The moment she pushed back against me, I lost all sense of decency and reality.
My balls were heavy.
My pulse off the charts.
I wrapped my body around hers, pulling her up from the table just seconds before I released, filling her with my seed.
The only sound was our ragged breathing and somehow it managed to echo in my ears. A few seconds later, she wiggled underneath me.
“You’re not trying to escape me, are you?” I smirked, already eager for more.
“Oh, heavens, no. I’m merely teasing you.”
I bit down on her earlobe, enjoying every moment of having her in my arms.
“Then you should be ready for round two because you’re going nowhere.”
“You said he wrote you a note?” I asked after we’d played the silent game for several minutes. Even if it was entirely possible Jacob hadn’t issued threats or that he’d ordered someone else todo so, I needed every scrap of information. Just in case I could debunk the technicality and send his ass back to prison.
Valentina nodded. “On my car.”
“On your car.” Wait. What?
“Yes.” She pulled her phone from her pocket, her hand shaking as she pushed her finger around on the screen. “I managed to take a picture before the rain started. There were workers on the street where I live and there was dust all over my car.”
She pushed it with the lit screen across the counter before moving toward her daughter who was currently tossing cereal from her bowl. “Don’t do that, honey. You need to eat your breakfast.”
With a cup of coffee in my hand, I studied Valentina interacting with her daughter. Kids amazed me. They had no sense of danger at such a young age, although it would be a shame to test that theory. The little girl was the spitting image of her mother, including huge eyes that one day would draw boys in like flies to honey.
I hid a chuckle and grabbed Valentina’s phone just as the screen was fading. Instantly, my blood boiled. The words were chilling.
Bitch. You will die.
Unfortunately, they could have been written by anyone. Certainly some slick attorney would suggest she’d written the words herself. Also, if she lived in the same neighborhood as she had during the trial, the area was notorious for criminal activity. When I didn’t say anything right away, she lifted her head.
Her eyes were even more imploring than when I’d opened the door. “It’s not enough to put him back in prison.”
“Unfortunately not. I agree with you that while Jacob is a psychotic killer, he’s highly intelligent. He wouldn’t have left any fingerprints.” Which made him not only unpredictable but highly dangerous.
“I know what you’re thinking. It could have been written by anyone. But it wasn’t. He was standing outside my apartment. Right there on the street near the light peering up at me and I could swear he was smiling.”
“Did you happen to get a picture of the person watching you?” I could tell as her face fell, she hadn’t.
Her lips pursed, twisting out of frustration. She appeared more distraught than the night before. “You don’t believe me.”
“I believe you’re terrified and saw someone and some asshole definitely left you a nasty message.” I hated doubting her story, but I couldn’t go guns a-blazing to Ms. Guthrie or the state attorney’s office with baseless innuendos about the man they’d released already threatening the single witness. Not only would her credibility be challenged, so would mine.
Plus, I’d be grilled about why she’d come to me and the status of our relationship. I’d need to play this very carefully if I had any hopes of doing things the right way.
I almost choked on the thought, the bitter taste in my mouth forcing me to push my mug of coffee out of the way.
While she’d slept, I’d pondered. Maybe that the wrong word to use. I’d paced the floor of my office, making notes on how bestto handle the situation and speculating on what technicality had been used to get Jacob free from prison.
In doing so, I’d caught myself thinking more about Chase’s odd but pointed suggestion. The justice system had been stretched over the years and criminals seemingly birthed like cockroaches. We were a fractured society and there wasn’t a rein big enough to corral the issues.
Vigilantes weren’t new. Over the years there’d been hundreds of them, men and women who’d tried to fix a problem with acts of violence. Their modest successes had been overshadowed by their crude and illegal acts. Even the military hired mercenaries to perform acts that would never be sanctioned by any commanding officer. I’d seen it myself.
Jacob Jones was a career criminal, but the only crimes on his record were petty in nature. Dime store shit handled by a teenager hell-bent on breaking the law. His ruthless behavior had garnered him the attention of the Delgado Cartel and for a while, he’d become a drug runner. Then Luis Delgado, the brutal leader of the clan had learned of Jacob’s love of killing and an exterminator had been born.
