Forbidden Passion Read Online Free PDF Page A

his steely eyes bleak. “That he’s a serial killer and he’s just getting started.”
    Marlena had studied profiles of famous serial killers. She’d also interviewed a couple in prison to study their behavior patterns and histories, ones who’d allowed her to use their blood for her research.
    But none of their cases had hit this close to home.
    “I can’t believe this is happening, that Jordie is dead and the killer left me her ring.”
    Dante cleared his throat, then reached out and rubbed her arms. She hadn’t realized she was shivering again, but his hands on her instantly warmed her.
    “The fact that he did means he knows you.”
    Shock hither, but she immediately realized he was right.
    “I know this is tough, Marlena, but you’re a psychiatrist. You work with the criminally insane. Do you have a patient who could have committed this kind of violence?”
    Denial was her automatic response. “Dante, I’m bound by patient-doctor confidentiality. I can’t reveal anything about my patients without their permission.”
    His mouth thinned in anger. “After what happened to your family, I can’t believe you’d choose to protect some psycho rather than helping to find this killer?’
    Anger knotted her insides, and she pushed his hands away. “You don’t have to remind me of the worst day of my life.”
    Dante glared at her. “Then tell me if you know someone who could have done this, Marlena, because he obviously intends to include you in his twisted game. And you know what that means.”
    “That he wants my help,” Marlena said, failing back on her psychiatric training, “or that he wants to be caught?’
    “Maybe,” Dante said in a hiss. “Or that he intends to target you as one of his victims.”
     
     
    Dante steeled himself against the fear in Marlena’s eyes. Fear he’d put there with the truth.
    But she couldn’t walk around with blinders on, not here in Mysteria.
    Dammit, maybe he should tell her everything. That demons. roamed the world~ That they might still be after her.
    That they’d hurt her to punish him for defying them if he got too close to her.
    “I’ll study my patient list,” Marlena said in a shaky voice. “If I discover any information or evidence regarding one of my patients that’s relevant to Jordie’s murder, I’ll let you know.”
    Sirens wailed in the distance, cutting off any more conversation. Within seconds, the CSI team and Deputy Hobbs arrived, all of them jumping out and reacting to the sight of Jordie’s burned body with disgust and shock.
    He hated to call in the crime lab, wanted to track down this bastard and deal with him in his own way.
    But he was the sheriff. He had to follow protocol to a point. This case was too brutal and violent not to have a crime unit search for forensics. If he didn’t, his deputy and the locals would ask questions.
    ‘Questions he didn’t want to have raised, much less to be forced to answer.
    Like the fact that he sensed a demon had been here. He could smell the stench. But what kind of demon?
    Hobbs glanced at Marlena. “What are you doing here, Dr. Bender?”
    Marlena explained about finding Jordie’s ring on her doorstep..
    Hobbs shifted and dug the steel toe of his boot into the dirt. “Sounds like we’ve got a real sicko on our hands.”
    “Yeah, so let’s get to work,” Dante snapped.
    Hobbs glared at him, but went to his squad car, retrieved crime scene tape, and began to stretch it in a wide radius around the tree and house. Dante grabbed his camera from the SUV. He wanted photos of the crime scene himself so he could study them.
    A white van suddenly screeched up the graveled drive and stopped, and Dante cursed. Jebb Bates, the local reporter in Mysteria. Dante had been dodging his nosy questions ‘for’ months.
    “Dammit, keep him out of the crime scene, Hobbs. I don’t want him contaminating evidence or interfering.”
    The deputy nodded and met Bates at the van. Bates tried to push past him, and