Page 32 of The Sinner’s Touch (Manwhore #2)
CHAPTER TWENTY
“Hi.”
Angel took a deep breath. He reminded her of the boy who’d uttered that one word to her on the beach. The same smile adorned his face, only his eyes weren’t all bright and shiny. They were wary, unsure.
“Hi,” she whispered, grateful for the solid door behind her back.
Kade moved into the kitchen and picked up the same dish towel she’d thrown earlier and used it to get some of the water out of his hair. His shirt was soaked, as were his pants. A twinge of guilt tried to fester, but he’d deserved it. Sleeping when he’d just steamrolled her.
But he hadn’t really slept for days, had he? He’d been up making sure she was safe. Was it so bad that he’d dozed off when he was probably dead tired?
He tossed the towel in the sink and walked toward her, stopping by the couch. “I need to change clothes, but can we talk?”
She chewed on her lip, hesitant. “I thought you wanted to go shopping?”
“We’ll do that eventually, but we need to talk first, Angel. Not just about us, about the unsub.”
“What happened?”
“Let me get a shower and change first.”
She nodded woodenly, her mind running through every conceivable scenario she could think of, thanks to her Criminal Minds marathons. So many possibilities. Kade was serious. It had to be bad, whatever it was.
At least it took her mind off her relationship problems and the grief of losing her son. Well, that never really went away, but it numbed it a bit.
Standing here worrying about the serial killer wasn’t doing her a bit of good, though.
She needed to call Pops and check to make sure he was good for the next few days.
She’d had to call in yesterday because of the package.
This was her first weekend off in almost two months, but she’d go in if Pops needed her.
Serial killer be damned. A mindless night serving drinks would help settle her nerves down a bit too.
Upstairs, she found her phone plugged into its charger.
She could hear the shower, and her eyes flickered to Nikoli’s forbidden closet.
Lily’s whispered words mocked her. Like Kade would ever let her tie him up and do whatever she wanted.
She could imagine the look on his face if she even suggested it, and the thought made her laugh out loud. He was such a prude.
She powered up her phone and saw several missed text messages and three new emails.
She checked the text messages first. All from Jessie, freaking out, wanting to know if she knew anything.
She texted her to stay calm and let the police do their work.
The girl was a paranoia magnet. Anything could send her spiraling.
Next, she opened her email. A message from her lab partner reminding her that their paper was due for final grade next week, and she needed to get her part done and sent over.
That, at least, she didn’t have to worry about.
She’d finished it a few days ago, so it was as easy as booting up her laptop and sending the file over.
The next email made her pause. Its subject line read “Foreplay,” and there were files attached. The thing gave her a hinky feeling, especially since she didn’t recognize the sender. Curiosity got the better of her, and she opened the email.
Soon, my angel.
It was him. How did he get her email?
What was in the attachments?
Should she look?
Looking would be a bad idea.
But she found herself tapping the first image.
And immediately wished she hadn’t.
It was the girl, the one who looked like her.
She looked away, gagging. What he’d done to her…her mind shied away from it.
“Kade!”
The word was barely a whisper even though she thought she’d shouted at the top of her lungs. That poor girl. Was this what he planned for her? Was that why he sent her this email? Would she end up in this position? Burned, cut, and God only knew what else?
Her hand shook so badly the phone tumbled from her fingers and hit the floor. He sent her a blueprint for what was going to happen to her.
The shower stopped.
“Kade!”
Again, she barely managed more than a whisper, that poor girl’s mutilated body all she could see.
The image of herself covered in burns, her flesh cut and bruised, played like a movie in her head.
What kind of person could do something like this to another human being?
Bile rose in her throat, and she gagged, running for the en suite bathroom.
She barely made the toilet before it came spewing out. God, why had she opened that email?
“Angel?”
She saw Kade standing in the doorway in just a pair of jeans, his hair still wet.
“What’s wrong?” Concern filled his eyes as he wet a washcloth and bathed her face. “I heard you running for the bathroom. Did you eat something that upset your stomach?”
“No,” she whispered. “My phone.”
“Your phone?”
She pointed in the general direction of the bedroom as another wave of nausea struck. Kade frowned but went out and picked the phone up off the floor before returning to her. “What’s your password?”
