Danger Next Door (Red Stone Security Series) (12 page)

Belle wanted a lot more than his finger and she didn’t want slow right now. Before she could tell him exactly what she needed, he removed his finger. He grasped her, his hands flexing on her hips in a tight, dominating grip and he thrust into her.

She was a little sore from last night but not enough to stop. When he’d woken her during the night he’d slowly made love to her, but she felt almost frantic right now.

Even though she’d been able to defend herself from that attacker yesterday she’d been scared out of her mind. And even though she’d told Grant to stay away, he hadn’t. He’d come to the police station knowing he’d face her anger. He’d been there for her. The man could be pushy and a little overbearing but with him she found she didn’t mind. He listened when it really mattered and right now he was listening to what her body wanted.

It amazed her how he’d learned what she liked so quickly. When she tightened her grip on the headboard to steady herself, one of his hands slid from her hip to her mound. He moved his finger over her clit in bold strokes. Normally when she touched herself it was with steady soft caresses. His rougher touch should have been too much. Hell, it almost was, but his teasing pushed her over the edge so quickly she didn’t realize she’d been so close to climax.

Her back arched as her inner walls rippled around Grant’s hard length. Her orgasm seemed to go on forever, pulsing around him until he was coming with her.

“Belle,” he gasped out, the need in his voice punching through her.

The feel of his heat inside her as he climaxed was even more arousing. As he eventually stilled behind her, she slowly eased forward and twisted around so she was facing him.

Needing to hold him, she wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his neck until limp and exhausted, she finally fell back against the mattress. The bed was soft, inviting and she could barely keep her eyes open as she felt Grant stretch out next to her.

He tugged her until her back tucked against his torso, but she still didn’t open her eyes. She’d completely fallen for Grant and part of her wanted to tell him. But she was nervous of how he’d react. She was scared he’d reject the truth of her feelings, try to tell her she didn’t care for him as much as she did. Or worse, maybe he’d just completely push her away. Sighing, she cuddled deeper against him. She had time to worry about that stuff later. Now she just wanted a few more hours of sleep before she had to get up for work.

* * * * *

Belle pulled her hair back into a ponytail before glancing at herself one last time in the mirror. She’d left Grant’s place half an hour ago to get ready for work even though she could have stayed in bed with him all day. She wanted to stop and pick up coffee on the way to the hospital. She had a solid twelve hour shift ahead of her and desperately needed a caffeine fix.

As she hooked her purse over her shoulder, her doorbell rang. Wondering who it was—and hoping it was Grant—she hurried downstairs. She peeked through the peephole and saw a man wearing a baseball cap with the name of the furniture store she’d ordered her new guest bed set from.

She disabled the alarm but instead of answering right away, she looked out the window of her living room just to make sure it wasn’t some guy in a stolen uniform. Sure enough, a big delivery truck with the same company name emblazoned on the side of it was in her driveway. Feeling a little foolish—and cursing her unknown stalker for this constant fear that lived inside her now—she called through the door. “What are you delivering?”

She watched him through the peephole. He looked down at a notepad. “Ah, says here I’m delivering the 3-piece Oasis Oak bedroom set.”

Relief coursed through her as she opened the door. She smiled and held the door open. “I totally forgot you were coming this morning. I’m so glad I haven’t left for work yet.”

The man adjusted his cap and smiled at her, but something about him was off. A thread of unease slid down her spine, chilling her veins. His dark brown eyes seemed almost devoid of emotion and his smile definitely didn’t reach his eyes. “I’m glad you haven’t left either.”

That’s when she saw the stun gun in his hand.

Terror forked through her, splintering out like jagged lightning to all her nerve endings. She turned to run, to hit the distress button on her alarm keypad, but his arm shot out and the taser connected with her neck.

