Toni Blades leaned back in the ancient chair, ignoring its squeal of protest at her shift in position, and closed the file she was working on. Another pimp in custody and another uncover role as a prostitute completed. She exhaled as she pushed the folder away from her and closed her eyes. It was a good way to end this phase of her FBI career before she requested a desk job.

She curled her lip. The mere idea of sitting behind a desk for hours on end made her back spasm in revolt.

A promise is a promise.

Toni repeated the words to herself for the hundredth time in the past week alone.

Her jaw popped, and she massaged it, not realizing she was clenching it. Toni rubbed her hands over her eyes and flipped her shoulder-length blonde hair from her face as she pursed her lips. She didn't blame her family for making the request. After losing her father to a heart attack, they couldn’t bear the thought of her putting herself in harm’s way any longer. But knowing that didn’t make it any easier to walk away from her position.

She’d worked hard over the past six years to get here, she was a well-respected agent, and turning her back on her accomplishments stung. To make the situation even more awkward, her mother and twin sister had put her fiancé, Leo, up to making the request. Not that he didn’t hint at the same thing. When he convinced an entire class of Las Vegas police recruits to serenade her as he proposed, they agreed in two and half years, they would each request less dangerous positions, get married and start a family. The date seemed so far away then. Now, two years later, Toni was having second thoughts.

Not about her relationship with Leo, but about the arrangement. What were they thinking? He was a detective on the Las Vegas Metro PD; she was a special agent with the FBI. They were intelligent people. They could figure out a way to make a marriage work despite the risks of their jobs. And children? She wasn’t ready to consider them after what her past few years undercover.

“Here you go.” Her partner, Caleb Jones, dropped a thick file folder on her desk. “Get yourself up to speed because they want us back out in the next few days.”

“What?”

She reached for the folder, scanning the contents. The words leaped from the pages inside: missing kids, runaways, sex trafficking. She flipped through a few more pages realizing the full scale of the case. This was huge. Her dark eyes widened as she looked up at Jones in surprise.

“You must have impressed someone with the job you did on that last one.” He sat on the corner of the desk. “Most agents wait a lifetime for a case this big and they’re putting us in charge of it.”

Most of the file appeared to be intelligence, surveillance and information gathered from numerous stake-outs and previous cases that had overlapped. Now, with a significant amount of material accumulated, the FBI had enough to dive in. The FBI was ready to assign a task force to the case, a group of agents to go undercover, discover who was leading the trafficking ring, and make the arrests.

Jones waved his hand in the air over his head, tracing an invisible marquee. “I’m seeing a promotion in our futures.”

She rolled her eyes at him. Her partner for the three years, she and Jones worked well together, even if he insisted on acting like an older brother, antagonizing her every chance he got. She knew he had her back and would put his life on the line for her. She hated turning down a case that would ruin this opportunity for him too.

Toni tossed the folder back on the desk. “I can’t take it.”

He looked at her, his brows pinching as the lines around his wide mouth deepened. “What do you mean, ‘you can’t?’”

“I told you. That prostitution case was my last undercover. I promised Leo and my sister.”

Jones unfolded his lean, six-two frame from the edge of the desk. “Then un-promise them. You realize what this means, for both of us, right?”

“I do, but you know I can’t do that.” She crossed her arms and scowled back at him.

“Come on, T. Something like this doesn’t come along but once in a lifetime. Besides,” he began, his eyes lighting up, “if we solve this, a promotion would guarantee you never have to go undercover again.”

She sighed. He was right. A promotion would put her into a supervisory position. She could walk away with her head high, proud of what her accomplishments, rather than tucking her tail between her legs and backing down for no real reason other than a hasty promise made several years ago, before she or Leo realized what it would mean for their careers or how far they might come in that time.

“This case might take years. Leo and I are getting married next summer, remember?”

“Yeah, I remember.” Jones plucked the file from the desk. “What kind of guy makes you quit your job? Is he quitting his?”

“We’re both requesting desk positions.”

He arched a dubious brow. “You sure about that? Because that’s not what I hear, T. Word on the street is that he took on another missing girl case.”

She felt the surprise jolt through her but schooled her face to remain stoic. Leo wouldn’t demand something of her he wouldn’t do himself. Unless he’d forgotten about it, in which case, she could claim the same. Take this case, finish it as fast as possible and then settle into the supervisory position without remorse.

