Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 114820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 574(@200wpm)___ 459(@250wpm)___ 383(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 574(@200wpm)___ 459(@250wpm)___ 383(@300wpm)
Not at all.
Which was why he demanded, “Are you shitting me?”
Bohannan shook his head.
“This is very convenient, Cade,” Rus remarked.
“Think of the life trajectory of a narcissist,” Bohannan suggested. “At the end of his life, he’s either used up everyone who loved him, and he’s totally alone. Or he’s left with only those he’s groomed, usually since birth, his children, but also there are partners he’s either conned, and they fell into his web, or they came to him with such low self-confidence, they put themselves in his hands. But one way or the other, he’s had plenty of time to demand their unconditional love, no matter his behavior, and that’s all they know, so they give it. Or he selects the chosen few to cover in his love, smothering them with it, so they become addicted to it and mirror his behaviors by giving that back to him.”
This was definitely the case of a narcissist, so once again, Rus nodded.
And Bohannan kept going.
“But it’s rare he has any true friends. He’s usually driven away his family, at least those not directly connected to him. Now think of a narcissist’s pattern with relationships. He discards people who have no more meaning to him, usually those who have figured him out and call him on his shit. He picks up new ones who don’t know just how disturbed he is and convinces them of how amazing he is. He then becomes obsessed with them. They’re everything. They’re perfect. They fulfill his every need. Until his flaws show, and they point them out. Then these new people are cast aside, and he always casts them aside, even when they break things off with him. He convinces himself he’s the one in control of it being over. The other scenario, they fall so deep under his spell, they’re his forever.”
Again, all shit Rus knew.
Bohannan had more.
“Now think of a narcissist who feels he’s finally found his equal. He has no flaws, and his equal doesn’t either. It’s impossible. No one is as smart as he his. No one is as anything as he is. This is a miracle, to finally find a true connection. To finally find that one person alive in billions who appreciates you just as you expect to be appreciated, and he returns that.”
The cold hadn’t stopped creeping in, so now Rus was fighting the need to shiver.
“But it makes sense,” Bohannan continued. “You aren’t competition. You aren’t going to turn the eye of his wife. You aren’t going to earn the love of his children. You aren’t going to go out and rape and murder women. You aren’t going to call him on his day-to-day bullshit. You aren’t going to take anything he has. And he wants nothing you have. And you can bet he looked into everything he could as to your accomplishments. He knows how good of an agent you are. He knows they sent the best to find him. And he’s not going to destroy someone as good at what they do as he is. He admires you. It would be a sacrilege. It would be like destroying himself.”
Bohannan’s gaze became hyper-focused on his.
“There may be one person he’d put it all on the line for, Rus, and that’s you. And yes, what I mean by that is, if he’s here, there might be one window of opportunity for you to catch him, and that’s now. When he’s making himself vulnerable to protect you.”
Rus sat back in his chair, whispering, “Fucking hell.”
“Another guess?”
Rus needed it, but he didn’t want it.
Still, he jutted his chin at Bohannan for him to give it.
“He’s a tall man with close-cropped brown hair and a mustache. He didn’t appear to Brad like he usually does, in a disguise. He went to Brad as just who he is, not only to ascertain what on the face of it seemed too close for comfort. A young, beautiful, blonde woman murdered in an out-of-the-way motel that didn’t have security cameras, something that drew you to the scene. But he was definitely there because your presence indicated that something was fishy, and it pertained to him. He knew you’d go back to Brad. He knew you’d go back to that motel.”
Bohannan’s chest expanded with the massive breath he took in.
And when he let it out, he lowered the boom.
“For the first time, no disguise, he was there as the man he is to say hello to you.”
TWENTY
Pumpkin
“This is humiliating,” Jess muttered.
“That’s two hundred dollars, Jesse!” Madden crowed.
Jesse handed her the one hundred and fifty dollars of Monopoly money he had left. Then he flicked the top hat piece off the board, plopped back into the sofa in defeat and declared, “I’m out.”
Madden giggled.
“You’re vicious, and I think that dice is weighted,” Jesse accused on a tease.