“You sure you don’t want to come in, Jones? I’ve got a six-pack in the fridge with your name on it,” Toni offered as he pulled up to her house to drop her off.

“You don’t drink beer.”

Toni shrugged. “I keep it stocked for you. It’s the least I can do for you after all the times you’ve saved my ass. Besides, you got my car towed.” She ran a hand through her hair. “If you want something stronger, there's some Glenlivet calling my name. You’re welcome to join me.”

He raised a brow at the invitation. Even worn out, she didn't bother to hold back from teasing the man. He was a good partner to work with, and she’d had a few duds early in her career until she’d paired with Jones almost three years ago, right before meeting Leo.

“What can I say? I'm a giver.”

Jones's smile faded. “You should consider a hotel room while you’re working undercover.”

“This is secure. My father was too cautious for his own good. He turned this place into a fortress. Trust me, there is nowhere safer in Vegas than this house.” Too bad he hadn’t been so cautious with his own health and eating habits.

Jones jerked his chin toward the front door of her house as she parked in the circular driveway. “You’ve got company.”

Toni followed his gaze and saw Leo waiting for her. “He won’t care you’re here. Hell, when he finds out what happened, he’ll probably offer to pour the drinks.”

"You'll actually tell him?"

"Don't you think it'd be better than letting him find out on his own from the rumors at the station? Wouldn't you be pissed if Angie didn't mention something like that?"

Jones tipped his chin down and looked consciously at her, down his nose. "We both know you find yourself in way more messes than Angie ever would. Shit, T, you get into more messes than most agents do. Sometimes I think Leo's right, that you have a death wish."

She clamped her jaw hard, irritated that another man was telling her how to do her job, preaching about safety to her. She'd tell Leo about what happened but with Jones beside her, she could put off the discussion until after she’d had a drink and a long shower. At least one of those things should help to work the kinks out of her aching muscles.

She yawned and arched her back, the bones cracking and popping all the way down her spine. "Are you coming or what?"

Jones shrugged his broad shoulders. “Sure. Why the hell not?”

He headed to the house with her, matching her steps. Leo approached and met them on the walkway.

“Have you talked to your sister today? Your mom says she should’ve been home from work hours ago.”

Toni pulled her phone from her pocket and checked her messages. One from Leo when she was late to meet with him. Nothing from Rose. “No, but maybe she went out for drinks with friends.”

“And forgot to call or text?” He shook his head. “Doesn't sound like your sister.”

She didn't miss the implication in his voice. You, but not Rose.

Someday she'd be able to stop disappointing the people she loved. Or stop caring that she did.

“Your mom is concerned.” Leo shot her a sidelong glance, his mouth pinching as he spoke. “Or it might be that she’s paranoid after hearing about your close call today.”

Toni shot an accusatory glance at Jones who held his hands in front of him. “Wasn't me! Was probably—”

“The insurance company called your mother. She assumed you’d already called to tell me.” Leo's eyes flashed with indignant fury but she saw he was trying to keep his temper in check, whether because of Jones’s presence or the situation with her sister she appreciated the effort. She punched her sister’s contact picture on her phone, hoping to remedy at least one issue. It rang until it kicked Toni to Rose's voicemail. She called back, hoping it was only that Rose hadn’t heard the ringer over the noise where ever she might be.

Please, let it be that she can't hear it over bar noise.

This time a child’s voice answered on the third ring. “Hello?”

“Hello? I… I’m looking for Rose Blades.” Worry settled in and Toni started to second-guess herself, although she knew she'd dialed the correct number. “This is her phone, right?”

“I'm not sure. I found it on the ground.” The voice grew muffled, and it sounded like the child was talking to someone else. “Mom, is this Rose Blades’s phone?”

A woman’s voice came on the line. “Hello? I’m so sorry. My daughter found this phone at the grocery store, in the parking lot, and we weren't able to locate the owner. It has a password.”

A slight tremor crept into Toni's voice. “Which store?”

“Sunshine Market.”

