“Fine. Then we’ll figure something else out. I just want to keep you safe.”
He wasn’t perfect, but he was hers. If he forgot that again, well, she’d have to put the Taser he gave her to another use.
3.
Daniel hunched down in the front seat of the sedan. Four cars in less than two hours. He was pretty sure he’d covered his tracks, but he couldn’t shake the sense that he was being watched.
Damn feds.
He was getting too old for this.
No, he couldn’t be old. Gods didn’t get old. Right?
He gripped the steering wheel, but his hand slid off the smooth leather. A smear of blood stained the high-end material.
Shit. Was he bleeding again?
He should have never used the officer’s gun. It was different than his six shooter. He’d missed because he’d gotten cocky, and now that son of a bitch was still alive.
His plan was screwed to hell. First he botched killing the fed attached to Bliss, then he took too long to get back to the safe house and snatch Bliss from under the cops’ noses. The only thing left was to pick up his wife, but even that wasn’t enough for him any longer.
He needed to get revenge.
FOUND THEM.
Travis glanced at the message and instinctively squeezed Bliss’ hand.
“What?” she mumbled.
“Come on.” He pushed off the desk and strode toward the conference room. Since he wasn’t technically on this case, he’d stayed out of the way. If Daniel were in the wilderness or hiding out in a hot zone, Travis knew what to do. Getting inside the head of a deranged serial killer and figuring out what fucked up kind of reasoning made the man tick was a place Travis didn’t want to go.
Ryan glanced up from his phone as they entered. Travis pushed Bliss behind him in a vain attempt to shield her from the jar babies.
“Lali and Gavin found them,” Ryan announced.
“Them, who?” Bliss glanced from Ryan to Travis.
“Your sister.”
“Wendy? Are they okay?”
“They’re fine. Still in CIA custody.” Ryan pocketed his phone. “We can’t make them do anything.”
“No,” Travis agreed.
“I bet she could.” Connor thumbed at Bliss.
She squeezed Travis’ hand, and he released the tight grip he had on her, swiping his thumb over her knuckles as an apology.
Five minutes. That’s all Travis wanted with the guy. Somewhere he could punch his lights out.
“Let me talk to her,” Bliss said.
Ryan held up his hand. “How sure are we that Daniel knows where Wendy is?”
“He’s too detail-oriented. Wendy is his target. Bliss and Travis are bystanders in this. It’s the women he focuses on. Look.” Connor turned and gestured at one of the boards. Photographs of several dead blonde women lined the top of it, with coordinating information below. “The women were first. It’s always been about them. He had his accident, got well, and then the first woman went missing. The best we can tell, the transient murders were a year later, after his accident. The women represent who he really is, the men are his way of expressing his rage. It’s in how he disposes of the bodies. The women are left. He wants them found because they’re special. The men? They’re trash. He tosses them out. He’s going to zero in on Wendy, and there isn’t an army out there that will stop him.”
“What about what Wendy said? That he’s copying someone?” Bliss glanced between them, her nose scrunched up.
“If he’s copying someone, it’s obscure enough we can’t place them.” Jade sighed and glared at the floor.
“Where is Wendy?” Bliss turned to Travis. “You know I’m right. She’ll listen to me. Remember how scared she was?”
Connor glanced from Bliss to Travis.
“I’ll take you,” Connor said.
“I’m riding with you.” Travis wasn’t about to let her out of his sight.
“If we do that, we’re putting everything he wants in one location.” Ryan scrubbed his hand across his face.
“He hasn’t yet taken on more than two people.” Jade gestured to another list scrawled on a dry-erase board. “Ones and twos, he’ll attack one and use them to control the other. We saw that with Don, and preliminary reports on several identified remains support that theory. Don’t go off on your own and he won’t attack.”
“Let’s go then.” Connor grabbed his jacket.
