Jake glanced over to see that Sophie had withdrawn from him completely. She’d folded her body tightly into her seat and now she stared out the window, holding her phone pressed close. Who had sent her a text she was all but cradling? Was it Alika?

Something had been going on with those two on Kaua’i, he’d bet money on it. Jake squelched his possessive feelings yet again. At least he’d been able to get her all to himself on this trip, away from that gym rat businessman with his chopper and fancy houses.

Sophie had resisted his overtures this morning, and he wasn’t even surprised; what surprised him was how much it hurt even though he’d prepared for it.

She didn’t want to be with him. He knew that, and he’d wanted her too much last night to care.

He’d back off, go as slow as she needed to. He wasn’t the one with wounds and scars. Yeah, he’d fallen for a few women in his time and thought his heart was broken—Tina, who’d cheated on him while he was in Afghanistan, and Debbie who’d refused a ring he’d impulsively offered on one of his leaves—but not a shadow of the suffering Sophie’d experienced. It was understandable that she didn’t want to get into anything after what she’d been through. That psycho husband of hers and five years of abuse. Then she finally dates Alika, and he gets beat to shit. Then her next boyfriend Todd Remarkian gets killed. So even with Assan Ang finally out of the picture, it was no wonder she was afraid to trust that anything good could happen to her.

He’d have to trust enough for both of them.

But at least he had been able to get her to come unglued—several times, in fact. He suppressed a grin—the memory would have to keep him warm until he could get her into bed again.

They ate a silent breakfast in a café at the edge of Hilo, and fed the dogs. Jake busied himself with the local paper, searching for news about missing persons, while Sophie obsessively worked her phone.

At the station, Sophie was all business with Freitan and Wong when they met the detectives in their cubicle.

“We think Chernobiac has partners. We couldn’t call you to update last night due to a lack of phone reception, but his house had a silent alarm we tripped. The responders were not law enforcement, nor any normal security company that we could tell. Their vehicle was an unmarked black Escalade, and they pursued us aggressively.”

Freitan nodded. “Yep. Chernobiac has been making veiled threats that we better let him go, or else. I keep saying, or else what? But he hasn’t said. We did get a search warrant for his house, and with your intel, will take a back-up unit with us when we go. We’re leaving in half an hour.”

“We can help. Save you some time by pointing out where we found the money and other items.” Jake was calm and assertive with Freitan. “We’d like to ride along.”

Freitan gave Jake a once over. “You look a little ragged, my friend. Tough time sleeping?”

“Wouldn’t impair my performance, if that’s what you’re implying,” Jake said. He needed to get a level playing field with this woman, but still hadn’t been able to.

Sophie cleared her throat. “Jake can go with you. I want to spend the morning working in the computer lab. I’m going to be ready to pull together the missing persons research analysis if I have a few more hours to work, and the dogs shouldn’t be left in the car all day again. I’ll take them for a run at the park.”

Freitan glanced back at Jake. “All right then, Soldier Boy. Meet us at our vehicle in twenty. I’ll bring an extra vest for you.” She walked off with Wong in tow.

Jake turned to Sophie. Her face had that neutral, blank look he hated. She had shut down toward him. The wise course was to accept that, and retreat. Come back to fight another day. He smacked his thighs and stood. “Sounds like we have a plan. I’ll help you get the dogs situated.”

They tied both animals under a shady tree behind the building near the dumpsters and gave them water. Sophie held her hand out for the keys. “I want to run to the store and get food for them later. I’d like to use the Jeep.”

“Just don’t get in an accident. You’re not on the paperwork,” Jake said.

Sophie tightened her lips in annoyance at the reminder, but nodded.

He handed her the keys. “See you later.”

He made himself walk to meet Freitan and Wong without looking back. Hopefully, Freitan would behave herself. The thought of a whole day trapped with that woman made him clench his jaw.

“Never give up, never surrender,” he muttered. His mantra had worked in Special Forces, and it could work to deal with Freitan.