Her stomach plummeted. It was Rose’s favorite organic food hangout. Only a few blocks from her classroom and where she usually picked up lunch. Toni did a few quick calculations in her head, realizing that her sister had gone to lunch a few hours after her skirmish this morning. He’d been bounced pretty quickly because the FBI hoped he’d lead them straight to the trafficking contact, but there was also a good chance he wasn't working alone. She still didn’t know why he’d rammed her car but it was likely they’d made her. What if that kid sent someone else after her and picked up Rose in retaliation? The attack this morning and Rose going missing a few hours later wasn't a coincidence.

She turned her attention back to the woman on the phone. “Can you meet me at the market and show me where you found it?”

“I…sure. I’ll meet you in fifteen minutes.”

Toni disconnected the call and looked at Leo. “We have to go.”

Jones reached for her arm. “What about me?”

“Pull files for all the cases I've been working in the past two years and send someone over to pick up that guy who rammed my car this morning. I need to find out who he is because I have a bad feeling he's connected somehow. If we figure out how and to who, we can find out who got their hands on Rose.”

* * *

After retrieving Rose's phone and delivering it to Forensics to dust for prints, Leo listened with growing concern as Toni explained the details about what happened after she left the 4Teen Center and how she’d managed to get away from the guy who’d hit her. As soon as she described him, Leo’s lungs constricted, rage boiling inside him.

“Wait a second.” He hurried out of the office and to his desk, grabbing his case file and returning to where Toni and Jones sat with heads close as they tried to figure out how best to find Rose. Leo slid the picture of Craig Wilson in front of Toni. “Is this the guy?”

“Yes! Who is he?”

“Why were you at the Center today? To see Monique?”

Toni bristled, growing defensive. “Why did you go?”

Leo leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. “You know why I went. This is the guy, Megan’s boyfriend,” he said, tapping the picture. “He claimed she’d been at the Center for a while. Monique confirmed it although I'm sure she was lying about the last occasion she’d seen her.”

“Is this your girl?” Jones pulled out his phone and showed Leo a pixilated photo, a blurry night vision image that looked like Megan Fletcher, her hands tied at the wrists and being led to a nondescript white van. His gaze lifted.

“Looks like. Where is she now?”

“Loaded into that van two days ago and crossed the border into Mexico. We’ve got eyes on a house waiting for her to show up.”

Leo jumped up, knocking his chair backward, looking accusingly from Jones to Toni. “You've had this for two days? What are you investigating, Toni?”

She glanced at Jones but remained disturbingly silent. “It’s a sex trafficking ring the FBI's been watching. We finally got enough to send a team in. So, they assigned this case to us after we closed our last one.”

“You?” Toni nodded at him. “Did you request it?” She shook her head in denial and Leo slid back into his chair, feeling slightly relieve that she hadn't completely stabbed him in the back. “What about Megan?” Leo was trying to piece together what he knew about his three cases and the probability that any, or all, of the girls were pawns in some sick sex game. “You said Megan’s in Mexico? If she’s still alive, we owe it to her family to bring her home. The other two might be there as well.”

Jones shrugged. “It’s possible.”

“Then why are we sitting here, waiting?”

Toni's gaze locked with his, defiant. “Because my sister isn’t in Mexico. We’ve got to rescue her first.”

He leaned over his hands on the table, prepared to argue with her. In this frame of mind, she was a loose cannon, and it would get someone hurt. She was too close to this case to be of any help. Someone else needed to go after Rose.

As always, Jones was the voice of reason. “Sit down.”

Leo slid back into his chair and ran his hand over his forehead, trying to focus. “You suspect this might be a retaliation move by Wilson? Why? Because he got picked up this morning?”

“He’d been let loose by then,” Jones reminded them. “What if he sent someone out looking for Toni and they found Rose by mistake?”

Toni paled, her hands trembling as if had someone mistaking her identical twin for her hadn’t crossed her mind.

“Toni?”Leo exchanged a glance with Jones. Had neither of them understood this was a possibility?

“They thought Rose was me.” She swallowed hard. “ I did this,” she whispered.

Leo saw the guilt swamping her. They needed her focused again. There wasn't time to let her bow down to her regrets.

He reached for her hand, squeezing it. “You suspect Monique is the head of this operation?”

“That’s what I was trying to find out this morning.” Toni ran a hand through her hair. Worry filled her eyes. “If you’d asked me last night, I’d have said no. Now, I’m not so sure.”

