Special Forces: Operation Alpha: Redemption for Avery (Kindle Worlds Novella) (Ryker Townsend FBI Profiler Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

shared, especially tonight. The sadness over the deaths of Avery and Lily had burrowed into my heart and I could not forget their faces. I needed sleep, but I had my doubts it would come, not after what happened in the clearing. I felt the weight of expectation from a world beyond my own, the faces of the dead would hold me accountable.
    Lucinda took the gun I held in my hand and set it down on a nightstand. Without saying a word, she kissed my neck and nuzzled into my body. I hugged her close and took comfort in her warmth.
    “I needed this, especially after—”
    I couldn’t shake the faces of the dead, not even in her arms. There were times in my life that I wondered if my gift would slowly fray my mind. Could it be possible that the more I succumbed to my visions, the more damage would take root and eat away at my sanity?
    Would I forget which side of the dream I belonged?
    “I know. Me too,” she whispered.
    Without another word, Lucinda pulled away from me and slipped her fingers into my pants, to unbutton and unzip me. Normally I was the aggressor, but tonight, all I wanted to do was surrender—to her.
    She tugged down my pants until they dropped at my feet and I yanked off my FBI polo shirt. After she slid her fingers into the waistband of my boxers, she pulled them down my thighs, touching my skin all the way. My body reacted and she smiled when she noticed.
    “Go run the shower. Make it steamy,” she said.
    Billows of steam fogged the mirror of the bathroom by the time she joined me. I pulled her naked body into mine and held her. I wanted and needed sex and Lucinda knew how to push my buttons.
    But tonight I needed more.
    “I love you, Lucinda.”
    I caressed her and let the hot spray sluice down our skin as I buried my face in her neck and kissed her. Lucinda knew my secret and accepted me the way I was. She didn’t judge me as a freak.
    “I love you, too,” she whispered. “Just hold me for a little while, okay?”
    As hot water rushed down our bodies, I closed my eyes and cradled her in my arms. It scared me, sometimes, how much I needed her.
     
    ***
     
    Travelodge
    Big Bear Lake
    6:20 a.m.
    Ryker Townsend
    A loud knock on my motel room door jolted me awake.
    “What the hell—?”
    I sat bolt upright in bed, still in the fog of twilight sleep. Through the murky shadows I found the digital clock on my nightstand—twenty past too damned early. I looked for Lucinda. She wasn’t in my bed or in my bathroom. Before I went for the door, I searched for any note she might’ve left me and found one on my nightstand.
    She’d slipped out of my room before dawn, but she’d been thoughtful enough to leave her perfume on my pillow and the scent of her lingered. That made my body react with a half-mast salute, but when my door rattled on its hinges from another pounding fist, any thought of making love to Lucinda wilted.
    “Just a minute. I’m coming.”
    I ran a hand through my hair and grabbed my boxers off the floor, the ones Lucinda had tossed there from last night, and put on a fresh pair. After I flipped on lights, I saw the handcuffs dangling from a bedpost, and I tossed a blanket over them before I looked through the peephole. It took only a minute to place the face on the other side of the door. Sinead Royce, my research wrangler, had provided me the man’s dossier.
    Well, this should be interesting , I thought, as I opened the door. Before I uttered a word, my early morning visitor got down to business.
    “My name’s Sam Reed, but everyone calls me Mozart.” A tall man, dressed in khaki BDU pants and a black T-shirt, carried a box of Starbucks coffee and a stack of disposable cups. “Are you Ryker Townsend, FBI?”
    “Yeah, today I am.
    “Don’t expect an apology for the early morning wake-up call. I brought coffee instead.” He held out his peace offering.
    “That works. Thanks.”
    I took the coffee and cups from his hands and shut the door on him. Apparently I was in one of my