He patted her back and it was all she could do not to belt him. “You must be strong, Beth.”

Then he flipped the photo to reveal the one beneath it. There were six pictures in all, each of them very cleverly done. None actually showed Ethan naked so if he had a birthmark and his body double didn’t, she wouldn’t see that. His face was superimposed on the pictures with the skill of a true artist. If it were any situation other than the one she was in and any man other than Ethan, Beth would have taken the pictures at face value. They looked absolutely authentic.

And the more she looked, the angrier Beth got. Prescott was pure evil and she’d like to drop him in a rattlesnake pit.

She went to grab the photos. “I have to show these to Ethan.”

Instead of looking disgusted, or even disappointed, Prescott looked strangely pleased by her reaction. “You want to give him a chance to explain it, but how can he?”

“He needs to see them.”

“I’m sorry. I can’t give you the photos. I stepped outside of my role as your employer to have him followed. It would be too risky to let him have a copy of these pictures. He might try to sue me…or pay someone to say they are forgeries.”

“But I have to show them to him.”

“No, Beth. You need to decide if you will stay with a man who has cheated on you.”

“But where would I go?” she asked with credible dismay. “I just moved here…started working for you.”

“You know I’m interested in you. But I would never force the issue in your current state. However, I would be pleased to allow you to stay with me.”

“You want me to move in to your home?”

“It isn’t an offer I would make to another woman.”

“I…I appreciate it.” The slimy toad. “But I’ve got to talk to Ethan.”

“Yes, I can see that you do, Beth. But consider this…if he’s cheating on you now, chances are he’s been screwing other women all along.”

She flinched at the crudity and Prescott’s lips curved in a twisted smile. “You are far too innocent for the likes of him, Beth.”

And just the type of woman he liked playing his ugly games with. Or so he thought. Beth wanted nothing more than to give him a taste of black belt and teach him not all women were helpless or that easily enthralled.

Innocence did not equate to stupidity and naïveté was something that should be protected, not exploited. But he was going to learn that soon enough.

Ethan was simmering with rage when he came to pick Beth up.

Neither of them spoke until they were inside the cabin.

“That sick son of a bitch had photos doctored to look like I was having an affair, didn’t he?”

“Yes. You heard the conversation.”

Ethan jerked his head in assent, his body vibrating with incandescent anger.

“He wants me to move in with him.” He had to have heard that, too, but she didn’t expect him to bring it up.

“No way in hell.”

She’d anticipated that reaction. “Ethan, we’ve got to get into his computer…find something more than what we’ve got right now for an airtight collar. Me being in the house is an in we can’t afford to ignore.”

“No.”

“I’m not going to let him hurt me.”

“Neither am I. You are not moving in with him. In fact, I think it’s time you quit your job.”

She gasped. “We don’t have enough intel. I need to be there.”

“We’ve got bugs.”

“What if they’re found? For all you know, Prescott has a sweep scheduled any day now.”

“He’s too arrogant to sweep for bugs. He thinks he’s too smart to be double-crossed. If he wasn’t, he would have swept for them right after the party.”

“Maybe. Or maybe it’s just part of his routine security and he’s got one scheduled soon.”

“It doesn’t matter…we’ll make the collar. And we’ll make it stick, but we aren’t risking your safety to do it.”

“And if I were a trained agent?”

“Then it would be different, but I’d still be strongly against it. The man hurts women and he likes doing it.”

“You talked to the sister. When?”

“I called this morning, before that jumped-up scene in Prescott’s office.”

True to his word, Ethan had discussed the option of bringing the DEA agent in on their case with Beth. Beth had felt the woman deserved the chance to help bring down her sister’s abuser. Ethan had agreed, but only after doing a thorough investigation of the other woman’s background, her strengths and weaknesses as an agent.

He’d concluded Rachel Gannon was someone Beth’s dad would be lucky to have working for him at TGP.

“She told me that Prescott plays dominance games with women of the sadistic kind.”

“He’s into S amp;M?”

“Yes. She fully expects the auction to include a new sex slave for him as part of the package.”

“That’s horrible.”

“Yes, it is, and there’s no way you are ever going to move into the same house with a monster like that.”

“But we need an in.”

“I’m going to ask Hotwire to help me hack the system.”

Beth’s mind reeled at the statement. Ethan was not the type of man to ask for help, ever…but especially not outside the agency.

“Don’t look at me like I just said I wanted to get a job table dancing at Hooters.”

“But…”

“Bennett Vincent is not available and he’s the only hacker at the agency better than me.”

“You think Hotwire’s better than you?”

“He might be, but even if he’s not-if we’re working together, even Prescott’s ICE won’t stand against us.”

“What about my job with Prescott?”

“You’re quitting.”

“Do you think Whit would approve?”

“I’m the agent in charge. This is my call, Beth.”

“What if you can’t crack the ICE, what if what we have isn’t enough evidence to put him away?”

“You need to trust me, Sunshine. My gut is telling me to keep you the hell away from him.”

“Your gut, or your heart?”

“Does it matter?”

“It shouldn’t. It’s an assignment. I know that. But it does.”

“Both, all right?”

She nodded, her chest tight. “Is Rachel Gannon going to be a problem?”

“No. She was relieved when I called. She’d come to the realization that killing him wasn’t enough. She wants to see him suffer, see him in prison where his reputation as a woman abuser can precede him, see his assets seized by the government, see him broken.”

“Like her sister before she took her life.”

“Yes.”

“Why didn’t she call her agency?”

“It’s not the DEA’s jurisdiction. She was getting ready to call the FBI when I contacted her.”

“Your timing was good then. They would have complicated things.”

“It always is, baby, or hadn’t you noticed?”

She laughed at his sheer confidence. “If I say yes, it will go to your head.”

“Whereas if you say no, my manly ego will be mortally wounded.”

“Your manly ego could take a mortar and not be mortally wounded.”

“It’s the way you respond to me. It makes me feel like Superman.”

“You mean Superstud?”

He laughed. “Yeah, maybe that.”

Ethan made the phone call to Prescott and it wasn’t pretty. Prescott kept insisting on speaking with Beth and Ethan told him no. Categorically. He also called him a couple of names and told him he knew he’d had the photos faked, but couldn’t figure out why he’d gone to the trouble. If he was that hard up for women, maybe he should buy himself some companionship.

“He’s going to send an assassin after you after that,” Beth said when Ethan hung up.

“Good. Then we’ll have another crime to charge him with.”

She shivered. “I’m glad the auction is in only a couple of days. Even you aren’t invincible, Superstud.”

“Is that my new name?”

“To me.”

He grinned. “I like it.”

“I know you do.”

“I like something else, too.”

“But it will have to wait. You just destroyed our in with the perp. Call your friend. You two need to get to work.”