The odd feeling came while Merrick was about an hour outside Nice, accompanying the thief taker.

“Yes, I’m fairly certain we’re on the right track,” Savian said, examining the ground outside a small café. “There’s definitely signs of him here. I’m willing to bet you that he was originally headed for Nice.”

“We just came from there,” Merrick objected, trying to pinpoint why he was suddenly uneasy.

“Yes, but we were following the trail the wrong way. That or he doubled back over his track, and I don’t see why he’d do that.” Savian looked up and down the highway, just as if the answer were written there. “Then again, maybe he did. Hmm. If I had to guess, I’d say ...”

Merrick waited, struggling with his impatience. He glanced at his phone, but there was no message from Tempest. He had no doubt she’d text him if she was in any trouble ... or had a question ... or even just to say something outrageous.

Damn, but he wanted to hear from her. He wanted to know what she was thinking. And doing. And he wanted to touch her. The taste of her was still fresh in his mind, and dwelling on it had the hunger that growled around inside him roaring to life.

“I’d say they went that way.” Savian pointed away from Nice. “The signs are just a smidgen fresher that way.”

“I still don’t understand how you can see a trail from someone in a car,” Merrick couldn’t help but say, getting into the car nonetheless.

“Remember when I said that you lot shed an arcane-based blood residue? That stuff gets everywhere. It’s like a superfine powder that flies out the window, or is spread when the door is opened, or even when air is cycled through the inside of the car. It’s lying on the road like a faint copper shimmer,” Savian replied, nodding in the direction that led toward Monaco and, beyond it, Italy. “I wish you could see it. It’s really quite lovely.”

Merrick felt like all he’d done for the last few days was travel the same stretch of road over and over. “I just want to find the man. I don’t care about scenic Dark One residue.”

They drove on, Merrick puzzling over his odd feeling that something was wrong—and, more important, his need to know that Tempest was well—until a traffic delay gave him a moment to consult his phone. He pulled it out and frowned at it, lost a mental struggle, and finally texted her.

To: Tempest

What are you doing now?

There was no answer, a fact that left him feeling oddly bereft. Damn the woman, didn’t she know he was busy, and if he texted her now, it was obviously of importance?

“Wait.” Savian, who had been humming to himself and staring at the road ahead, suddenly lifted up his hand. “Can you pull over?”

Merrick did so. Savian got out and ran down the shoulder of the road a few yards, before standing with his hands on his hips, staring first in one direction, then the other. Merrick wondered if he dare get out to see what was the matter with the thief taker, but as there was no shade on the side of the road, he stayed put.

After a minute or two of the thief taker’s odd antics, he returned to the car. “We need to go back.”

“Why? Did you lose the trail?”

“No, it’s on the other side of the road, but it’s not here. There was a sign a little ways back, wasn’t there?”

“Yes. It was for the road going north.”

“Let’s go back and see if that’s what happened.”

Merrick said nothing, but he was annoyed. The whole purpose of getting the thief taker was to eliminate errors.

They retraced their route, and Merrick duly turned onto a new highway, Savian urging him forward. “This is it. See that? Waves of sanguine all over the place. Bet they had a window down somewhere. There’s something else there.”

“What?”

Savian was silent for a minute. “It’s hard to describe. It’s like there is a second sanguine, only it’s different from the first one.”

Merrick said nothing, his mind still on Tempest and the texts. Why hadn’t she answered him? Was it a ploy to make him worry? Or had something happened to her, something that prohibited her from reassuring him that she was all right?

Dammit, he disliked worrying about her. This was one more reason against ever having a Beloved.

“Hold up.”

Still thinking dark thoughts about women who made you care about them, Merrick obligingly pulled over next to a petrol station. Savian got out and made a brief search of the area around one of the pumps. Then he stood next to the car and looked down the road, a confused expression on his face.

“What’s wrong now?” Merrick asked, wishing he hadn’t engaged the thief taker. The man clearly had no idea of how to track people who weren’t immortals.

