Cam settled onto the seat beside Laura and slid his hand around the back of her chair. She was tense, her shoulders set in a way that made him want to get behind her and rub until she relaxed. He wanted to take her home and coddle her until the tightness around her eyes softened and she let him hold her. He and Rafe could take turns.

“Don’t cause more scandal than you already have, Cam,” Laura murmured low as she moved his hand away from hers. “I can have you thrown out of here.”

He frowned. “No one seemed particularly scandalized.”

He wasn’t upset. Let them all know. If he could, he would have broadcast the whole thing so there was absolutely no question who she belonged to. He would have made damn sure that fucker Wolf Meyer had a front row seat. Why was he still here? He was hanging around the sheriff’s department when he didn’t have a formal place here. The ex-SEAL still looked at Laura like something he needed to protect. Bastard. And he hadn’t missed the way all of the feds looked at her. She was a gorgeous woman, but did they all have to look at her like she was the second coming of Marilyn Monroe? They needed to get their own superintelligent, funny, blonde bombshell. This one was his. And Rafe’s. He and Rafe had things to work out, but Cam wasn’t going to fight him. It hurt Laura, and damn it, he liked having Rafe around.

She slid a glance his way. “The boys from Bliss might not care, but I assure you, everyone from DC was shocked at what happened.”

Was she worried about that? He didn’t give a shit what any of them thought. He’d never fit in with them. He’d always been that weird mix of nerd, country boy, and aggressive asshole that no one had liked in the Bureau. No one except Laura and Rafe. “Well, they don’t count. The guys from Bliss were just pissed that I hadn’t cleaned up. I received explicit instructions on how to have sex in public places. The sheriff has a pamphlet. I’ve been assured that if I don’t follow the rules, he’ll shove me in a cell. There’s only two, you know. He told me what happened the last time he put Rachel and Max Harper in jail.”

There it was. That smile that made his heart skip a beat. Laura’s smile lit up his whole fucking world. “Yeah, that particular incident had the gossips going for a day or two. Rachel has a problem with jaywalking. And being mouthy. Nate was in a bad mood at the time. Max sacrificed himself to go to jail with her. He threw a punch at Nate. Needless to say, they had fun while they waited for Rye to post bail. It was late, and it was their date night. They didn’t let the fact that they were in jail stop them.”

Now see, that was information he was interested in. There were a couple of trios in this town, and he wanted to know how they worked. “They have date nights?”

Laura nodded. “She goes out with each one at least once a week. I believe Callie, Nate, and Zane do it, too. I can imagine it’s a good way to keep the relationships intimate. Conversely, I know the boys have boys’ nights out.”

The door to the interrogation room opened, and Brad walked in, followed by Rafe. Rafe’s face was set in dark lines. He wasn’t happy to be on the other side of the table, but for now, it was their best choice. They needed to know what was going on from the inside. Joe and Edward followed. The all looked grim and gray, file folders in hand.

Cam remembered what this felt like. There was a certain adrenaline that pumped through any agent’s veins before an interview. Even if the agent knew the person in front of him wasn’t who he was looking for, there was a certain amount of power that came from being on the right side of the table. Cam definitely felt vulnerable.

Laura’s spine straightened. Cam suddenly wished he already had the badge and gun Nate Wright had promised him. There was paperwork to be done, even in a small town. This wasn’t his dream job. Far from it. He wasn’t sure he had a dream job. He wanted Laura. That would be enough. If he could marry her and provide for her and find some time on the side to write his code, he would be happy. Still, he’d feel safer when he could legally kill someone again. It would make defending Laura so much easier.

If only she would let him defend her now.

Joe sat down. He was in great shape for his age. Rapidly approaching fifty, the special agent in charge looked years younger. He smiled at Laura as he opened his folder. “I’m sorry to have to go over all of this again, Laura. I know it’s an old wound for you.”

“I don’t know about that. It feels pretty fresh today.” She clasped her hands together.

“Let’s get right to it.” Brad sounded unctuous and self-important. He’d changed his shirt and put on a new tie, but he couldn’t hide the way his nose bulged. Rafe hadn’t broken it. That was a bit disappointing. Brad was in the middle seat, the driver’s seat, and he seemed to utterly relish it.

Brad drummed his fingers along the top of the table. “You became involved in the case roughly a year after it had been established that there was a serial killer working the DC area.”

