A Killing Cupid (Sensory Ops) (2 page)

"
You, Lana Quinn, are in no position to tell me what I will and will not do." Cupid stepped over a black bag sitting at his feet.

She didn’t want to know what he carried with him to
awaken
her. She would do this quickly. She would get what they needed to convict him. She would call in Aidan and his team.

She listened for signs that Aidan was moving in while moving forward with the plan. He had to know that waiting was best, and that she wasn’t entirely helpless. She stepped forward with her chin raised.
"You, Cowardly Cupid, are in no position to make assumptions regarding me."

His lips thinned beneath the stocking. His hand fisted harder over the leather strap in his hand. Clearly he was used to the sudden terror of
his invasion paralyzing his victims.

"
You would do well not to ire me."

"
Ire you?" She cocked her head, angling her right ear a little forward to make sure Aidan got a clear image of the man. Just in case. "Who talks like that? For that matter, who quotes Shakespeare and then Peter Pan in the very next line?"

"
You know your literature." He bowed his head. Reluctant admiration of her knowledge reflected in his voice.

"
I do." So did he. Suspicion tingled along the back of her brain. She took another step.

"
It’s that literature degree."

How did he know that about her?
She patted a hand over her left breast and took another step. "You've studied me. I’m flattered."

"
You should be."

"
Stop baiting him." Aidan snarled in her ear.

"
I would be more flattered if you would remove that suit." She waved her hand toward the strap-on. "If you would allow me to be with the real Cupid, rather than a tool."

"
I can’t do that."

"
Pity." Lana shrugged dramatically and stepped closer still. Only two feet separated them. If he reached out, he would have her in his grasp. "I was hoping to spend the evening with a real man. Maybe you can’t awaken me without aides?"

"
Bitch!" His hand swung high and had her bracing for the stinging slap that didn't come. "You dare challenge me."

"
Yes."

Aidan’s guttural growl grated her ear. Success meant risks. They all knew this. Just as she knew that an assault on Cupid’s manhood would be the only way to garner results. 

Enraged, Cupid shoved back the plastic hoodie and yanked off the nylon. She gasped and stepped back. "Leon. What the hell?"

"
You know him?"

She ignored Aidan.
She and Leon had worked together for ten years. He was a family man with a solid career. Despite the psychology classes she’d taken and everything she'd learned from her father she’d never have suspected him. "Why would you do this?"

"
Become The Killing Cupid?" His lip curled in disgust as he closed the distance between them.

She
shook her head hoping to hold Aidan off a little longer. She wanted to know what had set Leon off. She stepped back, edging toward the living room. He was adequately thrown off his guard that she might escape without him touching her. "Yes. Why?"

"
To show holier-than-thou bitches like you where you really belong."

T
he urge to suppress powerful women suggested that he lived in the shadow of one. His wife was just the opposite though. She was a quiet, meek housewife who waited on him hand and foot. Hell, she was June Cleaver transported to modern day.

"
I thought you were better than this, Leon."

"
No. You just thought
you
were better." He stepped forward again, slapping the strap-on against his thigh. "I was going to allow you to live. Who better to immortalize me than the most read, syndicated journalist in Miami?"

"
What changed your mind?"

"
I've listened to your calls, eavesdropped while you record notes to yourself in your voice recorder. You were getting it all wrong."

"
How so?" She back-stepped into the living room where she would have more options for escape. They wouldn’t need his DNA with the way he was running his mouth.

"
You claimed I did this as overcompensation for my inability to be with women."

"
The evidence fit the profile of a serial rapist and killer."

"
I am not a rapist!" He surged forward.

She
jumped behind the couch, positioning him closer to the door. Closer to Aidan and his team. "
You
didn’t have intercourse with those women. Using that dildo you're flinging around doesn’t mean you didn’t rape them."

"
Those women enjoyed what I showed them as much as they deserved to die."

"
Right, Leon. You have an inferiority complex and see that as justification to kill people?"