Travis didn’t like it, but he was completely biased. Still, he grabbed Bliss’ jacket, borrowed another that wasn’t soaked with blood, and joined the small team heading to waylay Grayson’s hideout.
“Do I want to know how you guys found her?” Bliss asked. She sat between him and Dimitri, about as safe and protected as he could make her.
“The baby.” Travis stared out of the passenger window.
“Paul?”
“Yeah. He gets some kind of frou-frou fancy baby formula. Lali and Gavin looked for recent purchases. Then they followed the money.”
“Someone’s getting in trouble,” Connor said from the driver’s seat.
“Why?” Bliss’ brow wrinkled.
“Because a CIA agent in the field should be harder to identify. His guy nailed the fella doing the buying.” Connor thumbed at Travis.
“Oh. Then...if it was that easy for them to find Wendy, it’ll be just as easy for Daniel?” Bliss wrapped her hand around his and squeezed. She was holding it together so well, it was hard to remember this was all new for her.
“Not as easy, but yeah, that’s what we’re afraid of. We know he’s got mad technical ability, but Lali was never able to track down where his stuff was kept or where the cameras transmitted to. He had another location, somewhere not at his house.” Connor merged onto the highway and headed south.
Twenty minutes later they pulled into another gated, upscale community. Connor flashed his badge to gain entry and navigated them around to a sprawling, three-story abode that was just slightly less opulent than the home Grayson already owned.
A man trimming perfect hedges turned around and stared at the minivan. Security. They weren’t that discreet. But they had protected Wendy from another kidnapping. Maybe that’s what Bliss needed. Round-the-clock watchdogs, but that wasn’t any way to live. They had to stop this, soon, before someone that wasn’t Daniel got killed.
BLISS PUSHED PAST THE man stationed at the door and glanced around the sparkling marble entry.
“Bliss?” Wendy’s voice echoed, intermingled with the sounds of a TV and other people speaking.
“Where are you?” Bliss peered into the two rooms on either side, but they were empty.
Wendy strode through a grandiose arch leading to the rest of the home, baby Paul perched on her hip. Bliss stared, blinked, and couldn’t believe her eyes. It was a subtle transformation, something a casual observer or a stranger wouldn’t notice, but Bliss did. It was Wendy’s smile, the color of her cheeks, a slight bounce in her step.
“Oh, Bliss!” Wendy wrapped her free arm around Bliss’ shoulders.
She hugged both mother and son, burying her face in Wendy’s hair. Paul immediately took the opportunity to pull on Bliss’ ponytail, but she couldn’t care less.
“What are you doing here? Is everything okay?” Wendy pulled back and glanced from Bliss to Travis.
“What the hell is going on this time?” Grayson came down the stairs, followed by another man in a suit.
“Mr. Horton, I’m Supervisory Special Agent Connor Mullins.” He extended his hand.
“Bliss?” Wendy pitched her voice low, watching the men grumble and growl at each other.
“Come in here.” Bliss dragged Wendy into what she guessed would be someone’s office someday.
“Have you seen Mom and Dad?”
“Yes, they’re at the station.”
“Oh, good. How are you?” Wendy cupped Bliss’ cheek.
“I’m okay. You look—good.”
“I feel good.” She absently st
roked Paul’s face and let him grasp hold of her finger.
“Yeah?”
“It’s like...I woke up.” Wendy tilted her head to the side and stared at the floor. “It’s almost like I’ve been asleep, and what happened—it made me realize I want to live. I don’t want to be who I was letting myself be. It was awful and terrible and...I can barely sleep, but I feel like I’ve got my life back.”
“That’s good. That’s really good.” Bliss could hardly believe her ears. She’d never wish this experience on anyone, but if something good could come out of it, well, she’d focus on that.
“How about you? Travis is still around?”
“Yeah. I pretty much owe him my life.” She followed Wendy’s gaze to where Travis stood scowling at Connor and Grayson.
“You want to tell me what’s going on between you two?”
How long had it been since Bliss talked guys with her sister? Ages.