“Nothing’s wrong other than there are now multiple trails. That way, I think.” He pointed down the road, and got back into the car.

“Are you sure you are on the right trail?”

Savian flashed a grin at him. “Not impressed, eh? Well, don’t worry, you will be. Left here. No, right, go right. We’ll follow the new trail.”

“What new trail? I thought you said there were multiples?”

“There are, but this one is newer. The shimmer has a bit more gold to it. And another right turn up here.”

Merrick frowned as Savian instructed him through a residential neighborhood, the streets of which were full of children and dogs playing. He had the highest doubts that Victor would place himself into such a scene.

“And a left ahead. Very fresh trail now.”

Merrick turned the corner, and instantly hit the gas. Up ahead, he caught sight of a woman leading a white dog.

“Whoa! I can’t follow the trail if you drive like this—ack!” Savian was thrown forward against his seat belt when Merrick came to a quick stop.

He was out of the car and had his hands on Tempest before the fact registered in his brain. “Where the hell have you been? What are you doing here? Why didn’t you answer my text?” The need to kiss her grew until it was unbearable.

“Merrick! Oh, what are you doing he—” Tempest was forced to stop speaking when he gave in to the demand, and kissed the words right off her tongue. Her mouth was as hot and sweet as he knew it would be, and immediately, he wanted more.

“Wowzers,” she said when a tingling at the back of his neck warned him that he’d left the car without grabbing his hat. “That was ... hoo, baby! That was quite the greeting. Ack! You’re turning red. Merrick! What are you doing out in the sun!”

To his mingled amusement and annoyance, she started shooing him toward the car. Part of his mind protested that if he wanted to stand out and get burned by the sun, then he would do so, but luckily, sanity overrode that stubborn idiocy, and he hustled her and the dog into the car before taking his seat behind the wheel.

“Hullo,” Savian said, turning around in the seat to look at Tempest. “Savian Bartholomew at your service.”

“Hi, Savian. I’m Tempest Keye. Merrick, your neck is bright red. Do you have some aloe vera?”

“No. It will be fine.” He shot a little glare at Savian to warn the man to stop ogling Tempest. “Why didn’t you answer my text?”

She held up her phone. It was cracked and dirty. “A car ran over it. I had to use a stick to get it out from under an oil stand at the gas station, and just my luck, someone pulled in at the same time that I got it free. I don’t suppose my text got sent? The one telling you we were kidnapped?”

Merrick sighed softly to himself, and once again pulled off the road. “Would you mind changing seats with Tempest?” he asked Savian.

“No,” Savian said slowly, his eyebrows high on his forehead as he looked first at Merrick, then at Tempest. “Not at all. Happy to. Er ... the dog won’t mind?”

“Kelso is very chill. He seems to like most people,” Tempest said, and went around to take the front passenger seat.

Merrick waited until everyone was settled before asking, “Who was kidnapped?”

“I was. Well, Ellis and Kelso and me.” She leaned forward, putting her hand on his arm, sending streaks of heat rolling through his body. He breathed deeply to try to get a grip on the sensations that filled him, but that just heightened his awareness of the scent of her, sun-warmed, with hints of wood and petrol. “But that’s not the worst of it.”

What was wrong with him? He used to have perfect control of his emotions, and now a few minutes with a woman and he was as uncontrolled as a youth.

“Ellis and I were checking into the hotel—oh, I should talk to you about that, since I don’t want to have to sleep with Ellis—and all of a sudden, boom, there he was!”

He touched his forehead. Wasn’t that how mortals determined if they had a fever? He didn’t feel ill—Dark Ones didn’t sicken, as a rule, unless they were suffering from poisoning—but perhaps he’d been in contact with some virus that affected his kind.

“Who was there?” Savian asked from the backseat. “This really is a nice dog. He seems to think I have a treat in my pocket, though. Oh, wait, I do have some mints.”

He fought the hunger, the need to take Tempest in his arms, and do all those things to her that suddenly became the most important things in the world.

“It was my cousin Carlo.” Tempest squeezed his arm. He thought seriously of pulling out his phone and finding the nearest hotel so that he could give in to all those desires.

