Black Light: Possession, page 6
“Do you really think you can dismiss us so easily, pet?” he growled low in his throat and his grip tightened just slightly. Not enough to cause me pain, but enough to get my full and complete attention. Not that he didn’t already have it. I briefly stared into his mesmerizing eyes, but true to my submissive nature, a single raised brow had my gaze automatically lowering.
“I wasn’t necessarily trying to dismiss you. I’m just feeling… unsettled.”
Nathaniel’s grip loosened and his thumb now stroked my skin, gently sending tiny sparks tingling through my arm.
“Unsettled about what?”
I hesitated too long for his liking, because the stroking stopped and he spoke with a warning tone. “Madeline.”
I almost huffed out an annoyed breath, but caught it before it escaped. Something told me now wasn’t the time to act like a petulant child. “Everything. The letter. You two. I certainly wasn’t expecting to see you today. Especially in this capacity. It threw me for a loop. I just wish I’d been more prepared.”
A touch to the small of my back startled me. I hadn’t realized Joseph had moved closer. Now that I was paying attention, I realized I was fully surrounded by their heat. Nathaniel at my front, Joseph at my back. I should have felt overwhelmed by their presence, especially so far inside my personal space. Instead, I felt comforted and protected. It was a heady feeling. One I wanted to continue.
“If you were shocked, how do you think we felt walking in and seeing you? Knowing that the same submissive we’d played with, one we can’t get out of our heads, may be receiving letters from a suspected serial killer?”
I shuddered again at those two words and the men stepped even closer, caging me inside their embrace. I couldn’t keep the fear out of my voice. “Do you really think my letters are from your suspect?”
Joseph’s hand shifted from the small of my back to cradle my hip, offering a comforting squeeze. “We won’t know for sure until our forensics team analyzes the evidence, but based on what I saw, I have my suspicions it’s from our serial killer.”
“I don’t get it. I mean, I’ve been getting these letters for six months. He’s never attempted any more contact beyond that. If the person writing my letters and this Casanova person are one and the same, why hasn’t he made a move yet? Not that I’m complaining. I just don’t understand.”
“Maybe he has.”
I turned to stare at Joseph in fear. “What do you mean?”
I felt his hesitation, like he was now regretting speaking up. I wouldn’t take silence for an answer. He must have sensed that, because he answered my question.
“Unlike the rest of the letters, you found this one inside your house. I think that’s his first move.”
I stepped away from him and wrapped my arms around myself. I knew I was being stubborn by staying here, but this was my new home. Even as a child I’d always been one to stand up to bullies. It wasn’t in me to back down. I wasn’t going to let this unknown person push me out of my own house. Still, a shiver raced across the back of my neck and the hairs on my arms stood up.
“He’s coming for me, isn’t he?”
Chapter 9
Nathaniel
It tore me up inside seeing Madeline scared. I felt powerless and out of control especially knowing that fucking psychopath may have her in his sights. I cupped her face and stared down at her with an intensity I hoped seared itself on her soul. “We’ll find him, Madeline. Trust us to protect you.”
The timeline added up though. He hadn’t been silent the past six months. He’d just relocated. And unless his M.O. changed suddenly, which was highly doubtful, our time was ticking. Each new victim had been killed around every six months like clock-work. If her letter writer was truly Casanova, then time was ticking, but there was no fucking way I was going to let anything happen to her. My Dom side wanted to take control. Now was not the right time though. Not with the field and tech teams on their way to her house. But soon. In the meantime, I needed to give her something to think about besides her fear. It was time for a reminder of what was to come.
I moved my hand from her cheek and threaded my fingers through her hair, tightening my grip until I was fisting the silky strands. I tugged her head to an angle and leaned down to bite the sensitive spot where her neck and shoulder met, her sharp inhale signaling arousal. An emotion so much better than her previous one as I rasped into her ear. “If our team wasn’t currently en route, and it wasn’t imperative that we ask you more questions, I’d bend you over this chair and spank your ass so hard you’d feel it for days. Maybe then you’d think twice about not taking more safety precautions.”
Madeline’s response was a fevered moan and she shivered under my touch. “I’m sorry, Sir.”
I bit her harder and she whimpered at the same time her knees went weak, but Joseph and I caught her. “I thought I told you to call us Master.”
“I’m sorry, Master.”
A knock on the door interrupted us, and I growled in frustration before releasing Madeline’s hair. It took her a second to recognize the sound, but when she did, she blushed furiously and stepped away from us, which I wasn’t happy about. She attempted to straighten her finger-mussed tresses without doing a great job, but was still presentable enough that unless someone took a wild guess, they’d never know what we’d been doing. I gave her one more assessing look before stepping over to the door to let our team in. As I turned I saw Joseph speak lowly to her. Then, he moved to join me. Three field techs followed by two IT techs entered the house.
