But here they were.
Adriana let out one more shuddering cry and then took a deep breath.
“I didn’t want to save them all, I only want to be able to go back and save him.”
Her voice came out in sobs, but Levi knew better than to believe the words. She was more like him than he’d realized. It hurt—every person he couldn’t find justice for, every person he couldn’t save by preventing their death. Sometimes he wondered why he’d chosen this job, what made him face that kind of defeat over and over.
He didn’t always have answers for himself.
“You can’t.” Levi didn’t try to soften the words—she wasn’t the type who would appreciate that. Instead he held her higher, close enough that he could smell the berry-scented shampoo she used. Close enough to almost be able to feel her heart beating against his chest.
Levi swallowed hard. He hadn’t held anyone like this in years. Hadn’t wanted to.
Now...
He wished Adriana wasn’t upset and would give anything to fix her pain, but the idea of her in his arms... He didn’t hate it.
He should hate it. They were nothing alike.
Everything had been normal and now something in his mind, his heart, had shifted.
Please don’t let me mess up everything between us for work’s sake, God. Levi breathed out the prayer and inhaled again, begging for strength he wasn’t sure he had to act completely normal. The words felt funny, like rusted metal trying to work again. His relationship with God was...
Well, he had one. Some days that was all he could say about it.
Long minutes passed. She kept crying. And then she finally stopped and looked up at him with her brown eyes wide.
“I’m sorry. I’ve never... I don’t usually...” She cleared her throat, brushed at her tears, looked away. “I’m sorry.”
“You don’t have to apologize. Tears aren’t a crime, Adriana.”
She looked up at him and there he was, staring into those eyes again, uncomfortable awareness coursing through him.
Movement to the left caught his attention. He broke eye contact and looked that way.
Just as a bullet whizzed into the ground, a foot or two from their feet. Closer to Levi’s.
“Behind the truck!” he yelled at her, pulling her with him as he ran for cover. She pushed away.
“Blue!” she shouted. The dog followed and she sped up again, her speed matching Levi’s. They dove behind the truck and Levi pulled her and the dog close.
“You okay, buddy? It’s okay. Such a rough day, sweetheart.”
Her voice was thick and sweet, like fresh honey. Of course, she would talk to her dog that way, even after someone had shot at them.
Though he’d never heard her talk to people without a little more spice in her tone.
Another shot. Across the lake, he could see the incident team taking cover also, even though the shots weren’t near them. Good. They were following protocol.
Though if Levi had to guess based on the proximity to his shoes...
They were aimed at him.
“Why is someone shooting at you?”
Apparently it hadn’t escaped Adriana’s notice, either.
“I don’t know.”
But didn’t he?
Had the killer been watching the site where he’d dropped his latest victim? Or had Levi been followed from the police department?
Neither option was good.
Another shot. This one hit the ground, too, kicking up rocks and dust.
Levi’s radio crackled. “Unit thirty-four. I’ve found where the shooter is and I’m approaching.”
Unit thirty-four was his brother.
He pulled the radio from his waist. “Unit thirty-four, this is unit thirty-seven. Approach with caution. The suspect may be our serial killer.”
Radio silence for a solid ten seconds. Then a crackle. “Ten-four.”
The shots stopped. Coincidence? Or was the killer on their radio frequency?
Levi slowed his breathing, started taking deeper breaths in and out and waited.
“Is it safe to move?” Adriana’s voice was breathless, too.
“I wouldn’t yet.”
“I couldn’t if I wanted to, anyway,” she pointed out, some of the sassiness that had been missing earlier returning to her voice. “I can’t move with your arms around me, holding me like this.”
She had a point. He suddenly let her go like he’d been burned, and maybe he had been. Or could feel that he was about to be. Surely she hadn’t thought his proximity was about anything more than keeping her safe. It hadn’t been. He was just bothered by the fact that he felt more aware of her, was conscious of her presence, that she was an attractive, intriguing woman close to his age.
He watched her as he waited to be convinced everything was all right. She was collected now, the only traces of her earlier episode being some shadows of eye makeup around her eyes. It was faint, not too obvious, but it gave her a worn appearance.
How had she managed to be part of that recovery when she had something in her past similar enough that the memories gave her a panic attack? He hadn’t been exaggerating when he’d told her she was the strongest woman he knew. He’d meant all of it.
Sometime he was going to tell her again, when he was sure she would believe him. Because it was true.
“So what now?” she asked after a minute.
“Well—” Levi began. Just then, the all clear came over the radio. “It’s probably safe to leave our cover. You don’t need to give any kind of statement about the shooting. I was here.” He smiled wryly. “I do need a statement from you about...today.”
“I’m assuming you don’t mean my hysterical crying.”
“The part right before that, I believe.”
Adriana nodded. “Okay. That’s fine. But actually I meant ‘what now,’ like what are you going to do about this? Someone is trying to kill you? Surely you’re not going to just ignore that.”
