Deadly Fear (Deadly #1)(61)
She slammed her foot on the accelerator, and the SUV shot out of the lot, narrowly missing a news van.
“Monica! Christ, it’s okay, be—”
“It’s not okay.” Her knuckles whitened on the steering wheel. “He’s playing with her now, Luke. Hurting her. Making her scream and beg.”
“We’re going to find her.” Monica had her sights on the killer, only him. The profiler was turned on, locked in. Too locked in. “Don’t think about what he’s doing. Focus on Sam. Finding her.”
“I can’t.” Whispered. Desperate. A tear leaked down her cheek. “I can’t ever turn it off. It’s always there. I’m always thinking like them. Knowing what they’d do. What they’d like. How they’d hunt.” She didn’t look at him, just kept her eyes on the road.
He kept his eyes on her. “You’re not like them.” Her job was to profile; that was it. She wasn’t evil, not like those freaks they hunted.
“Yes, I am.” Still so soft. “More than you can know.”
He touched her arm. Had to. She needed him.
She flinched away.
Too damn bad. His jaw locked, and his fingers curled around her. “You’re not like them.”
Another turn. Pine trees surrounded them now. Tall, twisting pines, their top branches stretching toward the clouds.
“You don’t know me.” Now she did spare him the briefest of glances, and her blue eyes stared blankly at him. Hollow. “You don’t know me at all.”
His fingers tightened around her arm, and he took the hit right to the gut. “Isn’t that what you want?” No one got close to her. Not him, and he’d be willing to bet not any of the others at SSD.
She didn’t answer.
“Why?” The demand slipped out. The GPS tracker indicated they had five more minutes before reaching the cabins. Not much time, but Monica’s shields were down, and he had to know. “Why do you shove the walls between us?” He deserved an answer.
Another turn. Onto a red dirt road. Toward the sun.
“I’m afraid you’ll see who I really am. What I am.”
Luke almost didn’t hear the whispered confession. Maybe he didn’t. Maybe he’d just imagined it. Because that didn’t make a bit of sense to him—and f*ck, time to call it like he was damn well seeing it. “Bullshit.”
She braked. A cloud of dirt rose around them. Monica spared him a glance. “Trust me, Dante—”
Dante? Oh, hell, no, she—
“You don’t want to know what’s inside me. Even you couldn’t handle it.” She shoved on her cap and reached into the backseat and snagged her bulletproof vest.
Clenching his teeth, he did the same. But this wasn’t over. “We’re saving Sam,” he told her, “and then you and me, we’re tearing down the walls between us, ripping ’em all down.”
She blanched.
“I’ll know you, inside and out, and you’ll damn well know me,” Luke promised.
CHAPTER Twelve
The place was too familiar. Monica froze beside the SUV, her eyes flickering toward the treetops. Sunlight drifted down to her, fading in tendrils toward the ground. The chirp of birds and insects filled her ears.
The dirt road. So similar.
Her heart thudded into her ribs.
Kenton’s car pulled up behind her. Monica swallowed and took a quick breath.
Hold on, Sam.
She turned around and found Luke watching her. I’ll know you and you’ll damn well know me. Yeah, the promise was in his gaze. But there was more. When it came to her, the guy always saw so much more than others did.
“What’s going on?” he asked, a quiet demand.
“We’re stopping a killer, that’s what’s going on.” They’d parked a safe distance away from the cabins. If the guy was there he wouldn’t be able to hear the sound of their vehicles, not from here. “Kenton, don’t forget your vest.” Because she had a bad feeling about this one. He’s ready for us.
Kenton jerked on his vest and jogged toward them. “You think—you think Sam’s still alive?”
Since Sam had disappeared at the airport, she’d been missing for a little over four hours.
Plenty of time to die. “Yes.” Sometimes, it didn’t really matter what you thought. You had to say what was best for the others.
He let out a hard expulsion of air. “Then let’s go find this bastard.”
Luke didn’t say anything. Just watched her.
He knows I’m lying. And since when could he see past her lies?
He brushed by her. “When this is over, you’re telling me everything.”
She grabbed his arm. “When this is over, I’m locking up a killer, and I’m making sure he never sees daylight again.” This wasn’t getting personal. Not now. They were staying focused on the killer.
Monica pulled her weapon. “We go on my count.” She allowed herself a deep breath. “Stay to cover, no risks, understood?”
“Understood.” From Luke.
“Kenton? Understood?” He always seemed so controlled, like me, but she knew there was a dangerous core to the agent. She’d glimpsed it on a few field missions before.