Deadly Fear (Deadly #1)(7)
Even after all these years, the woman was still too beautiful. Smooth, pale skin. Nose perfectly straight. Full, red lips. And those legs…
He could still feel them around him, digging into his back, clenching tight as he drove into her, as hard and as deep as he could go. Those legs…
On the plane ride from hell, she’d crossed them, then begun to kick one foot slowly while she made her notes. Watching that foot, then letting his gaze rise to follow the smooth lines of her legs up to the edge of her skirt…
Once, he’d licked his way up her body. Tasted the flavor of her skin. But that was the past.
In the present, the woman had frozen him out. She’d looked at him with those blank eyes and pretty much told him to go screw himself.
Hands off or your ass heads back to Atlanta.
So much for picking up where they’d left off.
Business only. He could do that.
Luke jerked his gaze off the sway of Monica’s ass and caught sight of the two uniformed sheriff’s deputies waiting for them.
Stick to the case. Forget the girl.
Her high heels clicked across the pavement. The two cops shot up from their slouching positions and hurried toward her. Smart men.
“Agent Davenport?” The first guy to reach her asked, shoving out his hand. A fresh-faced kid, he looked like he’d just skated past twenty-one. He had black eyes, olive skin, and twitchy fingers.
Monica gave a firm nod. The wind on the runway caught her hair, tossing the dark locks and wrecking her smooth style. She ignored the wind and caught his hand, shaking once.
“I’m Deputy Lee Pope, and this here is Deputy Vance Monroe.”
She nodded to the other deputy, then offered her hand.
He caught the slight widening of Vance’s brown eyes. The second deputy was older than the other guy—tall, with ruddy cheeks, dark red hair, and a nose that looked as if it had been broken more than once. Vance seemed to hold Monica’s hand a little bit longer than was really necessary.
“This is my associate.” Her voice rose easily above the wind. “Special Agent Luke Dante.”
He flashed a smile, and when the deputies blinked, he figured maybe he’d used too much teeth.
Reflex. He’d been trying to bite back a pissed-off snarl.
“Sheriff wants us to take you to see the bodies, ma’am.” From Lee. He shifted from his right foot to the left. “You don’t—you don’t really think we got us a serial killer down here in Jasper?”
Luke positioned himself next to Monica. He caught a glimpse of the faint tightness around her mouth.
“I don’t know what you’ve got, deputy.” Monica stared down the guy. “I just know my boss told me to get on a plane.” A little shrug. “So here I am.”
Senior agent.
Hyde had given him a quiet warning before he’d left the office. “Don’t screw up, hotshot. When in doubt, do whatever Davenport tells you.”
They’d trained together. Studied together. Graduated together.
But from the beginning, he’d known Monica was being fast-tracked. Everyone had figured that out pretty much from day one.
The profiler who knew the killers. Whispers about her had floated through every area of Quantico. There wasn’t a test the woman didn’t ace. Wasn’t a drill she didn’t nail.
She’d graduated at the top of her class. Then been swooped up by Special Projects the next day.
He’d worked his cases over the years, busted ass and proven that he knew the victims better than pretty much any-damn-body. Yeah, he’d shown he could crack the cases, and he’d gotten the coveted interview with Hyde.
“True serial killers can be very rare,” Monica said, voice cool and easy, with just a hint of her own southern drawl creeping through the words. “Your Sheriff Davis simply wanted us to come down and give our opinion on these cases.”
“We got a twisted f*ck out there.” Deputy Vance shook his head and spat on the ground. “Ma’am, I saw what he done to that Moffett girl.”
He’d seen, too. Thirty knife wounds. All on the face and chest. Pretty girl, at least in the before pictures. After…
Deputy Vance was right. Twisted f*ck.
Though Luke doubted Monica would consider that a professional term.
“Her body’s still at the morgue?” Luke asked. From the report he’d been given, he knew the victim had been found two days before, dumped like garbage in an abandoned house.
If the deputies hadn’t raided that place, looking for a drug dealer…
“Yeah, she’s still there.” Lee stepped back. The sun glinted off his badge. “You folks need to get settled at the motel or you wanna—”
“Take us to the body,” Monica ordered just as Luke said—
“The body.”
The deputy yanked out his keys. “Sorry… but you two are gonna have to ride in the back…”
In the back of the squad car. Nice.
Monica climbed in first. Luke sucked in a breath, smelling her, warm woman and a hint of that light perfume she’d always worn, and he tried his level best not to touch the woman as he crowded in beside her.
His thigh brushed hers. Focus. He cleared his throat and managed to say, “The second body—I didn’t see much about that victim in my files.” He leaned toward the gray cage that separated him from the uniforms. The better to get away from Monica’s soft flesh.