“Maybe it’s an open and shut case?” She knew it was almost unheard of, especially with missing persons.

“Or maybe he won't hold you to a promise you made two years ago, before you both realized the trajectory you’d be on in your careers,” he countered. “It’s not like he isn’t kicking ass and taking names down at the PD either, T.”

She opened her mouth, ready to offer him another reason she shouldn’t take it. Her mother and sister needed her. Even if Leo had forgotten about the promise, her sister, Rose, hadn’t failed to remind her about it at least once a month. Weekly since their father’s recent death.

“Just read the file. There are so many ways for us to gain a foothold on this. It’ll be easy. In and out. Wham, bam, thank you, ma’am, slap on the cuffs and call it a day.”

She shook her head at him, biting back a smile at his ridiculousness. No case was ever that easy but, from the look of the intel, much of the early footwork was done. They knew who they were looking at and how to reach them. If everything went perfectly, they might close it in six months. But that was a big if.

However, it was a big case, the biggest of her career. Closing this would solidify her position as an agent at the FBI and give her some leverage when it came time to request a desk position. Her stomach clenched, and she cringed at the thought but pushed aside the disappointment. She promised her family and Leo and she loved them too much to go back on it. But, if they managed to solve this case within the next six months, then it would be a win-win situation for everyone. She hoped Leo and her sister saw it that way.

* * *

“We’re in here,” Rose called from the dining room as Toni entered the house, shedding her coat and draping it over the back of a chair as she approached her sister and fiancé.

They both looked at her. “What’s up? Why are you both looking at me like that?”

Leo rose and made his way toward her, his arm snaking around her waist and dragging her up against his body. Her breath caught in her lungs, her hands trapped against his broad chest, the heat of his skin burning her palms, the strong, steady beat of his heart pounding against her fingers. Everything south of her waist, heated, exploding in an inferno of desire as his mouth descended toward hers, preparing to claim her as he has so many times before, and she melted into him. Just before his lips met hers, Rose clapped a hand over her eyes dramatically with a laugh.

“Ugh! Will the two of you pick a room? Pick any of the fifteen in this house. Don’t make me watch this. I'm going to lose my appetite.”

Leo rolled his eyes and dropped his arms, giving Toni a quick peck on the cheek instead. “Fine.”

She pulled him back to her, her hand fisting the front of his shirt and standing on her toes to press her mouth against his. If she thought Rose cared about their PDA, she wouldn’t have done it but she knew her twin better than that. Rose adored Leo, was pushing Toni to move up the wedding and couldn’t wait for him to officially join the family.

She released him as their mother entered the room. “Oh, leave them alone, Rose. It’s nice to see two people in love. Good evening, Leo.”

“How are you today, Vanessa?”

“Long day.”

Rose rolled her eyes as she met her twin’s gaze, her lips curving around a silent “whatever.” Leo rushed over to pull out their mother’s chair as the maids brought out the meal. Toni didn’t wait, seating herself in spite of her mother’s frown of disapproval.

“How was work today?” she asked Rose as she passed her a plate of roast vegetables.

“Good. The same as every other day. Snotty noses, sight words, coloring, and recess.”

Although she minimized her position at the elementary school, Rose loved her job as a kindergarten teacher. But it didn’t compare to how beloved she was by her students, their parents and the rest of the faculty.

“And what about you, Leo?” Her mother turned her adoring gaze on him as she sipped her wine.

As if in deference to her question, his cell phone rang. Toni’s mother pursed her lips and shook her head as he slid from his chair before slipping outside the room to take the call. Toni studied him, noticing the way his shoulders raise with tension, the way his brows drooped and his eyes grew cold. He glanced back into the dining room once before moving further down the hall, out of her sight.

Her mother had already turned back to Rose and was in deep discussion about planning a spa weekend for the two of them. Toni couldn’t help the prick of jealousy as they made their plans.

“Oh!” her sister exclaimed, turning hopeful eyes to Toni. “We should wait for a day when Toni can come.”

“Who knows when that would be?” Sarcasm dripped from her mother’s voice. Her tone turned syrupy sweet as she smiled at Toni. “I mean, you are always working. When are you going to finally stop this…”

She waved a hand as if Toni was a child throwing a temper tantrum instead of a grown woman with a career. A career her mother hated, she reminded herself. Toni pushed at the food on her plate with her fork, her appetite gone despite the delicious aroma wafting from the kitchen as the rest of the meal was laid on the table.

