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month.” The thought made her stomach roil. Thirty or so days from now there would be a harvest moon. Finding him before that was imperative.
    An alarm chime, set to go off when someone started up the stairs toward her apartment door, jarred Jess from the troubling thought and sent a spike of fear right through her chest. Heart pumping, she almost dropped her mug of coffee getting to the small monitor that showed the landing outside her door. No matter that a cop was watchingher apartment above a kindly old man’s garage and that she had the fancy new high-tech security system, the reality was Spears had walked right up to the car of one of her former Bureau colleagues and slit his throat.
    She had a new motto where safety was concerned: always be smart and never underestimate pure evil.
    Harper.
    A couple of deep steadying breaths were required before she got her fingers working well enough to release the locks. The instant her door was open he visually sized her up as if he’d feared the worst, just because she couldn’t get the door open the first time he knocked. God, they were all on edge.
    Pull it together.
Smile.
That she was barefoot and sported lounge pants and a baggy tee was no reason to feel embarrassed with Harper. “Sergeant. What brings you out at this hour?”
    “May I come inside, ma’am?”
    Anticipation had her pulse picking up speed again. “Is everything all right?” She backed up to allow him inside.
    He waited until the door was closed and locked behind him. “I did what you asked.”
    The air in her lungs felt abruptly too thick to exhale. “You sent the message?”
    He nodded. “The response came maybe twenty minutes ago.”
    Jess hated to ask this next question but it was essential. “Did you tell anyone else?”
    He shook his head, regret on his face and in his posture. Jess understood she was asking a lot. Keeping this from Lori was difficult for him. For Jess, too. Detective Lori Wells had become a very close friend.
    “What’d you tell her?” Lori was no fool. She would understand something was up with him coming over here at this hour.
    “She went to see that new chick flick everyone’s talking about with her mom and sister. They missed the seven o’clock showing, since we were at the office late, so she won’t be home for a while. Today’s her mom’s birthday. They decided on a girls’ night out.”
    Jess nodded. “I see.” She imagined Harper did as well. Her mom’s birthday or no, Lori obviously needed girl time with the two women closest to her, probably to discuss her relationship with the man closest to her.
    That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but the two were moving a little fast, in Jess’s opinion. Like she had any room to talk. Just last week she and Dan had confessed their love for each other. They’d both known it was there, but somehow it was different saying it out loud, face-to-face.
    As life-altering as that moment had been, there was no place for the distraction just now. Spears had responded to the message she’d had Harper send.
    Three more seconds elapsed before Jess had the nerve to hold out her hand for the phone. The hesitation made her all the more furious at herself, but she was flat out worried. No point kidding herself. She was damned worried about what Spears would do next… and about this other monster who’d latched onto her recent infamy.
    More than anything else she was terrified for three young women who might very well have no idea that one of them was about to become the main character in a terrifying and lethal game.
    Holding her breath, Jess tapped the necessary functions and read the two text messages.
    Why waste your time with more games, Eric? Let’s do this.
    Since Jess had been stuck with Dan and Black until she’d come home two hours ago, she’d asked Harper to send the text to the only contact number she had for Spears. Her detective hadn’t liked it one bit, but he’d known she would find a way to do it herself