A responding heat flushed through her, but she held the gun firmly aimed in his direction. “That is what we did best.”
“What we do best,” he pointed out. He glanced at his bindings. “Is this really necessary?”
“Yes,” she said adamantly, lifting her gun a little higher. “Keep talking.”
He frowned at her weapon and then drew in a long, deep breath before addressing her again. “I’m working the Casanova Sadist case.”
The name registered. She’d seen the five murders all over the news since she’d arrived in New York City and knew more women were missing.
Rowan spoke easily, his shoulders loose and relaxed, all indicators he was telling the truth. “This killer has been using the dating app, SiR, which connects people who are involved in the BDSM lifestyle, and is abducting women.”
She studied the firmness in Rowan’s gaze. While she believed what he told her was the truth, she got the feeling he wasn’t telling her everything. “I take it the CIA is on the case now because the FBI has hit a dead end?”
Rowan gave a slow nod. “This killer is smart. The FBI cybercrime division has hit a wall over and over again. Every time they get close, the fucker diverts them. I need you to succeed where others have failed.”
She pondered what she’d heard and tapped her fingers against the chair. The killer was real. She’d heard that a week ago another young woman had been abducted by the Casanova Sadist, which led her to believe the FBI was getting nowhere on the case. That must be why Rowan was on the case now.
“Let’s say I believe what you’re telling me, why didn’t you go through proper channels to get me to work this case?” The CIA, as well as the FBI, had her ass. She couldn’t refuse any work they sent her way, or she’d get thrown into jail. The truth of that was depressing, and maybe partly why she still had no private life. Nothing in her life could really be private.
Rowan didn’t even miss a beat, his expression going stone-cold. “Because the CIA doesn’t know I’m working this case.”
She cocked her head, watching him very closely. “Now why exactly would one of their top agents not be on the case?”
Darkness stole over any warmth in his expression, and she recognized that emotion as he went on. “Because the last victim is my little sister, Mia, and by this killer’s MO, she has only two weeks before he kills her.”
Alex’s breath caught and her heart twisted. She knew the pain of a missing sister intimately. And when Lena had gone missing, Alex did everything to find her. She stared into the warm darkness of Rowan’s eyes and lowered the gun to the coffee table as Rowan pleaded, “Alex, please, will you help me?”
CHAPTER 3
THE ROPE BURNED against Rowan’s flesh, and not in a good way, while he sat bound to the chair. He gave Alex the chance to process what he told her, noting during the passing seconds the dark worry in her gaze indicated she believed him. The fact that she finally set the gun down told him she understood his reasoning. But he still reeled in the knowledge that she thought she’d left him in Paris. He wasn’t sure what to make of that. It eased his guilt that he’d hurt her. Though he couldn’t quite shake the tension in his chest that she didn’t trust him enough five years ago to be honest with him. It bothered him more than it should.
“This killer that’s all over the news has taken your sister?” she eventually asked slowly.
Rowan nodded. “Yes, he did, and the only person who is going to find her is me, and hopefully you.” Nothing mattered as much Mia, an innocent who didn’t deserve the brutality of the Casanova Sadist.
Alex watched him closely, tapping her fingers against the armrest. “You’re in a desperate spot, then?”
“Extremely desperate,” he agreed, reading between the lines of what she was getting at. “I didn’t want to hurt or betray you, Alex. But there is nothing I wouldn’t have done to get you on my side to help me find Mia.” He paused to consider how different tonight would have gone if he’d known she’d also left him. “Time is counting down. I thought you’d hate me. I needed you to want to help me and thought reminding you of the good moments between us would soften you up.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “Sex wouldn’t have been on the table otherwise?”
He grinned with all the heat burning inside him since he put his hands on her again. “Sex most definitely would have been on the table, just after we found Mia.”
“Hmmm,” she said, then reached for her laptop next to her weapon.
Saving her the time, he offered, “If you log into my home computer, you’ll find the FBI files on this killer there.” He rambled off his IP address. “I’ve got all the evidence and notes in a secured folder on my database.”
Her fingers began flying over the keyboard. Within minutes, she had the file up and was scanning through the documents. Rowan had no doubt she was learning all the things about this case, seeing dead end after dead end. And Rowan didn’t question in the least that she spent even more time reviewing information about the last victim, Mia Hawke, his twenty-five-year-old sister. She’d been the unexpected surprise to his parents who came seven years after him.
When Alex finally shut her laptop, she let out a long sigh and said, “Well, it looks like you’re not going to die for ruining my vacation.”
The crushing hopelessness that had been weighing him down lifted. “Does that mean you’re agreeing to help me find my sister?”
She cocked her head to examine him, and Rowan saw the hesitation on her face. She now believed him, he was sure of that, but she was smart enough not to trust him. This time, he deserved that. Five years ago, especially considering she apparently left him too, he didn’t. She finally said, “Before I answer that question, tell me: How did you gain access to the FBI file, considering you don’t work for the FBI and you’re not on this case?”
He realized the answer wasn’t going to help gain her trust. “A buddy I served in the military with now works for the FBI and has been working the case. When Mia was taken, and the CIA wouldn’t authorize me to join the case, and the FBI shut me out completely, he gave me access to what he had.”
“He could get in a lot of trouble for that,” she pointed out.