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CHAPTER ONE

Virginia

I t wasn’t Addie Franklin’s choice to meet with a killer. The coffee shop had more than enough open seats. She chose the one beside the table occupied by a serial murderer because she’d been ordered to.

Before she even sat, the barista called out her dry cappuccino. She left her phone on the table and strode to retrieve it. As she did so, the voice of a coworker on the FBI task force sounded in her ear.

“You caught his attention.”

Addie winced as though the cup holding the hot beverage were the cause. Sure, she was here tonight for precisely that purpose—to get noticed. She’d even worn a business-appropriate dress of all things.

But drawing attention to herself hadn’t sat right since…

She could still feel the bugs crawl over her skin. A remnant of that day years ago, the night she’d been homecoming queen.

That had been another life.

The FBI profiler she was now, a Special Agent with the FBI, settled into her seat. She smoothed down the dress in the process and caught the eye of a rapist and murderer. Not exactly idea of a fun Friday night, but considering her lack of social life, she couldn’t say much about that.

Addie lifted the mug. The napkin it sat on came with it, then fluttered to the floor.

William Benning retrieved it out of the air before it could hit the tile and handed it back to her.

“Thank you.” She opted for a polite expression. There was no way she would show interest. Though, with a guy like this, what set him off was precisely the reason she was here.

The team needed him to admit enough of what he’d done that they had cause to bring him in and question him further. And they needed to know where he buried his victims.

Anything she learned would add to the profile already complied on him. “Can you believe how long it’s been raining?” Addie held her smile and waited for his response.

The color in his eyes was so dark it bled into his pupils. His gaze seemed to track her like a laser targeting system as questions resonated in her.

What caused him to flip the switch and decide on destruction?

When he finished, where did he hide the bodies?

Lines ringed his mouth on both sides. Prominent cheekbones. The images they had of him didn’t do justice to the impact of his presence. Life moved around him, the world that hummed with the energy of existence—those electrical impulses and the forces of physics that acted on every human being. This guy was a void. Existence ground to a halt when it encountered him.

Inside there seemed to be nothing. Stillness.

A black hole.

She’d seen it before, and yet every time Addie felt the impact as though it were the first time.

His expression shifted, a slight flex of his nose. “I like the rain. It washes away transgressions.”

She lifted her brows and nodded as though considering that interesting statement. Internally she added “religious bent” to the profile she’d complied of him and his proclivities so far.

Addie had grown up in church, going to summer Bible camps. How she felt about her faith, the past fifteen years was… She pretty much tried not to think about God and how He felt about her—which was nothing good.

She took a few sips of the cappuccino and pretended to be engrossed in her phone.

Benning just sat there without even a newspaper or electronic device.

The task force had been hunting this guy for nearly two years. They’d finally managed to identify him, although it was pending confirmation.

They needed evidence that would remove any shadow of a doubt he was responsible for the disappearance of twelve women and the murder of at least seven of them. Five were still unaccounted for, but the task force had connected them to the case. To this man. When they were found, it would be twelve counts of first-degree murder.

This guy wouldn’t see freedom.

Addie could use religion as an angle. Hyper-religiosity was something she’d studied as part of her psychology degree. It could be a way to connect with him. Possibly worth a try.

Her phone buzzed with a notification.

Addie frowned. Hadn’t she turned off the app alerts for that TV channel? The notification was for a new show set to air in a few days titled Where Are They Now?

Her chest tightened until she had to take a long inhale and push it out slowly. That story began in high school when she’d fallen into the popularity track that led to being crowned prom queen and a TV special that aired around Halloween every year…and ended with this career as an FBI profiler.

“Everything okay?”

She glanced at Benning.

“Seems like maybe that wasn’t good news.”

Addie shook her head. “I don’t like good news. It predisposes you to look for hope, and there isn’t any. Better to face reality instead.”

Her job held plenty of cold, ugly truth based on facts and what could be proven. Evidence. Convictions. People like William Benning were a puzzle she’d been trying to solve since homecoming, senior year. Three days later, she’d been taken to the hospital. She’d never gone back to school but instead finished with a private tutor her uncle had hired. As soon as she could, Addie left town. She’d barely been back since.

Just the idea of going there made her want to run out the door and not look back.

Benning said, “I find myself firmly rooted in reality also, though sometimes life can be sweet.”

The way he said it made Addie’s skin crawl.

“But the taste of anticipation…” He let that question hang.

“What is it like?”

“Lemons in summer. Sharpness and sweet in one touch of the tongue.”

She was about to jump out of the chair. Only the mutter in her ear of the agent listening kept her grounded. She was here to do her job. No way would she say the code phrase that would send the entire team swarming in the door. Even if going solo was the last thing she wanted. They could decide to do it anyway, but she needed him to talk more before that happened.

“You know that taste, don’t you, Addie?”

Noise erupted in her ear, but all she heard was a buzzing as everything melted around her. All she could hear and see was William Benning.

“You know what fear smells like.”

I know what your victims feel.

She’d been there. In that place where there was nothing but terror. Even though she hadn’t been alone, it still enveloped her. Sank into her skin. The fear had become part of every inch of who she was. It had crawled into her soul and left a stain she’d never been able to get rid of.

