Rangers: Silver-Star Seductions: A Two-Book Box Set (13 page)

The small house on the edge of town had already been taped off when Cia and Kade arrived. “Who called it in?” Cia asked one of the officers guarding the perimeter.

“Sister-in-law. Came by to pick the victim up for a day of shopping and getting their hair and nails done.”

She nodded and proceeded to the front door of the house. Inside she found the sheriff and his two detectives.

“Body was found in the bedroom.” Sheriff Chapman filled them in. “ME is in there now. You might not want—”

“Have you questioned the neighbors?” Cia interrupted.

“Not yet.”

“Why don’t you get on that? Maybe someone saw something. The rest of my team will be here shortly. I need to see the body.”

The sheriff grabbed her by the arm as she turned away. “You might want to reconsider.”

She pulled away from him. “It’s my job.”

Kade followed her to the bedroom. Cia stepped inside and stopped cold. It was a scene from a nightmare.

“Christ!” Kade exclaimed from behind her.

“Christ had nothing to do with this.” Cia stared at the horror. This was the work of pure evil.

The medical examiner turned to face her. “This is…” He looked back at the victim and shuddered.

“I know.” Cia deliberately made her voice calm despite the fact she wanted to scream. “Look at me. Good. Now tell me. Just the facts.”

He sucked in a breath and seemed to compose himself. “She was taped to the chair with duct tape, the kind you can find almost anywhere. Bottom of the chair had holes cut out of it. Both holes have what appear to be broom handles—”

“Yeah, we can see that,” Cia interrupted “What I want to know is what killed her.”

“Hard to tell at this point but my guess is the cut to the throat.”

“Before or after she was tortured?”

“After.”

Cia nodded. “Put a rush on this, will you? I want the autopsy report as soon as possible.”

The medical examiner nodded and called out that the body could be moved. Cia looked at the wall behind the victim. On the wall a message had been painted in what she assumed was the victim’s blood.

What will it be, whore? You or them? It stops when you give yourself to me. Or I give you one of these a day until you do.

“Son of a bitch,” Kade hissed.

“We have to stop this bastard.” Delilah’s voice came from the door.

Cia turned to see her and Travis. “We’ve got less than a day. You getting anything, Travis?”

Travis' eyes took on a faraway look, like someone caught in a daydream. For nearly a minute, he was immobile. Kade opened his mouth as if to speak but Cia raised her finger to her lips to silence him.

“The room is bugged,” Travis suddenly announced. “He recorded it.”

“Where?” Cia asked

“Don’t look at the ceiling fan. He may still be watching.”

Cia eased over to Delilah, turning her back to the camera and speaking quietly. “Get someone in here. We need to trace the feed. Now.”

Delilah pulled out her phone, making the call as she walked from the room. Cia turned to face the scene, watching as the woman was cut from the chair and placed on a gurney.

She couldn’t let this go on. It had to stop and she didn’t think they had a chance in hell of finding him within the twenty-four-hour window. If she didn’t do something another woman would die tomorrow, and another the day after that.

Something had to be done. Now. It came to her in a flash. Cia turned and looked up at the ceiling fan. “You want me, you sick fuck? Fine. Name the place and time and I’ll be there.” She shouted out her phone number.

An uproar followed, Kade and Travis both yelling that she couldn’t do it. She ignored them, continuing to stare at the fan. Kade grabbed her by the arm and forced her from the room with Travis following.

“Are you insane?” Kane shouted. “You saw what he did to that woman!”

“Which is exactly why I did it.” Cia wrenched free of Kane’s grip. “He’ll carry through with his threat, Kade. It’s our only chance to stop him from killing again.”

“He’ll kill you, Cia.”

“What’s going on?” Delilah entered the room.

“Cia offered herself,” Travis answered.

Delilah went white as a ghost and staggered but Travis caught her. “What?” Delilah’s voice was strained.

“She can’t do this, Travis" She looked at Cia. “You can’t, Cia. You can't.”

“Yeah, I can.”

“No!”

“Why?” Kane asked.

Delilah looked from him to Cia. “Because if you do, you’ll die.”

“Then I die,” Cia stated flatly.

“No!” Travis argued. “It’s too dangerous. If anything at all goes wrong, he’ll kill you. And Delilah said—”

“Delilah saw something?” Kane’s voice raised another decibel.

