The clothes sure didn’t seem like very much protection right then.
“You were having a bad dream,” she told him. Why was her voice a whisper?
He blinked. Kyle seemed to realize exactly where he was and what he was doing.
But he didn’t let her go.
Did she want him to?
No.
His hold tightened on her wrists.
“You seemed upset.” Her voice was coming out far too husky. Seductive. She didn’t mean to sound that way. “I was trying to wake you up.”
“I’m up.”
Yes, he was. All of him. The hard ridge that pressed against the juncture of her thighs was growing longer, bigger, with every passing second.
He leaned closer toward her. “Why aren’t you telling me to get the hell away from you?”
Because…she had a few dark secrets of her own.
Rough, hard, wild. Pinned down by Kyle.
That wasn’t supposed to happen. Cadence licked her lips and tried to make her voice sound stronger. “Get the hell away from me.” Those were the words he wanted her to say.
Only she didn’t want to say them.
What she wanted to say…
Kiss me. Make me only feel you. Strip me. Make me scream.
That wasn’t what an FBI agent was supposed to say to her partner.
The things she wanted weren’t what she was supposed to feel.
“You don’t mean it.” He seemed surprised by her words. “I can tell.”
Her voice had been hungry with a need she’d denied for so long.
“But you said it, so I’ll fucking do it.”
He released her. His body slid away from hers.
She didn’t move at first. Just tried to calm her racing heartbeat and pretend she hadn’t been moments away from having sex with Kyle.
Hot, hard sex, right on the floor.
The way I like it.
Kyle didn’t know that. He thought she was restrained, too controlled.
She kept that mask on for a reason.
Cadence sucked in a deep breath. She could almost taste Kyle on her tongue.
No, she wanted to taste him.
She sat up, then hurried to her feet.
Kyle rose, much slower, and studied her with his head tilted to the side.
“I don’t know you as well as I thought.”
She’d tried to tell him that before.
His gaze went to the bed. To the rumpled covers, then back to the floor.
Cadence cleared her throat. “Do you always dream about killing someone?”
His shoulders tensed. Then he focused his attention back on her. “Do you always like it rough?”
“No.” Her control was back. She could play this. “I was worried about you.”
“You wanted me.”
Yes. “You had just woken up, Kyle. You were confused.” She turned away, glancing quickly at the clock on the nightstand. Four a.m. They could get a little more sleep. They needed more.
Before the hunting started again the next day.
“Tell yourself that if you want, Cadence. Tell yourself whatever you need to believe in order to get back to sleep.”
Her eyes narrowed. So much for helping him. Next time, he could suffer in his dreams.
She climbed back into the bed. Jerked her covers up to her chin. Tried to ignore the fact she still wanted him. Her breasts were tight, aching, and need twisted through her.
There was a rustle beside the bed. The groan of wood. Kyle was lying back down.
Good.
She closed her eyes.
Her heartbeat wouldn’t slow down, and Cadence was far too conscious of every movement he made. Every whisper and slither of sound. Tomorrow night, she’d make absolutely certain they had separate rooms. This wouldn’t be happening again.
“I wanted to kiss you.” His voice was a low rumble. One she seemed to feel against her skin.
Her eyes squeezed closed even tighter.
“Why do you fight what we both want?”
She was afraid that if she gave in, he’d see the secrets she kept. Kyle was observant, smart—and dangerous.
So she tried to be reasonable. “We’re partners. The FBI doesn’t exactly approve of fraternizing.”
“Fuck the FBI.”
Her hands fisted in the covers. I’d rather fuck you. No, that was not the way she should be thinking. Not at all.
“This is about you and me,” Kyle told her. “You and me. And I’m not waiting forever.”
She’d never asked him to wait for her.
Cadence opened her eyes and saw the spill of light she’d forgotten to turn off. Her hand snaked out and reached for the switch on the lamp.
They were plunged into darkness once more.
The darkness made it easier for her to breathe, to ask, “Who was in your dream?”
The floor groaned as he shifted position.
“Kyle? Who was it? Who were you killing?”
One of the perps from their cases? One of the serials they hunted?
“When you tell me your secrets,” he said, his voice still that deep, dark rumble, “then I’ll tell you mine.”
“Lily…”
Her name drifted from the darkness.
“Lily…”
She couldn’t feel her hands, not anymore. At first, her fingers had burned, then she’d felt pinpricks shoot through them.
Now…nothing.
Her feet were the same way. She couldn’t even wiggle her toes. She’d tried, over and over again. But she couldn’t do it.
She could only lie there, her body heaving helplessly, with the gag in her mouth and the blindfold over her eyes.
“Did you miss me?”
Something stroked her cheek. Him. He was touching her. Watching her.
She flinched, trying to jerk away.
“Oh, Lily, you don’t need to be afraid of me.”
She was. That voice, drifting to her in the dark, she knew it was the voice of a monster. I want to see my baby. Her little girl. She wanted to see her so badly. To kiss her.
A sob choked in her throat. Please let me see my baby.
She tried to tell him, but her parched and swollen tongue wasn’t working either. And the gag stopped any sounds but groans and grunts from slipping free.
