The thought that he could have lost her today—had come so close to losing her— had him crushing her to him.

He wrapped one arm around her hips and threaded his other hand through her hair, bringing her lips to his.

The heat was instant, as always. It chased all traces of cold away.

“I thought I’d lost you tonight,” he murmured against her mouth.

“I had the same fear when I couldn’t get you to wake up in the car,” she responded, her lips never moving away from his.

There was no more talking. Neither of them wanted to think about death. Not right now. Liam didn’t want to even think about whether this was a good idea or not.

All he wanted to think about was her body pressed up against his.

Armoured
Attraction
Janie Crouch

www.millsandboon.co.uk

JANIE CROUCH has loved to read romance her whole life. She cut her teeth on Mills & Boon Cherish novels as a preteen, then moved on to a passion for romantic suspense as an adult. Janie lives with her husband and four children overseas. Janie enjoys traveling, long-distance running, movie-watching, knitting and adventure/obstacle racing. You can find out more about her at www.janiecrouch.com.

To my parents, for being a constant example of God’s goodness, faith and love. Thank you for being a blessing not only to me but so many others.

Contents

Cover

Introduction

Title Page

About the Author

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Extract

Copyright

Chapter One

A leisurely walk along the beach in the evening was a chance for many people to ponder the meaning of life. Not for Vanessa Epperson. She rarely had time to walk along the beach at all anymore, much less waste that valuable time pondering.

She was way too busy to ponder. But, ahh, how she loved the feel of the sand on her toes.

She should have as much time as anyone to walk along the beach: her career as a social worker for a private organization—The Bridgespan Team—was technically nine to five, Monday through Friday. But in reality it rarely worked out that way. A call from a woman needing housing immediately because she’d finally gotten the courage to leave her abusive husband didn’t always come during normal business hours. Nor did a call from someone who had his first critical job interview in weeks and needed a ride at 7:00 a.m. because his car had broken down.

Both of those scenarios had happened to Vanessa in the past forty-eight hours.

Her coworkers told her she got too involved, that she needed to keep more of a professional distance between herself and her clients. Vanessa just shrugged her colleagues off. Sometimes people needed help beyond what was required from the job. When she could help, she did. Because there were far too many times when there was just nothing she could do.

If they knew about it, she guessed most people would say she could dip into the five million dollars her parents had made readily available to her. But Vanessa couldn’t do that. Wouldn’t do that. She didn’t plan to ever touch that money.

She pushed all thoughts of her family away as she walked along the sands of the Roanoke Sound of the Outer Banks of North Carolina. She wouldn’t let them intrude on her rare moments of solitude and quiet.

But this sand—this particular sand—in her toes renewed her. Helped her to remember that everything would be okay. Helped her to clear her mind and leave the problems she couldn’t solve somewhere else for a little while.

It was the beginning of October. The sun had set a few minutes ago, casting the beach in a purple hue. It was empty. With summer gone, most of the tourists had long since left the Outer Banks; they would’ve been on the ocean side anyway, rather than the more boring sound side. Most locals weren’t out, either, having made their way to their homes or wherever they spent their evenings. Everyone was settling in.

Vanessa would need to do the same soon, too. Tomorrow’s alarm at five thirty in the morning would come all too soon. She needed her sleep to fortify her for whatever the day would bring.

But since the beach was so quiet, the sand so nice and cool in her toes, the breeze so gentle in the ever-darkening sky, she decided to keep walking. She would just walk up to the beached log she could barely make out a couple hundred feet ahead, then turn around and go back to her car.

As with her family, she would categorically not think about other times she had walked along this very beach and whom she had walked along with. Thinking about it never led to anything but sadness anyway. Vanessa refused to be sad all the time. Life was too short.

Before she knew it she had made it to the log and was about to turn to walk back—until the log groaned and began to move.

Vanessa shrieked before she could help herself and jumped back. It was a person.

She looked around for any other people—aware after the past few years at her job that danger could be found in the most innocent-looking places—and grabbed her pepper spray from her bag. A gun would’ve been better—she was licensed to carry a concealed weapon in North Carolina—but hers was back at her car.

The log moaned again.

Vanessa worked her way closer, cautiously, running scenarios in her head. It could be a drunk person who had passed out on the beach. Didn’t usually happen here, but it was possible. It could be someone who had fallen asleep.

It could be someone waiting to ambush her, although a mugging on the beach in October at this time of night was not very likely. Still, Vanessa kept her pepper spray close.

“Excuse me, are you okay?” When there was no answer she took a step closer. “Hello?”

Maybe it was someone hurt. She didn’t let her guard down, but walked a few steps closer. Now she could see more of the person’s shape.

If this person meant Vanessa harm, he or she must have a weapon. Now that Vanessa could see more clearly, she realized how small the person really was. Couldn’t be much taller than Vanessa’s own five feet two inches.

“Are you okay? Hello?”

Vanessa walked the rest of the way to the form. It was a female. She was lying unconscious on her stomach, long brown hair strung down her back, wet and full of sand and seaweed.

Vanessa reached down and pressed gently on the woman’s shoulder. Her skin was icy to the touch.

Whoever this was needed help.

“Hello? Can you wake up?”

She could possibly have a head or spinal injury. Vanessa didn’t want to move her. She cursed the fact that her cell phone was back in her car, although even if it was here, she probably wouldn’t get a signal.

Vanessa rubbed up and down on the woman’s arm. “Hello? Can you hear me?”

Vanessa jumped back when the woman suddenly scurried away from Vanessa’s touch, chest heaving, breaths sawing in and out. She put an arm out in front of her in a defensive posture.

Not a woman. A girl. A teenager. Maybe fourteen or fifteen years old.

Vanessa’s heart broke. She knew what that arm held out meant: abuse.

At least there didn’t seem to be any spinal injury to worry about.

“Hi, I’m Vanessa.” She spoke very slowly, softly. “Are you okay? How can I help you?”

Vanessa made no move to get any closer to the girl, not wanting to scare her further.

The girl shook her head, not saying anything.

Vanessa realized the girl was wearing a dark T-shirt that was ripped and falling off her body. She didn’t seem to have anything on under it. Vanessa began to unbutton the lightweight jacket she was wearing.

“I’m just going to take off my jacket. You might feel a little better if you have on more clothes.”

Vanessa worked it the rest of the way off then stretched out her arm and dropped it. It landed close enough for the girl to grab, but not so close that it would touch her if she didn’t want it.

“Is there anyone I can call for you? Parents? Friend? Boyfriend?”

Vanessa was relieved when the girl reached for the jacket, but she didn’t answer any of her questions.

“Can you at least tell me your name?”

The girl looked up at her, big brown eyes seeming to swallow her entire face.

“Ka-Karine,” she finally whispered. “My name is Karine.”

Her English was broken at best, heavily accented—sounding Eastern European. That was probably why she hadn’t answered Vanessa’s other questions. She didn’t know enough English to understand what Vanessa was saying.

And unless she had family visiting here, she was also a long way from home.

“Hi, Karine,” Vanessa said gently, slowing her speech significantly to see if it would help the girl understand any better. “Can you tell me how you got here?”

“Boat,” Karine whispered.

“You were traveling on a boat? With your family? Was there an accident?”

Karine began to cry. “No. Men took us. Put us on boat for many days.”

“Someone kidnapped you? From here in the Outer Banks?”

Vanessa could tell she had lost Karine again.

“Where are you from?” Slowly again. “Where is your home?”

“Estonia.”

Vanessa wasn’t sure where that was. The United States? An entirely different country?

“Is Estonia here in the United States?” Vanessa asked.

“No, it is near Russia.”

Vanessa’s breath whistled through her teeth. Was she understanding correctly?

“Some men came and took you from Estonia and put you on a boat?”

Karine nodded. “First one boat and then the smaller boat with the men who spoke only English.”

Vanessa could see the girl begin to visibly shudder at the thought.

“And there were other girls with you?”

Karine nodded again. “Yes. There are seven more.”

Vanessa felt nausea roll through her stomach. Karine and the other girls were obviously part of a human-trafficking ring right here in the Outer Banks.

“How did you get here, Karine?” Vanessa asked. “How did you get away from the men?”

She held up a hand covered in bruises around her wrist, obviously from handcuffs or other restraints.

“Man tie us when no one is on boat with us. But I got out. And then I jump in water. I rather die from sharks than let them touch me again.” Karine closed her eyes and lowered her hand.

