Page 4 of The Girl He Crowned

“What? No!”

“It can be anyoneyou want,” Adam said, as if that were the only problem. “Anyone at all. Youdon’t have to use my methods. Just shoot them if you want. You’re an FBI agentnow, so that shouldn’t be hard to get away with. Kill someone, and I’ll tellyou.”

He said it as ifhe were asking for the simplest thing in the world, rather than something thatno sane person would contemplate.

“No,” Paige said. “No,of course no.”

“You still have itin you, Paige,” Adam said. “You’re still the same as me. You just need someoneto show you.”

That had been whathe’d been trying to do when he’d “helped” Paige by murdering everyone hethought had hurt her. When he’d tried to get Paige to kill her own mother.

“No,” Paige saidagain, and started for the door.

“Then you’ll neverknow. You’ll never find out, Paige.”

Paige forcedherself to step beyond the door, shutting it behind her, and keeping composeduntil she did so. She leaned against it then, breathing hard. She shouldn’thave come here, shouldn’t have let Adam manipulate her like this. Except…

She knew somethingnow. Two things, if Adam hadn’t been lying. Paige stood there, contemplatingthose things, and how much more they might tell her about the Exsanguination Killerthan she already knew.

She was stillcontemplating it when her phone went off, with a message from Christopher.

Paige, where areyou? Sauer wants to speak with us ASAP. He has another case for us.

CHAPTER THREE

Paige was troubledas she returned to Quantico, still trying to make some kind of sense of thethings Adam had told her, without meaning to tell her. The ExsanguinationKiller had been in the St. Just Institute? As a patient? Had they been therewhen Paige was there? Were the gaps between the killer’s killing sprees accountedfor by time spent in mental institutions?

The second pieceof information was almost as difficult to make sense of. The ExsanguinationKiller was a woman? That had been what Adam had implied, but if that was true,then the Exsanguination Killer was an outlier in the overwhelmingly male worldof serial killers. Paige knew the stats: only around eleven percent of serialmurders in the last century had been committed by women, and their motives wereusually vastly different from their male counterparts. One who Adam had seen asalmost a mirror to himself was something very strange indeed. Almost unique.

As she walked intothe ivy covered, almost academic looking building that housed the BAU, Paigewondered just how much of this she should tell to her boss. Her first instinctwas to rush in there and tell Agent Sauer all of it, because she’d just learnedwhat could be important details in the hunt for a dangerous killer, but as Paigemade her way up through the building, doubts started to creep in.

First, there wasthe question of whether she could believe Adam. He’d lied to her before,deliberately trying to manipulate her into the actions he wanted. She’d thoughtshe’d picked up details he’d let slip, but this might just be another suchattempt. By going running to her boss and feeding him the information, Paigemight be playing into his hands.

Then, even if shebelieved him, there was the question of Agent Sauer’s reaction when she toldhim. There was no guarantee that he would think that Adam was a crediblesource, and when he heard that Paige had gone off to see Adam without hispermission, when she wasn’t even meant to be working the Exsanguination Killercase, he was bound to be upset. Maybe upset enough that it could cost Paige herjob.

Even so, Paigeknew that she ought to tell him. Any information that might bring the FBIcloser to catching a serial killer had to be shared. Paige had a duty now thatshe was an agent, and she would do it, even if it left Agent Sauer unhappy withher.

Determined to dothe right thing, regardless of the cost, Paige hurried up to the third floor ofthe BAU’s building. Agent Christopher Marriott was waiting for her there, talland broad shouldered, with almost boyish good looks, although he was in histhirties, and sandy hair. It was impossible not to feel a flare of attractionas Paige saw him, even though Paige knew that she shouldn’t, even though they’dboth talked about the reasons that neither of themcouldfeel anythinglike that: They were partners, and Christopher had a wife.

Christopher lookeda little worried as Paige arrived. Was something wrong?

“Where have youbeen?” he asked.

With Christopher,at least, it was easy to be honest. “I went to speak to Adam Riker.”

“You didwhat?”Christopher’s eyes widened in horror. “Paige, why would you do something likethat after everything he did? Are you ok?”

It was touchingthat he immediately thought of the effect that such a visit might have on her,but Paige was tough enough to deal with it. She nodded.

“I’m fine, butlisten, Adam gave me information that relates to the Exsanguination Killercase.”

Now, Christopherlooked, if anything, even more worried than he had been before. “What kind ofinformation?”

“He said that he’dmet the Exsanguination Killer in the St. Just Institute, and that she is awoman.”

That seemed tocatch Christopher by surprise. “That… no, this is Adam Riker. There’s a goodchance that he’s lying. This is just an attempt to stay in your life.”

“I’m not sure itis,” Paige said. “I think he’s telling the truth.”

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