I felt like the world had opened up beneath me as I sat in Gates’s apartment. He was in the kitchen making me tea, and normally I would find that really amusing, but I couldn’t stop seeing those men lying bleeding on the floor.

My phone buzzing grabbed my attention. I looked down and saw another text from Tony.

“Come on, babe. I’m sorry if I scared you. We need to talk.”

He called me ten times since Gates picked me up and sent as many texts, but I was ignoring them. Gates knew about the messages but hadn’t said anything about them yet.

I sat there staring at Gates as he moved around the kitchen. I didn’t know what the hell I was doing, but it didn’t matter. I was in this, deep in this, and Gates was willing to help me.

That thought sent a wave of relief washing over me.

Gates was trained for this sort of thing. Well, maybe not this specific situation, but something like it. He was trained to fight and survive difficult tasks, and there was no better person for me to have in my corner right now.

Still, for all of that, I barely knew the man. I didn’t know why he wanted to get involved in something that was clearly incredibly dangerous. He owed me nothing and had every right to walk away.

The only thing I could think of was that he felt the same pull that I felt. Maybe that was true, or maybe it wasn’t. Maybe I just wanted that to be true. Either way, I kept staring at his body and felt the tug toward him, that deep yearning that wanted me to get up and throw myself at him.

“Here you go.”

I looked down at the cup in front of me.

“Thanks,” I said.

“Chamomile.”

“Excuse me?”

“Chamomile tea.” He leaned up against the counter across from me and crossed his arms. “Drink.”

“Okay.” I picked it up and blew on it then took a sip. It was vaguely sweet and tasted like watery apples. “I like it.”

“You’ve never had chamomile before?”

I shrugged. “Not much of a tea drinker, I guess.”

“It’s good for you. Calms the nerves, eases digestion. That sort of thing.”

“They teach you about tea in the military?”

“Nope,” he said. “That was all my mother.”

“Oh,” I said. “Your mother. Where does she live?”

“Passed away when I was twenty.”

I blinked. He was an orphan. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. She lived long enough to see me get chosen as a SEAL. That was a good day.”

“Do you have a lot of good memories of your mom?”

He nodded. “I do. She took care of me when my dad died.” He glanced at the clock then back at me. “What about you? What are your parents like?”

“They’re nice,” I said. “Typical parents. Dad works for a bank and my mom works for a real estate lawyer.”

“Were they supportive when their daughter wanted to become a weather girl?”

I laughed. “No, actually. Dad thought it was stupid. Mom was better, but even she was worried about me.”

“You showed them.”

I shrugged and sipped the tea again. “I guess. Mostly I just wanted them to be proud of me.”

“And are they?”

“Yeah. I think so.”

“Good.” He stared at me intently for a moment, like he was studying me. “We need to talk.”

My phone vibrated again but I sent it to voicemail. “Okay.”

“What does he keep saying?”

“Apologizing. Wants to meet.” I laughed ruefully. “I guess he thinks I’m an idiot.”

“You’re not an idiot,” he said seriously. “It’s good you called me.”

“Yeah. I think so, too.”

“Tell me about Tony.”

“There’s not much to say. I met him through work when his club was promoting a product on our show. He seemed nice, took me out a few times. We dated for a while before moving in. I had no clue he was involved with drugs.”

Gates nodded and I felt so stupid. How could I not see it? Tony always had nice things and was always buying me small but expensive presents. They came out of nowhere, diamond earrings, cell phones, iPods, stuff like that. I never really questioned it, since his night club was doing so well.

But how did a guy his age own a freaking night club to begin with? Tony’s parents were normal Italian people living out in Staten Island. They couldn’t offer him a loan. I never really asked him how he got involved with the club. Hell, I never really asked him anything. I never asked how he had so much money or where all that cash came from.

I was so, so stupid. I trusted him and I never should have. I could feel the tears coming on again and I had to fight them back.

Gates came around the island and put his hands on my shoulders. “Hey,” he said. “You can’t do that now. I know you’re dealing with some heavy shit, Pipes, but you need to hold it together for me. You need to tell me everything you know about this guy.”

“Like what?” I asked.

“Associates, friends, family. Anybody he deals with. Where he keeps his money, where he gets his money. Anything you can think of.”

I took a deep breath, looking into Gates’s eyes. He was so competent, so in control, and I felt that relief wash over me again.

“Okay,” I said, and started talking.