There weren’t any sharks in the Roanoke Sound, Vanessa knew, although there could be painful jellyfish at this time of year. Either way, it had been an amazing feat for the small teenager to undertake. The Sound was more than five miles wide at some parts. There was no way Karine could’ve known how far she would have to swim when she’d jumped in.

Whatever had been waiting for her on that boat had to have been bad enough that Karine was willing to risk her life to get away from it.

Vanessa needed to get the girl to a hospital. Report this to the authorities. Get the cops or National Guard or Marines or all three to start looking for those other girls.

“Karine, you were so brave,” she whispered. “I know it is hard, but do you think you could come with me? I can take you to the hospital. Get you the help you need.”

“I promised other girls I would help them if I lived,” Karine whispered.

“Yes.” Vanessa nodded. “Absolutely. We will go to the police so they can help find the other girls.”

Vanessa thought for a moment that Karine might refuse her help, but she finally nodded and got up off the ground, wrapped in Vanessa’s jacket.

“Okay, I go with you.”

Karine didn’t seem to have many significant injuries. She was able to walk unassisted from the beach to Vanessa’s car. Dehydration was obviously an issue—she gulped down the contents of the water bottle Vanessa offered in seconds—as was hunger. She made short work of a package of crackers. Vanessa wished she had more to offer. She gave Karine a pair of yoga pants to put on, which were too big for the girl but at least were better than nothing.

Vanessa took a direct route to the Nags Head Regional Hospital. She’d brought in enough clients over the years that she was pretty well known there. She walked Karine in through the emergency entrance, relieved to see her friend Judy working the desk.

“Hey, Judy.” Vanessa spoke only loud enough that the other woman could hear her. The last thing Karine needed was the media circus that would come along with anyone finding out she had been part of a probable human-trafficking ring in the area. “I have an assault victim here. Doesn’t speak much English. Probably also suffering from dehydration. She swam a long way to get away from the person or persons who were holding her against her will.”

Judy shook her head and smiled softly at Karine. “I’m so sorry, honey. We’ll help you.” She turned to Vanessa. “It’s crazy busy in here tonight. Can we put her in temp room one? Just until something else opens up. We won’t do any exams there.”

Temporary room one was at the front of the trauma unit. They rarely put assault victims there because it was so busy nearby and was only separated by curtains. Judy wouldn’t put them there if she had another choice.

“Okay, sure. I’ll take Karine in myself.”

She led the girl into the room and helped her to sit. She seemed to stare blankly out the crack in the curtain.

Should Vanessa get her some food? She didn’t want to leave Karine alone, but who knew when she’d last had a decent meal? Maybe Judy could get something for them.

A moment later Karine bounded out of the chair and backed away to the farthest point in the room. Her face was devoid of all color and her eyes were huge.

“Leave. Leave.” The young woman was shuddering so hard that was all she could get out.

Vanessa had no idea what was going on. Why was Karine freaking out now when she had been so docile since they’d arrived? Vanessa looked out through the crack in the curtain to where Karine had been looking.

A uniformed member of the sheriff’s department was talking to Judy at the main desk.

Had Vanessa misunderstood the whole situation? Was Karine running from the law?

She turned back to the young woman and found her slipping under the curtains of the room. Vanessa rushed over, stopping her gently.

“Karine. The policeman out there... Is he looking for you?”

Karine clutched at Vanessa. “Man. Man on boat.”

“That man was on the boat?” A sheriff’s deputy?

“No.” Karine shook her head. “That clothes.”

Not that particular guy, but someone wearing the same uniform. Dear God. Was Karine telling her that someone from the sheriff’s office was part of a trafficking ring?

Vanessa stared at her for a few more moments. She had no idea exactly what was going on, but she was willing to give Karine the benefit of the doubt. If Vanessa was wrong, she’d deal with the consequences later.

“Okay, let’s get you out of here.”

They slipped under the curtain and were out of the hospital in a matter of minutes. Karine was still shuddering, glancing from side to side frantically, obviously searching for anyone who might be following. Vanessa put an arm around her, tentatively, to guide her through the parking lot to her car. Karine stiffened briefly before leaning into her.

Vanessa started the car and pulled to the edge of the parking lot. She didn’t know which way to turn. If someone from the sheriff’s office really was in on this, it wouldn’t take long for them to figure out Karine was with her. She couldn’t take Karine to her house. She needed to get her out of the area.

“Karine.” Vanessa turned to the girl, who was sitting low in her seat so no one could see her. “I’m going to drive you to Norfolk, okay? It’s a city about an hour and a half from here. There are police, FBI, who can help us.”

“No!” Karine sat straighter in the seat. “I cannot leave. I must stay here to help the other girls. Must find them.”

“Yes, we’ll get help and then come back here.”

“No!” Karine repeated, grabbing for the door handle. “I stay here.”

“No, wait. Don’t get out,” Vanessa said.

Karine was exhausted, traumatized and injured. Vanessa prayed she had been mistaken about the police uniform. Many of the men in the sheriff’s department Vanessa had known most of her life. She couldn’t imagine they would be involved with the victimization of girls.

But she wasn’t about to put Karine out on her own, no matter how unlikely the scenario may be.

“Okay, we’ll stay here in Nags Head,” Vanessa told her, watching her visually relax. “We’ll go to a hotel.”

Karine nodded and eased lower into her seat.

If Karine was going to refuse to leave the area, Vanessa was going to need to see about someone coming here to help them. Contacting the local police was out of the question. She needed someone outside that circle, someone in federal law enforcement.

Liam Goetz.

He was DEA, which maybe didn’t deal with trafficking directly, but at least she knew he wasn’t local. He’d know how to help or tell her who to contact.

Of course, she hadn’t talked to Liam in eight years. Didn’t even know if he would be willing to talk to her now. But he was her best chance in this situation. She had to try.

Vanessa sped to her apartment to get his phone number, which was written on the back of a picture of the two of them. She should’ve thrown it away years ago but hadn’t been able to make herself do it. Now she was glad she hadn’t.

She grabbed a couple changes of clothes from her room, but nothing to make it look as though she wasn’t there, then ran back out to the car. She had no doubt one of the first places the police would start looking for Karine was at Vanessa’s apartment.

As she pulled away, she Bluetoothed the number on the back of the picture. She forced herself not to look at the much younger, more innocent version of herself in the photo. That girl was gone forever.

The phone rang twice before someone answered.

“DEA call center.”

“Um, yes, I’m trying to reach an agent. At least he used to be an agent.” Vanessa wasn’t sure exactly what she should say. Maybe Liam didn’t even work for the DEA anymore. “He gave me this number.”

“Please provide the name of the person you are trying to reach and I’ll direct your call.” The operator was briskly efficient.

“Liam Goetz.” Vanessa had no idea what department he worked for or even what city.

“Please hold.”

Vanessa drove toward some older hotels closer to Nags Head. They weren’t very expensive, which was pretty much all Vanessa could offer Karine right now. Plus, the police were probably less likely to look for her there.

The longer Vanessa was on hold, the more convinced she became that this whole call to Liam was probably useless.

“Hello? You’re trying to reach Liam Goetz?” A briskly efficient female voice this time.

“Yes. But I don’t know which division he’s in—”

“I’m going to connect you to his voice mailbox. Please leave a detailed message. We will make sure he gets it.”

Okay, so evidently he did still work for the DEA. That was good.

“Okay.”

“Please hold. Leave a message when you hear the beep.”

Vanessa was startled, caught off guard, a moment later when she heard the beep. There had been no outgoing message.

“Um, Liam, it’s Vanessa. Vanessa Epperson.”

How much should she tell him?

“I’m still living on the Outer Banks, but I’m actually staying at a hotel at the moment.” She gave him the name and address of the hotel they’d just pulled up to. “I need your help. I have a situation here and believe local police might be involved, so I need federal law enforcement. If you could just point me in the right direction, I would really appreciate it. I wasn’t sure who else I could trust. Just call if you can.”

She was rambling, so she left him her number and then disconnected the call. She’d done all she could do there. She knew she needed to have a backup plan in case Liam didn’t call her back. After all, the last thing she’d heard him say about her eight years ago was that she was a selfish, spoiled brat who didn’t have it in her to care about another person.

Yeah, she definitely better have a backup plan in place.

Chapter Two

Liam listened to the voice-mail message for the umpteenth time.

Vanessa Epperson.

He could honestly say he’d never expected to hear her voice ever again. After all, she hadn’t even cared enough to leave him a voice mail eight years ago when she’d decided he wasn’t good enough to marry.

Or a letter. Or an email. Or a face-to-face explanation.

But evidently she’d gotten over her phone aversion. Good for her.

Liam played the message again.

