She was tired of feeling like she needed to be protected. She was tired of needing to be cosseted from danger. She was capable of hunting and field dressing a bear if she had to. She wasn’t some weakling. She wasn’t helpless. She had been hurt and that had left a mark, but she was getting better. Or she had been. Until someone had murdered one of her friends and pressed the tips of her fingers to the handle of the knife that killed him.

“Why do you want me to go to Quantico?”

The muscles in his jaw flexed but the stubborn man wasn’t talking.

“I have work to do here. If I’m ever going to live in this city, I can’t hide away forever.” Although the charms of living here and doing her Ph.D. at the Institute had palled over the last day and a half.

He raised his chin and she couldn’t read the emotions in his dark, brooding gaze. She braided her damp hair absently, her fingers working automatically.

Once she’d finished, she draped the towel over the back of a chair. Took a step toward him. “Eban, please, you’re scaring me.”

Finally, he drew in a deep breath and spoke. “That was the FBI agent who runs the BAU.”

“Oh, like the TV shows where they create offender profiles?”

Eban stared down at the floorboards. “Yes, he’s a profiler, although that isn’t an official job title within the Bureau.”

“Are they helping to create a profile of this killer? Isn’t that a good thing?” Her mind flew over the part of the conversation she’d overheard. “Why would I need a decoy?”

Eban rubbed his palms down his thighs. She’d never seen him so visibly agitated.

“I think you should sit down.”

“I don’t want to sit down. Tell me what’s going on. Why do I need protection? Is it Hurek?” She did sit down then. Her knees went out from under her.

“It isn’t Hurek. That sonofabitch will never get near you again.” Eban crouched in front of where she sat on the sofa, holding onto her legs in a casual manner she had only dreamed of in the past. Since then, they’d messed around in the hot tub and he’d given her an orgasm. Even though they’d made progress, obviously something bad had happened. She needed to know what that was.

She grasped his hands. “Please tell me what’s going on.”

Eban stared down at their joined hands. “I don’t want to.”

She squeezed his fingers.

“First, I need you to know I am here for you. Whatever this takes. However long it takes, I will be by your side.”

It was nice but it didn’t sound like a declaration of undying love.

“Tell me.”

He pulled in a deep breath. “Earlier today when you were writing out your official statement about last night, I entered the details of the crimes here into ViCAP—the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program—run by the BAU. Law enforcement uses it to attempt to find links between crimes. Lincoln Frazer called because,” Eban pressed his lips together, clearly trying to gather himself. “Frazer saw similarities between the murders here and other murders that have occurred in Alaska.”