Already Gone (A Laura Frost FBI Suspense Thriller—Book 1) by Blake Pierce (e book reader TXT) 📕

Nate!” Theselast words were shouted as she ducked her head, already climbing into thedriver’s seat.

“Wh…” Nate gave up arguing and openedthe passenger’s side door, to her relief, taking a seat beside her. He hadn’teven closed his door yet when she started the engine, prompting him to throw uphis hands in alarm. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Just where is the fire right now?”

“For god’s sake, Nate,” Laura said,turning to him. “The first victim’s name was Laura. Now Frost? You don’t seethat?”

“Well, what about Caroline?” Nate said. “Imean, Laura’s a common enough name, and so is Frost. This can’t be your firsttime dealing with someone with either of those.”

“It’s not,” Laura said, gesturingimpatiently for him to put his seatbelt on. One moment longer, and she wasgoing to reach over and do it for him. “But Caroline’s nickname was Carrie.”

The second his seatbelt clicked into place,Laura nudged the car forward, heading out into the road again. She checked hermirrors and then peeled out, putting her foot down as much as she dared in thisurban setting.

“I’m not getting it,” Nate said. “What?Is that your middle name or something?”

“It’s my mother’s name,” Laura saidgrimly. “Laura, Carrie, and now Frost. There’s no way that’s just acoincidence. Which is why we need to get back to the precinct—right now.”

***

“We have to find out who the next victimis,” Laura said, half-running through the precinct to their office. She almostknocked over a hapless deputy who was going back to his desk with a cup ofcoffee, obviously left behind to man the phones. “We have to figure out thename.”

Nate trailed behind her, only justmanaging to keep up. “Laura, I don’t know…”

“Please,” Laura said, throwing the wordover her shoulder along with a desperate glance. “We need to think about this.”She reached their makeshift office and threw the door open, heading right forthe board. She grabbed a pen and circled two things: Laura, for Laura Carlisle,and Caroline, for Carrie Birchtree. Underneath, she added Nadia Frost, circlingFrost.

“Do you even have any more women in yourfamily?” Nate asked, closing the door behind him with a sigh and folding hisarms across his wide chest. “I didn’t think you had a sister.”

“I don’t, except for Lacey. But I don’tknow if she counts. She’s a child, and the other names have been adults. Shedoesn’t live with me. Everyone else has been older. I don’t think it fits thepattern.” Laura tapped the end of the pen against her chin for a moment,thinking. “It has to be my father. Me, then my mother, then our family name—my dadhas to be next.”

“What was his name?” Nate asked,sounding as though he was only playing along because he knew what she was like.That she was too far down this rabbit hole to listen to reason—and thatsometimes she came out the other side of the hole with an answer that madesense. It was far from the first time she’d worked a whole case on what shetold him was just gut instinct—but they always got an arrest.

“Alex,” she said, writing it on theboard in block capitals. “Alexander, but he went by Alex.”

“There are probably hundreds of mencalled Alex in Albany,” Nate said, unfolding his arms and throwing them wide inan exasperated gesture. “That doesn’t help us at all, Laura. We don’t have anyway to use this information.”

Laura felt her heart quickening itsalready rapid pace in her chest. Nate was right. How were they ever going to narrowit down?

They had to figure this out fast. Ifthey didn’t…

“Someone’s going to die,” she said, outloud. She heard her own voice shaking. “We only have twenty-four hours, maybeless. We have to figure this out, or we’re not going to be able to save them!”

“All right, whoa,” Nate said, holding uphis hands and stepping forward. He stopped just shy of touching her as sheflinched away. “Laura, I need you to take a breath and slow down a minute.”

She dropped her shoulders, closing hereyes for a brief moment. He was right. She was on the verge of some kind ofpanic attack, and—

She wrenched herself backward with acry. Nate had reached out and put his hands on her shoulders. The cold feelingof death washed over her in a wave, almost bringing her to her knees with despair.

“Jesus, Laura…” Nate stepped back andgave her space, shaking his head. “Sit down. Please. You need to rest for aminute, get your breath back. You’re on edge.”

Laura did as she was told, trying toswallow on her dry throat. She was, but he didn’t know why. She couldn’t tellhim all the things that were flying around in her head. The killer. His death.Amy. Her own daughter. The burning need for a drink. The killer. Round andround in a circle, over and over again. All of them needed her attention rightnow. None of them could wait.

“All right, just take a deep breath in,”Nate said, drawing in his own breath with an exaggerated noise as he waved ahand encouragingly in her peripheral vision. “That’s it. And now let it out…Good, Laura. Let’s breathe in again, nice and slow.”

Laura followed his guidance, against herown will. There were tears pricking the backs of her eyelids. She needed this—tocalm down, to think, to breathe. But she didn’t have the time. She couldn’tspare it. People were going to die and get hurt if she slowed down. People shecared about. Strangers, too. It didn’t matter. They all deserved to be saved.

But she followed Nate’s calm andsoothing voice, breathing in when he told her to and breathing out only when hecommanded it. Slowly, Laura found herself coming back down to earth.

She blinked and looked up at him, realizingthat his face was full of worry and fear. He obviously thought she was losingit. She didn’t blame him.

“I’m all right,” she said, finding hervoice steady and quiet again. “Just… we need to get back to it. Figure out whothe next victim is. Alex something, it has to be.”

“Just wait a minute,” Nate said, shakinghis head. “We need to think this through. I get that it’s a big coincidence. It’sreally strange. Laura and Carrie is weird, Frost is