Olive Alexander is still a mystery to me. A sexy, gorgeous, gift-wrapped mystery that’s been set in front of me, and I can’t help how much I want to unwrap it.

When she told me about her uncle and what he did to her, it explained so much. It told me why she has such a hard outer shell, why she’s one of the most aloof people I’ve ever met. Why cool and unaffected is her go-to demeanor. And why she’s so goddamn tough.

Finding out the connection she has with Mick Oakes makes me crazy. I want to go back in time, find the college-aged Olive, and shake her, or take her into my arms. I want to tell her that Oakes doesn’t have what she needs because…

Because what? Because I do?

That, I know, is impossible. I don’t have anything to give her. Not now. Not when I’m searching for my dead-wife’s killer. It’s the only thing I should be thinking about right now. Not to mention that Olive deserves better. I don’t have anything left. And after what she went through, Olive deserves the world.

But I can’t help the fact that my eyes follow the curve of her body from top to bottom as my hand settles at the small of her back as I close the truck door behind her in the condo parking garage. And the feelings bubbling up inside me? They make me think there’s possibility…like maybe I can have a future with this woman. The kind of future I never thought I’d have again. Something warm spreads across my chest, mixing with the ache that’s lived there for years.

Standing next to the vehicle, Olive leans against the shiny black exterior. She looks like hope. There’s a relaxed expression on her pretty-as-hell face and she’s more casual than I’ve ever seen her. Her ponytail isn’t so tight, her body is clad in jeans, and goddamn, she looks perfect. Her lips tilt upward in a small smile.

“So,” I begin, not in a hurry to rush inside. “Was it the interview at Lindy Hodges today, the sushi lunch, or the afternoon working at my desk that put that pleased smile on your face?”

My tone is teasing, but I really do want to know.

She shrugs. “Why can’t it be a combination of all of the above?”

The parking garage is quiet around us, and I naturally become completely in tune with our surroundings. It’s a habit that will never die. I continually scan the area around us with my eyes, looking for anything out of the ordinary. My ears practically prick at every little sound.

“I think you feel like you have to do this alone,” Olive muses as she scans my face. “Like you’re the only one who can figure out what happened to your…wife.”

Her words pack a punch, and I can feel them in my gut. “It’s not that. It’s just—”

I stop, my head whipping around. I can’t put my finger on the sound I heard, but I know it doesn’t belong in this parking garage. I’ve lived in this building long enough to have familiarized myself with everything—and something here doesn’t belong.

In my chosen field, I’ve learned more times than I can count that trusting my instincts is key. I have them, and they serve me well. At the sound of slow footsteps approaching, I’m already ready to act. There’s no one in sight yet, but I already know I don’t have time to hustle Olive to the elevator standing about forty feet away. And pulling her out into the open in order to make a run for it isn’t something I’m willing to do.

First, I watch. This part of the parking garage is only used for the units on my floor. There aren’t many, and it isn’t often that I run into someone else during the walk from my car to the elevator, or vice versa. So even though there’s a chance it could be someone who lives in the building, my gut tells me it isn’t.

Pulling my gun from the holster at my ankle, I push Olive behind me. She goes quiet, her muscles tensing.

“What?” Her question is barely a breath against my spine, and her fingers brush against my back as she reaches for me.

Turning my head so she’ll hear me, I whisper, “Someone’s coming.”

I don’t need to see her eyes to know that she’s scared. The way her fingers tighten their hold in my shirt is evidence enough.

And suddenly, I’m pissed. Not because someone I don’t know is encroaching on my territory. But because whoever belongs to those footsteps is scaring her, and that right there is unacceptable. Olive Alexander has been through enough.

The footsteps grow closer, and I hear Olive suck in a breath. She doesn’t let it out. My back teeth grind together, my gun held ready in my hand but lowered beside my thigh.

Rounding the hood of a car only feet away from us, Mick Oakes strolls to a stop as soon as we’re spotted. He takes a casual stance, hands held loosely behind his back as a smirk rolls over his face.

“Hey,” he says in a friendly tone. Not looking at me, he directs his greeting at Olive. “I missed you, baby.”

She stiffens, and I shift to cover her more completely. “You don’t talk to her, Oakes. What the hell do you want? How did you get in here?”

He shrugs, shifting on his feet. He looks like he has his shit together in a button-down and slacks, hair slicked back, but even when a snake sheds its skin, it’s still a snake underneath.

His eyes flash with anger before he gets a handle on it and blinks, refocusing on me. “I didn’t come for you. This is between me and the lady there. So…”

He actually gestures his head to the side, like he’s dismissing me.

Laughing, when I really want to point my Sig at him and shoot, I work on getting his attention back on me. Olive, as hard as I know she’s trying to fight it, trembles at my back.

“If you did enough research to discover my address, then you must know who I am by now, right? You think you can dismiss me with a head nod? Think again, prick. I asked you nicely once. That’s the only time you’ll get. Listen carefully: Olive doesn’t want to talk to you. Leave her alone.”

Taking a step closer, which has my trigger finger itching like crazy, he attempts to peer around me. I’m having none of it. “You hard of hearing?” The question comes out in a growl, because at this point I’m pretty sure Mick is stupid enough to have come here on his own. And if it comes to it, I’ll take his ass down.

Mick raises his hands, spreading them wide. I’m not pacified, because even though he came here alone, he wouldn’t have come unarmed. I’m guessing his piece is in his waistband, and I can calculate the amount of time it’ll take him to draw it. Not faster than he’ll take a bullet between the eyes. But I’d rather it didn’t come to that.

