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you do have the power to break her,” Blake told him.
    “Why don’t you stop worrying about her? Just worry about your own life, you’re your own woman,” Byron snapped, very done with this ridiculous conversation. He didn’t even realize that the way he’d worded that would suggest that McKenzie was his woman.
    “I understand now. I can see that you’re struggling with the way you’re feeling, so I won’t take offense over what you just said. But be warned, brother, that she’s a friend of my wife’s, and if you put her through hell, I’ll be forced to step in and knock you down a peg or two.”
    “I would love to see you try, Blake. It’s been a while since I’ve had a good brawl.”
    “All right, then. We’ll talk about this later.”
    Before Byron could reply, Blake walked out into the hallway, and then Byron found himself grinding his teeth together when McKenzie’s sweet laughter drifted in through his open office door. She never laughed around him, but maybe that was because he never tried to make her laugh. Making her happy wasn’t on his agenda.
    He waited a while to be sure his brother had returned to his own side of the building. Then he decided to make the woman — that maddening woman — wait even longer. He wasn’t in the proper mood to work with her right now. So he tried to push McKenzie from his mind by digging into other projects on his computer.
    It was much easier thought than done.

Chapter Six
    W hen Blake left her desk, McKenzie didn’t know what to do. Byron had said he wanted to bring her in to discuss the Idaho files, but twenty minutes passed and he still wasn’t calling her in. She felt flustered and out of sorts, but she wasn’t the type to sit around and do nothing. She needed to pull herself together.
    The last few days had been almost surreal. Yes, she knew that Byron’s demanding she work at his company was his way of trying to control her, trying to punish her. He didn’t actually believe his irrational allegations that she had ruined his brother’s life…or did he? Business was business, and she’d come in Monday morning, gotten her assignment from him, and then he hadn’t brought up anything personal — not once. He confused her, and she wasn’t easily confused.
    A few times when they were working together she would look up to catch his piercing gaze focused on her, but she almost thought she was imagining it, because the second he noticed her looking, his face grew unreadable. Not a trace showed of what he was feeling or thinking — if he felt or thought anything at all, that was.
    That was fine with her. She didn’t want to dance this particular dance from his perverse playbook. She just wanted to run her business, make a new start for herself, and let her past life go.
    Byron wasn’t making that easy — not one little bit.
    There was a darkness about Byron that called to her on some basic level, whether she wanted to hear the call or not. Inside, she was just as messed up as he was, and there wasn’t a chance that anything could ever work between the two of them. Even knowing this, though, she wondered what it would be like with him in the bedroom. Strange —sex was not something she would ever enjoy. But just being alone with the man sent jolts of electricity all through her body. And that kiss…
    Oh, that kiss had melted her inside and out. McKenzie was sure he was a phenomenal lover — but all in self-interest. The woman never got the same pleasure from the dirty deed. But none of that mattered. Nothing mattered but survival. And no matter what people thought of her, she wasn’t a whore. Yes, she’d run a business where she sold women to the highest bidder, but she’d done so to protect them. And that story was none of Byron’s business.
    And since Byron had not an ounce of empathy in his entire body, she was certain that he wouldn’t care to hear her story anyway. He’d deemed her evil before he’d even met her, and he was inflicting