Hidden Desires Read Online Free PDF

locked it up.
    Leaning back in his chair, Travis closed his eyes and let the memories surface. This had become a bittersweet routine. Solving a case, coming in here, reliving Jessica’s death.
    He was in his car, driving home after a grueling eighteen-hour shift. The radio was on. What was the song again? Right, “Brown-Eyed Girl”. It was the tune he and Jessica had danced to at the Christmas party where they’d met. He remembered changing the words of the song to Blue-Eyed Girl, and seeing the pleasure in her eyes.
    Travis sucked in his breath. He could feel the chilled air cooling his skin, despite the fact that the temperature in his office was spiked.
    Still in his car, the radio being interrupted by the police scanner on his dashboard. A robbery turned murder. The address. His address.
    The air grew icier as Travis recalled the fear and panic that slammed into his body like a city bus. The memories swirled in his brain, an out-of-control whirlpool determined to suck him into a bottomless abyss.
    Don’t go in there. Matt’s voice. Matt standing at the front door of the apartment Travis shared with Jessica. The yellow crime tape taunted him, yelled for him to enter, and so he had.
    With a whoosh, Travis let out the breath he’d been holding and jarred himself from the memories. No more. He wouldn’t allow himself to remember any more. Jessica was gone and he hadn’t been able to save her. It was futile to go any further.
    Standing up, Travis walked over to the window and stared at the city below. Looking but not really seeing the rush of traffic or the whizzing of tires or the clutter of pedestrians. What he saw was a young woman standing at a crosswalk. A middle-aged woman lugging a sack of groceries. Two teenage girls giggling in front of a convenience store.
    He might not have been able to save Jessica, but he could sure as hell save these women in his city, keep them safe. And if it came down to it, avenge them.
    “The suspect in the Davis shooting is willing to talk.”
    Travis lifted his head and saw Matt enter the office. “Good,” he said absently.
    Matt glanced around the cramped space and shook his head. “How you passed up on working in an air-conditioned building rivaling Trump Towers in size escapes me.”
    “You’re just jealous that I can quit my day job and still have millions of dollars in the bank.”
    “Jealous? Hell, yeah. If I knew how to design those nifty anti-virus programs, I’d be doing that right now, man.” Matt gestured to the array of files on Travis’s desk. “Not digging through paperwork that’s decades old.”
    “To each his own.”
    Matt just shrugged. “Our suspect is in interrogation room three. You want to come along?” Travis shook his head. “You handle it. I need to take care of a few things.” After Matt left, Travis returned to his desk and flicked on his computer. Time to get down to business.
    As he waited for the screen to load, he thought of Rachel, and everything she’d revealed yesterday.
    His veins still filled with anger to think she’d blamed him for Carrie’s death all these years. If she only knew the extent of the guilt he’d been burdened with. He’d never blamed himself for her sister’s suicide, but it tore him apart that he hadn’t been there for Rachel.
    But he could be there for her now.
    You’re doing it again, trying to save every female who comes your way.
    Travis ignored the taunting voice in the back of his head. So what if he’d made it his mission in life to prevent what happened to Jessica from happening to another woman?
    He wasn’t helping Rachel just to satisfy his savior instincts. He had a stake in this too. Carrie had been his girlfriend. They’d only dated a few months, hadn’t even slept together, but he still felt he owed it to himself to uncover the events leading to her suicide. He owed it to Rachel.
    And it had nothing to do with the way she set his blood on fire. Nothing to do with her honey-blonde hair