Well, when she put it that way.
“No. I’m not going to ignore it.”
“So who is it?”
“I don’t know.”
She stared at him.
He stared back. Then looked away. Sighed.
“It’s a case I’m on.” That was all he could say. While he still needed to talk to the chief, a new discovery of a body connected to that case surely warranted keeping it open.
Adriana nodded. “The serial-killer case.”
She shouldn’t know about that. He hadn’t been publicly mentioned in connection with the case in over a year, since the chief had fired the department’s press secretary for giving out his and Jim’s names. They’d done a good job since then in keeping coverage of the investigation from any of the press.
“I remember the article.” She shrugged. “I rarely forget anything. It’s a blessing.” She looked away. “Sometimes.”
“Yes, it’s that case.” Levi trusted her. Telling her wasn’t against any kind of department policy—it was just smart to be wise with who knew the information. His safety depended on it.
Although apparently it was a little late for that.
She nodded. “I thought so. If I remember, not all the bodies have been recovered, isn’t that correct? Like, weren’t there some women who were assumed to be victims but their bodies were never recovered?” Her mind was spinning. This might be a way to help Levi out, regain some of her dignity, help families get closure in another way.
“Also correct, yes.” Levi stood. “Okay, so I’ll get back in touch with you about a statement for today, but I think for now—”
“I want to help you.” Adriana blurted the words as they both stood, facing him straight on. “I want to help you find the bodies of those missing women in case it helps you solve the case.”
; Levi blinked. “I can’t... The department isn’t doing well financially and I can’t afford to hire a consultant. I appreciate the thought, but—”
“I don’t need to be paid. I’ll work around my search-and-rescue schedule. I want to do this, Officer Wicks.”
Come to think of it, she’d never called him Levi. He thought of her by her first name because everyone called her that, but she called him by a title. It was a good reminder that any relationship they had was strictly professional, and any further thoughts of her berry-scented hair, shiny in the sunshine, were fully and completely inappropriate.
“It’s Levi,” he said, which made no sense when he considered all the thoughts he’d just had about keeping professional boundaries.
But she nodded, still looking up at him. How could someone have such big innocent eyes and be knowledgeable about the ways the world could break a heart all at once? Looking at her eyes was like looking at her heart. Levi didn’t want to look away. Didn’t know if he should keep looking.
He felt like he knew her better from five minutes of face-to-face conversation than he’d known Melissa in all the months they’d been married.
So strange.
But with Melissa, what went wrong there had been his fault. He needed to remember that and not rush into a similar situation.
“Okay,” Adriana said. “Levi. Please, let me help you.”
He considered her again, thought about his brother out there in the woods risking his life. Looked down at the dog that he knew would do anything to keep Adriana safe.
Then he nodded his head down, just slightly. “Okay, I’ll promise to think about it.”
Her eyes narrowed like she was ready for a fight.
He tried not to smile. “Thinking about it is the best I can do.”
That seemed to be enough. She nodded once. “Okay.”
Then she walked to the front of the truck, opened the door for her dog and climbed in. “I’ll be at my house when you’re ready to talk. It doesn’t matter how late—come by, okay?”
Levi nodded and then watched her drive away. When she was safely out of sight, he walked toward the other officers.
Could he do it, let her help him?
If he did, then he might be risking her safety, too.
But if he didn’t he was risking the lives of countless other people who might be the serial killer’s next targets.
Some days the weight of the job felt too heavy to carry. So for now, as he walked he worked on passing some of the weight back to Jesus, who’d promised to carry his burdens, and did his best to put Adriana Steele out of his mind.
Even while he wondered whether she’d somehow snuck past just his mind straight to his heart.
And whether or not she’d put herself in danger by doing so.
TWO
Even though she was fairly certain the shots had been directed at Levi, Adriana checked her rearview mirror almost as much as she paid attention to the road in front of her all the way home.
When she finally got to her little town house, she pulled her truck into the garage, then she and Blue walked into the house.
Babe, her other dog, met them at the door.
“Baby, did you have a good day?” She bent down to ruffle the animal’s ears. She’d used Babe as her main dog even into this summer, when she and the Raven Pass search-and-rescue team were searching for Cassie Hawkins’s missing aunt, but it had become apparent over the last couple of weeks that it was time to let Blue do more of the work and let Babe rest.
Blue and Babe sniffed at each other, what Adriana always pictured as one dog asking the other about his day. Some people would probably say she spent too much time with animals, but could she help it that animals made more sense than people?
Leaving the dogs to their greetings, she walked to the kitchen. Her stomach had started growling halfway home and she’d realized then that in the midst of the search she hadn’t had much to eat today. All she could remember having was a granola bar for breakfast and a can of LaCroix sparkling water around midmorning.
Probably not enough food to actually count as sustenance.
