Way of the Shadows (Shadow Agents 8)

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...”

Patrick shrugged. “Then let’s hear them.”

“You were stationed together with Duncan in the navy.” They had EOD agents pulling up the senator’s enlistment records. “I bet you kept those photos close, because you’d need them close.” Looking at them would’ve been a compulsion. “But if you were bunking with Duncan, he would’ve had access to your area. I think he found them, only, instead of turning you in, he kept the photos so that he could blackmail you.”

Patrick gave a low whistle. “You’re only half right.”

She didn’t like the coldness in his stare. The man was in total control. She needed to rattle his cage and make that control shatter. “You were going after girls then...” Time to press for more. Time to shatter. “But after your enlistment, after you started fighting and killing in battle, did you think they were too easy? You’re the big game hunter. And they weren’t big enough game.”

His gaze drifted dismissively over her. “No, you weren’t.”

Thomas stepped forward.

“The girls—you—were expendable. Weak. They all cried and begged too quickly. Some didn’t even have the sense to run. I mean, hell, everyone is supposed to have a survival instinct, right? Isn’t that what the experts say?”

She didn’t respond.

“But they didn’t. They died easily.”

She studied him carefully. There was no emotion in his voice. No remorse. No glee. He was simply stating a fact. She’d wondered before if he were a psychopath. She wasn’t wondering any longer. “Why didn’t Duncan turn you in?”

But she knew...

Noelle didn’t like the sardonic little smile curling Patrick’s thin lips. “Most people would’ve turned me in. I mean, that would be the right thing to do, huh? That’s what you think, don’t you, Noelle?”

From the corner of her eye, Noelle saw Thomas clench his hands into fists.

“But Duncan wasn’t like most folks. He was like me.”

One psychopath, finding another.