The light on the keycard reader flashed red. “You’ve got to be kidding me!” I swiped it again and that angry color mocked me.

My fist pounded on the door, hoping Gavin was inside to let me in. But the longer I stood there waiting; I knew he wasn’t in our room. Time was running out for us to get ready and be waiting for the call regarding the party. The last thing I needed to do was waste time trying to track him down.

I pulled my phone from my wristlet and quickly pressed his name in my contacts. Almost instantly after it started ringing he answered. “Where are you?” I asked impatiently.

The sound of a woman’s laughter in the background caught my attention. “A little preoccupied.”

I scoffed. “Really?” I squeezed my eyes shut and took a deep breath.

“I’ll be there in just a minute.”

“You better hurry because I’m locked out and I have some important news.” He knew exactly what I meant before I hung up the phone. My patience was running thin, while my annoyance was growing.

I swiped the keycard once more and a green light flashed, “Oh, thank the lord!” I quickly pushed through the door before it changed its mind. I paced the floor for what seemed like an eternity before the door clicked and Gavin entered, his hair in disarray and his shirt partially un-tucked from his slacks. I stopped and placed my hands on my hips. “What the hell happened to you?”

He shook his head and laughed. “I ran into that Maggie chick,” he huffed. “You know the one from the registration line with the older man.”

“She did that?” I twisted my hand in the air at him.

“She wouldn’t keep her damn hands off of me!” He tossed his arms in the air as he crossed the room to where I was standing.

Apparently, the woman had no morals. She knew Gavin was married—well, his undercover identity was married—but yet she still played touchy feely. It’s probably a good thing I didn’t find him with her while I was looking. Women like her never liked someone like me. Mainly because I wasn’t one to stand down when it came to those I loved, and what was mine.

“I don’t think I want to know…” I clenched my eyes shut for a brief second before opening them again.

“It wasn’t anything like that.” He gave me a pointed look. “She kept touching my hair, and when I got up to leave she pulled on the front of my shirt. I have no fucking clue where her boyfriend was.” He shook his head. “However, she gave me a bit of information on what happened earlier.”

“Really?” I crossed my arms over my chest.

“Apparently she was pretty close to the middle of it all. A fight broke out between a group of men and some of the security guards. The loud booms were beanbags being shot at a few of the guys to try and stop them. They’re a new form of apprehending a perp without using bullets or tasers.”

“Yeah, we had those in training a few months back.”

He nodded. “She didn’t say much else, except that she overheard one of the men mention something about money that was owed. Seemed a bit fishy to me, but we can’t go off of her words only. They’re hearsay. So, you know how that goes. I can report it to Gribbins when we check in, but that’s about it.”

While Gavin was rambling away I slipped my hand into my wristlet and retrieved the tickets for the private party. I extended them toward him with a giant smile on my face. His eyebrows furrowed as he took them from my hand and read them over.

He lifted his eyes to mine. “How’d you manage this?”

I nonchalantly shrugged my shoulders. “I have my ways.”

Gavin lifted me into the air and spun us around as I erupted with laughter. “Blair, do you know what this means?”

“Of course I do.”

“You’re one kick-ass lady, you know that?” He stopped spinning and pressed his lips to mine before I could reply. My hands twisted into his hair. Gavin pulled back from our kiss and I attempted to tame the mess Maggie had made of his once perfectly styled locks.

“The back of the tickets lists the dress code. Formal, and only black, red, and gold are acceptable colors.”

“It’s a good thing I brought a black suit. Do we need to hurry and find you something?”

I smiled and kissed his lips. “I brought a red evening gown.”

“Perfect.” He lowered me to my feet.

“Joel, the man who gave me those, said we’d receive a call around midnight. So, we need to be ready.”

He chuckled. “Damn, you’re on a first name basis with the man, huh?”

“Oh, hush,” I playfully slapped his chest.

Gavin checked his watch. “That gives us approximately thirty minutes to get ready. Can you make that work?”

I gave him a knowing look. “I can accomplish a lot of things in half an hour.”

He shook his head.

“What?”

“I don’t know what I’m going to do with you.” He smoothed a hand across my cheek and kissed me deeply, his tongue swiping over mine.

