“Because this wasn’t one of his masterpieces,” Genevieve answered as her instincts screamed at her that this was an inside job. She beat them down as she glanced into the outraged faces around her. There was no way one of these men was the killer—no possible way. “Sharon was a means to an end, a punishment. Nothing else.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“Almost all the wounds were postmortem—at least, that’s what Jefferson believes at this point. And I’m betting that we’ll find out that either the blow to the head killed her or something else did very quickly. He didn’t want her to suffer. Oh, and there was no sign of sexual assault on the preliminary exam.”

“Which reinforces that he knew her.” Shawn spoke up for the first time.

“Or that he just didn’t want her to scream her head off in the middle of a cop shop,” Luc said through gritted teeth.

Genevieve watched him thoughtfully for a minute, and couldn’t help thinking that finally the killer had made a mistake. Taking a cop—particularly in her own precinct—was a stupid thing to do. Killing her here and leaving her mutilated body to be found was more than stupid. It was downright suicidal. So either the guy had a death wish and wanted to be caught, or he was too damn arrogant for his own good.

She was betting on the latter.

“Who was he punishing?” Torres demanded, his angry voice drawing her out of her musings. “Who’s he pissed at—besides his mother and the whole f**king world?”

Her phone rang before she could answer him. Wondering if it was Cole—since he’d disappeared once poor Sharon’s body had been found—she answered it with a soft “Delacroix.” But it wasn’t Cole, and she froze at the whisper at the other end.

It was a recording, and he said only three words, but they had her paralyzed. She stared at her computer like it was a bomb about to go off. “Check your email.”

“Why?” she started to ask, hoping to keep the line open long enough to trace him, but a dial tone was her only answer. Bumping Shawn out of her way—as well as the two CSI guys who had just shown up—she logged in to her email and skimmed through her in-box.

Buried between an email from the DA’s office and one from the lab was a message simply titled READ ME.

She clicked on it, and huge red letters filled the screen. This one’s on you, Genevieve. She didn’t have to die.

Suddenly, loud music blasted from her speakers and photos began popping on the screen—the same photos Chastian had shown her the day before.

She tried to shut it down, to close the email, to turn off the computer—to do something, anything to make the images stop. But nothing was working—her PC had been hijacked.

She was achingly aware of the men behind her, all of whom had averted their eyes after the first few pictures came up. But by then the damage had been done—the bastard had led with the most explicit ones—her naked, blindfolded, and tied to Cole’s bed, tequila pouring over her nude body with her ni**les hard and glistening, a man’s hand coming down hard on her bare ass, her masturbating.

The music was drawing attention from others in the room, and though Shawn and Luc and Roberto tried to shield the computer, she knew by the buzz in the room that some of the other detectives saw anyway.

Tears of rage and humiliation burned in her eyes. She saw these men every day, worked with them, took their backs and trusted them to take hers. Now that they’d seen her like this, how could she expect them to ever look at her the same way?

It wasn’t that she was ashamed of what she’d done with Cole—she wasn’t. The way he loved her was beautiful and exciting and so achingly intimate it made her head spin and her heart ache. But to have others see what she let him do to her was a violation like no other she’d ever known.

Not knowing what to do, wanting desperately for it to stop, she repeatedly hit the computer’s off button, but to no avail. Behind her she heard Torres growl, “Unplug the goddamn thing!” and then Luc was crouching next to her, ripping the power cord from the wall.

The music stopped instantly, as did the photo montage as the screen went mercifully blank. For long seconds she stood, paralyzed. Unable to move or think or even breathe, she tried to steady herself. Tried to think of what to say, of what to do.

But there was nothing she could do, the images indelibly burned into her brain—and the brains of her partners, the CSI guys, and half the squad room to boot, she was sure. Everything she’d done to fit in, everything she’d done to promote a professional image—strong, self-reliant, as capable as any man—was worthless now. In seconds, she’d been reduced to a joke for the water cooler. Or worse, the locker room.

Her lungs started aching, and Genevieve became abruptly aware of the fact that she wasn’t breathing. Opening her mouth, she managed to suck a few strangled breaths into her starving lungs.

But then she heard Torres clear his throat, felt his hand—soft and comforting—on her shoulder. The tears she’d been battling overflowed, sliding down her cheeks in long rivulets she no longer had the strength to hide.

“I need … I’m sorry, I need a minute.”

And then she was running out of the bull pen. Out of the station house. Out of her mind.

Chapter Twenty-one

She wanted Cole.

Needed him with an intensity that bordered on insanity. Tired, disgusted, and more scared than she would ever admit, Genevieve wanted nothing more than to curl against her lover and let him soothe her—body and soul.

But that wasn’t going to happen tonight, she told herself grimly, as she fumbled in her purse for the keys to her front door. She hadn’t seen him since the body had been discovered that morning, hadn’t had a chance to call him as she and the others had worked all afternoon and half the evening trying to get the evidence to pop out a lead—any lead.

