Kate raced home, which proved difficult since she was walking in heels. It had been a long time since she’d partaken in the dreaded walk of shame. She hugged her jacket close, shielding her against the chilly morning air.

She smiled. Yes, it had been a long time indeed. She missed having the attention of a man. However, Kate knew that not all men were created equal. She’d gotten lucky last night, in more ways than the obvious. Colt had been worth the wait. He’d been just the right amount of kind, gentle, and… animal—in a good way—in the way he’d taken Kate.

Kate had only had experience with men inside the motorcycle club she grew up around. She’d been taught from an early age that women were the property of an MC member. You did what they said, and you didn’t dare have an opinion of your own if you wanted to be kept around. Kate was engaged to be married to a member of Samael’s Army before the FBI came around, looking into the MC’s drug manufacturing business. And before she’d become pregnant with a different member’s baby. Life had been complicated for her, the daughter of the president of Samael’s Army and sister of the vice president.

When Kate was given an opportunity to start over with a new identity in a new town, she jumped at the chance to give her daughter a different life than she had known—a life where her voice would matter and she would never be treated like someone’s property.

As she walked, she rubbed her fingers over her lips, slightly puffy from kissing too much. If there was such a thing… She nearly laughed out loud in her own girlish way.

She knew she was being silly. She was way past the stage in her life where she could act all giddy like a schoolgirl over a guy, especially one she’d met in a bar. She had a daughter to think about, and rules to follow that had kept them both safe so far.

But she was happy, and Colt had been different than other men in her past. He’d also been different from the many sailors she’d met while working in a bar and restaurant on the Virginia Beach boardwalk. Maybe running off so quickly this morning had been rash. Maybe she would send him a note at the hotel later today. If he was interested in seeing her again, he could answer the note. If not, then he could ignore it. No harm in seeing Colt one more time before he left town. Not like there was any long-term risk to seeing him a second time… right?

She made a couple of turns. Fortunately, she was a short walk from home. She didn’t bother to tell Colt that she actually worked at a larger sports bar a couple of blocks away from where they’d met last night and just a couple of blocks in the other direction from her home. That would have fallen into the category of personal information she had no intention of sharing.

By the time she arrived at the cottage she rented for Sarah and herself, she had talked herself into sending a note to the hotel after she took a shower and got ready for work.

Her home was a perfect, picturesque beach cottage a couple of blocks off the beach. It had two bedrooms and a lovely front porch with a swing that Sarah loved. She closed the white picket gate and made her way up the sidewalk to the front porch, but stopped abruptly when she saw a small animal, unmoving, splayed across the welcome mat in front of her door.

Her hand flew to cover her mouth at the sight. Despite the cold morning, a sweat broke out across her neck. She walked closer, trying to ascertain what kind of animal it was and how it had died.

“Kate,” a male voice said behind her.

She turned and yelped at the same time, nearly leaping out of her skin. “Trip. What are you doing here?” She studied his attire and realized that her boss from JK Shuckers Raw and Sports Bar was clearly on a morning run.

“What’s wrong?” He tried to see around her.

“Uh… It’s nothing. I’ll handle it.”

Trip was not only her boss, but after working together for years, he’d been trying to get her to go out with him for the past six months. But he was a good boss, and there was no way Kate was going to ruin a good thing. She needed the job far more than a boyfriend.

He came closer, placed his hands on her upper arms, then lifted her and moved her out of the way. He walked up the several steps to the front porch. “What the fu—”

Kate joined him on the porch.

“That’s a rat,” he said. “Do you have rats in or around this house?”

“What?” she asked, taking a step back, “Of course not.” She looked closer at the animal. “An occasional mouse, but never a rat.” A fear she hadn’t felt in months landed in the middle of her chest as if someone had just punched her. She struggled to get a breath.

“Kate?” Trip asked. He grabbed her arms again. “Look at me. Breathe. It’s just a rat.”

She struggled to focus on his face. When she did, he was looking frantically into her eyes.

“Breathe,” he said again, and she did. “That’s it, keep breathing. Tell me what you’re thinking. You think someone put this rat on your porch on purpose? Who would do such a thing?”

“I…I don’t know,” she lied.

“You do know. I can see it all over your face.”

She gave her head a little shake. She was overreacting to think that her brother or someone else from Samael’s Army had found her and decided to put a rat on her front porch. Her brother and everyone who was arrested all those years ago were still in prison. And even if they had managed to find her, they wouldn’t have wasted time with a dead rodent. They would just kill her. “I’m fine,” she said. “I have no idea why someone would put a rat on my porch. Maybe some guy was just playing some sort of sick practical joke, and they got the wrong house. Maybe the rat wandered up here on my porch and keeled over of natural causes. I don’t know.”