Pain like she’d never known blasted through her. Paralyzed from the electrical voltage, she fell to her knees then onto her face. Her cheek throbbed where she’d fallen but it was almost dull compared to the tiny knives of agony shredding her nerves. All her muscles spasmed out of control but she couldn’t move. That alone was terrifying—then to see the man bending over her but not being able to do anything chilled her bone deep.

Blinking through tears, she opened her mouth and tried to scream but only a croak of nothingness escaped. A syringe flashed in her attacker’s hand and she was helpless to avoid it as he plunged it into her neck. The sting was fleeting.

She struggled to hold on to consciousness, just like she’d done in the pool, but a dark wave of blackness swept over her, tugging her under until she had no choice but to stop fighting it.

* * * * *

Grant stepped out onto his front porch, phone in hand. He’d called Belle once, wanting to see her before she left for work. She’d told him she wanted to give him a kiss goodbye and even though it made him feel like a stupid teenager, he was excited at the thought. After last night he figured he should be somewhat sated, but no such luck. He was apparently greedy because the more he touched her, the more he wanted her.

When he saw a furniture delivery truck in her driveway he headed over, figuring he could help. It was Saturday and even though Belle had to work, it was his day off. He could set up the furniture for her while she was gone if it wasn’t included in her delivery fee.

He rang the doorbell but no one answered. Frowning and trying to ignore the instinctive increase in his heart rate, he tried the handle. The door swung open and he immediately spotted her keys on the tiled entryway.

Fuck.
“Belle!” Even though the most primitive part of him
knew
she wouldn’t answer, he called out her name.

When he didn’t get an answer he crept down the hallway until he made it to the kitchen.

Empty.

Grabbing a knife so he’d have a weapon, he quickly raced through the house checking each room. An eerie silence had descended. It had the kind of emptiness that made him positive he was alone, but he had to check. Had to make sure she wasn’t…no, he couldn’t even think the word.

Belle was alive. She just had to be.

There was an impossible pressure on his chest, making it difficult to breathe but he pushed past it. Losing his shit right now would only hurt Belle and he’d be damned if that happened.

Hurrying back outside, he raced to the delivery truck. Standing on the running board of the big vehicle, he peered in the driver’s side window and his heart caught in his throat.

A man wearing a white undershirt and boxers had his hands secured behind his back, his feet also bound and a gag in his mouth. He was stretched out on the bench seat, his body half falling into the passenger side floorboards. Grant jerked the door open. The restrained man grunted and started wriggling around, which only made him fall completely onto the floorboards.

“I’m going to cut your bindings free. Don’t move.” When the guy stilled, Grant made quick work of the flex-cuffs on his wrists and ankles.

The man turned over and pushed up onto the passenger seat. While the Hispanic man with the dark hair was pulling the gag free, Grant didn’t bother with niceties. He needed to find out where Belle was. “What happened? Did you see where he took the woman?”

The driver rubbed his wrists as he shook his head. “Some guy hit me with a stun gun. I was still conscious even if I couldn’t move when he was stripping me and I thought he’d kill me, but…” The man shrugged jerkily, obviously shaken.

“Did he say anything else?”

“Just that if I didn’t struggle he wouldn’t kill me.” He snorted. “I couldn’t move anyway.”

“You got a phone?” When he nodded, Grant said, “Good. Call the cops. Tell them what happened and give them this address.”

“Okay. What are you doing, man?” he called after him, but Grant was already sprinting back to his house as fast as he could go, his limp barely slowing him down.

His determination to find Belle overrode everything else. As he grabbed his cell out of his pocket, it rang. When he saw Belle’s number on the caller ID, all the air sucked from his lungs. His fingers shook as he pressed the receive button. “Hello?”

“Your little neighbor is quite beautiful, isn’t she?” a male voice he didn’t recognize asked.

“Where the hell is she?” Asking was futile but he did anyway.

“Did you really think I would let you walk away? Let you quit playing our game?” There was raw anger in the man’s questions.

Fighting panic, Grant continued toward his house as he asked, “What are you talking about?”

