"Scarlett, James is going to protect you just as I asked Conner to watch out for Olivia." Gable answered his sister for the tenth time with the same sentence. His sister, Scarlett, lived up to her namesake. He stared out the window in the high-rise office building that overlooked both Biscayne Bay and the Intracoastal waterways. The expensive yachts looked like rowboats from his current window. He turned away from his black Italian marble desk and stared at the blue waters. "Mom and Dad would expect me to protect you."

He massaged his temples. After what had happened and with their parents in either a coma or fighting a raging infection, he'd like to think that Scarlett wouldn't mind extra security, but then his sister was beautiful, but never predictable.

He brushed against the ugly skin under his shirt and knew no one saw how damaged he was. Scarlett, Olivia, and his parents deserved to keep their bodies without scars.

Instead he heard the pout in her voice through the phone. "You're not hiring a bodyguard for yourself."

Something buzzed inside him and his skin felt like he was near static electricity. He ignored the instinct. "I have a security team and unlike you, I'm not trapezing around the globe."

"I'm not trapezing. That's a stupid word. I have a business meeting."

The light flashed on his desk that he had another call. He clutched his cell phone but stared at his office phone. "Hold on, my secretary is calling in."

"We're not done," Scarlett started before he cut her off with the mute button on his cell and placed it on his desk.

He put his secretary on speaker. "You have a visitor, sir. She's quite insistent that she speak only to you."

No urgent meeting came to mind, and his mind was blank. "Who is it?"

"A Miss Megan Murdock."

Murdock. Maddox Murdock had died. The image of standing near a blast site while Belle Jordan pulled Colt Collins out of the ditch as he tried and failed to grab Murdock replayed in his mind. Instead of pulling him to safety, his former friend was caught in enemy fire and had died a foot from him. His own skin burned from the heat while he fell backward. This time he recalled a gun pointed at him, but he blinked and that memory disappeared. He’d probably imagined it anyhow.

His secretary coughed, which brought him back to the here and now. He sat stiff in his chair until he patted his side where the burn scars were. "Who is she?"

"An accountant at Morgan Enterprises."

His heart began to beat again while he took a deep breath. "I don't want to see a banker today. I’m not interested in whatever stock option they want to sell me."

A fast discussion between women echoed through the phone. Then his secretary said, "She says that you'll want to see her."

Perhaps she was Murdock's family and she wasn’t here to sell him something. If this was because of what happened years ago, then he should at least listen. He closed the files on his desk. "She's that insistent?"

"Yes."

"Send her in." No memory of a memorial flashed in his mind as he stood to greet the woman. If must have skipped out when he returned and threw himself into work to build his company into a technology giant and tried to bury his memories.

A young woman with dark hair and a body that curved in all the right places walked in. He leaned on his desk and picked up some papers, in case he had any evidence of how turned on he’d become. "How may I help you?"

She walked and stepped right up to stand in front of him. The air smelled of rose petals. "Are you Gable Hawke?"

"Yes." She held out her hand to shake. Her palms were cold in his warm and strong grip. He narrowed his gaze. "Are you related to Maddox Murdock?"

She stopped shaking his hand and froze for a second. Her face was white, like she was hurt or scared of him. He narrowed his gaze and brushed his hand on her arm, to sooth whatever was wrong, and she finished shaking his hand and nodded. "He's my brother. How do you know him?"

He stood and directed her to business chairs closer to a side office, where they might talk easier. "We served together. He died."

She sat but clutched her bag in front of her like it was a shield. "He didn't die. He was taken captured."

That made no sense. He pulled the chair closer to her. "I'm sorry. Repeat?"

He placed his hand on her knee and she practically jumped out of skin while she pushed him off. "Don't."

"Don't what?" He tucked his hand back onto his own seat and his heartbeat grew faster. "I'd never do anything..."

She lifted her chin though she trembled. "I want you to call the police and tell them I asked you to call while I have information on your parents' case."

There was no way he was attracted to his parents’ potential killer. His eyes widened. "You do."

She hugged her bag as she sucked in her breath. "Yes."

Unless she was packing in that bag, he wasn't afraid of her. Though he stood, walked to his desk, and called the detective that was working his parent's case. A few seconds later, he returned to the chair across from her. "Done. Why are you here?"

She nodded and rifled through her pocketbook. He stilled until he saw the red folder in her hands. Despite how her legs trembled, she leaned forward and placed her bag beside her. "I wanted to meet with you to ask for mercy."

His body filled with ice that seemed to rush through his veins. "Your brother is involved then?"

She winced. "How did you guess?"

"Your name." He scooted away and wished he had called security. "You're here."

Her fingers trembled while she held out the folder, like she wanted him to have it. "I went to his house this morning to retrieve something of my mother's and I found this."

No. Despite how he wanted to flip open the pages and find how and why Maddox attempted to kill his parents, he made his hands into fists. He shook his head and tucked his hands to his sides. "Your fingerprints are all over that. I'm not touching anything."

"Fair enough." She swallowed, gripped the folder until her hands loosened and she opened the main page with Maddox’s signature on the bottom. "This is his confession letter and this is a schematic which showed how my brother planned everything. I found it when I searched his house for my ring." A tear slid down her face. "I know you must have loved your parents..."

