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“It’s none of your business, Soren.”

The sweet primness of her tone digs directly into my skin. “Of course it’s my business. You’re here with us, aren’t you? If you bring trouble to our doorstep?—”

“Stop worrying about handling it,” she taunts. “The less you know, the better. I have it under control.”

I swallow and tamp down the rising frustration. Gilli has always been headstrong. I remember a couple of stories, when it was impossible for me to staple my ears shut, where her mother would regale us with things the girl did just to prove she wasn’t weak.

Climb trees and break bones.

Run out into the street to save a squirrel from getting hit by a car.

Real bleeding heart kind of crap, too.

What if this is another one of those times, but she’s in deeper than she can handle? I can’t bring myself to step away yet.

“Under control,” I growl. “Somehow I highly doubt it, if you’re in here sneaking around and calling the police withmy cell. Does this have something to do with the one you lost? Or maybe why you bolted from whatever hole you crawled from in the first place?”

“Myholeis an apartment in Baltimore and I had a break-in.” She glares at me. “That’s all I’m telling you and more than you deserve to know.”

A break-in?

Is she kidding?

“No more stealing. If you want to make a call, you ask one of us,” I warn. “This is the kind of crap we wanted to avoid.”

“Like you care what I’m doing.”

“Oh, trust me sweetheart, I care. I care greatly because you think doing some grocery shopping and cooking a meal is going to make me like you.”

Gilli juts out her chin. “I’ve already resigned myself to the fact that you abhor me. Why would I want to change that now?”

I hesitate against the snarky comeback burning my lips. Finally I release my hold on her, prying one finger loose at a time and standing still like I’m waiting for her to move first.

We stare at each other for a long time, her chest heaving and her eyes like ebony fire.

Her skin is soft. I never noticed it before. The curve of her chin, the sharpness of her cheekbones against the roundness of her body… It all combines into a potent combination and I’m a sucker who can’t look away.

She felt way too good in my arms. And I know myself. I know once I sink my teeth into a mystery, there is nothing I won’t do to see it solved.

Gillian is a mystery to me.

Damn me, but I want to make things better for herandget to the bottom of the secrets she’s keeping. She’s taking up way too much free rent inside my head for this to be healthy.

“You want something to do? To see that there’s no spooks in the woods? Then come with me.”

She immediately balks. “I’m not going anywhere with you. You’ll take me out into the woods and leave me for dead.”

I smirk, chuckling. “To the contrary. I’m going to put you to work.”As I warned you.

“It’s my time off.” She pushes past me, heading for the couch. “I’ve earned rest and relaxation.”

“Or you can help me clear a downed tree in the driveway. Aiden will make it past in his truck but your car won’t clear it without serious muscle.”

Her eyes narrow. “When did it fall? There was no wind last night.”

She probably lay awake listening to it, too. Wherever she lives, whatever apartment she’s got, I guarantee there isn’t the same kind of thick silence as here at the lake.

“I’m not the forest whisperer, but things happen. Weak branches end up cracking under their own weight. Get changed.”