Noelle wasn’t so sure.
“We did it,” Aaron said as he watched the aircraft rise. “Chalk up another capture for the EOD.”
She didn’t share his enthusiasm. “We lost Sarah Finway.” She turned toward him. “And Sheriff Hodges will be very, very lucky if he survives.”
“But Patrick Porter won’t ever hurt anyone else again.” Aaron nodded grimly. “We can be sure of that.”
She needed to wash her hands. She needed to change clothes. She also needed to interrogate Patrick Porter. I’m sure that’s not his real name. Patrick would be full of secrets.
Mercer and Thomas had secured the man in the sheriff’s station. She knew Mercer would be transporting the guy out of the area at the first opportunity.
She wanted her answers before that transfer. She wanted to know everything.
Noelle marched toward the station. Aaron followed closely, but he didn’t speak. There were deputies inside the station, just two men. The others had gone with the sheriff. Mercer’s orders. She knew he just didn’t want a big audience around for what would come.
Once inside the station, she headed toward the small bathroom first. Noelle washed the blood away and tried not to remember the desperate look in the sheriff’s eyes.
Failed.
Noelle knew that desperation would haunt her for the rest of her days.
A knock sounded on the bathroom door. “Noelle?” Thomas’s voice called. “I’ve got fresh clothes for you.”
She opened the door.
“Courtesy of Mercer,” he said as he lifted a bag toward her.
Right. Mercer the Magic Man. He could do anything. She took the clothes from him and started to shut the door. Thomas’s hand flew out, stopping her.
“He’s going to try messing with your head.” The words were a grim warning.
“I already know that.” She was used to killers and their mind games. Finally, an area that was her specialty.
“Don’t believe him. Don’t believe the lies he’s going to tell. Don’t trust him.”
Her head tilted. There was an odd note in his voice that made her nervous. “I know killers, Thomas. So that means I’m used to their lies.” Some killers could lie so perfectly. They’d fool lie detectors. Fool law enforcement. Deceive everyone.
But she was ready for what was coming. Noelle didn’t need Thomas to warn her.
“Mercer says...he wants to start the interrogation in five minutes. He’s hoping to transfer the guy out by dawn.”
That didn’t give them a lot of time. “Mercer wants containment.”
Thomas inclined his head. “He’s already working on the cover-up.”
Right. Because the world couldn’t find out that a trusted senator had been bent on destruction—or that he’d been working side by side with a suspected serial killer.
Part of the EOD’s job was to sweep away the dirty, dangerous secrets like this one.
Thomas’s hand dropped. “I’ve always wanted to protect you.”
She blinked at him.
“Remember that.”
Then he was gone.
Her hands tightened around the bag. She couldn’t shake the feeling there was more going on with this case. More... Something that had rattled even the normally controlled Thomas “Dragon” Anthony.
She changed quickly and made sure all of the blood was gone from her hands. Her fingers were trembling slightly, and she clenched them into fists as she drew in a steadying breath. The case wasn’t over. Not yet. It wouldn’t be over until they uncovered all of the secrets Patrick Porter possessed.
After another bracing breath, Noelle opened the door. She expected the narrow hallway to be empty. It wasn’t. Thomas waited for her, with his back propped against the nearby wall.
“Thomas?”
He stared down at his hands. “I’ve done things in my life that I regret.”
“We all do things that we regret.”
His head lifted, and he gave her a sad smile. “I was trained to kill. Designed to be a perfect weapon. Trust me. There are things in my past better left forgotten.”
Noelle cleared her throat. “Forgetting isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.”
He straightened from the wall and reached for her. “Are you sure about that?”
His hold was strong, hard, and a bright intensity burned in his gaze.
“More of your past is going to come out, baby, and I need you to trust me.”
Oh, but that did not sound good. “I do trust you.”
“Enough to forgive what I’ve done?”
“Thomas...” He was scaring her.
His hand rose and curled under her chin. “I’ve watched you for so long that you seem like you’re just a natural part of my life.” His gaze searched hers. “But there are still secrets out there, and I don’t want them to hurt you. I don’t want anything to hurt you.”
She felt as if she were missing something.
“I’ll do what I must, in order to protect you.”
She wasn’t asking for protection.
His head bent, and Thomas pressed a kiss to her lips. He seemed to savor her. Almost helplessly, Noelle leaned toward him. After the madness of the past few days, Thomas was the only certain thing in her life.
When they touched, she needed.
When they kissed, she wanted.
He’d gotten past her guard when no other man had. Because of their shared past? Perhaps. But maybe it was just because he was...Thomas.
He let the kiss linger. She never wanted it to end. She wished they didn’t have a killer waiting. She wanted to be with Thomas. To push away the fear and worry and simply live.
But he stepped back. “My first loyalty is to you. Remember that.”
She could still taste him.
“From here on out, it always will be.” He turned away from her and marched down the hall.
Noelle realized her fingers were trembling again, and a chill had slid down her spine. It was strange. Thomas’s words had sounded like a warning.
But what else did he need to protect her from?