"Don't. They aren't dead yet." He dropped his hands to his sides as his every focus was on her tears. If Maddox had tried to kill his parents, this was all related to him and what happened overseas. The newspapers had no idea the exact state of his parents was and he'd keep that information to himself until they arrested whoever had shot at them.

She folded the papers back. "Don't what?"

"Don't ask me to forgive this." He leaned forward and pressed his palms together like he was in prayer. "I'm not that nice."

Her face went white as she lowered her gaze and pressed her knees together. "I'm not. I'm asking for your help."

No. If Maddox was involved whatever resulted next would be what he deserved. He sat backward in his chair while the memory of his parents and the police calling him to identify them replayed in his mind. The image of the gun also floated in his mind again, but he ignored it. He shook his head. "I can't be involved."

She reached out and pressed her hand to his knee. "My brother is sick. He needs to go to a hospital, not death row."

And his parents deserved to be on vacation and enjoying that cruise they had planned, not fighting for their lives in ICU. Her fingers on his body, even through the black wool suit pants, set off a spark that shattered the ice in him. "I'm not making a deal with you."

She let go and kept her head down. "You called the police as I asked?"

"Yes."

Of course he did. He was sane. She hugged her waist and knew her face was white because she felt cold. "I've said what I needed to say. I'm really sorry for what my brother did to your parents."

"Don't pretend you care about my feelings."

She gazed at him while her cheeks had a tinge of red that matched the folder she held. Without waiting another second, she pushed her hair behind her ear. "I don't know you or anything about you, Gable Hawke. What I do know is that I had nothing to do with this and only found out before work today."

If that was true, she had more to worry about than she realized. His eyebrows narrowed. "It's ten o'clock, well past work time beginning."

She let out a soft sigh and relaxed in the chair. "It's been a long morning."

This time he leaned forward and touched her arm. Her skin was silky soft and smooth. Instinct took over that made him want to hold her and keep her close, though for all he knew, everything she did or said might be a lie. His heart drummed in his chest. "Why did you go to your brother's house today then if you never knew?"

She put her hand on his and held his fingers while she met his gaze and said, "I called him every day since our mother died for the one thing I was left in the will. I warned him in my last call and email that I was coming over. There were papers everywhere with your name on it. I think he blamed you for something that happened at war."

If Maddox was alive, questions swam inside his mind because his own memory of that day in the desert was faulty. He had been distracted with Belle screaming as she dragged Colt out. The memory and the smells of that moment burned through his skin like he was near the firestorm again. He pressed his shoes together and stared into the brown eyes of an angel. "You do realize you can go to jail yourself for visiting me today."

Her free hand went up her chest and neck and covered her lips while her eyes widened. "Why? I'm not threatening you."

His fingers curled into hers and he wanted to take a chance. What if she told the truth? What if all of this was real? If anything happened to her, it would haunt him that he hadn't done more. He waited for her to drop her hand from her face and find her composure. As she took her hand back and broke their connection, he straightened his tie. She stood, so he chased her and asked, "Megan?"

She blinked and stilled. "Yes?"

"When was the last time you saw your brother then?"

"He showed up at our mother's funeral last month. Before that was when I went to the airport with my mom to pick him up. He walked away from medical help when he was recovered from where he was tortured."

The bomb that exploded in that moment had caused every bad thing in his life, but the smell of roses kept his mind clearer. "That's partly my fault for leaving him."

She packed the folder in her pocketbook and turned like she was going to leave. "I'm sure you did what you could. I can't imagine you'd just ignore calls of help."

"I want to make a deal with you."

They stood fast, and she turned on her high heels and stared at him with her lips parted. "You do?"

If there was one thing his father, the lawyer, would say was 'don't treat the innocent like the guilty.' His father wasn’t around to ask for advice, but the words haunted him. He stared into the brown eyes of Megan and knew she was innocent. "You trusted me to come here."

She lowered her lashes. "Yeah."

He took a step closer. "And I remember every detail of that day in the desert."

With a soft breath, her shoulders slumped. "Then you know more about his motives than I do."

His sisters had James and Conner. If Megan walked out the door after she spoke with the police, she helped him but put her own life in danger. Nothing about her seemed like a setup, but he'd be stupid not to check out her background. "We meet the police together and after you’ll stay with me until your brother's in jail and can't hurt you."

She stepped backward but never turned. Her entire body trembled. "He won't hurt me."

"You believe he attempted to murder my parents outside of a homeless shelter but that he won't come after you?"

Her face was white and her teeth chattered. "He's my brother."

"He's been tortured. There is no telling how he will act toward you."

Despite her words, she understood. He came closer and placed his hand on her shoulder. He'd not let her shake like that, when he could hold her.

Her hands trembled as she reached out and grabbed his arms. "I was so scared today. I have no idea what I'm doing. Maybe this isn't the best idea, but I would like to sleep knowing someone is watching my back tonight other than my cat, Anakin Skywalker."

"Yes, your cat will be fine for the night." Her fingers locked on him made him sure. "You are way more reasonable than my sister. Until your brother is in jail, you're with me."

"Thank you." She clung to him and in that moment, nothing else mattered. He'd help her and bring his parents’ attempted killer to justice. With evidence, this might all be over today.