The story of Tony spilled out of me. I told Gates every single detail that I could remember, every story Tony mentioned, every friend and business associate. I talked about the presents, about his expensive car, about his cash. I dredged up memories I didn’t even know I had and then some. I talked for ten minutes, fifteen minutes, until finally I was out of things to say.

Gates listened carefully the whole time, nodding once in a while. He didn’t interrupt to ask questions and he didn’t get bored. He simply watched me, nodded along, and listened.

When I was done, I felt drained. Gates put his hand on my thigh and I felt a spike of desire run up through me.

“That was good,” he said. “I’m going to have some questions for you, but we can do that later. For now, that was really good.”

“What will any of that do, though?” I asked him.

“You want to live a normal life, right?”

“Of course.”

“We need to find a way to get you out of this mess. We need to find something we can use against Tony.”

“I don’t know what that could be.”

“I’ll find it.” His eyes went dark for a second. “Or else I’ll create it.”

I didn’t know what he meant and was about to ask, but my phone started ringing again.

“Tony,” I said, and went to shut it off.

“Wait,” Gates cut in. “Answer it.”

“What?”

“Answer it. On speaker.”

I blinked, frowning. “That’s a bad idea.”

“Trust me, Piper. Do it.”

“Fine.” I answered it and turned on speakerphone. “Hello?”

“Piper,” Tony said, sounding relieved. “I was worried about you.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because of what you saw.” He paused. “We need to talk, Pipes.”

“I don’t want to see you.”

“I know. I can’t blame you.” He sighed. “I’m so sorry you saw that, Pipes. I never wanted that to happen.”

The look on his face came back to me. Cold, expressionless, dead. It was the face of a killer.

“I understand,” I said and Gates nodded at me.

“The other guys, they pushed me into it. They’re dangerous men, Piper. I need to talk to you so I can explain. I’m so, so sorry.”

He wasn’t sorry, I reminded myself. He was a murderer.

Gates quickly hit the mute button. “Make a meeting,” he said.

“What?”

“Do it,” he said, and turned mute off.

“Piper?” Tony asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “Okay. We can meet.”

“Good. You don’t know how badly I need to see you. I need to make sure you’re okay, that they didn’t get you.”

“Who?” I asked him.

“The men I was with. I didn’t hurt anyone, Piper. They did it all.”

“Okay.” He was lying. I could hear it, plain as day.

“Meet me at Moreno’s. You know that Italian place?”

“I know it.”

“Meet me there tonight at ten. Can you do that?”

“I can.”

“Okay, Pipes. We’ll get through this together, I promise.”

Gates took the phone from my hand and hung it up.

I shook my head at him. “I can’t go to that.”

“Of course not. I’m going to go.”

“What?”

“He doesn’t know me,” Gates said. “I’ll watch him, see who he’s with, get a sense of him.”

“That’s crazy.”

“It’s our best first move. Soon he’ll figure out who I am and then we won’t have the advantage anymore. Trust me, Pipes.”

I stared at him, surprised all over again at the kind of man he was.

“You don’t have to help me,” I said softly. “I shouldn’t have brought you into this.”

He reached forward suddenly and took my hair, pulling me toward him. I gasped as he kissed me hard, surprised at first.

But quickly I gave into him. His lips felt right, the exact way I needed them to feel. It was like he simply knew what I needed, and in that moment I needed him to kiss me. I needed to know what he wanted, that he wanted me.

We kissed like that for minutes, maybe hours. I lost track of time and it didn’t matter at all. I only needed Gates in that moment, his mouth against mine.

Finally, he pulled back, hand lingering on my cheek.

“You should get some rest,” he said gently.

“Okay,” I answered, biting my lip.

“I need to prepare for later.”

“I understand.”

He sat there for a second, lingering over me, before standing up. I watched him turn and leave the room, shutting his bedroom door behind him.

I stared at the empty space he left, confused. I didn’t know why he had to stand up and walk away like that. But then again, I didn’t have the right to ask anything from him. He was helping me, but that didn’t mean he really owed me anything.

Truthfully, I owed him. I should have been thankful that I was sitting in his apartment, relatively safe.

Instead, I just wanted him to carry me into his bedroom and take me. I wanted him to destroy me, make me his, get me off.

I sipped my tea and took a deep breath. I had to stop being selfish. Gates was helping me, and that was enough.

But truthfully, I was terrified that it wouldn’t be even close to enough.