Page 119 of The Morning After (Savannah 2)

Disappointment cut through her, but she managed a wry smile. “Then, don’t.”

“Isn’t there anywhere else you can stay?”

“This is my home. I changed the locks.” She managed a thin smile. “And now, with Mikado, I’ve got a guard dog.”

Reed snorted as he glanced at the mutt. “Yeah, he’s major protection, all right. Can’t you stay with your folks?”

“I’m not thirteen, Reed,” she said, remembering the sleepless night she’d had in her old bed with shards of her parents’ fights running through her head. “And I wasn’t on the jury of the Chevalier trial, so I’m not an intended victim. I don’t think I’m in any danger.”

The hand around her sleeve tightened and the skin of his face drew taut with concern. “No one’s safe. Not while he’s on the loose. What about staying with your sister?”

Nikki shrank from the thought as she imagined overbearing, petulant Lily. The I-told-you-sos wouldn’t be so much spoken as intimated. “Let’s not even go there. Lily is about three steps up from the Grave Robber. And my brother Kyle is a head case as well as allergic to dog dander. Neither of them will want me knocking at his or her door in the middle of the night. Besides, I can’t let anyone force me from my home.” Grabbing her purse, she pulled free of his grasp. “Not even the Grave Robber.”

“He’s more than a name in one of your stories, Nikki. He’s a cold-blooded killer. A guy who gets his jollies by burying people alive. I know you replaced the locks, but big deal. He got in once before. We just assume he had a key, but locks can be picked.”

“Now I’ve got a dead bolt.”

“Which isn’t a guarantee.”

“You’re trying to scare me.”

“Damn straight, I am.”

“Okay. You’ve done your job. But I’m staying here. In my home.” She looked down at the fingers still wrapped around her sleeve. “So what’s it gonna be, Reed? Are you coming up, or what?”

They were together. From the bell tower of the church a block away, The Survivor adjusted his binoculars and watched as Reed climbed out of his car and walked Nikki Gillette and that stupid little mutt up the stairs to her apartment.

The Survivor wondered if the cop was going to spend the night.

If they’d yet become lovers.

He’d seen the sparks fly between them, had known that it was only a matter of time before they would end

up in bed together, but it galled him nonetheless.

Nikki Gillette was just another cunt. Like the rest. He felt more than a little bit of envy, even jealousy that Reed was with her. But it would be short-lived. No matter how torrid the affair was now, it would die quickly. He’d see to it. Holding the binoculars with one hand, he reached into his pocket with the other, past the thick packet he intended to deliver, to the jumble of fabric below. Alone in the bell tower, he rubbed the silken panties he’d taken from his drawer, Nikki’s panties. It was a luxury he seldom afforded himself—to remove a treasure from the bureau, but tonight he felt it necessary.

The wisp of silk and lace felt like heaven beneath his rough fingertips and he licked his lips as lust invaded his blood. He itched to screw her, to throw her onto a bed, or, better yet, into a coffin and fuck her over and over again. Her screams of protest would turn into moans of pleasure and then she’d beg him not only to spare her life but to thrust into her again and again. In his mind’s eye he saw her beneath him, sweating, writhing, begging…

With one hand he rubbed her panties and felt his cock grow ramrod-stiff in anticipation. Sweat broke out on his forehead and made his hands slick on the binoculars.

Through the powerful lenses he saw Reed take the keys from her hand and unlock the door, swinging it open carefully, reaching for the light switch.

Unaware that they were being observed. Even through the binoculars it was difficult to see clearly as Nikki’s porch light was dim, the street lamps casting little illumination on the turret, but still, he caught Reed’s intimate gesture. After checking the interior, the cop placed his hand on the small of Nikki’s back, gently propelling her inside, leaning close and no doubt whispering to her that it was safe.

Reed probably even believed it.

But he was wrong.

Dead wrong.

CHAPTER 26

He shouldn’t stay.

No way. No how.

But Reed couldn’t leave Nikki Gillette’s apartment. Not when he had the feeling that she was a target. He’d lost the woman he was watching on the stakeout in San Francisco, had seen her being killed and could do nothing about it, and then, the Grave Robber had murdered Bobbi Jean and the baby.

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