Lost in Bliss

by Sophie Oak

  our nearest cell tower into a SETI receiver. I have no idea how those

  boys managed to screw it up so badly, but it doesn’t work anymore.

  The phone company says they’re working on it, but we’re so small, I

  don’t think we’re a priority. We’re all scrambling,” the man said. The

  badge on his chest proclaimed him to be the sheriff of the town.

  “We’ve had to make do. Now, if you want really good reception,

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  there’s this hill right outside the Harper Stables. You tend to have to

  stand on one leg, and it’s best if you take a friend with you because

  the really good spot is about four feet off the ledge, but as long as

  someone holds on, you should be all right.”

  The sheriff tipped his hat and started to walk off. He didn’t look

  back as he said his final words of wisdom. “And watch out for bears!

  And Max Harper. He can be worse than a bear. If you see him

  coming, I would shoot first and ask questions never.”

  Yeah, Rafe fucking hated this place.

  * * * *

  “Are you planning to tell me why we’re lying to federal agents, or

  have you had an abrupt change of heart? Because if the latter is true,

  then we have to talk about the way you proposed. A guy needs some

  romance with his marriage proposal. And you didn’t get down on one

  knee.”

  Normally, Laura would have laughed at Wolf’s teasing. Now she

  found herself frowning his way. She shouldn’t be pissed at him, but

  he was the only one around. “If you could just go along with it, it will only be a couple of hours. I assure you, once they tell me what they

  need to say, they’ll be right back on a plane to DC. Those two are

  very career oriented. They don’t belong in Bliss.”

  Wolf helped her step up the curb as they walked toward the

  parking lot beside Stella’s. Holly had driven Laura into town, but

  she’d decided it would be best if Wolf drove her home. It was all the

  better to keep up her little deception. She couldn’t feel too bad about

  it. After all, they had deceived her. At least she hadn’t slept with them before she lied to them.

  Wolf walked her toward his dually. The massive black truck was a

  lot like Wolf, enormous, powerful, and very comfortable on the

  inside. He opened the door and handed her up.

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  “I was a little surprised you didn’t listen to them.” Wolf stood just

  outside her door. The height of the seat allowed her to look straight

  into his calculating dark eyes. “If what you say is true, then one little conversation could clear everything up and send those boys on their

  way. Makes me wonder why you put them off.”

  Bastard. He shut the door and walked around the truck. She didn’t want to think about that. She wanted to stew. She wanted to rail. Why

  had she decided to let Wolf drive her? If she was with Holly, she

  could simply sit and fume. Holly would fume with her. Wolf was far

  too busy psychoanalyzing her.

  Wolf hopped into the driver’s seat and started the truck to purring.

  “No answer for that?”

  “Is one required?” She hadn’t meant to sound that icy, had she?

  He turned to her, one eyebrow climbing up his handsome face.

  “No, but some courtesy would be nice.”

  And she finally, really figured Wolf Meyer out. He had always

  reminded her of someone, but she hadn’t been able to put her finger

  on it. That arched brow and the demand for courtesy did it. Stefan

  Talbot. Oh, yeah, Wolf Meyer was a Dom. He’d mentioned that his

  brother was in the lifestyle, but he’d conveniently left out his own

  interest in BDSM. She sighed. “I’m sorry. I really didn’t mean to be

  rude. I’m afraid they threw me for a loop.” She allowed her lips to

  quirk up a bit. “Will you forgive me if I call you Sir?”

  His cheekbones stained a slight red. “Gave myself away, did I?

  Well, I always knew you would be hesitant about that part of my life.

  It was never going to work, was it?”

  He pulled out onto the road.

  “Sorry, I’m afraid that’s not really my cup of tea.”

  “But I’m guessing ménage isn’t out of the question.”

  Now she was the one blushing. “And you go there, why? Most

  normal people would ask which one I had been involved with.”

  “I’m not normal, and both of those men want you. They both

  wanted to murder me. You don’t get that possessive about a woman

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  unless you’ve had her—or you’re completely insane. Given where we

  are, it could be either option.”

  “It was just a fling.” She heard the hollowness in her voice. Damn

  it. She’d been good at hiding her emotions once. Now they were just hanging out all over the place.

  “Do you really believe that?” Wolf asked as he turned toward the

  valley where a small cluster of cabins lay. “I don’t know if we were

  listening to the same conversation. I heard that they had been looking

  for you. The big guy quit his precious job in order to spend all of his

  time trying to hunt you down. The other guy practically ate you up

  with his eyes. They didn’t seem to be disengaged agents doing a job.”

  She wasn’t falling for their crap again. She wasn’t sure why they

  were here, but it didn’t matter. If anything, it was likely guilt that

  caused them to search for her. They had felt guilty when she’d been

  kidnapped. She could still remember waking up after surgery to the

  sounds of the two of them fighting about who was really at fault. Cam

  had blamed Rafe for selling her out. Rafe had pointed out that Cam

  hadn’t believed her profile either. It had been a nasty way to wake up.

