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insinuated yourself into Gracie’s life. Maybe all you want is some bonding time with her, but I can’t help but feel there’s more to it than that.”
    She threw her hands up in the air. “What more could there possibly be?”
    “You tell me, Catherine.”
    “All I want is to spend time with her. I didn’t have the luxury you had growing up.”
    He sat back and crossed his arms over his chest. “And what luxury might that be?”
    “The luxury of growing up with your siblings. You got to see Wade graduate from high school. You watched Deanna go from a little girl to a beautiful, intelligent woman.” Her throat closed up for a second and she had to swallow hard before she could say the rest. “Gracie’s childhood was stolen from me, Dean. We never got to talk about boys late into the night. She and I never swapped clothes and makeup. Even arguing over whose turn it is to do the dishes was lost to us. All the things sisters do, she and I missed out on that.”
    He cocked his head to the side, his expression as unreadable as ever. “And that’s all there is to it?”
    “Oh, my Lord, what is it with you?” she said, her voice rising even more as anger began to take the place of common sense. “Do you think I’m after her money? Because I can tell you that I have plenty of my own. Not only did my parents have a nice-sized insurance policy, but I’m a website designer. I do just fine, trust me.”
    “See? That’s just it, Catherine, I don’t trust you. I thought we already established that.”
    Frustrated and ready to commit cold-blooded murder, Catherine shot out of her chair. “Obviously this was a huge mistake. I never should have come here. I’m sorry I bothered you.” But before she could take more than a few steps, Dean was there, holding her still with one arm wrapped around her middle from behind. She stiffened. “Let me go,” she bit out from between clenched teeth.
    He tsked. “Nope, I’m not through with you yet.”
    “I don’t give a damn.” She tried to pry him loose, but he wouldn’t budge. “Let me go, or I start screaming.”
    He chuckled and whispered close to her ear, “You’re awfully damn naive, do you know that?”
    She grasped onto his hand and tried to remove it, but the man must have been made of steel. “What do you mean by that?”
    “You’re in a strange man’s home, sweetheart. I’m bigger, stronger, and I could do anything I wanted to you right now. Screaming wouldn’t do a damn bit of good, because the nearest neighbor is half an acre away.”
    Yeah, okay, that was a scary thought. “B-but Gracie trusts you.”
    He pulled his arm away, but before she could run to the front door he was spinning her around to face him. “And that’s enough for you? How do you know that I’m not some rapist or murderer?”
    His brown eyes weren’t filled with menace. In fact, unless she missed her guess, Dean looked concerned. “You wouldn’t hurt me,” she shot right back. It was a leap of faith, but Catherine had always had good instincts. She had no reason to stop trusting them now.
    “If you hurt my family, I’ll do that and more,” he murmured. “Make no mistake, Catherine, I protect my own.”
    “Gracie is my family too, Dean.” She swatted his chest. “Get that through your thick head.”
    “She’s your biological half sister. Practically a stranger to you.”
    “I know what she is, thank you very much.” Her eyes narrowed. “Boy, you don’t have any faith in your brother’s opinion or his abilities, do you?”
    His head shot back as if he’d been slapped. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
    “Your brother trusts me. He ran a check on me. Don’t you think he knows what he’s doing? He is a private investigator, after all.”
    “Of course Wade’s good at his job, but his first priority is to see Gracie happy. Finding out about you sent her over the moon. Love is clouding his judgment of you right now.”
    It hurt to think that Wade was only