“And you used that when you started up your avatar design shop in Shadowland.”

She shrugged. “Might as well get some semipractical use out of it.”

He was studying her again. “You trusted him,” he said quietly. “Rob Winters.”

She flinched. “Yes. I was young and stupid.”

“And you’ll never let that happen again.”

“I’ll never be that young again and I pray I’ll never be that stupid again.”

His eyes never left her face. “And you’ll never trust a man again?”

“That’s not it. I trust you. I never would have gotten into a car with you otherwise.”

“You don’t trust yourself, then. You don’t trust your judgment that you trust me.”

She nodded, both relieved and sad that he finally understood. “Convoluted, I know.”

He rose. “I’ll get Olivia this information.”

“You’re not going after him yourself?”

“It’s Olivia’s case. If she needs my help, she’ll ask for it.”

“Of course.” Eve busied herself putting her laptop away. “If you could take me back to the station, I’ll get David’s truck. Callie’s working tonight, so I’ll just hang out at Sal’s. I’m sure one of the off-duty officers will see us home, so it’ll be perfectly safe.”

“Eve.” His eyes glittered with determination, but his voice was gentle. “Let’s go to dinner. Then you can decide where you’ll stay. Give me your bag. I’ll carry it for you.”

He understood, but he wasn’t walking away. “My friend, Tom… wants to meet you.”

Noah’s eyes lit up. “The ballplayer? Sweet.” He put his arm around her shoulders, possessively. “Is this like being brought home to meet the family?”

“Yes. I guess it is.”

Chapter Nineteen

Wednesday, February 24, 7:20 p.m.

I do like your house.”

Noah closed the oven door and turned to lean against it. Eve sat at his kitchen table, her annoyance mostly gone. “And I liked your friend Tom.”

Her mouth lifted. “And the tickets to Sunday’s game?”

He grinned. “Those didn’t hurt.” He sobered. “So… you’re not angry anymore?”

She shrugged. “I wasn’t angry. Just surprised you brought me here.”

“I have to meet Jack soon, so I didn’t want to spend what little time we have waiting on waiters. Next time we’ll go somewhere with tablecloths and fancier food.”

“Frozen pizza is fine and better than a lot of meals I’ve eaten.”

She was nervous. So am I. He took the chair next to hers, took her hand. “I’m going to get to the point. You said you trusted me. Why? Is it something about me? My face?”

“I don’t know why. I just do. At the risk of sounding trite, this isn’t about you. It’s me.”

“So that you trust me for absolutely no good reason is what frightens you?”

Arousal warred with the apprehension in her dark eyes. “I behaved impetuously six years ago,” she said. “I have paid dearly for that mistake, every day since. I don’t do impetuous things very often anymore.”

“You play it safe. With men, anyway.”

“Essentially, yes.” She lifted her chin. “And I won’t apologize for that.”

He recognized the lifted chin as a warning and detoured, approaching from another direction. “You said you hid in the dark for two years after Rob Winters attacked you.”

She didn’t flinch as he’d expected. “I lived in a shelter for battered women. I rarely left the house, took most of the night shifts.”

“Because you were afraid to sleep.” Afraid she’d dream, that she’d hurt someone.

“Yes. I took care of the babies, ones too young to scare. My scars were bad then.”

“What happened after two years?” He knew, but wanted to hear it from her.

“We unknowingly brought a murderer into our shelter, a woman who’d kidnapped a child for her own revenge. But you know this. You’ve read all the news archives.”

He had, and had been chilled to the bone. “You saved the boy but were nearly killed.”

“Alec was a brave kid. He helped save us both.”

“Where is he now?”

She smiled. “Chicago. He’s a senior in high school. Well-adjusted and happy.”

“So what happened after you’d saved the day and the boy?”

“Dana and Ethan took the woman down, delivered her to the cops. Dana’s kind of like my mom and big sister and probation officer, all rolled into one. She is best friends with David’s sister-in-law, Caroline, and Olivia’s sister, Mia. That’s how we all connect.”

“You love them, the people you left behind in Chicago. They’ve earned your trust.”

Her eyes sharpened. “You should be the psych major.”

“Just trying to understand,” he said mildly. “You’ve been here in Minneapolis for two years, so where were you in the two middle years?”

“Hiding,” she said, one brow lifted. “I’m good at that.”

“I know you are. Where were you hiding?”

“Well, having a killer in our secret shelter kind of compromised our secrecy. Dana closed down, she and Ethan bought this big house, and now she’s foster mom central. I could have moved in with her, but I needed my space. So I got a job at what I thought then was the perfect place-a rehab center for people who were newly blind.”

Noah frowned. He hadn’t known this. “Because they couldn’t see you?”

“Pretty much. I liked it there. I could work on my degree at night and never needed to leave the grounds.”

This made him angry. “For two years? Why did you leave there?”

“I got a kick in the ass from one of our clients. He’d lost his sight in an accident-hard enough, but he was a surgeon. His career, in his mind, was over.”

“Was it?”

“Of course not. He couldn’t do surgery, but he could other things. Over time, and with a lot of nagging, he began to accept that. He restarted his life, reinvented himself.”

“You saved him.”

She shook her head, embarrassed. “No. I was just his friend.”

“I can see that.” For all she’d endured, Eve was a nurturing soul with a full heart. That was the quality that had first attracted him. “You take care of people. That’s a gift.”

He’d surprised her, he could see. “Thank you.”

“So your friend left this rehab center?” he asked and she nodded.

“He’s teaching now. But before he left, he did a little confronting of his own, with me. Told me I’d been hiding in the dark. Gave me hell. And even though Dana and all my other friends and family had told me the same thing, it meant more coming from him.”

“He’d earned your trust, too.”

“Yeah. He did.”

“So, coming full circle, you trust me even though I’ve done nothing to earn it. Let me ask you something.” He leaned closer. “What are you afraid I’ll do to you?”

Her cheeks darkened, causing her scar to appear under the makeup she so carefully applied. He could tell her the old scar had never bothered him, even before her surgery, but he knew she’d never believe him. Not yet.

“Eve?” he prompted when she said nothing. “Are you worried you’ll lose control with me?” Her eyes flashed and he knew he’d scored a hit. He didn’t stop, because he knew if he had a prayer of reaching her, it would have to be now. Once she got away from him, she wasn’t likely to come back soon. “Are you afraid I’ll make you feel something? That after six years of watching from the sidelines you’ll finally feel something?”

“No,” she snapped. But she didn’t move an inch.

“Then what are you afraid of?”

“That I’ll get dependent on feeling something,” she snarled. Abruptly she stood, shoving her chair. “It’s better to choose to have no one than to get dependent on someone, only to lose him. That ‘better to have loved and lost’ shit? It’s shit. I can’t go through that. I won’t.”

He leaned back, his heart pounding as he watched her. “Do you want me, Eve?”

“Yes,” she hissed. “I did the first time you walked up to the bar. You looked me in the eye and if you knew how rare that was, you’d know what it meant.”