I was dreaming of music and children playing, of butterflies and wildflowers, when someone rudely interrupted with a loud clearing of the throat and a jabbing finger against my shoulder.

“Ms. Walters? Please, if you could just—”

“Who the hell are you?”

Whoever it was squealed and I could imagine a little jump back from the bed. I rolled over to find a pretty brunette backing toward the door, a blush moving quickly over her cheeks as she tried to look away, but couldn’t quite do it.

I looked down at myself and realized the reason for the blush. I quickly snatched at the tangled sheet and yanked it up over my chest.

“Who are you?”

“Kim. I’m Jack’s secretary?”

“Is that a question?”

She cleared her throat and stood a little taller in the open doorway. “I am Jack’s secretary. I sometimes do things for Brent, too, and he asked me to come down and get you.”

“Why?”

She shook her head as she reached up to push her glasses back up the bridge of her nose. “I don’t know. He just asked that I get you.”

“What time is it?”

“A little after eleven.”

I groaned, throwing myself back against the pillows. I worked late nights, therefore I was used to sleeping until one or two in the afternoon. This was like waking at dawn for a normal person.

“I can tell him you were sleeping.”

“No. Just…I need to take a quick shower first. Okay?”

“Of course. I’ll wait in the control room.”

There was a moment’s hesitation before I heard the door closed. I glanced at it, a slow smile touching my lips. Must be interesting working around here.

I climbed out of bed and padded to the bathroom, turning on the water in the shower, the hot up as high as it would go. My body was still impossibly sore from the tension of the day before. Maybe a little heat would loosen it up some.

I stood under the spray of the shower longer than I probably should have, what with the understanding that that girl was out there waiting for me. But I figured she’d rather be down here than doing whatever Jack might have for her upstairs. Out of the shower, I quickly twisted my curls into a braid and slipped on another pair of yoga pants and another tee, not really seeing the point in dressing any more formally. If I was going to be stuck down here for the foreseeable future, I might as well be comfortable.

I slipped on my tennis shoes and strolled out the door, finding Kim sitting in the control room just as she’d said she would be. She smiled when I walked in, bouncing onto her feet with a little more enthusiasm than the situation required.

“This way,” she said, gesturing toward the hall behind me.

We boarded the elevator without issue and she pushed the button for the top floor. The moment we stepped off, we could hear raised voices some distance away. I glanced at her, curious.

“Jack’s former fiancée’s parents.”

“He was engaged?”

“Was. He broke it off when he met Raelyn. Which I think is great because Raelyn is more his type. Stacey was…well, she wasn’t really his type.”

“How long were they together?”

“Two years.”

“Long time.”

She shrugged. “I think it was more of a business decision for him than anything else. I don’t think he expected to ever meet anyone like Raelyn.”

“I’ve heard a lot about her. I’m looking forward to meeting her.”

Kim nodded. “She’s in Jackson right now, recovering from a gunshot wound. But Jack seems to think she’ll be back soon.”

We turned a corner and the yelling turned down to a dull roar. Kim cleared her throat, slowing her step like she wanted to ask me something, but wasn’t sure how.

I glanced at her. “What?”

She lifted a shoulder in what might have been a shrug if she’d completed the motion. “I just…everyone around here is really happy to see Brent smiling again, you know. First Raelyn, then I guess you…he’s like his old self again.”

“Raelyn?”

“They hung out a lot the first few days she was here. I guess she worked in his office, organizing things.”

“Then maybe she deserves the credit.”

“No.” Kim got this thoughtful look on her face. “He was laughing again when she came, but the real change has come over the last week or so. He’s not just smiling again. He’s interacting with people again, coming out of his office for more than to bark orders at people or go in search of someone to pick a fight with. It’s nice.”

I didn’t know what to say to that. This woman knew Brent better than I did. But…it seemed promising.

We finally reached the door we were apparently looking for. She tapped on it, then pushed it open, gesturing for me to step through. It was a fairly large office made smaller by large filing cabinets and stacks of paper and trash that occupied most of the open spaces in the room. Brent sat behind a desk that was covered in notebooks and paperwork, no computer anywhere in sight. He was on the phone, leaning back in his chair until he saw me. Then he sat up and smiled, quickly ending the call.

“Hi,” he said, the single syllable drawn out like a sigh. “You sleep alright?”

“I was still sleeping when your minion came to get me.”

“Oh, hell…I forget you’re a night person.”

“I won’t be for much longer.”

“Yeah?” He stood and came around his desk, his well-fitted suit presenting a vision that was quite enjoyable. “Why’s that?”

“I’m quitting Highland. I’m going back to school.”

“Really?” Surprise lit his eyes. “When did this happen?”

“I decided just yesterday, but I didn’t have a chance to tell you.”

“No, I don’t suppose you did.”