“Wait ... Carlo is your cousin?” Savian asked.

“Yes. Don’t blame me, though. I’m beginning to think that all of my dad’s family is a bit off. Merrick?”

No, he couldn’t make it to a hotel. He eyed the houses down the road. Perhaps if he offered one of the owners a sizable amount of euros ...

Merrick? What’s wrong? Why are you panting? I can feel you thinking, but you must be trying to hide your thoughts from me, because all I get is a sense of you holding something back.

He snarled soundlessly into her head, and let her see just what he was thinking.

“Glorious grasshoppers!” she said on a gasp, and lunged forward, both hands on his face, her lips burning a brand on his, enticing him, driving him insane with need, pushing him almost past the point of control.

With a superhuman effort, he managed to push her back, but took pleasure nonetheless in the fact that her eyes were dilated with desire, she was breathing raggedly, and a sexual flush had washed upward from her chest.

She was desire personified, and it would take a stronger man than him to resist her.

He didn’t. She was there in his arms again, warm and sweet and satisfying.

“Erm. Should I leave? Apparently you two would like a little private time.”

He kissed her the way he wanted to kiss her from that moment on, tasting every last morsel of her, his hands full of her breasts, his mind consumed with the hunger for her.

“I probably should. Perhaps the dog would like walkies?”

It wasn’t enough. He needed to feed, but only from her. He needed the taste of her on his tongue,  filling all the dark spots inside him with her warmth and light and goodness.

“Walkies, dog? Good boy. I’ll just take you out for a little walk, and hopefully by the time you’re done, Merrick and Tempest won’t be naked and writhing around on the seat. Not that I care what you do in your private time, but you are paying me by the hour, and the trail is getting colder with each passing minute. Well, then! Kelso, is it? Shall we go find a nice spot to take a dump? You, that is, not me, because lucky for all of us, there is a petrol station right there behind us should the need arise. Not that I’d announce to you both that there was that need, because there are some things one should just pull a shade on. You’re still going at it, aren’t you? I thought perhaps one or both of you would come up for air, but no, I see I was wrong. Right. Well. I reckon that’s our cue, my lad. Out we go.”

Who is that man?

Merrick, absorbed in thoughts of how he could get Tempest naked, dragged his mind off her luscious, delectable self and onto what she had asked.

He is a thief taker.

Oh, that’s right, you told me about him. Wait, you’re stopping? Why?

Merrick realized just how close he was to taking her right there in the front seat, and gently pushed her back to her side of the car. “Because it’s still light out, and if I did all the things that you want me to do to you here, people would see. What were you saying about being kidnapped?”

“Hmm? My lips feel like they should be bruised.” She touched her mouth, which just made him stare at her lips, wanting to taste them yet again. “Do they look bruised? You are an awesome kisser. Did anyone ever tell you that?”

“Stop tempting me. Who was kidnapped?”

“I told you already. Ellis and Kelso and I were grabbed and stuffed in a car.”

“Ah.” He dragged his gaze off her mouth.

She gave him a look of disgruntled disbelief. “Ah? Is that all you’re going to say? Ah? Just like it didn’t matter that I was kidnapped?”

“Were you harmed?”

“No, but ...” She waved an arm around in vague gestures of incomprehension. “But in all of C. J. Dante’s books, when a heroine is kidnapped, the vampire goes nutso cuckoo. He clutches her to his chest, and declares the kidnapper will die for touching her, and generally slips into super-protective mode. Why aren’t you doing that?”

“You say you aren’t hurt, and I can see that you are well and able-bodied. I believe in saving my rage for situations where it can be used, not wasted on empty gestures.”

“Well, I like that! Dante’s vampires don’t use empty gestures! They love their Beloveds! They can’t live without them.” She poked him in the chest. “And they admit it, unlike some pigheaded vampires I could name.” She poked him again, evidently for good measure.

“I will repeat yet again that real Dark Ones are not the same as those in Christian’s books.” He absently watched Savian walk the dog along a strip of grass. “Who kidnapped you, and why?”

