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Jenny was released on a Wednesday and Brax took the day off so he could take her to his house. He had already checked her out of the hotel and brought all her belongings to his house and set them up in his guest room.

When the nurse wheeled her out of the hospital, his truck was waiting out front, and he didn’t allow her to hoist herself up into the passenger seat, instead he lifted her in. She’d forgotten how strong he was. When she turned to wave at the nurse, she winked at her as she waved back.

“Enjoy,” Rebecca said. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

She and Brax were soon on the road, and as much as she tried to keep her eyes open, it was a lost cause.

“Am I going to have to sing the wakey, wakey song?”

Jenny sat straight up. “God no. I promise I’m awake.”

She blinked her eyes a couple of times and realized she was in the driveway of a one-story house painted light-green with navy trim. It had a path from the sidewalk to the front door hedged with pansies.

“You live here?”

Brax’s lips twitched. “Nope, I always park in someone else’s driveway when I come home.”

“You are such a smartass.”

“Why didn’t you think I lived here?”

“The pansies.”

Brax grinned. “They were on sale. Now stay there and I’ll help you out of the truck.”

Jenny thought about it and agreed. The idea of jumping down with her headache and her ribs aching did not appeal. Brax was soon opening her door, and she took in the scruff on his face. How had she missed that when he had picked her up? Hell, how had she missed the fact that he was wearing a tight, heather-gray Henley shirt under his leather jacket?

“Let’s take it easy, okay?”

He gripped her hips and eased her down. Her breasts brushed against his chest on the way. She needed to make sure he took her lots of places in the next couple of days, so she could be lifted into and out of his truck.

“Are you steady, or do you need me to carry you inside?”

Carry me. Carry me. Her inner slut exclaimed.

What in the hell is wrong with me? I must have hit my head harder than I thought.

“I’m fine to walk.”

Brax took small steps to match hers, then stood before the front door.

“Are you prepared?” he asked Jenny.

“For Faith? Absolutely.”

“I told her that you’re injured. She knows to be on her best behavior,” Brax said as he opened the door.

Woof. Woof. Woof.

Brax stood in the entry. “Good girl. Now sit.”

It was the most authoritative voice that Jenny had ever heard Brax use with his dog. When she peeked around his side, she saw that Faith was sitting.

“Welcome to my home.”

As soon as Faith saw her, she started wagging her tail, but she remained seated.

“Aren’t you a good girl,” Jenny cooed. She went to bend down to pet her, and immediately regretted it. When were her ribs going to stop hurting?

“Let’s get you on the couch with a heating pad, how does that sound?” Brax asked.

Jenny closed her eyes and sighed. “That sounds lovely.”

She walked further into the house and blew out a breath that she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. She slowly turned around and smiled with pleasure. She could tell it was still a work in progress. There were pictures propped against one wall, and the living room could use another chair or two, but the kitchen with its stainless-steel appliances had definitely been newly updated.

“Have you recently moved in?” she asked.

“Six months ago.” Brax herded her toward the couch. Jenny saw that there were two bed pillows already in place for her. “Why don’t you lie down, and I’ll get the heating pad.” Faith followed them to the couch. Apparently the ‘sit’ command only lasted so long.

Jenny slowly arranged herself on the couch and nestled against the pillows. She felt a lot more comfortable than she had in the hospital. Hell, she felt more comfortable than she had in the hotel. Maybe it was because she was in Brax’s house.

Before she knew it, he was shaking out a blanket that he had tucked at the end of the couch and laying it over her. “Since they were letting you out at lunchtime, I thought you might like some comfort food. I have beef stew in the crockpot, or I could warm up a chicken pot pie. What sounds good for lunch?”

“Are you kidding me? You have that for lunch?”

“Well, whatever you don’t choose will be for dinner. Today I’m showing off with the chicken pot pie, but I would be lost without my crock pot.”

“Are you saying you made the chicken pot pie?”

“I didn’t make the crust. That was store bought, but the rest, yeah. That’s easy enough.”

“What happened to tuna on your pizza?”

