.

my ribs.”

      “You’re not going to find him now, Jerrica.” He patted the pocket of his shirt. “But I have his fingerprints. He wasn’t wearing gloves.”

      She stopped and leaned against Gray’s shoulder. “You’re right. I’m not going to find him out there.”

      His arm came around her, and she put more pressure against his body, soaking in his warmth and power.

      He squeezed her and his voice roughened as he said, “He had that knife. How’d you get out of it? When I got here, you had the upper hand.”

      “My senses were already on high alert. When I saw him out here instead of Amit, I knew something was wrong, so when he came at me I was ready. All those years of martial arts paid off. I gave him a quick shot to the face, and it startled him into dropping the knife.”

      Gray kissed the side of her head. “Ever think of trying out for Delta Force?”

      She closed her eyes for a few seconds just to inhale the scent of him, all that clean masculinity making her feel soft and protected—even though she’d just kicked some guy’s ass—almost. Feeling soft and protected was a dangerous place to be. The last time she felt soft and protected, her whole world had blown up.

      She stepped back and shook her head. “They’d never have me.”

      “Let’s go back inside. There’s a slice of lemon loaf in there with your name on it.”

      He tugged on her arm and she went willingly, even though she couldn’t stop looking over her shoulder.

      She asked, “What do you think he did with Amit and why?”

      Gray opened the back door of the coffeehouse and ushered her inside, the smell of coffee replacing the stench of garbage and fear that permeated the alley.

      “I don’t know. What did he want with you? Did he say anything? Was he trying to get you to go with him or was he trying to…kill you?”

      “I’m not sure.” She flipped her hair over one shoulder. “I didn’t stop to ask him.”

      Gray seated her at a table, and keeping one eye on her, he retrieved two plates from the counter. He slipped the piece of lemon cake in front of her. “Eat.”

      She sawed off a corner. “This all has something to do with Amit looking into that arms stash in Nigeria. I’m sure of it.”

      “Which means it probably has to do with Major Denver. But why come after you?”

      “Maybe because Amit called me, so they had my number. Maybe Amit didn’t give them anything, and they thought they’d try me. They’d want to stop whatever hacking Amit is doing into that system.”

      “Stop how?”

      “Get into Dreadworm’s space and shut it all down. If the government is behind this, they’ve been wanting to shut down Dreadworm for years.” She popped the bite of cake into her mouth and the taste of the sweet, tart lemon on her tongue almost erased the ashes left there by the conversation.

      Had Amit divulged Dreadworm’s location? If so, she’d have to mobilize Olaf’s army to back up all the programs and data and physically move the computers before they were destroyed.

      “Why don’t you call Amit again—just for fun. Let’s see what happens.”

      Jerrica caught a crumb of lemon cake from the corner of her mouth with her tongue and pulled out her phone. She scrolled to her recent calls and tapped Amit’s name. Her stomach churned as she listened to the ringing on the other end. “No voice mail coming up. They must’ve turned off his phone. Do you think…?”

      “No.” Gray dabbed a flake of chocolate from his plate and sucked it off his finger. “They can’t get anything out of a dead man.”

      “They can make him stop what he’s doing. If they know he hacked into this classified system, Amit’s death ensures that stops immediately.”

      “But it doesn’t, does it?” Gray planted his elbows on the table on either side of his half-eaten croissant. “If he wrote a program to get into this secret database, that’s going to keep running whether or not Amit is there to monitor it. Am I wrong?”

      “You surprise me, Gray Prescott.” She hunched forward and rubbed her thumb across a chocolate smudge on his chin. “You really were listening to me.”

      “I always listened to what you had to say, Jerrica. You’re one of the most fascinating people I know. Why wouldn’t I?” He placed the tip of his finger against his chin where she’d just cleaned it off.

      “Because you hated everything I did, everything it implied.”

      “Hate?” He rubbed his knuckles against his jaw. “That’s a strong word. I didn’t believe what you were doing was right…or necessary.”

      “And now?” She folded her hands, prim as a schoolgirl, waiting for her absolution.

      “I’m still not sure it’s right, but it sure as hell is necessary. If people within the government are actively working against the interests of the US, those people need to be outed and stopped. Dreadworm can do that.”

      “It’s worse than that, Gray, and you know it. These moles in our government aren’t just working against us, they’re working with terrorists to kill our fellow citizens. It’s happening. We have all the pieces. Major Denver has all the pieces. We just need to fit them together to discover the who, what and when.” She swiped a napkin across her mouth and crumpled it in her fist. “And we need to save Amit.”

      “Amit’s going to have to save himself. Does Dreadworm have some sort of protocol in place that tells you what to do if one of you is…captured like this?”

      “For communicating, but nothing for an abduction.” She tossed the mangled napkin onto her plate. “You know Olaf went into hiding when he felt the snare tightening.”

      “It was worldwide news. Of course, I know.” He reached across the table and entwined his fingers with hers. “When I heard that, all I could think of was you and your safety, and now here I am contributing to the danger.”

      Her heart fluttered when Gray said things like that to her, but pretty words didn’t mean much. She hadn’t been able to count on him before. He’d bolted once and he might do so again when he got what he wanted from her. It might be even worse this time if he felt guilty over his complicity in hacking into secure systems, but this time those systems belonged to rogue government employees, not the good guys as Gray had assumed.

      Just because his family was so plugged into government service didn’t mean all those nameless, faceless bureaucrats roaming the halls of Washington had the best interests of this country as their number one priority…or as any priority.

      She disentangled her fingers from his. “You’re not endangering me. I was onto this conspiracy before you arrived in New York, although I have to admit the data I stumbled on piqued my curiosity even more when I realized the person at the center of this swirling controversy was none other than your commander, Major Denver.”

      Gray cocked his head to the side. “You surprise me, Jerrica West.”

      “Why?” She slid her hands from the table and tucked them between her bouncing knees. Had she revealed how crazy attracted she still was to him?

      “You remembered my Delta Force commander’s name. I guess you were listening to me.” He brushed his fingers together over his plate, a smug little smile playing about his lips.

      Listening? She’d hung on to every word out of his mouth, never quite believing he was truly hers or would stick around. And she’d been right.

      “You had some interesting stories, yourself.”

      “I thought…” He shrugged his broad shoulders, and a tide of color rushed into his face.

      She