Black Light: Possession, page 5
“Do you have an appointment?”
I inhaled for control. “He’s expecting us.”
Glancing away, he picked up a phone and pressed a button. Several beats later he spoke into the receiver. “There’re two FBI agents out here for Roberts.” He hung up the phone without waiting for a response and gestured to some chairs against the wall behind us.
“Have a seat.”
I turned around in disgust, muttering obscenities under my breath, and settled on one of the hard plastic chairs. Joseph dropped into the one next to me. “Let it go, Nat.”
This was how it always went when we entered a local cop shop. Most thought we were stepping on their toes when it came to investigations and treated us with contempt. It shouldn’t bother me after all these years, and most times it didn’t. Today, though, it bugged the shit out of me. My fuse was ever shorter lately. Leave it to Joseph to know exactly how I was feeling.
We waited so long for someone to come that I was seconds away from storming back over to Officer Hopkins when a man in a suit rounded the corner and made a beeline for us.
With an outstretched hand, he greeted us. “Sorry for the wait, gentleman. I’m Detective Roberts.”
Joseph shook his hand first. “No problem. I’m Agent Crocker. This is Agent Morgan.”
I gripped his hand as he responded. “A pleasure. Now, if you’d like to come with me, I’ll let you take a look at the letter Ms. Parrish received. Then, you can speak to her if you’d like.”
The detective led us down the hall past several offices and an interrogation room before entering a conference room with a large, rectangular table in the center. At the near end of the table, in a clear plastic evidence bag was a sheet of plain white stationary with words printed across it. I reached it first, carefully picking it up off the table. My eyes scanned the contents of the letter, each word spreading dread through me. We’d need to take it to our lab to analyze, but from my personal knowledge of the case, and each and every prior letter found, this sounded exactly like one written by Casanova. Fuck.
“Now normally we handle this kind of thing on our own, but the Chief has been following this case since the beginning. He knew you Feds have been in charge of the investigation for the last couple years or so. Ever since it crossed state lines. He’s the reason I called you all.”
Casanova was the name we’d coined for the suspected serial killer. At last count, he was credited with the murder of five women between the ages of thirty-five and forty, all brunettes, with blue eyes and small-built body frames. Each one was a businesswoman with varying career choices including an administrative assistant, a paralegal, a lawyer, a CEO of a small business, and a doctor. None of them knew each other in either a professional or personal capacity.
The first death was reported three years ago. The second, six months later. Each death came almost exactly six months after the last one. Joseph and I had been pulled onto the case after victim number two, Leslie Peterson, who had been found in a wooded area along the Pocomoke River near the Eastern shore of Maryland with her heart cut out. All five women had reported receiving anonymous ‘love letters’ and all had been butchered with the same M.O.
I passed the letter over to Joseph to get another opinion. While he read the letter, I turned to the detective. “Tell me about the vic.”
“Her name is Dr. Madeline Parrish. She’s some head doctor who relocated here a couple weeks ago. She reports that she began receiving flirtatious ‘love letters’ about six months ago, but in the last month or so they’ve become a bit darker and ominous. Her words. The last letter she received, until yesterday, was three weeks ago. A week before she moved here.”
With every word Detective Roberts spoke, my muscles tightened. I could also feel the tension radiating off Joseph. No fucking way?
“We’d like to speak with Dr. Parrish.” Joseph stepped in when words clogged my throat.
“Sure thing. Follow me if you would.”
With letter still in hand, the detective led us out of the conference room and back the way we came, stopping at the interrogation room we’d first passed. He opened the door and we followed him in. Joseph slammed into me when I drew up short, and I rocked forward on my toes before gaining my balance. Son of a bitch. I heard him mumble “shit” under his breath behind me, which jerked me back to attention, and I continued moving into the room to allow my partner entrance.
