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“The one who spoke to you is someone who will attack you in an alleyway late at night.”
    Trevor’s eyebrows shot up. “Interesting. I don’t suppose you have any proof of such activities, do you?”
    She shook her head. “No. I don’t. I have nothing to my name legally to prove who I am at the moment either, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know who I am.”
    He sat down on the side of her bed. “You went to Stefan for help. But this is slightly out of his bailiwick. So he came to me.”
    She studied him. “He thought I needed a lawyer?”
    “Not quite.” He grinned. “I’m also a psychologist. And an energy worker.”
    She blinked but didn’t say anything to that last bit, making him wonder if she understood what that meant. “And it seems to me that at the moment, Stefan was right in that I’m likely to be someone who can help you.”
    “What would you want in exchange?” she asked hesitantly.
    “Well, Stefan said he owed you a dollar and gave it to me instead on your behalf,” he lied blithely. “So, in fact, you have me on retainer to represent you in your legal issues. As for payment beyond that, well if you’re as broke as you appear to be, then this will need to be a pro bono case.”
    “And why would you do this?” Her gaze narrowed in consideration. “You don’t know me.”
    “And therefore I can’t help you? If you understood my skill sets, you’d realize I’m just a sucker for helping people.”
    “Do you collect stray dogs too?”
    He laughed, thinking about the menagerie he had at home. “In fact, I do. But I’m an equal opportunity savior, I am ruled by three cats and two birds as well as four dogs.”
    She gasped then laughed.
    He grinned at the sound. It was a little rusty but held such joy he wanted to hear it again.
    “I wouldn’t have said being a lawyer meant that you wanted to help people,” she said slowly when she could. There was a smile on her face as she said it, but there was a note of caution, too, as if she were afraid of insulting him. “My father’s lawyers come into the category of barracudas.”
    “See, that’s the thing about the legal profession, there is room for barracudas and saviors. Often we’re pitted against each other.”
    “And you like a challenge,” she said in wry tones.
    “I do. And I’m a sucker for waifs. Particularly for ones who thought they killed a friend of mine and left bloody fingerprints all over his doorway.”
    And for the second time in the last few minutes silence reigned.

Chapter 6

    S he didn’t know what to say, so said nothing.
    After a long moment he picked up the conversation. “Your father is planning on putting you into a sanatorium, is that correct?”
    “If that is a cushy private hospital that I’m not allowed to leave, then that would be correct.”
    “Why?”
    This was where it got a little tricky. “He thinks I’m mentally unfit to live my own life,” she said quietly, sadly.
    “And are you?”
    “No,” she snapped. “I’m fine. I did without him for most of the last year, and I can do without him for the next many years too.”
    “Then why commit you?”
    She could feel the intensity of his gaze, that indomitable will of his saying he needed information from her and he’d get it one way or another. But maybe not through violence. At least she hoped so.
    “He controls my money…” she started to explain then fell silence.
    “How old are you?”
    “Twenty-five,” but her voice slowed with uncertainty.
    He turned to look at her. “You are twenty-five or will be twenty-five soon.”
    She blinked. “I am…” She frowned and fell silent.
    He studied her and she felt that same intensity. Then he said something that surprised her. “Today is Friday, May seventeenth if that helps.”
    It did. A lot. In one way. In another, not at all. Like what happened to the last few days. Where the hell had she been in the meantime? And why?
    “My birthday is Monday,” she said quietly. “My trust