Okay, so maybe her intellectual curiosity wasn’t the only reason she’d spent most of the past year and a half stalking Trey. With that square jaw, intense blue eyes, and perfect amount of scruff, the man was extremely attractive. Not to mention the fact that he looked amazing in the dark blue tactical uniform. But there was more to it than that. Simply put, there was something about him that mesmerized her every time she was around him. His presence at the Audubon center this morning had made it damn hard to focus on her work, that was for sure. Even with a headless corpse there to distract her.
The funny thing was, she wasn’t surprised at all to see him and his teammates here in her office today. In fact, since hearing that it had been Trey and his fellow SWAT officers who’d actually found the body, she’d been pretty much expecting a visit from them. Just like back in mid-June, when they’d inserted themselves in the middle of that delirium drug thing…which really hadn’t been a drug thing at all. When things got weird in Dallas, SWAT was going to be there.
Realizing she’d yet to make any introductions, Samantha quickly did so. Trey did the same, introducing Connor, Trevor, and Hale, though she could have easily introduced them herself since she had files on every member of the SWAT team. Crystal was well aware of Samantha’s fascination with all things SWAT—and Trey in particular—so it was no surprise when her friend came up with an excuse to leave, saying she needed to start working on the body Samantha had brought in earlier.
“Normally, I’d ask what brought four of Dallas’s finest down to my office,” Samantha said as she moved around the side of the desk and sat on the edge to study the four men, “but since you showed up minutes after I got done briefing the task force—and you were also at the crime scene this morning—I’m assuming your visit is related to the Butcher.”
Trey glanced at his teammates, who returned the look, as if saying your call.
“You’re right. It is.” Trey gave her a smile, flashing the most perfect dimples. “We’re hoping you might be able to tell us a little about the case.”
Samantha had to fight the urge to return his smile. Damn, when Trey put on the charm, it was scary how badly she wanted to walk over there, climb him like a sloth, and start coming up with names for their future children. But she fought off the desire. Besides, she didn’t need to think about names. She had all four of them picked out a few days after meeting the hunky cop. No, she needed to play this cool and use the situation to get what she wanted.
“I really don’t think I should be talking to the four of you about the Butcher case since none of you are on the task force,” she said.
Trey smiled again, his eyes holding hers captive. “I know we’re not on the task force, but we’re asking anyway.”
“And why is that?”
He crossed his arms over his broad chest, treating her to a pair of biceps she couldn’t have gotten both hands around if she tried. And boy, would she like to try. “Do you remember what I said to you back in June to get you to help us with that delirium case?”
That had been two months ago, so Samantha had to really think about it to come up with what part of the conversation he was talking about. Most of her memories were of the stunningly attractive Trey Duncan practically begging for her help on that case and her feeling badly about not being able to offer up anything.
“I remember you said you needed my help because you and the rest of the SWAT team were the ones who had to deal with the people you thought were on some drug called delirium and that you needed to understand what you were up against.”
Trey gave her another distracting smile. “Exactly.”
“I don’t understand,” she said.
Samantha thought back to the delirium case. Was there some kind of connection to the current serial killer terrorizing the city? She couldn’t see how that was possible. The two men responsible for those crimes had something in their DNA that allowed them to turn people into puppets and control their minds simply by wiping their blood on their victims. Unfortunately, she hadn’t been able to figure out exactly what was in their DNA, and while the Butcher might be scary as hell, she hadn’t found anything to make her think he wasn’t a regular human.
Unless…
“Wait a minute,” she said, her mind starting to spin at a hundred miles an hour. What had she just said to herself only a few minutes ago? When things got weird in Dallas, SWAT was going to be there. “Are you saying the Butcher isn’t a normal killer? That he’s different like the men responsible for making all those people do things against their will are different?”
Another look passed between the big cops before Trevor, Connor, and Hale all seem to pass some kind of unspoken signal to Trey. Only then did he nod.
“We noticed something at the body dump this morning that makes us think the person who dragged the body there wasn’t a normal human. Don’t ask me to explain what that something was because I can’t tell you, and you wouldn’t believe me if I did. I simply need you to trust me.”
Samantha almost said to hell with it. If they didn’t want to tell her anything, why should she tell them anything? It was her butt on the line if her boss found out. But then she looked at Trey and realized there was no way she could say no to him. He was like her own personal brand of kryptonite.
“Okay.” She leveled her gaze at Trey. “Same deal as before. I’ll tell you everything I have on the Butcher, but you personally owe me a favor.”
Trey’s mouth edged up, the twinkle in his eyes making her a little weak in the knees. “You know, you still haven’t collected on the first favor I owe you.”
She smiled up at him. “Maybe I’ll just keep collecting them so I can use them all at once.”
He chuckled, the husky sound doing crazy things to her pulse. Beside him, she caught the smiles on his teammates’ faces.
“Deal,” Trey answered with a dip of his chin. “One favor for anything you have on the Butcher right now and anything you might find on him in the future.”
It wasn’t a shock he’d try to weasel a little extra information out of her, but she’d already made up her mind to tell him as much as she could. Partly because she had a thing for Trey and partly because she already believed there was something strange going on with this serial killer case. She had no idea what it might be, but it could explain why they had so many victims and still no serious clues about who the killer was or why he was mutilating them.
“I guess I should start by admitting we don’t have a whole hell of a lot on the killer, even with all the emphasis the chief is putting on the task force,” she said. “What I can tell you is that this guy is no random slasher. Most of the cuts on the bodies were professional and surgical in nature, without a single sign of hesitation or doubt. On top of that, I found signs of arteries and veins being tied off prior to some of the amputations, along with indications that some of the victims were still alive when the killer did it. Believe it or not, keeping someone alive while you dismember them is actually rather difficult.”