her, moving her suitcase. “Looks like I met number one, huh?”
Her eyes widened, providing all the confirmation I needed. She was never good at hiding her
feelings…at least not from me. “Cal, you don’t understand. Nothing happened between us until I was
twenty. We were just there for each other when we both needed someone.”
“He’s known you since you were ten years old.”
“Actually not until I was fifteen. That’s when he was assigned to our case.”
“That doesn’t make it any better, but it’s not important right now.” I tilted her chin so she was
looking at me and could hear the conviction in my words. “I don’t want to talk about him. I want to
talk about us. I’m going with you.”
She looked up at me, shaking her head vigorously. “No, you can’t.”
“You promised you wouldn’t take my choices away again.”
“I know, but that was before.”
“Before what?” I spat.
“Before Eddie found me. It’s different now.”
“What kind of bullshit is this? Do you not understand my heart beats for you?”
Her lower lip quivered, her beautiful face constricted with pain. “It’s because I love you that I
don’t want you to choose. You don’t understand what this kind of life is like. How would you feel
knowing you could never see your mother or Mandy again? That you wouldn’t be there to walk your
sister down the aisle when she got married? What if your mother got sick? You’d grow to resent me
for this decision.”
I took her shoulders and pulled her against my chest. “I will never resent you. I’ve lost you once
and I won’t do it again.”
“I would be doing this to them too, Cal. They don’t get a choice in it. They’ve already lost one
good man in their life. I won’t be responsible for them losing another.”
“They would understand.” I put my forehead against hers, “Don’t. End. Us.” There was an
unmistakable plea in my voice. I couldn’t stomach the thought of her out in this great, big, mean world
without me at her side. She needed me as much I needed her.
“I wish I could spend all of eternity with you, Tex. I love the life we have here, but this is fate’s
plan and it leaves few choices.”
“A great philosopher once said, ‘Fate rarely calls upon us at a moment of our choosing.’”
She stared up at me, “Who was that? Socrates?”
I smiled, “No, Optimus Prime from the
Transformers
movie.”
Her lip quivered once more, but this time it broke into a giggle. “How can you get me to laugh
right now?”
I tucked a loose silky strand of hair behind her ear. “You’re going to need someone to make you
smile. I’m the right man for that job.”
“The only man.”
Joe cleared his throat, interrupting our moment. She jerked, but I held her against my chest,
fighting my desire to knock him in the teeth, against my need to hold her. “Ready to go?” he asked.
She looked from me to him. “We need another identity. Cal is coming with me.”
“That’s not possible, Soph.”
I turned to him, trading my relieved smile for seething scowl. “It’s possible and we both know it.
Get on it, Joe, and do your job.”
Chapter Twenty
It was funny. This morning had been a normal day, or at least as normal as things had been since
Sylvie came back. I’d been teaching my class. We’d been going to go to the movies tonight. Now she
lay asleep in my arms at some hotel in Medford as we prepared for our new life. I was going to miss
Mandy and Momma something terrible, but this girl in my arms was a part of me, and I couldn’t be
without her.
I slowly shifted away from her, getting out of bed so as not to wake her. I placed a gentle kiss on
her temple and tucked her in again. I opened the door to face Joe who was sitting in the chair outside
of our room. He looked as tired as I felt.
“I need to talk to you.”
“Yes, I think that’s a good idea, Caleb. Join me for a drink at the bar.”
I turned back, looking to our room. “I don’t want to leave her.”
“Haynes is here,” Joe said, as an older man appeared behind him. “He’s taking this shift.”
I nodded, and began walking toward the elevator. The hotel bar was empty except for us. Joe
ordered a Jack neat. I ordered a Rolling Rock.
“I need to explain to you how all this works,” he said, taking some papers out of his folder. He
slid them toward me. It was like some list of rules. I ignored it.
“That’s not why I wanted to talk to you.”
“Well, that’s really all I have to say to you, Caleb.”
I slammed my beer down. “I think what happened was sick.”
He laughed, only infuriating me further. “I doubt she would agree with that statement.”
“How long?”
“We didn’t do anything until she was twenty.”
“No, I mean how long have you been lusting after her? Did it start when you met her, you sick
bastard?”
He clenched his jaw and fists at the same time. I could see his internal struggle to keep his
composure. “Fuck you, Tanner. We don’t owe you an explanation.”
“Oh, let me be clear, Joe, I don’t think
she
does, but
you
sure as hell do. You took advantage of
her. She was lost, scared and alone. You were supposed to protect her.”
“I did.”
“What would your bosses say about this? Surely such a breach in trust would cause a great deal
of trouble for you.”
“She would never tell.”
“Maybe I will.”
“You are such an asshole, Tanner. You think that’s doing her any favors? You may not trust me,
but she does. This wasn’t some tawdry affair. Hell, I’m only eight years older than her.” His voice
got quieter, filling with the slightest emotion as if he was trying like hell to fight against it. “My wife
had passed away a few months before. She helped me through that time. I helped her too. She needed
someone who knew her. Knew her history. If you want the truth, I have no qualms telling you I love
her.”
I wasn’t expecting him to say that. I narrowed my eyes, willing myself not to punch him. “She
loves me.”
“There’s no arguing that. I know she does.”
I started breathing easier, surprised by how much his admission eased my tension.
“She’s very special.”
“I know that. She’s one in a million.”
“I’ve known a lot of people who have been through half of what she has that can’t seem to get
past it. She never once felt sorry for herself. In fact, all she did was worry about other people. Hell,
she worried about me, for God’s sake…and she really worried about you.”
“I know. Maybe your feelings for her have clouded your judgment. Maybe you should take
yourself off the case, Joe.”