She needed help and was contacting him because she thought he was still DEA. He hadn’t been DEA for more than five years, since Omega Sector’s Critical Response Division had recruited him to lead their hostage rescue team.

Fortunately for Vanessa, since Omega Sector was made up of agents from multiple different law-enforcement agencies—FBI, Interpol, DEA... Hell, Liam had worked a mission with a damn Texas Ranger last month—her message had been recorded and immediately forwarded to him.

She didn’t mention what sort of trouble she was in, just wanted Liam to drop everything and help her. Like how she’d always wanted everyone to drop everything to do what she wanted. Some things didn’t change.

He listened to the message one more time.

Liam should call one of his many friends from the head DEA office in Atlanta and have them send someone to Nags Head. Or he might even know someone at the FBI field office in Norfolk he could call.

It was the logical thing to do; probably the most professional answer to this situation. He could have someone there handling Vanessa’s problem in three or four hours.

But who was Liam kidding? He wasn’t going to make those calls. He was already walking down the hall of the Critical Response Division’s headquarters to his boss’s office.

He wasn’t sure what he was going to tell Steve Drackett. Just that he needed some time off to help an old friend. God knew Liam had enough time off saved up.

He knocked on Steve’s office door, his back office door that led directly to Steve himself, rather than pass through the main office entrance guarded by Steve’s four assistants.

Four young, attractive, quite competent and intelligent female assistants.

Liam knew them all, flirted shamelessly with them all. He’d spent so much time in the office with those women that Steve had threatened to fire him several times.

Not that Liam dated any of them—he knew better than to date anyone who might have his life in her hands—but at any given moment he’d be leaning on their desks chatting, and keeping them from their work.

Liam smiled. Steve’s main office was one of his favorite places in the world to be.

But not today. Not right now. He could not go in there and flirt with those beautiful women with Vanessa’s voice still filling his head.

Steve’s door opened.

“Hey, Liam. Come on in.” Steve said, still reading from a file in his hand as he returned to his desk. “I didn’t even think you knew this door existed. Hell, I wasn’t really sure you knew any offices existed outside those belonging to my assistants.”

Derek Waterman and Joe Matarazzo—both Liam’s colleagues and good friends—were sitting in chairs across from Steve’s desk. They held similar files.

“Hey, Goetz,” Derek murmured. Joe muttered something unintelligible without looking up from the file in his hand.

“I don’t mean to interrupt, Steve,” Liam said.

“It’s no problem. What’s on your mind?”

“I’m going to need a few personal days.”

Now the guys looked up from their files. Liam was pretty sure he’d never taken personal days except to go on actual vacations planned well ahead of time.

“Everything okay?” Steve’s concern was also evident.

“Yeah.” Liam shrugged. “Everything’s fine. I just have a friend who called needing some help back in the Outer Banks. My friend said this might be a little sticky with the locals so wanted some outside help.”

“You grew up there, right? You haven’t been home in a long time.”

“Yeah, not since my grandmother died. Not much there for me.”

Steve nodded. “Is your friend’s trouble serious? Do we need to send in a team?”

“Nah. I’m sure I can handle it.”

“What sort of trouble?”

Liam sighed. “To be honest, I’m not exactly sure. My friend called my old DEA contact number. They forwarded it to me.”

“Has anybody else noticed Goetz’s complete lack of pronoun usage?” Joe said, leaning back in his chair.

Damn it. This was about to become a thing.

“As a matter of fact, I did,” Derek responded, grinning. “So are we to assume this friend is of the female variety?”

Liam realized he should’ve just mentioned that from the beginning. “Yes, she is.”

“Um, Joe, do you ever recall Liam being shy about mentioning a female friend to us before?” Derek quipped.

Liam knew his reputation. He’d worked pretty hard at making sure everyone knew he was a ladies’ man. Girl in every port. Shameless flirt.

At times he almost believed his own press. Because it was a hell of a lot easier to believe that he was some sort of modern-day Casanova than that he still pined over a woman who’d left him cold eight years ago.

“A female from his hometown, no less,” Joe responded. “I’ve never heard him mention any such creature before.”

“Very curious, indeed.” Derek waggled his eyebrows.

“All right, enough, you two,” Steve cut in. He turned to Liam. “Like I said, is there anything we need to know about your friend or her situation?”

“Not as far as I know,” Liam said. “She didn’t provide much detail. If it looks like something I can’t handle, I’ll let you know.”

“You’re not going to call her first? Get more details?”

“No, I’m just going to go.”

Thankfully none of the three men in the room pointed out what Liam already knew: dropping everything and traveling from Omega headquarters in Colorado Springs to the Outer Banks of North Carolina because of a vague phone call from someone he hadn’t talked to in nearly a decade was overkill.

But from the first moment he had heard Vanessa’s voice, figured out she was asking for help, Liam knew he would be doing just that.

“Okay, I think one of the Omega jets is heading out to DC in the next few hours if you want to catch a ride there,” Steve responded. “Be safe and keep me posted as to when you’ll be back.”

Joe and Derek didn’t say anything, although they were both staring at Liam with mouths slightly agape. Liam ignored them.

“Okay. Thanks, Steve.”

Liam just left. He didn’t want to explain himself to his friends, especially when he could hardly understand what he was doing himself. All he knew was that he had to see Vanessa.

He wasn’t really surprised that she was still living in the Outer Banks. The two-hundred-mile stretch of land, a string of barrier islands running along the northeast coast of North Carolina, held a great deal of prime property and the Eppersons owned a good chunk of it.

And Vanessa was princess of it all. She had been her whole life.

Liam had found out the hard way that her love for her pampered way of life outweighed any promises she might make to any poor sap fool enough to fall in love with her. Fool enough to believe her when she said she loved him, too.

Did she think of him when she felt the sand of the Roanoke Sound on her feet? On her back? Think of all the many hours they’d spent there together?

Did she ever think about him asking her to run away and marry him right there in that sand? About saying yes?

About not showing up where they were supposed to meet? About refusing to talk to him at all when he’d come by to see why she had changed her mind?

Probably not.

The address she had given him in the message was not her family mansion in Duck, which was slightly north of Nags Head and the preferred location for million-dollar mansions. It was some hotel he didn’t recognize at Mile Marker 13, pretty much in the middle of nowhere.

Liam drove to his apartment and packed his things. He’d try to catch a ride with the team going to DC as Steve suggested. If not, he’d drive to Fort Carson, the army base in Colorado Springs. Omega worked pretty closely with the military when needed, and Liam had lots of contacts there from his days in Special Forces.

The commanding officers might lock their daughters away when Liam was in sight, but they would gladly welcome him on board an aircraft to give him a lift wherever he was going.

The thought brought a quick smile to Liam’s face. His playboy reputation was well deserved. He’d certainly earned it since he’d been in Colorado.

Except for the past couple of years when he seemed to have lost his taste for fun, fast hookups. Yeah, he still flirted with all the gals—young or old—and kissed just about every woman he came across. But he wasn’t particularly interested in more than that.

The thought of pseudo intimacy with another woman whose face he’d fondly remember but name he’d probably forget? Not as interesting anymore.

Maybe it had something to do with watching two of his best friends—and fellow Omega agents—fall in love with strong, beautiful women over the past few months. Jon Hatton and Derek Waterman’s love for the women in their lives was downright palpable. Liam wanted something authentic like that for himself.

Then it struck him. That was why he was going to Nags Head. Because until he could put what had happened there behind him, he was never going to be able to have something real with any woman.

It was time. He was going to lay the ghost of Vanessa Epperson to rest once and for all. Her call was finally the excuse he needed.

* * *

LIAM WASN’T GOING to call.

Vanessa had accepted that reality when she woke up this morning, sleeping in a pretty dingy hotel, a traumatized teenager curled into the tightest of balls in the bed next to her. He’d had all evening, all night and some of this morning to respond, but hadn’t.

Maybe he hadn’t gotten the message. Maybe he was off on some important mission with the DEA or something.

Maybe he still hated her.

The reasons why he wasn’t contacting her didn’t really matter. All that mattered was that Vanessa was on her own in helping Karine.

That was okay. Vanessa had learned in the hardest way possible that she was capable of handling on her own almost anything that came her way. This situation was no different.

But Liam’s lack of contact still stung a little bit.

She dragged herself out of bed, careful not to wake Karine. She knew from the girl’s whimpers and cries throughout the night that she couldn’t have gotten very good rest.

Karine needed help. Probably medical and definitely psychological—both more than Vanessa could provide. If the hospital and police weren’t safe around here, then Vanessa was going to have to talk her into leaving the Outer Banks, at least for the day.