Laura took a deep breath and plunged in. “Yes. It was spring roughly six years ago. I moved from another unit. I had been a special agent for four years before that.”

Brad huffed. “That’s young to join the BAU.”

Laura didn’t mention the amazing work she’d done in the Crisis Negotiation Unit. She didn’t talk about how she’d graduated at the top of her class from Harvard, where she’d put herself through school. She merely shrugged. Cam wanted to shove her exemplary record in Brad’s face. She hadn’t gotten into the BAU on her looks.

Brad moved on. “So, you came into the unit as a special agent, and roughly a year later, you turned in a profile of the killer known as the Marquis de Sade. Did you realize at the time that you turned in the profile that Senior Special Agent Edward Lock was the unit’s senior analyst?”

What the hell was that supposed to mean? Everyone knew that. Cam sat forward. This wasn’t going the way he’d thought it would. He caught Rafe’s glance, but Rafe seemed as confused as he was.

“Yes,” Laura replied. There was a flustered pause in her voice. “I was aware of that.”

Brad smirked as though he’d caught her in something. “Who asked you to turn in a profile?”

She tucked a strand of blonde hair behind her ear. “Um, no one, but I thought it was important. I thought I had a fresh look on the case. I have degrees in psychology and criminal justice. I knew what I was doing.”

“But no one actually asked you to turn in a profile?” Brad asked.

Rafe sat forward. “Joe told the whole team that any information we gathered on the case would be welcome. He wanted everyone’s thoughts. It wasn’t out of line for anyone to work up a profile. We’re all trained.”

Joe nodded. “Yes. I like to keep the lines of communication open. I think it’s important for any team. I worked that way then, and I still work that way today.”

Edward adjusted the glasses he always toyed with when interrogating a subject. He put them back on and stared at Laura like a bug he’d pinned down for study.

Cam started to get a bad feeling about the way this was going to go. “What does this have to do with anything?”

Brad held up a hand. “Mr. Briggs, you’re here as a courtesy. If you can’t stay out of this interview, I’m going to ask you to leave.”

He started to get up from his chair. “I’d like to see you try to get rid of me.”

Joe shook his head. “Cam, please. I know this is hard, but Special Agent Conrad has reasons for asking the questions he is asking. We spent time deciding on these questions. We all agreed to them. We’re in a bind here. We haven’t had a break in this case in years. We need a fresh approach.”

Laura put a hand over his, and he reluctantly sat down. His heart rate was creeping up along with the need to kick a little ass. He looked back at the large two-way mirror on the opposite side of the room. There would be a whole bunch of people watching this, and one of them would be his new boss, Sheriff Nate Wright. It probably wouldn’t do a bit of good to start his new job by punching his former coworkers in the face. He needed this job. He needed to fit into Laura’s world.

He forced himself to relax back in his chair as Brad pelted her with questions about how she became involved with the case. Laura answered each one in short, professional terms. She explained why she’d written her profile. She talked about how she’d collected her data. In short, she told the asshole that she’d done her job.

“How long had you known Jana Evans?” Brad asked, flipping through his large folder.

A long sigh came out of Laura’s mouth. “I met Jana Evans our freshman year of college. She was studying journalism. We ended up rooming together for a couple of years. After we graduated, she moved to New York, but I moved out to DC when I joined the BAU. She got a job at a TV station in DC about three years later, and we got back in touch.”

Brad smirked as he asked his next question. “Is that the time you started to feed her confidential information?”

“What the hell?” Rafe got to the outburst before Cam could. “Joe, what is this? I was told we were asking former Special Agent Rosen about her ideas on who the Marquis de Sade is.”

Joe’s left eyebrow rose. Sometimes it was easy to forget he wasn’t just one of the guys. “You are also here on my sufferance, Special Agent Kincaid. If we hadn’t been friends for many years, I would have kicked you off this case the minute I figured out you were sleeping with a witness.”

Rafe opened his mouth to argue, but Laura charged in. “In Rafe’s defense, I wasn’t a witness when I started sleeping with him.”

“And Briggs?” Brad practically sneered.

“Well, it was the same night,” Laura said brazenly. “So no, I hadn’t met the Marquis de Sade at that moment. We were coworkers. It was probably not the most professional thing I could have done, but it had nothing at all to do with the case.”

“You better change your line of questioning,” Cam said through clenched teeth. He wasn’t about to sit here and let them insult her.

“Or we could stop this entirely,” Rafe interjected. “Perhaps we should. A lawyer might be helpful.”