"
You know nothing about me."

"
I know you have a lovely wife and son." And she was tired of playing the bait. "They deserve better than the legacy you're building."

"
She's a constantly bitching whore. Always complaining about having given up her career to raise that brat of ours."

"
Stay where you are." Aidan snapped commands into her earpiece. "We’re coming in."

"That's it, isn't it?" Lana asked. Her time for answers was shrinking. "She's started resisting the things you want most and this is your release. This is how you convince yourself of your importance."

"Every victim knew my importance before I was finished. Every family remembers it on a daily basis."

Lana
shrugged and held her ground. "I know you’re going down. "

A
moment later, Breck and Tyler charged in. Tyler tackled Leon as he lurched toward her. Aidan circled them and came toward her, grabbing the throw blanket from the back of the sofa on the way. Menace rolled off him and disrupted the air in his path.

He
said nothing as he wrapped the blanket around her shoulders and escorted her to her bedroom.

As they crossed the thresh
old, he booted the door closed and every shred of fear and adrenaline she'd felt in the last ten minutes morphed into anger. She'd been fooled and stalked by a man she'd trusted and respected. Now, she was being pushed around by Aidan.

"
You didn’t use the code word."

"
Be happy you have his confession on tape." She clutched her rage as tight as the blanket Aidan had covered her with. She’d stood in this room and thought of him while she undressed. She'd trusted him with her life so a killer could be stopped.

He had no right to force her into her room and dish out whatever cruelties and smart ass remarks came to mind.
"Damn it, Aidan. I risked my life tonight and the best you can do is stand there and berate me?"

"
You were after a story."

She nodded slowly, remembering why she’d kept her distance from him since leaving the hospital after the kidnapping. He saw her as nothing more than a hungry reporter willing to step on anyone for the sake of career advancement.

"Think what you want, but you wouldn’t have Leon without me. And when I write that story, and don’t think for a second it will be easy, every one of his victims and their families will have closure. You, however, will still be an ass."

His jaw clenched. He closed the distance between them,
and pinned her to the dresser without touching her. Rather than the fear she’d experienced in Leon’s presence, she felt only the excitement she’d aroused in herself while undressing for the man now looming over her.

"
Aidan—"

He swooped in and claimed her mouth with his.
Butterscotch. He tasted like the hard butterscotch candies she’d always snuck from the bowl on her grandmother’s living room table.

His hands rested on the dresser by her hips.
Menace continued to flow around him, but there was no violence in his kiss. He kept some space between their bodies, but his mouth moved over hers with a tender passion she couldn’t have fantasized about. She opened for him. He slid his tongue into her mouth and explored every corner.

She moaned and pulled
his bottom lip into her mouth. Lana dropped the blanket and buried her hands in Aidan’s thick hair. With her hands fisted in his silken locks, she rolled her hips forward and rubbed against the erection pressing against his zipper.

Valentine’s Day had never been her favorite holiday. This one certainly hadn’t been one of her better ones, but this moment...
A girl could get used to Aidan’s mouth.

She moved into him, nudging him toward the bed. He was here. He was ready. She was mostly undressed. They may as well finish o
ff the night for lovers the right way.

"
Aidan. We’re taking him in." Liam, Aidan's twin who spoke with a similar accent, knocked on her door. "You have things under control here?"

Aidan
jerked away, shaking his head. "Yes." His gaze locked on her. "This isn’t going to happen between us."

He moved to the door before looking back.
"Don’t touch that bag, and put some clothes on. CSI will be here shortly."

H
e left her in her bra and saturated thong in the middle of her room. He was an ass, but damn she wanted to get busy with Aidan Burgess.

And her desire wasn’t unrequited.

With a grin, she began to gleefully plot his downfall. As stupid as it may be, it was her new mission to get him into her bed. He wouldn’t walk away next time. And the next time would be tonight, because she was not ending Valentine's Day with images of Leon and a strap on in her mind.