4

Charlie Swan was a regal man with thick black hair and dark eyes. He was tall, fit, and a bit of an asshole, something her mother said Bella had inherited from him. She didn't disagree, of course, and for more years than she cared to admit, being an asshole had gotten her far in life. Edward had been correct when he said her stats spoke for themselves. She'd had an almost perfect solve rate and conviction rate due to her refusal to allow her hard work to be wasted simply because the prosecution was too lazy to do their job.

"Bee."

"Dad."

He smirked. "You look good."

"No, I don't."

"Fine, you don't. I was trying to be nice, but since that didn't work, you look like shit. When was the last time you got a decent night's sleep?"

"The night before Phillip Dwyer killed Garrett."

Charlie's eyes softened. "Yeah, for me, too." His eyes shifted to Edward, roaming down from his T-shirt to sweatpants. "Last I checked, we enforced a dress code, Masen."

"Yes, sir. I'm sorry, sir."

Edward grabbed his bag and hurried off the elevator and down the hallway toward the men's restroom. Charlie laughed and looked back at Bella, raising an eyebrow as he stretched his hand to her.

"Come on, Bee. They want to see you."

She shook her head but found herself placing her hand in his, allowing him to lead her out of the elevator, to the right, and down the hallway. As they reached the end, she found herself taking a deep breath before the rest of her 'team' came into view. The men and woman she'd spent almost eight years working with, the ones who had failed him that night by saving only her.

"Holy shit, the noob did it," the first said, a tall blond with bright blue eyes. His name was Carlisle Cullen, and he'd been the closest she had to a partner. "Damn, Bee, I wasn't sure you weren't going to hide his body."

"Thought about it, seeing as you assholes let him come in the middle of a fucking blizzard. He could have frozen to death, and that would have been on your heads."

"Hey, I told him to wear a jacket." Carlisle snickered, shoving his hands into his pockets. "Not my fault he's a noob."

"Sure it's not, Cullen," she scoffed before looking at the desk beside him. Like Carlisle, Emmett McCarty was tall but bulkier and broader in the shoulders. He had curly brown hair and dark eyes, and when he smiled, a dimple sank into his left cheek. "McCarty."

"Bee," he replied, grinning. "Good to see you. Got the ring reserved for this afternoon."

"Why? You want to get your ass kicked again?" His partner laughed as he clapped him on the shoulder, his eyes flickering down to her. He had shaggy brown hair, bright blue eyes, and a crooked smile that raised just a smidge higher on one side than the other. "Hey, Bee. Missed you."

"So I've heard," she murmured, and when she heard a gasp, her eyes closed, and she turned and looked toward the hallway leading to the women's restroom, finding a tall, curvy woman with long, silky blond hair and soft, hazel eyes.

Her name was Rosalie Hale, and they'd been the only two women out of almost fifteen who made it through the academy, something they had been incredibly proud of accomplishing. In fact, she'd been the one to introduce Bella and Garrett. Rosalie and Garrett had grown up together, but he'd gone to medical school while she entered the FBI academy.

The night Bella and Rosalie graduated, they'd gone out to celebrate and ran into Garrett and his friend Tyler at one of the local clubs. While Rosalie and Tyler were dancing, Garrett offered Bella his hand and asked her to join him on the dance floor. From the moment their hands touched, he was her safe place. He'd become her favorite person. They'd dated for almost a year before he dropped to one knee in the middle of their living room, knowing she would hate being proposed to in front of other people, and asked her to marry him. She accepted, and a few months later, they were married in a small, private ceremony. They had six years, five months, and eighteen amazing days together before he was taken from her.

"Ro."

"Goddamn it, the noob managed to bring your ass back here, Bee. And they say miracles don't happen."

"I'm not back. I just had to drive Masen here so he wouldn't do something stupid, like crash his car into a tree and almost freeze to death. You should have known better than to let him come after me, Ro. You, of all people, should have known better."

"I did, which is why I bet on him to be successful and look, it paid off." She smirked before she turned to Carlisle, Emmett, Jasper, and Charlie. "Pay up, suckers."

"Goddamn it," Emmett groused, digging his wallet out of his back pocket and yanking a fifty dollar bill out, slapping it on her desk. Carlisle and Jasper did the same, and when Charlie picked it up, he gave her two of them and kept one for himself.

