Crossroads 3: Gut Instinct (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Read online

  “Son of a bitch, it could be him. The first picture we have is pretty damn blurry, but this, this guy could be our man,” Tiegen said.

  “Does she have a last name?” the agent asked, and the chief relayed the question.

  “Mason. She thinks it was Mason.”

  “Kenneth Mason. Run it through the system along with those fingerprints and the blood samples to see if there’s a match,” Tiegen said to the other agents.

  “Mitch, you and I are going to meet the officers in the woods,” Tiegen said. “Chief, get some volunteers to start searching that area near where we found the bodies and also where Sonya runs. We can’t be but a few hours behind him.”

  They all began to scatter.

  “I’m going with you, and her boyfriends will meet us there too.”

  “Boyfriends? Who is she seeing?” Tiegen asked.

  “Jay Bird, Big Guns, and Caleb,” the chief said to them.

  “Jesus, those guys are fucking badass and SWAT. They will want to be on top of all of this. Let’s move,” Tiegen said, and they headed out.

  It felt as though it was taking forever, but just as they approached the side of the park that was closest to the location where the bodies had been found, Mitch’s cell phone went off.

  “Hello. We’re just pulling up. What? Jesus. Don’t touch a thing.”

  “What is it?” Tiegen asked.

  “They found the spot where it appears a struggle took place. There’s a camera, Sonya’s broken phone, some blood and markings, like a boat being dragged into the water and boot prints down by the water’s edge.”

  “Shit, I’ll call Niko and tell him to keep the guys clear of the area. If this fuck hurt her, or worse, they don’t need to see it,” the Chief said.

  “We don’t know that she’s dead. If you think about the other scenarios and the way he took the other victims, if in fact he’s our guy, then he took her someplace. We need to figure out where and fast,” Tiegen told them.

  They pulled up and got out of the cars. They immediately saw the various police cruisers and what looked like a media van.

  “Son of a bitch. Who the hell notified the press?” Tiegen asked in a huff.

  “Chief, get some of your men to hold them off and keep them at bay. They can’t be anywhere near here. Not a word about what is happening,” the federal agent told the chief.

  Tiegen, Mitch, and the others headed into the woods, and Mitch saw Felicia crying and Officer Mark Sullin consoling her.

  Mitch went right over while Tiegen and the others approached the crime scene.

  “Felicia.” When he said her name, she came right to him and hugged him.

  “I can’t believe that someone took her. That it was that Kenneth guy.”

  “We’re not a hundred percent sure,” he told her.

  She pulled back. “It had to be him. He liked her from the first moment he saw her. She thought he was weird and kind of creepy, strange in how he watched her. She was nice but didn’t lead him on. He had a girlfriend, but that was probably a trick to get her to let her guard down.”

  “Maybe. We need to figure things out fast but know that the picture you took at the fall party is a huge help, as was knowing his name and knowing that he was with her the last time you two spoke. So know this is a big help and we’ll find her. Any chance you know who his girlfriend is and a name?”

  “Lidia. I believe her name was Lidia. She should be in the picture I sent you.”

  “That was her?” he asked.

  “Yes, by the bar with the apple cider specialty drink.”

  “Okay, that’s really good. This is all very useful.”

  Tears spilled from her eyes. “But I heard there were other women taken. Other bodies. It was on the news, and then there were pictures of the victims. They were brunettes just like Sonya.”

  He took a deep breath and released it. “Don’t think about that right now. Think about sending prayers and strength to Sonya so we can find her and she gets through this. I need to head over there with the others. You’ve been a huge help. Know that, okay?”

  Just as he said that, he looked to the right and saw Big Guns, Jay Bird, Caleb and the rest of Team Venom heading toward them, all eight men dressed in black SWAT attire and looking mad as hell as they approached. He was just as angry and wanted answers fast. Whoever this Kenneth guy was, he was going down, and they were the men to do it.

  * * * *

  “Why isn’t she waking up?” Nathan asked as he caressed her bare skin and watched her, waiting for the chance for their eyes to lock.

