All thoughts flew out of her brain as a force hit the SUV from behind, impelling her forward as their vehicle swerved, and the roar sped off ahead of them. As they finished rounding the curve, she saw the mountain wall they were headed toward and screamed. Paul pulled the wheel with both hands. The SUV swung back, making her dizzy. They skidded on the road, jerked to a hard stop and missed the mountain by inches.

  Trembling, gulping for air, her gaze sought Paul. Only Paul.

  “You okay?” His voice came to her, pulled her from the cloud of panic, sounding...fairly normal.

  “Yeah.” She found the wherewithal to speak. And then, “You?”

  “Yeah.”

  He didn’t sound okay, though. As he pulled back onto the road, while she thanked God they hadn’t crashed or been crashed into by another unsuspecting vehicle coming around the turn, he swore a streak. Turned into town at the first opportunity, and pulled into the parking lot of a grocery store. Getting out, phone already to his ear, he called and reported the incident, rattling off license plate information she hadn’t even thought to seek out during the near miss.

  And then, hanging up, he strode to the back of the SUV. She met him there, more to be with him than to survey the damage.

  “He was good,” he said. “Just bumped me enough to make me swerve on the turn.”

  “He was trying to run us into the mountain.” She got the picture. Had already seen it up close and personal.

  Paul’s shrug surprised her. “He was driving a souped-up pickup with the wheels jacked. More like a mountain joyride than a hit man.”

  “You think it was an accident.”

  He shrugged. “It’s definitely possible. He came up too fast, came around that last corner and couldn’t stop.” While his words built a case for believing their near death had not been deliberate, his frown said otherwise. It could have been directed at the scraped bumper on his brand-new vehicle.

  He didn’t say they’d just been deliberately run off the road.

  And didn’t say they hadn’t.

  “He could have hit us a hell of a lot harder,” he said, still seeming to be studying the bumper. “If it had been a hit, we should be dead.”

  Fear shot through her. “Unless he underestimated you. He wanted it to look like a single car accident,” she said. “If he hit you too hard, police would search for the second vehicle involved in the crash.”

  “If he hit us harder, I wouldn’t have been able to report the vehicle to the police. They’d be looking for a needle in a haystack.”

  “So your gut really is telling you it’s an accident.” She wasn’t buying it, but she’d been wrong before.

  He shrugged. Wouldn’t commit.

  As though he might be sparing her any more worry.

  She didn’t want him to spare her.

  What she wanted was for him to wrap those strong muscled arms around her and hold on.

  Just until she got her nerve back.

  Chapter 15

  She had to go. Walking through the casino of the midtown hotel he’d chosen at random—because random was harder to find—Paul couldn’t see far enough, fast enough. Behind every column, along every slot machine aisle, someone could be lurking.

  Ready to take Haley. Not overtly, not there, but the ways to quietly take someone out were many. He knew most of them.

  He hadn’t asked for adjoining rooms. Didn’t want her that far away.

  She had to go. To get out of Vegas. So that he could get the job done. Find the baby that evidence pointed toward. And get home.

  Back to the life that made sense.

  That didn’t hold the constant threat of being derailed.

  As Haley was threatening to derail him.

  Danger of the life-threatening kind he could handle without a blip. But the kind of soul-taking, mind-blinding effect that he and Haley had on each other...

  She’d almost died on his watch.

  He’d never recover if that happened. Life as he knew it would be over.

  She was one of a kind. Not a kind he could live with, but a kind that made the world a better place.

  The room wasn’t el shaped. Two queen beds, a decent-sized bath off to the right just inside the door. A built-in desk just down from the dresser. And a round table with a couple of chairs by the window. On the fourteenth floor, they had a view of the city.

  He set up his computer at the table—leaving her with nowhere to go, but at the desk, his screen would be visible to the room. He couldn’t work that way.

  Headphones on, he got to it the second he’d dropped his bag and plugged in. Giving himself time to focus, find his calm, to take back a measure of control, before he let her know that he was putting her on a plane back to Santa Barbara first thing in the morning.

  He opened his top ten people search sites, typed in both Kelsey and Maya’s information and looked for anything that came up in both places. He opened the searches up nationally, went with first and last names and started other searches with only first names. He searched Thomas Gladstone as well, looking for any names associated with him that might also show up on Kelsey’s searches. While those ran, he went to the legal databases to which he had access and did the same with those.

  And even typed in the account number for the shell company that paid for Kelsey’s apartment, the house on Calypso, Maya’s credit card and obstetrician.

  When all of the searches were up and running, he pulled off his headphones and turned in his chair.

  Haley, just coming out of the bathroom, had changed to the shorts and T-shirt he’d seen her in the first morning they’d been in Vegas...had that only been Saturday?

  “You have any preferences for dinner?” she asked, apparently deciding that since he’d taken off his headphones he was free game.

  He’d meant to be feeling a lot less tense when he faced her again.