Madeline’s expression of utter shock and mortification was obvious. Quickly though, she cleared all emotion from her face and sat perfectly poised in the rusted metal folding chair, her white-knuckled hands resting on the table the only sign of her agitation. Roberts closed the door behind us, and his gaze darted questioningly between us and the woman I hadn’t been able to get out of my head. I ignored him.
Continuing as though my entire axis hadn’t just shifted, and ignoring the speculative glare of the detective, I calmly nodded in greeting before introducing myself. “Dr. Parrish, I’m Federal Agent Nathaniel Morgan and this is my colleague, Agent Joseph Crocker. We’d like to ask you a few questions, if that’s alright.”
“Of”—she fisted her hand over her mouth and cleared the gravel from her throat—“of course.”
While Roberts stood in the corner, we took a seat; me across from her and Joseph at the head of the table to her right facing the door. He laid the letter on the table and when her eyes dropped to it, all the color left her face, leaving her looking like she’d seen a ghost.
There were so many questions I wanted to ask. The least of which included the fucking letter that suddenly seemed to be burning my fingertips even though I no longer touched it — but the others would have to wait. The current situation was most important and needed to be dealt with first.
The Dom in me warred with the agent in me. For the past six years I’d been a no-nonsense, some might say callous, investigator. But, knowing this was Madeline, I wanted to both protect and spank the hell out of her for putting herself in possible danger by potentially ignoring these letters for so long. I needed to find a way to meld the two cohesively. Joseph was always the gentler one of us. The one who put everybody at ease. I didn’t think I knew how. For Madeline, though, I needed to try.
“I understand from the detective that you recently moved to the D.C. area. Can you tell us what brought you here?”
She shifted slightly in her chair. Not like she was guilty of something, but like she was uncomfortable sharing her reasons. It made me want the answer all the more. Reining in my patience, I waited until she was ready to speak.
“My… boyfriend and I broke up a few months ago, and I was ready for a change of scenery. I was also fed up with these letters. I assumed once I was no longer around, they would stop. But this one is different than the rest. There’s almost an angry tone to it. Like he’s annoyed that he had to track me down.”
I’d caught Madeline’s earlier pause and wondered if she’d actually meant Dom. It was definitely a question I would be asking later. In private. And there would be a later.
Joseph jumped in with the next question. “You said he. Are you sure the author is a man?”
She nodded and straightened confidently. “I may not be a criminal profiler, but I am a clinical psychologist. I’ve been studying the human brain for over fifteen years. The way people think, feel, and act. There is a distinct difference in tone and specific word usage between a man and a woman. Yes, the prose seems flowery, but the words themselves are not. If you actually filter through the letters, they come from a more sexual than emotional place. They’re definitely written by a man.”
“When did you receive the first letter?”
She turned back in my direction. “The first letter I ever received was on March 3rd. I was working late that night and on my way out of the office. I spotted it on the floor in the waiting area of my practice. I don’t know how long it had been lying there, and since my secretary hadn’t brought it to me when she left, I assume whoever delivered it slid it under the door.”
“Were all the letters delivered the same way? Anonymously to your office? You didn’t install video cameras, considering how long you say you’ve been receiving them?”
“Nat,” Joseph practically growled in warning next to me. I couldn’t help the delivery of the last question, and everyone in the room, most notably Madeline, could hear the frustration, and terseness, in my tone.
“No, I never installed video cameras,” she responded with slight sarcasm. “At least not on the floor where my office was. I was protecting the privacy of my patients. I believe the building itself has surveillance cameras, at least outside and most likely in the lobby. However, it’s a large, heavily-trafficked office building with over twenty businesses housed inside. There was no way to pinpoint who was going where. But, to answer your question, yes, they were all delivered to my office.”
She paused and all traces of sarcasm vanished. I could tell she was remembering something because her body began to tremble, and her voice shook slightly when she continued. “Until this one.”