He came to me and took my face between his hands, drawing me close to him so that he could kiss me. It began as a kind, gentle kiss, but quickly turned into something with a little more heat behind it. I curled into his chest, sighing as I tipped my head away and pressed my nose to the front of his chest. There was so much security in his touch that I simply wanted to stand close to him for the rest of my life.

“So, I wanted to let you know what’s going on.”

I groaned, not really ready to let reality back in. But there wasn’t much choice, was there?

I stepped back and took a seat on the very edge of a chair that was supposed to be for visitors to his office, but which held a stack of papers that clearly got left out when this perfect Raelyn was organizing his office.

Brent leaned back against the front of his desk, resting his hands on his thighs.

“We got some information last night from a couple of Mad Dog prospects. They told us that Trigger follows the girls he plans to target. So we went back through the last few weeks of footage on the security cameras in the parking lot of the club and we think we’ve identified his next target.”

“Who is it?”

Brent tilted his head, clearly not willing to share that information with me. I stood up in something of a snit, causing a few papers to fall onto the floor in my wake.

“Are you afraid I’ll warn her? Is that what you think of me?”

“I just don’t want you getting hurt, Dane.”

“Telling me her name isn’t going to get me hurt.”

He reached for my arm, but I moved out of his reach, storming to the back of the room before spinning on my heel to face him.

“You and Jack are going to watch over her?”

“Yes.”

“And you’re going to confront this monster?”

“We’re going to take him down.”

“How?”

“By whatever means necessary.”

I shook my head because I didn’t like the sound of that. I had these images going through my mind of Brent riddled with bullets, with these motorcycle creeps chasing him down and beating him senseless with chains and whips. I knew I watched too much television, that real life wasn’t like Sons of Anarchy, but that knowledge didn’t make me feel any better.

“I want this over,” he said, crossing to me, taking my arms in his hands. “I want you to be safe.”

“He only wants me because he wants to get to you.”

He inclined his head so that I couldn’t see his eyes, but I saw them anyway. He didn’t fully believe that and that scared me. Did he think this guy would have come after me anyway?

Why?

“Why is he doing this? Why did he hurt Rachel?”

“I don’t know. We spoke to Rhonda and she thinks he might be a guy they had to kick out of the club a few months ago for being too rough with the girls. She said he liked to go into back into the rooms to be beaten and then he’d go into the fantasy rooms and demand some pretty kinky stuff. She said it got too intense for a couple of the girls and she threw him out. But she’s not sure it’s the same guy.”

“It probably is. Rachel told me about a guy like that. Said she never had to call security on him, but there was something about the way he looked at her when she was using the whips that creeped her out.”

“I’m damn glad you’ve decided to get out of that place, babe.”

I pulled away from him. “I’m not doing it for you.”

“I know. But I’m still glad.” He raised an eyebrow. “Am I not allowed an opinion?”

“You are. I just…”

He chuckled softly, lifting my chin with a fist underneath. “I’m just teasing you.”

I moved into his arms again and sighed. “I want this to be over! And I want you to be safe. If we could just live in a bubble for the rest of our lives—”

“We’re going to end this.” He pushed me back again so I could look him in his face. “Jack and I have twenty years of police service between us. Most of our men have been in the military for at least five years, a majority of them have seen combat. We know what we’re doing, Dane. We will finish this.”

That should have made me feel better, but it only added to the knot that had been growing in my belly.

He kissed me, his lips lingering against mine. I sighed again as I moved into him, just beginning to feel that little bit of nirvana that came with his kisses when a knock on the door interrupted us. He cursed softly as he slowly pulled away.

I watched him walk to the door, watched as he grumbled at the compact man who stood in dark fatigues on the other side. I couldn’t hear what they were talking about, but I really didn’t want to hear it. The less I knew about what was going on around here, the more content I thought I would be.

I walked around his office, touching surfaces that were cluttered by his collections of paper and trash. There was a tall window behind his desk that looked down on an expansive lawn that was interrupted by what looked like a military-style obstacle course. They really did take fitness seriously around here. I guess that should have been reassuring to me, too, but it was just more information I wasn’t sure I wanted.

I turned to his desk, glancing through the open notebook sitting closest to center. There were notes about meetings, about budgets and personnel. And I saw Trigger’s name in there a few times, notations about things written in a shorthand I didn’t quite understand.

Brent was still talking in the doorway, so I started digging through his drawers, wondering what a man who kept his things in this organized sort of chaos felt the need to hide in drawers. I got my answer in the second drawer I opened. Right on top was a framed picture of Brent with Madeline and Josie when Josie was still a babe in her mother’s arms.

My heart sank as the impact of this hidden memento washed over me.

It wasn’t jealousy, really. I understood that everyone comes to a new relationship with baggage, some greater than others. I had the ghost of Curtis on my back, the legacy of his abuse to haul around with me for the rest of my life. It didn’t matter to me that Brent had been married. It did matter that he’d suffered such a great loss, but I didn’t begrudge him his grief.

