If You Know Her: A Novel of Romantic Suspense

arching against him as she slid her arms around his neck. Wrapping one arm around her waist, he kept the other curved over her nape, angling her head to deepen the kiss.
    Her hands stroked down his chest, slid under his shirt. Short, neat nails bit teasingly into his skin, raking lightly over his flesh. But when she went to stroke him through his jeans, he groaned and pulled away, catching her wrists. With his breath coming in hard, ragged pants, he pressed his brow to hers. “Didn’t come here for this,” he muttered.
    “So? Does that mean we absolutely can’t?”
    Opening his eyes, he stared at her. Lost himself in her … it could be so easy to do that … so easy.
    “No.” Boosting her up into his arms, he whispered, “It doesn’t mean that at all.”

CHAPTER
THIRTEEN
     
    “S O WHAT ALL HAVE YOU DONE ?”
    Nia forced one eye to open, staring at Law. “Pal, if I need to explain it, then I must not have been doing it right,” she said dryly.
    He grinned.
    “Funny.” With one palm cupping her breast, he lightly pinched her nipple. “I promise, you did all of
that
right, absolutely. But I wasn’t talking about us. I’m talking about whatever you’ve done that’s caught his eye. If we’re going forward on the assumption that it’s him, then something you’ve done must have freaked him out if he ran the risk of coming out here where he could be seen.”
    She scowled. “Hell, he’s a sick fuck and sick fucks get off on scaring people—that’s their pleasure in life. Does he need a reason to come out here and scare me?”
    “Actually, yeah. Because sick fucks usually like to continue their mission of being sick fucks,” Law said. Absently, he stroked his thumb along the silken curve of her breast. “And if he gets caught, that interferes with his mission. He’s gone to a lot of trouble already to avoid getting caught. That’s what Joe was about—throwing people off the trail. That’s what leaving yourcousin on my land was about, too, I bet. Throwing people off the trail.”
    He frowned and sat up, raking his fingers through his hair.
    “Lena,” he muttered and shook his head.
    “What?”
    He looked over at her and said, “I just thought of something.”
    “The night she reported the screams.”
    He cocked a brow at her. “How did you know about that?”
    “I started going through some of the public records and archives, that sort of thing.” Shivering, she sat up and dragged the blankets around her. Her golden eyes were tormented, sad, and it only took a moment to figure out why.
    “I think it was Joely she heard screaming,” Nia said quietly, staring at him. She swallowed and closed her eyes. When she looked back at him, her eyes were damp, but she didn’t let the tears fall. “I think Joely almost escaped, but he caught her. Lena must have heard her.”
    Law nodded. “That makes sense. They looked around some, but it was late, dark. They came back out, did another go through the woods, I know that. There just wasn’t anything for them to find.”
    “I was out there. Looking around.”
    “Out where? In the woods?” Law demanded.
    “Yes.”
    Law closed his eyes. Told himself to count to ten—but he reached thirty and still hadn’t calmed down.
    “Let me get this straight—you go into the woods where you’re pretty sure your cousin was killed, and you’re just merrily hiking along. Am I getting this right?”
    She cocked a brow. “Yes. That’s about right.”
    Long, tense seconds of silence stretched out betweenthem before he shattered it as he demanded, “Why? What in the
fuck
were you thinking?”
    “I was thinking that he has someplace out there where he had her,” she snapped, shoving to her feet. She planted her hands on her hips and glared at him. “And right now I’m thinking I don’t care for your attitude, damn it.”
    “Too fucking bad, because I don’t care for the thought of something happening to you!”
    Swearing, he turned around and started to pace, images of what could have happened running through his mind even as other thoughts swamped him, turning everything into a jumble.
Shit, shit, shit—
    “What were you hoping to find?” he snapped. “A little treehouse with a sign reading
Serial Killer’s Hangout, please come in
?”
    Well, one thing about that tone of his, it did a damn fine job of turning her uncertainty and fear into anger.
    She sneered at him, torn between kicking him out and railing at him. The only thing that kept