Brax grinned. “One of the guys in Coronado likes tuna on his pizza. It was the grossest thing I’d ever heard of. I thought I might get a chuckle out of you. But you got me with the tighty-whities.”

Jenny smirked, then snuggled down into the pillows.

“So have you decided?”

“Are you eating with me?” she asked.

“If you want.”

“I want.”

“In that case, I’ll set up our dinner on this coffee table. So, which is it, stew or pies?”

“You decide.”

He nodded. “I want stew for dinner. So, I’ll warm up the pot pies. In the meantime, let me get you a heating pad.” He walked over to the mantel, got the TV remote, and brought it over to her. “Help yourself.”

“What about video games?”

“I play those over at Gideon’s house. He has a whole entertainment room. Didn’t Jada show you?”

“Yeah, you’re a reader and like to hike. Whenever I’m back in fighting form, maybe we can hike together.”

“I would love to take you on part of the Appalachian Trail. You’d love it.”

“That would be great.” Jenny yawned.

“Let me go grab lunch. I’ll be back.”

She watched him leave the living room, taking note of how he walked and how well his jeans accentuated his butt. She set the remote down beside her, and Faith came over and nuzzled her hand.

“Hi, Girl. How are you?”

The dog whined.

“I’m not up for playing today. I’m sorry.”

Faith licked her hand, then batted her head against her palm.

“Oh, you want head scratches. That I can do.” Jenny threaded her fingers through the silky black curls of Faith’s coat until she was scratching her scalp, then Faith plopped down in a heap beside the couch. This forced Jenny to reach farther down to keep up her petting. She knew she was doing a good job when Faith let out an appreciative moan.

“Are you seducing my dog?” Brax asked as he came in with a cuddly stuffed dog in his hand.

“What’s that?”

“Believe it or not, it’s a heating pad. CiCi got it for me at Christmas. It’s called a Warmie?. I can put it in the microwave or the freezer.” He pulled back her blanket. “Where do you need it?”

Jenny pointed to the most painful point on her ribs. He snuggled it close, and she felt instant relief. Faith raised her head and looked.

Woof.

“I’m not sure that she likes the competition,” Jenny laughed. “How often have you used this?”

“Don’t tell CiCi, but this is the first time that this has been used.”

“I think she probably knows.” Jenny smiled.

“The pot pies should be ready in about twenty minutes. Didn’t you find anything you wanted to watch on TV?”

“I’ve watched enough TV to last me a lifetime. Do you have any books?”

“What kinds?”

Jenny laughed again. She realized she laughed a lot around Brax. “Give me an assortment. Anything will do. That is, if you have books in print.”

“You’re in luck. Dad gave me two boxes when he saw that the home office in this place had built-in shelves. He thought some of the shelves should have books. I hope you like Westerns.”

“Louis L’Amour?”

“Yep, and Zane Grey. But he also has some military action and adventure, police thrillers. I’m pretty sure I saw a romance or two. But a whole hell of a lot of westerns.”

“Bring the boxes.”

Brax grinned.

Jenny didn’t even make it long enough for stew that night. Brax ended up carrying her to the guest bedroom. Earlier he had talked her into getting more comfortable, so she was wearing leggings and an oversized t-shirt, so when he put her to bed, at least she would sleep comfortably. It had been a nice afternoon. When she’d assured him that she could tune out him watching a documentary on TV while she read a book, she hadn’t been kidding. She was a good quarter of the way through one of the Louis L’Amour books by the time she passed out.

He took the book into the guest room with her, in case she woke up during the night and wanted to continue reading. He really wanted to leave her bedroom door open so that he could hear her during the night in case she needed something, but he wasn’t sure if she would be comfortable having Faith wander into her room at some point.

Faith had never slept on the bed in the guest room, but he had let her sleep in his bed on more than one occasion, so he was afraid that she might get the idea to sleep with Jenny. With Jenny still being on edge, that was the last thing she needed, waking up in the middle of the night with an eighty-pound dog jumping up into bed with her. She’d be traumatized for sure.

