“Rafe—” Teagan began, only to snap his lips shut when Rafe pointed a finger in his direction.
“No.”
Hauk ignored the warning. “Think, Rafe. It might be our only chance to stop him.”
He glared at his supposed friend. “Screw that. I’m not using Annie as bait.”
Annie made a sound of frustration. “Shouldn’t it be my choice?”
“No.” He didn’t bother to glance at her, instead keeping his finger pointed at Teagan. “I left a camera in Annie’s motel room . . . get it.”
“Oh, wait.” Annie tried to pull away. “I have the key.”
“Not necessary,” Teagan assured her.
“You.” Rafe pointed toward the frowning Hauk. “Send the book and pictures I left in the glove compartment of my truck to Max ASAP.”
Hauk folded his arms over his chest. “Rafe—”
“Got it.” Teagan grabbed Hauk’s arm and tugged him toward the stairs that led off the porch. “Let’s go before you get your face rearranged.”
“Fine.” Hauk sent Rafe a threatening glance. “I’ll be back.”
Waiting until the two had collected the pictures and driven away, Teagan in the Jag and Hauk in the SUV, Rafe heaved a sigh and buried his face in the curve of Annie’s neck, breathing deep of her sweet scent.
“I warned you,” he groused. “Pains in the ass.”
Chapter Fourteen
It was nearly two a.m. when Rafe quietly let himself out the back door, carrying a six-pack that had been cooling in his fridge.
“Beer?” he asked, his voice low as he watched the shadow detach from the side of the shed and stroll toward him.
Leaning against the side of the house, Hauk reached for his beer. “I thought you would be enjoying a night with your lovely roommate.”
“She’s exhausted,” Rafe muttered, grimacing at the understatement.
The past few days she’d endured one shock after another, not to mention barely getting any sleep the night before.
It was a wonder she hadn’t collapsed during dinner.
“You’re worried about her?” Hauk demanded.
Rafe didn’t hesitate. “Yeah, I’m worried.”
Hauk tilted his head, the light from the kitchen spilling over his pale hair and emphasizing his hard expression. “And that’s all?”
“You know it’s not.”
“I know you want to bang her.”
Rafe clenched his hand. He might love Hauk like a brother, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t kick his ass. “Watch it, amigo.”
Hauk took a deep drink before once again scraping against Rafe’s last nerve. “And you have a compulsive need to protect the weak and the helpless.”
Rafe leaned forward, his body tense with leashed aggression. “Is this going somewhere?”
Hauk took another drink. “I saw how she looked at you.”
“How was that?”
“Like you’re Superman.”
Rafe abruptly forgot his annoyance, a heady rush of pleasure racing through him.
Annie looked at me like I’m Superman?
The mere thought sent a treacherous warmth through his chest.
“I do have several heroic qualities,” he murmured.
Hauk narrowed his eyes. “I’m serious, Rafe.”
Rafe heaved a resigned sigh. Okay. He got the fact that his friends were concerned, but their suspicion of Annie was going to get old quick.
“I know you’re worried she’s involved with the killer, but you’re wrong.”
“I don’t think she’s involved.” Hauk held up a hand as Rafe scowled in disbelief. “Not after meeting her. You can’t fake that kind of innocence.” The older man shrugged. “I do worry she’s putting you in danger, but you’re a big boy. You can decide to walk away if you want.”
Rafe knew that wasn’t the end.
Hauk had an expression that meant he was preparing to offer advice he didn’t ask for and probably didn’t want.
“Then what’s on your mind?” Rafe demanded. Hauk wasn’t going to let it go until he’d had his say.
“What happens when the adventure is over and you return to Houston?” his friend abruptly asked.
It wasn’t the question Rafe had been expecting, but it was easy to answer. “I’m bringing Annie with me.”
Hauk held his gaze. “You’re sure?”
“Damn straight.” Rafe shrugged. “She might be kicking and screaming, but I’m sure.”
