Page 6 of Locked In Ice

Rolling her eyes, she clinked her beer against his.“If you say we make a good team, I’m out of here.”

His lips parted.

“Don’t you have like a million other cases to work?”She rushed to question.“I thought the Ice Breakers were supposed to be helping the Feds uncover the locations of all Henry Monroe’s victims.”Henry Monroe, a serial killer who’d been behind bars for years…only he’d just revealed the locations of more victims.As in…a whole lot more victims.

Talk about your twisted pricks.Henry was scary as hell, and there weren’t a lot of things in this world that did scare her.He’s one of them.

From the gossip she’d been able to pick up, the Ice Breakers were supposed to be working with the Feds to recover the newly disclosed victims.A long and slow process because she knew Henry wasn’t exactly the forthcoming type.

Most killers of his caliber weren’t.

The Ice Breakers had originally formed years ago.The group had started online.All from different backgrounds, the team had come together because they wanted to focus on the cases that had been forgotten by law enforcement.The man lounging so casually across from her, Memphis Camden—former bounty hunter—had been with the group from the beginning.And now that the team was being bankrolled by billionaire Archer Radcliffe, their reach was pretty much limitless.

Oh, but what I could do with a limitless bank account.

“We do like to stay busy,” Memphis murmured.“And that’s why I could sure use your help.”

Her eyes immediately narrowed.“I worked a case with you not too long ago.”A case that had involved a certain gold-medal-winning Olympic figure skater.And Henry Monroe.“I told you then, I am not interested in being a full-time Ice Breaker.”Memphis often tried to pull her on board.Not going to happen.She had other plans.“I have a PI business.”And my own agenda.

Her gaze dipped around the club.Lane wasn’t at the bar any longer.

“He needs training,” Memphis told her.

“No shit.”

Memphis snorted out a laugh.“I’m not asking you to join us full-time.I get that you like to be the big, bad loner.I’m not looking for a lifetime commitment from you.I’m asking you to take him under your wing.Just for a little while.”

Her mouth dropped as she gaped at him.“Under my wing?What in the hell is he?A baby bird?”

“No, he’s a volcano that could explode.”

That flat statement erased all traces of her humor.

“I know you’ve seen it.”Memphis’s gaze suddenly seemed very intense.“Lane is walking a very fine line.He lost part of himself when he was locked away.”

Locked away—for murder.Because Lane Lawson had once been suspected of being a serial killer, too.The evidence had been strong, and he’d been tossed behind bars.And, if the stories she’d heard were true, he’d then had to fight for survival almost every single day because a bounty had been put on his head.

Lane had been set up for the crimes.Sent to die in jail.But he’d survived because he’d broken out of a maximum-security facility.And… “He locked you in a freezer,” she said to Memphis.Ophelia had heard the story, and, honestly, it just amused her more and more each time it was retold.

A muscle flexed along his jaw.“Bygones.”

“Bullshit.”

The muscle flexed again.

She slouched back in the booth.“There is no part of you that believes in that bygones BS.Someone wrongs you, you wrong them back, harder.”She got it.Truly.It was her way of life, too.And the reason she currently preferred to hunt solo.

“He was fighting for his life.I understood the motivation even if I didn’t particularly like the result.”

She crooked one eyebrow.

“He wants to be an Ice Breaker.He’s been working with the team, and he’s a fast learner.He just…” Memphis glanced around.

She waited.

“He needs to learn more control.He acts too much on impulse, and his victim interaction is shit.”

“No, seriously, tell me how you really feel.”