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felt about him. Twenty-eight years of bottling up
the pain he caused her, made the tectonic plates of her conscience
shift; the result was violent.
    “Jake, why am I here?” Laurel’s rage
was obvious.
    “Sweetheart, we can discuss the details
later.” He took a deep breath.
    Aimed at Jake LeGrande’s head, a sharp steak
knife sailed with deft precision, and a whoomph, over the
center of the table. It stuck with a reverberating thud in
the wall post behind his head. He had ducked just in time.
    Jakes voice was deep, stern, and remarkably
calm.
    “Study. Now.” He pointed through the French
doors and she got up from the table to follow him with a storm of
questions. What the hell was the meaning of all this? Why was the
bastard in charge? Did he think a son of a bitch like him could
keep her here? She has hurling insults and décor at him at the same
time.
    Seth closed the doors behind them and nervous
chuckles rose from the guests hearing the heated exchange. More
laughter came as they heard the sound of a vase shattering.
    “Dessert anyone?” Seth smiled nervously.
    __________________________
     
    “Laurel, calm down, please,” Jake pleaded
with her, ducking the vase. “Give me a chance to explain.” He knew
she would be mad at the way things had been handled, but he had no
choice. When she was tired of throwing things at his head, she
quieted, but was still mad.
    “You bastard. You have an explanation, now ? Do you think I trust you now one iota after what you
did to me? You intolerable fuck!! Have it all figured out now, just
like then? Ugh! I hate you!”
    “I know I hurt you. I was a kid for God’s
sake! It was twenty-eight years ago. I didn’t have the balls to
tell my father to go to hell, that I lov....”
    She cut him off. “And so you suddenly have
grown a pair and you think you know what’s best for me now? You
intolerable fuck!”
    “You said that once already,” he chuckled
softly.
    “Uuhhh!!” She turned her back to him,
attempting to compose herself. It didn’t work. Jake had to duck to
his right this time.
    He shook his head, “You never could hit the
broadside of a barn,” he grinned softly and crossed his arms.
    Hot tears streamed down her weary face,
exhaustion had taken any sense of reason and calm away from her.
Interrupted only by her sniffs, a long silence filled the room.
    Jake uncrossed his arms and stepped toward
her. “Laurel, please, this is for you, to keep you safe. I couldn’t
live with myself if something happen to you.” Emotion gripped him,
his normal cool demeanor replaced by anguish that contorted his
face.
    “What do you give a shit?” She quivered,
upset and exhausted. Eying the Ming Dynasty vase on display to her
left, Jake strode up quickly and quietly behind her before she had
a chance to grab it. She tried valiantly to escape his grasp as he
snaked his arms around her. Her resolve floated away, and she
surrendered. His arms felt so good, tight around her. Her body’s
response made her mad at herself.
    Laurel’s voice wavered, she barely whispered,
“Jake, let me go.”
    Letting out a deep sigh of regret, he relaxed
his arms. “Can we talk about this quietly now?”
    She shrugged as if to shrug off the invisible
hold he still had on her. “I want to know why I’m being held here,”
she said quietly. “What does this have to do with you or any of
them?” She waved a hand toward the dining room. “A good number of
people I love are sitting in that room, probably in some kind of
danger, and I’m even more worried for the ones that aren’t
here.”
    He took a deep breath. “It’s classified.”
Jake was aggravated and losing patience.
    “Bullshit!”
    Jake, growled. “I can’t tell you any more,
maybe later, but not now. The barn fire and you losing your brakes
are not coincidental. Laurel, somebody wants you dead. It’s what I
can do. I can control this situation; I don’t have the same
security measures available to me in the States. I