As Kate slumbered in the hotel bed, I stared out the window. Outside, the city hummed with a steady flow of traffic and pedestrians. We could not be farther from our Leiloa oasis. This was our prison now…until we found a way out of this mess.

Part of me regretted letting Kate bring us back to New York. Her stunned reaction to the information I’d uncovered about Cybermark didn’t help. I pinched the bridge of my nose and exhaled heavily. Maybe I should have told her more, given her a clearer picture of who we were dealing with. If I had, perhaps we’d be sipping rum drinks somewhere off the Pacific coast right now. Not running for our lives.

Being at the hotel made me feel marginally better. I had no doubt we were safer here, but I was still edgy and paranoid, ready to fight or flee at the first sign of danger. I knew sleep wouldn’t come easily, not until I had a plan. I settled behind the desk and opened my laptop again. I scrolled through my files, willing my brain to think harder and zero in on any details I may have missed.

Think. Think. Think.

The more I perused, the more my doubts grew. I couldn’t have been alone in my suspicions of Cybermark, could I? If no one else had uncovered anything suspicious, how would I?

Maybe my single point of view was the problem. If Kate was determined to expose Cybermark, she’d need more than my personal interpretation of what wrongdoing could be going on behind the scenes. Any reporter worth his salt would seek additional sources to fill in the gaps. Gaps that I’d failed to fill on my information-seeking mission in Zurich. Gaps I wasn’t willing to fill with findings that could threaten Otis’s freedom.

Slowly an idea began to form. I pulled up the articles related to the accounting department turnovers. I grabbed a pen and scratched the names of the ex-employees on the hotel stationery. If they knew anything incriminating, they’d likely never talk let alone risk their lives as I had. But it was a place to start.

Quickly I typed the first person’s name into my search bar. Victoria Williamson. I scanned the results. A profile on a business social network showed she still worked at Cybermark. Odd. I dug deeper and found her Facebook account, which appeared to have been abandoned. Nothing had been posted for over a year. My next hit was an obituary. For one hopeful moment, I assured myself that she simply shared a name with someone much older who’d passed on.

But no. Victoria Williamson had died in a tragic skiing accident in Chamonix, a resort nestled in the French Alps. Dread took root as I scratched a line through her name and searched for the next person on the list.

Marc LeBaron. The search returned an article as the first result. “Former Finance Executive Found Dead in Greenwood Lake.”

The meager contents of my stomach threatened to rise when I clicked the article. He’d died in what was believed to be a freak accident, having fallen from his boat during an early morning fishing trip. With a shaky hand, I scratched his name out and searched the next person on the list.

“Price?”

Kate’s voice, raspy from sleep, pulled my focus from the laptop screen. She sat up with a frown, covering her nakedness with the sheet. “Is everything okay?”

Was everything okay? I couldn’t begin to answer that question. Instead, I turned back to the screen and continued the search, driven by the suddenly desperate need to find someone alive on it.

They couldn’t have… But they could.

They’d already proven they could eliminate a person, or at least try to, like the cold-blooded killers they were.

Kate’s voice hovered in the background, but my unnerving train of thought drowned her out.

Trey Otto. Three clicks. Accidental overdose.

Marcia Breininger. Two clicks. Car accident.

“Price!”

I jolted hard at the loud sound combined with Kate’s hand on my shoulder, shaking me.

“Price, will you talk to me?”

I caught her hand, held it firmly between us. Only then did I realize I was uncomfortably warm. My palms were moist and my breaths came hard and fast.

“They’re all dead.”

Her eyes became two round saucers. “What? Who?”

I shook my head quickly. “No, it’s okay. Well, not really. Those people I told you were fired from Cybermark. I’m not even done with the list. I just can’t believe it. How could they get away with it?”

She squeezed my hand tightly. “Price, goddamnit. Slow down. You’re not making any sense.”