“Cousin Carlo.” She sounded slightly sulky, but he ignored that to pin her back with a look that would have scared anyone else.

“What? Why didn’t you tell me you’d seen him?”

“I did!”

“You did not! I would have remembered if you’d told me that.”

“I most certainly did tell you. I told you just a few minutes ago, when you were doing all that thinking that you didn’t let me see. What exactly were you thinking about so deeply that you didn’t hear me?”

He looked away, feeling somewhat martyred.

“You were thinking smutty things about me, weren’t you?” She looked downright delighted. “The sorts of things you let me see right before you made me kiss you.”

“I was not,” he answered; then something compelled him to correct himself. “It was only a few of those things. Others were added once you lunged at me.”

“It was a good lunging,” she said, smiling smugly to herself. He let that go, honking the horn until Savian returned with the dog.

“Carlo has been spotted,” he announced when both man and dog were back in the car. “Tempest will now tell us what happened.”

She did so, sketching out a scene that left his blood running cold. If Tempest hadn’t had the wits and courage to escape when she did, she could have been lost to him forever. If Carlo wasn’t Victor himself, then he must be one of his lieutenants. Either way, he had to find the man. He had to be punished for his involvement with the crimes against Dark Ones.

And for touching Tempest.

“—we were hiding behind—what?”

“Hmm?” Merrick tried for an inscrutable expression, but was unsure of whether he pulled it off.

Tempest frowned at him. “Did you say something?”

“I wouldn’t interrupt you that way,” he said, allowing a bit of righteous indignation to temper his tone.

“Oh. OK. Well, we were hiding behind this stack of logs, watching for the car to come back—”

Merrick’s mind wandered to the things he wanted to do to Victor, but he was very careful to shield them from Tempest.

“—and then we decided the coast had been clear long enough, so we went to get the phone, but it was broken, so we just started walking toward the nearest big town. I figured we’d get a train back to Nice, and are you growling?”

Merrick stopped growling to himself. “No.”

“Oh.” She looked over her shoulder. “No growlies, Kelso. Savian is your friend.”

“Eh?” Savian said, looking confusedly between the dog and her.

“Which direction were they headed before they stopped at the petrol station?” Merrick asked Tempest, starting the car and preparing to head out in chase.

“North, but I don’t know what the destination was. It had to be somewhere in France, though, because Ellis’s passport was with the hotel, and he wouldn’t be able to get across the border. Although I don’t think they knew that. Hmm.”

Savian pulled out his phone. “Let’s see. Nearest large town is Tourrette-Levens, although I don’t know that you’re necessarily looking for a town.”

“We’ll go on the assumption that he was heading that way, since your trail indicates the same. Can you track from the backseat?”

“I am the best thief taker in all of Europe,” Savian said with a laugh. “I could track blindfolded. Well, all right, not blindfolded, but with one eye patch.”

“What exactly are you talking about?”

Merrick focused on his attention on driving while Savian explained his profession and the sanguine trail to Tempest, who, as expected, was delighted by both.

“This is so cool!” She turned to Merrick and punched him lightly in the shoulder. “Don’t you see what that means? That trail that Savian was following was me. It shows that we’re connected.”

“I didn’t know you had a mate,” Savian said, catching Merrick’s eye in the rearview mirror. “It would have been easier to separate the trails had you mentioned that.”

Merrick said nothing, his teeth grinding just a little.

Tempest gazed at him with raised eyebrows, finally saying, “Well? Aren’t you going to protest that you don’t have a Beloved, and you don’t need one, want one, or intend to ever have one?”

He unclenched his teeth. “No.”

“Really?” He expected elation on her part, but was surprised when her brows pulled together in a little frown. “Why?”

Does it matter? There are more important things to be discussed now, such as the possible motives of Carlo in kidnapping you. I wonder now if he really is Victor, or if he’s fronting for him.

I would prefer to think my cousin isn’t a horrible murderer, and don’t think I don’t know that you’re changing the subject, because I can feel how uncomfortable you are at discussing relationships.

