Checkmate (16 page)

“Find him,” she spat.

Nikki turned and stormed to the door, her shoulders back. He could tell she was trying hard not to lose it in front of the detective.

Eli snarled at Morales before jumping from his seat and following Nikki out. She had paused in the hallway and was wiping her face with the back of her hand. He enveloped her body in a tight hug just as she sniffed.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart. If I knew who did this, I’d rip his limbs off.”

Soft laughter slipped from her lips and she nodded. “I know.”

He had to get her out of here. Take her home and fill her mind with other things. She’d done her job here today, much as he hated bringing her here.

Nikki was silent as they walked to his car, but shocked the hell out of him the second they were sequestered inside.

“I love you.”

For several wild heartbeats, all he could do was look at her red, puffy, tear-stained face. His cock roared to life. She’d said it. They were already bonded for life, but hearing her say those words sealed it completely for him.

He swallowed. “You can’t say that when we’re in a car, Nikki-Raine.”

A silly grin lit up her face. “Why not?”

“Because I don’t have enough room to fuck you here.” He started up the car. It would take them half as long to get home as it did to get here.

She laid a hand on his thigh, making his cock jerk beneath his zipper.

“Damn it, Nikki-Raine. Not in the car.”

“I’ve never done it in a car.”

He could almost hear the pout in her voice. His teeth lengthened into razor-sharp points.

“You should be damn glad you haven’t ‘cause if I had found out, I would have killed the bastard.”

She snickered and he relaxed a miniscule amount. Distracting her worked in keeping her mind off her dead friends.

Eli trapped the hand wandering dangerously close to his rampant cock. Whenever he felt her tugging on it, he tightened his fingers around hers.

“You gonna hold my hand all day, or what?”

“I’m gonna hold it until I can get you in the house.”

“And then what?”

“We’ll try to make it to the bedroom.”

Her laugh cut short when a flashbulb popped in her face through the window. A reporter tapped the glass and shouted, “Ms. Taylor. Are you here because of the murderer? Do they have a suspect?”

“Son of a bitch.” Eli’s curse overrode the squeal of tires as he whipped out of the parking space, nearly mowing the reporter and photographer down.

Nikki screamed next to him and buried her face in her hands. Eli pushed her down with a hand on the back of her head.

“I goddamn knew we shouldn’t have come here.”

Un-fucking-believable. The reporter charged after them as if they held the key to the mysteries of the universe, a microphone held out in front of her.

Eli punched the steering wheel, ignoring the pain flaring over his knuckles.

Nikki sat up and twisted in her seat to look back, then turned to him, her eyes filled with horror. At least she knew the monumental effect this could have on her life. She was supposed to be dead to the world, not off gallivanting in public.

“Oh, God. I’m sorry,” she whispered.

Eli’s breath hitched in his throat.

“I can protect you, Nikki-Raine. Never doubt that.”

She nodded and took his hand in a death grip. “I know.”

Somehow he managed to steer with the hand she still held—which dragged her across the seat closer to him—and fumble with his phone.

“What are you doing?” Nikki snuggled into his side where he felt her body tremble.

“Trying to find out who sold you out.”

She jerked upright. “How do you know—”

“No one knew we were coming, Nik,” he growled. “The only fucking way that reporter showed up is if someone pointed them in the right direct— Morales,” he barked. “Find your fucking leak before I do, or so help me God, you’ll have a cop killer on your hands.” Not that they’d be able to prove anything beyond a wild animal attack anyway.

Nikki hissed and her fingers tightened on his arm in warning. He shrugged it off. Nobody was going to mess with his mate.

“Right. That’s why there was a goddamn reporter waiting for us to come out.”

He paused to listen to the bunk Morales fed him and to get on the highway. They couldn’t get far enough away from here.

“You better hope to hell her face doesn’t show up in tomorrow’s paper.

“Yeah. You do that.” Eli slammed the flip shut and tossed the cell onto the dash.

Nikki sighed. “I’m sorry,” she said again, sinking into his side.

Fuck.

He wrapped his arm around her and held on for dear life, renewing his vow that nothing would happen to the woman who held his heart in the palm of her hand.

