She’d seen the signs in agents over the years. They got sucked in, and their lives imploded. Of course, she’d moved past implosion a month ago. There wasn’t much further for her to fall.

“I give up. You said not divorced, so is she dead?” Natalie blurted out the question because there really was no way to finesse it. Not now.

“She never existed.”

Something blinked inside her brain. “I don’t—”

He smiled. “You know how babies get here, right? Being married isn’t a mandatory thing.”

Like that, a wave of heat flashed through her. Him, in bed. Sex. Coming inside her. She was never going to survive this captivity that was supposed to save her. “I can’t figure out if you’re joking.”

A nerve ticked in Gabe’s cheek. “I don’t joke about him, ever. Never talk about him on a job either, so this is new.”

That sounded more like the guy she’d come to know. Dependable and clear. “Your file didn’t mention a son.”

“I’ve had some help keeping his existence under wraps.” He grew even more serious. “For his protection.”

“Where is he now?”

“In school.”

Back to curt answers, but that one told her enough. It also deflated her all over again. “You send him away so you can play G.I. Joe?”

His eyes widened. “Wow, so many assumptions in one question.”

Yeah, probably too harsh. Likely unfair. She didn’t care. Not in that moment. Not when she could remember sitting in her room during holidays and having dinners with the staff. She’d been one of the charity cases that the school staff passed around because no one wanted to pick her up and take her home. She didn’t really have one of those.

“Am I wrong?” she asked, hoping she was.

“About almost everything in that sentence, yes.” When she started to ask more, he cut her off. “Is this some sort of payback for the comment about your father?”

The question shut down something inside her. He knew enough about her past to throw her those pitying looks. She’d experienced those her entire life and had no interest in dealing with them as an adult.

Being vulnerable sucked. “No.”

“Because I shouldn’t have gone—”

“I said no.” She jumped up, needing to walk or move or at least get away from him and the table. She scooped up her bowl and held out a hand to him. “You done?”

“I’ll do the dishes.”

Even better. She dropped her bowl, letting it clank against the table. “Good.”

She got as far as the doorway to the bedroom before his deep voice stopped her. “Natalie?”

With a hand on the frame, she stopped but didn’t bother to look around. “What?”

Silence settled between them. For a few seconds he didn’t say anything. “Nothing.”

SEVEN

Gabe stayed outside as long as he could stand it. Walked the perimeter and re-walked it. Spent some time in the shed. Checked coordinates and the satphone for emergency messages from Andy. Nothing.

With his feet almost frozen and the cold sapping some of his strength, Gabe gave up and went back inside. Before opening the door, he knocked in the agreed-upon sequence to give her fair warning. After that dinner, she might shoot him just for fun.

He walked into the dark cabin and relocked the door. An oil lamp cast the main room in a soft light and heat poured out of the woodstove. He should sit his ass down on the small couch and time out a thirty-minute break before he got up and took watch duty again.

He probably would have done just that if he hadn’t looked into the small alcove by the front door. A doorway to the bed. The mattress just fit, with the edges touching every wall. A small bed in a small space. Going in there spelled disaster. He should walk away. Ignore the need pulling at him to lie across the bed and listen to her breathing.

As if her senses clicked on, she sat straight up. Brushed that sexy hair out of her eyes and squinted. He could see her just fine. Make out every devastating curve despite the covers she had bunched up at her waist. That thermal shirt sure didn’t offer much protection. Not from him.

“Hey.” That’s all she said. A simple greeting.

It pulled him in close. Before he knew it, he stood in the doorway with his knees balancing against the end of the mattress. “Sorry to wake you.”

“You didn’t.” She didn’t even look away as she lied. “I thought you’d keep watch.”

Before dinner he’d gone over all the procedures and the drop spots for her to get to in case danger came calling. She knew about his patrols and the perimeter defense he’d set up. She even spent time watching with her gun ready as he rested for a few minutes while she prepared the soup. He didn’t need to explain what he was doing now, but he did anyway. “I’m taking thirty minutes.”

“Sounds smart.” She slid over, making room for him to basically fall onto the mattress.

This was the part where he should have said “no thanks” and moved on. He knew that as he took off his gun and put it on the one shelf overhanging the mattress. As he put a knee on the bed and crawled up to join her on the pillows.

A few seconds later, he lay flat on his back, staring at the ceiling. “I don’t sleep very deep, so you’re fine.”

She curled on her side and faced away from him. “I guess that’s a good trait. Having a kid and all.”

This was the right time to tell her about Brandon. She talked about him like he was in elementary school and abandoned by his father, which probably made sense to her in light of Gabe’s age, but didn’t come close to being right. But for some reason he couldn’t get the words out. Not after seeing the mix of shock and disappointment on her face.

Whatever esteem she’d had for him had fallen, and that pissed him off. He wanted to earn it back without having to give her every detail. And up until now she hadn’t exactly been shy about asking him things or speaking her mind.

He turned and faced her back. Pushed up on his elbow and watched her. “Do you want to ask me something?”

“Do you see him?” she asked, in a voice muffled by blankets and pillows.

“All the time.” Letting Brandon live a normal life had been a daily struggle for Gabe. His instincts told him to protect and hide, but his early years with his father had been such a shitshow that he refused to take Brandon down the same path. The kid had been blessed with book smarts and street smarts, and Gabe had to let go enough to trust those.

She rolled to her back. Didn’t face Gabe but kept her eyes open as she stared into space. “So, it’s not like you sent him away to a boarding school in another country.”

As much as her immediate belief that he left his kid behind pissed him off, he did like the way she rushed to Brandon’s defense. Didn’t even know him and her first thought was to protect him. All those men who tagged her as being cold and unfeeling were jackasses.

“He’s very close by at all times,” Gabe said, carefully dodging the wrong words.

She glanced at him then. “Here?”

“I live in Virginia.” Not that he ever divulged that information. Anything that could possibly threaten Brandon and his normal life caused Gabe to hold back. But for some reason, he trusted her to know this much.

“Your file says Maryland.”

Of course it did, because that’s what he let people think. “A lie.”

“I’m surprised you shared that with me.”

“Me, too.” The place in Maryland was a real place but just an outpost of Tosh. A business property, not his house.

She laughed. “Now that’s the Gabe I’ve come to know.”

The sound of her voice was contagious. The thoughts running through his mind . . . her under those sheets . . . “Are you a danger to me, Natalie?”

“Only if you act like an asshole.”

And there was the Natalie he’d come to know. “I could be in trouble then.”

Her smile and her gaze skipped away from his face to the wall behind his head. “It just sucks to be sent away. That’s all.”