“You’re certain?” Rafe asked, his heart racing as he put the SUV in reverse and jammed his foot on the gas. He was pretty sure he hadn’t locked the motel door, but it didn’t matter.

Nothing mattered except getting to Laura.

Cam clicked his seat belt into place and turned to Rafe, gesturing toward the computer. “It’s right here. I know it’s not conclusive, but this is it. This is what we’ve been looking for. The lipstick connects the cases. Purple Passion. The lipstick is listed in the evidence log for Marla Stone’s suicide. Joe’s wife is the connection. She’s wearing the same lipstick that the Marquis de Sade puts on all his victims. That can’t be a coincidence. Tell me you think I’m wrong. Tell me Laura isn’t in the same building with the man who almost killed her.”

“It was a suicide.” Rafe said the words, but he no longer believed them.

“I don’t think so. I think she’s the first.” Cam still had his laptop up and running. He struggled to keep the thing steady. “She slit her wrists. Damn. And she was pregnant according to the autopsy. She said in her suicide note—which was typed and unsigned—that she couldn’t handle what she had done and called herself a whore. The police concluded she’d been having an affair with a coworker.”

Rafe let his eyes close briefly. “That’s why he tortured the victims with shallow wounds to their lower abdomen. That was probably what he wanted to do to her the first time, but Joe has always been a disciplined bastard. He planned it. He knew he couldn’t get away with torturing her, so he staged a suicide, but he couldn’t let it go. The first victim was killed a year after Marla, and every six to seven months after, he killed again. He was killing her over and over again.”

“That would be my take on it,” Cam replied. “And after we found the first couple of victims and the news reports started, he couldn’t help himself. He had to control his image. He needed more than just the killing. He needed the attention. He asked for our team to be assigned to this case, you know.”

“I remember it well.” Rafe remembered how Joe had gone over all the evidence the DC metro police had found before deciding it was a serial case and calling in the Bureau. He’d thought Joe was excited about taking on a big case. The bastard had talked about how smart the killer was. He went on and on about how hard it would be to catch this one. At the time, he’d taken it as Joe issuing a challenge to his team.

Joseph Stone had been bragging.

Cam broke through his dark thoughts. Fingers flew across the keyboard in a flurry. “It gets worse. Did you know Joe had a brother? He’s in a mental institution and has been for years. He was discovered torturing animals and was accused of raping a neighborhood girl. Do you know who the star witness was in his trial?”

His stomach turned again as he realized how long his boss had been lying. “Joe, I’m sure.”

“His brother’s IQ is under 80. It would have been easy for Joe to make him the scapegoat. The girl didn’t see who it was because the attacker wore a mask, but forensics led to someone from next door. Apparently Joe’s mother had some rare plants in her home that tracked to the crime scene. Joe gave up his brother. Joe testified that he’d covered his brother’s violent streak for years. The fucker was seventeen years old. And his father divorced his mother for cheating on him. God, what a pattern.”

For the normal person, it was a pattern that would lead to bitterness and a host of self-destructive tendencies. But with that rare person, it led to focusing the rage outward. Joe was a super predator. The tendency had always been there. Rafe knew the pattern well. Most serial killers had similar stories. Joe had undoubtedly been the one to torture animals as a kid. Joe had been the one to rape his neighbor. It had been his luck that he’d had a handy scapegoat, or Joe would have been discovered. Rafe could guess how things had gone after that close call. Joe had hidden his monster for years until the inciting incident—discovering his wife was pregnant with another man’s child. Then he couldn’t hold it in any longer. The fact that he’d planned his wife’s death was a testament to Joe’s discipline.

If Joe intended to kill Laura, he would have an excellent plan in place.

Cam was staring at the screen as though he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “He’s hidden this for years. Do you think he laughed the whole time we were profiling the Marquis de Sade?”

“I bet he did,” Rafe replied.

