After The Dark. Cynthia Eden

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СКАЧАТЬ the two together.

      “Why won’t you trust me?” he gritted out.

      She eased out a slow breath, then squared her shoulders. She met his stare, not flinching. “I want you.”

      Music to his ears. Blake took a step toward her, but Samantha threw up her hand, as if warding him off.

      “Wait!”

      He had been waiting for her, for months.

      “I want you more than I think I’ve ever wanted anyone.”

      She was going to break him. He could feel his control splintering. But she’d said wait, and her trembling hand was still in the air.

      “But you are wrong, Blake. You aren’t playing some good-guy role. That’s who you are.” She bit her lip. “That’s who I need you to be. And I can’t be wrong about a man I’m with ever again.”

      “I won’t hurt you.” He’d never do anything to her. “You can count on me. Don’t you know that?”

      Her hand fell to her side. “What if I hurt you?”

      He frowned.

      “You don’t know me as well as you think.”

      Blake closed the distance between them. He curled his hands around her shoulders and pulled her close. “Only because you keep secrets. You don’t have to do that. I can handle anything you’ve got.”

      “If you turned away from me...” Her smile was bittersweet. “I think it might break something in me.”

      Samantha could never be broken. Not by him. Not by Latham.

      His mouth lowered to hers, but...his phone started to vibrate. He swore when he heard the high-pitched ring. Someone’s timing was shit.

      He let her go and reached for his phone. With the case, there was no way he could miss any call. There was no “off-duty” time for him when he hunted a killer. Blake didn’t recognize the number on his screen, but it had a local area code. His finger swiped over the phone, and he put it to his ear even as Samantha backed away.

      Again.

      Hell, no. You aren’t running. We aren’t done. In fact, we’re just getting started.

      “This is FBI Special Agent Bla—”

      Laughter cut through his words. Taunting, cold.

      Blake’s face tensed.

      “I don’t care about you, Special Agent. You’re just a means to an end. I’m calling to talk with Agent Dark.”

      He nearly shattered the phone.

      “Is she with you?” that taunting voice continued. “I bet she is. I bet you’re staying as close to her as you possibly can.”

      “Who the fuck is this?”

      He saw Samantha tense.

      “The man you’re hunting, of course.”

      And the bastard had called him?

      “I learned Agent Dark didn’t get my champagne. I was quite disappointed with that, so I had to let the clerk know just how upset she’d made me. Poor service just can’t be tolerated, you know.”

      What. The. Hell?

      Samantha grabbed Blake’s arm. Put him on speaker. She mouthed the words at him.

      Blake lowered the phone and tapped the screen so that she’d be able to hear the call, too. She needed to hear the bastard. The more she learned about him, the better able to profile him she’d be.

      “Can she hear me yet?” the voice demanded. “Because I really need her to know what’s happening.”

      “She can fucking hear you,” Blake snapped. “But I don’t buy your—”

      “I’m going to kill her.” Flat, cold words. “I’ve got Tammy White here with me, and I am going to slice her open. I will watch her bleed and beg and die, and it will all be because of you, Agent Dark.”

      The killer wasn’t speaking to Blake any longer. He was talking directly to Samantha. Because she’s the one he’s wanted all along.

      The bastard’s voice was a rasp. Disguised.

      “Do you want that, Agent Dark—Samantha?” He seemed to stumble a bit as he finally used her first name. “Do you want someone else to die because of you?”

      “No.” Her voice was low, emotionless. “But I don’t believe that you have her. If you have her, you’d send—”

      The phone vibrated as a text came through. Still keeping the speaker on, Blake swiped to look at the text. He heard Samantha suck in a sharp breath as she saw the brutal picture of a bleeding Tammy White.

      “That’s my proof,” the caller taunted. “Now, be a good agent. Get the coordinates from the pic. They’ll tell you where I am. Then you come, Samantha. Just you. You come to meet me. You trade yourself for Tammy White, and she’ll escape with just a few...cuts.”

      This was bullshit. “Not happening,” Blake swore. Samantha was not going to enter into some kind of deal with that psychopath. Yeah, they’d get the coordinates, all right. Blake was already getting them. Most folks didn’t realize that when pictures were taken...if they were using a smartphone to take pics, those phones would actually embed GPS coordinates into each photo. The coordinates were in the metadata that comprised the photo files. To see those coordinates, you just had to view the photo’s properties. You could get the coordinates, as long as the person who took that photo hadn’t disabled the feature on their phone...

      And there they were. The coordinates popped right up, a perfect guide to the killer’s location.

      “If Samantha doesn’t come to me, then Tammy White will die within the next fifteen minutes.” Spoken easily. “She’s already bleeding quite a bit now. A pool of blood is beneath her. Maybe I cut her too deeply last time.”

      Samantha’s fingers locked around Blake’s wrist. “Don’t hurt her again. I’ll come to you.”

      Fury swept through Blake.

      “You come alone, Samantha. If I see a cop car, if I see a helicopter...I will drive my knife into Tammy’s heart right then and there. Her death will be on you.”

      No, Tammy’s death would only be on the sick son of a bitch who got off on torturing her.

      “I know the tricks the FBI uses. You’ll get the coordinates from the picture I sent...and you’ll realize that I’m on the water. So much wonderful water down here. Makes things easier for me.”

      Fucking bastard.

      “I’ve left a boat for you all tied up on the old pier near Devil’s Hole. You get in that boat—just you. Be in it within ten minutes. Take the boat and СКАЧАТЬ