The night air didn’t have the chill to it that it had the past week or so. Instead humidity wrapped around Perry tightly enough that he could hardly breathe as he walked across her dry lawn to his Jeep parked in front of her neighbor’s house. Maybe tomorrow, when he’d put his temper, and all other emotions, under lock and key, he’d be able to rid himself of the overwhelming desire to walk back into her home and fuck the shit out of her until she admitted she wanted to be with him.
The sooner he backed out of Kylie Dover’s life, the better off he’d be. Focus on this case and nailing the prick who was destroying teenage girls’ lives should be all he allowed into his mind these days.
“Proof once again why you don’t have time for relationships,” he hissed under his breath as he reached his Jeep.
“Perry,” Kylie called out.
He held his car door handle, standing in the street, and watched, actually surprised, as Kylie ran across her yard barefoot and stopped when she reached the sidewalk at the front of his Jeep.
“I told you the truth when I said Dani didn’t want me to come to dinner because she didn’t want her mother playing matchmaker.” In the dark, it was harder to see Kylie’s face. Dark shadows shrouded a good half of her face, while her blue eyes reflected the streetlight behind him and almost glowed in the darkness. “There’s no way to prove this, which makes it speculation, but Dani worries that if we get too close I’ll share with you information she’s confided in me.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“I didn’t mean to hurt you,” she said, her voice cracking while she quickly looked away from him down the street, allowing him to see her pinched expression.
“I’m fine.” He found it interesting that his walking out on her after basically telling her good-bye affected her as much as it did him. Maybe Kylie did possess the ability to feel. Something twisted inside him, refusing to allow him to shove his growing feelings for her away.
“Good. I’m glad to hear that,” she said, her voice soft and sultry. She licked her lips and returned her attention to him, sucking in a breath, which pushed her breasts out and allowed him to see how puckered her nipples were through her dress. “Obviously I don’t know Dani like you do,” she began, watching him warily. “I see that she’s very intelligent. And I see her need to be accepted among her peers, which sometimes allows people, especially young people her age, to refuse to see things as they really are.”
“Tell me what you know.” He knew he sounded hard and cold, and refused to be daunted when she flinched. He’d never admitted to a woman before that she meant more to him than a good fuck. “If she’s done or is thinking about doing anything that could harm her, you’d better tell me.”
“I want your word first that you won’t let her know I told you.”
Like he owed her any kind of promise when she wrapped a cloak around emotions and desire as though it was her fucking wardrobe. Emotions he saw now making her cheeks flush and her eyes glow, even in the darkness.
“If you tell her I told you, she won’t confide in me anymore. I won’t know if she plans on going through with this if she closes herself off to me-kind of like you’re doing now,” she added, letting her voice fade away until her final words were barely audible.
“You have my word, and I don’t lie.”
“There are many different definitions, and reasons for not telling someone everything about you,” she said, tilting her chin defiantly. “I guess Dani’s safety is more important, though, than what you think about me. I’m worried that she’s talking to a boy on the Internet and that she might sneak out to meet him. With teenage girls disappearing right now, and his online name-”
“What is his online name?” Perry barked, interrupting her while every inch of him hardened painfully. He realized he gripped his door handle hard enough that he might rip it off his door and forced himself to let it go. Flexing and unflexing his hands, he doubted there was much he could do to harbor his anger at this point. “Tell me, Kylie.”
“It’s spelled in such a way that you wouldn’t guess it by looking at it, but Dani told me it’s pronounced ‘Peter Fish.’ She’s talking to an exchange student named Petrie and has been for a good six months. Now she’s outraged that he’s meeting another girl who goes to her school when Dani thought that they had some kind of online committed relationship.” Kylie walked around his Jeep, pausing at the front end of the driver’s side, but then clearing the distance between them and taking his hand in hers. “She’s going to go meet him. If the friendship I’ve created with her is tarnished in any way, I won’t be able to stop her.”
He pulled his hand from Kylie’s and turned to his Jeep; then because the emotions already boiling over inside him from Kylie, the frustrations from dealing with the Simolis, and being terrified that somehow his nieces would be pulled into this nightmare before he could catch the guy, needed an outlet, he roared loud enough to burn his throat when he pounded the roof of his car.
