by Lexi Blake
“Special Agent Kincaid,” Nate called out. He pushed through the crowd, his hand out. “Am I happy to see you.”
That was a surprise since the sheriff hadn’t been happy to see him yesterday. Rafe shook the man’s hand. “Sheriff, I’m sorry about this. I had no idea they were coming. Despite what everyone thinks.”
Nate had an easy smile on his face. “I believe you. I know how service is out here. Though you folks don’t seem to have the same problems. Your boss brought satellite phones.”
“Well, we have the best equipment. We’re not going to rely on locals when we can bring our own things. You should sit back and watch how it’s done, Sheriff.” Brad patted the sheriff’s shoulder condescendingly and walked off.
“Don’t shoot him,” Rafe said with a sigh. “He’s arrogant.”
Nate shrugged it off. “I’ve dealt with worse. Hell, I’ve been worse. We need to talk.”
Rafe nodded. For some reason, he trusted Nate Wright. He’d learned a couple of things about the sheriff. He was once a DEA agent. He wasn’t some lightweight. “And we will, once I get a lay of the land. And it’s best if we don’t do it here.”
He wasn’t sure what the FBI coming to Bliss meant yet, but it never hurt to have allies. He had a feeling the sheriff would prove to be a powerful ally.
“Sure, I suspect we can sneak off for lunch and no one will notice. Your boss has already ordered in. He’s taken over my entire office. Seriously, I hope I didn’t fucking act like this when I was a fed.”
Rafe could only nod. He knew how it went. When the FBI decided it was taking over, local law enforcement was pretty much fucked. Up until now, it seemed like the right thing to do, but he kind of liked Nathan Wright. He seemed competent, but Rafe knew that Joe would cut Wright out. He would do it because no FBI SAC was going to truly trust the locals. And he was pretty sure, in this case, that was a mistake.
“Where’s the special agent in charge?” He’d already looked around the small office and hadn’t seen Laura. Joe would have her. Rafe had worked with Joe for years. He knew how Joe operated. Joe would have been all over her the minute Laura entered the room. “Do you have an interrogation room?”
“A small one.” Nate pointed down a narrow hallway. “She’s in there. Briggs went in with her. I thought she was going to punch him at first, but he managed to smooth talk her into letting him in there with her. The SAC said you could go in when you got here. Do you need anything? Hope is making a run to Stella’s for coffee and breakfast.”
His appetite had fled long before. There was nothing now but an angry lump in his gut, but he hoped it was different for Laura.
“Laura likes her coffee dark with a hint of sugar. Can you make sure Hope brings her a dark roast with one sugar packet? And a bagel. She likes bagels with cinnamon cream cheese.”
A hint of a smile played on Nate Wright’s mouth. “I believe that’s what she asked Hope to bring her, though she didn’t ask for the bagel. I think she’s eating Holly’s banana bread.”
Rafe nodded and walked through the hall toward the small closed door. He stopped. It felt like the walls were closing in on him. He’d been here before, back in DC. It was all the same. Narrow hallways and neutral colors leading to a room where questions were answered in monotones. He’d been in a hundred of these rooms. The fact that Laura sat in one now made him edgy. She was on the wrong side of the table. She was on the vulnerable side.
He hated that.
There was a weird feeling in the pit of his stomach. There was one reason and one reason only for the BAU to come out here and talk to Laura Rosen. She’d given them all the information she had. Her case was five years old. There was a chance they had come out here to simply talk to her—but he discounted that possibility. Brad’s snippet of information made that scenario implausible. They didn’t want to talk to Laura. They wanted to use her.
For bait.
Fuck. Why had he told anyone? He should have taken a leave of absence and come here with Cam with no further agenda than seeing her again, holding her again. He’d fucked up, and Cam and Laura had every right to be pissed with him.
And yet, a certain amount of rage choked him. She’d walked out. She’d left without a goddamn word. Didn’t he have the right to be angry?
