Page 77 of Temptation
But Preston was blocking anyone else’s view. He led the way, keeping the umbrella positioned over her head at the same time. Every step, he was her shield.
He opened the back of the Range Rover. Dug around and hauled out a blue blanket. “Here.” But then he was wrapping it around her. Curling it over her shoulders and pulling it over her chest even as he tried to balance the umbrella. “It will…uh, keep you warm.”
“And covered? So I can stop flashing everyone?”
“They need to keep their damn eyes off you. This is a crime scene. They should be focused on the vic.” With that, he curled a hand around her waist. One on the waist, one on the umbrella. Still trying to protect me from the rain.
A few more steps, and Preston opened the rear passenger door for her, but she didn’t enter the vehicle. Instead, Sloane turned toward him. Her hand slid over the door. “Do you think he left a carving on one of the trees near the grave?”
“He’s playing with us. So, yeah, my gut says the sonofabitch did. Marking his territory. Claiming his kills.”
He didn’t kill us. Not yet. A terrible suspicion swirled inside of her, and she hated to voice it but… “I don’t think we were the first.”
His head lowered toward hers. “What?”
“You don’t do all of this without a practice run. If we’re looking at a copycat, I don’t think he would start with you. You don’t go after the big game without making sure that you’re ready.” You’d start smaller. Easier. “He already had a second coffin. Don’t you see what that means?”
“Get in the car, Sloane.”
She did not. “It means he had the coffins ready. Multiple coffins,” Sloane stressed. “He’s been planning this.”
“I don’t even know what this is! An attack on me? Killing some innocent woman?”
Her gut told her there could have already been another victim before Preston was taken. “You don’t immediately jump into the deep end when you’re learning to swim. You have to get used to the water. You have to learn your strokes?—”
“You have to learn how to hold your fucking breath.”
Yes, you did. “Predators escalate. They don’t start at the top. I-I think he didn’t start with you. I think there could be another victim out there. Someone we have not found yet.”
Gently, he pushed her into the vehicle. Slammed the door. She stared up at him through the glass, reminded way too much of how she’d felt when Debra Tooni had loaded her into the back of a patrol car and Preston had watched her drive away.
But he wasn’t just watching now. He hurried around to the opposite side of the vehicle. Her head turned as she watched him. He was locking a hand on Frankie’s shoulder. Leaning close to whisper to him and to Noble. She frowned and?—
A fist thudded into the window near her.
“Shit!” Sloane jumped and put a hand to her heart. What was up with people pounding on the window of the vehicle? First Noble and now—who the hell was this? Her head whipped back toward the window. Water streaked across the glass.
The fist hit again. Then a face came in close to the window. Adam’s face.
She couldn’t roll down the window. It was electric and the vehicle was still turned off. Sloane grabbed the handle. She shoved open the door. The blanket Preston had given her fell off her shoulders.
Adam’s hand curled around her wrist. “You got out.”
Yes, yes, she was getting out of the vehicle?—
“You got out of the grave, but she didn’t. Why didn’t Bridget?” His grip tightened. He was holding the wrist that had been bruised from the handcuff, and his hard grip had her sucking in a sharp breath as pain cut through her.
“She was a good person. The first friend I made when I came to this town and took the EMT job. She wanted to help everyone she met. Her job was to help people.” A ragged breath. “Why didn’t she get out?”
“I—”
“Let her the fuck go. Now.” Preston’s rumbling voice.
But Adam just tightened his grip. He never looked away from Sloane as the rain poured down on them. “She was stiff and cold. She wouldn’t open her eyes. She’s gone, and you’re?—”
Preston grabbed Adam and hauled him away from her. In a flash, Preston pinned the EMT to the side of the vehicle. “I said…let her the fuck go.” Preston drew back his right fist.
She grabbed his arm. “Preston, no! No! Look at me!”
