If You Know Her: A Novel of Romantic Suspense

fucking cocky and collected, hell. It was killing him.
    “I called for an ambulance, too,” he said, moving to stand in front of the bench where Remy was sitting, cradling the unconscious woman.
    “Ambulance,” Remy echoed. “Yeah. Good idea. Why won’t she wake up?”
    Ezra had his suspicions. He lifted one of Roz’s lids, peered at her eye. The pupil was a mere pinpoint. “I think he drugged her. I’ll tell the EMTs—they’ll probably look anyway, but they can let the doctors know, run some blood tests.”
    Remy nodded.
    Still, that lost, dazed look remained on his face. Ezra didn’t have time to shock him out of it, either. Hell,
Remy
didn’t have time to sit there looking lost, or confused. There was too much at stake, too many people who could become potential targets and Remy, better than most, might be able to figure out who was most at risk.
    “You going to sit there all damn night looking like he killed your dog or are you going to snap out of it and do something?” Ezra said, going for a cold, flat tone and hoping it would do some good.
    Remy stiffened.
    Then slowly, he looked up, his blue eyes shuttered. “You’re going to have to give me some time to adjust to the fact that my cousin—my blood, my
friend
—is a killer.”
    “No. I don’t have to give you some
time
, Counselor. Because
time
is something we don’t have. Somehow I don’t see him tucking his wife into an oven and just disappearing. He was going to come back and kill her, but he had a plan, damn it. He was going after somebody. He’s pissed and I bet you can figure out best who is themost likely target. Nia? Since she came back and fucked it all up? Reilly? Lena?”
    “What … why would he go after Lena?”
    Ezra spun away, shoved a hand through his hair. “Hell. You really aren’t thinking like a lawyer, are you? Are you thinking at all?” He looked back at him. “She heard one of his victims, Jennings. The screaming. Probably Nia Hollister’s cousin.”
    Remy went white. Then he closed his eyes. Nodded. He took a deep breath and looked at Roz, then back at Ezra. “I can’t process all of this—I just can’t. Give me a few minutes—let me get her to the hospital.”
    As he said it, they both heard the sirens wailing. Remy rose, still cradling the burden of Roz’s limp, practically lifeless body. He looked toward the window. “I need to call Hope, let her know what’s going on.”
    Ezra softly said, “She already knows most of it. She was at the Inn this morning with Lena. Left when Lena did. She’s at our place and she’ll stay there.”
    A muscle twitched in his jaw. “She knows, then. About Carter.”
    Ezra inclined his head.
    “Okay. I need to talk to her. I need a few minutes. Then I can think.”
    He headed for the door and then looked back. “It won’t be Reilly, though. It would be too fair a fight. Even when we were kids, one thing Carter never could stand was a fair fight. He wouldn’t call it that—had it in his head that it was strategizing or whatever. But he’ll go after somebody he has a chance at taking down. He wouldn’t have a chance with Reilly, and he knows it.”
    Then he paused. “Actually, he’s most likely to go for the weakest one, the most vulnerable. While others are focusing on her, he’d have his fun with the rest. Mind games. He was all about mind games.”
    “Hope.”
    Remy’s mouth twisted and he shook his head. “Hope’s quiet, but she’s not weak, man. And he doesn’t have any reason to go after her. He’d only fixate on somebody who posed a problem to him. Hope’s not the vulnerable one I’m talking about.”
    Ezra’s gut turned to ice.

CHAPTER
TWENTY-TWO
     
    T HIS TIME , E ZRA GOT THE WARRANT EASILY .
    It was hell on earth, too, because this was now the last place he wanted to be. He wanted … 
needed
to be with Lena. But instead, he had to be here. Doing the job he could have been doing earlier if Beulah had given him the benefit of a doubt.
    Instead of being with his wife, he had to be a fucking cop. The only consolation was that he would be better able to protect her once he had what he needed to lock Carter up. And it would have to be a strong, solid case because the people of Ash, Kentucky, might just make that legendary Blue Wall of Silence among cops look mild. They weren’t going to like seeing one of their beloved Jenningses go down—Remy was proof of that, and Ezra liked the guy.
    He’d be damned if he left her unprotected,