Page 115 of Compulsion
“Forget being like Dr.Owen.That’s bull.You two, though…” Desmond motioned between Atlas and Lily.“You’re both just the hell alike,” Desmond accused.
Atlas reached for Lily’s hand.His fingers curled with hers.“Well, what can I say?She’s my soulmate.”
Her hand jerked in his.Hard.
He merely tightened his grip.“Keep working on the security footage from Benedict’s house, would you, Desmond?And let me know if you findanythingthat rings an alarm for you.” Atlas’s own internal alarms had been ringing all morning.
But Desmond was shaking his head.“Screw that.I’ll delegate the task.Someone else can look through the footage.I’ll be the one riding behind you and covering your ass in case the prick you are hunting decides to come afteryou.”
“Didn’t you hear?”Atlas kept his hold on Lily.Why did you flinch, sweets?Don’t you know what you are to me?“Our perp is either in New Orleans or Oklahoma City.That means I should be completely safe right now.”
Desmond’s dark eyes narrowed.“That what you really believe?”
“I believe…that I’m going hunting.”
“I’m…notwrong about the targets.”Lily’s halting words as they pulled away from his estate.
He glanced through the window, his gaze drawn to the crowd of reporters.Oh, what shock.Dr.Phillip Owen had paused to speak with them.“Profile him.”
“What?”
His legs stretched out in front of him.Carl was driving, the privacy screen was up, and Atlas lounged in the seat across from Lily.“The ER doc who showed up on our doorstep today.”Theourpart of that sentence just slipped out.Felt natural as hell to say.“Profile him for me.”
She hesitated.“I’m not part of the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit.”
“Nah.You’re probably better than them all.That’s why Gage used you, isn’t it?The dick.”He really did not like that jerk.Then again, he liked few people.I just dislike him a little bit extra.“He knew you understood killers, and he used your talent to advance his own career.”
Her head turned.As the silence stretched in the back of the limo, she looked at the reporters.At Dr.Phillip Owen.“Do you want to know if I think he could be a threat?If he could be our killer?”
“That guy is no killer.He’s a glory hound, a narcissist, but I don’t know that he has the killer instinct in him.”Atlas scraped a hand over his jaw.He hadn’t bothered to shave that morning, unlike Phillip Owen, and the stubble pricked against his fingers.“If he was going to kill, it would be far more subtle, like deliberately screwing up during a surgery.Slicing a patient where and when he shouldn’t.Letting them bleed out right in front of him even as he faked trying to save the poor vic.”
“Sounds like you’re pretty good at profiling, Atlas.”
He’d had to learn what made others tick.Learning that helped him to manipulate them better.“Give me your take on him.”
“Narcissist.Yes.I agree with you on that one.I would also wager that he has low self-esteem.He wants to be admired by his peers and by women, in particular, but he struggles in that aspect.He didn’t achieve his dream of being a psychiatrist, and I think that eats at him.He feels he would have been incredibly successful in that field, if…well, I would suspect he blames others for his life not working out quite as he wanted.”
“He’s a doctor.Isn’t that successful enough for him?”That would certainly be a huge measure of success for a whole lot of people.
“He’s currently surrounded by a flock of reporters, and he’s grinning from ear to ear.Does that seem like the kind of man who is happy working in a crowded ER?Not sure his current job is the success story he wanted.”
So the doc wanted more fawning attention, check.Wanted to be a celebrity.The star of the show.“You didn’t say whether or not you thought Phillip Owen could kill.”
“I don’t think he’s aphysicalkiller.Not sure that makes sense, but I suppose I mean that I don’t really see him dragging you through that cabin.It takes physical strength to do that.Not sure he has that.”Her hands pressed to her thighs.“I’d even wondered before if it might have takentwopeople to move you, but I only recalled one attacker.”
He snapped to attention.“You didn’t mention this important point before.”Twoattackers?Since when?
“I didn’t mention it because I have no proof.One person could have done the job.One could drag me, then you.Absolutely, it could be done.Two just would have made the job easier.With the other attacks in Dallas, there was never any indication of a second perpetrator, so that idea is probably wrong.”
Probably.
“So, again, I didn’t see the point in mentioning it if I was just going to be wrong.”
His fingers drummed on the leather seat.“You don’t want me to be your soulmate.”
She flinched.“Excuse me?”
Atlas allowed a slow, taunting smile to curve his lips.“Soulmate.”
