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As much as her actions made sense, I still wanted to shake her. And there was the other part of me—that I was desperately ignoring—that wanted to wrap her up in my arms just so she knew she was safe.

So I knew she was safe.

We pulled into the hotel parking lot, and Kate’s car was already there. Jude was standing outside, watching. “She’s in her room?”

“Yes.”

We’d stayed at this hotel last night once the meet had been set. The guys had driven down, bringing what we needed and Kate’s car.

I knocked on her room’s door.

“Just a second.”

Taking a breath, I steeled myself to follow Liam’s advice. But as soon as she opened the door, I was talking. “This is a bad idea, Kate.”

She gestured to the room, and I went inside. There were bags on the bed. Makeup and what looked like new clothes. “Jude took me a couple of places on the way here so I could grab some stuff to get ready. He thinks it’s an okay idea.”

“It’s a terrible idea. He threatened you. Even if he hadn’t, going in there blind? Where these people operate? It’s like stepping straight into the line of fire.”

There was that familiar fire in Kate’s eyes. “What did you want me to do?”

“Walk away.”

“Where would that have gotten us, Noah? We bought two weeks’ time, but if we don’t know anything about them, there’s nothing you can do to stop them. Can you honestly tell me you don’t want to know what’s going on? That you wouldn’t do the same thing? At least now we’ll have something concrete to work with.”

I turned away for a second. There was no way to explain the fear I had for her doing this. She wasn’t wrong, but at the same time, I couldn’t even breathe. “An hour isn’t enough time. If he’s giving you an hour, then this place isn’t close. That’s on purpose. We won’t have time to set up any kind of perimeter. The chance that we catch them is close to nothing.”

Sitting down in front of the mirror again, she started putting on makeup. The open containers told me it’s what she’d been doing when I knocked. “Right now that’s fine with me,” she said. “Because if you think that I’m risking Brandon’s life by involving the cops yet? You’re wrong.”

“So you’ll just risk your own life?”

She didn’t say anything to that, but the hesitation in her body was obvious.

“Have you thought about whether they might be setting you up? That he wants you to fail? Because if this place is just far enough you can’t make it, he’ll have you. In the middle of nowhere.”

That gave her pause. And it should. It was a very real possibility.

Finally, Kate met my eyes in the mirror. There was determination there. Burning resolve. “I’m going to do this. He has my number. I’m going to get the message, and I’m going to get us what we need. If you don’t help, I’m going to do it anyway.”

That’s what I was afraid of. Her. Alone. With no way to call for help. “I know.”

For a second fear flashed over her features. As if I would ever let her do this alone.

“We still have the earpieces. I’ll ride with you in the trunk so I can be close by if anything happens.”

Kate put down the makeup she was holding. She was fucking stunning, and I couldn’t ignore it even though it was the last thing I should be thinking about right now.

“I can’t let you go alone. Please, Kate.”

She nodded once. “Okay.”

* * *

This really was the middle of nowhere. The good news was we still had some time. We were a little way down the road, parked just out of sight. It wouldn’t take more than five minutes for her to walk to what looked like an abandoned barn.

I suspected it was anything but.

It was more than halfway back to Resting Warrior. Way too close for my comfort. The only consolation was that the location was closer to our resources. Still not a warm and fuzzy feeling when a place like this was up and running so close to home.