SATURDAY. AEGIS GROUP Safe House, Seattle, Washington.

Kyle held the door for Bethany. Over the course of their drive her silence had grown more and more absolute. Hostile even.

Good.

She needed to hate him because he didn’t know how to maintain boundaries to keep them in their corners right now. If she’d only ever been a client, no problem. But he’d known Bethany for over a year and wanted her for just as long. If he’d never crossed the line, they wouldn’t be in this situation. He had to do whatever it took to protect her even if it meant hurting her.

Bethany and Roger stepped into the house to a chorus of greetings, mostly aimed at the former. Roger wasn’t popular with anyone in the house.

Kyle closed his eyes and sucked down a deep breath of evening air. For the next however many hours or days, he had to be Team Leader. Unlike the others, he didn’t get time off the clock during an op. There was no down time for him. He had to be head of his team at all hours, and that meant there wasn’t a second to spend distracted by Bethany. Or wanting her.

Right now her life was in his hands. If he fucked up, she could die.

It was the same way with every op. He always knew that if they lost an asset it was on him, not the team. But it wasn’t every mission that the angel of mercy who’d blessed his life was looking to him for help.

He’d get through this. Just because this op was different didn’t mean they were at a disadvantage. In fact, working with police put them at an advantage.

Kyle glanced out at the quiet street and prayed things stayed this way.

He entered the house, smells of food mixed with cinnamon greeting him.

The house was another open concept ranch-style house. Zain favored booking these because of the clear sight lines and the ease at which they could vacate quickly. Any time they had to deal with stairs or closed off rooms it meant they were always going to be blind somewhere.

Felix and Isaac sat clustered around the dining table. Right about now Kyle wished Adam were back on this coast. Kyle could really use his second’s input on everything.

Megan was stretched out on the sofa, with Faith perched on the coffee table and Bethany standing with them. A couple empty dishes were evidence that at least someone had eaten.

Zain stood in the kitchen which wasn’t all that surprising. This job was high profile and tricky given how involved the Hunts were. It made sense he would want to be a bit more hands on.

Kyle glanced around until he spied an office door off the entry. He pulled it open.

Shane sat behind the desk, several monitors in front of him.

“How’s it look?” Kyle circled the desk to take in their eyes in the sky.

“We’ve got cameras around the house, at each intersection and at the main entrance to the community.” Shane tabbed through the feeds.

“Do we have anyone out there?” Kyle bent to peer at the night vision feeds.

“Ian is in this van outside the front gates. Vito and Ryan are on their way, and they’ll be at the other entrances. The house’s owner warned us the HOA is extremely strict about vehicles left in the street, so Zain said to post them outside.”

“Good.” Kyle nodded. Their biggest vulnerability would be who could come and go from the subdivision. If they had nosy neighbors out there watching their streets that was one less thing they had to worry about. “You want the door open or closed?”

“Are you going to discuss plans?”

“Probably.”

“Open.”

Kyle left the office and stepped into the living room.

Detective Blew stood over the three girls, who seemed none too thrilled about his presence. The man smelled blood in the water and he was going to bite at anything in his path regardless of who might get hurt. Kyle would be damned if he’d let the detective bully their assets on his watch.

“Detective?” Kyle strode into the living room. “Why don’t we do this at the table where Megan might be more comfortable?”

Isaac and Felix glanced at Kyle, looking for an unspoken order.

He wanted the guys there, to hear everything Megan said, so they would all be aware of who they were watching for. The unknown subject had escaped notice for decades, which meant there wasn’t anything overly suspicious about him. He was normal, unassuming and just that much more dangerous considering his kill history.

Zain caught Kyle’s eye and nodded.

Good. They were on the same page.

“Detective, have you had dinner yet?” Zain gestured at the kitchen where the smells were coming from.

Kyle crossed the living room to where Faith and Bethany were helping Megan sit up.

“You need a hand?” He went to a knee next to the sofa.

“I’m good,” Megan said in a steely tone.

“He’s going to fire a lot of questions at you. I’m going to try to pace him so he doesn’t wear you out, okay? And if you want to stop, just say the word. Our only priority is you three ladies, okay?” He kept his gaze on Megan. She was more worn out than she wanted to admit. Stubborn to a fault that was for sure.

“Help me up?” Megan held out her hand.

