Nora woke up to the car rattling up a dirt road. Seeing all the trees and secluded area around her made her heart start racing. This looked like a perfect place to dump a body.

But she was with Greg. Her self-appointed bodyguard. Why would he kill her himself when he could just hand her over to the Santinellis. She didn’t like lying, and she wasn’t particularly good at it. But she didn’t see much of a choice at the moment.

After another turn, he pulled the car up to a small cabin. He parked on the side of the building.

“Where are we?” she asked, hoping for more than the obvious.

“This is my hunting cabin,” he said with a grin. She hadn’t seen him smile like that before. A little sarcasm leaked into his words, but he seemed pleased with whatever joke he was telling.

“You hunt?” No antlers decorated the outside of the cabin, although it looked relatively new. Maybe he just hadn’t had time to get them all hung yet.

“Not animals.” He shrugged and climbed out of the car, leaving her to wonder what the hell he was talking about.

She climbed out of the air-conditioned car into the warm early evening air. Rays from the sun streaked through the trees but didn’t interrupt the shade they provided.

Nora followed Greg to the front door of the cabin, while surveying the area. Other than the worn tracks from vehicles coming and going, there wasn’t much of a road from the cabin to the main road they’d been on. And even that one was more rocks and grass than road. If she managed to get away from him, she’d have a several-hour trek on her hands before she had any possibility of meeting a neighbor or another car.

Without sunlight, she wouldn’t chance getting lost in the woods. She’d have to wait until morning to scope out a better strategy of escape.

He pushed the door open and gestured for her to enter. The scent of fresh paint welcomed her as she stepped inside. It wasn’t much of a cabin. A small living area off an even smaller cooking space.

“There’s a bedroom down the hall and the washroom is down there too. Don’t drink the water though. I just had the indoor plumbing installed and the water might have some rust in it until it’s been running for a bit.”

“One bedroom?” she asked, scratching the back of her elbow. Damn mosquitoes.

“Yeah, trouble. Just one.” He smiled and moved over to the temperature control unit on the wall.

“There’s AC?” she asked, thrilled that she wouldn’t be sweating her way through the night.

“Yep. The unit’s out back, under the bedroom window, we’ll hear it running during the night, but it shouldn’t be too loud.” He clicked a few buttons, and she heard the rumbling of the unit kick on.

“We?” He’d said we, not her, or him, but we.

“Yeah.” He didn’t add anything else and headed to the narrow fridge in the kitchen area. “If you dance anymore, you’re gonna piss yourself. The bathroom’s down the hall, like I said.”

Damn him for calling attention to that. And more so, for her face heating up like a damn tanning lamp just at his mention of her situation.

“Fuck you,” she muttered and headed to the bathroom. The decor of the cabin was pretty simple. A little minimalist, but she could get behind that. She didn’t decorate her apartment much either. Too hard to pack up everything every time she needed to move. Better to keep everything simplistic.

The bathroom was a little cramped, but she wasn’t surprised. The whole cabin was a good fit for an episode of tiny houses. A stand-up shower and a toilet with an oval mirror hung over the sink.

After emptying her bladder and washing her hands, she looked around for a hand towel. Finding nothing, she wiped her hands on her cut-offs and headed back out to the living room. She noticed two doors when she stepped out of the washroom. He’d only mentioned one bedroom. They’d been clear on the fact there was one bedroom.

Taking a quick peek, she made sure he was out of her line of sight and turned the handle on the door closest to her. A bedroom. King-sized bed, a dresser, a hope chest pressed against the foot of the bed. She closed the door silently and moved to the second room.

She heard something drop to the floor in the kitchen and paused to be sure he wasn’t walking toward her. Long moments passed with no more sound, so she started to turn the knob.

“Curiosity killed the cat, you know.” That deep voice of his ran along her back. She could feel the heat of him and knew he wasn’t more than a half step behind her.

How did he get so close without her hearing him?

“You said you were a marine, not a ninja,” she replied.

He laughed and leaned into her, pressing her against the door.

“Do you really want to know what’s in here? After how you reacted to my spare bedroom at my apartment, I’m not sure you can handle it.” His breath was on her shoulder. She clenched her eyes closed, unsure of the feelings awakening inside her.

“No, that’s okay,” she answered and pushed back against him. He stepped back. She hadn’t been trapped, he just let her feel like it.

“There isn’t much in the way of food here. Just some essentials like chips and beer, a case of ramen noodles.”

She turned around to face him. He had that sexy grin on his lips again, the one she’d seen at the flower shop.

“Whatever. I’m fine.” Of course, her stomach took that moment to make its emptiness known and growled.

Greg looked at her stomach, where her hands were now covering and laughed. “We really should do something about your habit of lying. C’mon, let’s get you something to eat.”

