Friday. Safe House, Albuquerque, New Mexico.BRENDEN WAS GOING TO crack a molar. At least they were done showering. He'd never studied the levels of hell, but one of them had to include showering with a gorgeous woman and not popping a boner. It had taken all of his concentration while sharing the shower head to keep his thoughts in line.To him, this was another day at work. Yes, someone had died. It was a terrible tragedy. It wasn't the first and it wouldn't be the last. The nature of his job was dangerous, and that meant sometimes people were killed.Priscilla didn't have that same mindset. She was upset. He was going to respect that and keep his dick to himself.He swiped the towel over his body, doing a quick dry off. Priscilla didn't move as fast. She focused on her hair then limbs. The water made her tanned skin dewy, and it glistened under the lights. Some of her bruises had begun to turn colors, the new layering with the old. He hated every one of them and wished fo

Saturday. Safe House, Albuquerque, New Mexico.BRENDEN STARED AT THE dark liquid filling his cup. The groggy sensation wasn't one born from hours spent staring at a ceiling.No.He'd slept.True REM sleep.For hours.And when he'd woken up, it was to find Priscilla using him as a kind of body pillow, her head on his shoulder, their legs tangled up.He wasn't sure what to make of this. It had to be a fluke, obviously. They'd been tired, it was a draining day and then sex on top of it all had become the perfect cocktail to a full eight hours of sleep."Wakey, wakey." Vaughn smacked Brenden's shoulder.A bit of the coffee sloshed onto the counter."Fuck, man." Brenden set the mug down and reached for a napkin."Someone's testy this morning." Vaughn leaned against the counter, far too chipper for Brenden's liking.The hair on the back of his neck rose. His stomach tightened. He pressed his toes down, grounding them to the earth to keep from moving.Priscilla br

Saturday. Safe House, Albuquerque, New Mexico.BRENDEN'S BRAIN WAS MUSHY. Zain had come back to them with leads to explore. The whole day had turned into research, filling hours with internet searches, phone calls and making guesses.They weren't much closer to knowing more than they had. Sure, they had a pool of names a couple dozen long of suspects, but no real way to determine who their culprit was as long as they were stuck here. The digging they needed to do wasn't the kind that could be done from a distance. And no one was willing to touch the issue of past date medications being sold or used in hospitals. There were limits to what Aegis Group could handle. This was something that needed to be turned over to the authorities.What concerned Brenden was time. They were running out of it."I'm turning in," Nolan announced."Me, too." Riley pushed to his feet."Have a good night, guys." Vaughn shuffled his deck of cards, his attention on the TV and whatever current new

Sunday. Safe House, Albuquerque, New Mexico.BRENDEN NEEDED OUT OF this house. He had to think. To process.He took the mugs into the kitchen, his skin still buzzing from Priscilla's touch.Last night did not make sense any way he looked at it. He very rarely had a restful night's sleep. It was something he'd grown accustomed to. When on the job he'd often get up and share surveillance duty, allowing whoever was on to get a break. At home he used that time to do small chores. It was routine. Nothing about his wonky sleep schedule bothered him.What he couldn't wrap his head around was that he'd fallen asleep while talking, fully dressed and weighted down by a warm woman.He'd never been diagnosed with anything. The doctors he'd seen had ruled out PTSD, depression and a whole host of other typical suspects. Did he have guilt that he'd survived and so many hadn't? Yeah, but he never allowed that to rule his life. He just didn't sleep well and sometimes his nightmares brought

Sunday. Safe House, Chicago, Illinois.BRENDEN STARED OUT OF the windows of the high-rise apartment. Seeing as the main Aegis headquarters was a ways out of the city, the company owned several properties here. Including this upscale apartment used as both a safe house and guest space for clients. He'd been here more times than he could count.A lot more times than he'd visited his family that was for sure.It was a thought that hadn't bothered him until today.Before moving to Seattle Brenden had made a token effort. He'd show up when he had to, but once he'd relocated from Chicago, he hadn't seen a reason to come back. The distance had always been a good thing.Warmth radiated against his back and he knew without looking that Priscilla was there.His gaze focused on the bit of movement reflected back at him, watching her figure then her features emerge in the glass."Settle in okay?" he asked."Yeah. Man, this is some view, isn't it?""Yeah.""I haven't been to