Page 44 of Savior
She looks away. “He tried to.” There’s a long pause and then she lifts a shoulder. “After the trial, where I had to testify against the man I thought I loved, I left Miami, changed my name. For the last year I drifted until I came back to Florida. To Jacksonville. I wanted to be back home and I thought it was close as I could get. That’s where I met Chloe.” A ghost of smile drifts across her lips. “She worked in the travel agency where I worked for a little while, and it was the best I’d felt in a really long time.”
“What made you come here?”
“He won an appeal and I couldn’t...I just couldn’t stay. It was too close. I moved around again until Chloe convinced me to come here.” Her shoulders lift. “Guess it wasn’t far enough, but I’m pretty sure he could find me, no matter where I went.”
Awareness snaps my spine straight. “Are you saying the man who attacked you last night was your ex?”
“I can’t be certain. I didn’t see his face.”
“What’s his name? Why didn’t you tell the police when they interviewed you?”
“His name is Gavin. Gavin Lance. I think I was in shock at the time.” The shadows under her eyes are darker than ever, and she looks like she’s about to drop. “I thought I was doing the right thing when I ran. I thought if he couldn’t find me, then I could live out my life. I didn’t know he’d do this again.”
I pull her into my arms. “It could be a coincidence, but I’ll check on it, Sienna. I’ll find out where he is.” The likelihood we of us having two men committing the same crime hundreds of miles apart isn’t likely. I’ll go over the reports from the other crimes to be sure and to help ease her mind.
“I can’t stay here,” she says into my chest. “If he’s found me, there are people in danger. I can’t be responsible for it again.”
“You aren’t.” She tucks her legs up into her chest as if she can minimize the hurt by holding it close. I smooth a hand down her back. “You aren’t. He is, honey. And if you keep running, you’re only going to change the location, not the events.”
“I’m so tired,” she says.
“You sleep here,” I tell her. “I’ve got you.”
* * *
The next morning, I leave her curled up on her bed and let Rocky out the back door to do his business. After she fell asleep in my arms, I put her in her room and slept on the couch. There was no way in hell I was leaving her alone.
I’m not close with many people in the department. After I beat a suspect involved in the kidnapping of Ben’s son, Cole, most of the other officers like to keep their distance. As a sniper, I got used to spending most of my time alone. The only person who really doesn’t give a shit about any of the interdepartmental politics is a wiry old bastard named Eli Colson. He’s older than dirt but moves like lightning. He reminds me of a leathery rattlesnake waiting to strike.
With my phone pressed to my ear, I unwind the hose to water her budding garden. His gruff voice answers after a couple rings. “Colson.”
“Hey, it’s Blackwell.”
“Guessing you have a good reason for calling at the crack of dawn,” he says after a yawn.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a good one. It’s about the Gallagher case.”
“Might as well get up and get some coffee in me,” he mumbles, and I hear the loud squeak of bedsprings in the background. “Lay it on me.”
“I need any information you can get on a serial murder investigation that took place in Miami involving a Gavin Lance.”
“What does this have to do with the Gallagher case?”
I scrub a hand over my face. “The woman I’m seeing? She was attacked yesterday in a similar fashion. Blitz attack in the park. She gave a statement at the time of the attack, but she’ll need to give another. When we got back to her place she explained it could be Lance.”
“Why in the sam hell doesn’t she think that?”
“She was involved in the Lance case. Her ex-fiancé was convicted in the deaths of five women with a similar MO.”
“Well, shit,” Colson says.
“Can you do it for me?”
“I’m surprised you think you have to ask.”
“I’m going to stay with her today. She’s still a little shaken up.”
“You take care of your lady. I’ll handle this. Keep an eye out, you hear?”