Page 2 of The Sinners Touch

They both turned to see Jessie open the back door and walk outside, her mouth falling open mid-sentence when she saw him standing at the end of the alley. Her eyes swung to the corpse of the woman, the blanket having fallen off her white face, marred by dark bruises. Jessie screamed, long and loud, at the sight. What Angel should have done.

He didn’t run; he just smiled. Tipping his head at her, he turned and got back into his car, driving away.

Angel faintly heard Jessie screaming behind her. Black spots danced in front of her, and her last coherent thought was she’d just stared into the face of a killer, and he knew her name.

CHAPTER TWO

Special Agent Kade Kincaid of the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit downed another shot of whiskey. Case files lay open on every available surface. Horrifying crime scene photos decorated the walls while a half-eaten pizza sat on the only chair in the hotel room.

It had been over a month since his supervisor left him here in Boston to help the local police find and capture the madman currently terrorizing the city. He’d taken eight women, each time getting closer and closer to Boston University. Kade knew that was where this man’s ultimate goal lay, even if everyone else disagreed with him.

This case frustrated Kade more than any he’d handled in his career as first a police officer down in Miami-Dade and then as an agent in the FBI. There was no rhyme or reason to the women who had been taken other than their age. They were all in their early to mid-twenties. They came from all races, religions, and walks of life. He’d taken a society princess and a girl who worked the streets. The only pattern Kade could see was the inevitable location outcome. Each kill brought him closer to the university or potentially one of the smaller colleges. They’d done all theycould to warn the local community colleges, as well as Boston University.

Kade paused to survey the murder board he’d put together. Each woman’s picture decorated it in the order of her death. Everything he knew about them was listed beneath their headshots. A map of Boston was pinned with both the location of their disappearances and the eventual dump sites. He’d lost countless hours standing here staring at information that left him with more questions than answers.

What was he missing?

The ringing of his cell phone shattered the quiet of the room. He picked it up from where he’d set it to charge and saw Detective Ron Bailey’s name flash across the screen. A knot started twisting in his stomach. There was only one reason he’d be calling this late.

He tapped the icon to answer the call. “Kincaid.”

“We got another body.”

“Are you sure it’s the same unsub?” He hoped he was wrong, but his gut kept right on twisting.

“He signed the body.”

It was the one detail they’d kept out of the press. The unsub, or unknown subject, as they called the perpetrator at the FBI, carved a specific design into each woman’s abdomen. At first, they’d assumed it was his initials, but upon closer inspection, the letters were interwoven with three small triangles clustered in the center of a sun. The letters also changed on each body, but the interwoven design did not. Truthfully, Kade was shocked it hadn’t been leaked to the public yet, but he’d take what breaks he could get.

“Text me the address, and I’ll be right over.”

Kade disconnected the call, grabbed his keys, pulled on his coat, and headed out. The address wasn’t one he needed to plug into the GPS. It was a bar about ten minutes from his hotel. Hisbrother, Nikoli, had introduced him to it. He’d fished the boy out of the bar drunker than any man had a right to be. Over a woman. Kade shook his head as he started the SUV and backed up.

Not that Kade didn’t like Lily. She was a sweet girl and quite pretty, but she had his brother wrapped around her finger. Kade knew exactly what a pretty girl could do. His last girlfriend almost caused him and Nikoli to walk away from each other. She’d learned his little brother was a millionaire, thanks to his gaming business. She’d convinced Nikoli she loved him, and it caused a rift between him and his brother. It wasn’t until later Nikoli learned what a conniving bitch she was. He’d overheard her telling a friend about how she was using Nikoli for his money.

She’d almost cost them everything. They’d gotten past it, but it had taken time. What it taught them both, though, was to be careful of a beautiful woman. Chances were they only wanted one thing—what they could get. Since then, he and Nikoli both pretty much refused to date. They did one-night stands, and the occasional girl who made it to a monthly booty call, but other than that, they stayed as far away from commitment as possible.

Until Lily. His brother gave up his one-night stands and became a one-woman man. It baffled Kade, but Nikoli seemed happy, content, and Lily could make his face light up when he so much as spoke her name.

Lilyseemedto be different. He’d spent a lot of time with her and Nikoli over the last few weeks. She hated when he bought her things especially since she never asked for anything. Nikoli usually had to argue with her when it came to paying the bill wherever they went. She wanted to pay her own way. She didn’t want anything Nikoli could provide for her. She just wanted his brother.

And as long as she thought like that, he was cool with her. She made Nikoli happy, and in the end, that was all that really mattered.

He blinked bleary eyes as he pulled to a stop outside the perimeter Boston PD had set up around O’Grady’s. He really shouldn’t have opened that bottle of whiskey. He’d only had one shot, but his head was already starting to pound, and he needed sleep in a bad way. The flashing blue lights of the patrol cars and the shouting of the media did nothing for his headache either. News vans blocked off an entire street. Kade had very little respect for news hounds. He’d made the mistake of trusting a reporter once. It would never happen again.

Keeping his head down, he pushed his way through the crowd and flashed his badge at the uniforms before ducking under the crime scene tape. He ignored the questions thrown at him by the press and asked one of the many officers on scene where the body was. They directed him behind the building.

It wasn’t hard to spot Bailey. The man was tall, gangly, and stood out in a crowd. He refused to wear a suit, saying he’d rather charm a witness than intimidate one. Instead, he wore jeans and a dark gray button-down shirt under his heavy winter jacket. How he could stand there in the cold without the damn thing zipped up was beyond Kade. Bailey’s bright shock of red hair blended against the deep red of the brick behind him, a testament to his Irish heritage.

“Do we have an ID yet?” Kade wasted no time with niceties when he rolled to a stop beside the detective.

Bailey yawned, the silver of his fillings glinting under the streetlight. “We do. Missing persons ID’d her as soon as we sent the photo. Caroline Mills. Twenty-one and a cashier at the grocery store over on Pilgrim Road. Her parents reported her missing when the owner called them to see if she was sick since she hadn’t been to work in over a week.”

“It took them a week to figure out their daughter was missing?” Kade shook his head. His own mother would call in every authority she could think of if he didn’t check in at least every few days. Crazy Russian lady, she and his grandmother both. But looking at this poor girl on the ground, he found himself grateful he had such crazy women who loved him.

“I know. I keep thinking about my own sister. I used to only call on Sundays, but since this started, I’ve found myself checking on her once a day. She lives out in St. Paul, thousands of miles away from this, but I need to assure myself she’s safe.” Bailey made a noise between a sigh and a growl and motioned to the body on the ground. “This girl is local. What with all the other victims and the media coverage, I just can’t understand how parents could go a week without checking on her.”

Kade was glad he didn’t have a sister. Given what he did for a living, he’d have driven her insane keeping tabs on her over the years.

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