I need my baby. She was always there to fix breakfast for Carrie, always. She made pancakes with little smiley faces, just the way her daughter liked them. Then they walked to school together.
The world was a dangerous place, so she always walked her daughter to school.
The world was dangerous.
A soft touch feathered over her left cheek. After a desperate moment, Lily realized what he was doing. Wiping away my tears.
“Are you thirsty, my Lily?”
She managed a nod.
“I’m going to take off your gag, so you can drink some water. I’m going to take care of you, Lily.”
No, he was going to kill her. She wouldn’t believe his lies.
The gag was sliding away and a glass was being pushed to her lips. The water spilled over her mouth, onto her swollen tongue, and at first, she started to choke because she couldn’t swallow.
“Easy, let me help you.” That dark voice. Then he was massaging her throat, helping her to swallow.
The water went down.
“I can be good to you, Lily. Very good.”
She drank greedily, desperate for the water. Maybe he wasn’t going to kill her. If he was giving her something to drink, it meant he wanted to keep her alive and strong. Didn’t it? Maybe she’d be set free. Maybe she’d see Carrie again.
They’d have pancakes. They’d walk to school.
His fingers tightened around her throat, cutting off her air. The water poured from her mouth.
“I can also be cruel, my Lily. So cruel.”
She couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t fight him.
Carrie…
His hold eased. “You will determine how I act. Good girls
get rewarded, Lily, but bad girls…”
She sucked in deep gulps of air, her whole body trembling.
His mouth brushed over her ear as he said, “Bad girls get punished. Don’t make me punish you, don’t make me…”
CHAPTER FOUR
“We’re losing time,” Kyle said as he stood in front of the assembled officers. The FBI was in charge of the case now, and every officer in the room knew it. Kyle and Cadence had started a task force, and the others were following their lead.
Unfortunately, so far, that lead had taken them nowhere.
“In a missing-persons case,” Cadence said from beside him, “every moment counts. Over twenty-four hours have passed since Lily’s disappearance—”
“What does that say about the odds of her coming back alive?” Officer Jason Marsh asked as he leaned toward Cadence. Marsh was sitting in the front row, his body tense.
Kyle narrowed his eyes on the guy as he replied, “If you don’t find a missing person within the first forty-eight hours, then the chances of finding the person alive decrease dramatically.”
Heather swallowed. “How dramatic are we talking?”
Cadence hesitated, then said, “Less than fifty percent.”
And what she didn’t say…but what Kyle knew…after seventy-two hours—well, most of the agents stopped looking for a live victim at that point.
Instead, they looked for a corpse.
“Lily Adams has a daughter who is waiting on her mother to come home.” Kyle stepped back and advanced toward the area map that he’d attached to the wall behind him. A small red flag marked Lily’s abduction site on that map. Yellow indicated the areas that they had already searched. “We need to bring her home.”
“But if the dogs aren’t turning up a scent, doesn’t that mean Lily might not even be in Paradox any longer?” Heather Crenshaw asked, her voice soft and a bit uncertain. “He could have taken her anywhere.”
Yes, he damn well could have. “Nearby counties are being searched but we have to do our jobs.” His gaze swept the assembled group. James watched him with a steady gaze. “We have to make sure that we’ve covered every possible location in the area.”
“You’re the natives,” Cadence said. “I told you this before…you know the area. Look at that map. Where haven’t we been? Where could the abductor take Lily? An isolated spot that we’re missing. A place where—”
“No one would hear Lily scream,” Kyle finished, voice rough.
Heather flinched.
“The storms are coming,” Kyle added. “The weather will work against us even more. Now is the time to be out there.”
Jason Marsh had titled his head. His eyes were on the map.
“It wouldn’t just be an outdoor spot,” Cadence continued. She walked through the small room, her body sliding through the line of chairs. Her gaze met each officer’s, held, then moved to the next. “She’s not out in the open. She’s in a contained spot, in a place that the perp can control.”
“Like a cabin?” Heather said as a furrow appeared between her brows. “But we’ve been searching them…”
“What about a cave?” Jason Marsh asked. He rose from his seat. Headed toward the map.
A cave?
Marsh tapped the map. A location about twenty miles away from Lily’s abduction site. “Most outsiders don’t even realize we got the caves up here.”
Kyle sure as hell hadn’t known about them. And he’d been to this town before. He’d searched, and never learned about them.
Marsh rolled his shoulders as he studied the map. “The caves have been used plenty over the years. Indians used ’em for some rituals, Confederate soldiers hid in them and stored weapons in there. Hell, the story goes that even some of Jesse James’s men stayed in them once, when they were running from the law. The caves stretch for miles and miles. The areas I know about, anyway.”
Miles and miles. “You’re taking me to those caves.” Because from what Kyle was hearing, they sounded like the perfect spot for the killer.
Marsh scratched his chin. “You wouldn’t have to worry about hunters finding her in those caves. Hell, you wouldn’t have to worry about animals getting to her, either. Not in there.”
