “These circumstances are unusual. I promised I’d staple myself to your side and I meant it.”

It took every bit of her courage and determination to shake her head. She didn’t want to be away from Jake at all, for plenty of reasons that had nothing to do with safety. But she reminded herself, too, of her determination to take back at least some of her life. Letting the nightmare take charge wouldn’t change a thing, but would leave her living only half a life.

“I’ll be fine. I’m sure your officer can guard me as well as you.”

“Hey,” he said, sounding as if he were trying to joke. “I’m the best!” But the tension at the edges of his eyes gave lie to the humor.

“I know you are.” She meant it.

He half smiled and leaned over to kiss her. “I’ll watch while you get inside. Then I’m not budging until one of my men gets here, okay?”

“Okay.”

Opening the car door was hard, but she did it, squaring her shoulders and marching up the recently shoveled path and salt-scattered steps. When the door closed behind her, the library’s familiar silence and scents closed around her.

Safety was here. It had been here her entire life. She just hoped nothing wrecked it.

* * *

Jake made sure Ben Clews fully understood the importance of keeping an eye on Nora. Ben got it.

“I heard. We’re all watching, remember, Chief?”

“I remember. I just don’t want anyone to get careless or distracted. I’ll be back as soon as I can to take over.”

Then he headed for the office and hunted up Gage. “Anything?”

Gage shook his head. “It’s like the guy vanished.”

“Easy enough to do.”

“Don’t I know it. It’s a big country. We don’t usually find them until they slip up or slow down for too long somewhere. Damn needles in haystacks.”

“Anything more from Fred Loftis?”

“Should I be worried? The guy seems to have settled back for the time being. Of course, the weather hasn’t encouraged any hijinks from any direction.”

“I hope things don’t start emerging from the woodwork today.” He paused. “Or maybe I do. This waiting is killing Nora, and I’m ready to wrap my hands around any handy throat.”

“I know that feeling,” Gage said. “I know it well. Unfortunately...” He shook his head.

Jake got it. He just wished he knew how much more of this agonizing wait Nora was going to have to endure. What if the guy did head for the hills and never came? How long would this go on for her? Would she ever be able to move past it?

That concern settled in his chest like lead. She needed some kind of resolution, and while the thought that Langdon might get near her again chilled his very blood, especially after the scars he had seen on her, he knew that this had to be settled somehow so she could move on. Five years down the road, he didn’t want her to still be looking over her shoulder, wondering.

But all they had to go on was Nora’s conviction that Langdon couldn’t let it go. He both feared and hoped she was right. Talk about the horns of a dilemma, he thought as he went to his office to scan messages and scheduling. Then he marked himself off for the next two days, hoping nothing would happen to change it, and went back to the library in his private vehicle.

He hated stakeouts, but that was basically what he was going to be doing until whenever.

It had been a month now. If Langdon was coming at all, he must be getting closer by now. More and more convinced that everyone would believe he’d skipped the country. That they’d be growing more and more inattentive.

Well, Jake wasn’t going to let down his guard. Not for a good, long time to come.

* * *

Nora had vanished into a diary written by one of the county’s earliest pioneer women. Growing pain and approaching madness seemed to be oozing from the pages as the lonely woman wrote about the wind. The ceaseless wind. Nora’s heart began to gallop.

It is almost all I hear,
the woman wrote.
The children and the wind, and the wind has the worst voice of all. It sounds like a call from beyond the grave. It blows endlessly, dust settles over everything and I do not care anymore. When I step outside, it is even worse.

The wind has a voice, and it cries in loneliness and pain. It calls to me until I put my hands over my ears. If only it would calm for a few days, if only it didn’t pound me every time I step out, grabbing at my hair and clothing. It nearly whipped my skirt into the fire as I was making soap....

It is alive, this wind, and it is the voice of a demon.

“Nora?”

Startled, she jumped and looked up. Emma was standing in the doorway. The librarian evinced immediate concern.

“Is something wrong?”

“No...no. It’s just this diary. This woman writes with such pain.”

“Enough for today,” Emma said. “Even if you don’t need to quit, and I think you do, Jake has been sitting outside patiently all this time. I think he needs lunch, so why don’t you go make sure he gets it? I’ll see you tomorrow.”

The argument about Jake needing lunch was all that could pull Nora away from this woman’s story. She put the fragile diary aside, determined to continue with it the next day even though she suspected that might not be wise.

