“Katherine, what’s the matter?” Cole whispered in her ear and she shook her head.
“Jeff, could you…could you make sure that the outstanding orders we have are filled? I’ll pay you for your time, of course, and you could work whenever you want. It…it really shouldn’t take that long.”
“Of course,” Jeff answered, shaking his head sadly. “I just hate the thought of you closing up.”
“You need to trust me,” she stammered softly, telling herself that she would not cry.
“I do, Katherine. You know that. I just…” he trailed off, once again shaking his head.
“Thank you, Jeff. I promise that I’ll be in touch. And if you have any problems having that order replaced, tell them to contact me.” She glanced at Cole and tried to smile, but she needed to get out of there. Her emotions were ragged. Yet another thing that she loved that that monster had tainted and taken away.
As if sensing her distress, Cole gave Jeff a quick nod. “You still have my card?” he asked Jeff as he turned and began leading Katherine back to the car.
“Um, yeah…of course.”
“If there are any issues, give me a call. You should be able to get back into the store by tomorrow. My guys are nearly done there.”
Jeff nodded as he watched Cole help Katherine into the car and close the door. He gave Jeff a quick glance and bounded around to the driver’s side, slipping in and pulling away.
***
Cole came out of the bedroom to find Katherine curled up with his pillow, sleeping peacefully, her mouth turned up in a small smile. He stopped and just watched her a moment, his own lips curling. Jesus, he wanted her like this forever. He wanted her to sleep a sleep free of nightmares. Free from fear.
He wondered how it was that this woman had walked into his life and completely knocked him for a loop; yet didn’t want to question his good luck. She was everything to him.
As if sensing his presence her eyelids fluttered and she looked at him, her gaze locking with his instantly.
“What are you doing?” she asked softly and Cole felt his heart flip around in his chest. She was the most amazing woman that he had ever had the pleasure of knowing, and to think that she loved him was a gift that he never could have hoped for.
“Watching the most beautiful woman in the world sleep. Why?”
Katherine burst out laughing and once again Cole felt as if he had been slammed in the chest. The sound was absolute music to his ears. It was soft and musical and he knew that he wanted to hear it forever.
“You are insane,” she giggled with a snort, lifting the sheet in invitation, and Cole gladly accepted. He slid in beside her and pulled her up against him, his mouth hovering over hers as he caught and held her gaze.
“God, I love the sound of that,” he whispered against her mouth, their breaths puffing out against the others and deliciously mingling. “Katherine…marry me,” Cole blurted out and watched as her eyes widened and her face dropped.
“What?” she asked, her body seizing up. Oh, God! This couldn’t be happening. Not now! She wanted nothing more. But…
“I want a lifetime of you,” he whispered. “I want a lifetime of your laughter, of making love to you…of touching you. Of having you by my side.”
Katherine met his gaze, her eyes shimmering with tears. “Cole…I can’t,” she choked out. She couldn’t. Not when there were absolutely no guarantees with her. Not when she might have to run again.
“Katherine,” he said, as if reading her mind. “If you’re afraid of…”
“Please, Cole. Don’t. Please don’t do this. Just know that I love you. But…I can’t marry you. Not now.”
Cole was silent for a long, agonizing moment, his eyes skimming across her face. He knew that she was frightened. He knew that she worried constantly that she would have to leave yet again, but he just wanted her so damned bad. He wanted forever with this woman.
He sighed, shaking his head slightly. “I’m not giving up,” he replied, his voice smooth and even….determined. “I’m going to find this bastard, and we’re going to build a life together.”
Katherine smiled sadly through her tears and Cole leaned forward and kissed away the one that had broken free and was slipping down her cheek.
“I love you, Cole,” she murmured. “Please, let that be enough for now.”
He took her lips, softly…tenderly, and she felt her resolve slipping. But she needed to hold firm. She didn’t know what tomorrow would bring. She had lived this nightmare for long enough to know that there was always the chance that she would have to leave; to run yet again, and she couldn’t do that to him. She couldn’t do that to herself. It would destroy her.