* * *
THE LITTLE SHERIFF’S station in Camden didn’t have any interrogation rooms, but the place did sport two cells. And Patrick Porter was currently pacing the floor in one of those narrow cells.
When Noelle started walking toward him, he immediately stopped that pacing. His head snapped up, and he smiled at her.
She heard Thomas growl behind her.
She and Thomas were the only two conducting this interrogation. Mercer had gotten Aaron to install a video camera, and the feed was going back to him. Mercer wouldn’t be making a personal appearance for this questioning period, though, not unless he absolutely needed to do so. Noelle knew when it came to EOD prisoners, Mercer had a policy of standing back.
Because he’d been burned too many times before.
“Did the sheriff die?” Patrick didn’t sound particularly concerned about that possibility. Actually, he was more gleeful.
Noelle shook her head. “He’s stable.” At least, that was what she’d been told moments before. “He’s on his way to the hospital. Your bullet missed its mark.”
The glee faded as the faint lines near his eyes tightened. “I don’t miss my mark.”
“You did this time.” She nodded toward him. Blood had broken through on his shirt. “Maybe the wound I gave you made you weak.”
He laughed. “Nothing makes me weak.” His gaze slid to Thomas. “Bet you can’t say the same.”
Thomas didn’t say anything.
“We want to know where the bodies are,” Noelle said softly. “That’s the only reason we’re talking to you right now. We know about all of the victims, starting with Emma Jane in Charleston.”
/>
“You have no clue about my victims.” Disgust laced the words.
“We found your photographs. We saw the girls—”
Patrick laughed. She truly hated the sound of his grating laughter. His eyes were still on Thomas, but they were starting to fill with what looked like...recognition? “I’ll be damned,” the killer said as he advanced toward the bars. “It really is you...and she has no clue, does she? Dragon.”
Thomas still wasn’t speaking.
Patrick’s fingers curled around the bars. “Your hair’s shorter. Your face is harder. Looks like you broke your nose a few times over the years.” He laughed. “They’ve got you in here? Don’t they know what you’ve done?” His gaze came back to Noelle. “What he did to you.”
When they’d been in that hallway, Thomas sure hadn’t mentioned he knew the suspect. But then, he’d been busy kissing her. Noelle’s heart was galloping in her chest, but she didn’t let her expression alter. Dragon. The guy could’ve learned of Thomas’s moniker in a dozen ways. He could just be playing with them now.
“I want to know where those girls are,” Noelle said again.
Patrick’s hold tightened around the bars. “Get the Dragon here to tell you.”
A knot of tension formed at the nape of her neck. Push him. Don’t let him get to you. “I know you were involved with Emma Jane. She was your girl, right? And she tried to leave you.”
Now, that got his gaze flying toward her. “You don’t know a damn thing about Emma!”
“I know that you two had matching necklaces. Hearts. You gave one half of the heart to her, and you wore its mate. When she betrayed you, well, that was when you snapped. You kidnapped her. You tortured her. Then you killed her.”
Silence.
Patrick rested his forehead against the bars. “Every killer starts somewhere, right, Dragon?”
She didn’t like the way the guy kept baiting Thomas. Worse, she didn’t like the ice that kept growing in her gut. Ice that told Noelle she was missing something. Something very, very important.
“Are all the girls dead?” She stepped a bit closer to the cell. Not too close, though, because she didn’t want him to be able to grab her. “Senator Duncan had pictures of them in his shed, but they were your pictures, weren’t they? Pictures you’d taken to remind you of the kills.”
“Duncan is dead,” Patrick murmured. “And he never even saw the attack coming.”
Beside her, Thomas shifted his stance, a ripple of movement that seemed menacing.
“Duncan thought he could control me, but I got tired of playing by his rules.” Patrick’s stare, a bright, glinting blue, raked over her. Dark stubble lined his jaw and his skin was a deep gold. “Especially when he sent me after you.”
She stared back into those blue eyes and knew she was staring straight at evil.
“I remember you. I never forgot you.” His head lifted from the bars as he laughed. “Dragon, there, he killed the wrong man. Did you know that? Justin Hardin wasn’t the one hunting you. He was just the one to keep you in that cabin. You fought him, though, and you got away. You ran. Justin wasn’t good at hunting, not like me. He called me, said he was going after you. Promised he’d have you waiting for me...”
“I wasn’t waiting,” Noelle snapped out as more pieces from her past slid into place.
“Because the Dragon killed Justin.” He shook his head and focused on Thomas once more. “Did you do it to protect the girl...or because you didn’t want Justin telling what he knew about you?”
Noelle rocked forward onto the balls of her feet. “How about you tell me how those pictures wound up with Senator Duncan, or maybe...maybe you want me to guess on that? Because I’ve got some ideas...”
Patrick shrugged. “Then let’s hear them.”
“You were stationed together with Duncan in the navy.” They had EOD agents pulling up the senator’s enlistment records. “I bet you kept those photos close, because you’d need them close.” Looking at them would’ve been a compulsion. “But if you were bunking with Duncan, he would’ve had access to your area. I think he found them, only, instead of turning you in, he kept the photos so that he could blackmail you.”
