“Do you know those men?” Wolf asked.
She knew every inch of those men. She knew just how Rafe liked
his cock sucked and that Cam could eat pussy all night long. She
knew them intimately and far beyond the physical ways they liked to
fuck. She’d spent a year with them just getting to know them. She’d
spent a year working and drinking and talking. She knew Cam was
ashamed of how he’d grown up and Rafe hated that people knew he
came from wealth.
Lost in Bliss
39
She knew they valued their placement in the FBI far more than
they could ever love a woman.
Laura nodded.
“From the look on your face, it wasn’t a good thing. Do I need to
kick some ass?”
“No,” she said quickly. Wolf would do it, and he would get in
trouble.
Rafe and Cam were looking up and down the street, their mouths
moving in short, clipped words. Finally, almost in slow motion to
Laura’s mind, Cam turned and stopped. He stood looking at her in the
window, as still as a statue. Rafe watched him for a moment, and then
turned as well.
“Laura.” There was no mistaking the word Rafe’s mouth made.
Laura stood, utterly panicked at the thought of them walking in
and realizing that after five years she still wasn’t over them. How
pathetic was that?
Rafe moved first, followed by Cam. They stormed into the
Trading Post, stalking through the tourist merchandise and the little
candy aisle until they made it to the tea room.
“Laura.” Cam was the one who said her name now. “We found
you.”
“No thanks to him,” Rafe said, eyeing Wolf, who stood beside
her. “He sent us on a wild-goose chase. You look good, bella.”
Bella. Beautiful. It was what he’d called her when they had made love. How dare he ever call her that again.
What if they had come after her? What if they had figured out
what a mistake they had made? Rafe was eating her up with his eyes.
Cam was pulling his alpha male act, staring Wolf down. What if they
had searched for her, longed for her the way she’d longed for them?
“You know what you did was illegal,” Cam was saying, his icy
blue eyes laser-focused on Wolf. She stared at him for a long
moment. His golden hair was cut short. She’d always wanted to see
what it would look like longer, but Cam liked the simplicity. It
40
Sophie Oak
highlighted his masculine face. Cam was all sharp angles with the
exception of his sensual lips. God, she remembered what it felt like to
have his mouth on her. “You impeded an investigation. You lied to
duly appointed federal agents.”
Laura let her hope die. It hadn’t been a big hope anyway. They
were here on a case. Of course. How silly to think they still gave a
damn about her.
“Who the hell do you think you are?” Cam asked Wolf.
Laura said the words without really thinking. It was instinct that
caused her to protect herself. She slid her hand into Wolf’s and lied
through her teeth.
“He’s my fiancé.”
Rafe’s face fell. Cam took a step back.
Wolf hauled her close. “You know how it goes, gentlemen. I’m
not one to let a little thing like an investigation get in the way of true love.”
Yep. Wolf Meyer was cool as a cucumber under pressure.
And Laura Niles was definitely under pressure.
Lost in Bliss
41
Chapter Three
Cam Briggs felt like his gut had been kicked straight out of his
body.
Engaged? How the hell could she be engaged? Cam had spent the
last five years of his life thinking of nothing but Laura, and she had
been getting engaged to some dickwad military guy.
He had to be military. Ex-military, Cam would bet. And that dude
wasn’t afraid of a little PDA.
“Sorry, I had no idea why you were looking for her,” said the
asshole who seemed to be trying to inhale Laura’s hand. He had
brought her hand to his lips, and his other arm had snaked around her
waist, drawing her close to his body. “When you have something this
gorgeous, you have to take care of it.”
“She’s not an ‘it,’” Cam snarled.
Rafe put a hand out, a silent request that Cam stay calm. It was a
familiar gesture to Cam. Rafe took over, all smooth professionalism.
“We understand,” Rafe said, gesturing to the table behind Laura.
“If I had a fiancée as beautiful as yours, I would protect her at all
costs, too. Please, if you would sit with us, we do need to talk to your fiancée.”
Cam tried to get to that calm place that seemed to come so easily
to Rafe.
As Laura and her affianced asshole sat down, Rafe leaned in and
whispered in his ear.
“Watch them. There’s something wrong with this scenario,” Rafe
said. “Look at her body language.”
42
Sophie Oak
Cam settled down. Rafe had always been good at getting him to
think. It had been that way ever since the first day they had been
partnered up. Rafe had just known how to deal with him. Rafe had
made him comfortable.
He hadn’t been comfortable for five years. Maybe he’d missed
more than Laura.
“Laura, it’s good to see you.” Rafe’s voice had taken on that soft,
soothing tone he used on reluctant witnesses.
