Declan narrowed his eyes on his longtime friend. He was truly at a loss for words for how Mac was acting toward Aspen. It shouldn’t matter that he’d never mentioned her; it was blatantly disrespectful the way Mac was behaving.

Aspen had finally relaxed around him. The guarded look in her eyes had disappeared, and now, two minutes in Mac’s presence and her walls were back up.

“If you must know, I hadn’t mentioned Aspen because this is only the second time we’ve been out together,” he said through clenched teeth. His protective nature was rising, wanting to shield Aspen from his friend.

“But you both just said you weren’t dating.” Mac’s eyebrow lifted.

“We have to eat.”

He could feel Aspen’s tension brimming from her, but he refused to let her run off. His gut feeling told him that if she walked out of the diner now, he’d never see her again.

And that wasn’t going to happen.

Mac nodded, but Declan could see the questions in his friend’s eyes. They would have a different conversation soon, not in front of the women. He didn’t want to announce to the entire restaurant that they’d slept together twice and this was only their second date.

No, what happened between him and Aspen was their business.

Their food arrived, breaking some of the tenseness in the air. He moved his eyes to Aspen. She had withdrawn; her eyes were lowered and focused on her food.

He bit back a curse.

“So what do you?” Sarena asked Aspen.

“I work at the County Library. I’m a library assistant,” Aspen responded.

The girls began to make idle conversation, but Declan didn’t hear any of it. His attention was focused on Mac.

“We have drills starting tomorrow. Are you ready?” Mac asked.

“Always,” he replied. Their drill training was to ensure that the team remained the best. It was a few days of training practice where they trained in full gear. Their drills included practicing building entry, takedowns, and search-and-rescue. These training days were to make sure they remained sharp when out on calls.

“So where are you from?” Sarena asked.

“Arizona.”

“I’ve never been there before. I would love to go there sometime.” Sarena glanced at him and arched her eyebrow before setting down her fork. “Okay. I have to ask, because I know Marcas is not going to rest until he knows. How did you two meet?”

Declan turned to find Aspen with a small smile on her lips. Their eyes connected, and he could feel the effect of her smile on him. A giggle escaped her, and before he knew it, she fell into a full fit of hilarity. His lips curved up in a smile as he watched her sit back laughing.

“What did I say?” Sarena laughed some more, her eyes switching between Aspen and Declan.

“Well, if you must know…” Aspen paused, trying to gain control of herself. She pushed her hair behind her ear and finally held back her giggles. “A blind date.”

“What?” Sarena and Mac echoed, shock registering in both their voices.

Declan could feel his friend’s gaze on him and knew Mac would bust his balls about this. He turned and found even Mac holding back a chuckle.

“Okay, let me explain.” Declan coughed, trying to get a handle of the situation. He pushed his empty plate away from him and quickly wiped his mouth with his napkin. He didn’t want Mac or Sarena to think he had to be fixed up with blind date to find a woman.

He didn’t want to lose his man card.

“Yes, I’d like to hear an explanation on this one,” Mac drawled, settling back against the booth and draping an arm around Sarena’s shoulders.

“Evie had been after me for a few weeks to meet her friend. She said her friend just moved to town and she trusted me to take her friend out on a date,” he began.

“She had been hounding me, too. You’d have to know Evie. She can be quite persuasive,” Aspen cut in, glancing at him. “She actually had me feeling sorry for Declan before we even met. I just figured if Evie had to fix her neighbor up—”

“Hey.” He tugged on her hair.

Declan Owen never needed to be fixed up.

“I was thinking the same thing,” he admitted with a laugh. “When she said that her friend worked at the library with her, I imagined some mousy little nerd—”

“Hey!” Aspen swatted him with her arm and laughed.

“You two are cute together.” Sarena sighed, leaning into Mac. “Aren’t they, Marcas?”

Declan took a sip of his drink, and his eyes met Mac’s. He knew they would be having a different conversation soon.

The waitress stopped by the table, interrupting them, and dropped off the checks. Declan reached for them, but Mac snatched them up.

“My treat,” Mac announced, glancing down at the slips.

“No—”

“I said I got it,” Mac cut him off, holding his hand up as he reached for his wallet.

“Hey, I’m going to run to the restroom,” Aspen murmured.

“I’ll go with you,” Sarena chimed in.

Both Declan and Mac stood to allow them to scoot out of the booth. They watched the women walk away, before turning to each other.

“Look, Mac,” he began, running hand through his hair as they took their seats again.

“I find it funny that you busted my balls when I first started my relationship with Sarena. Imagine my surprise that I find you here on a breakfast date with a woman you’ve never even mentioned to me.”

“Listen, Mac. It just happened, but there is nothing to our relationship.”

“Nothing?” Mac cocked an eyebrow.

“We came to agreement. Neither of us is expecting anything. We are just having a little fun. She knows what this is. I think that is the only reason she’s with me right now.”

“Really?”

“And why do you have to be an ass to her? I’ve never treated Sarena with anything but respect,” he lowered his voice, noticing a few looks thrown their way from other patrons in the diner.

The first time he’d met Sarena had been in the Emergency Room of the local hospital. He’d been in pain and was pissed at getting shot. She’d stormed in the room and set him in his place. Since that moment, he’d had nothing but respect for her. She was good for Mac.