“Hopefully a lot of things after this party tonight.” I slipped from his grasp and retrieved my dress from the closet. “Now help me get out of this,” I pointed to the dress I was wearing, “and into this.” I held the garment bag in the air.

“Yes, ma’am.”

Gavin took the garment bag and hooked it on the back of the closet door. His hands quickly slipped beneath the hem of my dress and I unexpectedly yelped as he pulled it up and over my head, leaving me barely clothed with my gun holstered around my thigh.

He took a step back to observe. “A woman carrying a gun in lace panties and high heels, now that’s sexy.”

I giggled. “Stop being a fool and come on already.”

“I’m about to come on already…”

“Gavin!” I slapped his chest. “You’re such a horn dog.”

“Only with you, baby.” He kissed my lips and gripped my ass. “Only with you.”

* * *

The phone rang a little past midnight. We were both impatiently sitting on the bed when it did and Gavin quickly answered. A woman informed him that a man would be waiting just outside our door within the next few minutes to escort us to the party. She didn’t allow any time for Gavin to ask questions before hanging up. Everything about the mysterious party was enthralling. From the discreetness, to the limited number of guests, it was exactly the type of thing people who loved lavish experiences dreamed of. My mind was racing with different scenarios of how the party was going to be.

“You ready?” Gavin whispered to me as we followed the man down the hall to an elevator marked for employees only.

“Of course.”

He gave my hand a gentle squeeze as we stepped inside the elevator. The man didn’t speak as he swiped his card and pushed an illuminated button with a black question mark on it. I diverted my eyes to Gavin’s. That damn black question mark again.

“I’ll need your tickets.” The man turned to face us and extended his hand. Gavin handed over the tickets and we descended to the lowest floor. Music thumped loudly as he handed a woman dressed in a gold sequined bodysuit the tickets and motioned for us to exit.

“Hello,” she purred, hooking her arm through not only Gavin’s, but mine as well. “Welcome to the Underground, where your night will be full of surprises.” A sly grin filled her overly plump lips.

We slipped through heavy red curtains and came to a stop. Three wooden doors stood before us, one black, one red, and the last one gold. You could hear a mixture of music playing behind each. The woman stepped from our sides and turned to face us, extending her arms out and twisting her hands upwards. “First things, first…pick a door.”

I turned to Gavin with wide eyes. Neither of us were expecting that. “Red,” Gavin blurted out.

“Ah,” the woman in gold smiled widely, “Like the lady’s dress.” She gave him a wink. “Good choice.”

She gripped the knob and shoved the door open. It led to a dark room with dim yet colorful lighting, much like a club would have, illuminating it just enough to be able to safely walk around.

“Enjoy,” She smiled as we stepped into the room.

“Gavin?” I glanced back to make sure she couldn’t hear me, but the woman was gone.

“Yeah?” He slipped his hand into mine.

“Do you think there are three separate parties? Or were the doors a decoy for them to gauge your interests?”

“Honestly, I’m not sure. But there aren’t many people in here.”

We stepped into an open room with wood floors and dark walls. I couldn’t tell the exact color because of the dim lighting that pulsed with the beat of the blaring music. About twenty people were scattered throughout the room, drinking, dancing, and conversing. Nothing out of the ordinary it seemed.

“Care for a beverage?” A waiter in soiled white extended his drink tray toward us. Wine glasses sat atop with a pale liquid in them.

“May I ask what’s in the glass?” I leaned forward and took one, sniffing its contents.

“A spritzer.” He looked at Gavin and nodded toward the tray.

“No thank you.” Gavin held his hand up and the man walked away.

“If we don’t blend in by having a good time, we will stand out like sore thumbs,” I whispered.

“I’m not a spritzer kind of guy.”

Laughter bubbled up my throat. “No, you’re definitely not.”

I slowly sipped the drink as we made our way around the room. Saying hello to people as we passed, gauging the crowd. The music changed from a slow sensual beat to a raw and dirty rap song. Gavin pulled me against his chest and smoothed a hand down my partially bare spine.

“Want to dance?”

“I thought you’d never ask.”

