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her mind. This man knew so much about her.
    With one hand, he stroked her arm, affectionately. His actions told her exactly how intimate her online relationship with him had been and she pressed her lips together, trying to steady her confused emotions after all that had happened.
     
     
     
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    Just then she caught sight of a road sign. They were headed west. Where? He’d mentioned a safe house. Wherever the hell they were going, it looked as if she was stuck with the pair of them—one bloke who she’d revealed all her intimate sexual fantasies to online, and another who she’d come on to before she even knew who he was.
    Great, just great.
    Her cheeks heated and she turned away, focusing on the flickering lights outside the window as the car sped on, headed out of the city.

     
     
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Chapter Four
    When Seth saw the big old house up ahead on the hillside, he slowed the car to a crawl, flicking his headlights down from full beam to sidelights. He didn’t want to attract the attention of the neighbours. The nearest house was a good half a mile away, but on a clear night the lights could be spotted across the valley floor.
    The lane that led up to the place where he had grown up was bumpy and Adrian woke up as they approached. “Where are we?” he asked as he sat up. “This doesn’t look like ‘an average Midlands housing estate’ to me.”
    Seth noticed there was no lack of sharpness to Adrian’s thinking. He’d remembered where they were supposed to be going. It was a safe bet that possible head injury could be ruled out.
    “Wales,” the woman responded, with a terse edge to her voice, “North Wales.” She hadn’t rested for a moment. Watchful and alert, she’d pouted thoughtfully—and provocatively—all the way from London. Seth had felt her attention on him over the course of the journey, attention that was mutual. What was her role in this? She could be one of Carlisle’s people. That was part of the reason he’d kept her close. He didn’t want to think that, but he had to, because that was his job. Whatever their connection was, he wanted her under his watch so that he could monitor her.
    “Wales?” Adrian repeated, and moved around in the back seat as he peered out of the window.
    “Change of location,” Seth said.
    Adrian didn’t respond.
    Seth was relieved. He didn’t want to explain why he had changed the plan. The less the witnesses knew, the safer they would be. The less anyone knew, in fact. Out there on that fire escape outside of Adrian’s office, he’d caught sight of the assailant, and he’d recognised him.
    It was Emery Lavonne, a fellow officer in the force. That distinctive blond hair of his gave it away. Seth had just about kept a lid on his anger, but it had enraged him. He’d heard of good policeman being bought out, but he didn’t understand that. Never would. Whatever, he
     
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    needed time to think and he couldn’t risk taking the primary witness to the designated safe house when Lavonne might already have got his hands on that address.
    Instead he had brought them to Hafod Y Coed, a country hotel nestled in a wood in North Wales, the place where he had grown up.
    Adrian attempted to read the sign as they passed, stumbling with the Welsh word structure. “What does it mean?”
    “Summer woods,” Seth responded. “It’s a small private hotel, out of the way, and it’s currently closed up for the winter season. We’ll be using it as our safe house.” Out of the way, that’s why he’d opted for it. They didn’t usually take witnesses into Wales, and it had seemed safer than booking into a regular hotel where the staff would be curious about who they were.
    He pulled the Land Rover up in front of the building and wondered what his parents would say if they were in residence and he turned up with two strangers in tow, two people who were under his witness protection. Thankfully his parents were in Spain for their winter break. He switched