“Yes.” Addie fought the urge to shift in her seat. “I’ll admit I do.”

“It’s probably why you do this job.”

He knew who she was. Maybe he knew this entire encounter was an FBI attempt at tugging information from him. A long shot but deemed worth it. Now? Given the yelling in her earpiece, it seemed they’d decided to call it quits. Addie wasn’t going to get up and walk out. Not now that Benning seemed willing to reveal information.

“You’ve done your homework.” On the people chasing you.

Benning probably wanted to know who he was up against. That had to mean he considered them formidable enemies. Or he needed the information so he could continue to work on the assumption he was so far superior to them there was no contest.

Then there was the regard he had for other killers like him. Did he consider himself unique in the world or part of a brotherhood of sorts?

His gaze remained steady on her. “I know all about you.”

Everything in Addie wanted her to look away. Break their stare down. But she couldn’t. He considered her of no more value than any of his victims—something she shared with them. They were nothing but an amusement to be used and then tossed aside when the fascination wore off. No one should ever feel like that. Which was the only reason she’d agreed to do this.

“You don’t believe me.” He paused. “But you’ll see.”

“You know my team?” She tried to brush it off. “I could say the same about you, for all you know.”

“Not your team. You.”

She lifted her coffee cup and took a sip, giving him a side view of her so he had a moment to seethe over her dismissal. Inside, she was the one seething. The FBI task force was a team. Why would he single her out? It made no sense.

The dance of this conversation had to be nothing but a curiosity to her. Though, she would never admit as much to her coworkers. They already thought she was a freak.

None of them knew why she didn’t want to do this.

“You cannot comprehend what I am.”

“No?” She glanced over her shoulder, but kept her body turned toward the counter.

If he wanted to make this about her, she would give him only what she wanted him to take.

Addie set her cup down. “You think I haven’t seen exactly what you are? That I haven’t lived it until I vomited up the taste of the foul thing that you are.”

His jaw flexed. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed.

“ That is why I do this job. So people like you can be caged where you belong.”

“All in reciprocity for the fact you were caged.”

“In a cabin, with a friend of mine. A very long time ago.” Words didn’t have power of their own; they were just sounds. Syllables, vowels, and consonants. Speaking them aloud was a kind of exorcism—the release of not holding back anymore.

That lifetime ago event had altered the entire course of her life. She didn’t even know who that girl was, the Adelyn Franklin she had one been, the girl who’d been so excited for the homecoming dance. The moment the clock struck midnight everything had changed.

He saw through it. “One day, you will not be so brave.”

“Because you’re going to hurt me like you hurt all the others?” She held the mug in both hands. Anything to warm her from the chill coming off him. “Bury me in some unmarked grave where no one will ever find me.”

He stared.

“You don’t want anyone to find me.” Or the others.

After a moment of silence, he spoke. “Everything hidden will one day be revealed, and the lost will finally be found.”

She leaned a fraction toward him, not feeling any of the bravado she tried to show. “We’re going to bring them all home.”

He shifted then. Her earpiece exploded, but she raised two fingers for them to hold. William Benning lifted a folded paper from the inside of his jacket. He reached over and laid it on her table.

Addie stared at the paper, then unfolded it and stared at the girl in the photo. Not one of his victims.

Her.

He knew exactly who she was.

She was vaguely aware of him moving closer to her until he whispered in her ear, “This one will come home to me .”

Addie stood. The chair she’d been sitting on fell back. Coffee spilled across the table. She backed away from his smug smile, breathing hard.

The front door of the coffee shop burst open, and a swarm of agents rushed in. Guns raised. Her ears rang with the shouts.

Benning raised both hands and set them on the top of his head. An agent she knew well spun him, then slammed his torso against a tabletop. Benning was cuffed in time for her boss to see it when he walked in.

SAC Matt Zimmerman had been her boyfriend for three months before he’d quit attempting to get her to open up to him and take things to a “deeper” level. Whatever that meant.

They’d had bigger problems.

He strode right up to her while the others pretended they weren’t listening to all of it. “What was that?”

Addie motioned to photo taken of her after being checked into the hospital. Fifteen years ago, but it may as well have been yesterday even if she wanted to forget all about it. One look, and she was right back there.

“Benning knew exactly what button to push.” Zimmerman’s jaw flexed.

Addie nodded. “Zimmerman?—”

He cut her off with a shake of his head. “The next words out of your mouth had better be that you need some time off.”

“I told you I didn’t want to do this.”

“So you sabotaged the whole thing just to prove me right?”

She pressed her lips together. That was what he thought? There was no reason for him to be mad at her over this. What was going on?

“Take the weekend. Go home.”

She shook her head. “I don’t need?—”

“We all need a break after this one.” Zimmerman shot her a pointed look. “Once the details are wrapped up, everyone is taking a long weekend. But you’re spinning out.”

“The team has this handled.” She wasn’t going to let them fail.

“Good. They can handle it while you take a break.”

Addie opened her mouth to argue.

His jaw hardened. “I don’t wanna see you tomorrow.”

Addie’s eyes burned. I don’t need you right now, Ads. Her mother’s voice echoed in her head. I have Greg, and you don’t fit with that. Russ will take care of you.