Way of the Shadows (Shadow Agents #8)(36)
Author: Cynthia Eden

She felt as if she were missing something.

“I’ll do what I must, in order to protect you.”

She wasn’t asking for protection.

His head bent, and Thomas pressed a kiss to her lips. He seemed to savor her. Almost helplessly, Noelle leaned toward him. After the madness of the past few days, Thomas was the only certain thing in her life.

When they touched, she needed.

When they kissed, she wanted.

He’d gotten past her guard when no other man had. Because of their shared past? Perhaps. But maybe it was just because he was…Thomas.

He let the kiss linger. She never wanted it to end. She wished they didn’t have a killer waiting. She wanted to be with Thomas. To push away the fear and worry and simply live.

But he stepped back. “My first loyalty is to you. Remember that.”

She could still taste him.

“From here on out, it always will be.” He turned away from her and marched down the hall.

Noelle realized her fingers were trembling again, and a chill had slid down her spine. It was strange. Thomas’s words had sounded like a warning.

But what else did he need to protect her from?

* * *

THE LITTLE SHERIFF’S station in Camden didn’t have any interrogation rooms, but the place did sport two cells. And Patrick Porter was currently pacing the floor in one of those narrow cells.

When Noelle started walking toward him, he immediately stopped that pacing. His head snapped up, and he smiled at her.

She heard Thomas growl behind her.

She and Thomas were the only two conducting this interrogation. Mercer had gotten Aaron to install a video camera, and the feed was going back to him. Mercer wouldn’t be making a personal appearance for this questioning period, though, not unless he absolutely needed to do so. Noelle knew when it came to EOD prisoners, Mercer had a policy of standing back.

Because he’d been burned too many times before.

“Did the sheriff die?” Patrick didn’t sound particularly concerned about that possibility. Actually, he was more gleeful.

Noelle shook her head. “He’s stable.” At least, that was what she’d been told moments before. “He’s on his way to the hospital. Your bullet missed its mark.”

The glee faded as the faint lines near his eyes tightened. “I don’t miss my mark.”

“You did this time.” She nodded toward him. Blood had broken through on his shirt. “Maybe the wound I gave you made you weak.”

He laughed. “Nothing makes me weak.” His gaze slid to Thomas. “Bet you can’t say the same.”

Thomas didn’t say anything.

“We want to know where the bodies are,” Noelle said softly. “That’s the only reason we’re talking to you right now. We know about all of the victims, starting with Emma Jane in Charleston.”

“You have no clue about my victims.” Disgust laced the words.

“We found your photographs. We saw the girls—”

Patrick laughed. She truly hated the sound of his grating laughter. His eyes were still on Thomas, but they were starting to fill with what looked like…recognition? “I’ll be damned,” the killer said as he advanced toward the bars. “It really is you…and she has no clue, does she? Dragon.”

Thomas still wasn’t speaking.

Patrick’s fingers curled around the bars. “Your hair’s shorter. Your face is harder. Looks like you broke your nose a few times over the years.” He laughed. “They’ve got you in here? Don’t they know what you’ve done?” His gaze came back to Noelle. “What he did to you.”

When they’d been in that hallway, Thomas sure hadn’t mentioned he knew the suspect. But then, he’d been busy kissing her. Noelle’s heart was galloping in her chest, but she didn’t let her expression alter. Dragon. The guy could’ve learned of Thomas’s moniker in a dozen ways. He could just be playing with them now.

“I want to know where those girls are,” Noelle said again.

Patrick’s hold tightened around the bars. “Get the Dragon here to tell you.”

A knot of tension formed at the nape of her neck. Push him. Don’t let him get to you. “I know you were involved with Emma Jane. She was your girl, right? And she tried to leave you.”

Now, that got his gaze flying toward her. “You don’t know a damn thing about Emma!”

“I know that you two had matching necklaces. Hearts. You gave one half of the heart to her, and you wore its mate. When she betrayed you, well, that was when you snapped. You kidnapped her. You tortured her. Then you killed her.”

Silence.

Patrick rested his forehead against the bars. “Every killer starts somewhere, right, Dragon?”

She didn’t like the way the guy kept baiting Thomas. Worse, she didn’t like the ice that kept growing in her gut. Ice that told Noelle she was missing something. Something very, very important.

“Are all the girls dead?” She stepped a bit closer to the cell. Not too close, though, because she didn’t want him to be able to grab her. “Senator Duncan had pictures of them in his shed, but they were your pictures, weren’t they? Pictures you’d taken to remind you of the kills.”

“Duncan is dead,” Patrick murmured. “And he never even saw the attack coming.”

Beside her, Thomas shifted his stance, a ripple of movement that seemed menacing.

“Duncan thought he could control me, but I got tired of playing by his rules.” Patrick’s stare, a bright, glinting blue, raked over her. Dark stubble lined his jaw and his skin was a deep gold. “Especially when he sent me after you.”

She stared back into those blue eyes and knew she was staring straight at evil.

“I remember you. I never forgot you.” His head lifted from the bars as he laughed. “Dragon, there, he killed the wrong man. Did you know that? Justin Hardin wasn’t the one hunting you. He was just the one to keep you in that cabin. You fought him, though, and you got away. You ran. Justin wasn’t good at hunting, not like me. He called me, said he was going after you. Promised he’d have you waiting for me…”

“I wasn’t waiting,” Noelle snapped out as more pieces from her past slid into place.

“Because the Dragon killed Justin.” He shook his head and focused on Thomas once more. “Did you do it to protect the girl…or because you didn’t want Justin telling what he knew about you?”

Noelle rocked forward onto the balls of her feet. “How about you tell me how those pictures wound up with Senator Duncan, or maybe…maybe you want me to guess on that? Because I’ve got some ideas…”