Deadly Fear (Deadly #1)(14)

Thunderstorms had ripped through the area Wednesday night. A tornado had even touched down right outside the county lines.

In the days since, this part of Mississippi had been nothing but hot and dry.

And that meant the tracks were fresh.

So who the hell had been out here?

“Monica!”

She tensed at Luke’s call, then took off in the direction of his shout. Her legs pumped as she rounded the edge of the house. She jumped over a fallen pine, ducked her head to avoid a slap from a branch.

There. The early sunlight filtered through the treetops in a hazy glow. Luke stood near a line of pines, his hands on his hips.

“Dante, what’s going on? What’d you find?” The gun was up, her body on full alert.

He glanced back at her. “Something I think you should see.”

She hurried to his side. His finger pointed through the brush. “I caught sight of it when I was doing a perimeter check.”

Her eyes narrowed. Trees. More trees and—

Holy shit. Her breath caught.

A twig snapped beneath her foot when she stepped forward. Watch the scene. Don’t screw up any—

Luke’s hand pressed against her back. A warm, steady weight. Almost reassuring.

But she didn’t need reassuring. Didn’t need him.

“Looks like someone’s been digging, huh?”

She managed a weak nod. Right in the middle of the clearing, there was a patch of dirt—not a patch, about a six foot span—higher than the rest.

Fresh dirt. Someone had definitely been digging.

No, not digging, burying something.

“You thinkin’ what I am?”

Yes. She shoved her gun back into the holster. “We’ve got another girl missing.”

Dante looked back at the mound of dirt. “Not anymore, we don’t.”

The punch in her gut told her that he was right.

What scares you?

“We don’t know what is buried here,” she said and was surprised by how cool her voice sounded. How calm.

Ice.

“One way to find out.”

She couldn’t take her eye off that mound. One hell of a way to die. Buried in the woods, shoved in the dirt.

Monica yanked out her phone. Quickly punched in the number she’d memorized that morning.

One ring. Two. Good thing she had a stronger signal this time.

“Davis.”

Monica wet her lips. “Think I’m going to need you to come to me, Sheriff. We found… something out at the Moffett scene.” Something. A body.

Right size.

She’d seen holes just like this before on her cases. Too many. She’d told Dante they didn’t know, but, she did.

“Fuck.” A snarl from Davis.

Yes, she felt the same way. She’d joined the FBI to stop the killers.

Not to keep finding the dead.

Would the scales never balance?

Her eyes closed as she said, “And, sheriff, when you come… you’d better bring some shovels with you.”





CHAPTER Four


A half-dozen deputies were on the scene in less than ten minutes. Luke watched them running around like ants, hauling out yellow police tape and attaching it to the swaying pines.

Sheriff Davis stood in the middle of the chaos, a shovel gripped in his hands. He hadn’t started digging yet. He just stared at the ground, his jaw clenched, his face white. Every few seconds, he’d mutter the same thing. “Sonofabitch.”

Over and over again.

Luke rolled his shoulders and glanced back at Monica. Her eyes were narrowed and locked on the freshly turned earth. He walked to her side. “You know they’re screwing the evidence trail.” All those bodies. Trampling over everything.

“She hasn’t been missing long.…” Monica’s voice seemed distracted. She ran a hand through her hair. “He dumped her so fast.”

The sheriff drove his shovel into the earth.

“He did it too fast,” Monica whispered, stepping forward, and Luke knew she wasn’t talking about the sheriff.

Luke grabbed her arm and tried hard not to notice the silky feel of her skin. “What are you thinking?”

But she still didn’t look at him. “He likes to play too much for this.” She shook her head. “Too fast,” she said again.

Deputy Lee reached for a shovel. “Damn shame,” he drawled, his voice carrying easily to them.

Monica wrenched her arm free and shoved past the deputy. “Sheriff! Sheriff, we need to talk.”

Davis looked up at Monica. His face flamed beet red. “What we need to do is dig. Right damn now.”

“But why dump her? And here? Why—”

The shovel drove deep again.

Lee hesitated behind her.

Her hands knotted into fists. “This isn’t the way he plays.”

He. Luke knew she was in the killer’s head. No surprise. Monica always seemed to be in his head. She knelt and her fingers hovered over the dirt.

“Monica?” Maybe they should back off a bit, and let the locals claim their dead. At least the parents weren’t here. They didn’t need to see their baby girl get hauled out of the ground.

“Sonofabitch.” This time, the snarl came from Monica. She jumped to her feet and grabbed the shovel from Lee’s hand. And started digging. Hard and fast.