Alice nodded. "I was going to tell you everything. Rowdy insisted. I knew if I didn't, he would."

Reese stiffened. "And if Rowdy hadn't been involved?"

"I'm sorry, but I honestly don't know.

You're a cop," she said quickly, hoping he'd understand. "You naturally feel an obligation to do things the legal way."

"That's not a bad thing, honey. The legal way works when you let it."

"No, it doesn't, not always." Time to stop stalling. Alice gave up the comfort of his big solid body, but as she stepped away, Reese caught her hand.

She saw the questions in his eyes, the doubt he still felt about her motives. She couldn't blame him.

"Let's sit down." She gave him a gentle tug toward the couch. "It's a long story."

"Rowdy told me much of it."

Rowdy knew only the tiniest bit. Alice waited until they were both seated. As usual, Cash rushed over to sit with them.

She patted her thighs, and he climbed into her lap, rolling to his back so he could stretch his head out to Reese's thigh.

Smiling, Alice scratched his belly- and avoided looking at Reese. "Today, I saved a woman."

Reese said nothing.

"Even if it upsets you, I feel good about it." A quick glance showed the seriousness of his expression, both somber and acutely focused. "There were so many times I prayed for someone to save me."

"Someone did." Reese rubbed under Cash's chin. "Rowdy says the guy is a wraith, but that he has incredible influence with the law."

In doggy heaven, Cash dozed off.

Alice loved the dog with all her heart.

She realized now that she loved Reese, too, and that was a whole lot trickier. It meant she couldn't hide anymore. He'd have to know the truth.

And she'd have to accept the consequences.

"It surprises me, the things Rowdy can uncover." She licked dry lips. "He didn't get a name? Any details?"

"No." Scooping up the dog, Reese moved him to his opposite side so that he could sit nearer to Alice. With two pats, he resettled Cash, who was just as content to doze nearby.

Reese turned to her with all his considerable concentration. "I'm hoping you'll share those with me."

She would tell him what she could and hope it was enough, but not too much.

Stretching out one arm along the back of the couch, Reese more or less caged her in. "Logan also did some checking for me."

Wow, he'd been busy. Surveillance of her shopping trip, background checks on her past. Did all that curiosity mean that Reese cared-or that he suspected her of something?

Trying to sound curious instead of wary, Alice asked, "Did Logan uncover anything?"

"A little."

Her heart beat faster. She wished he hadn't moved Cash; being near the dog helped relax her. "For instance...?"

"I know what you told the cops when you were recovered, what you told the papers when you showed up again. And I know you have permits for your guns."

He stared at her a moment. "Now I want to know the rest. Who took you, how you got away, why you're still so afraid-"

"I'm cautious, not afraid." Liar. So many times, fear overtook her. "Not as much, anyway."

He dismissed her protests. "And I want to know what happened today, and why."

The why was easy. "That young lady needed my help."

"No, Alice. There's more to it than that. I think maybe you're trying to make amends for something. I think you're still hiding a lot. But it's time to stop hiding."

Alice closed her eyes. Reese had no idea-and she'd really wanted to keep it that way.

Touching her chin, he brought her face up, waiting until she opened her eyes.

"It's time to let me in, Alice."

She nodded, but she couldn't decide how to start. Fear. So much awful fear.

"I don't want things to change," she finally admitted.

"Between us?"

"Yes." Once he knew it all, how could he possibly still be interested?

"You have to tell me sooner or later."

"I know." Dread smothered her, tightened her chest and made her stomach churn. "I think I've known that since the day I met you."

"Then let's get it all out in the open and deal with the consequences. The longer you wait, the harder it's going to be."

Knowing he was right, Alice fell back on an old tactic, forcing herself to relax her muscles, to compose her expression.

Hide emotion.

Hide fear.

Hide everything, so that she didn't really exist. That made it easier to get through- "No." Reese turned her, his gaze bright with furious determination. He kissed her hard, pressing her head back.

