Chapter One
Jackson
I take in the woman kneeling in front of me, her hands traveling awfully close to trouble, her eyes begging for me to make a promise that I couldn’t make even if I wanted to.
One of her hands slides further south but I manage to catch it just as a voice sounds in my ear with a warning, “you’re getting close to trouble, man. Best not to play with fire.”
With an almost imperceivable nod, I stand to my feet, pushing the woman off me as I do. Then, with a murmured apology, I slip past the bodies of other partygoers and jump down from the tailgate of the late nineties model truck that belongs to one of my *buddies* and head for the ice chest that’s sitting a few feet away.
Opening the lid, I fish out a fresh bottle and using the bottle opener on my keychain, I pop the top and bring the bottle to my lips, tilt my head back, close my eyes and drain half of it in one go.
“Take it easy, man. You’re on the clock. You get the one, just to blend in. Make it last.” I tip the bottle in acknowledgement and survey the crowd. The first person that I notice is Bevin, the woman from before.
She’s beautiful. Drunk, but beautiful. With the way she’s pawing at every man in sight, I’m afraid she’s going to get herself hurt.
“Come on,” I lean down and say, as I walk up behind her, my hands safely on her shoulders.
“Ooh,” she giggles. “Did the big, bad, sexy man change his mind?”
“Just come with me,” I murmur, promising nothing on purpose as I reach out and grasp hold of her hand to pull her along with me.
“Hell yes!” She squeals before literally jumping into my arms. “I’m a cheerleader and very flexible just so you know.”
With a grunt in response, I carry Bevin through the crowd, her legs wrapped tightly around my waist and her face buried in my neck, her lips and tongue licking and sucking at my skin.
“Stop that!” I snap in irritation.
“But I want everyone to see,” she says sleepily.
“No marks,” I state. Then, as I stop at my truck, I say, “That’s not what this is.”
Her face contorts in confusion before her lower lip pokes out, pouting. “But…”
“Look Bevin, you’re beautiful but I’m not in a place for…entanglements right now.” I say, hoping that she understands without me further explaining.
I’m trying to let her off easy here and not hurt her feelings.
She squints her eyes, looks from me, over to where the party is still going, then back to me, then with her hand she gestures towards the party and says, “Then, why did you…?”
“Because you’re going to get yourself hurt and I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if something happened and I could have stopped it and didn’t,” I explain.
“So…” she hedges, not connecting the dots.
“I’m taking you home.” When her eyes light up, I quickly clarify, “To your home.”
“Oh,” she mumbles, seeming let down but instead of fighting me, she lets me help her into the truck, then gives me her address to plug into my map’s app, but she lives in one of the apartment complexes by me.
Not that I’m going to tell her that.
I’m leaving the party with having failed my mission for tonight, but at least my conscience will be clear in knowing that she made it home safely, too many women have been victims of sexual assaults at the college recently.
Which is the whole reason for me working undercover at the college, posing as a student and being at the party tonight.
I pull up to her complex and again, she tries talking me into joining her for a good time, but it isn’t worth risking my job.
No woman is.
I watch as she begrudgingly makes her way up her steps alone and when her door closes behind her, I turn around, heading back to my place.
I’ve no sooner than just stepped through the door to my own apartment when my work phone rings.
With a heavy sigh of dread, I hit the answer button without looking at the screen to see who’s on the other end of the line.
“Jones.”
“Jones. We need you. We’ve got a body,” My boss Morris says. *Fucking hell* “I’ll text you the details. Meet us there, will ya?” Oh, and you might want to grab something on the way in. From the sound of it, it’s going to be a long night.”
“Got it. Thanks.” Then, hanging up, I turn around and lean back against the door and close my eyes, giving myself just one minute to prepare for what I’m about to walk into. With an exhaled, “Fuck it. Let’s do this.” I step away from the door, grab my jacket and badge and head back out the door again.
When I pull over on the side of the dirt road, the area has already been roped off and there is a flurry of activity every direction that I look.
“Jones,” I follow the sound of Morris calling my name and see him along with the rest of the team down in the ditch a little way down the road from where I’m parked.
Jogging, I get to them quickly and ask, “What do we know so far?”
“Not much. Female victim in her late teens to early twenties. Her mouth has been duct taped and her hands are bound behind her back; legs bound together at the ankles.” Nash provides.
“The fact that she’s naked means that it’s likely that this was either personal or sexual in nature.” Amriel adds on.
“Could be both or neither and her clothing was removed to make it look like something it wasn’t,” I remark, taking in all the little details. She’s completely naked, except for a pair of black stiletto high heels. Her hair, make-up, and nails are all done and still neat. “It’s all too perfect.” I say, using my hand to indicate her hair, face and hands. “Either this guy did her up like a doll after killing her, or there was no struggle at all. Everything is too neat and clean”
“He could have incapacitated her somehow. Injected her with a paralytic, maybe?” Amriel mutters, sounding more like she was talking to herself than the rest of us.
“Let’s see what the M.E. says, huh?” Morris says just as Tucker, the new medical examiner lugs all his equipment over to join the rest of us.
“Come on, let’s let him do his job. The rest of us need to start doing ours,” Morris orders as Tucker begins examining the body. “Once he gives the *Okay*, we can get an I’d on her. In the meantime, bag and tag people.”
“Fuck!” I grumble to myself as I get to work, already regretting rushing to get here and not stopping for a pick-me-up like Morris had suggested. It’s already been one hell of a long day and now, it looks like it’s going to be an even longer night.
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