Vanessa poured water into the cheap four-cup coffeemaker on the bathroom vanity. Once she had coffee, no matter how bad it was, she’d be able to figure out a plan.

While she waited she turned on the local morning news. Although she doubted it, she was curious to see if there was any mention of Karine.

At first nothing, just weather and tides—an important part of life on a string of islands. But then the breaking news...

The sheriff’s office had set up roadblocks at the bridges on both sides of Nags Head. They were looking for a federal fugitive—considered armed and very dangerous—and were stopping all cars leaving the island to search them.

Since there was only one road leading off Nags Head at the north and south bridges, she knew the police could, in essence, search every car attempting to leave the island.

The rest of the news report was about the traffic havoc the car-by-car search was creating. No one from the sheriff’s office seemed willing to comment.

Vanessa turned the television to mute and just stared at the screen.

Dangerous federal fugitive, her ass. Vanessa was one hundred percent certain the “dangerous federal fugitive” was curled up on the bed whimpering in her sleep every few minutes. But it meant that it would be impossible to get Karine off the island, at least today.

Not to mention that it confirmed that someone, at least one person pretty high up in the sheriff’s department, was definitely a part of what had happened to Karine and the other girls.

The thought made Vanessa downright sick.

She grabbed her coffee, looking around. They weren’t going to be able to stay here all day. They would need food—God only knew when Karine had last had a decent meal—and some other supplies. She’d given the girl a pair of shorts and a T-shirt she’d grabbed from her house, but they were too big.

She couldn’t leave Karine alone while she went to get food, so she’d have to wait until she woke.

Vanessa needed to come up with a plan pretty darn quickly. But right now her options were limited.

A soft tap at the door startled her. She rushed to it but didn’t say anything. She put her ear against the door. Maybe whoever it was—housekeeping?—would go away. She’d put the do-not-disturb placard on the doorknob.

“Vanessa, it’s Liam. Open the door.”

Chapter Three

Liam tapped on the door softly again. He was almost positive he had the wrong place. This was the address of the hotel Vanessa had mentioned on the voice mail, but this could not possibly be right.

Was it some sort of trap? Liam pulled his weapon from the belt holster attached to his jeans, but kept it low to his side. Had one of his enemies—and he had made plenty of them over the years—found out about his past with Vanessa and planned to use her against him in some way?

Because if that was someone’s intent, it had succeeded brilliantly. Here Liam was, completely out in the open, at every possible tactical disadvantage, all because Vanessa had called.

But his history with Vanessa was long ago and buried pretty deeply. He hadn’t even told his best friends about what had gone down between them. So he didn’t really think there was any devious master plan, such as someone forcing her to make a phone call against her will.

But he still didn’t put his weapon away. There was no way in hell Vanessa Epperson would be staying at a hotel like this if she had any other choice.

You really couldn’t call it a hotel. It was more of a run-down motel, with all room doors leading directly outside to a parking lot that desperately needed repaving. There was no room service, spa or concierge.

Ergo—and obviously he’d been hanging around too many overthinking profilers at Omega if he was using words like ergo—no Vanessa.

He must be at the wrong place. He eased his weapon back into the holster and was turning to leave, not wanting to disturb whatever non-Vanessa person was sleeping in the room, when the door cracked open just the slightest bit.

“Liam?”

It was her. He couldn’t see her through the crack, but he would know her voice anywhere, even if he hadn’t heard it in her message recently.

“Yes. Are you okay? Let me in?” He took his weapon out again.

For a minute he didn’t think she was going to do it, but then she stepped back and opened the door far enough for him to enter.

“What are you doing here?” she whispered. The room was dark because of the pulled shades and he could hardly see her.

Liam looked around but didn’t see anyone else that could be threatening Vanessa in the darkened room. He reholstered his weapon. “What do you mean, what am I doing here? You called me, needing help. That’s what I’m doing here.”

“Oh,” she whispered again. “I thought you’d just call me back and leave me the contact info of someone in the DEA or something similar. Were you in the area?”

“Something like that.” Absolutely nothing like that. “Why are we whispering?”

Vanessa turned and pointed over her shoulder. “Her.”

There was a very small person balled up on the bed.

Okay. This was definitely not what he’d expected. The dumpy hotel. The hiding. The kid sleeping in the bed. “Vanessa, what the hell is going on?”

She shushed him with her finger then grabbed his arm, pulling him into the bathroom and closing the door behind her.

Now he could see her.

He refused to let his breath be stolen just because he was seeing her again for the first time in eight years. But damn if he could stop himself from staring at her.

Her hair was shorter now. Stopping just past her shoulders rather than flowing down to nearly her waist as it once had. But it was still that same deep auburn color that reminded him of fall leaves or russet chrysanthemums. Her eyes were the same soft brown—although she had often worn colored contacts when she was a teenager, always wanting to be more dramatic. That had never made sense to Liam. Her eyes were stunning just the way they were.

She was still tiny. God, he’d forgotten how little she was. Her personality was so big, people tended to forget that she was barely five foot two and couldn’t weigh more than a hundred pounds. Standing beside her now, Liam towered over her. As always, it didn’t intimidate Vanessa.

Something was different about her now. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it exactly, but something about her had changed.

Of course she was more mature, in her looks, even in her movements. But it was more than just that. Something in her eyes was different—a depth that hadn’t been there before.

A depth that was only caused by living through pain. Real pain.

He knew that look, had seen it often enough when he served in Afghanistan with other men who had known heavy loss. A pain that would never be fully erased.

Liam couldn’t even reconcile seeing a look like that on Vanessa. It just wasn’t possible. He had known her since she was fifteen years old. Knew firsthand how selfish and self-centered she was.

So he had to be wrong about whatever he thought he saw in her eyes now.

“That girl out there is what the hell is going on,” she said.

Liam had been so deep in his own thoughts he had forgotten he’d even asked the question.

“Who is she?”

“Her name is Karine. That’s all she’s told me so far. I found her when I was walking the Sound yesterday evening.” Her eyes shot away from his as she said the words. “She was unconscious on the ground, in only a T-shirt. A teenager.”

“Runaway?”

Vanessa cracked open the door so she could check on the girl and then closed it again. “No. I think she was part of a human-trafficking ring, Liam. She’s from Eastern Europe somewhere—Estonia, I think she said—and was being held on a boat. Says there are other girls. Seven of them.”

Liam muttered a curse under his breath. Human trafficking had been a huge issue up and down the entire east coast for years. He wasn’t surprised to hear something had popped up in the Outer Banks. The string of islands was an ideal place to bring in a boat unnoticed. Easy access and tourists year-round, so locals wouldn’t pay particular attention to a boat they didn’t recognize.

What Liam didn’t understand was why Vanessa felt local law enforcement might already be aware or even a part of the situation.

“Explain more why you don’t want to go to the local police. They would be best equipped to handle this, or at least begin the investigation. Have the most knowledge of the area.”

Vanessa shrugged. “I’ll admit I may be wrong about this. But I took Karine to the hospital yesterday evening so she could get checked out. She seemed to be keeping it together pretty well until she saw a sheriff’s deputy at the nurses’ station. She freaked out, Liam. Completely panicked.” She touched his arm as she said it, then immediately dropped her hand again as if burned. “Sorry.”

Liam had no idea what to say about her touch, so he just ignored it. “Did you press her about it?”

“Yes. It wasn’t that particular officer she recognized, but she was convinced it was someone wearing that uniform.”

The sheriff’s uniform hadn’t changed in the years that Liam was gone from the Outer Banks. It was still brown; still ugly. But it wasn’t the only ugly brown uniform in the area—Liam hated to think they were suspicious of law enforcement when it could actually be a package delivery guy who was the perpetrator. A traumatized girl could easily be forgiven confusing two brown uniforms.

“There are a lot of brown uniforms out there,” Liam said.

“I know. And I’m trying to keep that in mind. But she was convinced. And I thought it was better to be wrong and have to apologize than her be right and back in her captors’ clutches.” She shrugged. “So we snuck out of the hospital without anyone seeing us.”

He couldn’t disagree with that line of reasoning. Under similar circumstances he probably would have done the same.

“The clincher for me was when I woke up this morning and there was a ‘fugitive alert’ and the police were checking cars trying to leave Nags Head.” She shook her head. “I tried to take Karine to Norfolk last night, but she refused to go. Says she has to stay and help the other girls.”

“She sounds like quite a kid,” Liam said. “Strong.”

“Yeah, but she needs help. I can’t keep her cooped up in this hotel room. She needs a doctor and a counselor.”

