Justice for Mackenzie (14 page)

Cruz ran his hand over his face, then up and over his short-cropped black hair. “It’s more serious than that.” Cruz shuffled through the piles of various reports and evidence sitting in front of him and handed over three sheets of photocopied paper. “I’m sorry, Dax.”

Dax clenched his teeth. Fuck. He pulled the copies toward him and read the notes the Reaper had left. He’d already read the first one, but the others were just as horrifying.

Daxton Chambers, you might be a tough ol Ranger, but id like to see you catch me. You can find a present ive left you in Johnson cemetery. I thnk youll find her to your liking. 5’4, curvy and brunette. Sounds like just your type.

So, you decided to ignore my last letter. Fine. Maybe you wont ignore this one. Check out my latest beauty in White Oak cemetery. She fought valiantly, but in the end she succumbed just like all the others. I nicknamed her M&M.

The last note was the most chilling.

Fuck you Chambers. You think im joking? You think shes safe? Shes not. I hope youre enjoying fucking your new girlfriend. No one is safe from the Reaper. Do you know where Mackenzie is right this second? I wonder how long shed last in one of my coffins. Im sure shell be my favorite yet. Ive got big plans for your little cutie. In the meantime check Shadows End cemetery to see how
that
Mackenzie fared.

Dax stood up so abruptly the chair he’d been sitting in fell backward with a crash. He stalked over to the side of the room and punched the wall. Ignoring the pain in his fist, he leaned over, grabbed the windowsill with both hands, and panted, trying to control the need to beat the shit out of someone.

The fucker knew about Mackenzie. Had threatened her. Was choosing women who looked like Mack, who were even
named
Mackenzie. Dax felt sick. Knowing he was going to lose his breakfast, he strode over the trashcan in the corner of the room and threw up. He stayed crouched in front of the plastic container, hands on his thighs, using everything he’d learned in his training to regulate his breathing and get his equilibrium back.

He was a Texas Ranger. He didn’t act like this. Then again, the woman he loved hadn’t ever been threatened and targeted by a psychotic serial killer either.

He loved Mack. He’d been pretty sure of his feelings before, but thinking of this psycho getting his hands on her solidified it.

“When were the letters sent?” Dax’s voice was low and brittle. He was proud his voice only cracked once. He stood up, and wiped his face on his sleeve and faced the other officers in the room, not embarrassed in the least by his break in control. He knew they all understood. He stalked over, grabbed a bottled water off of the conference table, and chugged half of it waiting on Quint’s response.

“The last one was postmarked five days ago.”

“Jesus fucking Christ.” Dax said the words under his breath and pulled out his phone. He had to get ahold of Mack now. He couldn’t wait for the meeting to be over. He had to reassure himself that she was at work and fine. He looked down and wanted to cry at the silly little texts she’d left him over the last couple of hours.

Can we rewind and make a different decision? Bitchface is being extra bitchy today.

Is it too late for me to join up and become a cop?

Are you sure there are no secret stickers that will get me out of jail free?

I just wanted to let you know I was thinking about you. Miss you.

Dax hit Mackenzie’s name and brought the phone up to his ear, waiting for her to pick up. He turned his back to the room and stood next to the wall looking down at his feet.

“Hey Daxton! What’s up?”

“I just wanted to call and see how you were doing.”

“I’m good, except for you-know-who. But that’s nothing new.”

“Change of plans tonight, sweetheart.”

“Yeah?”

Dax knew the way Mackenzie stretched out the word, she was thinking sexy thoughts, but he couldn’t bring himself to banter with her as he usually would.

“Yeah, I still have to work late, but TJ is gonna pick you up from work and take you back to my place. He’ll stay there with you until I get home.” Dax hadn’t asked TJ, but he knew he’d protect Mackenzie until Dax could get home, no questions asked.

“Is everything okay?” Mackenzie’s voice was serious, and no longer teasing. She’d obviously picked up on the fact that something was seriously wrong.

“No. But it will be. Trust me, sweetheart. Okay?”

“With my life, Daxton. What about my car?”

“Leave it. It’ll be fine. If we need to move it later, I’ll get one of the other Rangers to help me out with it.”

“Are you all right?”

Dax lowered his voice. “I’m okay, Mack.”

“Swear?”

“I’m okay.”

“You didn’t swear.”

“Mackenzie—”

“Okay. I’ll stop. Just…be safe all right? I can’t lose you.”