As she reached for the fridge handle, though, she caught a glimpse of her hand. Her skin was filthy—whether from the search itself or from being pushed to the ground by Levi, she wasn’t sure, but it didn’t matter.
Shower first, then food. And maybe the shower would help erase some of the embarrassment that flooded her again when she thought about Levi.
Adriana hurried up the stairs, feeling her cheeks heat up. Had she really broken down in front of him so completely? She wanted it not to be true, but it was, so she had to find a way to move on. Whatever else could be said about her, Adriana tried not to be the kind of girl who got bogged down in the past.
She frowned as she turned on the shower. Was she? She didn’t think of herself that way, but was she wrong? She’d just spent the last hour or so trapped in the past in a way that she hadn’t been able to overcome. Shame burned her cheeks again and she climbed into the hot shower, letting the water wash over her. She’d had panic attacks before, it wasn’t like she hadn’t known the whole...situation had a hold on her.
But it was controlled, right?
Suddenly Adriana wasn’t sure.
She finished her shower, though she didn’t know how she managed to focus when her mind kept going back to the comfort it had been to have someone to listen to her tears.
It was strange that it had been Levi. Of all the people it could have been, he was the one around whom she’d have chosen not to show any weakness.
Maybe that was why she’d been so insistent on helping him with the case he was working on. She had the skills and, as far as she was concerned, she owed him. Helping him find some of the victims he hadn’t been able to include in his investigation, those women who were missing and fit the profile of the victims but whose bodies hadn’t been found, would get him closer to identifying the suspect in the serial-killer case, and then maybe Adriana would feel like the field was level again.
She toweled off and got dressed, this time in yoga pants and a fleece pullover. She didn’t have any intention of leaving the house again today, and if she changed her mind she was going to pull on some tennis shoes and let people assume she’d been exercising. Or doing more SAR training. The Raven Pass Search and Rescue team had a core of full-time members, including her, but they spent part of their working hours training volunteers to make sure there were always enough people in a crisis.
Her cell phone rang just as she’d finished dressing.
Not a number she knew.
“Hello?” She felt her shoulders tense. It wasn’t every day someone shot at her, or more accurately, at someone next to her. Maybe that was what was getting to her now, but seeing an unknown number made her uncomfortable.
“Adriana, it’s Levi.”
Oh. That would explain why she didn’t have the number in her phone. She made a mental note to save it after the call. “Levi.” It was the second time she’d called him by his first name. It was hard to be too formal with him after what had happened today.
“Are you doing okay?” she asked and then almost smacked herself in the face. He’d been shot at. How good a day could he really be having? Her question had been unnecessary.
“All things considered.” His voice was even, no hint of mocking her somewhat ridiculous question. She felt her shoulders relax. How did he do this? She’d never had someone in her life who could talk her down from her ledges of drama...
Well, she had. And then he’d died.
She swallowed hard, tried to ignore the tightening in her throat.
“Did you need something?” she asked, trying to make sure her voice sounded casual.
“I still need to talk to you about the search today and its result.” Levi almost sounded apologetic. The last thing Adriana wa
nted to do was make him feel bad. She sat up straighter, took a deep breath.
“I can talk whenever.” She only hoped that was true, and that she could do it without falling apart.
“Great.” He paused, but something gave her the sense he wasn’t quite finished. “Can I swing by your place now? I’d like to talk to you about it as soon as possible.”
“There was something wrong, wasn’t there?”
“I’ll be at your home in ten minutes, if that works for you.”
She nodded, though he couldn’t see her. “Okay, ten minutes.”
She ended the call after giving him her address, the churning in her stomach telling her that in ten minutes, whatever he was going to say could turn her life upside down. Maybe even more than her earlier offer to help him with his serial-killer case.
Because if he was this interested, the case of the missing—now deceased—hiker, Lara Jones, might be connected...
And if it was, she was already involved without her permission. And, somehow, for Adriana, that was harder to wrestle with. Having her life be in danger because she’d offered to help was one thing.
Knowing she might truly have been watched yesterday because she’d walked unaware into a case connected to a serial killer?
She shivered. That was terrifying.
THREE
As Levi drove down Adriana’s street, he tried to figure out how to frame his questions. He’d talked to several other searchers after she’d left the scene earlier, but since she’d been the one to find the body—well, her dog had, since she’d probably correct him if he tried to give her the credit—he really wanted her perspective on Lara’s death.
And there was more than that, if he was honest, he admitted as he pulled into her driveway. He was scared for her personally. Everyone involved in the search for the killer was in more danger than they’d been when they woke up this morning. With every detail he gathered, the more certain Levi was that the hiker was the latest victim of the serial killer he’d been tracking.
Even his boss had agreed. He’d called the chief after arriving at the scene, and seeing the body and the zip ties, the chief had agreed that he could have more time for this case.
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