I would’ve been shot, instead.
But she hadn’t been shot, and the other two victim’s injuries weren’t life-threatening. They’d all been very, very lucky.
“I have a few bruises and a headache.” Ellie forced a calm, cool tone she prayed was convincing. “That’s all.”
“You have…a…concussion.” Cassie slowed her speech at the end, almost as if Ellie was too dense to understand the simplistic words.
But she understood perfectly.
When the first shot rang out, she’d been knocked to the ground as utter chaos had ensued around her. In the process of trying to drop to the ground for cover, she’d stupidly caught hertoe on an uneven crack in the sidewalk, causing her to tumble head-first onto the unforgiving cement below.
“Logan’s working with Chase and Van to try to find out as much as they can about where the investigation into Harvey’s whereabouts is standing,” Archer informed her grimly. “Nat’s with them doing whatever she can to help, too.”
“I told Logan to put a call into Knox,” Lucky finally spoke up. “Hopefully the guy can use his connections to speed up the intel-gathering.”
It was the first time he’d spoken to her since she’d woken back up at the hospital. Just one more item for her to add to the day’s list of unsettling events.
Lucky on a good day was almost more than she could handle. But this quiet, stoic Lucky…
I’m not sure what to think about him.
“Detective Travis Knox?” Ellie frowned. “I thought he warned you guys away after the last time.”
At least, that’s what Cassie had shared with her back when the men of Eagle’s Nest took it upon themselves to run their own murder investigation. They’d been trying to clear Cassie’s name, and apparently Detective Knox had done his damnedest to put the team of former SEALs in their place.
“He did.” Archer nodded. “At first. We’ve since come to a mutual…understanding.”
“He scratches our back once in a while,” Lucky explained, “we help the boys in blue whenever we can."
The man had barely finished speaking when Cassie blurted out an unexpected, “You should stay with us tonight.” Her round, worried eyes slid to her fiancé’s. “We’ll just have to clear off the boxes on the spare bed, but that’s no big d—”
“No.” Ellie started to shake her head but stopped herself with a wince. “I appreciate the offer, but I’m not going anywhere.”
She wouldnotlet some random act of violence run her out of her own home.
“Actually, that’s not a bad idea.” Archer supported his bride-to-be’s wishes. “If thiswasHarvey’s doing—”
“It wasn’t him.” She grunted softly as she shifted herself against the sunken cushion.
“You don’t know that.”
“You’re wrong.” Ellie met her frightened friend’s gaze and sighed. “I know Harvey as well as anyone can. I know how the man thinks.”
During her time spent prosecuting the bastard, she’d spent countless hours studying him…questioning him…memorizing crime scene photos, forensic details, and the gruesome, heart-wrenching facts from each of the victim’s case files. It’s how she was so certain that today’s attack had been orchestrated—and implemented—by someone else.
“How can you possibly—”
“George Ray Harvey is a careful, methodical killer,” she interrupted Cassie to better explain. “He stalked his victims for days, sometimes weeks before finally making his move. He’d leave them notes…” Ellie swallowed the knot in her throat. “Pictures he’d taken of them without their knowledge. Just to screw with their heads and cause fear before the real terror ever began.”
The bastard was smart, too. So smart, he got away with it four freaking times before he was finally caught.
“He got close to his victims,” she continued. “Probably posing as a kind stranger in need of directions or asking for help carrying something to his car. Once the opportunity arose, he used propofol to render his victims unconscious. Harvey would then put them into the trunk of his car, drive them to his grandfather’s cabin in the woods, and there he proceeded totorture them for the next forty-eight hours before eventually putting the same knife he’d used on them for two fucking days to their throats…and killing them.”
“Jesus.” Archer shook his head in disgust.
“That’s how I know it wasn’t him,” she pointed out.
“Instincts are important.” Lucky crossed his arms at his chest. “But they can also be wrong. Especially when emotions get involved.”