Beware Of Me(64)

There was so much emotion in his eyes. So much love. Shining right there for her. The rest of the world might look at Ethan and see the big, bad wolf, but she saw the man she loved. The man who hadn’t given up on her.

Just as she hadn’t given up on him.

And now, it truly was their time. “When do we leave?”

He smiled. A drop dead gorgeous grin.

Ethan Barclay. Fucking dangerous and fucking sexy Ethan Barclay.

The man she’d love for the rest of her life.

***

“I’m supposed to let you walk away with a shit-load of cash and no charges pending against you?” Victor marched around his office, but the marching was a bit hesitant. Probably due to the still recovering injuries that the agent had.

Bullet wounds could be such a bitch.

“Why the hell…” Victor muttered. “Would I agree to a deal like that? Because I’m an idiot? Because I want to get demoted at the Bureau? I mean, yeah, okay, so I was a bit wrong about you and Carly and you weren’t the ones killing those guys in New York—”

“Tied Keith and Curtis to those disappearances, didn’t you?” But Ethan already knew the truth about those crimes. Carly had told him all, and he’d held her in her hospital bed as she’d cried for those men. Pawns in a deadly game.

Ethan was sick of pawns getting hurt. He was actually sick of so many fucking things. Violence. Death.

He was ready for a better life.

“Yes,” Victor gritted out. “We found concrete proof. In the shrink’s own office. The guy wrote down every detail about the crimes. About how he offered up the victims to Curtis. How Curtis stalked them and killed them.” His jaw clenched. “Even how he ditched the bodies.”

“Sounds like interesting reading.”

“The shrink is a psycho.”

“That the clinical term?”

Victor squinted at him. “You trying to be funny? Really? Now? This is the moment you pick?”

Ethan shrugged.

“Dr. Nelson got in with the mob—hell, with killers—back when he used to work at Falling Waters State Hospital, a place in upstate New York for criminals deemed…unstable. That’s when he made his connections and he started bartering secrets. Seems that Nelson had a very unhealthy fascination with the minds of murderers. Over time, he starting selling the secrets he learned.” Victor ran his hand over his face. “The jerkoff loved hearing about the brutal crimes, and he sure liked the money he got paid from those bastards.”

Ethan paced toward the window. “I’m guessing he’ll have plenty of time to talk with killers now.” He’ll be locked away with them.

“Will he?” Victor demanded.

Ethan looked back at him, making sure his expression appeared all calm and non-threatening.

“Will Dr. Nelson have lots of time to chat? Or will the guy wind up dead within the next few weeks, maybe months? Will someone…like you…give an order that he’s to be punished for his crimes?”

Again, Ethan shrugged. “I guess that could happen.”

“I know you aren’t going to confess your plans to me.”

Hell, no, he wasn’t. Did he look like an idiot?

“But you could still pull strings, right?” Victor pushed. “Or maybe you’ve already pulled them. Set the guy’s death in motion because he hurt her.”

Ethan held his gaze. “Do you really think anyone would mourn for Keith Nelson? I’m sure the families of Tage Price, Josh Lavelle, and Ace Patton wouldn’t.”

“Don’t feed me that line. For you, it’s not about them. It’s about her. What he tried to do to her.”

Ethan paced toward the agent. “You haven’t ever been in love, have you?”

“Fuck, no.”

His lips almost twitched. “Love can change a man. Make him less of a monster.”

“So you’re saying you aren’t going to kill Nelson?”

No, he wasn’t saying that. But he was also thinking that rotting in prison might just be the punishment that drove the doc to the edge. Then over it. Some people have to suffer first, that way they can truly regret their sins. “Justice will come around to him, sooner or later. Of that, I have no doubt.” And he’d say nothing else. After all, he didn’t want to incriminate himself, not when he was still working this deal.

Victor crossed his arms over his chest, but then flinched at the move. Obviously, his wounds still pained him.

Ethan whistled. “I hope you can get back to fighting form soon. Zoe is going to need you.”

The faint lines near Victor’s eyes deepened. “What do you know?”

“I know Zoe’s friend Michelle recently vanished in Vegas…and Zoe rushed back to Sin City in order to save her.”