“What were you doing in Nice?” he asked aloud in order to keep her from continuing along that particular conversational path.

“Looking for you. Ellis wanted to see you, and I knew you’d like to meet him.”

He sensed something in her, a little bubble of emotion that she acknowledged but pushed to the side.

It was anger.

Why was she angry at him? Why are you angry with me?

Huh? Who said I was?

I can feel your emotions just as you feel mine.

She looked startled for a moment. I keep forgetting we are a two-way radio.

Why were you angry with me enough to leave the safety of my home in order to find me? I arranged for everything you needed there.

Again, the little bubble of anger rose in her. He was genuinely perplexed by it, and wanted to know what was triggering such a reaction when all he was doing was keeping her safe.

It took her a few minutes to answer, and she glanced over her shoulder at Savian, who was engaged with his phone, looking up every few minutes to check the trail before returning to text messages. You know how I said I lived with a cult?

Yes. Your father belonged to it, I believe.

That’s right. Well, one of the things they were very big on was telling women what they could and couldn’t do. Mostly couldn’t, because they didn’t like us doing anything that came close to making us actual human beings rather than the pretty, brainless little childbearing dolls that they wanted.

Merrick drove on, keeping his thoughts carefully to himself. He noted, however, the sense of anger was replaced by a deep sadness in Tempest.

Even as an adult, every facet of my life was structured. I had times when I had to milk the goats, and times when I had to wash the clothes, and times when I had to be on my knees begging God for humility. I was never allowed to do anything off the schedule, or make a decision for myself, or, merciful deity of your choice, actually live life the way I wanted to.

With a shock, he realized that she had viewed his actions in the same fashion she viewed those of the members of the cult, and he had to admit that when they were seen in that light, she was justified. He had taken away her choices, and given her parameters under which she could live, and no more.

So when you dumped Kelso and me off at your house—

“Dumped” is hardly the word.

—I decided that I wasn’t going to go back to that sort of a life. These last few months have been wonderful, Merrick. I can decide what I want to eat for a meal. I can decide when to have the meal. I pick out the clothes I want to wear, and when I will wear them. And I decide where I will go, and what I will do. She slid him a sidelong look. Even a Beloved has a right to autonomy.

Yes, she does, he agreed, enjoying her start of surprise.

That’s why we decided to come to Nice, to see you. I’m sure you’re angry about that, but I will point out that at least I’ve seen Carlo, so we know he’s still in the area.

I am angry about many things, but you making decisions for yourself is not one of them. Unless it endangers you, and then I reserve the right to feel a little testy.

She giggled in his head. I’d never imagine you saying the word “testy.”

I am a man of much depth, he said complacently, then added, “What will your friend do if Carlo discards him?”

“Discards as in what? Throws out of the car?” She looked horrified at the thought. “Or thrown away because they killed him? You don’t think they killed him, do you? Galloping grape juice, what have I done? I was sure they wouldn’t kill him, but now—”

“Calm yourself,” he interrupted, not liking the panic and guilt he saw in her eyes. “They have no reason to kill him. He is not an immortal, and he has no ties to me. They do not kill for the pleasure of it.”

The image of his sister’s broken body rose in his mind, but he ignored the guilt that accompanied the memory. He couldn’t think now of how he had failed her. She was dead because he hadn’t kept her safe, and that was all there was to it. He had to keep the most important item uppermost in mind.

Protecting Tempest.

No, he corrected himself. Finding Victor was the most important thing. No one, not even Tempest, would be safe until Victor was located and imprisoned.

“Oh, I sure hope so, because Ellis is a nice guy. You’d like him.” Her voice was leaching sadness and regret, making Merrick want to take her in his arms again. He wanted to make love to her until she forgot about the world, forgot about the drama in which she’d found herself, forgot about everything but him.

He wanted to be the world to her.

“What exactly has this Victor done, if you don’t mind me asking? I know the Revelation is bad news, but I haven’t heard anything about him specifically,” Savian asked, pulling his head in from where he’d been looking out the window at the trail.