  And then the doctor had told her the bad news.

  “When a member of one of the teams gets injured or dies, do you

  feel bad about it?”

  Wolf’s face shut down, his jaw forming a hard line. He kept his

  eyes on the road in front of him. “Of course. Your team is your

  family.”

  “Well, consider the BAU my team.”

  “If that’s the way you want to play it, who am I to stop you?”

  Wolf was quiet the rest of the drive. He turned down the dirt road

  that led to her cabin. Holly’s cabin was beside Laura’s. Callie and her

  husbands lived close, but Laura always felt like she was the only

  person in the world when she shut the door to her cabin. It was her

  sanctuary.

  As Laura got out of the truck, a wave of guilt rolled over her.

  Wolf was a nice man, and she was using him. “I’m sorry. I really am.

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  I don’t know what came over me. I just didn’t want them to think I

  had been pining for them.”

  She hadn’t. She really hadn’t. She didn’t think about them every

  day anymore. She’d gotten used to her life here in Bliss. She didn’t

  need them coming in here and disrupting everything. She was over

  them. She really was.

  Liar.

  Wolf smiled at her. “It’s all right. I knew it wouldn’t work out

  deep down. I just find you incredibly attractive, and women around

  these parts can
be a little…interesting. I would move on and ask Holly

  out, but I hear she’s taken, and I don’t do the ménage thing even if the other parties are unavailable or so whacked out they can’t talk around

  the girl.”

  It was an apt description of Holly’s plight. Wolf pulled the truck

  into her driveway and stopped. Laura slid out of her seat. “Well, I

  thank you anyway. I’ll tell them the truth tonight.”

  “Don’t. I enjoy a little subterfuge. Let them sweat.” Wolf winked

  at her. “I’ll be back to pick you up for the dinner. It’ll be fun to see what your friend is like after a couple of hours of Mel.”

  Wolf pulled back out, and Laura was left alone.

  She tried really hard not to think about what he’d said. After a

  long time staring at the river, she walked into her cabin to get dressed.

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  Chapter Six

  Cam pulled the SUV into the parking lot, gravel crunching under

  the wheels. Lights sparkled in the distance like little fireflies, and the hum of music could be heard even through the heavy doors of the car.

  Cam squinted, trying to make out the individual forms swaying in the

  distance. The fairgrounds were lit with a mixture of twinkle lights and

  the full moon shining down. He craned his neck to look through the

  windshield.

  Damn. The stars didn’t look like that in the city. They were like

  jewels in the sky here in Bliss.

  “Are you ready to go?” Rafe asked. His voice seemed caught in

  his throat. He’d been quiet for hours, sitting in the booth of the diner while Cam talked to the insane dude.

  He’d actually learned a lot while talking to Mel. He’d learned that

  everyone in town loved Laura. Mel had talked about her with great

  affection. The woman who ran the diner had talked about her, too.

  Laura had formed real connections in this community, connections

  she had never formed in DC. Laura hadn’t known her neighbors. Cam

  understood. He didn’t particularly want to know the people he shared

  his rattrap complex with, either. He’d already had more conversation

  with Mel, the conspiracy kook, than he had with anyone in the last

  year or so. It made him realize just how isolated he’d become.

  Cam watched as Rafe checked the clip on his Glock. “I feel weird

  not carrying.”

  Rafe shook his head. “You don’t have a license to carry in the

  state of Colorado. And they would never have let you on a plane with

  a firearm.”

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  Rafe looked around the place, his dark eyes hawk-like.

  “What are you looking for?” Cam asked. He hadn’t seen anything

  in this place that worried him. Sure, some of the people seemed a little weird, but they were harmless. Cam sighed, wondering if he’d been

  out of the game too long. Was he missing something?

  “If you found her, de Sade could find her,” Rafe said.

  “I doubt that,” Cam assured him. “She’s been very isolated here.

  If she hadn’t taken that photo, I wouldn’t have found her. I can’t

  imagine that de Sade has written a software program that scans the net

  and identifies missing people through facial recognition.”

  Rafe shook his head, a slight nod that let Cam know he disagreed.

  “That software exists, Cam.”

  “Not like this, it doesn’t. I assure you mine is better. I tried several of the ones on the market before I gave up and built my own. What do

  you think I spent my money on?” It had taken him about a year and a

  half to design that software. His training in communications had been

  the reason the Bureau was interested in him in the first place. He’d

  left his actual programming behind when he joined the BAU. He’d

  concentrated on keeping the hardware up and the use of

  communications in the field, but he’d realized that he needed

  something more than what the market had when he couldn’t find

  Laura. He’d sold just about everything he had to make the software

  work, but it had paid off in the end. He’d found her.

