Falling on the mat, I laugh uncontrollably while Simone glares at me from above. “You, bitch, did not just give up.”

“Ella, get your ass up. We aren’t giving you a free pass,” Chloe says, while whirling the Twister spinner again, and then ordering, “Right foot on red.” I groan into the glossy mat but lift myself up to comply, holding one hand in front of me while the other hand is on the side.

I’m not flexible, so I feel the strain in my muscles from that. Leave it to Chloe to remember our childhood game and insist on playing it so we can cheer up.

I know she’s worried sick about me after the whole train incident, so I agreed to this, along with a few bottles of wine and a girls’ night. Simone baked some delicious goodies, so in my book it is a win-win situation.

“You are buying us all massages after that, just saying,” Simone informs her while glancing at the spinner to figure out where to put her left hand.

“Me? You are the one with the rich husband!” Chloe sounds outraged and nudges her on the shoulder, and they both lose balance and end up tumbling to the floor.

A beat and then loud giggles erupt, and I just shake my head. “Now who did that on purpose?” Before they can reply, my landline rings loudly, the screeching sound loud enough to make my ears bleed, and the girls cover theirs.

“Fuck, Ella, make it stop.” A morning hangover apparently is a bitch to everyone, so to ease my pain and theirs, I hurry to the phone and pick it up quickly.

“Hello,” I say breathlessly, and there is a pause on the other end of the line before the masculine voice speaks, sending shivers, and not the best kind, through me.

“Ella Gadot?” he asks, and I nod, only then realizing how stupid it is, considering he can’t see me.

“The one and only.”

“My name is Noah Davis. I’m from the FBI.” All humor leaves me, and I motion for the girls to shut up with my index finger on my lips, and instantly they listen. We rarely use this signal, so they know it’s important.

“Is everything all right? I gave my statements two days ago.” Although the police let me go before the feds arrived, but then there was nothing else to say.

“The case is closed.” His voice is laced with authority, as if he finds it offensive I’ve interrupted him. “Would you like to work with the FBI?” Everything inside me freezes, and I pull the phone back from my ear, gaping at it in shock, because I never expected to hear those words.

And at the same time, they are everything to me.

“Well, yes—”

“Terrific. Please come to the New York office tomorrow. We need to interview you first. Have all your paperwork with you.” With that, he hangs up on me while I still stand there, blinking a few times and trying to calm my rapidly beating heart.

Will my dream come true after all?

Ella

Taking a deep breath, I knock on the office door three times, and when I hear the harsh “Come in,” I step inside to find Noah behind the desk writing, probably the report on the unsub before closing the case for us.

His jacket is thrown over his chair, his sleeves are rolled up, and a steaming cup of coffee is wrapped tightly in his left hand as he writes furiously with his right. All in all, the boss seems tired as hell and probably dreams about going home, when I’m about to bring him more problems than he expects.

He frowns at me, but then resumes his work as if I’m not even around. “Ella, why are you still here?”

Fumbling with my fingers, I try to search for the words, still afraid of his reaction. My mouth opens of its own accord, but the words spilling from it surprise even me. “Why did you hire me?”

Noah pauses his writing and raises his eyes to me with an unreadable expression. “What do you mean?”

“The FBI didn’t want me due to my past. But then you showed up and they hired me despite not having three years of experience in the field.”

He leans back in his chair, his hands clasped in front of him as he studies me, and I shift uncomfortably, because his drilling stare has the ability to see past the façade.

Past the lie I’m harboring, but I came to confess anyway. The man trusted me when he picked me, and by hiding the book, I showed exactly what all the professors and professionals predicted.

A personal attachment and obsession over finding a suspect.

Was I not cut out for the job after all? All those years spent in training, and hoping, only to what? Find out I wasn’t meant to be an agent?

