Scream For Me: A Novel of the Night Hunter (For Me 3)

Such a lie. Cadence could actually lie amazingly well—to everyone but him. The longer they’d worked together, the more hesitant she’d become in telling him a direct lie. Now, when she lied, she didn’t even look him in the eyes.

“This might not even be a case for us,” she continued as the plane slid down the narrow runway. It wasn’t exactly a commercial hub. The pilot hadn’t even been sure they could land at the old place. Not at first.

Cadence sighed. “Why did you push so hard for us to come here?”

Here being a small spot on the Alabama map, just west of Huntsville. Most folks would probably never even hear of Paradox, but Kyle had never been able to forget the place.

Lily Adams’s disappearance matches my sister’s. Captain Anniston had called Kyle because the guy saw the link, too.

“I pushed because I think we can save her.” Unlike Cadence, he actually did think they had a chance of helping victims, and not just finding their broken bodies.

Her gaze, so golden and deep, the most unusual eyes he’d ever seen, came back to him. Cadence was a gorgeous woman, no getting around that, with an oval-shaped face, high cheekbones, and a small, slightly curving nose. And those lips. Full, red. Bow shaped. Seriously f**king bow shaped. Who had lips like that? Cadence. Her skin was pale, her hair so dark it almost appeared jet-black.

Those golden eyes studied him with the same assessing stare she used on perps. He tensed beneath that gaze. “Stop.” He hated it when she analyzed him. But then, Cadence had a tendency to analyze everything.

She didn’t look away. “Saving Lily won’t save your sister.”

Hit. He thought he’d been so careful, never telling Cadence about his past.

But it looked as if he’d underestimated his partner. Cadence knew about the demons that had driven him to join her in serial apprehension.

His fingers tightened around the hand rest.

His sister. It had been fifteen years since he lost Maria. How much did Cadence know? The actual case files on Maria’s disappearance were sickeningly slim. Just the barest of facts, because the sad truth was that there hadn’t been much for the authorities to find. But over the years, he’d created his own files. He’d never stopped searching.

And dammit, he had to follow this lead. If there was any chance that Lily Adams could be connected to his sister’s disappearance, Kyle knew he had to act. Protocol be damned.

All of these years. All of my searching. Finally, this could be the break he needed. Anniston had given him the tip on Lily’s disappearance right away. If they found Lily…

Then I might find clues that can lead me to Maria.

His jaw locked. “We investigate the Adams case. If it’s BS, and the woman ran off on her own, then we walk away. All we’ve lost is a day.”

A day they could have spent on another case. Catching another killer.

“Just a day,” Cadence said softly.

This time, he was the one to look away. He didn’t want Cadence seeing the emotion that might be in his eyes.

Hope. He’d never lost it for his sister, or for any of the victims.

He never would.

Cadence didn’t even seem to understand what hope meant. To him, that lack of understanding was a real f**king shame.

After a few moments, his eyes cut back to her. Only Cadence wasn’t studying him any longer. She was looking down toward her lap. The case file—bare bones at this point—was still open. Her gaze slid over the picture of Lily Adams. Thirty-two, blonde hair, green eyes. A wide smile.

Lily Adams looked happy. Full of life.

If he had his way, they’d find her—and she’ll look that way again.

He settled back in his seat and waited for the plane to come to a stop.

Cadence hated Alabama summers. Hated them. Once upon a time in a life very far away, she’d grown up on the Alabama coast. Growing up here meant it was impossible to forget the heat that hit like a blanket when you walked outside. The sweat could drip and drip from your body because there was no relief in sight.

No, you didn’t forget. But you sure tried to.

She’d tried hard enough to put those memories away.

Cadence lifted the hair from the back of her neck, attempting to fan her skin. Like that was going to help. The sun glared down on her as she and Kyle stood in the middle of a deserted, two-lane highway.

The middle of nowhere. She’d seen plenty of spots like this before. Perfect killing spots.

“Her gas tank was empty.” The slightly drawling voice drew her attention. The local police captain had escorted them out to the old highway. The road wasn’t exactly deserted.

“Why hasn’t the vehicle been moved?” Cadence asked, frowning. The sedan, with its faded blue color and taped back taillight, sat on the edge of the road.

“You folks told me to leave it where it was,” Captain James Anniston told her with a frown. “Don’t worry, I had a guard on it at all times. It’s been secure. When I called Quantico, McKenzie here told me—”

“I told him we wanted the scene as protected as we could get it,” Kyle interrupted. He’d taken off his suit jacket. The heat had gotten to him, too. Kyle and his suits. The guy never seemed to dress right for fieldwork. Always too fancy. That was a rich boy for you.

He shouldn’t have wound up chasing killers with the FBI. His family business and the family’s big stack of money should have kept the guy busy living the country club life.

His gaze slid to her. A bright, glittering blue stare. The stare that always looked a bit haunted.

I know why you joined the bureau. Why you turned your back on everything waiting for you in Maine.

Guilt could sometimes eat a man from the inside out. From what she could tell, guilt had consumed Kyle for years.

If he wasn’t careful, the guilt might destroy him one day.

Or send him back down to Alabama permanently, chasing ghosts.

But she was the one who’d agreed to travel with him, so she’d do her job. Even if the job turned out to be nothing. Only missing twelve hours.

She let her gaze shift back to the captain. A fit guy, maybe in his late forties, tanned, with faint lines near his eyes. Laugh lines? Or worry lines? “You put out the report on Lily very fast. Usually a missing-persons case waits for—”

“I wasn’t waiting for forty-eight hours, ma’am. Not with Lily.” His jaw locked and the sun gleamed off his bald head. “I’m not some backward hick, Agent Hollow. I know when I got suspicious circumstances staring me right in the face.”