What killed me were the eyes looking up at me from that photograph, the smile on full lips, the wild curls falling so chaotically that they almost obscured Brent’s shoulder completely.

What killed me was the overwhelming resemblance between his wife and me.

I didn’t realize he’d finished his conversation until he slipped the picture out of my hand and laid it upside down on the center of the desk.

“I’m sorry. I was curious.”

“I know.”

“I just…why do you hide it in a drawer?”

He shook his head, stepping back from the desk like he didn’t want to be contaminated by the past.

“It’s hard to look at them sometimes.”

“But your house is filled with them.”

“I was alone whenever I was in my house. I didn’t have to pretend to be okay there.” He rubbed the top of his head with his palms, his eyes a little wild for a moment. “It’s been a long road, these last few years. A struggle I wouldn’t wish on anyone else.”

“I can’t even pretend that I understand. I’ve never lost anyone like that.”

“I hope you never do.”

I picked up the picture and I could see his reluctance to let me hold it, to let me look at it. He reached for it again, but he stopped himself just a finger’s length away. He dropped his hands and pushed them into the front pockets of his slacks and watched me, his eyes filled with a wariness that broke my heart.

“What did you see in me the first night we met?”

That was clearly not the question he had expected me to ask. He tilted his head, his eyes moving over my face with a new caution.

“What do you mean?”

“Did you see her when I walked into that bar?”

Caution exploded into something like fear in every angle of his face, every tense muscle of his body. He stood very still for a moment, his eyes frozen on my face. And then they dropped to the picture in my hand which was turned just right so that he could see her face as well as mine.

“You have to admit that there’s a resemblance.”

“Not really.”

“Come on, Brent! We have the same color eyes, the same color hair! We even have the same riot of curls!”

“Yes. But your hair is cut differently and you tend to wear it up more than she did. And your eyes have flecks of blue where hers had flecks of gold.” He shook his head as he studied me. “There was a superficial resemblance that I noticed that first night. But I don’t see it anymore. The two of you…you couldn’t be more different. She was quiet, shy. You’re not.”

“That’s hardly a difference.”

“You’re stronger than she ever was.” Admiration actually filled his eyes at that moment. “You’re standing here arguing with me over a picture of my dead wife when there’s some crazed criminal out there threatening to kill you! My wife…she would have been a mess if this had happened to her. We would have had to sedate her after what happened at the hotel yesterday and she’d still be sedated, unable to cope with the reality of this situation. But you…you’re so much stronger than that.”

“She was a housewife. I’m—”

“I don’t mean that with any disrespect. She was my world when she was a part of my life. It’s just a fact.”

“You still love her.”

His shoulders slumped a little as he continued to study me. “I do. I will probably always love her.”

I nodded, turning away, busying myself by putting the picture back in the drawer, angry with myself that there tears in my eyes fighting to come out.

“I just want things to be clear between us,” I said without looking at him. “If this is just some sort of rebound…whatever, I want to know that.”

“Dane—”

“I don’t want to count on having you around if this is just a fling for you.”

“I don’t know what this is, to be honest.”

I nodded, my heart sinking deep in my chest. I walked around the desk and headed for the door, needing to get out of there, to breathe air that he wasn’t breathing. But he grabbed my arm and pulled me back into his space.

“I don’t know what this is,” he said, supporting my chin with his fist to force me to look at him, “but I know it’s not a fling. I know I like being with you, I like arguing with you, and I love having you in my bed. When things grew dark last week, you were the first one I thought of. You were the one I wanted to go to for comfort. You were the only one I wanted near me.” He smiled softly as his thumb caressed my throat over my pulse. “I think that says something. Don’t you?”

“And when all this darkness passes? When you’re ready to move on with your life?”

“I don’t know.” He groaned deep in his throat. “But does anyone really know what the future holds? All I can tell you is what I want right now. Right now, I want you. I want to open my eyes first thing in the morning and see you there. I want to see you before I close my eyes at night. I want to see where this thing might go. Don’t you?”

“I do.”

“Isn’t that enough?”

I sighed. “Yeah, I suppose it is.”

He kissed me again it didn’t take long for me to get lost in it. Tears rolled down my cheeks unbidden, revealing a vulnerability I wasn’t sure I was ready to share. But he didn’t seem to mind. He smiled when he brushed them away.

“Do you think it would be okay if I worked out in the gym today?”

His eyebrows rose, but he nodded. “I don’t see why not. You’re safe as long as you’re in this building.”

“And the cafeteria—”

“Help yourself. I’ll call down and have it put on my account.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“You’re my guest as long as you’re here.” He kissed me again. “Stay inside the building and call Kim when you’re ready to go back into the safe room so she can go down and input the code for you. I’ll come find you before we leave.”

“Okay.”

He kissed me once more, then turned me around and pushed me toward the door.

“Now get out of here so I can get some work done!”