Last night, she’d trusted him with her body, too.
“I know what I heard on the phone last night. I’m not crazy. Fuck, I might be obsessed, but not crazy.”
“You’re an FBI agent.” She tried to make the words light because the tension in the air was far too thick. Suffocating. “They wouldn’t have let you in the bureau if the shrinks thought you were crazy.”
“There are ways to get past the shrinks.”
That wasn’t the response she’d expected.
“Whatever happens, trust me. Don’t ever stop, okay?”
She managed a nod. Her heart drummed in her chest.
“You can count on me, and I want to make sure I can count on you.”
What was that supposed to mean? She’d never given him any reason to doubt he could trust her.
“What I have to do…” His gaze searched hers. “The things that are coming might not be what you expect.”
He was making her afraid. She glanced around the garage. They seemed to be alone. She edged closer to him, keeping her voice low as she said, “Kyle, stop this. We’re hunting the killer. We’re going to catch him.”
“I know that could have just been a recording last night. You were right before, when you said that.” The words held no emotion, but his grip on her was tight. “A recording from ten years ago, hell, maybe fifteen. It didn’t have to be now.” The faint lines hardened near his eyes. “I replayed that damn call in my mind, again and again. She didn’t respond to anything I said. The words they played…”
Her chest ached.
“But it was her. He hurt her. Tortured her. She was begging for me.” His gaze blazed down at her. “I’m going to make him beg.”
No, no, that wasn’t an agent talking.
It’s the victim’s brother.
“Kyle, we have badges for a reason.”
He pulled her deeper into the shadows, caging her with his body against the concrete wall. “Do you think a man who abducts, tortures, and kills a dozen women—a dozen we know about—should keep living? What if some dumbass DA screws up his case? What if he escapes? What if we stop him, only to have the guy get loose and do it again?”
“You aren’t a killer.” She’d been afraid of this. Deep inside. “You help people. We stop the killers.”
“I will stop him.” His lips twisted and the smile made her even more nervous. He’d never smiled with an edge so cruel before.
This isn’t Kyle.
This was the Kyle the killer wanted him to be. Pushed beyond control. Beyond the limits of the law.
“We’ll stop him,” she said, desperate to get through to him. “Together. We’ll put him in a cage, and make sure he can’t ever hurt anyone else.”
But the cruel smile stayed on his lips.
“Stop it!” The words ripped from her, and she said just what she’d thought. “This isn’t you!”
“Maybe you’re finally seeing who I am.” His head bent. His mouth pressed to hers. Hard. Hot. “Maybe part of you likes who I am.”
The darkness in him.
“I’m seeing more of who you are,” he whispered against her lips.
A car horn sounded in the distance, echoing through the garage.
The elevator doors dinged from just a few feet away.
Cadence pushed against his chest. After a moment—a moment that seemed too long—he stepped back.
“We need to get to the station.” Her voice wasn’t steady. Neither were her knees. “Finish the profile.”
He stared back at her.
“Kyle…”
His hands fisted. “I wasn’t always like this.”
No.
“I wish you’d met me before.”
Two nurses walked from the elevator. The women barely even glanced their way.
“I didn’t need to meet you before,” Cadence said as she tried to make her voice even. “I know you now.” She trusted him. “Let’s go do our job, let’s stop him the way we’re supposed to handle perps.”
They didn’t hunt to kill. They hunted to save lives.
Kyle nodded.
But as they left, he didn’t meet her stare, and unease deepened within her.
The task force filled the interior of the station. Cops, deputies from the county, the local district attorney. The county’s coroner was even in the back, nervously wringing his hands. They’d all come in for the profile reveal and the update on Lily Adams.
Kyle stared at the assembled group, letting his gaze sweep around the room. First they were informing these personnel, then he’d handle the media.
One f**king step at a time.
He and Cadence had finally worked up a joint profile, one reaffirming exactly what he’d thought before.
The SOB will hunt again, soon.
Cadence wasn’t certain of that part, but he was.
They’d taken away the perp’s toy, and he’d want another. He was probably already searching for his next victim.
When Kyle stood, silence stretched across the room. Some of the deputies were young, so young, barely looking like they were old enough to drink. Every man or woman in the room who wore a badge had been checked and alibied out before being able to join the task force.
Kyle hadn’t wanted to take any chances.
Alibis can be faked. That knowledge sat heavily in his gut. No, he didn’t want to take chances, and so far, all of their stories were checking.
That didn’t mean he trusted them, though. The only person he trusted 100 percent was Cadence.
Jaw locking, he said, “I want you patrolling the highways.”
Cadence rose and handed out prepared files to those gathered in the station.
“Our killer hunts after midnight, but before dawn. He sticks to unpopulated roadways like old highways or the untraveled paths most folks wouldn’t stumble across. He disables the victims’ vehicles.” Time and again. “He makes his victims vulnerable. Then he goes in to save them.”
“Save them?” This came from Jason as he flipped through the file he’d just been given. “How the hell is he saving them?”
Of course, he wasn’t. “He offers them a ride. Gets them to unlock their cars so he can get close.”
Then he took them.
“He had Lily Adams in his car within two minutes,” Kyle said.
Two f**king minutes. That had been the length of that damn phone call.
“He’s fast, methodical, and very, very good at covering his tracks.”