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She forced herself to continue. “The TK moved around. Three homicidal incidents in a state, but never in the same town. That probably aided him in evading capture as long as he did. Different motel or rental in every new location. Using stolen identities to establish fake credit card accounts, all with the S.T. initials. I assume Mendes’s team is watching for that.”
“We made it clear that it was part of Thorne’s pattern. It’s why I notified him of the name on the tracker contract.”
“Those pesky coincidences that kept arising in Ben’s conservatorship.” She huddled back against her pillow in an attempt to get warm. Her insides felt glacial. “I kept trying to figure out how Thorne could be involved. I should have been questioning which person linked to the trust was connected to him.” Sedgewick could have come across him in her court-related evaluations, but there was no way to verify that. Rivers being a cousin, however, was a major red flag.
“As compelling as this is, I have to point out that none of us can help who we’re related to.” Something in his voice alerted her. “Believe me, I spent a lot of years trying to live down my father’s reputation and attempting to keep Eden from going down that same path.”
Because she heard the pain in his words, she reached for his free hand between them. Laced her fingers with his. “You were a child. And you weren’t responsible for his actions any more than I was for Ben’s.” Not that her brother had been fully accountable, either.
His gaze dropped to their fingers. “Are we bonding over our shitty childhoods?”
Something lightened in her. “Better than bonding over the shared experience of almost getting blown up.”
“It was a new adventure. One star on Yelp. Cannot recommend.”
A laugh escaped her then, and Reese leaned her head against the headboard, her shoulders shaking. Her emotions were careening like a crazed pinball in one of those old arcade games. Humor was the last thing she expected to feel after her recent discovery, but it was far superior to the distress she’d experienced earlier.
He grinned down at her. At least she wasn’t alone in the punch-drunk feeling. But then his smile faded, and his eyes narrowed to focus intensely on her lips. A sizzling comet of desire streaked through her. It had been only this morning when his mouth had covered hers, the chemistry snapping and sparking between them. Brief hours since they’d both teetered on the brink of something she’d desperately wanted to explore further. Something that might have cost her far, far more than she’d ever offered another man.
He’d saved her life, but it wasn’t gratitude she was feeling. Acknowledging the thought had her mind doing a quick retreat. Hayes wasn’t a man she could send on his way after a few hours of sex. Their situation aside, she knew intuitively that he’d ask for more, demand more than anyone else ever had.
Her walls had been erected so young, they were fortress-strength now. They’d had to be.
And she didn’t know if she could lower them enough to ever really let someone close. More terrifying was the fear that once she did, Reese could never truly rebuild them.
Maybe he’d reached the same conclusion, because Hayes released her hand and abruptly rolled away. “Can you send methat ancestry website linking Wallace and Rivers? I’ll share it with Mendes.” He stood, rounded the bed, and walked to the door. “And then you should shut down for the night. Get some sleep.”
Easy for him to say. She released an unsteady breath and watched the muscles chase across his back as he strode out the door. The bandage and scrapes were a reminder of what she’d cost him already. After setting the pillow and laptop aside, she rose and picked up the bag with her toiletries and nightwear. He was sitting in the darkened room on the edge of the mattress, which was as thin and uncomfortable-looking as she’d predicted. He didn’t look up from the message he was texting. Just as well. Her nerves felt raw and frayed. It’d require time and sleep to tuck them away. To resummon a control that seemed just out of reach.
Reese took far longer to change, brush her teeth, and put in eyedrops than she needed. When she reopened the door and tiptoed out, she halted again when she saw his position on the side of the bed hadn’t changed. “Did Mendes respond?”
“We can discuss it in the morning.”
A vise squeezed hard in her chest before she continued across the room. “A cryptic reply just leads me to draw my own conclusions, which aren’t particularly calming.”
“He did. He’ll send someone to interview Rivers tomorrow.”
“And tonight?”
The pause in his reply was its own answer. “They’re still looking for Thorne. Think they’ve got him cornered in the Los Peñasquitos Canyon. They have a search helicopter equipped with night vision. They’ll find him.”
Reese was familiar with the canyon and its tributary Lopez Canyon. There’d be plenty of places to hide, with the steep rocky slopes and groves of sycamore trees. But it was well traveled in daylight, with walking trails stretching most of its length andhistoric adobe ruins that drew tourists. “He’ll want to get out of there before dawn.”
“The deputy expects that they’ll catch up to him when he tries, if not before then.”
But they hadn’t found the killer yet. Maybe he’d already snuck out of the area and gotten far away while they focused on the canyon. Perhaps he was back in the city, trying to find a way into her apartment.
As if plucking the thought from her head, Hayes’s voice sounded again in the darkness. “You’re safe here. It won’t be much longer now.”
Safe. Despite everything that’d happened this week, right now, with him only feet away, with both of them cocooned in shadows, Reese did feel secure. His presence did that. She’d never asked for protection. Should have found its mantle suffocating. It was only bearable because of Hayes. The realization made him even more tempting. And far more dangerous.
“I know.”
The irony wasn’t lost on her. A woman who prided herself on self-reliance now found comfort in someone else's strength. She watched him from across the dim room, his profile outlined by the faint wedge of light afforded by her partially opened bedroom door. Even sitting, his pose looked vigilant. Shoulders tense. Muscles readied. She should have recalled every ounce of self-preservation and entered the other room. Closed the bedroom door behind her. But she was rooted in place, held by an unknown force.
“You need rest.” His voice was low and rough with exhaustion. But there was a note, little more than a thread of a plea in his words and she knew intuitively what elicited it. It was beyond her to listen.
Her fingers released her grip on the bag, and it made a gentle thud on the carpet. Reese crossed to sink next to him, feeling the springs through the lumpy mattress. “So do you,” she whispered and leaned over to kiss his jaw, dragging her lips back and forth over the stubbled skin. “I think we’ll sleep better together.” His body was still unyielding, rigid as stone, and she moved to straddle him, placing her hands on either side of his face as she whispered against his lips, “This doesn’t have to change anything.” Even she recognized her lie.