“I was wondering about this place. Why are you here? If you were trying to pick a place no one would ever search for Princess Vanessa, you certainly found it.”

Her eyes narrowed. Princess Vanessa obviously still struck a nerve.

Her voice was tight. “I couldn’t take her back to my place. And, yeah, I didn’t want anyone to find me.”

Liam had never been afraid to poke the tiger. “Your dad would probably not be interested in a teenage misfit staying in the Epperson mansion.”

She turned all the way from him then, in the guise of cracking the door to check on Karine again, but he could tell the topic didn’t sit well with her.

“I don’t live in my parents’ house on Duck any longer, so I wouldn’t take her there anyway. But, yes, I’m sure my dad wouldn’t like it.”

Duck, despite its corny name, consisted of mostly million-dollar mansions rather than the much less expensive vacation rentals, restaurants, and putt-putt golf places of the other islands in the Outer Banks.

Elitist in a word.

He shouldn’t be surprised that she didn’t live at home any longer. She was twenty-eight, for heaven’s sake. No one would still live with their parents at that age if they had other options. Especially if Daddy paid for those other options, of which Liam had no doubt.

“So, where’s your place?”

“In Kitty Hawk.”

He raised an eyebrow. “On the beach?”

“No.”

“On the Sound, then?” She had to live on the water. Vanessa Epperson had always lived on the water.

“Look, where I live is not important, okay? I just couldn’t chance taking her to my place. Not if the police are after her and someone at the hospital reports she’s with me.”

He could agree that Vanessa’s suspicions of the police were grounded, given Karine’s fear of the uniform and the car-search tactics this morning. Until they knew for sure, they would keep all actions under wraps.

“Why don’t I go in to the sheriff’s office today and feel things out? I could tell them I’m here on vacation or something.”

Her eyebrow rose. “You really think they’re going to talk to you at all? You have a history with the Outer Banks police. They probably haven’t forgotten that.”

It was true. Liam had been a hell-raiser back in his juvie days. His grandmother had done the best she could with the wild child she’d been forced to raise after both his parents had died suddenly when he was ten. But even her loving yet strict hand hadn’t been enough to keep him out of pretty regular trouble with the law when he was a teenager. Nothing too serious: some fights, occasional vandalism, a few nights of disturbing the peace after he’d been able to talk some poor tourist into buying him alcohol.

He was actually thankful for a lot of his misspent youth. During one of the times the sheriff’s office had handcuffed him to a chair, he’d met Quint Davis, the DEA agent who had taken the time to look past Liam’s rather gruff exterior and talk to the half boy, half man underneath.

Quint had gotten Liam to join the army and then picked him up as a DEA agent immediately after Liam’s discharge, which had eventually led to his job at Omega. Liam owed the man his life.

But, yeah, anybody who had worked at the Outer Banks sheriff’s office for more than ten years was going to remember him. He doubted they would even know he was law enforcement now, unless they ran a background check on him.

“Well, this time I’m not some kid they’ve arrested for stumbling drunk down the beach.”

Their eyes locked. He had met Vanessa on just such an occasion. She had stuck her snooty little nose up at him and told him to go find a bench and sleep it off.

He hadn’t been able to help falling in love with her right then and there.

“I’ll just be checking in as a professional courtesy, as a fellow law-enforcement officer,” Liam continued, ignoring the shared memory between them. “When I heard about the escaped fugitive, I wanted to see if there was anything I could do to help.”

Vanessa was nodding, about to respond, when they heard a cry from the bedroom.

“Miss Vanessa?” The voice was lost. Sorrowful. Frightened.

Vanessa ran to the young girl, but Liam kept his distance. He had no doubt she would not want to be near a man right now.

“I’m here, Karine. I was just in the bathroom.”

Karine all but jumped into Vanessa’s arms.

Vanessa sat on the bed and smoothed the girl’s hair, holding her loosely so she wouldn’t feel trapped.

“Who is that man?” Karine asked.

“He’s my friend. His name is Liam. He’s going to help us get you and the other girls to safety.”

Karine reached over and turned on the lamp next to the bed. Liam just stood there as she watched him with eyes that had seen too much. Even if they got this girl to safety today, away from the horror she had lived through, she would never have a child’s innocence again.

Her childhood had been finished from the moment someone had kidnapped her and thrown her on a boat.

Finally she nodded. “Okay,” she said to Vanessa.

Liam guessed he’d passed the test.

They needed a plan. But first Liam knew that everyone needed food.

“I’ll go grab some breakfast from—”

His words were interrupted by a pounding on the door.

“This is the Outer Banks Sheriff’s Department. Open the door.”

Chapter Four

Vanessa stood. The sheriff’s department had found her? How? She hadn’t used a credit card.

This was the problem with living in a relatively small town. There were no secrets. One call from the police to the front desk in a systematic search and the clerk would undoubtedly have remembered her and told them. It was pretty odd for Vanessa to be at a hotel of this caliber, since most people knew her face and reputation—the Outer Banks princess—but didn’t really know anything about her. They assumed she still lived off her parents’ money, just as Liam had assumed in the bathroom.

She didn’t. She hadn’t for more than eight years.

It really didn’t matter how the officer had found her. She had to figure out what to do.

They couldn’t get out the one window of the room; it was right next to the door. There was no window in the bathroom, either.

The pounding on the door came again. Not obnoxiously loud, but firm enough to know whoever was on the other side meant business. “I need to speak with Vanessa Epperson.”

Tears were running down Karine’s face but she made no sound. Vanessa glanced frantically around the room before her gaze settled on Liam.

Who was taking his shirt off?

“Get her into the bathroom, then come back out here.” He looked at Karine. “Stay very quiet in there. We’ll take care of this.”

The young girl nodded and ran to the bathroom. As soon as she turned away, Liam kicked off his shoes and socks and started unbuttoning his jeans, before pulling them, and his underwear, all the way off.

Liam was naked.

Vanessa pulled the bathroom door closed behind her and tried not to stare but could not help herself.

Liam was naked.

He ruffled his own hair so it stood on end, then turned and walked to the door, opening it a few inches.

“Man, what is going on? Do you know what time it is?” Liam looked down at an arm that didn’t have a watch on it. “Neither do I. But it’s like the butt crack of dawn.”

“Um, excuse me, sir.”

Vanessa couldn’t see the officer but could hear the discomfiture in his voice.

“We were told that Vanessa Epperson was staying in this room.”

“Well, she is, man.” Liam yawned and ran a hand through his hair. “But she’s a little worn out right now if you know what I mean.”

Liam opened the door a little farther, his nakedness causing the man to step back rather than step closer to look inside.

“Um, could you put some clothes on, sir? I’d like to talk to Miss Epperson, please.”

The officer wasn’t going to be deterred, although Liam was doing his best. Vanessa wasn’t sure if the officer could enter the room without a warrant, since it was a hotel, not a home, but she didn’t want to find out.

She pulled off her pajamas—T-shirt and shorts—so she was also naked, grabbed the sheet off the bed and wrapped it around herself. She wasn’t as bold as Liam and willing to answer the door buck-naked.

“Hey, baby.” She walked up behind Liam and slid her arms around his chest, running them over his pecs and abs, feeling them tighten under her fingers. “What’s going on?”

This is all just an act. This is all just an act. This is all just an act.

Liam put an arm around her and pulled her in front of him so the sheet was covering them both from the officer outside.

But her very naked back was pressed to his very naked front. All of his naked front. Vanessa couldn’t stop the shiver that ran through her entire body when he reached down and kissed the tender skin joining her neck and shoulder.

This is all just an act.

“This officer of the law was looking for you,” Liam said in that friendly mocking voice only he seemed to be able to pull off without offending people. “Have you been a naughty girl?”

Vanessa could tell the more intimate she and Liam pretended to be, the more uncomfortable the young officer became. She turned partway in Liam’s arms so she was half facing him. “What if I have?”

He leaned down and kissed her, biting her lip with his teeth and pulling on it before letting it go. “Well, I’d have to do something about that, wouldn’t I?” He nipped at her lip again. “First I’d have to—”

The officer cleared his throat in an embarrassingly loud manner, stopping whatever scene Liam was about to describe.

This is all just an act. This is all—

“Excuse me, sir...ma’am. I’m Officer Atwood. I just have a few questions. Then I’ll let you get back to your...business.”

Vanessa kept the sheet clutched at her chest, making sure it didn’t fall too low. But she could feel Liam’s hands on her waist, rubbing tiny little circles with his fingers. Moving down to her hips and back up again. The feeling was delicious. She wanted to push his hands away but couldn’t if she didn’t want to give the officer of the law a peep show.