We moved to the dance floor, our bodies pressed tightly together as he rolled his hips against mine to the beat of the song. Gavin was a helluva dancer; it was one of the things that had drawn me to him. One night a group of trainees had left Quantico to hit up a bar close by and I’d actually gone with, only because my roommate Cynthia had all but forced me to attend. No sooner had I taken up shop on a stool at the bar, I spotted a group of guys on the dance floor. You didn’t see men dancing very often in my hometown, unless it was swaying back and forth with a partner or getting down with a line dance, but these guys were killing it. All eyes in the bar were on them, and boy, were they eating up the attention. I almost fell out of my chair when I noticed Gavin was one of them. Our eyes connected as the song they were dancing to ended and a new one began. There was no hiding from him as a wide smile spread across his face. Gavin quickly pulled me from my stool and hauled me out onto that dance floor. The rest was history, but the night was one I’d never forget.

“What are you thinking about?” His minty breath danced across my face.

“The first night we danced together.”

“At that bar outside Quantico,” he smiled.

“Yeah,” I couldn’t help but to giggle at the thought.

“That was a fun night.” Gavin beamed with happiness. “I was surprised to see you there, since I hadn’t seen you around after we ran that course together a few weeks before that.”

“Fate has a funny way of crossing people’s paths. It definitely was a fun night, even if the next morning was brutal.”

His eyebrows furrowed. “Yeah, doing the walk of shame from your complex and getting caught will forever be etched in my mind. I thought Barker was going to kick me out of the program.”

“I’m glad he didn’t,” I leaned into Gavin’s touch.

“You and me both.”

I spun in his arms and moved my backside against him. Rolling my hips while dropping a little toward the ground and rising back up again. The sound of Gavin’s groans with each roll of my backside against his front had the smile on my lips growing even larger, much like the bulge in his pants. It was far too easy to arouse him.

“Blair,” the word was hot at the shell of my ear.

I turned my head to the side just enough to see his face and grinned. “All in fun,” I winked.

“You’ll think all in fun.” His hands found my hips and gripped them tightly, pulling my ass into his pelvis as I bent forward.

“It’s your turn,” a familiar female voice purred, breaking our moment on the dance floor.

My head snapped to the side and Gavin’s hands dropped from my hips as we both focused on the woman in the gold bodysuit.

“I’m sorry,” I leaned closer to hear what she was saying.

“It’s your turn to enter your room.”

Gavin and I exchanged a confused look before turning our attention back to the woman.

“You mean this isn’t the party?” Gavin spoke up.

She shook her head and chuckled. “Of course not.” An amused smile danced across her lips. “Think of this as the appetizer before the full meal.” She winked at Gavin.

We followed the woman through heavy curtains and down a barely lit hall. The walls were made of brick and the floor of dark wood. The path twisted and turned until you felt like you were headed back in the same direction you had come from, but that wasn’t the case. As the hall came to a dead end, there were doors lining each side with one straight ahead. The woman smiled widely and extended her arms much like before.

“The decision is yours, choose wisely.”

She allowed us to pass so we could take in each door. They looked the same, solid wood finish with nothing decorating them, no number, no doorbell, and no peephole. Absolutely nothing, which made the decision harder.

“Go with your gut,” Gavin rubbed my back.

“You want me to decide?” I whispered.

“I trust you.” His eyes softened. “Plus, I picked the last time without giving you a chance to give your opinion.”

He was right, he had gone for the gusto last time, but that didn’t mean he had to leave the decision up to me. I took a deep breath, knowing this moment could be the deciding factor on whether or not we were led into the room that had possibly caused all the havoc around Las Vegas. The fact that the murders all pointed to Roulette with the victims staying there the night before, was an inkling that the two had to be connected in some way, shape, or form. With little to no evidence other than the single gunshot wound to the temple, Roulette was our only lead.

This party was our only lead.

“That one,” I pointed toward the door in the left corner.

“Ah,” A wicked grin tipped the corner of her lips up. “Are you sure you want to be boxed in the corner?”

I wasn’t sure if her question was to entice me, or throw me off my game, but I gave a quick look toward Gavin and he nodded. Always go with your gut. I could hear his words in my head.

“I’m positive.”

She winked, her patent leather gold heels clanking against the wood floor as she sashayed her way over and opened my door of choice. She motioned for us to enter and we did. “If it’s something you don’t like, simply get up and come back out to the hall here, we can pick again.”

The sound of the door closing echoed through the narrow hallway before us. The woman hadn’t stepped over the threshold, so it was just me and Gavin left to figure out just what in the hell we’d stepped into.

