Carolina Rain (20 page)

Alex laughed, nodding his head.
“Point well taken, Grasshopper.”

Dean liked the sound
of the laughing
. Alex had plenty of reason to not laugh over the last
two
months but his temperament seemed to be genuine. He’d really accepted, at least for the most part, what had happened to him in San Juan.
That fact made him admire his boss and friend just that much more. Losing a hand via a swinging sword at the hands of a crazed serial killer who happened to be your boss’s half-brother was on the high end of crazy.

Glancing away from the road and the other SUV carrying Sophie, Josh, and Manny some one hundred yards ahead, Dean watched as Alex turned down the radio that was spilling Paul Hardcastle’s London in Springtime throughout the vehicle, his expression semi-serious.

“Okay, Dean. Is this about Sophie?”

“It is. But more than that, it’s about Sophie and me. I
. . .
well
. . .
I’ve been trying to get a read on her since Puerto Rico and just don’t have a clue on what’s going on in that beautiful mind of hers.”

Snorting, Alex
followed with another belly laugh. “The girl’s mind has been called plenty of things, mostly related to the south end of perversion, but I don’t remember beautiful entering the conversation.
”

“That could be true. But I understand her and beauty is in the eye of the beholder
.”

“I suppose it is.”

Feeling Alex’s gaze, he glanced at him again.

“What?”

“Let me get this right. You want me to tell you what Sophie
is
thinking so you can go forward with whatever relationship you envision as the perfect one for her and you. Is that right?”

“Yep. That pretty much sums it up. I got to do something here. She’s on my mind twenty
-four/seven and if she’d say ye
s, I’d marry her this minute.”

He watched Alex shake his head. The
way
that people do when they know something you don’t. Then he spoke. “You don’t want much, do you? Trying to get into her head is like trying
to
figure out what the Mayans really meant at the end of their calendar. Who the hell knows and do you really want to? I don’t even think Manny wants to dig too far. I think he’d rather profile serial killers and other assorted lunatics.”

“Well, I guess that makes her just that much more unique,” Dean said, feeling a little uncomfortable that he’d brought it up at all. He’d been working with this BAU for only a couple of months and while he felt totally at ease, especially with Alex, maybe it was a little too soon
for this kind of conversation. But the heart only knows what it wants
—
and he knew his
heart
desired
—
no, more like n
eeded
—
Special Agent Sophie Lee
—
if she wanted
it and him
.

What the hell, I’ve never played by the rules anyway
.

Alex must have been reading his mind, at least in part.

“You’ve been a great fit in the BAU and you are as good as any other CSI I’ve worked with, so I’m glad you feel relaxed enough to ask me what I think about her, and you and her.”

“Thanks. I sort of don’t have
a
real cho
ice because I fee
l like she’s knocking on my door but when I answer, she skips away, not really sure if she wants to come in.”

“That’d be about right. Listen, she’
s
a great cop, a great friend, and I’d do anything for her
.
You know she’s
had a couple of bad experiences in the last few years, romance wise, so I think she
’s
guarded. I can’t tell you what she’s thinking because I don’t believe she knows until it happens. My best advice is to just stay the course with you
r
‘
princess
-
worship
’
mentality and let her make up her mind when she wants to take you up on it.”

Dean sighed. “Y
ep
, that’s what I thought you
’d
say. I’m trying. It’s just that I’ve n
ot
met anyone like her. She fits every profile of
a
dream woman I’ve ever had
. . .
well,
aside from
the changing of my wardrobe
par
t, but I can live with that.”

“What about the unit? One of you would have to leave. The FBI is pretty tight with that regulation as Manny and Chloe
have
discovered.”

“That’s true. I suspect that might be part of what she’s thinking. So maybe she’s looking out for more than just us?” asked Dean.

“Hard to believe
but
I think she has that in her. So yeah, she’s thinking ahead.”

Stroking his beard, Dean felt his admiration grow another leap for Sophie. The woman was ahead of his
thinking
and that didn’t happen to him
very
often.

“Okay. I’ll just play it by ear and not put the cart in front of the horse, for now.”

“Good call. And like Manny says, if that’s what God wants, it’ll happen.”

“He does say that
. . .
”

Suddenly
,
the vehicle was forced out of
its
lane by an unseen impact
. A
second
hit
sent the SUV diving for the ditch. Dean spun into the forced exodus from the highway, trying desperately to right the truck, wondering what had
happened.
Pungent
gas infiltrated the
vehicle
just as he heard A
lex yell.
T
he
SUV
slid
off the road, rolling over the steep embankment.

