LITMIR.BIZ

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steps got shorter, faster. “Meter reader? UPS delivery? Anything else?”

      â€œSpecial delivery from the post office two days ago. Propane yesterday.”

      That gave him some place to start. “Did you make sure the security system was on at all times?”

      â€œThat’s what you pay me for,” Mario said, voice sore as if Sebastian had poked a bruise. Mario’s hawks squawked in the background.

      Things weren’t stacking up right. Sebastian rubbed a hand over his chin. Could someone who’d just escaped a prison riot, killed two marshals and traveled four hours from a murder scene have been careful enough to leave no trace?

      Kershaw wasn’t into finesse. He was into results. Leaving evidence would mean nothing to someone bent on revenge. He’d have wanted Sebastian to know he was the cause of his grief.

      Sebastian spun on his heels and faced the closed door of Olivia’s room. If not Kershaw, then who? Who would want Olivia dead?

      Chapter Four

      As the nurse left with the wheelchair, Sebastian guided Olivia out the glass front doors of the hospital toward the parking lot.

      â€œI will wait,” she said, tugging her arm free from his grasp.

      Standing still she made too big of a target, but he couldn’t explain that to her without frightening her. “I can’t leave you here by yourself.”

      Her hands knotted in front of her, and she shrank back toward the hospital entrance. “I will be fine.”

      She was afraid, and he didn’t know how to make her feel safe. “I won’t.”

      Her blue eyes searched his and made him feel like a heel for manipulating her cooperation. I’m not your captor, he wanted to say. But that wasn’t really the truth. The Aerie would become a prison of sorts until Kershaw was caught. For her own good. With a sad nod, her gaze slid away and she stepped beside him.

      Sebastian had almost made it to the SUV when the shriek of brakes had him instinctively putting Olivia behind the shield of his body and drawing his weapon.

      The driver wasn’t Kershaw or some other unknown piece of scum bent on mowing them down; it was Paula shooting visual daggers at him through the windshield of her ancient Volvo. While he holstered his weapon, he thought he’d rather deal with Kershaw.

      â€œOh, no you don’t!” Paula stormed from her car and blocked the path to his vehicle. “She’s coming home with me.”

      â€œYou can’t protect her.”

      â€œFrom what?”

      He didn’t answer. Couldn’t. Paula more than anyone would relish his failure and throw it back in his face.

      A small wounded sound came from Paula. She half sank to the asphalt, then sprang up. “I knew it. This is all your fault.”

      â€œIt’s no more my fault than Roger’s leaving you penniless.” Below the belt, but she was pecking at him as if she was a vulture, and he couldn’t just lie there like carrion. He needed to get Olivia out of this open space and into the safety of their home.

      The second Paula’s face hardened, he regretted the flash of temper. Roger was dead; Olivia was still alive. Paula wasn’t a fugitive. Fighting her dirty wasn’t fair.

      With a skinny hand, Paula slapped his cheek with all her might. The sound echoed across the parking lot like a shot. The mark burned and throbbed. “You bastard.”

      Contrite, he reached for her arm. “Paula—”

      She twisted from his grasp. “No, you stay away from me. And from Olivia. I’m taking her home.”

      He grabbed her as she tried to go around him. Turning them both away from Olivia, he whispered, “You can’t.”

      Her pale blue eyes searched his face and disgust narrowed them. “What have you done?”

      He swallowed hard around the lump of his failure. “Someone I put in prison escaped. He wants to kill Olivia to hurt me.”

      Paula mewled.

      â€œThe Aerie is protected,” Sebastian insisted, scouring the parking lot for hidden dangers.

      â€œA lot of good that did her.” She waved toward the hospital building with her free hand. “Look where she ended up.”

      â€œThis isn’t the time or place to discuss this.”

      â€œYou’re right. I’m taking her home where I can look after her. You—” She jabbed him in the chest. “—should do what you do best. Leave her alone while you hunt your fugitives. I can’t believe you’ve done this!”

      He maneuvered to keep Olivia safe between the shield of parked cars and his body. “If I thought leaving with you was the best thing for Olivia, I’d do it in a heartbeat. This guy has nothing to lose, Paula. He’ll go through you, through Cari, to get to her. Do you really want to put your daughter in danger just to win this point?”

      Paula shook her head. “No, you’re lying. You want to keep Olivia to yourself. She was leaving you, and you’re too selfish to admit she wanted out of your life.”

      Olivia’s leaving had nothing to do with this hardheadedness. He had to keep her safe. It was his duty and his obligation. He reached behind him and found the softness of Olivia’s coat. “Do you want to look at his rap sheet? Kidnapping, rape, felony assaults. He murdered two marshals to get here. Tortured them. Cut them up like bait. He doesn’t want to go back to jail. He’d rather die. He has nothing to lose, Paula. And he wants to hurt me by killing your sister. Look what he’s already managed.”

      He scanned the lot, took in the duo of nurses chattering to his left, the orderly with hunched shoulders hurrying to his right and the traffic getting heavier on the road. He needed to get Olivia out of there now.

      Paula sniffed, shaking her head. “I can’t let her go with you. I have to protect her from you. She was leaving you, Sebastian. She was leaving you. You don’t deserve another chance to change her mind.”

      Because Paula was half right, Sebastian offered her the white flag of a promise. “When Kershaw’s back where he belongs, then Olivia can make her own choice. Until then I will protect her with everything I have.”

      He didn’t deserve this second chance, but he would take it. He’d never told Olivia how much her serene presence meant to him when he returned from the chaos of the “real” world. He’d never told her just how deeply he loved her. He owed a debt to Olivia for all the times he’d kept her waiting and worrying for him, for all the times he’d assumed she would always be there when his job was done. And the thought that he would fail Olivia scared him more than any special operation he’d ever worked. He felt her shift behind him and blocked her in.

      â€œI’ll fight you in court if I have to,” Paula said.

      Because he needed her as an ally and not an enemy, he tendered an olive branch. “Olivia’s confused now. She’ll need a woman to talk to. Stay with us. She needs you.”

      The shimmer of tears in Paula’s pale blue eyes, the trembling of her lower lip and the press of her fist against her heart told him he’d finally said the words she’d wanted to hear all along.

      SHE WATCHED THEM, the hard man and the stick woman, a breath away from her. They stood like gunslingers, exchanging barbs as hot as flying bullets. Anger rose from them in writhing snakes, and

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