“Pass the rolls, please.”

Her mother acted as if she hadn’t said anything out of the ordinary as her words weren’t driving a stake into Toni’s heart with every criticism. She retrieved the basket of bread and handed it to her mother, wishing Leo would come back into the room. Somehow, he always diffused her mother’s words, to redirect the conversation.

Her mother leaned closer and lowered her voice. “I mean, I thought you two were getting married soon. How are you going to raise a family when you don’t know if either of you will come home at night? That’s no life for children, Antonia.”

That was true for anyone. Car accidents happened. People got mugged on the streets. Police officers and FBI agents weren’t the only ones who put their lives on the line.

Judges, like Dad, die unexpectedly, too.

The words clung to her lips but she wouldn’t remind her mother or sister about the pain they still suffered from her father’s recent heart attack. A federal court judge, he was more than just a pillar of the community. He was a great man, the man both girls measured all others to and, as a result, both had sought his approval in every matter.

“I’m sorry,” Leo said as he rushed back into the room. “Duty calls. Walk me out?”

“What? Why?” Disappointment colored Rose’s voice and her mother blinked slowly, her face pinched. “I thought…never mind. This is what I was talking about.”

Toni rose from the table, knowing, without a doubt, that this was work-related. They’d both been on the job long enough to understand the demands didn’t always come at opportune times. His fingers twined with hers as she walked out of the dining room with him.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” She squeezed his hand. “It happens.”

“You’re disappointed.”

“I’m not,” she lied, not wanting him to feel guilty for doing his job. She hoped Leo would do the same from him when their roles reversed.

He paused at the door, his eyes gleaming with mischief. Leaning down to her ear, his lips plucked at her lobe, sending a delicious shiver down her spine. She wasn’t a woman easily aroused but Leo could take her from 0 to 60 in a breath.

“Liar.”

“You can't know for sure.” She fought to catch her breath.

“You have a tell. Right here.” He pressed a kiss to the column of her throat, his tongue tracing where her pulse raced. His tongue caressed the spot, the rasp of his whiskers abrading her skin, and her limbs turned to lava.

She pulled back and smiled up at him. “I do not.”

She was an FBI agent. While he’d been pounding the pavement as a beat cop, she’d trained to work under deep cover and never had it blown, not once in the last four years. If anyone could hide a tell, she could.

He shrugged a shoulder. “Guess I’m good at my job.”

“Or you know me,” she argued. He returned her grin when his cell phone rang chirped with a notification. He rolled his eyes as he tugged it from his pocket.

Toni saw the desire in his eyes doused as he grew intent on the message.

“Anything I can help with?” The ability to assist one another, even if it was only as a sounding board, was one benefit of them both being in law enforcement.

“Another missing girl.” Leo shook his head as he ran a hand through his short hair, making it stand up in short spikes. “The third one this month.”

She ran a hand over his head, brushing his hair back down. “Want me to call in some favors? See what I can find out from our end?” she offered.

He seemed to consider her proposition. Leo narrowed his eyes, scratching his jaw, reluctant to answer. “Not yet. I'm not sure if this one is related to the other two.”

There was more to it than that. She could hear it in his voice. “But?”

Leo let out a sigh before he pressed a quick kiss to her cheek. “I may have you check on a hunch in a few days. They could be runaways who don’t want to be found.”

Toni narrowed her eyes. “What aren’t you telling me?”

“Nothing. Look, I’ve got to go.” He took a step back, glancing at his watch, before stepping around her and reaching for the door handle.

“Leo, is this a new case?”

He paused with his hand on the door and bowed his head. It was all the answer she needed. It also confirmed her reasoning to take the trafficking case. If he would continue doing his job, so could she.

“I was offered a new case. I’m going to take it.”

He turned back toward her. “Undercover?” She nodded. “You're joking, right? We’ve talked about this. We decided that—”

“Really?” She couldn’t hold back the acerbic laugh. “You can take a new case but I can’t?”

“This may be related to my other cases and my cases don’t put my life in jeopardy.” He couldn’t look her in the eye when he said it.

“I’m not the only one with a tell,” she pointed out.

