Kasey sighed as she put her car in park and turned off the engine. Another week down. Her guilt was weighing on her, making it harder and harder to face her friends.

What started out as a simple temporary job, turned into the kind of life she'd always wanted. Well, minus the no sex part. That wasn't in her dreams ever. And then there was her crazy attraction to Brannon and that night of wild sex that shouldn’t have happened. Not with her past and family. Not with her secrets.

Pressing the key fob, the alarm on her car beeped and she shuffled across the oil-stained third-level floor toward the elevator. Though she loved the office and all the ladies, the lies and effort it took to avoid getting caught was mentally draining. Someone was bound to figure out something soon. Then the question became how much would they hate her?

As she walked, the footfall of hard-bottomed shoes echoed off the walls. Moving only her eyes, she couldn’t spot the owner of those shoes. She hadn’t seen a car come up before her and nobody was behind her on the ramp. Her pace picked up, as did the echo. Her heart suddenly raced.

She forced herself not to run. This was all silly. The fear of her new friends finding out about her family and the terror of her family finding out about her friends was starting to affect her psyche. Her brain was turning everyday experiences into the makings of nightmares. She really needed to chill out. Unfortunately, her pulse wasn’t listening.

Her eyes searched for the elevator through the rows of cars. Why wasn’t the escape route getting shorter? The stranger’s clip-clop speed increased.

This time, she swiveled her head around to look for the culprit—anybody walking. The steps stopped. Her vision only saw empty cars and SUVs waiting for their owners to return to start the next workday. Was the person following her hiding? Did they mean her harm?

Where were her father’s men when she needed them? Oh, right. She didn’t need them. The steps started and Kasey couldn’t keep from running. Blood pounded in her ears, blocking out the only way she had of keeping track of the other person. Screw that. She needed to get to her apartment where she would be safe.

Bypassing the elevator, she went straight for the stairs, high heels be damned. If she broke her ankle, she’d roll down the fucking steps. Hands gripping the painted railings, she flew down the levels, her feet barely touching the ground.

At the bottom, she burst through the door, right into the body of a big, sexy man she’d been drooling over the entire week. Brannon Wolfrik.

His large hands held her up. “Whoa there, beautiful. Where’s the inferno?” he asked with a chuckle.

Kasey breathed too fast and hard to answer. She glanced over her shoulder to see the door close and remain that way. Another twenty steps and she’d be inside her apartment’s lobby. Safety. But that also meant her father’s men who monitored the entrance would see this man with her right now. She had to keep that from happening.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

His brows pulled down over his heart-stopping eyes. “I know you're hiding secrets from all of us. I just don’t know how bad they are or who they will hurt and that has me worried. I think it’s about time you come clean,” Brannon said.

Kasey gasped and jumped in alarm. “What?” she stammered out as her eyes darted around the empty garage. He wanted to interrogate her here, now? “You can’t be here.”

Never would she have expected that by friending Kira, Carly, Luke, Bastien and the others, she’d get stuck with him as well. As she’d been watching him, he’d been watching her, but too closely and saw things he shouldn’t.

“I let it go at first,” his voice was low and rough, “but I know you know something about what’s happening with the kids of the packs and why they’ve been acting so weird, and I want to know what and how.”

Kasey stiffened her back and glared at the gorgeous man in front of her. So, he made her nervous with his good looks. So what? He was giving her more grief than anybody else in her life. “You want to talk to me, that’s fine. We’ll talk during business hours, but you don’t show up late at night in the garage of my apartment building.” She pursed her lips. “You don’t get to demand anything. You don’t get to bully me into telling you anything.”

She took two steps away before he pulled her to a stop and turned her back to face him. “I’m not done talking to you.”

“I don’t care,” she growled. “I can’t be seen out here with you. Now, go away before you get me in trouble. You think you know me, well, you don’t. Leave, and if you want to see me at work, fine, but until then, let go and move out of my way before I make you regret it.”

He glanced down at the can in her hand and shook his head, “You’re going to mace me? Damn, woman, you are insane.”

She narrowed her eyes but didn’t respond.

“Fine,” he bit out. “I’ll go for now, but I want those answers. No more hiding, no more secrets. You know something, and I will figure it out. You better hope for your sake it doesn’t threaten or hurt anyone I love.”

Kasey watched him go, her heart leaping in her throat. She leaned against the wall and took deep breaths, trying to calm herself. Fuck! Damn the man for scaring the shit out of her and for doing it here of all places. She wasn't stupid.

She knew her father had her guarded. “For her own protection,” he would say. His spies might have seen that interaction and reported it. That was the last thing she needed. If her father ever found out she was friends with anyone from the mountain, she'd be in a convent for sure.

And there was the person following her, or was that her imagination? "Get a grip, Kasey. Don't show weakness," she mumbled as she straightened her spine and marched to the apartment entrance and bank of elevators. The ride up to her small apartment seemed to last an eternity. Questions whirled in her head. Brannon was turning out to be more of a nuisance than she could have ever expected. But the most gorgeous nuisance she’d ever met.

The beep of the elevator as the doors opened was a welcome relief. She didn't waste any time. She flew through the opening doors and raced to her apartment and the sanctuary inside. It was the one place she'd gotten her father to agree not to track her. No cameras, bugs or bodyguards, her one and only refuge in the world of her father's cartel.