“Sure.”

Kyle straightened and grasped her by the wrist. She held tight to his forearm while Faith steadied her with an arm around the waist. Together they got Megan on her feet.

“You got it from here?” he asked.

“I think so.” Her voice was strained.

“Let me move this.” Kyle shoved the coffee table out of the way to make more room.

Bethany wrapped her arm around Megan’s waist from the other side and together the three women made a slow march across the house to the dining table.

Megan should be in a hospital if only because of the exhaustion and dehydration alone. He knew he wasn’t going to win that battle, but at least Bethany and Faith were here. Between the two of them Kyle felt fairly certain they could hold this ship together

He held the arm chair at the head of the table while Faith and Bethany got Megan situated with pillows to keep her comfortable and another tumbler full of water. Roger sat adjacent to Megan, wolfing down food like it might disappear.

Kyle’s place in this was to guide the conversation and listen. If the detective got out of line Kyle would play the bad cop in everything while Zain smoothed it over later. He left the two seats across from Roger open for Faith and Bethany and took the third for himself. Bethany took the chair closest to Megan, leaving Faith to sit next to him. It was a little disappointing, but in the big picture this was best.

“Has she eaten anything?” Kyle asked Faith in a whisper.

“Some soup that was mostly broth,” Faith replied.

“Good. You?”

“I ate.”

“That hit the spot.” Roger pushed his plate away from him then wiped his fingers.

“Before we get started,” Kyle leaned forward, “what measures are you taking to protect Megan and her roommates?”

“You took that out of our hands,” Roger replied.

“Are you withholding their names from the media?”

“Of course we have.” Roger scowled.

“Just making sure.”

“You know my dad’s going to say something at the first possible opportunity, right?” Megan sat back in her chair, her mouth screwed up into a grimace.

“As long as everyone here’s on the same page,” Kyle said. The only thing he could control was how tight Megan’s security was. Everything else was out of his hands.

“I’m going to record this.” Roger set his phone on the table.

“Megan, is that okay?” Kyle asked.

“Yeah. Sure.” She nodded.

Kyle sat back to listen. This was Roger’s interview, but Kyle had his own questions as well.

“Can you state your name for the record, please?” Roger gestured at his phone and the red blinking icon that indicated he was recording.

“Megan Hunt.”

“Thank you. Megan, I’d like for you to start from the beginning and tell me what happened,” Roger said.

“From which beginning? When I left the house?”

“Yeah. Did you notice anyone following you? Anything out of the ordinary?”

“No. I left the house like normal. He was waiting for me in the alley behind the gray house. There was a dark van parked in the shadows I didn’t notice at first. I saw the van, thought it was weird, and then he grabbed me from behind.”

Kyle stared at the table top, picturing the scene in his mind.

She’d have been walking on the sidewalk, after dark. The shadows were thick along that stretch of road, but she wouldn’t mind. She’d waked that path a hundred times. The attacker must have been hiding up against the privacy fence to the gray house. That way when Megan walked past and into sight, she was focused on the van and not the man. It was the best spot to set a trap. If she’d have seen her attacker first, she wouldn’t be unnecessarily alarmed because there were people who came and went. He hated to admit it, but the whole thing was spot on.

“He had a gun. I threw my purse at him and told him to take it. He tossed my purse at the garbage cans and told me to get in the van.” Megan paused to take a drink from her cup. She set the tumbler down and stared at the table. She wasn’t seeing them. she was reliving those moments. “I knew not to do that, so I took a deep breath to scream. That’s when he hit me with the gun, here on my cheek. I was surprised, I guess. He hit me again, then kicked me. That was when I realized I was in serious trouble, but he was on top of me then. He handcuffed me and tied something around my face.”

Megan was holding it together remarkably well, but she wasn’t the ice woman she pretended to be. Kyle could see the cracks in her mask. This had left a mark on her, and she was doing her damnedest to hold it together.

“He was waiting for me, too. At the hospital,” Faith said. She leaned forward. “I was walking out to the parking lot, glanced at the van and then he was there.”

“He’s not big enough to overpower you. He has to distract you, surprise you then attack,” Kyle said. Their man liked to lay in wait. He’d planned this. Kyle looked at Roger. “Have you ever looked at reports of women who say they were being robbed, but got away? He’s not a big man. It’s unlikely Faith is the only woman who has ever gotten away from him.”

