“
We are, or could be, under surveillance right now.
Targets.”
He moved forward to kneel in front of her on the ancient braided rug by the bed, the way she'd knelt in front of him to take away the pain from his
back in the middle of the night.
He reached for her hands, her slim fingers disappearing as he folded his around them.
She didn't pull away.
“
I am a target.
You’re not.
You don’t need to be involved in any of this.”
“
I choose to be involved, dammit,” he snapped, impatient that she would still push him away.
Did she think he was going to stand aside and hide while she was hunted and killed?
She drew a slow breath, her troubled gaze holding his.
“If the killer is around, why hasn’t he tried to come and get me yet?”
Good question.
“Maybe he’s still getting the lay of the land.
Then I showed up.
You’re no longer alone in the house at night.”
He leaned closer.
“You need to call the authorities in on this.”
“
You’re a cop.
That’s what cops do.
Tell people to call the authorities if there’s trouble.
If you were in my place, is that what you would do?
Honest answer.”
She was right.
He gave advice like a cop.
If he was in her shoes…he’d think like a soldier.
Because he was that, too, and fresh home from war, battle still in his blood.
“
I’d set a trap and take him out.”
He looked her straight in the eye.
“I’m not saying that’s the right thing to do, but that’s what I’d do.”
“
With the FBI?”
“
No.
Just the bastard and I.
Mano-a-mano.”
Okay, so that might have sounded like stupid macho stuff, but she wanted honesty.
She considered his words for a long moment, straightening her spine when she was done.
“Then that’s what I want to do.”
“
No.
That's completely different.
You're not a soldier.”
“
Somebody once told me the right motivation could make heroes out of ordinary people.
I don’t trust the police.
I don’t trust the FBI.
They couldn’t protect Marcos and they couldn’t protect me before.”
“
Anybody you do trust?”
he asked, exasperated.
“
You.”
He stared at her.
She trusted him—with her life.
That was a lot.
Maybe too much.
Then she threw him even more off balance by saying, “I have a gun, you can teach me how to set a trap.
Then you leave.”
“
Still trying to get the house for yourself?”
he joked because, hell, what else was he supposed to say?
She was completely out of her mind, obviously.
“Will you help me?”
“
Absolutely not.
You need to go into witness protection.
Setting a trap for Asael yourself is a terrible idea.”
“
It’s what you would do.
I’d like to be free of Asael forever.
I want my life back.”
Her quietly spoken words affected him more than if she'd shouted.
“Let the FBI set a trap,” he said.
“
Because the first time worked so well?”
Desperation filled her gaze.
“You could help.”
She swallowed.
“You're right.
I can't run forever.
If he caught up with me here, he'll catch up with me again.
He'll get me when I'm not expecting it.”
She fell silent, pressing her lips together.
Murph filled his lungs.
“Fine.
We'll set a trap for him together.”
If she was going to face down Asael, Murph was going to be right there.
He would find a way to get to the bastard before he got to Kate.
She leaned forward and suddenly their lips met.
He let them rest against each other.
Then he moved, just barely, taking the slightest taste of her because he thought he might die if he didn't.
His body instantly hardened, but he didn't push for more, specifically because he wanted to, desperately.
He stayed there, touching, wanting, resisting, for as long as he could stand it, before he pulled back.
He wanted her more than he'd ever wanted a woman.
But he wasn't going to act on the lust that filled him to the brim.
Not yet, not until she was safe.
Until then, he had to channel his burning need for her into protecting her, so he focused on that.
“
He’ll want to take you when you’re alone.
He doesn’t want any more attention than necessary.
Assassins are discreet by nature.”
A plan slowly formed in his head.
“So we make sure you’re never alone.
Except when we have the trap ready for him.”
Chapter Eight
The sounds of the diner, nothing but a faint background noise, barely reached the back office.
Jimmy pushed his bag of hard candy across the desk toward Kate.
“Want some?”
She popped a piece of chocolate candy into her mouth.
“Thanks.
So the two sides of the equation must always stay equal.
Whatever you do to one side, you have to do to the other.”
