Chapter 7
Never start an argument with a man who can kill you from a different zip code.
—Quaid to Quinn
QUAID
The last thing I expected to see tonight was a gorgeous woman wearing a sequined blue dress on the side of the road changing a tire.
Nor did I expect to see a man who looked perfectly capable to me standing by, watching her do it.
Pulling up close behind the car where Ellodie was crouched down, dress snug against that supple ass, I got out and headed toward her.
I didn’t miss the way the cars had slowed down upon my arrival, either.
Assholes.
Why they needed flashing red and blue lights was beyond me. You could see there was an issue.
“Darlin’,” I said to her as I got close enough to be heard over the traffic. “CanI offer my assistance?”
She stood up, the dress that’d ridden up in her crouched position falling back down to rest just above her knees.
“Actually, yes.” She looked thankful. “I could’ve done it, but I would hate to get this dirty. I just bought it a year ago.”
I snorted out a laugh and dropped down to loosen the last of the lug nuts.
“I told her she should probably lift the car up more to get that unstuck,” the man suggested.
I looked up at him to see if he was kidding, but his Botoxed face wasn’t resembling the emotion I expected.
“Uh, no,” I said to him. “If you lift it off the ground, all it’ll do is spin, and you’ll never get the lug nuts loosened.”
He pursed his lips, and no lines whatsoever marred his face.
I got to work on the last lug nut, then jacked the car up to get the tire off.
Just as I pulled it off, Ellodie rounded the car with the spare in her hands, holding it away from her body so she didn’t get her blue dress dirty.
I took it from her before she could make it to me, then quickly got it onto the car.
OnceI was done, I stepped back and said, “You need a ride?”
“Uh, no, you fixed me up.” The guy beamed, looking not the least bit repentant. “NowI don’t have to pay a fee. Thanks!”
I looked at Ellodie with a raised brow, and she looked relieved. “Actually, yes. It’s nice meeting you, Darrel.”
“It’sDarron,” Darron corrected.
“Sure.” Ellodie smiled.
She walked to my passenger side seat and got in, slamming the door closed behind her.
I grinned, then turned back to Darron to see him staring in disbelief at his date ditching him.
“Have a good one.” I paused before I got into my car. “And just sayin’, but if you ever want to get a date with a girl like her, you really need to figure out how to be a man.”
I dropped into the cruiser at his outraged gasp, then turned to her. “Did you eat yet?”
She was already shaking her head. “No. Dammit. We went to TopGolf, and he wouldn’t let me order food.”
I pulled out onto the ramp and accelerated, merging into traffic with ease.
“What sounds good?” I asked. “There are a couple of places on this next exit.”
I knew where she lived, too. There was a pretty nice Chinese restaurant right outside her building.
It wasn’t the best part of town, and honestly looked like a broken-down bunch of nothing from the outside, but man, the food was the best I’d ever had.
“Chinese,” she offered. “There’s this little hole in the wall place right down the road from my place.”
I flashed a grin her way. “I know it, and I was just thinking about offering that up as a suggestion.”
She flashed me a smile, but then said, “If you don’t mind, I’d love to go wash my hands really quick. I don’t know what to do with my hands.”
“That’s my favorite line from a WillFerrell movie,” I replied as I started scanning the area for a gas station that was lit up enough we’d both be safe. Finding one, I pulled in, and went straight to the front parking spot.
“I’m not a big WillFerrell fan,” she admitted as she got out of my cruiser and started walking inside without another word.
I watched her go until I couldn’t anymore, and then took in the men inside who did much the same.
I wasn’t unaware of her beauty.
She wasn’t tall, but also wasn’t short. Around five-foot-five or so, she was the perfect height for me to rest my chin against the top of her head.
SomethingI’d been weirdly focusing on each time she was within arm’s reach of me.
It had to be because I wanted her in my arms.
Hell, I wanted her to be all over me, and vice versa, and that was an understatement.
Her long brown hair was up in a low bun at her nape, a few lone tendrils curling at the edges of her nape.
Her arms and shoulders looked fantastic in the blue sequined, spaghetti strap dress. And her ass and thighs… I could say that I’d never actually had a favorite body part on a woman. I was an equal opportunity kind of guy. I liked tits. Ass. Thighs.