“Toni,” he began, his voice holding a warning note, sounding more like a teacher with a wayward student. He cleared his throat and pinched the bridge of his nose. “You want to have this discussion, now? When I have to leave?”

“There’s no discussion. I'm being honest with you.”

“And I’ll be honest with you. I don’t want you going undercover anymore. You promised your mom and sister.” He reached for her hand but she pulled away before he could grasp it. “You promised me.”

“We promised each other,” she reminded him. “Both of us. But is that what you want? A desk job? We agreed long before we knew what was ahead in our careers. This is who we are, Leo. Neither of us would be happy behind a desk, in an office, away from the action.”

Leo closed his eyes, inhaling before letting out the breath and rubbing his hand over the back of his neck. He looked like he wanted to argue but then his shoulders sagged.

“You’re right,” he agreed. “But I can’t stand by and watch the woman I love get herself killed. I love you too much for that, Toni.” His gaze lingered on her face, as if he were trying to take in every line, every expression. “I just can't.”

“What does that mean?”

Leo opened the front door and looked back at her. “It means I’m ready, Toni, and you’re not. I love my job and I do love being in the middle of the action, but I’d ask for a transfer for us, because I love you more than my job. I can’t fault you for not wanting to.” His thumb brushed over her chin, caressing her jaw. “You said I know you. I do. You love the risk, the danger, the satisfaction of the win.”

Tears burned at the backs of her eyes but she blinked them away. “You took another case too.”

He closed his eyes and exhaled before opening them again. “We both know mine isn’t dangerous. It’s a missing persons case. Every time you go undercover, I worry it might be the last time I kiss you. The last time I hear your voice.”

“Leo,” she protested.

He lowered his mouth to hers, pressing a gentle kiss to the corner of her mouth. “You need to take time to decide which you want more, Toni. Me or this part of your career.”

“Don’t make me choose,” she whispered. “Let me finish this one last case.”

She felt his sad smile against her lips. “There will always be one last case, Toni.”

She watched him walk out the door, left wondering if she’d just let the only man she’d ever loved walk out of her life. Neither of them was ready to bend. Maybe they never had been.

* * *

Leo ducked his head and entered the police station amid a flurry of activity. News stations camped outside, waiting for the press conference and clamoring for a soundbite from each official looking person who passed them, involved in the case or not. They were still there from the yet unsolved missing girl case from last week.

Most of them kept someone with their ear on the police scanner around the clock but, shit, this circus was too much. How were they supposed to get any work done?

He passed an office midway down the hall where a middle-aged couple talked to his C.O. The woman sobbed while a man rubbed his hand over her back. The missing girl's parents. He continued down the hall, to the break room, between the two missing girls he'd been searching for the past two weeks, now this one and the bomb Toni dropped on him as he left her house, he needed a second to get his head on straight. Leo closed his eyes and rubbed the tense muscles at the back of his neck.

Undercover. Again?

They'd been on this Merry-Go-Round ever since they began dating. They met while Toni was working undercover as a prostitute to bust a mid-level ring using hookers to mule X over the border. When he tried to cuff her, she'd almost ended up dropping him to the ground. He hadn't believed her when she told him who she was; she was that convincing as a hooker, but her story checked out and the rest was history.

It wasn't a question of whether or not he loved her. He had from that first moment. How could he not? She was fire and ice rolled into one extraordinary woman who could make his blood boil with desire and annoyance simultaneously. Although she didn’t let people see it often, he’d seen the tenderness in her - in the way she consoled a victim’s family, in the tears he’d seen her shed in secret over her father's recent heart attack and the way she sacrificed for her family since. Toni was a lioness. The fiercest, most vibrant woman he’d ever known and those same qualities would kill her.

“Yo! Castellano, you on this missing girl?”

He glanced up as Delgado, one of the other detectives poured a second cup of coffee and passed it to him. Leo thanked him and reached for the sugar.

“Looks that way. Didn’t expect that circus outside though.”

“Man, you get all the good ones.” Leo arched a brow and Delgado gave an embarrassed chuckle, rolling his eyes. “You know what I mean.” He stirred his coffee and took a quick sip. “They're out there because someone tipped them off that this case is connected to the other two girls.”

“Are we sure?”

He shrugged. “Appears that way. Same M.O. Hell, the girls could pass for sisters.”

