Atlas nodded along. “That’s good to know. Does he have a brother or someone who looks like him?”
“No. What’s the timeline?”
“By the time the fire department put out the car fire, it was already burning for two hours on some backroad. That was around 8:20 a.m. One of the last murder victims in Rochester was killed at 11:45 a.m., hours later.”
“Oh. So, presumably, Victor would have driven out of Rochester during the early hours, right before dawn. Set the car on fire, drivenbackto Rochester, killed someone in broad daylight, and then vanished.”
“And he was spotted in Longville that same night.”
“Which means he could totally have driven from Rochester to Longville after that 11:45 murder.”
Atlas nodded. “Yup. We have no clue if he is in Longville, but now we have to live like he is in Longville.”
“Why would he come back without any support? Most of the vamps went up in flames with the estate house. He’d be here all alone and without a human servant to tend to his needs. No. He wouldn’t do that.”
Atlas’s face tightened. “I don’t know. I’ve been reading about stalkers and how they escalate.”
“But, that would be forhumans, though. Not for vampires,” she argued. She had made the mistake of looking up stalker laws and victim support. It had been depressing and terrifying. It was one of the reasons why she gave in to him, left her sisters, and moved into his castle.
Because there was already so little the authorities could do, but if the stalker was a vampire? That was a whole different issue.
Atlas snorted and shook his head. “We both know the fact Victor is a vampire makes it so much worse.”
“Darn. I was kinda hoping you wouldn’t think of that.” She shrugged when he tugged her hair playfully. “I thought I was a badass. A badass would clue into that.”
“I know. Can’t blame a girl for sliding into denial for a second.”
“No. I guess I can’t blame you for that. It’ll be okay, Lilliane. I promise, no matter how this plays out, that fucker will never touch you. I don’t even want him to talk to you. See you.”
“That’s possessive.”
“Protective,” he insisted.
“I know. Denial, remember? I’d rather tease you about being a tad possessive because of all the alpha shifter mate stuff than because you need to protect me from a vampire stalker.” She shuddered and tried to push the thought away.
Atlas caught on to her shiver, pressed up against him as she was. “Hey,” he nudged her chin up to hold her gaze. “What was that?”
“Nothing.”
He grinned and ran his lips against her forehead. “Nope. That’s not gonna work for me. If you can feel that something is wrong here,” he pressed his hand to her heart, “then you know I’ll feel something here also.” He waited for her to speak, but she shook her head. “Darling, talk to me.”
“I don’t want to say it out loud. I’m scared it’ll make it happen.”
“Or I can help you think it through. Talk it out.” He gave her an encouraging smile.
She sighed, relieved. Her wolf man wasn’t just amazing in bed, but he said things like that and made her fall in love with him even more. “Well, I’m a bit scared that you’ll have to fight him.”
“Oh, I’ll be fighting him. There is no way around that, trouble. It will always end with me fighting him.”
“I really didn’t want you to say that.”
“I won’t let Nero or Reece fight this battle for me. You are mine to protect.”
“I don’t want you to die,” she sniffed, looking away. “We haven’t really had enough time together.”
“Yeah. That is why I wanted to wait until all this was over to mate you. It’s hard to think we could lose this, but we won’t.”
She frowned. “But you’re scared of it too.”