“That’s her call, not yours. I will always be there for her. Besides, as I see it, I’m not the one at
this table who compromised her safety.”
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
He shook his head, chuckling softly. “She never told you, did she? I’m not surprised since she
never blamed you. Not once. Like you said, that girl’s one in a million.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Are you really this much of a dumbass? How do you think they found her the first time?”
I stared at him blankly.
“Someone submitted her painting to a national art exhibition and it won. It was in a major
museum in New York. A carbon replica of her mother.”
Fuck.
My hand clutched the neck of the bottle so tight I felt my knuckles go white. I had done that to
her. I was the reason she’d had to leave. I was the reason for her getting shot. Oh, God, I was the
reason her father had been murdered. I felt my hands trembling and I tried desperately to control them,
not wanting to give Joe the satisfaction he craved.
“I didn’t know.”
We sat there for a moment in silence, lost in our own thoughts. Joe made a move like he was
leaving, but I grabbed his arm. “Tell me about Eddie. What do you know about him? How close are
you to finding him?”
Joe sighed and stared at me for a minute. It felt like a very long minute. “I suppose you deserve
to know. He fell off the grid after that night.”
“Do you think his family’s involved with this? Are they helping him?”
“No, we’ve been keeping tabs on the remaining members, and we believe they have disowned
him, as they say. He did kill his uncle after all. I don’t think any of them are interested in Sophie.”
“So, it’s just some lunatic guy with an obsession then?” The idea made me feel somewhat better.
It wasn’t a Mob family after her, but one crazy fucker.
“It’s not that simple.”
“What do you mean?”
“We just got forensics back from the crime scene. His fingerprints match up to a known suspect
who’s wanted in two different states.”
“What’s he wanted for?”
Joe swallowed back his drink and discreetly ordered another, “He tortured, raped and killed
two girls.”
My heart stammered and I felt like someone had just knocked the wind out of me. “Are you sure
it’s him?” My voice was barely above a whisper.
“The evidence is strong. Besides the fingerprint matching up to one at the victim’s apartment,
there was a similar MO.”
“What was that?”
“He bit them many times. He pulled out their hair. Both things he did to Sophie when they were
younger.”
I hadn’t known about the hair. I wanted to kill this bastard more than anything else in the world. I
wanted him to suffer as those two girls had suffered at his hands. I wanted to prevent him from ever
harming the girl I loved again.
“Also, both victims were in their mid-twenties, brown hair and eyes.”
“He’s typecasting her.”
“Yes. There are no other murders, but we do have three rapes over the years with a similar MO.
We can’t tie them to him since he wore a mask and didn’t leave any DNA, but we think he’s
escalating. That he’s trying to temporarily satisfy his needs until he gets to her.”
“Joe, I know I made a mistake, but it would never be my intention to ever bring harm to her. I
need to know, though, if you’re professional enough to do this. To make sure she’s safe.”
“Caleb, I don’t think you’re asking to see my credentials here.”
“I want your word as a man.”
“The way I see it, we have a common enemy and we both love her. I think that makes us the best
men for this job, don’t you?”
I nodded slowly. He was right. I didn’t want to admit it, but in the end, I’d rather have someone
who loved Sylvie keeping her safe than a stranger.
“How did he not leave any DNA? Did he use a condom?”
Joe looked down at his drink, swirling the ice cubes with his straw. “He didn’t rape them in the
usual way.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
He winced. It was a strange reaction for a man who’d seen a great deal of atrocities in his line
of work. The fact that he was having this response caused my scalp to prickle. “He used a steel file.
The kind you’d use to scrape wood.”
I felt the color drain from my face with his words. “The FBI profiler believes he’s most likely
impotent. He used the file in several places,” Joe continued.
Don’t do it,
I kept repeating, but I did. I imagined it in relation to Sylvie. “Excuse me,” I said,
getting up from the table.
I walked slowly to the bathroom, but once I was in there, I crashed into the nearest stall, and
hurled the contents in my stomach until only dry heaves came out. I finally made my way to the mirror,
using the sink for support. I rinsed my mouth and splashed cold water on my face, not recognizing the
sickly pale tone of my skin. One thing was clear. I would never let this bastard get near her. I would
protect her. I would give my life for hers.
I came back to the table, expecting to see Joe with a glib expression in the light of my weakness,
but he was somber. “I had a similar reaction,” he said.
“Tell me everything. I need to know so I can protect her.” I picked up my bottle to swallow
down the rest of the contents. I didn’t need any liquid courage, but I had to wash away that awful
vision of what this man was capable of.
He took out his cell phone. “Let me introduce you to our enemy. We located a photo of him when
he was sixteen and age-projected it. Caleb, this is Eddie Vincetti.” He held the phone out showing me
a photo of a handsome-looking guy with black hair and a wry smile.
I didn’t think I had any more blood, but I felt it drain again. A chill ran down my spine. I heard
the clink and subsequent shattering of my beer bottle as it crashed to the floor.
“What?” Joe barked.
“His name is Tony Romero.”
Chapter Twenty-One
I felt nauseated again, but as Joe got up, I stood too, moving so fast my feet slipped against the
remnants of beer and glass. We raced out of the bar and into the lobby. Joe hit the elevator button as
he radioed his partner. It was taking too long. I ran to the stairs and Joe followed me. We took them
two, sometimes three at a time as we made our way to the sixth floor.
The chair once occupied by Haynes now sat vacant. I tried to jam my keycard into the slot, but
my hands were shaking so badly, it wouldn’t make proper contact. Joe took it from me and managed
to get the green light to appear. I rushed in first, almost tripping over Haynes’ dead body. His face