Chapter Forty One

“You keep wiggling on my lap like that and I’m going to fuck you senseless,” Charles murmured.

“Promises, promises.”

He slid his hand around Melanie’s neck until his thumb was stroking her carotid. “The life is in the blood,” he whispered.

He still caused her heart to race when he entered a room; partly from fear, and partly from animal lust. He was the only man in her world from the first day she laid eyes on him. Theirs was the love of a lifetime. Her husband was a force to be reckoned with and no amount of time together would do anything but deepen the respect she had for him. He was the first man she could ever say she truly looked up to.

They both looked up from their playfulness when the atmosphere in the room changed. Thomas and Teegan stood in the doorway as if awaiting permission, and they didn’t have good news judging by the look on their faces.

“Well, it’s good to see my son hasn’t forgotten I don’t like waiting to hear bad news,” Charles remarked, speaking from years of experience in reading his son’s emotions. Though Thomas hid his mind’s inner workings from the outside world, they couldn’t be hidden from family.

“Exactly what I told my wife.” Thomas decided the words felt good rolling off his tongue. Teegan was his now, and he was hers. He stepped up to the desk and placed a copy of the threatening e-mail in front of his father.

Charles read the e-mail twice before responding dismissively. “He’s bluffing.”

“That’s what I think, too, Dad.”

Charles had never looked at the boy as anything but his own flesh and blood. He had made a point of spending time with his son: baseball games, basketball games, hikes, water skiing, and horseback riding. He had come to learn that Thomas was a chameleon. Each year as the boy grew, his interests and his focus changed and Charles was careful to allow Thomas to become his own man so he could meet life on his own terms. Like any parent, Charles knew he wouldn’t always be around. Thomas needed to be ready for that day when it came. Charles liked the idea of his son not facing that day alone, but he didn’t know this woman. At a glance, she appeared to be more than a mere fuckbuddy. He trusted his son’s judgment, but he didn’t like variables. Variables were unpredictable.

“I still don’t like it,” Charles said. “I have to admit, having the discreet backing of the FBI agents will certainly work on our behalf. This man is irredeemably damaged. Soulless. Our problem isn’t him being a tattletale”—his voice dripped with contempt—“the problem is that he’s a loose cannon and he’s obsessed with your wife. My daughter-in-law. Unacceptable.”

Teegan couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride at her father-in-law’s declaration. It meant acceptance and that was something Charles Wentworth III didn’t give unless it was deserved. He was a hard man and Thomas appeared to be very much his father’s son, complete with all of his dark attributes. At first glance, both men were impeccably groomed businessmen, bred and raised in old money traditions, but a deeper understanding revealed a primal animal lurking within that was kept under barely leashed restraint.

“I dare say his obsession is an extension of his fascination with you two.” This time it was Melanie who had spoken, and both men listened intently. They had learned long ago she had good instincts. All eyes were on her as she continued. “We all know men are competitive.” She looked at Teegan with a glint in her eye as if they shared a secret. “Perhaps our killer is going for some one-upmanship.”

“So we cater to his ego,” Charles murmured, as if speaking to himself.

“Is there any other way to a man’s heart?” Melanie chuckled.

“I can think of one or two.” Charles’ heated gaze landed on his wife and her cheeks warmed.

“To draw him out,” his son said, finishing Charles’ theory about egos. The two men enjoyed this shared moment of revelation. Both men knew getting into his psyche was going to be the killer’s undoing. His narcissistic ego would be his downfall.

“He’s been getting away with murder,” Charles said with his eyes on his son.

Thomas nodded. “Every kill gives him more confidence.”

The men were volleying back and forth, their two minds unified in the same purpose. Profiling was such a big part of what they did. Was this how their favorite FBI agents, Turner and Murphy, felt about their lives? There was such a thin line between love and hate, good and evil, darkness and light.

“You need to contact him, son. It will take her out of the equation without him realizing what you’re doing. Appeal to that narcissistic attitude of his. Bruise his ego and you’ll own him. Once a thin-skinned man becomes angry you can easily knock him off of his game.”

“I agree, Dad, but I worry,” Thomas said with a glance at Teegan. “It’s dangerous.”

“Yes, it is. It could compel him to kill again. It could even cause him to escalate his activities.”

The women looked at each other, horrified.

“I don’t want to be the reason he kills more people.”

Both men looked at Teegan and spoke in unison, “He’s going to kill anyway.”

Thomas touched her arm and she jumped, startled. “Teegan, the agents are already working on it.”

She shook her head. Oh, the irony—criminal and crime fighter working together. Bound by blood.