“How do you fit in all of this?” Nicole asked.

Nick sat back and laced his fingers together at the base of his neck.

“I thought I knew,” he began. “But, this doesn’t make sense. There’s a missing piece to the puzzle or a connection I’m missing out on.”

“Who do you work for then?”

He blew out a long breath and took a moment. “It’s an international firm representing top end clients on extremely sensitive issues.”

“Oh good Lord,” she groaned, waving her hand around. She wanted to laugh in his face over the ridiculously planned line. “Smells like bullshit to me.”

“Come on, Nicole,” he said, lifting out of the chair. “Give me a break.”

She followed him. “I told you what I knew, and now you have to do the same. You promised.”

He stopped and turned. “Yeah, I did.” He thought for a moment and added, “The Company I work for deals with a lot of high-end people, and we fight the underground evil on the globe. I’ve dealt with the scum of the earth and made them pay.”

“For pay.”

“Well… yes.”

“Go ahead and say it, Nick. You’re a mercenary.”

“I hate that word.”

“It is what it is,” she said, trying to understand. After what she knew about what her own parents had been through, she was completely aware that life wasn’t something you could paint by numbers and put up on the wall for all to admire. It was a lot more complicated than that. There were back doors and dark alleyways, people didn’t always appear as they should, and life wasn’t fair. Even those you loved and trusted had their own inner battles and turmoil. So, she’d do her best not to judge Nick for what he felt he had to do.

“I’m trying to make right by him,” Nick said to her.

“Who him?”

He moved through the cottage and settled in front of the fireplace. He lifted his muscled arm up and touched the edge of the frame that held his father’s American flag.

“He served his country proudly, doing things he probably didn’t think were one hundred percent right at the time. And, look where it got him. It killed him. Fucking cancer from Agent Orange. Jesus! Chemical warfare didn’t just shit on our enemies, it destroyed our soldiers, too.”

She winced at his words, yet she felt his pain. “No one knew at the time.”

“Desert Storm, he was older, knew better, was out of the military, but had signed up for the National Guard to keep doing his duty and have a hand at training a new generation of soldiers. Got his ass shipped over to the Middle East and came home with Desert Storm Syndrome, which finished him off.” Nick faced Nicole. “You see, I have to fight the unknown wars. The boardroom negotiations and treaties that serve no one. I have to help rid the world of the shits who prey on the weak and take advantage of the fools. Yeah, I get paid to kill people, Nicole. But, they deserve it.”

She wanted to gasp and cry out, but every ounce of her got it. She completely understood where he was coming from. The only thing she didn’t comprehend was how she became one of his commissions. “I’m certainly no threat to the world. Why me? Were you sent to kill me, too, Nick?”

Her heart slammed hard in her chest cavity, pounding out a Morse Code of “no, no, no.”

Hanging his head, he said, “I don’t know yet. The final orders haven’t been relayed to me.” Lifting his searing blue eyes at her, he added, “Can’t you see why I whisked you away? Why I had to take care of you and make sure we figure this out?”

Pulse continuing to race, she stepped over to him and wrapped her arms around him from behind. She pressed her body into the back of him soaking in the strength and muscle and power within him. Her hands splayed over his shirt covering his stomach. His fingers joined with hers.

It wasn’t sexual, or sensual.

It was survival.

And, she appreciated him and everything he’d done for her.

Breaking away, Nick lifted her hands and kissed them softly. “I stink. I think I’ll go grab a shower and then clean up the kitchen. You get comfortable and relax. You’ve earned it.”

Nicole let him go and watched as he walked down the hallway and went into the bathroom. She thought she’d give him a hand and clean the kitchen so he wouldn’t have to do it. She flitted around the kitchen cleaning dishes, scooping the leftovers into a plastic container, and putting everything away. It was the least she could do after his effort.

The shower was still running, so Nicole worked her way around the cottage taking everything in. It wasn’t the design of a man who killed for a living. It was homey, laid back, inviting even. She wondered if he had worked on it himself since acquiring it. She could imagine him doing things with his hands. He was good with his hands.

Her insides ached at the memory of them together in the airplane restroom. Was that today? It couldn’t have been. It felt like a lifetime ago. But, it was only earlier. Flying from the west to east coast, she had lost three hours. It was all a jumble now.

She should be on her way to London, right over Newfoundland about now. She’d be—

The thought died off when she thought of her father. He’d be worried sick not having heard anything from her. She had to find a way to get a message to him. Nick had left his cell phone back in Yonkers. But men like him always had a backup plan. Wouldn’t he?

What had he put in his duffel when he came out of the bedroom?

At the time, she’d acted like she didn’t see anything. Now, was her chance to see if he had anything she could use.

The shower raged on, so she snuck over to his duffel and carefully unzipped it. Beneath a magazine and a black fitted shirt, she saw a cell phone. Actually, several. Of course, he had burner phones, as well. Since he had so many, he wouldn’t miss one, she thought.

She sat on the couch and powered up the phone. As it came to life, she dug into what should have been an above-average memory to recall her father’s satellite phone number. She’d never written it down anywhere, but had added it to her cell phone in code, so only she could decipher the true number. Too bad Nick had destroyed that phone. Still, it was one of those pieces of information she’d taken the time to memorize to get a message to her father as an absolute last resort, no matter what.

When the phone came to life, she used the web browser first to get the GPS coordinates for her current location. She copied the information and then went to the messaging app and punched in the code for her father.

Shit. What did she even tell him at this point?

She didn’t want to put too much. She wanted him to know she was safe and in good hands.

Her fingers tapped on the keyboard as she wrote:

Then, she entered the coordinates so he could see for himself she was out of harm’s way. She waited impatiently while the message sent, holding her breath for a response until Nick came out of the bathroom.

The water cut off. She heard him moving around as he dried off and got dressed. She didn’t want to think of him so close, so naked, so available.

She strummed her fingers on the screen. “Come on, come on, come on…”

The message indicator popped up, and she clicked it right away.

“Thanks, Dad,” she said to the phone as she powered it off and buried it in the purse she’d found in the swiped suitcase, along with a brush, some lotion, a bottle of Vitamin C, and a couple of ten dollar bills that were in there.

“Man, I feel better,” Nick said as he entered the room.

She nearly fainted at the sight of him. He wore a loose pair of gray sleep pants that hung on his trim hips and a towel slung around his neck. His chest was bare in all its muscled and tanned glory for her to appreciate. Sure, she’d gotten a look at his physique when they were having sex, though it wasn’t the runway show he was giving her now as he went and stood—posed even—in front of the fire with his rippling back to her.

Damn… that ass of his is perfection.

Nicole was hypnotized by everything about him from his thick dark hair all the way to his finely sculpted legs and feet. He was a machine for the purpose of his job, but he was all male. All man.

She thought about complicating this even more by shifting off the sofa and going to him in front of the fire. Their passion would rage as much as the flames next to them. Only, this time, they’d have more room to explore each other and take their time.

While her heart pounded out furiously, she barely heard him when he said, “Like I said, you can have the bed. I’ll take the couch.”

Blinking, she surmised that he didn’t want to make things any murkier than they already were, as well. So, she rose from the cushion and went to his side. In an appreciative and friendly manner, she hugged him to her briefly and then retreated before her body betrayed her in every sense of the word. Her nipples were already taut and straining against the fabric of his shirt.

His shirt.

Ironic that she was wearing his shirt and he was wearing nothing.

“Thanks, Nick. I hope you’ll get some rest.”

He toyed with the end of her hair and treated her to a heart-stopping grin. “I never really do. Sleep’s not my thing, remember?”

“Well, try.”

She padded down the hallway and closed the door to the bedroom.