“Not everything she sees is carved in stone."  Cia was quick to point out. " She sees possible futures, Kade. We can be smart and change what she saw. If he contacts me we’ll trace the call and get him.”

“And what if he’s anticipated that and we can’t trace it?”

“Then I follow his instructions and we get him.”

“You so sure?”

She looked over at Travis. “You can track me, right?”

“I think so.”

“Think?” Kade yelled. “Think isn’t good enough.”

“Can we get Butch here today?” Cia asked.

“Who’s Butch?” Kade asked.

“Remote viewer and telepath,” Delilah answered. “I’m against this, Cia, and am going to tell Brett that and why.”

“Fine. But it’s my case, so get Butch here.”

Delilah looked as if she would argue then shook her head and pulled out her phone. “I’m on it.”

“Good,” Cia said and left the house.

Kade followed, catching up as she reached the car. “Cia, this is crazy. It’s too risky.”

“It’s our only chance, Kade.”

“There has to be another way.”

“There isn’t. Travis and Butch will be able to keep eyes and ears on me. If he calls, there’s a chance Butch will be able to vibe in on him and get his location. That’s all we need for my team to move in and take him out.”

“You mean arrest him, don’t you?”

“His physical body, yes, if possible. But we have to kill what’s inside him.”

“How is that possible?”

“We’re going to need help.”

“From whom?”

“The dead.”

She turned and got into the car. After a minute, he walked around and got in behind the wheel. “I hope to hell you know what you’re doing.”

“So do I.” Joe’s voice came from the backseat.

Cia looked up, meeting Joe’s eyes in the reflection from the rearview mirror. That made three of them.

Cia had just stepped out of the shower when the knock came at the door. She’d ordered room service before getting into the shower but it normally took longer.

“Just a minute!” She wrapped a towel around herself, and hurried to the door, opening it just a crack.

“Kade."’

“Mind if I come in?”

Cia stepped aside for him to enter. His eyes ran from the top of her wet head to her toes and back again. “Nice, but would look better without the towel.”

The towel hit the floor a second later. Cia watched his eyes move down her body again and back up. When their eyes met, she didn’t have to ask. She could see need clear in those gray depths.

As seemed to be the norm for them, meeting in a clash of lips and tongues, hands grasping, touching and her tugging at his clothing, all in a frantic, hard-breathing race as if time was of the essence.

Maybe because that’s how she operated. Her love life had been quick, down and dirty for enough years that any other kind of sex was little more than a dim memory.

She was pushing him backward toward the bed before his pants were off. One hard shove and he went down on his back, his pants around his shins.

Cia ran her hands up his legs to his penis, gathered it in both hands, and started to go down on him. He stopped her, taking her hands to pull her on top of him.

“Slow down.”

“I don’t like slow.”

“No, you’re afraid of slow.”

“Fat chance.” She broke free, straddling his body and then tossing her wet hair over her shoulders.

“Cia. Look at me.”

“I am looking.” She watched his erection jump as she ran one finger up and down its length.

“Cia.”

She blew out her breath dramatically and looked at his face. Big mistake. More than need was evident in those eyes. It undid her, made her want things she couldn’t have.

“I want to make love to you,” he said softly.

“What’s stopping you?” She tried to tease.

“You.”

“Baby, I’m sitting here, naked and willing.”

“Cia, I don’t want to fuck you. I want to make love to you. Why is that so damn hard for you to understand? Do we have to go through this every fucking time?”

She knew the anger in his voice stemmed from frustration. Kade was a strong man, even in his emotions. He didn’t do or feel anything halfway. He was an “all in” kind of guy. And a frustrated guy because between the moments she let her guard down while they were having sex, she ran like a rabbit from anything that even suggested an emotional attachment.

“Kade, we don’t have to go through it. You just have to accept. I am who I am. You don’t have to be here, don’t have to be with me. But if you want to, then here I am. But I’m not going to pretend to be something I’m not.”

“That’s the problem. You’re so goddamn caught up in pretending that you don’t even recognize who you really are anymore.”

“Well, fuck you.” She rolled off him and marched into the bathroom.