Murph was coming to pick her up later, keeping with their plan of her never being alone, until they were ready.
He had some pretty extreme ideas about setting up the entire house as a trap.
She focused on the here and now before she could freak herself out.
Trapping Asael might have been the best way to ensure her long-term survival, but that didn't mean the prospect of coming face-to-face with the man didn't scare the spit out of her.
She drew some circles on the worksheet in front of Jimmy.
“See how these two variables relate to each other?”
“
It’s easier now that you explained it.
Kind of makes sense.”
They went through a few more problems before finishing for the day.
She glanced at the time on her cell phone.
“My ride should be here in a few minutes.”
“
Your car’s broke again?”
“
It’s a clunker.”
Jimmy crammed his papers into a scuffed-up folder.
“So the dude that dropped you off this morning is like your new boyfriend?”
“
Just a friend.”
“
He was definitely checking you out when you were walking away from his truck.”
Was he?
She bit back a smile.
Her love life hadn't been much to brag about before she'd gone on the run, and non-existent since.
She couldn’t afford to let anyone in.
Murph was the first and only person who knew the truth about her.
In a world where she couldn’t trust anyone, finally having someone to be on her side felt both scary and nice.
It brought a sense of closeness.
And living in the same house, sharing the same bathroom, sharing meals, created a sense of intimacy, made her feel like
the two of them had
known each other for a long time.
Then there were those intense moments between them when he touched her and looked at her with such fierce hunger it made her head spin.
Sweet chocolate-covered cherries.
The man could be intense.
“
What are we studying tomorrow?”
she asked Jimmy.
“
Western Civ
.”
He groaned.
“Eileen will be doing payroll, so we can’t use the office.
Want to come over to my place?”
* * *
Murph parked by the curb in front of the diner and scanned Main Street.
He'd be driving Kate everywhere from now on.
He checked every car, every person who walked by, but didn’t see anyone acting suspiciously.
Heck, he knew most of the people.
The mail truck stood in front of the bank across the road, and when Robin walked from the building with half a dozen empty plastic mail trays, Murph beeped the horn.
She looked at him, waved and ran across when the light turned red and the cars stopped coming.
“I was hoping I’d run into you today.
I had a dream about you last night.”
He winked at her.
“Were we naked?”
She laughed, her signature angel earrings dangling as her head moved.
With her trim figure and stylish bob, nobody would have guessed that she was nearing retirement.
“Men.
You do have a one-track mind.”
“
It’s so much simpler that way.”
Instead of laughing again, her face clouded.
“You were in the woods.
You had handcuffs on and you were shooting at a water tower.
It was a dark dream.”
“
Okay,” he said carefully.
He’d forgotten over the last eight months how strange Robin could be.
She’d been born in Lily Dale, a psychic community in Upstate New York, and proud of her heritage.
She handed out warnings and visions as enthusiastically as she handed out the daily mail.
“
Just be careful, that’s all.”
She gave his arm a motherly pat.
Then the concern disappeared from her face the next second, and
she brightened.
“And there was a love dove.”
She smiled.
“I caught
a
glimpse of a wedding at Broslin Chapel.”
“
Ah.”
He coughed, choking on his own spit.
Robin flashed another smile then hurried back to her truck.
Before Murph could start feeling overly concerned about the stability of her mind, Kate was coming from the diner, finally.
He liked the way she walked, the sass in her stride, although he didn’t think she was even aware of that.
He watched as she hurried toward him, looking at him and nowhere else.
They'd agreed this morning that if he pulled his truck up to the curb, it meant he thought it was safe for her to come outside, he’d already checked.
Their deal was, she wouldn’t look around, wouldn’t act scared, wouldn’t tip off Asael that they were on to him.
She opened the door with a smile on her face and slipped into the passenger seat.
“Hey.
Thanks for picking me up.”
She smelled like pie and coffee, making his mouth water.
He’d missed her today.
Being with her made his heart feel lighter.
Okay, that was a pretty fanciful thought.
Maybe Robin was rubbing off on him.
Love dove, indeed.
Jeezus.
He flashed a
friendly
smile at Kate.
