Page 48 of Dark Terror
“Hey,” he said.
“He sent another text, Gabe. It says that he knows everything about me and he warned me not to talk to the police.”
“Are you inside the library?”
“Yes. He’s scaring me.”
“Stay there. Make sure someone’s with you. I’m on the way.”
“What’s going on?” Harry asked when he disconnected.
“The bastard sent her another text.” He grabbed his keys.
“I’m coming with you.”
When they arrived at the library, they found Cara at the front desk, checking out a stack of books for a female customer. Cara glanced over at him, and the relief on her face at seeing him was accompanied by a quick smile.
“Oh boy. She’s got it bad,” Harry muttered.
“Got what bad?”
Harry looked at him like he was an idiot. “Sometimes I think men are the dumbest creatures on earth.”
“Can’t argue with that, but are you going to enlighten me as to what you’re talking about?”
“No. I think I’ll just let you figure it out.”
“Aren’t you a bucket of fun, partner?” He didn’t really care what she was talking about, he just wanted… What did he want? Cara in his bed. That was a no-brainer. But after that? A chance to see where a relationship with her would go.
As soon as the customer walked out with her books, he stepped next to Cara, and needing to touch her, he put his hand on her lower back. “You okay?”
“Yeah, now that you’re here.”
And didn’t that have his chest puffing out? “Let me see your phone.”
After she handed it to him, Harry leaned over his arm, reading the text with him. “He’s losing it.”
Yes, he was, and Gabe had to force his hand not to squeeze the phone to smithereens. Anger that the bastard was playing with Cara burned hot in his blood.
Harry tugged the phone from him. “He’s making mistakes.”
“How is that a mistake?” Cara asked. “He’s trying to scare me, and it’s working.”
“He’s letting his emotions get in the way. We have so little evidence that if he’d disappeared”—Harry snapped her fingers—“just gone poof after taking Sheri Carstad’s life, it’s entirely possible he would have gotten away with a murder. But he’s hanging around, worried about what you did or didn’t see, and that is what’s going to get him caught.”
Cara digested that for a moment, then slid an uneasy glance at him. “What if you use me as bait?”
“No!” Gabe growled.
“It’s an interesting thought,” Harry said.
Gabe scowled at his partner. “No, no, and no. We’re not putting her in danger.”
Harry scowled right back. “You’re letting your personal feelings come into play, Detective. We’ll have eyes and ears on her. Hell, we’ll bring in the whole team if it makes you feel better.”
He resented Harry’s reminder that he was a detective first and foremost. From his first day on the job that had been true… until now. “We need to dig deeper into our suspects’ lives, not put our only witness in danger.”
Cara touched his arm. “I trust you to protect me.”
