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Kissing her on the cheek, I open the door and close it quietly behind me, walking down the hallway and away from the girl I desperately don’t want to leave.

“Jensen!”

Whipping around from where I’m waiting at the elevator, Kate comes flying toward me. At first, I fight to remove the shit-eating grin from my face because that didn’t take long. But the closer she gets, the more panic-stricken she is.

Waving her cell in her hand, the screen is lit up. “They know!” she blurts out.

Holding both arms out, she crashes into me, and I wrap myself around her in a bear hug. “Who knows?”

“My parents, Violet and Henry. Either that guy at the restaurant didn’t delete the images like he said he did, or someone else took shots, too.”

She hands me her phone and I begin scrolling through the last few texts from Violet.

Violet

Care to explain what the hell is going on here?

*Image at the restaurant.*

I don’t watch ice hockey, but this is the Scorpions' goalkeeper, right? The one who is pictured with a different female each night. The one who has no respect for women and seems proud of it.

And my daughter has become his latest victim. Or is it that she willingly lowered herself to him?

You look cheap. Consider your career over.

They are finished.

“Where do they live?” I growl.

She takes the phone back from me, her eyes shining with tears. The strong, powerful, confident, and sassy Kate is totally gone, and in her place is a shy, defenseless girl. Her transformation needs no explanation now that I’ve read the utter bullshit in those messages coupled with her revelations last night.

“Across town. But they’re probably at church. They go most mornings.”

These people are “religious?”

“Doesn’t matter. I’ll wait for them to get home from their morning sermon and then offer them one they’ll never forget.”

Her eyes widen with fear. “You’re going over there?”

The elevator doors open. “We both are. You think I’m just going to sit back and watch you get treated like this?”

“It’s not your battle to fight, Jensen.”

The elevator doors close behind me, and I frame her face with my palms. “People go to war to protect their country and freedoms. I go to war for my world.”

She bites down on her bottom lip, and I don’t know if it’s to hide her smile or anxiety, but she’s aware that she won’t change my mind on this. “I need to change and grab my purse; I’ll meet you downstairs.”

“How long doesthe service usually take?” I glance down at my watch. We’ve been sitting in my car and waiting in their driveway for at least forty minutes. Ideally, I’d have gone in and made myself comfortable, eaten some of their luxurious food, and kicked back, but Kate doesn’t have a key.

To her childhood home.

“They should be back any minute.”

Her left knee bounces up and down as she sits in the passenger seat, her large sunglasses covering her pretty eyes. It’s not even sunny out.

I place my hand on her knee to stop the bouncing and lean across to pull off her shades. “Look at me.”

Biting her bottom lip again, she continues to stare straight ahead at the enormous mansion in front of us. “Look at me, Princess.”