“I wasn’t an ass to her,” Mac denied with a shake of his head. “I would never be disrespectful to a woman. Especially someone in a relationship with my best friend.”

“I’m not even sure we’re going to classify this,” Declan murmured.

“Well, anyway. Have you checked into her? Something is off about her. Her eyes are haunted, as if she’s carrying secrets.”

Declan’s eyes flew to Mac’s, and he wasn’t surprised that Mac had picked up on it, too. He’d tried to ignore the warnings in the back of his mind, and had put them away as him being paranoid. But if Mac had sensed something was off, then Declan knew he wasn’t crazy.

“Yeah. It came back clean.”

“There is something—”

“Don’t worry about it. No need to try to decipher her. She’s who she says she is.” He held up a hand to cut off his friend. Maybe the long life in the Navy and law enforcement was making them both paranoid.

Aspen was a beautiful woman who made him smile. He glanced up, and his eyes met hers as she and Sarena made their way back to the table. His cock stiffened. Somehow he’d have to get this woman out of his system.

She could be dangerous.

“So, how’s the wedding planning coming?” he asked, changing the subject.

“Speaking of wedding planning,” Sarena said, arriving back at the table, turning to him. “I have a few things I need the best man to do.”

Aspen sighed and wrapped herself in her plush robe. It was late at night, and she didn’t even feel sleepy. She was still quite wired from her day. After breakfast with Declan and his friends, he had taken her back home, and somehow they had ended up back in bed again.

Her core clenched as memories of him braced over her came to mind.

She had to get him out of her head.

They couldn’t have a future.

She walked out of her bathroom and went into her bedroom. Being hidden in South Carolina was driving her crazy. She wanted to go back to her life. It had been a good one. She missed her parents and her friends. She needed to know how her family was doing.

It just wasn’t fair how the US Marshals had burst in her house and taken her away.

“They didn’t say I couldn’t be on the internet.” She grabbed her laptop off her bed. She walked into the living room and flopped down on the couch. It was explained to her when she was put in witness protection that she could no longer have any contact with family members.

Nothing.

But they didn’t say she couldn’t stalk them from afar on the internet. They did allow her to have a computer, but it was forbidden for her to be on any form of social media.

She tucked her feet beneath her and reached for the remote to the television. Needing some background noise, she flicked the television on. She flipped open the laptop and waited for the computer to boot up. Her heart raced with just thinking of what she’d find on the internet.

“Here’s goes nothing…”

The internet opened. She typed in Ray’s name, and countless stories returned. A gasp escaped her, and she read the first story.

Ray Acosta, former CFO of Irwin Enterprises, was indicted on charges of murder, embezzlement of two hundred million dollars, conspiracy, money laundering …

Her gaze flew along the words as she continued reading. She clicked to another news outlet and gasped again.

Ray Acosta, former CFO of Irwin Enterprises, indicted on multiple charges. He is facing a life sentence along with one hundred and fifty years in prison…

She closed her eyes briefly, still unable to believe that the person who was close to her family would do something like this.

She moved the cursor to the search bar and hesitated. Since she’d been in witness protection, she hadn’t searched herself. She had been warned against it, but at the moment her emotions were flying high and she needed to know what had been told to her parents. She knew they had faked her death, but it wouldn’t prepare her for what she found.

Tears filled her eyes from the multiple articles covering her death.

Irwin Enterprises founder and CEO Mason Irwin’s only daughter, Aspen Irwin, was killed in a horrific car crash, while driving late at night…

She brushed back the tears. The story went on to say an eighteen-wheeler had crashed into her car, killing her immediately.

She clicked on another of the local news channels in her old city. The waterworks burst forth—images of her parents at the funeral. Her father held her mother to his chest as she cried.

Her fingers had a mind of their own and clicked on a video link. She blinked through the tears, the video showing her parents leaving the gravesite and walking toward a waiting black limousine.

“A sad day today for business tycoon, Mason Irwin, as he buried his only child today. Such a sad turn events from having his best friend and longtime business partner, Ray Acosta, indicted on charges from stealing from his empire to now having to bury his child…” a news anchor’s voice droned on.

Aspen closed her eyes and let the tears flow. She cried for the pain that was etched on her parents’ faces. Growing up, she’d never seen her father cry. He was always a strong man who had been firm raising her, but had a heart of gold. She knew as a child that she was a daddy’s girl and he was wrapped around her little finger. She’d never taken advantage of it either. She’d always wanted to prove to him that she was just as strong as he was and yearned to make him proud of her.

But to see her father hold her mother with tears streaming down his face broke her.

Everything had been taken from her.

Her body was racked with sobs, and she just sat on her couch and cried.

Her father had always instilled in her that life would never be fair, but this was just going too far.

She wished there was a way she could reach out to them. Angrily, she wiped the tears from her face and vowed that she’d do what she could to stay safe so she could testify against the man who had stolen her life.

Ray Acosta would pay for what he had done to her, her family, and the countless victims who were affected by his embezzling from the corporation.

Her fingers flew across her keyboard as she pulled up another website. There were just a few other things that she had to check on.