By Request Collection April-June 2016. Оливия Гейтс

      Tucker nodded. “He left the country after he discovered I’d found you.”

      “What?”

      “He used a fake passport.”

      So he knew his brother was guilty. Yet he still wanted to help her? Her pulse raced out of control. “Has he been hiding the money all this time?”

      Tucker shrugged. “I don’t know. The private detective has uncovered some issues with gambling. Up till the day the theft was reported, he’d done well with the investments. He would have made a number of great connections, considering your donors. It doesn’t make a lot of sense for a man who was trying to build a career to decide stealing would be a better plan. Especially when You consider the amount.”

      Thinking back, Annie shook her head. “Wait. You said real danger. What did you mean?”

      DESPITE THE REASONABLE TONE of Annie’s voice and the fact that she wasn’t shaking nearly so hard, Tucker found it physically painful not to comfort her. He wanted so much to pull her close, to kiss her, tell her not to be afraid. It killed him that he was causing her fear.

      He returned to his chair, determined to tell her every detail. He explained about the bookies, repeating his conversation with George. Especially the part where nothing pointed at her complicity in the embezzlement.

      “Then I should call the district attorney’s office now,” she said, no longer looking at him. Her gaze had lost its sharpness as she stared at the table. “No, tomorrow morning. They won’t be there now. The sooner I let them know where I am, the better.”

      “What, no. I haven’t finished.”

      That got her attention again. God, this had to be so difficult. She’d been living in a cave, for all intents and purposes. Making her life as small as she possibly could. He remembered every word her friends had said about her. How she dedicated herself exclusively to the sanctuary. Now he understood that every selfless act had been one of contrition. Atonement for sins she’d never committed.

      He’d pulled her out into the spotlight, unprepared, lulled into feeling safe by his attention. He wished he’d done everything differently, although for the life of him, he couldn’t see what he could have done instead. “These men…These bookies have been known to go after family, after associates.”

      “But if Christian took the money from the accounts, why didn’t he use it to pay them off?”

      “For all I know, he did. He’s been borrowing a lot from my mother.”

      “A lot.”

      Tucker nodded. “I can’t be sure, but I think it’s in the hundreds of thousands. Maybe I’m wrong. God, I don’t want to be right because, as it is, he’s broken my mother’s heart by leaving the country. She thinks he’s on vacation.”

      “Could he be?”

      Tucker’s gut tightened as he stared at her. Still so trusting, so ready to believe better of Christian. “I doubt it, considering his timing and the fact that he used a fake passport. I never knew he had a gambling problem until yesterday. I didn’t understand the severity of the situation until the conversation you partially overheard.”

      She sat with that for a while, the quiet only broken by a nicker from outside, the chirping of birds still out at the end of the day. “Even if he’s still in trouble with the bookies, why would they think I would be useful to them? I’ve been gone for years.”

      “That’s the point. You need to stay gone. Until we can figure out how to take care of this mess. I know for a fact the New York police have tried and failed to get at these bastards. No one will testify. They have people terrified. Until we know what made Christian run, I can’t risk you like that.”

      “You can’t risk me.”

      He hadn’t meant to say it like that, but he wasn’t about to take it back. “You’re too important to me, Annie. I’ll do whatever’s necessary to protect you.”

      Her sigh wasn’t one of affection or comfort. She sounded frustrated and the look she gave him was one he never hoped to see again. “You’ve already helped me enough.”

      “I never would have—”

      Annie held up her hand. “Stop. I don’t want to hear it. I understand you were trying to help your brother.”

      “That’s partly true.”

      Her eyebrows went up.

      “I hardly know Christian. But my mother has been drowning in guilt for losing him in the custody battle. She’s been trying to make up for it since my dad died. My adopted father. He’s been gone eighteen months, and the only thing keeping my mom going is the chance to make amends to the boy she gave up.”

      “I’m reasonably sure she has something else worth living for,” Annie said, the sudden gentleness in her voice making him swallow hard.

      “But I’m not a mission,” he said. “She’s already got me in her corner.”

      “I’m sorry your family’s screwed up. So is mine. But my mission is to keep Safe Haven safe. What are the chances these guys will find me here?”

      “I don’t know. But any chance is one too many.”

      “So why don’t you just go home? Leave here, don’t come back? What do you need me for?” She stared at him, her expression flat, her hands still.

      He thought he saw confusion in her eyes, but he couldn’t be sure. Of anything. “I couldn’t bear it if something happened to you.”

      “I’m not your responsibility.”

      The hell with giving her space. He had to make her understand, so he leaned over far enough to take her hands in his. “Yes, I knew the minute I saw you that you were Leanna. But I also knew within the hour that you weren’t guilty. I didn’t understand any of the connections then. Only that no one would ever convince me that you had freely embezzled that money.

      “I think I couldn’t exonerate you completely because I didn’t want to think Christian had committed the crime and blamed you. So I stayed to make sense of things. The longer I knew you, the more convinced I became that not only were you innocent, but that I had developed feelings for you. When I said I believed in you, I meant every word. I need you safe, Annie. I need you.”

      He’d never looked at anyone so intently in his life. And when her eyes softened, he felt he could breathe again.

      “I understand,” she said. “This has been painful for you. You would drop everything to save your brother, to be a hero for your mother. But it doesn’t always work out that way. You have to understand that I feel the same way toward this place. If there’s a chance the authorities or these bookies can find me, I have to leave. I can’t risk it.”

      “I’ll help you—”

      “By doing what? I’m not willing to run any longer. That leaves me turning myself over to the district attorney.”

      “No, it doesn’t. At least, not yet.” He pulled his chair closer to her. “Let me get my attorney on this. He’s a very influential man, and he can help with the D.A. His firm is based in New York, and he’s got the kind of access we need. With the new information I can give him, there’s a chance we can make a difference in the case against the bookies. Can you call Shea and Jesse to come back? I have to go to the hotel and check out, get my things.”

      Annie stared at him for a long moment, and he didn’t even try to hide his anxiety, how badly he wanted her to be safe. Without a word, she got up, went to the counter to fix a pot of coffee. After she’d turned the machine on, she said, “They don’t need to come back tonight. And neither do you.”

      He went to the counter, needing to say this face-to-face. “I’d feel a lot better if you weren’t here alone while I’m gone.