High up in the Hummer Josh rented, Jack drove while Zoe studied the road's reflection in the passenger side mirror. In her mind, the dark SUV barreled towards them, intent on death. In the real world, Jase followed three car lengths behind.

Zoe shuddered. “You should've stayed in the hospital for another day.”

Jack chuckled. Today his light brown eyes flashed with golden flecks, reflecting the sun, and the stripes in his silk tie. His dark pants held a sharp center crease and an expensive navy blazer hung under plastic in the back. She missed beach-bum-Jack, but go-to-work-Jack would've had her creaming, if it weren't for the sense of danger she couldn’t shake.

He smiled her way as if reading her mind.

“How do you know we’re safe? That stalker could be anywhere.” Zoe wished she was home already. Her stomach was tied in knots.

Jack patted the steering wheel, and smirked. “He’s no match for the two of us and this big baby.”

Zoe glanced over her shoulder at the raven-haired teenager in the backseat. The girl gave her a tentative smile, then looked back out the window. Jase had found her wandering the parking lot after the explosion. Apparently, she was the girl Kyle had convinced Jack he’d mated with. Zoe shuddered, she couldn’t have been more than thirteen. Zoe had tried to have a conversation with her, but the girl’s English was limited to two-word sentences. All Zoe really knew about her was that her name was Erina.

“Why are you bringing the girl back to New York? I thought she was staying with your parents.”

Jack frowned and his eyes flickered to the rearview mirror. “Josh thinks she might have something to do with the Russian. We'll keep her safe, find out what she knows, where she came from, then send her back home.”

The girl tapped Zoe on the shoulder. With eyes wide, she shook her head back and forth and mouthed the word, no.

Zoe nodded, made a calming motion with both palms down, and said to Jack, “She understands us, you know. Did you find out anything more?”

“She was supposed to end up at a Pennsylvania bible camp but our stalker friend apparently arranged a detour.” Jack maneuvered their mammoth vehicle easily in and out of the fast lane.

“And?”

Jack’s expression turned grim and he swiped a hand across his face. “She and several other girls were no doubt packing heroine in their stomachs on the trip over from Europe.”

“No way. That is so not right.” Zoe clenched her fists.

“From what I can gather, she was sold for that and prostitution.” He said it so off-the-cuff. Like he was talking about the weather.

Flashbacks of another childhood caught her by surprise. Zoe closed her eyes and leaned back, breathing hard.

Jack took her hand and squeezed gently. “Are you going to be sick? Should I pull over?”

“If you send her home, won’t they just sell her again?” Zoe did her best to sit up, open her eyes, and dispel the awful memories.

Jack shrugged. “Nothing we can do about it. She belongs to her family. Her government will be notified. I have charities overseas that–”

“No.” Zoe shook her head and looked back at the girl, whose mouth was drawn down in a deep frown.

“No, what?” Jack peered at her.

“No, you’re not sending her back.”

“Not my call, honey. I don’t have the authority to keep her in the country.” Jack used that placating and condescending voice that she hated.

She glared him down but his eyes were on the road. “Well I think that’s total bullshit.”

“Just because I have some talent with energy, doesn’t mean I can manipulate the whole government to my will. I can’t fix every bad thing in the whole wide world.”

“We’re not sending that little girl back into a life of prostitution. End of story.”

“I never said that. I said she needs to be with her family.” Jack gripped the steering wheel tightly. His neck muscles twitched just below his ears.

How could she make him understand? This was about more than just the girl. It was about her. If only there had been someone there to save her, to protect her.

Could she trust him enough to tell him what had happened? She shivered and looked out the window.

“Do mated men ever stray?” She picked at a loose string on the seam of her jeans.

He turned sharply to look at her with a deep frown.

“I guess they could, but why? The sex would never be better than with their mate.” Jack smirked a little too arrogantly.

“What if a couple isn’t compatible outside of the bedroom?”

“They figure it out. A mate is more than a husband or a wife, more than just being a lover. I keep trying to tell you that.” He rubbed her leg and gave her a dimpled smile. “There’s other reasons for holding onto the relationship. We’re a small group. Through the centuries, our race has been hunted and tortured. We have to mate sensibly. When there's a powerful line, like ours, it’s our duty to see it passed on and ensure the next generation's safety.”

How well he spliced love right out of the equation. “So even if you find you don’t like me, you won’t leave?”

Jack answered sharply, “Is that what this is all about? You’re afraid I won’t stay with you?”

Damn the man was thick.

No. I’m afraid you won’t ever love me.

“I still have trust issues.” She didn't mean for that to slip out.

“Issues?” He honed in on that topic like a heat-seeking missile. Figures.

“Yeah. Big time trust issues,” she mumbled.