“It is, Baby. It’s enough…for now. But don’t think that I’ll wait forever,” he said, his eyes gleaming devilishly. “When I know what I want, I don’t give in. And I want you. All of you, for the rest of our lives.”
She couldn’t help the giggle that burst from her. Dear Lord, he was amazing. He was strong, confident, and the sexiest man she had ever known.
“Thank you, Cole. Thank you for understanding.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him, trying to convey everything that she felt for him, even if she couldn’t find the words.
Cole returned her kiss, his mouth staking claim with a fierceness that had the blood pumping through her veins in a mad rush of desire. It was instant…it was Cole.
He tore his mouth from hers and began to kiss his way down her body, his lips hot…seeking, and she shivered. His tongue swirled around her nipple a moment before taking it into his mouth and pulling a sexy as hell moan from her lips. He lavished it with sweet attention a moment before moving down her belly to her core.
Katherine arched her back up off of the bed as his mouth made contact, nearly sending her hurtling through the air. He knew exactly how to torment her, and in the most delicious way. His tongue teased and toyed with her as his hands glided over her skin, causing a current of white hot heat to ripple through her. She was so close. And it was only a moment later that she gasped, crying out his name as she went catapulting to the stars and back, her orgasm slamming through her with a force that left her breathless.
Cole looked up at her and grinned, “Ready to marry me yet?” he asked saucily, and Katherine burst out laughing.
“No,” she stated finally with a snort, trying hard to ignore the little flip that her heart did in her chest at the thought. Her heart wanted to say yes so very badly, but her head just wouldn’t let her.
Cole slid up her body, his gaze locking with hers. “I guess I’ll just have to keep working on it,” he said right before his lips took hers once again as he slid slowly inside her, where he belonged. Where he planned to be forever. He would let it go for now, but he had every intention of wearing her down. And he really couldn’t say that he wasn’t looking forward to the challenge.
***
Cole and Katherine were snuggled up on the couch the following evening when Cole’s cell rang. He groaned as he leaned over to grab it, not happy at all at being disturbed.
“McKenzie.”
“Mac,” Ben said, sounding completely exasperated. “Christ, I’m sorry, but we’ve got another one.”
Cole sat up, his body instantly tensing, and Katherine followed suit, sitting up and facing him, her eyes large and questioning.
“Shit,” he breathed, trying to give Katherine a reassuring smile and knowing that he had failed miserably.
“A couple of kids out looking for a little slap and tickle found her in the park down on Jackson Street,” Ben said, his tone filled with disgust. “I figured you’d want to check it out.”
“Let me call for a cruiser and I’ll pick you up. You at the station?”
“It’s already on the way,” Ben informed him wearily. “And yeah, I’m here. Fuck, man. I’m really sorry.”
Cole ended the call and stood, a muscle in his jaw twitching with a vengeance as he tried to think of how he was going to tell
Katherine. Christ.
“Cole?” she questioned softly, and he knew in an instant that she already knew.
He pulled her up and into his arms, hugging her to him tightly. He felt a shudder run across her body and buried his face in her hair.
“Do not blame yourself for this, Katherine,” he whispered into her hair, although his voice was firm. “This bastard would be doing this regardless. It’s who he is. A sick, twisted fuck.” Damn it! He was pissed as hell. He needed to find this son of a bitch…and now.
Katherine tried to swallow back the tears that were stinging the backs of her eyes and threatening to break free and took a deep breath. She wanted to believe him. She did. But she couldn’t stop the guilt that twisted at her insides like a vice. She suddenly felt sick.
“I know,” she rasped, her throat constricting painfully. “I…I just hate this,” she cried, finally breaking with a heart wrenching sob.
