His hands tightened on the steering wheel, his knuckles going white. No doubt, he was remembering the terrible things that had been done to Natalie, the woman he loved. He might have finally rescued her from the people who had tortured her and twisted her mind, but that didn’t mean she was safe. The people who had so ruthlessly used her—the clandestine Division 9-C and the organization they represented—were still out there. There might not be physical leads, but there had to be traces of them buried deep in the web somewhere.
We finished driving to our destination in heavy silence. I wished I knew what to say to alleviate some of Jason’s tension, but I didn’t really know where to begin. So I twisted my hands in my lap and tried to calm my whirring thoughts. Per usual, they were firing in several directions at once. I had the Division 9-C hacker to consider, Jason’s feelings to fret over, and our current investigation into Cristian Moreno.
We pulled up outside a nondescript townhouse, positioning our sedan half a block back from our target. This fieldwork was actually kind of boring a lot of the time. We settled in to wait and watch. I’d so much rather be behind my computer, but at least I wasn’t having to interact with anyone but Jason. And he was content to focus on our investigation instead of idle chatter.
We’d gotten a lead that this townhouse was being used by Cristian Moreno in his Bliss trafficking. He seemed to have smaller distribution centers set up all over town. It would have been so much easier to raid a massive warehouse, but Moreno wasn’t stupid enough to keep his product all in one place.
Chicago police had arrested a man for dealing Bliss in this neighborhood two days ago, and he’d directed us to this townhouse as the place where he picked up his product. We could have raided the building, but we wanted to monitor the situation for a few days first. Taking out one small distribution center would be a win, but we might be able to find the larger network if we identified Moreno’s people coming and going and tracked them from the premises.
Overall, it was a pretty boring day. Watching people and taking notes wasn’t all that interesting. By the time Jason dropped me off at my own townhome, I was eager to get back online and do something that was actually mentally stimulating.
I dropped into my ergonomic chair and blew out a long sigh. It felt damn good to be back in front of my personal computer. Away from people.
I was so eager to get back to my coding that I didn’t even bother to change out of my work clothes and into comfy sweats before turning on my computer. Unfortunately, a chat box popped up as soon as I logged on.
Dex Scott wants to video chat.
I frowned and hit the ignore button. I didn’t have time to talk to Dex. I had to find the Division 9-C hacker.
Besides, I didn’t want to talk to Dex. I was too fried, too raw to face him. He’d barely paid attention to me since I’d made the reckless decision to become a field agent. Sure, he still contacted me to play an online game from time to time. When he wasn’t fucking Chloe. Otherwise, he barely interacted with me at all. Especially not in the office, where he’d made it clear he didn’t approve of my choice to transfer into the field.
He was a damn good agent. Far better than I would ever be. I’d longed to train with him when I’d transferred to field agent, to feel his huge body against mine when we sparred.
But he’d refused to help train me.
My cheeks heated and my sex clenched at the thought of him training me. After hacking into his internet search history and tracking his sexual predilections for years, I knew my gentle giant of a friend harbored decidedly darker fantasies: domination, bondage, discipline.
I’d never thought I’d be interested in such depraved acts. Truthfully, before I met Dex, I hadn’t thought much about sex at all. The girls in my dorm at college had teased me for being an asexual, socially awkward geek. It hadn’t bothered me.
Really. Not one bit.
A part of my brain acknowledged the silent lie in my mind.
I’d also tried to lie to myself about Dex for years: that he would come to care for me; that he’d finally realize I was hopelessly in love with him. I craved to be the object of his darker desires.
The beeping emanating from my speakers became incessant.
Dex Scott wants to chat.
I turned off the chat app. Talking to him hurt too much. I needed space to avoid the pain.
Shoving him from my mind, I threw myself back into my work, sinking into the deep web.
I was so absorbed in my task that I didn’t hear the lock click back or the soft sound of my front door rubbing across the carpet as it opened. I was jolted out of my work when the back of my neck tingled, an animal response to a lurking threat. A gloved hand clamped over my mouth, muffling my shocked gasp. A sharp sting penetrated my neck as the needle sank in.
The world turned surreal as the drugs instantly cocooned me in soft, dark clouds, and I floated into nothingness.
Chapter 2
The safety of my home had been shattered. Someone had drugged me, taken me. My memories of how I’d fallen into Cristian Moreno’s clutches were hazy, but there was no denying my terrifying new reality: I was in the hands of the vicious Colombian drug lord, and his knife was at my throat.
Toxic fear engulfed me, freezing the scream that had escaped me for mere seconds. Cristian stepped behind me so his brother’s camera could get clearer footage of the horror I was enduring. His big fist tangled in my hair, jerking my head back so I had no choice but to stare up into his cruel black eyes.
The cold tip of the knife scraped upward from the center of my throat, grazing over my skin as it traced a path under my chin. I stopped breathing when the flat of the blade swiped across the line of my lips. A high whimper slipped through them, the resultant vibration threatening to make the knife pierce my skin. As it was, the tightly packed nerve endings on my lips sparked as the cool metal kissed them.
The knife left my mouth, but I didn’t have time to suck in a panting breath before the frigid blade returned to my throat.
“You were in my territory today, watching my people. One of my men followed you home. Who are you working for?” he demanded.