“On the cases, from a distance. It’s never been personal for you.”
She’d turned away. He was a damn ass**le. He hurried after her. “Cadence…”
She swung toward him. Her cheeks were flushed. Eyes glittering. “My mother.”
He stilled.
“You want to know why I’m in the FBI? My mother. I became a doctor for her, too, but it wasn’t enough. It was never enough.”
Kyle didn’t know what to say.
“I was ten when she died. Ten when the man came into our house. My dad was gone, out on a deployment. Mom and I were having a girls’ night. Painting our toenails. Doing those silly things a girl does with her mother.”
Her words were painful, and he wanted her to stop. He tried to reach for her, but she backed away.
“She knew something was wrong. Glass shattered. I remember the sound so well. It came from downstairs. She told me to get under the bed. To stay quiet.”
Oh, f**k. No wonder she’d gone white when Lily had said…
I didn’t scream.
“He never knew I was there. He came in, and he hurt her while I was hiding under the bed. When I crawled out and found her”—Cadence’s words came faster. So much faster—“there was blood everywhere, but she was still alive.”
“You tried to save her.” His hands had fisted. How had he been so wrong about her?
“I didn’t know how to save her.”
The puzzle that was Cadence fell into place. “You became a doctor so you would know how.”
“And an agent so I could stop the killers.” Her shoulders straightened. Her chin lifted. “So don’t tell me I don’t understand. I do. I get it. I also understand that if you don’t let the past go, it will destroy any chance you have for a future. For a life.”
He was staring at life. At the one thing that made him feel.
She spun away from him. Reached for the door.
His palm slammed down against the wood, sealing them inside. He bent his head over her, inhaling her sweet scent. Flowers. “I’m sorry.”
He turned her toward him. Cadence. She’d given him the best damn night he’d had in forever, and what had he done? Not even talked to her about it all day. Been driven by the killer. “Last night—”
“Maybe we shouldn’t talk about last night.”
“No, we should. That wasn’t some fluke.” Standing there, so close to her, he wanted. Ached. Craved her. “That was the best sex I’ve ever had.” Because it had been with her. “I want more. I want you.”
Whatever kind of chance she’d give to him. He’d been wrong about her. She still didn’t know the real him, but until she found out about the darkness that haunted him so much, he would hold tightly to her.
So tightly.
Maybe then she’d never be able to slip away.
He pressed his lips to hers. He wasn’t sure how she’d respond. Part of him expected Cadence to shove him across the room.
Instead, her tongue licked against his lip.
His c**k jerked in reaction.
The kiss deepened. His tongue slid into her mouth. Cadence was the one thing that calmed him, that centered him.
What would I do without her?
The thought, dark, sinister, twisted through him.
I won’t be without her.
He kept kissing her, tasting her, as his hands and mouth became harder on her. But Cadence liked the rough edge they shared. He knew. He could feel it in the tightness of her ni**les. The arch and thrust of her hips against his.
He wanted her naked again. Beneath him, above him, any way he could get her.
Soon.
Kyle forced his head to lift. His breath came out in a heavy pant. “Cadence.”
He heard the shuffle of footsteps. Coming from just beyond the back door of the bar. Someone watching…
In an instant, he was at the back door. He yanked it open and ran into the night.
His gaze swept to the left. To the right.
A couple was stumbling away from Dale’s, arm in arm.
He started to call out to them, then saw they were headed for the taxi waiting near the edge of the street.
His heart slammed into his ribs. He should have been watching the bar, not getting so tangled up in Cadence.
But tangled up is where I want to be.
“We should stay until the bar clears tonight, just in case,” Cadence said as she stepped out into the night.
Yes, just in case.
His gaze slanted to hers. They’d stay. When they were sure these people were safe…
I’ll have my time with you.
He shuffled back into the bar, making sure to keep his head down. The conversation between the agents had certainly been interesting.
There were far more layers to the agent and his lovely partner than he’d realized.
Far more.
The phone call to Kyle had done exactly as he’d hoped. The agent was unraveling.
A dangerous situation for McKenzie.
But if McKenzie thought the game was finished, he couldn’t be more wrong. Things were just about to get interesting.
You think you’re the badass who can catch all the killers? You never caught me…and you never will.
So much for Maria’s hero. In the end, the hero wouldn’t be remembered.
But I will be.
Christa Donaldson knew she was holding her steering wheel a little too tightly. Her car’s headlights cut through the darkness as she hurried back toward her mother’s place on the ridge. The sitter had only agreed to stay until two a.m. She was running late, and if she didn’t get there soon—
The car sputtered.
Her gaze flew to the dash. Plenty of gas. Plenty. But the car’s temp was too hot. The gauge needle was heading straight to the H.
She immediately reached forward and turned on the heater, getting the hot air to blast toward her. An old, temporary trick that a high school boyfriend had taught her.
The car sputtered again.
A trick that isn’t working.
The sound of her breathing was far too loud in the interior of the car.
Then the car started to slow down.
“No, no, no.” This couldn’t be happening. The agents, this was what they’d warned her about.
The car’s engine died. The vehicle barely coasted to the side of the road.
She fumbled, reaching for her phone.
The flash of headlights lit her as a car pulled up behind her.
CHAPTER NINE
Christa screamed when the light rap sounded at her window, and her fingers flew out, frantically making sure she’d locked the door.
“Ma’am?”
It was a woman’s voice.