Leo sipped his coffee as he thought about what he’d discovered about the other two girls, and it wasn't much. Fifteen, blond, both picked up outside their part-time jobs by a man in a white truck. Until the last month neither had trouble at school and maintained good grades. Then they both fell apart. Fights, arguing with teachers, both talked about running away although neither had a good reason.

“What the hell is going on? Same school?”

“Nope, this one was from across town. But her best friend mentioned that she has a boyfriend who drives a white Ford that matches the description.”

Leo dumped the crappy coffee in the sink. “Is he here?”

“Nah, but a couple uniforms just left to pick him up. I gotta head out but the Captain wants to see you.” Delgado clapped him on the shoulder as he moved past.

“Stay safe out there tonight,” he called after the other officer.

“You know it.”

If this turned out to be the guy they were looking for, they might be looking for bodies instead. If not, they were at another dead end. They dealt with a lot of runaways in Vegas, both coming and going, and he'd never seen so many disappear without leaving a trace the way these three had. Leo rapped his knuckle against the doorframe of the Captain’s door.

“You wanted to see me.” He closed it behind him as he entered.

He met Captain James when he started with the Las Vegas Metro PD eight years ago. She’d been a detective when he’d first joined the force but she'd been right there to show him the ropes. In fact, James was the one who encouraged him to switch into her division. The other detectives appreciated her candor and attention to detail in a place like Vegas where anything could, and did, happen.

“Have a seat, Leo.” She finished writing in the file she was working on and closed it, shoving it to one side before folding her hands on her desk, her chin tipping down and her lips pursing. “We’re bringing in the boyfriend of the latest girl to go missing.”

“I heard.”

“I want you to take point on the interrogation.”

“Me?” His brows shot up. “I just got here and haven’t seen the file yet. Those were her parents in the other room?”

James dug through the stack of files at her elbow and tossed one across her desk at him. “Here you go. You have about thirty minutes to become as familiar with it as you can.”

He flipped through the file, skimming the contents and reports. There didn’t seem to be anything here out of the ordinary. In fact, it was almost identical to the last case. “What do I need to know that isn’t in here?”

“Off the record?” She steepled her fingers, pressing them against her lips as if she were debating whether to say anything else. “I don’t think this is a runaway. I think all three cases, and the three missing girls from summer, are related.”

“How?”

“I thought you might be the best one to provide that information.”

It was unlike her to be so cryptic. He studied the file, scanning the statement from the missing girl’s best friend, not the most reliable source but better than nothing. “She was meeting with a boyfriend?”

“His car matches the description of the truck the other girls were last seen in.” She eyed him. “Is your girlfriend still with the FBI?” Leo clenched his jaw, realizing at what James had been hinting at. As if reading his thoughts, she went on, “I mean, she might have access to—”

“She doesn’t.”

He refused to use his relationship with Toni to help him solve a case. If he still had a relationship. Besides, they didn’t bring the FBI in unless it was absolutely necessary. This wasn’t a Federal case. At least, not unless they found out the girls had crossed state lines. Until they did, it was still Las Vegas jurisdiction and his case.

“Why are you asking me to do this now? There's nothing to indicate that—”

“I have every news crew in the county outside my station right now expecting answers and we have nothing. Do you want to be the one to walk out there and tell them that?” Her voice rose with each word, her desperation palatable. “There are six girls missing. Do you realize what that does to a community like ours? Vegas earns enough bad press.”

“I understand, but—”

“But nothing,” she barked. James blinked, taken aback by his brusque response. “This isn’t simply a case of missing girls, Leo. I don’t know what it is. It could be any number of things from drugs to prostitution…the FBI has resources we don’t. If we bring them in on this—”

“At least let me talk to this guy first, to see what I can find out before you call the Feds.”

James rubbed a hand over her eyes. “We’ve gone this route already and come up with nothing.”

“Then why did you call me in on this? To make it easy to get in touch with Toni? At least give me the opportunity to—”

She sighed and held up a hand, leaning back in her chair. The springs creaked in protest and Leo felt the muscles in his neck tensing. It would be nice if she let him finish a full sentence before interrupting him.

“Fine, but if you don’t find out something tonight, I’m not waiting for another missing girl before I call in the reinforcements.”

With the news crews breathing down her neck for answers, parents in Vegas afraid their child might be next to disappear and nothing concrete to go on, Leo understood her order loud and clear: Do your job or we’ll find someone who will.