Aegis Group

BLISS STEPPED INTO THE Vegas Police Department and removed her sunglasses. She blinked away the sunspots and glanced around. The place was hopping first thing in the morning-people picking up their drunken friends, prostitutes and petty thieves posting bail. Most hadn't even been to bed yet, but that was the nature of Vegas.She strode to the counter, twisting the strap of her purse in her hands.Why had she waited?"Excuse me?" she said when the officer at the counter didn't acknowledge her."Yeah?" The man didn't even look up from his paperwork."My sister, she's missing." She laid a photograph on the counter and slid it across."How long has she been gone?"Gone. Not missing.Bliss swallowed her irritation. Popular theory was that a person had to be MIA for seventy-two hours before they could be considered missing. Popular theory was wrong, and so was the idea that Wendy was just-gone. Someone needed to be searching for her now."She's not at her house, and she's n

BLOOD.The stone below the bed was stained with blood.Wendy gripped the bars as her stomach revolted. Bile coated her mouth, and the muscles in her abdomen and chest tensed in irregular rhythms. Dying might be less painful."Lady, hey lady, you got to calm down." Stumpy was in the cell right behind her. He only had one foot. The other leg was mostly gone."Take a deep breath." That order came from the old one. He sat on the floor, never moving out of his pile of rags.The lights were back on, which wasn't much of an improvement. It illuminated the horrors her mind had created, making them real. Like the blood."Is he going to kill us?" she asked.It was the first time she'd spoken directly to the men."Us? Probably," Stumpy said."Why?" Her knees gave out, and she sat down with her back against the bars drilled into the stone and faced her fellow prisoners. For the first time in months, she wanted something.She wanted to live.Depression had clouded her judgemen

BLISS SAT DOWN IN a corner booth with her tray."Oh my God," she muttered to herself and buried her face in her hands.Had she really just said that to Travis? A complete stranger? What had she been thinking?She unzipped her hoodie and shed the outer layer. Her blush was still firmly in place, and to make it worse, she was hot all over now. The way Travis had looked at her and said...Nope. She had to not think about that.As if thinking of him summoned the man, he sank into the seat across from her. His legs immediately took up every available inch of below-table space she wasn't occupying. His knee brushed hers, their feet touched, tapped, and shuffled around as they situated themselves.At least in a crowded restaurant, with children on either side of them, he'd let the conversation drop. Right?He leaned toward her. There was a determined, focused look aimed directly at her. She squeezed her thighs together. This was not the time.How was it she'd started working f

TRAVIS HAD A LEAD. Something the BAU hadn't given him.Of the eight victims, he'd been able to track down five with home security, and three of those were monitored by a contract company called Compliance Systems. The issue with having a killer who went a full year between kills was that it was difficult to impossible to tap into the earlier victims' lives. He needed a warrant for Compliance to obtain their data. But that would take time, especially since they would need to convince the cops they had an actual case on their hands.He dialed one last number, but it went to the BAU unit chief's voicemail."Hey, Brooks, it's Travis again. Just checking on that lead. I think I've got something. Call me when you have time."Damn it. He needed the information now, and Gavin's search hadn't turned up jack shit as of yet. If Zain were... No. He squashed that thought. Gavin had the same tools at his disposal Zain would in this instance."What'd you find?" Bliss breezed back into the o

WHAT THE HELL?Travis took a sip of water and peered at the house in the distance. He was getting closer, and he needed to stop thinking with his dick. Kissing Bliss had been...fantastic. And a terrible idea. She might not be paying him, but she was still a client. For now. Some guys might not be terribly bothered about bedding their temporary employer, but not Travis. The way he saw it, when he was brought into a situation it was always under great duress.Bliss wasn't thinking clearly. She was emotional, and he was the man there to fix her problems. It made sense she'd flirt with him. It was a common case of hero syndrome, or whatever his boss called it. Any other month, she wouldn't look at him. A guy with his record didn't get girls like her. But for this moment in time, she did. And it was fucking with his head.He needed to find Wendy and get her out of here so the cops could do their job and put this bastard away. Then he could go back to his normal routine of catching bul