Cam looked at her. Really looked at her. When he’d seen her
before, all he’d been able to see was the woman he loved, her golden
blonde hair, her sky-blue eyes. She was curvier than she had been
before. It looked damn good on her. She was wearing a form-fitting
pinkish dress that hugged her new curves. And her breasts. Damn,
they were bigger, too. Plump and round, they looked like they were
about to pop out of her dress. They would fill his hands now.
She’d looked like a model before. She looked like a woman now,
a delicious, luscious woman.
And she belonged to someone else.
She smiled, but it was her fake smile, the one she used on people
who annoyed her but she had to put up with. It didn’t reach her eyes.
“You, too, Special Agent Kincaid. Apparently you’ve already met my
fiancé, Wolf Meyer.”
Wolf’s lips curled up in a smirk. “He’s had the pleasure. Though
neither of you seemed interested in giving me your names.”
Laura’s manners seemed to take over. “This is Special Agent
Rafael Kincaid and Special Agent Cameron Briggs. I worked with
them when I was in the FBI. We worked a couple of very important
cases together. I take it that’s why you’re here.”
Cam felt a foot nudge against his. It was a long-used cue for the
bad cop to come out. In this case, the bad cop was the honest one.
Damn, he’d missed working with Rafe. “I’m not an agent anymore.”
Laura’s eyes flared, and her mouth opened slightly.
Lost in Bliss
43
“You’re sure dressed like one, buddy,” Wolf said. There was no
mistaking the mocking tone of his voice.
Laura didn’t seem amused. She shifted slightly, as though
uncomfortable. She didn’t look like a woman who was used to the
man beside her. Rafe was right. Something was wrong. Though he
knew it made him a bastard, a fierce joy lit in Cam’s belly. If
something was wrong between Laura and her fiancé, then there was
still a chance.
“What do you mean you aren’t with the Bureau anymore?”
“I left. I resigned about a year after you disappeared. I had a job to
do, and I couldn’t do it at the Bureau.”
Rafe settled back in his chair. “We decided that one of us should
look for you full-time. Cam became a private investigator, and I
stayed on at the FBI to watch the case.”
“You’ve been looking for me?”
A small, older lady walked up, a pleated white apron wrapped
around her slender form. “Hello, welcome to the Tea Room. Can I get
you anything?”
Cam softened. The older woman reminded him of his mom. She
looked a little tired, but there was a smile on her face anyway. He
hated tea, but he couldn’t refuse her. “I’ll take whatever she’s
having.”
“And I would love a cup of chai if you have it,” Rafe added.
Laura introduced them, her southern manners taking over. The
woman in the apron was named Teeny Green. Cam shook her hand
and assured her he was pleased to meet her.
“Anything for you, Wolf?” Teeny asked.
“I’m fine. Laura and I were just discussing our wedding plans.”
Wolf’s hand went to the back of Laura’s neck, sliding over it as
though he enjoyed the intimate touch.
Teeny stopped and stared for a moment. She looked from Wolf to
Cam and Rafe. Her eyes narrowed. “Did you boys know Laura from
her days in the FBI?”
44
Sophie Oak
“Yes, ma’am,” Rafe said. “We knew her very well.”
“Oh, that’s interesting. Well, we’re so happy to have her in Bliss,”
Teeny said. “And we’re thrilled to have so many weddings this year.”
“Well, we were thinking of eloping,” Laura said, fidgeting.
“No, no, dear,” Teeny replied. “I think it should be huge. We’ll
have to look over flowers and get those ordered.”
“Absolutely,” Wolf said. “Nothing but the best for my bride.
We’re going to fill the church with flowers. And we’ll want to release
doves at the end of the ceremony, won’t we? To symbolize our love.”
And he was an idiot. Who released doves? Birds crapped
everywhere. It didn’t seem like a smart thing to unleash on a wedding
party. If Cam was marrying Laura, he would do just what she’d
suggested. He would take her to Vegas, sign whatever papers he had
to, and then get to the good part. He and Rafe would keep her in bed
for days.
It was getting easier and easier to think that way. She was theirs.
Not just his. Laura belonged to them.
Teeny reached around and pulled two white T-shirts off a rack.
“And Laura, you need to get those boys out of the suits. Mel is going
to freak when he sees them, and the Doc will have to tranq him again.
They can have these. Why the mayor thought it was a good idea to let
Zane head the Rehab Bliss committee, I have no idea. I knew that boy
was up to something when he volunteered to do it. Now I have a
hundred T-shirts. What am I going to do with them?”
Teeny held out the shirt.
The Trading Post
We make murder clean up easy
Cam couldn’t help but laugh.
“You should see the shirts he made for Stella’s,” Laura
murmured. “I’ll make sure they’re properly dressed before Mel sees
Lost in Bliss
45
them. And if you wouldn’t mind letting Holly and Nell know I’m
down here with my fiancé?”
“I intend to tell everyone, dear,” Teeny said as she walked away.
