Page 9 of The Girl He Claimed

"What?" Christopherdemanded. "We need to know. We came here in relation to aninvestigation."

"A prisoner named Adam Riker,sir," the cop said. Paige braced herself for the worst. What would it feellike to hear that Adam was dead?

Paige was shocked to realize that apart of her would be sad to hear it, and not just because of the evidence thatit might have cost them. After all this time, the two of them were connected toone another more deeply than Paige wanted to admit.

"What about Riker?"Christopher asked.

"He... well, he'sescaped."

CHAPTER FIVE

Adam Riker looked towards the doorof the room he was in, expecting almost at any moment to hear the sounds ofpolice breaking it down. As the silence around him stretched out, though, hebegan to accept that he might be safe there, at least for now. His calculatingmind found itself free to concentrate on all the things that might happen nextinstead.

He had to admit that he was mildlyimpressed with his new bolt hole. The room was one of a few, large if sparselyfurnished, with no obvious way for the outside world to look in. There were acouple of screens set up in a corner, feeds from cameras showing the approachesto this place, while a small cupboard held food.

It was clear that his partner hadbeen preparing this place as a possible safe house for a while. If not for him,then perhaps for herself.

Adam leaned back against the wall,his mind racing with possibilities. He knew that he couldn't stay here forever,but he also knew that he couldn't leave until he had all the pieces in place.

There were clothes set out on thebed, slacks, a dark shirt, and shoes. Adam quickly covered his tall, broad-shoulderedframe in them, grateful to get out of the guard uniform he'd been wearingduring his escape. He ran a hand through his close-cropped dark hair,considering how many changes he would need to make to avoid being instantlyrecognized in the outside world.

There was a mirror in a corner, andAdam went over to it, admiring his own appearance briefly. He knew that therewas a lot to admire. He was square-jawed and handsome, and when he smiled, hemanaged to create a perfect picture of warmth that even filled his deep blueeyes. He'd perfected the art of seeming any way he wanted a long time ago, thebetter to get close to those he killed.

Slowly, Adam let the warmth leachout of his expression, leaving an emptiness in his eyes that he knew peoplefound disconcerting, even terrifying. They acted as if they could see throughinto his soul to sense the evil there.

They acted as though either ofthose things were real. As if Adam weren't above all that. Above all of thepeople who might look.

He stretched out his limbs. Hisleft shoulder ached slightly where Paige King had shot him the first time hehad left the St Just Institute. She would probably make the excuse that he hadbeen threatening to kill her mother at the time, but to Adam, some things wereinexcusable.

He was the only one that mattered.To hurt him was... well, it was unthinkable.

In a strange, roundabout way, hehad Paige to thank for his escape this time, though. His... partner had heardthat Paige wanted to talk to Adam and had guessed that she was going to try toget him to give away the name he'd promised. Adam had heard that she'd killedsomeone now, sent him tumbling from a roof.

Adam wondered if that affectedPaige at all, if she felt anything, or if she had learned the lesson he'd triedto teach her months ago: that it didn't matter. That those with the strength todo it could reach out to claim the lives of others without the slightestconsequence.

Briefly, Adam considered the womanwho had gotten him out of the St Just Institute. She wasn't here now, ofcourse. She had decided that it was far better to leave him here so that shewouldn't be missed. She was assuming that Adam would still be here when she gotback. Was that confidence or foolhardiness? Adam wasn't sure.

When she had come to him in hiscell, a part of him had been sure that she would try to kill him. She wouldfail, of course, but Adam had not doubted that she would make an attempt.Instead, she had led him out of there. Had that been affection? Hardly, fromsomeone like her. What then? Practicality? The understanding that she wouldprobably be caught if she killed him, or that he would kill her as sheattempted it?

Maybe it was because doing it likethat didn't fit with her preferred patterns, or maybe it was something more.Maybe she'd recognized just how similar the two of them were. Careful,meticulous, and deadly in ways that involved taking complete control overpeople in the last moments of their lives. Adam had to admit that there wassomething fascinating about being so close to someone so much like him.

Idly, he wondered if he should killher.

It had been so long since he killedsomeone, after all. Since he tied someone in a position that their bodycouldn't stand and left them to asphyxiate or sped the process along withknives and pain, forcing them to fight against the bonds that killed themslowly, reinforcing how helpless they were. Would she fight against it? He'dnever killed someone just like him. For now, though, Adam pushed those thoughtsaside. She was useful to him. They were potentially useful to one another,especially when it came to the things that Adam was planning for the days tocome.

So he pushed his mind from his newpartner back to Paige King. To the woman who had hunted him down, who had shothim. He'd tried to do so much for her, tried to show her that she had it in herto be like him, and she'd rejected him in the most violent way possible. Adamcouldn't let that pass, couldn't let her get away with it any longer.

No, Paige was going to die foreverything she'd done. She was going to find herself tangled up in his ropes,and she was going to die slowly. But not before Adam had found ways to hurt hereven more.

CHAPTER SIX

"What do you mean he escapedagain?"

Paige was out of the car now,making her way over to the spot where Dr. Neil stood out in the parking lot,looking slightly bewildered even as he seemed to be trying to coordinate things.

"There really isn't any reasonto talk to me like that, Dr. King," Dr. Neil said as Paige approached."We have everything under control here."

He spoke as if he were the one incharge of everything there, rather than the police. Amber suspected that thedirector of the St Just Institute didn't like the thought that he wasn't incontrol of the situation.

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