The lighting was a horrible deep red, making it hard to see anything in the shadows. We were on guard as we made our way down the narrow hall with silence hanging in the air. Everything about the situation was odd as hell. No music played like in the other rooms, no other people in sight, and as the lights began to flicker my heart rapidly slammed within my chest. I had that feeling where you knew something was about to happen, but you didn’t know when. It kept you on high alert and when the ball dropped, it still scared the living daylights out of you. Those were the feelings creeping through my bones.

My hands were itching to pull my gun from its holster, so it would be fewer moves to light someone up if shit got real. But I knew that could easily blow our cover if things didn’t go south. A few feet ahead of us it looked as if the hall opened up into a room. The same red light half-ass illuminated the spacious area. A large TV covered the center of the wall to our left, but other than that, the only items within the room were two metal chairs sitting side by side and what looked like some sort of material folded on each of the seats.

“There’s something in the chairs.” I motioned for Gavin to take a look.

We crossed into the center of the room and Gavin lifted the material from one of the seats. It was solid black and pretty thick, but not very long. Like a blindfold. My nerves spiked at the thought of being blindfolded. Things had officially taken a turn for the weird.

“What the hell…” He lifted the material in the other chair and found that it was most likely another blindfold, just a tad bit longer.

“I have a bad feeling about this.” My voice was low.

Gavin slid his hand into mine and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “I won’t let anything happen to you, Blair.”

“The fact that you have to say that is more than enough for us to realize something isn’t right.”

Before he could reply the television clicked on, static noise filling the room as the screen flashed gold with bold white letters telling us to sit down.

Without argument we both took a seat in the chairs, the blindfold wrapped around my hand as I toyed with the soft material. We kept our eyes on the television as the words faded away and the word "good" appeared. My hand clutched Gavin’s leg and his foot tapped against mine. They were little indicators that we were on the same page, a way to speak to one another without being completely obvious in certain situations.

Someone was watching us.

I held my breath as the next sentence appeared on the screen, telling Gavin to secure the blindfold around my eyes so I couldn’t see. He knew how badly I hated not being able to see. It was a fear of mine, one I could never shake, not even in training. Quantico put you through the wringer when it came to your fears and situations that might arise during field ops but being blindfolded caused me terror, and there was nothing I could do to change that.

He knelt before me and placed his hands on my thighs, the blindfold wrapped around his palm. My head barely shook from side to side, knowing Gavin could see the onset of panic rising within me. A small closed-lip smile rested on his lips. He knew this was a hard limit for me, but we had no choice but to oblige whoever was playing this little game. So, I let out a shaky breath as he wrapped the blindfold around my face and secured it tightly against the back of my head.

They say if you lose one of your senses, the others are heightened. But that wasn’t always the case. You had to learn to calm yourself and really focus your other senses to try and get a feel, like Daredevil did in the comics. He lost his sight but gained so much with his hearing and instincts. I admired the character as a young girl but struggled so badly with finding my own calm within my fears as an adult.

“Gavin,” my throat was dry.

“I’m right here, babe, don’t worry,” his hand gently squeezed my thigh.

“What’s going on?”

“The screen hasn’t changed. I’m not sure what to do now.”

My body lunged forward as loud rock music roared to life. Gavin’s arms wrapped around my shoulders and his voice was at my ear telling me to calm down. I was afraid my heart was going to beat out of my chest as he guided me back into the chair.

The sound of a female walking into the room grabbed my attention. It was hard to hear, but the echoing of her shoes on the floor didn’t go with the beat of the song.

“Holy hell.” Gavin cleared his throat.

“What?” I gripped his leg.

“I think we’re getting a stripper.”

I scoffed, “Are you serious?”

“Oh, yeah.”

“Gavin,” I squeezed his leg. “You have to tell me what’s going on or I’m ripping this fucking thing off my eyes.”

“She’s tall, thin, but toned with dark wavy hair and doe eyes.”

“Not a play by play of what she looks like,” I spat.

Her footsteps got closer and she stopped. A few moments later her hands smoothed up my thighs and the sound of Gavin groaning made my heart rate spike.

“He doesn’t have to give you a rundown on what’s happening; I’ll do that for you.” Her sultry voice was at my ear.

