Fear for Me by Cynthia Eden Page A

knot in her gut.
    “Sorry about everything that went down on the Valentine case,” Kyle murmured. “Wayne told us just how close you came on that one.”
    Lauren glanced at Anthony from the corner of her eye. She knew they were talking about the case of the Valentine Killer. The notorious serial killer had finally been apprehended—and killed—months before in New Orleans.
    According to the news reports she’d seen, Valentine had tried to kill Anthony, but the stories hadn’t provided a whole lot of specific information.
    “Less than a minute, huh?” Kyle shook his head and gave a low whistle. “That’s cutting things real close, even for you, Marshal.”
    Less than a minute?
    Lauren’s eyes narrowed.
    Anthony gave a rough shrug. “Not like I had a lot of choice. The bomb was ticking, and I figured I was about to get a close-up look at hell.”
    Her cheeks numbed. Her entire body seemed to ice. Lauren stumbled back.
    Cadence caught her arm, frowning. “Are you all right?”
    No, she
wasn’t
. Had Anthony just said he’d been a minute away from dying in a bomb’s blast?
    “The swamp isn’t for everyone,” a man’s low, rumbling voice said before Lauren could reply. She glanced over her shoulder and saw that two others had joined their little party. Paul and the man speaking. Tall, dark, and definitely dressed for trekking through a swamp.
    The man wasn’t a stranger to Lauren. He couldn’t be—she’d known him far too long. Wesley Hawthorne worked for Fish and Wildlife.
    He’d just been starting as an agent for Fish and Wildlife five years before, when he’d been pulled in to help search the swamp for more of the Butcher’s victims. He’d been the one to lead the searches back then.
    It looked like he was about to do the same now.
    “You don’t need to go in with us, Lauren,” Wesley said as his dark eyes met hers. “We’ve got a day of tracking ahead of us. Your marshal wants to cover all of Walker’s old hunting grounds, and we both know this was an extensive territory.”
    Yes, it had been.
    And he wasn’t
her
marshal.
    “I want to be here,” Lauren said. No ridiculous high heels for her today. Hiking boots and jeans.
    She’d made arrangements to clear her schedule at the DA’s office. Her cases were being handled, her staff fully briefed.
This
was where she needed to be.
    For Karen.
    “If he’s gone back to the swamp, I want to help find him.”
    If
he was still there.
    Wesley gave a slow nod. “We’ll be heading out in five minutes.” A ghost of a smile lifted his lips. “Always a pleasure, Lauren.”
    She noticed that Anthony’s gaze assessed the other man.
    Paul crept closer to her. “You doing okay?”
    She nodded. “I might look like hell, but I’m hanging in there.”
    “You could never look like hell.” The guy was such a liar. He caught her hand and pulled her a few feet away from the others. “I worried about you last night.”
    Last night. When she’d been having nightmares and nearly giving in to her wild hunger for Anthony. She forced a calm edge to her words, using the mask that Anthony hated. “Nothing to worry about. I had the marshal for protection.” Her eyes slidto the right. To him. He was talking with Wesley and Kyle, but Anthony’s gaze flicked to her.
    There was a possessive heat in his eyes that made her burn.
    “We kept a uniform on the judge all night, and a patrol is staying with him today, too.” Paul’s breath heaved out. “Your house is gonna be off-limits for a while. I’m sorry, but the tech crew doesn’t want anyone in there.”
    No, they wouldn’t. Not until they’d collected every single bit of evidence they could.
    “The offer of a place to crash still stands,” Paul told her. Her eyes met his solemn gaze. “If you need me, I’m here.”
    Her lips curved. “Thank you.”
    He rolled his shoulders. “I want this bastard stopped just as much as you do, Lauren.”
    Because, like Wesley, he’d worked the case before. Paul