My hackles rose when I saw how visibly spooked she was now. “Where was this one delivered, Madeline?” I barely noticed my slip from professional to personal. I only knew my need to protect and keep my submissive safe from harm was flaring to life. Every protective instinct was firing at the moment. They erupted when she finally answered my question, her voice barely audible.
“It came to my home.”
Chapter 8
Madeline
When Nathaniel walked through the door of the interrogation room, my stomach dropped in shock. Joseph stepping in right behind him had it jumping back up into my throat and my heart almost beat out of my chest. Once both organs finally settled, my natural instinct was to rush into their arms for comfort. Which was crazy. Just because we’d played at Black Light didn’t mean they were my Doms. I was blowing the connection I thought I’d felt way out of proportion. I was taking my feelings of loneliness and creating an irrational relationship that didn’t truly exist. It couldn’t. I mean, I didn’t even know these men. People didn’t fall that fast for each other. Not in real life at least.
“—eline.”
I blinked back to attention when I realized I missed something. “I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you.”
Joseph spoke from my right. “I asked if you had noticed anyone unusual hanging around your neighborhood? A parked car that didn’t belong? Maybe a van with a logo of a company you didn’t recognize?”
I searched my brain again, even though the detective had already asked me these exact questions. I told Joseph the same thing. “Not that I can recall. I haven’t been in the city long enough to make friends with my neighbors, and I’d have no idea if a company was real or not. I’m sorry, but there’s nothing more I can remember.”
“Was the letter found outside the home or inside?” I turned back to face an intimidating looking Nathaniel in front of me. My hands shook as I recalled the feeling of terror at seeing the letter on my kitchen counter. I felt violated. This… person had invaded my personal space. My office had been bad enough, but to know that he’d been inside my home? It made my skin crawl. The clearing of a throat brought me out of my daze and I realized they were still waiting for an answer.
“Inside.”
Nathaniel turned in his chair to speak to Detective Roberts. “I assume your officers have already been to the house and dusted for prints and checked the perimeter for any signs of recent activity.”
The detective stepped forward from his position against the wall. “Yes. The house came back clean. No prints or sign of forced entry.”
“What about outside? Near the windows or back door? Any signs of footprints or disturbed brush or broken limbs on bushes? Anything that might indicate point of entry?”
Roberts’ face took on a pink hue. “I’m not sure.”
I could see the tension in Nathaniel as he stood and stepped toe-to-toe with the officer. His voice was gravelly. “What do you mean you’re not sure? You have a threatening letter, potentially from a serial killer, so you sure as hell better know whether you checked the property for evidence.”
My brain grew fuzzy as it zoomed its focus in on those five syllables. A buzz sounded in my ears and my vision dimmed. I forced my breathing to slow and I blinked it all away. My voice cracked when I spoke barely above a whisper. “Serial killer?”
Still, Joseph heard me because his hand covered mine. My eyes darted up to meet his and there was so much reassurance in their ocean blue depths that I could feel myself breathe the tiniest bit easier.
“Everything will be okay, Madeline.” He smiled convincingly at me.
I turned my hand up to clutch his. For some reason, my heart actually believed him. My brain wasn’t too sure though. I glanced up at Nathaniel, who was looking down at me, and his face held the same expression Joseph’s did. Like everything would be all right. That nothing, and no one, would harm me on their watch. Our connection was broken when he turned back to Detective Roberts.
“I’m going to make a call to my director. We’ll be sending field agents to Dr. Parrish’s house to examine the areas your team missed. While we appreciate the time and effort the Arlington P.D. have taken so far, your involvement in this case is finished. My colleague and I will be taking over this investigation. We’ll call if we need anything.”
Roberts bristled at the announcement, but gave a brief, curt nod. Nathaniel and Joseph rose together.
“We’ll need to examine the crime scene as well. If you don’t mind, Dr. Parrish, I think it would be best if we head there now while everything is still fresh.” There was a hint of steel in Nathaniel’s tone that made me realize he really wasn’t making a request.
“Of course.”