Joseph took the lead. “I’m going to assume that Reynolds filled you in already, but we’re going to go over it again. Ms. Parrish has received a suspicious letter resembling one that we believe is from Casanova. Arlington P.D. has processed the inside of the house, but we’re going to assume they’ve done a sloppy job. They also failed to process the outside properly. Most likely too much time has passed and any potential evidence has been contaminated, but we still need to be vigilant. The entire house, inside and out, needs to be processed as though it’s a fresh crime scene.”
I jumped in at this point, because I wanted the team to understand how serious I was. “Ms. Parrish has chosen to remain here instead of being moved to a safe house. Therefore, I need your best security cameras placed around the perimeter of the home as well as inside. Also, be careful of the flowers in the backyard garden, especially the lilies. Don’t fuck them up.”
One of the newer field techs looked at me in pure terror and Joseph coughed beside me. I didn’t give a shit. Those flowers were important to Madeline, and I’ll be damned if some careless idiot ruined them. Not if I could prevent it. It was my job as her current Dom to take care of her and the things she cared about most. When they all continued to stare at me, I barked out an order. “Get your asses moving!”
Like cockroaches scurrying in the light, everyone scattered, leaving the three of us alone again.
“Jesus, Nat.” Joseph half-laughed, half-choked out.
I shrugged, unapologetic, because I knew what he was harassing me about. “They’re not paid to like me. They’re paid to do their job and do it well. Besides, this is for Madeline. Do you want anything done half-assed? I didn’t think so.”
When I turned on my heel to face her again, she’d covered her mouth with a hand and her eyes were shiny with unshed tears. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Now, we need to ask you some more questions. See if we can come up with even one suspect. Are you up for it?”
“Okay.”
“Let’s have a seat.” I gestured to the couch.
She toed off her shoes, settled into the corner of the sofa, and hugged her knees to her chest. Joseph took a seat on the wingback chair while I remained standing. I was too keyed up to sit.
“First off, have you kept the letters you’ve received?”
She shook her head. “None except the one I gave to the detective and the one I’d given the police back in Pinegrove months ago. I didn’t think there was any reason to. I mean, they were harmless really. There weren’t any threats. I just figured they were from some pervert getting his rocks off. Yes, they made me uncomfortable, but I didn’t feel particularly threatened by them. In my line of work, I’ve gotten weird letters from both former and current clients before.”
“Have you considered that one of your clients may be the culprit?” Joseph posed this question.
“Of course. But the tone of the letters doesn’t match any of my clients. Current or former. I’m well versed in my client’s mental health issues and not a single one of them presented with this kind of unhealthy infatuation. Nor with this level of psychosis. Most of my clients are dealing with PTSD or emotional recovery from an abusive relationship. I have a couple who demonstrate sociopathic tendencies, but not to this degree.”
“That doesn’t one-hundred percent rule out a patient.”
Madeline sighed. “Nothing is a complete guarantee, but I feel pretty strongly about this.”
“What about former Doms? Or perhaps someone you talked to at your local dungeon. Maybe you met him at a munch?” Joseph continued with his questions.
She shook her head. “No, none of those. The club was exclusive and every member was thoroughly screened. I didn’t typically attend any munches and I’ve only had three long-term Dominants since I entered the lifestyle. I trust all of them with my life. Again, none of them presented with the psychotic tendencies displayed in these letters. I’m sorry.”
Fuck. This was getting us nowhere. I wasn’t pissed at Madeline, just the situation.
I crossed my arms and stared down at her. “We’re still going to need the names of those Dominants. I understand that you trust them, but at this point we need to be investigating everyone. We may also need to speak with your former patients.”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t allow that.” Her denial was vehement.
“Mad—”
“No,” she declared firmly. “I spent years gaining my clients’ trust. They’ve all made amazing progress towards their recovery goals. I’m not going to jeopardize my relationship with them or compromise their confidentiality. You’ll just have to trust me.”
My jaw ached from clenched teeth, so I forced myself to relax. I could understand where she was coming from, and I was actually impressed with her integrity and professionalism, but it still didn’t make me happy. I couldn’t force her to give us the information. Not without a court order anyway, and I knew that would be the end of any further exploration of our connection. Selfishly, I didn’t want to risk it. So, for now, I was going to take her word for it. But if for one second something changed, I was willing to take the chance and piss her off by getting that subpoena. “Fine, but I can’t promise I won’t force the issue.”
She opened her mouth to retort but was interrupted by someone clearing his throat. Robbed of her voice, her narrowed-eyed glare made her feelings perfectly known.
One of the ERT guys stood in the doorway.
“What?” I barked out.
The man stuttered, but quickly shut his mouth. He composed himself before beginning again. “We’ve almost completed processing the outside of the premises, sir, but it’s taking some time. The team is being cautious of the flowers. Once it’s finished, we’ll get started on the interior.”
“Well, do it then.” Frustrated that we weren’t going to have the much-needed talk with Madeline, I was harsher than I should have been. God, I really was an asshole.
She didn’t say anything, but I saw a questioning frown on Madeline’s face and a twinge of guilt passed through me — but I ignored it.
“I hope I’m not going to be next on your shit list.”