  For a second or two there, he’d thought he’d succeeded.

  He didn’t want dinner. He wanted her.

  As badly as he wanted as far away from her as he could get.

  Before he could deliver his big news—that she’d be leaving—his phone rang. Duane Endives from the Las Vegas Police Department.

  He watched Haley as he listened, turned away from her and inhaled her soft rose scent. Stared at the window and saw her reflection. Turned to the wall and saw her shadow.

  She was everywhere, consuming him again.

  And as the news coming over the phone grew more intense, so did his need to have Haley out of town. He stood as he hung up.

  “You have to go,” he said. “Tonight.” Pulled up flights on his phone. “We’re calling a cab to take you to the airport. I’ll ride along, and stay with you until you’re on the plane.” He’d buy two tickets and go through security if he couldn’t get bodyguard clearance in time to accompany her officially.

  “What was that call about?”

  Had she heard him? She needed to get her flowery zippered bathroom bag off the counter by the sink in there, put some shoes on and close things up.

  Flight times popped up. “I can get you on at eight,” Paul said, as though she hadn’t spoken. That gives us time to get you something to eat and arrive at the airport in time to board.” He didn’t want them hanging around at the gate. If someone was looking for flights to Santa Barbara... He should send her home through Utah. Or Arizona. He knew these things.

  Just had to do his job in reverse—get someone lost, not found.

  “I’m assuming, based on what I heard of the conversation, that that was Detective Endives on the phone. What did he say?” she repeated, standing there, still barefoot, her gaze intent on him.

  “The truck was abandoned a couple of miles farther out of town from our skirmish. It was stolen earlier this afternoon from a used car dealership downtown. There were no viable prints.”

  “So it could have been kids out for a joyride.”

  Yes, but it hadn’t been. The chances of him and Haley just happening to be the ones out of millions of people in Las Vegas to be in the path of joyriders were too slim to be conceivable.

  Added to that the method of operation...stealing a vehicle, one that couldn’t be traced, abandoning it as soon as possible after the hit, no prints...it was all yelling at him with the truth. Someone wanted Haley out of the picture.

  Someone they had no way to trace.

  Added to which, the police still had nothing they could issue warrants on. Not in Paul’s search. They’d search for the car thief.

  And good luck to them with that.

  “Noah’s autopsy isn’t back yet,” he added.

  When it came back suspicious, there’d be a murder investigation that would definitely include aspects of what he was tracking, but the detectives wouldn’t be looking for a baby.

  Although, with the maternity clothes and obstetrician bills, Endives was very interested in Paul’s work.

  “And now it’s time for you to go.”

  “No it’s not. We haven’t found the baby yet.”

  “I will find the baby, Haley. I give you my word. I will find the baby, but having you here is a hindrance to my doing so.”

  “I’ve helped a ton. I’ve gotten you information more rapidly than you might have coaxed it out yourself in the interviews. You said so yourself.”

  He had said so, yes, but that was then.

  Before he’d known for certain that someone was serious about ending her life.

  He should never have brought her along. If she’d stayed in California, no one would have suspected she knew things they didn’t want her to know.

  He’d let her cloud his judgment from the first phone call.

  The past repeating itself.

  He shook his head. Typed for flight times from Vegas to Salt Lake and then to Santa Barbara. Preferably one that didn’t require a plane change.

  “I’m not leaving, Paul. I’m a grown woman. Under my own recognizance, and whether I’m with you or not, I’m not leaving.”

  She’d come closer. One glance and he prepared for battle. He knew that look in her eye.

  Knew it well.

  “You’re in danger, Haley. Real danger. You could have died this afternoon. Knowing that...you being here is a distraction I can’t afford. I can’t do my job.” He didn’t know how to make it any clearer to her.

  “I’ll be in danger wherever I go. And I’m helping here. You have no idea, when you find the baby, what you’re going to be facing. You might need me to care for him or her while you take care of whoever took the baby to begin with. Or you might need my official position as Kelsey’s executor and beneficiary, or as a blood relative, to legally get the baby out of danger.”

  All of which was true, but... “You can be on a flight back to Vegas to handle legalities within an hour,” he told her.

  Taking another step closer, she said, “I’m not going.”

  He didn’t back up. Or back down. “If you don’t, I quit.”

  She didn’t even blink. “You aren’t going to quit, Paul. I know you better than that. No way you’d turn your back on a child in danger.”

  Or on her, whether she knew it or not. Not when her life was being threatened.

  Afterward, when the job was done and he knew she was safe, he wasn’t going to be able to get away fast enough.

  With another step forward, she lifted her chin. And his penis got hard. Which was about the most inappropriate, out of place, uncalled for reaction he could have had.

  And exactly the kind of thing Haley brought out in him. Inappropriate reactions. Over-the-top, intense reactions.

  “You won’t quit, but if you don’t agree to continue to include me, to let me help, you’re fired.”

