She saw him then, a teenager with sandy hair, an evil glint in his dark eyes, and a sadistic smirk on his face. And she saw him now, with less hair, but the same intense eyes, and the smirk that had so often appeared on his face when he voiced his objections in the conference room.
Lexie couldn’t control the tears that burst forward, dripping down her cheeks to pool against the cloth binding her mouth. She couldn’t control the agony at realizing all this time he’d been so close, yet so far away, his image locked tight in the recesses of her mind. She saw Aunt Bev’s eyes, wide with horror, and the way she’d shaken her head to instruct her to be silent. She saw her blonde hair, tumbling over the back of the seat as he slammed his fist against her face. Then she heard the sounds. The hideous grunts and growls from the man who killed her aunt, while the eight-year-old in the back floorboard listened in terror. And she heard the whimpered pleas, Aunt Bev begging for him to save her, pleading for him to have mercy for her unborn child.
And then Lexie saw his face. The face of a teen possessed by something too horrible to name, a determination to conquer, to kill, to destroy Angel’s mother.
The face of Ryan Sims.
“Well, Lex, you worked this out right nice, didn’t you?” He shoved her on the bed, then laughed while he yanked her hands above her head.
Lexie stared as he bound her wrists and gloated about his victory. “Just think, in a little while, I’ll get to visit the scene of the latest crime, like always, but this time, what do you know? I’ll find the killer. All dead and taken care of by his victim. I couldn’t have planned it better myself. Even setting up ol’ Tiny Tina to take the fall for the beloved sheriff didn’t work out this nicely. And who’d have thought? Paul Kingsley, my old buddy from the Fellowship, the Sunrise Killer. Sounds like lead story material, huh? A shame you won’t be around to air the details.”
He leaned over her, pressed his wet lips against her ear. “You remember when you first moved to town, Ms. McCain? I tried and tried to get you to pay me a bit of attention, have coffee, dinner, anything. You were so pretty and so smart. I thought you were the perfect one, the one meant for me. Well, you’re smart. Smart enough to find someone to take the blame for the murders. Poor Paul. Bet he never saw it coming.”
She cried out, the sound muffled within the cloth boundary.
“Funny thing will be when all those girls who left town come back, then one of them has to die in forty days. Real hilarious, don’t you think? I’m guessing that pretty profiler will peg it as a copycat killing, and then they’ll start the search all over again, looking for a different kind of guy, one totally different from me.”
Lexie’s eyes darted around the room. What to do? Angel had taught her so well. Gun use. Self-defense. Everything. Why couldn’t she make herself remember what to do now?
“You’re still trying to think of a way to do me in, aren’t you, McCain? Yeah, well, go ahead. There’s nothing you can do to stop me. Don’t you understand? You hold the power. It’s in here.” He pressed a palm against her belly and pressed down hard. “And soon, I’ll claim it. You have no right to that power, and you don’t even understand. It’s for the chosen, the ones who’ve refrained from the sin, who are willing to adhere to the plan. I knew you and Tucker had been together. And then your office buddy saw your doctor receipt and called the police station so you’d be protected. Wasn’t that…thoughtful?” He laughed, the sound sinister, cold, evil.
She shook her head, willing him to stop.
Stop him, Lord. This is the time for Your vengeance. Please, save me.
He glared at her, the whites of his eyes looking sick in the blue haze of her bedroom. “It can’t be undone. You did this, like Hannah. She did this. She started it all, when she chose Finley over me, when she let him do the things to her that I never did. And then she carried the power, power that should have been mine. Now you have to pay the price. It’s decided. It’s done.”
Lexie’s tears came harder. She couldn’t stop the flow, and she couldn’t stop thinking of John.
John.
She’d found love again with John. And now, because of her stupidity, she’d die without knowing how far their love would’ve gone.
Determined to save herself, she kicked out, but his hands tightened against her neck.
“I’d thought the perfect one was the profiler. Imagine my surprise today when I learned it’s you.”
Lexie closed her eyes. She’d failed. She’d tried to avenge her aunt’s death, to make the killer pay for what he’d put her through back then, for what he’d put her grandfather through, and Angel, and all those victims’ families in the years that followed—and John—but she’d failed. And she couldn’t bear to watch him complete his goal.