“You’d better be, amigo.”
Rafe studied his companion. He was obviously trying to make a point. But it was too late and Rafe was too exhausted to figure it out. “Just say what’s on your mind, Hauk.”
“There are women who know the score. They understand that most relationships, no matter how good, have an expiration date. Sometimes a night, sometimes a few months,” Hauk said with the confidence of a man who devoted a great deal of time and energy to seducing the opposite sex. “But Annie White isn’t one of those women. You move her into your ranch and she’s going to expect to stay.”
Rafe smiled with anticipation. “That’s what I’m counting on.”
“I hope so,” Hauk surprised him by saying. “She seems like a nice woman and she’s been through hell. It would be a shitty deal for you to break her heart.”
Well, well. It seemed he wasn’t the only one vulnerable to Annie’s sweet charm.
Rafe abruptly stiffened, his hand reaching for the gun holstered at his lower back as a shadow appeared at the side of the house.
“There’s a party and no one invited me?” Teagan demanded, stepping into the small pool of light.
“There’s a beer on the step,” Rafe said, nodding toward the back porch as he released his grip on the gun. Then, barely waiting for Teagan to twist off the top and down half the beer in one long swallow, he asked the question that’d been on his mind since Teagan had returned to the motel. “Anything on the camera?”
His friend grimaced. “One or two gawkers strolled by to try and take a peek in the window.”
“You’re sure they’re just gawkers?” Rafe demanded.
Teagan gave a lift of his shoulder. “Two women who had to be seventy if they were a day, and a couple pimple-faced boys trying to act brave.”
“Jesus,” Hauk breathed. “Small towns give me the creeps.”
Teagan gave a short laugh. “I drove up just as the boys were trying to get a better look and they about pissed their pants when I told them what would happen if I saw them near the motel again.”
Rafe’s gut twisted with frustration. He’d hoped they’d catch a break with the camera.
If not the actual stalker, then at least his car pulling into the parking lot.
“Damn,” he muttered.
“The bastard’s smart,” Teagan said, leaning against the rusted railing that threatened to snap beneath the strain of holding up the big man. “Too smart to get caught by a hidden camera.”
“What about the sheriff?” Rafe demanded. “Have you seen him hanging around?”
Teagan cocked a brow. “Not that I noticed.”
Hauk was the first to ask the obvious question. “You think the sheriff’s involved?”
Rafe did a quick recap of their encounter with Brody Johnson and the arson of the courthouse. He included his belief that someone was anxious to get rid of evidence and that the most obvious suspect would be the sheriff.
“Even if he doesn’t have anything to do with Don White’s death, he’s eager to run Annie out of town,” he said in conclusion. “I won’t have him trying to intimidate her.”
Teagan’s face was grim by the time Rafe was done speaking. After a childhood of watching the local police ignore his father’s brutality, he wasn’t a huge fan of cops.
“I’ll have Lucas do some discreet inquiries among his contacts in law enforcement,” he said. “If there was a cover-up, then there would have been some chatter, even if no one wanted to make an official complaint.”
&nb
sp; Rafe nodded. “Good idea.”
“I have my moments,” Teagan drawled, his brows pulling together. “Wait.” He reached into his pocket to pull out his phone. “It’s Max.”
“What’s up?” Rafe demanded.
“He needs me to work my magic,” Teagan muttered, scrolling through the text message.
Hauk moved to stand beside Teagan. “On what?”
Teagan slid the phone back in his pocket and polished off his beer before he answered. “He has a hit on Don White’s prints, but he’s being blocked from getting an I.D.”
“Blocked by who?” Hauk asked.
“Government.”
Rafe blinked. Lucas didn’t have Teagan’s computer skills, but he was no amateur. Plus he had a level of clearance that could get him past almost any agency firewall. “Our government?”
“Yep.” Setting the empty bottle on the back step, Teagan glanced toward Hauk. “I’m going to head to LaClede and stay with Lucas. I have shit Internet coverage here.”