“We’ll escort you to your vehicle and follow behind.”
I gathered my purse and made my way to my car. I could feel the heated glances of the two men behind me. Neither of them spoke and I certainly wasn’t going to start up a conversation. My gaze continuously darted up to the rearview mirror on the drive home, the reflection of the men following me making my stomach queasy the entire ride. I still couldn’t get over the shock of seeing them walk into that room. My mind kept wondering what they were thinking. I hadn’t been able to get a solid read on the entire situation during their questioning. Were they now regretting our time at Black Light? Did they still want more? Did I still want more? Was there really a serial killer out there sending me these letters? Each mile made me more nauseated.
I hated this uneasy feeling.
By the time I pulled into my driveway, my stomach was completely knotted up and I was a bundle of nervous energy. I didn’t wait when I exited the car and walked to my front door. Unlocking it, I went inside, leaving it open for the men following behind me. I stepped into my living room just as I heard the door click shut. Inhaling for courage, I turned and faced the two imposing men taking up way too much room in my house.
Lord, just the sight of them had my body heating and my knees quivering. They were like night and day. Nathaniel was a force of nature, while Joseph was the calm that followed. Yet I responded to them equally. Hating the silence, I broke it. “Would you like something to drink?”
Joseph prowled forward, his thick, muscular body moving fluidly to shorten the distance between us. When we were toe-to-toe, I couldn’t help but flinch when his hand came up. He merely palmed the back of my neck and pulled me to him, his free hand gripping my hip. Instinctively, my arms circled his waist, and I breathed in his comforting scent. I didn’t realize how tense I was until I was in Joseph’s embrace. Then, it was like he was absorbing all my tension, because every muscle relaxed and I melted into him.
“How are you feeling?” His voice rumbled through my chest.
I looked up at him and tried to pull back slightly, but he refused to let me go so I stopped trying since I was where I wanted to be anyway. “Shook up. Violated. You name it, I probably feel it.”
“I think it’s best if you move to a safe house. At least until we figure out who this person is.”
I vehemently shook my head. “No. I left North Carolina because of this guy. I refuse to run anymore. I’m not leaving my home.”
“Mad—”
I pushed back harder, and this time Joseph let me go. With hands on hips, I stood firm in my response. “I said no. I’m staying here.”
“Then you’ll have a protective detail stationed out front and have some damn surveillance cameras installed this time.” The directive came from Nathaniel, who’d moved farther into the room. He now stood beside Joseph, his eyebrows dark slashes accenting an expression that sent tingles through me. There was such a primal fierceness to him. I was also a little disappointed at the distance he maintained.
I acquiesced to his command. “Fine. But I’m not putting cameras in my office. I won’t do that to my patients.”
He accepted my compromise with a nod.
“The ERT should be here soon to comb the outside of the grounds in search of evidence.”
“ERT?”
“Evidence Response Team.”
I nodded. “Ah. Well, tell them to be careful of my babies, please.”
They looked at me questioningly.
I flushed a little self-consciously. “I have a large flower garden out back that I adore and take care of. It’s what I do to de-stress and the primary reason I bought this house. So, I would appreciate it very much if they didn’t trample and destroy my hard work. Above all my lilies. I transplanted them from North Carolina, so they’re still fragile. And considering it’s fall, they won’t bloom much longer.”
“I’ll make a note of it.”
“Thank you.”
I hated how stilted our conversation was. There was so much awkwardness that hadn’t been present when we’d been together at Black Light. It also made me question the protective display from Joseph moments ago. I shifted nervously.
“If there’s nothing else then?” I attempted to side step around the men, leaving the question hanging. My anxiety was getting out of control and I needed to rein it back in. I didn’t make it far before a strong hand lightly, but firmly, clasped my upper arm. I stared down at it for a moment before following the line of it up and colliding with a pair of smoldering, coffee-colored eyes. The heat from Nathaniel’s touch spread down my arm before settling deep inside me where my core tingled and burned with fire.
