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allow himself to be distracted and screw up again.
     
     
     
    Chapter Four
     
    After being led on the biggest run around since the New York City Marathon, Kelsey finally managed to get out of her apartment for a few hours to use the public library. Knowing that the precautions were for her benefit didn’t make he r confinement any easier . Especially being confined to the house with a man who could make her heart flutter with desire and her blood boil in anger, all in the space of ten minutes.
    She tried to tune out his presence, but damn, he was a hard man to ignore. More than once she’d found her gaze lingering on him when he made his periodic walks through the condo. He didn’t like her. He didn’t want his current assignment of protecting her. Yet he remained more cautious and alert than his daytime counterpart. He made her feel safe. A surprise, since she rarely relaxed while alone with a man. He also made her feel things she didn’t want to feel. Erotic stirrings, deep inside that she had thought long dead.
    Stop wasting your time thinking about him!
    She had work to do and she might not get another chance like this for a while. Officer O’Brian stood to the side of the desk and dogged her every step, until she felt like the criminal instead of the protected witness.
    She took her pad and pencil to the reference section and jotted down the periodicals she needed. While the librarian went to retrieve the information, Kelsey returned to the medical text she'd been reading. On top of the large reference book, she found a folded slip of paper. Her curiosity got the better of her and she read the note.
    The air was sucked out of the room. Her knees went weak. This was not some forgotten bit of research from the last person to use the book. Somebody left that note for her. Left it in the few minutes that she'd been away from the desk. He knew that she would be using the public library today.
    A lump formed in her throat, threatening to choke her. Her eyes scanned the room. Standing on the upper level near the railing she noticed a shadowy figure. She couldn’t make out the man’s face but she had the eerie feeling he was staring at her. He raised his arm towards her.
    Without thinking, she turned and ran through the emergency fire exit, setting off the alarms. The shrill noise caused her heart to skip a beat. With no destination in mind, she darted between the people, pushing her way through crowds as if the devil himself was following. Some angry pedestrians cursed her and one shoved her into a building. She scraped the bare skin of her arm against the rough bricks.
    A pain shot through her, but she kept moving. She ran on pure fear and adrenalin. Her pace began to slow but her heart still raced. When she feared her legs might give out, she paused for a break. Her gaze darted frantically around the area, every person seemed like a threat. She had to start moving again. But where? How? She couldn't take the trains or a taxi because she'd left her purse at the library. She had no money or credit cards.
    Deep cleansing breaths helped restore some of her failed reason. The familiar skyscrapers of Rockefeller Center registered in her brain. Nestled between the walls of glass and steel stood a bastion of hope. Gathering the last of her strength, she headed for the one place she felt she might be safe.
     
    * * *
     
    “What do you mean, you lost her?” Wolf thundered into the receiver. He didn’t appreciate being awakened at noon after working the night shift. To learn that a veteran police officer couldn’t manage to keep one helpless heiress in his sight intensified his anger. “What happened?”
    “I don’t know,” O’Brian said. “One second she was there and the next she bolted out the fire doors without warning.”
    “Why didn’t you follow her?” Wolf demanded.
    “I tried, but once the alarms starting ringing, the shit hit the fan. Everyone jammed the exits. By the time I got onto the street I had