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He heard the flippancy in her voice, the disdain and the dismissal, but he wasn’t buying any of it—not after having seen her drop her guard to let him see through—to touch, to hold, to make love to the real her.
“I think you’re fooling yourself, if that’s what you believe. You’re alone because you’ve had to be, not because it suits you. You’re warm and compassionate, Sierra. And soft beneath that hard-ass facade. A loving woman who deserves to be loved back.”
“You don’t understand. I have to go,” she insisted, emotion clogging her voice.
“You’re scared,” he said. “And I understand that. This has been so sudden, this thing blazing up between us, and you’re right. My family situation is a lot to wrap my head around, so I can only imagine how it must feel to an outsider.”
“Outsider,” she echoed. “That’s what I’d always be here. Some lowlife Vegas bounty hunter they’ll all take for a dirty gold digger. You know it and I know it, so let’s nip this little fantasy of ours, this idea that we could maybe have a future, in the bud right now before someone ends up really hurt.”
This time there was no mistaking the bitterness in her words. But there was something else, as well, an edge of desperation.
That was when it hit him, how badly she wanted to make him believe what she was saying. How terrified she was he wouldn’t.
Too distracted to drive any farther, he quickly pulled over, alongside a barn-size metal building where custom Southwestern-style furnishings were manufactured.
“Not here,” she warned, sweeping the Dumpsters, parked delivery trucks and alleyway with an anxious gaze. “If we really need to talk about this, at least pick somewhere with better lighting. Or someplace more open.”
“Not until you tell me what’s really going on. And why you’ve been lying to me.”
“I’m not—”
“Stop it, Sierra,” he said sharply. “I’m not playing games here. Tell me what you’re really up to.”
Glowering at him, she blurted, “Maybe I’m trying to make sure I don’t get you stabbed again, you stubborn jerk! Now let’s get out of here before I take back my offer to let you drive my car.”
“Your car, yes. The one with the Arizona plates I’m sure aren’t registered to you. What’s up with that, Sierra?” he asked. “Was the transaction even legal?”
There was no answer but the sound of her rapid breathing as she braced her hands against the dash.
“Just answer me this,” he said, “and please, if you care for me at all, be honest. Ice Veins’s death wasn’t the end of your issue with him, was it?”
He caught the faint gleam of a tear, reflected off the dash illumination, as it traced its slow path down her cheek.
Shaking her head, she whispered, “My cop friend in the organized crime division back home thinks it might’ve been Ice Veins’s nephew who’s responsible, that he put out the word from the hospital where he went after he was stabbed. Or possibly some other associate. But word on the street is there’s a hit out on me.”
“A contract? So you’re not planning to return there,” he said. “You never were at all.”
“Not since I heard, no. I—Las Vegas is no longer a safe place for me. I have my doubts it ever will be.”
“Then stay here, in Mustang Valley,” he said, dark visions of the thugs he’d witnessed hurting her parading through his head. He damned well wouldn’t, couldn’t, let those kind of scum ever hurt her like that—or worse—again. “Stay with me, not in the condo, but at the Triple R. Security there is top-notch.”
“Against mob hitmen? I don’t think so. What you’ve seen so far—those thugs were only out to hurt me, Ace, teach me a lesson,” she said, shaking her head. “Now it’s only a matter of time before some enterprising killer—some serious assassin—tracks me to the location of my last known job.”
“We can keep you safe. I can.”
“How can you,” she demanded, “when you haven’t even been able to figure out who’s pulling the strings behind these attacks against your own family? Or confront the woman who switched you with Payne and Tessa Colton’s real firstborn son and find out what her game is?”
“I know there’s a lot on my plate right now, but Sierra, you need to trust me.”
“No, Ace,” she said. “You need to trust me on this. I know the threat I’m dealing with, the criminal underworld and how it operates, far better than you can ever hope to. I’ve already delayed leaving too long as it is, but after we see Payne this evening I can’t—I won’t put it off any longer.”
He fought back the desire to argue with her, the need to swear that he’d do anything, face any threat, to free her of the need to live in fear. But he had obligations, too—a family counting on him, a father who deserved justice for the shooting that had left him in a coma for months.
A lump thickening his throat, he felt the loss of her tearing a hole in him as he asked, “But where will you go? How will you live? And will I ever—will you ever come back?”
She hesitated for so long he thought she wouldn’t answer before finally saying, “It’s probably safer for us both if you don’t know the answer to any of those questions.”
“Then I’ll wait,” he vowed. “