I took a deep breath and tried to organize my thoughts. “I realized we should try to reach out to someone who was with the company. See if anyone would be willing to talk, or at least point us in the right direction. So far, every one of the people I’ve searched for who left their accounting team is dead. Freak accidents. Every one of them.”

She simply stared at me for a few seconds before glancing down at the list I’d systematically scratched out. She lifted the piece of paper and studied it a moment before turning away. She plunked down on the sofa with her own laptop, referring to the paper once more before typing furiously on the keys.

I stood and went to her. “I’ve spent the past twenty minutes going through that list. Don’t you believe me?”

“I’m not questioning you. I just want to see for myself.”

I shoved my hands through my hair and paced the floor in front of her. Retracing my actions would prove a gruesome journey. The sick feeling had only deepened with each new discovery. Being outside the company, my name would have never been on that list, but I could have shared their fates. Instead I was here. Living, breathing, and very likely one of the only people who was connecting the dots. Cybermark was in the business of data mining, scamming millions, and outright murdering anyone who got in their path.

Suddenly the prospect of running away from all this seemed impossible. Beyond impossible. Wrong. The very word Kate had used to describe it when we were back on the island.

“We have to dig deeper,” I said suddenly. “I made that list from articles that had come out months before the crash. I hadn’t bothered keeping track of Cybermark’s activity much after that, but there have to be others.” An idea shot like a bolt to the front of my thoughts. I rushed to my laptop. “What’s the date on Victoria Williamson’s obit?”

“November. Five months after you disappeared.”

I found the date on the article noting her departure from the company. “She left in January of that year. So they waited almost a year. What about Marc LeBaron?”

“July. He had a summer home on the lake.”

“They fired him in March. He’d returned to the States, so maybe that gave them a sense of urgency. Hell, who knows. But this at least means that we can look for any recent departures from the accounting department and try to get to them before they do.”

Kate’s stare was fixed on the screen as mine had been earlier.

“Kate, do you hear me? We need to make that list and track down whoever we can. Between the unusual numbers I noticed long ago and any tips someone might be able to give us, I think we could break this wide open. You were right to want to take this to the press. There’s so much more to expose than I ever would have imagined. And once people see that ex-Cybermark employees are dropping like flies, it could be just enough to keep us protected.”

She looked up. “I think I know who to go to first.”

“Who?”

She chewed at her bottom lip. “You’re not going to like it.”

“Are you kidding me? We could be looking at a death toll of a dozen or more. Why the hell would I care who we give the scoop to as long as they’re reputable?”

“Alejandro emailed me this morning.”

I stopped pacing and faced her. “Alejandro? As in—”

“As in the journalist I met in Spain. He recently moved to New York and got a job with the Journal. He said he wants to reconnect.”

I balled my fists. I relished the thought of connecting one of them to his face. “No. We’ll find someone else.”

She slapped her hands on the cushions on either side of her. “Why? It could take days or weeks for me to get someone else to give us time. I could meet with him right away. If we already have people tailing us, we may not have a lot of time to tap resources here in the city before it gets too dangerous. Hell, it already is too dangerous.”

My next thought was a terrible one. I’d never wished for anyone to get caught up in this mess. Someone else knowing the things I knew guaranteed a path fraught with peril. But if we sent anyone on this journey to dig deeper into Cybermark’s many wrongdoings, perhaps Alejandro would be the perfect candidate.

How could I hate a man I’d never met? I wasn’t sure, but knowing he’d had his hands and mouth on my wife singed my already frayed nerves.

“Fine.” I bit the word out.

Kate lifted her eyebrows. “Fine?”

“We’ll meet with him.”

“We? You’re still dead, remember?”

I winced and began pacing again. Kate was right. She could deliver all the pertinent information without revealing that I was still alive. That also meant she’d appear single and available for his advances again. If he touched her…

I stopped abruptly. “I’ll go with you. You can meet him in a public place. Someplace busy enough to give you anonymity and so I can stay close without him noticing.”