Bella rolled her eyes, but before she could call them out on their behavior, Edward hurried over, tossing his bag on the floor next to his desk (which ironically used to be hers) placing his hands on his hips. His clothes were wrinkled, but she didn't call him out, especially when he glared at Emmett, Jasper, and Carlisle.

"I'm not doing your paperwork anymore." He pointed at her. "She told me you make all the noobs do it, and I ain't doing it again."

Carlisle, Jasper, and Emmett laughed while Rosalie smirked, raising an eyebrow in Bella's direction.

"I'm serious!" Edward exclaimed, throwing his arms up.

"Sure you aren't, noob," Carlisle snickered, but looked over at Bella. "We gotta run. Meeting with the lab. Good to have you back, Bee."

"I'm not back," she said, but whether Carlisle, Emmett, Jasper, or Rosalie believed her, she didn't know. Once they were in the elevator, she turned and looked at Charlie, who didn't say anything as he gestured toward his office. "You're not going to change my mind."

"Just want to catch up with my daughter, who I haven't seen in months. Go on in. Just need to have a quick word with Masen. I'll be right there."

Scoffing, she gave Edward a look before she walked across the room and into her father's office. His walls were covered in pictures of her with him, and her mother, and her with Garrett. Sly bastard hadn't been the kind to clutter his office with family pictures, always saying, "Home and work are separate, Bee."

Opened in the middle of his desk was one of the many files they had on Phillip Dwyer. Though she hadn't wanted to look at it or needed to look at it to know what was inside it, she found herself picking it up, looking down at the one and only picture they had of Phillip Dwyer. He was handsome; Bella couldn't deny that he was a good-looking man, which was how he had managed to lure his victims into his trap. He was tall and muscular, an ex-professional baseball player who spent half a season in the majors before taking a hard-hit ball to the side of his head.

He was forced into retirement, and for the better part of a decade, nobody heard from him. Not until the first woman went missing. Bree Tanner was a young, dark-haired girl in her first year at Columbia University, studying sociology. She was last seen leaving her shift at a local coffee shop, where she worked part-time to help supplement her scholarship. Her roommate called her parents the next morning, saying it was unusual for Bree not to come home. She was a serious student, not the kind of girl who stayed out all night. Her parents reported her missing, though the local P.D. didn't take her case seriously. Her body was found a month later, showing signs of extreme physical and sexual torture.

The autopsy indicated that Bree Tanner had been a virgin when she was kidnapped, though Phillip Dwyer had quickly robbed her of that label. She'd been raped numerous times, both vaginally and anally, and showed signs of other torture. She was heavily scarred and bruised, and along her right breast, she had a four-leaf clover carved into her skin — while she was still alive.

By the time authorities had found Bree's body, Dwyer had already taken his second victim. Twenty-two-year-old Jane Sinclair worked overnights at a local gas station in Edgewater, New Jersey, five nights a week. Security cameras showed her clocking in just before ten p.m. and continued as she cleaned the coffee pots and the roller grill and then stocked the cigarette shelves. Dwyer was seen entering wearing a dark coat and black ball cap, but he hadn't made any effort to cover his face. He purchased a large fountain drink and a Snickers bar, before walking out through the front doors.

Half an hour later, cameras caught Jane looking out the front door, speaking to someone before she walked out. Conveniently, the outside cameras weren't working. The station owner hadn't considered them essential, telling her he was more concerned with employee theft than what happened outside his store.

Jane never went back inside, and when a customer came in just before five in the morning and found the place abandoned, he called the police. Jane's car was still parked on the side; her purse and cell phone were still under the counter, yet Jane had vanished.

Charlie and his team had been called in and asked to help put together a profile on their suspected killer. Bella had been the one to link Bree and Jane's cases, noting the similarity between the two women. Both were in their early twenties, both with brown hair, brown eyes, both working manual labor jobs, and neither were the kind of girls to hook up with random guys. Jane's body was found six weeks later, and like Bree, her autopsy showed signs of severe physical and sexual torture, as well as a four-leaf clover carved into her right breast.

"I thought I closed that."

Bella dropped the file onto Charlie's desk before she turned, finding her father leaning against the framework with his arms folded in front of him. "No, you didn't."

He smirked. "No, I didn't. Just knew you wouldn't be able to help yourself."

She shook her head. "I'm not staying."

"Yes, you are."

"No, I am not."

