He drove well. He wasn't careless, and his hands were competent on the wheel. Jillian settled into the luxury seat of his Mercedes and tried not to notice how the interior smelled like him. Rafe might have been a great big ass at times, but she had to admit he was a physically pretty one. She knew the women of FCGH gossiped. Knew how they speculated about how such a devastatingly gorgeous man—she bit back a snort at that—had remained single as long as he had.

He was the favorite topic of conversation, being the hottest, strongest, smartest and wealthiest doctor of Finley Creek General. How could he not be all heroic and just too perfect for words?

Jillian could answer that question. It was all his personality.

Perhaps she wasn't being charitable. She'd seen him be more than compassionate with patients, with children, with Brynna, and with Lacy. He had been kind to her when she was in the hospital, too. "Thank you again for the ride."

"It's not exactly out of my way, Jillian. Don't worry, you're not obligated to me with any favors in return."

"I was just saying thank you. Truce over already?"

"I didn't mean it that way. Maybe we are both a little bit too defensive? We have to find a way to get along. I'd hate us to cause strife for Travis and Lacy. I think that they’ve had enough of that."

"Yes, they have."

There wasn't anything Jillian wouldn't do for her best friends. If that meant getting along with Rafe, then she was going to try her best to do just that. Her mother and father had raised her right. Jillian knew how to behave herself. Especially with her boss. She would just hold her tongue, and go on.

Jillian could never remember being this angry with a man before.

Come to think of it, though, it seemed like her life had been one big blur of anger since the night Albright had almost killed her. Since the moment Brynna had disappeared into the woods. All of it.

Anger had guided her since Halloween, at least.

Jillian bit back unexpected tears.

Maybe she was the source of the rage. Maybe everything that had happened was finally welling up within her and threatening to spill over. Maybe this last bit of trouble with Dr. Lanning, with Lacy being threatened, had broken it all free again? Jillian didn't know.

That's what she thought about as he drove the miles that separated their homes from the hospital.

---

Rafe fought the urge to stare at his passenger, instead of the road ahead of him. It was a moderately busy road, even this time of night. He had to content himself with little glances at the redhead staring so pensively out the window. "Something on your mind?"

He couldn't deal with the silence too much longer.

"Why do you think the two of us snap at each other all the time?"

That was not something he was expecting. But he should have; Jillian would be the type to confront things, wouldn’t she? "I don't know. Getting off to the wrong foot, possibly? Why?"

"I'm not like this with other people; just you." He didn’t miss the pain or confusion.

"To be honest, I'm not sure if I should be proud of that or not?"

"I'm serious. I've never argued with someone the way I have you. Never been as angry with someone as I have been you."

"Do you have any ideas why?" One thing he had learned about the Becks in general, and this one in particular, was that when something was on their minds they were going to talk about it. Straight shooter, that's what she was. Rafe had spent too much of his life with parents that skirted around important issues for that not to matter to him. That was one of the things that he respected about Jillian Beck.

"Anger."

"Excuse me?"

She straightened in the seat and turned to him, fire in her movements. "I'm angry. With you, and… Everything. With Lanning, with that damned Albright, all of it. It seems like I have been angry for months now."

"You feel like you have good reason?" If there was something Jillian Beck wanted him to know about her she damned well would have told him.

"I don't know. Since Halloween, one of my sisters has been impaled, blown up, held hostage, on the run from killers, the other one has been shot at, ran off the road, abducted, forcibly married—oh, and did I mention that we were all blown up again? It was the first time Lacy broke her arm. I flew eight feet through the air; broke my ribs and cracked open my head. Lacy was beaten up, Ari was shot. Oh yeah, and in the last month I've been shot. My best friend has been shot. Lacy, Ari, and I are going three-for-three on matching bullet holes, you know? It hasn't exactly been our year. And I spent weeks focused on getting my family through all that. Focusing on them, and they are finally happy again. But I’m not. All I feel is confused and angry. And you...just make me angrier and angrier."

"It's over now, baby. Maybe it's just now hitting you? Hell yes, you have every right to be angry. No one ever said differently."

"You sure about that?"

"If they have, then they’re idiots. So go ahead… Be as angry at me as you want if it helps. I understand anger. Say whatever you want. Hell, knock me into another pool. I'm not sure why I'm such a good target, but I have been an ass to you, and I'm sorry.”