Rafe slid a glance his way.

“Fine, I’m a dick,” Brad replied. “I’m a thrice-divorced dickhead with very few friends. I’m not going to out you. You’re my partner.”

“Joe knows.” He’d poured his heart out to the SAC after Laura had disappeared.

“Then you’re fine. I’m not going over Joe’s head, but you have to be careful. There’s a reason we don’t get emotionally involved with any case.” Brad sat back. “Okay. As long as we’re putting all our cards on the table, I received a package yesterday. It came to my apartment, but it was addressed to Laura Rosen.” Rafe’s gut clenched. “Why would he send a package to you? He doesn’t send packages. He’s sent notes before.” De Sade had sent a couple of notes to both the Bureau and the newspapers, but he’d never sent a package before. And why would he send one addressed to Laura?

“I think I know why.” Brad gingerly touched his nose, looking in the passenger side vanity mirror. “I don’t have a family, and my building doesn’t have security cameras. And I’ve filed the last three official updates on the killings. I think de Sade has been watching for any sign of her.”

“How could he have known?”

Brad slumped back. “Because we have a leak somewhere. Jana Evans being here in this tiny piece of hell proves it. I’m sure she’s already filed a report back home. It will be the top story on the evening news. If reporters already have the story, why couldn’t de Sade? The package was sitting in front of my door when I went home yesterday afternoon.”

That would have been right around the time Joe had called. They had moved damn fast. And de Sade had done his homework, as always. He was everything Laura’s profile said he would be. Ruthless.

Intelligent. He had to have known that Brad’s building didn’t have great security. Damn, he probably had a file on every agent on the case. It would be easy, if he was law enforcement. “What was in that package?”

There was a little hesitation that let Rafe know it was going to be bad. “A single pair of women’s underwear. A small, pink thong.” Fuck. Laura had been found naked with only a thin sheet wrapped around her bleeding body. Among the clothes she listed as missing was a pink thong. Rafe had to swallow back the bile that threatened to come up. “No note?”

“No, but the message was clear. He knows we’ve found her. We have the lab working on DNA, and the box has been sent to forensics, but you know we won’t get anything off it. He’s too careful.”

“He does seem to have a working knowledge of forensics and how to avoid detection,” Rafe murmured.

“Yeah, anyone who watches TV does these days. I don’t buy that this guy is one of us. And you shouldn’t, either. I don’t want to argue about this. The Marquis de Sade is not an agent. He’s some asshole who has connections, I can buy that. We need to check into Jana Evans.”

Rafe had already thought of that. Jana herself wasn’t capable of breaking a nail, but it was obvious that whoever de Sade was, he was carefully watching the reporter. “I agree. Run a check on everyone around her, including that cameraman of hers.” She’d worked with this particular cameraman for as long as Rafe had known her. Bob Lewis or something. It couldn’t hurt to run a check. Including financials.

Brad pulled out his phone and started making notes. Rafe had to give that to Brad. He was an asshole, but he was organized. He was always on top of things. Cam forgot. Cam’s brain was always flitting around. Rafe had been the one to write things down. Sometimes Brad’s brutal efficiency bugged the shit out of Rafe.

Rafe sped down the road. It wasn’t like the locals were going to pull him over. The sheriff had his hands full of Feds, and the disgruntled deputy had Laura. “So why did Joe decide to go mobile?”

“Joe was worried about that package. He thought it was best if we came out here and talked to the vic…to Laura again. She’s our only connection. We need her.” Brad was silent for a moment. “We need you, too. I need to know that you can keep your head on straight.” Up ahead, Rafe could see the truck Wolf had driven off in parked in front of the Sheriff’s Office. Two Broncos sat in the parking lot, too, and several black SUVs. It looked like the gang was all here.

Woohoo.

“My head is on straight,” Rafe assured his partner. “I promise you, my brain is thinking about this case twenty-four-seven.”

“That’s what I want to hear, man.”

Rafe pulled into a parking space. His brain might be on the case, but Rafe had the sinking feeling that his brain wasn’t in charge anymore.

He knew he wasn’t in charge of anything when he walked through the double doors of the Bliss County Sheriff’s Department. It was utterly transformed from the quiet little station house he’d visited yesterday. Rafe had dropped by the station to officially introduce himself and inform the sheriff why he was in town after Cam had finished talking to the conspiracy kook.

