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“It can change into anything you want. Just know, though, that I don’t want us to end when we wrap up this case. I don’t want to walk away from you. I. Want. You.”

Wanting, not loving. “I want you, too⁠—”

Her phone rang. It vibrated on the bedside table, where Hunter had put it before they fell asleep. Her phone had been placed right beside his.

But hers was now ringing, in the middle of the night. And she knew it was bad. Weren’t all middle-of-the-night phone calls bad? That was a rule somewhere. It had to be a rule.

She sat up, pulling the sheet with her, and reached for her phone. The number showing—Jonah. He’d insisted she program him in her phone after the bombing. He’d wanted her to call him in case of any emergency. Her finger swiped over the screen, and she didn’t put the phone to her ear. No, she wanted Hunter to hear this conversation, too, so she put it on speaker. “Hello?” Shelby angled the phone toward her left ear.

“Shelby.” Relief. So much relief in that one word from Jonah.

“Shelby and Hunter,” Hunter chimed in to say. “And it’s the middle of the night. Tell me that you’re calling because there is a major break. You got a search warrant, and you were able to figure out exactly what Gabriel was hiding as he kept us pinned in his den⁠—”

“There’s been another murder.”

Now Hunter was sitting up in bed, too. Body tense and hard. “What?”

“At the college,” Jonah added. “Alarm went off, so I came by to check on the place. I was already out because of another call and—dammit, it’s Harvey. Harvey Wyle.”

Shelby remembered the name. And the man. He’d been the cop Nate had stabbed at the scene of all the sorority murders years ago. But even though Hunter had said he knew the details of her case, she wasn’t sure how much info he recalled about Harvey so she explained, “Nate attacked him. Harvey—he was a cop. Harvey was in the hospital for days because Nate’s knife attack did so much damage to him.” But Nate had claimed in court that he’d been terrified, that he’d just been trying to defend himself when he woke up and found so many people around him.

Nate’s defense—all along—was that he had only been there to help. He’d discovered some of the bodies in the sorority house. He’d been desperate to find Shelby. But someone had attacked him when he searched for her outside. He’d been knocked out. Then he woke up to chaos.

Nate swore he only stabbed Harvey because he’d been confused and scared. Not because he was the killer. Nate had claimed his innocence over and over.

“Harvey was currently employed at the college, doing security duty. I fucking talked to him earlier—I talked to him earlier.” Jonah’s voice shook. “He was stabbed in the admin building. Over and over. Found him in a pool of his own blood.”

“Fuck.” Hunter immediately reached out and curled his fingers around her wrist as she held the phone.

“I had to make sure you were safe,” Jonah continued, clearing his throat. “That’s why I called. I—where are you, Shelby? Are you at your hotel?”

“No, she isn’t,” Hunter responded. “She’s in a safe house with me. I have eyes on her.”

“You fucking must,” a growling response. “If you’re beside her in bed when I call in the middle of the night.”

Goosebumps covered her upper body. Found him in a pool of his own blood.

“Shelby has me, and I brought in backup,” Hunter snapped. “She is protected.”

“Like she was protected when the bomb went off?” An angry retort. “Look, Shelby, I think I need to take over your protection detail. Or maybe, hell, maybe you need to get out of town all together. It’s clear someone is determined to turn Hathaway into another slasher movie come to life, and I worry about you. Nothing bad happened until you came back. Then you arrived, and I think you set off the killer. You must be his endgame.”

Harvey had been in the hospital room just down the hallway from her. One of the nurses had wheeled her in to see him. His young grandkids had been there to visit him. He’d been a gruff man, but kind. He’d smiled so big for his grandkids. “Harvey…why go after Harvey?”

“I don’t know. Maybe because Harvey was there years ago?” Jonah mused.

“You were there, too. So was I. But Tiffany wasn’t.” So that explanation didn’t ring true for her.

There were voices in the background, on Jonah’s end. She heard someone say his name.

Jonah swore. “I have to go. Crime scene techs want me. Look, either let me take over your protection or get the hell out of town. It’s just not safe.”

“She is safe.” Hunter’s vow. “Anyone wanting to hurt her will have to go through me.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t think the killer cares about you. He was ready to blow you both up, wasn’t he?” Then, “Get out of this town, Shelby.” Jonah hung up.

Hunter took the phone from her. Put it back on the nightstand.

Harvey Wyle is dead.