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Using whatever strength I had left, I compelled myself upright, ignoring the wave of nausea that threatened as the world righted itself around me. Things were a little clearer, the memory of following a suspect exploding into my head, but who? Glancing around the room for clues, I rose on shaky legs and regretted the action. Stumbling for the open door, I rested against the wall, tugging harder at whatever held my hands behind me. Wherever I was, I had to get away. Something ominous had happened. I wouldn’t be tied up for fun since I wasn’t into any of the kinky fuckery of the Noble case, which meant—
Brow furrowing, I backtracked, trying to decide why the idea had resonated. The Noble case—which was that? The one where the woman had been stalked and abducted by the creep hiding in her antic. An involuntary shiver raced along my spine. She had seemed to enjoy Walker’s dark attention, including the ropes he brought with him, but they did nothing for me. I didn’t—
“Shit, that’s it.” Scanning the room again, the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. “The Noble case. I went after the perpetrator. That’s how I ended up here.”
This is his house.
The final sentence echoed through my brain like a death bell. He’d put me in these binds and drugged me. A wave of terror washed over me as I realized how much trouble I was in. I had to get out of the binds and get the hell away.
Yanking harder, I pulled until the fetters cut into my flesh, the pain making me wince, but to my surprise, the effort created slack in the binds, enough space for one wrist to wiggle free. Stretching my fingers, I unwound the rope from my other wrist before discarding it to the floor. I watched it fall to the ground, missing the expensive-looking rug by a few inches and landing on the hard wood. Watching its landing place, my attention was drawn to something yellow, and turning, I recognized it.
“My taser!”
A surge of hope burst through me as I collected it and examined the weapon. Everything appeared to be still working—the one beacon of light in my increasingly dark situation. Slipping out of the door, I glanced both ways along the dark corridor. I couldn’t remember which way led back to the bathroom window I’d used to gain entry, but I knew one thing—I had to get the hell out of there before Walker returned.
Lurching forward, I headed into the darkness, searching for anything about the hall that I recalled. One hand skimming the wall, I gripped the taser in the other. Walker had gotten ahead of me once before, but I’d be damned before I let him have the upper hand again.
***
Kade
It took every ounce of my willpower to shut the door and leave Tiffany. She looked red hot—bound and gagged and pleading with me with her big blue eyes—and to make things even more enticing, the sound of her first orgasm resounded as I closed the door. There was no need to lock it. My little girl wouldn’t be going anywhere until I said so.
Lips curling, I headed back to the den, steering my thoughts back to what needed to be done. Lucas had to go, and this was the time to decide how. My gun was one possibility, but I’d personally never been a fan of firearms. That was why I’d strangled all the other women—it meant I had time to watch the lights go out and revel in all those tiny details. Guns were too fast and messy. You couldn’t appreciate the small gasps and desperate pleas. I liked to work with my hands, which was why Lucas would go the same way as all the others.
I never thought I’d be on the verge of taking a life again. Meeting Tiffany had changed me and ebbed at my desire to kill until it was nothing but a sorry recollection. In one short evening, D.S. Lucas had turned all that on its head. It wasn’t that I sought her destruction or hungered to kill. It was more that Lucas left me with no choice.
She came to my house and stuck her nose in my business, but clearly, the detective hadn’t heeded the lesson of our feline friends. It was curiosity that had killed the cat, and now, Lucas had to pay for her nosiness. I knew what had to be done and was reconciled to the task ahead. I’d strangle her while she was asleep. It would be over before either of us knew it.
The thought buoyed me as I crossed the threshold into the small family room, my gaze flitting to the sofa. It took a couple of seconds for my brain to register the fact that she wasn’t there.
She wasn’t there!
Alarm exploded inside me. Where was she? I intentionally hadn’t given her a huge dose of sedative but hadn’t expected it to wear off so quickly.
Senses heightened, I searched the room for any sign of Lucas, but unsurprisingly, she was nowhere to be found. The woman was a detective, for fuck’s sake. She knew better than to loiter in dangerous situations. Depending on when she roused, she could be long gone at this point, and mentally, I thanked myself for binding her wrists.
“Although you loosened them,” I reminded myself though gritted teeth, and turning, I noticed the evidence on the floor. Curled in a ball were the ropes Lucas had managed to wiggle free from. “Against your better judgment.”
Shit.
Frustration abounded as I stalked from the room, switching on lights as I passed. Wherever Lucas was, she would still be under the influence of the cocktail I gave her, which gave me hope. I would find her and deal with her. It just wasn’t going to be as simple as I’d initially anticipated.
Marching past rooms, I stopped at each one, illuminating the space and listening for any sound that might indicate my unwelcome guest. Anxiety churned in my stomach with each passing failure, the weight of the predicament pressing down on me. If Lucas had gotten out of her binds, she could have found her way out of the house, could be fleeing back to her vehicle, and then what?
“She doesn’t know anything.”
The so-called reassurance did little to console. She knew enough. Her instincts about me had proven to be right—and as if that wasn’t bad enough, I’d just added a new list of felonies to her list. Non-consensual tethering and drugging were generally frowned upon, especially in the police service.
It wasn’t until I approached my office that I heard the noise, the shuffling of feet on the carpet, the gasping panicked breaths of a woman in trouble, and possibly of fingers grasping the windowpane in a futile attempt to open them. Little did Lucas know, with the exception of the one entry point she’d already exploited, nowhere in my house was an easy escape route. The windows in my study were locked, as were all the others on the property. I’d only left the downstairs bathroom one open to air the space—a mistake I wouldn’t make again.
Slowing my pace, I pressed my back to the wall and edged closer. I could take a little woman like Lucas without much effort, but I was still guarded. Things would be easier if my advance was unexpected. Reaching the end of the wall, I peered around the door, expecting to see her silhouette there at the window, trying to break free, but to my confusion, there was no one.
Where are you?
I’d definitely heard someone in the room, and it had to be Lucas. Tiffany was well occupied in her playroom, and I’d have heard her if she’d managed to make a run for it. No, this was our friend, the detective.
“Come and play!”
