“You’re not okay. You got shot at because of me, and now this…” Then she says, so low I have to strain to hear, “I’m scared.”

“I’ll keep you safe. I’ll do all I can.”

“It’s not that.”

“Then what?” She’s confusing me, and fuck all I want is to hold her and feel her and taste her…

The doc pats my shoulder, breaking through my thoughts. “You’re good to go, boy.”

“Thanks.” I have to crane my neck to meet his gaze. Doc, Dr. Jazz for those who didn’t know him since they could barely walk, is well over six feet tall. He pushes his silver glasses up his long nose and with this dark suit and tie he makes a good impersonation of Freud.

Yeah, I wonder what Freud would have to say about my fears and theories. He’d have a field day. Because if Ray doesn’t believe me, then nobody does. I’m even starting to doubt myself, my memories, what I know.

Bring on the straightjacket. It’s been a long time coming.

“Listen, you have a lot going on,” Raylin is saying, and I blink, forcing my mind back on track. What is she talking about? “You don’t need my shit, too. No need to do anything, pay anything. I’ll just run. I’m used to running. They’ll never catch me.”

What the fuck?

“The hell, Ray. I’m doing this. We’re doing this. Those sons of bitches won’t stop at anything to get their money, and I’m not leaving you at their mercy.”

“You saving damsels in distress now, Storm?” Rook is leaning back on a kitchen counter, hands in his pant pockets, as the technician unscrews something from inside the broken, melted mess that was my stove.

A stove I never used in the months I spent here. Not once. It could have exploded any time I puttered in my kitchen, opening take-out containers and taking down dishes from the rack.

“That’s my business.”

“So you really don’t think she’s here for your money, then?” Rook blinks innocently. “That she spun a story to get a couple millions off you and vanish?”

“Fuck off.” I glare at him, daring him to keep acting like an idiot. “She didn’t know who I was.”

“Sure she didn’t. And she will forget again, the moment you give her what she wants.”

Fuck. I push to my feet and kick the chair across the kitchen. “Shut. Up! She’s not like the stupid girls you like to date, moron.”

“Stop.” Raylin backs away, but her face is not frightened. It’s sad. “Just stop.”

“Ray…”

She spins around and heads back into the bedroom. I follow, limping, because I somehow managed to fuck up my leg again. From the sex or curling over her the moment of the explosion? Who knows?

Fun.

She’s opened the walk-in closet and is pulling pants from the hangers. I stand by the bed. “What are you doing?”

“Leaving. I need pants and shoes. Can’t walk out only dressed in your shirt.” Her voice is clipped, her movements jerky.

“You can’t go.”

“I can’t stay.” She grabs a pair of dark pants of mine and pulls them on. I stare at her creamy legs. She’s naked below my shirt, and despite the anger and what feels a lot like panic welling inside me, my dick stirs, interested in what is going on.

“Yes, you can. At least until the debt is paid and you’re free.”

“I’m not free. God, Storm, don’t you see?” She turns to look for a belt. The pants hang dangerously low over her hips. “I never was.”

I rub the back of my head and my back throbs, stitches pulling. “You haven’t told me everything, have you?”

“Trust takes time.”

“Really?” I reach for her, grip her wrist. The belt she took falls from her fingers to the floor. “I trust you.”

“Are you sure about that?” Her dark eyes still look wet when she looks up at me. “I wish we could go back to the beach house. Back in time. Before I knew who you are, and you…”

“What is it? What haven’t you told me?”

“I should go.”

“No.” My throat is tight, with anger, with fear, with something I can’t name. “Not letting you go like that.”

“Like what. What am I to you? A friend with benefits? A fuck-buddy?”

“Please, Ray…” I thought I still had time with her. Thought I’d be fine without her. “Rook’s an idiot. Ignore him. Just talk to me.”

“Can’t.”

I turn her around, put my arms around her and clutch her to me. “You’re the one who caught me, Ray. Don’t you fucking let go.”

RAYLIN

“You’re the one who caught me,” he says, the same words he told me that stormy night when I pulled him away from the crashing waves, and then, “Don’t you fucking let go.”

His words are a low blow. He’s doing it again, knocking over my defenses, turning my anger into something different. Something better. When he looks at me like this, it feels as if my heart will crack in two.

“Talk to me, Ray.” His voice rumbles in his chest. “You’re not saying anything. Let me in.”

He’s already in. He has no idea. What he wants…

“Tell me what you haven’t told me,” he says. “No more secrets. We’re going in as soon as Hawk is back in town tomorrow. We’re going to talk to the triad, and we need to know exactly what is going on.”

He’s right.

If I walk away it will be easier, though. Easier for him. And he won’t think that I want to be here for his money.

“I trust you,” he says again, as if reading my mind. “What you tell me won’t change anything.”

Won’t it?

“I feel good with you,” I whisper, tired of fighting him, fighting this thing between us. “I feel happy. I don’t want to go. I want to stay. I want many things I can’t have, don’t you see? A family, a home. A cat.”

“A cat? What are you…?” He frowns, his blue eyes darkening. “Ray.”

“Hear me out. It’s dangerous, okay? Even if you paid the triad back the money. They want something else. It’s personal. And that’s more important to them than the bucks.”

“What then? What do they want?”

I hate this. I hate putting him in danger. I hate even more the fact that he’ll have to let me go. He can’t afford to do this.

“Me.”

“You.” He releases me and takes a step back, his dark brows knitting. “What about you?”

“You’re a moron, Storm,” Rook says from the door opening, startling me. “She’s playing you. She wants to roll you, get your money.”

Crap. Why does he have to be here when I’m doing this? It hurts enough as it is.

“Shut up,” Storm growls, and God, I’ll miss his voice, that sexy growl. Everything he does is sexy. He’s beautiful. He’s too good for me.

And now he’s about to find out.

God, Rook is right.

“This isn’t about the money,” I say.

Rook snorts and mutters something I don’t catch.

“Then what is it about?” Storm releases me and takes a step back, his dark brows knitting. “What else is there?”

“It’s about me.” I have to swallow hard, my throat so dry is hurts. “Even if you paid the triad back the money… I can’t stay. You were right. I should be on my way.”

“Told you, man,” Rook says, a dark brow lifting, damning me. “Stop listening to her and send her on her goddamn way.”

But Storm doesn’t seem to hear or notice him, at all. “Come on, Ray. You’re talking but not saying anything.”

He’s looking at me, waiting. And I’m about to tell him the whole truth, because the flare in his dark blue eyes isn’t anger, or disappointment.

It’s hope.

Chapter Fifteen

STORM

“This is complicated,” she says, her voice quiet, “because… because I lied to you, Storm.”

“See?” Rook says triumphantly.

“Shut the fuck up, Rook. And get out.” I don’t even glance his way. “I’m talking to my girl.”

Quiet spreads. Seconds tick by. A grunt, then footsteps moving away, and he’s gone.

Fucking Rook.

I have an itch between my shoulder blades. We need to get out of here, but first I need to hear what she has to say—before she changes her mind. Breaking through her shell is damn hard.