After he got Jenny settled, he went back to the living room and got out his phone. He owed some people some calls and texts. First his sister. CiCi knew what had happened, and she’d been worried sick. She’d visited Jenny at the hospital both days she’d been a patient, and she wanted to be at his house when she arrived, but he’d nixed that idea.

“It’s about time you called. She’s not answering her cell phone. Can I talk to her?” CiCi asked before he had a chance to get a word in edgewise.

“The doctor suggested no tablet or phone time for the next couple of days. So, she turned them off. I fed her chicken pot pie, and she stayed awake until just now. I put her to bed, and now I’m calling you. See what a thoughtful big brother I am?”

“Can she not talk on her phone, or just not do things on her phone?”

“She needs rest right now. She can call you in a few days. She’s still hurting.”

“I feel like it’s my fault. If I hadn’t gone to the library, I would have been walking with her to the coffee shop, and this wouldn’t have happened.”

“Ceese, you’re not to blame. If this was purposeful, they would have found some other time to get to her.”

“You think someone did this on purpose?”

Brax winced. He hadn’t wanted to tell his sister that; she was going to worry herself sick.

“Why would someone want to hurt Jenny? That doesn’t make any sense.”

“I said if . Trust me, we’re looking into this.”

“Are you going to keep her safe?”

“Damn right I will.”

“Thank God. Okay. Tell her I said hello.”

“I will. I love you, CiCi.”

“I love you more.”

He ended the call smiling. Now for a call that wouldn’t leave him smiling, unless Gideon had found some answers.

“Hey, Brax. I’m surprised you didn’t call sooner,” Gideon said in lieu of ‘hello’.

“Just put Jenny to bed. She finally took a pain pill, and I got some food in her. She’s probably down for the night. Were you able to find out anything?”

“I know that New Era Cyber Tech has been frantically trying to track down Jenny so that they can have a discussion with her. Your friend Meyer has done a fantastic job of keeping her whereabouts confidential and stonewalling them.”

“So, what does Cyber Tech want?” Brax asked.

“Their current VP of PR, guy named Roy Jeckel, has been trying to put out a wildfire with one fire extinguisher. Cyber Tech is bleeding money as their customers are leaving them. Turns out a lot of people aren’t impressed with a company that will abandon their employee when they’re kidnapped.”

“I haven’t been keeping up with every little bit of things, but isn’t this going on a little long?” Brax asked.

“You’d think, but two things are making this a big story. One, this is a multi-billion-dollar company with over one hundred thousand employees worldwide. They’ve been acquiring companies left and right for the last ten years, so they’re always big news. Second, is that one of the two high-ranking employees that they pulled out of Bangladesh two weeks before Jenny’s kidnapping gave an interview to the Washington Post.”

“He did?”

“Yeah. His name is Henry Roberts and he explained how he and Virginia Tyree had strongly suggested that the Bangladesh satellite office be shut down for a while because of the instability in the region. He went on to explain how the two of them were hustled back to Virginia two weeks later with promotions, leaving Jenny as the highest-ranking employee in the Bangladesh office. In other words, Henry felt that Jenny was left with a target on her back.”

Brax whistled. “That guy either has quite a set of ethics, or an ax to grind.”

“From what I’ve been able to gather, it’s ethics. The guy’s been a straight arrow all his life, even made Eagle Scout, and when his kids were little, he was always the coach of his daughter’s soccer team. He’s already left New Era Cyber Tech and went back to his old company at his old rate of pay. Basically, thumbing his nose at the promotion.”

“I think I like this guy.” Brax smiled. “When did the article come out?”

“Six days ago.”

“Let’s play this out. Which would make this problem worse for Cyber Tech?” Brax asked his brainy friend. “Jenny dying, or Jenny filing a lawsuit?”

“Jenny’s death would have to look like an accident. I’d give it another two weeks to blow over. But if Jenny filed a lawsuit, I think they’d settle so fast it would make her head spin. She’d be a rich woman, and they’d have her sign an airtight NDA, and they could go public with a final statement to the press. I don’t see how the company would want her dead.”

“But, she hasn’t sued, and it’s been weeks,” Brax pointed out.

“Therein lies the problem.”