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simple about you, Darius,” she
responded.
    “That isn’t the point, either. Stay here. I’ll go take a
look.”
    “But—”
    He walked away, ignoring her protest.
    Sirens split the night as Darius crossed the yard. Good. The
police were on the way. The more people moving around, the less likely the perp
would return. Since he didn’t think Catherine was going to hide in the house
while he looked around, he’d rather the guy stay far away.
    The pine tree sat close to a whitewashed fence that nearly
glowed in the moonlight. He surveyed the ground, searching for signs that
someone had been there. Wilted grass, a thick layer of pine needles, a few pine
cones. Nothing that looked out of place.
    Darius eased closer, watching his steps, studying the ground
carefully. One jerry-rigged explosive device had taken his lower left leg. He
wasn’t in the market to lose the other one.
    Pine needles rustled, and Darius caught a hint of soap and
something indefinable and feminine. Not flowery. More like rain on a hot summer
day. Fresh and clean with just a hint of sweetness.
    Catherine.
    He frowned, glancing over his shoulder. “Stop.”
    He barked the command, and she froze, her eyes gleaming in the
bright moonlight. “Do you see something?”
    “No. But it’s not what I can see that I’m worried about.” He
studied the ground near his feet, crouching low and tracking a line of
tamped-down pine needles to the base of the tree. The trunk was thick and rough,
the bark flaking off, and at first, he thought that was all he was seeing. Old
flaking bark, slightly darker than the wood. He let his eyes adjust, sirens
screaming in the driveway behind him. Doors closing. Someone calling out, and he
just kept staring at the trunk, his brain seeing what his eyes couldn’t.
    A too-regular shape a foot up from the base of the tree, nearly
hidden by the lowest boughs. Sharp edges that didn’t occur in nature. Something
that shouldn’t be there, but was.
    What?
    “See anything?” Logan Randal crouched beside him.
    “Maybe. Do you have a light?” He took the flashlight Logan
offered, shone it on the tree trunk, his pulse jumping as the strange shadow
came into full focus.
    Wires.
    Explosives.
    Set on a timer? A remote?
    “Back off. Now!” he ordered, but Logan was already moving,
jumping back from the bomb, words spilling out as he called into his radio.
    “What is it?” Catherine moved forward, heading in exactly the
direction she shouldn’t be. Darius snagged her waist, hauled her up and away,
her body stiff and unyielding, her skin soft and pliant.
    “Put me down!” She panted, fighting his hold as if he were a
stranger taking her to certain doom rather than a neighbor trying to keep her
from it.
    “Gladly,” he responded as he crossed the threshold into the
house, set her down in the foyer, his hands sliding along the smooth skin of her
abdomen, heat spearing through him.
    “Go get your grandmother. We need to get out of here.”
    “What did you see? What was it?”
    “Enough explosives to blow that tree down and take half this
house down with it. Get Eileen, or I’ll do it.” He started down the dark hall,
knowing the way to Eileen’s room, and ready to carry both women out the back
door if necessary.
    Catherine could fight him all she wanted, but he’d have his way
in this.
    They were going to his place until the police cleared the
explosive.
    Maybe for longer.
    Obviously, a security system hadn’t deterred Catherine’s
attacker.
    “I’ll get her. If you walk in there, she’ll be mortified.”
Catherine brushed by, her body sliding along his. He felt every touch, every
sigh of breath, every trembling muscle.
    And he knew he was in trouble. Knew he was being pulled deeper
than he wanted to go.
    He’d come to Pine Bluff to settle in and settle down, and that
was all he wanted. Not a relationship. Certainly not a relationship with someone
like Catherine. Someone who had trouble seeping from every pore.
    She