He’d been wondering the same thing. “Did you happen to mention to the guy who grabbed you that Eddie wouldn’t be back for a few days?”

“Of course n-” She bit her lip and looked stricken. “Oh.”

“Oh, what?”

“I guess I might have said something when I was arguing with him.”

Wasn’t that just perfect?

“I’m sorry.”

Another thump, a closer one now.

Turning to her, he slid his hand across her mouth and put his lips to her ear. “Shh.”

When she nodded, he removed his hand but stared at her for a long time. Her hair was wild, and so were her eyes. He couldn’t see the bruises one of the assholes below had left on her but knew they were still there. And though he couldn’t see her thoughts, she felt icy cold, and was trembling, her terror coming through loud and clear.

He squeezed her gently, trying to get some of his warmth into her. Ironic that he was sweating from being enclosed and she was a virtual Popsicle. “I want you to go back,” he said in her ear. “Go back to where we climbed up and wait there-”

She gripped him tight. “No-”

“I’m going to go alone. I can do it silently-”

“So can I-”

“No.” He didn’t want to bet on that, as he doubted she’d ever done anything silently in her entire life. “I’m going to drop down into the farthest room I can get to and then-”

“What if they find you?”

“They won’t.”

If he’d thought her eyes were big before, they were huge now, though he couldn’t see her exact expression. “You’re afraid of the dark, but you’ll take on four armed men?” she asked incredulously.

He felt the muscle in his jaw start jumping again. “I’ve had worse odds.”

“What did you say you did before you were an accountant?”

“Go back. Go back now.”

“You were on the right side of legal though, right? You are the good guy, right?”

“Go.” He nudged her to turn around.

“But-” She fought him and turned to face him again, all the while maintaining her balance on the beam.

He was beginning to see how she’d gotten herself so roughed up last night. But when he felt the fear coming off her in waves, he gave her one last squeeze. “Look, I’m coming right back for you,” he promised, although he never made promises. “Go, Tess.”

Then he physically turned her away from him once more, and gave her a little shove. This involved putting his hands on her and shockingly, he wanted to linger. Soothe. Calm.

Wasn’t that the damnedest thing.

But to do what he had to do, he put her firmly out of his mind with one deep breath. Despite being starving and half naked, he now concentrated on the task at hand.

That being not getting his ass kicked again.

5

WHEN TESSA KNEW A BETTER WAY, she wasn’t particularly good at following directions. She tried though, she really did. She understood Reilly wanted her out of the way so he wouldn’t have to worry about her as he dropped down into the house and tried to get them out safely.

She got that.

And she knew she’d never forget the sight of him forging ahead. Not afraid or uneasy-except for his aversion to the dark. Nope, no holding back for this man. And he hadn’t simply crawled along either.

He’d prowled. Like an animal on the hunt.

It occurred to her, and not for the first time, that under certain circumstances Reilly Ledger could be a dangerous man. Which, really, would only matter to her if she was attracted to him.

Damn it, she was attracted to him. That in turn was as unsettling as the sound of something scurrying off in the darkness.

Probably just a mouse, but she had a general thing against mice. Even so, she made it all the way back to the attic access above the room in which they’d spent the night. Huddling at the opening, arms wrapped around her knees, she looked down at the cot where they’d slept together, and that’s where she went wrong.

She started thinking.

Too much.

She started obsessing over what could be happening to Reilly right at that very moment. Clearly the guy thought he was invincible. He thought he could handle anything.

But despite his tough attitude, he was just an accountant. What if he didn’t make it? What then? What if they caught him and killed him this time?

No, she told herself when she started to shake. Reilly could take care of himself. She’d never met anyone more capable of taking care of himself.

After all, he’d had a gun. What kind of accountant carries a gun?

Don’t be the stupid chick, she reminded herself. Just climb back down into the room and huddle in a corner and be a good girl.

She had just hooked a leg over the opening when a sound from below stopped her cold. Her heart took off racing as she went as still as she could while shaking like a leaf, but it was no good. With her blood roaring through her ears she couldn’t hear.

What if someone was down there waiting for her?

Suddenly, the stupid chick idea of going back to Reilly seemed like the smart chick idea.

Once the decision was made, she carefully turned around, but still managed to move too quickly and lost a shoe. She watched it fall into the gray room and gave a sort of fatalistic shrug. In the scheme of things, if all she lost was a shoe, she’d feel pretty darn lucky.

Crawling back wasn’t as easy alone. She religiously followed the exact path they’d taken earlier, only this time without her six-foot human shield, removing the cobwebs that she felt certain held big, hairy spiders. She tried not to think about that, tried to think of other things…such as what could be happening to Reilly at this very moment.

She crawled faster. When she got halfway, she paused to listen for clues, but silence reigned. As quietly as she could and holding her breath, she continued past the point where she’d left Reilly. She could see another access panel up ahead, but still couldn’t hear a single sign of life. When she got to it, she could see this was where Reilly had dropped down. He’d muscled off the cover and left a gaping hole revealing what looked like a pristine tiled guest bathroom.

Speaking of which, after a long night, she needed one badly. Stomach growling as well, she carefully lowered her head into the opening. Yep, a bathroom. She reversed her position and stuck her feet through, thinking if she could just keep a good hold on the edge, she could lower herself down the entire length of her body, and hopefully reduce her fall by a full five feet, three inches.

