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
TRAVIS WAS FAR TOO big to fit in the only unoccupied booth in the café. He didn't dare suggest somewhere farther from the PD for fear the woman across from him might faint or cry or something. She'd seemed on the brink of falling apart outside, but she'd rallied and followed him to the café without so much as a tear."Here's your coffee. Can I get you anything else?" The waitress deposited a carafe on the table along with cream and sugar."No, thank you," he replied.The woman across from him shook her head. Her shoulder length brown hair swished around her face, all glossy looking. For some crazy reason he wanted to touch it. To run his fingers through her pretty hair and see if it felt as soft as it looked. He kept his hands to himself. Girls like her didn't need men like him in their lives."Bliss, right?"She nodded her head, sending those strands moving again."Yeah, sorry, I didn't introduce myself did I? I'm Bliss Giles." She cupped the empty ceramic mug with both ha
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
TRAVIS DROVE THROUGH THE gated community, acutely aware of the tense silence between him and his passenger. He watched Bliss from the corner of his eye. She sat straight up, her hands in her lap, posture tense.He'd had to face down a number of men and women who thought their dollars bought them a shotgun seat on the jobs Aegis was hired to do. The problem was that the moment an untrained civilian was put in the mix, things changed. Their unit was pulling bodyguard detail in addition to whatever they were hired to do. It just didn't fly. They couldn't risk being divided like that.Then why was she sitting shotgun in his rental?Back at the house, he'd backed down, even when every shred of training and experience said that Bliss Giles needed to stay right where she was.He didn't need help. If a situation required backup, both Ethan and Mason were in Vegas. No doubt now that Wendy's husband was retaining their services, the others would be briefed. Which meant Travis needed to h
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
OH GOD, TRAVIS HAD just seen the butt plugs. He couldn't handle the idea of a vibrator, what was he going to think of a butt plug? Or the floggers? Or the sheep-shaped blow up dolls?Calm down.Bliss kept her gaze straight ahead and walked past the industrial shelves full of boxes and carefully inventoried sex toys.What did it matter what he thought?Okay, he was an attractive man once she got past the scary factor, but he was responsible for finding her missing sister. That was it. Besides, she was chubby and her vibrator collection would undoubtedly scare him away.One more flight of stairs, a hallway, and she unlocked her office, stepping into her sanctuary. She held her office door open for Travis and shut it behind him. Hopefully everyone else would take the hint and leave her alone."Sorry about that," she mumbled and retreated to her desk chair.Her office was one of the more spacious ones, but that was because she was now in charge of order fulfillment to their b
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
BLISS KEPT HER GAZE straight ahead. Wendy's gated community was three turns away. Bliss' car was in the drive. In a matter of minutes Travis would drop her off and go do whatever commando-type thing he did to rescue people. Or something. She wasn't sure what he would do, but her imagination supplied plenty of scenarios, some she wished would get out of her head."Heard anything yet?" She couldn't shake the feeling that the freaking FBI should have been able to get information sooner. After all, wasn't that how it worked on TV?"No.""Why?""Reasons." He turned the SUV into the community. The guard from earlier waved them in. From the looks of it, the guy had sucked a lemon since they last saw him."And those would be? How is the FBI even involved? I don't understand.""It's complicated.""Explain it to me."Travis drove all the way to Wendy's house and put the truck in park. She turned to face him. If she had to make him understand, she would."She's my sister. I want