“The caves are dangerous,” James said, stepping forward with a hard shake of his head. “There was a cave-in there a few years back. Geologists said the whole place could collapse at any moment. Sending men in there—”
“I’ll take the risk,” Kyle said. No hesitation.
“So will I,” Cadence added. He’d known she would say that.
James exhaled and gave a slow nod.
“And I’ll lead you.” Marsh had straightened his shoulders. “I’ll show you the area, and if Lily is there, we’ll find her.”
Damn straight they would, but Kyle wasn’t about to let the task force lose focus. He pointed to the map once more. “Anniston, you keep a team searching near the south ridge area. Officer Crenshaw, you keep interviewing the folks from Striker’s. Someone knows something, someone saw something.”
They would all keep working. And they would find Lily.
I just want to find her alive.
“How come tourists aren’t flooding to these caves?” Cadence asked Jason as they headed deeper into the woods and toward the entrance to the caves.
Kyle kept steady pace with them, not about to be left behind. He knew Cadence was worried about him, but he had this.
He finally fucking had this.
I’m going to find you. He was going to find the man who’d taken Lily—the same bastard he believed had taken his sister, and he would make the guy pay.
Cadence had asked him, Who were you killing? In his dreams—his nightmares—there was one person Kyle killed again and again. The man who took Maria.
“Captain was right about the caves being dangerous. We had some geologists come in a few years ago. They did some tests, said it wasn’t safe for folks.” Jason came to a stop before a heavy slab of stone. “Up in Kentucky, they have Mammoth Caves. Mammoth stretches for over a hundred miles.”
Kyle damn well hoped the caves in Paradox weren’t as vast. If they were, more than just three folks needed to be out there.
“How far do the caves stretch here?” Cadence asked as she approached the slab.
As Kyle got closer, he realized there was darkness behind the slab. Twisting vines, grass, and what looked like a dark window.
The entrance to the caves.
“At least fifty miles, according to the geologist.” Jason pulled a flashlight from his backpack. They’d all taken the time to stock up some packs before they left the station. “But most of the tunnels are unstable, so they didn’t go too far down them. Just estimated.” He glanced back at Kyle and Cadence. “They were from Auburn University. They measured for days, then said we needed to keep folks away, that it was too dangerous inside.”
Yet they were all about to head right into the window of darkness.
Jason eyed them both. “Guess I should’ve asked sooner, but have you two ever explored caves before?”
Kyle stared back at him. “A time or two.” More than that, but they didn’t need to go over his history right then.
“So I guess you don’t have any problem with tight spaces, huh, Agent McKenzie?” Jason asked.
“No, I don’t, Officer Marsh.”
Jason gave him a hard smile. “Actually, it’s Detective.”
The guy was getting on his damn nerves. And if he sent one more longing glance toward Cadence when they had a fucking job to do—
Cadence rolled her shoulders. “Let’s get moving.”
Jason offered him a faint smile. “At least you left your suit behind. Good thinking.”
Screw off. Kyle headed forward, the hiking boots he’d picked up helping him to move easily over the rougher terrain.
Then it was Jason’s turn to hurry to keep up with him and Cadence.
Sunlight trickled just inside the cave’s interior, showing them a long, narrow tunn
el.
“Like I said,” Jason murmured, “I hope you don’t mind tight spaces.”
Kyle glanced at Cadence. Had she flinched?
No, not her…
Had she?
Cadence reached into her pack and pulled out a small light. The light was attached to a length of elastic. She slipped the elastic band onto her head, then adjusted the strap so it fit securely. The black strap blended with her hair, and she hit the button on the front to illuminate her way. “Let’s stop wasting time, boys. Jason, take us to the areas you know first.”
No, Cadence didn’t sound afraid. He’d seen her stare down killers. She rarely ever felt fear.
That he knew of.
Jason took the lead, heading forward in the tunnel. Silence followed as they trekked deeper into the darkness.
Soon Kyle saw more openings, twisting paths leading from the main tunnel. Heavy stalactites sprouted from the ceiling, while thick stalagmites grew from the bottom, some nearly meeting in places.
The caverns were old. Very, very old.
“A small stream flows just ahead. Watch your step,” Jason advised without glancing back.
Kyle was already watching his and Cadence’s steps. His own headlamp swept the area. He’d secured it moments after Cadence adjusted hers. There was no sign anyone had been in the area anytime recently.
No sign of anyone at all.
“Is there another entrance?” Kyle asked.
“Not that I’ve found,” was Jason’s answer.
“With fifty miles to cover, maybe you just haven’t found it yet.” Cadence moved easily over the stream. She had on tennis shoes. Jeans. Her hair slid over her shoulders. “Maybe there’s a lot you haven’t found.”
Just as she reached the edge of the stream, her tennis shoe slipped.
Kyle lunged for her.
But Jason beat him. “I’ve got you,” he told her, curling his hand around hers.
Holding her a little too tight.
Cadence pulled away. “I’m good.”
Kyle hated that cop.
“Yes,” Jason agreed softly. “You are.” Then he pointed to the right. “This way, it will take us deeper inside the caverns.”
Kyle didn’t want this to be a waste of time. He wanted to find something, anything.
His head turned to the left. To the right.