I inhaled for control. “He’s expecting us.”
Glancing away, he picked up a phone and pressed a button. Several beats later he spoke into the receiver. “There’re two FBI agents out here for Roberts.” He hung up the phone without waiting for a response and gestured to some chairs against the wall behind us.
“Have a seat.”
I turned around in disgust, muttering obscenities under my breath, and settled on one of the hard plastic chairs. Joseph dropped into the one next to me. “Let it go, Nat.”
This was how it always went when we entered a local cop shop. Most thought we were stepping on their toes when it came to investigations and treated us with contempt. It shouldn’t bother me after all these years, and most times it didn’t. Today, though, it bugged the shit out of me. My fuse was ever shorter lately. Leave it to Joseph to know exactly how I was feeling.
We waited so long for someone to come that I was seconds away from storming back over to Officer Hopkins when a man in a suit rounded the corner and made a beeline for us.
With an outstretched hand, he greeted us. “Sorry for the wait, gentleman. I’m Detective Roberts.”
Joseph shook his hand first. “No problem. I’m Agent Crocker. This is Agent Morgan.”
I gripped his hand as he responded. “A pleasure. Now, if you’d like to come with me, I’ll let you take a look at the letter Ms. Parrish received. Then, you can speak to her if you’d like.”
The detective led us down the hall past several offices and an interrogation room before entering a conference room with a large, rectangular table in the center. At the near end of the table, in a clear plastic evidence bag was a sheet of plain white stationary with words printed across it. I reached it first, carefully picking it up off the table. My eyes scanned the contents of the letter, each word spreading dread through me. We’d need to take it to our lab to analyze, but from my personal knowledge of the case, and each and every prior letter found, this sounded exactly like one written by Casanova. Fuck.
“Now normally we handle this kind of thing on our own, but the Chief has been following this case since the beginning. He knew you Feds have been in charge of the investigation for the last couple years or so. Ever since it crossed state lines. He’s the reason I called you all.”
Casanova was the name we’d coined for the suspected serial killer. At last count, he was credited with the murder of five women between the ages of thirty-five and forty, all brunettes, with blue eyes and small-built body frames. Each one was a businesswoman with varying career choices including an administrative assistant, a paralegal, a lawyer, a CEO of a small business, and a doctor. None of them knew each other in either a professional or personal capacity.
The first death was reported three years ago. The second, six months later. Each death came almost exactly six months after the last one. Joseph and I had been pulled onto the case after victim number two, Leslie Peterson, who had been found in a wooded area along the Pocomoke River near the Eastern shore of Maryland with her heart cut out. All five women had reported receiving anonymous ‘love letters’ and all had been butchered with the same M.O.
I passed the letter over to Joseph to get another opinion. While he read the letter, I turned to the detective. “Tell me about the vic.”
“Her name is Dr. Madeline Parrish. She’s some head doctor who relocated here a couple weeks ago. She reports that she began receiving flirtatious ‘love letters’ about six months ago, but in the last month or so they’ve become a bit darker and ominous. Her words. The last letter she received, until yesterday, was three weeks ago. A week before she moved here.”
With every word Detective Roberts spoke, my muscles tightened. I could also feel the tension radiating off Joseph. No fucking way?
“We’d like to speak with Dr. Parrish.” Joseph stepped in when words clogged my throat.
“Sure thing. Follow me if you would.”
With letter still in hand, the detective led us out of the conference room and back the way we came, stopping at the interrogation room we’d first passed. He opened the door and we followed him in. Joseph slammed into me when I drew up short, and I rocked forward on my toes before gaining my balance. Son of a bitch. I heard him mumble “shit” under his breath behind me, which jerked me back to attention, and I continued moving into the room to allow my partner entrance.
