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They sank into the sheets.His mouth was on hers and she let herself ease into him.Softly, he ran a hand down her back, and she sighed at the simple pleasure of it.The comfort and passion he offered was like no other.Rolling her onto her back on the bed, he got rid of her yoga pants and tank top in one seamless motion.She stared up at him, enthralled by his handsome, familiar face.Then he speared his hands into her hair, spread like silk over the pillow, as his eyes speared into her soul and the emotion in the indigo-blue depths undid her.Every muscle ached at his touch and she knew he’d ruined her for any other man.She loved Nico like no other before.He was her end and her beginning.
And now they had a new thread to add to their story.
She’d been lost in a world of sensation as Nico worked his magical hands over her body.But soon, his soft touches became demanding and needy as he divested himself of his clothes, and then they were both naked.Pinning her to the bed with his muscular thighs, his tongue ravaged her mouth then he moved down so that his teeth nipped at the sensitive skin of her neck.She moaned as waves of desire hit her.This moment had gone from soft and slow to hard and fast in three short seconds.She needed him inside her.Now.And she let him know, bucking her hips against his, urging his cock between her legs.Nico didn’t need any more encouragement as he slipped into her and she clenched around him.She came fast and hard, and still felt the echoes of her own orgasm as Nico thrust three more times, then he shuddered like he was falling apart and cried out her name as he came, groaning and collapsing onto her as the waves of ecstasy washed through him.
It was hot and dirty and fast.This was something new they could add to their list of things they’d never done before.Sex while she was pregnant.Lacey remembered reading something about pregnancy hormones making a woman horny.If that was the case, they were going to enjoy the next seven months.
Shaking her head, she cleared away thoughts of sex with Nico and got her mind back on the job.It wouldn’t do for Linc to see this dreamy look in her eyes.
Half an hour later, they were cruising along the back roads of Burnie, the crumbs of their oh-so-gloriously-rich-and-fresh croissants still littering their laps and the smell of the best coffee in the world permeating the cabin.Lacey was happy, her stomach full—for now—and she and Linc had settled back into their normal easy chatter.Their task today was to check out an old, abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of town where worried residents had reported a group of homeless people were using it as a drug den to shoot up.Then, if that was all clear, they were to set up a radar trap along the highway farther out.Lacey wasn’t happy about issuing fines to speeding drivers—a lot of citizens saw it as nothing but a revenue raiser—but it was part of the job and she wasn’t one to argue politics.She’d much rather be tracking down more clues on the supposed serial killer, but with no new avenues to follow up, that trail seemed to have gone cold.And Nico had the help of the two detectives from Launceston now.
“Did you see my uncle’s expression yesterday, when Sally-Ann tried to set him up with that friend of hers?”Linc let out a loud laugh.Tyrell Jackson, Linc’s uncle and the reason Linc was here in Tasmania on secondment from Detroit, had become the subject of Sally-Ann’s laser focus lately.Sally-Ann was the mother hen of the police station, constantly taking the junior constables under her wing, and making everyone feel welcome and loved.But her one foible—some saw it as a serious flaw—was that she liked to see everyone happy.And in her mind happy equated to settled down with a good husband or wife.Sally-Ann conveniently ignored the fact that she herself was happily single and likely to stay that way.
“Tyrell didn’t know which way to look.”Linc roared with laughter.“He was brought up not to disagree with a woman.But when Sally-Ann said she’d already booked him a table at The Foreshore for him and his lady friend, he went white as a sheet.”
“I thought Tyrell was due to head home to Detroit in the next few months,” Lacey said.
“Yeah, he is.But that doesn’t seem to put Sally-Ann off.Maybe she thinks if she can find him the right woman, he might decide to settle here and stay forever.”
“Hmm,” Lacey contemplated Tyrell’s plight.“Maybe—”
Dispatch came through on the radio, interrupting their banter.“Unit one-two-nine, I’ve got a rather agitated man on the line who wants to talk to Constable Carmichael.”
“Right,” Linc said into the dash microphone.“She’s here with me in the car.Any details on who he is and what he wants?”
“He says his name is Pacca, and he talked to you the other day.Carmichael must’ve made an impression on him, because he said he’d only speak to her.”Lacey sat up straighter at the mention of the farmer’s name and she sent Linc a look that said,I wonder what he wants now?
“Patch him through, Delilah, thank you,” Lacey replied.
Pacca’s scratchy voice sounded through the radio.“Is that you?Is that the girl in the uniform I talked to the other day?”
“Hello, Mr.McMillan.Yes, it’s me, Constable Carmichael.My partner and I were the first officers to respond to your call the other morning regarding the murdered girl.”
