Page 116 of Ice Covered Heart

She glanced over her shoulder. Met Hunter’s worried gaze. “I do have a type.”

Pain flashed on his face. “I⁠—”

“It’s guys who can’t stand predatory assholes like Nate. Men who will fight for me. Men who want to protect me. Help me.” She shook her head. “You are my type. You’re the one I want, and maybe it makes me terrible, but I’m glad you made him bleed.” She lurched toward Hunter. “When I saw him…when I heard his voice just a moment ago…and I saw the blood and…when he said that Jenna was a wildcat…” That had hurt. He’d been throwing the murder of her friend right back in her face. “I remembered more.” She stopped right in front of Hunter.

“Baby?”

“‘I remember him being in that blood-soaked kitchen. Smiling.”

A furrow appeared between his eyes.

“It was him. He was the one who killed my friends. He was there that night. I remember him being in the kitchen. Holding a knife in his gloved hand and smiling. And the voice I keep hearing in my head? The one that says, ‘I see you’ and terrifies me? That is Nate’s voice.”

“You didn’t put the wrong man on death row, baby.” His hands lifted. Pressed to her jaw and tipped back her head. Such a gentle, careful touch. “He is exactly where he is supposed to be.”

“But he didn’t kill Tiffany. Or Harvey. And he didn’t set the bomb or try to shoot me in New Orleans. It’s like…a new nightmare. Someone else is doing it.”

He stared at her. “Are you sure that Nate was the only one in the sorority house that night? The only one to hurt you and your friends?”

“No.” Soft. The person in the ball cap. The gray shirt…But, “Wouldn’t he have turned on the other person? He’s on death row. He could have made a deal if he revealed who helped him.” If Nate had an accomplice. “It’s been seven years. I can’t see him protecting someone for seven years like this. I know you said that duos are rare, and that there is usually a dominant, but wouldn’t the dominant one turn on the other?”

“Yes.” His dark lashes flickered. “I think the dominant one would turn.” A quick inhale. “But…maybe Nate wasn’t the dominant one. Maybe he wasn’t the one calling the shots.”

His touch was warm against her. His body so close. And they were in hell.

His jaw locked. “Before we leave, there’s a stop I want to make.”

“A stop? Here?”

“I gave the guy pain because he deserved it for what he did to you. Like it’s been noted, I’m a primal bastard. Someone hurts you, and I hurt them back.” He waited, as if…

What? He expected her to be shocked? To jerk away from him?

“Someone hurts you,” she said, meaning these words with all of her being, “and I hurt them back, too.”

His eyes gleamed. “There you go again. Making me love you more.”

Her breath caught. “Hunter?”

“Not the place,” he said.

No.

“Not the time, either,” he rumbled.

No.

But…

“There will be,” he assured her. His head bent. His lips pressed lightly to hers. “A place. A time. It will be perfect.” Another light kiss before his head lifted. “But for now, baby, we have to visit his cell.”

“Excuse me?”

“One of the reasons I made sure to break his nose? I needed Nate away from his cell. Figured I had to either get him sent to the quiet room or to the med ward because we couldn’t search it with him inside.”

So the whole attack had been carefully calculated? “What do you think we’ll find in there?”

“Let’s go see.”