against his chest.
“You said something like that before and it’s idiotic.” She grabbed her purse and shot up from her chair. “Let’s go.”
He followed her toward the door so closely she could feel his warm breath stirring her hair. For a good-looking guy, Gray had a surprising number of insecurities. His well-connected family had mega bucks, and she’d figured it always had him wondering if women wanted him or his family’s wealth and connections.
With her own stash of cash in the bank from the settlement and the modest way she lived, he’d never been able to accuse her of going for the gold, so he’d made up another reason that she’d be interested in him.
She tossed her head and flicked her gaze at the many women tracking his progress out of the coffeehouse. Did the man have a mirror?
When they hit the sidewalk, she took his arm. “I’m worried about Amit. We have to find him before they hurt him.”
“Or break him.”
“That’s not going to happen.” She pulled him toward the subway station. “Olaf’s army is loyal. We don’t break.”
“You may not break under the gentle, monitored, legal questioning of the government, but that’s not what we’re dealing with here. If these are government agents, they’re not your mother’s government agents.”
She tripped to a stop at the top of the stairs leading to the platform. “Your mother’s, maybe. They’re exactly my mother’s and my father’s.”
As she trotted downstairs, tears blurred her eyes and Gray put a steadying hand on her back.
He ducked his head to hers. “Sorry. Stupid thing to say.”
When they boarded the train, she gripped the pole and swayed toward him as the car moved forward, her eyes locking onto his dark blue ones.
She shuffled closer to Gray, almost whispering in his ear. “Amit’s in danger, isn’t he?”
“You’re both in danger.”
“I have to tell Olaf. Maybe we should go to the Dreadworm offices now.” She chewed on her bottom lip, all the sweetness of the lemon cake gone.
“And get followed? Not a good idea.” He pinched her chin between his thumb and forefinger. “Stop doing that. You’ll make it bleed.”
“You’re right. Now is not the time to go running off to Dreadworm. That’s what they’d expect.” She slid a gaze to the side. “Someone could be on our tail now.”
The train squealed as it rolled into their stop and the force threw her against Gray’s chest. She rested there for a few seconds, long enough for Gray to balance his chin on top of her head.
“We’ll figure this out. We’ll find Amit.”
As she pulled away from him, strands of her hair clung to the scruff on his jaw, connecting them for seconds longer, seconds she needed to collect herself.
They hustled down the sidewalk, shoulders bumping, and she’d never felt so safe—except for the last time Gray had been with her in New York—before he found out what she did.
When they reached her building, one of the other residents pushed through the door and held it open for them, nodding at Jerrica. She gave him a hard stare.
The door closed behind them and Gray watched her curiously. “You don’t know him?”
“I do, but he’s never seen you before in his life. How’d he know you were with me?”
Gray raised his hand clasping hers. “Maybe this is a hint.”
“You never know. I could be your captive.” She studied Gray’s face, but he didn’t even roll one eye. That attack had scared him as much as it had her.
They clumped up the stairs, their boots filling the staircase with noise. Jerrica placed her hand against her door and turned the first lock.
She froze as icy fingers played up her spine. Then she hissed between her teeth. “Someone’s been here.”
Gray’s muscles tensed and he stepped between Jerrica and the door. He bent his head to hers, his lips brushing her ear. “How do you know?”
“This lock.” She circled a piece of tarnished metal with her fingertip. “It locks from the outside with a key. I locked it when we left, and now it’s not locked. The other two lock automatically when the door closes.”
“Unlock the rest and stand back.” He hovered over her shoulder as she shoved her key into two more locks, clicking them open.
Earlier, he’d taken one look at that line of locks on Jerrica’s door and figured he’d have better luck coming through the window. Had someone else come to the same conclusion and then left through the front door?
Or was that someone else still waiting inside?
As he pushed into the room, he clutched the gun in his pocket and tensed his muscles. A breeze ruffled the curtains at the window—the same window he used earlier.
“You didn’t leave a window open a slice, did you?”
“Absolutely not.”
“Stay back.” Nobody had jumped out at them or appeared with guns blazing, but that didn’t seem to be their style. The guy in the alley had had an opportunity to stab Jerrica when she first went out there, but he’d wanted something else.
He pulled the gun from his pocket and followed it into the room, raking his gaze from side to side. Jerrica’s possessions, in place and undisturbed, belied the presence of an intruder.
Tipping back his head, he scanned the loft. From his vantage point, nobody had disturbed Jerrica’s neat space. If it weren’t for that lock and the window open a crack, they’d have no reason to believe anyone had compromised her apartment.
Together, they walked into the guest bedroom downstairs and Gray checked the closet and the bathroom.
Jerrica gasped and his finger tightened on the trigger.
“My laptop’s upstairs.”
Lunging after her, he reached out to grab her but she twisted away from him and stomped up the rest of the stairs. He had no choice but to follow her, his panic causing him to pant.
As Jerrica dove for the laptop on the nightstand, Gray threw open the closet doors. The mostly dark-colored clothes shimmied on their hangers. His hands plowed through the materials, skimming leather and denim and soft cotton, but no intruders crouched in the recesses of the closet.
He took a step back and bumped into the foot of Jerrica’s bed where she was sitting cross-legged, hunched over her computer.
“They didn’t take your laptop? That’s weird.” His eyes darted around the neat, bare room, as impersonal as a jail cell, and he took a deep breath. “Are you sure someone broke in?”
She raised her gaze from the laptop and her green eyes narrowed. “I knew right away. I always secure that lock. They underestimated me if they thought I wouldn’t notice that, the window…or other things.”
“Such as?” Again, his gaze wandered around the spare room.
“I can’t explain it to you—it’s the placement of a book, the angle of a cushion. They didn’t want to leave a mess. Didn’t want me to think they’d been here.” She dug her fingers into her black hair, and pulled it back from her face with one hand. “That’s why they left my laptop.”
“If they didn’t take anything and didn’t want to scare you by tossing your place, then what?”
She