The shot rang through the bedroom. Then the second one followed.
Lexie jerked her eyes open, saw Ryan’s body tense above her as a trickle of blood spilled from his mouth. Then he dropped to the floor.
She jerked her head to the doorway to view her rescuer.
There were two. Angel and John rushed into the room. John removed the boundary from her mouth and pulled her close. “Don’t ever scare me like that again.” He cradled her head. “Promise me now.”
“I promise.” She waited for him to untie her hands, then raised up to see Angel hovering over Ryan’s body on the floor. “He’s dead?”
“Oh yeah. I shoot to kill, remember?”
“You shot him?” Lexie looked at John.
“We both took a shot. If she wants to think hers did the trick, that works for me.”
“Mine did do the trick.”
Lexie remembered her boss and jerked upright. “Paul!”
“He’s going to be okay. The medics were right behind us, and they’re working on him now. You weren’t shooting to kill.” Angel cocked a brow at her cousin. “Which, in Paul’s case, is a good thing. You hit his side. He’s going to be in some pain, but I figure he’s gonna have you indebted to him for life, as far as working at the TV station. Might as well be ready for it.”
John wrapped Lexie in a blanket then scooped her into his arms. “I could’ve killed you for what you did.”
“You wouldn’t have had to. He’d have done it for you.”
He didn’t laugh, though Angel did manage a chuckle.
Ed Pierce and Lou Marker entered the bedroom with their guns leading the way.
“It’s all clear here.” John still cradled Lexie.
“The Feds were right,” Pierce said. “They traced TRUTHLUVR to Ryan’s IP address, but I still didn’t believe it.”
“Believe it.” Angel stepped away from the body. “He fits the profile, remember?”
“I know, but I never saw it.”
Zed Naylor entered, jerked his attention to the floor. “Dead?”
John nodded.
“Ryan.” Zed shook his head, strands of his gray hair catching the blue light and looking like neon silver.
“The CSI van is here.” Lou leaned back to peer down the hall. “And the medics have hauled Kingsley to the hospital. Who shot him? Sims?”
“No, I did.”
“Lexie? Why’d you do that?”
“I thought he was the killer.”
“Man, talk about the wrong way to go about getting a raise.” Lou grinned. “You okay, McCain?”
“Yes, I’m okay.”
Two hours later, the CSI team had completed their evaluation of the scene, the coroner had pronounced Ryan Sims dead, and the task force assembled once more, along with Etta Green, who’d hurried across town to verify Lexie was safe. This time, they weren’t gathered around a conference table at the police station to share lukewarm, bitter coffee. Instead, they gathered around Lexie’s kitchen table and sipped on hot, delicious coffee.
“So, you and Jackson are cousins?” Pierce stared at Lexie and Angel. “Guess I should’ve seen it. I mean, you favor in the eyes, but it isn’t a strong resemblance.”
“I favor my mother,” Angel said, “W
hich is nice, since I never had the opportunity to know her.”
“And I favor my father,” Lexie completed. “But we both have Granddaddy Truman’s eyes.”
“Who we’ll go visit tomorrow,” Angel added, “And let him know the killer is finally gone. Who knows? Maybe that’s all he needs to bring him out of his self-inflicted barrier and let him face the world again.”
“Wouldn’t that be wonderful?” Lexie looked from Angel to John. “If he could come back to us?”
“And get to know his future grandson-in-law.” John’s comment caused all heads, including Lexie’s, to turn toward the handsome detective.
“You trying to tell me something?”
“Trying to ask you something. And if you say yes, I hope your grandfather will be able and willing to give you away.”
Lexie’s chest flexed tight around her heart, overflowing with emotion for this man who’d given her a life she thought couldn’t exist for a girl terrorized many years ago. With lip quivering, chin trembling and tears trickling, Lexie McCain looked into the brilliant blue eyes of the man she loved and gave him the answer he wanted. “Yes.”
Etta Green pumped her arm in the air and let out a loud whoop, at the same time that Lexie’s cell phone beeped from the living room floor, where she’d dropped it when Ryan grabbed her.
