She frowned, not at all expecting this. “Yes. I did. I sent you the file I found two days ago.”

“I know! I’ve been sick in bed with the flu, and I finally managed to check in with the office about what I missed and found you acting like an idiot. What the hell were you thinking?”

She felt strange—shocked by the level of his outrage—and was immediately defensive. “This is my thing, Jack,” she said slowly. “I can do anything I want.”

“But you have no idea how dangerous this is. If these people were prepared to kill your father, do you think they’d hesitate at all to hurt you if they found you were—”

“Stop it,” Kelly interrupted, feeling rattled and irrationally guilty. “I’m paying you for your help. Not your protection. There is a deadline here, and I couldn’t wait for you to get your guys to finally do it. Now tell me what you found.”

Jack gave an audible sigh, like he was resigning himself to the situation. “My guys are working on it, trying to put the whole picture together. I don’t know anything yet.”

“So you wanted me to call you just to—”

“To yell at you for being stupid. Yeah.”

She gave a sigh very similar to the one she’d heard from him a minute ago. “I know it was stupid, Jack. But you don’t seem to understand. I don’t care anymore. I’ll take any risk I need to take to get this over with. I have to know the truth. I have to know.” Her voice broke on the last word, as she thought about Caleb, about how much he’d opened up to her, about how vulnerable he’d made himself with her.

Just to have her take advantage of it.

She didn’t want to be that person. The person who would do such a thing to another. She hated that she’d evidently become someone like that.

Maybe it was who she’d always been.

“What happened, Kelly?” Jack’s tone was different now, careful. “Why the rush?”

“I don’t know. Caleb has this friend who seems suspicious of me, and I think he’s been sniffing around. I don’t want him to find out anything. Can you check into my background story and add some sort of false clues, to make sure he doesn’t find anything?”

“Yeah. Give me one day to put the stuff together, and then I’ll have something for you. In the meantime, why don’t you get yourself out of there? If this friend is really sniffing around, it could seriously be dangerous.”

“I’ll tell Caleb I’ve got a job or something to do, so I can make myself scarce today, but I’m not going to totally withdraw. He’d never believe any excuse I gave him, and that would just make him think something was wrong. I’m not going to end this until I know the truth.”

“Okay. But be careful. I’m liking this less and less.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t like it either, but that’s not really the point.”

“I know. I know. The truth shall set you free and all that shit.” Jack gave a soft, exasperated groan. “I’ll have you know I worried a lot less before I met you.”

That made her feel strange and uncomfortable. She didn’t like the idea that Jack—that anyone—was worrying about her. “No one asked you to worry.”

“Yeah, but I’m a go-getter, you know. I don’t wait to be asked.”

She couldn’t help but smile. “Who would have thought the tough security type would be a mother hen at heart?”

“Just don’t spread it around. Don’t want to ruin my tough-guy image.”

“My lips are sealed. Are you feeling better? Sorry you had the flu. I was wondering why I hadn’t heard back.”

“Yeah, sorry about the delay. I feel basically alive today, which wasn’t true of the last two days.”

“Good. Well, I better go.”

“Okay. Take care. Don’t do anything else stupid.”

“It’s too late for that kind of advice.”

“Don’t I know it.”

Kelly said goodbye and disconnected the call, lowering the phone and staring at Ralph, who was running in circles trying to catch a bird, which seemed to be intentionally teasing the dog.

This was almost over. Pretty soon she would have the answers she needed.

And she wouldn’t have to feel like this—completely conflicted, completely helpless, completely trapped in her feelings and what she was afraid might be true. In this downward spiral that had no end.

She could hardly believe that, not so long ago, she’d started out on this plan to coldly, heartlessly bring Caleb Marshall down.

When now all she wanted to do was prove he wasn’t guilty at all.

She was feeling anxious and restless when she got back to the house. What she’d suggested to Jack was a good idea. She would make up an excuse today to stay away from Caleb. She would go back to her apartment and get her grounding again. Then she would know the truth and she could figure out what to do from there.

The more distance she could get from him to prepare for the final step, the better it would be.

He was coming down the stairs, dressed in an expensive black business suit, when she came back into the house.

She paused, staring up at him as he descended.

For a moment she lost her breath. He was so gorgeous and so confident, and intelligence, masculinity, and depth radiated off of him like some sort of invisible force field.

And there was something so tender underneath it all—something she never would have dreamed of until she’d gotten to know him.

He smiled at her. “You’re up early.”

“Yeah. I don’t know what happened, but I couldn’t seem to stay in bed. It’s a beautiful day.”

“I know. I was just checking my schedule, and I have a light afternoon. I thought I might cut out early.”

She blinked, so surprised she couldn’t think of anything to say immediately. “Leave work early?” He never did anything like that.

“Yeah. Do you want to do something outside? It’s too nice a day to stay indoors.” He was still smiling—this time in a slow, seductive way that was almost impossible to resist.

This wasn’t at all what she’d been expecting. She was going to make up an excuse today to stay away from him. “I’ve got to finish up a portrait today,” she began, trying to fall back on the reason she’d come up with earlier.

He took her head in his hands and leaned down into a soft kiss. “Well, finish it up quickly so we can spend the afternoon together. I think I can get away by two.”

He’d had a really hard day yesterday. She still remembered how shocked and worried she’d been when she’d come home from her dinner with Reese to find him tense and shaky in his office, with his computer monitor in pieces on the floor. She’d never seen him lose control like that before.

It must have been a serious blow.

He needed her. He was playing it off right now, acting like it was just a casual, spontaneous idea, but he might really need her today, after what had happened yesterday.

No matter how smart and safe it would be to follow her initial plan, she didn’t want to let him down. So she heard herself saying, “Okay. I think I can finish up by then too.”

He leaned to kiss her again, smiling against her lips. “Good. I’m looking forward to it.”

She smiled too, happy that she’d managed to please him.

It was just one more day.

In the scheme of things, how much damage could one more day do?

—

Caleb wanted to take a hike.

She wasn’t sure what had possessed him, since he wasn’t normally an outdoorsy person, except to take his dog to the park on Saturday mornings. But he seemed to have the idea in his head, and she couldn’t think of any reason to refuse.

She actually liked to hike, as long as they didn’t hike through woods.

He knew she was scared of the woods. Now he even knew why—or at least, as close to why as she was able to tell him. He wouldn’t be foolish enough to think he could take her there.

It would probably all be okay.

They drove a couple of hours outside the city to a national park. Caleb was in a strange mood. He was acting light and casual, the way he had that morning, but there was something tense underlying it. Like he was driven by a force he was masking with the superficial demeanor.