Trip angled his head. She could see he was turning her words over in his mind. “Can you get me a garbage bag? I’ll get rid of it for you.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“I know I don’t. But you’d be insulting my manhood if you don’t let me.”

She smiled. Trip was truly one of the better men she’d come into contact with during her new life. “You really are an amazing guy, you know that?” She moved around him to open the front door.

“That’s me. One amazing guy.” He followed her inside. “So amazing that I’m not going to ask where you’re coming from so early this morning wearing heels I’m guessing you wore out last night to Jami’s bachelorette party.”

Kate walked to her kitchen, wincing at Trip’s words. The last thing she wanted to do was hurt him. He had been a great friend to her in addition to being a fair boss. He always worked around the schedule she needed in order to provide a stable life for her daughter. He’d even helped her find this cottage when the first place she lived in had been in a bad part of town for raising a baby. And he didn’t hold it against her when she refused to go out with him.

She found a garbage bag and handed it to him. Though she knew she was just being paranoid, she really wanted to call her witness protection administrator, Tony, to make sure there’d been no changes to the incarceration of members of Samael’s Army. Even if someone had been cut loose, there was little chance that anyone from the motorcycle club had found her. She’d taken every precaution to keep her identity a secret. Not to mention, they were supposed to think she was dead. And someone from the U.S. Marshals office would have called her if somebody had been released.

Trip bagged up the dead critter. “I’ll take it to the dumpster behind the bar.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

He narrowed his eyes.

“Thank you,” she said.

“See? That wasn’t so hard. You’re welcome.”

“You want some coffee before you go?”

He opened his mouth to most likely turn her down, but her phone sounded from her purse. She waved a hand to motion him in as she answered the phone.

“Hi, Mommy,” Sarah’s voice said on the other end of the phone.

“Hi, honey. How’s mommy’s favorite little star? You sleep good last night?”

“I did. Ashton’s mom says they’re going to see the balloon races tonight. Can I go with them?”

“Oh.” Kate turned on the Keurig and pulled a basket of coffee pods down from a cabinet. “Is Ashton’s mom there? Can I talk to her?” She got down two coffee mugs and motioned for Trip to help himself.

“Okay, Mommy. But I really want to go.”

“Hi, Kate. It’s Annie. We’re going to see the hot air balloons in Norfolk tonight. Sebastian and I would love to take Sarah with us, if that’s okay with you.”

“Are you sure?” Kate asked. After washing his hands, Trip fixed himself a mug of coffee and was staring at her while he drank it black. She could hear Sarah and Ashton playing in the background.

“Absolutely. You’d be doing us a favor by giving Ashton a playmate. You know, sometimes it’s easier to take care of two than one.”

“Well, okay. Thank you,” Kate replied hesitantly. Sarah got back on the phone and sounded so excited to be staying with her friend another night.

After she hung up, Kate started making herself a mug of coffee. “Any chance I could work an extra shift tonight?” she asked Trip.

“Why? Aren’t you working lunch?”

“Yeah, but Sarah is staying with her friend another night. I could really use the money.” Kate went to the refrigerator and grabbed the creamer. Before she’d gotten home, she had thought about sending Colt a note. But even though the rat was some sort of stupid coincidental reminder of her past, Kate knew that seeing Colt again was a bad idea. It was good between them last night. And not just the sex, though the sex was amazing. But they had talked and laughed, and though they kept the conversation away from personal information, she had felt like she’d truly connected with Colt. And she liked him.

Trip took a drink of the coffee while Kate dumped cream and sugar into hers. “Actually that would be great,” he said. “It’s Saturday night, and the NCAA tournament is really slamming us. I could use the extra help.”

“Perfect.” She took the first sip of coffee.

“You going to tell me what you did last night?”

She smiled. “No. Do I ask you what you do on your nights off?”

“I don’t take nights off.”

“Well, maybe you should.”

“If I do, will you go out with me?”

“You know the answer to that.”

“As long as you’re working for me, you can’t date me,” he recited.

“You know it wouldn’t be a good idea for you to date one of your employees or for me to date my boss.”

“Fine. Have it your way. You’re fired.” He smiled. He set the mug by the sink, then after a fist bump to her shoulder, he headed toward the front door.

She laughed after him. He really was a great guy for not pressuring her further. “I’ll see you at ten. Thanks again for taking the rat.”

He grabbed the bag containing the gross critter and tossed a wave over his shoulder as he headed down the sidewalk.