Page 23 of The Hero She Loves

“The plan is that we map out a search of the Drifter Lake area and find our guy.”

Park nodded. Preferably before Olson hurts anyone else.

Jenna was fightingoff tiredness when Parker pulled into the parking lot in front of her hotel.

The state troopers had taken Marty Price into custody, and Owen had gone with them. She and Parker had pulled Price’s place apart. The map was the only useful clue they’d found.

“You really think Olson has gone to the Drifter Lake area?” she asked.

“Yeah, I do.” Parker pulled to a stop and cut the engine.

“Thanks for your help today. And for saving Owen.” It had been Parker’s quick actions that had saved her marshal’s life.

“He’s cocky, but he has good instincts. I wasn’t going to let him get shot.”

“He’s learning.” She eyed him. “Let me buy you dinner? There’s a decent Chinese takeout down the road. We can eat while we scour the map and plan our search for Olson.”

Parker was quiet a second, then he nodded. “I like Chinese. Used to miss it when I was deployed.”

Soon, they were sitting in the conference room eating fried rice and Kung Pao chicken out of takeout boxes.

“It looks like the Drifter Lake Lodge gets a fair number of tourists in the summer,” Jenna said. “Surely Olson wouldn’t risk going there.”

Parker ate a forkful of food. “Agreed, but there are cabins close by.” A groove formed on his brow. “And possible victims, if he gets the urge to kill again.”

She hoped he didn’t. “I will find him before that happens.” She had to.

Memories of her father hit her. Mostly, she tried not to think about the man, but old memories liked to blindside her, especially when she was tired.

There were the images of the kind, loving man who’d thrown her in the air, read to her, and taken her on endless trips to the zoo.

But they were overlaid with the crime scene photos of his victims. The poor women he’d mutilated and killed.

Parker leaned back in his chair. “This job’s in your blood.”

More than he knew. “It is. I love it. I love knowing that I’m helping and making the world a little safer.” Making up for the terror her father had caused. “And I’m good at it.”

“I can tell.”

“You were good at Ghost Ops. Vander told me that you were one of the best.” And she’d seen some of his skills up close and personal. Watching him read the accident site and save Owen at Marty Price’s place. It went beyond training. He had instincts most people didn’t.

“I felt the same about it as you do about your job,” he said. “But sometimes you get used up, burned out.” He set his fork down.

“I’m sorry, Parker, about what you went through.”

He was quiet for a beat. “My friends call me Park.”

Her lips quirked. “Park.”

“I came back alive. On the mission when I got captured, good men and women lost their lives. Young people who had their whole lives ahead of them.”

Her heart squeezed. “I’m sorry.”

He nodded. “I know you lost men this week.”

“Yes. I understand. It isn’t just the grief, but the feeling that you failed them. If I’d just been faster, or done something different, that I could have saved them…”

A flash of dark emotion crossed his face and was quickly gone. “Yeah.”