He shivered, his body hot and cold at the same time. Sweat beaded his upper lip as he tried to warm himself up, but he couldn’t seem to. He needed to kill again, needed to feel the power of draining life from a woman’s body and releasing her to hell where she belong.
He needed to hunt.
Chapter Eight
“You’re going over the lists again?” Micah asked as he poured himself a coffee. He held it up as an offer to Rome, and he waved it away. His nerves were already a tangled mess. Adding more caffeine would just make it worse.
“Yeah. We might pick up on someone we didn’t before, someone connected to the feds in some way, or having some connection to be able to find out where and when the FBI was showing up. Plus, we’re going to go over some of the patrol cops around here.”
Micah nodded as he settled in his chair behind his desk. “That sounds like a good idea.”
“But?”
Micah shrugged. “This is a ‘needle in the haystack’ kind of thing. Another thing you’ll want to do is look at the patterns in their lives.”
“We did that. Nothing connects.”
“When I was bounty hunting, one of the things I was good at was looking into people’s backgrounds.”
The interested look in his friend’s eyes told Rome he wanted to help. He could let Micah help a little, but he couldn’t let him put his life on the line.
“No. Other than allowing us to use your club for a sting, I don’t want you near this.”
Micah chuckled. “Oh, I don’t want to help. But you need to go back through their personal lives. Since this is all sexually charged, and all of the women went to the same clubs, you might want to look more into not only who they were involved with, but what particular type. I’m pretty sure the local cops didn’t. And from what you said, the first FBI agent fucked the investigation up. I can almost promise you some of those steps were missed.”
Rome nodded, mentally adding up everything they had to go over. More than likely Maria had already done it. Knowing her, she already had a long list of things she needed to check and recheck. He couldn’t stop the smile when he thought of her looking flushed and happy in bed this morning. She hadn’t expected him to tease her. All it made him want to do was tease her more. He had a feeling that there hadn’t been a lot of light and happy moments in Agent Callahan’s life.
“How was it between you two?”
Rome came out of his musing and looked up at Micah. “What?”
“You practically ran out of here last night. Everyone was talking about it.”
That caught his attention. “Everyone?”
“You know, the regulars. You don’t normally act like that. You have a reputation for being pretty ice cold in your seduction. Of course you drew some notice when you practically beat your chest like a caveman and dragged her out of here last night.
He said nothing, just stared at his friend.
“I have to say, I am a little confused. You told me it was all just undercover work.”
Rome could tell by his friend’s tone that he was screwing with him. “You don’t say.”
Micah nodded then sipped his coffee. “So, I guess your reaction was all part of the ruse?”
Rome said nothing, just kept staring at him.
“Of course, it was good because there are at least half a dozen men interested in her now. And that’ll help with the investigation. They want to know if she lived up to your expectations.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“It isn’t like you get too attached to your subs. A lot of these guys are waiting to see how interested you are in her and when she’ll be available. You know a good sub is hard to come by.”
He felt his eye start to twitch. Just the idea that they were thinking they had a chance at her had his temper soaring. It was irrational and stupid. And, he was sure most people would point out, not very Dom-like.
“And?”
“Well, I’m sure they’re just waiting to pick up your leftovers. Especially Ashton. He really has a thing for her. He was trying to pump Dee for info last night.”
The idea of that slime touching Maria had Rome grinding his teeth. “If one of them even thinks of touching her, I’ll break his fucking hands.”
Micah chuckled again. “You’re easy.”
Irritated with his friend and with himself, Rome stood and started pacing. He didn’t know why he was acting like an idiot. He was becoming obsessed. Yes, they had shared something extraordinary, but it wasn’t like he hadn’t had that connection before with a sub.
As soon as he thought it, he mentally chastised himself. There was nothing normal about what had happened the night before. They had only played a little, and he was already hooked on her. It was a bad thing when he hadn’t even gotten a complete submission from her. Hell, they had barely touched the surface. But somehow he felt more linked to her than any other sub before.