He didn’t disagree at all. It sounded like a perfect idea. Laura didn’t need a lawyer for anything criminal, but a lawyer could fuck with these pricks in a way neither he nor Rafe could.

“I’m not getting a lawyer,” Laura said with a resigned huff.

“You will if I call one.” He hated fighting with her, but he couldn’t let her refuse good counsel.

“Just get on with it,” Laura said.

Brad’s shoulders moved up and down in a negligent shrug, as though he didn’t really care, and Cam believed it. “Fine then. If your cavemen are done, I’ll move on. In your original report, you talked about a phrase the man who abducted you used. Do you recall what he said to you?”

Laura’s eyes took on a haunted, vacant look. She seemed to go somewhere deep inside herself. “He liked to talk. He talked to me for hours. I don’t remember a lot of it, but I remembered that one phrase. He told me that the only way to a woman’s heart was the path of torment. He said he knew of no other way so sure.”

Cam had looked it up. The real Marquis de Sade had written it. The original de Sade had a lot to say, most of it garbage. The Marquis had believed that all moral principals were fancies, not anything concrete or real.

“That’s a bit specific,” Brad said. “Are you sure that’s what he said?”

Now Laura was the one staring through Brad. “Well, a girl rarely forgets what’s been said right before a man in a plague doctor’s mask whips her, cuts her, and shoves a knife through her gut multiple times. I was tied down and he’d whipped me viciously. I hate to admit it, but he did have my attention.”

Cam felt his gut twist. His brain tended to go to a black place when he thought about what had happened to her. When he read it on paper, it was bad enough. When he heard it coming out of her mouth in that dead monotone she employed whenever the subject came up, it was devastating. She’d been taken and brutalized. She’d been tortured for hours. He loved her. Guilt festered like a sore. He was responsible for her. She’d let him take pleasure in her body and solace in her heart. He owed her protection, and he’d failed.

He wasn’t going to fail her again.

“And did you recognize the words?” Brad asked.

Why was he still talking? His voice grated on Cam’s every nerve.

“Not at the time,” Laura admitted. “Later on, I looked it up. It was right after I’d gotten to Bliss. I was in bad shape. I couldn’t get those damn words out of my head. I went into Stella’s and asked to borrow her computer. I told her I needed check on something. That’s when I found it. It’s a quote from the Marquis de Sade.”

“Donatien Alphonse François, the real Marquis de Sade, had a philosophy attached to his methods. He was imprisoned several times for abusing prostitutes. One was said to have been held for weeks of torture before she managed to escape out a second story window,” Edward murmured. He spoke academically, as if he wasn’t discussing the torture of a colleague. “He wrote a lot about sexual freedom. Some of his philosophies are interesting.”

“We don’t need a lecture, professor,” Brad grumbled. It seemed to Cam like the special agent didn’t enjoy having his spotlight taken away. And he was being rude. Back when Cam was in the unit, Edward hated to be called professor.

Edward’s eyes narrowed on the junior agent. “I have a point. I can see where someone of our killer’s persuasions would be interested in the Marquis. That isn’t surprising. What is surprising is the fact that he adopted the philosophies the press put upon him. I’ve been thinking about this for a while. It doesn’t sit particularly well with me. I would have thought he would be in control of his press, so to speak. I think this validates my own profile. The Marquis de Sade is immature, socially awkward. He’s probably making up for a very bad childhood and intense feelings of inadequacy.”

“Or he’s controlled the press far better than we could have imagined. I can’t believe I didn’t think about this. I don’t believe the man is immature. He’s too smart, too in control. He would never follow someone else’s lead.” Joe leaned forward, a grave look on his face. “Who was the first reporter to name him?”

Motherfucker. He remembered that first televised report well. It had been the report that made Jana Evans’s career. How long had Jana been talking to that son of a bitch? What clues had she hidden in her quest for a freaking local Emmy?

“We should get her in here.” Rafe’s voice was tight with fury.

“Jana would have told us if she was in contact. She wouldn’t let a killer roam free to get a story,” Laura said.

For the first time since the interview began, there was a hint of emotion in her voice. It was a slight shake that had Cam reaching for her hand despite the obvious reasons not to. Jana had been Laura’s friend, but she’d betrayed her in so many ways. How long had she used Laura to further her own career?

How had it felt to wake up after a nightmare and believe no one loved her? She’d felt betrayed by Cam and Rafe and her oldest friend. For the first time, Cam understood why she had walked away and what she had found here.

