Profiling a Killer by Nichole Severn

Author:Nichole Severn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2021-04-07T17:39:45+00:00

Chapter Nine

Fractured shoulder blade. Two fractured ribs. Fifteen percent blood loss and a mess of stitches at her temple. Dr. Aubrey Flood had been through hell and survived. Nicholas wasn’t sure how, but she’d escaped being hung upside down and drained of blood in that slaughterhouse with mere minutes of consciousness left, and he’d nearly been too late.

He memorized the pattern of bruising across the left side of her face as she slept through the sedatives her doctors had given her. A monitor on the other side of the bed tracked her heart rate while another administered blood to get her volume back up to normal levels. Pain pulsed in his jaw from a strike he hadn’t seen coming when he’d approached her on that dock. Along with the rest of him. It’d been obvious she’d started shutting down and going into shock, but he hadn’t been able to keep himself from touching her.

Nicholas tried for the sixth—or was it the seventh—time to read through the crime scene report from the warehouse. They’d recovered the zip ties that’d secured Aubrey’s hands behind her back and kept her anchored to the hook by her feet. A good amount of blood tested positive for the medical examiner’s DNA on the patch of cement lit by a portable spotlight the killer must’ve brought in, but there was no sign of whoever’d abducted her. No matter how many times he’d read the report in front of him, none of it processed the way it was supposed to. All he saw was the scared, traumatized woman the son of a bitch had left behind. Lucky for him, Striker and West had made it out with nothing more than bruises and a mild concussion between them.

The killer wouldn’t get another chance.

“Aren’t you cuter than a chinchilla’s behind?” she asked.

Setting the report on the side table, he leaned forward in his seat. An immediate sense of relief replaced the anger burning through him, and he slid his hand beneath hers at the edge of the hospital bed. Nicholas scrubbed his free hand down his face. In all the years he’d investigated serial crimes for the BAU, he’d never sat beside a witness’s or victim’s bedside like this, but he couldn’t forget the fact she’d risked her life in order to save his. If it hadn’t been for her, he would’ve drowned out there at the pier. He had to remember that. “Hey, Doc. Welcome back to the land of the living.”

“Not sure I’m staying. Whatever they gave me is very nice.” Aubrey’s mouth curled slightly at one corner. Her fingers jerked in his hand, and she leveled honey-warm eyes on the spot where he held on to her. “I thought you were dead. I was trying to escape so I could save you.”

His heart threatened to beat straight out of his chest. “You did save me. You pulled me from the water. My chest still hurts where you gave me CPR, but it’s nothing compared to the fact I wouldn’t be sitting here if it weren’t for you.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.