“I’ll look into it.” Roger jotted down a note on his pad of paper.

“How much have you explored the theory that Megan wasn’t the only target?” Kyle asked.

“We were all targets.” Megan stared at him, her eyes wide.

“What do you mean?” Roger leaned toward her, smelling the proverbial blood.

“He kept talking about how Faith and Bethany were going to join us. He went to get Bethany first, but he came back super angry. Then he kept talking about Faith nonstop.” Megan’s calm was cracking. It was in the way her voice vibrated and how she stared at the table top.

Bethany glanced at him over Faith’s head.

This was what he was afraid of, but at least now they knew.

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Go back to the alley. What happened once you were handcuffed?” Roger asked.

“He put something over my face. I blacked out.” Megan frowned.

“Some sort of chemical or drug?” Roger asked.

“No. At least not that I can remember.”

Suffocating the victim could be part of the process. This guy clearly got off on brutalizing women in the worst way. It took a long time to choke someone out like that. It meant being up close, watching the light go out of their eyes. Truly disturbing shit.

“What’s the next thing you do remember?” Roger asked.

“I woke up in the room where they found me.” Megan glanced at Kyle. “I was chained to a bed. At first I thought there was something wrong with my eyes, but then I realized he’d put something over my head.”

“Do you know what it was?”

“A mask. He’s got these crazy masks.” Megan waved her hand at her face. “He made me wear one for most of the time. He’d talk to me, but not to me. Like, he was talking to the mask, calling it Mom. He took the mask off a few times and then he was talking to me, but mostly he talked to the mask.”

“What did he look like? Can you tell me?”

“No.” Megan shuddered. “He wore a mask, too. And there were masks for Faith and Bethany that looked like mine.”

Kyle didn’t like the sound of that at all.

“What did your mask look like?” Kyle glanced at Zain. That might be their break in this.

“It was one of those plastic masks that has a neck. It went down to almost my collar bone.” Megan tapped her chest. “It had short, blonde hair. Kind of like a bob. Um... Red lipstick? I don’t know.”

“That’s great,” Kyle said.

Zain was already tapping away at his phone. If it wasn’t a standard sort of thing, they could possibly track it. But, if the mask was a standard Halloween type of thing they were out of luck.

“Can you remember anything he said to you? Anything about previous murders?” Roger leaned in.

“I don’t know.” Megan squeezed her eyes shut.

“Let’s take a break,” Kyle said.

“What? No.” Roger scowled at him.

“We need to talk. Now.” Kyle pushed to his feet and grabbed Roger’s phone pausing the recording. “Come on.”

He strode to the office, his mind whirling.

They were chasing their tail here. They were asking the wrong questions and wasting time. They needed professionals who knew what the fuck they were doing.

“What the hell?” Roger stalked into the office followed by Zain.

“We need to call the FBI,” Kyle said.

“Like hell we do.” Roger practically bristled.

“Not to take over your case. To consult. What do you know about this guy? Nothing. You’ve said it yourself. She’s as close as you’ve gotten to him and the more she tells us the more convinced I am that we have no fucking clue what we’re looking for except a mask.”

“A fresh pair of eyes on the case couldn’t be a bad thing,” Zain said.

“I don’t need help,” Roger’s head swung back and forth. He couldn’t decide who to glare at more.

“If you don’t think you need help then you’ve already lost him.” Kyle stared right back at Roger. “I don’t care who you are or what you do, the minute you think you can handle it all is when you don’t know shit. And your ego is going to cost some poor girl her life. Again. You want to go to sleep at night knowing that?”

“We have a history of working with the FBI’s BAU division.” Zain’s tone was much more diplomatic. “They would help build a profile at the very least. Their insight might shed new light on your clues.”

“This is my case,” Roger said.

“We’re very aware that you’ve pissed all over it.” Kyle paced to the other side of the room to put distance between them.

The only thing that mattered to Detective Blew was that he got to work this case. It wasn’t the lives attached to it or the three women in there who had so far survived this suspect’s attacks. When it came down to it, Roger cared about himself.

“All we want to do is give you the tools to better solve this and get your guy,” Zain said. It was a good week for him to play the good cop.

