Jennifer put her hand on his chest. “Maybe you don’t know what she needs.”

“I know—”

“You can’t control everyone, Brodie. You can’t control them, and you can’t protect them.”

But he’d already failed Ava once. He wouldn’t, couldn’t fail her again.

“It wasn’t on you.” Jennifer seemed to read his thoughts.

Suddenly feeling too exposed, he tried to turn from her. She caught his arms and turned him right back around. “It wasn’t your fault. You didn’t let them die. You didn’t bring that nightmare into your sister’s life. But that’s what you’ve always thought, isn’t it?”

He didn’t answer her.

“Now...do you think it was my fault?” Her hand slipped from him. “I think Davis does. I could see it in his eyes when we were on the bluff.”

“I don’t think it’s your fault.”

She stared up at him. There were emotions he couldn’t read in her dark eyes as she said, “And I don’t think it’s yours.” Soft. “So let that guilt go ’cause I believe it’s eating you up, just like it’s doing to your sister.”

Damn. “Heard that part, did you?”

She nodded.

He glanced away from her, toward the line of trees on the right. “Sometimes I don’t think—”

He saw it. The sharp edge of a knife, tossed down in the dirt.

“Brodie?”

He hurried forward and bent down. The knife had been dropped near the side of a tree. He wondered if the attacker even knew that he’d lost his weapon. He could have been so hell-bent on his escape that he hadn’t realized he’d left the knife behind.

Your mistake.

He picked it up carefully. He could get Shayne to run a fingerprint check on the knife. Then they’d finally know exactly who they were after.

* * *

WHILE THE COPS collected the knife and Detective Shayne Townsend started the fingerprint check, Brodie took a protesting Jennifer back to the hospital.

“I’m fine,” she said for what Brodie was pretty sure was the fifth time. “I don’t need the doctor to poke at me anymore!”

They were alone in the elevator. He narrowed his eyes on her. The woman looked sexy even when she was furious. “The doctor told me I had to bring you back in for a checkup. You know that.”

“Fine.” Her sigh was long and suffering. “But he’s just going to shine a light in my eyes and then push me out of his office. This little visit will be a total waste of time.”

He caged her between his body and the elevator wall. “All I need is for him to give me the all clear.”

“Brodie?”

“I need to know you’re all right.” Her scent...seductive, sweet...wrapped around him. “Because I need you.”

Her breath caught.

“I know the world is going to hell around us,” he said. “I should be holding tight to my control, and the last thing you want is for me to—”

“You’re the first thing I want.”

The elevator dinged. He heard the doors open behind them, but he didn’t step away from her. Right then, he wasn’t sure he could move.

“The only thing,” she told him, voice soft and sensual.

At that moment, he could have devoured her.

His fingers laced with hers. He lifted her hand and pressed a kiss to her knuckles. “You’re the only one I want.”

* * *

HE WATCHED THEM, slouching in the waiting area as they hurried into the back with the doctor.

Brodie McGuire was far too close to Jennifer. Holding her hand, his body all but surrounding her, protecting her, possessing her.

Jennifer had always been good at using her beauty to captivate men. It had been a talent, one she hadn’t even realized that she’d possessed, not at first.

He almost pitied Brodie McGuire. The man didn’t understand he was just the latest in a long line of disposable beaus that Jennifer picked up.

Jennifer never formed attachments. After watching her for so long, he wasn’t sure that she could.

His phone rang, and he lifted it to his ear.

“Do you see them?” the rasping voice on the other end of the line demanded.

“They’re with the doctor now.” He’d known that if he just waited, Jennifer would show herself. “I told you,” he said to the caller, his voice soft, “I would handle this.”

“Because you know what will happen if you fail...”

A nurse glanced over at him. He forced a smile. Like Jennifer, he was good at lies. Deception. He’d even taught her a few of his skills, back in the old days.

“I’ll call when it’s time for you to come and get her,” he answered quietly. Then he ended the call, rose from his seat and slowly headed for the elevator.

There was no point in waiting upstairs. The hunt would begin below, away from all the prying eyes at that hospital.

* * *

“ARE YOU HAPPY NOW?” Jennifer asked quietly as Brodie opened the SUV door for her. “The doctor said I was fine.”

Hell, yes, that made him happy. “Damn near delirious with joy,” he said and was rewarded with her quick laugh.

He slammed the door. The sound seemed to echo in the parking garage. His gaze raked the area before he climbed into the driver’s seat. He pushed the key into the ignition.

“Can I...be with you tonight?” Her laughter was gone.

As always, with her, his desire was strong.

“Back in the elevator, I meant what I said,” Jennifer told him.

His head turned toward her. “So did I.”

She licked her lips, a nervous gesture but one that he found incredibly sexy. The things he wanted to do with her mouth, to her mouth...

“Wrong time, wrong place,” she whispered. “I wish I’d come back to you before the danger hit me.”

His hand sank into the thickness of her hair. He pulled her toward him. “The danger will pass.” And the time will be right.

He kissed her. Savored her. There was something about her taste that got to him each time their lips touched. Just something about...her. Need and a white-hot lust surged within him. The more he was with her, the more he had of her, the more Brodie wanted.

He wondered if he would ever get enough of her.

The danger will pass.

He pulled away to stare into her eyes. And knew he would have her soon.

The sun was setting when he pulled out of the parking garage. He knew he’d be back at the ranch before full nightfall hit. Brodie drove them through the city, searching to the left and the right, looking for any signs of danger.

They hadn’t gone very far when Brodie realized they were being followed. His gaze kept drifting to the rearview mirror, then to his driver’s-side mirror as he studied that other car. At first, the car hung back, staying behind another vehicle. But then the driver became more aggressive.

The vehicle was a small gray four-door. Nothing flashy, nothing that would ever attract attention. And if Brodie hadn’t been on alert, maybe he wouldn’t have noticed the vehicle.

But he did notice it.

Deliberately, he turned right, testing the other driver.

The gray car turned right.

“I keep thinking about last night,” Jennifer said, voice pensive. “Trying to figure out who that man is. He knows me, so I should know him.”

Brodie turned left.

So did the gray car.

“He said he went to hell because of me,” Jennifer whispered. “That I lured him in, turned on him...”

The gray car had pulled up even closer.

“I worked to gather intel,” Jennifer continued. “The lifestyle I led gave me special access to my targets. We were hunting high-profile criminals, people who thought they were beyond the reach of the law because they had money and power—”

“We have company,” he said, cutting through her words.

“What?”

“Behind us.”

She didn’t turn around, a good thing, because that move might have tipped off the guy behind them.

“The gray car?” Jennifer asked, and he knew she’d spotted the guy in her mirror.

“Make sure that seat belt is secure,” Brodie told her because he had a plan. He grabbed his phone and made a fast call.