Not that she blamed him; that body would have been hard for anyone to take. That it had so closely mimicked his sister’s death—she could only imagine how devastated he was.

It had taken her a while to work up the nerve to go back to the station, and when she’d finally gotten there, braced for the worst, it was to find her computer missing, her desk cleaned and the guys deep in conversation about any- and everything pertaining to the case—except what had happened to her earlier that afternoon.

And while she’d been on the receiving end of a couple of hard-to-interpret looks, all in all she was shocked at how good everyone was at pretending nothing had happened. She also couldn’t help wondering just what Shawn and Luc and Torres had threatened them with to make such behavior a reality.

The only reference to the email was when Torres growled out of the corner of his mouth, “I had to give the computer to the e-guys—see what they could come up with from it. But I made them promise that Jose would be the only one to look at it. I’m sorry. I didn’t know what else to do.”

She’d been touched by his concern, by his desire to spare her any and all embarrassment. She’d thanked him, but he’d shaken his head and told her it was nothing. Chastian hadn’t seen it the same way; had called her into his office just a little while ago and ordered her to take a week’s vacation, or face suspension.

She’d taken the vacation, effective immediately. And the worst part was—after all her fine posturing—that she hadn’t even had the nerve to tell him to go to hell. Stressed out over the photos, feeling more violated than she ever had before in her life, she didn’t have any fight left in her. She’d just agreed with Chastian and left. What was one more violation on top of all the others?

Her hands locked onto the key ring, and she pulled it out with a sigh. Slid her house key into the lock. Heard it click and then pushed the door open. Before she knew what was happening, Cole grabbed her wrist and yanked her inside before he slammed the door shut behind her.

“What are you—” Her question was cut off when he shoved her face-first into the wall hard enough to have the air whooshing from her lungs.

“I need you.” He grabbed her wrists, locked them above her head and pressed his hard, muscular body against her from behind. “I need to be inside you.”

He sounded utterly desperate—and her sorrow fled in the face of his obvious pain.

She could feel his arousal against her ass as he molded every inch of his rocksolid body to hers, and she responded instantly as the need to comfort him the only way he would allow welled up inside of her.

She struggled to turn around, to look at him, but he wouldn’t ease up. Wouldn’t let her go, his hand tightening around her wrists as he leaned even more heavily against her.

“Do you want me to stop?” Cole whispered the question in her left ear, his hot breath making her shiver despite herself.

She wanted to hold him—to soothe him—but she knew him well enough to understand that he couldn’t accept that from her now. Wouldn’t accept it from her at all. Part of her wanted to stop him, to demand that they talk about this thing that had ripped him inside out, but the other part just wanted to give in to him for a while. To make him feel good. To let him make her feel good in return.

Then he was rocking his h*ps against her, and any thought of stopping him disappeared. He felt incredible, the hand that gripped her wrists tight but not painful. The pressure of his long, lithe body against her the same.

“Genevieve?” he prompted, licking the delicate skin behind her ear. “Tell me now if you want me to leave.”

Closing her eyes, she said the only two words she was capable of forming, the only two words she wanted to say: “Don’t leave.”

His response was a deep whoosh of air against her cheek, as if he’d been holding his breath, waiting for her answer. And then he was moving, his free hand tangling in her hair. Pulling her head back so that her throat was exposed to his questing mouth.

His raked his teeth down the slender column, then used his tongue to lick away the sweat that had formed as suddenly as her need for him. Up and down her throat, he went, covering every square inch of her neck until there was no place he hadn’t kissed. Then he got to the hollow of her throat and began to suck, strong pulls that sent heat and wetness careening into her sex.

She arched against him, stood on tiptoes so that she could press her ass more firmly against his hard cock. He felt so good. Hard and hot and in control, he made her feel like the most desirable woman on earth. Like no one else would ever do for him.

With her hands stretched above her head, her body held nearly immobile by the hard press of his, she felt bound. Helpless. Completely at Cole’s mercy. And somehow the vibe worked for her, despite the fact that she had never wanted to give any man this much control over her. Had fought against it her whole life.

But Cole was different. With his hot eyes and hotter body, he brought her more pleasure than she’d ever dreamed possible. He made her crave it—crave him—with a hunger that could not be satisfied.

His free hand fumbled down her back, yanked at her pants until the button popped open and the zipper gave out. Then he was shoving them down her legs, slipping a hand between her thighs to test her readiness.

She knew what he found, knew that the finger he pulled away from her was coated with her juices. So she waited, arms locked above her head, br**sts pressed against the wall, pu**y wide open and waiting to be filled.

He groaned, slipped the finger that had just been inside her into his mouth and tasted her. One long second passed, then two as she waited for him. Suddenly, he was there, his hard c**k shoving into her with one powerful thrust.

She whimpered at the invasion, but pressed back against him and let him ride her to orgasm. It was quick, mind-numbing, a slice of heaven on earth, and as he hurtled her into first one cl**ax and then another, she decided that she would stop fighting. That she would take whatever Cole could give her and just be thankful for the time she had with him.