“Do you really want Elijah Hunt to get in front of a camera and say you’re the reason this guy didn’t get caught? Or do you finally want to be the guy who caught the killer?” Kyle stared the detective down.

So many red flags.

Suppressing the case from the media.

Showing up without his partner.

No regard for the victims.

“Alright. Fine. Call them.” Roger threw up his hands.

“Excuse me, Shane.” Zain leaned across the desk to the phone.

Shane positioned the receiver at the center of the desk behind the monitors while Zain dialed their direct line to the BAU.

Kyle’s involvement on the last op had been cut short due to his father’s death, otherwise he’d have been on the ground long enough to assist the FBI team in tracking down the man who’d kidnapped Adam’s wife. Instead he’d had a momentary brush before heading home.

“This is Ryan Brooks,” a man said through the speaker.

Zain gave Kyle a nod.

“Ryan. Kyle Martin. Sorry about skipping out on you last week.”

“I completely understand. Thanks again for loaning your team to us. I’m guessing this isn’t a social call?” Ryan sounded just like he looked, professional and to the point.

“No, afraid not. I’m here with Zain, Shane and Detective Roger Blew from Seattle PD. We’ve got a situation that could really use your expertise if you’ve got a minute to spare?” Kyle knew they weren’t guaranteed a yes. The FBI team had their own cases and workload.

“We are currently in the air headed back to DC. I can put you on speaker?” Ryan asked.

“Please.”

“Okay, Jade and Gabe are here with me. The others are asleep.” Ryan’s voice sounded a bit more distant, but still clear.

“Have you ever heard of the Seattle Triple Threat?” Kyle glanced at Roger, who still didn’t seem pleased about the whole thing.

“Unsub who killed in the eighties and nineties,” a woman chimed in. That had to be Jade. “He liked to leave his victims near theaters, stages, concert venues, thus the name.”

“Yeah, well, he never stopped and now we have a client and her roommates who were supposed to be his next victims,” Kyle said.

“I think you need to start at the beginning,” Ryan said slowly.

Kyle launched into his side of the story, how Bethany had come to him for help and how they’d learned about the case. Roger continued to stand by in silence while Kyle shared what Megan and Faith had reported about their separate instances. By the time Kyle was done his throat was dry and his hands were clenched into fists.

There was so much wrong with this case.

“How many deaths can you attribute to this killer?” Ryan asked.

“That's a question for Roger,” Kyle said. He looked across the office to the detective.

“Thirty-six that we know of. The suspect sticks to a routine we can identify. But we have not ruled out the possibility that there are deaths we don't know about.” Roger stared at the floor.

“There are only fifteen on record for this unsub,” Jade said.

“That's because the Seattle City Council voted to suppress ports on these murders. We didn't want the public getting more afraid than they already were.” Roger paced the width of the narrow office.

“We are going to need some time to go over what you said and look at the files before we can weigh in and give you any kind of profile,” Gabe said.

“Understandable,” Kyle said.

“What worries me the most about this is that we are clearly at an evolution point in his process,” Jade said.

“Jade is right,” Gabe said.

“If he is disrupted, that could trigger a spiral and then we don't know what he's going to do,” Jade said.

“Detective Blew, can we get a copy of the case files for the years after two thousand until now?” Ryan asked.

“Of course,” Roger said.

“I can read those as soon as you send them over, and consult with the team first thing in the morning,” Jade said.

“That's almost twenty cases.” Roger threw up his hands.

“If Jade says she'll do it, she'll get it done.” Kyle had not worked with the FBI team much, but he knew Jade Perez by reputation.

“I think that's it for now. I’ll have Jade call you first thing after we've had the chance to review the case. Good luck to you,” Ryan said.

“Thanks for offering your expertise. We really appreciate it,” Kyle said.

Kyle nodded at Shane and the other man hung up the line.

For a moment no one said anything. What was there to say? Roger had made the decision to keep the case all to himself and now their team was involved. Rogers priorities didn't align with their teams.

“Okay, how about I get Roger home and you guys settle in for the night?” Zain glanced at Kyle. “Would you mind if I drove your Jeep home?”

“Not at all.” Kyle dug his keys out of his pocket and threw them at Zain.

Kyle had been so focused on getting the team safe that he had considered what came after. They could be in this house for up to a week. He was going to have to figure out how to keep his distance from Bethany.