Secret Obsession (Carder Texas Connections #6)(21)

“I thought there’d be more,” Noah said. “Are you sure this is everything?”

Rafe pulled up a chair. “Zane and I agree this can’t be it. Some of the files must be missing.”

“Zane, can you bore into Justice through a back door?” Noah asked, thumbing through the documents. “Take another look?”

“Probably.” Zane looked up from his keyboard. “I’m not just crossing the legal line on this, Noah, I’m jumping with both feet into big trouble if we’re caught.”

“And your point is?”

Zane grinned. “Thought you should know why we’ll end up in jail if we’re caught.”

“No choice,” Noah said. “With Reid in the hospital, I don’t know who to trust. Just don’t leave a trail. I hate being locked up.”

“Who do you think you’re talking to?” Zane asked. “My zeros and ones are invisible.” He lowered his head and tapped away at the keyboard.

Biting her lip in concentration, Lyssa thumbed through the files, taking time to read each name. “There are names I don’t see here.” She looked up. “Archimedes got to someone at WitSec, didn’t he?”

“That’s what Reid believes,” Noah said. “It’s probably how Archimedes found you.”

Lyssa settled into a mahogany chair at one end and pulled off a small stack of files.

“Chastity’s information isn’t here, of course.” Rafe patted the remaining stack. “And while we were on the plane I caught word of another strange death. A woman set on fire only a few blocks from the diner where Chastity died.”

“Archimedes likes fire,” Lyssa said, her voice matter-of-fact.

That flat note captured Noah’s attention. Ever since she’d entered the house, she’d encased herself in an iron curtain, maintaining precarious control. He understood the necessity, but she was on the edge. Her fingers shook just a bit, and yet she powered through.

She awed him.

“Thirty percent of his crimes involve either death or destruction by fire,” she added. “The arson investigators haven’t been able to identify the accelerant that he uses. All they know is that it burns fast and hot and completely disintegrates most of the evidence.”

Zane’s hands paused on the keyboard, his expression stunned. “How—?”

“The fact leaked out after a warehouse fire killed the owner of a freight company. It surprises you I want to know exactly what he’s doing? And where he is all the time?” Lyssa stared at him, unblinking. “Why would I give him the upper hand?”

“Will you marry me?” Zane blurted out. “I love a smart woman with guts.”

“Just keep your eyes on your keyboard.” Noah planted himself between Zane and Lyssa.

Zane gave Noah a jaunty salute and huddled back on the computer, but not without a smirk on his face.

Okay, so Noah hadn’t hidden the fact that he liked Lyssa. A lot. He glanced over at her, too hesitant for his own peace of mind.

He’d expected her to be looking at him, expected that shot of awareness that tingled just below the surface of the skin to bounce between them, but she’d turned him off.

Instead, she took a folder from the shorter stack in front of her.

Noah placed his hand on hers. “You don’t want to—”

Lyssa opened the file anyway. She let out a shocked gasp. “I can’t even tell if this is a man or a woman. What did Archimedes do?”

Noah tugged the file away from her, but not before he caught a glance of an autopsy photo of a corpse with a bloated face floating at the edge of a slow-moving river. “One thing about Archimedes, I’m sure you know, is that his M.O.s are all over the place. He’s an encyclopedia of modus operandi.”

“I know. I’ve been researching him for two years,” Lyssa opened another file. “Newspapers don’t print these kinds of photos, but I know there are victims from all over the country. Mostly on the East and West coasts. Men and women, old and young, professional and homeless. I can’t find a connection.”

“That’s why the feds have no case and no clue,” Noah said. “Except you. You’ve heard his voice.”

“A whisper two years ago. Even I know it’s not enough.”

Noah knelt in front of her chair. “There is a connection. We just haven’t found it yet.”

“Lyssa.” He waited until his patience forced her to meet his gaze. Her dead eyes terrified him. He gripped her hands. “I’m telling you right now, we’ll find the connection. We’ll find him.”

She stared down at their entwined fingers and squeezed his tight, the desperation clearly etched on her face. She glanced at the table and the files, then at Rafe and Zane.

A heavy sigh escaped her.

“I want to believe that, Noah. But somehow I’ve got a feeling that the only way we’ll find Archimedes is when he finds me first.”

*

LYSSA HAD NEVER seen anything like Noah, Rafe and Zane at work. She tucked her knee under her chin and wrapped her arms round her leg. Their intensity rivaled anything she’d ever witnessed.

Occasionally Noah would glance up at her, meeting her gaze with a worried one of his own. She couldn’t stop watching him, and the deep tenor of his voice sent a small shiver up her spine.