  He didn’t need her money. Didn’t even want it.

  “I can look for whoever I want,” he said. “I don’t need your permission.”

  “But without my official stance in Kelsey’s life, you won’t get as far. At least not as quickly.”

  She licked her lips, her eyes blazing. Locked on his.

  And...different.

  Something there...more mature...but as gut rocking as anything he’d ever seen in the woman’s eyes. And certainly hadn’t found in any gaze but hers...

  “And... I’m still going to be looking. So if you’re not with me, I’ll be in even more danger.”

  He was so tempted to call her bluff on that one.

  “You got some kind of death wish?” He asked, instead. Not quite pleading with her to back down, but close.

  “Of course I don’t.” She stepped closer, even when there was no more space between them. She just seemed to keep on coming. “But where safer would I be than right here with you? Who better to protect me?” she asked softly. And continued burning him at the stake with, “Today...out on the mountain...all I wanted, all I needed, was your arms around me...”

  His lips captured hers before she could say another word. Annihilate him any further. And he kept them there. Moving them slightly to fit more securely. To prevent any more words from escaping.

  He had to shut her up.

  To...

  Haley’s mouth opened anyway. Her tongue moved.

  Against his.

  He heard a groan. Sounded like hunger.

  His? Hers?

  She stumbled. He caught her with both arms. Holding her securely against him.

  And he was lost.

  * * *

  Paul. Yes.

  His taste in her mouth.

  His musky all over scent.

  “Mmmm...” His gravelly groan.

  Paul.

  His arms around her, his body under her hands...no...no...cloth in between. The shirt had to be gone.

  “Gone.” She spoke her need. Pulled at the garment.

  And it was gone.

  Then there was more. Skin, muscles. Warmth. Raspy hair. Nipples that became tight little beads when she brushed them.

  The belly button she’d once filled with strawberry syrup and it had been gross and they’d had to shower it off.

  Water running over his penis...

  Her mouth still attached to his, she reached lower.

  Grabbed at the fly of his shorts. Found the zipper. Yanked it down. Reached inside. And took hold.

  Fingers fumbled at the waist of her shorts. The fabric loosened, and a shot of cold air hit hot skin as her bottoms fell to her feet.

  He pushed, she stepped backward at the same time and they fell together to the bed behind her. Her on bottom. Him on top.

  Her legs open.

  Him sliding in.

  Moving.

  Moving.

  Moving.

  And...oh God...oh God...

  Tumultuous shivers took over her entire being. Rocking her. Hitting the pleasure button so exquisitely she could do nothing but ride with it. Wave after explosive wave...

  Feeling him shudder, and then pulse inside her.

  No one moved. Neither of them spoke.

  They just lay together and breathed. Tumultuously, at first, and then, slowly, steadying to an even rhythm. One rhythm. As though they were taking one breath.

  Awareness came slowly. Haley resisted. And then felt Paul’s fingers under her T-shirt, finding her braless breasts, going for the nipples, lightly teasing them in a way that got her juices flowing again with a sharp stream straight to her groin.

  He kissed her, softly, and she rolled with him, lying on top of him, touching every part of him as though learning his body for the first time. Not thinking. Not storing or noting, just touching. Enjoying. Feeling.

  So much feeling.

  His warm skin beneath her palms, the bulk of his muscles.

  And the velvety softness that he’d pulled out of her, but that was growing hard again already. She moved on him, sliding her body against him, licking his nipples, and when he rolled them over again, lifting her up to place her head on the pillow, she opened her body to his exploration. Letting him do whatever he wanted.

  Feeling what he did.

  He entered her again. More than once.

  Pulled the band out of her hair and let it cascade all around her.

  Had her flat on her back. And had her sitting on him.

  They gave and they took.

  And eventually they fell asleep. Naked. Uncovered.

  Without ever having spoken a word.

  Chapter 16

  Jolting awake, Paul glanced at the digital alarm clock on the nightstand. Nine o’clock. Wide-open curtains showed him dark sky glowing with city lights.

  He hadn’t been out for long.

  And he had work to do.

  Carefully extricating himself, he pulled the covers up over Haley—first and foremost so he didn’t see her, but also to keep her comfortable—and headed quietly into the bathroom where he used a washcloth to clean himself off.

  As he avoided any eye contact with himself in the mirror, the information waiting on his computer called to him.

  A good sign.

  A very good sign.

  He’d purged the past that had been lurking inside him, and the man he knew himself to be—the one who lived to work—had been set free.

  As though to prove his point, as soon as he sat down, once again fully dressed, pieces of the puzzle started to tumble into place. His brain had been freed to think and he was able to spot similarities, find names, follow through on various databases, pull out key pieces and then find them in similar places across other searches.

  And when his gaze started to blur from reading, he made a list of all public establishments within three miles of the Calypso house and searched for them on social media, scouring photos, comments, anything that might lead him to Maya with her companion.