Charlie stepped into his office and closed his door before he walked behind his desk and picked up a different file, holding it out to her. When she didn't take it, he sighed and opened it himself. "Thought you might want to see how she's doing."

"I don't."

"Liar."

"Goddamn it, why do you have to know me so well."

He held the file out to her again. "Take it, Bee."

Though she didn't want to, she found herself reaching for it. She closed her eyes for a moment before taking a deep breath and sitting, crossing her legs before opening the file. Using her fingertips to cover her lips, she tried to muffle the whimper that trickled to the tip of her tongue as she looked down at the dark-haired girl in the picture.

Some said that Heidi Crenshaw had been lucky that Phillip Dwyer hadn't killed her, that she'd survived. Bella wasn't one of those people. Shortly after Jane's body had been found, the young, dark-haired Heidi Crenshaw had been kidnapped in the middle of the afternoon while leaving the gym. Several witnesses reported a man matching Dwyer's description, while others varied from the color of his skin to how tall he was.

Bella and the team had just started focusing on Dwyer being their unsub, and within six days of Heidi's abduction, they had narrowed down his lair, for the lack of a better word. When they swarmed it, they found Heidi locked inside an Iron Maiden, a mythical torture device. When they freed her, she was dehydrated, had been sexually assaulted, and, like Bree and Jane, had a four-leaf clover carved into her right breast.

"She's doing pretty well, all things considered," Charlie said, causing Bella to look up at him.

"No, she's not."

He smiled. "No, she's not, but she hasn't given up yet. Bet she'd like to see you again. She asks about you every time I check up on her."

"And how often is that?"

"Every week."

"Wow, you've turned soft."

"Maybe." Charlie sat behind his desk. "We've kept eyes on her. You know, in case he goes after her again."

"She's already tainted, used. He likes them fresh, young, and innocent. Except for me. He didn't care that I was neither fresh, young, nor innocent."

He didn't reply, not that she expected him to. It was an argument they'd had before, when he showed up at her ranch in Belcourt, North Dakota. "It wasn't your fault," he'd said. "You couldn't have known he'd go after Garrett."

But she should have known. It had been her job to know, and when she sent him on his way, she told him never to look for her again.

"You said he's killed two more."

Charlie frowned. "Yes."

"Where are their files?"

"You stay, and I'll let you see them."

"No."

"Come on, Bee." Charlie leaned forward, placing his hands on the desk. "He wouldn't want you to hide like this."

"I wouldn't know what he wants because he's dead."

Charlie clasped his hands together, staring at her. "You're not a quitter, Bee."

"I also wasn't a widow until I was." Bella stood. "Is Mom at home?"

He nodded.

"Did you tell her I was coming?"

He smiled. "Hell no."

"She's gonna kick your ass, Dad."

"Probably."

Bella placed Heidi Crenshaw's file back on his desk. "You really think he's active again?"

"Fits his MO to a T."

"And you don't know where he's been for the last year?"

"Nope, seemed to have vanished into thin air, up until a month ago." Charlie placed his hand onto another file. "Stay, and I'll read you into everything."

"I just . . ." She shook her head, her eyes filling with tears she struggled to keep from falling. "I can't . . . I can't face him again, Dad. I can't."

"Sooner or later, you're going to have to stop hiding."

"Said who?"

"Garrett would if he were here. He was your biggest supporter, Bee. Don't let his death be in vain, and don't use him as your excuse to stop your life's path."

"Don't give me that bullshit, Dad. I tried your path for me, and all it did was take my life away from me."

"He's the one who died, Bee, not you."

"I might as well have."

Bella turned and walked out of his office, ignoring Edward who was seated at his desk. She entered the elevator and pressed the down arrow before leaning against the back wall. The doors started to close, but before they could, a hand snaked out and pushed them open. Edward stepped in, his eyes locked on hers as he reached over and pressed the lobby button again.

The tears Bella fought bubbled over and slid down her face. Immediately, Edward had his arms around her, holding her from crumbling in her grief.

"Stay," he murmured.

"Masen," she cried, her fingers gripping the front of his white dress shirt.

"Just stay."

And as he cradled the back of her head against his chest, listening to her soft sobs, she moved her head up and down, quietly telling him that she would.

Thank you for all the AMAZING reviews! Big shout out to Sunflower Fran for cleaning up my messy chapters. See you next Monday!