* * *

“No. No, no, no, no, no.” He scrambled for the remote and hit the volume button. Her face took up the top right quarter of the sixty-inch screen, big as day and minus the bullet wound to the head.

He threw the remote at the wall. It slammed into a mirror, shattering both the plastic casing and the glass before falling to the floor with a thud.

“Motherfucker.” Still alive. And she’d been at the fucking police station according to the background image. The cameraman had done a good job capturing her surprise through the window.

He’d been played. His own fault, really. A better man would have made sure. Gone to her funeral and opened the casket, cut out her heart, eaten her liver. Something. Instead, he’d fucked up and believed the fucking cops. Like there was a million reasons to trust anything the cops said.

Now he knew the truth. All this time he could have been doing something about the bitch and here he was, sitting back and luxuriating in the process of finding a new player. The thrill of the hunt was what it was all about.

They’d denied him that right. Taken away from him the one thing he cherished. He’d have to scrap his plans for the teenage couple and find where the cops had stashed little Ms. Taylor.

He dragged a pen and paper from the drawer in his kitchen and sat down to make a list. Lists were good, kept everything organized and handy. He liked lists.

First things first, find a mole. Someone on the police force he could use to rat out her whereabouts. Second, scope out the place they thought was safe enough to keep him out. Third, eliminate the target.

He smiled and sat back in the chair, folding his arms across his chest. He’d take the weekend to find the stuff he needed and make his move Sunday night. He had Monday off, so things would work out perfectly and he’d have the extra day to come off his high.

His cock hardened beneath the scrubs he still wore, tenting the material beneath the tie. He chuckled at it. “Greedy little bastard, aren’t you?”

He loosened the bow and stood to let the pants fall from his hips. The slit glistened with a drop of pre-come. Imagining it was Nicole Taylor’s mouth he fucked after binding her, he wrapped his fist around his cock and pumped. He’d have to add this scenario to his list. Fucking her mouth, ramming his cock down her throat while she could do nothing to prevent it.

Just the thought of her face shoved full of his dick, tears streaming out of her eyes, her nose running, made his balls draw up. Two pumps later and thick streams of his semen shot into the air. His knees shook as he continued to stroke himself, wringing every last drop out of his cock.

Damn, he couldn’t wait.

Chapter Fourteen

“How did you do this?” Nikki whispered, staring at the computer screen with tears running down her face. Her arms were crossed tightly over her chest, and her fingers dug into the skin just above her elbows.

Eli sighed. Standing behind her, he massaged the tension in her shoulders. It was the least he could do after not being there for her all those months. He shrugged, knowing she couldn’t see the action.

“It’s what I do, baby. Surveillance, security cameras. It wasn’t hard to set up a closed-circuit TV for this. I know you wanted to be there and I’m sorry you couldn’t be.”

Her legs wobbled, threatening to collapse, so he left her to wheel the chair closer. He pushed it to the back of her knees and further, forcing her to sit before she fell. Without a word, she took his offering and propped her arms on the desk. Chin in the palm of her hand, Nikki watched the funeral of her best friends.

“They were so fucking young,” she choked, and a fresh batch of tears flooded her face.

Eli retrieved a box of Kleenex and set it in front of her. A lump formed in his throat. He wished on all the stars in the sky she didn’t have to go through this.

“All this time I’ve been hiding when I should have been spending time with them.”

He rubbed between her shoulder blades. Nothing he could say would make this any easier for her, but he tried. “You were only doing what your body and mind allowed you to. You aren’t a coward, and even if you had spent this time with them, it still would have happened.” He didn’t mention how she most likely would be dead also.

Nikki blew her nose and leaned closer to the screen. A woman stood at the podium, reading a eulogy.

“I should be doing that.” With a shaky finger, she pointed to the screen. “That’s supposed to be me. I’ve let them down,” she wailed.

Eli’s breath hitched.
Damn that fucker to hell.
He knelt beside his mate. Comfort was the only thing he could offer outside of hunting the son of a bitch down and killing him. Doing so would leave Nikki unprotected and no way in the world would Eli allow that to happen. Maybe if Caelan didn’t have other duties and imminent baby worries of his own, but it didn’t matter. For the moment, Eli had to trust the police enough to do their job.

“Oh, God,” she cried.