There were folding tables and laptops everywhere. The sheriff stood in the middle of it all, a pained expression on his face. A small brunette in a long skirt and a button-down shirt stood next to him, a clipboard in her hand. She chewed on her lower lip as she carefully wrote on the paper. Rafe sought his memory. Hannah? Hope. The sheriff’s secretary’s name was Hope something. She’d been quiet as a mouse during yesterday’s interview with Nate Wright.

“Special Agent Kincaid,” Nate called out. He pushed through the crowd, his hand out. “Am I happy to see you.” That was a surprise since the sheriff hadn’t been happy to see him yesterday. Rafe shook the man’s hand. “Sheriff, I’m sorry about this. I had no idea they were coming. Despite what everyone thinks.” Nate had an easy smile on his face. “I believe you. I know how service is out here. Though you folks don’t seem to have the same problems. Your boss brought satellite phones.”

“Well, we have the best equipment. We’re not going to rely on locals when we can bring our own things. You should sit back and watch how it’s done, Sheriff.” Brad patted the sheriff’s shoulder condescendingly and walked off.

“Don’t shoot him,” Rafe said with a sigh. “He’s arrogant.” Nate shrugged it off. “I’ve dealt with worse. Hell, I’ve been worse. We need to talk.”

Rafe nodded. For some reason, he trusted Nate Wright. He’d learned a little bit about the sheriff. He was once a DEA agent. He wasn’t some lightweight. “And we will, once I get a lay of the land.

And it’s best if we don’t do it here.” Rafe wasn’t sure what the FBI coming to Bliss meant yet, but it never hurt to have allies. He had a feeling the sheriff would be a powerful ally.

“Sure, I suspect we can sneak off for lunch and no one will notice.

Your boss has already ordered in. He’s taken over my entire office.

Seriously, I hope I didn’t fucking act like this when I was a fed.” Rafe could only nod. He knew how it went. When the FBI decided it was taking over, local law enforcement was pretty much fucked. Up until now, it seemed like the right thing to do, but Rafe kind of liked Nathan Wright. He seemed very competent, but Rafe knew that Joe would cut Wright out. He would do it because no FBI SAC was going to truly trust the locals. And Rafe was pretty sure, in this case, that was a mistake.

“Where’s the special agent in charge?” Rafe had already looked around the small office and hadn’t seen Laura. Joe would have her.

Rafe had worked with Joe for years. He knew how Joe operated. Joe would have been all over her the minute Laura entered the room.

“Do you have an interrogation room?”

“A small one,” Nate replied. He pointed down a narrow hallway.

“She’s in there. Briggs went in with her. I thought she was going to punch him at first, but he managed to smooth talk her into letting him in there with her. The SAC said you could go in when you got here.

Do you need anything? Hope is making a run to Stella’s for coffee and breakfast.”

Rafe’s appetite had fled long before. There was nothing now but an angry lump in his gut, but he hoped it was different for Laura.

“Laura likes her coffee dark with just a hint of sugar. Can you make sure Hope brings her a dark roast with one sugar packet? And a bagel. She likes bagels with cinnamon cream cheese.” A hint of a smile played on Nate Wright’s mouth. “I believe that’s what she asked Hope to bring her, though she didn’t ask for the bagel.

I think she’s eating Holly’s banana bread.” Rafe nodded and walked through the hall toward the small closed door. He stopped. It felt like the walls were closing in on him. He’d been here before, back in DC. It was all the same. Narrow hallways and neutral colors leading to a room where questions were answered in monotones. Rafe had been in a hundred of these rooms. The fact that Laura sat in one now made him edgy. She was on the wrong side of the table. She was on the vulnerable side.

He hated that.

There was a weird feeling in the pit of his stomach. There was one reason and one reason only for the BAU to come out here and talk to Laura Rosen. She’d given them all the information she had. Her case was five years old. There was a chance they had come out here to simply talk to her—but Rafe discounted that possibility. Brad’s snippet of information made that scenario implausible. They didn’t want to talk to Laura. They wanted to use her.

For bait.

Fuck. Why had he told anyone? He should have taken a leave of absence and come here with Cam with no further agenda than seeing her again, holding her again. He’d fucked up, and Cam and Laura had every right to be pissed with him.

And yet, a certain amount of rage choked him. She’d walked out.