BONDS OF JUSTICE

The worry disappeared from his face, to be replaced by something darker and full of a quiet masculine amusement. “It’s called frustration, sweetheart.”


Frustration: synonymous with aggravation, irritation, dissatisfaction.

Yes, she thought. That’s the word.

“I’d have more sympathy for you except that I spent the night with a permanent hard-on.”

Her eyes dropped to his groin. He groaned even as his body reacted rather spectacularly.

Sophia wanted to touch. “Fix it,” she ordered. “You know how to end my frustration and yours, and I’m no longer as overwrought as I was last night.”

He blew out a breath. “Yeah? Maybe I do. And maybe so do you.” There was something exquisitely sensual in his words. “I—”

She never got to hear what he would’ve said, because his cell phone beeped at that moment. And everything changed.

“It’s Bart.” All hint of sensuality leaving his expression, Max put the phone to his ear, his responses not telling Sophia much. “I’ll talk to her.” He snapped the phone shut. “Bonner’s broken sooner than we thought.”

“He’s angry,” Sophia said, feeling a layer of ice form around her, an impenetrable barrier threaded with dark tendrils that “tasted” of the Net. “His ego can’t take that I ended yesterday’s comm-conference before he was ready.” Turning, she headed to her bedroom.

Max caught her arm, felt her tremble though he’d been careful not to touch skin. “What’re you doing?”

“Packing an overnight case,” she said, her voice firm, though her body swayed toward his before she caught herself. “He’ll talk this time, I’m sure of it.” She nodded at his cell phone. “Call Nikita.”

“We can’t leave midcase,” Max said, because though those lost girls owned a piece of his heart, they were already gone, their lights doused. But Sophia, she was alive, her flame flickering against the violent storm of Bonner’s evil. He couldn’t believe that Carissa White and her sisters in death would want him to sacrifice Sophia to bring them home.

“Nikita will allow us to take a short break,” Sophia replied. “As you said yourself, this killer is unlikely to strike in the near future.” She kept talking, though he could see the jagged rise and fall of her chest, the glittering pain in her eyes. “The forensic data from Edward Chan’s murder scene will have been more thoroughly processed by the time we return, and we’ve already spoken to the witnesses. We can continue to run deep background checks and verify their alibis for the earlier murders from a distance.”

Max waited until she paused for breath. “You have to turn this over to another J.”

“No. This is mine.” Tiny lines fanned out from the corners of her lush mouth, an indication of stubbornness—one he’d just learned to read. “I’ll do this. I’ll finish this.”

Max didn’t budge—he had a whole streak of stubborn in him, too. “You’ve told me how close you are to losing your telepathic shields. Working with a mind like Bonner’s will only put more stress—” He froze as she pressed a finger to his lips.

“They’re lost, Max.” A bleakness in her eyes it hurt him to witness. “I have to find them, bring them home from those unmarked graves.”

He heard in those words an echo of the nightmare summer that had almost destroyed her, a silent, painful ache, and knew he had to let her do this. “Even a hint of a problem and you get out. Agreed?”

It was more an order than a question but she nodded. “Agreed.”

“I’m letting Bart know he needs to have an M-Psy on standby.”

“That’s a good precaution.” No M-Psy could heal the telepathic deterioration of a J, much less of an already damaged one like Sophia, but they could perhaps help her handle any physical symptoms. “However, make sure the M remains outside the interrogation room—Bonner will pounce on even a hint of weakness.”

“Don’t let the bastard get to you.” Tugging down her glove to expose a patch of naked skin between glove and cuff, he bent his head as she watched in thrall. His kiss branded her from the inside out. “We have the little matter of frustration to discuss.”





CHAPTER 25


Sometimes evil wins. But not here. Not today.





—From the private case notes of Detective Max Shannon:

State of New York v Bonner


Nikita wasn’t pleased at the interruption in her investigation, but she didn’t attempt to stand in their way after Max made it clear that not only would they continue to work her case while in Wyoming, but that Bonner’s victims had a prior claim on his loyalty.

“How long will this trip take?” she asked.