She wouldn’t be safe until he took down the Marquis de Sade. She’d be looking over her shoulder for the rest of her life.
He walked through the door.
“And you’re sure you haven’t had any communication with…” Joe stopped in the middle of his sentence, his face serious as he glanced up.
The small room was filled to capacity. There was a long wooden table. A recording device was sitting in the middle, the red light flashing, indicating that it was on. Laura’s golden-blonde head was turned away from him, but there was no mistaking who sat beside her. Cam’s broad shoulders filled up too much space. He’d obviously moved his chair so he could sit as close as possible. Cam’s hips brushed against hers.
A burning jealousy filled his soul.
“Special Agent Kincaid, it’s nice of you to join us,” Joe said with a welcoming smile on his face.
On the other side of the table, Edward Lock sat beside Joe. Edward was an older man, but there was nothing soft about him. He kept in shape, both body and mind. He was studying Laura, his razor-sharp gray eyes assessing her the way he would an unsub. Rafe had the sudden urge to punch him in the face.
“Come and join us, Special Agent,” Joe offered. There was one chair left to the right of Joe. “I was filling in Special Agent…I mean Laura on the case. It’s been a while. We’ve been catching up a bit while we waited on you.”
Laura finally turned, her blue eyes shifting up. Her face was utterly blank, but he didn’t miss the way her hand curled around Cam’s.
Fucker.
Rafe had a choice, and it was so clear to him now. He had to choose between the career he’d spent years building and the woman he’d obsessed over. She seemed to have already made her choice. It should be simple. She’d chosen Cam. Rafe could move to the FBI side of the table with no remorse, just a never-ending ache in his heart. She’d made her choice without even bothering to listen to his side of the story. It was the same thing she’d done when she’d walked out of the hospital. She hadn’t bothered to let him know if she was alive or dead. She hadn’t given him a single thought.
He could choose his career with the same ruthless selfishness that she’d used when she’d walked away.
Rafe walked around the table, pulled out the chair—and moved that fucker, because he was done with picking his job over the needs of his heart.
She’d walked out on him and ripped his heart in two. She was currently choosing his best friend over him without giving him a chance to explain, and he would sit at her side until he keeled over because he loved her. He knew that now. He knew it in a way he couldn’t have known before she’d left. The last five years had taught him something. He was ready for a marriage. He was ready to move on to a place where his job was something that took care of the people he loved. Hell, that was all this place had been for the last five years, anyway. It had become a place that paid for Cam to look for Laura. He and Cam had been functioning as a unit. Rafe wanted his place acknowledged.
Laura slid a glance his way.
Rafe kept his eyes on Joe. “Perhaps you would like to bring me up to speed, Special Agent. Special Agent Conrad told me some new evidence has come to light that makes the unit believe de Sade is working again and taking an interest in former Agent Rosen.”
“He had her panties, Rafe,” Cam said with a brutal frown.
Laura sighed. “Yes, I wish the bastard hadn’t kept those.”
At least Cam was looking at him. There was a file in front of Joe that Rafe reached for. There was a stack of photos. On top was an evidentiary photo of a small, pink piece of silk.
“Do you recognize this?” Rafe asked, not quite able to look at Laura.
There was a long, charg
ed pause. “Yes.”
Edward sat forward now, pushing his glasses up his elegant nose. “You were wearing these when the Marquis de Sade took you?”
“She said she recognized them,” Cam said with a frown.
“I need a formal acknowledgement that these belong to you, Miss Rosen,” Edward said with his usual condescension. “There’s no point in denying it. We’ll have DNA confirmation by tomorrow. There was a drop of blood on the waistband and other biological excretions on the lining of the drawers.”
Laura flushed, and Rafe thought seriously about putting the Harvard-educated agent’s nose through the back of his head.
“They were mine,” Laura said with a huff. “I was wearing them when he took me. He gave me some form of sedative. When I woke up, he’d taken my clothes off. Hopefully the next package contains a Michael Kors dress. I miss that dress. It made my boobs look spectacular.”