As she was raking a comb through her hair, he appeared at the door, leaning against the frame. She turned to look at him and he held out his hand. After a moment, she put the comb down and put her hand in his.

He led her to the bed, stripping back the bedspread. “I’m not asking you to change, or to pretend. Just asking that you do something for me. Just this once.”

She gave him a look that was loaded with “yeah, I’ve heard that before” but he ignored her as he turned back the sheets.

“I want to make love to you, Cia. Really make love to you.”

Cia wasn’t sure who was more surprised by his statement—him or her. He did seem to look a bit stunned once he’d spoken the words. Maybe it wasn’t the words, but the desire behind them. She wasn’t any surer of what he was feeling than she was about whether she actually remembered how to make love.

And maybe now was as good a time as any to find out. It was for sure that she’d never met anyone she’d rather try with. She knew she worked hard at hiding things, but the truth was she had quite a thing for Kade. Not just because he was amazing in bed, but also because something about him called to her on an emotional level.

She nodded and he laid her back on the bed. Kade sat beside her, his hands tracing lightly down the length of her body and back up. “You’re the sexiest woman I’ve ever laid eyes on, Cia.”

She smiled up at him, trying to keep the moment light with a tease. “The feeling is mutual, lover.”

“Lover? Is that what I am to you, Cia?”

“Just a word, baby.”

“So I’m not your lover?”

“Trust me, Kade, if I was looking for a full-time lover, you’d be at the top of the list.”

She knew she’d fucked up. She saw it in his face. “So what are you looking for?”

Maybe she never had to speak the words. Maybe she could show him. “This,” she said as she sat to slide her arms up and circle his neck. She pulled his head down. When their lips met, she put everything she felt and couldn’t say into the kiss.

Kade must have understood at least part of it. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close, deepening the kiss.

If later she could analyze it and pinpoint one moment where everything changed, it would be this kiss. Kade went from being
a
man to being
her
man. It would sound silly even to her, but everything he was and had to offer was in that kiss.

And because she wanted it so badly she latched hold of it. There was nothing else that existed.  No case, no past, no future. Just now. They came together in a manner she was unaccustomed to.  Tender and sweet, slow and gentle but yet him demonstrating his dominance.

She didn't know how much time had passed.  She looked up at him as another climax threatened.

Their eyes locked. And together they took the free fall. Wonder overcame him. Here she was, the one he'd wished for an never expected to find. His lover, his woman. Nothing would ever be the same again. Not ever.

When the storm passed, Kade sagged onto her, feeling the rapid pound of her heart.

“Need air,” she wheezed.

Kade moved off her so she could roll over onto her side, her face against his chest. So hot. He wrapped his arms around her, relaxing. He fought it but it didn’t take long for sleep to claim him.

Cia’s eyes flew open at the first intrusion of silence. She snatched up her phone from the nightstand and activated the speakerphone. “Yeah?” She hit the home button to activate the tracking app, hoping that whoever was on duty was already trying to track the call.

“Smith farm, edge of town. There’s a nice private root cellar in the backyard. Be there in an hour.”

The voice sent shivers down her spine. He wouldn’t announce his location unless he was confident he was safe from a raid.

“What about the Smiths?  Are they alive?”

“For now. If you’re not here in an hour I’ll be forced to turn my attention to them. And don’t even think about trying to storm the house. It’s wired. You try to get them out and I blow it.”

“I’ll be there.”

The line went dead. She felt Kade’s hand on her shoulder. “You believe him?”

“Yeah.” She dialed Travis on speakerphone so that Kade could hear.

He picked up on the first ring. “We got it.. Butch got here twenty minutes ago and listened in. Said the guy was on the up and up. He is where he claims. There are five people in the house. Man, woman, three kids. All tied to chairs in the kitchen. There’s enough fertilizer and nitrate under the kitchen table to blow the whole place and it’s on a remote detonator.”

“Let’s move,” Cia replied.

“Already moving,” Travis responded. “Sending you GPS coordinates now. We’ll rendezvous a mile from the farm.”

Cia hung up the phone and turned to Kade. “We gotta go. Meet’s in an hour. If we’re late –"

“You can’t go in that root cellar, Cia. It’s a death trap. One way in, one way out. No way for us to protect you.”