“You showed great skills with the Smith case. Plus, your work experience spoke for itself. Sometimes it’s not about experience in the field. I believed you’d be a good asset to the team, and I wasn’t wrong. You just helped to figure out his profile, Ella.” He picks up the folder with the case and shakes it. “This case is closed because of you.”

“We still haven’t found him.”

He shrugs. “That is not our job.” He pauses. “Ella, we are profilers. We investigate the mind of a serial killer and help the police figure him out. It might help the police catch them. Sometimes they can do it even without our help. We are needed on other cases too. I know it’s hard to let go, but you have to learn,” he finishes, and I glance down.

He is right, of course. Profilers cannot spend their time waiting to catch a criminal when thousands of cases await them, but I’m not sure we can let go of this one.

So with no further delay, I say, “He sent me a book.” Noah freezes, straightening up at once. “After that, he messaged me saying it holds the key to the investigation.”

“When did this happen?” His voice is low and harsh; his hands fist while his face is filled with barely contained fury.

“Two days ago.”

The table shakes as he punches it hard, the sound reverberating through the space as he stands up, shouting at me. “And you are just telling me this now?” My shoulders sag while he continues to scold me. “You should have told me the minute it happened. Do you realize how dangerous that is?”

“I thought—”

“What? You thought what? We need to inform the police. You are his target, Ella.”

My brows furrow while my mouth opens and closes, desperately searching for words. “He just plays with me to see if I can figure out who he is.” We’ve studied cases like him. They feel so invincible they usually pick one of the team members to elevate themselves in their eyes.

Hollow laughter erupts while he shakes his head in disbelief. “Ella, he is not playing with you. He hunts you.”

I croak, “What?” Surely he is mistaken, why would he want to hunt me down?

He presses the intercom, and in a second, Jacob’s voice responds, “Noah.”

“Get everyone back in the office as soon as possible.”

“Why?”

Noah’s harsh reply freezes me to my bones while a loud oh shit echoes in my mind. “He found a woman.”

Ella

Everyone throws me accusatory glances, but no one comments on the fact that I placed all of us in a dangerous situation.

“We can stop the ‘drilling Ella’ contest and focus on the case, shall we?” Andrea suggests, and Preston snickers.

Jacob claps his hands fast as he rises from his seat, goes to the board with all the killings, and starts talking. “So far, there is no indication of female bodies. Which means that killing Ella is not his MO, and serial killers rarely change them.” My brows lift in surprise that he actually tries to solve the puzzle instead of screaming at me. The guy doesn’t like me much, but it turns out he was always on his team’s side.

Well there is that at least.

“But he sent her the book with a note about hints. It’s like he wants her to find him,” Noah says, while studying the board with a frown.

“She’s new. What is so interesting about her that he wants her?”

With that question Jacob addressed to me, I shrug. “I’m boring. I have no clue.”

“Any boyfriends that didn’t take rejection well?”

The bile rises in my throat just from someone assuming my ex could be, well, this.

“No. My last boyfriend was a lawyer in a firm who has an amazing father. He married two years ago.” My cheeks flush, because honestly, who wants to discuss this aspect of their life?

I catch Kierian’s gaze as he sips his drink, a wistful expression crossing his face when he speaks up for the first time during this meeting. “Maybe we need to take a step back.”

Andrea rests her cheek on her arm. “Meaning?”

“We know for sure this guy is the victim of family abuse. If Ella is the surrogate for his mother, then something in her past makes her similar to his mother.” He pauses. “He is a control freak. If he knows where she lives, he can easily hack the system and get her file. Or get to know something that’s already public knowledge.”

Everything inside me freezes when I understand his meaning, and my breath hitches, betrayal running through my veins at him outing me like that to all of them.

I shared my pain with him, and that’s how he proves his trust? “You son of a bitch!” I exclaim, my chair hitting the wall, and he follows suit, plastering his hands on the table.

“I’m saving your life here. You don’t want to look in the past, then don’t. But we have to.”

