“It’s not true,” he said once more.
Her head turned. Her eyes met his. She wasn’t crying anymore, but there were secrets in her gaze. Thomas was pretty sure he’d sell his soul if it meant he could learn what they were.
“I didn’t do anything to hurt you all those years ago, I swear.” He had to make her believe that. It was so important she trust him.
Noelle blinked. Then she smiled. A slow smile that made him ache. Her hand rose and touched his cheek. “Oh, Thomas, I know that. You saved me then. I didn’t doubt that truth for an instant.”
For a moment, he was the one who couldn’t speak. Her faith in him seemed so strong. Staggering. No one had ever believed in him the way she did. “I—” He broke off, cleared his throat and tried again. “I need you to know that I have met that man before.”
He felt the tension that hardened her body. “When?”
Aw, damn, this was going to hurt the most. “When I was working undercover in Alabama.” So long ago. “I got the intel I needed on that group, and the EOD stormed in, but before I did...I had to pass the group’s initiation.”
“What did you do?”
Her voice was so hoarse.
“I fought four men.”
She pulled away from him.
“I didn’t kill them, I swear, but...if I hadn’t fought, they would’ve pegged me for an agent. I had to prove myself.” He had. “There were three of us there for the initiation. A group circled us, threw back in the men who tried to run. Porter— I turned once and he was in front of me. He knew I wasn’t one of the ones running. He was laughing.” He swallowed bile. “Cheering me on as I attacked.” Dragon, Dragon! He’d just gone by that tag back then, to better fit in with the group.
The guy had even come up and congratulated him on a good fight afterward.
She paled before him. “I have to get out of here. I just— I need to leave.”
He was afraid she was leaving him. “I was undercover. My job was to infiltrate and bring down that organization.”
“No matter the cost.”
She’d been the cost.
Thomas shook his head. “If I’d known for a minute that he was the man who’d arranged your abduction—”
“Why didn’t the EOD apprehend him then? If the rest of the group got contained, then why not him?” Emotion ripped through her words. Pain. Fury. “Why was he left free to hurt and kill?”
“Because he wasn’t there when the EOD team came in. Something had spooked him and he ran.”
Her laugh was cold. Mocking. “I spooked him.”
Thomas frowned at her.
“He must’ve gone back to hunt me. I wasn’t there, the cops were, so he knew he had to clear out.” A bitter smile twisted her lips. “No one else had seen him there, so he just slipped away. Or, sailed away, I guess, since he just boarded the naval vessel and headed to the next port.”
Then he’d kept killing. Only his prey had changed, and he’d started working with a new partner.
“I’m sorry,” Thomas told her. The words weren’t enough. They never would be. For so many years, he’d hated the choices he’d made. A young girl, left alone. He hadn’t realized that someone else was out there, possibly still after her.
“So am I,” Noelle said. Then she jerked open the door and straightened her shoulders. When she left this time, he didn’t follow her. He knew she wanted to get away.
From me.
So he let her go.
* * *
“THIS ISN’T OVER!” Patrick Porter yelled as he grabbed the bars. The woman had left and the agent—Dragon, you liar—had followed on her heels.
They thought they were done? That they just got to walk away while he was tossed into a cell to rot?
No. That wasn’t the way his story would be ending.
“The blood’s gonna be on you!” His bellow seemed to echo back to him. “Another body...on you, Noelle! You thought it was bad when you were the victim? How’s it gonna feel when you realize you let her die? You. Let. Her. Die!”
* * *
AARON BLACK FROWNED as he glanced toward the holding-room door. The jerk in there had been yelling his head off for the past ten minutes. Making threats. Demanding his freedom.
Talking about a victim.
It could be pure bull, of course. A last-ditch effort to save himself. Aaron had seen it before. When facing nothing but a dark cell for endless days, men would lie. They’d promise anything. Everything. Tell any falsehood imaginable.
But...
Sometimes, they would also tell the truth.
He stepped closer to the holding room.
* * *
NOELLE STOOD IN the snow. Her eyes were closed. Her hands outstretched. She was just a few feet away from the sheriff’s station. A monster was inside that station. A man with a soul darker than hell.
She had to face him again. It was her job. But every time she looked into his eyes, Noelle felt as if she were a helpless teen again. Lost and so scared.
Waiting to die.
Snow crunched to the left, and in an instant, Noelle spun around with her gun up.
Her firearm locked right on Bruce Mercer. He lifted his hands toward her. “Easy. I’m not the enemy.”
Sometimes, it was hard to tell which side Mercer was really on. “You kept my past from me.” She holstered her weapon.
“I thought the danger was gone.” He exhaled and advanced toward her. “I was very wrong.”
Her eyebrows shot up. Had the great and oh, so powerful Mercer just admitted to being wrong? Human?
“You weren’t alone.”
She had no idea what he was talking about.
“Has Agent Anthony told you that part yet?”
“He told me that he’d seen Porter. While he was undercover in Alabama, Thomas saw him with that terrorist group.”
“Ah, yes, well, is it surprising that Porter would have ties to others who wanted to maim and kill? Like to like, you know.”
Yes, she knew plenty about the darkness that hid within men.
“We didn’t have an ID on Porter then. Just a basic physical description. He slipped away.” Mercer heaved out a breath as he stared at the mountains in the distance. “We try our hardest, but there are always some that get away. For every killer we stop, another one is out there, waiting in the wings.” His voice lowered. “Some days I wonder if it will ever end.”
She rubbed her arms. The snow had felt good before, seeming to cool the fire that burned within her as it fell again, but now...