Austin heated his MRE with a chemical pack. It was too risky to light a fire just in case anyone realized Cassidy had left the compound and came searching for her tonight. With her added weight he hadn’t been able to get as far as he would’ve liked, only a mile and a half, maybe two.

He set up his tent on the top of a small hill and snuggled her inside it. It had already been more than two hours since he knocked her out with the injection and he wondered if she was still unconscious or simply asleep.

She’s going to wake up around about the time I cozy up next to her.

And she was bound to be mighty pissed this time around, not like she was in the shower.

Just the thought of it had his cock leaping to life. Five hot seconds in her presence and he’d all but fucked her against the shower wall. She would have let him, too. After all this time, she would have let him come right back inside her body like they’d never even stopped being lovers.

That was a heady truth to swallow.

He pulled out cornbread and broke off a piece, unseeing.

What did you expect?

He had to think about that one for a minute, his mind going back over their last meeting.

Disdain.

She’d seemed so much better than him that day, as if she’d slipped on a pair of shoes that made her taller than anyone else could possibly be. They weren’t right for each other. They were just too different.

He knew what that meant. He wasn’t good enough for her, would never run in the same circles as her wealthy and politically connected family. He was a scrub from Brooklyn, the way he talked not suitable for certain functions.

Hell, it would be better if she’d been like that now instead of throwing her naked self around him like a pretzel, all but begging him to have sex with her.

He could hear David Kelleher’s voice in his head, hear the desire in it as he talked about pleasuring Cassidy with his body. About marrying her. That bastard didn’t know how close he’d come to a punch to the throat and a knot in his balls, but Cassidy had allowed him to talk to her that way.

No. She’d encouraged it.

And that turned his blood into some toxic mix of testosterone and adrenaline so that he couldn’t decide what to do first—kick David’s ass or fuck hers.

Keep your dick in your pants and your head in the game, asshole.

The sound of nylon rubbing against nylon alerted him to her wakefulness. It was a cloudless night, with enough moonlight to illuminate their small camp reasonably well.

“Cassidy?”

The noises stopped. “You knocked me out.”

“I had to get you out of there without you making a scene.”

More rustling, then the sound of the tent zipper unzipping. “You took me away from The Community?”

“Yep.”

She climbed out of the small tent and stood, looking around at the woods that surrounded them, the peaks of her nipples standing out against the fabric of her shirt. “You had no right to do that! I wanted to be there. You had no right to take me away!”

He shrugged. “It’s my job. I told you, your parents are worried about you and they sent me to find you and bring you home.”

“And I’m worried about Julianne and trying to find her and bring her home.”

“She’s dead, Cassidy.”

She put her hands on her hips. When she spoke, her voice was trembling. “You’ve got it wrong. She’s alive and David is the key to her disappearance. I’ve been trying to get close to him so I can find out what happened. He was going to have Lucas give me a tour of the ranch tomorrow.”

He narrowed his eyes. “If you’re right and she’s alive, I’ll come back here myself and get her just as soon as I bring you home.”

Cassidy waved her arm in the air. “Why not go back right now? We can’t be far away, and I left my satellite phone, my notes, everything. She needs our help, Austin.”

“I need to make sure you’re safe. I don’t want you back there with that crazy bastard.”

She crossed to him and pushed his chest. “You don’t get to tell me what to do.”

“Your parents hired HERO Force to find you and bring you back, and that’s what I’m doing.”

“What kind of hero leaves a woman to die? She’s pregnant. Did you know that?” She covered her mouth with her hand.

“She’s already gone. I’m sorry for your friend, Cassidy, and I’m sorry for her baby, I really am. But she’s dead and putting yourself in harm’s way isn’t going to bring her back.” He picked up the MRE and held it out toward her. “Eat something. You need your strength.”

She knocked the food to the ground. “If you won’t take me back, I’ll go on my own.”

He all but growled with frustration. “Be my guest. We’re a couple of miles away. I figure even if you head out in the right direction, you don’t have any kind of protection against bears or coyotes, do you? Because they make quick work of a cute little meal like you.”

She looked around, seeming to consider each direction as if looking for a star in the sky to guide her. Her eyes slowly came back to his. “Damn it, Austin. Don’t do this.”

He looked away. “I’m not doing anything. You lied to your family and you’ve been hiding at some kind of cult for weeks now. Your boss didn’t want you there and your colleague has already lost her life. It’s right for me to bring you home. If you can’t see that, then I guess you’ll just have to cry to Daddy when we get there.”

She slapped his face. He saw it coming—could have stopped it even—but he did not. In the silence that followed, they eyed each other angrily. She was the first to speak. “I don’t go crying to my Daddy anymore. And if you had an ounce of sense in that thick head of yours, you’d see I’m trying to do the right thing for once in my life.”

She turned away. “I’m going to go back to sleep and tomorrow morning I’m heading back to The Community.” She crawled into the tent, nylon rustling until it was once again quiet in the forest.