"Don't do that, damn it. Not with me."

She blinked in surprise, shaken and thrown off.

Appearing pained, Reese put his forehead to hers. Voice guttural, his hands tight on her shoulders, he said again, "Not with me, Alice."

REESE FELT THE pounding of her

heartbeat, but he couldn't make himself pull back.

He wouldn't let her hide, not anymore, not from him.

How many times had she had to do that during the year of her captivity? How many times had she faded to a quiet little mouse, hoping not to be noticed? Hoping to survive?

How many times had she been singled out, anyway?

God, it killed him to think about it, and Alice had lived it.

He kissed her again, more gently this time, moving his lips over hers, taking relief from the fact that she was here now, with him. "I need to know, Alice."

She nodded-and surprised him by offering comfort. It was there in the way she kissed him, so tenderly, on his chin, his jaw.

She rested her head on his shoulder.

"He had me taken right after work."

The emptiness in her voice sent chills down Reese's spine. He smoothed back her tangled hair. "Can you tell me who?"

"His name was Murray Coburn. He's dead now."

Sometimes it's better when they're dead. Reese had to agree.

"I was locked away at night." One breath, two. "I'm not sure where he kept most of the women-the women he sold.

But I stayed in his home. Wherever he went, I went. Always."

For a year. For an entire fucking year.

Rage burned Reese's eyes, made his muscles twitchy with the need to find and kill a man beyond his thirst for vengeance.

"At first, for the longest time, I assumed he was going to murder me,"

Alice whispered. "But after a while, when that didn't happen, I didn't know what to think. Then he told me I needed to be his secretary. He said he had studied my background, my history of employment, and that I was just the conscientious, attentive assistant he needed for his business dealings. He s a i d he couldn't just hire someone because he needed someone he could trust. He said-" she swallowed hard "-he said knowing I'd die if I didn't do a good job would be all the incentive I'd get."

Reese found it near impossible to fathom such a thing. But he believed her.

"You did what you had to do."

"I'm sorry, Reese, but you don't understand how it was. What I had to do..."

Reese stroked her, encouraging, wanting for her to get it out there so they could deal with it.

"I told you he was a human trafficker?"

"Yes, you told me." And Reese feared where this would go.

"I was complicit in it all."

"No." Never would he believe that.

She nodded sadly. "In so many ways, I'm as guilty as he is."

"No." After he got all the facts, he'd find a way to convince her.

"I set up his meetings, arranged for pickups. For...sales."

The words choked her, and when Reese brushed a thumb over her cheek, he found it damp with tears that continued to fall.

His heart felt trampled. "You were forced, Alice."

"But I knew what he was doing. He made sure of that. Everyone knew.

Everyone in the office, that is. So many immoral people, all of them as ugly and evil as him."

"The police?"

"Couldn't touch him," she said simply, stating it as a fact. "He always covered his tracks, and he had corrupt friends in high places. Whenever necessary, he had an alibi. He taunted me with it. And he told me if I ever tried to leave he'd steal my little sister and sell her, too, and then he'd rape me. He said he didn't want to." Her hands knotted against his chest.

S h e pressed closer, her voice raw, broken. "Even when he made me be naked around him, he said that I repulsed him, but that he'd rape me anyway if I gave him trouble."

Dear God. Reese hauled her into his lap, trying to wrap himself around her, wanting to somehow protect her from a past already buried deep in her soul.

"I still waited and prayed, but I never had a chance to get away, not once. I couldn't stop things, couldn't risk my sister. If it had only been my life..."

"Your life is very important, Alice."

She swallowed hard. "The things he threatened, what I knew he did to others, that would have been worse than death."

Needing her to understand, he tunneled his fingers through her hair, cupped his hand around her skull, pressed a warm kiss to her forehead. "I'm very, very glad that you survived."

Tucking her face under his chin, she said against his throat, "I feel so guilty."

"I wish you wouldn't." But knowing Alice, he accepted that she'd take that guilt to her grave.