She nodded. “That should work.”

I couldn’t believe I was agreeing to this. Then again, I was still grappling with the new information I’d just discovered. What choice did I have? I was in New York, about to see the man who’d tried to fuck my wife, so he could write a story that could save both of us from a life on the run. How had this become my life? Didn’t matter. I didn’t have time or the mental wherewithal to make sense of it all.

“Email him and set up a time. I’ll make a copy of my files and see who else I can put on this list. Hopefully someone without an obituary.”

“Got it.”

---

Kate fussed with her hair. I braced my hands on either side of the doorway, studying everything. Her undeniable beauty. Her nervous hands. The faraway look in her eyes, like her thoughts had already taken her into the future. In less than an hour, she’d be face to face with Alejandro. She tugged at the bottom of her sweater and canted her head.

“You look beautiful. I’m sure he’ll agree.”

She found my gaze in the mirror, her shoulders softening. “Price, don’t be like that.”

I exhaled slowly. “I’m not upset with you. I just don’t like this guy.”

She sighed and stared at her reflection a moment. “I know. It’s occurred to me that the better I look for this meeting, the more likely he may be to help me. But of course everything about that feels wrong.”

I came behind her, holding her back against my front. “You’re just being smart and calculating how to get what you want. You’re using all the tools at your disposal to survive. Trust me, I know how it feels.”

“This won’t be anything like what you’ve endured, Price.”

“No. But it’s still risky for you. It’s still outside your comfort zone. And you’re pushing through it against all your instincts.”

She closed her eyes a moment and then turned in my embrace. Resting her hands on my chest, she flicked her gaze up. “Speaking of instincts, I need to tell you something. Something else you’re not going to like.”

I held my breath and studied her, finding no clues in her clear blue eyes. “Tell me.”

“That night I had dinner with Alejandro. I told you he’d kissed me.”

In an instant my body became a block of rigid muscle. Good God. What if she’d slept with him? What if she’d spared my feelings once but couldn’t hold up the lie once she was in the same room with him?

She tried to step back, but I wouldn’t budge. “Kate, what is it? Tell me now.”

“He was…aggressive with me.”

I grimaced. “Aggressive how?”

“When I rejected him gently the first time, it was like he didn’t believe me. He kept on, like if he kissed and groped me enough, I’d get turned on and sleep with him. Obviously it didn’t work. I had to get aggressive back for him to get the message that I wasn’t interested.”

My thoughts spun in angry circles. I wanted to kill him. Having Kate meet with him had been a terrible idea. But putting him in harm’s way to save our future wasn’t. Did Alejandro groping my wife warrant a possible death sentence?

“It’s like I can read your thoughts,” she said, her tone filled with worry.

“What am I thinking?”

“That you want to kill him and that this was all a terrible idea.”

I pressed my lips into a flat line. “Pretty much spot on.”

“We need this, Price. Giving the Journal the scoop is too important. We can’t get sidetracked worrying about whatever base male thoughts Alejandro might be having about me in the process. I told you because I didn’t want you to get caught off guard if he was more forward than you expected. Last thing I need is for you to fly off the handle in the middle of my meeting with him, exposing that you’re alive and killing any possibility of getting him to work with us.”

“Then it’s good you told me, because if he touches you, that’s exactly what I’ll want to do.” Everything she said made sense in my head. None of it eased my intense urge to destroy the man who didn’t want to take “no” for an answer.

“I’ll be fine. Penn Station isn’t exactly an intimate meeting place. I’ll talk to him, give him the facts, and if he wants a second meeting with his editor, we’ll set it up and go from there.”

The new knot in my stomach wouldn’t go away. I knew this is what we had to do, but suddenly everything about it felt wrong. Of course, nothing about our current predicament felt right. I simply had to push through this discomfort to get us closer to the truth. And hopefully the truth would set us free—free to live the life we deserved.