There wasn’t a single piece of a woman that I didn’t find attractive.
EllodieSolaire was a knockout.
She had it all.
Movement out of the corner of my eye had me twisting my head, and I narrowed my eyes as I saw a fancy man in a suit get out and lean against his car.
Was he waiting for someone?
Not liking how he was just leaning there waiting for something, I got out of the cruiser and locked it, heading inside.
WhenI got in there, it was to find a couple of men crowded close to the bathroom, pretending to be infatuated with tire pressure gauges.
And, because I wasn’t born yesterday, I posted up right outside the bathroom door, causing the men to scatter.
I gritted my teeth and listened as the toilet in the bathroom flushed, then water turned on.
Ellodie came out moments later, drying her hands with a paper towel.
“I had to wash my hands, you know?” she asked. “Then, when I was doing that, I had this huge urge to pee. Running water does that to me. So, I had to go to the bathroom. ThenI had to rewash my hands.”
I shrugged. “It happens.”
“It does,” she confirmed as she fell into step beside me, oblivious to the men who were watching her like a hawk. “What are you doing inside?”
“Waiting for you,” I admitted as I pushed through the door and held it open for her, while simultaneously taking a glance around.
Suit guy was now filling up his car, but he wasn’t hiding the fact that he was interested in Ellodie.
“You know him?”
Ellodie frowned and started looking around, causing my stomach to clench in worry.
How had she not clocked all the people looking at her?
She was in a serial killer’s sights, for Christ’s sake.
She needed to pay better attention.
She also needed to get a one-on-one guide on how to keep herself alive.
“Oh, yeah. Actually, I do. That’s a doctor from the hospital,” she said as she ignored him and continued to the passenger side door of the cruiser.
I got there first and opened it, and a funny look crossed her face.
I closed the door on that look, then rounded the hood and caught the fancy suit doctor watching me.
I gave him a chin lift and wondered if he had a thing for Ellodie.
Unlucky for him, she was mine.
She just didn’t know it yet.
“I was just thinking today that chivalry was dead,” she said quietly when I dropped inside. “I don’t think a man who wasn’t related to me has ever opened my door before.”
“Really?” I asked. “You’ve lived in Texas for how long?”
It took less than a minute to get to the Chinese place, and soon we were bailing out of the cruiser once again to head inside.
“Really,” she confirmed. “I go on a lot of dates, too.” She shook her head, her fingers playing with the hem of her dress. “I’ve been here for going on nine years now. I started college at UTD—University of Texas at Dallas. ThenI started work at DallasMemorial. I had to work in critical care—the ER or ICU—for a year before I could go back to get my DNP degree. NowI’m about six months away from finishing.”
There was a lot to unload there, and I would comment on all of it eventually, following up with more questions. However, there was one thing in particular that was on the forefront of my mind.
“Why do you go on so many dates?” I asked. “There’s no way you haven’t found a man who would be hopelessly devoted to you.”
A faint flush crossed her face as she absorbed my compliment.
She didn’t answer until we were seated in the back, far away from prying eyes and ears.
“I made a deal with myself at the new year that I’d go on every single date that anyone asked me on until I found the one,” she answered, sounding exhausted. “I just didn’t know I’d be accepting ones from complete losers. Or getting invited to possible murder hikes.”
My eyes lost some of their warmth at her reminder.
“I actually wanted to talk to you about that,” I started, smiling at the waitress when she arrived.
“I’ll have a sweet tea, please,” I ordered.
The waitress, who looked like she spoke just a smidge of English, pointed her stack of order forms at Ellodie.
“I’ll have a lemonade.” She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes, either.
It was only as the waitress was all the way back behind the counter across the room that she said, “About the murders?”
“About the murders,” I confirmed. “And after what I witnessed today, I think maybe you need a lesson in survival.”
Her brows rose. “I’m a farm girl, born and raised. I am the ultimate survivor.”
I was already shaking my head. “How many men were in that gas station we just went to?”
She frowned. “Two? I think there was one behind the counter, and one looking at the drinks.”