Patrick gave a low whistle. “You’re only half right.”
She didn’t like the coldness in his stare. The man was in total control. She needed to rattle his cage and make that control shatter. “You were going after girls then...” Time to press for more. Time to shatter. “But after your enlistment, after you started fighting and killing in battle, did you think they were too easy? You’re the big game hunter. And they weren’t big enough game.”
His gaze drifted dismissively over her. “No, you weren’t.”
Thomas stepped forward.
“The girls—you—were expendable. Weak. They all cried and begged too quickly. Some didn’t even have the sense to run. I mean, hell, everyone is supposed to have a survival instinct, right? Isn’t that what the experts say?”
She didn’t respond.
“But they didn’t. They died easily.”
She studied him carefully. There was no emotion in his voice. No remorse. No glee. He was simply stating a fact. She’d wondered before if he were a psychopath. She wasn’t wondering any longer. “Why didn’t Duncan turn you in?”
But she knew...
Noelle didn’t like the sardonic little smile curling Patrick’s thin lips. “Most people would’ve turned me in. I mean, that would be the right thing to do, huh? That’s what you think, don’t you, Noelle?”
From the corner of her eye, Noelle saw Thomas clench his hands into fists.
“But Duncan wasn’t like most folks. He was like me.”
One psychopath, finding another.
“He kept the photos and told me he’d turn me in unless I did a job for him. Someone had made him very, very angry, you see, and he wanted that person eliminated.”
“Then he should’ve done the job himself.” This tight snarl came from Thomas.
Patrick shrugged. “Not his way. He gave me the prey, and he told me to hunt. I did.”
Mercer’s suspicions had been right. This guy had become Lawrence’s attack dog.
“I found out I liked my new prey. They fought harder. They made me have to work for the rush.”
The rush he’d first got when he killed Emma Jane. “Emma Jane was a crime of passion.” Strange, when he was so passionless now. “Emma Jane was probably the only person you ever really connected with, and she betrayed you.”
He lunged forward and grabbed the bars. “I was eighteen! I’d just enlisted. She couldn’t even wait two months for me to come home. Two. Months.”
The pieces were all in place for Noelle now. “You killed the other girls because they looked like her.” I looked like her. “You thought we’d give you the same rush, but we weren’t Emma Jane, so you needed to try something else.” Duncan had entered the man’s life at the perfect time.
Or the worst.
“I was good at killing.” Patrick’s words were hard, biting and eerily reminiscent of what Thomas had once told her. Almost helplessly, Noelle’s gaze slid to Thomas. He was glaring at the man behind bars. “Duncan made it worth my while. Duncan paid me for my work, and I had one hell of a time.” His voice was calmer now. “After all, I’d lost my pickup man.” His blue stare locked on Thomas. “Courtesy of the Dragon. And, damn, but Justin was good at picking the girls. The kid always knew exactly what I liked back then.”
“We’re going to need a list of all your victims.” Families deserved to get closure. This man before her, he could’ve killed so many people.
But Patrick just smirked. “Like I’m the only killer in the room.” He nodded toward Thomas. “Why don’t we do some sharing? Get him to tell you all about his kills, and then I’ll tell you mine.”
She kept her shoulders locked. “I don’t need to know about what Thomas did in battle—”
Patrick’s laughter cut her off. “I’m not talking about battle. I’m talking about what he did...for fun. Like when he was down in Alabama. How many did you kill then? Not counting my pickup man, of course. Because he was probably just a bonus for you.”
Thomas was as still as stone.
“Not gonna tell her? How about I start... It was a whole gang that went down, after you turned on them....”
His mission. Patrick couldn’t learn about the EOD or about what covers Thomas had used over the years. “In a few hours, you’re going to be transferred to a maximum-security holding facility. You won’t get out again, and you’ll be very, very lucky to see the light of day ever again.”
But Patrick was still focused on Thomas. “When I first saw you with her, I didn’t get a good look at you. You’re good at changing your appearance, though, aren’t you? Blending in. Showing people what you want ’em to see.”
“If you cooperate, we can help you.” Noelle doubted that there was actually much help Mercer would allow. Maybe a slightly bigger cell? No, probably not. This guy would be locked away forever. But what he didn’t know...
“You’re missing what’s right in front of you!” Patrick exploded.
Noelle didn’t flinch.
“He’s a killer! Worse than me! You think he’s some kind of hero? Don’t you know what he did to you when he had you in that cabin?”
Goose bumps rose on Noelle’s flesh.
This was the monster who’d tried to destroy her life.
“He’s just like me,” Patrick told her, and he was so smug. “Only...I bet he’s killed more men than I have. Think about that the next time you decide to have sex with him in front of a fire.”
He had been there.
Revulsion twisted her stomach.
Patrick was laughing again and— Thomas moved in a flash. His hand flew through the gap between the bars. He grabbed Patrick around the neck and yanked the man forward. Patrick’s head slammed into the bars. Bones crunched, and Noelle was pretty sure the perp’s nose broke. Judging by that spray of blood... Oh, yes, it was definitely a break.