Satin & Saddles (15 page)

The sheriff studied Burnside for a long moment. “I’ll just take a look around now.”

“You do that.” Burnside looked like he was trying to act natural but there was an odd fire in his eyes.

The deputy that had been sweeping through the house came into the room and shook his head.

“Why don’t you keep Mr. Burnside company while I take a look for myself?” he told the deputy.

The deputy nodded and hooked his thumbs in his duty belt as he watched Burnside. Dillon turned away and followed the sheriff.

“Where the hell do you think you’re going, Cameron?” Burnside shouted. “You’re not a cop.”

Dillon ignored him and the sheriff didn’t make any indication that he’d heard the man. Burnside took a step as if to go after Dillon but the deputy stood in his path.

The house was sparse, with just the essentials lying around. It didn’t look like the home of a man who intended to make his home in this part of the country. One bedroom was apparently being used for an office with just a wood desk with a leather chair behind it. The windows had plain white blinds and no other furniture was in the room. On the desktop were a large screen computer monitor, a keyboard, and a mouse. An iPad lay next to the keyboard.

Dillon went to reach for the iPad but the sheriff shook his head. “We’ll need to come back with a warrant if we have enough to convince the judge to issue one. Right now we’re looking at nothing but a man turning up around Carly a little too often. You told me earlier that Burnside hadn’t attempted any bodily harm against her and I don’t see anything that could implicate him in her disappearance.”

“What about the cut on his cheek?” Dillon growled. “The scratches on his arm?”

“We’re just going to need more than what we have which is nothing.” Cooper moved out of the office. “The judge isn’t going to be inclined to issue the warrant unless we find something since Carly has only been missing four hours.”

Dillon took off his western hat and pushed his fingers through his hair, frustrated beyond words. They were wasting time. They had to figure out what Burnside did with Carly. Everything within Dillon told him that the bastard was responsible for her disappearance.

But what had he done with her? Dillon followed the sheriff from bare room to bare room and his frustration only grew. There was no sign of her or anything that might explain her vanishing like she had.

It was like a punch to his gut as his mind turned to possibilities he hadn’t wanted to consider. Still didn’t want to consider.

What if he hadn’t just taken her? What if Burnside had killed her?

A murderous rage overtook Dillon and he ground his teeth and fisted his hands.

Dillon strode to where Cooper was standing in Burnside’s master bedroom. “We’re wasting time. Carly could be seriously hurt…” He trailed off, not wanting to voice his previous thought.

Cooper didn’t respond and headed back to the living room where Burnside stood with the deputy. “I’d like to search your SUV while I’m here,” Cooper said.

Burnside shook his head. “I’ve had enough.”

Cooper studied Burnside. “I’ll be seeing you soon.” The sheriff gave a nod to Dillon, telling him to take his leave, too.

Dillon’s gut clenched. He wanted to beat everything out of Burnside but he didn’t need to be arrested for assault with the sheriff present.

“You’d better not have hurt her,” Dillon said in a low, dangerous voice to Burnside. “If you’ve done anything to her, I’ll personally make sure you’ll wish you were never born.”

“Get out of here,” Burnside said with narrowed eyes.

It took all Dillon had to turn away and head out of the house with the sheriff.

Geoff barely kept from slamming the door shut behind the sheriff and Cameron. He peeked through the blinds and watched the pair as they had some kind of exchange beside their vehicles. He wished he could hear what they were saying. Cameron still looked pissed and his gaze turned toward Geoff’s house, his jaw set. The sheriff said something else and Cameron turned and headed to the driver’s side of his truck.

Damn, but he hadn’t expected the sheriff to show up so soon. Carly hadn’t been missing long enough for a missing person’s search. Cameron must have convinced the sheriff to take a look around his home. He watched as the men drove away from his house.

He turned away from the window, pushed up his sleeve, and looked at the cuts. Fuck. The times he’d taken women before, they hadn’t made a scratch on him. He was always careful and smart, which was why he’d never been caught. No one was as smart as him.