  And now she was with a former Navy SEAL.

  She swayed in Wolf Meyer’s arms in the middle of the small

  dance floor. Fuck. He hated that man. Cam had spent the afternoon in their tiny motel room using freaking dial-up to come up with

  everything he could on Wolf Meyer. Of course, it wasn’t much. The

  Navy kept a lot of things classified, and Wolf Meyer seemed to be

  one of them. Unless he wanted to hack into the Navy’s classified files

  and risk bringing the wrath of God down on himself, he had to let the

  particulars go. Cam didn’t care that Wolf was a badass who had

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  honorably served his country for years. The asshole was horning in on

  Cam’s woman, and he wasn’t going to sit back and let it happen.

  “If you just let me borrow your sidearm, I could take care of one

  of our problems,” Cam said between clenched teeth.

  “You can’t shoot him,” Rafe said with a sigh. “I wish we could,

  but we need to concentrate on what’s important.”

  “Protecting Laura,” Cam replied. It was, in the end, all that

  mattered.

  “Gentlemen, can I help you?”

  Cam turned and saw a man in a khaki uniform.

  Rafe nodded. “Sheriff Wright.”

  Cam held out a hand. Rafe had made contact with local law

  enforcement. Nathan Wright, according to Rafe, was deeply

  concerned about the problem.

  “Have you done a perimeter sweep?” Rafe asked.

  A long, slow smile crossed the sheriff’s face. “I’ve walked around

  the fairgrounds and said hello to everyone, if that’s what you’re

  asking. Look, my deputy and I are both on the job tonight. You can

  relax. This isn’t a tourist event. If someone new shows up, every

  single person here is going to have questions.”

  Small towns could be a little like that, Cam knew. His own town

  hadn’t been easy on newcomers, but they tended to take care of their

  own. “Have you let the gossips in on what’s going on?”

  “Small-town boy?”

  “Green Line, Arkansas, population three hundred fifty-two.”

  Rafe looked between the two of them. “What does gossip have to

  do with anything?”

  The sheriff shook his head. “Big city?”

  “Miami.” Cam shared a look with the sheriff. “I’m afraid Rafe is

  pure city. He was born in Miami and moved to DC. Rafe, in a small

  town, if you want everyone to know something, you usually only need

  to call one person. If you let the worst gossip in town know

  something, an hour later everyone knows.”

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  “Hell, Callie is way better than that. She had everyone in the

  know in half that time. Trust me, Zane and I keep certain things very,

  very quiet around our wife. Don’t worry. Everyone knows to watch

  out for Laura. Logan and I will keep a real close watch on things.”

  The sheriff tipped his hat and began to walk away. “And you boys

  mind your manners around Wolf Meyer. I don’t want to have to break

  up any fights. You don’t need to fight him, you know. There’s two of

  you and only one of him. That should be enough to
take her down.”

  Rafe turned on Cam as the sheriff walked toward the gathering.

  “See, this is why this place irritates me. What the hell did he mean by

  any of that? It’s like they speak a different language. I don’t get it.

  Why would he refer to his wife as ‘our’ wife? Do these people get

  along so amazingly well that they keep in touch after a divorce and

  become best friends with the ex-husband?”

  Cam wasn’t sure about that, either, but there was a much more

  important problem. “Why does this place bug you so much? We’ve

  been in way worse places. We’ve been in even smaller towns, and it

  never upset you.”

  Rafe stared at the scene in front of him. Vivacious music floated

  across the fairgrounds, and Cam could hear the sound of people

  laughing and talking. The sweet smell of barbecue made his stomach

  rumble. It was a perfect little world to Cam’s mind, but Rafe was

  frowning the way he did when they walked into crack houses or

  slums.

  “She’s not going to leave with us,” Rafe said after a long pause.

  Cam sighed. It came from deep within his body. He’d known that

  the moment they walked into town. “No, she isn’t. But the point

  might be moot. She hasn’t shown a lot of interest in us.”

  Oh, there had been that moment when he’d locked eyes on her.

  Cam would have sworn he’d seen something on her face, some spark

  that nearly leapt through the window that had separated them. She’d

  quickly locked it down, and all he’d seen from her since was a

  mixture of deep sadness and anger.

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  “I love her,” Rafe said quietly. “I really thought that when we

  walked in, she would fall into my arms. I guess there was a part of me

  that really thought she was waiting for us.”

  Cam leaned against the SUV. He’d had that little dream, too.

  Somewhere in the back of his head, he’d imagined she was just

  waiting for them to find her. “We really should have known better.

  She went through a lot. My god, man, she was lying in her hospital

  bed, and we were fighting over her like dogs fight over a bone.”

  “I know. I know we fucked up, but she ran. She walked out and