Page 5 of Built of Illusions
Nico caressed the hand she’d fisted in her lap and squeezed. “You sure you’re okay?”
Josie tightened her shields and nodded.
Nico rubbed her fist once more before sitting back and studying her.
Focus on the work. “Do you think one person has done all of—”
When she broke off, Nico leaned forward again. “We do. We think it’s one sick bastard who is on some kind of vendetta.”
Her stomach roiled but she kept the reaction inside. “What is it you want me to do?”
Nico patted her hand again and Josie wondered if everyone could see through to her nerves.
Roman’s phone buzzed. “Excuse me. I need to take this.” He closed the door behind him as he moved into the hall.
Josie focused on keeping her reactions inside. Her attraction to Nico was surging. He’d been so protective, trying to keep her away from the photos. And now he was concerned about how she’d been affected. She wanted to move in, to sit in his lap and let him wrap his arms around her, but she stayed where she was. He’d never shown a personal interest in her and she wasn’t that needy.
Besides, they worked together. Sort of. It would make it awkward when things didn’t work out. And things never worked out because Josie couldn’t trust anyone enough to let them in. She was a work-in-progress and she had a lot of progress to make before she was ready for a relationship.
Plus, according to FBI gossip, Nico didn’t do relationships. Maybe they could have some fun and move on.
Josie closed her eyes again, realizing she was avoiding thinking about the women. She wasn’t any kind of coward, so she straightened her spine and made herself focus on them and not the man in front of her. “How can I help?”
Nico studied her for a moment, then nodded slowly. She managed to maintain eye contact and not squirm.
When he spoke, his voice was deep and warm. Damn her girlie parts. “I was amazed by what you did for Tessa up in Vermont. You’ve always been an outstanding sketch artist, but what you did based on only emotion and a few facts blew my mind.”
Josie knew her mouth dropped open, but it couldn’t be helped. She had to gulp in a breath before she could respond to the praise. “Thank you. Tessa was amazing to work with. Her words created the pictures for me.”
Nico raised an eyebrow and smiled. “Exactly. I’m hoping if we talk about our suspicions about this guy, you can do the same kind of thing. I need a way to narrow the suspect pool from every male in the country.”
“You don’t have any DNA evidence or fingerprints?”
He shook his head tersely. “Not a damn thing. He’s extremely careful, which makes me think he’s been doing this for a long time.”
Josie shuddered.
Nico nodded. “Exactly.”
Josie pulled her sketchpad out of her purse. She’d work on the computer later to refine her ideas, but she always worked best if she played with the sketches on paper first. After grabbing her pouch of charcoal pencils, she pulled one out and settled deeper into the chair with the pad tilted so Nico wouldn’t see it. “I think this will work best if you don’t look at the early sketches.”
Nico nodded and leaned back, steepling his fingers in front of him. Once again, she noted that he was really good at stillness. At observing. The man didn’t have any nervous tells.
Finally he spoke. “I believe the man is at least thirty, but no more than forty. He might be younger, but not by much. He likely has a mixed racial background, but with a Latina mother.”
Josie let that sift through her mind as she doodled on the page. She needed more.
Nico continued. “I believe the father was at best, neglectful, at worst abusive. Physically and verbally, but not sexually.”
Thank goodness for small mercies. Then she remembered the women’s faces.
Oblivious to her thoughts, Nico kept talking. “His upbringing would be lower-middle class. Not poor, but not lots of extras either. The mother likely left him when he was young. Probably before he was a teen. The father blamed the mother for leaving, but she was probably escaping his abuse.”
“Why wouldn’t she take her child?” Josie wasn’t a parent and she’d never known hers, but she couldn’t imagine anyone heartless enough to leave a child with an abusive parent.
Nico’s eyebrows furrowed. She knew his parents had been foster parents and figured they had to be wonderful people. She knew Joe Cheveyo and Sam Young from a few FBI interactions, and she’d met Joe’s sister Tansy over Christmas. All of them had lived in the Rivera home in their teen years. They were all amazing people, which proved that Nico’s parents were wonderful.
She’d had a few decent foster homes to balance out the bland and the awful, but she’d never experienced any placement that felt even remotely like a home.