Read Online A Killing Cupid (Sensory Ops) by Nikki Duncan - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Nikki Duncan
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on the table. Her gut clenched at the sickeningly sweet scent clogging the air. Never again would she think of roses as beautiful or try to remember the meanings that people attached to them. Roses had come to reflect painful deaths. When tossed on a coffin being lowered into the ground, whatever their color, they were as black as death’s darkness.
She slipped the twelfth rose into the vase before heading for the living room and the light switch. She’d studied the other killings. He would make sure all the roses were together before leaving and he'd want to watch in the vividness of bright light as he drained her of life. As she took her last breath.
If it meant speeding things up she would help him set the scene.
The woman's pain was Cupid’s arousal. The profiler she'd consulted, as well as Aidan's team, had added that Cupid would be almost as excited by the knowledge that those left behind would suffer as greatly as his victim. He’d quoted All’s Well That Ends Well , but this night would not end well for at least one of them.
" Do you hear him? Sense him?" Through the hidden camera in her earring Aidan saw what she saw. Rather than speak, she shook her head. The side-to-side sway of the camera would be enough for him.
" I have to say there's something to your inability to respond. You've never been easier to get along with."
She scowled at Aidan's taunt and focused on the knowledge she was being watched, studied, analyzed by a killer.
Her senses buzzed. She had discussed the layout of the town home with Aidan and his team. There weren't many good hiding places, but they'd brought in extra blankets and home goods to fill all the possibilities except the bedroom closet.
Having the upper hand in protecting herself didn’t settle her fluttering stomach.
Trying to act as she did every night, she slipped off her Ferragamo pumps and turned on the stereo. Her favorite Chopin CD played through the speakers she’d recently had installed. The soothing strains weren’t settling tonight. Neither was the power of the home she'd carefully created. She may never feel settled again.
" Seriously, Lana? Elevator music?"
She struggled to suppress a laugh at the disgust in his voice. He probably listened to heavy metal.
Lana shook back her hair and walked into her bedroom, flipping on the lights as she went. More scared than she’d expected to be, she considered going to the kitchen, drawing out the inevitable. More scared than she’d been when she’d been kidnapped and held prisoner with several other women to be sold into slavery in another country, she questioned the wisdom of her involvement in this case.
Aidan had been the one to carry her to freedom from the kidnappers. Since, he’d hovered in her space. In her mind.
He did the same now. He irritated her and rubbed her the wrong way, but he wouldn’t fail her. He wouldn't allow her to be hurt.
She rolled her neck to loosen the rapidly building tension. Her senses hummed with visceral awareness of her room. Nothing had been moved. N othing new had been brought in, but it was like walking through a forest without a single chirping insect. The absence of the expected was the signal that something wasn’t right.
Cupid was close. Very close.
Tilting her head to the side, she inhaled slow and steady. The air felt different—cold and lifeless. She smelled only her perfume.
" You sense him."
She made the slightest upward move of her head that Aidan would read as a nod. She wouldn't give more away because she would lay monumental odds that she was being watched from very nearby. Her heart raced, slamming into her ribs in a succession of painful pulses.
" You remember our code word? You say that and I’m there."
Pleasure. She remembered it. She just wasn’t so sure she'd be able to speak when the time came, her throat was so thick with terror. What had she been thinking? Was a story really worth this risk?
She’d thought she would have an advantage over
She slipped the twelfth rose into the vase before heading for the living room and the light switch. She’d studied the other killings. He would make sure all the roses were together before leaving and he'd want to watch in the vividness of bright light as he drained her of life. As she took her last breath.
If it meant speeding things up she would help him set the scene.
The woman's pain was Cupid’s arousal. The profiler she'd consulted, as well as Aidan's team, had added that Cupid would be almost as excited by the knowledge that those left behind would suffer as greatly as his victim. He’d quoted All’s Well That Ends Well , but this night would not end well for at least one of them.
" Do you hear him? Sense him?" Through the hidden camera in her earring Aidan saw what she saw. Rather than speak, she shook her head. The side-to-side sway of the camera would be enough for him.
" I have to say there's something to your inability to respond. You've never been easier to get along with."
She scowled at Aidan's taunt and focused on the knowledge she was being watched, studied, analyzed by a killer.
Her senses buzzed. She had discussed the layout of the town home with Aidan and his team. There weren't many good hiding places, but they'd brought in extra blankets and home goods to fill all the possibilities except the bedroom closet.
Having the upper hand in protecting herself didn’t settle her fluttering stomach.
Trying to act as she did every night, she slipped off her Ferragamo pumps and turned on the stereo. Her favorite Chopin CD played through the speakers she’d recently had installed. The soothing strains weren’t settling tonight. Neither was the power of the home she'd carefully created. She may never feel settled again.
" Seriously, Lana? Elevator music?"
She struggled to suppress a laugh at the disgust in his voice. He probably listened to heavy metal.
Lana shook back her hair and walked into her bedroom, flipping on the lights as she went. More scared than she’d expected to be, she considered going to the kitchen, drawing out the inevitable. More scared than she’d been when she’d been kidnapped and held prisoner with several other women to be sold into slavery in another country, she questioned the wisdom of her involvement in this case.
Aidan had been the one to carry her to freedom from the kidnappers. Since, he’d hovered in her space. In her mind.
He did the same now. He irritated her and rubbed her the wrong way, but he wouldn’t fail her. He wouldn't allow her to be hurt.
She rolled her neck to loosen the rapidly building tension. Her senses hummed with visceral awareness of her room. Nothing had been moved. N othing new had been brought in, but it was like walking through a forest without a single chirping insect. The absence of the expected was the signal that something wasn’t right.
Cupid was close. Very close.
Tilting her head to the side, she inhaled slow and steady. The air felt different—cold and lifeless. She smelled only her perfume.
" You sense him."
She made the slightest upward move of her head that Aidan would read as a nod. She wouldn't give more away because she would lay monumental odds that she was being watched from very nearby. Her heart raced, slamming into her ribs in a succession of painful pulses.
" You remember our code word? You say that and I’m there."
Pleasure. She remembered it. She just wasn’t so sure she'd be able to speak when the time came, her throat was so thick with terror. What had she been thinking? Was a story really worth this risk?
She’d thought she would have an advantage over
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