“It’s all right, Baby,” Cole reassured her. “I promise you, I’m going to get this bastard. He’s going to slip up. And by God I’ll be there when he does. I swear to you.”
He watched the house intently from the shadows as the cruiser pulled up in front and that bastard Detective opened the front door; speaking intimately to his Katie a moment before pulling her into his arms and kissing her…hard. Kissing her the way that he should be kissing her!
His anger bubbled up inside him and into a blinding rage as he watched them. Mine! His mind screamed as his body began to vibrate. She is mine!
He took a deep breath as he waited. It was time. That fucking cop would not get his Katie. The time had finally come. She would be with him soon. She would realize that they were destined.
He waited until the Detective had been gone for almost half an hour before pulling his hoodie up over his head and jogging over to the patrol car.
He tapped once, waiting for the yahoo to roll down his window.
“Can I help you, sir?” the patrolman asked, and he had to bite back the smile that so wanted to break free. This was too easy. These assholes didn’t know how seriously they should be taking him. He knew what he was doing.
“I…uh, I live down the street a ways, and I’ve seen you guys here the last few days,” he rushed out. “I don’t know what’s going on, but…I saw a guy running through my back yard, and it…it kind of freaked me out a little and I figured that you should know.”
The officer opened his door and eased out of the car. “Where do you live?” he asked. “May I have your name, sir?”
“Death,” he whispered, his voice low and gravelly.
The ignorant rube never even had a chance to react, he thought with a grin as the blade of his knife slid easily through the man’s chest. He watched as complete surprise, and then horror washed over the young patrolman’s face as he grimaced in pain. He twisted the blade and caught him before he could fall, easing him back into the car and arranging the body to look as if he were sitting there, diligently watching the house like a good little soldier. So damned easy!
He pulled the hoodie over his head and threw it inside the car, not wanting Katie to see the splatters of blood. Let them find it. He didn’t care. By the time they figured out what was going on he and Katie would be long gone. They would be on their way to their new life…together.
Running his fingers through his hair, he took another breath and headed towards the house…towards his Katie. It was time…time for them to finally be together. Forever.
***
Katherine was making her way into the living room from the kitchen when there was a loud pounding on the front door. She jumped in surprise as her head snapped in that direction, her heart beating triple time in her chest.
“Katherine? Open up. Please. I need to speak to you.”
She recognized the voice in an instant and her heart slammed against her ribs. What in the world was he doing here? Oh, my God! What could have happened now? She hurried over to the door and unlocked it, throwing it open with wide, frightened eyes.
“Jeff?” she said, quickly glancing toward the curb, and a small sigh of relief passed her lips when she spotted the cruiser still parked out front. She could see the outline of the officer in the front seat and looked back to Jeff. “What are you doing here? What’s wrong?” she asked, confusion marring her features.
“I need to talk to you,” he stammered, looking so upset. “I told the officer who I was and he called in and cleared it with your Detective.”
“How…how did you know where I was?” she asked quietly. For some reason, a feeling of unease was settling over her. Something just didn’t seem right.
“I really need to talk with you, Katherine,” Jeff repeated, taking a step closer to her and causing her to step back further into the house. “I…I don’t know what to do.”
“Jeff, what is going on?” she breathed out desperately.
He took another step through the doorway and before she knew what was happening, he was closing the door behind him.
“Everything is just such a mess,” he said, his eyes locking with hers, and she couldn’t help but notice the feverish desperation in them.
“What is? I’m sorry, Jeff…but I don’t understand what you’re talking about. Has something happened?”
“Why?” he asked suddenly, and Katherine’s sense of doom hit her full on like a punch to the chest. Something was definitely wrong. This wasn’t the laid back Jeff that she knew. He seemed so different from the kind, gentle man that she knew.
When she didn’t answer him, his hand shot out and he grabbed her arm, pulling her up against him, his eyes boring into hers.
“Jeff…” she choked out, her body now beginning to vibrate with a vengeance.