It surprised the hell out of him when Kylie grabbed his arm, pushing him hard enough that he turned to face her, and then moved into his arms. She leaned against him, stretching her hot, sexy body against his, and wrapped her arms around his neck. She wasn’t tall enough to capture his mouth without him lowering his face to hers, but when her lashes fluttered over her eyes and once again she licked her lips in invitation he didn’t dwell on the very real reasons why he should walk out of her life and stay out of it.
And he needed to. He’d known pathological liars in the past, people who would lie about what they had for breakfast because for some fucked-up reason it was easier for them to do that than tell the truth. They were annoying, exhausting, and he had no time or desire for someone like that in his world today. Refusing to admit to feelings that were as obvious as the nose on her pretty face was damn near the same thing as being a compulsive liar in his book.
Perry broke off the kiss, realizing his hands were on her ass, and dragged his palms around her hips while straightening and then looking down at her.
“I’m leaving,” he announced, his voice thick with the emotions that demanded he stay and fuck the shit out of her.
Kylie nodded once, her lips slightly parted and damp and swollen from his kiss. He ran his fingers past the edge of her dress, feeling her warm thigh and something else.
Her pretty blue eyes, turned milky from lust, cleared and grew sharp when he shifted from her, glancing down to see what his fingers had just touched.
“Goddamn, Kylie,” he whispered, holding on to the edge of her dress when she tried turning away and backing up at the same time. “You aren’t going anywhere. I offered you an out. You came to me. You know I’m not going to accept any lying and I walked away from you, but you came out here.”
“To tell you about Dani. I don’t want her hurt,” Kylie pleaded, grabbing his hand that held on to her dress.
“You kissed me.” He kept a firm hold on her dress, raising it slightly while she pushed on his hand, although there was no way she could make him let go of her, or keep him from ripping the damn thing off her if he felt so inclined. “You want this, darling, it’s a full package. Tell me right now why the fuck you’re wearing a gun strapped to your thigh, and if it’s a lie-”
“You broke into my house,” she cried out, digging her nails into his wrist in an effort to keep him from dragging her dress up to her hip. “I knew someone was in there. I heard you. But I didn’t know-”
“Stop right there. Your cameras picked me up running across your yard. And you’re a smart woman; you would have backed up the footage, possibly seen me park my Jeep.” That busted look he’d seen way too many times in his life was written all over her face. It was the same expression he saw when she told him she was twenty-seven when her ID said she was twenty-three. “I’m sure you watched me back up when I decided to try breaking in. Make sure the next words that come out of your mouth are chosen very, very carefully.”
He hiked her dress up a bit more, barely noticing the pinch from her fingernails when she tried stopping him. The longer she stared at him, remaining stubbornly quiet, the more he feared the truth.
“Are you hiding from someone?” he demanded. “God, Kylie, if someone is stalking you.”
She pursed her lips, looking as though she wanted another kiss. On an impulse, he grabbed the gun, quickly unsnapping the strap that kept it secure in its holster, and slid it out. When he let go of her dress, she let go of his wrist but then grabbed the gun.
And not like a novice, inexperienced and ready to fight for a weapon that could go off and get one of them shot. Kylie’s smaller hand went around his, pushing the direction of the gun away from both of them.
“You can’t take that,” she said, sounding deadly serious.
He shook his head, refusing to let the sense of betrayal that bit at him when she still wouldn’t open up and tell him the truth.
“You forget, my dear. I’m an officer of the law. I sure the fuck can take this. In fact, you’re going to stand right there and not move while I call it in. Let’s find out who it’s registered to.”
“I can’t let you do that, Perry.” She looked at him as though she possessed the strength to physically take it away from him. “I’m not hiding from anyone. No one is stalking me,” she told him, her crisp, cool tone grabbing his attention. She blinked a few times as she chewed her lower lip, as if it took a lot of work on her part to force whatever she might say next out of her mouth. “I am looking for Peter. He’s not going to take another teenager. I’m really close to meeting him myself and when I do-”
“Goddamn it. Like fucking hell!” Perry yanked the gun from her and opened his car door, placing the gun on the seat and then turning to her. “And this is why you feed me lie after lie, denying your feelings for me, because you know I’ll stop you? Are you that obsessed with playing detective?”
“Perry, give me back my gun. If you call in to your dispatch and run those serial numbers, they will know you’re here with me. And I can’t allow you to risk your investigation, or mine, by doing that.”