Liam pulled her back, flush against his body. Vanessa barely kept in the moan that wanted to escape her.

This was all just an act.

“Yes, Officer Atwood. What’s your question?”

Evidently the act was working, because the poor officer standing in front of her didn’t know where to look and barely seemed to know how to pose his question.

“Um, last night, did you have a teenage girl with you?”

Liam’s fingers stopped their rubbing and gripped her hips tightly in warning. She knew she couldn’t totally deny being with Karine. Obviously the sheriff’s department already knew that, had probably been told that by Judy at the hospital. There wouldn’t be any reason for her not to tell them.

“Yeah, that runaway kid? Bless her heart. She was not looking so good. I picked her up off Highway 158. We went by 7-Eleven to get some food—I don’t trust runaways with cash, it’s often used to immediately buy drugs—and then I took her to the hospital, since it looked like she might have some injuries or something.”

Liam’s fingers resumed their circles.

“Did she tell you her name, where she was from?”

Vanessa shook her head. “Katy or something, I think? She didn’t really talk much at all. I think she might have been on something. Why? Did she do something bad after I left her at the hospital?”

“You just left a minor at the hospital? Don’t you work in social services, Miss Epperson?”

Uh-oh. The officer was right. Vanessa would never have left a teenager alone at the hospital. She felt Liam’s fingers tighten again.

“Yeah, but I’m not a social worker around the clock.” She smiled at the officer. “It was after eight. I had other plans that very definitely did not involve a teenage girl.” Vanessa allowed herself to melt back into Liam. He pulled his hand up from her waist to tilt her head back against his shoulder so he could kiss her.

She was instantly thrown back into old times. The heat between them had always been almost palpable. They might have yelled at each other, fought and wanted to kill each other at times, but whenever they had been this close, an undeniable passion had flared between them.

Vanessa couldn’t help herself; she twisted, trying to get closer to him.

Until she heard the officer clear his throat once more.

Damn it. This is all just an act. Remember that.

Liam brought his lips up from hers. “I was her other plans,” he said to the officer, winking, deliberately downplaying his intelligence. Anything to keep the other man’s guard down.

It worked. Atwood rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I got that. Thanks.” He looked at Vanessa. “So you left the girl at the hospital?”

“I checked her in with one of the nurses, asked her to call social services—you know, someone who was actually on the clock—and pretty much left. Because, like I said...other plans.”

“And you didn’t have her with you for the rest of the night?”

One of Liam’s arms came to rest across her chest, hooking around the top of her opposite shoulder, pulling her farther back against him. “Officer, if we had a kid in the room with us while doing some of the stuff we did last night, you would have to arrest us right now.” He winked again.

“Hey!” Vanessa feigned outrage and elbowed him in the stomach. Or rock-hard abs.

“Sorry, baby,” he whispered, “but you know it’s true.”

“Is the girl in some sort of trouble?” she asked Atwood.

“She’s a suspect in some burglaries of homes in the area, so we’re trying to find her.”

“Darn it. I was hoping she was just a runaway who could be reunited with her parents. Some kids get away from home and when faced with the reality of the streets realize that home wasn’t such a bad place, after all.”

Officer Atwood shook his head. “She’s definitely wanted by the police.”

“Okay, well, if for some reason I see her again, I’ll be sure to let you know.”

Liam was starting to play with her bare shoulder with his fingers as though he was getting impatient for the officer to be gone.

“Okay. Thank you for your time. Sorry to have interrupted your...rest.”

“No problem, man. I think we might go back inside and play out our own version of good cop, bad cop.”

Vanessa giggled as Liam dragged her inside and shut the door.

“Do you think he bought—”

Her words were cut off by his mouth swooping down and devouring hers.

This time it was not just an act.

Vanessa gave herself over to the kiss, to the heat. As always, she didn’t have any choice. It consumed her. The thin bed sheet was the only thing between them as he lifted her and pressed her against the door they’d just closed.

She couldn’t hold back the moan. She didn’t even try. She wrapped her fingers in his brown hair, still as silky and thick as she’d remembered it, and pulled him closer.

It was as if all the years they’d been apart melted away; all the pain they’d caused each other never happened.

Except it had. Both seemed to remember that at the same time.

And that they had a very scared teenager in the bathroom.

Liam eased back and Vanessa slid down the door until her feet were on the floor. She unwound her hand from his hair and grabbed the sheet that covered her again, since it was in danger of falling now that they were no longer pressed together.

“You okay?” he asked.

Was she okay? No, not by any stretch of the imagination was she okay. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

He nodded then turned away to start dressing. She kept her back to him and did the same, in her clothes this time rather than her pajamas.

“I’m going to check on Karine,” she said without looking at him. Vanessa wasn’t sure she was ever going to be able to look at Liam again.

That was too bad, considering he was still just as ridiculously gorgeous as he had been eight years ago. Brown hair and green eyes. She had always been so damn jealous of those clear green eyes of his.

She tapped on the bathroom door and opened it a crack.

“Karine? It’s safe now, honey.”

She didn’t hear anything so she opened the door farther. “Karine?”

She wasn’t in the bathtub or behind the door. There was no window in the room for her to have climbed out.

“Miss Vanessa?” The sound came from the cabinet that ran under the length of the sink vanity.

Vanessa crouched and opened the cabinet. Oh, God, the girl had crammed herself in there to hide. It couldn’t have been comfortable.

“Come on out, honey. It’s safe now.” She helped Karine unfold herself from her small hiding space.

“I want to make sure nobody find me.”

“You did great, Karine.” Vanessa wrapped her arms around her and pulled the girl close. Even though she was so young, she was almost the same height as Vanessa. “It was the perfect hiding spot, but you’re safe now.”

“I was scared.”

“I don’t blame you.”

Liam turned from where he stood at the window. “Ladies, we can’t stay here.”

“Do you think that officer will come back?” Vanessa asked.

“Not him. I think we traumatized him enough. But once he reports that he found you, Vanessa, but did not actually search the room, somebody else—higher up who won’t be scared by a couple of naked people—will be coming back here. We need to get out now.”

Vanessa took her arm from around Karine. “I’ll go get your clothes so you can change, okay?”

She grabbed the same clothes from yesterday—yoga pants that were too large and another T-shirt—and walked them to Karine. She left the bathroom and closed the door behind her.

Liam was standing a few feet away directly in front of her. He folded his arms over his chest and she couldn’t help noticing the bulge of his biceps. Liam had always been in good shape, even when they’d known each other before.

Now he was rock solid. Everywhere. This morning’s theatrical performance had proved that.

It was totally unfair that he looked just as good in clothes as he did without them. And that she was still so affected by him.

“I think you owe me an explanation.” The intensity of his voice caused parts of her deep inside to flutter.

“About what? I told you pretty much everything I know about Karine.”

“Not about Karine. About you. What the hell is going on with you?”

Vanessa shrugged, confused. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Well, let’s start with the two words I never thought I’d hear used to describe you. Social worker.”

Chapter Five

Liam felt as if he were having an out-of-body experience.

To get rid of that young Deputy Atwood, he’d had to think fast. Sordid affair was the first thing that had come to his mind when he looked at this place, so he’d decided to play that angle.

He definitely hadn’t expected Vanessa to jump in and help with the ruse when the officer wasn’t buying it despite Liam’s best efforts to make him so uncomfortable that he just went away. And her actions had made the difference.

Of course, the officer couldn’t just barge in without a warrant—a hotel was considered a temporary home in the eyes of the law and most of the same rules applied—but if they refused him entry with no grounds whatsoever, Atwood would’ve been suspicious. He would’ve called it in and then the sheriff’s department would’ve just waited them out. Sooner or later they’d have to leave and the hotel room only had one entrance and exit.

Sitting ducks.

So Vanessa’s help in fooling the officer had just bought them some desperately needed time. Not much, but enough.

Vanessa’s naked body pressed up against his naked body? That searing kiss that threatened to turn his bones to ash?

Yeah, out-of-body experience.

All of that was nothing compared to hearing the words social worker used to describe Vanessa Epperson’s profession. There was no way the spoiled, selfish, but full-of-life woman he’d known eight years ago had become a social worker. Someone who took care of other people.

But he couldn’t deny the tenderness she’d showed as she’d cared for Karine since he’d arrived. It was hard to reconcile the Vanessa gently holding a traumatized teenager with the Vanessa he’d known before.

