Deadly Desire (Carrington-Hill Investigations Book 2) by Kate Allenton

together to stop from smacking him upside the head. Too bad she couldn’t stop her quick tongue from brandishing him like a child. Her comment wasn’t very professional. It reminded her of something her father would do, something he would say. And the thought churned her stomach. She stepped toward him. He stepped back. “I’m sorry, Collin, but you have to tell me stuff like that. Even if you think it doesn’t mean anything.”
    He moved back to the couch and plopped down. Damn, she needed to see a doctor, one that could prescribe a drug to stop crap from flying out of her mouth before alienating everyone she’d ever known.
    Marco emerged, the stress lines of his face deepen ing as he pressed the phone to his ear. “One of mine will bring him in. She’s also undercover as his current girlfriend, so I’d appreciate it if you kept her employment to yourself for the time being.” He clipped the phone closed and shoved it back in his pocket.
    Marco nodded with worry in his eyes. She stood and followed him out into the empty hallway. She didn’t have to ask if Tonya was dead . She could see it in his face. “You need to take Collin down to the sheriff’s office. I’ve informed the sheriff of what we found and they want to question him. They’re sending in their own forensic team to canvas the apartment.”
    In a soft voice, one he rarely used, he asked , “You do know what this means, don’t you?”
    “He was right. His ex es are being targeted for extermination and the killer is most likely a stalker.” She knew exactly what this meant. As if trying to catch a murderer wasn’t bad enough, Collin’s murderer was also a damn stalker, monitoring and following his every move, and that knowledge changed everything.
    His brows dipped. “Most of the time stalkers only become violent when they are frustrated and start realizing the object of their affection doesn’t want them. I’m thinking either sociopathic or schizophrenic. Hell , it could be a combination of both. We don’t know what the hell we’re dealing with” He turned and paced a few steps away and back. “We have to figure out what set the stalker off, why she or he feels threatened by his exes.”
    She placed a reassuring palm on his arm. “He’ d seen both of them within the last month. I’m thinking that this psycho has targeted him within that time frame. I think we need to retrace his steps over the last thirty days. He’s only seen one other ex since then, and I’ve texted Lexi and asked her to pick up and move Amanda George into a safe house for the time being until we get this figured out.”
    He grinned. “I always knew you were smart.” He walked back over to the apartment door. Sara laid a hand on his arm to stop him. “He’s gotten phone calls in the middle of the night.” She tilted her head toward the apartment door. “Just like the one I heard on Tonya’s machine while I was waiting for you. Someone called started breathing heavy and hanging up. It might be worth pulling the records and tapping his line.” Marco winked and grinned before pushing open the door and walking back inside. “You need to get him out of here before the press shows up. I’m sure they’ll catch wind of this on the police scanners.”
    Sara followed Marco back into the apartment and placed a gentle hand on Collin’s shoulder. “We’ve got to go down to the station, Collin. The sheriff needs to take your statement.”
    He looked up with red -rimmed eyes and nodded. And that pissed her off more. Gone was the playboy she’d read about in the tabloids, replaced with a man that cared.
    “No, no, no . No crying on my watch.”
    She sat down facing him and grabbed his hand. “I promise you this person is going down. I’ll hunt him or her down, and I promise to make it hurt.”
    He squeezed her hand before pulling her off the couch. “Let’s get this over with. ”
    She needed to get him out of there before the media showed up or , worse, the