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

“Killing them.”

He shrugged as if the distinction was inconsequential.

Nadine was certain that she didn’t want confirmation on her next question. But she asked anyway.

“Why?”

“Because you are the perfect woman, unique in all the world. Worthy to be my mate and bear my children. They’ll be like us, Nadine. Perfect hunters.”

Nadine sucked in a breath as her body went cold. The very possibility that she found most repellant was the reason he had taken her.

It was her fear of being the mother to a psychopathic killer that had kept her from accepting Demko’s ring. Deep rooted in her mind was the terror that whatever had gone wrong in her grandparents, mother and brother threaded through her DNA like a defective gene.

“If I refuse?” she asked.

“Then the deal is off, and I finish Jack. I’ll still keep you. But you won’t be my wife.”

The tone of his voice was so clinical and matter-of-fact, it froze her heart, sending ice crystals piercing muscle.

“Be my bride, Nadine.” He was on one knee before her, asking her to commit, after nearly drowning her and while her hands and feet were still bound.

She tucked her thumb over her engagement ring, praying he would not take her hand.

“I’m not agreeing to anything until you prove you’re capable of caring for me.” She lifted her chin, looking down her nose at him. “Your handling of me last night leaves me with serious doubts.”

“I’ll see to your needs.”

“Really? Because I’m hungry and tired and cold.”

He stood and returned with a flannel shirt. He cut the binding securing her wrists. It took him a little time to drag her up before him and slip her arms into the garment. Then he taped her hands before her again and buttoned the shirt.

“I need to see Jack.”

He crouched before her. “Good. I’m anxious for you to see him. It’s some of my best work.”

What had this monster done?

Twenty-Eight

Three hours after the discovery of Nadine’s abduction, Clint Demko left his vehicle in the lot. The FBI had begun their manhunt and he knew there was no organization better for that task. He also knew they did not need or want his help.

But they were searching thoroughfares. And he knew that whoever had taken Nadine would be off the road, hunkered down and waiting for the search to slow. It would be a waiting game. Could they find Nadine before time and resources ran out and the search halted?

He knew something else from what Nadine had told him. Chances were high that they’d already met this killer. If so, then their unsub would be absent from work today. That meant he needed to recanvass every single business and speak to each person he had interviewed until he discovered who among the hundreds of contacts had disappeared.

Tina had told him that the Bureau’s attempts to track Nadine’s new phone had failed. Presumably it was off or had no charge. Either way, finding her would not be that easy.

If the Huntsman decided to stash Nadine close to where she was taken, he might be back at work. In that case, Demko needed to figure out which one had been up all night and check if any employees were missing. Tina made calls while he headed out because he couldn’t ignore the possibility that someone might lie to cover for the Huntsman.

His first stop was the gun shop on the north side of the park.

Throughout the day he worked from one establishment to the next. By late afternoon, he reached Big Water Marina in Kerr City. The first person he located was Kelly Dietz, the woman who worked only mornings. It was late in the day for her to still be here.

She was hosing down the kayaks with freshwater, washing away the mud and grass.

“Detective, how are you?”

“I thought you worked mornings.”

“Yeah. That’s right. Good memory. But we’re short-staffed today.”

The skin on his neck prickled. “Is that so?”

“Lionel was a no-show for his afternoon tour.”

“Decristofaro?”

“Yes.”

“He do that often?”

“No. Never.”

Clint narrowed his eyes. “Anybody check on him?”

She puffed out her cheeks and then blew away her frustration. “No idea.”

“You know where he lives?”

“Nope. But Jessie might. And Lou Anne, of course.”

“Anyone else missing?”

“Missing? He’s just out sick.”

“I see.” He turned and headed toward the office. Until he had eyes on Lionel Decristofaro, the man was missing and had just moved to the top of his list.

He tried to remember anything he could about the man and had to check his notes to jog his memory. Then he remembered what Nadine had told him the day she’d raced off to confront the Copycat Killer to save a young woman.

High-functioning sociopaths and psychopaths are hard to catch because they are intelligent and fully capable of operating without drawing notice. They have the ability to “fake good,” appearing to possess the complete range of human emotions. But it was an act. They met only their own needs and easily disregarded the needs of others to meet theirs.

Demko reached the office where he found the owner, Lou Anne Kilpatrick, studying her computer monitor.

“Be right with you,” she said, without looking up.

“How long has Decristofaro worked here?”

“Only a few months. Been in the US awhile, I guess, but he just became a US citizen.”

“From where?”

The Huntsman cut the bonds from Nadine’s feet first and then her hands. She rubbed her wrists, still sticky from the tape adhesive. She held her thumbnail against her engagement ring, hiding it as best she could. When he put his knife away, she switched the ring to her opposite hand.

“I know you agreed to be cooperative. But in case you have other ideas, you have no shoes and no bug protection and are on an island. This time of year, without bug suits or spray the insects will torment you until you reach the water where the riptide will sweep you out to sea.”

She coughed against the smoke filling the cabin. For an outdoorsman, he certainly didn’t understand how a flue worked.

“And the bugs