Without releasing her, I checked my watch. It was four thirty. The subway would be mobbed the closer we got to five.

“We should go.”

When I began to step away, Kate brought her hands to my face, keeping us close. She stared into my eyes for a moment, like she was trying to communicate without words. A feeling maybe, or something so profound she simply couldn’t speak it.

“What is it, baby?”

“I love you, Price,” she whispered. “My love for you never once lessened simply because you were gone. It only grew. Every day it grew, because I had nothing but time to remember what we had together. Everything I took for granted. All the little things. A thousand little stabs of memory compounded onto the crazy love I’d had for you before that day. Nothing and no one will ever be able to take that away. You could still be gone, and I would still be yours in my heart. So completely yours. I need you to know that.”

I didn’t have any words because she’d said them all. When I kissed her, our mouths came together softly at first, and then hungrily. The physical connection became the channel for all my passion and devotion, pouring from me into her. Kate. The love of my life. My wife.

I hoisted her onto the counter, dragging my lips down her neck. Kissing, sucking, biting. I pressed her thighs wide and teased my thumb along the seam of her jeans, adding just enough pressure to make her moan.

Fuck. We didn’t have time for this, but I couldn’t stop. I went for the button on her jeans and tugged, but she caught my hand.

“We can’t.”

“I need to be inside you, Kate.”

“I want you too, but we need to go.” Desire and reason mingled in her plea.

I growled, hating that she was right. I took a few breaths and tried to get my wits about me again. Slowly I stepped back, giving her enough room to scoot off the counter and pass into the bedroom for her jacket and purse.

I followed her out. I could do this. I could keep my shit together, watching her with Alejandro. If I could live without Kate for a year, I could endure a few more minutes without her in my arms, knowing another man wanted what was mine.

---

Penn Station was as busy as we’d expected. The train terminal was teeming with commuters, tourists, and seemingly every walk of life. How she’d spot Alejandro amidst the chaos, I wasn’t sure. I hadn’t had the time to research him and regretted it immediately after she’d told me about their encounter. The curiosity was eating at me almost as much as my fierce jealousy.

I hung back on the other side of the terminal, my ball cap pulled down low, shadowing my eyes.

I saw the recognition in her expression before I saw the man himself. He was tall. Dark-haired with olive skin. And because in that moment I was measuring the ways she could have been attracted to him, I admitted that he wasn’t a terrible-looking human being. Tall, dark, and handsome. He smiled as he approached. Straight white teeth seemed to beam against his skin. He came in for a hug, which she returned. I had expected that. Didn’t keep me from seeing red, but I was ready for it.

They exchanged niceties. I could tell from her body language and soft smile. Then her expression smoothed. As she began speaking, I knew she was beginning to tell him about the story. She gestured with her hands, like she was outlining all the points we’d discussed earlier. I shifted my focus to him, expecting to see intrigue, admiration, even latent desire. I saw none of it. What I saw was worse. A blank, cold expression void of anything that spoke to his willingness to help her…us. He glanced over his shoulder and then reached out to touch hers, stopping whatever she was saying. I couldn’t make out the words from reading his lips, but he motioned behind him. She shot a look my way, but before I could signal her to stay put, she followed him deeper into the growing crowd.

I took long strides in her direction, no longer concerned about hanging back and staying inconspicuous. But they turned a corner and she slipped out of sight. Where was he taking her? The closest exit was the other way. Around the corner, I scanned heads for Kate’s blond hair. Every second I couldn’t see her was a second I couldn’t breathe. Where the fuck did she go?

I pushed through the crowd. Looked up and down. Seconds felt like minutes. Every blonde was Kate until I realized she wasn’t, sending my heart flying and crashing against my ribs. Panic wrapped around me like a second skin.

“Kate!” I looked in every direction and screamed her name. I didn’t care who saw me now. “Alejandro!”

But she was gone. I’d lost her.