The bullet tore through Stoner's heart, dropping him to the porch in less than a second.

No hesitation.

Stoner had signed his own kill order the moment he'd wrapped his fingers around Amelia's neck. Trying to rape not just one, but two young girls had removed Crowe's last hesitation.

Amelia was his. He'd forced himself to leave her to protect her, and he'd be d.a.m.ned if he'd allow some b.a.s.t.a.r.d with a heavy hand to abuse her.

The hike back to the truck was made quickly, and the drive to the cabin made with no one to witness the black shadow of a vehicle easing up the mountain at that hour of the morning. Stepping into the cabin once again, Crowe moved to the back porch, gathered up Stoner's body, zipped it in a body bag, and placed it in the covered back of his truck.

Sliding back into the vehicle, he reversed from the drive and sped down the mountain the same way he'd gone up it, then returned to the hidden spot he'd found to park the truck in. Using the secured sat phone he kept on him at all times, he then keyed in the number to a controlled line.

Base Control answered immediately. "Texas-Tahoe-Base. You're a go. We have sat lock and awaiting identification and instruction."

"California-Baker-Charlie," Crowe confirmed before continuing. "Sterilization required. Marker in place. Request cleanup ASAP with direction to authorized processing needed."

"Sterilization and immediate cleanup approved at marker, California-Baker-Charlie-Two," Base approved. "Direction ordered to Tahoe-Alpha-Three, coordinates incoming. Authorized processing confirmed and approved. Proceed immediately to coordinates. Texas-Tahoe-Base, out."

"Coordinates confirmed Texas-Tahoe-Base. California-Baker-Charlie, out."

Disconnecting the link, Crowe activated the satellite map on his phone, put the vehicle in gear, and headed down the mountain once again.

Moments later his lips curled in a smile of satisfaction. The low hum of a stealth drone overhead drew his attention. Seconds later the mountain trembled as the cabin exploded into a ball of fire that Crowe knew would burn the building to next to nothing.

And once he reached Tahoe-Alpha-Three, Stoner Wright would be burned until even the ash was ashes.

Wiping his hand over his face, Crowe remembered thinking how he would just pray Amelia never suspected, let alone learned what he had done.

And what the h.e.l.l had happened?

John-f.u.c.king-Caine had happened, and he and Ryan's high-flying ideal that Crowe shouldn't step into a relationship with Amelia without telling her the truth was biting him in the a.s.s. There shouldn't be secrets between the two of you, son, Ryan had advised him when he first learned what Crowe had planned.

No doubt, his uncle had sent John in just to tell Amelia the truth.

But why?

And why now?

CHAPTER 18.

What now?

There were too many secrets, too many lives ruined because of Wayne Sorenson, and still he was out there. Nothing they had done so far had pushed him into making a mistake.

Amelia stared at the pictures she'd pulled from the loose board in her bedroom floor after Wayne had supposedly died. Pictures of her and Crowe from seven years ago. One picture alone had sustained her. One she'd shot of them together by lifting her phone above them as they lay on her bed.

She hadn't warned him first as she usually had. She had just snapped the picture. Later that night she'd printed it and hidden it with the rest. She hadn't pulled it out until months later when she'd been so torn, desperate, and uncertain what to do.

That picture had dug talons of agony straight to her soul because the expression on his face was one she had never seen on another man's, at any time in her life. Especially Crowe's.

She had never seen gentleness, need, and something akin to desperation mixed and merged to create a look so similar to what she would have described as devotion; she'd convinced herself for years that that was exactly what the emotion was.

Then life had happened. Crowe had returned and of course he'd had lovers. Those lovers and his experiences with them were drawn out in detail by friends of those victims once the Slasher murdered them.

He'd had lovers. He'd touched other women and allowed them to touch him. A part of her hadn't blamed him. She couldn't have him, not as long as the Slasher lived-those stories proved it. But she needed him. She ached for him until a part of her had felt as raw and agonized as an open wound.

She looked at the picture again.

She would have killed for him. If she had known Wayne was the killer, she would have killed him in his sleep and gladly gone to prison for it if it meant Crowe would find peace or happiness.

Coming to that realization wasn't hard. She had hated Stoner. She had hated him even more than she had hated Wayne at the time. Hated the few times he touched her with such strength that she had been physically ill each time he forced her beneath him.

Thankfully, those times had been few and far between.

"Amelia?" John stepped into the family room, his expression drawn and saddened. "You okay?"

"Did he love me?" she whispered, looking at that picture again.

Moving to her, John looked down at the image she held and breathed out roughly. "Never seen that look on Crowe's face before I saw him with you. And only when you're not looking. If he loved you then, he loves you now."

Covering her lips with her hands, she tried to force back her tears as she nodded slowly then looked up at him. "Do you trust me, John?"

He stared down at her for long moments before finally nodding. "I trust you, Amelia."

"Enough to let me use your phone?"

The secured line he used couldn't be detected or traced. She needed that. To make the call she had to make, she needed a line no one would even know was in use.

Somber, silent for long moments, he finally nodded, drawing the device from the pocket of his jeans.

It was tiny. A sort of flip phone unlike any she had ever seen.

"How do I key in a number?" she asked.

John talked her through the process quickly before turning and moving to the doorway as though keeping watch for her.

She quickly dialed the number, another secured line she knew couldn't be hacked or traced.