He’d made a mistake with Carly, though, his first mistake. She’d fought a lot harder than he’d expected. He should have come up behind her with the chloroform before she knew what had happened. There was something about her that had made him want to play with her. It was all a game and she was different than the others.

Geoff pulled down his sleeve and headed toward his office. He had things to take care of, especially now that he was already under suspicion.

Of course that hick sheriff wouldn’t be able to pin anything on him, so he knew he had nothing to worry about. Even if they watched his place, he had a way out and another vehicle to drive to the house where he was keeping Carly to take care of her. But he had to wait, had to play it smart. He’d better be sure, better be safe than take chances.

He wanted to get back to her so badly it set his teeth on edge, but he couldn’t take the chance of getting caught… Although as stupid as the locals were, he might just be able to get out to here sooner rather than later.

A truck was parked a few streets over that he would use to get to her the moment he felt the time was right. He would sneak out the back of the house and make his way through the neighborhood to the truck then drive it up to the house where he’d left Carly.

When he reached his office he booted up his computer. He needed to clear out anything that might lead the cops to him if it came down to it. He located pictures he’d taken of the women he’d had the pleasure of getting to know in life… And in death.

He moved the pictures to a thumb drive that he’d keep hidden until he was ready to move away from Hicksville, and he wiped out any evidence on his computer from emails to satellite photos of the women’s homes and the house Carly was in, to bookmarked Facebook pages. He used scrubber software that covered his tracks and permanently removed all information he’d deleted from his hard drive.

He set to work on clearing everything off of his iPad, too. He’d been careless with it when he’d asked Carly to read the map. That wasn’t going to happen again.

His thoughts continuously turned to Carly. How beautiful she was with her long dark hair, her perfect body. He loved that she wasn’t a skinny scarecrow, loved her full curves, one of the things that had attracted him to her.

Maybe he should try something different with her instead of scaring her. Perhaps he should be her friend first and win her over.

He’d always been a patient man, one of the things that had kept him from getting caught. Still, he couldn’t get his mind off what he would do to her when he finally had her beneath him on that bed in the house. He’d used that bed plenty of times. It was good luck and he kept it in storage in between playthings. It had been a while since the last one and her blood had stained the mattress.

He finished taking care of the computer and iPad, hid the thumb drive, and smiled to himself. Let the game begin.

No light came in through the shuttered window so she had no idea how much time had passed. She’d spent hours pacing the room as far as the chain would allow her. She’d spent hours lying on the mattress staring up at the ceiling. She’d spent hours sleeping. And she’d spent hours loosening one of the bars in the bed’s headboard.

The bar rested where it belonged so that Geoff wouldn’t realize she could take it out. Just as long as the bed wasn’t bumped too hard it would stay in place until she needed it.

She sat on the mattress near the headboard, her knees up to her chest, her arms around her bent legs, and her chin resting on her knees. The shackles had rubbed her wrists and her ankle raw and her stomach rumbled from hunger. Even though she’d rationed it, she ran out of water and food long ago and she was lightheaded. How long had Geoff been gone? What if something had happened to him and no one ever found her?

It wasn’t that she hoped he would come back because the thought of what he wanted to do made her stomach twist. What she hoped for was that Dillon or someone else would follow Geoff here to the house. Or maybe they were questioning him and they’d get her location out of him.

Tears bit at the backs of her eyes. She swallowed and forced the tears back. She’d done all the crying she was going to do.

A rumbling sound came from outside the house and her heart started beating faster. It sounded like a truck. Could someone be here to save her? Should she yell?

Moments later the sound of a door opening and closing sent chills through her. Was it Geoff? A few moments later a key rattled in one of the locks and then another before the door swung open. Even as the door was being unlocked, she knew who it was.

Standing in the doorway was Geoff. He held some clothing and two plastic grocery bags and her stomach rumbled again.

“How are you doing, baby?” He looked concerned as he stepped into the room. “I’m sorry but I couldn’t get away until tonight.”

