Page 71 of Her Devoted HERO

Kenna jerked out of his arms. “Now with all of this information, can you get him?” she asked Warren.

“It’s a good start.”

“What do you mean start?” she cried. “The first woman was killed three months ago. Jean’s been dead for over three weeks. He just murdered someone on camera four days ago. How can you say you’re just starting?”

“Dammit, Kenna, you’re twisting it around. I just meant we’re in better shape at this moment than we were a half hour ago.”

“What did those text messages say? It’s because he can’t get to me, isn’t it?”

Fuck, how had she put that together, Dex wondered.

“Yes, he’s escalated since you’ve disappeared,” Warren confirmed.

“We don’t know that.” Dex glared at the phone. “Baby, he’s a psycho, he gets off on killing, he was doing it three months ago, way before you disappeared, way before you stopped taking his calls.”

“Dex,” she said softly, carefully. “When did the first e-mail come to me from this guy?”

Damn, he didn’t want to tell her. She stared him down.

“Ten months ago, you got the first one from one of his profiles.”

“And?” she asked.

“He kept pinging you, but they really started coming in hot and heavy from every profile four months ago.”

“So right before the first murder.”

He nodded. He saw her beautiful eyes fill with tears.

“And Jean? Jean was murdered after I took my profile down.”

Fuck, she put that together too. He didn’t want too, but he nodded.

Tears slipped down her face.

“Warren, we’re done.” He pressed end on the phone. Warren was saying something, but he didn’t care. Kenna was what mattered.

He tugged her into his arms. “Baby, don’t do this. This isn’t your fault.”

“I should have been paying attention. I should have done what you did. If I had responded and said I wasn’t interested, then he wouldn’t have gotten upset.”

They were on the first floor of the house, Penny was in the living room, and Austin was in the den playing video games. He grabbed Kenna’s hand. “Come with me, Baby. We need to talk in private.”

“Oh God, Austin could have come in during this conversation.”

“He didn’t. It’s all good.”

He drew her out of the kitchen. When they walked past Penny in the living room, she looked up from her Kindle. She looked at her daughter, and then at Dex.

“You got this?” she asked him.

“Yes.”

It said a whole hell of a lot about Kenna’s state of mind that she didn’t tear into either of them. She just docilely followed Dex up the stairs.

***

“You make your bed,” Kenna noted absently as she swiped at her eyes.