Say You Love Me Read Free Page A

Woman? Hell, she looked so damn young. Like someone’s daughter or little sister. Except for the grotesque makeup.
    Had she been a hooker or had the killer only painted her to resemble the girls in the red-light district?
    His cell phone trilled and he checked the number. His superior, Lieutenant Phelps. He connected the call, his gaze catching sight of his partner combing the wooden dock.
    â€œLieutenant, what is it?” Jean-Paul asked.
    â€œWe just got a call I need you to check out.”
    â€œDo we have a lead already?”
    â€œMaybe. You know that erotica magazine, Naked Desires? ”
    He grimaced. His sisters had mentioned it at one of their family gatherings. Apparently they thought some of the letters were titillating. “I don’t exactly subscribe to it.”
    Phelps chuckled. “I wouldn’t expect my pride-and-joy officer to.”
    Jean-Paul grimaced. He hated all the hype he’d received after the hurricane. Just because he’d stuck to his post, done his job and saved a few people, he’d received a damn commendation. Big deal. He’d lost his wife….
    â€œSo what is it?” he asked.
    â€œBritta Berger, the editor of the Secret Confessions column called and said she had something we needed to see.”
    â€œNow?” Jean-Paul tapped his boot impatiently. “What is it, some letter that freaked her out?”
    â€œApparently it’s a photograph, not a letter,” Phelps said in a serious tone.
    â€œBut doesn’t this case take priority?” Jean-Paul asked.
    â€œIt is about this case,” Phelps said, deadpan. “According to her description, she received a photograph of a crime.”
    â€œWhat crime?”
    â€œA murder,” Phelps said. “One that sounds suspiciously like the one you’re investigating.”
    * * *
    H E STOOD OUTSIDE the door to Naked Desires, the urge to go in making him shake with need. The moment he’d seen her photograph in that magazine, he’d recognized her.
    His Adrianna.
    How ironic to finally have found her here in the city. So close to where he had first met her. So close to where everything had gone wrong.
    What was she doing now? Studying the photograph he’d sent her? Staring in horror at the woman’s vile, bloodless eyes? Wondering why he had sent her the message?
    Adrenaline churned through his blood, heating his body.
    He had to see her. Touch her. Watch the realization dawn in her eyes….
    No. Not yet.
    He’d waited years for this moment. Had searched in every face and town he’d visited. Had combed the edges of the bayou—hunting, hoping, yearning, praying she had survived.
    So he could kill her.
    Laughter bubbled in his chest. And now the moment was so near, his vengeance almost within reach. Yet he had to draw it out. Earn his redemption. Save the other sinners. Make them pay.
    And make Adrianna watch them suffer.
    With each one, she would feel him breathing down her neck. Coming closer. Know the pain of having death upon her conscience.
    Just as he lived with his father’s death upon his.
    God made the world in seven days and nights. Seven days and nights he had been tortured after she took his father’s life.
    Seven more days until Mardi Gras.
    Each day until then, a celebration.
    Each day until then, a time to torture.
    And on the seventh day, when Mardi Gras reached its grand finale, he would find salvation. He couldn’t wait to see the shock in her eyes when she realized that she had never escaped at all. That she had to pay for her sins.
    And that she had to die because he loved her.

CHAPTER
     TWO
    T HE DEAD
     WOMAN’S eyes haunted Britta.
    She tried to tamp her nerves as the
     publisher of Naked Desires , R. J.
     Justice, paced his office. He’d been cursing ever since she’d shown him the
     photo. Of course her insides were knotted. The last thing she wanted to do was talk to the
     cops.
    In fact, she
     had held