“It’s not your fault,” I say out loud. “What do you know about him?”
“He doesn’t miss a target,” Jack says, his voice serious. “For an entire year, he dropped bodies—all women—in different parts of Georgia. There were twelve of them.”
“Twelve?”
Jack nods. “Their friends always described phone calls, random gifts—but we never found a bug in one of them. I even had my team go back and check.”
“So, either she was the first for that, or it’s someone else.”
“The date stamp on that gift was the day before we split.”
“He thought you were still together.”
Jack nods.
“Which means that bug wasn’t necessarily meant to listen in on Anastasia. But on you.”
Jack drops his coffee cup into the trash can. “With the other cases, he stalked for three weeks. After that, he made his move. Always a public place with a lot of people.”
“He killed publicly?”
Once more, Jack nods. “This guy is dangerous, Sawyer. Anastasia’s life is in serious danger, and I’m not sure how to protect her if I can’t catch him.”
“I’ll keep her safe,” I tell him. “You just find him.”
“As much as I hate it, I’m glad she has someone like you,” he says.
“And a friend like you,” I add.
“Friend.” Jack laughs, but it’s lacking all humor. “Interesting how we’ve traded places, huh?” He takes a deep breath. “You said that she’s with the doctor?”
“I was going to go see,” I grunt through clenched teeth and try to sit up.
“Stay here before you kill yourself. I’ll go and stay with her until she’s back here. I’m also posting a federal agent on the door at all times. Just until you guys leave. The safest place for her right now is here.”
“Thanks, Jack.”
“Yeah, well, you stepped away to give us a chance to work out. The least I can do is make sure you get the same opportunity to screw it up as I did.”
Chapter 14
Anastasia
“This is a mistake, Sawyer. You should have stayed at the hospital.”
“Nah. This is great.” With a grunt, Garrison and Weston help him onto the couch in my living room. Where he insisted on sleeping after Zane announced that he and Tessa were going to take the guest room.
I glare at him, so frustrated that he’s not seeing reason. But after two days at the hospital, he was about to pull a Runaway Patient and take off with or without the doctor’s blessing. “You need to at least let them help you into my bedroom. I can take the couch.”
“Nah, I’m okay right here for now.”
“Sawyer—”
He opens one eye. “I’m fine, Anastasia. I spent two days in that bed while you slept in a chair. I’m fine,” he repeats.
Even if he wasn’t, we both know he wouldn’t say a single thing. After he told me what Jack said about the serial killer, he’d begged me to leave the country with him. I, of course, told him that it wasn’t possible.
I have a business to run, and so long as there’s always someone with me, I should be safe. So, after some serious convincing, Sawyer agreed, so long as Zane and Tessa took the guest room.
