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Hadley lowers to her seat, seeming too quiet for her.
“He’s the sheriff’s son. I’ve narrowed down the victimology, and he, along with a couple others, fit the profile. But he’s more alpha than the others, so we believe he’s the next target.”
Donny comes to my side as Johnson begins spewing his own praises about how many sadists he’s caught and how easy it is to catch them when they have a specific victim type.
“This is bullshit,” he growls. “There’s no way he narrowed down the victimology to one fucking possible with as little as we’ve had to go on.”
I rub my chin, staring ahead. “Unless he knows what happened ten years ago.”
He jerks his head to me. “Then he’d know this is a revenge killer and not a sadist.”
I nod. “But if you fucked something up so bad that you had the director himself insert you into the current investigation, the last thing you’d want to do is profile a revenge killer.”
His eyes widen, then narrow to slits in the next second. “That motherfucker really does know what happened. He could be fired and possibly even serve time for impeding an investigation like this.”
“I’m aware,” I tell him. “Which is why I’m listening to everything he’s saying. I’m building my own subcommittee case. For now, work our case. I’m your boss. He’s not. Follow my orders. Not his. And when it comes down to it, it’ll fall back on me if this goes south.”
“I couldn’t care less if they fire me over this prick, Logan. Don’t take him on alone. He has too many high-ranking friends.”
“Yeah, but I prefer to deal with evidence,” I tell him, clapping his shoulder on my way back to my office.
I’m seated for a matter of moments before Hadley walks in.
“You should bring Lana to Delaney Grove with us,” she says with no emotion.
My eyebrows hit my hairline. “What? Why the hell would I do that?”
“Well, for one, we’ll be gone for a while, if this guy isn’t any closer to his endgame. And for two, Lana is still struggling to be alone at night. She told me,” she says, shrugging.
I tense. Lana hasn’t said anything like that to me.
“Why wouldn’t she tell me that?”
She shrugs, taking a seat. “She’s tough. She doesn’t want you to know she’s struggling, because you’ve been proud of how tough she is.”
I groan, running a hand through my hair. Of course she’s struggling. A man broke into her house and tried to kill her. We’ve been staying in a hotel since it happened.
“She should stay with a friend. It’s too dangerous to take her to Delaney Grove. Not to mention, against the rules.”
“I’d agree with all of that, but we’re looking for a revenge killer, even though that dickhead out there says otherwise. You know a revenge killer doesn’t target someone unless they get in the way. She’ll be safe. As for the rules, the Bureau doesn’t have any say over where civilians do or don’t go. It’s a free country, after all.”
Her lips twitch with
amusement.
“And it’d piss that fucknut off if you brought her and used that line,” she adds.
Knowingly taking Lana into a town where a serial killer plans to eventually show up…it’s insanely irresponsible and dangerous.
“Please, Logan. She could definitely stand to be around people, and you’re really all she has.”
Cursing, I run a hand through my hair.
“If the unsub thinks we’re getting too close, he could target her to get to me. It’s too risky.”
“You know that’s bullshit,” she fires off immediately. “If this guy wants to come after you, he’ll come after you. He’s not afraid or a coward like Plemmons who preyed on the weak. He’s not a sexual sadist with an interest in pretty brunettes. You’re not thinking logically.”
I look at her like she’s lost her damn mind. “I’m not thinking logically?” I ask incredulously. “You’re asking me to bring an untrained civilian into the field after she was recently attacked once already because of my job.”
