“I need to tell you something.”

She stiffened, her breath hitching. “What?” she asked, the single word filled with a dread that hurt his heart. She thought he was going to say that he’d made a mistake.

“Nothing like that,” he promised quickly. “This was everything I thought it would be. Better. Miles better. The only mistake I made was not getting over myself sooner.”

“Okay.” She relaxed a little. “What is it, then?”

“I did . . . something. Something not exactly . . .” He grimaced. “Not exactly right.”

She lifted her head to meet his gaze, no judgment in hers. “Tory.”

He nodded. “I found her killer. Online.”

She tilted her head. “Did you kill him? Because I’d be okay with that.”

He blinked up at her. “No, I didn’t. Not exactly, anyway.”

“Well, then, whatever you did do is all right.”

He smiled. “I should have known you’d say that.”

“You really should have,” she said, mildly chastising. “Talk to me, Tom.”

“I found him, in a chat room. He . . . bragged about killing women. And then he bragged about posing as a minister to give comfort to their families.”

Her jaw clenched. “Sonofabitch. What did you do? I’m sure it wasn’t nearly bad enough.”

“I tracked him to Tory’s parents’ town. He was planning to ‘comfort’ them. I couldn’t let him do that.” He studied her face, watched her eyes flash with fury and sadness. And fierce acceptance. Yes, he should have known she’d understand. “I’d been in contact with the family of one of the other victims. I thought they’d want to see him arrested. For closure. I told them where he’d be. I thought they’d wait for the police.”

“But they killed him before the cops got there.”

“Yes. I wanted to kill him myself. I was so angry.”

She kissed his jaw. “But you didn’t. Why?”

“Because there were more victims. Their families deserved to see him convicted. There may have been other victims, and those families would never have answers.”

Her smile was gentle. “I told you—you are not like your father. You never could be.”

“But . . .” And this was the part that he’d worried about since the day Tory’s killer had died. “I called the other victim’s family first. Before I called the cops.”

“You think that, deep down, you wanted them to kill the bastard?”

“Maybe? Did I use them? Did I really not want to do the right thing?”

She lifted a shoulder. “Ultimately, the choices the other family made were theirs, just like the choices you made were yours. You didn’t kill him. You called the police. You waited. The other family could have, too.” She sighed, moving closer until they were nose to nose. “You are not your father. I’ll tell you every day for the rest of our lives if that’s what you need to hear.”

His heart eased. “Thank you.”

She kissed him then, soft and sweet. “Is that it? All you needed to tell me?”