“Zero four twenty-two.”
“Matthew’s birthday.”
He remembered the nugget’s birthday and the name she’d wanted to give him? She didn’t have time to respond to that tidbit of information before he started cussing. He’d seen the photos. Thankfully, she’d only looked at the first one. The rest were probably worse.
“Are you okay by yourself for a minute?” His face was hard, angry, but it wasn’t directed at her. She nodded, and he all but ran from the room.
Angel sat up and leaned against the cool surface of the bathtub.
A headache started right behind her eyes.
She sat there for what felt like forever, staring blindly at the white tile flooring, that poor girl’s bloody body playing like a broken record in her mind.
The image wouldn’t go away. He took her because she looked like Angel. How was that even fair?
Something had to be done before this sick son of a bitch did this to another girl because he couldn’t get at her.
She blinked, and Kade was kneeling in front of her, all full of concern and sympathy. “Hey, baby. You okay?”
“No.” How could she be okay as long as the sicko was out there torturing women who looked like her?
“I have Jeremy working on it. He’s going to try to trace the email, figure out who sent it and from where. It’s going to be okay.”
“No, Kade, it’s not. That poor girl…all because she looked like me. We have to stop this.”
“We’re working on it.”
“No. That’s not good enough. He wants me, so put me out there, let him try to take me. Set up a sting at the bar, give him the chance to make his move in a controlled situation. Nobody else should have to suffer because of me.”
“Hell fucking no.” Concerned Kade morphed into mad as hell Kade. “You’re out of your damn mind if you think I’m letting you get anywhere near that sick bastard.”
“How would you feel if he was out there taking people who looked like you?” She stared in him straight in his eyes. “You’d go do something about it.”
“Because I’m trained to do something about it, first as a police officer, and then as an FBI agent. Catching these guys is what I do.”
“You’re not having very much luck with that, are you?” Angel regretted the words as soon as they left her mouth. He was doing everything he could, and she knew that. She was just frustrated. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
“We’re doing everything we can, Angel. He’s making mistakes, and that’s how we catch him.”
“What mistakes?”
Kade stood and reached a hand down to her. “I have a lot to tell you, and I’d rather do it someplace other than a bathroom reeking of vomit.”
She curled her nose and took his hand but stopped long enough to flush the toilet and rinse out her mouth.
Stinky breath was not on the agenda. Angel assumed they’d go downstairs, but he dropped down on the bed and motioned for her to join him.
She hesitated. Maybe being on the bed wasn’t such a good idea. Especially with him half naked.
“I’m not going to jump you, moye serdtse .” Kade scooted all the way to the bottom of the bed and flashed her an infectious smile. “I’ll be down here, well out of bone-jumping distance.”
Why did he have to be charming? Half-naked and charming was not a good mix. She couldn’t stand there looking like an idiot, so she sat at the head of the bed, as far away from him as she could get.
Kade only smirked. How could he be smirking in that sexy way of his when the situation was so dire?
After those awful photos? How? Was it some kind of trick they learned in the FBI?
He worked for the Behavioral Analysis Unit.
She watched Criminal Minds , and she knew he tracked down serial killers.
Maybe he had to learn to do it to stay sane after seeing what he must see on the daily.
“Hey. Earth to Angelique…come in, Angelique.”
She smiled despite herself. Maybe he was being charming to take her mind off that awful photo. If that was the case, it was working, and allowed her to put aside some of the mind-numbing fear that photo induced. It allowed her to speak without screaming. “So, what do I need to know, Kincaid?”
His expression became more serious, and he lay back, staring at the ceiling. “The call I got last night was Bailey telling me they found the body of Julie Helton, the girl our unsub took two nights ago.”
“That’s too soon,” she whispered. “He always keeps them longer than that.”
“He’s sped up his timeline, which means he’s escalating, making mistakes. The bodies are usually clean, but they found motor oil under one of her fingernails. He usually takes his time and scrubs them down, but he missed a spot this time.”
“Those photos…I think she was in a garage.” She made herself not flinch as the image swam up into focus. Yes, she was sure of it. The background had been some kind of garage, a professional garage.