Torn - Cynthia Eden Page 0,60
in him.
Dace grunted. “I’ve got men tracking down the owner of this place—once we get him, we’ll have—”
“What? The killer?” Wade wasn’t so sure of that.
“If he’s not the killer, then the owner can damn well give us some clues. If some sick prick has been using this place as his personal torture grounds for years, you can bet the owner should have known.”
Maybe. Maybe not. Wade glanced around, trying to find Victoria. He knew she would be working with the ground-penetrating radar equipment soon, and if the dogs had indeed found the site of Kennedy’s burial . . . yeah, she’d be staying there for a while.
He intended to stay with her.
He hadn’t been bullshitting her before. Victoria didn’t get just how important she was to him. And the fact that the freak doing the killing had contacted her directly—
“Do you think he’s going to take someone else?” Dace asked.
Wade had just caught sight of Victoria’s red hair, glinting in the sunlight. She stared at him a moment, her expression tense. Her phone was cradled in her hand.
“Yeah,” he said, voice gruff, unable to tear his gaze from her. “I think he is. Freaks like him—they don’t stop. They don’t just wake up one morning and say, ‘Fuck me, I’m done with killing.’ It’s a compulsion. They can’t stop. They won’t.” Wade paused. “He won’t. And the bastard probably already has his next victim in mind . . .”
Victoria pushed her phone into her pocket and hurried toward him.
“We have to stop him,” Wade said, voice soft, “before he has the chance to attack.”
Then Victoria was in front of him. She looked too pale, and dark shadows slid under her beautiful eyes. They’d both been up all night long and he knew they should crash, but it wasn’t about to happen.
At least, not anytime soon.
He exhaled and said, “Dace thinks the dogs have found Kennedy’s burial site.”
Her eyes widened.
A van pulled up, its tires slowly rolling to a stop.
Victoria glanced at it then back at him and Dace. “That’s the equipment we’ve been waiting for. If bodies are buried near the cottage, we’ll find them.”
So the ground-penetrating radar had arrived.
Dace hurried off to go talk to the personnel who’d arrived with the van. Victoria started to follow him, but Wade blocked her path.
She tensed. He didn’t like that. Hadn’t they gone further than that shit? But he’d let his control crack on the beach, and now maybe she was seeing him for the man that he truly was.
Not so good.
Far too much bad.
“I’ll tell you my secrets,” Wade told her. “Every single fucking one when we’re alone. But I need you to promise me something—”
“My past—”
He shook his head. “Promise me that you won’t go off alone. That you stay with me or another cop. You stay protected until we figure out what the hell is happening here.” Because he didn’t want her to become the killer’s next victim.
Not her.
Never her.
“Do I get the same promise from you?” Her head was cocked as she stared up at him.
“I’ll be fucking glad to stay by your side.” He couldn’t think of any other place he’d rather be, but she didn’t get that. Not yet.
She would.
“Then . . . yes, I promise.” Her voice had softened.
“Thank you.” He was finally able to take a deep breath. “Now let’s go see if the bastard left any other bodies here.”
CHAPTER TEN
WHAT IN THE hell are all you people doing on my property?” The loud, barking voice drew Victoria’s attention.
She’d been searching with the ground radar team for most of the morning. Sweat dampened her clothes, and she’d yanked her hair back into a ponytail. So far they’d had no luck finding any other bodies.
Was that a good thing?
Or a bad one?
Her gaze turned at the sharp voice and she saw an older man pushing against two uniformed police officers. A grizzled white beard covered his jaw and his clothes were far too loose, hanging on his lean frame. “You people—get out of here!” he yelled. “You can’t be here!”
“And I think we just found the owner,” Wade murmured from his spot beside Victoria.
Like her, he was also covered with a light sheen of sweat. The sun had glared down on them as they kept working with the team, determined to search as thoroughly as possible.
She saw Dace approach the older man at a fast clip. Wade inclined his head. She immediately understood—he wanted to get over there and listen to whatever conversation was