When I found this asshole, I was going to end him. Hopefully slowly.
I brought the note to the front.
I can get to you anywhere.
You’re next, Caroline Leigh Conroy.
I read the words over and over. The last line was bothering me.
You’re next.
Next for what and after who? The words in front of me blurred as I thought through the options. I stilled. All the air in my lungs halted. “Fuck,” I hissed.
“What is it?” Caroline asked, grabbing my arm. Her eyes were wide and scared. I circled one of my arms around her shoulders and brought her into my side.
“Hold on,” I said. “I need to find something out first and see if I’m right.”
She nodded. I pulled my phone from my pocket and dialed Maddox’s number. I put him on speaker. I didn’t want to hide this from Caroline, because if I was right, she needed to know. I hoped I wasn’t right. I wanted to be wrong and to be overreacting, but as soon as the thought had infiltrated my head, I’d known.
The person after Caroline was also the murderer Maddox was looking for. She was a female doctor with dark hair, like the other two.
One thing I knew for certain, Caroline would never be next on that list. If it was the last thing I ever did, I’d stop this fucker before he got to that point.
Maddox answered on the fourth ring. His voice was gruff and dreary. “Kiernan,” he said.
“Maddox, the two murder victims, the female doctors…did you find anything in women’s homes about being stalked…or threatening notes? Anything?”
He was silent for a long beat. “How’d you know? That was discovered this afternoon on the victim found today. The tech team had the devices sitting in a locker for the first victim, waiting to go through them. Since we found a note in the second victim’s house today, I rushed our tech team. They were both harassed.”
“Fuck,” I hissed and clenched my jaw.
Caroline gasped and her grip tightened on my shirt.
“Who’s that?” Maddox asked.
“Caroline,” I said.
“Kiernan, you can’t talk about an active case in front of her.”
“Remember you sent her to me for a reason. She was being harassed. She came home tonight to a new set of photos and a note. That promised she would be next.”
“You don’t think…”
“Yeah, that’s exactly what I think. We need to compare everything Caroline has received to what we’ve found with the other two women.”
“Dammit,” Maddox said. I could tell his jaw was clenched and he was speaking through gritted teeth. “Get down to the station. Bring everything.”
“We’ll meet you there,” I said and hung up the call.
“The person who killed Dr. Velasquez is after me? This is the same person?”
“I think so. I’m almost positive. The other women were brunettes, like you, and both doctors of some kind.”
“Oh my god,” Caroline whispered, shaking her head.
“I will protect you,” I promised her. “You’ve got a twenty-four-seven bodyguard now, sweetness. Me. I’m not fucking leaving your side.”
30 Caroline
Kiernan hadn’t been lying when he’d told me he was going to become my twenty-four-seven bodyguard. We’d barely been out of each other’s sight. He was working from my office and staying at my house. He’d gone from keeping his firearm in an under-the-seat safe or a carrier, when inside my house, to keeping it on his person. He took guarding me very seriously. We hadn’t really been away from each other until this morning. I’d gotten my hair trimmed before going to the park with Kiernan and Pepper Jack.
If I hadn’t been terrified that a real serial killer was after me, I would have found it kind of funny how he hovered and cleared my office and house before I could enter.
The teenager that had delivered the envelope to my house was a dead end. He couldn’t remember what the guy looked like and had no interest in helping. He’d only shrugged and said it was an easy twenty bucks. Well, he did offer two details. It was a male and he was Caucasian. It wasn’t helpful information. I thought Kiernan was going to launch himself across the interrogation table and strangle the kid. Maddox placed his hand on Kiernan’s shoulder, physically holding him back. I watched through the double-paned window, unseen.
I was trying my best to let it all go today. The sun was shining, and it was the first time the temperature wasn’t in the nineties. I sat under the shade of a tree watching Kiernan work with Pepper Jack on some of his skills. Pepper Jack obeyed when it suited him, but other than that, he did what he wanted to.
“It’s useless,” Kiernan said and jogged over to me. He grabbed a ball from the bag I’d brought. Pepper Jack’s ears twitched, and he focused on the ball in Kiernan’s hands. “Want to play fetch?”
Kieran tossed the ball and Pepper Jack raced after it, scrambling to get it as it rolled. Once he had it in his mouth, he lay down and started chewing on it. Kiernan put his fists on his hips and dropped his head forward. I covered my mouth to smother my laugh.
“You’re supposed to bring it back,” Kiernan shouted at Pepper Jack.
He looked up with the ball in his mouth, stood, and dropped the ball, and he ran back to Kiernan and sat at his side. Pepper Jack’s eyes shifted from Kiernan to the ball.
“I think he wants you to fetch the ball,” I said. A giggle escaped.
Kiernan glowered and Pepper Jack’s head whipped to me, and I covered my mouth again. “I see that,” he muttered and jogged to pick up the ball. He threw it to Pepper Jack again. He caught it in the air and then lay down with it, resuming his attempted destruction of the ball.
Kiernan strutted back, shaking his head the entire way, and collapsed next to