“What the fuck?” He stared at her, digesting what she’d just said. “Why would my running those serial numbers hinder my investigation?”
“Please give me back my gun.”
Turning from her, he climbed into his car and flipped on his dome light. It surprised him and irked the hell out of him even more when she didn’t say anything as he wrote down the serial number. Kylie had just warned him against calling the number in to his dispatcher. But there were other ways to learn who owned this gun.
After writing down the number, he stood, holding the gun flat in his palm, and held it out for her to take. Which she did, and promptly checked to make sure the security on it was in place and then slid it back into its holster, not watching what she did but focusing on his face. Like she’d done it a million times-like a pro.
Suddenly the thought of her being incapable of feeling faded from his mind. Kylie’s story went a lot deeper than that, and it was about to get exposed.
“I’ll see you tomorrow night at five,” he informed her, sliding back behind his driver’s wheel. “Wear something nice but casual. No short skirts.”
He drove off with her blank, almost hard expression burned in his mind. It was as if she was resigned to something, and he wasn’t going to sleep until he knew every detail of what it was.
Thirty minutes later he endured the silence on the other end of the line, about done with people who he thought were his friends not telling him what he wanted to know.
“Noah, man, talk to me,” he insisted.
“I’m here, man. Where did you get this gun again?”
“Just tell me who the fuck it’s registered to.”
The loud sigh on the other end of the line crept over his skin annoyingly, like someone juicing up his nerves, exposing them, and rubbing the wrong way so as to irritate him and piss him the fuck off.
“Damn it, man, I’m sick the fuck of being lied to. I’ve dealt with it all night and walked away from it once. She came back to me, damn it. I have a right to know the goddamn truth.”
“Actually, you don’t,” Noah said seriously. “And I believe you, man. I would be mad as hell, too. I know it doesn’t make any sense to you. I’m afraid you’re going to have to leave her alone.”
“Excuse me? What? Suddenly you’re my mother?” he snarled. “Noah, tell me what the hell you’re talking about.”
“Man, you’ve taken on the wrong woman this time. Leave it to you…,” he said, pausing and grunting something under his breath that didn’t sound good.
“Tell me who she is.”
“I can’t.”
Silence weighed so heavily between them it was making it hard as hell to breathe. Perry wanted to scream. He wanted to reach through the phone and beat the crap out of his long-time good friend.
“She’s an FBI agent,” Perry spit out, guessing.
But he wasn’t ready for the continued silence to follow. Perry felt a cold sweat soak his forehead when Noah didn’t confirm or deny his guess.
“Goddamn, son of a bitch.” He rubbed his face, his heart suddenly pounding adrenaline through his system with a fury he could barely hold on to. “No wonder she almost panicked when I suggested calling in the serial number.”
“Perry, leave it alone.”
“Of course, Noah. I’m sure that is exactly what the fuck you would do in the same circumstance.”
Noah grunted into Perry’s ear, again not commenting, but not disputing the accusation, either.
“Goddamn good thing I speak Neanderthal. So tell me, she’s working undercover and that is why she’s lying every time she opens that pretty little mouth of hers.”
“You know I’m not going to answer your questions.” Noah might as well just have confirmed everything Perry just said. His mind raced, trying to come up with wording good enough to drag more information out of his FBI friend. “I made it to a crime scene tonight only to learn the FBI beat me to the punch. They announced tonight their involvement in this case. But I’ve worked alongside FBI agents before on other cases. So there’s got to be a damn good reason why someone has decided she can’t reveal who she is to anyone, not even me.”
“Don’t push it, man.”
“Like fucking hell. I’m going to fucking shove my way into this one. You have no idea.”
As he remembered how she ran across her yard barefoot, chasing him down instead of letting him leave her, Perry’s insides tightened. His urge to protect her peaked to dangerous levels. He would make sure she didn’t get hurt while she pursued a madman, and at the same time vowed to destroy whoever it was who decided she could take on this case by herself.
“This isn’t worth jeopardizing your career over, man.”
“You have no idea what it’s fucking worth to me, man. What if I told you going after that cop lady of yours wasn’t worth it a year ago?”
“I would have told you to go to fucking hell,” Noah said, laughing dryly.
“Well, back at you, man.”