“Why did you have to go and soil yourself with him, Katie?” he hissed, and Katherine felt her world come crashing down around her ears. No! It couldn’t be! It just couldn’t be!
“What did you say?” she choked out unsteadily. “Jeff, the…the police are right outside.”
Jeff chuckled, his eyes gleaming, and Katherine knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she saw madness there.
“Oh, Katie,” he cooed, the hand that wasn’t holding onto her arm coming up and caressing her cheek, and Katherine felt the bile rising in her throat. “He was so very easy to dispose of. These small town cops think they know what they’re doing,” he laughed maliciously. “But one quick thrust of my knife right through the heart takes care of that pretty quickly. Did you really think that after all these years I would ever let someone or something get in the way of my getting to you? Oh, Katie. Never.”
Katherine couldn’t speak. Her throat had seized up on her as the realization that her nightmare was standing right in front of her hit her with all the force of a tsunami. Dear God! It was Jeff! One of the very few people in her life that she thought she could trust.
“Jeff, please…” she croaked, but she didn’t have time to finish. The hand that had only a moment before been caressing her cheek, suddenly fisted and he pulled it back.
“I’m sorry, Katie,” he whispered a moment before she felt the blinding pain of his punch…then only blissful darkness.
***
“Jesus H,” Ben groaned as he squatted down beside the girl’s body, shaking his head in disgust. “The bastard really did a number on this one. It looks like the asshole was angry as hell. Son of a mother loving bitch,” Ben spit out as he snapped on a pair of latex gloves.
Cole glanced down at the woman lying prone on the ground. Her battered body bruised and violated in ways that made him physically sick to his stomach. Her chestnut hair–so much like Katherine’s–was caked with blood and her sightless eyes swollen shut. Oh, yeah, he thought with a tightening of his jaw. This son of a bitch was angry as hell. The bastard was pissed off because he knew that Katherine was with him. And that she was safe from his sadistic reach.
“God, I really hate this shit,” Cole muttered, walking around the area where the body had been found. Nothing seemed out of
place as he carefully took in the scene…nothing that was, except for the poor dead girl that lay in the wet grass under the blare of the bright floodlights lighting up the area. The area was abuzz with officers and crime scene, and Cole got the sinking feeling in his gut that something was off.
“Hey, Detective,” one of the guys called, and Cole walked over to where he was stooped down on the ground. “I’ve got a footprint,” he informed him as he walked over.
Cole squatted down beside the man and studied the print, guessing in an instant that it was at least a size ten running shoe. His brows furrowed as he leaned in closer.
“What’s that?” he asked, pointing to the few pieces of what looked to be plaster imbedded in the dirt. He grabbed his small pen-light and directed it to what he was looking at.
The tech leaned over and picked up a fragment of the debris with his tweezers. “Hmm, looks like porcelain…or some type of pottery maybe,” he mused, and Cole felt his blood run cold. Pottery?
“Bag up every fucking piece,” he barked before standing and storming over to Ben. He suddenly felt sick to his stomach.
“Ben,” he ground out, his body tensing slightly. Ben glanced up at his partner a moment before standing.
“Yeah?”
“When you spoke to Katherine’s employee, did anything strike you as odd with the guy?”
Ben shook his head, his mouth turning down at the corners as he tried to remember anything that had seemed off.
“Nothing that I can think of seemed strange, really. He just said that Katherine showed up unexpectedly and he was hit from behind when he ran in back to get some receipts she had asked for.”
Cole felt his entire body tense up, a pit of momentous proportions forming in his gut. That wasn’t what Katherine had said to him when he had asked why in the hell had she left the house. She had told him that the only reason that she had left that night was because Jeff had called her about an order that had been wrong. And she had even asked him again when they had run into him outside the restaurant if he could take care of it for her. Shit!
“What’s going on, Mac?” Ben asked, immediately picking up on his partner’s unease.