a new hiding place. A knock at the door caused her to pull her hand away as if she’d touched a snake. But maybe what she’d found was worse than a snake’s bite—evil and sneaky and destructive.
Pulling her robe around her cotton pajamas, she went to the door. “Yes?”
“It’s only me, luv.”
Brice. Her heart caught in a grip of fear and trepidation. Should she be honest with him?
“Not just yet,” she whispered. She’d do a little more snooping of her own before she’d involved Brice in this. No need to get everyone all riled up on just a suspicion and something she’d found by accident. And she had no way of knowing if what they’d heard tonight had indeed been the same type of call that she had heard down in the jungle. All sorts of wildlife inhabited the woods around Brice’s estate. She should know—she’d gone traipsing around with him here many times. Maybe this had been some sort of night creature. Maybe no one human had been out there in the woods.
She shivered again.
“Selena?”
He had never been a patient man.
She opened the door, a slight smile hiding the dread coursing through her system. “I’m right here, safe and sound.”
“Don’t scare me like that,” he said, coming inside the room, his gaze scanning the big bay window and the stained glass patio doors across from the bed. Stomping to the window, he made sure the brocade curtains were pulled together. “And don’t go out onto the balcony alone.”
Selena watched him, knowing he was only concerned for her safety. And because of that concern, he looked a bit wild and disheveled, and about as hyper as she was right now. She needed to be kind and at least grateful, even if she did feel trapped by CHAIM’s need to always be on the lookout for danger.
“I won’t go out onto the porch, I promise. Even if that balcony does remind me of Romeo and Juliet.”
He whirled, his hands on his hips, his eyes moving over her. “I put you here because I remembered that you liked the balcony, but you’re also safer on this level and it’s not that far from my suite down the hall—if you need me.” He left that statement hanging in the air for a few seconds, then asked, “Are you all settled in, then?”
She took in the big room with the oversized antique furnishings and the striking Sir Frank Dicksee painting over the bed. It depicted a knight and his lady—La Belle Dame sans Merci. The irony of that vivid portrait weighed on her soul tonight. The beautiful one without mercy. Was she betraying Brice by not being completely honest with him?
“I’m nicely settled,” she replied, hoping her tone sounded neutral and upbeat. “And I didn’t mean what I said earlier about this being a Tudor-style prison. Your home has always been comfortable.”
His brow furrowed. “But?”
“But, Brice, I’ve been on my own for a long time. I’m not used to such close observation. This happened so suddenly, my head is still spinning. You’ll have to give me a little time to get adjusted to this new arrangement.”
“Take all the time you need—just be careful and stay alert.”
“I’ve always been careful and alert, especially when I was working down in Argentina. But this is different.”
He put his hands on his hips in that Brice way she knew so well, his head lowered as he gazed over at her. “You feel as if your life had been taken from you?”
She nodded, then sank down on a bronze-colored brocade loveseat tossed with burgundy and gold pillows. “Yes. I’m a nurse. That’s what I do. I don’t understand how these ruthless criminals could possibly hold that against me. I’m all about saving people, not destroying them.”
He came over to sit beside her. “They don’t like us having a presence down there, luv. They can’t get away with their dirty work if we get in the way.” He leaned back, fatigue pulling at his features. “It would help with our investigation here if you could remember something, anything that might have provoked this attack.”
Selena glanced toward her bag, wondering why she couldn’t just show Brice what she’d found and tell him her suspicions, maybe tell him about her own independent investigation. But what if she was wrong? That would open up a whole new set of problems. Better to wait until the right time to figure this out, if ever. “I don’t know,” she said, not quite meeting his gaze. “It all happened so fast. One day we were going about our business, examining patients, and the next, this gang of militants came crashing through the jungle and out into the village to destroy what we’d worked so hard to build, not only our physical buildings but the trust of the natives, too. I’m sure the camp is gone by now since everyone abandoned it the minute the shooting started. Even me.”
Brice’s finger on her chin brought her head around. “I haven’t told you this because I didn’t want you to worry, but I sent reinforcements down there to help the locals. They got as many of them to safety as they could. But you’re right, most had scattered and couldn’t be found.” Rubbing his finger down her cheek with a feathery touch, he said, “I did try, cara. I did it for you. And I did it because it’s not my nature to leave any innocents behind.”
“Oh, Brice.” Selena pulled him close, hugging him tight as she’d done so many times in her life. But this time, this time when she lifted her head, her eyes meeting his, a surge of longing and need rushed through her, a feeling that was both foreign and familiar, both joyful and frightening. And from the shattered, searching look in Brice’s eyes, he felt the same. Bewildered, Selena pulled away. “I appreciate that. The villagers have been on my mind. I wish—”
“I know what you wish, but you can’t go back there. Not now, maybe not ever.” He got up, as if the awareness they’d just felt had scorched him with its power. He paced, as was his nature, his hands fidgety, his eyes flashing. He pushed at his tousled hair. “Right now, we have to focus on finding out who tampered with your car. I’m thinking it was either a pipe bomb or some sort of backpack hidden underneath the chassis. Once we know for sure, we move from there. Maybe it will be local and a random thing, but I doubt that. I’m pretty sure it was a message from Los Andedores del Noche—”
“The Night Walkers,” Selena translated, recalling the notorious Brazilian gang of smugglers. “They never bothered us before.”
“There’s a first time for everything, luv. Especially when criminals are involved.”
A cold reality seeped over Selena while she watched Brice trying to focus on the problem at hand. He wasn’t ready to get any closer to her because he had a job to do—and this time the job involved her. He’d always taken his CHAIM oath very seriously and this had caused Selena to never take him seriously—as anything other than a good friend. They were still that—just good friends. She was projecting her fears into something more—this strong bond between them would naturally grow in the midst of all this danger. But Brice would always put duty first. She’d be wise to remember that.
“What about you?” she asked to hide her disappointment and this unfamiliar longing. “Don’t you need to get back to Ireland and Whelan Wool?”
“Whelan Wool runs itself,” he replied, his pacing only adding to her awareness of him. “I have the best management team in the world and I’ll be in constant contact with them, no doubt. They’re used to me being absent a lot.”
“But
