"Do you need me to thrall anyone?" Brundar said as they met up in the empty waiting room.

Bridget cast him a sidelong glance. "No need. During the day anyone can visit. In fact, I suggest you stay in here while I go to see Turner."

Anandur put his hands in his pockets. "That kind of defeats the purpose of us coming with you."

Turner's instructions had confirmed Anandur's opinion that the man was paranoid. But just in case Victor's paranoia was justified, Bridget had insisted that they follow the instructions to the letter. The brothers had arrived in their own car, hadn't parked next to her, and had waited a few minutes before following her inside.

"I promised Victor I would bring muscle. I didn't say anything about you guys coming in. Unless you want to as his friends."

Anandur shook his head. "I wouldn't go as far as calling Turner a friend. I'm just glad he's not dead."

Brundar didn't say a thing.

Despite finding his truelove match, he was still the silent type, though not as cyborg-like as he'd been before. Callie was melting his ice layers one at the time, but there were still many to go through.

"Thank you for coming with me. I appreciate it. I'll let you know if I need you." She left them in the waiting room and went searching for Turner.

He wasn't alone when Bridget found him. There was a pretty blond woman sitting next to his bed. Lying on his side, Turner was looking at the woman with genuine fondness.

An unfamiliar wave of jealousy washed over Bridget. She hadn't known he was even capable of the feeling let alone expressing it.

Until now, interest and lust were the only expressions Bridget had witnessed him having. The rest of the time he kept his features in a neutral mask that revealed nothing of what was going on inside his head, fooling people into believing he was cold and incapable of strong emotions.

The fact was that he'd fooled her just as easily as everyone else hurt, driving the lesson home better than any spoken words or deeds. She was a means to an end the same as Turner's other associates, holding no special place in his heart like the woman sitting next to him.

"Hello, Turner," she said in a tone that could've chilled a volcano.

He lifted his head, and the woman turned to look at her.

"Hi, Bridget. This is Alice, my personal assistant. Alice, this is Bridget, a business associate."

Right. A business associate with benefits.

Pulling on her professional doctor's mask, Bridget offered the woman her hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Alice."

After a quick shake, Bridget lifted Turner's chart and read through the notes. "You were extremely lucky. The knife didn't penetrate the pleura or the mediastinum, meaning no punctured lungs which could have been fatal without immediate medical intervention. It impacted the vertebras between T4 and T5, wedging into the costovertebral joint, again without causing irreversible damage to your spinal cord. The knife was surgically removed, and you were given antibiotics."

Turner shifted, adjusting the pillows. "I want to reward the homeless man who found me and drove me here. He was smart to leave the knife and not try to pull it out."

Alice clutched her purse and rose to her feet. "It wasn't about being smart. The guy was probably too afraid to touch you." She patted Turner's shoulder. "I'd better get back to the office. Call me if you need anything else."

"Thank you, Alice." That fond look was back on Turner's face.

Alice smiled at Bridget. "It was nice meeting you."

"Same here."

Bridget took the seat Alice had vacated. "How are you feeling?"

"Is it the doctor asking, or the woman?"

She shrugged. "I'm a woman and a doctor. And I don't suffer from a split personality disorder."

A tiny smirk lifted one corner of Turner's lips. The jackass was too smart not to figure out the reason for her sarcastic tone. "I feel grateful."

"That's understandable. You're alive."

"Yes. But I'm grateful for much more than my life. I was saved by a random stranger who expected nothing for his good deed. He restored my faith in humanity. I thought I was all alone, but today I realized that it wasn't true. I have two women who care about me."

The asshole was really pushing it. "It depends on what you define as care."

"I've known Alice for years, first as the wife of one of my soldiers, then as his widow, and then as my secretary. But I never thought of her as a friend, only as an employee who had no choice but to tolerate me, and whom for some reason I never managed to intimidate."

"You seem to like her a lot."

"I admire her. It wasn't easy to raise her boys by herself. And working for me is no picnic either."

Was this his way of telling her there was nothing going on between him and his personal assistant?

But why the hell not?

The woman was a young widow, pretty, seemed like a nice person, and most importantly she was there. It would have been the most natural thing for them to get together.

"How many years has she been working for you?"

"Ever since I opened the firm. She was with me from the very start."

Bridget wasn't one to beat around the bush. "Did you ever sleep with her?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"First of all because she works for me. Besides, I was never interested in her that way. And I don't think she was ever interested in me."

"Bullshit, Turner. There is no way two single heterosexual people who are both fairly attractive wouldn't feel a pull toward each other. It's nature."

"Perhaps. But then we are not chimps, and there is more to us than base urges. In my mind, Alice was off limits, and that translated into how I felt about her." He smiled and reached for Bridget's hand. "I could ask you the same question about all those hunks you hang around all day. Aren't you attracted to any of them? After all, they are not your brothers."

He had a point. "To me, they are like brothers. But you are right about it being more of a conviction, than a natural inclination. I just know they are off limits."

"I rest my case. Are we good now?"

"We were never bad."

"You look beautiful when your eyes sparkle with jealousy. It gives you a dangerous edge I find very sexy. A warrior woman."

As the fight left her body, Bridget sighed. "Right. You should have seen me last night, sitting on the pavement in some back alley and crying my eyes out. Anandur had to carry me back to the bus."

Turner frowned. "What were you doing in a back alley? And why were you riding a bus?"

She leaned closer and whispered. "When you didn't show up, I called Brundar. He had someone hack into the restaurant's security camera footage, and we saw what happened. The entire force got mobilized. We spent the night searching for you. Your paranoia could've been the death of you. Switching cars, using rentals, we had no way to find you. By the way, did you switch the license plates around?"

Turner nodded, which meant that Anandur was wrong about his strict adherence to the law. Apparently, the man had no qualms about civil offenses. Perhaps he had no problem with criminal ones either. The truth was that she knew very little about him, and what she'd thought she knew was often wrong.

"My caution makes sense considering that I don't expect anyone looking for me to have good intentions," he said.

For a moment, Bridget was rendered speechless. What a lonely life Turner must have been leading if the only people ever searching for him wished him harm.

"What about Alice?"

"It's not her job to worry about me."

"I bet she does."

"Maybe. Still, it is more important to make it difficult for my numerous enemies to find me than to make it easier for my handful of friends."