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finally opened, Julia rushed out. She fished her keycard from her purse and slid it into the lock as soon as she reached the door. Then she hesitated—looked back at Russ, who was right on her heels.
    “What?” he asked. After a moment of studying her face, he cocked his eyebrow. “Trust me, I’m having second thoughts about being here with you, too. But unless you got a time machine in that purse, we can’t go back to the bar and undo what happened.”
    True, but Julia still didn’t open the door. “Just how much are things messed up?”
    “They’re messed up,” he answered. Now it was his turn to hesitate. “But I swear I’ll do everything humanly possible to keep Emily safe.”
    Julia nodded. That was something at least. “You should know, I don’t handle danger well. Old wounds.” She added “Literally.” Out of breath, she knew she had to get control of herself.
    He touched his fingers to his chest. “Does this mean you’re about to have a panic attack or something?”
    “No,” she snapped.
    That wasn’t exactly the truth. She might have one. It wouldn’t be the first.
    “I’m not sure what it means. I just thought you should know that alley meetings and having guns pointed at me aren’t things I can handle.”
    “You already have,” he reminded her.
    “Things I can’t handle again, ” she said. “ Or after the fact. I usually don’t break during the heat of the moment, but afterward, all bets are off.”
    Russ stared at her, and that stare reminded her of how close they were. Not as close as in the alley of course, but still close enough. He was a disturbingly attractive man, and the sooner she got him out of her life the better.
    He huffed, cursed under his breath and reached out to touch her arm, as he had earlier. A sort of gentle rub, with just the tips of his fingers. It had worked then. A small miracle. But she was too close to the edge for it to work now. Still, she didn’t move away from him.
    “When I was seventeen I was attacked.” Her words rushed out with her breath, and she felt her heart pounding. Her chest began to hurt. And she had no idea why she was telling him any of this. “A date went wrong. My parents had warned me that the guy was bad news. I didn’t listen. I thought I knew more than they did. And when the guy tried to rape me, and he couldn’t, uh, perform, he stabbed me three times and left me to die in the trunk of my car.”
    The tears came, and she cursed, used the profanity to quell the building anger. She wasn’t that naïve girl anymore. It wasn’t worth crying or panicking over now. She’d been rescued twelve years ago, and was still alive.
    “Shhh,” Russ said, his voice so calm. He put his arm around her and eased her closer. Not quite a hug, but almost. “Want to show me your scars, and I’ll show you mine?”
    She went stiff and eased back a little so she could make eye contact. But he was busy lifting his chest-hugging black T-shirt. She got a good look at his toned and tanned chest, his tight abs and the scar just to the left of his heart.
    “I know a little bit about being left for dead…and staying alive.” He lowered his T-shirt. “So do you. That’s good, Julia. Because I need you to be a survivor.”
    She smeared the tears off her face and narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean?”
    He opened his mouth as if he were about to answer, but then he shook his head. “Let me meet my niece first, and then we’ll talk.”
    She just continued to stare at him so, he reached around her and opened the door. Or rather, he tried to do that. The nanny had obviously put on the safety latch and chain.
    “It’s me,” Julia called to Zoey.
    “Julia, thank God you’re here. You scared me with that phone call.” Zoey opened the door, but she stopped when she spotted Russ. Probably because Russ looked… well, dangerous. And was.
    “Everything’s okay,” Julia said, trying to assure the woman. “I might have overreacted.” She hoped