A Profiler's Case for Seduction(56)

Samuel sighed. “Yes, I admit that mistakes were made and lessons were learned. I won’t make the same mistakes the second time around.”

“From what I hear you aren’t going to get a second time around,” Melinda replied. “They’re never going to let you out of there.”

Samuel laughed. For a narcissistic sociopath, he had a nice, rich laughter. “I’m not counting on them letting me out of here, but that doesn’t mean I won’t get a second time around.”

So, he was working on an escape, she thought. If he did manage to escape from wherever they were holding him, she wondered where he’d go to build a new kingdom where all who lived there would worship him.

“You could at least ask me about the other members of our family,” she said, knowing Samuel hated talking about Dora and Micah.

“Why would I want to know about them? One is a loser and the other is a traitor to the Grayson name.” His tone of voice was one of distinct disgust. “Dora is a twit you should have left in Horn’s Gulf and Micah will someday pay for putting me here. You and I are the only ones with any guts in our family tree, Melinda. We’re strong. I built an empire and look what you’ve survived. We’re two peas in a pod.”

“There’s one big difference between you and me,” she replied with a hint of smug satisfaction in her voice. “I’m out here and you’re locked up.” She knew her words would make him angry and she disconnected the call before she heard his response.

She didn’t need him to tell her she was strong, that she had guts. She’d survived her father’s brutality and her drunk of a mother; she’d survived out in the world all alone and had worked her ass off to become the great professor Melinda Grayson.

She didn’t need a loser like Samuel to tell her who she was and what she deserved from life. She was owed everything good that came her way. She’d built her own little kingdom here at Darby and she was the queen who wielded the power.

Samuel was wrong. The two of them weren’t peas in a pod. She was better than him...smarter than him, and only losers went to prison.

Thinking about losers, she checked her watch. It was time for her to head to her next class. As if on cue she saw Ben and Amanda approaching from the distance. Dependable, malleable and fiercely loyal, the two assistants had been a good choice of hers.

As always, Ben looked cool and relaxed and Amanda was one step ahead of him, her pretty face pale with exhaustion and strain. Melinda knew the two were at odds with each other, and she’d done nothing to ease the tension between them.

Amanda reminded Melinda of Dora...weak and eager to please, while Ben reminded Melinda more of herself. His laid-back aura hid more than a touch of arrogance and a hunger for power of his own.

Melinda stood as the two reached where she’d been seated. She said nothing to them, but turned and headed toward class, confident that they would follow close at her heels.

* * *

The past week had been a blend of everything good and everything bad that could happen in an ongoing investigation and in Mark’s personal life. He now sat in the briefing and listened to Richard rail about the fact that somehow it had been overlooked that Troy Young had been in jail on drunk-and-disorderly charges at the time of the murders. This unbreakable alibi had come to light the night before and had taken him off their suspect list completely.

Richard was angry with not only the men and woman who sat before him, but also the Vengeance Police Department where Troy had enjoyed accommodations for the twenty-four-hour period when the murders had been committed.

“What I don’t understand is why Troy didn’t remember that he’d been in jail when he was first questioned,” Larry said.

“He drinks almost every night. Sheriff Burris had him on a revolving door down at the jail. He has trouble remembering what he did yesterday. It was his lawyer who discovered the jail records that exonerated him.”

Richard glared around the room, as angry as Mark had ever seen him. “We should have been the ones who found this information, not some damned lawyer. We should have had that information the day Troy Young hit our radar.” He slapped his hands down on the table before him. He then visibly drew in a deep breath and released it slowly.

Nobody in the room spoke a word as they waited for him to continue. Richard turned to stare at the whiteboard, where the photos of the victims stared back. He turned back to his team. “They haunt me as I’m sure they haunt you. We need to find who was responsible for this.” His voice was calm now, his anger in check. “We need to bring whoever is guilty to justice.”