Page 17 of Possession

Chapter 9

Nathaniel

It toreme up inside seeing Madeline scared. I felt powerless and out of control especially knowing that fucking psychopath may have her in his sights. I cupped her face and stared down at her with an intensity I hoped seared itself on her soul. “We’ll find him, Madeline. Trust us to protect you.”

The timeline added up though. He hadn’t been silent the past six months. He’d just relocated. And unless his M.O. changed suddenly, which was highly doubtful, our time was ticking. Each new victim had been killed around every six months like clock-work. If her letter writer was truly Casanova, then time was ticking, but there was no fucking way I was going to let anything happen to her. My Dom side wanted to take control. Now was not the right time though. Not with the field and tech teams on their way to her house. But soon. In the meantime, I needed to give her something to think about besides her fear. It was time for a reminder of what was to come.

I moved my hand from her cheek and threaded my fingers through her hair, tightening my grip until I was fisting the silky strands. I tugged her head to an angle and leaned down to bite the sensitive spot where her neck and shoulder met, her sharp inhale signaling arousal. An emotion so much better than her previous one as I rasped into her ear. “If our team wasn’t currently en route, and it wasn’t imperative that we ask you more questions, I’d bend you over this chair and spank your ass so hard you’d feel it for days. Maybe then you’d think twice about not taking more safety precautions.”

Madeline’s response was a fevered moan and she shivered under my touch. “I’m sorry, Sir.”

I bit her harder and she whimpered at the same time her knees went weak, but Joseph and I caught her. “I thought I told you to call us Master.”

“I’m sorry, Master.”

A knock on the door interrupted us, and I growled in frustration before releasing Madeline’s hair. It took her a second to recognize the sound, but when she did, she blushed furiously and stepped away from us, which I wasn’t happy about. She attempted to straighten her finger-mussed tresses without doing a great job, but was still presentable enough that unless someone took a wild guess, they’d never know what we’d been doing. I gave her one more assessing look before stepping over to the door to let our team in. As I turned I saw Joseph speak lowly to her. Then, he moved to join me. Three field techs followed by two IT techs entered the house.

Joseph took the lead. “I’m going to assume that Reynolds filled you in already, but we’re going to go over it again. Ms. Parrish has received a suspicious letter resembling one that we believe is from Casanova. Arlington P.D. has processed the inside of the house, but we’re going to assume they’ve done a sloppy job. They also failed to process the outside properly. Most likely too much time has passed and any potential evidence has been contaminated, but we still need to be vigilant. The entire house, inside and out, needs to be processed as though it’s a fresh crime scene.”

I jumped in at this point, because I wanted the team to understand how serious I was. “Ms. Parrish has chosen to remain here instead of being moved to a safe house. Therefore, I need your best security cameras placed around the perimeter of the home as well as inside. Also, be careful of the flowers in the backyard garden, especially the lilies. Don’t fuck them up.”

One of the newer field techs looked at me in pure terror and Joseph coughed beside me. I didn’t give a shit. Those flowers were important to Madeline, and I’ll be damned if some careless idiot ruined them. Not if I could prevent it. It was my job as her current Dom to take care of her and the things she cared about most. When they all continued to stare at me, I barked out an order. “Get your asses moving!”

Like cockroaches scurrying in the light, everyone scattered, leaving the three of us alone again.

“Jesus, Nat.” Joseph half-laughed, half-choked out.

I shrugged, unapologetic, because I knew what he was harassing me about. “They’re not paid to like me. They’re paid to do their job and do it well. Besides, this is for Madeline. Do you want anything done half-assed? I didn’t think so.”

When I turned on my heel to face her again, she’d covered her mouth with a hand and her eyes were shiny with unshed tears. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Now, we need to ask you some more questions. See if we can come up with even one suspect. Are you up for it?”

“Okay.”

“Let’s have a seat.” I gestured to the couch.

She toed off her shoes, settled into the corner of the sofa, and hugged her knees to her chest. Joseph took a seat on the wingback chair while I remained standing. I was too keyed up to sit.

“First off, have you kept the letters you’ve received?”

She shook her head. “None except the one I gave to the detective and the one I’d given the police back in Pinegrove months ago. I didn’t think there was any reason to. I mean, they were harmless really. There weren’t any threats. I just figured they were from some pervert getting his rocks off. Yes, they made me uncomfortable, but I didn’t feel particularly threatened by them. In my line of work, I’ve gotten weird letters from both former and current clients before.”

“Have you considered that one of your clients may be the culprit?” Joseph posed this question.

“Of course. But the tone of the letters doesn’t match any of my clients. Current or former. I’m well versed in my client’s mental health issues and not a single one of them presented with this kind of unhealthy infatuation. Nor with this level of psychosis. Most of my clients are dealing with PTSD or emotional recovery from an abusive relationship. I have a couple who demonstrate sociopathic tendencies, but not to this degree.”

“That doesn’t one-hundred percent rule out a patient.”

Madeline sighed. “Nothing is a complete guarantee, but I feel pretty strongly about this.”

“What about former Doms? Or perhaps someone you talked to at your local dungeon. Maybe you met him at a munch?” Joseph continued with his questions.

She shook her head. “No, none of those. The club was exclusive and every member was thoroughly screened. I didn’t typically attend any munches and I’ve only had three long-term Dominants since I entered the lifestyle. I trust all of them with my life. Again, none of them presented with the psychotic tendencies displayed in these letters. I’m sorry.”

Fuck. This was getting us nowhere. I wasn’t pissed at Madeline, just the situation.

I crossed my arms and stared down at her. “We’re still going to need the names of those Dominants. I understand that you trust them, but at this point we need to be investigating everyone. We may also need to speak with your former patients.”

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