“He is directly responsible for the death of my sister, and twelve other Dark Ones over the last twenty years. The Horsemen were brought together ten years ago in order to combat the threat they pose to our kind.” Merrick kept his voice level despite the anger and sorrow that rose at not being able to save his sister.

Tempest rested her hand on his leg, providing wordless comfort.

“I’m so sorry,” Savian said, looking horrified. “I had no idea they were killing vampires, and for you to have lost a sister ... that’s just terrible.”

“Are you sure Victor is the head of the organization?” Tempest asked.

“Everything points to that, although it could be a code name rather than his actual name. That’s why it’s so vital for us to determine once and for all just what role your cousin has to play in the Revelation. Either he’s Victor, or he’s one of Victor’s henchmen. Or he’s a deliberate cover, intending to throw us off the scent of the real man behind it all.”

Tempest murmured sympathetic things into his mind, allowing him to push aside the hot spike of revenge that always rose whenever he thought of his sister.

It wasn’t long after that they came to a large city, and there, unfortunately, Savian lost the trail.

“It’s not so much that it’s gone too faint to see,” he said after half an hour of running up one train platform and down another. The three now stood at the deserted end of one of the platforms. “It’s that it’s been dispersed by the large amount of foot traffic. Stirs up the air, you know, and makes all the sanguine particles spread around.”

“Then we’ve lost him?” Tempest asked, her face pale with strain.

Merrick didn’t like her stressed. He wanted her happy and giggling, and saying outrageous things into his head while she did the most amazing things to his body.

“I’m afraid so. The best I can say is that he likely got on a train served by this platform. If you like, I can ask what trains have been through here in the last hour or so,” Savian offered.

“That would be helpful,” Merrick said, hiding his frustration. He’d been so close to Victor, and yet once again the opportunity seemed to slip away.

“I’m sorry,” Tempest said, her hand on his arm, instantly flooding him with warmth and understanding and concern. “I feel like this is partially my fault. If I hadn’t broken my phone, I could have seen your text, and you could have been after him immediately rather than being delayed.”

“We were already tracking him; stopping to pick you up did not delay us any significant time, so you can cease feeling guilty.” Merrick fought the hunger that her nearness triggered. He reminded himself that he was a Horseman. He was a stranger to softer feelings, and had no intention of changing his ways now.

Dammit, but she smelled good. Like a glass of golden sunshine, warm and slightly floral and very heady.

“What are we going to do now?” she asked, frowning at nothing. “We have to find Carlo. Not just because he’s probably Victor, but he also has Ellis, or at the very least knows where Ellis is.”

It was on the tip of Merrick’s tongue to tell her to return to the safety of his home, but in time he remembered her anger at being dominated. He very much disliked the idea that she would put him in the same group as the men in the cult, but at the same time, he wanted her protected and kept safe from the viciousness of which he knew Victor was capable.

It was as if she were a little bird, standing on the edge of the nest, trembling with excitement at the world that lay beyond, but with fledgling wings that he wasn’t sure would support her.

“I know you are concerned about your friend. Would it make you feel better if I asked the thief taker to search for him?”

She sighed with obvious relief. “It would, it really would. I want to go help him—Ellis—but I don’t know where he is, and I don’t know how to help him if I can’t find him.”

“I will have him direct his search for your friend, although, being mortal, he will be harder to track,” Merrick said.

She beamed at him, making him want to kiss her again. “Thank you. That would make me worry less to know Savian was on the trail.”

“While he’s searching, it would be helpful if you could make yourself available to being contacted, say at the hotel in Nice where Carlo tracked you,” he said slowly, picking the words carefully so that she didn’t feel like he was telling her what to do. “In case he wishes to speak with you. With your mobile phone not functioning, he will need some other method of contacting you.”

Tempest had been about to protest the idea of returning to Nice, but paused instead to consider it. “That makes sense, although do you really think it’s likely he’ll try to call me?”

“If he went to the trouble of kidnapping you, yes, he will want to find out if you are in Nice or are somewhere else. And assuming he took a train out of the area, he can’t check on you himself.”