Eli looked at the monitor. Another casket was being carried in. A woman’s cry echoed throughout the church. Nikki laid a finger on the screen, stroking the woman’s image.

“Kelly’s mom,” she mumbled. “She must hate me.”

God damn it
. “Come here, Nikki-Raine.” He wrapped his hand around the back of her head and pulled her to his shoulder.

Her body shook with heaving sobs and sniffles. Eli held her through the letdown. She needed this more than anything. Wouldn’t do her any good to keep it bottled up. He soothed her with slow caresses the length of her spine and murmured assurances in her ear.

“I love you, Nikki.” He kissed her temple as her body began to settle. The fury would come again, no doubt, but for now she seemed to be quieting. “We will find the bastard who did this. I promise.”

It was a promise he wouldn’t break. One way or another, if he had to search until the day he died, he would find the asshole responsible for causing Nikki so much pain.

She nodded against his shoulder, a silent sort of trust in him.

The door clicked open behind Eli. Nikki stiffened in his arms. Eli turned. Caelan stood in the doorway, a solemn look on his face. He hitched his chin, beckoning Eli over. Eli gave a short incline of his head before kissing the top of Nikki’s head and squeezing her in a tight hug.

“You okay?”

She sniffled and nodded again, then drew away from him. Her face was splotchy red, tracked with tears. He thrust a Kleenex at her before rising.

“I’ll be right back.”

She didn’t respond, and he didn’t expect her to. He moved away.

“She okay?” Caelan asked, drawing him into the hall.

“No.” He turned and watched her. She bit her thumbnail and stared at the screen. Even from this distance he could see the sheen of tears in her eyes.

“Detective Morales is here. He wants to talk to you two.”

Hearing the urgency in his voice, Eli swung his gaze back to Caelan.

“She’s watching the funeral,” Eli hissed. “Now’s not a good time.”

“I think you’ll want to hear this, E.”

Intrigued, Eli dropped his shoulders. “Fine.”

He followed Caelan to where his brother had left Morales standing by the front door. The detective held his hand out and Eli accepted.

“What’s going on?”

Morales grinned from ear to ear. “It’s over.”

“What?”

Eli spun at Nikki’s stunned gasp behind him. He hadn’t even realized she’d followed them. Opening his arms, Eli coaxed her to join him. She didn’t hesitate. He enfolded her in a hug and tilted her face up to drop a kiss on her lips. Her face was still a marbled red color and her nose ran.

“How?” she croaked.

Morales shifted his stance. “We’ve been staking out the house, waiting for this mysterious boyfriend to show up. He finally did.”

“Are you serious?” Nikki asked.

“Yes.” The detective smiled again. “Got there late last night. We arrested the suspect and brought him in for questioning. You were right about the J. His name is Josh Summerton. He’s been begging for his lawyer and he’s got a rap sheet a mile long. Rape, burglary, even had a restraining order slapped on him for stalking a woman. Plus, he has absolutely no alibi for the night of the murders. Says he was in a hotel room all alone.”

“But did he do it?” Eli growled.

Morales shrugged which didn’t make Eli feel a hundred percent better.

“There was no evidence at the scene. Pinning this on anybody is going to be difficult, but I’m confident we’ve got him. Crime Scene unit has been swarming his house all night and morning. We pulled his records and have people looking at his computer. The phone is clean. It’s like he doesn’t use it. We even found several pre-paid cells at his place. He’s done a lot of traveling, has weekends blocked off on his calendar, and he’s one meticulous son of a bitch too, by the looks of his apartment. But here’s the clincher. He’s a nurse at the hospital. How the hell he ever got a job as a nurse is something we’ll be looking into, but we suspect he’s been using an alias.”

Eli fisted his hands, one of which got tangled in Nikki’s shirt. She drew in a sharp breath and her body went rigid beneath his arm. Nikki turned into him and buried her face on his chest, sobbing.

“We’ll know more tomorrow and I’ll give you a call then, but for now, I think it’s safe for you to relax your guard a little. This guy is looking like our prime suspect. And hey, if you were innocent, wouldn’t you be all over the ‘I didn’t do it’ speech? Not a word out of this guy,” Morales said, popping his gum.