She knew he was right. Being closed up in a root cellar with that monster was the last thing she wanted. But if there were no other way, she’d do it. She’d just have to try to make sure she wasn’t alone.

“Come on, let’s get going. We’ll figure out something.”

“We better. I’m not letting you go in there alone.”

She took the moment to kiss him gently. “Don’t worry. I don’t plan on being alone.”

“What does that mean?”

Cia got up and started dressing without an answer to his question. She was quite certain he’d think her plan was crazy. She wasn’t so sure he would be wrong.

Travis, Butch and Delilah were waiting at the designated coordinates when Cia and Kade arrived. “What’s the plan?” Travis asked.

“Making sure those people don’t die today.” Cia looked around at everyone. “This one we’ll have to play by ear. Butch, you’re sure the place is set to blow?”

“Like Chernobyl.”

“Shit. Okay, let’s go.”

They all piled into Travis’ car for the short drive. The farmhouse was lit; it looked as if every light in the house was on. Cia got out of the car and closed the door as Kade tried to follow. She spoke through the window to Butch and Travis in the front seat. “You guys need to get inside my head.”

“Been wanting to do that since we met,” Butch quipped. “You gotta let us in, Cia.”

“I know.” She closed her eyes for a moment. Lowering barriers that she’d spent years fortifying wasn’t as easy as turning off a light switch. Faintly, at first, then growing steadily stronger, she felt them.

Talk about an alien landscape.
Butch’s voice in her mind had her opening her eyes.

Travis?
She mentally called to him.

I’m here.

She nodded and turned her attention to Kade. “Stay with them. They’ll know if I get into trouble.”

“You’re already in trouble.”

“Maybe.” She gave him a smile.  "But stay here anyway.”

Before she let the wave of emotions pouring off him deter her, she turned and started up the drive to the back of the house. She felt a presence. Sure enough, Joe walked beside her.

“I’ve got to stop him, Joe.”

“I know, Gracie.”

“Think I stand a fighting chance?”

“I think it’s time you trusted, Gracie.”

“In what?”

“That good can triumph over evil.”

“I’m trying, Joe.”

“Stop right there, bitch.” The voice came from the darkness ahead.

Cia stopped and a man stepped from the darkness into the spill of light from one of the back windows of the house. In his mid-twenties, average in height and weight, he wore the clothes of a farm hand. Only the insane light in his eyes gave away the evil inside.

She knew Vacher was in him. The left side of his face was frozen in a rictus resembling a sneer.

“Drop the gun and kick it over here.”

She removed her sidearm from its holster, dropped it at her feet and then kicked it toward him.

“Your backup.”

She smirked and bent to remove the gun from the ankle holster, kicking it to him as well.

He pointed her own gun at her, using it to gesture. “Let’s go.”

She did as ordered, stopping only when she saw the thick door of planks that stood open above the hole in the ground. Her courage threatened to fail. Images of his past kills flashed in her head. She couldn’t do it, couldn’t move.

“You or them, bitch.”

That set her into motion. She had three deaths staining her soul. She couldn’t add more. With legs that felt weak, she started climbing the metal ladder that led down.

He followed, pulling the heavy door closed, bolting and padlocking it. Cia felt a lump of fear take shape in her gut. She was trapped with the monster.

Calm, Cia. Calm
, Butch’s voice came from inside her mind.

“What’s your name?” She tried not to notice the thick wooden table with chains attached to each leg that dominated the center of the small space.

“You know my name, whore.”

“I’m not speaking to Vacher, but his vessel. What’s your name?”

“Forget it, bitch, he can’t answer. He’s mine.”

Cia studied the man’s face. “You’re such a coward, Vacher. Not strong enough to fight your own battles, not man enough to really face me.”

She turned her back on him, circling the table, and using it as cover to pull her phone free and dial Kade’s number. “I always figured you were weak. A real man wouldn’t have to hide behind holding hostages, or hijacking a body. But then, you never were strong, were you?”

“Shut up, whore.”

“Or what? You’ll kill me?” She laughed. “Oh sorry, you’ll have your vessel kill me. I forgot, you don’t have the strength.”

“Strong enough to rip your limbs off while you scream and beg.”

“Oh? Without your vessel? I’m psychic, remember? I can fight your vessel here on the physical plane or you on the astral. Well, I could…if you were strong enough.”