I needed to sleep. I'd barely slept the night before, though laying on the couch in the library, Sophie in my arms—the sweet and sultry scent of her, the silk of her skin under my hands—had been light years from the punishing insomnia I was used to.

I could've lain with her like that forever, her legs tangled with mine, her body relaxed and languid. She’d drifted in and out of sleep, her fingers stroking my chest, her breath warm through my shirt as she dozed and woke and we whispered about everything and nothing.

If I could have that back, maybe I wouldn’t notice that I was awake. I tried to go to sleep. I did. After dinner, I'd hit the gym in the basement for two hours, trying to wear myself out.

It didn't work. I lay in bed for an hour, staring at the ceiling, before giving up and going to my desk. If I couldn't sleep, I’d get some work done.

I'd rather hunt Sophie down and talk myself into her bed. I wasn't doing that. Sophie hadn't told me much about her marriage, but from Aiden's comment and small things she'd said here and there, I had the feeling she'd had enough of pressure and coercion to last a lifetime.

I wanted her.

After spending the morning with her and Amelia, listening to her laugh and her dry sense of humor, I knew this was more than lust.

I wanted more than her body. I wanted everything that was Sophie to be mine. If I pushed her into something she wasn't sure she wanted, I'd never get close.

I could be patient. Sophie was worth it.

I worked at my desk for hours, watching midnight come and go, hearing Aiden come home. The beep of the alarm being deactivated and then turned back on, the thuds of his feet on the stairs.

He sounded tired. I thought about leaning into the hall, saying something. Anything. Asking him if he wanted to share a beer. How his trip had gone.

I stayed where I was. Aiden was another one who just needed time. My cousin could be a stubborn fuck. No one knew that as well as I did.

I was just as stubborn. Eventually, he would give in and stop being such an asshole. Nothing was more important to Aiden than family. He wouldn't be able to hold out against me forever.

I was studying a spreadsheet and the accompanying report when I heard a sound that had every hair on my body standing straight up.

A scream. Muffled, then cut off, but definitely a scream.

I was on my feet before the sound died out. I grabbed my 9mm and was through the door a second later, gun in hand, my mind calmly sifting through scenarios as I ran down the stairs.

It had been a woman’s scream. The only two women in the house were Sophie and Amelia. Mrs. W slept in her cottage, a few hundred yards from the main house. I would've heard her deactivate the alarm if she'd come in.

Amelia slept like a rock, and it was unlikely she'd be out of bed. If she'd screamed in her room, I wouldn't have heard it in my suite, so odds were the scream came from Sophie.

I ignored the chill in my gut at the thought that something had happened to Sophie. Fear and hesitation wouldn't help. I had to stay focused until I found her.

I didn't have to look far.

Sophie's crumpled body lay outside the door of the wine room, right between the library and Aiden's office, her silvery hair spilling across the dark hardwood floor, her white robe glowing in the moonlight streaming in from the hall windows.

I wanted to go straight to her, but I didn't have time. I flicked on the light and gave her a quick, searching glance. No blood.

Her eyes fluttered open, and she whispered, “Gage?”

“Don't move, Angel. Stay right there for me, okay?”

She blinked again, a look of confusion on her face. She was conscious, which was good, but it was clear she wasn't sure what had happened. I’d deal with that later.

“Don't move,” I ordered, again. I couldn't take care of Sophie until I was sure she was safe. As quickly as I could, I checked the library, wine room and office.

Empty.

I jogged down the hall and checked Charlie's unoccupied suite, then Sophie's room. Both were empty. I carefully swung open the door to Amelia's room to find her fast asleep and undisturbed.

Whoever had hurt Sophie, they were probably long gone, and I wasn't willing to leave her for another second. I'd verified there was no immediate threat. Now, Sophie was my priority.

Kneeling beside her I was relieved to see her chest rise and fall in deep even breaths.

“What happened?” she asked, in a whisper.

“I don't know yet,” I said, running my hands over her body, making sure she didn't have any broken bones or hidden bleeding. She winced when my fingers slid over the rising knot on the back of her head, but otherwise, she seemed unharmed.

I flicked on the safety and shoved my gun in my belt. Scooping Sophie into my arms, I rose and strode down the hall to the stairs.

“Gage, what are you doing?”

“Taking you to Aiden. Do you remember what happened?”

Her eyes squinted up at me as if she were thinking. Speaking slowly, she said, “Someone was in the house. I came down the hall, and there was somebody there. I knew it wasn't you or Aiden or Abel. Too short. And then –” She trailed off and blinked. “Did you find anyone?”

“No,” I said, striding up the stairs with her held securely to my chest. I wanted to run, but I wasn't going to bounce her head around any more than I had to. “Did you get a good look at him?”

“It was dark, and it all went so fast. I saw him; I'm pretty sure it was a man. He wasn't as tall as you, but he was tall. Then I realized there was a stranger in the house and… He must've hit me.”

“It's okay,” I reassured her. “As soon as I make sure you're safe with Aiden, I'm going to search the house.”

“Should we call the police?” she asked, eyebrows pulled together from the pain in her head.

“No. I’ll talk to Aiden, but we don’t want to call the police over something like this. Word would get out, and we’d have the media parked at the end of the drive for weeks. Not worth it.”

I reached Aiden's door and kicked it a few times with one foot, giving him a little warning before we interrupted his sleep. Balancing Sophie's weight on one arm, I turned the handle and shoved the door open.

Aiden was stumbling through the bedroom door into the sitting room, dressed in a pair of boxers and nothing else. Before he could talk, I said, “Go get dressed. Someone was in the house, and they hit Sophie. I need you to watch her while I do a search.”

Aiden's eyes widened in shock, but he'd already turned back into his room to grab clothes. A minute later he reappeared, wearing his discarded dress shirt over a pair of athletic shorts. Staring at Sophie, still cradled in my arms, he said, “Is she alright?”

I settled her onto the couch in Aiden’s sitting room. “Looks like just a bump on the head, and I don't think there was any loss of consciousness, but I’ll check her out more thoroughly after I search the house. He's probably long gone.”

Aiden looked to the door of his suite, at the discreetly placed alarm panel beside it. All the lights were red, indicating the alarm was set. “The alarm is still on,” Aiden said, looking from me to Sophie, and back to the red lights glowing on the wall.

“I know.” I pulled my gun from the small of my back and started out of the suite, saying over my shoulder, “Lock the door behind me. I won't be long.”

That was optimistic. Winters House covered four floors and was over seventeen thousand square feet. I couldn't search the whole thing by myself. At least not quickly.

I didn't bother with the second level or the attics. The only way to get up there was the main staircase. I’d been between Sophie and that staircase after she screamed, and no one had passed me in the dark.

Winters House was built in a square around the central courtyard, but the front side was bisected by the driveway and gate at the front of the house, creating dead ends out of both Sophie's hallway and the mirror hallway on the other side of the house where Jacob and Annalise’s suites were. If the intruder had hit Sophie outside the door of the library and Aiden's office, there was only one place he could've gone without my seeing him.

The basement.