Okay, five feet two.

She slid through, her dress snagging up around her hips as she hung there by her fingers, praying she really was the only one in the room, otherwise she was presenting quite the picture.

She took one last peek over her shoulder, and had just enough time to realize it was still a long fall when her fingers gave way.

She crumpled to the floor with a crash-landing that wasn’t the quiet one she’d hoped for. Quick as she could, she leaped to her feet and took a quick inventory.

No broken bones, just a sore butt. Good thing for her extra padding then. She was still missing a shoe, but she could live with that. Because she had to, she made use of the facilities, and then looked around her for something, anything, to use to protect herself. Silver tile, silver towels with gold bows, silver gilt around the mirrors and a bar of silver soap in the shape of a sea-shell. She needed…ah-ha. On the back of the toilet, she grabbed up one of two long silver candlestick holders, tossing aside the pretty ivory candle.

She hefted the thing in her hand like a weapon and was gratified by the weight.

What she wasn’t gratified by was the sick pit in her stomach. How many times had her big brother tried to teach her self-defense? How many times had she ended up on the mat laughing with Rafe shaking his head in disgust. She wasn’t laughing now, and with all her might she wished he was here.

Tiptoeing to the door, she cracked it open and peeked out. Nothing. She stepped out of the bathroom, brandishing the candlestick out in front of her as if she knew what she was doing.

Up ahead, she could see the vast living room, and beyond that, the kitchen. Then she caught a flash of movement in there and plastered herself against the wall, nearly hyperventilating.

With her pulse at a full marathon rate, she scooted her way down the hallway to the opening of the living room. No one. She moved toward the sliding glass door.

On the other side, in the kitchen before the island, facing away from her, Reilly suddenly appeared. Then he bent down, momentarily disappearing from her view, and when he came up again, there was a gun in his hand.

An involuntary gasp escaped her, and gun out, he whirled. For one dizzy moment all she could see was the muzzle pointed right at her. Before she could blink, he’d uncocked it, or whatever one did when one didn’t intend to shoot after all, and was standing before her, jerking her out of the living room, into the kitchen and around the corner. His laser beam eyes demanded answers but when she opened her mouth he put a hand to it, just as her thug came around the corner, still wearing his jeans and dirty thermal shirt.

When he saw them he raised an arm with a knife.

Reilly shoved her down and kicked the knife out of the guy’s hands with chilling ease, adding another well-placed kick to his stomach.

The guy doubled over, then fell to his knees, mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water before he flopped all the way to the floor.

Reilly stood over him. “What are you after?”

The guy offered a snide but interesting suggestion on what Reilly could do to himself. Reilly grabbed him by the hair and calmly lifted, then let his head hit the floor.

Given the squeal of pain this invoked, it was a hard hit.

“What are you after?” Reilly asked again.

“We were just going to mess up the place, that’s all.”

“Why?”

The guy apparently hesitated too long for the impatient Reilly, and got another head bump on the floor.

“Ouch! Stop!”

“Then talk.”

“Okay, look, we were hired to steal his stuff and mess the place up, that’s all.”

Reilly looked unimpressed. “Keep talking.”

“But we just thought since he was going to be gone, we’d camp out and live here for a few days. You know, really trash it in style.”

“Who’s paying you?”

He closed his eyes. “I don’t know.”

Reilly stood up. The guy on the floor kicked out to trip him.

Tessa cried out a warning and huddled back against the wall, but Reilly didn’t need her help. He did some sort of karate chop to the guy’s throat and out he went like a light.

There was a coil of rope on the counter and a knife. “Where did those come from?” she whispered.

“From our captors.” Reilly efficiently and quickly tied him up, and when he was done, he nodded curtly to Tessa. “Nice to know you can follow directions.”

“I…” Stunned by what she’d just seen, she just stared at him.

He gave her that long-suffering sigh she seemed to cause. “Call it in.”

“What?”

“I got all four of them,” he said with that eerie calm knack for understating. “Call 9-1-1.”

She started to stand but her knees were knocking together. From her perch on the cold tile floor she could see the other side of the island now, where two men lay bound and gagged.

“The fourth is in the foyer, also prone.” He moved back into the kitchen and picked up the phone on the wall, then shook his head with disgust. “They cut the lines. Come on-”

He grabbed her hand and pulled her up. For a moment, one very weak moment, she let her hands come to rest on his bare pecs but she resisted the urge to put her head down and beg for comfort because she’d just realized something more than a little unsettling.

Reilly Ledger was not hiding himself behind his tough, rough, dangerously edgy exterior. He was that tough, rough, dangerously edgy exterior.

Standing there, with the bad guys at his feet, he glanced around. Coolly. “Need my cell phone,” he said. “Stay.” He left for a moment, and came back with an armful of clothes that he dropped and started to pull on. A black T-shirt. Black jeans, from which he took out a cell phone and called 9-1-1 while he slid his feet into black athletic shoes.

As he talked to dispatch, he shoved his gun-the one he’d retrieved from one of the men on the floor-into his waistband. She tried not to think about that, that he carried a weapon on him, but she could do little else. She heard a half-hysterical giggle and was surprised to find it had come from her.

“Hey.” He clicked off the phone and looked at her, now fully dressed.