I pulled her in closer so we were only an inch apart. My lips pressed to her forehead as I leaned in and kissed her.

“I’m always here to be what you need,” I said. “Goodnight, Lenny.”

She rolled over, smiling as her eyes fluttered shut. It wasn’t long before we both slipped into a deep sleep, easier than either of us ever had before.

22. Stone

22

STONE

I spent every waking hour trying to find the connection we needed to arrest Ethan. It’d been over a week, but still, nothing. We had enough to bring him in for questioning based on the footage we found of him drugging Len, but that was it.

Mags had combed back through all the footage the FBI had collected and found a few more clips showing him doing the same to the other victims. I forced myself to watch each one, fueling my motivation even more.

Part of me wanted to hurry and bring him in so he couldn’t hurt anyone else, but I knew the second we showed our hand, he would retreat. There was a chance we’d lose him again. This time, he might move on to another town and evade us until he decided to kill again. If he waited three years this time, I could only imagine how long he could hold out the next time.

“You’re killing yourself working on that,” Len scolded from behind me.

“I can’t stop until I figure out what I’m missing,” I groaned.

“What about for a break to grab coffee?” she asked, batting her long eyelashes at me.

How could I deny that? “I suppose just an hour to clear my head could help.”

She grinned and hurried off to find her purse. I shut my laptop and met her by the front door, ready to walk down into town.

By the time we made it to the café, Len had already tried to get more details of the investigation at least five times. It physically pained me to keep it from her.

“Two iced vanilla lattes,” she told the barista when we made it to the counter.

“How’d you know that’s what I want?”

“Lucky guess,” she said with a wink. “I will say, I wouldn’t have guessed you were an iced coffee person before I knew you, though.”

“Lattes are gentler on my stomach, and they have less caffeine, so I can have more than one in a day,” I explained.

“I should have known there’d be a practical reason,” she laughed.

We grabbed the cups as they appeared at the end of the counter. Our walk back was mild, the weather not as scorching hot as when I first arrived in Briarport.

“I don’t know if I could deal with such drastic changes of seasons living up here. This summer has been brutally hot, and yet you all deal with obscene amounts of snow come winter.”