“Are you, though?” His voice rose in pitch toward the end.
His question gave me pause. “What are you talking about?”
He stared at me for a moment, then said, “I went to see Ethan.”
I stepped out of his hold. “Did he find anything?”
“Nothing concrete. But he did discover something…interesting.”
He pulled his phone out of his pocket. After tapping at it, he handed it to me. I squinted at the screen, trying to figure out what I was looking at.
“It’s a map of this guy’s kills,” Lachlan explained. “Ethan thought a visual might help.”
“Did it?”
He nodded slowly. “Do you know what he learned?”
I looked at the map again. “That this guy is probably from this area of the country, since his victims seem to be concentrated here?”
“Yes. But that’s not all. He came up with a theory to explain the kills that occurred outside of this area. And do you know what that is?”
I remained silent, staring at the map, each of the thumbtacks located near major cities.
Major cities where I had a bakery.
“This person is from this area, but probably travels for work to these other cities, and routinely enough to stalk a potential victim, learn everything he needs about them, then plan his attack. So Ethan investigated companies located in Atlanta, ones that also had branches in or around these other cities. Do you know what company popped up over and over again?”
“The Mad Batter,” I exhaled.
This shouldn’t have come as a surprise. After all, each piece of jewelry I’d received came in packaging bearing the company’s logo and my corporate office’s return address.
Even so, Nikko, Agent Curran, and Ethan weren’t entirely convinced this person was actually connected to my company. Thought it was just a smoke screen, considering anyone could have easily lifted my logo off the internet and designed a replica of the packaging we use.
Now I feared all the background checks I’d insisted be conducted on every single employee — whether a high-ranking member of my corporate team or an hourly worker — hadn’t been as effective as I’d hoped.
It also made me question whether the employee records I’d handed over to Agent Curran and Ethan would be useful. I feared whoever was behind this would always remain two steps ahead of us.
Ahead of me.
“Yes, Julia.” Lachlan’s lower lip quivered. “This guy could be in this fucking building right now. So I’m sorry I came here when you made it quite clear you didn’t want to be seen in public with me. At least not yet. But when I called and you didn’t answer…”
His voice caught. He took a deep breath, briefly looking away before returning his eyes to mine, cupping my face in a tight hold.
“All I could think was something had happened to you. I know it’s crazy. That the likelihood of anything happening in a building filled with people is so minuscule it’s absurd. Not to mention the security you have in place here…even though I was able to get through with no problem.”
“Probably because you’re Lachlan Hale. Not sure anyone wants to mess with you after you landed that cop in the hospital,” I joked in an attempt to lighten the tension.
But I knew he wouldn’t allow me to escape this discussion. Wouldn’t let me downplay the very real possibility that this threat was even closer to home than we originally thought.
“I didn’t do enough when Claire voiced her concerns,” Lachlan continued, pain and passion filling every single syllable, “and she lost her life because of it. I won’t do that to you.” Grip on my face tightening, his lips slowly descended to mine. “I can’t lose you, too.”
“You won’t lose me,” I murmured against his mouth. “Promise.”
It wasn’t a promise anyone could truly hope to keep.
Regardless, Lachlan managed to find peace in my reassurance, the tension in his body melting away as he moved his lips against mine, coaxing them to part. This was definitely inappropriate. Not to mention risky.
But from the beginning, I’d been completely powerless to resist this man.