There were pieces of the puzzle—many of them, it seemed—that he was missing. Some were obvious now that he was looking for them.

For example, what were these clothes she was wearing? A pair of non-designer, off-the-rack jeans and a simple green cotton T-shirt. Liam could very clearly remember her teaching him about silk, cashmere and Pashmina—by wrapping her naked body in each and making him guess—scoffing that cotton shirts for women were only as a last resort.

Evidently, this situation was a last resort, then.

Her tennis shoes were no-name brand, also. He was pretty sure you could pick them up at the local supercenter.

Vanessa Epperson at the local supercenter?

Out-of-body experience.

She was looking at him now as if she didn’t know quite where to start. And it didn’t matter anyway, because they had to get out of there.

“You know what?” He cut her off as she began to speak just as Karine opened the bathroom door. “Save it. We’ve got to move.”

He took a step closer. “But I will be told exactly what is going on.”

Vanessa nodded.

Liam winked and smiled at Karine, not wanting her to think any tension between him and Vanessa should worry her. She smiled back at him, albeit timidly.

“I’m going to go drive around for about five minutes, see if we have anybody watching the room.”

He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and texted Vanessa so she would have his number.

“That’s me.” He nodded in the direction of her phone when it chirped. “You two be ready to go in case I have to come get you in a hurry.”

He hoped it wouldn’t come to that. Nags Head—really none of the Outer Banks islands—wasn’t big enough for them to escape in a high-speed chase with the police. Their best bet was to get out now while they could.

“Is your car hidden somewhere?” he asked Vanessa.

“No.” She shook her head. “I didn’t think I needed to. I didn’t think they would be looking for me so fast.”

“That car right out front is yours?” Liam couldn’t keep the shock from his voice.

She nodded, eyebrow raised, as if daring him to say something further.

At sixteen she’d had a BMW. And now she was driving an early 2000s–model Camry? Not that there was anything wrong with a Camry: safe, dependable, known to last. If she’d had the latest model, he would’ve considered it a wise, mature choice.

But a model that was at least a dozen years old?

The out-of-body experiences just kept on coming.

“Okay, well, just be ready in case you need to drive it. Don’t open the door or peek through the window until you hear from me in case someone is watching the room.”

“Be careful,” Vanessa said. Karine had come to stand right beside her and she slipped an arm around the girl.

“I will. Be ready.”

Liam walked out the door, whistling and tossing his keys. If anyone was watching the room, he wanted it to look as if he was in no hurry, that he was just a happy, sated guy going to grab some coffee.

As he got to his car, which he’d parked toward the front of the lot away from Vanessa’s, he missed the keys he was tossing on purpose so they fell to the ground. As he crouched to get them, he stayed down to fake tying his shoe, taking survey of the parking lot as he did so.

There were two other cars in the lot and both had been there before Liam arrived. One was near the front desk, probably the clerk’s. The other was a few spots down from Vanessa’s Camry, not an optimal place for surveillance, but not terrible.

Liam honestly didn’t think they were watching the hotel yet. No doubt they would be soon after the officer made his report. Liam was willing to bet the young officer probably didn’t know the importance of what he had been tasked to do. He thought he was looking for someone who had last been seen with a teenage, petty burglar. He probably felt he’d drawn the short straw this morning and wouldn’t be in any hurry to report questioning a naked guy that hadn’t resulted in anything useful.

They needed to use that situation to their advantage.

Liam drove slowly out of the parking lot. There were no cars around the streets with anyone sitting in them in stakeout fashion. Nor any vans that could be used for surveillance.

The hotel was clean.

He’d drive around for a few minutes just to make sure. See if anyone followed him. He also needed to figure out a larger game plan now that he was also convinced someone at the sheriff’s office was in on the trafficking ring. Too much time was being placed on finding Karine for him to think otherwise.

He needed to find a safe place to stash both Karine and Vanessa. Nothing that was connected to Vanessa in any way. He knew just the place but he didn’t know if Vanessa would like it.

Too bad.

After driving around the block twice, and turning around and driving a different block in another direction, Liam was sure no one was following him. He stopped at a doughnut shop for coffee and doughnuts, as one last precaution, and because they needed food anyway.

And Vanessa could not survive without coffee.

The thought popped into his head unbidden. But to be honest, Liam wasn’t sure if that was true anymore. He had no idea what was true about Vanessa. He got her coffee anyway.

Right before he left the shop, he texted her to let him know he was coming. ETA five minutes. Watch for me through the peephole and get out fast. Keep K’s head covered.

This was it. Either the hotel was under surveillance or it wasn’t. Regardless, now was when they were going to make their move.

Liam drove back to the hotel as if he wasn’t in any particular hurry. Still no sign of any tail. The moment he pulled up to the hotel, the door to the room opened and Vanessa flew out, her arm around Karine, her jacket draped over the girl’s head. She opened the back door to his SUV and they both piled into the backseat.

Liam was pulling out of the parking spot before Vanessa’s door even closed.

This time he did not drive leisurely. He didn’t drive fast enough to attract attention to them, but he got out of there with purpose.

The problem when trying to lose a tail in the Outer Banks was the lack of main roads. Highway 158 was the main four-lane drag, and that was about it. There was also Highway 12 that ran parallel to 158, but it was a two-lane and much slower. All Liam could do was take the back roads and cut-throughs that he remembered from his youth.

This wasn’t his first time trying to get away from the Outer Banks police without calling attention to himself.

Vanessa and Karine kept crouched in the backseat so it would look as if Liam was driving alone. If they did happen to pass anyone studying the drivers of vehicles, they wouldn’t be looking for him.

“Do you think anyone is following us?” Vanessa asked after a few minutes.

“No, I think we got out in time.” If someone was following them, he’d know it by now. The winding route he’d taken over the past mile would’ve made it obvious.

“What about my car?”

“I think it’s better to leave it there. Maybe it will buy us a few hours’ time if they think we’re still in the room. This car wasn’t parked near you, so hopefully Officer Atwood didn’t notice.”

“Okay. What are we going to do? I’m sure they’re still searching cars, right? We can’t make it off the islands.”

“No leave, Miss Vanessa,” Karine said. “Must help other girls. Must.”

The girl didn’t know a lot of English, but she knew what she wanted.

“It’s okay, Karine.” He glanced back at them in the rearview mirror. “We’re not leaving. We want to help them, too.”

“Can you call your DEA contacts in, Liam?” Vanessa asked. “Or the FBI or whoever handles cases like this? Obviously we don’t know who we can trust with the local police.”

“I’m not actually with the DEA anymore. Haven’t been for the past five years.”

“But I left a message for you with the DEA. How did you get it if you don’t work there?”

He glanced at her again. Confusion was evident on her face.

“I now work for an interagency task force called Omega Sector, in their Critical Response Division. I’m head of the hostage rescue team.”

He watched as her eyes widened and her mouth fell open before turning his gaze back to the road.

“Sounds like you’re pretty qualified to handle what’s going on here, then. You have people you can call in? People with big guns who can shoot the bastards responsible for this?”

Liam rolled his eyes. “Generally we arrest the bad guys unless they shoot at us first, but, yes, I can get a whole team here.”

“Then why haven’t you done that yet? Those girls are somewhere out there, trapped. Hurt and desperate.”

He glanced in the mirror again and saw Karine’s face growing paler. He caught Vanessa’s eye and gestured with his head toward Karine. Vanessa looked down at the girl and immediately slipped an arm around her.

“I’m sorry, sweetie. I shouldn’t have said that.”

“It’s okay,” Karine whispered. “They need help.”

“And we will help them. We’ll get Liam’s friends here—people who help others all the time—and we’ll get the other girls out.”

Liam caught Vanessa’s eye in the rearview mirror again. “We’ll talk specifics later.”

She nodded, tugging Karine closer.

“Where are we going right now?” Vanessa asked.

“We’ve got to get off the streets. Once they figure out we’re not in the hotel, they’ll start searching again. I’m going to take you somewhere not related to you at all.”

“Another hotel?”

“No, that will always leave witnesses. A house.”

She shook her head. “A friend’s? Are you positive you can trust the person?”

“No. My grandmother’s house. I still own it.”

That silenced her.

He had a cleaning service come in once a month to clean, keep it in shape and take care of any repairs. He even paid for power and water each month, which wasn’t much because it was so small.

After his grandmother died, he hadn’t been able to sell it. He had said it was because she’d been his last living relative—the only roots he’d ever had—and he didn’t want to part with it if he didn’t have to. But he couldn’t deny the other part of that truth now.

He’d kept the house because it was the first place he and Vanessa had made love.

