So was the ice that had protected Lauren. She was raw and desperate.

Anthony was enraged and dangerous.

“I sent a patrol by his home.” Paul swallowed. “He wasn’t there. His Jeep was gone.”

“Where is he?”

“His boss said they got a report of some nuisance gators in the area. He thinks Wesley went into the swamp to check things out.” Paul’s words tumbled out fast. “He’s just out doing his job.”

“Is he?” Doubt was heavy in the two words.

Paul straightened. “I’ll find him. His boss is gonna page him. Gonna send some men to help me go out and meet up with him, but I’m telling you…it isn’t Wesley.”

“When we find him, we’ll know for sure.”

Lauren dropped the blanket.

“Look, the task force is meeting at the station,” Paul said. “The FBI agents want you both to come in, then we can figure out what the hell our next move is.”

Anthony wasn’t moving.

“You have to come in,” Paul said, his voice almost beseeching. “The police chief ordered us all back. After this…” He threw another glance at the fire. “He wants a full rundown of every detail Greg has discovered with his tests. Come in.”

“I want Hawthorne.”

“We’ll find him!” Paul backed up a step. His hands clenched. He was wearing his riding gloves. She saw the dark outline of the gloves when his knuckles curled. “But the chief wants us there within the hour.”

Anthony stared steadily back at him. “Fine. We’ll be there.” He took Lauren’s arms. “Let’s go.”

Shock held her silent. This was it. They were just…walking away. In his car, a bubble of hysterical laughter nearly broke from her. “It’s never going to end.”

The killer would keep coming for her until she joined her sister in death.

“Yes. It fucking is.” He jerked the gearshift into reverse and spun them out of the drive. She glanced at him and saw the muscle flexing in the hard line of his jaw.

“Tony?”

He had his phone out and at his ear. “Matt? Where are you?”

She couldn’t hear the other marshal’s response, but Anthony said, “Good. We’re on the way. Call the techs. I want them to run a trace on this number.” He rattled off a telephone number. “It belongs to a Wesley Hawthorne. Yeah, the agent with Fish and Wildlife. I want to know the location of his phone. Hell, yes, the techs can figure that. If the phone is on, they can trace the signal and tell us exactly where he is.”

Her fingers hurt, and she realized it was because she had them so tightly twisted in her lap.

“I’ll be there in five minutes,” Anthony said and ended the call. The SUV started to move faster.

She swallowed to ease the dryness of her throat. She could taste the fire. “You really think it’s Wesley?”

“I think I want the cops pulling over every Jeep Wrangler that’s out on the streets tonight. I want the tags and registrations for every guy who drives a Jeep, every guy who matches Cadence’s profile.” He slanted her a fast look. “But right now, we already know Hawthorne matches that profile, so I want to know just where the hell he is.”

She wanted to know where he was, too.

“If Voyt won’t question Hawthorne, then the marshals can find him.” He flashed her a tiger’s smile. “And we’ll do the questioning on our own.”

* * *

Anthony rushed through the hotel lobby, heading fast for his old room, a room still booked in his name because he controlled the hotel block for the task force. Lauren was at his side, looking shaken and scared.

The elevator doors slid closed behind them, sealing them inside.

“There’s ash on your cheek.” He stepped toward her. Cupped her cheek. Wiped away the smear on her delicate flesh.

It could have been so much more than ash. The killer could have shot her. Burned her body. Burned us both. The house would have become our grave.

He wasn’t ready to die yet.

“I have a backup weapon in my room. I want you to take it and keep it with you.”

She nodded. “What are you planning to do?”

“If Hawthorne has used his phone in the last hour, the techs will trace it.” Big Brother was most definitely watching, in ways most people didn’t even realize. “We’ve got satellite links tracing his phone’s signal. We can pinpoint his location, and we will find the guy tonight.”

There would be no more vanishing into the swamps. No more taking prey.

Not gonna happen.

The elevator doors slid open.

He took her hand. The doors to Matt and Jim’s rooms were shut. He brushed past them and headed to his room. In less than a minute, he’d opened the safe in his closet and pulled out the backup weapon. He checked it, loaded it, and made sure that it would blow a hole in anyone dumb enough to go at Lauren.

