She felt strange, like she was floating on a cloud, but her limbs felt so heavy she couldn’t move. After that brief instant of awareness, of confusion and dismay, she felt pain. Her head throbbed, and as she assessed, she realized that every part of her body felt sore and bruised, like she’d been run over by a . . . She remembered the accident, running from the compound, the motorcycles behind her, losing control of the car, flipping, rolling, the sound of metal crunching, glass shattering, and then . . . Nothing.

Oh, God. Was she lying in a wreck of torn and twisted metal? Was she dying? Was she—

“Nikki.”

The familiar voice jolted her, prompting her eyes to open as every muscle in her body reacted to the sound of Seth’s voice. Relief flitted through her, immediately followed by fear. She blinked. Her vision gradually cleared. To her surprise, she found him sitting in a chair by the bed, legs spread, arms crossed over his chest.

“You’re going to be all right. Bumps and bruises and a few cuts, but Doc said no broken bones. You’re damned lucky, you know that?”

She frowned, regretting the motion instantly as pain shot through her skull. How could she not have any broken bones? She felt as if every bone in her body was broken. She tried to move and heard an odd, clanking sound. She glanced up, eyes widening with dismay as she noticed her right wrist was trapped in a handcuff. More confusion as her eyes followed the handcuff to the other ring, fastened around part of the metal bedframe. Eyes wide with fear, she glanced at Seth.

“For your own good,” he said quietly. “Doc knows a guy, got us some privacy.”

She opened her mouth to protest, but he leaned forward, elbows now resting on his knees, his hands dangling as he stared at her, his gaze hard. Her heart skipped a beat. Even when he was angry he was so handsome, so much so that she wanted to—

“What the hell did you think you were doing?”

His tone angry but his voice soft, he stared at her. Logically, she knew why he was pissed off. She’d been an idiot, scared herself and likely him more. As much as she was still terrified for her sister, she couldn’t help that be grateful that once again Seth had come to her rescue. A shiver ran through her. When the car had flipped, when the world had turned upside down, Nikki had been sure that was the end—for her and Stacey, with no one left to care if she lived or died. Thanks to Seth, they both still had a chance.

She said nothing, waiting him out, knowing that he would have to get it out of the system before she could even begin to explain.

“What the fuck, Nikki? You could’ve been killed! Were you going back to Arizona? Or were you thinking to go to the warehouse? No, you passed it did, didn’t you?” He paused, his eyes narrowing. “Do you know where the Jokers are?”

The questions came so fast, one atop the other, that she barely opened her mouth to answer one question before another was broached. On top of the pain, she felt her own anger burgeoning. How dare he cuff her to the bed frame! What could she do now? And was it time to be afraid of the Steel Kings? Of Seth? What were they into? How and where did they get their money? What were they involved in? Gunrunning? Drugs, trafficking? How did they operate? How could they function if they weren’t into some stuff too, maybe not as bad as the Jokers, but—

“We know about your sister, Stacey. But what has all this got to do with you? What do either one of you have to do with the Jokers?”

Stacey’s name rolling off his lips sent a jolt through her, and at that moment, her defenses came down. Every single one of them. Despair, anguish, and fear bubbled upward. Warm tears filled her eyes and dripped down the side of her face toward her ears. Adrenaline was replaced with panic, but could she trust him? Did she dare?

“I’m telling you right now, Nikki, that if you don’t start talking, and I mean really talking, there’s nothing I’m going to be able to do to help you. I already told you that we would try, but you’ve got to be honest with me. Don’t you understand that? You’ve got to trust me!”

“Trust,” she managed to croak, amazed at how dry and scratchy her throat felt. She smelled gasoline, her own sweat, and oil. How had she gotten out of the car? Her head throbbed, her thoughts jumbled, jumping from one topic to the next. Stacey. The car. The Jokers. Seth. Round and round and round.

“You wrecked Padre’s car,” he said bluntly.