Chapter Six

An hour later they were safely tucked away in Liam’s grandmother’s house. His house now.

They had stopped briefly at a grocery store, Vanessa and Karine tucked low in the backseat as Liam ran in. They had agreed it was better to go to the store now to get what they needed so they were prepared for as long as possible.

In the house of a million memories.

But Vanessa would accept living with the memories, as painful as some were, if it meant they were safe. If it meant Karine could get some real food and the real rest that she needed. If it meant they could figure out where the other girls were being held and do something about it.

She still didn’t understand why Liam hadn’t just called in the SWAT cavalry or whatever. But he had been right; they didn’t need to talk about those details in front of Karine.

Liam had come back to the SUV in less than fifteen minutes. He hadn’t said anything as he opened the hatchback and put the grocery bags inside. Hadn’t hurried around to the driver’s side. Hadn’t done anything that would call attention to himself.

He was good, Vanessa could definitely see that.

He hadn’t talked until he was pulling out of the parking lot.

“You girls okay?” he asked.

“Yes. Any problems?”

“Nope. Got food and even a couple T-shirts and sweatpants. I had to get four different sizes, so I explained it was for my family while we’re visiting.”

“Because you buying a size extra-small pants and shirt might have been memorable.”

“Exactly. All the cloak-and-dagger was probably unnecessary, but always better to be safe.”

He was good. He’d thought of details Vanessa probably would’ve missed.

The drive to his grandmother’s house—his house—took about twenty minutes. They had gone to a grocery store on the opposite side of Nags Head just in case someone remembered seeing him or his car.

But now they were inside, car pulled behind the back, Karine well fed and sleeping in one of the bedrooms.

“She still needs medical and psychological help. Professional help,” Vanessa said. It was probably too late for any sort of assault kit to yield any results, but everything should still be documented.

“Yeah, those bruises on her wrists are pretty bad. And I hate to say this, but I’m sure she was assaulted, right?”

Vanessa rubbed a hand over her eyes. “She won’t talk about any specifics, but, yes, I would say most definitely.”

Liam reached out and pulled her down next to him on the seat at the table.

“She’s a survivor,” he said. “She’s strong.”

“I know. I just can’t bear to think about what she’s been through.”

“We’ll get her a counselor and a doctor. We just have to figure out who we can trust.”

She nodded. “Why haven’t you called in some sort of attack team yet?”

“Because if we send in a blitz attack on the sheriff’s office, not knowing who exactly is involved and to what degree, the first thing the kidnappers will do is kill the remaining girls. They’re liabilities.”

Nausea pooled in Vanessa’s stomach. “I hadn’t thought of that. But you’re right.”

She rested her face in her hands.

“That doesn’t mean we’re not going to stop them, Nessa. It just means we’re not going to roll in guns blazing.”

He’d called her Nessa. He was the only one who ever had, ever dared. She hadn’t heard that name in eight years.

“Not to mention,” he continued, “it’s the word of one small foreign girl, supposedly wanted by the law, against the word of people who may have lived in this area their whole lives.”

“But I know she’s telling the truth,” Vanessa said. She had no doubt about it at all.

Liam nodded. “I believe her, too, but it’s about what we can prove when it comes down to a court of law.”

“I just can’t stand the thought of more girls trapped and scared.” Karine had told them that the youngest of the girls was only eight years old. Fortunately she was being “kept” for someone special—some sick buyer, no doubt—so she hadn’t been assaulted. The older girls hadn’t been so lucky.

Liam reached over and grasped her hand. “I know. I feel the same. But it’s important that we keep whoever is behind this in the dark as long as possible. That is our best chance at saving those girls. By convincing law enforcement that you don’t really know anything about Karine and that you certainly don’t know where she is now.”

Vanessa nodded. He was right.

“Okay, then I need to call my office, let them know I won’t be coming in. If I just don’t show up, everyone there will be worried.”

Vanessa stood and called her supervisor at Bridgespan. It wasn’t a long conversation. Vanessa told her she was sick but that she would hopefully be in tomorrow. Her boss understood and told her to take care of herself.

“That seemed pretty painless,” Liam said after she finished. He was sitting back in his chair, long legs stretched out in front of him, arms crossed over his chest.

He looked relaxed, lazy even, in that way Liam could pull off so well. But Vanessa had no delusions. He intended to have answers from her about the changes in her lifestyle.

She didn’t want to fight with him. Didn’t want to go back to eight years ago in some epic battle of “who was right and who was wrong when we were young and stupid.” But she could at least give him the basics.

“You want answers.”

“I would just like to know what is going on. I find I do better in any tactical situation when I know all the information.”

Was that what she was? What they were? A tactical situation?

“There’s not a whole lot to the story. I grew up. Decided I couldn’t live on my parents’ money forever.”

“And became a social worker. Like with a degree and everything?”

She could tell he tried very hard to keep any trace of incredulity out of his voice, and almost succeeded.

It stung a little. But it was the most common sentiment among people who had known her then and knew her now. Why would Liam be different?

Vanessa ten years ago would never have been a social worker. An interior decorator? Maybe. Buyer for some fashion line or upscale boutique? Perhaps. Professional country club attendee and beach bunny? Absolutely.

Helping other people for barely over minimum wage? No.

But she wasn’t that person anymore. Thank God, she wasn’t that person anymore. Although the change had come at a high price.

“After you left...after...” She trailed off. She didn’t want to talk about that. About him leaving or what had happened afterward. “I decided to go to college. I didn’t want to just sit around here anymore. I really enjoyed my basic psychology and sociology classes, and so followed that route. Ended up with a degree in social services.” In less than three years, she might add.

“Wow.” He shook his head. “I just never would’ve figured—”

“That I would ever be anything but a selfish, spoiled brat who didn’t have it in her to care about another person?”

Silence fell between them. That was the quote, almost word for word, that he’d told his friends about her when he left. After he’d asked her to come away with him and get married and she’d said yes but then hadn’t.

For reasons he didn’t understand. And, once she’d found out what he’d really thought about her, for reasons she’d had no plans to ever tell him.

“You made a promise and then broke it.” Liam rubbed a hand over his face. “I was angry. Hurt. Plus, it was the truth.” He sat straighter in his chair. “How did you find out I said that?”

“I went looking for you. Your friends were happy to relay the message.” They’d never liked her. Had always thought she was a snob.

“When did you come looking for me?”

“Maybe a week after you left?”

“Why then?”

Because it was the first time she had been able to. But again, not telling him that. “I wanted to see if there was any chance you were still around.”

That mocking smile, so fake and handsome—the one that had always gotten under her skin—covered his face now. “Why? Didn’t think I’d actually leave? Even though you didn’t even have enough guts to explain to me yourself that you were no longer interested in marrying me? I had to find out by knocking on your door and your father telling me?” He stood from the table and walked over to the sink, farther from her. “Nope. I left and never looked back.”

This was the fight she’d been trying to avoid. It was a situation too many years past, water having long since washed under the bridge. Pride and stubbornness and tragedy conspiring together to keep them apart.

Vanessa turned and walked over to the window. This place was so bittersweet for her. Every time Liam’s grandmother had gone off to the grocery store or her bridge club or, heaven forbid, a weekend trip up to Norfolk to see her cousin, Vanessa and Liam immediately jumped into his big bed. They’d never been able to get enough of each other. She was surprised they hadn’t burned down the whole house with the passion between them.

Yeah, she’d been selfish and spoiled, but she’d loved Liam Goetz with every fiber of her being. Hearing that he’d said how selfish and undesirable she was—combined with everything else she’d gone through at that time—had cut her to the quick. Him walking away and never looking back? That had just proved to her that he hadn’t loved her in the same way she had loved him.

It had caused her to do something she hadn’t done in the entirety of her selfish, spoiled life.

Give up.

She should’ve fought for him. For them. But hadn’t had the strength at the time.

So after she’d healed, she’d gone to college, waiting tables to pay for classes. She hadn’t wanted a dime of her parents’ money. She’d gotten a degree in helping other people. It didn’t take much of a psychologist to figure out that Liam’s words had influenced her career choice.

She’d survived. Found an inner strength she hadn’t known existed. Left selfish and spoiled behind her.

Liam had walked away and never looked back.

“I hope you’ve been happy, Liam,” she whispered from the window. “I never wished you ill.”

She wasn’t sure the same was true in what he wished for her.

Chapter Seven

She’d come after him?

A week later. But still... If he had known she had come looking for him, would it have made a difference? It was too late to ever know the answer to that now. Nearly a decade stood between them.

Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.

Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».

Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.

Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.