TWENTY-FIVE

Kaely carried her gun over to its holster and slid it back inside. Then she faced Alex, who had closed the door behind him but still leaned against it.

“Don’t be angry,” he said. “I had to see you. I’ve been here since yesterday evening. Randy Parker called me about the letter.”

Randy had been Alex’s close friend and worked in ERT. “He could get in a lot of trouble for contacting you.”

“I know, but you won’t turn him in.”

She frowned at him. “How did you talk Ernie into letting you enter the complex?”

He grinned at her, and her heart thudded in her chest. That grin. She’d missed it so much. His sandy hair and blue eyes were like a balm to her soul. She was thrilled he was here—and angry that he’d gone behind her back.

“I’ve been talking to Ernie since Monday. He kept me up to date on your comings and goings. Tonight he let me in. Don’t be upset with him. I convinced him it was the only way to keep you safe.”

“By letting unauthorized people into a gated community?” she said angrily. “That’s not really the way to keep anyone safe.”

“No,” Alex said, pushing himself off her door and walking toward her. “But letting in a trained FBI agent who wants to protect you is a pretty good way to look after someone. Ernie knows me, Kaely. It’s not like he let a stranger into the complex. Leave him alone. Please. He’ll never do it again. I’ll make sure of it.”

“You’d better.” Alex stood about two feet from her, and she could smell his aftershave. She wanted to breathe deeply, take it in, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t allow herself to show him how grateful she was that he’d come. How much she’d missed him. How much she needed him. It would just start the whole thing all over again.

“So, just what is it you plan to do?” Kaely asked. She walked over to the couch and sat down. Her legs felt as if they couldn’t hold her up.

Alex took off his coat and dropped it on the back of her chair. That ugly dark green wool coat. It had belonged to Alex’s father, and Alex wouldn’t give it up, even though it had seen better days.

He plopped down on the other end of the couch. “I’m not sure, but I intend to make sure this idiot doesn’t get close to you.”

“I’m surprised Detroit let you come here. You haven’t been there that long.”

“I took a leave of absence. I have some things to sort out. Besides, I was worried about you.”

She started to question him further, but he held up his hand. “Not now. I’ll talk to you about it when I can. You need to trust me.”

“You know you can’t help with this case, right?”

He nodded. “I know. I’m just here to offer moral support to a friend.” He sighed deeply and rubbed his eyes. Kaely noticed for the first time how tired he looked. “Look, Kaely, I know you’re not ready for a romantic relationship. I shouldn’t have pushed. I made a mistake. Right now, all I care about is making sure you’re safe. I promise I won’t say or do anything else to make you uncomfortable. We were always great friends. Can we just go back to that?”

Kaely realized her fists were clenched so hard her nails were making deep impressions in her palms. She shook her hands open. She wanted Alex to stay. More than anything. But she wasn’t sure he could live up to his promises. She knew he was deeply in love with her, and she knew people were driven more by their emotions than they liked to admit. Was it possible someday she could return his love? Maybe. But not now. Not for a long time.

“Of course we’re friends,” she said. “Stay for a while. Frankly, I’d like to bring you up to speed on what’s been going on. I could use your insight.” She peered deeply into his eyes. “But if I need you to leave . . .”

“As long as you’re safe, I’ll go.”

Kaely jumped to her feet. “Then you need to go now. Either we do this my way . . . or we don’t do it at all.”

Alex looked away from her, his jaw working furiously. When he turned his head back around and their eyes met, he said, “That’s the way it always is, right, Kaely? Your way or the highway?”

The anger she saw in his expression frightened her. Alex wasn’t an angry person. Had she done this to him?

“Let me ask you this,” he said. “If I were in danger, what would you do? If I asked you to leave?”

She couldn’t tear her eyes away from his. He knew the answer. It wouldn’t do any good to lie. “I’d stay until I knew you were safe.”

