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“Call him anyway. I want him to know I’m pissed at him.”
He hung up before she said, “Will do, sir.”
She closed her phone and looked apologetically at David.
“Go ahead,” he said. “You have a job to do.”
“Okay,” she replied.
She stood, and when David followed suit, she grabbed his hand. He met her eyes, and she kissed him. It was a brief, chaste kiss, but when he didn’t pull away, she felt the first spark of hope she’d felt since arriving.
“I’m coming back,” she said. “When the case is done. I’m coming back to see you. I’m not giving up.”
He nodded and offered a half-smile. “Okay.”
She would have to content herself with that reply. It was better than if he said, “Don’t bother.”
She squeezed his hand, then left, blinking back tears as she headed to her car and went to pick up Turk at her apartment, where she’d dropped him off.
CHAPTER TWO
He waited until the vet left the coffee shop. Then he waited eight more minutes. When the time passed, he stood, folded his newspaper carefully, and tucked it under his arm. He took his cup and saucer to the pass-through counter and smiled at the perky blonde barista.
“Thank you,” he said. “It was delicious.”
The perky blonde, who couldn’t have been a day over seventeen, smiled brightly and said, “Thank you, Doctor! I’m glad you liked it.”
He nodded politely, then walked calmly out of the shop.
His car was parked around the corner, not because he was trying to hide it from view. In fact, he wanted people to see the car and see him getting in and out of it. He didn’t intend to be a regular at this coffee shop, but that only made it more important that he seem exactly like a normal patron.
He parked around the corner because that was the nearest space available when he arrived to wait for his prey, but he was grateful for the walk now because it allowed him to cool off so when he got into his car, he was able to maintain his calm as he drove home.
Relatively speaking.
His fingers tightened around the steering wheel and his lips thinned into a line. His neck muscles strained as his jaw clenched, and it was only decades of experience helping others manage their emotions that allowed him to manage his.
That asshole Clark. This was supposed to behisgame!Hisrules!Hewas manipulating Faith, not them! It was one thing when she was snooping around turning stones she wasn’t supposed to turn and looking for clues she wasn’t supposed to find. It was another thing entirely when the Bureau decided to give herpermissionto look for him. Toassignher to look for him!
That just made everything… It just…
He took a deep breath and allowed himself the indulgence of swearing softly. “Goddammit.”
He would have to forgo killing the boyfriend. With Faith on his tail with the full blessing and support of the FBI, targeting someone close to her like that was absolutely off limits.
It just infuriated him! Where did they get off meddling like that? They were nothing compared to him! Nothing compared toher! This was supposed to be his opus! He—the master criminal—versus Faith Bold—the amazing detective! Good versus evil. Right versus wrong. Order versus chaos. It wasperfect, dammit!
And now? Now it was just another murder case. He was just another perp, and she was just another gumshoe doing her job. If she found him, it wouldn’t be the expert detective stopping the master criminal. It would be “an FBI investigation led to the capture of.” If he caught her and finished the job Trammell couldn’t, then it would be “an agent lost in the line of duty,” not “famous FBI detective found dead.”
The distinction might seem subtle, but it was animportantdifference!
He lifted his hand and let it fall lightly on the steering wheel. “Goddammit.”
Well, he didn’t have a choice now. He couldn’t kill David. Even if he were willing to risk the heightened chance of discovery, there was nofunin killing him now.
He would just have to be patient. He would have to wait and see.
Well, that wasn’t entirely true. He couldn’t attack her directly, but he could chip away at her defenses subtly, as he had been for the past several months. It was tedious work and not nearly so fulfilling as the other avenues he intended to pursue, but he supposed it would do until he could think of another way to escalate the game.
