His words made her pull back and stare at him, eyes wide and mouth open. "Why?"

"I'm not giving whoever did this a chance to get you, too."

"And Becky, you're moving in with me," Nathan echoed. "Sylvester, if there are any problems back at your place, you and Maria can stay with me."

Before Becky could reply, the cops began their usual round of questioning: "Who lives here? What happened? Were you here when it happened? Did you see anything unusual?"

Sylvester lost track of everything as his mind went back to the day that he lost his child. Karen had called him, told him she was getting an abortion, and that she didn't want him coming around anymore. He tried a few times to stop by, but her Father told him in no under terms to get off his property and never come back.

Julie had found him sitting on his steps, drowning his woes in a bottle of whisky. They hadn't conversed much before then. She had just started working in his shop a week prior, and on that fateful day one thing led to another and he found comfort with her. Little by little, she brought him back, letting him know there were people you could still trust.

And now she was dead.

"Caleb, are there any other women that this person may go after?" Constable Harry said.

"I'll email you a list," Sylvester muttered. He really didn't want to go into detail with Maria sitting beside him. It was a no-no in his book to talk about other women to his current woman. The conversations never ended in his favor. Jealousy always reared its ugly head.

"Can you think of any common denominator between the women so far?"

"Besides me?" he asked wryly.

"Ya."

None that he cared to talk about. The entire world didn't need to know what he was or who he was. "Not that I can think of."

"Did she attend your meetings at that hotel?" Harry asked.

"No, not Julie. She kind of kept to herself. Did you guys check my store yet? She would have been working," Sylvester commented.

Harry held up a hand and stepped away from them, speaking into his radio and then listening to the response before looking back at him. "We have a car heading over there now."

"Come on, guys, I'll take you," Nathan offered.

Sylvester stood up, finally gathering his strength. "Let's drop the girls off at your place, and then you and I can go."

"Where you guys go, we go," Becky said, planting her feet stubbornly and crossing her arms.

Nathan shook his head, adamantly refusing. "It might not be safe."

"Well then, you can do your big macho agent guy stuff and protect me."

"I don't want you to get hurt, Becky," he said, rubbing his hands up and down her arms. "Whoever is doing this is dangerous and I just got you back. I'm not willing to risk losing you."

Maria watched the exchange between the two and saw both love and worry shining in Nathan's eyes. He really cared about her, more than Becky thought he did. And she didn't want this situation to put their relationship in danger.

"Becky, maybe we should go back to his place. Let the boys do their thing," Maria said, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"But—" Becky started to say, but Nathan shut her up with a kiss and then whispered something quietly into her ear and her roomie's face turned red. "You wouldn't."

"I would."

Her roomie tilted her head and studied her boyfriend's expression. "Where are they then?"

Nathan reached into his pocket and pulled out the cuffs. "I'm not afraid to use them. I mean it, Becky. You aren't coming with us."

"Fine," she snapped. Turning she grabbed Maria's hand, pulling her into the hallway. "What have you gotten us into?"

"I don't know what you mean."

"Nathan's never spoken to me like this before. He's different."

"Maybe that's because you know everything about him now, and he doesn't have to pretend anymore."

"No. I'm talking about the handcuffs. He's never threatened me with them before."

"Like I said, he doesn't have to hide anymore." Maria couldn't tell her roomie about her agreement with Sylvester, but it looks like Becky's boyfriend was taking a page from Sylvester's book.

After a few hours and a few more third degrees from the cops about alarm systems, ectectra, the team was finally on route to the next location. Nathan's parents house to pick up his daughter. His parents had plans and couldn't watch her, giving Becky the perfect opportunity to babysit and show him her maternal skills.

His daughter, with fire red hair, bolted out of the house, straight into her father's arms. "Daddy!"

"Hey, munchkin, how's daddy's favorite girl?"

"We made cookies. Gramma let me lick the spoon."

Picking her up, Nathan held her in his arms and a silly grin broke out across his face. "She did, did she. Was it good?"

"Yep. I have one for you," his daughter said, reaching into the pocket of her sunflower dress, producing a crumbly cookie. Her face scrunched up like she was about to cry.

"Hey, no tears like that now, ya hear. Pop that cookie in my mouth." Nathan opened his mouth and accepted the bits and pieces of what was once a cookie, pretending to eat her fingers, making the little girl giggle.

This was a side of him that Maria hadn't seen, and she could finally see why he was stubborn about the whole marriage thing. She didn't think that Becky had met the kid yet, despite how long they'd been dating for. He tried to keep his dating life and family life separate. Maybe Becky will see things a little differently now and be more understanding of his plight.

"Honey, there is someone I want you to meet." Nathan walked over to the two women and reached for her roomie's hand. "This is Becky. She's coming to stay with us for a bit."

"As my new mommy?"

A crimson color rose up from his collar, covering his neck. "They need a place to stay, and I want to help them. Think we can do that?" he asked his young daughter.

"She can sleep in my bed."

"That's sweet of you to offer, munchkin, but that's your bed."

"I can sleep with you," his daughter offered, her eyes bright and hopeful.

"Two girls vying for my attention. Life doesn't get much better than this," he said, grinning. "Anyway, Becky, this is Scarlett. Scarlett, this is my good friend, Becky."

"Is she your girlfriend, Daddy? I'm always telling Daddy dat it's okay to have a girlfriend."