She followed him to the kitchen.

“I have some bottled water in the fridge, too, in case beer isn’t your thing.” He grabbed a bag of chips and tore it open, offering her the bag.

“Thanks.” She took the bag from him and sat down at the table. “Beer’s fine,” she said when he opened the fridge.

He popped open two bottles and handed one to her, finding himself a spot near the doorway to lean against the wall and try to kill her with all his hotness.

She was going to get a man once this was all finished, because obviously it had been too long since she had one. Not that he wasn’t hot as hades with his fit physique, his tattoos and strong jaw. But fuck if she would get involved with GI Joe.

“So, this is your place?” she asked after chomping on the salty goodness that was potato chips.

“Yeah. Well, and Blake’s. There’s a main house down the road a bit. I don’t stay there though, it’s his. I like having this cabin and the woods.”

“You own the woods?” She paused mid-chip selection to ask.

He laughed. “Not all of it. Just about a hundred acres around the main house.”

“How do you know we’ll be okay here? If you own this place, the Santinellis will find it,” she said.

“It’s all listed under a corporate name. There was some trouble a while back that made it necessary to hide it a bit better than just using our names. And even if they figure that out, this place isn’t listed. It’s not on any map, and most of the roads we used to get up here aren’t even marked.”

All good points. She could breathe a little easier until she got a hold of Bernie and found a better place for her to go. But she couldn’t just leave him behind either; he’d been good enough to save her. Even if she hadn’t needed it. He was doing what he thought was right, and in doing it put himself in the middle of her mess. She’d have to bring him with for the time being until it was safe for him to return to his normal life.

Normal life. Wouldn’t that be nice. It’d been so long since she enjoyed something resembling the notion.

“What about you? Any family that will start looking for you? We can’t call from here, but I can ask Blake to get a message through if needed?”

Family. She buried her answer in the bottle of beer and took a long pull.

“No,” she answered, wiping a drop from her chin when he continued to stare at her, waiting. “No family.” That would want to hear from her anyway.

She ran her fingers through her hair, pulling through an occasional knot. His gaze was on her, searching her, she could sense the questions in him. She had fewer answers than he would probably accept.

“Hey.” He put his beer down on the table and sat across from her, placing his hand over her own. “I’m sorry for what happened today. Your boss—Antonio. Were you two close?”

The concern in his voice tore at her. He may have an arsenal of weapons in that secret room of his, but he didn’t give off the psychopath killer vibe anymore.

“Not really. I hadn’t been there long. A couple of months.” As close to the truth as she could come. Fuck, she hated not being able to spill everything. But doing so would only get him in deeper shit than he already found himself. And he was too fucking hot to be sporting a bullet hole in the center of his forehead.

“He didn’t deserve what happened to him.” He deserved worse, but she didn’t relay that bit to Greg.

“Maybe not.” Greg squeezed her hand. “I’ve heard stories about the Santinelli family, and if Antonio was working with them or for them, chances are he didn’t exactly stay on the right side of the law. And if the brothers wanted him dead, it was probably over money.”

Nora brought her gaze up from the table to Greg’s. Shouldn’t he be trying to comfort her, not insinuating Antonio got what he was owed?

“Not everything you hear on the street is the truth.” She pulled her hand from beneath his and sat back in her chair. The warmth of his skin on hers made it harder for her to separate from him. And that was goal number one. Get away from Greg so he could remain safe, and she could do the same.

“Very true. I didn’t mean to imply Antonio was a bad guy, just well, he probably ran with the wrong crowd.” Greg’s lips pinched together and turned up in a forced smile.

She laughed at his failed attempt to backpedal and shook her head.

“It’s fine.” She downed the rest of her beer, holding back a burp when it bubbled up her chest. Not exactly a sexy thing to belch across the table at the hero. Only Greg didn’t feel heroic to her.

Definitely a leader of the pack sort of man, but not a ‘let’s take on the world’ type.

“So, what made you get out of the marines? You seem kinda young to have retired already.”

His shoulders rolled back and his back straightened. The topic made him uneasy.

“Didn’t want to re-up is all. I missed my niece, Bella, being born, didn’t want to miss much more by not being around.” He grabbed his empty bottle from the table and brought it to the sink. Okay, so topics to avoid—the military.

“I think I’d like to take a shower if that’s okay with you?” She brought her bottle to the sink as well, brushing against his arm when she placed it beside his own. It was just a gentle touch, barely even noticeable, so why did it set a tingle through her entire body?

“Sure. There should be towels in there. We didn’t stop for clothes, but I have a shirt you can sleep in.”

“Okay. Thanks,” she said.

A shower. A cold shower. Just the thing.