Caterpillar, a Paranormal Romance With a Touch of Horror (11 page)

“I don’t think—“

“Do you know if your brother knew him?”

“Honestly, I have no idea.  Why?”

“Wallace had a vintage Corvette.  He hit a deer and needed to have some body work done.  He took it to Curly’s a couple weeks ago.”

A second victim connected to Carter, both of whom had been found
by me
in houses
I listed
.  I had no idea what to say, so I said nothing.  I figured my silence had the least chance of further incriminating anybody.

“What about enemies?  You have any?  What about Carter?”  At least he was thinking outside the box and not ready to lock us up and throw away the key. 

“Not like that.  I mean, sure, there are some people in Bethel that just don’t like Carter, but I can’t think of anyone that would do these things just to set him up if that’s what you mean. Not one person.  I don’t think the worst person I know would be capable of doing stuff like- like-
that
.”

“Here’s the thing:  those lights, the ones that were, uh,
cooking
the preacher, they were rented a couple weeks ago from a supplier in Atlanta.  Contract’s in Carter’s name”

Again, I said nothing.  My mind was a total blank.  I couldn’t think of one thing to offer up in Carter’s defense

“In his defense, sometimes body shops use those kinds of lights to set paint or fillers, stuff like that,” Tegan reasoned.

Thank God one of us was thinking.

“Well, he
does
work at a body shop.  Maybe they were stolen from the shop or something.  Has someone asked Carter about the lights?”

“Wilkes, the one who’s been trying to reach him, still hasn’t been able to catch up with him again.  Seems your brother’s a little hard to find these days.”

“How long had he been there? Ken Wallace?”  Acid roiled in my stomach the longer we talked about it.  I couldn’t help but think about the terrible torture he had endured. 

“He went missing ten days ago.”  Holy cow, he was tortured for ten whole days!  I closed my eyes and smothered a sick groan. 

What I had been tracking as a tropical storm of a headache suddenly burst into a hurricane, spreading from behind my eyes up through the crown of my head.  My skull felt like there was a pint-size creature inside angrily hacking its way out—with a sledgehammer and an ice pick.

We fell silent, both lost in thought for the remainder of the trip.  I was shaken from my reverie when Tegan pulled up along the curb in front of my house. 

“I’d like to come inside...” 

The pause had my heart slamming against my ribs.  But before my imagination could run away with me, he continued.

“…and take a quick walk-through of your house before I leave.”

Oh.

“Why?  You don’t think this has anything to do with
me
, do you?” 

“I’m not saying that.  I just think it’s better to be safe than sorry,” he responded simply. 

“Sure.  Come on in.”  As we walked, I tried to remember the state of cleanliness of each room.  Not remembering any embarrassing items strewn about, I unlocked all my locks and let us into the living room.

Tegan took off to scour each room.  I stood twiddling my thumbs, waiting for him to finish.  I was smart enough to stay by the door so I could bolt if necessary. 

“All clear,” he pronounced in his deep voice as he came from the direction of my bedroom.  He didn’t stop until he was standing within a few inches of me.  I looked up into his handsome face.  He was so close I could’ve counted all his thick, dark eyelashes.  If I’d had all day, that is.  There were a bunch of them. 

His brows drew together in a little frown.  “Are you going to be alright?”

“I think so,” I answered, a bit breathlessly.

“I could stay…”  The way he said it made it sound so distasteful, so much like a duty, I’d rather have died than ask that of him.

“Thanks, but the neighbors would talk.  I’d be in a scarlet letter by lunchtime tomorrow.”  And that was the truth, but not the only reason I didn’t want him to stay.

“So Newly never stays over?”

“Not that it’s any of your business, but no.”

He shook his head, absorbing what I’d said.  Then abruptly he said, “Well, call if you need anything.”  More duty.

“I’ll be fine,” I said, smiling my tight little smile again.  “Thanks for the ride.”

And with a mmm-hmm, he was out the door.  Angrily, I turned the locks behind him, hoping he’d hear me locking him out.

I shut off the lights and went into the kitchen for a Coke.  I brought it back out into the living room and turned on the gas logs, heat instantly emanating from them.  I sat on the end of the loveseat, staring into the flames, contemplating the infuriating behavior of Detective Tegan.  I had so many more important things to think about, it only served to further aggravate me that he’d managed to wiggle his way into my head.

It must’ve been an hour or more that I sat there, first brooding over Tegan then contemplating all the things that go bump in the night that I would one day run into.  A quiet knock at the door raised the hair on the back of my neck.

I went to the door.  Despite my nearly constant irritation with him, a nest of butterflies flapped their feathery wings excitedly in my stomach.  It was Tegan. 

Chapter Ten

Carefully schooling my features (and my stomach), I flung the door open.  “What is it, Tegan?”