“What do we know? Not gut feelings but facts?” Jones turned toward Leo. “Your missing girl is connected to our sex trafficking ring. It’s possible that your other two are as well, but we aren’t sure yet. Let’s compare notes.”

Leo leveled his gaze at Toni. “You realized the cases overlapped, didn’t you?” Toni closed her eyes, refusing to meet his disappointed gaze. “You never considered discussing it with me?”

“I…didn’t tell you…because…” Toni let her words trail off, taking a deep breath.

“Because you wouldn't back off and let us take the case until forced to,” Jones finished for her, rolling his eyes. Toni glared at him but her partner shrugged unapologetically. “What? You were beating around the bush. We don’t have time for that crap.”

The knot of betrayal in Leo's heart tightened. She’d suspected their cases were connected from the moment she received it and hadn’t bothered to mention it when they argued the other night. They’d been so preoccupied with their personal feelings, what another undercover case meant for the future of their relationship, that they hadn’t discussed the details. If they had, if he’d asked her for help the way James proposed, they could have prepared Rose for the potential risks. Then again, if Toni hadn’t gone undercover again…Leo didn’t want to chase that rabbit trail. Their miscommunication and need to assign blame was part of the reason Rose was in this situation.

“I was posing as a student last night, hoping to get my foot in the door of the Center and ascertain who at that party, if anyone, could fund an operation like this. Monique is a suspect as is pretty much everyone else. Like that giant she has working for her.”

“Tank,” Leo supplied, scowling at her. “How did you plan on infiltrating the operation?”

Toni arched an eyebrow, daring him to challenge their plan. “Monique invited me to come talk to her this morning. It was a step in the right direction.”

“But you didn’t suspect her?”

“I said I wasn’t sure. I planned to get into the Center, close to her and the kids living inside, and get them to trust me, eventually to confide in me. Then look around the place. If it's where these kids are being shipped from, there’d be evidence. I had to get in to find it.”

“There can't be just one person. Not in an operation this size,” Jones pointed out. “It wouldn't be difficult for someone at the Center to work on the kids once they get them in the door. There’s a built-in coercion technique since they are offering them food, shelter, safety. How many has Wilson delivered?”

“At least three and Monique has connections that the others don’t. From all over the world. How many big names were at that party last night?” Leo wiped his hand over his mouth. “She got pissed when I asked about her ‘bodyguard.’”

“That big guy?” Jones asked. “He might be able to use her connections then make her a patsy.”

“No.” Toni shook her head. “Leo's right. He's her muscle. He doesn't have the brains to manage an operation this elaborate. We’re not only talking about sex trafficking. They’ve stepped it up with guns and drugs. He doesn't have the money to back it up. It can't be cheap to shuttle these kids over the borders.”

“There was a lot of money at that party last night and any of them might be who we're looking for. Suppliers, clients...who knows.”

“Maybe.” Toni rose, biting her lower lip as she paced. “But then why go after Rose? My cover wasn't compromised, so they didn’t know my real identity. There was no way to find my family to retaliate for this morning. No time for all that.”

“What if they weren't going after her in retaliation for Wilson? What if they assumed you noticed something today? When you left, Monique pulled Tank aside and pointed at your car. What if she was sending him after you and they found Rose instead?”

Toni stopped pacing long enough to turn back toward him. “What?”

“You’re identical twins, you both drive black Mercedes.”

“With almost half a million people in Vegas and as many cars?” Jones asked. “How would they find her?”

“Sunshine Market is only a few miles away. An operation this size has eyes all over this city. If they put the word out to find someone matching your description or car, then located her…” The more they bounced ideas off one another, the closer they were digging closer to the truth. Leo regretted they hadn't done this sooner. “These people knew what you look like, Toni. They couldn't tell you and Rose apart and they wouldn’t risk discovery by having a drawn-out conversation with her.”

"But why?" Her voice was a weak breath of sound.

“Maybe Monique or her thug panicked, or they decided they didn't like you asking questions today,” Jones suggested. “Snatching you and shipping you out of the country would shut down your questions, even if you were nothing but a harmless college student.”