She didn’t answer and she didn’t move, hoping he would come close enough that she could grab the bar and swing it at him.

He set the grocery bags by the ring in the middle of the floor. “Come here, Carly.” He spoke gently but there was a look in his eyes that made her get off the bed and move toward him.

She held the towel he’d left tight around her as she went to him. The moment she was close enough, he held out a stack of clothing.

“I’m sorry about leaving you without clothes,” he said as she reached out and took them. “You can put them on after your shower.”

The fact that he was giving her clothes gave her hope. If she was wearing something, maybe he didn’t plan on raping her.

He pointed to the floor. “Have a seat. You need to eat first.”

Carly tightened the towel she was wearing as she went down on her haunches. Her stomach gave another complaint.

He sat on the floor across from her and studied her, probably seeing the bruise on her face from where he’d hit her. She didn’t have a mirror but was sure it looked bad, as hard as he’d hit her.

“I’m sorry, baby.” He looked sincere as he reached out. She flinched as he ran a thumb over the bruise but she didn’t pull away, not wanting to antagonize him. “I want us to have a fresh start.”

He moved his hand away from her cheek and then dug in his pocket before bringing out a key. She had to force herself not to draw away from him when he reached for her shackled ankle. The metal made a hard click as he turned the key and then the shackle hit the wood floor with a hard thunk. He took each wrist and it felt like some weight fell away from her shoulders as the heavy metal shackles fell away from her wrists and thumped beside the ankle cuff.

With a gentle smile he massaged her wrists. She wanted to recoil but she remained still. “There.” He released her and reached for one of the grocery bags. “We’re already off to a better start.” He brought out a water bottle and handed it to her after twisting off the top.

She took it from him and took a long draught. She knew she should be careful and not drink too fast after not having water for so long, but it was hard not to guzzle it.

When she set the water aside, he drew out something from a deli, unfolded the paper, and handed her the sandwich. “Eat now.”

In some ways she’d like to tell him where he could stuff the sandwich, but she was so hungry and so lightheaded that she couldn’t think straight and knew she needed to eat. Despite her hunger, the sandwich tasted like cardboard and rubber and she had to force it down. After she’d eaten two-thirds of her sandwich, she set the rest aside.

Geoff smiled. “There. Feel better?”

She just looked at him. She did feel a little better but she didn’t want to talk to him.

“Answer me.” There was a slight edge to his tone that made her swallow. “Feel better?”

She nodded and said, “Yes.” She hadn’t talked for so long that the word came out in a hoarse whisper.

“Good.” He looked her over. “Time for that shower.” He stood, picked up the stack of clothing, and held out his hand. She hesitated but then let him take her hand in his.

Her skin crawled as he led her to the closed door in the wall to the right. When he opened the door she saw that it was a small bathroom with a tub and shower along with a porcelain sink and a towel on a rack beside the sink. When she pulled the shower curtain aside she saw a small pump dispenser of shampoo along with a bar of soap.

“You have ten minutes to clean yourself up,” he said then left the door open as she started the water in the tub and brought it to a warm temperature before turning the knob so that the shower started.

She dropped the towel and stepped into the tub and turned her face to the spray. The shower felt better than the food had tasted. She washed her hair and her body as fast as she could then stood under the spray until he ordered her to get out, likely exactly ten minutes after she’d gotten in.

After she dried herself, she dressed in the jeans he’d taken from her and a man’s flannel shirt. She reached for the small pump bottle of shampoo and filled each hand with the pearly white soap. She prayed he wouldn’t notice soap dripping from her palms.

When she came out of the bathroom, a chill rolled through her. Geoff was holding the bar that she’d loosened from the headboard, a hard look on his face.

Her heart fell but she tried to keep from showing any kind of expression.

“What’s this, Carly?” He held it up. “Did you plan to do something with it?”

She managed a frown. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Sure you do. You’d planned on using it on me,” he said. “I saw the marks you left while you’ve been loosening it.” He tossed the bar into a far corner of the room. It clanked when it hit the floor then rolled far out of reach. “Come here.”