“You take any information you stumble onto, Perry-”
“I know the fucking ropes,” he hissed. But the realization hitting him like a brick in the head at the moment was strong enough to knock sense even into his thick skull. “She’s on this case, undercover, and can’t tell me the truth. I can learn it, though, man. I wouldn’t jeopardize her job. All that I need to know is the truth. I’ll make sure she understands that I won’t blow her cover.” There wasn’t an ounce of doubt in his mind that once he made her see that he knew who she was, Kylie would quit lying. Then he could protect her properly. And he would get her to admit she was having feelings for him, too, feelings that went beyond craving a good fuck. “I know she won’t stop working the case. But you have no clue. Kylie is one hot, petite little number. Whoever decided to send her after a monster all by herself needs his head examined.”
“You go right ahead and tell her that,” Noah suggested, this time his laughter deeper, louder, as if he’d just heard a good joke. “I know a lady cop who just loves hearing that because she’s hot as hell and sexy to boot she shouldn’t go after the bad guy. Let me know if your woman can kick ass as well as mine can.”
Perry barely listened. He sat at his computer, typing in various versions of Kylie’s name, along with the words “agent” and “FBI,” until he found what he needed.
“Donovan,” Perry said out loud.
“What?”
“She isn’t Kylie Dover. Her name is Kylie Donovan.”
“Man, let it go. Just go solve your case.”
“Do you know her?”
“You know I can’t confirm that. Furthermore, this conversation never happened.”
Perry knew he had it now. “It’s cool, man. What are friends for.”
“Uh-huh. Talk to me once you’ve solved this case.”
“Will do.” Perry hung up the phone. It was time to read up on Miss Donovan.
Special Agent Kylie Donovan had one hell of a track record. He wasn’t able to find so much on the Internet, other than random newspaper articles, when he did a search on her name. But when he logged onto the special Web site allowing him exclusive access to crime history and a search engine designed to focus on criminal history, Agent Donovan appeared as much as any agent.
She was in fact twenty-seven years old, from Dallas, TX, and the only surviving daughter of Kent and Deirdre Donovan. The password-protected search engine pulled up a lot more articles that were successfully buried in the Internet available to the general public. Government agencies might not be able to curb reporters and different forms of media across the nations, newspapers, magazines, blogs on news channel Web sites, from reporting facts they’d just as soon not have as public knowledge. There were ways, however, to make it hard for names to pop up when a search was done. It was a process that Perry didn’t know a lot about. What he did know was that if he truly wanted information on someone, logging onto the Web site offered through his line of work proved the most effective and the least hassle.
“Impressive, Donovan, very impressive,” he said, leaning back in his office chair in his den and stretching. It was almost four in the morning, and sleep was a long way off. Especially with adrenaline pumping through him with a vengeance. “You’ve nailed quite a few sexual predators in your time.” In fact, it was obviously her area of expertise.
He opened another file, which was an article dated thirteen years ago. It wasn’t about Kylie Donovan but Karen Donovan a teenage girl found raped and murdered in Dallas, TX. Surviving family were her parents and younger sister, Kylie.
Perry blew out a staggered breath, scrubbing his head with his palms while his eyes burned from staring at his screen for so long. He stood, feeling the kinks in his muscles, and twisted his torso a few times while contemplating his next move.
“You’ve got the facts, Flynn. Now what to do with the knowledge.” He spoke the words, but there wasn’t any doubt in his mind what he would do.
There were options. Breaking into her home again was one. He could show up over there and knock on her door, let the cameras record him arriving. Although now it made more sense why they seemed to be set up more for surveillance than protection. It also made sense why she didn’t want him in that middle bedroom or running a check on her gun. Kylie worked undercover. But part of her was real. He’d seen some of her true colors. The most recent being her running barefoot across her lawn after him when he walked out on her.
Maybe she couldn’t tell him she was working the Peter case, but she was able to show him that she didn’t want him walking out of her life.
Perry picked up his phone and scrolled to her number, which he’d recently entered. Then finding his earpiece, he pushed the send button and listened as it rang.
“Hello,” she said, sounding out of breath, when she answered on the second ring. Kylie wasn’t sleeping.
“Where are you?” he demanded.
“Who is this?”
“Special Agent Kylie Donovan, this is Lieutenant Perry Flynn. We need to talk.”