“You don’t trust me?”

Dammit Jack, it’s not always all about you.

She shrugged and looked away.

Jack’s response sounded more like a growl than a man’s voice. Stormy-eyed, he pulled the Hummer off the parkway at the next exit, and parked next to a gas station-convenience store. Jase stayed right behind them. Jack got out of the vehicle and approached Jase’s car. They spoke for a moment, then Jack motioned for Zoe to get out.

Zoe slunk further into the front seat and stared at the roof. Okay, you pissed him off. Mission accomplished. Now what?

He crossed his arms across his chest and waited. When she didn’t move, he opened the passenger door.

“Get out so I can talk to you. You’re impossible today. I don’t feel comfortable stopping here but I can’t drive when you’re like this.”

“You know, Jack, you can be pretty unreasonable too. Every time I try to explain stuff to you, you get mad.” Her throat tightened and she squeezed her eyes shut, willing the tears back into her head.

“Crying won't solve anything. Get out and talk to me.” Jack reached up, cupped her butt, and tugged her forward. He lifted her by the waist and their bodies rubbed intimately as she dropped to the ground. “Tell me what’s going on in that head of yours.”

Zoe wished she had nothing to confess except her blossoming love. Why had she brought this up to begin with? Erina peeked her head over the seat, and Zoe remembered.

“You won't want to stay with me if I tell you.” She looked down and fidgeted with a button on his shirt.

Jack pulled up on her chin. “Tell me what’s bothering you. Whatever it is, at least give me the chance to try and fix it.”

Fix it? She shook her head. There was no fixing the brokenness inside her. “I c-can’t. You’ll despise me.” 

“Never.” He cupped her cheeks with his palms and shook his head vehemently.

She needed to just spit it out. Get it out of the way, so it wouldn’t hang between them. She took a deep breath.

“I was abused as a kid.” She bit her lip hard and tasted blood. Her throat constricted. She looked over to the vehicle where Erina watched them with wide, uncertain eyes. “I was a bit younger than the girl when it started. My father–” She winced. “Now I know he was my adoptive father, but it doesn’t make it any less wrong.”

“He hit you?”

“No.”

Zoe knew when he understood because his face turned white and his breath came out in a hiss.

“Fuck.” Jack scrubbed his fingers through his hair and blew out a long breath. “Did he…did he rape you?”

“No, but, in a way, it was worse. He touched me. Always and often. It went on for years. As long as I can remember until I finally left home.”  She hunted his expression and only saw eyes that were filled with silent compassion. That gave her courage to continue. “I’ve never told anybody how young I was. Not even my therapist. I was nine or ten, maybe less. I honestly don’t remember. I was too little to even understand the nature of that kind of touching. He told me it was normal and that he loved me.”

“Didn’t your mother know?”

“She walked in on it more than once, but pretended she saw nothing.” Zoe frowned, pursed her lips together and squeezed her eyes shut. Memories sucked.

“Did you ever try to tell someone?”

Zoe studied the ant hole at her feet. She sympathized with how they worked like hell to fix damage that could never be undone.

“I tried to confront my mother in my teens and get her to help me. She refused. So when I was old enough I left. I’ve been on my own ever since.”

Jase tapped the roof and lifted his eyebrows.

“I’m sorry angel, but we need to get back on the road.” Jack hugged her tight and then motioned for her to get back in the car.

When they were on the road for a while, he asked into the lengthening silence, “Did you try the authorities?”

“Why? My mother was under his power, too. She’d lie to protect him. It would be my word against his and hers. I had no proof.”

“How did you survive?”

“I’d been stealing a little from his bank account for years and had his bank card. I cleaned him out, went to New York, and started working at the only thing I knew how to do. Breaking and entering networks.” She paused and grinned. “Craigslist is full of opportunities for an enterprising sort. That’s where I met Nan. We were breaking into the same network.”

Jack didn’t smile back. He just drove with his jaw ticking.

Zoe gave him time to digest everything.

“I don’t know how, but I’m going to spend my life making it right for you.”

Her mouth dropped open. “You still want to stay with me after everything I told you?”

“You did nothing wrong.” Jack flicked his eyes off the road and they gleamed with fierceness. His lips went thin. “My only regret is the bastard isn’t alive, so I could cut his dick off and make him eat it.”

Zoe’s lips twitched. That was probably one of the nicest things he’d ever said to her. She peeked over her shoulder at Erina who watched them with dark, uncertain eyes.

“Now you understand why I can’t let you send her back?” Zoe said.

Jack’s hand rested on her thigh.

“Don’t worry.” He glanced into the rearview at the girl. “I won’t send her back, unless she wants to go.”

Erina grinned broadly and Zoe couldn’t help but smile back.