He’d never known the man. He’d worked beside him for years, and he’d never seen the monster behind the mask. Joe had been the one to sit down with him after Laura left. He’d listened. He’d bought him beers, and Rafe had gone over everything that had happened to her.

“The fucker enjoyed listening to me. The whole time I was moaning about Laura, he was enjoying my pain,” he said, finally understanding.

Cam nodded, his lips a grim line. “Yes, he would. He would enjoy the misery he caused. Being in charge of the case had to have given him an enormous amount of satisfaction. He was able to manipulate things his way. And when Laura got too close, he tried to kill her.”

“Is the radio working?” They had tried a couple of times already. Bile rose in his throat at the thought of Laura being in the same state as Joe, much less the same room.

Cam switched some dials on the radio he held. “This is Cameron Briggs. Can anyone hear me?” He groaned. “And no one is answering. What the hell? The station is supposed to be manned. I know there are at least five people in that building. Why aren’t they answering?”

Rafe hit the gas again, cursing the fact that the motel was on the outskirts of town. “Try the direct frequency for the sheriff.”

Frustration dripped from Cam’s voice as he closed the laptop and set it at his feet, his whole attention focused on the radio in his hands. “I’ve done that twice now. I’m not getting anything. I’ve even tried to switch the frequency to see if I can get anyone in town to answer.”

Rafe pounded his fist on the steering wheel. “Something’s wrong. I know it.”

His every instinct was screaming at him that this situation was ripe with danger. Something had happened.

“I’ll see if I can get Logan. Maybe he’ll know what’s going on,” Cam said.

When Nate Wright had radioed in earlier, Joe hadn’t been at the station. He’d been on site, possibly making sure he’d cleaned up properly after himself and getting rid of pesky pieces of evidence. Joe had always joked that he, himself, was the smartest man he knew. That arrogance had seemed like a funny quirk. Now Rafe could see that Joe truly believed it. He thought he was above the law.

Cam changed the frequency again and let out a shout of triumph as he got an answer. “Thank god. Logan. Logan, it’s Cam and Rafe. We need to know if the SAC is still at the site.”

Logan’s voice crackled over the line. “Your SAC is a jerk. He had me bring all this crap out here and now he’s gone. I asked some of the forensic guys and no one’s seen him. And the forensic guys are looking at me like I’m stupid. I fucking hate that. He wasn’t at the station when I left. Is it standard FBI procedure to disappear in the middle of an investigation?”

Rafe’s skin went cold. “Who’s at the station with Laura?”

There was a slight pause, and then Logan didn’t sound quite so pissed off. “Nate. Nate’s there. I’ll get him on the radio.”

The connection got quiet for a minute.

“He wouldn’t take her in the middle of the day.” Cam’s words came out almost like a prayer.

“He’ll do anything it takes.” God, he needed a gun. Why had he given up his gun?

Logan’s voice came back on the line. “Nate isn’t answering. No one’s answering. I’m getting in my Bronco right now. I can be there in ten minutes.”

Ten minutes was too long. He turned onto Main Street. Unlike the other times he’d been on the street, it was almost deserted. The line of businesses and restaurants was eerily quiet. There was one truck parked outside the Trading Post. It was big and black. Rafe recognized it because he’d thought sincerely about firebombing it with its owner inside. Now Rafe couldn’t think of a single person he’d rather see more than Wolf Meyer.

He stopped the SUV in the middle of the street when he saw Wolf walking away from the front door of the Trading Post, scratching his head at the Closed sign.

Wolf was dressed in a black T-shirt, jeans, and boots. He looked very military and substantial. Rafe hopped out, leaving the engine running.

“Hey, have you got any idea what’s going on? Why the hell is everything closed in the middle of the week?” Wolf asked.

He didn’t have time to answer the man’s questions. “I need a gun.”

Wolf Meyer looked like a man who kept a gun handy.

Wolf went from confused to stone-cold professional in a heartbeat. He moved toward his truck. “What’s happened with Laura?”

No hesitation from the ex-SEAL.

