The First Sin
Cut Lexi nightmare

      I run and run and run. The girls. Where are the girls?

      The sound of feet pounding on earth is closer now. Panic rises so deep in my chest I can barely breathe.

      There are too many of them. If I had my gun . . . but I don’t. I have to escape

      I had to save the crying girls.

      Every sob I hear tears my heart like someone’s grabbing it and ripping it apart.

      By the sound of their footfalls the men behind are gaining. Darkness makes it hard to see and I stumble over a rock before pushing myself even faster.

      Fire burns my lungs. Adrenaline fuels me, allowing me to run harder.

      A body plows into me from behind, slamming me to the ground. Air is shoved from my lungs. Pain shoots through my chest, shoulders and arms. It hurts to breathe as I drag in air.

      I use my training to flip the man off of me.

      A thud and an angry growl as I straddle him and smash my fist into his face.

      Pain explodes in my kidney when someone from behind rams his boot into my side.

      The nameless, faceless man jerks me up by my collar so that I’m standing on weak legs.

      He mutters in my face, “Tell me who you are or I will sell you.” 

I woke and sat up so hard and fast my chest hurt as if the dream had been true. My face felt flushed and hot and each breath I took hurt my lungs as if I’d been screaming.

      Maybe I had.

      It wasn’t easy keeping the nightmare to the back of my mind. I did my best by going to the closet and digging out my undercover gear which included lots of firepower. Being close to that firepower felt really good after a nightmare like the one I’d had.

      I inspected one of the suitcases I’d taken from my closet safe. Sniper rifle and two handguns, check. Stiletto and dagger, check. Fake IDs, check. Two thousand in small bills, check. Two changes of clothes, check. Scissors and hair dye, check.

Chapter One of The First Sin went through three to four metamorphoses. This is version number two or three, before the final version that you know from the book. If you haven’t read The First Sin, you’ll find the final version on this site along with its following two chapters. 

      Sex slaves. Sold to the highest bidder.

      My heart thunders as I search and search. Where are they? I have to get to the girls. I have to save them from a fate that could be worse than death. Running. I’m running.

      A man slams into me. Drives me to the floor. Pain erupts throughout my body. I fight, struggle with everything I have.

      More hands grab me. I can’t get away—

#

      My heart was beating so hard it felt as if someone was kicking my ribcage from inside. Cloth bound my legs and wrapped my body like a giant python. The more I struggled the tighter the cloth got.

      They had me. They were going to sell me.

      The taste of salt was on my lips and in my mouth from sweat dripping down my face.

      Stop, Lexi! You’re a fed. Calm down and think like a fed.

      I stopped fighting the cloth and opened my eyes. Light coming through curtains caused me to blink.

      Air burned my lungs as I inhaled in one long draw. My curtains. Those were my curtains, the ones with sprigs of wildflowers on a blue background.

      The lessening of my heart pounding let me breathe easier as I looked around the room. My bedroom furniture. My family photos on the bureau.

      Home. I was in my own apartment. Alone.

      Christ.

      The nightmare again.

      Cloth, soaked with perspiration bound me. I was tangled in my own sheet.

      Sweat slicked my damp palms as I rubbed my face and my chin-length dark hair stuck to my cheeks. Another nightmare. Ever since I put together Operation Cinderella, I’d been having the nightmares, off and on.

      Six months of nightmares.

      And the running and running. I’d been running from more than the slavers. From what? Why?

      Damp sheets unraveled as I worked myself free. For a long moment I stared up at the ceiling. My ceiling. It desperately needed a new coat of paint.

      You’re going looney, Steele. Now you’re thinking about paint.

      Time to get my butt out of bed and face another day of freedom before going undercover. I grimaced. Any day now and I’d be heading into some shit I really didn’t want to do.

      The  girls sold as sex slaves . . . they were too important. I had to do whatever it took to bring down the organization turning them into human property. We just had to identify whoever was at the very top.

      Part of the job. Just part of the job.

      One thing that kept bugging me was the possibility I would see someone I knew since I’d be working in Boston. Although they weren’t likely to tell anyone they were into kink and had run into me at a BDSM club.

      My thoughts turned to Gary. What would he think if he knew what I had to do?

      Pissed, that’s what he would be. He wouldn’t like the idea one damn bit.

      Smells of popcorn, hot dogs, and sunshine seemed so vivid as a flash came to me of the Red Sox game at Fenway where I met Gary.

      “Oh, my God.” I’d elbowed Katy as the blond guy with muscles on top of muscles scooted down our aisle and settled in the seat next to me. I’d glanced at her only a moment. “Check out the hottie,” I said before looking back at the guy.

      His friend took the seat on the other side of the major hunk now sitting beside me—but who cared about his friend.

      At the time Gary wore his blond hair down to his shoulders. As soon as he sat, he looked at me and he flashed me his killer smile.

      I’d instantly been in lust.

      He’d reached out his hand. “I’m Gary.”

      The feel of his warm palm sent heat through me. “Lexi,” I’d said. Can I run my hands all over your body?

      He’d introduced his friend—whoever that was, and I’d introduced Katy who had smiled and waved at him and his friend from where she sat on my opposite side. She was already engaged to a cool guy by that time, but she didn’t mind taking in a little eye candy.

      It must have been mutual in-lust because Gary and I had talked during the whole game. And it was damned hard to tear my attention away from a Red Sox game, ’cause I’m diehard when it comes to the Sox.

