Page 34 of Beautiful Killer

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Zeke

“How is she?” Van asked watching me as I flipped through Sunny’s case file.

I shrugged. I didn’t know. The woman was as closed off as she ever was. I saw her two days ago—naked and wet and sexy as hell—after screaming out my name. She’d touched herself thinking about me. I was sure of it. There wasn’t any damn spider. I’d seen her after she’d come enough times to know what that looked like on her. Creamy skin flushed pink, nipples darker, tight, goddamn suckable.

My dick surged behind my zipper and I growled.

“You were seeing her, though, right?” Van said.

I lifted my head and stared at the guy. “We were fucking. Now we’re not.” Though it had felt like a lot more than that. I wasn’t about to go there, though, so I looked back down, ignoring his raised eyebrows. I didn’t blame his obvious curiosity. I hadn’t been with anyone since I got home. It didn’t take a genius to work that out. If we went out, I went home alone. Women weren’t exactly falling over themselves to get up close and personal with me, which was the way I’d liked it.

“And you’re okay with that?”

“Yep.” Well, I was trying really fucking hard to be. So far, I was failing miserably.

“You want me to put someone else on her case?”

I looked up at Van again. “Why?”

“Maybe you’re too close to this one?”

“Not a problem.”

I got the feeling Van wasn’t buying it, but he wouldn’t push. Well, I hoped he wouldn’t. I wasn’t getting into it with him. I wasn’t talking about Sunny with anyone. Thankfully, he left the office I was using a short time later and I carried on reading Sunny’s statement.

By the time I finished it, my gut was in knots. Reading again how she thought it was me coming up those stairs, how she’d lost precious time making that call for help because of it, was messing with my head. As a result, some fucker had gotten to her, cut her. “Fuck.” I was already close to crawling out of my skin, when I flipped the page . . .

Photos of the crime scene.

Every muscle in my body tightened as I flicked through them. Jesus, the blood. On her bedroom floor, all the way down to the front door, on the door handle. Broken china, more blood. Photos of Sunny at the hospital. She was in one of her delicate silk nighties, stained with red, face bruised, cut.

I slammed the file shut, gripping it tight in my fist as my mind conjured up images of its own. Sunny running outside, banging on her neighbor’s door, scared half to death. I’d stayed away from her the last two nights. I couldn’t do it tonight, not after seeing that. I had to know she was okay, safe. New high-tech security system or not.

* * *

I arrived at her place around nine that night. The lights were out. She either wasn’t there or she’d gone to bed early. I didn’t want to wake her if she was asleep, but I felt like I might climb the goddamn walls if I didn’t see her with my own two eyes. It was messed up. We’d fucked, barely talked, but I couldn’t get her out of my head. She was like the brightest light and I was some helpless fucking moth unable to fight my instincts to seek her out.

Something caught my eye, something moving in the shadows. Someone was messing with her window.

I shoved my door open, and whoever it was spun toward me then darted up the side of her house, onto the street, and took off running.

I flew out of my truck. I wanted to go after the guy, but I had to make sure Sunny was okay.

I hit her steps and pounded on her door. Nothing. Not messing around, I quickly picked the lock. Disabled Cage’s system, using his test code, which thankfully I knew. Sunny hadn’t reset it, which was a good thing, since I didn’t want to set the thing off. I called out her name repeatedly, so if she was here, she’d know it was me, and flew upstairs and into her room. The bed in her room was perfectly made. I checked the rest of her house. No sign of her anywhere.

I took the stairs back to the ground floor, pulling my phone as I went, and called Cage.

“You got eyes on me or something?” Cage said by way of a greeting, voice amused.

“What?”

He was quiet a beat. “What’s up?”

I filled him in on the guy I saw outside Sunny’s house, what happened after. “I fucked up her lock getting in here,” I said. I’d been in a hurry to get in and all finesse had flown out the window. “I know you don’t unusually do small shit like this, but I’m asking as a favor. Don’t want to leave her door like this and I need to find her.”

“No problem. I’ll send someone over.” A pause. “You worried about her?”