Just when I think things have gotten as bad as they can be, I learn I’m very wrong.

Cassie was right, I was in no way shape or form ready to take on a ring of exotic animal smugglers. I thought it would be easy. I never dreamt things could go so sideways. On more than one occasion, my Aunt Evie has said something about how I plunge into things without thinking about possible consequences.

I slide a sideways glance at Cassie. She’s staring at Bruno, her chin lifted at a defiant angle, her jaw set, fury dancing in her eyes.

She’s magnificent. The most amazing woman I’ve ever met. From the second she first spoke to me, I’ve been steadily falling deeper and deeper in love with her, blindly hoping she’d sometime return even a sliver of those feelings. And I thought she had.

“If you’re not going to use that thing—” Cassie nods at the gun in Bruno’s hand. “—then you should put it away. Looking at it is getting on my nerves.”

Bruno flushes and pulls his lips back, exposing his teeth. “And you’ve spent the past three years strutting around this place, acting like you’re better than everyone else, refusing to give me or any other man the time of day. Least not till he”–Bruno jerks his chin in my direction—“came along. What’s so special about him anyway, other than he’s got more money than King Midas?”

“Until thirty seconds ago, I thought he was just another pilot,” Cassie says.

She throws a sideways look my way. Hurt and anger swirl together in her eyes.

The sharp knife of guilt rams into my heart. All along I knew I was going to have to reveal my true identity, but I’d always planned on doing so in a manner that would make the truth easier for Cassie to swallow, in a way that would convince her that even though I’ve kept a secret from her, she doesn’t need to worry about me doing so ever again.

Now, unless some miracle occurs in the next ten seconds or so, I’ll never get the chance to even attempt to make things right, to convince her to see the situation from my side of the fence.

“Bullshit,” Bruno hisses. “Not for a single second do I believe you didn’t realize who you’ve been fucking.”

“Enough,” Lynette bellows. “What are we going to do with them?”

“There’s enough crap in here,” Paul Canton says, “that we could shoot them in here and stash the bodies in some of the junk and no one would ever find them.”

“Or we could promise to never say a word about this to anyone and walk away from Northwest forever,” I counteroffer.

Lynette, Bruno, Paul, and the two still unidentified goons stare at me like I’ve lost my mind. Truthfully, I’m not so certain I haven’t.

“How stupid do you think we are?” Bruno says.

I decide to let the question slide.

I focus my attention on Lynette, hoping that as the only woman in the group, she’ll be more swayable than the men. Plus, I sense that she’s the one running this whole exotic animal smuggling thing. Bruno might think he’s the brains of the operation, but I suspect that’s just because she lets him.

“Letting us go would be a lot less messy than shooting us, plus you wouldn’t have to worry about the sound of gunfire bringing everyone running.”

Lynette snorts. “Boy, if it was up to me, we’d slit both of your throats and feed you to the lovely pair of breeding tigers we acquired last week. It’d be cheaper than feeding them beef.”

My stomach quivers at the thought. So much for thinking women don’t like messy murders. Beside me, Cassie goes pale. She clutches her stomach. Obviously, the thought of being tiger food has reaggravated her upset stomach.

Lynette glances around the hangar. “I think Paul is right. We should dispose of them here.”

Sweat races down my back. I try to make my mind work, to come up with something that will get Cassie and me out of this situation, but my brain has shut down.

“I don’t want to drag the bodies farther than necessary,” Bruno argues. “Let’s make them walk to the back of the hangar.”

As much as I hate the idea of being marched at gun point in order to make things easier for the people who fully intend on shooting me, I also feel a faint glimmer of hope. Considering how much junk is stored in this hangar, there’s a chance that I might see something I can use to protect me and Cassie.

“Fine,” Lynette says. She waves her gun in a get moving gesture. “Move it.”

Eyes scanning the piles of stuff in search of something useful, I start to turn. Cassie has a completely different plan. She glares at Bruno, her expression mutinous.

“No,” she snaps.

“Bitch,” Bruno grunts. Holding the gun so it’s pointed at the middle of Cassie’s forehead, he marches up to Cassie and wraps a beefy hand around her upper arm. He lowers the gun and jams the barrel into the small of Cassie’s back. “I’m going to enjoy shooting you.”

Cassie’s face goes ghostly white. For a split second, I’m certain she’s going to faint.

With a loud groan, she pitches forward, twisting slightly from the waist and vomits all over Bruno’s shoes.

With a shout, Bruno tries to leap backwards, but his shoes slip on the stomach vile and he falls backwards, landing on his ass with so much force his gun flies out of his hand and skitters across the concrete floor.

For a second no one moves. We hold our positions, too stunned to react. Cassie, both of her arms wrapped tightly around her still heaving stomach, tilts her head and glares at me. Her expression is all I need to jump start my brain.

I cock my arm back while Lynette continues to stare at her partner in crime and swing it forward with as much force as I can manage, slamming my fist into her shoulder.

She yells but doesn’t go down. We grapple with her gun.

As I fight Lynette for control of the gun, men in dark clothing emerge from behind the stacks of boxes and the battered fuselage. It takes a moment to recognize that they’re cops and not part of Lynette’s exotic animal trade.

They quickly have the entire group of baddies, including Lynette, in cuffs.

I glance at Cassie, who is sitting on an overturned bucket and talking to a tall, slender female officer.

Since she’s busy, I turn to the nearest officer. “How come you were here?”

“I called them.” Aaron, the kid I had pick up Cassie several hours ago, appears from behind the fuselage.

“You?” I say, surprised.

“Yeah.” He shifts his weight from one foot to another.

“But how did you know we were in trouble?”

“You called me, well you tried to call me. As soon as I answered, you hung up. I was already there and saw you and Ms. Cassie take off on the scooter. A second later Bruno and the rest followed you. I got a funny feeling in my gut, so I called the police and followed everyone. I hid outside until the police showed up.”

“Thank God for gut feelings.” I slap a hand to Aaron’s shoulder. “I can’t begin to say how glad I am that you followed your instincts. If you hadn’t and if Cassie hadn’t gotten sick all over Bruno, I don’t think she and I would be here right now. Thank you.”

The officer who’d been speaking to Cassie walks away.

Giving Aaron’s shoulder a final squeeze, I cover the distance between Cassie and me in a few short strides and crouch beside her.

“I hate that you’re not feeling well, but I don’t think we could have asked for a better distraction, do you?”

Cassie sits perfectly still for a second before slowly turning her head towards me. Anger and hurt burn in her dark eyes.

“You lied to me,” she says. Her voice is so low I can barely make out the words. “You made me believe you were a normal guy.”

Shit! In all the excitement, I’d completely forgotten that Bruno had outed me.

I drag a hand through my hair. “Cassie, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for you to find out like that.”

I reach for Cassie, but she scrambles to her feet.

“This whole time, you’ve been asking what I want, pretending to care about me, pretending to understand me, when all you’ve been doing is laughing at me and using me.”

I stand up. “Cassie, that’s not true. I meant to tell you, I just didn’t know how to explain-”

Cassie isn’t ready to listen to me. “I don’t give a rat’s ass what you meant to do. You kept asking me what I wanted, and now I know. I want a man I can rely on, a man I can trust, someone who always has my back. I thought that was you, but it’s clearly not.”

She spins on her heel and storms out of sight.

I stare in the direction she disappeared in. A chill settles in my gut and quickly spreads outward.

I really messed up, again. And this time, I don’t think anyone is going to rush to my rescue.