“We figured out who the killer is, and we think he’s after her. Nate took her in to be interviewed while we were getting the files we needed, and now we can’t raise anyone from the station,” Cam explained.

“Fucker.” Wolf pulled back the front seat, and his hand disappeared. “There’s no way Nate lets anything happen to her. We have to think that Nate’s not answering for a reason.”

“Yes, he’s either run with her or he’s down.” Rafe didn’t even want to think about that. If Joe had killed the sheriff, he wasn’t sure how he was going to live with himself. Of course, if Joe killed Laura, he wasn’t sure he wanted to live at all.

“Nate’s going to be a tough kill,” Wolf said, his voice gruff as he pulled out a black bag. He unzipped the bag and started pulling out what looked like an endless supply of things with which to kill people. He’d definitely come to the right place. “Sig Sauer P226.”

“I’m familiar.” The minute Wolf put that big black gun in his hand, Rafe felt infinitely better. He checked the chamber and made sure it was loaded and ready to go. “How many more do you have?”

Wolf grimaced. “More than I should have. And a couple of knives. Taser unit. Two shotguns.”

“Are you planning on starting a war?” Cam asked, holding his hand out for his weapon. He proved he was familiar with firearms, too, when Wolf handed him another P226.

Wolf reached back in his truck and came up with a scoped rifle. “My mom and potential future step-dad,” he stumbled on the word, groaning around it, “they might be crazy, but they’re right about this town. It’s dangerous. I’m loaded and ready to go. Russian mob. Stalkers. Biker gangs. Hell, aliens. I’m ready to take them all down.”

Rafe was grateful for all the help he could get. He’d use anyone if it meant getting Laura back alive and whole. He couldn’t fail her again. “Will you come with us?”

“Of course.” Wolf slammed the truck door shut. “What are you going to do with this guy? Do you have enough to arrest him?”

“I’m going to get him alone, and I’m going to kill him,” Rafe said. Even as the words came out of his mouth, he knew he shouldn’t have spoken them out loud, but he couldn’t take them back. He meant every word.

Wolf stared at him for a moment. “See that you do. And then tell me what your alibi is. I’ll back you up. So will any man in this town. They won’t be able to prosecute you. Make sure you get rid of the gun. And wipe it down first.”

Wolf sounded like he knew how to play dirty, but then he was sure the SEALs had taught him that. They didn’t play fair when the country’s safety was at stake, and Rafe didn’t intend to play fair, either.

Wolf nodded as he started toward the sheriff’s department building. It was only a block away, but it seemed like a mile to Rafe.

Rafe turned to his partner, the only person in the world who understood how much was at stake. “Let’s go get her.”

He watched Cam swallow down his fear and turn stony cold. “I’m ready.”

Rafe walked toward the sheriff’s department, his mind set to the task.

 

* * * *

 

Cam went in the front door, gun at the ready. Wolf followed behind him while Rafe went up the alley to sneak in the back. Cam’s heart was in his throat. He checked his emotions so he wouldn’t take one look at Joseph Stone and pull the trigger.

He was shocked at how normal the station seemed.

A young woman dressed in a long skirt and loose shirt walked out into the main room as Cam and Wolf strode in. Her eyes went wide as she saw the guns in their hands. “Deputy Briggs? Is there something I should know?”

Hope. Nate had introduced her as Hope. “Where’s Laura?”

“She’s in with the sheriff. I was taking a break.” Hope strode over to open her boss’s door, and then a shriek came out of her mouth. “Sheriff!”

Cam ran. Now some of the others were coming out of the interrogation room. Edward actually called out for him to stop, but Cam ignored the man. Bile welled in his throat when he saw the sheriff slumped over his desk. The desk was in complete disarray. He’d knocked over a thermos, and coffee was everywhere.

“We need to call a bus,” Rafe yelled from the small room in the back. “Brad is down.”

“I’m fine.” Brad sounded cranky, but Cam was focused on the sheriff. Wolf got in behind the big man and tried to pull him up.

