“Because you love me, and I really like him,” Alex interjected.
Emotion rushed into Rowan as that like sure sounded awfully close to something much more real than that. He whirled around and didn’t hesitate. He charged forward, had Alex in his arms in a split second, and laid the kiss on her he needed to have. She tensed, obviously in surprise, but then melted against him. “I called to get you released,” he said after breaking the kiss.
“No, I called to get you released,” Ryder stated firmly over Rowan’s shoulder.
She rolled her eyes. “Well, I got myself released, so let’s put the gun away, all right?” She gave Rowan a hard squeeze and a sweet smile. “Thank you for trying to get me out, though.”
Rowan glanced her over. “You’re all right?”
“Totally fine,” she said, then she released him and moved closer to Ryder. She placed a hand on his arm, ignoring that Ryder continued to scowl at Rowan. “You are not supposed to be here. You could have sent me help without coming, and we both know that.”
Ryder didn’t even look at her, still snarling at Rowan. “I told you I did not like this. And this is why. He’s putting you in danger.”
“He’s not putting me in any danger that I don’t want to be in,” she said. She seemed an expert at ignoring what he said, and instead continued, “It’s sweet you came for me, thank you, but the last thing you need is to get yourself wrapped up in all this. You need to go home.”
Ryder’s gaze swept to her, tightened, and he examined her intently. “Tell me everything that happened.”
That warning she gave sent off alarms in Rowan’s head too. Her soft tone of voice. The worry in her eyes. It all raised the hairs on the back of Rowan’s neck. He sidled up to her and took her hand, now feeling the slight tremble there. “Hold nothing back.” On that front, he agreed with Ryder completely.
She paused then said with a voice holding a slight tremble too, “Our killer is Carl Lewis.”
A beat.
“Are we talking about the Director of the FBI?” Ryder asked.
Alex nodded. “Yeah, that Carl Lewis.”
Rowan processed this, taking it all in. Many times, killers liked placing themselves right in the middle of an investigation. It was why Alex suspected Wes, though Rowan had doubted that was the case, even though he’d planned to have Ryder look deeper, just in case his friendship with Wes made him wrong.
The more Rowan thought about it, the more he knew Lewis was right in the heart of this case, probably getting off on all the attention. Lewis being their killer also explained why everything seemed to be sitting at a standstill and why Rowan kept getting shut out. Though that realization sank heavy into his bones, because now he realized just how deep this ran in the FBI and how hard finding Mia would truly be.
Lewis was smart, educated, and high in power.
For his own peace of mind, Rowan slid his arm around Alex, bringing her closer as he asked, “What makes you so sure it’s him?”
Alex glanced up, her gaze full of sympathy. “He said, ‘balls to the wall.’”
Ryder snorted loudly. “I should have come sooner. How is that a way of identifying a killer?”
“It’s a saying my sister told me once that the guy from SiR used often,” Rowan explained before looking back at Alex. “Any chance you caught his tattoo too?”
“What tattoo?” Ryder asked.
Alex answered, “Mia told Rowan that the guy she’d been talking to had a big military tattoo on his back.” She turned to Rowan and shook her head. “And, no, I didn’t see it. He was wearing a jacket.”
Ryder reached for his phone in his pocket. He texted as Alex continued, “But honestly, it’s a feeling I got too.” She turned to Rowan, those pretty eyes holding his intently. “He’s just the type of man that you described, and when he spoke to me…”
“Wait,” Rowan said, feeling the warmth leave his blood at that. “Lewis was there in headquarters today?”
“He was the one who interviewed me.”
“That fucker,” Rowan said, thrusting his fingers into his hair. Lewis had no reason to talk to Alex. Though the killer, knowing how close she was getting, would begin to unravel, make mistakes. “He gave you a warning, then, I take it?”
She gave a slow nod. “That’s the way it felt to me. He told me to go home. He knows that we’re digging. It sort of felt like he just wanted to make the point that he could get to me.”
Rowan didn’t like that. Not one fucking bit. And now, on top of his concern for
Mia and his worry for his parents’ emotional state, he knew he’d placed the woman who had worked her way into his cold heart in the direct line of fire.