“You! What are you doing here?” CC erupted in shocked fury.

“CC!” Noah was surprised, but thrilled, to see her. He had never suspected that she would be the one coming to check on him, and all he could think of was that he was finally going to have the chance to tell her everything. She looked beautiful to him even in her boyish garb, and he could hardly wait to take her in his arms and profess his love.

“I asked what you were doing here!” CC snapped, her emerald gaze a vicious glare as she stepped warily backward to maintain a definite distance between them. Trying to ignore the way her pulse was racing, she nervously glanced around the room, hoping someone else was there. To her dismay, they were alone. Where was everyone?

“You don’t know?” Noah approached her slowly, a slight smile curving his handsome lips. “It’s obvious, isn’t it?”

“It’s not obvious to me!” she retorted, feeling overwhelmed by his dominating presence in the small room.

Noah frowned as he considered her answer. Surely she knew about the jailbreak… “CC, I’m here because this is where Ryan sent me,” he explained simply.

“Surely you don’t expect me to believe that. I know what a filthy, double-dealing liar you are!” she declared, her green-eyed gaze scathing upon him as she remembered him heatedly embracing Eve several hours earlier. How had he come to be here in the rebel hideout when he had been plotting with Eve? CC was desperate to locate Ryan and find out the truth.

Noah knew CC had every right to be angry with him over the way he’d treated her when they were last together, but he had not expected this type of reaction from her. His only hope was to apologize for that night, but she gave him no opportunity.

“I’m going to find Ryan!” CC was seething as she started out the door, “And I’m going to tell him the truth about you!”

Surprised by her vehement accusations, Noah stood immobile for a moment. Only the thought that she was stalking out without an explanation goaded him to react. Grabbing her by the shoulders just as she would have left, Noah spun her around to face him.

“What the hell is the matter with you?” He gave CC a brief shake as he dragged her closer. Even as annoyed as he was with her, the feel of her slender shoulders beneath his hands sent shock waves of awareness through him.

“You are what’s the matter with me! I know all about you and your deals and plans! You’re the lowest of the low, Kincade! You’re nothing but a damned insidious traitor!” CC hissed, wishing she could break free and slap him.

“A traitor?” Noah could only stare down at her in complete bafflement. CC thought him a traitor? The idea was as close to ridiculous as anything he’d ever heard.

“That’s right!” she challenged, taking advantage of his momentary confusion to wrench herself free from his firm hold. “I’m going to find Ryan right now and let him know just how low-down and conniving you really are! Unless…” The thought suddenly struck her that Noah must have already set his betrayal into action and that her friends were probably even now being arrested by the authorities. She blanched as she stared up at him, her eyes dark and haunted in her pale face.

Noah read her distress and didn’t understand it. “Unless what, CC? What the hell are you talking about?” Noah was completely confused by her wild charges, and he raked a hand nervously through his hair as he stared down at her in consternation. Where in the world had she ever gotten the idea that he was a traitor?

“Unless Ryan and the others have already been arrested…” She backed toward the door, her very real fear reflected on her features. “No wonder I couldn’t find anybody! You’ve already turned them in!”

“Turned who in, CC? I’m no traitor!” he protested, reaching out to snare her arm as she would have fled the room.

“You expect me to believe that after what I saw and heard this afternoon?” CC struggled against his overwhelming strength as he drew her closer to him.

“Yes, I expect you to believe it, especially since it’s the truth! And I’d also like to know just what it is you supposedly saw that convinced you I was so devious.” Noah countered, trying to make sense out of her accusation. “Don’t you know that I just sold the arms shipment to Ryan for half of what I’d originally asked?”

“Oh, I know all about that. You almost had me convinced that I’d been wrong about you.” CC glared up at him mutinously. “Almost. I had forgotten for a moment what a despicable, amoral man you really are, but after seeing you with Eve today, you can be sure that won’t ever happen again!”

“You saw me with Eve?”

“I went to the jail and accidentally walked in on the two of you. I saw you kissing her, and I heard you make a deal with her!”

Noah was stunned. CC had gone to the jail to see him? Why? He longed to know the answer, but first he had to find out what it was she thought he’d done.

“I made no deal with Eve. In fact, CC, when Eve left my cell, she was in quite a temper.”

“If Eve was in a temper when she left you, it was probably because she couldn’t bed you right there! I saw you kissing her, Noah! I heard her say that she knew you were a man who liked to deal and that she could have you out of jail before the day was over!”

“Just what kind of deal do you think I made, CC?” Noah asked, his tone quieting as it became clear to him just what had happened. For some as yet unknown reason, CC had gone to the jail to see him and had evidently walked in just as Eve was trying to blackmail him into marrying her. He regretted that CC hadn’t stayed past that one kiss, for, if she had, they wouldn’t be having this confrontation right now.

“She was probably working for the authorities, trying to convince you to turn us in in exchange for your freedom! What else?” CC looked up at him, her gaze cold and accusing upon him.

“Ah, CC,” he murmured in understanding as he lifted one hand to gently caress her cheek, “what else, indeed…”

CC slapped his hand away in irritation as she tried to deny the desire that was stirring within her. “Don’t patronize me, Kincade!”

“I’m not patronizing you, CC. I’m trying to explain exactly what it was you thought you saw and heard this afternoon.”

“I know what I saw and heard!”

“You’re right about Eve kissing me, and you’re right about her offering me a deal, too, but you’re wrong about everything else.”

CC looked at him skeptically as she began to doubt her long-held beliefs about him.

“Think about it,” he urged as he sensed that she was calming. “If I had done what you accused me of, why in the world would I be here?”

His reasoning was maddeningly logical, but still CC didn’t want to believe him.

Noah read her mistrust and went on. “I’m here, CC, because Matthew and Ryan arranged for my escape from jail.” As he revealed the truth of all that had happened, Noah studied her expression, hoping to see revealed there an acceptance on her part.

Despite her initial reluctance to accept his explanation, CC felt her fierce belief in his treachery begin to fade. However, the memory of the scene with Eve was still branded in her mind, and she knew that she could not completely accept what he was telling her. “But what about Eve? I heard-”

“I know exactly what you heard,” he agreed steadily. “Eve offered me a deal of sorts that would have guaranteed my release from jail. I refused to take her up on her offer. Suffice it to say that when she left me, she was pleased at the thought that I was going to face the gallows for my crime.”

“Why would you refuse her deal if it would have freed you?”

“There were too many strings attached.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Eve witnessed the fight between Geoffrey and me.”

“She did? Why didn’t she tell someone?” She looked up at him in surprise.

“She saw it all, all right, but she withheld her testimony in hopes of forcing me to marry her.” There was a bitterness in his tone that betrayed his true feelings for the cunning, beauteous widow.