Madeline’s expression of utter shock and mortification was obvious. Quickly though, she cleared all emotion from her face and sat perfectly poised in the rusted metal folding chair, her white-knuckled hands resting on the table the only sign of her agitation. Roberts closed the door behind us, and his gaze darted questioningly between us and the woman I hadn’t been able to get out of my head. I ignored him.
Continuing as though my entire axis hadn’t just shifted, and ignoring the speculative glare of the detective, I calmly nodded in greeting before introducing myself. “Dr. Parrish, I’m Federal Agent Nathaniel Morgan and this is my colleague, Agent Joseph Crocker. We’d like to ask you a few questions, if that’s alright.”
“Of”—she fisted her hand over her mouth and cleared the gravel from her throat—“of course.”
While Roberts stood in the corner, we took a seat; me across from her and Joseph at the head of the table to her right facing the door. He laid the letter on the table and when her eyes dropped to it, all the color left her face, leaving her looking like she’d seen a ghost.
There were so many questions I wanted to ask. The least of which included the fucking letter that suddenly seemed to be burning my fingertips even though I no longer touched it — but the others would have to wait. The current situation was most important and needed to be dealt with first.
The Dom in me warred with the agent in me. For the past six years I’d been a no-nonsense, some might say callous, investigator. But, knowing this was Madeline, I wanted to both protect and spank the hell out of her for putting herself in possible danger by potentially ignoring these letters for so long. I needed to find a way to meld the two cohesively. Joseph was always the gentler one of us. The one who put everybody at ease. I didn’t think I knew how. For Madeline, though, I needed to try.
“I understand from the detective that you recently moved to the D.C. area. Can you tell us what brought you here?”
She shifted slightly in her chair. Not like she was guilty of something, but like she was uncomfortable sharing her reasons. It made me want the answer all the more. Reining in my patience, I waited until she was ready to speak.
“My… boyfriend and I broke up a few months ago, and I was ready for a change of scenery. I was also fed up with these letters. I assumed once I was no longer around, they would stop. But this one is different than the rest. There’s almost an angry tone to it. Like he’s annoyed that he had to track me down.”
I’d caught Madeline’s earlier pause and wondered if she’d actually meant Dom. It was definitely a question I would be asking later. In private. And there would be a later.
Joseph jumped in with the next question. “You said he. Are you sure the author is a man?”
She nodded and straightened confidently. “I may not be a criminal profiler, but I am a clinical psychologist. I’ve been studying the human brain for over fifteen years. The way people think, feel, and act. There is a distinct difference in tone and specific word usage between a man and a woman. Yes, the prose seems flowery, but the words themselves are not. If you actually filter through the letters, they come from a more sexual than emotional place. They’re definitely written by a man.”
“When did you receive the first letter?”
She turned back in my direction. “The first letter I ever received was on March 3rd. I was working late that night and on my way out of the office. I spotted it on the floor in the waiting area of my practice. I don’t know how long it had been lying there, and since my secretary hadn’t brought it to me when she left, I assume whoever delivered it slid it under the door.”
“Were all the letters delivered the same way? Anonymously to your office? You didn’t install video cameras, considering how long you say you’ve been receiving them?”
“Nat,” Joseph practically growled in warning next to me. I couldn’t help the delivery of the last question, and everyone in the room, most notably Madeline, could hear the frustration, and terseness, in my tone.
“No, I never installed video cameras,” she responded with slight sarcasm. “At least not on the floor where my office was. I was protecting the privacy of my patients. I believe the building itself has surveillance cameras, at least outside and most likely in the lobby. However, it’s a large, heavily-trafficked office building with over twenty businesses housed inside. There was no way to pinpoint who was going where. But, to answer your question, yes, they were all delivered to my office.”
She paused and all traces of sarcasm vanished. I could tell she was remembering something because her body began to tremble, and her voice shook slightly when she continued. “Until this one.”
My hackles rose when I saw how visibly spooked she was now. “Where was this one delivered, Madeline?” I barely noticed my slip from professional to personal. I only knew my need to protect and keep my submissive safe from harm was flaring to life. Every protective instinct was firing at the moment. They erupted when she finally answered my question, her voice barely audible.
