His finger touched my chin, and I opened my eyes. He stared at me with earnestness in their depths. He yearned for me as much as I did for him. I saw the same desperation and holding his face in my hands, I used my hips to thrust down over him, matching his rhythm. As I did, he closed his eyes.

“No!” I insisted.

His eyes flew back open. I needed to see him. I needed to watch him. When I did, I knew what was going on inside him.

He nodded slowly, thrusting harder, rougher, understanding what I needed.

We neared the climax. I felt mine coming. Carter scooped me against him and went to the bed. As I lay beneath him, he pounded into me. I soared over the edge, but I kept my legs wound around his waist, urging him to go as hard and as deep as he wanted.

He went deeper.

He went harder.

Then, as a guttural groan left him, I felt his release. He collapsed on top of me, his full weight bearing down on me, but he wasn’t heavy. He was mine.

After we could breathe again, he shifted to the side and pulled me against his chest. “I’m sorry you woke up alone.”

I nodded. He’d said it earlier. “I know. It’s fine.”

He held me tighter to him. “Thomas called, but I couldn’t come to you. Then you were sleeping so soundly on the plane. He called again and offered to just bring you here, but I didn’t want anyone else to hold you. So I met the plane and brought you myself. We’re in Cole’s home. He owns this building, and it’s very private, but there are five other residents who live here.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“You have to understand. While we’re here, you can’t leave Cole’s home. He lives on the top three floors of the building, but the other floors have people living there. If you go anywhere, you have to have the men with you.”

“Of course.” He was so insistent. I frowned. What was really going on? “Like always.”

“No, not like always. You usually have men with you and others trailing you, but this time, I want all of them surrounding you. I mean it, Emma. If I’m not with you, you don’t go anywhere. Cole won’t listen to me. I told him his home should be private and isolated, but he refuses. He won’t kick the other tenants out.”

“It’s okay. I’ll be fine. But…” I bit my lip.

“What?”

“How long am I going to be here?”

He shrugged. “As long as necessary.”

“My job. I can’t stop going.”

“I called Noah. He said there’s work you can do here for him. There’s an account you can take over and manage from home, if needed.”

“Carter, you can’t keep interfering with my job.”

“I will,” he barked, then immediately softened his tone. “If I have to—if it means you’ll be safe. Any other time, I wouldn’t, but right now you have to be safe.”

Something was happening. Something was changing. I knew, though Carter wouldn’t tell me the details. Whatever was going on, it was here, very present with us. Fear like I hadn’t felt in a long time began to well up in me, filling my body. Trust Carter. That’s what I had to do. But then I heard his next question, and the fear crept back up again.

“What happened last night?”

I shook my head. Not yet. “Who is Cole Mauricio?”

“You’re not going to tell me?”

“Are you?” I asked right back.

He grinned, his eyes searching my face in a loving way. I felt sheltered and protected. “Cole was like a brother to me,” he said.

I don’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t those words from him. He and my brother AJ had been like brothers. Hearing someone else referred to the same way, a twinge of jealousy pierced my chest, though it was unreasonable.

“After AJ died and I went into the Mauricio family, Cole and I became close,” he continued. “His immediate family were the head of the entire organization. His dad. His brothers. Him. The rest are elders, like his uncles, or people like me who aren’t related by blood, but are still considered family. For a long time, with the Mauricios, the true leaders were only one family: his. All of that ended a few years ago. The Bartel family started a war and killed every single member in his family. His dad went one week. His mom was the next. Every week, they found another member of Cole’s family and executed them. They were hiding, but the Bartel family always found them. His three brothers. Then his older sister. Cole had two little sisters, twins, and both of them were murdered too, until he was the last one left.”

I swallowed. Another nightmare had unfolded in someone else’s life.

Carter grew quiet for a moment. Then said, “I was assigned to protect him. Cole’s a year younger, but with everything I had done, I felt like I was ten years his senior. He was like a little brother to me. They found us one night and almost killed us, but I got us out. I went against the family protocol. Instead of taking him to a Mauricio safe house, I took Cole away.”

“Away?”

He nodded, turning over to stare straight up at the ceiling. He was back there, back in his memories. “I cut off all communication with the family and took him away. I trained him, taught him how to be a killer, how to fight.”

It began to click into place, why Cole moved like Carter.

“He’d been off the radar for five years until two weeks ago. The Bartel family found him and tried to kill him. They killed two of his friends, but Cole got away. He killed them instead.”