The demon wind.
Nora could almost hear it. Had heard it that cold, terrifying night. It had tried to snatch the life from her as she had crawled weakly over twigs and rocks, cold, so cold. She felt that woman’s suffering reaching out to her across the centuries.

The day had clouded over while she’d been buried in the past. The wind was gone, though, at least here in town, and after reading that diary, she was especially grateful. It had carried her to uncomfortable places, to a different kind of suffering, but suffering nonetheless. She wished she could reach back over time and offer that poor woman some solace.

“Lunch?” Jake asked as they pulled away from the library.

“Absolutely,” she agreed, although she didn’t feel very hungry right now. But Emma was right. Jake had been sitting out here patiently watching over her, and he certainly needed something to eat by now. A glance at her watch told her it was already past one.

“Is Maude’s okay?”

“Is there another place?” She tried to sound light.

“Home,” he said quietly.

“No, that’s a long drive. You need some food. Maude’s is fine.” She’d even have agreed to the truck stop, although she wasn’t sure she’d feel as comfortable there with so many strangers pulling in and out. At least at Maude’s she’d recognize most of the faces, even if they weren’t as familiar as they’d once been.

Maude’s, however, was all but empty. A couple of older men had a table where they were drinking coffee and talking about football. Jake guided her to a corner booth, and then the fun began.

“Still too thin,” Maude said, looking her over. “Gotta fatten you up some.”

“I can’t eat a whole lot at one time,” Nora said.

“Well, I ain’t getting you no salad. Eat what you can.”

Nora mentally threw up her hands. If she’d wanted to choose for herself, she should have chosen the truck stop.

Jake picked up on her reaction. “We don’t have to eat here,” he said quietly as Maude stomped off to get coffee and God-knew-what to feed her.

“It’s okay. Like she said, I’ll eat what I can.”

He waited quietly until they were both served, he with a steak sandwich and a heap of fries, she with a grilled chicken breast, a fresh roll and some broccoli. So Maude did make healthy food when pressed. She needed to remember that.

“So what’s going on?” Jake asked quietly. “You came out of the library looking disturbed.”

“I was reading a diary.” Talking more about it left her feeling uneasy. She had enough hang-ups these days to qualify for some heavy-duty therapy. Did she want to convince Jake she was totally nuts?

“A diary? About what?”

“One of the first women to settle here. She was awfully lonely and the wind bothered her, too.” Then she just said it straight out. “She said the wind was a demon.”

“I can see why you were disturbed. Do you feel that way, too?”

She felt a flash of anger, maybe because he had come so close to the truth. “I’m not a lunatic!”

“I didn’t say any such thing. I know the wind bothers you. I get why it bothers you. Reading that diary couldn’t have been easy, and I couldn’t blame you if the wind seemed demonic. You told me about crawling out of those woods.”

At last she met his gaze and saw nothing critical there. No, not in the least. He looked concerned, but in a kind way.

She almost asked him if he were ever unkind, but caught herself in time. Given what lay in their past, that would be an ugly question, even if born of simple forgetfulness. “It’s fanciful,” she said finally. “I guess I identified with her too much.”

“So you’re okay? Honestly, Nora, that’s the only thing I’m concerned about right now. You. If that diary is upsetting...”

She shook her head. “It is. It was. But that woman deserves for someone to read her story even after all these years.”

“I guess so. I won’t argue with you.”

“Wow,” she said.

“Wow?”

“You have no idea how much of my life I’ve spent arguing.”

“Until you left here, I presume?”

“Mostly, yes.” The smile returned to her heart, however briefly, and she offered it to him. “Thank you for that.”

“For what? You seem adult to me, capable of deciding things yourself.”

Right then, that meant a lot to her, mostly because she wasn’t exactly sure herself. Oh, she was old enough, but the events of the past few months had left her feeling like a child again in some ways—control of so much had been removed from her hands.

“I haven’t been feeling very grown-up lately,” she admitted.

A spark heated his eyes. “Oh, trust me,” he said in a low voice, “you’re definitely grown-up.”

And there it was again, the fire in her blood and in her loins, a fire he stoked so quickly and easily. All of a sudden she couldn’t wait to get back to his ranch and forget everything in his arms again. Everything.

Rosa would be there, unfortunately, but eventually evening would come and she could once again reside in Jake’s arms, once again feel his body moving inside hers.