Not today.

“Yeah. Know all about you, and guys like you. You think you have a say over what I do, just because you decided Olive should be the one keeping your dick warm this week?” He tosses the words at me like knives, and I can tell that that’s exactly the way they hit Olive.

At the sound of her sharp intake of breath, my blood starts to burn. In any other circumstance, the asshole would have been flat on his back before he finished that sick-ass sentence, because disrespecting her like that? He needs to be taught some goddamn manners. But with Olive at my back, all I want to do is get Mick out of here so that I can make sure she’s okay.

“What do you want?” My voice is deadly calm.

He jabs a finger toward Olive. “I want you to stop keeping her away from me. And I want you to stay out of my business at the bar. What I have going on there doesn’t concern you. You might not know who I am, but you will. And if you keep showing up where I don’t want to see you…I’ll make sure you never show up anywhere again.”

In the same calm voice, I ask for clarification. “That sounds like a threat. I don’t take too kindly to those.”

Mick glances around me to where Olive stands, and then his mouth curls into a smirk that I want to punch right off of him. “It’s a promise. Don’t get in my way, Shaw.”

I open my mouth to respond when he speaks sharply. “Olive. Come with me now. I just want to talk to you. And then this asshole won’t get hurt. You remember my uncle, don’t you, baby?”

My skin prickles when he uses the word baby to refer to her again, and I’m about to let him know where he and his uncle can shove it when Olive steps out from behind me.

I tug her wrist, ready to pull her around to the shelter of my back, when she turns to me. “Ronin.”

Staring into those sapphire eyes that have the ability to suck me in and keep me there, I try to read what she’s saying with them. There’s a note of finality in her stare, and my hand tightens on her wrist.

Facing Mick again, she speaks. “You’ll leave Ronin out of this if I come talk to you?”

A real growl breaks free of my chest as I whip back in front of her. Refusing to turn my back on Oakes, I come at Olive from the side. Letting go of her arm I grip her chin in my hand to get her attention back on me. “Olive. This isn’t happening. You hear me? No. Just fucking no.”

She blinks, and there’s real desperation in her eyes. “I just want him to go away,” she whispers. “Maybe if I go with him…let him say whatever it is he needs to say, he’ll let me go once and for all.”

My stomach lurches at the thought of her leaving with him. I’ll throw her over my shoulder if I have to, but I won’t let her go. Not with him.

“No. He gets you alone, there’s no telling what he’ll do. You don’t need to do this. You need to trust me, Red. I will keep you safe.”

Glancing at Mick, I can see the joy on his face. He thinks he’s got Olive right where he wants her, but he doesn’t know me well enough yet.

She swipes at a tear before it can fall, and I slide my hand to the back of her neck. Leaning down so that she has to look me straight in the eye, I say each word succinctly. “Stay. With. Me.”

She holds my gaze, and everything that’s been on my mind today fades away. All that matters right now is her. Her safety, her happiness, and the fact that I need her next to me.

Something passes between us then. I’m not sure what the fuck it is, but understanding and something so much warmer than that appear in her gaze. Her expression softens, and she opens her mouth to speak, just as the sound of an engine roars up behind us.

Another truck screeches to a stop beside us, this one red and raised up on lifts. The driver’s-side door opens, and Bennett jumps down. Walking up to stand next to me, He faces off with Mick without glancing at either me or Olive.

With a half-frustrated, half-amused eye roll, I release Olive’s neck but drop my hand to rest in hers instead. “What the hell are you doing here?”

Bennett, still staring at Mick, inclines his head in my direction. “I got your six.”

Smirking, I make eye contact with Mick. “Anything else? Or are you ready to get the hell out of here now?”

Glancing from Bennett to me, Mick’s expression transforms from one of elated triumph to obvious rage. He settles his eyes on Olive. “Mistake, baby. I’m comin’ for you one way or another. And your boyfriend here will burn.”

Bennett speaks up. “Someone’s gonna burn, but it ain’t gonna be Ronin.” There’s a promise in his tone.

With one last look at all three of us, Mick turns and walks away. When he’s gone, Olive sags a little and I tighten my hold on her hand. There’re words I need to have with her, but first I turn to Bennett.

“How’d you know?”

He lifts a shoulder and lifts a hand to the back of his neck. The gun he carries in a hip holster is visible when his shirt rides up. “Something he said before he ran out of the bar. He’d been holed up in the office for a few hours, but when he came out he made a beeline for the door.”

“What’d he say?” I ask.

Bennett glances at Olive. “He said he’d be back later, he had to go pick up his woman. Figured that meant he’d be headed straight for you, and I wanted to make sure it worked out in your favor.”

Holding out a hand, I wait for Bennett to shake it and pull him into a bro hug. “Thanks, man.”

Bennett nods, turning for the truck. “It’s all good. Take care of her. When Mick decides he wants something…well, he stomps his feet until he gets it. I’d hate to see Olive hurt by him.”

I shove my Sig back into my holster and scowl. “That’ll never happen.”

Bennett nods before climbing into his truck and driving off.

As soon as he’s gone, everything that just went down comes rushing back, and a surge of emotions threatens to swallow me whole. She was gonna leave with him. Maybe it was because she wanted to protect me from his family, or because she wanted him to leave her alone for good. But none of that matters, because one thing is glaringly obvious.

She didn’t trust me to keep her safe.

Anger blooms like a flower.

Turning to Olive, I incline my head toward the elevator. I’m not sure how long I’ll last before I explode, and I want her safe and inside my condo before the fireworks start.