I turned and fiercely glared at a tech guy I only knew as Kurt. It was a fucking circus in here, and I was ready for everyone to get the hell out. Non-plussed, he merely returned my look with a bored one of his own. Interesting. Usually I terrified the IT geeks. “We installed a motion detection floodlight and the guys will place security cameras at the back of the house, both sides, as well as the front once the ERT finishes. We’ll also be installing a doorbell cam.”
“Thanks Kurt,” Joseph replied.
He turned with a nod and disappeared out the front door. We shifted back to face Madeline now that we were alone again.
“Are you sure we can’t convince you to go to a safe house? We want to protect you.” Joseph attempted one last time to get her to change her mind.
She hesitated, but then shook her head. “I know you do, but I can’t run away. I trust you will do everything you can to find this guy before anything happens.”
He sighed in disappointment, although I knew what her answer was going to be.
“Okay then. We’re going to let the teams finish their job. Here’s our contact information. If you receive another letter or notice anything out of the ordinary, I want you to call us immediately. Are you okay with the guys continuing to do what they need to do?” Joseph rose and handed Madeline one of his business cards. She had our personal cell phone numbers already, but this was official law enforcement work. I took that as my cue that we were leaving.
“Yes, I’ll be fine. Thank you for everything you’re doing. I know I’m not being the easiest person to deal with.”
A gentleness I didn’t even know I possessed compelled me to cup the back of Madeline’s head and drop a chaste kiss on her forehead. “We’re going to be here for you no matter what.”
I turned without another word and headed to the car leaving Joseph to say his goodbyes, as well as remind her of our date tomorrow, and to leave instructions with everyone. I walked straight past an open-mouthed and speechless team of co-workers who had just happened to enter the room unnoticed.
Chapter 10
Joseph
Unlike the rest of the team, Nathaniel’s response to Madeline when we’d left her house yesterday hadn’t shocked me at all. Like me, he couldn’t get her out of his mind. I knew he’d been thinking of her all week, and we were both looking forward to seeing her again tonight. Before I’d followed Nat out, I’d reminded her that nothing had changed between us, even given the current circumstances. In fact, knowing she was potentially in the sights of this fucked up serial killer had us feeling even more protective of her.
We were both extremely unhappy with the fact she wouldn’t move to a safe house, but at this juncture there was nothing we could do to persuade her. Yes, we’d played at Black Light, but she wasn’t our collared sub, which meant that, unless we dragged her kicking and screaming, there wasn’t much more we could do beyond making our displeasure known. With time, maybe she’d see reason and the need to please us might change her mind. We could only hope. In the meantime, I contacted our boss and requested a security detail be placed on Madeline, since we were confident the letter had come from Casanova. There was no mention of a safe house. Yet. He reluctantly agreed.
Nathaniel’s parting kiss also required me to speak with the team. Short of threatening them, although we didn’t have an ounce of leverage to use, there wasn’t much I could do should they decide to go to our superiors about what they’d witnessed. Especially knowing they weren’t particularly fond of Nat. I was the one always smoothing stung egos.
Which was maybe why I found it incredibly surprising when Kurt shrugged off the discussion. “She’s probably safer being with you two anyway. I know you guys will do whatever it takes to protect her.” I was a little floored by his nonchalant acceptance and non-judgmental attitude of the three of us together if the truth be told. The other guys were harder to read. There was a mixture of skepticism and envy in their expressions. Only time would tell if there were any repercussions from Nat’s actions today.
I’d called Madeline a few hours after we’d left yesterday to check in and get the names of her former Doms. Nat’s and my time today had been spent interviewing them as well as consulting with a handwriting and forensic document analyst. She confirmed the letter Madeline had received was a 99.9% match to every other letter written by Casanova. Which meant that she was, in fact, his next potential target. So long as he didn’t deviate from his prior M.O., which statistically wouldn’t happen, we were already at six months, which meant we needed to find him fast.
A glance at the clock told me that it was time to get ready to pick up our sub.
“I’m heading to the locker room for a quick shower.”
Nat nodded absently, his focus on the computer monitor in front of him. “I’ll be there in a bit. I want to finish this last bit of research I’m doing on a Vincenzo ‘Vince’ Russo. He was Madeline’s last long-term Dom. According to him, they broke up about three months ago. He was cagey about the reasoning though.”
I heard the suspicion and, perhaps, envy. From our interview with Madeline at the station, I’d gathered she was still recovering from the breakup, although it had happened months ago. She didn’t explain why they broke up or who was responsible for it. My fists clenched with the need to punch this unknown Dom for hurting our woman, because she was obviously still hurting whether she admitted it or not. I wanted to soothe her hurts. Like Nat, I was also curious about the reason for their breakup. “I’m sure Madeline would have told us if there was something suspicious about him. You’re looking for something that isn’t there.”
He glanced up at me briefly before his gaze returned to his screen. “I’m ruling out potential suspects.”
I shook my head. “If you need to know that bad why they broke up, then ask Madeline.”