“So why did you come all the way out here?” Laura asked, her
voice crisp and tight. She seemed to be done with small talk.
Time for the bad cop again. “De Sade is back.”
There was no way to soften it, and he wouldn’t try. Rafe’s
approach worked on witnesses, but Laura was tough. She wouldn’t
want to be handled with kid gloves. She was smart and capable, and
Cam wouldn’t treat her any other way.
Her face lost every ounce of color, and it was all Cam could do
not to take her in his arms. She might be capable, but that didn’t mean
he didn’t want to shelter her, or at least let her know she wasn’t in this alone. Fiancé or no fiancé, he wouldn’t walk away from her. Not until
the Marquis de Sade was dead or behind bars.
“We found a body just last week in the warehouse district of DC.
Same MO. The victim was a prostitute,” Rafe explained in a calm,
matter-of-fact manner.
Now Wolf was sitting up, his shoulders set in something other
than decadent playfulness. “Who are we talking about? Does this have
to do with a case Laura worked when she was in the FBI?”
Rafe turned, his brows up slightly. It was his what-the-fuck look.
Cam was sure the same expression was on his face. Laura hadn’t told
her fiancé about the biggest case of her career? She hadn’t told the
man she loved about the case that had almost gotten her killed?
“Have you heard of the Marquis de Sade?”
Wolf snorted. “Well, if you knew who my brother was, you would
know the answer to that. Sometimes I think my brother works for the
bastard.”
“Not the French aristocrat.”
Laura held a hand up. “He’s been overseas for years. He just got
out of the Navy. He’s not up on all the latest serial killers.”
“Serial killers? Why are we talking about serial killers?”
46
Sophie Oak
Cam looked up as two women entered the small dining area. They
wore matching dresses, the same as the one Laura wore. One was a
voluptuous redhead with a suspicious grin on her face. The other was
a sweet-looking brunette.
“No reason at all, Holly,” Laura said, standing up suddenly.
“These gentlemen are with the FBI, well, Special Agent Kincaid is.
He’s with a unit called the BAU. The Behavioral Analysis Unit.”
“You used to work there,” Holly said.
Cam studied the redhead. She had spoken of Laura’s work with
friendly curiosity. There was no horror or fear in the redhead’s words.
Laura hadn’t told Holly what had happened to her, either. Had she
told a single soul in this town what she’d been through? Had she held
it in all these years?
“Yes, where I used to work. Special Agent Kincaid, Cameron
Briggs, and I were friends,” Laura said. “They thought I should know
about what’s been going on in the Bureau since I left.”
Friends? Friends? Cam had a sudden urge to get up out of the
chair, haul her into his arms, and remind her of just how friendly they
had been. He could still feel her pussy clench around his cock, and he
hadn’t slept with her in five years.
“It’s a bit more than that,” Rafe said.
“
This isn’t some reunion, Laura. This is serious.” This wasn’t how
he’d expected this to go. Cam didn’t know what he’d expected, but it
wasn’t sitting in some tea room meeting all of Laura’s new small-
town friends. It sure as fuck hadn’t included meeting her fiancé. Now
she was treating them like they’d just breezed into town for a little
chat and they would breeze right out. She was going to be terribly
disappointed.
“How serious?” Holly asked.
The dark-haired woman next to her was gesturing wildly. Both
Holly and Laura watched her.
“No, Nell, a serial killer isn’t coming to Bliss,” Laura said with a
long sigh.
Lost in Bliss
47
Holly shrugged. “Sorry, she’s taken a vow of silence, and I think
you know why, future Mrs. Wolf Meyer.”
“You two are totally invited to our wedding,” Wolf offered.
“What’s this about a serial killer coming to town?” Teeny asked
as she set down the tea. “Did they hear about the T-shirts? I don’t care how big that Zane Hollister is, if we attract serial killers because of
his smart mouth, I can put him over my knee. Has anyone told the
sheriff yet?”
“No one needs to tell the sheriff,” Laura said.
Rafe held a hand up. “Actually, we probably do need to liaise with
the sheriff. Does anyone know where he is? There’s a sign on the
door that claims he’s out fishing.”
The brunette brought her foot down. Despite the elegant dress she
wore, there was a pair of hippie-dippy sandals on her feet. She
gestured around the room, her arms flying about and a wild look in
her eyes.
“Sorry, she wants you to understand that she believes that the Rio
Grande is overfished in this part of the world,” Holly explained.
The brunette’s arms went wide.
“In every part of the world,” Holly corrected. She shrugged as
though in apology. “Well, every part that the Rio Grande is in. Nell
doesn’t appreciate the sheriff’s frequent fishing trips. Even though
most of the time he catches and releases.”
That didn’t seem to satisfy Nell. She put her forefinger in her
mouth like a hook and flapped her body around.
“No, Nell,” Laura said. “I wouldn’t like it either. It would