“There were four,” I said. “The dude behind the counter was actually a girl. She asked me for a date when I passed her to go to the bathroom, which I declined. The four guys were scattered around the store. Two of them were waiting in the aisle right outside the bathroom when I came in.”
She scrunched up her nose.
“Actually, now that you mention it, I did see that she had boobs,” she admitted. “ButI didn’t want to assume.”
“And you didn’t see the doctor guy until I pointed him out, either,” I continued.
She sighed. “I’m not the most observant, I can admit.”
Which might very well get her killed.
“You need to be,” I said. “I talked to the special agent in charge of the serial killer case. I…”
My phone rang, and since it was Tobin, I answered it immediately, putting it on speaker because I wanted her to hear what Tobin had to say.
Tobin started talking before even waiting for me to finish saying hello.
“Talked to the profiler,” Tobin said without pleasantries. “I’m going to start out with everything, wait for me to finish before you ask your questions.”
I rolled my eyes at Tobin’s lack of bending.
He’d always done that—given orders and expected them to be obeyed.
At least, he was like that with everyone but his wife.
“Sure.” I grinned at the brow that Ellodie rose at Tobin’s words.
“Okay, diving in,” he said. “It’s a lot so bear with me.”
I nodded, not saying a word, knowing it’d get him to his point faster.
If there was one person I could say ‘squirrel’ to and get him to look, it was definitely TobinMcGraw.
“Profiler says that our suspect is around thirty-five to forty. He’s probably socially awkward since all of these so-called dates originate from a dating app,” Tobin began. “From what the profiler could come up with, the suspect is also very well-off. Likely masters or higher in education. His target girl is in between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-two. Likely very independent, can and does take care of herself. From the information we’ve gathered through the dating app, it’s likely our suspect wants subservient women. He gets angry, or defensive, if you try to protect him from something he should be taking care of.”
I looked up at Ellodie to see her pinching her lips together.
The waitress came back with our drinks and some spring rolls, leaving us before I could tell Tobin to wait a minute.
“Suspect is likely in the medical field in some way. Or public servant,” Tobin continued. “Though he didn’t tell anyone what he was doing for a living, he’s alluded to helping people in multiple conversations with missing girls. And the public servant thing comes off as a little more unassuming when meeting girls where they’re uncomfortable.”
That made me irrationally angry. Some psycho serial killer was using his job as an ice breaker to get these girls comfortable with him just so he could off them in the woods.
“We’re thinking he’s living local,” Tobin finished off.
“That’s a lot of information,” I admitted. “Any ideas on what he looks like?”
“Over six feet.”
“Okay,” I said. “Build?”
“Suspected to be lean,” Tobin sounded distracted. “Any other questions?”
I heard the hesitation in his voice, and wondered if it was Crissa again.
Geez.
“Is the profiler worried that he’ll come back after the woman who said no?” I asked, keeping my gaze directed at Ellodie’s face.
It was with that question I knew she was scared of the same outcome.
“They’re thinking it’s a possibility. Though the profiler believes that the next time he asks, he’ll create a name and lie about his profession since it didn’t work the first time. He’ll also take her somewhere that’ll make her comfortable, not for a hike in the middle of the woods. He’ll have to work a little harder to get her comfortable with him before he’ll ask her to go for a hike where he can murder her,” he confirmed. “You’re going to watch the nurse?”
The nurse.
I grunted out a ‘yep’ before Tobin grumbled under his breath before saying, “Good. I have to go. Crissa won’t stop calling, and if I don’t answer soon, she’ll just get on a plane and head this way.”
With that, he hung up, leaving Ellodie staring at me uncomfortably.
“On a scale from one to ten, how bad should I be scared right now?”
An eleven.
“Oh, I don’t know,” I lied. “ButI’m going to make sure you’re safe.”
I just had to convince her to let me move in, or her to move in with me, before that happened.
She looked at me with a narrow-eyed look before saying, “You can’t be with me twenty-four-seven.”
I couldn’t… but one of my family members could.
We had nine cops in my immediate family, then there was Ande who was trained almost as well as we were. Then there was Keene, who was so fucking intimidating that all they would need to do was look at him and they’d run away.
Then there was Tobin.
And hell, I’d even trust Assman to watch over her.
She’d be protected.
“Watch me,” I said.