“Have a good day?”
“
Not bad for an average Thursday.
Got two tour buses.
Good tippers.
You?”
“
I got some work done in the house.”
She lifted an eyebrow as he pulled into traffic.
“
The doors are reinforced.
Front, back, basement entry.
I got new, heavy-duty locks.”
“
And if he doesn’t hit at home?”
“
He normally does.
I checked what information I could find on his work.
He doesn’t like an audience.
He fancies himself to be invisible.
Smoke.
But just in case.”
He jerked his thumb toward the back seat, the bulletproof vest he'd grabbed from the station.
“I want you to wear the Kevlar under your clothes at all times.
It’s the latest technology, not too thick.
It’s winter anyway, everybody’s bulky.”
She raised a pointed eyebrow at him.
“
Not you.”
He backpedaled immediately.
“Even in the thickest sweater you’re as slim as a monk’s chance for getting laid.”
She laughed out loud.
“Nice save.”
“
I want to ask you to consider something,” he said as he turned down their street.
“I want to bring the Captain in on this.”
Her eyes widened with alarm.
“No.”
“
He can help.
I trust the man with my life.”
“
I don’t trust him with mine.
I don’t know him.
As far as I’m concerned, the only reason I’m still alive is because up until now nobody knew my secret.
Don’t make me regret that I told you.
Please.”
He stopped at the stop sign and looked at her hands tightly clasped on her lap, the stubborn set of her jaw.
He would have felt better with Bing and the guys at the department having his back, but she could be right.
He stepped on the gas.
If the hit man had been watching the town for a few days now, he might notice any unusual police activity.
He might be tipped off that they were onto him.
Then he’d be a lot more careful, more difficult to trap.
He might wait until Kate moved on, was on her own again.
“
Okay,” Murph said.
“For now.
We’ll see how much we can accomplish today, how comfortable we feel with what we have.”
Her Chevy was parked off to the side of his driveway, so he pulled into his garage.
That shouldn’t seem suspicious.
The weather was plenty cold outside.
She looked toward the keypad he'd installed before he left to pick her up.
“You have been busy.”
He closed the garage door then walked with her to the security system on the wall, told her the code.
“Bonbons.
So the chocolate hoarders among us can remember it.”
He kept finding stashes of chocolate in the oddest places, like the laundry cabinets, for instance.
“
I don't know what you're talking about.”
But she smiled as she stepped inside the laundry room.
She looked around.
“You’ve accessorized.”
“
A little.”
He’d put up a fire extinguisher, left a broom leaning against the wall a few feet farther in.
“I tried to make sure you have something that can be used as a weapon close at hand, no matter where you are in the house.”
“
Very safe-house chic.
But I’m not planning on putting my gun down until this is over.”
She pulled the small weapon from her purse, checked to make sure that the safety was on, then shoved it into the back of her waistband, in a move she’d probably seen on TV.
Hot.
His gaze ran down her long legs.
All that tough-chick stuff looked pretty sexy on her.
Patience.
Keep her safe first, seduce her second.
He followed her in.
“
I don’t suppose the gun shop threw in some training with that weapon.”
“
Bought it off the internet.
Watched YouTube videos on how to shoot it, then practiced aiming, unloaded.
I thought that would be safest.”
“
That’s commendable.”
He walked into the kitchen, feeling a headache coming on.
He rubbed the heel of his hand against his temple.
“We’ll train.
I'll take you to the shooting range.
But any weapon can be taken away.
Any weapon can fail.
It’s good to have backup.
We’ll walk through, so you can memorize where everything is.
Then tonight we’ll walk through the house again in the dark a couple of times.
I want you to know where every door is, every item that you can use to defend yourself, even if you can’t see them.”
She swallowed as she tossed her purse on the shelf that held the mail.
“How soon do you think he’ll come?”
She dropped onto the couch, on the opposite end from his rolled-up bedding, to take off her sneakers.
“
Soon.
He found you.
He knows where you live.
He’s watched the house, knows the parameters, probably made his plans.
He has no reason to linger.
He’ll come at night, maybe make it look like a robbery.”