Everyone moves their heads from me to him, confusion written all over them… except for one person.

Noah sighs heavily. “He is right, Ella. That’s probably why you are so interesting to him.”

“What the fuck is going on?” Jacob finally roars, clearly fed up with all this.

By the stubbornness flashing in their eyes, I know they will tell my story if I don’t. So with a trembling voice, I answer his question. “Twelve years ago, I came home from a party. My parents were very strict about that stuff, constantly having boundary after boundary. They never explained why, but I suspected it had to do with my mother’s crazy-wealthy family who were against her marriage to my dad.” I open a bottle of water and take a generous gulp, my throat suddenly dry. “Long story short, when I came home, my father had his throat sliced open, Mom was shot, and my sister taken. A few hours later, they found her dead in our basement, raped and battered. I didn’t know back then who it was, but a year later, we found out it was our neighbor, the father of my best friend,” I finish, and wrap my hand around my neck, wincing at how sharp those words feel even after all these years.

No matter how much time passes, my wound will never heal.

Is it the same for him?

I blink at the sudden thought and shake my head. Each serial killer is screwed up in their own way, and most of them have had hard childhoods. But it’s not an excuse to do what they do.

I chose differently. Why couldn’t he?

Silence falls over the room as they stare at me, some with pity, some with horror despite their profession. I’m used to all this, and this is one of the reasons I so wished to avoid them knowing.

It’s one thing when something happens to abstract people, but quite another if it’s a friend or a coworker.

Andrea opens her mouth and then closes it, lost for words, while Jacob shifts uncomfortably.

The only one who doesn’t have a reaction is Preston who continues to type on his laptop, searching for clues on the case. A humorless laugh begs to slip past my lips as realization hits me. He probably knew all along; he is a hacker, after all.

“So if this gives you a clue why he might have set his hunting ways on me, be my guest. Because I don’t get it.” Sarcasm laces my voice as I sit back, digging my pen into the paper, imagining Kierian’s face as my target.

And people wonder why I have trust issues and don’t do relationships.

“Your suffering.” Preston clears his throat as all our attention shifts to him. “Out of all of us, you are the only one with a messed-up childhood. You don’t have a husband or kids or serious relationships.”

“So?”

“In his mind, you are in pain over what happened to you. And he wants to ease it.”

Say what now? This couldn’t be it. Before I can comment, Noah clicks his fingers.

“And if he set his eyes on you, he is not going to stop.”

“This is not his MO. Why me? He is a controlled serial killer who hunts his victims. And all of a sudden, he decides to save me? It makes no sense.” Why am I the only one who sees reason here? He sent me the book, because he probably considers me the weak link in the circle since I’m new.

“Unless he waited for the specific day for us to find the remains. The call came from an anonymous number, Ella.”

Kierian hits the table with his fist. “You were his target all along. And those bodies? Were for you to admire his work.”

“This is insane,” I whisper, and that’s when Jacob finally speaks again.

“No, Ella. This is our work.”

Andrea’s voice is laced with defeat. “You are our only way to find him.”

“What does it mean?”

“The case won’t be solved until he wants it to be. Whenever he decides to strike next will depend on how much he wants to impress you.” Noah curses, but then continues, “Preston, run more research on the kids who might have fit the profile, but beyond that, we will leave the case open and proceed as usual. The police are informed, but I highly doubt he will do anything in the next few months. He probably gets a thrill out of you being scared.”

This is it then.

I have to be the prey for the unsub, and it will be on his terms. I want to scream in frustration, but what good will it do?

Instead, I get up and dash toward the elevator, pressing the button feverishly, willing the damn thing to come faster so I won’t have to face the rest of the team for the time being.

“If you break the thing, it won’t come faster either,” a husky voice speaks next to me, but I ignore it. Finally, the doors slide open and we get inside.

All the way down, we stay quiet while I barely restrain myself from punching him in the face. I don’t want to lose my shit in the building though, or they’ll think the stress of the job is too much for me to handle.

