Page 51 of Nora
In fact, he was finding there was a lot he’d do for her.
CHAPTERTWENTY
Nora wason a call when Lucian knocked at her door. Opening it, she started to gesture to her phone, then she saw what he had in his hands and froze.
“Hold on,” she said to her friends. Putting her phone on Mute, she stared at Lucian.
“May I come in?” he asked.
She moved aside, still staring. “Did you bring me dinner?”
It was a dumb question; obviously he had, and he set the tray down on her desk alongside the bottle of wine he’d brought. “You looked exhausted. If you don’t want to go down to dinner, now you don’t have to. But if you do, you still can. I can take this back down.”
She eyed what looked like vegetable stew along with a couple of soft rolls and a salad. She hadn’t even realized how much she wanted to stay in for the night until presented with the option.
“Thank you, Lucian, this is amazing.” She took a seat and set her phone down beside her. “The club,” she said, gesturing to the device. “They just called. I’ll put it on speaker.” He nodded, and she unmuted the phone.
“Everything okay, Nora?” Devil asked. Nora considered mentioning the wine and dinner Lucian brought but held back. She didn’t want to distract them—mostly Cyn and Six—from the conversation they’d just started. She also had the sense that Lucian might not want his cousin to know that he’d been so thoughtful.
“Everything is fine, I just needed to let Lucian in,” she said. After pouring two glasses of wine, she handed one to Lucian and motioned him to the other chair in the room, an upholstered wingback near the window.
“Are you being good?” Six demanded.
Lucian opened his mouth, but Nora cut him off. “He’s being helpful, Six. Leave him alone.” The man in question arched a brow but she shook her head, telling him to let it drop.
Six let out a harrumph but continued with the conversation they’d started minutes ago. “So James and Craig, Cyn?” she asked.
“Craig is out, unless there are two killers involved. I know you considered that early on, Nora, but I don’t think it fits. The killings are too methodical and precise to be committed by two people,” Cyn said.
“I agree,” Nora replied. “When Franklin first summarized the suspect pool, the thought crossed my mind. But each of the killings has the same detached and systematic feel to it. We wouldn’t get that if two different personalities were involved.”
“What do you mean by detached?” Lucian asked before taking a sip of his wine. Sprawled on the chair, newly showered, and glass in hand, he looked leonine. Once again, she was caught off guard by the unwanted—and growing—chemistry between them. Unable to do anything but stare at him, she remained silent. Thankfully, Cyn answered and drew her back into the conversation.
“The kills are personal but precise,” Cyn said. “He doesn’t toy with the victims at all as many serial killers do. He’s in and out, like it’s a job. But he’s not a hitman, not with the patterns and methods he’s using. They have meaning to him. What that is, I don’t know, but he does.”
“Even the ones he’s burned?” Lucian asked. “That doesn’t exactly seem like a crime where someone can be in and out.”
“He incapacitates them first, then burns them alive,” Nora said. She’d finally received detailed findings on those murders from the medical examiners. One had been inconclusive, but the other two had been drugged, then burned.
“Ah,” Lucian said, as if that explained everything. In a way, it did, but it was no less disturbing than if the killer was less organized.
“Okay, so we agree. There’s one killer and it’s not Craig,” Devil said.
“What about James the trainer?” Six asked.
“I haven’t been able to pin down when his hemophobia started,” Cyn said. “They wouldn’t have let him in the army if he had it, but it’s not in his charts.”
“It happened when he was hit with the IED,” Lucian said. Nora had been eating her soup and rolls while the others talked, but she paused, spoon mid-air. She hadn’t thought to ask Lucian if he knew. He was generally so averse to talking to anyone that it never occurred to her that he might know a few things about their suspects.
He smiled, as if he could read her mind, then of all things, winked. But the playfulness fell from his face when he continued with the story. “It was a big attack. More than one IED was involved. Tore a caravan apart. When James came to, his ears were bleeding, and he was covered in the blood and body parts of several of his teammates. There were fifteen people out that day. Only six made it back. Hemophobia, which he is open about having, is one of his PTSD symptoms.”
The room was silent for a moment. Nora’s heart went out to the man she hadn’t spent much time with but who always seemed so cheerful.
“Well, I think we can rule him out then,” Cyn said softly. “There’s no blood in strangulation, but there is in stabbing. I also can’t imagine a man who saw his teammates blown up and burned would be able to burn another. I know it’s possible, but if he has a problem with blood, he’d probably have a problem with that as well.”
“I agree,” Devil said. Six chimed in with the same.
“So that leaves Angelo, Jean, Collin, and Jurgen,” Nora said. She’d finished with her soup and had moved on to her salad. “I spoke with Angelo and Jean in the gym today. I know a little of their stories.”