Hauk nodded as Rafe moved to place a hand on Teagan’s shoulder. “Let me know as soon as you find something.”
“Will do.” The golden eyes narrowed. “Be careful, Rafe. Whoever left that book is jonesing for your girl. He won’t care who he has to hurt to get her.”
His words of warning delivered, Teagan headed toward the edge of the house, swiftly disappearing among the shadows.
There was a long beat of silence before Hauk asked the question racing through Rafe’s brain. “What the hell could the government have to do with Don White?”
Rafe’s lips parted, but before he could confess that he didn’t have a damn clue, a shrill scream pierced the air.
Rafe leaped up the steps and pulled open the screen door with enough force to yank it off its rusty hinges.
“Annie!”
“Sweetheart, wake up.”
Annie instinctively buried against the warm body that was pressed against her, desperate to wrench herself out of the nightmarish vision.
It’d started like all the others.
The sickening sense of anticipation. The sight of the pretty young woman racing across a field, her blond hair shimmering in the moonlight. The comforting weight of the knife in her hand.
She’d desperately tried to maintain contact with the vision, to capture some sense of where she was or even locate a landmark that could pinpoint an exact location.
But even as she realized there was something familiar about the house in the background, she felt herself running forward, a burst of electric pleasure racing through her as she lifted her hand and slashed the large dagger through the air.
That was when the scream had been ripped from her throat as she struggled to pull out of the dream.
God almighty.
She couldn’t bear to witness killing the woman.
She shuddered as strong arms wrapped around her. “Rafe?” she rasped.
“I’ve got you. Shh,” he murmured, his lips brushing her cheeks, which were damp with tears. “It was just a nightmare.”
“No.” She forced open her eyes, blinking against the overhead light that’d been switched on. “It wasn’t a nightmare. It was a vision.”
His arms tightened around her. “Annie—”
“I know what I saw,” she stubbornly interrupted.
“I believe you, sweetheart,” he instantly soothed, moving back to study her pale face. “Tell me.”
She blinked. She was so accustomed to people assuming she was crazy she’d forgotten Rafe was different.
A dangerous warmth flowed through her, helping to ease the icy fear lodged in the pit of her stomach. Tilting back her head she met Rafe’s steady gaze. “An empty field.”
“Was it dark?”
“Yes, but the moon was shining.”
“Anything else?”
“I thought . . .” She hesitated, forcing herself to recall the images that had seared through her mind. “It looked like Mitch Roberts’s house.”
Rafe stiffened in shock. “You were inside it?”
“No.” She shook her head, sucking in a deep breath. The clean scent of male skin and soap filled her senses, grounding her in the here and now. She was in bed with Rafe’s arms around her. Not in some remote field with a knife in her hand. “It was at a distance.”
“How could you know that it was the Roberts place?” he asked, his tone curious instead of accusing. “All those old farmhouses look the same.”
She grimaced. “It was a feeling. I knew that I’d been there. Recently.”
His fingers absently pushed her curls from her face, his brow furrowed. “Do you want to drive out there?”
She stared at him in amazement. It was one thing for him to believe her vision. It was another for him to ignore his instinctive urge to keep her protected.
She understood exactly what it was costing him to make the offer.
Her heart melted just a little more.
Dammit.
“Can we?” she asked softly.
“If it will ease your mind.”
“Yes,” she breathed in relief. She wasn’t any more eager than Rafe to charge through the dark in search of some psycho who was potentially murdering helpless women, but she would never be able to live with herself if she ignored her vision. What if she had the opportunity to stop the mystery stalker before he could grab another woman? “I need to know.”
Tangling his fingers in her hair, Rafe tugged her head back, scorching her lips with a kiss she felt to her toes. Then, with obvious reluctance, he released his hold on her and climbed out of the bed. “Get dressed,” he murmured, his gaze resting on her lips. “I’ll wait for you in the living room.”