Once outside, he grabs my arm, spinning me around to face him while I grit my teeth. “Not here, Kierian. Can you at least honor this request?”

His mouth transforms into a thin line as determination and fury crosses his face. “Someone had to be the voice of reason.”

“Well then, thank you.” With that, I hop into my car and drive in the direction of my house, not caring in the least for his side of the story.

How can you find someone’s weak point and then press on it before that person is ready? It’s just not done!

The drive is done in a haze, and once in the parking lot, I rest my head against the seat back, exhaling a heavy breath. Three days on the new job, and I’m wondering why I ever wanted it to begin with. My first case sucks, a serial killer is obsessed with me, and I didn’t come closer to easing anyone’s suffering. At least in the center, when we spent time with the victims, they got better. I felt like I made a difference in the world.

In this job though? I feel like a constant failure.

A swift knock on my window startles me, and I frown the moment I recognize Kierian. Grabbing my bag, I get out while huffing in annoyance. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to rest after an eventful day. And for your information, this is private parking.”

My words don’t fly with him as he motions for me to go inside the building. “You want to scream or be stubborn, fine. But you can’t run around unprotected.”

I laugh in his face, which he doesn’t appreciate if his barely audible curse is anything to go by.

He has a lot of nerve ordering me around.

“I’m an agent, trained as well as you. So you can take your worry and shove it down your thro—” The rest of my words are muffled as he picks me up over his shoulder, and I’m upside down watching the concrete move. “Put me down, Kierian!” He doesn’t listen, just walks speedily to the building and presses the elevator call button while I punch his muscles and, yes, his fucking sexy ass—not that it matters to him.

What is he? Made out of stone?

I push up on his shoulder, but as he enters the elevator, I have to drop low again and growl in frustration.

“Stay put, Ella. Or you’ll hurt yourself.” This man has to be seen to be believed!

“I won’t hurt myself if you put me down!”

He slaps my ass, and I’m so shocked, it takes me a moment to react.

He slapped my freaking ass?

“You—” He exits the elevator and places me on the floor, and I push him away—not that he moves. “You know it’s called stalking, right?” He shrugs, leans against the wall, and waits for me to unlock the door. “You are not invited.”

He rolls his eyes and gives me a patronizing smile that pisses me off.

Finally, I open it and step inside, and he trails after me, inserting his foot so I won’t be able to close it in his face. “Ella, you don’t know if he is around. Let me stay for a while so I can be sure nothing disturbs you. All things aside.” All humor leaves him as he gazes at me with a serious expression, and the situation settles on me.

The unsub knows where I live. What will it take for him to enter the house or ring the doorbell so he’ll have easy access to me?

Fucking men!

Exhaling heavily, I let him in, then collapse on the couch, resting my head on the pillow and covering my eyes with my arm.

“You are such a great hostess, just… wow. No words,” he says, and I flip him off, to which he just laughs.

I hear the water running in the sink, and then my refrigerator makes a sound. Peeking through my fingers, I see him frown as he studies my very empty cupboards.

“You’ve got nothing.”

Oddly, this brings me satisfaction, as he looks like a kicked puppy.

“I told you I don’t cook.”

“You told me you don’t eat breakfast.”

“Hence the not cooking part. Duh.”

“I’m starving, so I’m going to order something. What are you in the mood for?”

At this point, I just give up and deal with his presence, because my head will explode from all his jerkish ways. “Pizza.”

He nods, dials the phone, and orders it, while I play back the conversation at the office and fury rushes back in.

And I don’t want to keep it inside.

“You betrayed me!”

He walks to me on the couch, lifts my legs, and sits under them so my feet are resting in his lap.

What in the world? I honestly don’t know how to act around this guy. None of my previous men were… well… him.