Toni cringed at the mention of what might be in store for her sister. Leo shook his head, his brows pinched together on his forehead. “No. As far as they're concerned, Toni is exactly that, a student asking questions about runaways and what the center offers. Did you ask anything specific? Something directly related to Monique or the missing girls?”

“No, just observing Monique and getting a baseline for her responses. She was the one who offered a tour of the facility.”

“Did you ask about any suspicious areas she wouldn’t show you,” Leo asked.

Toni glared at him. “Not my first rodeo. I know what I’m doing.”

“Fuck. We keep going in circles. The answer is right here for us if we could see it.”

“Put a pin in Monique and Tank for a second. Who are you watching from the party last night?”

“Who aren’t we following?” Jones rolled his eyes.

“You were talking to the senator when I came up last night. Any reason?” Leo asked.

“I told her to,” Jones offered. “He’s forked over a lot of money to the 4Teen Center in the past and, we’ve been able to link him to several underage prostitutes, although that story hasn’t broken yet.”

He rolled his eyes. Folding his hands, he tapped them against his mouth thoughtfully. “It wasn’t a surprise he was schmoozing Gupta and Bolton. Bolton’s been donating a lot of money to Fitzpatrick’s campaign and he's suspected of insurance fraud.”

“I heard something about that,” Toni reminded him.

“ Gupta, on the other hand...” Jones' lip curled in disgust. “That man is scum. Crawford’s been after him for over a year now when an escort he was with turned up mutilated. So far, we can't touch him because of his diplomatic status.”

“I wondered why Crawford was there. That little tidbit might be something you should have told me before I went in,” Toni said, disgust coloring her tone.

Leo didn't give them the opportunity to bicker over last night's events as the pieces clicked together in his head, a picture – albeit abstract – forming. “You didn't catch the way he looked at you when you walked away, Toni. That man wanted to follow you. What if he asked Monique to get you?” Leo wasn’t one-hundred percent certain but enough he’d bet his badge that Gupta had something to do with Rose's disappearance.

“Like placing an order to-go.” Jones shook his head.

“That son of a bitch,” Toni bit out through clenched teeth, jumping up and starting for the door but Leo’s fingers wrapped around her wrist gently, stopping her. They had nothing but speculations. No proof, no clues and no indication of where they might have headed with Rose unless she showed up at the house the FBI was watching in Mexico. They needed to get her phone back from Forensics. Hopefully there was something on it or the SIM card that might point them in a general direction.

“They could be anywhere. You don’t have a clue where to start.” His reminder was gentle but to the point.

“Yes, we do.”

There was a “suicide mission” tone in her voice. Leo shot Jones a warning glance. The man had to realize Toni would do whatever it took to get Rose back.

“Toni, you don't go rogue on me now,” Jones warned. “If you go back to the 4Teen Center, you'll compromise the case and we’re too far in now. There are too many lives at risk if you blow your cover. We have video of the Center from all day today. We’ll go over it and see what we can find out. If they brought her back there, it’ll be in the film. Let Leo call in the locals to find your sister. In the meantime, you have to act rationally.”

Toni closed her eyes and exhaled slowly. “Rational,” she repeated. “Yeah, okay.” Leo and Jones eyed her speculatively. “I said, okay.”

Leo wasn’t fooled. The stiff shoulders, the way she refused to meet Jones’s gaze, the sudden shift in the inflection of her voice from panicked to calm. She wouldn't wait around for someone else to get her sister back. She would infiltrate the 4Teen Center on her own.

Leo refused to let that happen.

* * *

Toni tried to concentrate on the surveillance footage from the Center. She and Jones had set up several video monitors in the study but the problem was that there wasn’t anything to see. A few delivery vans entering, unloading boxes and leaving again. Even from the first of several angles, she saw they were nothing but supplies for the facility. She had absolutely no tolerance for watching drivers unload ten cartons of toilet paper.

"Well, this is interesting." Jones paused the video for her.

As she leaned toward the screen, Toni saw Wilson pull his now-wrecked truck into the shop behind the main building. Monique's bodyguard approached the back of the pickup and they appeared to argue for a few minutes before the asshole, looking pissed, got back into the truck and drove away.

Toni pushed her chair back. “This is a waste of time.”

“That proves that kid is connected to the Center. He was there at--" Jones noted the time on the video. "Four-sixteen.”

