Page 100 of Protecting Peyton

Zane gave my shoulder a squeeze. “Don’t worry. We’ll keep you safe.”

“Winston,” Lucas continued. “Better locks for this place tomorrow, and secure the door and windows.”

The big man nodded. “On it.”

“What does that mean?” I asked Zane.

Lucas heard me. “A more solid door and bars on the windows. It may seem extreme, but it’s better to have protection you don’t use than be short an item that could have prevented a breach.”

I sucked in a breath and vowed to stay quiet next time.Breachsounded more like bad guys storming a fort than entering Zane’s cute house.

Lucas pivoted. “Jordy, let’s upgrade the alarm system to the max.”

Jordy’s typing didn’t slow one bit. “Copy that. I have one more thing.”

Lucas waited.

The rest of us looked over.

Jordy adjusted the screen of his laptop. “One of the new bloggers following the Strangler case has suggested that there is a second criminal involved, and the police are keeping it a secret. Two of the cases have slight differences from the others.”

“A copycat?” Duke asked.

The tech guy kept typing. “That’s the implication. The third and the fourth.”

“A murder and rape club,” Winston scoffed. “Peachy.”

Lucas shook his head. “Anything more than that one opinion from the web?”

Jordy shook his head. “Not on that, but another guy noticed something else that the cops haven’t said and the newspaper types didn’t catch—victims of serial killers are generally single women, but this guy is an equal opportunity asshole and includes married women.”

Lucas scowled. “We’ll wait to see what the case file says. Until then, nothing changes.”

Zane’s hand stroked down my arm and back up to my shoulder. I settled into the couch cushions and closed my eyes to listen.

Sometime later, Zane shook my shoulder. “Wake up, sleepyhead. We’re done.”

Blinking my eyes open, I realized I must have nodded off. Terry andGrace were up out of their seats. I heard Lucas’s voice from the kitchen. Winston was looking over Jordy’s shoulder at his screen.

Serena smiled at me from across the coffee table. She was alone.

“Where’s Duke?” The couch cushions tried to suck me back down as I struggled to sit up.

“Already outside,” she said as she stood.

“What did I miss?”

Zane’s hand slid down my back. “Nothing important, Angel.”

I had no right to be anybody’s angel, but once again, this man’s words turned my insides to mush. Leaning farther forward, I got to my feet. As I did, the room seemed to sway slightly, but a quick hand to the coffee table prevented a stumble.

“You should lie down and call it a night.”

Zane’s deep, suggestive voice had my thoughts going to much more than a peaceful night’s sleep between the sheets. Looking over, I nodded. “And I think you should lie down.”

How could I have ever been stupid enough to think I should run from him? Right now, the only thing my brain could compute was that it would take me less than a minute to strip his clothes off and be riding him once the door closed behind us.

“I have to talk to Lucas,” he said as he took my hand. “But first, I’ll get you settled.”