“He’s got a pulse.” Wolf struggled as he forced Nate Wright’s big body up. “Come on, Sheriff. It’s time to wake up and possibly purge.”

Where was Laura?

Chaos ruled all around him. He couldn’t place all the voices shouting.

“Call Caleb. Half-alive sheriff is more important than dead reporter.”

“We have to get him on his feet.”

“What happened to Special Agent Conrad?”

“Where’s Laura?”

Where was Laura?

“Stop.” Cam’s roar filled the room, and everyone stopped. “Hope, get Caleb over here. Edward, you stay. Wolf, get the sheriff into the bathroom. Everyone else, clear the room. When Logan gets here, send him in.”

“I need to sleep.” The sheriff tried to shove Wolf away.

Wolf wasn’t having it. “No, Sheriff, you need to spend a little time in the bathroom.”

“Can’t. Gotta keep it open for Callie.” But the sheriff was on his feet, stumbling toward where Wolf wanted him to go.

Rafe helped Brad sit down. “What the hell happened?”

Brad’s forehead was swollen above his right eye, and his face was covered in blood. It seemed to have stopped, but Brad held a towel to his head anyway. “I walked in to ask the sheriff about the recording equipment, and I found him like that. I realized something was wrong, and I tried to get your girl out of here, but she attacked me. I hit my head and then nothing.” He turned to Edward. “Where the hell were you?”

Rafe shook his head. “It wasn’t Edward. It was Joe. We need to figure out where Joe would have taken Laura.”

Edward’s face went a stark white. “It can’t be Joe. Joe is helping process the body. He told me to handle the cameraman because he needed to focus on evidence.”

Cam was sick of everyone hiding their heads in the sand. “He killed his wife, and now he has mine. You’re the closest one of all of us to him. Where would he go?”

Edward shook his head as if he was trying to wake up from some nightmare. “He loved Marla. He loved her so much. He was devastated when she died.”

“Edward, snap the fuck out of it.” Cam needed a different tactic. Just because Edward was blind didn’t mean he was stupid. “I need you to focus. You know more about the actual facts of this case than anyone. Stop thinking of him as Joe. He’s the Marquis de Sade. Where would he take her? Where would he go?”

Edward swallowed, and for a moment, Cam worried that he wouldn’t answer.

“Somewhere isolated,” Rafe prompted the profiler.

Edward nodded. “Yes. Isolated. He prefers places that no one looks at. Places that blend into the background. It’s why he worked in abandoned warehouses. There was plenty of space and no one to hear his victim’s screams. He could work in privacy.”

“He’s not going to find a warehouse out here.” There wasn’t anything industrial about Bliss.

A bang resounded through the room as the door slammed opened, and Caleb Burke rushed in. “Where’s Nate? Do we have any idea what he ingested?”

“Some type of sedative,” Cam guessed.

The doctor slammed his bag on the desk. “Shit. And we have no idea how much? No chance it was anything acidic?”

“I don’t know.” He felt utterly helpless.

“Joe has a prescription for sleeping pills. I would assume it’s that. It’s a common prescription. He could easily call it coincidence if anyone thought to ask,” Brad said. “I saw the bottle in his hotel room the other day.”

Caleb strode toward the bathroom. “Holly, have that charcoal ready.”

Cam turned, and Holly stood in the doorway, a mug in her hands and tears in her eyes. Caleb had come prepared. “He has Laura?”

“Yes,” Rafe replied. “We’re trying to figure out where he would take her.”

“Would it be the same place he took that reporter?” Holly asked. It was easy to see that she was forcing herself to hold it together. Her hands shook and there was a pale fragility to her face.

Of course. He already had his kill spot. “It has to be close. He was here this morning. When is the first time anyone remembers seeing him?”

“We all got the call at seven,” Brad said.

“I heard him in his room far earlier than that.” Edward sounded stronger now. “I have the room next to his. He was in his bathroom running the shower at four this morning. The walls are paper thin, and I’m a horrible sleeper. Anything wakes me up. Unless someone else was using his shower, he was in his room at four.”