“So, what? He works for them. The only thing this proves is they don’t care about the truck being wrecked.”

“It also proves that Tank was there at that time. We need to find out where he was before and after.”

She looked across the study to where Leo paced as he talked on the phone. “I should be out looking for her.”

“You’re doing exactly what you should be doing. Chill, T.” He tapped the screen, trying to refocus her attention on it.

“Chill?” She glared at her partner. “Could you chill? If it was Angie or one of your kids?”

Jones sighed heavily. “No, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t what you should be doing. Leo has several guys out looking for that truck, Wilson, Tank and Monique Bentley. Until we hear something—”

“I’m just sitting here with my thumb up my ass. What the hell am I supposed to tell my mother? Especially after my father…” She dropped her face into her palm, guilt eating at her.

“I know, T, I know.” Jones nudged her shoulder with his. “Let’s go through the next hour, see if Wilson returns or if Tank leaves. There’s got to be something in here.”

She rubbed her hands over her eyes and rose, pacing the room. “This is my fault. I should’ve warned her. I should have called her from the airport.”

“First off, you had no idea they had people out looking for you so you couldn’t recognize that she was in danger. Second, you had no opportunity there and, third, you’d have jeopardized the case.”

“Instead, I put her life at risk because I didn’t make time. Hers and my mother’s. Maybe Leo’s right. I shouldn’t have taken this case.”

“Toni?” She spun at the husky sound of Leo’s voice. “They’ve spotted Tank at a strip club. I’ve got eyes on him and they'll keep me posted if he moves. If that guy so much as sneezes in the wrong direction, we’re picking him up.” He looked at her expectantly and moved closer.

Engulfed by the desire to rush into his arms and let him hold her, Toni wanted Leo to say that none of this was her fault. But the guilt was hers, all of it. Her rocky relationship with Leo, her sister being kidnapped. If only she'd listened to them instead of her own ego. She'd convinced herself she was making a difference but, in reality, she’d traded the lives of people she loved for those she didn't know. She didn’t deserve Leo's comfort. Toni stuffed her grief back behind the iron wall of her heart and turned away from him, unwilling to let him see her anguish.

“What about the other guy? Wilson?”

“We’re still trying to find him.”

“Fine,” she turned, marching toward the doorway. “You guys keep searching. I’m going to look for Monique Bentley.”

“She’s at City Hall. I’ve got eyes on her and she’s being tailed.”

“Good, then I can take a look in that shop in the back of the Center.”

“No one is there, T.” Jones stood behind her, like the two were boxing her in. “It's locked up tight.”

“Which is why I’m going now, before someone shows up.”

Toni went to her father’s safe behind the picture on the wall behind his desk and punched in the security code - her parents’ anniversary followed by the year she and Rose were born…the two most important days of her father’s life - then pulled out his .40 and the S&W 9mm. After loading both, she strapped them on and slipped her Glock into the holster on her hip. Today was the day she would bring her sister home. She wouldn't fail the people she loved again.

Without looking back and before either man could stop her, she snatched the keys to Leo’s car from the table and headed for the door. She’d no more slid into the driver’s seat when the passenger door opened.

“You really think we’d let you go in alone?” Leo asked, sliding into the seat, Jones on his heels.

Toni twisted the key in the ignition. “I’m doing this alone. If anything happens, you two would both lose your jobs. Or worse.” She closed her eyes, bowing her head. The harsh reality of what she was doing threatened to make her pause. She was entering a property illegally, with multiple weapons, with intent to kill anyone who stood between her and Rose. “I can’t let you go.”

“Okay.” Leo was far too amiable for her to take him seriously. “Let’s sit here for a while, arguing about this and then you can go only to find us there waiting for you? Or,” he continued, “we can head over together and Jones and I will still have your back.”

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Jones muttered.

She glanced at him as he dropped into the back seat. “Yeah, me too,” she admitted.

“We can turn back, T. You don't have to do this.”

“Yes, I do.” Toni floored the pedal as she pulled away from the house, not caring she was about to break the law and risk her career, or that she was giving up her future if caught. Her only focus was rescuing Rose and, somehow, making sure that both two men came back safely. Even if that meant sacrificing herself to do it.