Bound by Moonlight Read Online Free PDF Page B

dress pooled down the length of her long, toned legs, inviting his touch to follow.
    He nipped at the ball of her foot, then at the fleshy pad of her big toe. Cee Cee was simmering by the time he drew that slender toe into his mouth.
    Then he reared back abruptly. “You have blood on your feet, Detective.”
    “Oh, geez. I’m sorry. It must be from the crime scene. I should have showered when I came in.”
    He didn’t release her, sniffing her instead. “Was your crime scene in the bayou?”
    Cee Cee’s thoughts sharpened. “No. Why?”
    “I can smell it on you.” He sampled the blood again, rolling it on his tongue. “Female. She was drugged.”
    Cee Cee stared at him. “You can tell all that? What else?”
    “Only that. Not much here to go on.”
    “Get your shoes, baby. There’s someplace we need to go.”
    After he left the room, she pulled out her cell. “Dev, have you started on that Jane Doe that just came in? Good. Don’t touch a thing.”
    T HEY COULD HEAR the drama of “Masquerade” from
Phantom of the Opera
wafting down the sterile corridors long before Cee Cee pushed open the doors to the medical examiner’s domain. Devlin Dovion was a Broadway fanatic, a Jerry Garcia look-alike, and the best damn body man she’d ever met over a Y incision.
    He blinked at her and whistled. “If I’d known it was a formal evening, I would have worn my tuxedo tee shirt. Hey, Max. She got you out on a field trip?” He waved them to the table. “
Mi casa es su casa.”
    Max liked the ME because even knowing who he was, Dovion accepted his place in Cee Cee’s life. Now that Dev understood
what
he was, one of the few humans who did, Max was a bit more leery. Lately Dovion regarded him more as something under a slideto be studied; Max hadn’t thought the loss of a potential friendship would disappoint him so.
    When he saw the body on the table, Max realized why they’d made this midnight run to the bowels of the hospital. The dead girl eerily resembled Cee Cee’s best friend, Mary Kate Malone, as she’d looked when Max had rescued the battered girl from a warehouse twelve years ago, along with her fierce companion, a teenage Charlotte Caissie.
    Cee Cee approached the table with professional detachment. “Are we dealing with the same killer?”
    “No question about it.” Dovion gestured to the similarities. “Same type of restraints, the chemical burns on the skin, signs of repeated, prolonged torture, and depravation. Of course, that’s not official until I roll up my sleeves. She’s probably a working girl. If she’s ever been processed, you should have an ID pretty quick.” He gave her a shrewd look. “You here working some kind of angle?”
    “I guess you could say that. Could I get a minute alone with her?”
    His shaggy brows lifted.
    Her tone grew impatient. “We won’t contaminate anything.”
    “We?” He glanced at Max, who appeared equally surprised. “Nothing kinky.”
    Cee Cee’s scowl sent him backing away with hands lifted.
    “I can give you ten while I grab a cup of coffee.”
    “Thanks, Dev.”
    Once they were alone, Cee Cee nodded toward the corpse. “Well? What can you tell me about her?”
    Max blinked. “She’s dead, Detective. I don’t understand what you expect me to do.”
    “Back at the house, you told me you didn’t have enough to go on.” She gestured to the body. “What can you tell me about where she’s been, who she’s been with?”
    He recoiled. “Charlotte, I’m not a scientist.”
    “Science hasn’t told us a damned thing. What do your instincts tell you?”
    His resistance redoubled. “I thought you didn’t need or want my help with your work.”
    She
had
just thrown that at him, but frustration made her push into touchy areas. Areas uncomfortably similar to an exploitation of their relationship. “A good cop uses all her resources.”
    He was quick to latch onto that. “Uses? Is that what I am now? A resource to be used?”
    This wasn’t