Sophie Oak - Lost in Bliss

“I was a little surprised you didn’t listen to them.” Wolf stood just outside her door. The height of the seat allowed her to look straight into his calculating dark eyes. “If what you say is true, then one little conversation could clear everything up and send those boys on their way. Makes me wonder why you put them off.” Bastard. He shut the door and walked around the truck. She didn’t want to think about that. She wanted to stew. She wanted to rail. Why had she decided to let Wolf drive her? If she was with Holly, she could simply sit and fume. Holly would fume with her. Wolf was far too busy psychoanalyzing her.

Wolf hopped into the driver’s seat and started the truck to purring.

“No answer for that?”

“Is one required?” She hadn’t meant to sound that icy, had she?

He turned to her, one eyebrow climbing up his handsome face.

“No, but some courtesy would be nice.” And she finally, really figured Wolf Meyer out. He had always reminded her of someone, but she hadn’t been able to put her finger on it. That arched brow and the demand for courtesy did it. Stefan Talbot. Oh, yeah, Wolf Meyer was a Dom. He’d mentioned that his brother was in the lifestyle, but he’d conveniently left out his own interest in BDSM. She sighed. “I’m sorry. I really didn’t mean to be rude. I’m afraid they threw me for a loop.” She allowed her lips to quirk up a bit. “Will you forgive me if I call you Sir?” His cheekbones stained a slight red. “Gave myself away, did I?

Well, I always knew you would be hesitant about that part of my life.

It was never going to work, was it?”

He pulled out onto the road.

“Sorry, I’m afraid that’s not really my cup of tea.”

“But I’m guessing ménage isn’t out of the question.” Now she was the one blushing. “And you go there, why? Most normal people would ask which one I had been involved with.”

“I’m not normal, and both of those men want you. They both wanted to murder me. You don’t get that possessive about a woman unless you’ve had her—or you’re completely insane. Given where we are, it could be either option.”

“It was just a fling.” She heard the hollowness in her voice. Damn it. She’d been good at hiding her emotions once. Now they were just hanging out all over the place.

“Do you really believe that?” Wolf asked as he turned toward the valley where a small cluster of cabins lay. “I don’t know if we were listening to the same conversation. I heard that they had been looking for you. The big guy quit his precious job in order to spend all of his time trying to hunt you down. The other guy practically ate you up with his eyes. They didn’t seem to be disengaged agents doing a job.” She wasn’t falling for their crap again. She wasn’t sure why they were here, but it didn’t matter. If anything, it was likely guilt that caused them to search for her. They had felt guilty when she’d been kidnapped. She could still remember waking up after surgery to the sounds of the two of them fighting about who was really at fault. Cam had blamed Rafe for selling her out. Rafe had pointed out that Cam hadn’t believed her profile either. It had been a nasty way to wake up.

And then the doctor had told her the bad news.

“When a member of one of the teams gets injured or dies, do you feel bad about it?”

Wolf’s face shut down, his jaw forming a hard line. He kept his eyes on the road in front of him. “Of course. Your team is your family.”

“Well, consider the BAU my team.”

“If that’s the way you want to play it, who am I to stop you?” Wolf was quiet the rest of the drive. He turned down the dirt road that led to her cabin. Holly’s cabin was beside Laura’s. Callie and her husbands lived close, but Laura always felt like she was the only person in the world when she shut the door to her cabin. It was her sanctuary.

As Laura got out of the truck, a wave of guilt rolled over her.

Wolf was a nice man, and she was using him. “I’m sorry. I really am.

I don’t know what came over me. I just didn’t want them to think I had been pining for them.”

She hadn’t. She really hadn’t. She didn’t think about them every day anymore. She’d gotten used to her life here in Bliss. She didn’t need them coming in here and disrupting everything. She was over them. She really was.

Liar.

Wolf smiled at her. “It’s all right. I knew it wouldn’t work out deep down. I just find you incredibly attractive, and women around these parts can be a little…interesting. I would move on and ask Holly out, but I hear she’s taken, and I don’t do the ménage thing even if the other parties are unavailable or so whacked out they can’t talk around the girl.”