Becky and Maria couldn't stop their laughter any longer. Nathan's face was as red as his daughter's hair. This kid couldn't have been more than 3-4 years old. She must have heard the discussion of girlfriends from his grandparents.

"Okay, enough chuckles and giggles. Let me just say good-bye to my parents, and we'll be on our way." He shifted his daughter to his other hip and then wandered up to the house, chatting quietly with a man whom Maria presumed was his dad.

After Nathan said goodbye to his family, they all climbed into his car and drove in silence to his house. Not a word was said until they stepped inside the house and Scarlett was off running to her bedroom.

"We won't be long," Sylvester said, taking Maria's hand. She was still pale and her eyes looked slightly haunted. Who wouldn't after witnessing death twice? "Stay inside and don't answer the door, no matter what."

"Stay," she whispered.

Sylvester wanted to take her in his arms, but they needed to go and make sure things were locked down and nothing transpired while Julie was supposed to be working. "Don't worry, hun, we'll be right back."

Thankfully Nathan's place wasn't that far from his store, and they could be there and back in less than an hour, providing everything was still in order. As he sat in the car, he rested his elbow on the armrest and his chin on his palm, trying to think of who the culprit might be.

He didn't think Charlotte had it in her. She was a stubborn mule, but she wasn't a killer. His other subs, he hasn't heard from in ages. Once the contract was over, they went on their way, moving on to the next person or leaving the BDSM life all together, wanting something more.

And the men, well, they all pretty much did their own thing and rarely caused trouble for each other. They knew the life and kept out of each other's hair. Their meetings were just to touch base with other people who liked the life style and maybe even find someone if you were just getting into it.

The only guys that he despised were Harley and George. Harley because he was a douche and George because he was Karen's married brother, who took subs without his wife's knowledge. Despite what Sylvester liked to do in the bedroom, he still believed in the sanctity of marriage. People should be faithful to each other and if they couldn't, well, they should just cut their losses and let the deserving spouse find someone else.

"Thoughts, man?" Nathan said, sparing Sylvester a glance as he pulled the car up to the sex shop. A cop car was already sitting there with its lights flashing. They were walking around scoping out the place.

Sylvester shrugged. "I got nothing. And it's driving me crazy."

"Well, at least your store looks like it's in one piece."

Climbing out of the car, Sylvester wandered over to the door and unlocked it, sighing in relief when it didn't look tampered with. Julie obviously locked the place up and left before it all happened.

Just to be doubly sure, he wandered over to their log-in sheet and frowned. She signed in at her normal time, but then never signed back in after her lunch break. Since he was gone, he had no idea who she went to lunch with.

Going into his security room, he sat down at the desk and went over the footage for the day. After watching the film in fast forward, he slammed his fist on the desk. There was nothing on it that stood out. Charlotte came into the store again, but she was one of the regulars. The two girls talked, but there didn't appear to be any malice or anger in the exchange.

A few other customers came and left without incident and then George came in, had a few words with Julie and stayed longer than the average customer. Probably trying to convince her to join him for the evening and then he left peacefully.

Damn it. He didn't like the uncertainty. He needed to be in control and this was not a feeling of being in control. Someone was hurting people he knew and it was likely because of him. Should he disband the meetings for the time being until it was all settled.

They weren't set to meet again for another two weeks, but the thought that a killer was in their midst worried him. He hated to think of what might take place between now and then. Sylvester rested his head in his hands. Since the killer seemed to be targeting his subs, he sent out a quick email to them all to be careful and then printed out a list of the women he'd been involved with, and a list of all the members of his group.

Soon Constable Harry joined him in the room. "Everything looks good here."

"Except that Julie didn't come back from her lunch break," Sylvester commented, leaning back in the seat with his arms crossed.

"Is she usually reliable?"

"Other than showing up late every now and again, yes. She would never leave in the middle of her shift unless something went wrong, but she would usually call me."

"Can we see your camera footage?"

"Sure, but I just looked at it and didn't find anything."

Just then, Nathan walked into the room. "Run the footage again."

Sylvester leaned forward again and clicked the play and allowed it to run through the video again in fast forward. Everything that took place inside the building was normal.

"Okay, play the camera that is in the upper north corner of your building, the one that covers the entire stretch in front of the shop," Constable Harry said.

As the footage was playing, Nathan leaned in close, his eyes honing in on every detail. "Stop, go back a few minutes to when she stepped out and locked the door, and play it frame by frame."

Sylvester did as he was told, curious to see what his new buddy had found. As soon as Julie locked the door and turned to walk to her car, her eyes widened in surprise and she froze momentarily before looking around the area quickly and then back in the direction of the camera.

"Someone's there, look," Nathan said, pointing to the ground where the sun had cast a human shaped shadow.

A few words appeared to be exchanged because Julie's mouth was moving. She even took a step backwards, like she was going to run, but didn't. Instead she held her hands up and walked closer to the shadow until she was completely off screen.

"I'm going to see if anyone in the area has cameras that face in that direction," Constable Harry walked towards the door. "I'll make sure that we have a regular patrol vehicle swing by this way on an hourly basis until this is sorted."

"Thank you." Sylvester wanted to hit something, but forced himself to remain in control.

Nathan must have seen that look in his eye because he leaned over and said, "I have a punching bag at home if you wanna use it."

"Great. Let's go!" He grabbed Nathan by his shirt, pulling him outside.