“It’s...complicated,” she said.
“He’s not your usual type.” Wendy tilted her head to the side and smiled.
“No.” Bliss fidgeted and glanced away. Things with Travis were too uncertain to talk about yet. Not until she knew where they stood with each other.
“So what’s up? I’m guessing you didn’t stop by with a federal escort just to chat.”
“I wish I did.” She turned back to Wendy. “It’s Daniel. He tried to kill Travis earlier, and they know he killed a cop outside the safe house where I was. They think he already knows where this house is, and they want us to all go to the station. More people. More protection.”
“That’s why Mom and Dad are there?” Wendy’s eyes widened until they seemed to overtake her face.
“Yeah. They think he’s obsessed with you, but he won’t go up against a lot of people to get you.”
“There’s a lot of people here, though.” Wendy nodded out the window where they could see the superfluous lawn guy strolling around.
“Yeah, but they thought I was safe too, and someone died protecting me. Do you want that to happen here, too?”
“No.”
“Then come with us. Please?”
Wendy chewed her lip for a moment, clearly torn. And why wouldn’t she be? There was a small army stationed around her, keeping her safe. The rest of them didn’t have that.
“Okay. Here, hold Paul for me while I go talk Grayson into it, okay?” She handed the baby over and tweaked his nose a little.
Gestures like that were new. Before, Wendy hadn’t been able to look at, much less hold, her child. The change was remarkable. A single brush with death and she was ready to live again.
Bliss followed, staying on the edges of the group while Wendy spoke with her husband in low tones.
“No. No, we aren’t going to hide out with a baby at the police station. We can’t stay there forever. They need to do their job and catch this man.” Grayson slashed his hand in the air.
“If it was that easy, don’t you think they’d have done it by now?” Wendy held onto his other hand, her composure a thing of beauty. Just last week she’d have crumbled in on herself if someone raised their voice.
“I’m not putting you at risk.”
“Is it worth risking other people’s lives?”
“Going to the station isn’t going to fix anything. It’s not like he’ll walk in and hand himself over to the cops just because you’re there.”
“Then we bait him,” Bliss said.
All eyes turned on her. She latched onto Travis’s gaze.
“They can’t find him. We know he’s hurt. Why not bait him? We could go back to your house, set a...a...trap, right?”
From the tight set of Travis’ lips she had a pretty good idea she was onto something. If he didn’t like it, well, too bad. She didn’t want to go into Witness Protection, and she didn’t want to have to spend the rest of her life being afraid of Daniel Campbell.
“I’d do it,” Wendy said.
“No,” Grayson snapped.
“I don’t like it either,” Travis said.
“It could work,” Connor pitched his voice over Wendy and Grayson’s argument. “Set you up at their house. Stage the security and keep officers inside and out of sight. It could work. Nice thinking.”
She didn’t believe for a second Connor hadn’t already considered this option. He winked at her and turned toward Travis and Grayson. Dimitri was already on the phone, probably calling Ryan to set it up.
“No, we’re not doing it, and that’s final,” Grayson said.
“I am.” Wendy drew herself up and stared at her husband as if she were ready to do battle. “You asked what you could do to help me. Do this. Help me make sure this man is behind bars and isn’t a threat to us any longer. Hiding will only make it worse.”
Grayson’s face twisted in anguish. “I just want to keep you safe.”
“I know.” Wendy leaned in and kissed her husband.
Bliss glanced at Travis, who was already staring at her. She could hear a similar argument coming from his, but with a lot fewer words.
It’s my choice. My future. My life.
4.
Wendy followed the police officer and Grayson into the house.
Their home.
She saw it with new eyes. When they moved in, she was so happy. Each piece of furniture, all the colors, she chose them with care. Looking at it now, she remembered all the reasons she loved it. Her husband had designed this especially for them. A home they could raise a family in, grow old together in.
Paul gurgled and waved at her from the car seat.