"Who is this?" With a voice as dark and cool as Crowe's could be and just as suspicious, Ethan Roberts answered the call.

"It's me," she said quietly. "It's Amelia."

Silence filled the line for just a second.

"Amelia, baby, are you okay?" Her mother's voice was hoa.r.s.e as though crying, and definitely worried.

Thea and Ethan Roberts had lived a h.e.l.l most parents could never imagine.

"I'm fine," she promised. "Is Dad still on the line?"

"You're on speaker, honey," her father a.s.sured her. "Jack and the team are here as well. He was heading out in a few hours to your location."

She drew in a hard, deep breath. "Do you remember, just after we realized Wayne was alive, what you said?"

"What I told you was the only way to draw him out?" His voice became icier than ever. "I remember."

"I think you were right. I think it's time." Her heart was beating sluggishly now, terror striking at her as tears filled her eyes. "I think it's time to do it."

"Are you sure, Amelia?" he asked her. "Be d.a.m.ned sure, baby."

"I'm sure," she promised him. "How soon-" Swallowing tightly, she had to force herself to finish the question. "How soon before all of you can be here?"

"Give us three hours and we'll be there. If not sooner," he promised. "Are you going to tell Crowe before we arrive?"

"Would he believe it without seeing it?" she asked.

He sighed heavily. "h.e.l.l, I didn't believe it until I saw you," he admitted.

She nodded slowly then asked the question she knew would torment her if she left it unasked. "Did you hear the rumor that Crowe killed Stoner?"

Her father and his team collected rumors, favors, and other related information with surprising regularity. She had always wanted to ask if he'd heard any rumors regarding Crowe, and hadn't had the nerve.

She could hear the curse her uncle, Jack Roberts, bit off.

"I heard a very faint rumor," he admitted. "A body that was disposed of through military means by a black ops member resembling Crowe. I guess that's what happened?"

"A rumor," she verified.

"You okay?" he asked.

Her chest clenched, pain knifing her senses at the realization that there was so much more to Crowe than she had ever known. She knew the man he was with her, but without her he'd been cold, silent, a military machine that did the government's dirty work without pause to protect those he loved from the government's enemies.

"I'm fine," she promised. "I'll be better, perhaps, once you get here."

"We're on our way then," he repeated. "Leave the lights on, baby girl, we'll be there soon."

Leave the lights on.

She disconnected the call and walked slowly to John as he turned back to her. The fondness in his expression was something she hated to lose.

"Tell me, John, would you have liked me much if you hadn't thought I was your sister?" she asked him, keeping her voice low.

He smiled at that, leaned close, and whispered, "I have a feeling we both know-"

Tears filled her eyes again as he stared into her eyes.

"I wish you were." Her voice broke on a sob. "You would have made an incredible brother."

"Are we telling anyone yet?" He grinned at the conspiracy they'd both believed no one else knew about.

"Just for now, for a few more hours, will you be my brother?"

He nodded slowly, opened his arms, and drew her into his embrace. "Then come here, baby sister, let me give you a hug. I have a feeling once Crowe finds out, the hugs will be over."

Would he be jealous? Not jealous, she thought. He was too confident for jealousy. No, Crowe would be territorial. There was a difference. Jealous implied the belief that he somehow might not be able to hold her. Territorial didn't just imply that something belonged to him, it verified it.

John's hug was filled with fondness and affection. Just as she had always thought a brother's hug would be.

"Okay, little rebel, let's see what you've got." He grinned as she pulled back. "And let's see if I'm right about the secret you've been hiding for seven years."

Her gaze narrowed on him. "How do you know there's a secret?"

His lips twitched. "Crowe's had his uncle investigating why you disappeared for four months before starting college, and where you go every couple of months that had Wayne so p.i.s.sed off that he actually called the state police several times to try to track you down. We haven't found proof of anything yet, though," he admitted. "We just have our suspicions."

"And your suspicions?" she asked, terrified that somehow Wayne had his suspicions as well.

"Wayne had no clue, sis," he promised, evidently reading the concern on her face. "He thought you were seeing Crowe for a while until he tracked Crowe down several times while you were gone. He was certain you had a lover, but had no idea who and decided to wait and see."

"There was no lover." She shook her head, stepping back from him and glancing to the stairs. "I lost my heart before that, John. I couldn't bear the thought of it."

He nodded somberly. "Yeah, you have that way about you. All loyalty and dedication."

She had to grin at the forced patience of his tone. "Let's just hope it pays off."

Reaching out, he pushed back the hair that had fallen over the curve of her cheek, tucking it behind her ear as though he wanted to see more of her face.

"If it doesn't," he told her, "then he's a raging fool and deserves to be shot for his stupidity alone."

Not shot, but kicked perhaps, she thought as she moved away from the man she wished could have been her brother, if he'd had another father, and headed up the stairs.

Watching her walk away, John crossed his arms over his chest before wiping a hand down his face and staring toward the ceiling, praying G.o.d was listening to prayers that night. Because he knew it would take a miracle to save them both.

CHAPTER 19.

Amelia was silent as both Crowe and John escorted her into Archer's office that evening, along with six security agents.

She'd deliberately dressed in old jeans, a sweatshirt, and hiking boots. The jacket she wore was denim lined with fleece, and she'd left her leather gloves in the SUV.