inch or two higher, however, and he’d be singing a different tune—and in a higher key.
He spotted the nail gun on the floor, then looked at her in disbelief. “You shot me.”
“You said you’d be here in twenty minutes,” she wailed, wringing her hands. “How was I supposed to know it was you storming through that door?”
“Process of elimination?” Matt tore the fabric of his pants to free the nail head and get a better look at the puncture wound. “You must have some idea of how long it takes to get here from your house. What did you think I was doing—taking the scenic route?”
“Maybe you were going to stop for a hamburger or something. Maybe you were going to take a shower first. Maybe you were in the middle of something important. I didn’t know!” Her eyes grew wide and fat teardrops trembled on her lashes. “You said twenty minutes!”
“Eve.” He leaned against the wall, counted to ten, and tried to remember what he was doing there in the first place. “When a woman calls me from a high-crime neighborhood in the middle of the night, nothing is more important. I don’t take the time to stop for a hamburger or a shower or anything else.” Then he asked the question he believed to be the most important, given the circumstances. “What were you doing hiding in the dark with a nail gun?”
“Old buildings make strange noises. It sounded like someone was walking around in here. I got nervous.” Eve’s soft brown eyes swam in her pale, elfin face. “And I thought I saw someone watching me through the front window. I turned off the lights so he couldn’t see in.”
“Why didn’t you lock the door instead, so he couldn’t get in?”
“I didn’t want to be locked in with anyone, either…in case someone was already inside.”
That made sense.
Whoever had been watching Eve, if he was still out there, he could certainly see everything now. Matt discovered he didn’t like the idea of being spied on any better than Eve had.
He gave up. He wasn’t going to yell at her for working alone. Not at the moment, when he had something more important to do first.
Her whole body shook as she reached for her briefcase. “I’ll drive you to the hospital.”
“In a minute.” Injured or not, if there was someone inside the building, Matt planned on kicking butt.
Ignoring the pain in his leg, he limped through every room in the main floor of the building. Eve clung close to him, her fingers twisted in the tail of his untucked shirt, hammering home to him without words just how spooked she’d really been. The thought of her crouched in the dark—afraid and armed only with a nail gun for protection—filled him with helpless fury. And if he felt that way, how helpless must Eve be feeling?
There was a kitchen with a storage room and a locked rear entrance, the main meeting area with the enormous street-front window, and two single-unit washrooms. There was no access to the upper levels of the building from inside. The place was empty.
“Can we go now?” she asked when they arrived back in the main room.
“Just one more minute.”
Matt took her by the hand and hobbled over to the large front window, then turned to stare down into her upturned face.
Her tear-dampened eyes glistened with such a look of remorse, he wanted nothing more than to wipe it away. She shouldn’t be sorry. If the person spying on her tonight was the same one who’d broken into her house, it was time he learned that Eve didn’t have to defend herself. Not anymore. And if that person was her ex-husband, it might help for him to think Eve was now off-limits.
Matt cupped her cheeks between his palms, threading his fingers through her hair. The rich, silky strands were smooth and cool against his skin. This time, he hoped her trembling had nothing to do with fear.
“Matt, this isn’t such a good idea,” she began, correctly interpreting his intention. She tried to pull back. “Anyone outside can see us.”
“That’s the whole point.”
Matt had been waiting for this moment ever since the night he’d missed his chance in the bushes at his uncle’s fundraiser. Now he had a perfectly legitimate excuse. He covered her mouth with his own and cut off her words, intending only to put on a show for whoever might be lurking outside.
He was unprepared for the knife of desire that stabbed through him,