Page 84 of Silent Desires

“Yeah, he’s accelerating his timeline. I’ll send you the report.”

“All right, I’ll talk to my team.”

“Rossi?”

“Yeah?”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if this gets moved up on the FBI’s list. Don’t be shocked to see agents in town soon.”

“Shit, yeah, okay, thanks for the heads up.”

“Bye.”

Shit. This is bad. Not only is there another dead girl, but if the FBI took over this case from local law enforcement, it’s likely they wouldn’t let us keep working on it. They don’t play nice with private investigators. And as good as it would be if they can solve it, we know the case better than anyone. Not only that, but we’ve been working on it for months and it would all be for nothing if we have to stop now.

I just have to hope we can solve it before they get here, or they decide that our undercover status is useful enough that they will actually work with us for once.

Either way, the killer had changed his timeline, and we need to figure out why.

Chapter fifty-four

Ican’t help but think I’m losing my mind around this girl. I’m falling for her, hard. I know I barely know her, never get to spend alone time with her, and she barely knows me, but I feel it regardless. There is just something so magnetic about her. Not only that, but seeing how she responds to my whole family has me extremely hopeful that she could be the one.

I can’t believe what happened in the library. I saw red when I witnessed Brad pushing her into the stacks with his hand up her skirt. If I hadn’t held Gideon up in the hall, he would have got there in time to walk her to the library and it wouldn’t have happened at all. It’s my fault she was alone with him.

To make matters worse, another girl is dead. What are we missing here? We haven’t seen Jeff return to the house all week, so he must be staying somewhere else. Why was he escalating? If it even was Jeff, I’m still not sure that it fits, we are still missing a few important pieces.

And what do all of these murders have to do with Mina? The time of death for Rachel places her murder somewhere between eleven thirty last night and three thirty this morning. It means it could have been Brad, it could have been anyone. I know Brad doesn’t fit the out-of-town murders, but I’m not willing to rule him out after today’s incident. He clearly has some weird obsession with Mina. We could be dealing with more than one person. It could be a team.

I sigh as I watch my students playing dodgeball. Mina wouldn’t be back today for class and I was glad for it. I didn’t want her around these kids. Even if they weren’t killers, who knows how many moreBrad’sthere are in this school? If I could, I’d keep her at our home, wrapped in bubble wrap all day long.

I internally groan, realizing I won’t even get to see her after school today, as she is always adamant about getting home on time. Everyone else got to see her with their own eyes after the attack. But I dragged Brad out of there and haven’t seen her since. I was in a separate office watching him while we waited for the police to arrive. And while Gideon and I were talking to the principal, convincing him not to call Mina’s mother, she left with the twins.

Hating this feeling of worry that’s rising in my chest, I pull out my phone and send her a message.

Me:Are you doing ok? I’m sorry I can’t be there.

Mina:Yes I’m ok. The guys had a contest to see who could make me laugh the loudest.

I smile at the thought of her laughing. I wonder whose great idea that was.

Me:Who won?

Mina:Dom.

Me:No way! How’d he do it?

Mina:I’ll never tell

Me:Ah, Sugar. You won’t even tell your sexy cowboy?

Mina:I regret telling you that.

Me:Too late now ;)

Mina:Why did everybody think the cowboy was so funny?

Mina:Because he was always horsing around.

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