  His brother needed that connection, and it was so important that she not insult him or anger him by refusing to look in his eyes. Kenneth wasn’t sure why she hadn’t awoken yet. Night had fallen, and Nathan was losing his patience, as he was ready to play. Maybe in a panic he’d given her too much of the drugs. He had injected the whole amount. Perhaps he’d measured it wrong to begin with. Either way, she was breathing, had a good pulse, and she looked peaceful.

  “Just let her rest. She’ll need it later once you begin to train her,” Kenneth told him.

  Nathan cupped her breast in the black sports bra she wore. “I don’t want to wait until later. I want to touch her. I want to make her start learning that she’s my wife.”

  “You’ll have plenty of time, Nathan. She’s yours forever. No one can ever take her away from you.”

  Nathan looked at him with such love in his eyes. “I want to share my surprise with you.”

  “Surprise?”

  “Yes. I want her to be ours. I want to share her with you, Kenneth. You deserve her as much as I do.”

  Kenneth was shocked. Never had his brother ever offered one of his women to him to enjoy.

  He looked at Sonya and her sexy, voluptuous body in her sports bra and panties, both in black.

  “Are you sure, Nathan?”

  Nathan nodded very fast. “She is yours too.” Nathan then took Kenneth’s hand and brought him closer to the bed. He laid Nathan’s hand over Sonya’s belly and brought his palm up to her breast.

  “She’s very big up top. Not like the others. She is sweet, pretty, and I don’t want to kill her. I’ll need you to stop me from doing that.”

  He looked at her and then back at Kenneth. “Say yes, Kenneth.”

  “Yes,” Kenneth said, and Nathan smiled.

  Sonya began to moan.

  Nathan rubbed his hands together and jumped up and down. “She’s waking up, she’s waking up.” To see such a huge, tattooed-up badass look so childlike and act as if he was seven was always the strangest thing to see, but knowing he would have the opportunity to fuck his brother’s wife and have his own way with her body was a different story. He smiled as he watched her eyes flutter open.

  “Hello, gorgeous, meet your husband, Nathan,” Kenneth said to her.

  She jerked upward, only to slam back down to the bed because her arms and legs were bound to the bedposts. She looked around the room frantically.

  “Where am I? What do you want?” she asked.

  Nathan smiled. He walked closer, reached out, and touched her cheek.

  She turned away from him. He grabbed her face hard.

  “Let go of me. Who are you? What am I doing here?” she demanded to know.

  Kenneth reached out and caressed her hair. He let his eyes roam over her gorgeous breasts, the taut belly, and over the thin black thong that barely covered her pussy.

  “You’re where you belong. Nothing else matters. Your life before now was meaningless and is over,” he said to her.

  “No. No. Stop touching me. Get away from me,” she yelled, and then she screamed.

  Nathan covered his ears. He started to rock back and forth, and it seemed to Kenneth that Sonya instantly realized that it had stopped Nathan from touching her, so she screamed louder.

  Kenneth slammed his hand over her mouth to silence her, and she bit him.

  “Fuck,” Kenneth exclaimed, cursing as the blood leaked from
his skin and the teeth marks she’d inflicted. She spat at him.

  He grabbed her throat and her chin and squeezed tightly. She tilted up, trying to get free and to take a breath, but she couldn’t.

  “I’ll fucking snap your neck like a twig. You listen and you listen well, Sonya. This is your new life. We’re your men. Nathan is your husband.”

  “Never,” she squeezed out as he loosened his hold.

  But then he gripped her throat harder and saw her eyes begin to bulge, and the whites of them began to change. If he continued to hold her like this, he could watch as blood vessels broke and her eyes filled with the red lines. But then she would be dead.

  He released her throat, shoving her head into the pillow and then jerking away. He looked at his brother.

  “Nathan, she needs discipline before you can take from her body.”

  Nathan nodded and stood up. He walked over to the table he had set up with various devices. He lifted the long narrow stick with the tiny bristles on the end. He raised it up and slapped it down hard on the edge of the bed. Sonya stiffened and screamed.

