Critical Instinct(13)

Brett would love to get his hands on those teenagers for about ten minutes. They’d never terrify someone in an alley again.

But right now his focus was Paige. He wanted the soft friction of anticipation filling her, like it had been last night when they talked at her show. Not the nervousness of residual terror.

Brett thought about the case files sitting on his desk. Dead women he’d been studying before he had to rush out. Paige wasn’t one of those, and that was the most important thing. Tension he could handle.

But he liked it a whole lot better when her soft body wasn’t tense. He needed to do something about that.

“I was planning to call, you know.” He nudged her with his shoulder. “No need to create massive amounts of drama just to get me here quicker.”

Her laugh might just be the most beautiful thing he’d ever heard. “Yeah, you know me. Attention seeker.”

“How about, since we’re both here, and I probably was only going to give you another six hours before I called and started begging you to go out with me, if we just go ahead and get that Little T grilled cheese?”

“I don’t know… Sounds like you and that sandwich have a past history I’m not sure I can compete with.”

He gave her a grave look. “I’ll admit, leaving Little T’s behind broke my heart. The only way for me to truly get over it is for you to take me there. Watching you eat a Little T sandwich? Now that is a fantasy and a half.”

Her laugh chased the rest of the tension away.

“Okay, but if you start orgasmically moaning in the middle of eating it, I’m leaving you. But I’m willing to give you a chance, to help you get past your lost love.”

Brett felt certain parts of his body sit up at attention at her words, but he kept a light smile. “Good. I was at the station when you called, but I don’t have anything there that needs my immediate attention.”

“On a Saturday?”

“Yeah, a few cases I’m following up on. But it will wait until Monday.” He didn’t want to mention the possible serial killer to Paige. She didn’t remember anything about her attacker. And knowing she could’ve died —should’ve died— would only bring all her tension rushing back.

“I need to get in touch with Jacob from my security team. He drove me here. But my phone broke.”

“I’m sure I have your security firm’s number at my desk. It’s in your file. We’ll let them know you’re with me and that I’ll take you home later.”

Her smile was the most beautiful thing he could remember seeing. “Yeah, that sounds great.”

She stood and handed him his jacket. ”Thanks, I’m feeling warmer now.” She took off her scarf and stuffed it under her arm. “I think I’ll just leave this off so no other teenagers try to accidentally strangle me with it and throw me into a full-blown panic attack.”

Brett could see her irritation with herself again, but didn’t address it. She wasn’t running for her house, demanding to be alone. She wasn’t crying, and even had some color in her face now. She’d had a scare, but she was working her way back from it. Refusing to let it control her.

Courage didn’t always roar.





He kept his face averted as he slid the fifty dollar bill to the teenager.

“Dude, I had no idea she would wig out like that.”

The boy paused, obviously wanting more information, but then thought better of it and just left. Which was good; he was tired of the boy already. The boy had played his role, tricked his friends into grabbing the woman, and now that role was over. He waved the boy away and he ran. Good. He didn’t want to have to kill the boy, but he would.

But he would much rather kill someone who deserved it. He was reminded every single month of how a woman could continue to hurt a man, even after a relationship was long over.

Betray. Abandon. Steal.

Strangle. Stab. Burn. The perfect pattern for the perfect punishment.

Until her.

She had escaped.

Ruined the pattern.

It had taken him months to refocus, to find the pattern again. He’d almost lost control and gotten caught. But now he was back in control again, and she would not escape.

She didn’t leave her house very often, he knew from the cameras he’d placed. He knew she would be out last night and he had seen her, had even watched her from afar at her art exhibit. And had been so close to her last night afterwards when she had walked back to the building.

It would have been hardly any effort at all to grab her, take her, and finish what had been started correctly two years ago.

But then she’d turned and left.

When she’d gone out today he’d quickly followed. Paid the boy to trick his friends into frightening her. Into getting her to walk down the alley alone where he was waiting.

And it had almost worked, until she had called that police officer. Ruining his plans again.

And although he could feel the anger singeing inside his veins that she was still alive, he knew it was for the best.

Her time was coming. She would suffer so much more. He would see to it.

And then his pattern would be perfect once again.





Chapter Ten





Brett took Paige back to the station so he could get the file that had her security firm’s phone number. He spoke to Jacob, explaining the situation. But Jacob wanted to talk to Paige, to hear from her that she was alright. This assured Brett that her security team was doing their job correctly, even though he would’ve preferred if the man had been discreetly tailing Paige rather than letting her go completely alone.

“Jacob, it was just some kids. An unfortunate occurrence. If they had done it to anyone else but me, it probably would’ve been funny all around. I blew it out of proportion.” Brett overheard her assure the other man. “Like you said, I’m not in real danger.”

Brett stacked the files on his desk —no need for her to see the gruesome pictures some of them held— while she finished her conversation.

“No, I don’t need to say it.” She actually rolled her eyes. “I’m sure. Detective Wagner is going to give me a ride home later, so I’ll see you tomorrow or whenever you’re back on shift. Yes, I’m positive.” Eyes rolled again. “Bye.”

“Everything okay?” he asked her.

“This is all kind of new for me, so for the security team too.”

“What, calling from a police station?”

“That, but everything else too. Me being out on my own. Me getting a ride with someone else. Me telling them I’ll be late.” She shrugged a delicate shoulder.

“You guys have an emergency word or phrase, right? That’s what Jacob was double checking on?”

She looked surprised. “How did you know?”

He put the files in a neat pile near his keyboard. “I checked out the firm you use. They’re one of the best around here. In a situation like yours, having an emergency phrase to communicate that you’re in trouble but can’t say it out loud is good practice.”

“I brought an apple with me for lunch.”

“That’s your phrase?”

“Yeah. It’s easy for me to remember. Not that I’ve ever had cause to use it. But the security guys and I agreed that if I ever start talking about apples with them, they should know I’m in trouble.”

It was as good as any, since she probably didn’t have cause to talk to her security team about fruit very often.

He hated that she needed a security team at all.

“You ready to face Little T’s?”

Her eyes all but lit up. “Bring it. I can’t believe how long it has been since I’ve had one.”

He could see her process her own words. Her eyes lost their sparkle and she looked down.

“Hey,” He hooked a finger under her chin to lift her face back up. “You’re getting one today. That’s what counts. You can get one tomorrow too, if you want. And any day after that if you choose.”

“But I might be too scared to come out of my house tomorrow.”

He brought his face closer to hers and shrugged, smiling. “Then you see if they do carryout and I’ll come get it for you.”

“I just feel stupid.”

“You don’t have to do all the hard things at once. You took a step today. You can take another tomorrow or next week or whenever you want to. Your timetable. No one else’s.”

She took a deep breath and nodded. “Okay. Well right now my timetable says grilled cheese.”

He helped her into her jacket. “Lead the way.”





Brett was pretty close to those orgasmic moans she’d threatened to leave him for an hour later at Little T’s main restaurant, that they’d decided to go to rather than the food truck. They were sitting next to each other in a small rounded booth in the back corner.

“This is just as good as I remember,” he said. “I used to meet dad at the food trucks for lunch sometimes. He always wanted to try new ones, but whenever I could, I talked him into Little T’s.”

“He worked for the police too, right? Is that why you went into law enforcement?”

“He was the captain here. And honestly, I had no plans to follow in his footsteps, but found myself majoring in criminal justice, then joined the Dade County PD after college.”

“Did you like it in Florida?”