The Hunted Girls by Jenna Kernan (best book club books for discussion txt) 📕

The Hunted Girls

A totally gripping crime thriller

Jenna Kernan

Books by Jenna Kernan

Agent Nadine Finch

A Killer’s Daughter

The Hunted Girls

Available in Audio

Agent Nadine Finch

A Killer’s Daughter (Available in the UK and the US)

Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Hear More from Jenna

Books by Jenna Kernan

A Letter from Jenna

A Killer’s Daughter

Acknowledgments

For Jim, always.

Prologue

He moved undetected by the authorities, the public or his prey. It was how he preferred it until now. Because his target had changed and so, too, must his methods.

He finished the alert and set aside his phone, wondering who would be the next to spring his trap. He was certain of his skills. A decade-long career—with each of his victims only ever listed as missing persons, the truth of their fate never established by the authorities—made his proficiency as an apex predator undeniable.

Before he’d known of her, he’d been content. Now he saw contentment was not enough. Neither was complacency. To lure the ultimate target into his territory, he needed to carefully bait this trap with something she would find irresistible. So he was here, in her mother’s playground, and this time, instead of hiding evidence of his work, he would display it.

He kept his playthings only for himself. Sometimes for days, sometimes weeks, once for a month. None were ever seen again after he snatched them from their known world and carried them screaming into his.

This new plan meant exposing his victims and giving back his playthings, but not before he had finished his games. She had to see him, what he was and what he was capable of becoming. He needed to tempt, capture her attention and hold it. Offer something she could not resist. A series of fresh kills in the shadow of her mother’s crimes.

She’d come. He’d be waiting.

There would be two bodies, to release the scent of death, grab media attention and raise the possibility of a serial killer.

He had been here behind his hunting blind less than a half hour when she appeared with a dog. The canine has already greeted the departing couple in the lot as if they were related, so it is no threat to him. Rather the creature is an asset, as it gives her the confidence to move blithely into the woods alone.

Bird-watching. She lifted her binoculars, sweeping the limbs of the live oaks draped with Spanish moss, searching for her quarry. If she heard him, she gave no sign. Her dog noticed him immediately and wagged its tail in greeting.

The shove from behind sent the woman crashing down, momentarily pinning her arms beneath her. He threw himself on top of her, preferring his hands to any weapon.

Air whooshed from her and she arched back, lifting her head. Before she drew her next breath, he captured her neck in the crook of his elbow. She couldn’t scream if she wanted to. The chokehold worked in less than a minute. Her body sagged, going limp. He yanked her hands behind her and tightened the restraints tauter than necessary, enjoying the feel of the plastic tearing into flesh. He tugged once more, savoring the zipping sound of the teeth engaging, locking her tight. Droplets of blood soaked into the fabric covering her lower back.

Next he secured her ankles, turning her into a worm as she roused to struggle. When she woke enough to open her mouth, he stuffed a cotton rag between her teeth. She choked, but before expelling the object, he tore the section of silver tape and secured it over her parted lips.

She rolled to her side, her eyes wide and frantic, darting from his face and back to her surroundings as if trying to understand what was happening. He waited, holding the leash to her dog, smiling down at her.

Did she recognize that the fact he’d allowed her to see his face was a very bad sign?

Bagged and tagged, he thought. The first step to luring the ultimate catch.

One

TUESDAY

At the flight attendant’s announcement, that passengers could use their cell phones, Dr. Nadine Finch discovered she had two missed calls, two voice messages and two texts. She checked the texts first.

They were both from Homicide detective Clint Demko. They’d been dating for seven months now, as he kept reminding her, each time he tried to have the conversation about moving forward. This five-month separation during her training at the FBI National Academy in Virginia had been a strain.

The first text said he would be late and the second that he was waiting beyond security, likely because her late flight allowed him to arrive on time.

She turned to her voicemail as the doors opened and the line of passengers choking the center aisle began to move.

She skipped the unknown caller and frowned at seeing the second was from FBI Special Agent Sean Torrin.

Those pesky hairs on her neck lifted. Torrin had not been in touch in months. He had been assigned to assist the local Bureau out of Tampa on a case in which she was the star witness. The murders of four couples by an emerging serial killer here in Sarasota, Florida, had been Nadine’s first job as a profiler.

“Nadine, it’s Sean Torrin. Listen, I got a call from the Lakeland Bureau. They’ve got a case down there in Ocala.”

She sucked in a breath. Ocala. Her hometown and her mother’s onetime playground. Just the mention of the place where Arleen Howler had killed eight people caused her muscles to tense. It seemed being the daughter of a serial killer never got easier and was full of all kinds of hazards, her own memories being one of the most unpredictable.

“I recommended they contact you for your opinion. The lead is Jack Skogen. Don’t know him,