Consciousness returned in brutal, agonizing waves.
My head throbbed with a sickening rhythm, the metallic taste of blood coating my tongue. I tried to lift my hands to my face, but a sharp, biting resistance stopped me. Cold steel cut into my wrists. I was handcuffed to a heavy metal pipe running vertically along a damp, concrete wall.
I forced my eyes open.
The room was vast, echoing, and dimly lit by a single industrial halogen bulb hanging from the vaulted ceiling. An abandoned warehouse. The air smelled of rust, mildew, and the faint, unmistakable tang of stale gasoline.
My BAU instincts booted up through the lingering haze of the sedative. I took a quick inventory. My gun, badge, and phone were gone. My jacket was missing. My wrists were chafed raw from the cuffs, and the angle of