She squinted up at him. “Do you believe that’s what he was doing at the hotel? That he followed me there specifically to kidnap me?”

Again, he had to pick his words carefully. “I believe his plan is to use you to get to me, yes. As for following you ... describe again what happened after you and the dog got away from his car.”

She ran through the events again. At the end, he nodded to himself. “Let me see your phone.”

“It’s broken,” she said, pulling it out of her pocket and handing it to him. “It won’t even turn on.”

“I don’t believe it needs to.” He pried off the back cover, flipping it over to find exactly what he expected to see. He held the back cover out to her, nodding toward it. “There’s a tracking chip here.”

“A what, now?”

“It’s a chip that allows someone to track the location of this phone. Did you, at any time, leave your phone while you were in your cousin’s house?”

She thought for a moment. “Yes. I left it in my room the first day I was there, when I went to the pool. And of course, I took a couple of showers. And now that I think of it, I left it upstairs when we had dinner. But would that be enough time for someone to doctor my phone?”

“Certainly. The question is why they would do so before they had an idea you were connected with me.”

“I didn’t even think of that,” she said, her fingers tightening on his arm. “I know I’ve been sheltered until the last four months, but that’s not normal behavior, is it?”

“No.” He puzzled over the question for a minute. “You did not mention seeing C. J. Dante at all, did you?”

“No. Were you thinking he knew you and I had met, even if we hadn’t really met?”

“Possibly.” He glanced at his watch. “It could be something as coincidental as general paranoia on his part. You did contact him out of the blue.”

“Good point,” she said, nodding. “But if he knew where I was, and that I was with you, why didn’t he try to get us at your house?”

He smiled. Oh, it was a grim smile, to be sure, but he felt he deserved credit for mustering up any form of smile. “My house has protection against such things. The best they’d be able to do is trace us to the town, and then you would effectively disappear. Likely they waited until they had a strong signal they could follow.”

“Which was in Nice,” she said, sighing. “Who would have thought Carlo had that in him?”

Merrick said only, “What do you wish to do? Go back to Nice or somewhere else?”

She slid a look up at him that had him wanting to shut them both away in a room for a day or two. Possibly a few years. “What happened to Bossy McBossypants telling me that I’m going to your house and will stay there and be safe, because clearly when I go out on my own, things happen like I get kidnapped?”

“You are a grown woman.” He ignored the spurt of fear that accompanied the reminder of just how close she had been to a man who very well might turn out to be the murderous Victor. “If you do not wish to return to Nice to be available for contact, then I can hire someone to do the same.”

She seared him with a scornful look. “Are you kidding? This is my adventure. I’m not letting someone else have it.”

“Tempest—” he said warningly.

She stopped him with an upraised hand. “I know, I know—it’s not all fun and games, and Cousin Carlo is probably a super-bad man who hurts people, so I shouldn’t be flip about it. And I’m not, although it sounded like I was. I’m very well aware after the last few hours that he does not have my best interests at heart.”

“Good. See that you stay that sensible.”

“I plan to. This isn’t just a ploy to get me out of the way?” she asked when they maneuvered through the incoming crowds to the ticketing area. “Because I’m so going to have some things to say to you if it is.”

“He knows where to find you. The hotel is definitely not a place of safety,” Merrick pointed out. “Sending you there is risking your life, so, no, it’s not a ploy. It’s a way for you to help locate a man who has the potential to destroy a great many people.”

“I am so with you on that,” she said, lifting her chin and looking determined. “And I’m glad you’ve finally realized that I’m the ideal person to help find Carlo, so if you’ll tell me what train to take, Kelso and I will head back to Nice.”

He bought her a ticket and was just giving her instructions when Savian appeared and headed their way. “Be sure to pick up a new mobile phone and send me the number. And don’t leave it anywhere.”

She smiled and gave him a swift kiss that he felt like the kick of a mule in his gut.

Dammit, he would not fall for this woman. His life was simply too dangerous for that.