The look on the other man’s face gave him away.

“He did threaten her, didn’t he?” Ethan asked in a chilling voice.

Vinnie nodded. “He said he wanted to take her back to his house, for her own good.”

Ethan lost it right then. He didn’t yell, he didn’t even swear, but he ripped down one side of the younger agent and up the other and it all centered around the fact that Beth was not an agent and should never have been left unprotected in a dangerous situation. As a fully trained agent, both in surveillance and fieldwork, apparently, Vinnie should have realized that.

Beth was learning a lot herself. Not all of it pleasant, but in retrospect, she knew Ethan was right.

“I’m sorry, sir. I’ll never make that mistake again.”

Ethan made a visible effort to rein in his temper and nodded. “See that you don’t.”

He spun and left the room without another word. Beth followed him.

She took off her comm unit and turned it off before laying it on the dining table near the computer. “Did you get into Prescott’s system?”

“We’re close, but I cut the call with Hotwire and Claire when I saw you.”

Her eyes scanned his computer monitor. “It looks like they’re still working.”

“We have to call the sheriff.”

“But if we have Prescott arrested for attempted kidnapping, he’s going to cancel the auction.”

Ethan shook his head, his expression still bordering on fury. “He’s not going to jail over this. Men like him don’t. It’s your word against his and he’s the kind of man who has CYA down to an art form. But if we don’t call it in, we’ll look too suspicious to him. We can’t afford for him to get leery at this point and cancel anyway.”

“You’re right, I guess.”

Ethan nodded and went to make the call. He did the part of the outraged boyfriend to perfection, but he was scowling when he hung up the phone. “I expected it, but it still makes my blood boil.”

“What?”

“The sheriff is sure you are mistaken about Prescott’s intent. He’s going to go by and ask him about it.”

“He’s not even going to bring him in?”

“My guess is that the sheriff owes a lot of favors to our information broker.”

“I’m sure you are right, but it makes me mad. How many women has he gotten away with traumatizing?”

“He could have made it one more with you.”

“He wasn’t expecting me to fight back. None of them were.”

“And if they’d shot you, you wouldn’t have had the chance.”

“I fought and I won.”

“You should have given the distress signal.”

“You’re right, I should have. I’ve never been in a situation like that before and I reacted rather than really thinking,” she said again. “I think some part of my brain was afraid that if I called in reinforcements, we would have put the case in jeopardy.”

“Better that than the sadistic poser get his hands on you, but worst case scenario is I would have gone out there pretending to be looking for my wayward girlfriend. Not anything to arouse his suspicions.”

“I didn’t think of that angle.”

“You’re not the trained agent.”

“My instincts told me to handle it alone.” She wasn’t trying to justify herself, just explain why she’d made the choice she had. “I want to say that in the future, I’d do it differently, but I can’t be sure.”

“Listening to your instincts when they are on is the mark of a good agent, but part of an agent’s training is also learning to follow procedure.”

“If I had been fully trained, would I have thought to call in reinforcements?”

“Yes. In cases like this, you learn to conserve energy and diminish danger. We’re close to the end of this case and it could have been blown sky high because I guarantee you, if he’d managed to get you back to his place, I wouldn’t have left you there. The thought of you in that psycho’s hands is making my insides twist like a new rope.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You did good. I don’t want you to think I’m not proud of you, because I am. I’m still pissed as hell at our back-up agent. He had a call to make and he made the wrong one.”

“He didn’t want to interrupt your work.”

“Bad choice.”

Beth could see Ethan’s point of view on that, too. If he were in danger, she’d want to know and she wasn’t the agent in charge. This incident would go into Ethan’s report and would not reflect well on Vinnie though. And she felt sorry for him.

“You need to get back to work now that the excitement is over.”

“I’d rather take you to bed and assure myself that you are really okay.”

“I’ll be more okay when that man is behind bars.”

Ethan nodded. “Point taken.”

He went back to his computer and she went to take a shower. He was waiting for her when she came out of the bathroom though.

He had a bottle of antibiotic ointment and some gauze. “I want to treat your hands.”

“What about your hacking?”

“I called Hotwire and filled him and Claire in on what had happened. They’re still working and I was, too, until I remember seeing a glimpse of your hands. I wish you’d said something. I could have taken care of them right away.”

“I would have just gotten them wet in the shower.”

He was gentle in his ministrations, making sure the small scratches were completely clean before applying the ointment.

She sighed when he was done, wishing he could stay in the bedroom with her and knowing he couldn’t. “You really need to get back to your computer.”

“Come with me.”

“Okay.”

He moved his laptop to the living room so he could work while she cuddled next to him on the couch. The kittens joined them, snuggling against her legs and she felt contentment like she’d never known.

She was dozing with her head on his thigh when he shouted, “Hot damn, we did it!”

Beth scrambled into a sitting position. “You got into the computer?”

“We got in an hour ago, but we had to get through the security to the files of interest. Not to mention we had to find them.”

“And you’ve got those.”

“Oh, yeah, baby…we’ve got ’em. The plans are here and so are his contacts.”

“When will you move in?”

“The risk that he knows we hacked in is minimal. Once we got inside, we were able to reset his security measures. The whole situation today worked to our advantage because it kept him away from his office.”

“Who knew, huh?” she asked with a smile.

“I’ll take whatever help I can get, even when it comes from my target. Hell, especially then.”

“So, you’re waiting to move in?”

“We’ve got proof that the plans are on his system right now, but I want to raid the bastard’s house when he’s doing his little video presentation. The buyers need to be brought down as much as Prescott.”

“I agree.”

Ethan knew she would. Beth was like that. She saw the bigger picture, even when it wasn’t comfortable. Like agreeing to play agent when it was the last thing she wanted to do so they could bring down the enemy. She was such an intriguing mixture of soft heart and just mind.

She was strong, but her innocence and often shy personality fooled others like Prescott into believing she was a pushover.

Ethan knew better and he liked what he knew. A lot. He was proud of the way she’d handled herself in the clearing, but he was still jittery from her near miss. Her instincts were right on, but the one time they were off could spell disaster. He knew it. He’d been there. And he’d survived, he reminded himself.

He wanted Beth to know her own potential and live up to it, but if he had anything to say…there was a certain type of assignment she would never get offered. It probably wasn’t fair, but he wasn’t New Man when it came to her. His instincts were strictly primal where she was concerned and the first one roared with a need to protect her.

That instinct was filling him with rage the next morning when the sheriff called.

“Mr. Prescott denies being anywhere near your cabin yesterday, Mr. Grange.”