Killing Lucas Read Online Free Page A

finally came up for air, her freckled cheeks would be splotched and her green eyes rimmed with red. She would not resemble the gorgeous actress on the screen who could cry and still retained her eye makeup. These tears were genuine, grief-driven tears, not the ones she used while filming. But unlike the last time, he had no intention of pulling her into his protective embrace and holding her until she fell into a peaceful sleep. He just wasn’t that man anymore.
    And she was to blame.
    Detective Henry came back in with Tony and the bastard shrugged at him, as if that would make leaving him alone in a room with a hysterical woman okay.
    “Ms. O’Connor, can we get you something?” Detective Henry asked in the voice of a seasoned officer used to dealing with tears.
    Shaking her head, Kiloran gave a little hiccup as she lifted her face to them. She wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her sweater and took the bottled water Tony held out for her.
    Traitor.
    “All right, LAPD is e-mailing me their files now and faxing me the rest this afternoon. They agree this could be the same person.”
    “Hunter called while we were out there and suggested we get in touch with his old friend at the FBI, Agent Vassar,” Tony added.
    “FBI?” Kiloran asked. Lucas could well imagine she was wondering why now the FBI would be interested.
    “Well with this little arson attack, our supposed stalker crossed state lines. They might be able to cross-reference more incidents and see if anything comes up.”
    Lucas didn’t care much about the ins and outs; he just wanted a game plan. “So what do we do next?”
    “That is the question, isn’t it?” Tony asked in one of those tones that lead Lucas to believe he was brewing up something in that brain of his.
    “Honestly, there isn’t much the police can do until the perp does something again. We have very little to go on.” Detective Henry shook his head, confirming he didn’t have any real plan for them.
    Lucas took a deep breath and voiced what everyone else must have been thinking. “So we just wait for him to attack again?”
    “Or you could draw him out,” Tony said to a now quiet room.
    “What?” Kiloran screeched, Lucas’s ears rung from the shrill pitch.
    “Hear me out. What if you two pretended to be back together—”
    “ What? ” Lucas and Kiloran said in unison.
    “—that way, when the stalker attacked, you would at least have the upper hand. It’s not likely whoever it is will stop with blowing up a house. This wasn’t a warning, Lucas. You were supposed to be home.”
    “You’re overreacting, Tony.”
    Detective Henry grumbled something then said, “I hate to agree with Tony, really I do. But he may be right.”
    “What?” Again in unison.
    Tony put up his hands, soothing everyone in the room. “Here’s what I’m thinking: If you’re the ones waiting for the stalker this time, then maybe you’ll see him coming.”
    “This is the stupidest thing you have ever thought up.”
    “No, there have been far stupider.” Tony actually laughed.
    “Not that I can remember.” Lucas got up and started pacing. If he didn’t let out some of this frustrated energy, he was going to strangle his brother with his bare hands.
    “I can ask the arson investigator to let it leak that the explosion is being ruled an accident due to a faulty gas-line hook up. That will get the focus off the stalker. Or so they’ll think.”
    “Then if you two act like you are a couple again, it’ll force his hand.”
    “Are you trying to get him killed?” Kiloran demanded. “And how are we going to convince anyone we’re an item? He can’t stand to even look at me.”
    Tony just smiled and shook his head. “Both of you take a deep breath and leave that to me.”
    Storming out the door, Lucas didn’t even look at his brother muttering as he left. “Why did I know you were going to say that?”

Chapter Three
    “Damn it, Tony, what the fuck did you tell them?”—Lucas to