The tautness in his face softened a little. “Okay. So let’s leave it there. I’ll do my very best to leave when you tell me to, but I honestly can’t promise you anything.”

Although she didn’t want to accept his terms, she realized she didn’t have a choice if she wanted him to stay. Finally, she said, “Okay.”

“So, let’s go to your war room. Show me what you’ve got so far.”

“Fine. But first . . .” She held out her hand.

He sighed and reached into his pocket, pulling out the key she’d given him a long time ago. He handed it to her, not saying anything.

She put the key in her pocket and headed upstairs, Alex on her heels.

Noah recognized Alex almost immediately. He’d followed Kaely home and then watched Alex’s red sports car pull up to the guard’s gate. He was surprised to see the guard let him through. He was supposed to call Kaely to notify her when someone was there to see her, but he never picked up the phone. Obviously he was working with Alex. Noah waited almost an hour, but Alex didn’t come out. The longer he waited, the more enraged he got. Was all this talk about not wanting a romantic relationship a lie? Was Alex going to be there all night? As he sat there, Noah only grew more upset. Why was this bothering him so much? He had no intention of falling into the trap Alex had. He kept telling himself that Kaely was the sister he’d never had, yet somewhere in his mind, he knew it wasn’t completely true. He wasn’t prepared to deal with those feelings, so once again he shoved them away, telling himself that whatever Kaely did or didn’t do with Alex was her business. Not his. After a few more minutes, he started his car and drove away.

Alex followed Kaely into her special room. She sat down at the table in the corner while he perused everything she’d posted on the corkboard and had written on her dry-erase board. She didn’t say anything, so as not to distract him. Finally, he turned around.

“Nothing from the poem? Can you use linguistic analysis to point toward the writer?”

Kaely shook her head. “That’s really difficult with a poem. The writer chooses words that rhyme, and sometimes they’re not exactly what they really want to say. Although I believe our UNSUB has chosen his words carefully, he probably faced the same challenge. I couldn’t find anything that stood out. We might have BAU give it a try though. I could have missed something.”

“I doubt that,” Alex said. “So you believe he wrote this himself?”

“Yeah. One of the first things I did was search for the poem online. It’s never been published. I’m sure it’s original.”

He nodded and turned back to the wall. “So the next murder will be a hanging? On swings? I hope he’s not talking about a child.”

“I don’t think so,” Kaely said. “He seems focused on adults. Adults who have come into contact with me in some way. And so far both other murders were copycats of cases I worked.”

Alex turned around quickly and stared at her. “What do you mean the victims were connected to you?”

She explained to him her relationship to the first two targets.

“Wow. But that’s really . . . distant. There’s no way to predict who he’ll hit next.”

“I know. It’s incredibly frustrating.”

“What happened after the poem appeared in the paper?”

“Just what you’d think,” Kaely said. “Lots of calls from crazy people who are certain they know who wrote the poem. We’re sending all calls to the police, who set up a special line with BAU to review everything. So far, they haven’t gotten anything that seems promising. Of course, we also have the usual psychics who want to help.”

“You mean the people who’ve never given us a single thing we can use?”

“Yeah, the same.”

Alex came over and sat down across from her at the table. “You know, that’s what some people think you are. Psychic.”

She laughed lightly. “And some think I’m just psycho.”

He smiled. “Yeah, I suppose some do.”

She wanted to reach out and take his hand. Tell him how happy she was that he was here, but she didn’t dare. It would just make things harder when he left. Yet, at that moment, she felt safer than she had since the poem arrived at the FBI. She liked Noah, but she still didn’t trust him completely. She trusted Alex. If anyone could help her stop this guy, it was him.

“How about some coffee?” she asked. “I’d like to talk more about the case. We’re taking the weekend off while the command post is set up. Monday morning we hit the ground running. We have two days to review everything we have so far. Are you in?”

His slow smile tugged at her heart. “There’s nothing I’d like more.”