“Ha.” She looked into the empty kitchen, sorry nobody else was around to witness this. “You have not.”
He reached for a muffin and carefully unwrapped it, his hands large and capable, bringing back memories she needed to banish if she was going to concentrate. Those long fingers had stroked her to orgasm too easily.
She cleared her throat. “Do you want a psychologist’s insight before you create your profile?”
“Sure.” His voice only held a hint of sarcasm.
She bit back a sharp retort. “Why do you dislike shrinks so much?” She’d asked him before, but he’d always refused to answer. Well, mostly.
He bit into the muffin and chewed thoughtfully. “When I was chasing Lassiter, my boss at the FBI thought I was getting obsessed and ordered me to see the agency shrink. He was a smart guy and we ended up collaborating more than working on my brain. Nelson was his name, and he was supposedly an expert in abnormal psychology.”
“And?” Nari prodded.
Angus took a deep breath, looking at the half-eaten muffin. “He analyzed all the data and concluded that Lassiter was obsessed with me and playing an intellectual game. That he wanted me to stay in the game, so I was essentially safe from attack. It sounds weird, but it made sense at the time.”
“But every game has an end,” Nari said.
Angus nodded. “Yeah, and I was supposed to be the end. Not my sister. I trusted the shrink’s analysis over my own instincts because I agreed that I’d become obsessed. Driven. I should’ve locked my sister down. I didn’t, Lassiter took her and he killed her.”
Nari held back her questions and thought it through. So that was why he was so insistent upon her leaving town. He felt that he’d failed to save his sister and he was driven to save the women on his team. “Would she have allowed it?”
“Huh?” He looked away from the muffin and up at her. “What do you mean?”
“Think about it, Angus. You chased this guy for over a year. Do you really think your sister would’ve just disappeared for that entire time without any sort of end date? Was she the type of woman who’d do that?” Curiosity as well as confidence prodded Nari on, and she kept her voice gentle.
Angus cocked his head. “Well, no. She was as stubborn as you are.” He pursed his lips. “Hmmm.”
“Based on the psychologist’s recommendation, I would’ve thought she was safe, too.” Nari tried to sound logical, not as if she was offering comfort, even though that was exactly what she wanted to do.
Angus’s eyebrows rose. “Oh, I had a detail on her at all times. Lassiter got past them.”
Nari couldn’t help it any longer. She reached out and put her hand over his warm one. “You did everything you could.” Was there a way past his anger?
He flipped his hand over to capture hers, his hold firm. “There’s always more, but that’s looking back. I know you’re trying to ease me right now, but I need to keep angry to keep my edge.” He looked through the file folder again, still holding her hand.
“Okay,” she murmured.
He looked at the murder board and his shoulders settled. Had his mind been drawing conclusions from the connections he’d made on that board all night? “Because, even though nobody else believes this, I’m telling you that it’s Lassiter. I’ve created profiles in my head, whether I’ve wanted to or not, but none of that matters. I know it’s him. Staring at this murder board just confirms everything I know in my gut. I’m done trying to find another avenue just to make sure I don’t miss anything. The instincts I ignored before are wide awake.”
Nari swallowed, her mind spinning. “Are you sure?”
Angus took a moment, obviously thinking it through. His chest settled, and a strong light glowed in his green eyes. “Yes. I’m sure. He’s alive and he’s killing again.”
“Okay,” she said quietly.
He started. “What do you mean, okay?”
She blinked, even though the argument that had ended with them rolling on the floor was still at the forefront of her mind. “If you say it’s Lassiter, it’s Lassiter.”
He frowned. “Right now, I need your analytical brain.”
She shook her head. “Listen. I believe you for many reasons, and the fact that you’re able to provide multiple orgasms is not one of them.” Her hands flattened on the table. “You’re being intellectually honest and you’re working from the facts.”
He frowned. “Okay?”
She nodded. “This isn’t a situation of an instinctual fixed action pattern, Angus. This is instinct, or gut feeling, based on learning served by memory and intelligence. You know Lassiter. You’ve studied him. If you think this is him, your neurons are firing the way they should. You’re no doubt correct.”
He grinned. “God, you’re sexy when you go all psychobabble on me.”