Now they were getting somewhere. Cam looked into the bathroom. Wolf had Nate upright, one hand around his waist and the other under Nate’s arms.

“You’re going to swallow this.” Caleb didn’t sound like he would take no for an answer.

“Don’t wanna,” Nate said, struggling against Wolf’s hold.

Caleb didn’t back down. “And I don’t want to get covered in vomit, but that’s probably what’s going to happen.”

Cam did not want to watch that. “Have you figured out the time of death on Jana Evans?”

“According to liver temp, I would say no later than 2:30 this morning.” Caleb held up Nate’s head and tipped back the small container he held. “I would leave now. It’s about to get messy. Ipecac doesn’t take long. Wolf, get him over the sink. I need the contents of his stomach for testing.”

Cam stepped out as the ipecac began to work. “Did you hear that?”

Cam noticed Logan had arrived. His face betrayed no emotion as Logan stared at the bathroom. “Is Nate going to be okay?”

“I think so,” Cam said. “Caleb’s taking care of him. Now, we’re trying to figure out places to look for Laura.”

Logan nodded. “I got that. I heard Joe was in his room at 4:00, and the reporter was killed at roughly 2:30. He’s got to be in the area. He couldn’t be farther than Del Norte. Creede is forty minutes away. There are only a couple of spreads between here and there, and all of them are occupied right now. We have a lot of land, but our population is small. We all know each other.”

“There are no new developments?” Rafe asked, frustration evident in his tone.

“No.” Holly’s hands were shaking slightly. “You would have to go about a hundred miles east to Alamosa to find any real development projects. We have some summer cabins, but they’re mostly privately owned. I could call and see if they’re occupied.”

“You do that. Have Hope help you.” Cam took the mug out of her hand. “I’ll pass this to Caleb when he needs it. Also, check on anything that’s for sale in the area. He needs to know that the place won’t be occupied. He would make sure of it.”

The horrible noise coming from the bathroom stopped, and Wolf reappeared, his face a surprising shade of green. For the first time, the man didn’t look like the all-American hero. “Caleb needs the activated charcoal. Nate’s going to be fine. I’m not sure about me though.”

Cam passed the mug. “We’re trying to come up with an isolated place within about twenty minutes driving distance. Do you know of any cabins that are unoccupied? Places people would easily identify as empty?”

Wolf passed the mug but kept his eyes on Cam. If anything, he got even sicker looking. “Wasn’t this guy at the town hall meeting?”

Edward looked up. “Yes, we all were. Joe insisted on it.”

“Then he knows about my mom and Mel,” Wolf replied.

Cam went still. “Where is this Mel’s place? Everyone is talking about the fact that they won’t come out of their bunker until the feds are gone. Joe has to know that.”

“He laughed about it,” Brad interjected.

“We need to get out there,” Rafe said, walking toward the door.

“Mel’s place is a no-go. He has all kinds of whacked-out security, including cameras he can monitor from his bunker,” Logan said.

“But my mom doesn’t. She refused to spend the money. She just planted beets everywhere. She thinks they’ll keep the aliens away.” Wolf took a deep breath and visibly stilled. He was back to being in control. “Her place is right on the county line. You can easily get there in fifteen minutes, and her closest neighbor is two miles away.”

If Wolf was wrong, Laura could be dead by the time he figured out where else to search. He looked to Rafe. He stared at his partner and was suddenly so fucking grateful he wasn’t in this alone.

“We’re going out there.” He turned because there wasn’t a moment to waste. “Edward, you wait here, and if Hope and Holly come up with anything, you check it out. Brad, you need to have the doctor check you out. Logan and Wolf are coming with us.”

“Stop.”

Cam turned, and Nate Wright stood in the doorway looking like death warmed over. “Consider yourself on the clock, son. You do what you need to do and with the full weight of a badge behind it.”

Cam nodded and they all hit the ground running.