“Thank you, Priscilla. Set him there on the counter.” Wendy waved at the marble surface and waited for the housekeeper to put her things down.
“Glad you’re home.” Priscilla smiled.
“Me too. Give me a hug?” Wendy squeezed the young woman tightly. Oh, the things Priscilla had put up with over the last year. Wendy would have to bug Grayson about doing something nice for her.
“This is the last of it.” Bliss set the last of Paul’s things on the counter while the men tended to the luggage.
“You didn’t have to get that,” Wendy said. Bliss never listened. She was her big sister, always looking out for Wendy, even when she didn’t ask for it.
“I need something to do.” Bliss dug into the bag containing Paul’s formula and bottles, separating the clean from the dirty.
“You could take a break from managing my life and, I don’t know, go do something for yourself?” Wendy nodded at the big brute of a man stalking through the living room heading for the office where Grayson sequestered the federal agents.
“What? No.” Bliss’ frown was more telling than the way she wouldn’t look at him.
“What is going on with you two?” Wendy rocked Paul and leaned against the counter. This felt like old times. When they used to talk about each other, and not just how Wendy had managed to drag herself out of bed.
“Nothing.”
“Yeah right.”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Fine.” Wendy shrugged. “Oh, Priscilla, where’s the phone you picked up for Bliss?”
“You—what?” Bliss rolled her eyes.
“Hush. Mom and Dad will freak out if they can’t stalker-call you from across the house. It’s your same number, too. Don’t give me that whole I want to pay for my own stuff crap, either.”
“Fine. I love you, and you rock.” Bliss wrapped Wendy in a tight hug.
This was what she was living for. To love her sister, to see her family grow old together. Depression had almost stolen this from her, but now she was ready to fight for it again.
Wendy would also have to get Travis alone at some point and bully him into being nice to Bliss. She deserved someone who made her happy, and a life that didn’t involve looking after Wendy.
“THESE ARE YOUR TRACKING devices.” Connor handed the girls what looked to be small pins. “Fasten them inside your clothes, somewhere we won’t see them. Keep them on
your person at all times, just in case.”
Just in case my ass.
Travis would make sure Bliss didn’t need it. He wouldn’t let her out of his sight, much less out of the house. This plan set his teeth on edge for a reason he couldn’t quite put his finger on. Something bad was going to happen, and he didn’t know how to stop it.
“Just in case—what?” Bliss turned the tracking device over in her hand.
“We want to be prepared for everything.” Connor folded his hands together. Ever since they’d stepped foot in the Hortons’ house, the agent had just about bent over backward to keep everyone happy.
“Nothing better happen,” Grayson muttered, staring daggers at Connor, then Travis, as if he had something to do with this.
If Travis had his way, Bliss would be across the globe already.
“Anything else?” Wendy glanced over her shoulder, toward the sounds of Paul crying. Since they were back at their home, most normal routines were being picked up and the house staff was back on the job, which meant half a dozen more people to keep an eye on.
“That should be it. Go give the little guy a bottle, eh?” Connor smiled.
The house had received a bit of a makeover in the last two hours. All of the windows had blinds and curtains drawn, whereas before they’d been left open to let in all the natural light. Clusters of officers and agents were set up to do their jobs, and the family moved in and around them all.
If they were lucky, one of the guards on the perimeter would take Daniel down before he ever set foot on the property. But that was a big if. Chances were, he’d run off, tail between his legs, and wait for a better time to strike. At least, that was what Travis would do.
Bliss followed Wendy into the main living space. She’d avoided him since proposing this plan of hers, and for good reason. He wanted to have a chat with her. This wasn’t an incredibly dangerous operation, but it was far more risk than he was comfortable with.
She needed time to trust him again, but he wasn’t good with giving her space to do that. Everything in him said to stay right by her side.
“Hey, sunshine.” Connor stopped in front of Travis, forcing him to look at the man. “Do a security walk-through with me.”
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