      Gary’s from Southie too, and Irish like me. He was so damned friendly, an All-American good guy with the bluest eyes. I rarely screwed up when it came to nailing someone’s personality. Actually never. Yeah, I got lucky. He was a total find.

      He’d made me laugh hard enough I almost spilled my Coke on him. I couldn’t remember what he’d done but then I’d lost it and my stomach hurt from laughing so hard.

      What was it he’d said as he sat near me in the Monster Seats on top of the Green Monster? Oh, something about my eyes being as green as the wall below us. What a sweet-talker.

      I found myself grinning as I pulled myself out of the memories.

      It sucked that Gary hadn’t had the time to come to my place and stay overnight like we’d planned. I flopped my forearm over my forehead. Big bonus would’ve been that I probably wouldn’t have had the friggin’ nightmare again.

      I didn’t think it would end until the bastards who ran the slave ring were caught.

      When was the last time Gary and I had enough time alone to even have sex?

      RED’s Operation Cinderella, along with Gary’s extensive training for an upcoming bodybuilding event, had made it almost impossible for us to connect for the past few weeks.

      I had to smile as I pictured him. Ah, I loved a man with muscles. And a nice ass that looked good in a pair of Levis.

      Yeah. Gary was wicked hot.

      Of course Gary thought it was my job as a foreign language interpreter that kept me away from home for stretches at a time, traveling to different countries. As much as I cared about him or anyone else in my life, I couldn’t let them know what I really did. Who Lexi Steele was when she wasn’t around family and friends.

      Not only am I required to keep my true occupation and employer a secret, but it could be dangerous to my family if the wrong people found out who I am. What I do.

      No way in hell am I going to endanger their lives with the possibility of a case going bad.

      There was one exception—one of my brothers, Zane. He worked RED’s Technology Theft Department, and what he did was just as much of a secret as my job. RED kept tabs and our asses would be fired if we so much as mentioned the organization to anyone outside of RED.

      Practically a dream job. Power with no red tape. Using any means necessary to perform and complete an operation is the kind of freedom that suits me. Hell, we don’t even have to do everything “by the books.”

      I smiled at the thought of Gary with his blond crew cut and a body so muscular that we could have the most amazing sex in the most amazing positions. I’d have to stop by today and catch him after work for some good lovin’. It was Wednesday, so he should be home in the evening.

      The sound of something vibrating against wood came from my nightstand. Box springs creaked as I rolled onto my side and I picked up one of two cell phones which I’d set to vibrate. When I flipped open the cell for RED, the caller identification screen said “Unknown.” No big surprise there.

      “Yeah?” Sleepiness slurred my word despite trying to sound alert. What time was it?

      “Steele.” My ASAC, Karen Oxford’s, voice had me sitting straight up in bed and all trace of my sleepiness vanished. My gut clenched as she said, “Get to HQ, immediately.”

      I glanced at the clock. Seven-fifteen. Why would Oxford call me herself? I normally got in around eight. Oh, God, it had to be bad. Real bad.

      “What happened?” I asked as I swung my legs over the side of the bed and planted my feet on the worn carpeting.

      “It’s Randolph.” Oxford’s tone turned weary and the feeling in my gut notched up tenfold. Something had to have happened to Katy. I went rigid as Oxford continued, “She was raped and murdered. Her body was found just after midnight in Boston Harbor.”

      Numbness crept over me as I tried to assimilate Oxford’s statement and I froze. “Katy?” I said. Raped and murdered?

      “Notify your team and the other TSASs.” Oxford—who I swore didn’t have a gentle bone in her body—softened her voice. “I know this is difficult for you, Lexi, because you and Katy were close. But as Team Special Agent Supervisor, you need to deal with this.”

      Oxford never called me by my first name. Not since she rescued me, battered and bruised, from a filth-covered prison cell in Cuba.

      I swallowed, a burning sensation gripping my throat. “I was going to be Katy’s maid of honor next month.” I pictured Katy, smiling beside her soon-to-be new husband, Barry. Katy was in her bridal gown and tossing her bouquet.

      Then an image of Katy’s dead, white faced and floating in the harbor slammed into me almost knocking the breath from my lungs.

      “Our contact in the BPD is informing next of kin.” Oxford’s tone was now unreadable, like normal, and that almost seemed comforting. “I’ll brief you in my office. The other TSASs will be assembled for you in conference room one by the time you’re briefed.”

      I gave a stiff nod even though she couldn’t see me. “Yes, Ma’am.”

      “Randolph’s undercover backup has been notified,” Oxford said.

      “Deseronto is too deep to come in.” I gripped one hand into a fist. “I’ll arrange new backup.”

      “Fifteen minutes, my office.” Oxford clicked off and I dropped to the edge of the bed, my chest aching from the blow of Katy’s death.

      I’d been a sniper for the Army and assassin when I screwed up, before Oxford brought me into RED. I’d seed so much death. So much.

      But not Katy. Not Katy.

      It was RED’s standard protocol to provide the BPD with a fictitious story because no one could know what Katy really did, that she worked for a clandestine agency, the Recovery Enforcement Division. RED.

      Dear God. Some stranger would be going to the Randolph’s and relay the fake story given to them in regards to their daughter’s death. Her family knew me, but thought that Katy and I worked for the same interpreter agency.

      Her family would never know the truth.

      They’d never know their daughter was a hero and not just a victim.

      I held my arms across my belly but barely held back the tears.