Juliet had been waiting patiently outside the hospital room. It had given her time to think, which wasn’t a good thing.

Sunday had ended on a bittersweet note, with Chance taking off for two weeks to work on the rig. Oh, how she longed to return to that moment when the worst thing in her life was that she wouldn’t see him for fourteen days.

Now, she was a “messenger,” for some threat even Chance couldn’t explain.

Now, his brother was in the hospital with gunshot wounds.

Now, she was entangled in a world she couldn’t make heads or tails of.

She was leaning against the wall of the hallway outside Chip’s room. The door opened and she pulled herself away with a start. She tried to read his face for answers and found none. His face was grim as he came over to her, same as it was when he entered the room.

“How is he?” she asked, even though a million other far more selfish questions were running through her head.

“He’s fine,” he said, taking her arm and leading her further down the corridor to a more secluded location. When they had a spot to themselves where they were unlikely to be interrupted or overheard he stopped and turned to her.

“You have a right to know everything, seeing as someone saw fit to involve you. Now I think I have a pretty good idea who.”

She could see that he was still working it all out in his head.

“Chance,” she said, placing her hands on his arms that were crossed over his chest. “Just start at the beginning.”

He looked at her and his eyes were darker than she’d ever seen them. He nodded, gave a deep exhale, then began. “I told you about the loan that my brother and I owe. The person we owe it to is dead and it looks like Leo Petrov is in fact in charge now.” Chance continued from there, telling her everything his brother had told him in the room, ending with the idea that Leo might be using his father’s murder to get rid of Peter Antonov.

“Chance, I’m so sorry,” she said, squeezing his arms. She couldn’t imagine finding out news like that about her father the same day one of her own sisters was in the hospital. “Are you okay?”

“I’m more concerned about figuring this out,” his eyes focused on her. “And keeping you safe.”

“The bear?” she said, suddenly realizing that everything he’d just said now applied to her.

“The bear,” Chance said, reaching out to place an arm around her. “Let’s find a place for you to sit.”

“I-I’m fine,” she said, not wanting to be an additional burden on him right now.

“No, you aren’t, and you have every right to be upset,” he said guiding her back down the hall. They went into the visitor’s room, which was mostly empty, and found a corner to sit in.

He was right, it was exactly what she needed. Once she was settled in the chair, her mind was able to focus.

“So we know what happened with Chip,” she began, then looked up at him. “But why me? Why would Leo send me the bear?”

“Maybe Leo was sending an additional message, trying to get us to remember the good times, so we’d be that much more likely to want vengeance. But that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. He’d have to know that all it would do is direct my anger toward him.”

“Or he was letting me know that he knows about you. Some sort of threat to keep me in line.”

Juliet exhaled a long slow breath, feeling overwhelmed.

“Jesus Juliet,” Chance said, leaning back in his chair and running a hand through his hair. “I never meant—”

“I know.” She leaned in toward him and put her hand against his face. “I know you would never do anything to hurt me or put me in danger. But I’m here now. Let me help you work this out.”

His eyes grew wide with alarm. “No. You need to be safely away from all of this. I think it might be a good idea to maybe go up to San Antonio and stay with your family a while.”

Now Juliet’s eyes were filled with alarm. “I am not bringing this to my family, Chance.”

The guilty flinch he gave in response to that made her feel a dagger of guilt, but it was the truth. The McCoy’s were being used as pawns simply by virtue of being tied to the Vasilievs. Juliet was being used as a pawn simply by virtue of being tied to Chance. She wasn’t about to expand that circle to include any more innocent parties, especially her own family.

“Even if I’m just a messenger, I’m still in this, which means my place is here with you. So let me help you. Use me, use this brain of mine. That’s what it’s for. I’m not some wilting violet that needs to be hidden away sheltered for my own good.”

Chance looked at her with half a grin as though seeing her in a new light.

Juliet came in close, placing her hands on his strong thighs. She leaned in toward his face. “If there’s even a one percent chance something might happen to you then I’m in, one hundred percent, whether you like it or not.”

He brought a hand up and pulled her the rest of the way in to kiss her. She fell into his lap and brought her arms around him.

“I knew there was a reason I picked you that night at the museum,” he said when they had finally broken the kiss.

“Random acts of nature,” she said smiling down at him.

He chuckled, then his face became serious again. “All the same, you can’t stay in that apartment by yourself. You’re staying with me until we can figure this out.”

“Chance—”

“No arguments. If you work it all out in that genius head of yours you’ll realize I’m right.”

* * *

“I hope you are a bourbon girl,” Katherine McCoy said looking at Juliet

“Today I’m a whatever-you-have-on-hand girl,” Juliet said gratefully. After the whirlwind of a day it had been, she needed a drink, the stronger the better.

Juliet had a moment to admire the gorgeous house that Chance’s father had supposedly won in a poker game. He was right. It was a beauty.

They were seated around the dining room table and Katherine rose to go to the liquor cabinet and get the bottle and a few glasses.

“I’m going to shake a few trees and find out exactly what’s going on before I do anything.”

Juliet had been wondering about this since she first heard the story. She looked back and forth worriedly between Chance and his mother. “What are you going to do if it all turns out to be true?”

“Kill the bastards. Both of them. Leo and Peter.” Katherine said without hesitation as she brought the glasses back to the table and poured.

“And start a war with two families?” Chance said in a dry tone that indicated he didn’t take his mother’s words seriously, much to Juliet’s relief.

Katherine gave him a defiant look.

“I’m just as upset as you are, Ma, but we’ll put a target on all our backs going down that road. Including…” he looked over toward Juliet.

Katherine’s eyes darted toward her and she fell back in her chair taking a long sip, sagging in resignation.

“Besides, we want to make damn sure it’s the truth before we do anything rash.”

“How are you going to find out?” Juliet asked, then took a sip, wincing slightly as the burn went down her throat.

Chance looked over at Katherine. She put her glass down and nodded. “Jacob.”