Then the world had gone to hell around them.
“You were supposed to be a one-time deal for me,” she admitted, echoing his thoughts, and her eyes were stark. “A chance for me to take control back, to prove I wasn’t some broken doll.”
A woman who took what she wanted.
Her head shook slowly. The tears had dried on her cheeks. “But I needed you. Just one time, but I needed you, and I had to find you again.”
He didn’t free her. Wouldn’t. “Good,” he said bluntly, “because if you hadn’t come back, I would have found you.”
And some of the shadows seemed to lift from her face. “The others all looked at me like I was going to break apart. They expected me to fail.” Her eyes searched his. “You looked at me in that bar, and you just saw a woman.”
A woman he’d wanted more than breath. “That’s what I see right now.” No, he saw that she was strong. So much stronger than he’d realized.
“I have to do my job, Max.” Her chin tipped up a bit. “I have to prove that I can do my job, no matter what comes at me.”
Why did those words sound like a warning?
“My job brought me to you. It took me to that bar,” her smile held a bitter edge, “but I never expected this. I thought I could be safe, that…”
No one would know. Though she didn’t speak, those words hung between them. “Then hell came crashing in,” Max said.
A grim nod. “And now we have to pick up the pieces.” Her sigh slipped easily from her lips. “So you know. You know it all now.”
“And you know my past.” A killer and a victim. Christ, talk about two worlds colliding. No wonder she’d been afraid when she first found out about him. The real surprise was that she’d ever let him touch her again knowing what he was.
But she’d taken him into her bed so sweetly and given so much. In bed, she’d never shown fear. Just passion.
“You killed to protect.” She shook her head. “You were a kid. You were trying to save your mother.”
He was a man now, and he’d do the same damn thing again. If that bastard who’d hurt Samantha was in front of him, he’d destroy the ass**le.
Her hands rose up, slowly, and curled around his neck. “I just—I thought you should know. If you want us to be together, you deserved to know.”
His lips skimmed the top of her cheek. The light, flowery scent of her shampoo teased his nose.
“We can start fresh now,” she said. “No more secrets.”
His eyes closed, and he held her. Her heart thudded so fast and hard that he could feel the beat against his chest. She’d bared her soul to him.
He lowered his head and took her lips. Trust. Yeah, he knew how delicate it was.
Hard to give. So very easy to break.
Max waited in Interrogation Room Two. His brother Quinlan sat in Room One. And the two other victims, Curtis Weatherly and Scott Jacobson, were scheduled to arrive any moment. Beth Dunlap hadn’t shown yet, but an agent had gone to the Malone house to collect her. Apparently, Beth wasn’t that interested in walking down memory lane.
Too bad. The walk wasn’t really optional.
Sam took a deep breath, pressed her sweaty hands against the front of her pants, and then knocked on Hyde’s office door.
When she heard him bark, “Come in,” she twisted the doorknob and poked her head inside.
“Sir,” Sam sucked in another deep breath, “I need to talk to you.”
His dark brows snapped together. “I thought you were supposed to be in interrogation.”
She pushed the door closed behind her. “You know—you know I’m seeing Max Ridgeway.” And that’s why she hadn’t understood when she’d been given her assignment that morning. “I can’t do an interrogation with him.”
His shoulders rolled back. “I thought that was just the cover.”
“No, sir, the relationship,” Is that what they had? “is real.”
Hyde dropped the pen that he’d been gripping in his hand. “Then you’re off the case.”
What she’d thought he’d say. Some of the tension eased from her shoulders. “I understand.”
“Officially.”
That one word froze her. “Ah, sir?”
The leather squeaked softly as he rose from his chair. Hyde came around the desk, his steps slow, deliberate, and his eyes never left her face. “We’ve got a problem. Quite a few problems, actually.” His head inclined toward her. “But you already know that, don’t you?”
That twist in her stomach said yes, she did.
“I don’t like this case, Kennedy. I don’t like any of these damn kidnapping cases. We got all our perps tied up for us—not just tied up—dead.”
Quite a body count.
“That’s a little too neat for me,” he said. “When everyone is dead, no one’s left to point the finger of blame.”
With an effort, she kept her hands at her sides and hoped she looked relaxed. Hoped.
Hyde’s gaze weighed her. “We have questions that we need answered. Those victims who were dodging us for weeks, now their asses have finally been dragged home by their parents.”
Because their parents thought they were safe now. Was anyone ever really safe?
“Until I’m satisfied with the resolution of the serial kidnapping case, it stays open.”
Sam forced herself to nod. “Of course.”
“And I need you.” His eyes glittered at her. “I still want you to watch the interrogation with Max.”
She was already shaking her head.
His hand rose. “Hear me out.”
Her head stopped shaking.
“I want you to watch him, and let me know if you think he’s lying.”
“Sir, I don’t—”
“You’re the one who knows him.” Hyde crossed his arms. “Officially, I can’t let you to go into that viewing room…”
But unofficially, he wanted her to spy on the session and report back to him. “I just told you he was my lover.” Her gaze didn’t waver from his, and she kept her spine straight.
“And if Ridgeway doesn’t have anything to hide, it doesn’t matter. There’s a lot of money at stake here, Kennedy, and even good people can get tempted by the promise of millions.”
But Max didn’t care about Frank’s money. Max had built his own way in the world.
“If he’s hiding something,” Hyde continued, “then wouldn’t you want to know anyway?”