Undercover Hunter(69)

                She looked at him, searching his face, then stared across the room as the truth of his words sank home. “Yeah. Sometimes they do.”

                He slipped his arm around her shoulder, offering her comfort. “What do you want to do?” he asked finally. “We still have time before he should act again unless he’s accelerating. If you want, we can get you out of here and bring in someone else.”

                “No!” The word erupted from her with force. She turned to face him again.

                He spread his hand. “Okay, okay. I just want you to know that you have options here. You wouldn’t be the first person who couldn’t work a serial killer case.”

                “I’m not going to let a nightmare scare me off. Or some stupid remark that probably means nothing...”

                Then her voice trailed off as another thought struck her.

                “DeeJay?”

                She bit her lip so hard she feared she would break the skin. “What if Gage is right? I know it seemed to come out of nowhere when he said it, I know there’s no reason to think it was anything but a stray thought. But it remains—sometimes stray thoughts pop up for a reason.”

                He thought it over. “Maybe. It’s possible.”

                “I thought of the spiderweb thing, and we’re thinking that I’m right. Where the hell did that come from? Something niggled at me. Maybe something niggled at Gage, as well. No way to know.”

                His arm tightened a bit around her shoulders. “Say he picked up on something. No way to be sure, as you said, but you’re never going to be alone.”

                She shook her head as a sudden resolve poured through her. “We have to be proactive.”

                “DeeJay—”

                She interrupted without apology. “No, Cade. If there’s even a small chance that Gage sensed something important, we have to take it before a new boy disappears. I need to make myself available. I need to take the risk.”

                “No. I can’t allow that. Even on the slim possibility that Gage picked up on something, it’s too dangerous.”

                “Not really. Our perp is used to charming kids. He’s never dealt with an army MP before.”

                She waited for him to argue, but he didn’t. A long time later he said heavily, “No, he hasn’t. But if you’re going to try this, we’re going to plan it very carefully. I don’t want any slipups if he moves against you.”

                “I’ll be his biggest slipup if he does,” she said firmly. She’d dealt with nearly every kind of creep, some of them at the end of her fists. She knew she could take care of herself. She knew it in her bones.

                But that didn’t make it any easier to think about. This guy was truly unhinged in ways she could scarcely imagine, and that made him dangerous in a whole different way.

                Silence fell inside the house while the storm howled its fury outside. Chilly drafts crept through the place like unseen ghosts wafting here and there.

                “I’ve got to think about this,” Cade said finally. “Really think about it. And we need to talk it over with Gage. He’s the boss, we’re just here to assist.”

                “Fair enough,” she agreed. But her stomach had turned into a hard lump, and her fists clenched tight. Maybe she was losing her mind at last. It was always possible. The link between her and this killer was virtually nonexistent, other than that one man thought she resembled the victims. It would probably be a waste of time, she told herself. She was the wrong sex, the wrong height for this guy.