“You know reporters and their confidential sources,” Brad murmured, making notes in his file. “We’ll have to bring in Ms. Evans and have a chat. It’s convenient that she showed up here in Bliss.”

“Yes, it is.” Cam cradled her hand in his, satisfied that she didn’t pull away.

Everything he learned pointed more and more to Laura being right. There was a leak in the unit, and that leak might be the killer. He studied Brad, Joe, and Edward carefully. Maybe he needed to rethink everything he knew about them. Maybe it was time to trust Laura’s instincts. He wondered how far Nate Wright would let him in. Would Nate allow him to use one of the computers to run checks on his former colleagues?

“I would also like to talk to Mr. Wolf Meyer,” Edward said, staring down at his notes. “I ran a check on everyone in this town, and I don’t like what I’ve discovered. This whole town is full of misfits and riffraff. But Wolf Meyer interests me. He lived on a base close to DC right up to a few months ago. He took a trip back to DC at a time that places him in the area when the last victim was killed.”

Laura’s blue eyes rolled. “It’s not Wolf. He’s a SEAL.”

Edward laughed, condescension dripping from his mouth. “Yes, because a military man would never kill anyone. He fits your profile, dear. I would think you would be thrilled I would consider him.”

“You’re an ass, Edward,” Laura stated. “If you’ve successfully profiled someone before, it was because it was so obvious a monkey could have done it. Wolf has a core of integrity. He practically glows with it.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” Cam grumbled.

Laura smiled up at him. “He doesn’t have your sunny disposition, babe.”

Why did everything inside him clench when she looked at him like that? Why did his whole fucking world seem okay because she was accepting him? Sunny disposition? He had to smile back. He was a taciturn son of a bitch most of the time. God, he wanted to kiss her. He wanted to take her out of here.

Laura turned back to the agents. “Please, feel free to talk to Wolf. I think you’ll find a conversation with him enlightening. I happen to know he spent an awful lot of time overseas doing things for our country you can’t even conceive of. Interview everyone in Bliss. I know you’re all damn good at wasting time.”

“Insults aren’t going to get you anywhere,” Brad said, his composure slipping a bit.

“She’s right.” Rafe’s hands slapped on the table. “We’re wasting time. She’s gone over everything. Why are we treating her like a criminal?”

Joe sighed and rubbed a spot between his eyes. “I know she’s not a criminal, but she is a bit of a hostile witness. She left town. I can’t be sure she won’t leave again.” He turned his eyes to Laura. “If I offer you protective custody, will you take it?”

“No,” Cam said before she could.

If anyone was going to protect her, it would be him and Rafe. If witness protection got involved, they might or might not accept the two of them coming along, and he didn’t trust anyone else.

“What he said,” Laura admitted with a weary sigh. “I firmly believe that de Sade is law enforcement. Given what you all now suspect about Jana, he might even be on this team.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Edward spat. “No one in the BAU is a serial killer. It’s preposterous. The Bureau has systems in place to ensure someone like that would never get in. What do you have against men, Ms. Rosen? I have long suspected that you don’t like men.”

Joe pointedly cleared his throat and stared between Rafe and Cam. Cam didn’t miss the way Laura’s mouth turned up.

Edward shook his head. “I didn’t say she was a lesbian. She uses men. Probably a great deal of them.”

“Says the misogynist,” Laura murmured.

Cam turned to Rafe, who seemed just as lost. He’d known Edward was an unctuous little prick, but not that he particularly had it out for Laura. Though now that he remembered back, he could see all the slight ways the senior special agent had tried to cut out the only female on the team. He was always putting down her intellect even as he praised her wardrobe or the way she wore her hair. Edward had tried to make her seem less than the men.

Edward leaned forward. “You weren’t able to prove that claim, were you, Ms. Rosen? You tried to put a black mark on my record, but it didn’t work.”

“Well, I did leave before my meeting with human resources. I guess that was lucky for you,” Laura replied.

Cam leaned in. “What did he do to you?”

“I’ve heard nothing of this,” Rafe said, standing up. “Why is Edward being allowed to question a witness with an outstanding complaint against him? He can’t exactly be unbiased.”

Joe’s bark quieted the room. “Neither can you, Kincaid. There’s nothing normal or routine about this fucking case. It involves a woman who used to be one of our own. Will you all sit down and shut up, or I swear this is going to be an empty room in two minutes. I will dismiss you, Special Agent, if you can’t keep your shit together.”

