He settled into the straight-backed chair at his desk and awakened his laptop with a touch.Files supplied by ShadowCipher were open in front of him—page after page of Dr.Michael Nevins’ notes on Special Agent Riley Paige.
Leo skimmed the text, though he’d already memorized most of it.The sessions from several years back held particular interest—Riley’s lingering trauma from her capture by Sam Peterson, her concern for her daughter April’s emotional stability, and her complicated feelings about her father’s death.All of it raw material that he could shape and use.
His first glimpse of Riley had been in the lecture hall at Quantico.He’d secured a place in her course through months of careful maneuvering—a perfectly crafted application, recommendations that couldn’t be ignored, test scores that placed him at the top tier without drawing undue attention.And then she had walked in, commanding the room without effort.
“Understanding Serial Killers,” she had said that first day, her voice carrying to the back row where he sat.“We begin by acknowledging that we can never truly understand them.Not completely.”
But she had been wrong.Leo understood perfectly.He understood the need to reshape reality into something more suitable, the careful selection of targets, the planning.What Riley failed to grasp was that some minds were simply built differently—superior, unbound by conventional morality.
Leo closed the laptop.He didn’t need the notes anymore; they were imprinted in his mind.He rose and moved to the window, pulling back the corner of the blinds to look at the night sky.His reflection stared back at him from the glass—dark hair neatly trimmed, features that most people found handsome in a conventional way.A face designed to be forgotten, to blend in.The perfect camouflage.
In the first weeks of Riley’s class, he had been careful to be unremarkable.He answered questions competently but not brilliantly, participated enough to be considered engaged but not enough to stand out.He observed how she responded to other students—which ones she favored, which ones she found tiresome.He noted the slight tilt of her head when something interested her, the almost imperceptible narrowing of her eyes when she detected falsehood.
Leo had studied Riley Paige as thoroughly as she had ever studied any killer.The realization that they were meant for each other had come gradually.It wasn’t merely that she was beautiful, that she fascinated him.It was that they were complementary pieces of the same puzzle, negative and positive space creating a complete picture.
He returned to his desk, opening the drawer to reveal a neat stack of photographs.Riley leaving the FBI Academy.Riley at a café with Bill Jeffreys.Riley standing on her porch, checking her phone.Riley with April and Jilly, the three of them walking into Brody Middle School for some evening event.
There was a power in this collection, a magic of sorts.Each photograph represented hours of patient waiting, of perfect timing.Each one was a testament to his devotion.
Leo selected one—Riley alone on a park bench, her face in profile, sunlight catching in her hair.It had been taken three weeks ago, on one of the rare afternoons when she’d allowed herself a moment of solitude.He’d been fifty yards away, his telephoto lens capturing what anyone else would have missed: the slight downward curve of her mouth, the tension in her shoulders, the way she gripped the edge of the bench.Stress.Worry.Vulnerability.
He returned the photographs to their drawer, sliding it closed with a soft click.
The game was accelerating now.The envelope at Echo Bridge was merely the overture—a promise of what was to come.In his mind, he could already see it unfolding—Riley’s carefully constructed world crumbling around her.Not physically—he would never damage her body, her perfect form.But emotionally, psychologically, the walls she’d built would come crashing down.
And then, in her moment of greatest vulnerability, he would be there.Not as her student, not as her adversary, but as her equal.Her perfect match.
Leo returned to his chair, calm settling over him.He closed his eyes, imagining the chaos that would engulf her family—the precious daughters she protected so fiercely, the colleagues she relied on, all of them drawn into his design.
A soft ping from his phone interrupted his reverie.A notification from one of the security applications he’d installed—movement detected at Riley’s house.Leo reached for the phone, swiping to access the camera feed he’d established three streets away from her home.Just a glimpse of her driveway, enough to confirm her car was there.And it was—the dark sedan parked at an angle that suggested she’d arrived in haste.
She’d found the envelope, then.Had read its contents.
Leo smiled into the darkness of his apartment, certain that sleep would elude him tonight.But that was fine.He had preparations to complete, final details to arrange.Tomorrow, he would unleash a disaster upon Riley’s family that would shatter the foundations of her world.And from those ruins, he would build something new—something perfect.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Riley dropped onto her couch, exhaustion settling into her bones.The house was quiet around her.She had told both Jilly and Gabriela what had happened at the bridge, and now they had gone to bed, leaving Riley alone with the remnants of the evening’s disturbing encounter.Echo Bridge.Leo’s message.The game he was playing.
She reached for her phone, knowing Bill needed to hear about this.She pressed his number and held the phone to her ear, listening to it ring.Then his voice came through, warm and steady.
“Riley?”The concern in his tone was immediate.“Everything okay?”
“I’m fine.Physically, at least.”
“What happened?”Paper rustled in the background.Bill was still working, even from his hotel room.
“I went to Echo Bridge,” she said, leaning her head back against the couch cushions.The rustling stopped.She could picture Bill sitting up straighter, giving her his full attention.
“Did you see Leo?”he asked.
“No.Not even a glimpse.But he left me a message.I found it in an envelope on the bridge—addressed to me, not Jilly.He knew exactly what I was going to do, Bill.He knew it perfectly in advance.”
Silence stretched between them for a moment before Bill spoke again, his voice tighter.“Riley, after all your promises, you went out there …”
“Without calling backup, I know.But Bill, I had to get there fast, the timing was tight.Backup would probably have burst in at the wrong time.Besides…I don’t think Leo was out to attack me.”
“You could be wrong about that.”