A chill ran across my skin as her tongue ran down the side of my neck.

“I need your hands.”

I wasn’t sure if she was talking to me or Gavin but when I didn’t extend my hands for her to take, and she didn’t grab them on her own, I knew she must’ve been speaking to him.

“Now, be a good boy and don’t move.”

“What’s going on, Gavin?”

“She tied my hands to the chair.”

“Shhhh…What did I tell you?” Her voice was at my ear once again. “He won’t give you the information you’re looking for, I will.”

“What’s your name?” I swallowed, my mouth was so dry it caused me to cough.

“Oh, my darling, do you need a drink?”

“Yes, please.”

My ears focused on the sound of her walking away, but she didn’t go far. A few dozen steps there, followed by a few dozen steps back and the chill of a glass was pressing to my lips.

“Drink up, it won’t bite.”

I positioned my lips on the rim of the glass the best I could without seeing, hoping she didn’t try to drown me with the liquid. Gavin was silent as the music thumped through the room and the cool fruity-tasting liquid slid down my throat. A content sigh passed my lips as the glass disappeared and I swallowed the remainder of the drink I had in my mouth.

“Now,” The woman paused, “you can call me Lexie.”

“Thank you for the drink, Lexie.”

“Now sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride.”

Her teeth latched onto my earlobe, causing me to cry out. The pain wasn’t an issue, the unexpectedness of the bite was. I found pleasure in pain, no matter where it was coming from. It was a quirk of mine that some didn’t understand. But unless you had a weird fetish, or liking of your own, things people considered different would scare you.

My mouth went slack as the woman rolled her body against mine. Sure, I’d gone to a gentleman’s club before. The dancers always seemed to gravitate toward the women in the crowd. Partially because they felt a bit safer, but mostly because they knew the majority of men’s fantasies involved more than just one woman. It was a goldmine.

I knew Gavin had to be falling out of his chair with arousal from what was transpiring. But as quickly as she was in my lap, she was gone. My mind wandered to what she was doing to him. The music had become even louder so I couldn’t hear if he was enjoying himself or not. My heart raced and I reached out, grabbing his shoulder, but my hand was quickly removed by Lexie.

“Tisk, tisk, beautiful girl, you each get a turn.”

As badly as I wanted to tear the blindfold from my eyes and toss in the towel on whatever the game was, I knew I’d blow the mission. I wouldn’t have jealousy pulsing through my veins if I had a different partner, but Gribbins left us together for a reason. He knew we could handle whatever was thrown at us, even if it meant crossing personal lines. So, I sat back in my chair and rested my hands on my thighs to wait for what was to come.

I startled when a glass was pressed to my lips once again. “Thought you could use some more to drink.” I parted my lips and took the liquid, knowing the first round went down smoothly so the second should be the same.

The music changed from a heavy rock song to a similar sexy beat from the first room we had been in. “Gavin?” I called out loud enough for him to hear me.

“He can’t speak right now.”

“What do you mean?” His foot tapped against mine, letting me know he was okay.

“He has a mouth full,” she snickered.

I didn’t have to ask what she meant. He’d been gagged with something no doubt because she wasn’t on him anymore to cause him to be unable to speak; no, she’d straddled me instead. My instincts were to cover my gun with my hand, but I didn’t want to draw attention to it. If she’d move a fraction higher, she’d find it on her own. Her body moved like a hypnotic snake as she danced upon me. My head became heavy as the bass from the song thumped in my chest.

“I don’t feel so good,” I managed to say.

“It’s okay, darling. Lean your head back and relax.” Her voice was like a siren, calling the men at sea home; even though I wasn’t a man it was forcing me to do as she asked. My head rested back against the cool metal of the chair and I closed my eyes, even though the blindfold kept me from seeing already.

The darkness behind my eyelids was the same as if they were still open, but it eased my head a bit to close them. I felt as if my body was swaying, like when you’re standing on a boat and the sea is gently rocking you from side to side. My arms were heavy when I tried to lift one so I could touch Gavin to reassure myself that he was still okay. But I couldn’t muster up the strength to reach out. The roaring of my pulse filled my ears as the song faded into the background.

Without any protest, her muffled words wrapped around my body and pulled me under, “It’s okay, Blair. You can relax now.”