“It came to my home.”
Chapter 8
Madeline
When Nathaniel walked through the door of the interrogation room, my stomach dropped in shock. Joseph stepping in right behind him had it jumping back up into my throat and my heart almost beat out of my chest. Once both organs finally settled, my natural instinct was to rush into their arms for comfort. Which was crazy. Just because we’d played at Black Light didn’t mean they were my Doms. I was blowing the connection I thought I’d felt way out of proportion. I was taking my feelings of loneliness and creating an irrational relationship that didn’t truly exist. It couldn’t. I mean, I didn’t even know these men. People didn’t fall that fast for each other. Not in real life at least.
“—eline.”
I blinked back to attention when I realized I missed something. “I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you.”
Joseph spoke from my right. “I asked if you had noticed anyone unusual hanging around your neighborhood? A parked car that didn’t belong? Maybe a van with a logo of a company you didn’t recognize?”
I searched my brain again, even though the detective had already asked me these exact questions. I told Joseph the same thing. “Not that I can recall. I haven’t been in the city long enough to make friends with my neighbors, and I’d have no idea if a company was real or not. I’m sorry, but there’s nothing more I can remember.”
“Was the letter found outside the home or inside?” I turned back to face an intimidating looking Nathaniel in front of me. My hands shook as I recalled the feeling of terror at seeing the letter on my kitchen counter. I felt violated. This… person had invaded my personal space. My office had been bad enough, but to know that he’d been inside my home? It made my skin crawl. The clearing of a throat brought me out of my daze and I realized they were still waiting for an answer.
“Inside.”
Nathaniel turned in his chair to speak to Detective Roberts. “I assume your officers have already been to the house and dusted for prints and checked the perimeter for any signs of recent activity.”
The detective stepped forward from his position against the wall. “Yes. The house came back clean. No prints or sign of forced entry.”
“What about outside? Near the windows or back door? Any signs of footprints or disturbed brush or broken limbs on bushes? Anything that might indicate point of entry?”
Roberts’ face took on a pink hue. “I’m not sure.”
I could see the tension in Nathaniel as he stood and stepped toe-to-toe with the officer. His voice was gravelly. “What do you mean you’re not sure? You have a threatening letter, potentially from a serial killer, so you sure as hell better know whether you checked the property for evidence.”
My brain grew fuzzy as it zoomed its focus in on those five syllables. A buzz sounded in my ears and my vision dimmed. I forced my breathing to slow and I blinked it all away. My voice cracked when I spoke barely above a whisper. “Serial killer?”
Still, Joseph heard me because his hand covered mine. My eyes darted up to meet his and there was so much reassurance in their ocean blue depths that I could feel myself breathe the tiniest bit easier.
“Everything will be okay, Madeline.” He smiled convincingly at me.
I turned my hand up to clutch his. For some reason, my heart actually believed him. My brain wasn’t too sure though. I glanced up at Nathaniel, who was looking down at me, and his face held the same expression Joseph’s did. Like everything would be all right. That nothing, and no one, would harm me on their watch. Our connection was broken when he turned back to Detective Roberts.
“I’m going to make a call to my director. We’ll be sending field agents to Dr. Parrish’s house to examine the areas your team missed. While we appreciate the time and effort the Arlington P.D. have taken so far, your involvement in this case is finished. My colleague and I will be taking over this investigation. We’ll call if we need anything.”
Roberts bristled at the announcement, but gave a brief, curt nod. Nathaniel and Joseph rose together.
“We’ll need to examine the crime scene as well. If you don’t mind, Dr. Parrish, I think it would be best if we head there now while everything is still fresh.” There was a hint of steel in Nathaniel’s tone that made me realize he really wasn’t making a request.
“Of course.”
“We’ll escort you to your vehicle and follow behind.”
