Page 10 of Manhunt in the Narrows
How did this man have the ability to draw her away from those angry thoughts she hadn’t been able to escape? She hardly knew him, and if she was being honest with herself, she didn’t want to know him. It wasn’t anything personal. Just the thought of what he represented. What she’d run from. “I’d hate to think of the kind of woman you attract after mentioning those skills on your online dating profile.”
“Now, how did you know I have an online dating profile?” He was back to messing with her. Trying to get her to crack. It wouldn’t work. Itwasn’tworking.
“I didn’t until you just confirmed it.” Sayles put everything into keeping her attention on the river and not on seeing if his expression matched the amusement in his voice. “But you’re the kind of guy who’s married to his work. You travel a lot. Doesn’t give you a whole lot of time to make personal connections, and the ones you have are short-lived. So you have to rely on online dating profiles or hitting on national park rangers you scam into helping you catch a killer so you aren’t spending your nights alone with nobody but your partner and a cold shower. Either way, I can see how you might like the challenge, but I’m betting your online profile says something like: Reasons to date me. One, you’d be the better-looking one in the relationship. And, two, please.”
There was that laugh again. Except instead of it bouncing off the red rock around them, it charged straight through her, chasing back the brittle cold sinking through her gear. “How long have you been waiting to use that on me?”
“Since the visitors’ center.” She kept her smile to herself. Her ability to make him laugh was…new. Though she’d been trying to insult him. She’d always had a sarcastic sense of humor, but it’d bled dry every year she’d stayed with her ex. Felt good to let it out again. And Agent Broyles certainly made the perfect target. “What does your profile actually say?”
“I don’t have one. Well, not anymore.” Agent Broyles kept his head down. The stain of red climbing his throat gave him away. “Last time I went on a date was around two years ago. We met online. Met up after a few messages. We’d both made it clear we weren’t looking for anything serious, but I guess she forgot about that at dinner. She proposed to me in the middle of the restaurant. Had a ring and everything. Not sure how she managed to get my ring size right though.”
“Wait. You tried on the ring?” she asked.
“I felt bad that she went through all that trouble.” He wasn’t laughing anymore. If anything his expression turned outright ashamed. “But, little tip, it turns out, if you accept the ring, you’re agreeing to get married. It was all very confusing.”
“How did she take it when you told her you didn’t want to get married?” Sayles carved through the next section of trail, the water coming nearly to her waist. The muscles in her legs burned from exertion, but it was one of the best feelings she’d learned to fall in love with since coming to Zion.
“Not well.” He shook his head. “Apparently, my behavior wasn’t becoming of a federal agent. She called my supervisor and filed a citizen’s complaint against me. I still get shit for it.”
She couldn’t stop the laugh vaulting up her throat. “Serves you right for accepting the ring. You’re lucky she didn’t follow you home and suffocate you in your sleep.”
“I’m aware. Watch out.” Agent Broyles latched on to her arm, dragging her against his side as a branch raced straight for her. Automatic and under control, he dropped his hold and pushedforward. “Now I meet women the old-fashioned way. Through thorough background checks and face-to-face interactions on the job.”
Her heart hiccupped in her chest. Too distracted by their easygoing banter, she hadn’t seen the branch coming for her. The tip of the branch scratched against her hydro bib as it passed, straight across her thigh. Probably wouldn’t have done any damage to her gear considering its size, but she had to protect herself and her survival supplies with her life. Only he’d just done it for her. “Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it,” he said. “This is when you try to make me feel better by revealing a far more embarrassing dating story.”
Sayles searched the river ahead. No discarded food wrappers or water bottles. No dead bodies or supplies. Seemed their killer was covering his tracks. Had he prepared for this trek before killing his latest victim? “I’ve only ever dated one person. I ended up marrying him, then I divorced him. Not sure which part is more embarrassing. That I didn’t see him for who he really was before I legally tied myself to him, or the fact it took me six years to figure it out.”
Agent Broyles seemed to close the distance between them by a few inches. As though she might need his support. “Who was he really?”
“A liar. Manipulative and vengeful.” Her throat dried. “I caught him cheating on me. I don’t know for how long, but it took me weeks to confront him. I wanted proof, and when I got it, he found out a way to use it against me.”
“What do you mean?” he asked.
Exhaustion pulled at her legs. Real or imagined, Sayles didn’t know, but she could feel the defeat that came with reliving the past. Its heaviness threatened to pull her under the water’s surface, and she was just straight up tired of carrying it around. “I followed him to several locations. Hotels for the most part. Atleast four of them with four different women over the course of two weeks, but I was too angry to get photos. Every time I saw him it was like he’d stabbed me. I thought we’d had a good life. One we’d built together. I thought we were happy.”
He allowed her the space to cut their conversation short or to go on. Sayles wasn’t sure she could tell him the rest, but he’d asked for an embarrassing story. This was probably one of the greatest. Nothing but the roar of the river and the colliding debris filled her ears, taking her out of her own head. Distancing herself from those hard-to-manage emotions that came with vulnerability and shame.
“He denied everything. Said I didn’t have any proof, and he was right. I didn’t. After I confronted him, he left. He was going to stay with a friend for a couple days until I apologized.” She should’ve known then how much worse it would get. That she was expected to apologize for daring to call him on his adultery. “Two days later, police were at my door. And I was put under arrest.”
His hand was on her again, pulling her to a stop. Except she didn’t want to look at him. She didn’t want him to see her as anything…less. “Under what charges?”
Tremors that had nothing to do with the frigid water temperatures racked her. This was a mistake. She shouldn’t have said anything. He’d just made her…feel. It’d been so long since she’d let herself step outside the rules she’d mentally put in place to survive, but she’d been fooled before. He was a federal agent, for crying out loud. She shouldn’t trust him, but she had no one else. None of her colleagues, sure as hell not Risner—none of them understood what she’d been through. Sayles brought her gaze to his, expecting the same look she’d witnessed on all of her family’s and friend faces when they’d gotten the news. Disappointment. Resentment.
His expression softened. He lightened his grip on her arm. “Sayles.”
It was the first time he’d called her by her first name. The shock ricocheted through her chest as if she’d been struck. That single inflection of her name, wrapped in invisible silk and warmth, loosened the death grip her brain had on her. It was almost enough to convince her Agent Broyles was exactly what he seemed. Then again, she’d fallen for that knight-in-shining-armor act once before. She wasn’t sure she could survive a second time. “Murder.”
A cracking sound split the air. She didn’t have time to act as a thick log slammed into her torso.
Then dragged her under the river’s surface.
Chapter Eight
It happened so fast.
Elias clawed for something to stop the spinning, but his hands only caught smaller debris as the current tossed him like a dead fish. He had no control. His lungs burned. Freezing water charged up his nose. Mud and cloudy river water kept him from determining which way was up.