Waiting for the door to close, Annie scrambled off the mattress and quickly pulled on a pair of jeans and a heavy sweatshirt.
She would have sworn that nothing could ease the horror of feeling like she was in the body of a killer, stalking a terrified woman, but she couldn’t deny that the tiny shivers racing through her body had more to do with his kiss than the vision.
Nothing short of a miracle.
Opening the door, Annie stepped into the living room, coming to an abrupt halt as she caught sight of Rafe and the golden-haired Hauk standing in the middle of the floor.
There was no need to be a mind reader to sense she’d interrupted an argument.
The very air sizzled.
Feeling weirdly self-conscious as the two men turned to lock their gazes on her, Annie cleared her throat. “Is there a problem?”
Rafe deliberately ignored the man nearly vibrating with annoyance at his side. “No problem,” he assured her.
A scowl twisted Hauk’s starkly beautiful features. “Rafe—”
“Stay here and keep an eye on the house.” Rafe overrode his friend, the tone warning that the discussion was over. “I want to know if that bastard comes anywhere near.”
“Shit.” Hauk folded his arms over his chest, a muscle twitching in his jaw. This was a man who was clearly used to giving orders, not taking them. “Do anything stupid and I’ll kick your ass.”
Rafe moved to hold open the door, his gaze never leaving her face. “Ready?”
She scurried forward, avoiding Hauk’s glare as she stepped through the doorway.
“He’s not very happy with you,” she muttered once they were in the truck and pulling away from the small house.
Rafe shrugged. “He’ll get over it.”
Annie didn’t doubt that.
Watching the men interact, it was obvious they’d formed something very close to a family.
They might squabble and maybe even throw a few punches, but when push came to shove they would always have each other’s backs.
Settling in the leather seat, Annie turned her head to stare out the side window.
It was late and the streets of Newton were dark. Barren. The people in this area were farmers and factory workers and teachers.
They were up at the crack of dawn and put in long days. The
y didn’t have the energy or interest in nightclubs or trendy cafés that served tiny coffees. By ten o’clock the locals were tucked in their beds to watch the local news.
Within minutes they’d left the outskirts of town and were headed toward the highway.
“Are you okay?” Rafe demanded.
She wrinkled her nose. “Not really.”
He instantly slowed the truck. “We can go back to the house.”
“No.” She wrapped her arms around herself, still hearing the screams of the blond-haired woman ringing in her ears. “We need to find him before . . .”
Her words trailed away as they turned a corner and caught sight of the barriers that blocked the road to the highway.
Ahead of them was a group of cars and trucks that were pulled near the gas station-slash-quickie mart where they’d stopped . . . was it yesterday? The day before?
It was difficult to remember as she studied the various police cars that were parked next to the small brick building, their lights flashing.
“Hold on,” Rafe muttered, angling the truck to a halt next to the barrier where a middle-aged man with a John Deere cap was standing guard duty. With a push of a button he had his side window rolled down. “What’s happening?” he asked.
The stranger moved forward, clearly enjoying his temporary position of authority. “Another woman missing,” he said, turning his head to spit out a stream of tobacco.
“Damn, that’s a shame.” Rafe easily slid into a good-old-boy guise, slouching in his seat as his gaze moved toward the crowd of people milling across the closed road. “Who is it?”
“Cindy Franklin. She was supposed to come in to work at the gas station at midnight.” Another spit of tobacco. “She’s never a minute late, so when she didn’t show they called her husband. He said she’d left home at eleven forty-five as always.”
Rafe nodded as Annie’s stomach cramped with pain.
Even knowing that the visions were genuine didn’t ease the regret when they were confirmed.
As if sensing her pain, Rafe discreetly reached to grasp her hand.
“Did they find her?” he asked the man who was now leaning against the side of the truck.
“Nope, but her car was just behind the station.” The man pointed toward the empty field. “The cops are looking at it now.”