As, God help him, it was becoming clear to him.

She glanced away from him as she put the pan in the cupboard. “I’m afraid, you know,” she said unevenly. “I’m afraid all the time. My mother gave up and just went to bed, but I can’t do that. I have to keep fighting. As long as I’m fighting, I have a chance to find Bonnie.”

Tentative trust. It was the first step. Come closer. Let me hold you safe from the storm.

But he could only nod, and say, “Then we’ll fight together. I’ll stay with you until we get through this.” He paused. “If you’ll let me.”

Together. The concept was strange on his lips. He had always been a loner, totally self-ruled, shunning the dependence implied in the word. But he offered it to her.

And Eve didn’t even realize how much it meant.

Or maybe she did. There was something in her expression …

She slowly nodded. “I think that would be very kind.” Her words were oddly formal. “Thank you, Agent Quinn.”

*   *   *

AFTER HE’D LEFT THE HOUSE, Joe sat in the driver’s seat of his car, staring at the sunny front porch of Eve Duncan’s home. There was nothing sunny about anything inside that house, he thought. There was pain and trouble and a woman who was battling just to stay alive after her reason for living had been taken from her. The short time he’d spent with Eve had been full of disturbing images and emotions. Emotions he hadn’t expected and had wanted to reject. His responses had been completely foreign to who he thought himself to be.

What the hell had happened to him?

He had felt like Sir Galahad wanting to fight dragons and lay them at her feet. She had moved him, possessed him, and made him see himself in a different light.

It was insane. She was only a woman and one who would bring him only trouble. Dammit, he couldn’t even think of sex in connection with her. She was wounded and might remain that way for a long time. Sir Galahad? There was nothing pure about Joe. He was earthy and sexual, and he had always leaned toward being more like wicked Mordred, or maybe Lancelot, who enjoyed toying with a married Guinevere.

Okay, it was temporary insanity. If he couldn’t have her, then what he was feeling would surely pass. That was his nature where women were concerned.

But sex hadn’t been the force that drove him toward Eve Duncan. It might have been a light shimmering in the background, but he hadn’t been aware of wanting her sexually. And that was a first for him. Maybe it had been there, and he hadn’t wanted to admit it.

No, it was something else, powerful, protective, completely without precedent in his experience.

And he wouldn’t put a name to it.

If he didn’t recognize it, then it might go away. Much better for him. Much better for her. Because he wasn’t a man who could let go. Even now he was thinking, planning, how he would keep his promise to her. Yeah, try to walk away from her. Find her kid’s killer. Help her to come to terms with reality when she learned her little girl was never coming back.

But don’t put a name to this strange feeling that was beginning to disturb him.

Time to stop thinking about Eve Duncan on this level and begin working constructively on her daughter’s case.

He drove to the nearest drugstore and placed a call to his contact with the ATLPD, Detective Ralph Slindak. He was glad they’d given him Slindak. He was a good man, and he and Joe had a history. They’d been in the SEALs together though Slindak had left the service two years earlier than Joe. “Joe Quinn. I’m in Atlanta.”

“I heard they were sending a hotshot down to shape us up,” Slindak said. “The other detectives in the squad were a little pissed. But I told them they had nothing to worry about. Nothing hot about Joe Quinn I told them. He’s cold as ice unless he gets annoyed. They didn’t like that either.”

“I can always count on your support,” he said dryly. “I’ve just interviewed Eve Duncan. You’ve been handling the case?”

“Or it’s been handling us,” Slindak said sourly. “The media thinks that we’re blowing it. That’s why the captain asked for help. We need to share the blame.”

“Great attitude,” Joe said. “Suppose we forget the media and just try to find the kid’s killer?” He paused. “If there is a killer. You’re sure that she won’t be found alive?”

“I wish I didn’t think that Bonnie Duncan was a victim. Sweet kid. Did you see her photo?”

“Yes.” It was in the file, and he could see why the photo was one of the reasons the media were being so tenacious. The child’s smile seemed to light up the world, and it had completely touched and captivated the public. “I know that cases like this almost always end with a corpse. But do you have anything concrete?”

“No. Except that there have been several similar disappearances over the last few years in this area. We found one child’s body six months ago, a little boy. Butchered.”

“Oh, shit.”

“Yeah. That’s what we thought. And the killings have gotten enough media attention so that Eve Duncan must know about them. She has to be trying to close her eyes and block them out.”

“Wouldn’t you?”

“No question. I have a four-year-old boy myself, and I nearly threw up when we found that murdered kid.”

“You have a boy? Are you married?”

“No, you know me and commitment. But it may end up that way. She’s a nice woman, and we all get lonely.” He added, “Except you, Joe. You never needed anyone, did you?”

Not until now. Not until I walked into that house and saw her.

He didn’t answer the question. “No clues? No info? He didn’t leave any evidence?”

“Oh, we have evidence. He was pretty careless with the disposal of the body, or we wouldn’t have found it. But we can’t connect it to anyone to make it work for us. We think he’s a local since he’s been working exclusively in the Atlanta area. We’ve checked nearby cities, and they have no similar cases during the time span of the Atlanta kidnappings.”

“But a big city is better hunting grounds for predators. If he lived in a small town, he wouldn’t necessarily do his killing there. Not if he was smart.”

“You think he commuted to do his kills?”

“I’m just not ruling it out. I’m not ruling anything out. What about a killer close to the family? Bonnie’s father?”

“She was illegitimate, and Eve Duncan never put his name on the birth certificate. She said the father was a John Gallo, who was killed while he was in the Army. It all checked out. Her mother was a possibility since she was into drugs for years, but she was with Bonnie’s mother when the little girl was taken.”

Think like a professional. Stop trying to protect her. “That doesn’t mean anything. Maybe they were in it together and protecting each other. Neither one of them has to be a monster. It could have happened in a moment of anger, when the child was struck, and it ended in death. Then they had to scurry to make up a story to keep themselves from being charged.”

Slindak was silent. “You think that’s likely?”

Hell, no, everything within him was rejecting the scenario he had put forward. “I’m just saying nothing should be ruled out.”

“I think you’d have ruled it out if you’d seen Eve Duncan after the kid was taken. I was one of the detectives who came to the park where the kid disappeared that day. Eve Duncan was terrified. And angry. And ready to take on the world to get her daughter back.”

“Then maybe we’ll be able to erase her name from the suspect list after we investigate a little further. You’ve made inquiries of neighbors and teachers?”

“The kid was bright and friendly and loved the whole damn world. Everyone said that Eve Duncan was totally dedicated to Bonnie. She was respected, even admired, by everyone we questioned. She worked two jobs, was finishing college with a 4.0 average, and still managed to be a great mother.” He paused. “I like her, Joe. Though she’s given our department nothing but grief since her daughter was kidnapped. Who could blame her? I’d do the same. Don’t give her a hard time.”