The caller snarled a curse. “I’m talking about Abigail Moore, Ruth Bailey, Lisa Flores and Virginia Palmer.”

Grant’s entire body chilled, his palms turning clammy as he shut his front door behind him. Before he’d been in his accident he and Carlito had been hunting a serial rapist/killer in the greater Miami area. He sure as hell hadn’t forgotten the case but according to his former partner, there hadn’t been any new victims in the last six months. Thank God for that. They’d both wondered if the killer had moved on to a new hunting ground or had possibly been arrested for a different crime.

The killer hadn’t left DNA behind at any of the scenes so they hadn’t been able to cross-reference anything with either CODIS or IAFIS. Of course this could be a copycat or just a lunatic off the street. Though he doubted it. Belle hadn’t been worried about her family’s friend Paulos Balis, but Grant had assigned someone from Red Stone to watch the guy. Unless he’d slipped his watcher Grant could eliminate him as the man behind Belle’s kidnapping.

“What do you know about those women? Read about them in the newspaper?” Grant needed to know for sure who he was talking to. He hurried up the stairs while he kept the guy on the line.

“I remember how it felt to carve my initials into their shoulders. To slowly slice up their perfect bodies while they screamed in agony. I also look at their undergarments every day. I keep them tacked up in my…workshop.”

Grant forced himself to keep moving as he digested this monster’s words. A slow rage was building inside him like a volcano, but if he let it take over he’d be no good to Belle. Through his anger and helplessness, he reminded himself of that.

He and Carlito had always wondered what the two letters carved into the victim’s back left shoulder meant and they’d never found a similar MO in any law enforcement databases so there had been nothing to cross-reference. They’d also never mentioned that the killer took trophies from his victims but this guy knew.

And he had Belle.

Grant’s hand fisted around the SIG he’d pulled from his nightstand, wishing he could empty it into this guy’s chest right then. The thought of Belle at the mercy of such a monster caused a red haze to blind Grant for a moment. “What do you want from me?”

“You to invest time in our game again. We stop playing when
I
say we stop!” His heated words caused Grant to still.

He needed to keep his cool and to keep this guy talking. If he was on the phone, he wasn’t hurting Belle. “Okay, I’m listening and I’m ready to play again.”

“Good. After I’m finished with your neighbor, I’ll call you.” His voice was icy calm. Then he hung up.

“No!” Grant shouted but it was too late. Adrenaline pumped through him overtime as he called Harrison. He had limited clues and no idea where this guy took his victims. They’d always been dumped in public places before. Days after they’d been killed. Well, the last three had been dumped that way. The first victim had been killed years ago and no one had made the connection to the recent victims until Grant.

His brother answered on the second ring. “Yeah?” Harrison barked, sounding tired and agitated.

“Someone’s taken Belle. From that serial rapist case I worked before my accident. He’s smart and he just called me from her phone. I think he’s smart enough to take out her phone battery so I can’t track her but—”

“I’m on it. Stay on the line.” He heard Harrison cursing then having a conversation with someone.

Grant guessed his brother had called one of their computer specialists to track Belle using the extra tracking device he’d placed in her phone. He knew it was underhanded, but he hadn’t done it to spy on her. Hell, he couldn’t just track her from his own computer. This device was linked to a private, intra-office system at Red Stone. They rarely used these types of devices and only for special dignitaries when they were worried about kidnappings. Grant had put one in Belle’s phone for her protection and had planned to tell her once they’d found her stalker. Well, his stalker as it turned out. Now he could only hope the damn thing worked.

Moments later Harrison was back on the line. He rattled off coordinates which turned out to be a residential address only ten minutes from where Grant lived. He could hear sirens in the background and knew the cops were on the way to check out the scene of Belle’s kidnapping and that delivery driver’s assault. He needed to be gone before that happened because he wasn’t waiting for anyone to save Belle. Plus he couldn’t risk them trying to haul him down for questioning.