She stared at him, resisting the urge to frown. So that was her fault? Just because she tried to get away? She said nothing. She felt bad about wrecking Padre’s car. The man had been nothing but kind to her, but she wasn’t about to apologize. If Seth hadn’t refused to let her go, she wouldn’t have been forced to steal Padre’s car.

“It blew up, you know.”

What blew up? He saw the question in her eyes.

“Padre’s car. It exploded, all of about fifteen seconds after I and a few of the guys pulled you out of the wreck. You were that close to death, Nikki.” He held his thumb and index finger close together. “That close to being blown to bits, your body parts scattered around the Oklahoma plains, charred into barbecue.”

A noise erupted from her throat, a sound of protest and of dismay. How could he talk about her that way? How could he think so little . . . wait. He had dragged her out? He and several of the others? And then the ramifications struck her. If she could’ve died in fifteen seconds, so could they. Seth and the others had risked their lives to save her. Why? Why hadn’t they just let her . . .

“I’m sorry,” she muttered, the thought of something bad happening to Seth for her sake prompting a surge of nausea. “I just . . . ”

“You just wanted to find your sister.”

“Yes.” She felt tired, exhausted once again, fatigued beyond her limitations. Every waking moment, her concern for Stacey grew. Every minute that passed might be taking her sister closer and closer to death, or taking her farther and farther away from her. Every second could be bringing her pain . . . She closed her eyes against the very thought, knowing that if she kept thinking that way, she’d drive herself crazy. But what else could she do? The not knowing was killing her. The uncertainties, the worries, the anguish of what those fucking Jokers were doing with her sister tore her apart, moment by moment.

“Tell me,” he urged. “We’ll try to help you and Stacey, but we can’t help you if you keep us in the dark.”

She turned to him, wincing as she forced the words through her throat. “Why do you want to help me? Why do you care?”

He said nothing for several moments, and then, to her surprise, he smiled.

“To be honest, Nikki, from the moment I met you, even under completely fucked up circumstances, I felt a connection with you.” He paused, glancing down at his hands, dangling over his knees. “I like you, Nikki, maybe even more than that. If you asked me to explain it, I wouldn’t be able to. It’s just something that I feel.”

Nikki’s heart pounded anew. She wasn’t sure if she felt relieved or frightened, but it was damned powerful. She couldn’t explain her intense attraction to Seth, either. It was just there and had been there the moment after he lay on the ground, clutching his balls after she kicked him.

“You feel it too, don’t you?”

She nodded. There was no denying it anymore. “Please take the handcuffs off,” she said softly. “I won’t try to get away again. I promise.” She saw the look he gave her, not sure whether he could trust her or not. “I’ll tell you everything, at least everything I know, okay?”

He reached into his pocket for the handcuff key, inserted it into the keyhole, and twisted. The handcuff around her wrist snapped open, and she pulled her arm away, placing it on the pillow near her head.

Then she started talking. Everything. About her twin sister, Stacey, about the auto shop, about Roger Mandy, her boss. That she too knew that there had to be something more than her sister finding a chop shop. And then she admitted something that she hadn’t even wanted to admit to herself. That maybe the Jokers had mistaken her for her twin sister. That maybe they had taken Stacey by mistake, because they were afraid that she’d been getting too close to something.

“You were working on an exposé? Like investigative journalism?”

She nodded. “Just in my spare time. I hadn’t even approached the editor with my idea. I wanted to have a rough draft finished before I did.”

“But how would the Jokers know?” he asked, frowning. “Did you tell anybody about it?”

She shook her head. “I didn’t even tell Stacey. It was my first stab at it, you know? When I was finished, I was going to ask her to read it and give me her opinion before I even broached the topic with my editor.” She paused, thinking back. “Maybe doing my research, I tipped my hand, or I accessed something I wasn’t supposed to see.” She thumped her hand on the bed in frustration. “I don’t know! But Stacey’s never done anything to anybody. We have to find her, Seth! We have to!”

Tears burgeoned in her eyes and sobs wracked her body. Seconds later, Seth lay beside her on the bed, soothing her, pulling her closer to him . . .