I gathered my purse and made my way to my car. I could feel the heated glances of the two men behind me. Neither of them spoke and I certainly wasn’t going to start up a conversation. My gaze continuously darted up to the rearview mirror on the drive home, the reflection of the men following me making my stomach queasy the entire ride. I still couldn’t get over the shock of seeing them walk into that room. My mind kept wondering what they were thinking. I hadn’t been able to get a solid read on the entire situation during their questioning. Were they now regretting our time at Black Light? Did they still want more? Did I still want more? Was there really a serial killer out there sending me these letters? Each mile made me more nauseated.
I hated this uneasy feeling.
By the time I pulled into my driveway, my stomach was completely knotted up and I was a bundle of nervous energy. I didn’t wait when I exited the car and walked to my front door. Unlocking it, I went inside, leaving it open for the men following behind me. I stepped into my living room just as I heard the door click shut. Inhaling for courage, I turned and faced the two imposing men taking up way too much room in my house.
Lord, just the sight of them had my body heating and my knees quivering. They were like night and day. Nathaniel was a force of nature, while Joseph was the calm that followed. Yet I responded to them equally. Hating the silence, I broke it. “Would you like something to drink?”
Joseph prowled forward, his thick, muscular body moving fluidly to shorten the distance between us. When we were toe-to-toe, I couldn’t help but flinch when his hand came up. He merely palmed the back of my neck and pulled me to him, his free hand gripping my hip. Instinctively, my arms circled his waist, and I breathed in his comforting scent. I didn’t realize how tense I was until I was in Joseph’s embrace. Then, it was like he was absorbing all my tension, because every muscle relaxed and I melted into him.
“How are you feeling?” His voice rumbled through my chest.
I looked up at him and tried to pull back slightly, but he refused to let me go so I stopped trying since I was where I wanted to be anyway. “Shook up. Violated. You name it, I probably feel it.”
“I think it’s best if you move to a safe house. At least until we figure out who this person is.”
I vehemently shook my head. “No. I left North Carolina because of this guy. I refuse to run anymore. I’m not leaving my home.”
“Mad—”
I pushed back harder, and this time Joseph let me go. With hands on hips, I stood firm in my response. “I said no. I’m staying here.”
“Then you’ll have a protective detail stationed out front and have some damn surveillance cameras installed this time.” The directive came from Nathaniel, who’d moved farther into the room. He now stood beside Joseph, his eyebrows dark slashes accenting an expression that sent tingles through me. There was such a primal fierceness to him. I was also a little disappointed at the distance he maintained.
I acquiesced to his command. “Fine. But I’m not putting cameras in my office. I won’t do that to my patients.”
He accepted my compromise with a nod.
“The ERT should be here soon to comb the outside of the grounds in search of evidence.”
“ERT?”
“Evidence Response Team.”
I nodded. “Ah. Well, tell them to be careful of my babies, please.”
They looked at me questioningly.
I flushed a little self-consciously. “I have a large flower garden out back that I adore and take care of. It’s what I do to de-stress and the primary reason I bought this house. So, I would appreciate it very much if they didn’t trample and destroy my hard work. Above all my lilies. I transplanted them from North Carolina, so they’re still fragile. And considering it’s fall, they won’t bloom much longer.”
“I’ll make a note of it.”
“Thank you.”
I hated how stilted our conversation was. There was so much awkwardness that hadn’t been present when we’d been together at Black Light. It also made me question the protective display from Joseph moments ago. I shifted nervously.
“If there’s nothing else then?” I attempted to side step around the men, leaving the question hanging. My anxiety was getting out of control and I needed to rein it back in. I didn’t make it far before a strong hand lightly, but firmly, clasped my upper arm. I stared down at it for a moment before following the line of it up and colliding with a pair of smoldering, coffee-colored eyes. The heat from Nathaniel’s touch spread down my arm before settling deep inside me where my core tingled and burned with fire.