“You aren’t losing me.” Dax didn’t know what else to say to reassure her. He knew she was freaked out. She wasn’t rambling on and on as she usually did. Dax knew it was his fault. “There’s some shit going on at work, and unfortunately there could be some blowback on you and me. We’ve got it under control, but in the meantime I need you to be smart and safe. Okay, Mack? Don’t be one of those ‘too stupid to live’ women you bitch about in those romances you read. Be safe. Be alert. Don’t leave work for lunch or on breaks. Wait in your office for TJ to come inside for you. All right? Can you do that for me?”

“Yes.” Mackenzie’s answer was immediate and strong. “Blowback?”

“I’ll explain tonight.”

“All right, Daxton. I…fuck…okay here goes. Ready? Iloveyou.” Her words were fast and jumbled together. “I’ve only loved one other boyfriend before in my life and that was when I was eight years old. He’d chase me around the playground, corner me, and kiss me. Then he’d run away again. He brought me bubble gum as presents and even let me have the Little Debbie oatmeal cream pie from his lunch one day. I told him I loved him and he freaked out. He never chased me again and made it a point to sit on the other side of the lunchroom after that. He moved away the next year and I never saw him again, but I’ve never told any guy that I’ve loved him since then.

“I don’t know what’s going on, but I want to make sure I tell you now. I’d hate for something to happen and not be able to tell you. Okay? You don’t have to say it back, because I know you’re stressed, I can hear it in your voice, and you’re probably surrounded by a hundred other cops and shit and they’re probably staring at you and you can’t say anything anyway, cos it’d make you look like a wuss. So it’s okay, but
you
stay safe. Don’t do anything crazy, wear your bulletproof vest, even though it’s hot and you don’t like how you can’t move that well with it on. I’ll wait for TJ and won’t do anything stupid. I swear.”

Dax closed his eyes. Fuck, he loved this woman. How the hell she’d managed to make him smile when there was abso-fucking-lutely
nothing
to smile about was beyond him. “I love you too, Mack.”

“You said it.” Her words were whispered. “Are you alone?”

“Nope.” Dax turned around and looked at the men around the table, all of whom were watching him curiously. None were hiding their eavesdropping. “There are about eight guys from four different agencies sitting here staring at me.”

“Daxton—”

“I gotta go, sweetheart.”

“Okay.” Mackenzie was still whispering.

“I’ll still be late tonight, but I’ll be home. There’s an extra T-shirt in my top drawer.”

Dax smiled as Mack chuckled. “Guess I’m not sleeping naked tonight?”

“Not while TJ is there.”

“Okay, Daxton. Love you. Be safe.”

“Love you too. See you later. Bye.” The words felt natural and right.

Dax clicked off the phone and shoved it back into his pocket. He strode to the table and grabbed his chair, setting it back on its feet. Sitting down, he looked around the room and asked gruffly, “What the hell are we doing to catch this asshole?”

The men around the table began strategizing. No way in hell would they allow the Reaper to get ahold of Dax’s woman. She was one of them now. Period.

Mackenzie lay in bed wide-awake. TJ had arrived to pick her up with about fifteen minutes left to go in the workday. He hadn’t said much, just sat in her office waiting for her to be done. Mackenzie hastily finished up and didn’t put up a fuss at all when TJ put his arm around her waist as he guided her to his patrol car.

It was obvious there was something terribly wrong, and Mackenzie didn’t know what to do or say, so she did as TJ asked, and moved beside him without hesitation to his car. When they’d arrived at Daxton’s apartment, TJ didn’t waste any time, but guided her to the door, telling her to wait just inside the apartment as he entered and made sure it was clear before allowing her inside.

Mackenzie made spaghetti for dinner. It was quick and easy. TJ thanked her and they ate in relative silence. She really
really
wanted to know what was going on, but Mackenzie figured TJ probably wouldn’t tell her.

They watched some silly reality show set in Australia with lots of extremely catty and bitchy women all fighting for the man to pass the time. Mackenzie had asked once if they could turn it to the news, and when TJ had refused, she knew whatever was happening was probably being talked about on the local news stations. She let it drop; preferring to hear what it was straight from Daxton.

Around nine o’clock, Mackenzie told TJ she was going to bed. He didn’t say anything other than, “Sleep well.” As if.