He turned back to her.

Her head was tilted down, her blonde hair shielding her face. She looked so damn small and breakable.

The fire could have taken her from me.

No. He never would have left her alone in the fire. He couldn’t leave her.

When he’d walked away before, he’d left part of himself in Baton Rouge. The obsession hadn’t ended. It had just grown deeper, wilder.

Because it wasn’t just an obsession?

He glanced down at the gun. What the hell was he doing? Planning on dragging her out to confront a killer with him? She’d been through enough. He tucked the gun into the waistband of his jeans. “I’ll take you to the station.” She was the DA. She got her justice in a courtroom. Not in some gator-infested swamp.

At his words, Lauren’s head whipped up and her eyes locked on him. In her bright, blue stare, he didn’t see anything fragile. He saw fury. Determination. Strength.

Lauren stalked toward him closing the distance between them. “You honestly think I’ll sit back and let you go out there, after all he’s done?”

“It’s not your job to hunt—”

She shook her head and held out her hand. “Give me the damn gun.”

“Lauren…”

“My life. My sister’s life. You think I’m going to sit on the sidelines now?” Her laugh was bitter, piercing. “Hell, how do you even know that isn’t exactly what he wants? To separate us? To divide and conquer. Divide and kill? He couldn’t take us out when we were together at my house, so what if the plan now is to go at us separately?”

I want him to come at me. I just don’t want him going after you.

“Where you go, I go.” Her voice was flat, but her eyes gleamed with a combination of strength and fury that was truly the sexiest thing he’d ever seen. She was so beautiful he hurt. “I’m not backing away. I’m not running away. I am going to finish this. I owe it to Jenny to finish this.”

Lauren looked down at the gun in her hands.

He had to ask, “Could you shoot to kill if it comes to that?”

Her head tilted back so she could meet his eyes. “He stabbed my sister seventeen times.” There was no mask on her now. Raw emotion shone on her face. “Yes, I could do it. I could do it in an instant.”

Lauren was talking about revenge. He knew she deserved the justice she’d wanted for so long.

Taking a life wasn’t easy. What would killing do to her?

His fingers closed around hers. Around the weapon he’d given to her. “I will kill him for you.” A promise. He wasn’t talking about bringing the guy in. Wasn’t talking about forcing Lauren to go through a long trial and, then, Christ forbid, another situation like Walker’s.

Her lips parted in surprise. “You’re the good guy, Anthony. You catch the criminals.”

Not kill them.

But for her…to keep her safe…

He took the gun from her. Put it on the bed. Backed her up against the nearest wall and caged her with his body. He wanted her to see him exactly as he was. Far from good. Far from perfect. With a darkness inside that would always burn.

“I would do any fucking thing if it meant you were safe.” His hands flattened on either side of her head. “Don’t you know that?”

Her eyes widened.

“You matter.” He growled out the words. “You’re the thing in this world, the only fucking thing, I can’t live without. I know, I tried living without you for years, and I was so damn miserable. A hole was in my chest, and every day, I was just going through the motions. Hoping no one saw just how lost I was.”

Because when he’d left her, that was exactly what he’d been…lost.

“I went through my days, and my nights…at night, I dreamed of you. Fantasized about you. Wanted you in my bed and in my arms so fucking badly.”

His mouth took hers. He couldn’t hold back. She was there, and he needed her more than breath. The kiss was frantic and hard with the desperation that drove him. Her lips parted beneath his. His tongue thrust into her mouth.

Lauren tasted of hope, of every dream he’d ever had.

No one would take those dreams away. No one would take her away.

Her breasts pressed to his chest. He could feel the tight nipples, and he wanted them in his mouth. Wanted her naked. Wanted his cock driving into her so deeply she didn’t know what it was to be apart from him. He wanted to give her pleasure, so much pleasure that it washed away her pain.

He wanted to give her everything.

And he would.

Using all of his control, he pulled his mouth from hers. “I love you.”

Maybe he shouldn’t have snarled the words. He could have tried romance and class, dining and—

Screw that. They were surrounded by death, and he wanted her to know just how he felt.