Before the Dawn(62)

       
        

"I didn't tell anyone all of the things that Jason said. No, no, that's not true. I told my psychiatrist." She licked her lips. "Just him. No one else. I was too afraid to tell the cops. I didn't...I didn't want them to look at you with suspicion."

He could only shake his head.

"Do you remember how I hid from you in those woods?" She blinked quickly and inhaled. "You shot Jason and I hid. You kept calling to me, but I didn't come out right away."

And he'd been fucking terrified. Yes, he remembered. As if he could ever forget.

"Jason said you were coming to the cabin to kill me. That you'd been using me all along."

Every muscle in his body tensed. Tucker shook his head, denying what she was saying. Denying that he'd ever hurt her.

"He said he was keeping me alive so that you could get there and join the fun. That you'd f-fucked me-" she tripped over that word "-and now you were going to kill me."

He stared at her as pain cut into his heart. "That's why you ran from me when I first got there." Why she'd fallen into the water.

"Jason said he wasn't acting alone. He said the press should call the two of you Icemen, not Iceman." She wet her lips. "He said he was working with someone...and that someone was you."

"No." The word came out too hard, too rough. But he needed her to understand. "It wasn't me. He was lying to you. He wanted to hurt you." And me. "I was never involved, baby, I swear it."

Her breath came in quick pants. "The man in the ski mask...he said the same thing to me. The words...they were Jason's words. ‘I'm going to teach you to like pain.'"

Those were words burned into Tucker's mind. Not because they were Jason's. But because they'd been their father's words.

I'll make you sorry pieces of shit like the pain. You'll stop screaming soon enough.

He had to swallow the lump in his throat.

"The man in the ski mask...he said he was waiting for you, so the fun could start."

Tucker didn't blink. He didn't move at all. The rage inside of him was so strong he was afraid if he moved, his control would shatter.

This case is wrecking me. "No." One word. That was all he could manage. 

"Then the kid described someone who could be you." She lifted her hands and pressed them to his chest. "You look like Jason. Jason's body wasn't found. The words were the same, and I swear...even the voice sounded the same to me. He's back. I think Jason is back." Her voice broke.

A sharp knock sounded on the door.

"Agent Frost?" He recognized Samantha's voice. "We need to talk."

"I wasn't the only one holding back secrets." He said the words softly to Dawn.

"I didn't want the cops looking at you with suspicion. You'd been through enough. We both had."

"I was never working with him." He might have been screwed up, he might have enjoyed a taste for too much darkness, but he'd never turned into a cold-blooded killer. He would never hurt an innocent.

"Frost!" Samantha's voice was sharper. "I need you and Dawn in the meeting room, now." Her heels tapped smartly away from the door.

Tucker stepped away from Dawn. Stepped away when he wanted to pull her close. To wrap his arms around her and not let go.

But they were at the police station. His boss waited. And the case...the case came first.

Only she is the case. She's the priority.

He turned away from her and opened the door. He held it open while Dawn walked ahead of him. Their group had taken over the big meeting space at the end of the hall, and when he went inside, he saw the tactical board that the unit had prepared.

The victims' pictures were on that board. Pictures of them when they were alive, happy, and then pictures of them when the killer had finished with them.

"The reporters have this story." Samantha stood near the board. Macey and Bowen were seated at the table. No one else was in the room. She inclined her head toward Dawn. "And they have your past. They know who you are. They've made the connection. The headlines running today are that the Iceman is back. He's killing again."

"He's dead," Tucker gritted. How many times would he have to say it? He blew out a breath and paced toward the tactical board. "It's not Jason we have to worry about. This killer... I think he's far more dangerous than Jason ever was." And that was saying one hell of a lot. "Jason had a certain victim type."

"Attractive young women," Bowen added. "College coeds."

Tucker's gaze slid to Dawn. She hadn't taken a seat. She stood just inside the doorway, watching them.

"Yes." He didn't move his gaze off her. "And he killed them in a ritualistic manner. He used his knife to cut them, marking them. Never slicing deep enough to kill. Just enough that his brand would always be on their skin."