It was an apt description of Holly’s plight. Wolf pulled the truck into her driveway and stopped. Laura slid out of her seat. “Well, I thank you anyway. I’ll tell them the truth tonight.”

“Don’t. I enjoy a little subterfuge. Let them sweat.” Wolf winked at her. “I’ll be back to pick you up for the dinner. It’ll be fun to see what your friend is like after a couple of hours of Mel.” Wolf pulled back out, and Laura was left alone.

She tried really hard not to think about what he’d said. After a long time staring at the river, she walked into her cabin to get dressed.

Cam pulled the SUV into the parking lot, gravel crunching under the wheels. Lights sparkled in the distance like little fireflies, and the hum of music could be heard even through the heavy doors of the car.

Cam squinted, trying to make out the individual forms swaying in the distance. The fairgrounds were lit with a mixture of twinkle lights and the full moon shining down. He craned his neck to look through the windshield.

Damn. The stars didn’t look like that in the city. They were like jewels in the sky here in Bliss.

“Are you ready to go?” Rafe asked. His voice seemed caught in his throat. He’d been quiet for hours, sitting in the booth of the diner while Cam talked to the insane dude.

He’d actually learned a lot while talking to Mel. He’d learned that everyone in town loved Laura. Mel had talked about her with great affection. The woman who ran the diner had talked about her, too.

Laura had formed real connections in this community, connections she had never formed in DC. Laura hadn’t known her neighbors. Cam understood. He didn’t particularly want to know the people he shared his rattrap complex with, either. He’d already had more conversation with Mel, the conspiracy kook, than he had with anyone in the last year or so. It made him realize just how isolated he’d become.

Cam watched as Rafe checked the clip on his Glock. “I feel weird not carrying.”

Rafe shook his head. “You don’t have a license to carry in the state of Colorado. And they would never have let you on a plane with a firearm.”

Rafe looked around the place, his dark eyes hawk-like.

“What are you looking for?” Cam asked. He hadn’t seen anything in this place that worried him. Sure, some of the people seemed a little weird, but they were harmless. Cam sighed, wondering if he’d been out of the game too long. Was he missing something?

“If you found her, de Sade could find her,” Rafe said.

“I doubt that,” Cam assured him. “She’s been very isolated here.

If she hadn’t taken that photo, I wouldn’t have found her. I can’t imagine that de Sade has written a software program that scans the net and identifies missing people through facial recognition.” Rafe shook his head, a slight nod that let Cam know he disagreed.

“That software exists, Cam.”

“Not like this, it doesn’t. I assure you mine is better. I tried several of the ones on the market before I gave up and built my own. What do you think I spent my money on?” It had taken him about a year and a half to design that software. His training in communications had been the reason the Bureau was interested in him in the first place. He’d left his actual programming behind when he joined the BAU. He’d concentrated on keeping the hardware up and the use of communications in the field, but he’d realized that he needed something more than what the market had when he couldn’t find Laura. He’d sold just about everything he had to make the software work, but it had paid off in the end. He’d found her.

And now she was with a former Navy SEAL.

She swayed in Wolf Meyer’s arms in the middle of the small dance floor. Fuck. He hated that man. Cam had spent the afternoon in their tiny motel room using freaking dial-up to come up with everything he could on Wolf Meyer. Of course, it wasn’t much. The Navy kept a lot of things classified, and Wolf Meyer seemed to be one of them. Unless he wanted to hack into the Navy’s classified files and risk bringing the wrath of God down on himself, he had to let the particulars go. Cam didn’t care that Wolf was a badass who had honorably served his country for years. The asshole was horning in on Cam’s woman, and he wasn’t going to sit back and let it happen.

“If you just let me borrow your sidearm, I could take care of one of our problems,” Cam said between clenched teeth.

“You can’t shoot him,” Rafe said with a sigh. “I wish we could, but we need to concentrate on what’s important.”

“Protecting Laura,” Cam replied. It was, in the end, all that mattered.

“Gentlemen, can I help you?”

Cam turned and saw a man in a khaki uniform.

Rafe nodded. “Sheriff Wright.”

Cam held out a hand. Rafe had made contact with local law enforcement. Nathan Wright, according to Rafe, was deeply concerned about the problem.

“Have you done a perimeter sweep?” Rafe asked.