Page 25 of Too Lethal to Love

“Beth got another text from the stalker.” Kane read the message aloud. “Anything on the two liquor store robbers?”

“A couple of addicts. Based on the live feed, they were not professionals.”

“My guess is the stalker watched the show from the sidelines,” Edgar said.

Beth studied the text message as if rereading two sentences would glean new information. “Do we think Chavez fits into any of this?”

“Not sure. We’ll continue to operate under the assumption that the stalker and Chavez are separate threats until we learn more.”

“Agreed. Call me when you have more information.” Kane reached over and took the phone from her hand. “The message isn’t going to change, so stop looking at it.”

She glanced around the car. “Are we still online with headquarters?”

“No.”

“I didn’t see you end the call or even initiate it.” She ran her fingers over the computer screen in the dashboard he hadn’t touched. “How did you do that?”

He winked. Just like that, he flipped the switch from warrior to cowboy.

“VIPER gave me superpowers, remember?”

She waved her finger in a circle. “Scarlett is going to have a lot of explaining to do about thesesuperpowerswhen she gets home.”

“You could torture the secrets out of me if you don’t want to wait.” He eyed the neckline of her sweater. “I’m sure you could find creative ways to make me crack.”

Beth’s body tingled from the hint of cleavage he stared at down to her toes. If he was trying to distract her from thefrightening message with his inappropriate charm, it was working. “If you tell me, you’ll have to kill me, right?”

His playful expression sobered. “I’d die before I let anyone hurt you.”

His statement fanned the irrational fears her mind wouldn’t release.

Nobody is going to die because of me everagain.

Kane made a right turn. As if her life was a movie script, the North Benson Memorial Cemetery came into sight. One by one, she counted the graves she needed to visit before she left town. With her heart as heavy as the gray clouds above, she turned from her lethal past and faced Kane. “I don’t think my stalker is Chavez.”

“I don’t think he is either, but what makes you say that?”

“Chavez is a professional. My stalker didn’t seem very professional at times. Yeah, he had mad technical skills, but if he was a trained killer, he wouldn’t have left me behind when he attacked Danny.”

Kane slowed to maneuver the truck around a patch of ice by the cemetery gates. She stared out the window. Thick, sorrow-laden cobwebs filled her chest.

Kane touched her knee. “Is that where Danny is buried?”

She pointed to the gate. “Over there.”

Kane turned the corner onto North Benson’s main street. “Tell me. Dr. Parker, what do you do in your spare time when you’re not raising money for hospitals or working to cure cancer or opioid addiction?”

She looked away from his profile and those infernal dimples that made her want to kiss him for somehow knowing when she needed to be saved from her thoughts. “Well, I haven’t been involved in the cancer aspect for a while. A cure is a long way off, even though my colleagues are making inroads, but we really could cure opioid addiction.I mean, if the data from this round of trials is any indication…”

As she explained the promising trial data, Kane studied her from the corner of his eye. He not only listened with rapt attention as she buzzed with information and excitement, but asked thoughtful questions, nodded his approval, and said, “holy shit,” and “that’s incredible,” several times. She didn’t pause until he stopped at a traffic light a block from her parents’ house. “What’s so funny? Did I ramble? Scarlett does that when she’s nervous. I do it when I’m excited.”

He shook his head. His grin lit up her heart like the nativity scene in the center of town.

“Then what, do I have something on my face?” She pulled the sun visor down and flipped open the mirror.

He caught her wrist. “You’re perfect.”

She bit her tongue before she responded like a lovestruck teenager parked at the lake with her boyfriend. “Then why are you staring at me?”

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