Without a word, he pushed past me and walked into my living room.  When he turned around, I saw the intense look on his face.  He was serious.  More so than usual.

“Tell me what you see when you touch people.”

His demand floored me.  I stood, mouth gaping, staring at him for several seconds before I recovered enough to answer, “I don’t know what you mean.”  The lie came far too easily to my lips.

“Don’t lie to me, Cat.  I want to know.”

“But, really, I don’t know what—“

With a growl, Tegan turned toward the fireplace, running his fingers through his hair.  When he turned back to me, his eyes met mine and I saw the change.  “What is it about you?”

And then, in the blink of an eye, he was right in front of me, his hands in my hair and his lips on mine.  I was rocked by raw passion. 

Within seconds, I was caught up in a whirlwind of desire.  All the confusing things I felt for Tegan were burned away by hunger, a craving for his skin on mine.  My mouth opened to his and his smooth tongue slid inside.  It taunted mine, licking and teasing, stoking the flame that already threatened to consume me.  Heat poured through my veins.  Lava bubbled in my stomach and a brushfire was raging below my navel. 

I’d never felt such intensity.  I’d never
felt
so much period.  All the things I’d wanted to feel for Scott were exploding through my skin, my body unable to contain them. 

I was spinning out of control, desperate for his touch.  I wanted his hands on my body, my hands on his.  I reached out.  I needed to touch him, to feel him, to drag him into myself.  My fingers found his forearms and curled around his hard flesh.  The rough hair tickled my palms.  And then there was contact.

That was a mistake.

My mind was instantly filled—with nothing.  There were no dark images.  There was no snow.  There was nothing, but not a
nothing
nothing.  Intuitively I knew it was a
purposeful
nothing, like someone had drawn a curtain over the only window that I could see through.  The one question left in my head was almost as disturbing as the dark images from the senator had been. 

What are you hiding from me?

I released his arms, needing to be free from the nothingness, to regain my wits.  Tegan raised his head, sensitive enough to realize that he’d lost me in the kiss.  He was watching me intently.

My mind whirled as I scrambled to make sense of what I’d seen.  Or
not
seen, as it were.

Weariness surfaced.  The gift was so new to me, I didn’t know what to make of this new development, but I felt like it couldn’t be a good thing.  It had seemed pretty clear-cut up to that point:  nasty images from evil people and snow from good—period.  No gray areas, no blank areas, no nothingness.

So where did Tegan fit in? 

My mind was alive with confusion.  And a little fear, a tiny thread of it that had wound its way around my heart and lungs.  I closed my eyes against his perceptive gaze.

Tegan’s voice was low and gruff.  “What did you see?”  I didn’t answer, just stared at him, a mixture of fear and confusion swimming through my mind.  “Tell me, Cat.  What did you see?”

His persistent questioning was like a battering ram against the walls I’d only recently begun to construct.  “Stop asking me that.”  I didn’t know what to say, how to answer.

“Tell me what you saw, Cat,” he said again, his voice even lower, but with a steely edge.

“Nothing,” I shouted, turning away from him. 

“What do you mean ‘nothing’?”

“Just that—nothing.  Whatever you wanted to hide was hidden.  Don’t worry.  Your dark secrets are still
just
yours
.”

He watched me thoughtfully, seemingly satisfied with that.  He asked me no more questions, not even the ones that made sense, like how I could “see” things, how long had I had the gift, what did it mean.

Then out of the blue he said, “I think the two murders are ritual killings.  Does that mean anything to you?”

“No.  Should it?”

“I don’t know.”

“Speaking of killing, you might want to check out that guy that tried to cut you in the club.  When I touched him I saw Mistee.”

“I’ll look into it,” he said, still thoughtful.

I’d had enough for the night, for a lifetime actually.  I just wanted to sleep.  And to forget.  “If you don’t need anything else, I’m going to bed.”  I shut off the gas logs and walked to the door, opening it.  Subtlety was off the table by this point.

Without a word, Tegan walked to the door and stepped out onto the porch.  I was shutting the door when he reached out with one hand and stopped it.

“Cat, I—”

“Don’t bother,” I said coldly and pushed hard on the door, shutting it in his face.

Chapter Eleven

Tuesday.

My mood was dark from the moment I got out of bed and killed yet another spider in my bedroom floor.  I hadn’t called the exterminator the previous day like I’d intended and because of it, I was still overrun with arachnids. 

I was less than enthused about work, but I made it through lunch.  I was positive that the three short hours I had been in the office were not one second short of three long years instead.  I grabbed my purse from the bottom desk drawer, intent on sneaking out unnoticed for a quick bite to eat.  I was in no mood for company or polite chit chat. 

I took the corner out of my office too sharply and bumped into the doorjamb.  I bit my lip to keep from making any noise.  Looking left then right and seeing no one, I stepped out into the hall.  I was literally hunched over, tiptoeing away, when Rainn caught me.