CHAPTER-26

Slowly, with patience
she’d exhibited all of her life,
Aphrodite
began the procedure of pulling off the long, black, padded glove shrouding her left hand. She’d not changed the glove for two days
, which
was against doctor’s orders, then again, her current string of dates
—
and the ending results
—
was probably not on her list of approved activities either.

She shifted her weight
i
n the wicker chair at the foot of her bed and glanced up at the mirror above
the
dresser
.
She stopped what
she was doing to pull strands of coal black hair away from her face.

“Damn girl, you’re looking a little tired. Might need a night off,” she said
.
“Nothing like a few special videos and a good bottle of wine to help recharge.”

Therein lived the problem, however.
Lily didn’t want to take a night off. Not now
,
not for
as long as she could
continue to
set the table for
her
appetite. That was the key, wasn’t it? Finding the source to feed the beast, so to speak. And
,
in her case,
that source existed of
men who wanted her
,
and men that she wanted
—
albeit different expectations for
each
abounded. The mutual lust and need fashioned a match made in Utopia. She never dreamed her love life could be like this. Hell, she never even dared to dream until a few months ago.

Reaching toward the
elbow-high
glove again, she began to unroll it and
,
when she reached her wrist, hesitated, then finished pulling it o
ff. This time there was no wince
of pain or even a hint of discomfort. She stared at the unnatural limb
.
She slowly ran her hand over it as she rotated it as far as she could in both directions, stopping only to touch crevices, subtleties, and odd surface
s
that hadn’t been there before. If she’d been the kind to be concerned with physical appearance, she might
be
freak
ed
out.
S
ince that kind of perspective didn’t register with her, she
was far more fascinated with
what
her hand could bring to the table
.
The condition of the limb portrayed a weakness not present in her
,
and that deception alone would continue to be an advantage she would wield. The same could be said of her leg and all it had endured. But now the
se
were simpl
y
tools in the
ultimate quest
.

Still, she hadn’t enjoyed what it had taken to get her to this point. Who would? In fact, there were more than
a
few people who wondered
why
she hadn’t gone insane.

Little did they know
. . .

But there
was nothing
she could do about that today
,
and
,
in the end, she’d realized how instrumental her misfortune had been regarding her evolution, as it were. It had brought unbelievable strength. Strength to do what people like her were made to do.

Her mind flashed back to that night several months prior. She remembered seeing the moon shining full and a fragrance only the ocean could bring before all Hell had broken loose.
Nothing could have been more painful, more shocking, yet she was enlightened at the same time.

She closed her eyes and decided not to visit the details again
,
but she knew if that fateful night
—
and all
it taught her
—
hadn’t occurred, she might still be hidden under a bushel, so to speak.

After replacing the glove, Lily ambled back to her sofa and sat down. A moment later, she was in full fascination mode as she stared intently at the screen of the laptop as it restarted the looping function with the fresh DVD she’d
just
made. Scarecrow Man lay prone on the hotel floor, that same look on his face
as
the others
.
She could sense his fear, feel his pain, and smell his confusion. Each second of the video showing her actions, her determination, hell
, her out
right pleasure, began to create that feeling again. That swelling of emotion she’d always known was possible,
that, up
until the last two weeks
,
hadn’t been real.
Yet
they had a face now, didn’t they?
Each turn of the corkscrew, each curl of the scalpel guided by her fingers fanned the flame until the final sti
t
ch was hooked through his thin lips
.
T
hen the video was over.

Her labored breath
began to recover as she held her hand to her chest, her mind encouraging her heart to slow, but not wanting it to at the same time. She held to it as long as she could but
,
eventually
,
the uncompromised rise the video had
given her disappeared, as usual.

Yet
, this one had been more intense than the others and she was trying to understand why. She still
ed
, eyes closed, going over each moment to see if she’d done
any
thing different
ly
,
or
perhaps he had.
Was it the added danger of being exposed? Maybe, but she doubted it. Then what?
She only knew the experience had been
. . .
deeper.

A few minutes later, she moved to the kitchen to retrieve the wine she’d promised herself. Standing near the counter, her mind turned back to the last playing of the video. While she understood physical stimulation, including orgasms
—
really understood them
—
th
e killing-
key that had unlocked her
unique
emotion was different.
For her, t
here was no physical action/reaction, like hitting the brakes on a car and feeling
it stop. Or
flipping
on a light switch and having the light c
ome to life. This was different and
g
rowing in its intensity
.