It was all he could do not to laugh. That was his Laura. She was rebellious to the end. She’d faced de Sade and lived. She could certainly handle the FBI. She didn’t need him to be her protector. Was that what she’d tried to tell him by walking away? Had she really simply not wanted him after he’d failed her so miserably?
“Why Brad? Why would they send it to Brad and not me or Rafe?” Cam asked.
“Well, son,” Joe said, leaning forward. “I think this boy likes to screw with us. He genuinely enjoys playing the game, and you aren’t FBI anymore. I have to ask you something, Cameron. Have you talked to that reporter at all? Have you mentioned Laura’s whereabouts to anyone at all?”
“He barely managed to tell me,” Rafe muttered.
Cam’s face reddened, and Rafe didn’t miss the way Laura’s hand tightened over Cam’s. She seemed to be reminding him he was on a leash.
Edward tapped his long fingers along the table. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves with accusations. The Marquis de Sade is nothing if not organized. It wouldn’t shock me at all to discover he’s been watching. This is all a game to him. He would keep tabs on the major players. Despite Briggs leaving the FBI, I think the killer would still watch him. After all, he’s a potential link to the most important person in de Sade’s life—Laura Rosen, the one who got away.”
“It doesn’t make a lick of sense,” Cam said, his previous irritation seeming to dissolve into frustration. Laura had handled him perfectly. “He’s been quiet for years. He gets one sniff of her and he’s back?”
“It’s possible that the incident with me threw him off his game,” Laura said. “Serial killers have been known to stop killing for years and then start up again.”
Edward adjusted his glasses in that scholarly fashion that set Rafe’s teeth on edge. He was always so far above everyone else. “I believe he simply entered another portion of the game and changed his tactics a bit. He’s smart.”
“Yeah, you’ve said that before,” Rafe replied. Edward had always seemed fascinated with this particular case. Edward had also been the one to declare that Laura’s profile was amateur and unworthy of real assessment.
Joe sighed as he looked around. He finally focused in on Laura. He pushed the folder toward her. “I would like for you to look at the evidence we’ve gathered since you left. I would appreciate your take on this. You, of all the people in the world, know this guy. Help us. Help us catch him.”
“She needs to stay out of this,” Cam said.
Laura let go of his hand. Her fingers crept across the table toward that folder.
Rafe’s heart rate shot sky high. “She needs to come into protective custody. We need to get her out of here.”
Laura’s eyes never wavered from that manila folder. Her hands caught it, and she slid it toward her. “I’ve tried hiding. It didn’t work. What I’m rapidly discovering is that no matter how hard you try to hide, your past always catches up to you.”
Joe’s face was in a brutal frown. “We need her, Rafe. You have to see that. She’s the closest we’ve ever come to catching him. He wants her.”
Laura casually opened the folder. “He’ll come for me.”
Cam looked at Rafe over her head. His blue eyes were practically begging him to do something, anything.
His fists clenched into tight balls of anxiety. He’d brought her to this. “You are not using her for bait. I won’t allow it.”
“You don’t allow or disallow anything, Special Agent Kincaid.” The fine edge of authority bit through the air. Joseph Stone had been a special agent in charge for a very long time. He hadn’t gotten there by allowing his underlings to tell him what to do, but Rafe didn’t have a choice.
“Nor does he have any control over me.” Laura’s voice had gone cold, professional. She opened the file, and Rafe knew he’d lost this particular war. “I’ll need an hour or two to go over this. I know this isn’t standard procedure.”
“Letting a witness read confidential files?” Joe relaxed back into his chair. “No, but you’re not any witness. You know I never agreed with the decision to fire you.”
She waved it off. “It doesn’t matter.”
“Then I’ll leave you to it.” Joe and Edward got up.
“I’d like to be alone,” Laura said, never looking up from the file.
“Laura,” Cam started.
But Rafe knew she was done for now. He would have to find another way to get to her. If he pushed, she would retreat even further. It was time to regroup.
