No Escape From War (Trouble for Hire #1) - Cynthia Eden Page 0,33

you he was giving me clues, but you didn’t believe me. You thought I was just some desperate reporter who was hungry for a story. You wouldn’t listen to me.” Her hands slapped on the table. “Barbara is dead. I wanted to help her. I wanted to save her. I couldn’t. Then he turned his attention to me. I wasn’t going to run to you and put someone else at risk. As long as I stayed out there, I knew he would search for me.”

“And just how did you know that?” Lynn asked.

“Because that’s what he told me.” She wrapped her arms around her stomach. “I’ve been here forever.” The day had been an endless blur of answering questions. “I want to go home.”

“I told you, we can’t arrest Dylan. I’m holding him as long as I can, but in a matter of hours, he’ll be free, too. Going home won’t be the smartest choice for you, not unless you have protection.”

“She has protection,” War said grimly.

Her head whipped toward him. As she’d feared, looking at him hurt. Her control splintered so hard she was sure that she heard the crack. Pain knifed through her heart. Why the hell had she trusted him?

“I will be with her.” He stared straight into Rose’s eyes. “She has me.”

No, she didn’t. She’d never had him.

“That will work,” Lynn said, like everything had been all decided and tied up with a pretty, red bow. “You can keep reporting to me, and I’ll—”

Rose shot to her feet. The legs of her chair scraped over the floor. “I’m going back to my job. To my life. If it’s Dylan, then I’ll do what I planned all along—I’ll find enough proof to nail him to the wall.” She stormed for the door.

Lynn stepped into her path. “I believed you,” she said softly.

Rose stilled.

“My partner didn’t. He’s the one who was lead on the investigation. Then. Not now. I am not your enemy. I want to help you, and I want to find the man who is killing women in my state. We can work together on this. We can stop him.”

She wanted him stopped.

“Do you believe Dylan Nelson is the perp?” Lynn pushed. “Do you think your producer is capable of killing?”

Until today, she would have said no. She had said no. Not Dylan. But… “Anyone is capable,” Rose responded. “If pushed too far.”

“Judging by the photos, he is quite hooked on you. In the pictures, you didn’t look as if you knew that you were being photographed—”

“I didn’t know.”

“That worries me. Because if he’s not our perp, he’s still exhibiting stalking behavior that I find alarming.”

Not like Rose found it all comforting and awesome. She was alarmed, too. She was also running way out of options.

But Lynn wasn’t done being all grim and authoritative. “If you walk out of this station, you must have protection. Either police officers or your own personal guard.” A wave of her hand back toward War before she told Rose, “I’m sorry, but I can’t in good conscience let you just go out alone. If I must do it, I can have you taken to a safe house. I can have you put in protective custody—”

Basically held prisoner for who knew how long? No, not what she wanted. No, thanks. There was only one option from where Rose was standing. Even though that option pissed the hell out of her. “War,” Rose bit off.

“Excuse me?” A furrow appeared between Lynn’s brows.

“I’ll go the personal guard route. I’ll have War.” She slowly turned to face him. He was still standing against the wall. His gaze immediately locked with hers. “I might not like you very much right now.” Understatement. She wanted to scream at him because he’d hurt her, again. The bastard. “But I know you’re more than capable of doing the job. You also hate Dylan, so there’s that bonus.”

“Fucking despise him,” War confirmed.

“Yes, well, that means you should be able to protect me from him easily, doesn’t it?”

He pushed away from the wall. “Damn straight I’ll protect you.”

“I’m sure we can work out an agreement about payment. You can bill me.”

His gaze hardened. “I’ll do it for free.”

Oh, now he wanted to be generous? “Over my dead body.”

He stalked toward her. “Never gonna happen.”

As he got closer, her body tensed. Anger and fear and a dozen other emotions burned through her so that all she wanted to do was—

“Great. Wonderful. Glad this has been worked out.” Lynn’s voice was flat.