Mackenzie put on one of Daxton’s Ranger T-shirts, as he’d requested, knowing she probably wouldn’t be able to sleep nude again until whatever was happening was over, and huddled under the comforter waiting for Daxton to get home. She turned on her side and hugged the pillow he usually used to her chest, burying her nose into it, inhaling Daxton’s comforting smell.

Two hours later, Mackenzie was still wide-awake, jumping at every sound she heard outside, when she heard TJ and Daxton talking to one another in the other room. She didn’t move. She lay still, waiting for Daxton to come to her.

Mackenzie watched as the bedroom door opened quietly and saw Daxton enter the room. He didn’t hesitate, but came straight to the bed as if he knew she wouldn’t be asleep. He laid himself out on top of the covers and pulled Mackenzie into his arms, pillow and all.

Dax wrapped his arms around Mack with one hand at her nape and the other around her waist. He dipped his head and snuggled his nose into the crook of her neck. He sighed when he felt her arms snake up between them to come to rest around his shoulders. They were as close as they could be, and still be fully clothed.

“I’m sorry, Mack.”

“Don’t.”

“But—”

“No. This isn’t your fault. I don’t know whose fault it is yet, but I know it’s not yours. So don’t apologize for something someone else is doing to us…whatever it is they’re doing.”

“If I wasn’t a Ranger—”

Mackenzie lifted her head and tried to squint in the darkness at him. “Seriously, Daxton. Stop it. You
are
a Ranger. You’re a fucking awesome Ranger. I love you because of the man you are. If you weren’t a Ranger, we might not be together. I don’t know what’s going on yet, but the way I choose to look at it is that you’ve worked your entire life to get to this point. You’ve learned what you needed to learn, you know what you need to know to stop whatever it is. I believe in you. I love you.”

“Fuck, sweetheart.” Dax didn’t say anything else, just held the most important thing in his life tightly in his arms. “I love you too.” Dax’s words were soft and heartfelt.

Mackenzie pulled back. “Did TJ go?”

“Yeah.”

She pushed at Daxton. “Are you hungry?”

“No.”

“All right. Go get ready for bed, I’ll be right here waiting. You can tell me whatever you can or need to when you get back.”

Dax took a deep breath, inhaling the unique smell that Mack always seemed to carry with her. It was sweet. Some sort of sugar smell. Vanilla? He didn’t know, but he loved how it mixed with the natural essence of her skin. He forced himself to loosen his arms and roll out of bed. He quickly got ready in the bathroom and stripped off his pants and shirt on the way back to bed.

Dax left on his boxers for the first time since they’d started sleeping together. He’d noticed Mack had on his shirt, as he’d requested, but figured she felt as vulnerable as he did being completely nude…and she didn’t even know what was going on.

He climbed under the covers and pulled the pillow out of Mack’s arms. He turned her on her back and propped himself up next to her with his head resting on one hand and the other on her belly under the shirt she was wearing. He didn’t beat around the bush.

“The Lone Star Reaper struck again. Three more bodies were found today.”

“Oh, Daxton. That sucks.”

“Yeah. He sent the notes to me, telling me where to find them.”

“What?”

Dax continued, wanting to get the worst over with so they could talk through what their next steps were.

“He sent the notes to me personally. He inferred that he’s been watching me. He knows about you, Mack. He mentioned you specifically in the notes, by name.”

“Oh my God.”

“It gets worse. Can you handle it, or do you want to wait until later?”

“Worse?” Mackenzie’s voice was soft. Dax heard her take a deep breath. “I can handle it. Tell it all to me now, we’ll deal together.”

“His last two victims looked like you, and the last woman was named Mackenzie.” Dax didn’t pause to let her process his words, he kept going. “He fucked up though, Mack. We got prints this time. We’re going to get him. He won’t touch you.” Dax knew he was stretching the truth a bit. Even with this guy’s prints, if he hadn’t been arrested and his prints weren’t in the system, they wouldn’t do any good, but he’d say just about anything right now to reassure Mack.

“O-o-okay, Daxton. Okay.”

“You’ve got to be vigilant though, sweetheart. I’m afraid going to your mom’s on Sunday is out. I don’t know if he knows about your family, but I’d rather not involve them right now, or have us go there and have him somehow use them against you. I’d love for you to stay home from work for a while, but I don’t know if that will be possible. If not, okay, but you’ll have to do some basic things for me. Can you do that?”