Free Possession by Tori Carrington Page A

her. She held her hand to her brow and squinted out across the bayou. The three teams were gathering back at the cabin. Akela started in the direction of the swamp, keeping her gaze fixed on the spot where she swore she’d seen the flash.
     
    C LAUDE LIFTED the binoculars again, staring at the woman some two hundred yards away with what he told himself was little more than detached interest. Problem was, not even he was having any of it. He felt…well, almost proud, if truth be told. He was proud Agent Akela Brooks had not only remembered where the old cabin was but that she had brought enough firepower along to bring down a small town.
    Akela seemed to look directly at him.
    Claude dropped the binoculars and squinted in her direction. Of course she couldn’t see him. But the way her gaze had slammed into his through the glass made him believe for half a second that she had.
    He fished for his cell phone and called a number he’d programmed in, then moved the binoculars back to his eyes. He watched Akela search for her cell. She apparently didn’t recognize the number and for a moment he thought she might ignore the incoming call. Then she pressed the button and said, “Hello?” her gaze still scanning the area around where Claude hid.
    “You found me.”
    He watched her eyes go round. The police detective was looking at her curiously but rather than indicate that she had him on the line, she turned and walked away from the throng of police. “Obviously I didn’t find you, or else I’d be looking at you right now. And you’d be the one wearing handcuffs this time.”
    Claude chuckled softly, finding her actions more interesting than her words. Why hadn’t she let on to her co-workers that she had him on the line? That he was obviously nearby?
    “Can you see me?” she asked.
    “I can see you.”
    “So why don’t you come out and give yourself up?”
    It was more of a comment than a question. Probably because they both knew there would be no giving up of anything. At least not yet. Not until Claude could prove his innocence.
    “I can’t,” he said. “Why don’t you give up looking for me?”
    He watched as she lifted her chin and smiled asif she suspected he was looking at her head-on and wanted him to see her. “I can’t.”
    “So where does that leave us?”
    “Pretty much at a stalemate.”
    “Mmm.”
    She turned to look at the cabin. “This isn’t your place, is it?”
    “Nope.”
    “But you do have one nearby.”
    “Yes.”
    She scanned the area around her.
    “You could stay behind alone and I’ll show it to you.”
    “Why? So you can take me hostage again?”
    “No, so we can continue what we started yesterday. But this time, as equals.”
    He could have sworn he saw her shiver.
    “I think the scales would still be a bit unbalanced.”
    “Only because you want to arrest me.”
    She didn’t say anything.
    “You could try to help me prove my innocence.”
    He watched her eyes as they squinted, filled with what he could only guess was wariness.
    “That’s why I can’t give myself up.”
    “Yet.”
    “Yes, yet.”
    “Why?”
    “Because not even you believe in my innocence.”
    “I don’t know you.”
    “I think you know me better than either of us is willing to admit.”
    “Agent Brooks?”
    He watched as the detective in the overcoat came up behind her. She raised a hand to ward him off.
    “If I stay?”
    If she stayed…
    Claude thought of the dangerous game they’d begun the day before. Could still taste the sweetness of her flesh on his tongue. Feel her thighs gripping his hips.
    “You’ll have to be the judge of that.”
    He watched as she slapped her phone closed then turned to face the detective.
    Claude closed his own phone, then drifted back farther into the bayou shadows. While he’d correctly read Akela’s attraction to him, he hadn’t expected her to find her way back to the cabin so easily. He’d have to remember not to underestimate her from there on