It was dark, and I was on my way home after my shift. When I called the AA, they said it’d be one to two hours before a tow truck arrived, so I was stuck on the hard shoulder of a busy motorway with no other option but to wait it out.

Only about thirty minutes had passed when there was a steady knock on my driver’s-side window. I thought with relief that the truck had gotten there early, but then glanced up to find Lee peering down at me through the glass.

Okay, so if my car breaking down was the icing on the cake, then Lee showing up was the magic sprinkles. I didn’t open the door, only rolled down my window for him.

“Need help?” he asked. Damn, he looked good, his hair casually tousled. I noticed his eyes drifting over me, checking me out in the same way I was him.

Shaking my head, I answered, “No, thanks, I’m good. The AA will be here soon.”

He didn’t look like he believed me. “How long you been waiting?”

“Thirty minutes,” I muttered, looking down at my phone.

Lee emitted a soft chuckle. “In that case, they’re not getting here any time in the next century. Let me take a look,” he urged me, holding up his hands and wriggling his fingers. “This is what I’m good at.”

“It’s fine. I’m happy to wait. I’m sure you have somewhere you need to be.”

I wanted him to leave, not only because of the feelings his nearness provoked, but also because I was two seconds away from confronting him over his bullshit plan to go to prison instead of Liam.

He levelled me with a challenging stare, not breathing a word, but instead of arguing, he just walked around to the front of the car and proceeded to open the hood.

Oh, no effing way.

Getting out, I stomped toward him, pushing his hands back and slamming it down. Trying to ignore the spark I felt when our fingers touched, I scowled at him with all my might. “I said I don’t need your help. Are you going deaf or something?”

Lee cocked his head, perplexed. “Why are you being so difficult?”

“I’m not being difficult. I’m just irritated by how you always think you know best,” I huffed. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew I wasn’t angry at him for being heavy-handed — I was angry at him because he was going to sacrifice himself for his brother, and refusing to let him fix my car was the only way of expressing how I felt right then.

Lee held firm when I tried to stand my ground, and before I could react, he gripped me by the waist, lifted me, and threw me over his shoulder. I wriggled in his hold, but seconds later he’d opened my car door and shoved me in the back. I hadn’t even seen him swipe my keys, but by the time I tried to scramble forward, he’d locked all the doors.

My car was an old Nissan, so I could still open it from the inside. Lee saw me going for the lock and warned me, “If you get out, I’ll kiss you.”

He was such a little fucker.

I huffed a sigh and folded my arms, my annoyance written all over my face at his threat. Lee chuckled as he watched me, but then his expression sobered when he saw the welt on my face. His voice was muted since all the windows were closed, but I could just about hear him as he brought his fingers to his own cheek.

“What happened there?”

“A woman I arrested today did it. Absolute nutjob.”

Lee frowned in concern, placing his hands on his hips before turning away. He returned to the front of the car, and I sat and waited while he fiddled around with the engine. A few minutes later he reappeared, sliding into the back seat next to me.

“Your HT leads need replacing. You should call AA and cancel. I’ll hitch you up to the back of my car and drive you to the garage, replace them for you for free.”

“Is this you paying me back the favour you owe me?” I asked.

Lee eyed me and smiled. “Nah, this is me trying to be more like you, helping the needy and all that.”

I scoffed. “Sure.”

Lifting his hand, he ran his fingers over my hurt cheek. “This looks bad.”

“I’ve had worse.”

“I hope you gave as good as you got.”

“Oh, yeah, I kicked her arse right in the middle of the station while the other officers cheered me on.”

Lee pursed his lips, still smiling. “Don’t be a smart-arse.” Picking my phone up from my lap, he shoved it into my hand and said, “Call them. Otherwise, you’ll be sitting out here all night.”

Giving in, I called and cancelled the tow truck. When I hung up we were both silent, and his plan to switch places with Liam burned heavily on my heart. I was upset and angry at him, but I couldn’t let out everything I was feeling without coming across as hysterical. Still, I had to broach the subject. The court hearing was tomorrow. I needed to convince him to change his mind.

“Alexis told me what you’re going to do for Liam,” I said, my voice quiet.

Lee exhaled and stretched his legs out as much as he could in the small space. “I take it from the way you’re looking at me now that you don’t approve.”

“Please don’t do it, Lee,” I begged, unable to hold back my desperation. A tear fell down my cheek, and he reached out to wipe it away.

“Don’t cry,” he murmured tenderly. “I’ve been breaking the law for years. It’s only right that I finally serve my time.”

I turned into him, burying my face in his neck as I whispered, “But I don’t want you to go away.”

“It won’t be forever,” he replied, stroking my hair as his lips pressed against my temple.

“I don’t understand how you’re just accepting this. Before you said it was going to be fine. You said your solicitor could get Liam off, no problem.”

He sighed. “Yeah, well, when I stopped working for McGregor, I lost a lot of privileges. One of those included my legal representation. So now we don’t have William Dunning on our side, and we also don’t have a hope in hell’s chance of getting Liam’s charges dropped. I can’t let my baby brother go to prison for something I got him into in the first place, Karla. It has to be me. You understand that, right?”

I looked into his eyes and knew I couldn’t argue with him. If I ever had a sister, I’d do the exact same thing, no question. God, he’d been right all along. We were the same. Too stubborn and brave to know what was good for us, out on a mission to save everyone but ourselves.

“Yeah, I understand.”

Soaking him in, I tried to comprehend the fact that in just a few short weeks he could go to prison. I wasn’t going to see him for years, and that terrified me.

A surge of desperation clutched suddenly at my heart as I smashed my mouth to his, kissing him like my life depended on it. He was only twenty-five, so young and handsome and clever, and all his best years were going to be spent in a prison cell. The worst of it was that I knew he wouldn’t come out the same man. He’d lose the spark that always shone so brightly in his eyes, would no longer be the flirty, carefree guy I was once met on a chilly London morning.

Lee’s hands clutched my face, his tongue sinking deep into my mouth as a loud moan escaped me. My fingers slid beneath his shirt, tracing his hard abs. When he grabbed my thighs and pulled them around his waist, his erection was hard as steel against my core. It’d been so long since I’d gotten to touch him like this that my need was close to maddening.

Gasping, he broke our kiss, trailing his mouth down my neck and unbuttoning my blouse until my bra was exposed. He buried his face in my cleavage, a growl rumbling from deep in his chest, and the vibration made me tremble.

“Lee,” I breathed right before a car went sailing by out on the road.

The horn honked as I heard a man shout saucily out the window, “Oi oi!”

Lee and I fell into awkward laughter after that, and I drew away, buttoning my top back up. “Do you, uh, have anything in your car we could use as a tow?”

His hand met my lower back. “Stay with me tonight, Karla.”