Secrets

“We’re close,” he told her. Closer than they’d ever been before since they’d finally located the weapons used to kill his parents.

Surprise flashed in her eyes for just a moment. “That’s great.”

The elevator dinged. They stepped into the hallway and her high heels tapped against the gleaming tile. He nodded to the security guard as they left the building and the hot Texas night hit them. His SUV was parked right across the street. He caught her elbow in a light grip and headed for the vehicle.

Just as they hit the middle of that street, bright lights flashed on, locking them in a too-stark illumination. A car’s engine revved and tires squealed.

In that instant, Brodie realized the driver of that car was heading straight for him and Je

The car didn’t slow down. It raced to the edge of the street and swung a hard right. The damn thing vanished into the night.

That maniac just tried to kill us!

“See...?” Je

Not just hunting her. Someone wanted her dead.

* * *

“YOU’RE STAYING HERE?”

Okay, so Brodie McGuire wasn’t exactly impressed with her choice of lodgings. His tone of voice made that fact loud and clear. Je

But Brodie glared at her. “I expected you to be in a five-star hotel. One with a guard downstairs, making sure that guests were escorted in and out of the place.”

Ah, right. He still saw her as Je

Because she was starting to think she might just need to vanish, and if that happened—cash would be vital for her survival.

“You’re on the first floor,” he said, a faint line between his dark brows. “The lock on that window is broken.” He stabbed a finger toward the left.

The lock was broken? Unease tightened like a knot in her stomach. The lock hadn’t been broken when she’d first checked in to the room. She knew because she had double-checked all the locks there.

Brodie’s hand dropped back to his side. “Anyone could get in here.”

She headed for the window. The lock was smashed all right. Maybe someone already has been in here. “I promise that lock was fine earlier.”

He swore.

She’d been aware of the furious energy surrounding him ever since that hit-and-run. There’d been no license plate on the car, at least not one that she’d seen, though Brodie had been able to easily identify the car as an older-model Mustang. He’d called the cops and spoken with a Detective Shayne Townsend. Brodie had told her that Shayne was a friend, someone he could count on to help him out with her case.

No uniforms had come out to the scene in order to talk with them, though. Instead, Brodie had bundled her into his vehicle and gotten them away from McGuire Securities.

“Is anything missing?” He pointed to her bag. “You need to check.”

Right. She dropped the cloth back in the bathroom and hurried toward her luggage. Je

This time, Brodie’s curse made her flinch.

Her clothes had been slashed. A black-and-white photo lay on top of the clothes, a photo of her. One that had been taken near the Saint Louis Cathedral in New Orleans.

Someone had used a red marker and written across that photo. Two stark words: I know.

She didn’t touch the photo. Je

“What does he know?” Brodie asked, voice gruff.

Je

“You’re coming home with me.”

That didn’t sound good. Or maybe it did. But she shook her head. “I’ll just get a new room. We can turn this over to the cops, and—”

“I’ll get Detective Townsend down here with his crime scene team. If the intruder left DNA or fingerprints, he’ll find it.”

“You...you trust him?” Her experience with cops hadn’t exactly been stellar so far. Back in New Orleans, they’d pretty much thought that she’d had a breakdown after the alley attack, that she was just imagining the stalking.

I’m not imagining anything.

“Shayne Townsend is a friend. We can count on him.” He pulled her farther away from the bed. “But you aren’t staying here. Your stalker is watching this hotel, watching you, and I’m not just going to leave you alone so he can attack.”

The stalker had followed her from New Orleans. Had he been right behind her that entire time? On all those long twisting roads? Goose bumps rose on Je

“You can stay at the family ranch,” Brodie told her. “My brothers and I installed the security system there. There is no safer place, and I promise, no one will get to you there.”

Her gaze slid back to her luggage. A life shouldn’t be destroyed so easily, yet Je

“There’s plenty of space at the ranch,” Brodie continued in that deep rumble of his. “So you don’t have to worry about me...getting too close.”

Just like that, her eyes were back on him.

A muscle flexed in his jaw. “I want you safe. I can keep my hands off you.”

She’d never thought otherwise.

“Come with me,” Brodie said. “Trust me to protect you.”

Brodie McGuire. The years had carved him into an even more dangerous, powerful man. He was big, easily over six foot three, with wide shoulders and a solid build that told her the guy was definitely no stranger to a gym.

He was handsome, almost ridiculously so with that hard, square jaw, that perfect blade of a nose and his green eyes. And the man had dimples. Dimples. They flashed when he smiled, and that smile of his made her stomach flip.

He was a threat to her, in so many ways, but he was also the one man who’d never let her down. The one man who could actually keep her alive.

Even if he didn’t know all her secrets.

“Come with me,” he said again.

She nodded.

* * *

JENNIFER WESLEY WAS making a deadly mistake. She thought that an ex-lover could protect her?

She was wrong.

He had her in his sights, and he wasn’t about to let her vanish.

There would be no escape. No mercy, either.

He watched as Je