Rafe’s jaw clenched, but he visibly calmed and took his seat again.

“Brad, I would like to get this over with. Please continue.” Joe sat back, seemingly satisfied he’d gotten everyone on track again.

Brad pinned Laura with his stare. “I only have a couple more questions for Ms. Rosen.”

He was ready to get her the fuck out of here. “Make them quick.”

Brad sneered his way. “You’ll be the first to go when we start thinning out the room, Briggs.” He pulled a set of photos from the folder.

He felt his stomach roll. He knew those photos. They were the same photos Rafe had been showing when Cam had found him in DC to tell him about Laura. They haunted him. Black and white. Stark. A woman in bondage, her unseeing eyes looking up at the camera. It didn’t matter that he couldn’t see the red of the blood. He could smell it. Acrid and coppery. He hadn’t been at the scene of this woman’s death, but he’d seen enough of this killer’s work firsthand to know what it had been like. Clinical and pristine, the Marquis de Sade didn’t leave evidence in his wake, merely death and heartbreak. Even prostitutes had people who missed them, loved them, mourned them forever. He’d come so close to being one of those left behind.

Brad’s voice cut through his introspection. “This is the woman we believe now to be the latest victim of the Marquis de Sade. You can’t see it in the black and white version, but she’s wearing the same lipstick he put on you. The same lipstick he puts on all his victims. This occurred after you left DC and refused to help further with the investigation. The Marquis de Sade is working again. Do you feel a certain culpability in her death?”

Rafe stood and, before anyone could do a damn thing, had his fist on his partner’s face. He pummeled the son of a bitch, and chaos reigned. The room exploded in shouting.

Joe yelled at the two men to stand down. Edward moved out of the line of fire. Brad tried to fight back, but Rafe was meaner and way angrier. The door to the room opened, and Nate Wright entered with his deputy, pulling the men off of one another. The room seemed overheated. It was too loud, too full of testosterone. Cam was about to jump into the fray when he looked down and saw Laura.

She sat as still as a doll, staring at those photos. Her eyes were locked, her mouth slightly open. Guilt was easy to read on her face.

As everyone continued to shout, Cam dropped to one knee. “No, baby, this isn’t your fault.”

She didn’t look at him, but a single tear dropped from her eyes and splashed on the table.

Nate finally managed to pull Rafe off the man who would almost assuredly be his ex-partner as soon as the Bureau could fill out the paperwork. Logan got Brad to his feet.

“I’ll call Doc. This one is pretty messed up.” Logan didn’t seem to be bothered by the blood. The big, might-be-on-steroids deputy looked down at Brad. “You talk to her like that again, and I’ll be the one fucking you up, you understand that?”

“Logan.” Nate said the word between clenched teeth, and Logan walked out of the room.

Joe scrubbed a hand through his hair as he stared at Rafe. “Damn it, Kincaid. You leave me no choice. You are off this case. You’ll catch the first flight back to DC, and I’ll deal with you when this is over.”

Rafe didn’t even blink. He pulled his gun and badge out and laid them on the table. “I quit. You’ll have a formal resignation tomorrow.”

Joe stared, widemouthed. “You’ve got ten years in, son. Are you sure you want to do this?”

Rafe swallowed once, but nodded. “One of us will be legally married to Laura as soon as possible. We’ll have full legal rights. You won’t be able to shut us out. If you try, I swear to god I’ll bring the press in, and someone out there will write a hell of a story about how the Bureau is harassing victims because they can’t get the job done. You will leave my wife alone.”

Joe turned to Laura. “You understand what he’s trying to do? He’s going to bully you. He’s going to shut you off somewhere and hope this all goes away. It hasn’t gone away, and it won’t.”

Laura turned those tear-filled eyes upward. “You want to use me as bait.”

“That is not going to happen.” Cam stood and did what he’d wanted to do from the moment he’d found out the feds were in town. He picked her up, hooking his arm under her knees and pulling her to his chest. She didn’t fight, but she didn’t exactly cuddle against him, either. “You can fuck yourself, Joe.”

“You going to run away again, Rosen?” Brad’s face was still bleeding.

Edward shook his head. “How many more women will die because you’re too scared to face him?”

Rafe started toward Edward. Cam was almost to the door when he heard Laura’s reply.

“I’ll do it.”