Page 98 of Mine to Protect

Alta stood from the stool to come around the counter. Standing toe-to-toe with me, her determined hazel eyes tipped up to meet mine. “I don’t think you—”

“You’re the one not thinking.” The muscles in her small arms flexed under my tight grip around her biceps. “Here, you have Peters and me to watch out for you. Here, we have the upper hand because we know his end game—you. If you leave, who knows when this bastard will show up again. Months from now? Years? You’re. Not. Leaving.”

Her eyes blazed into mine before flicking to Peters, who was watching with rapt attention. “We’ll discuss this later.” After snagging the plate with the least amount of eggs, she rummaged through the drawers for a fork and stomped toward the living room.

With a groan of annoyance, I ran my injured hand down my face and rubbed the long scruff growing along my jaw.

“The note,” I said, staring at the plateful of eggs waiting to be eaten. “You said it was different. How exactly?”

After shoving half the plate into his mouth, Peters said, “This one didn’t feel right. Everything about it was right, but… I don’t know. It could be her. I think she’s just crazy enough to put a note on her car to get that dumbass’s attention.”

“But we have to consider it a real threat,” I mumbled. The slightest sway of her ponytail from her perch on the couch’s arm gave away the fact that she was listening. “I agree though. Wouldn’t put it past her. So what does that leave us with?”

“A deranged duo who enjoys the hunt as much as the kill and, bonus, have their eyes set on me for something I can’t even remember doing,” Alta chimed in. “The initial profile doesn’t matter anymore. We’re not looking for their next victim or why he targets the women he does. Now it's time to figure out why me and work backward from there.” Turning, she faced us. “I’ll call my old boss and see if he remembers anything big from that last year in the Smokies. You two focus on the files and the recent cases.”

We nodded in unison.

“I’m going to look into the guy from ten years ago too,” Peters said as he stuffed the rest of the eggs into his mouth. Shoving the plate across the counter, he stood from the stool. “I know you said he didn’t have any connections, but that was what the local police could gather, I have more resources. I’ll do some digging, and if all this is any way connected to that, I’ll find it. And—” His attention fell to the phone ringing in his hand. “Hold on, it's my boss. Gotta take this.”

Marching from the room, he shut his bedroom door with a quiet click, leaving Alta and me alone.

“Listen—”

She cut me off before I could get another word out.

“I get it. I do. It—”

Rounding the counter, I make it to her in two strides, hauling her off the couch to make her look at me. “You don’t. Last night, for the first time in years, my nightmares weren’t contorted memories.” My grip on her shoulder tightened as the onslaught of last night’s visions floated back to the surface. “It was all about you and being taken from me, and it hurt, Alta. It physically fucking hurt.” Gripping her hand, I held it over my racing heart. “Nothing can happen to you, do you hear me? I wouldn’t survive it. I wouldn’t want to survive it.”

“Okay, okay,” she said in a calming tone. Her fingers loosened from mine to splay across my heart. “I won’t do anything stupid. I won’t go anywhere.”

Clasping the back of her head, I tugged her close, holding her cheek against my chest. Pushing my fingers into the depths of her hair, I raked them down, easing the tangles as I went.

The door to Peters’s room flung open, nailing the wall. Both my head and Alta’s turned at the sound. He stood just over the doorframe, staring blankly at the phone in his hand.

“That was my boss.”

“What’s wrong? What happened?” Alta’s voice quivered. We both felt the unease rolling off him, even from across the room.

His eyes flicked up, looking from her to me and back to Alta. “A tip came in.” The pregnant pause irritated my anxious nerves. “Someone said they knew where all the bodies were buried in Tennessee. They’re sending a team out to the site to investigate, but my boss seems to think we need to take it seriously.”

“Why?” I asked.

“The caller had his voice disguised, and at the end of the call said, ‘We had so much fun.’”

“Deranged bastard,” I spit out. “What’s he playing at? Why tell you now?”

Dread settled in the pit of my stomach, making me nauseous at the look on Peters’s slack face. “My theory isn’t a good one,” he said.

“What?” I demanded, tugging Alta even tighter.

“Two down, one to go.” Alta convulsed in my hold, a shiver of dread shaking her entire frame at Peters’s words. “He knows I’ll have to leave to be a part of the investigation. If this is true, if those bodies are where he indicated, it could give us the missing pieces we’ve been looking for. I have to go.”

“When?”

Peters looked to the phone in his hand and cringed. “Two hours. I have to leave in two hours to catch the jet. Listen, Mathews; I’m not questioning your ability—”

“Yes,” I said before he could finish. “Yes, I want additional help. Anyone the local FBI can spare. Especially if Sarah will be staying here. I can’t keep watch twenty–four seven.”

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