“Come on,” Augusta pleaded, trying once more to pull her hands free. “I promise to stay here if that’s what it will take. I’ll sit like a good girl and watch TV.”
“I doubt that,” he snarled but his animal was growling with his displeasure. He didn’t want to scare her, but he needed her to understand he was a dangerous man. She didn’t know that the longer she was exposed to his people and those like him, she’d be in even more danger. “I can tell when people are lying, just so you know. For the time being, we’re going to have to rely on the twine until I know I can trust you.”
She snapped her mouth shut for a solid second before she frowned. “Can I at least sit on the bed? And what if I get hungry or thirsty or have to go to the bathroom?”
“You will be fine. I won’t be gone for long,” he said, roughly. He stepped back to make sure she was secure. He gave a simple nod, seeing she was failing at getting herself free. “I hate to do this, honestly, but I need to make sure you don’t go anywhere. I’m tired enough without having to run after you again.”
She scowled. “I don’t have much choice in the matter, which is very ungentlemanly.”
“I’m sorry, but it’s for your protection. Besides,” he met her gaze and then stared at her lips for too many seconds, “I’m anything but a gentleman.”
He heard it then. It was another thing Ray didn’t do. He didn’t apologize for things. He just did them. He knew when he started this job that he would get his hands dirty, and not in the many years he had worked had he ever apologized.
It was interesting the effect she had on him. He hardly knew her, yet he was trying to be as pleasing as he could be. He even made sure that the rope wasn’t so tight around her wrists that it would leave marks. His animal hissed possessively over leaving her. He quickly shook it off, not wanting to admit anything besides that he felt a little bad she was wound up in this. He didn’t want to admit he might actually like her.Want her. No.
Mine!
Oh, hell no.
Even if he did like her, it wouldn’t matter. His line of work didn’t allow for anything serious, and he didn’t want it anyway. Nothing worked out in the end, so why bother? He pulled a small roll of duct tape from his jacket pocket.
“What are you doing with that?” she asked with a touch of fear in her voice.
He sighed. “What do you think? I’m sure you’ve seen enough TV to know.” He ripped off a piece and placed it over her luscious lips. Her eyes narrowed at him, and she growled at him. Color him impressed. The female was ballsy.
He opened the door. “I’ll be back, and I’ll only be gone for a little while. Try to relax; enjoy the view outside while I’m gone.”
Augusta ignored him, and he shut the door. He took a deep sigh and tried to focus. He needed to get to the slaughterhouse and look over the crime scene. He needed to make sure what she said added up.
He went over the details she had given him. They’d had crowbars, and they were wearing ski masks. She hadn’t recalled them saying anything, but she’d given him good details. He had to give her that much. Still, he felt there was something missing.
As he pulled up to the slaughterhouse, he checked to make sure he was alone. It was late, and he didn’t expect there to be any people around. But the last thing he needed was a police officer to see him at a crime scene.
He got out of his car and slipped through the chain-link fence. He slid under the police tape and walked straight into the building.
It was a wide-open space with several machines around the area. The place was so quiet that even the slightest rustle in the trees could be heard. He could understand how Augusta heard a scream. It must have echoed loudly around here.
And been terribly out of place.
His nose could tell there had been several people, knowing many had been from when the police officers were here, but he could smell the three prominent people.
The blood didn’t help. It had stained the cement, and he could almost picture how the body lay with blood pooling around it. He had done this enough to know how the crowbars had been pulled up and slammed down on the guy.
This scene was like many he left behind, except sloppier. Still, the details they didn’t bother to clean up allowed him to envision the way it all went down.
He stepped back a few feet and walked to where Augusta had said she had been standing. She had a good view of what was going on, and he could imagine it was a sight to behold.
He remembered his first time seeing violence and how afraid he’d been. He could see why she ran. She was smart.
Ray frowned, looking over the area for cameras. He came up empty. Not a single one through the entire building.
He walked closer to the spot where the blood had stained and tried to figure out what exactly had gone down. But he caught another scent.
Augusta’s.
Her scent was strong and throwing him for a loop. How was it one person could make everything hard for him to focus on? His animal argued over wanting her. No. Why her? She was just some random girl that happened to fumble into this situation. Why her? He didn’t know. But she clouded his mind several times already.
Following her earlier, he found himself watching her, smiling to himself. He watched her smile at people and talk softly. He always thought if he had landed with someone before, she would have been like that. Maybe that was why he was drawn to her.