The first time she’d met Peek, he’d been tearing into Hayden. It was only later, much later, that she’d come to see the good heart hidden inside the hardened man. And I came to learn just why he blamed Hayden that day. Why so many in the town had.
“I pulled her file the day I took the job,” Hayden answered.
Again, he’d surprised her. “Why?”
His lips twisted in his half smile, the smile that said he was holding back secrets. “Same reason you did. I want to catch the bastard.”
Her heart thudded into her chest. Hayden wasn’t the boy he’d been. Staring at him right then, she saw that his eyes had gone flat and cold, so hard and deadly with intent. This wasn’t the boy she’d known or even the young man she’d loved.
This was the SEAL. Dangerous. Dark.
Almost...a stranger.
“He took you, Jill. You.” Hayden shook his head. “Do you think I have ever stopped wanting to catch him? I won’t ever stop. I know he’s still out there. He thinks he got away clean, but justice comes to everyone. Sooner or later.”
She took the file from him. Her fingers brushed his and a spark seemed to slip though her at that soft touch. She pulled back—too fast—and held the thin file carefully.
“You want to hunt him?” Hayden asked. “Fine, we’ll hunt him. We’ll do it together. This time, we aren’t kids running in the dark.”
No, they weren’t.
“But be warned...there’s not a lot of information in that file.” His words were grim. “The guy didn’t leave a whole lot of evidence behind. He knew what he was doing. He was smart.”
The smart, organized killers were the most dangerous. “I’ve worked cold cases before,” Jill told him. The CARD team members were focused exclusively on child abduction cases. When there was not an active case for them to investigate, then they often turned their attention to older crimes, hoping that they could find a piece of evidence that had been overlooked or that new technology would lead them in a new direction on a particular case. “I know that it’s often like searching for a needle in a very giant haystack.”
His dark gaze dropped to the thin folder. “That’s a small haystack. Peek is a good man, but he was in way over his head with her case. See for yourself. There’s an empty office down the hall you can use. Once you’ve read over the file, we can talk. Compare our thoughts.”
She liked that he wasn’t trying to influence her by saying what he might already suspect. She’d found that it was always better to go into an investigation without another agent’s expectations or suspicions already in the open, those just tended to cloud the situation for her. She liked to see things with fresh eyes. “Thanks.” She turned for the door.
Her hand was reaching for the doorknob when he said, “I missed you.”
Her breath seemed to chill her lungs. “Did you?”
“Yes, I did.” His voice was flat. Stark. Not hiding anything from her. “It’s damn good to see you.”
I missed you, too. She opened the door.
“I won’t make the same mistake again.”
Now she did glance back at him. On this, they needed to be very clear. She’d survived a broken heart once, courtesy of Hayden Black. “Neither will I.” Then she left him.
It was better this way. Far, far better to just stick to the case.
* * *
HE KNEW THE REDHEAD. And he’d been right. Seeing her on the pier yesterday, in that exact same spot, at nearly the exact same time of evening...it hadn’t been coincidence.
It had been fate.
Sixteen years ago, Jillian West had come to Hope, Florida. Quiet, withdrawn, her parents dead. She’d seemed to be his perfect prey. A gift delivered right to his doorstep.
He’d been following her for days before he approached her at the pier. He always liked to watch before he made his move. He had to be smart. So he’d watched and he’d acted at just the right moment.
Jillian had fought him, but he’d gotten her away. He’d had such plans for her, but when he went back to his cabin, she’d been gone.
Long gone. And his rage had nearly blinded him.
Jillian West.
The victim who’d gotten away. She’d stayed in town. Stayed until her grandmother died. Then the gossip he’d heard said that she’d joined the FBI. She’d wanted to help find missing children.
The folks in the little town had admired her.
He’d hated her.
Because of her, he’d lost everything. He’d had to be careful and to watch his steps. Had to hold back his impulses. Had to lose himself.
But then his life had changed yesterday, when he’d seen her.
Now he knew the real reason he’d stayed in Hope all these long years.
I knew—one day—we’d finish what we started.
It was time to act. Time to catch the only prey to ever get away from him. And then...only then...would his work truly be finished. He wasn’t weak any longer. Finally, finally, he was strong. Better than ever.
The timing was perfect. For him.
He paused for just a moment outside of the sheriff’s office. She was in there and he knew she wasn’t alone. Hayden Black was close by, the way he always was when Jillian was near.
Tugging his baseball cap down, he turned away. As he headed toward the beach, he started to whistle. This was going to be different for him. Not as easy, more of a challenge. She was FBI. She’d had training.
But she wasn’t better than him. Wasn’t smarter. He’d been evading FBI agents for years. He had this down.
And Jillian...well, she was about to see what it was like to be prey again. Only this time, you won’t get away. I’ll make sure there’s no one there to save you, Jillian.
He was getting his life back, and in order to do that, FBI agent Jillian West had to die.
Hayden lifted his hand and rapped his knuckles against the door frame. At the sound, Jill’s head whipped up and she blinked at him, a few dazed blinks, and he knew that she’d had herself fully immersed in the case file.
She’d made herself comfortable in the little office. She had a laptop open on the desk, positioned just to her right, and she’d started tacking some notes up on the bulletin board to her left. His eyebrows rose as he realized that she was certainly making the most of that slim file.
“Hayden?” She rose to her feet. “What’s wrong?”
Not a damn thing. Finally, his world felt right. Because she was there. But he made a show of looking at his watch. “You’ve been in here for almost five hours. I thought you might want to take a lunch break with me.”
“Five hours?” She seemed surprised and gave a little laugh. “Sorry, I, um, tend to get a bit lost in my work.”
He thought that might be an understatement.
She snapped her laptop shut. “But I would like some lunch...and a chance to pick your brain, now that I’ve had a chance to form my own impressions of the case.” She grabbed her bag. “How about we just pick up some sandwiches and eat on the beach?”
They’d done that so many times as kids. Tossed a blanket on the sand. Stared at the waves, talked and dreamed. After Jill’s abduction, her grandmother had gone through