“Come on, brother,” Rafe said. “Let’s go see what’s going on out there. She’s safe enough in here.”
The door closed between them. Rafe prayed it hadn’t closed forever.
Chapter Eleven
An hour later, Laura finally closed the folder and tried to take a deep breath. It felt like the walls were closing in on her. Five years. She’d hidden for five years, and in an instant, it was all coming back to her. She’d been safe here, and now she had to wonder if he was going to find her again.
She stood and smoothed out her shirt. She made sure the file was in pristine order and turned on her heels to walk out of the quiet interrogation room. She was pretty sure it had never been used to actually interrogate anyone. Mostly Nate simply locked people up and let them go after he’d either calmed down or they had paid their legitimate fines. The citizens of Bliss had quickly gotten used to the sheriff’s temper. They knew if they were wrongly jailed there would be a nice free meal and a beer waiting for them at Trio. Laura had a sudden desire to be there. She could sit at the bar and joke with Callie and Zane while she sipped the chardonnay Zane kept behind the bar for her.
Why had this followed her home?
Laura stepped out of the door, looking for Joe. She knew he wanted to ask her some questions. She wasn’t looking forward to any of this.
A hard hand clamped down on her elbow, pulling her toward an open door.
Rafe sent her reeling into Nate Wright’s office. He closed the door behind her, the discipline of his action telling her exactly how pissed he was. He shut that door with a quiet intensity.
She wasn’t having it. He’d been the one to pull her back into this world. Cam had explained his part. He’d practically tackled her and begged her forgiveness. She believed him that he hadn’t sicced the feds on her, but Rafe was another matter. Rafe was the one who had always been devoted to the job. He’d been the true believer. At the time, she’d seen his devotion to justice as something intensely noble. She still did, but damn, if she didn’t wish he had been a little more devoted to her. She would have enjoyed the chance to decide for herself if she wanted to be a part of this again.
“What do you want, Rafe?” She was alone in a room with him. A tiny room. A room that suddenly seemed far too small for two people.
His face was set in tight lines, his jaw painfully stubborn. “I want a lot of things, bella. I doubt you’ll be willing to give them to me.”
There was no mistaking the hard edge of his tone—or the line of his erection. Rafe was angry, and it was doing something for him. The sad t
hing was it was doing something for her, too. “You can’t seriously think I want to be alone with you.”
Where was Cam when she needed him? Oh, yeah. She’d told him to leave her alone. Well, she’d gotten what she wanted. She’d claimed she needed time to think about the new facts and the case, but what she’d really needed was time away from both of them. Yet even as she had sat there staring down at proof that her worst nightmare was still at large and at work, she’d thought about them. When was she going to learn?
“I don’t care what you want at this moment.” His back was to the door, as though guarding it. She was suddenly extremely aware of how alone they were. “I’m going to talk to you, and you’re going to listen.”
“Well, it doesn’t seem like I have a choice.” She crossed her arms over her chest and hoped she was giving him her absolute most intimidating glare. He hadn’t been huge on giving her choices. Resentment started to bubble up. “What’s wrong, Rafe? Are you afraid if I’m given a choice and treated like an actual functioning adult that you’ll lose out? You’re probably right. If you weren’t standing in front of that door, I would be out of here.”
His lips curled up in a bitter imitation of a smile. “Yes, bella, you’ve made that plain to me. But I do take offense to the accusation that I’ve taken away your choices.”
She allowed her eyes to widen in suspicion. “What exactly did you mean to do by storming into Bliss the way you did? We have phones, you know. A simple phone call would have saved all of us time.”
“Would it? Because you would have answered and been so reasonable. If I am not treating you like an adult, bella, it’s because I haven’t known you to act like one.”
Her fists clenched. It was ridiculous. She was one of the most responsible people she knew. She always made the responsible choice. The craziest thing she’d ever done was sleeping with Rafe and Cam, and it was clear where that had led her. “Fuck you, Rafe.”