The man silenced Renard with a look. “I’m Special Agent Galen Kouros. Why?”

“I want to be one of the decoys.” And you’re going to let me.

“Do you now? Just how did you happen to hear about them?” His icy voice sent an answering chill up her spine. She let her own anger wash through her.

“One of the kidnapped women is a friend, and her mother called me after your visit.” Weeping hysterically, begging for help from Kim’s FBI friend. Gabi had driven to Atlanta for information from Kim’s mom and also the local FBI office. None of it had been good. Gabi looked away, blinking back tears. “I found out another young woman had been kidnapped and shot.”

“The only details released to the news were that a woman had died of a gunshot wound on the freeway. How did you get more?” The agent leaned back in his chair, studying her.

“There are rumors here and there.” Especially in the seething Atlanta field office. Not so easy here. But during her brief stay in Tampa, she’d discovered that one of the secretaries loved to gossip. She’d also told Gabi that Rhodes’s very appropriate nickname was Dickhead.

Kouros pointed to a chair across from Rhodes. “Sit.”

New Englanders could be so brusque. He needed to meet a southern gentleman and learn some civility. But she obediently took a seat.

“Tell me what you know. All of it.”

“A total of four women, including Kim, were kidnapped in Atlanta. All members of BDSM clubs. The last one escaped on a freeway by running out into oncoming traffic. She died of a gunshot wound before the ambulance arrived. But she managed to tell a trucker a few things.” She must have been in agony. Terrified. Gabi swallowed.

“Go on,” Kouros snapped.

“Apparently the kidnapper said more women were to be kidnapped in Tampa.” She frowned. “Um, the last delivery of women is August twenty-ninth, and then they’ll hold a slave auction.” They’ll sell Kim. She gathered her thoughts. “You’re putting female agents as decoys in four Tampa fetish clubs, hoping the kidnapper will target one.” It seemed a little far-fetched. Why would he go after them and not another woman in the club?