  “I’ve had it with her screams. How the hell can we concentrate?” He looked at Nathan and the blue bandana he had around his neck that collected his sweat. “Give me your bandana.”

  Nathan immediately undid the knot and then handed him the bandana.

  “She needs to learn your scent. To crave your taste. She can start with this while you punish her.” He lifted her head abruptly and wrapped the bandana over her mouth then tied it tightly. She screamed and cursed as she fought the binds on her wrists and ankles. She was already breaking her skin and bleeding.

  Her head fell back down, and Kenneth leaned over her, nice and close. His mouth was next to hers, and he licked her cheek. She shoved her face hard up against his mouth, cutting his lip.

  He licked the blood and stared down into her brown eyes filled with fear and anger. She was tougher than he’d expected, and he gave her credit for it.

  “Get ready, Sonya. We’re going to be at this all night, and you will break down and give in. You will.”

  She shook her head and grunted and tried to say no. He stood up and smiled.

  “Begin, Nathan. I’ll get the other things ready next.”

  He heard her body lift up and then her grunted cry through the bandana as Nathan whipped her over her belly and ribs.

  She will break down. She will be ours. Nothing will stand in the way of Nathan and me taking her together over and over again.

  * * * *

  “What do you mean you need to run some tests and filter through the system? This guy must be from around here. He must live nearby,” Big Guns said to Tiegen, Mitch, and the agents.

  The crime scene had been photographed, and the lake had been investigated by divers looking for another body. It had been hell to watch, to know that his woman had been abducted by some guy who could be a serial killer.

  He felt Caleb place a hand on his shoulder.

  “What the fuck do we do now? It’s been hours, it’s dark out, and none of you have come up with shit. He could be hurting her right now, abusing her, raping her and there’s been no further updates,” Caleb said.

  “We’re trying our best,” Mitch told them.

  Big Guns ran his fingers through his hair. He looked around them. Everyone was being supportive. He just couldn’t seem to comprehend what was happening though. It was as though he didn’t want it to be real, and if he kept denying it was happening, that a serial killer had not abducted the woman they loved, then it wouldn’t be true. He kept hoping that it was a mistake, that Sonya would show up unscathed and extremely upset that they all had worried so much. That was Sonya. Sweet, caring, and so giving, and now some monster had taken her. He’d kill the fucker with his bare hands. There had to be more they could do.

  He heard Tiegen’s phone ring. At least Tiegen was there. Like Mitch, he took his jobs very seriously and was an upstanding law enforcement officer. Tiegen’s connections with the state police and the feds was a blessing that would be crucial in locating Sonya quicker than if they hadn’t had that support.

  “This is killing me. I keep fucking thinking about how we left her this morning after making love all night. We were all so close, so connected. It’s everything we’ve ever fantasized about, hell, wanted, even if we tried to deny that,” Jay Bird said to Big Guns.

  “I know,” Big Guns said, “and that’s why I’m having such a difficult time wrapping my brain around this being real, but it is. Seven dead bodies were discovered in this fucking lake. A serial fucking killer is hanging out in Wellington, and it takes our woman being abducted to get the feds moving on this case and to help find this guy. Jesus, if she had only told us about her fear of this guy and how creepy he was, maybe we could have given her some insight into following her gut instincts.”

  “Or even practiced more self-defense moves with her,” Caleb said.

  “She might have used some considering that there was blood found on the ground. As soon as they get the results, they’ll know if it’s him just like the others,” Big Guns said and then exhaled as he looked at his watch.

  “It’s after midnight. What the fuck? She must be so scared. What is he doing to her?” Big Guns asked, his fists clenched at his sides.

  “We can’t think like that. It will only enrage us more and make us lose our cool.”

  “Something has to give. Something,” Jay Bird said, and they all simply stood there, feeling so helpless.

  * * * *

  Tiegen and Mitch stood beside the criminal investigative unit truck. They had a full lab on wheels set up with computers connected to various systems throughout the United States and other countries.