“Oh, thank Christ,” he blurted.Delilah at dispatch was right; Pacca sounded agitated and slightly out of breath.“That tall detective fella gave me his card, but I threw it in the bin.I need you to come out to my farm immediately.Something else is going on.”
Lacey shot Linc a look of alarm.“Calm down, Mr.McMillan, and tell us what’s happening.”Even as she spoke, Linc did a graceful U-turn and began heading in the direction of the alpaca farm.
“I think there’s another girl.Out on my back road.Only this time she’s alive.”
CHAPTER SIX
NICO BENT HIS knees and squatted down at the edge of the road, watching Lacey and the girl intently.It was hot, even in the dappled shade, and sweat trickled down between his shoulder blades as he pursed his lips and tried to figure out what was going on here.Absently, he picked a piece of dried grass and tapped it against his chin.This was all kinds of fucked up, and he was completely unsure of his next move.All he knew was that the old farmer had reported a naked girl walking up and down the same track at the back of his property where they’d found the murdered girl two days ago.She wouldn’t let the old man near her, screaming and hissing at him like a frenzied cat if he approached, and that’s when Pacca had called Lacey.
Linc told him upon arrival that the same thing had happened to him when he’d first tried to approach the girl.But when Lacey had waved Linc back to the cruiser and walked slowly toward her, the girl had calmed slightly, finally letting Lacey drape her police jacket around her shoulders to cover her nakedness.Then she’d managed to get her to sit and drink some water; the girl was so parched she’d gulped most of the bottle before Lacey could stop her.When Nico had arrived fifteen minutes later, Linc was looking on with a slightly bemused frown from where he was leaning against the bumper of the cruiser, completely unused to taking a back seat in something this important.
Lacey had shaken her head at Nico when he tried to come near, waving him off with the ferocity of a mother bear protecting her cub.It seemed Lacey had formed an attachment to the girl, and he was letting her run with it.For now.
Linc knew no more than Nico.He hadn’t been able to leave his spot by the car; every time he made a move toward the women, the girl would get to her feet, darting him terrified glances and looking like she was about to bolt.So Linc had left Lacey to it.Now, Lacey sat in the long grass at the side of the road in the shade of a tall gum tree talking quietly to the girl.More police officers had arrived forming a cordon around the crime scene, but everyone had been ordered to stand back.The girl became agitated at the sight of another police officer, especially if they were male, and just as Linc had declared, it seemed like she might do a runner if they so much as looked at her sideways.Nico had made sure he was the exception, edging ever so slowly closer, which still wasn’t close enough to hear what they were saying, annoying him to no end.Sensing a woman’s touch was needed, he’d called in a female doctor, Mary Erikkson, instead of Imran, the male psychologist they normally used, to try and help talk some sense into this poor girl, and she should be here any minute.
Was this girl connected to the dead girl?And if so, why was she out wandering naked in the middle of the day?Had she escaped from the same man who’d killed the first girl?Or even more sinister, had he just let her go?
Nico had made no headway toward getting closer to Lacey and the girl by the time the psych arrived.The heat of the day had become oppressive and his patience at having to stay at this distance from a prospective lead in his murder case had just about run out.But when Mary arrived, walking briskly toward them along the dusty track, Lacey stood up and beckoned her over.It was the first time Nico got a good look at the girl’s face, as she’d been hunkered down behind Lacey, almost using her as a shield, and what he saw made him forget everything else.Her face was ravaged by many tiny cuts and bruises, but it wasn’t the physical injuries that floored him, it was the terrible torment in her eyes.Like she’d seen right down to the depths of hell and it’d ripped her soul apart.
Mary was by Lacey’s side in a heartbeat, helping her get the girl to her feet.Then the three of them put their heads together for many moments in quiet conversation.Finally, the trio turned and with Lacey on one arm and Mary on the other, they began to walk slowly toward the ring of waiting police cars.The girl was still barefoot, and she wobbled and nearly stumbled.If it hadn’t been for the two women by her side, she would’ve fallen into the dirt.Her thin legs were pale and also covered in cuts and bruises beneath Lacey’s police jacket.
“She’s agreed to go to hospital with me,” Mary said in a tone that brooked no argument as they passed by him.“You can follow behind in your car if you like, but it might be a while before she’s in any fit state to talk to you.”
“Can one of my officers go with you?”he asked.It was imperative they keep her under guard until they had a chance to interview her.For her own safety as much as his need to find answers.Normally, Mary would understand this; it was standard protocol.But for some reason, this girl seemed to be engendering all sorts of maternal overprotectiveness in both her and Lacey.
