Ultimate Prey (Book 3 Ultimate CORE) (CORE Series) (55 page)
Read Ultimate Prey (Book 3 Ultimate CORE) (CORE Series) Online
Authors: Kristine Mason
Gross
. “Why would we be involved and not the Collier County Sheriff’s Office or the FBI?”
“The FBI isn’t involved, but the sheriff’s office is and have arrested a funeral home director who allegedly removed dead bodies from their caskets before burial or cremation, and not only sewed the skin and eggs inside, but…sexually abused the corpses.”
Oh, my God
. “He’s a necrophiliac?”
“I don’t believe so, but that’s for your team to prove or disprove.”
“Do you know anything about the man they’ve arrested?” she asked, slightly disappointed with their first assignment. She’d been expecting exciting cases like bank heists, or going after drug dealers or maybe serial killers. Not a necrophiliac with an obsession with the dead and snakes.
“He’s the son-in-law of an acquaintance of mine, who is quite prominent in the community.”
She rolled her eyes and looked out the window again. “Ian, you’re going to have to be a little more specific. Chances are, we’re going to find out anyway.”
He let out a breath. “He’s a state senator.”
Ian’s list of acquaintances never ceased to amaze her. “How soon do you want us to start?”
“Yesterday. Who do you have in mind for the job?”
She looked away from the window, to the photograph of Ryan and Shane hanging on the wall, and stared at Shane’s picture. “Someone who has a thing for snakes.”
THE END
* * *
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Look for Shane’s story April 2015…
Perfectly Twisted
Book One of CORE Above the Law
Other CORE Titles Available by Kristine Mason
Ultimate Kill
Book One of the Ultimate CORE Trilogy
When the past collides with the present, the only way to ensure the future lies in the ultimate kill…
Naomi McCall is a woman of many secrets. Her family has been murdered and she’s been forced into hiding. No one knows her past or her real name, not even the man she loves.
Jake Tyler, former Marine and the newest recruit to the private investigation agency, CORE, has been in love with a woman who never existed. When he learns about the lies Naomi has weaved, he’s ready to leave her—until an obsessed madman begins sending her explosive messages every hour on the hour.
Innocent people are dying. With their deaths, Naomi’s secrets are revealed and the truth is thrust into the open. All but one. Naomi’s not sure if Jake can handle a truth that will change their lives. But she is certain of one thing—the only way to stop the killer before he takes more lives is to make herself his next victim.
Ultimate Fear
Book Two of the Ultimate CORE Trilogy
When a deranged mother’s grief drives her to replace her dead son over and over, obsession leads to murder…
Chicago detective Jessica Donavan will never stop looking for her missing daughter. Her obsession has destroyed her marriage, but the search is the only thing that helps keep her sane and her mind off of everything she’s lost—her husband and her baby girl. When she uncovers a string of unsolved disappearances and reappearances of a number of baby boys, Jessica turns to her soon to be ex, Dante Russo, a former Navy SEAL turned investigator for the private agency, CORE, to help her fit together the pieces in this perplexing puzzle. But as Dante helps her, she realizes just how much she still craves his support—and his touch.
Dante is still in love with his wife and would do anything to have her back in his life again. He’s been miserable since she left him to deal with the grief over their daughter’s abduction, never understanding how much he grieves as well. When Jessica tells him about the case she’s working, he jumps at the chance to take part in her investigation. He’s hoping not only to save their marriage and ease his personal pain over the loss of their daughter, but to stop a serial kidnapper from taking another victim.
As Jessica and Dante work side by side, pregnant women begin to turn up missing or dead, and they start to uncover the consequences of another woman’s unfathomable grief. The childless mother doesn’t just want a baby. She wants a newborn straight from the womb.
And when forced to confront the dark and twisted perversion of a mother’s obsession, can Jessica and Dante find their lives again…or merely more death?
Shadow of Danger
Book One of the CORE “Shadow” Trilogy
Four women have been found dead in the outskirts of a small Wisconsin town. The only witness, clairvoyant Celeste Risinski, observes these brutal murders through violent nightmares and hellish visions. The local sheriff, who believes in Celeste’s abilities and wants to rid their peaceful community of a killer, enlists the help of an old friend, Ian Scott, owner of a private criminal investigation agency, CORE. Because of Ian’s dark history with Celeste’s family, a history she knows nothing about, he sends his top criminalist, former FBI agent John Kain to investigate.
John doesn’t believe in Celeste’s mystic hocus-pocus, or in her visions of the murders. But just when he’s certain they’ve solved the crimes, with the use of science and evidence, more dead bodies are discovered. Could this somehow be the work of the same killer or were they dealing with a copycat? To catch a vicious murderer, the skeptical criminalist reluctantly turns to the sensual psychic for help. Yet with each step closer to finding the killer, John finds himself one step closer to losing his heart.
Shadow of Perception
Book Two of the CORE “Shadow” Trilogy
What happens when negligent plastic surgeons receive a taste of their own medicine…?
Chicago investigative reporter, Eden Risk, receives an unmarked envelope containing a postcard ordering her to watch the enclosed DVD…or someone else dies. No Police. After Eden watches the DVD, a gruesome, horrifying surgery, she turns to the private criminal investigation agency, CORE, for help. Only she hadn’t expected that help to come with a catch. Her former lover, Hudson Patterson, has been assigned to the case.
Hudson would rather have another CORE agent handle the investigation. Two years ago, he’d screwed things up with Eden…bad. And as more DVDs arrive, Eden and Hudson find themselves not only knee-deep in a twisted investigation, but forced to deal with their past, and the love they’d tried to deny.
Shadow of Vengeance
Book Three of the CORE “Shadow” Trilogy
Welcome to Hell Week. You have seven days to find him…
At Wexman University, male students will do anything to get into a top fraternity. They’ll prove their worth during Hell Week by participating in various physical, psychological and even juvenile pranks. But those shenanigans aren’t so funny when pledges start disappearing. What kind of evil has stalked this small Michigan university for the past two decades? Theories range from obscene scientific experiments to grotesque satanic killings…but they’re all wrong. The murdered boys serve a single purpose…the ultimate revenge.
Rachel Davis, forensic computer analyst for the private investigation agency CORE, has been itching to leave her desk behind and work in the field. When her brother Sean, a student at Wexman, is found beaten and his roommate kidnapped during Hell Week, she gets her chance. Only her boss insists former U.S. Secret Service Agent, Owen Malcolm, helps her with the investigation. Owen is the last person she wants on this assignment. She’d been secretly half in love with him for over four years, until the night he’d crushed her ego and destroyed her hopes for any kind of future with him.
For his own reasons, Owen refuses to risk becoming involved with a coworker. Now that he and Rachel are stuck working side-by-side to solve this perverse investigation, he’s having a hard time fighting his attraction to her…an attraction he’s tried to deny from the moment they met. But time is ticking. They have seven days to find the missing pledge and catch a killer. Seven days before the body count rises and the pledge ends up another victim of Hell Week.
Contemporary Romances by Kristine Mason