  More agents had arrived hours ago and had come up with more information on Kenneth Mason.

  “So, what we have is blood from someone else, not matching Kenneth’s blood type at all. However, the girlfriend, Lidia, turned out not to be a girlfriend at all but a woman hired by Kenneth from an escort service in the city. She states that she was required to pretend to be his girlfriend in front of Sonya in order for Kenneth to gain Sonya’s trust and become friends. She was also paid extra to never discuss the aspects of their date,” the federal agent stated to them.

  “So how did you get her to talk?” Mitch asked.

  “Told her she would be arrested and charged with conspiracy to hide a murder and a few other federal charges that would land her in prison for life,” Agent Merkoff stated.

  Mitch smirked. “Anything else she can tell us?”

  “That he has a lot of money,” Merkoff replied.

  “Shit, well then he’s even more resourceful. He could be anywhere, but whose blood was under the nails of that one body then? It doesn’t match Kenneth’s,” Mitch said.

  “Whoa, get this,” one of the other agents interrupted as he typed on the keyboard.

  “What do you got?” Tiegen asked him as he placed a hand on the guy’s chair and leaned over him to see the computer screen.

  “Looks like Kenneth has an older brother. Big dude too.” Agent Kevin Price put a picture of the guy up on the screen.

  Mitch stepped closer. “He looks a little strange.”

  “Funny you say that. He was taken from a psychiatric ward and placed under personal care by his brother Kenneth three years ago. They lived in Connecticut for a stint.” Kevin told them.

  “What was he diagnosed with?” Tiegen asked.

  “He’s got a bunch of issues. He’s bipolar and has violent tendencies.”

  “Maybe that was also why Kenneth got a hold of the tranquilizer drugs, to maybe sedate his brother when he got out of control?” Mitch asked.

  “Could be, but he also used that on his victims. Based on the crime scene, he used it on Sonya to get her out of the woods to take her,” Tiegen added.

  “Could the blood be the brother's? Could maybe this guy, Nathan, be assisting with the abuse and the murders?” Merkoff asked.

  “Shi
t, it could very well be. We need some insight into this guy’s psychological state and whether he’s hurt anyone before or had any violent outburst toward anyone in the past,” Tiegen said.

  “Well, let’s scroll along his file in the psych ward,” Agent Price said as he typed away on the computer, adding an additional screen so he could refer back and forth between the three screens he had up on his computer.

  “How are you doing that?” Mitch asked.

  “Oh, don’t worry about it.”

  “You’re hacking into the psych ward’s computer system?” Mitch asked.

  “I wouldn’t say hacked into. I would say trying to find a killer calls for desperate measures and we have limited time. Why waste trying to get clearance for a glance at one patient’s file? It’s not like we’re trying to change anything or destroy anything,” Kevin said as he tapped away.

  “Here we go. Yadda, yadda, medications, psychiatrist expresses concerns over patient’s fantasies.”

  “What? You can get confidential information like that?” Mitch asked as he sat down and looked closer.

  “I can tell you what time he took a shit and how many times a day if this place documented that. Here, look at this. His history and the day he was admitted.” The agent then started reading the information aloud.

  “He was arrested on June eighteenth five years ago at his home after the police were called by neighbors hearing screams and yelling. It goes on to say that…oh shit.”

  “What? What does it say?” Tiegen asked.

  “That both parents were found brutally murdered. They were beaten and then stabbed multiple times. The sick fuck. Jesus, he had lawyers that got him off.” Kevin told them.

  “He pleaded insanity and got put in the psychiatric ward?” Mitch asked.

  The agent nodded and then looked farther down and clicked onto another screen.

  “You’re not going to believe this, but it looks like his younger brother Kenneth footed the bill.”

  “To get him off on an insanity charge?” Tiegen asked.

  “Yep, and he was the one who took him from the psychiatric ward after six months of counseling and meeting sessions. Since no one opposed to him being released, his brother somehow got Nathan out and into his care.”