whisper. “Can you get it out of here without raising questions or causing a problem?”
He didn’t even know what it was. He’d been to the house many times and didn’t remember a safe. That probably meant a small one, which made his task easier. No way could he load a heavy safe on his back and get it out of there without questions.
“I’ll be able to take the contents out.” He made the distinction but didn’t know if she picked up on it or not. “And when I do I plan on looking through whatever is in there, so don’t even bother arguing about that.”
She linked her hand under his elbow. “I should be able to do something to convince you not to invade my privacy.”
The words skidded across his senses. She didn’t mean...couldn’t mean... “Don’t do that.”
Her dark eyes filled with confusion. “What?”
Doubt kicked him in the gut, but he ignored it. “If that’s the kind of offer I think it is—”
She shot him a frown that suggested she was just about to kick him. “Oh, please. It was an honest comment.”
“Before someone tried to kill you tonight, you would have just had to ask and I would have left your personal life alone.” That wasn’t quite true. His job provided him with the ability to check out certain details. If he thought she was in trouble, he would not have hesitated to rush in and help out. “But now that I know you’re in danger and hiding something, the chance of you winning this battle is zero.”
“You don’t play fair.” She waved a hand between them. “Whipping out that whole bodyguard, good-guy thing.”
He had no idea what that meant, so he skipped over it. “Can we carry the contents?”
“Yes.” The answer came quickly and didn’t sound all that convincing.
But that didn’t change the plan. He only had one real play here, and it depended on keeping Connor away from the usual full-house search. “We grab whatever this is, head to a dark and quiet place I know to get something to eat, and you tell me what the big secret is.”
Her mouth dropped open. “You can eat after all that’s happened?”
The woman latched on to the damnedest comments. “I can always eat.”
“How is that possible?”
Shane couldn’t remember the last time a situation had robbed him of his appetite. If it didn’t mean more hours in the gym, he’d eat even more during the day. “I’m not exactly small.”
She leaned against the porch railing. “Oh, I know.”
She did it again. The husky tone. The potentially provocative phrasing. Much more of this and he’d hustle her out of there and do something really stupid. “Makena.”
Silence screamed between them. After a few seconds she lifted her hands as if in mock surrender. “Fine. Sneak stuff out, eat and talk. Got it.”
He could stick to that plan. He had to if he wanted to remain sane. “There, was that so hard?”
“Actually, yes.”
A weight lifted off his shoulders. “Well, you better get used to it.”
“The bossiness, the need you have to get your way—which?”
“All of it. Because for the next day, I’m all you’ve got.” And for some reason, that made him feel infinitely better.
Shane hadn’t issued an empty threat. Makena could actually feel the time running out as she sat in a tucked-away corner booth of a diner she’d never heard of. Never mind that they were on her turf. Even with the out-of-control way he drove, he lived more than a half hour away. She spent all of her time in and around Chestertown. Yet he’d driven maybe fifteen miles and found some dive she never even knew existed. Drove right to it, so he definitely knew it was there.
“The owners don’t spend a lot on lights.” She squinted in the dark, trying to make out the faces of the diners sitting nearby but giving up. The smell of French fries and cheese lured her in. If the food tasted half as good as it smelled, she’d be back.
“It was just paperwork.” He leaned an elbow on either side of his plate and ignored his hamburger. “That’s what had you all twitchy.”
Sounded as if Shane wanted to jump right into work and the safe and her secrets. No. Thank. You.
She held up her sandwich. “It’s actually grilled cheese.”
He flattened a hand against the fake-wood table. “I know you’re thinking you can drag this out, throw off my concentration.”
She let the cheese stretch in a string before breaking it off and popping it in her mouth. “I’m hoping.”
“No.”
Energy pounded off him. Every line of his body suggested he’d nip and pick at this until he got his answers. The intense stare. The stiff shoulders. That determined punch to his voice.
She gave up and dumped the sandwich on her plate. “You do understand this has been a rough night, right?”
He frowned. “I guess. Sort of.”
She thought about kicking him under the table but leaned in, dragging her body halfway across the table toward him, instead. “Did you miss the part where a guy died on my floor?”
“That sort of thing is not that out of the ordinary for me.”
Scary thing was she knew he wasn’t lying. Any sane woman would run. Take off in the opposite direction and not look back. She’d tried that. She honestly had. She’d dated other guys and pretended her heart didn’t do triple time whenever she saw him. None of it worked.
The big tough-guy thing, the pretty face and linebacker body all combined to knock her off balance. She’d been attracted to him from the start, and the feelings refused to die. But right now she needed him to be more than the man she wove wild dreams about each night. She needed him to back off on her secrets but stay close in case someone really was after her.
She dropped back against the ripped booth and stared him down. “Your work scares me.”
“It’s fine.” He waved her concerns off without ever breaking eye contact. “Back to our deal. I believe you have something to say to me.”
She glanced up, about to tiptoe through the facts, when the words clogged in her throat. She could make out one face in the diner. Wasn’t tough, since he walked directly toward her, in a line right behind Shane. Slow and steady steps with a face filled with fury.
A ball of anxiety started spinning in her stomach. She had to sit on her hands to keep from fidgeting. “Were we followed here?”
Shane picked most of the toppings off his burger. “You’ve been watching too much television.”
She couldn’t move. All of a sudden her body froze and her mind went blank. The guy could have a gun or...she needed Shane on high alert. “You don’t understand.”
Shane’s expression changed as he shifted in his seat and glanced behind him. “What are you—”
The unwanted guest stopped right at the end of the table and stared at her. “Heard you had some trouble at your place tonight.”
He looked far too happy about the idea. He’d also just painted a target on his chest as the lead suspect in her attack. “How would you know that?”
Shane stood up, shoving his way out until he seemed to take up most of the space around the booth. “Who are you?”
“You on a date with her?” Jeff barked