his son Bard or both — had had her mother killed. Either her father or her grandfather had wiped Lucy Benson — whose only fault apparently had been to love Bard Redfield — out of existence and had tried to kill her, too. For — for what? An issue of reputation? Her uncle hadn’t mentioned Lucy seeking financial aid from the Redfields. No, she’d tried to bring Hope up as best she could, and had been guilty only of trying to contact the man she’d loved, who was the father of her child, and who she’d thought was dead.
Men like that — who’d swat away innocent lives simply because they were inconvenient — were the scum of the earth. Men like that had cast a shadow over her that she’d subconsciously felt all her life.
She switched to her laptop and sent the entire file recorded by her uncle to Felicity, who was surrounded by security guys, with instructions to disseminate it as widely as she could in the company and to forward it to Don Temple at the FBI. She’d worked briefly with Don while she was at the NSA, tracking down a cyberterrorist. Whoever it was who wanted her dead, who had killed her mother, tried to kill her and had murdered poor Kyle and Geraldo would be outed. She knew Don. Don wasn’t going to be swayed by a Redfield.
She could feel the blood in her face, the heat in her veins. That chill plaguing her was gone. The anger had swept absolutely everything away in a wave of red-hot rage.
“Look at you,” Luke murmured. “Woman on a mission.”
“Damn right.” She was typing furiously. “Someone’s been playing with my life since I was a child. That someone killed my mother and killed Kyle and my doorman and whichever Redfield it is, he is going down.”
“Yeah, he is. No question.” Luke placed his large hand over hers, stilling them over her keyboard. “Don’t bother looking for Black’s number, I have it. Tomorrow we’re going back to Portland and we’ll start focusing on which of the Redfields killed your mother and tried to kill you.” His eyes narrowed as he looked at her intently, features tight and grim. “Four murderers went free under my watch. That will never happen again. Whoever it is will go down, I promise you.”
He looked deadly serious and she knew he meant every word. After a lifetime of being on her own, it looked like she had … an ally.
A lover, too.
Totally and inappropriately, she was aroused. That hot rage had also, um, turned her on. Instead of being meek and mild Hope Ellis, who never took the initiative, who felt a mild tingle — akin to the joy of reaching the next level of Doom — when she liked a guy, this brand new Hope Ellis, who was another person entirely, felt sexual desire bubble up in her and swirl like a whirlwind.
“Luke,” she said. It was an entirely new voice. Deep and smoky and so unlike her own she barely recognized it.
But Luke recognized it. He looked at her sharply and understood immediately.
She’d just heard a story of death. Her mother — dead. Her uncle — dead. But she wasn’t dead. She was alive. Alive.
Every cell in her body pulsed with life and desire.
And Luke felt that desire, too. Oh yeah. Eyes narrowed until only a shard of light blue was showing, features drawn, cheekbones dark with color. Luke Reynolds desired her and everything about him showed it.
They came together like magnets, with an almost audible click, their bodies fitting together naturally, as if they’d done this thousands of times before. When she lifted herself just this much and he bent his head this specific amount, their mouths met and clung. She knew the taste of him now, and the smell of him and the feel of him. He was both familiar and brand new and exciting beyond words.
He lifted her one-armed and walked backward. “Not going to make it to the bedroom,” he said, his voice thick.
She could barely hear him above what felt like a hot wind whistling in her head. The bedroom? God, no. That was miles away.
“Right now.” She sucked on his lower lip. “Right now.”
Her entire body was on fire, glowing with heat. There was such coldness in the world but there was heat right here, between them. Hope was ready to simply drop to the floor and have sex. Luke didn’t drop to the floor but took