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nothing more. He’d been in Hawaii on leave and she’d been mesmerized by his good looks and exotic occupation. At least that’s what she’d told herself.
    “It was more than that and you know it.”
    She turned away from the intensity in his eyes. “Was it? After Brianna was born, all we did was fight.”
    “I had to work.”
    It was a familiar argument. She hadn’t wanted to be stuck at home by herself while he traveled the world.
    “You blamed me for losing Brianna,” he said.
    “You blamed me too. You didn’t say it, but I felt it.”
    He raised a brow. “It was my fault, not yours. And you can come up with a dozen other theories, but we both know the kidnappers wanted to punish me for something. So if anyone’s to blame, it’s me.”
    She was too tired to argue with him. “Maybe you’re right about more than one person being involved.” Her next thought chilled her. “What if he’s lured us here for a reason?”
    “It’s a possibility, I admit, but I’m not about to let go of this opportunity to find my daughter. But, yeah, he wants something from us. Money, something. I’m sure he’ll make his demands known sooner or later. In the meantime, we find Brianna.”
    She glanced at him in time to see the muscles in his jaw flex. His determination had never wavered. Why was that? The baby had been a part of their lives such a short time, but he’d never given up hope of recovering Brianna. Against her will, the fact impressed her.
    The sheet had slipped from her shoulder, and she tugged it into place. “What could be in this place that would make it worth getting us to come here? Bluebird Crossing is desolate.”
    “We’re close to the Mexico border,” he pointed out. “This area is like an open door to the drug cartels. If the culprit who took Brianna is associated with the drug lord I had a run-in with, this would be a convenient place to get access to me. And there are few people, so he wouldn’t have to worry about interference.”
    “So he’s got us isolated.” She shuddered. “What if he’s just saying one of the girls is Brianna? Maybe he wants revenge on you for the man who drowned, and he knew you’d come if you thought our daughter was alive.” She didn’t want to lose the thread of hope she had, but common sense kept rearing its head.
    Clay nodded. “It’s possible. It’s hard to figure when we don’t know who was behind Brianna’s kidnapping.”
    “That envelope containing the picture. It was sent from El Paso. It wouldn’t be a problem for a drug lord to send one of his men across the border to mail the letter.”
    “This whole area has been like a war zone with the violence from Mexico spilling over the border. He’d have no trouble moving around.”
    She turned off the light and rolled over, facing the window. After a moment, she said softly, “I want her back, Clay. I want to tell her everything and that I love her.”
    “So do I,” he said in the darkness. “And I want to make the man who took her pay.”
    Though his words seared her, somehow they thrilled her too. And she found she believed every word.

    The bunkhouse was quiet except for the crickets that chirped outside the screened windows. The high desert cooled down at night, and Clay had turned off the air to hear the night sounds. He offered to put pillows between them again, but Eden rolled over and offered her stiff back to him, a reminder that she didn’t need a physical barrier to keep him in his place.
    He shifted in the bed and turned his face toward the window on his side. The pungent odors from the outdoors were a reminder of what he used to be. He’d grown up in the Chihuahaun desert near Terlingua, a place he’d hoped never to see again. Big cities and bright lights were more to his liking now. And though he felt discomfited, he was sure Eden was a bird in the sea.
    As he kicked off the sheet, he heard something. A soft slithering sound, like a rope being tugged over the wood. He went on