Two months later. Ekko's Apartment, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.EKKO STARED AT THE table with the spread of food laid out.Was there enough? Did she need more? Would Coco and Paxton like it?She reached out and adjusted the tray of cheese so it was at more of an angle instead of perfectly aligned to everything else.It looked too neat."Stop." Silas took her hand and spun her toward him, capturing her against his chest with strong arms around her waist."It looks like I'm trying too hard." She smoothed her hands up and over his shoulders."Stop. It's just Paxton and Coco.""Your best friend and his fiancé, who I haven't met yet.""What?" Silas' face scrunched up. "You've talked to her dozens of times.""In the background of you and Paxton talking. That doesn't count." She pulled away from him and proceeded to turn dishes a little this way and that."You do realize Coco spends most days digging in elephant shit and stuff, right?""Silas." She scowled at him."What?" He gr
Volume 1: Dangerous AttractionTRAVIS RATION HUNCHED over the hotel desk and flipped to the first page of the autopsy report. The lights from the Vegas strip cast globes of colored light onto the paper, but the glitz and glamour held no sway for him. Only the poor woman in the photo.She was blonde. Like the rest. Pretty. A Vegas native named Linda. She'd been social, so her disappearance had been noted within hours by friends and family, but by then it was too late. Whoever was abducting blonde, attractive young women was good. And if the list of missing blonde women was a hint, the perpetrator had operated in the Las Vegas area for years-without anyone connecting the dots. Or maybe LVPD had and didn't want to face it. They wouldn't be the first to ignore a killer to preserve tourism. A killer who only took one victim a year was easy to hide.There was a serial killer in Las Vegas, and no one wanted to admit it."Hey man, ready to go?" Mason Clark, a new hire to the Aegis G
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