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Nina Nash was a lot tougher than anyone had given her credit for.
    Moonlight flickered off her creamy skin and highlighted her golden hair, and a surge of sexual attraction shot through him.
    Damn. Not good.
    Determined to avoid personal involvement, he jerked his eyes away from her, started the engine and drove back to GAI headquarters.
    He parked and told Nina he’d call her in the morning. A storm cloud rumbled, threatening rain, and she thanked him again and climbed from the car.
    â€œGet some sleep,” he called just before she turned away.
    But her distressed look indicated that she didn’t expect to rest, that dreams of her daughter haunted her nights.
    Slade had his own share of nightmares, and as much as he’d like to comfort her, he wasn’t a hero. The men he’d lost were.
    But he would investigate.
    Tomorrow he’d ask Gage and Amanda to pull all the police and medical reports from the hospital. Maybe Amanda could use her expertise to determine if Peyton Nash’s body had been among those in the fire.
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    N INA’S PHONE WAS RINGING as she let herself into her house. Thinking it might be Slade, she hurried to answer it.
    But the voice on the other end of the line startled her. William.
    â€œNina, what the hell are you doing hiring a private investigator?”
    Nina tensed at the rage in his tone. “How do you know I hired a P.I.?”
    â€œDr. Emery called. He’s worried that you’re having another breakdown.”
    Nina gripped the phone tighter. “Well, I’m not. And what I do is none of your business, William. You gave up that right the day you walked out on me and our baby.”
    â€œListen to me, Nina. I don’t need some nosy P.I. in my business, especially asking questions about something that happened years ago.”
    â€œ Something that happened?” Nina said, her own fury mounting. “What happened was that your daughter went missing. That I was told she died, but that no one ever proved it or even bothered to look for her.”
    â€œFor God’s sake, you need psychiatric help,” William bellowed. “My mother tried to warn me, but I thought eventually you’d come to your senses.”
    â€œMaybe you don’t want me asking questions because you have something to hide,” Nina said between clenched teeth.
    William’s breath wheezed with anger. “If you make trouble for me, Nina, I’ll make sure everyone at the school where you teach knows just what a basket case you are. Do you think the people of Sanctuary will want an obsessive nutcase teaching their precious children?”
    Adrenaline sizzled through Nina’s blood. “Are you threatening me, William?”
    â€œTake it however you want, Nina, just leave me alone and tell that P.I. to do the same.”
    Nina started to shout at him, but he slammed down the phone, cutting her off.
    She stared at the dead phone in her hand, then dropped it into its cradle, paced to the mantel and picked up Peyton’s photo. “I won’t give up,” she whispered. “Not even if William did threaten me.”
    In spite of her resolve not to do it, she walked into the bedroom, dragged on her nightshirt then slipped open the drawer where she’d stowed the tiny pink dresswith the butterflies on it that she’d bought years ago. The outfit she’d planned for Peyton to wear home. She knew it was crazy to have kept it. Pathetic.
    But she crawled in bed, pressed it to her chest and inhaled the sweet scent of fabric softener.
    Then she closed her eyes and imagined her daughter coming home.
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    E IGHT-YEAR-OLD R EBECCA Davis fumbled for her glasses, sweeping her hand across the desk in the bedroom at her foster parents’ house. Without the glasses, she was nearly blind. But at least the social worker had gotten her a computer with big print.
    She hated the clunky glasses though. They were too big for her face, and some of the