She walked around the bed and got in his face. “I don’t want you here. I don’t need you. I don’t need your help. I can sure as hell do without your brand of protection.”
The words stung, but Jake didn’t let himself react. He figured he’d had that one coming after what happened six years ago. He’d never forgiven himself for not getting to her in time to keep her from going back into the lion’s den…
He may not have seen her for six years, but he’d kept track. She might think she was prepared, with her brown belt in karate and handgun training, but there was no way she was equipped to handle this on her own. She might talk tough; she might even look tough. But he saw the fear in her eyes. He doubted she had a clue what six years in a cage could do to a man like Rasmussen.
“I just want to help you,” he said. “Let me take you to the safe house.”
She stuck out her chin. “Or maybe you think I’m your ticket to Rasmussen. Maybe you want a repeat performance of how things went down the last time. You got that promotion after you nabbed him, didn’t you? Isn’t that what this is all about? Your ego? Your job? Get your man at any cost, including your own soul? Or in that case, it was my soul, wasn’t it?”
Jake just stared at her. He wondered if she really believed what she was saying. If she really hated him that much after everything they’d been through. If she remembered as keenly as he did that not everything that happened between them six years ago had been bad.
“All I want is to keep you safe,” he said. “I figure I owe you that much.”
“Forgive me for not believing you, but that’s the same thing you told me last time. Right before you used me.”
That she could believe that about him made him feel like a son of a bitch. Six years ago his decision to use her as bait and set a trap for Rasmussen had occurred before he’d spent a week in that safe house with her. Before he’d touched her. Before he’d kissed her. Before he’d slept with her. Long before his heart had gotten involved….
In the end she had been the one to carry out the plan—without his blessing. To this day he didn’t know what she’d had to do to get the goods on Rasmussen. That burning question had been tormenting him for six years.
Jake scrubbed a hand over his jaw. “You went behind my back—”
“Sending me to Rasmussen was your idea,” she said.
That much was true. “I tried to abort the sting.”
Her smile was cool. “You were too late, though, weren’t you?”
“You were angry when you found out about the plan,” he said. “You get reckless when you’re angry.”
“We both got reckless, wouldn’t you say?”
He didn’t know what she’d had to do to get Rasmussen to fess up on tape. He didn’t know if she’d had to compromise herself…or worse. The only thing that was crystal clear about any of this was that she blamed him.
Jake bore that blame like a lead weight.
“Damn it, Kelsey—”
“Don’t call me that. Kelsey James no longer exists. My name is Leigh.” She glanced over at her suitcase. “I have to go.”
Jake clamped his jaws together and struggled for patience. “Let me take you to the safe house.” He stepped toward her. “I mean it. I don’t want to see you hurt.”
“I’ll take my chances with Rasmussen. At least with him I know where I stand. He might be brutal, but he’s a straight shooter.”
The words slashed like a knife. Leigh Michaels was no longer the twenty-one-year-old farm girl she’d been six years ago. She’d blossomed into a stunning beauty with the street smarts of an undercover cop. The hard knocks she’d taken showed in her shadowed eyes. In the mouth that no longer smiled so readily. But she was still so beautiful it hurt just to look at her, and Jake felt the pain of it all the way to his bones.
Rounding the bed, she picked up the H&K he’d taken away from her earlier. With the ease of a woman who knew how to handle a firearm, Leigh checked the clip, then sheathed the weapon in her waistband. She walked over to her single suitcase, picked it up and started toward the door.
Before opening it, she turned and looked at him. Her eyes slid down his body. She hadn’t meant the slow perusal in a sexual way, but he felt her gaze like the soft caress of fingertips over sensitive skin and his body jumped in response.
“Don’t try to come after me, Jake. I know what I’m doing.”
“You’re making a mistake.”
“It’s not the first one, is it?”
“Could be your last.” He watched her, wondering if any shred of what she’d felt for him six years ago was left inside her. “Don’t do this, Leigh. You’re going to get hurt.”
“I’ve already been hurt.” She smiled, and for a moment looked very much like the lovely young woman he’d fallen for six years ago. “See you around, Jake.”
She slipped through the door.
For several eternal seconds Jake stood next to the bed, his heart heavy with dread. There was no way he could let her walk away. No matter how careful she was, Rasmussen would find her, and Jake knew what would happen when he did. The thought sickened him.
Leigh might not want to be protected, but there was no way he could stand by and let her do this. Even if he had to use physical force. It was a route he hadn’t wanted to take, but the alternative was infinitely worse.
“Go get her, you damn fool,” he muttered, and started for the door.
CLUTCHING HER SUITCASE, Leigh started down the hall at a fast clip. Her heart was still wildly pounding from the shock of seeing Jake again. She couldn’t believe he’d found her. Couldn’t believe the old feelings were still there, when she’d spent so many years trying to exorcise them from her system.
The doors on either side of her blurred as she broke into a run. She wasn’t sure why she was running. Away from Jake and all the memories and feelings she’d struggled for so long to leave behind. But she knew that no matter how fast she ran she would never be able to outrun them.
She was midway to the stairs when a man rushed out of the alcove where the ice machine was. Leigh darted left, but he plowed into her with the force of a Mack truck. The impact sent her reeling. Her suitcase flew from her grip. Then his strong arms locked around her and spun her around.
She caught a glimpse of long hair pulled into a ponytail. Eyes full of violence. She reached for the H&K in her waistband but wasn’t fast enough. His hand shot out like a snake. Viselike fingers closed around her wrist and Leigh dropped the pistol.
“Try something stupid again and I’ll kill you.”
Leigh tried to twist away, but he slammed her against the wall. Pain radiated up her spine. Her scream was cut short when he slapped his hand over her mouth.
“Don’t make a sound