“No, I protected you. They needed to know.” He wraps his hands around my foot and gently squeezes it, applying pressure on the sole, and I moan as pleasure travels all over me. “Spending the night in the office is not healthy,” he mutters, massaging up and down, and relaxing me more and more. I lie more comfortably on the pillow and groan as my back finally finds a horizontal position.

“Just don’t stop, and you are forgiven,” I mutter, and he laughs. Rationally, I understand that if not him, then it would have been Noah who spilled the beans.

Slowly, I drift to sleep, in heaven with the soft couch and Kierian’s magic touch. And that’s when the doorbell rings, pulling me out of my nirvana.

Groaning into the pillow, I grumble, “You and your pizza.”

But then my stomach rumbles, and he says, “Apparently not only mine.” He pays for it and places it on the counter, then opens my cupboard for two glasses for the wine he pours from the open cask he took out of the fridge earlier.

“Forgot to tell you, yeah. Make yourself at home.” Sarcasm laces my tone, but he just winks and motions for me to come closer.

Sighing, I do and sleepily munch on pizza, and only then realize how starved I am. “You are forgiven.”

He chuckles. “Since I’ll be staying around, we’ll need to invest in food. Takeout’s not healthy.”

His words fall on deaf ears, considering the delicious taste still has me in a happy place.

“What are we doing?” I ask, leaning my arm on the counter in a half-lying position as he sits next to me.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, wine and food and you here. It’s weird.”

He doesn’t say anything at first, just eats his pizza and then washes it down with wine.

“That’s called a relationship. You’ve told me you had two of them.”

I snort, taking a sip. “Yeah, and we rarely did this. Mostly we just went out or had sex.” His hold on the napkin tightens, and I can’t help but tease. “You know, kissing under the stars while they wrote poems for me.” I sound dreamy, but it transforms into a yelp as he pulls me closer and captures my mouth with his, sliding his hand in my hair as we forget ourselves in a passionate kiss that makes the outside world disappear.

Slowly, he lets me go so I can breathe as he tugs on my lower lip and then bites on my chin. “For my sanity, don’t mention your exes, Ella.”

A giggle escapes me. “Why? You don’t have any?”

“I had my first and last so-called serious relationship back in high school.” He picks up his wine and goes to the couch, kicking his legs up on the table, and my jaw drops open.

I lounge on the chair in front of him, and ask, “How old are you?”

His brows furrow. “What does that have to do with anything? Thirty-one.”

“Are you nursing a broken heart or what?” The idea doesn’t sit well with me. Is there a girl who holds his heart and everyone is just a passing-the-time thing for him?

Look at you now, Ella. Welcome to the insane club!

“No. I just like sex, and I’ve had plenty of it without the emotional attachment.”

Is that explanation supposed to make me feel better?

“But you want one with me? Why?” I truly feel like a freaking teenager on her first date.

Something crosses his face, but it’s so quickly gone I can’t read it. “We had an instant connection; that’s never happened before. We fit in bed. And to add to it, we work in the same field. You are perfect.”

The way he says the last words sends goose bumps through me, and I don’t know how to react to them. “Just remember I told you they never work out for me.”

“Duly noted, but here it will work.” He places his arm on the back of the couch and wiggles his finger at me. “Come here, you are exhausted.”

Without complaining, I join him and rest my head on his shoulder. “What will happen now?”

He exhales heavily, running his fingers over my hair in soothing motions and kissing me on the head. “We will move on, and if he shows up, the police will investigate. Meanwhile, try not to think about him much. It could have been anyone. Maybe he just thought he would scare you more because you are new.”

I don’t believe that, but I don’t want to argue about work anymore.

He turns on the TV and puts on some action movie, while I listen to his heartbeat and think how tired I am, yet I don’t want to leave the cocoon of safety he’s created around me.

Slowly, I fall asleep, completely secure in his arms.

And that’s a first for me.

Psychopath

Patience is a virtue.

Too bad I’ve never had one.

Just a little longer… and she will be mine.