“It’s after two in the morning. Who’d be calling now?” Angel crossed the room, picked it up and viewed the caller identification screen. “It’s the hospital.” She handed the phone to Lexie.
“Hello.”
“McCain.” Paul’s voice, thick and gravelly, rasped through the receiver.
“Oh, Paul, I’m so sorry. I am so sorry.”
“You’re fired.”
“I’m fired?” She listened to his laughter, which sounded painful from the way he also groaned. “Paul?”
“I’m joking, Lexie. But if you ever shoot me again, you can kiss your career goodbye.”
“Deal. Are—are you okay? I really am sorry.”
“I’m fine. Way I see it, I’ll get my own story on the news, and I figure the reporter will talk up my heroism, how I took the bullet with gusto and kept on ticking.”
“You can count on it.”
“Who knows? I may even land me a few dates from this gig.”
Lexie laughed.
“Hey, McCain.”
“What?”
“Reckon you can run the fort until I’m back at work? I figure you’re up for the challenge, given how you don’t mess around with things. Even guns.”
“I’ll be glad to.”
“Good. Now let me talk to that future Daddy.”
“Oh, Paul, I told you the truth. I’m not pregnant. John isn’t a future Daddy.” She held the phone toward John. “I think he’s mad at me again, and he wants to talk to you.”
Lexie watched John chat and nod to Paul on the other end, while Angel touched her arm.
“Hey, I need you to know something.” Angel’s words were whispered, but intense.
“Okay, what?”
“Tonight, I prayed again. Really prayed. Asked God to save me and my baby, and then, on our way over here, I asked him to save you. And He did.”
“Oh, Angel.” Lexie hugged her cousin, tears streaming down her face at the beauty of knowing after all this time, after so many years of pain and struggle, Angel had found God.
Then her attention was pulled back to John when she heard him ask Paul Kingsley to be best man in the wedding that, according to John, would occur as soon as possible. Good. She didn’t want to wait, either.
“And Paul, about that future Daddy thing.” John glanced at Lexie. “Don’t count me out just yet. But let us get married first, and then we’ll see.” He smiled, looked again at his future wife. “What do you think, Lexie? No more fears?”
She smiled. “No more fears.”
He hung up the phone, pulled her into his arms and whispered, “Future Daddy. Sounds good to me.”
She nodded, brushed the tears from her eyes. “Sounds good to me too.”
The End
Coming Next in the Profiled Series
Angel Jackson is back…
HUNTED, book two of the Profiled Series by Renee Andrews
A decapitated body is found in Tennessee. The head is found in Alabama. What was thought to be a drug deal gone bad ends up being something else entirely, when two more headless bodies are found.
A serial killer with a pension for chainsaws is baiting a pretty blonde profiler. And based on the identity of those gruesome bodies, this killer knows her secrets. Now it’s up to FBI Special Agent Angel Jackson...to learn his.
But identifying the killer isn’t Angel’s only problem with the murder series. The fact that the bodies are found in multiple states equates to a need for multiple profilers. And she fears the man Quantico will send for the joint effort is also the father of the child she carries. Stanley Carlton won her love and then broke her heart. Now he’s back, and Angel has to deal with an attraction that is even stronger now because of the bond they’ll forever share, a precious child.
Can she keep Stanley Carlton from learning her biggest secret? And will the two of them find a way to work together to stop the killer and, with God’s help, resurrect their love?
Author Bio
Renee Andrews spends a lot of time in the gym. No, she isn't working out. Her husband, a former All-American gymnast, co-owns ACE Cheer Company, an all-star cheerleading company. She is thankful the talented kids at the gym don't have a problem when she brings her laptop and writes while they sweat. When she isn't writing, she's typically traveling with her husband, bragging about their two sons and daughter-in-law or spoiling their bulldog.
Renee is a kidney donor and actively supports organ donation. She welcomes prayer requests and loves to hear from readers! Write to her at [email protected] or visit her Web site at www.reneeandrews.com.
Renee Andrews on Facebook: www.facebook.com/AuthorReneeAndrews
Renee Andrews on Twitter: www.twitter.com/reneeandrews
Table of Contents
Copyright
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Other Books by
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Coming Next in the Profiled Series
Author Bio
Profiled Page 31
