Strong, Sleek and Sinful

went to her own profile. She read what she’d written about herself.

It was right there in front of her, on display for all to read: I want someone not afraid to do the right thing even when peer pressure pushes for him to do something else. Show me you stand out in a crowd, honest to a fault and not afraid what your friends might say, and I will go anywhere with you.

“Two points, motherfucker,” she mumbled.

He chimed again. She’d waited too long to respond. Hey, nerds need love, too.

LOL. Are you going to have a birthday party when they come home? Will I get an invite?

I’ll have a party when they get back. But nothing at all is going to happen on the day of my birthday. I’m sure this has never happened to you. You don’t understand how sad that makes me.

She understood more than she would tell him. Her fifteenth birthday had gone by unnoticed. It was such a devastating experience she remembered it today as if it were yesterday. Her sister was gone, raped and murdered, which raped and murdered their family, too. Nothing was the same after that. Something as trivial as Kylie’s birthday couldn’t be dealt with after losing Karen.

Kylie never told her parents they forgot. Even today, when bridges with her mom and dad finally were being mended, Kylie couldn’t bring it up to them. There wasn’t any point in opening old wounds.

That would suck, she typed, and hesitated, wanting to say just the right thing without sounding too obvious, so he would suggest another meeting. Maybe you could ask your parents if you could get together with a few special friends.

You’re a special friend to me.

Good. I feel the same way about you.

If my parents say it’s okay, you’ll see me on my birthday. He didn’t make it a question.

“Okay,” Kylie said out loud as she typed the one word and clicked “send.”

Good. Plan on seeing me Thursday. Tell your parents you’ll be at a birthday party for a couple hours. And thank you. You’re going to make this birthday one I’ll remember for the rest of my life.

Kylie was sure it would be a day both of them would remember for the rest of their lives. At the same time, she noted that Peter just gave himself a couple-hour time frame, which she bet he did with every girl he snatched. And with a couple-hour run time, it made it damn hard for the law to chase him down. Hard, but not impossible.

“This all ends Thursday,” she vowed to herself. If she could get Peter to capture her, there would be no worries about Dani, or any other girl, meeting him Friday.

Chapter 15

Kylie sat lost in thought but didn’t realize her eyes were closed. Nor did it quite hit her what had brought her back to the present. Twenty minutes had passed since the last entry typed in her chat with Peter. Her thoughts had drifted from Karen to her mother, and her last visit to Dallas and the time she and Kylie had spent together.

Her mom had been friendly, almost loving, when Kylie went down there. There were years of mending for the two of them to go through, and up until the last couple years neither one of them had exerted too much effort to allow the healing process to start between them. But now, with her father sick, something compelled Kylie to return home when she could, even if just for the weekend.

Something her mother said suddenly rang through strong in her thoughts.

“I’m so proud of you.” Her mother said it so casually, as if she told Kylie that every day.

Had her mother ever told her that before?

Something pulled her out of her thoughts. She stared at her monitor, but Peter hadn’t said anything. She swore she heard something. Maybe her mom’s voice in her head came through louder than she thought.

Kylie forced herself to quit daydreaming, or was it night-dreaming since it was now officially after midnight? This time, though, she knew she heard something, and it didn’t come from the TV. It was like a scratching sound, like a dog trying to get its owner’s attention by dragging its claws down the door. Except Kylie didn’t have a dog.

Quickly saving her chat with Peter, she then cleared the box and minimized the Web sites she’d been browsing. Focusing on her monitors, she pushed the button to rewind them ten minutes to see if anyone was outside. A couple minutes of quiet images of her front yard went by before Perry’s Jeep pulled up in front of her house. Then it backed up along the curb until it was out of range for the cameras to pick it up.

“Crap,” she hissed, jumping up and grabbing her phone. Her gun was in its thigh holster, which she’d worn when she investigated the crime scene earlier this evening. “Sheez, woman, you don’t need it against Perry.”

But she did need to make sure he didn’t see this room. She returned her attention to her monitor in time to see Perry sprint across her yard, running fast enough that the cameras barely picked him up. In a matter of seconds, he was gone from the images playing back for her.

“He ran around the side of the house. Son of a bitch.”

Her attention shot to her hallway when the scratching sound repeated itself. Perry knew there were cameras outside and had tried dodging them. Any lesser-quality surveillance equipment probably wouldn’t have picked him up. He was trying to sneak up on her.

“Well, two can play this game,” she whispered, grinning at the thought of beating him at his own game.

Double-checking to make sure everything was in order in the room, Kylie turned off the light but then turned toward her window. Moving in the dark, she leaned over her computer and moved the closed blinds just enough to peer outside. It was a moonless night and her front porch light hindered her ability to see the car parked in front of her neighbor’s house clearly. She assumed it was Perry’s Jeep, and she also guessed the blur that had raced across her front yard was him. But what if it wasn’t?

Grabbing her gun, she lifted her skirt and strapped the leather holster to her thigh. The cold metal and stiff leather always gave her a sense of security. She closed the bedroom door silently, then locked it. If Perry was in the backyard, possibly at her back door, he wouldn’t see her turn off the light. Nor would anyone else who might be out there.

She didn’t bother with the hallway light but instead stood silently, her body pressed against the cool, flat wall, and listened. A popular drama and repeat she’d seen one too many times was on TV. It wasn’t hard to tune it out and focus on the other sounds in her home.

Kylie moved down her hallway without making one floorboard squeak. She knew how to hunt the predator; in fact, she was damn good at doing it. At the end of her hallway, she paused, not moving while she took in her quiet living room and the glow of the TV that accentuated the dark corners.

Convinced no one was in her living room, which was easy to do because her alarm system would go off if anyone entered her home, she started along the edge of the room toward the kitchen. The blinds were all closed over the back windows, and from where she stood she could see all of them. Her living room opened into her small dining room and then the other end of her house, a small alcove where more chairs could be but where she had nothing. Sliding glass doors were her only view to the backyard, and they were black against the night outside.

Her only advantage was that it was also dark in her house, shy of the glow from her TV. As impossible as it was for her to see outside, an intruder would have as much problem seeing inside right now.

Nonetheless, prickles of anxiety and anticipation rushed over her flesh, giving her chills. Years of experience handling situations so much more terrifying than this helped her remain calm and evaluate her situation carefully before making her next move. And she took her time deciding her best plan of action. Unlike other scenarios where she stalked a killer, this time she was stalking Perry. A smile tugged at her lips. She wouldn’t be blowing her cover by besting him at his game. Possibly proving to Perry she wasn’t completely helpless would make him back off a bit.

If there was one thing she would change in the man it was his hell-bent determination to make her submit.