A Little Harmless Submission(4)

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“Carino,” Captain Akada yelled down the hall. “Need you in my office right now.”

Damn. Rome had almost escaped the building without having to talk to the captain. From the time Rome had returned from a call, Akada had been locked up in his office with some suits, which was fine by Rome. Three days after finding Lisa and they had nothing more than they did before. Hell, they almost had less than with the other three killings. The bastard was getting better. Worse, Rome knew the killer was getting more infatuated with his work.

He reached the door and discovered it open. He slipped in and found three people in the room. One was, of course, the captain, the other were two dark suited, very unhappy looking people. Feds.

The man was typical of the species. Dark suit, blank expression. He looked like the kind of guy who would sell his mother to the highest bidder to gain a promotion. Short brown hair, brown eyes, and a frown. Typical. The woman, not much different, but there was something vaguely familiar about her. The suit showed nothing of her body. Her dark hair was pulled back into a tight bun at the base of her neck. When she looked in his direction, he felt like he’d been punched in the gut. He hadn’t expected the luminous blue eyes or the full, pouty lips. Her skin was flawless.

“Shut the door, Carino.”

He shook himself out of his stupor and did as ordered. Since the other two chairs were occupied by the feds, he leaned against the wall.

“This is Brice Masters and Maria Callahan of the FBI.”

He nodded in their direction. “What does the FBI from the mainland want with Honolulu PD?”

The woman’s eyes widened, but if he hadn’t been watching, he wouldn’t have seen it. This one was used to hiding her feelings, but what fed wasn’t trained to do that? Still, there was something ice cold about her behavior, something that bothered him on a level he couldn’t understand. Possibly because he couldn’t read her emotions, which left him on the outside.

“They’ve been chasing a serial killer. The Dom. They think he might be our guy.”

Of course he had heard the name. It had been splashed on every headline for the last year. He wanted to argue with them, but he knew it would be useless. When the FBI sunk their teeth into an investigation, they didn’t let go until they chomped off a huge piece.

Despite that, there was a good chance this was their guy. Without any DNA, he hadn’t been able to make any kind of match. Still, he knew from the crime scenes, this wasn’t an amateur. This was someone who was very good at what he was doing. This one had been killing for a while.

Still, he refused to let them know what he thought. “What makes you think that?”

Masters smiled and opened his mouth, but the woman beat him to answering.

“Let me make some assumptions about your man. He picks up women at BDSM clubs. Or singles them out. No one really knows how he finds them, but they all go to the same club. Then, he beats them, sometimes tortures them, rapes them, and in the end, strangles them with a combo of a scarf and then finally manual strangulation. Their panties are missing, also. Did I get it right?”

So close it made him twitch. “A bit.”

The smile she offered him didn’t reach her blue eyes and was as cold as the top of Mauna Loa. “Really? I have a feeling I was spot on.”

He hated her cockiness. Besides the fact that she was correct, he didn’t like the premonition that was winding its way through his brain at the moment. He glanced at the captain. “Are they taking over the case?”

Akada shook his head. “No. Not officially.”

He allowed for a beat of silence to go by. “In what capacity?”

“Agent Callahan, would you like to explain?”

From the look on her face, she didn’t want to, but she straightened her shoulders. When she turned all her attention in his direction, he felt like he had been hit by a bolt of lightning. His body reacted without him being able to control it. She had looked at him before, but now she was concentrating on him only. Her attention had his blood heating. Her eyes were so large, so luminous, they were at odds with her clothing. There was nothing staid about the dark blue gaze she trained on him. Even now, he couldn’t seem to concentrate on what she was saying. His mind had melted the moment she’d looked directly at him. What the hell was wrong with him? It took all his power to get his head wrapped around the idea that he should be paying attention to her.

“We’ve gotten close to our man a few times. Of course, we don’t go in right away because we usually wait for a few deaths before we try to take over. Our problem is that every time we show up on the scene, our man disappears into thin air. Well, when the former agents showed up.”