Resolve edged out the fear and despair. She wouldn’t let him win. Wouldn’t let him control every aspect of her life.

Eliza was right. Ramie was the only one who could bring him down. The only one who could end the pain and suffering of too many women to count. It was time to stop being that victim and fight back.

There was nothing she could do to remove the memories, the pain that she and the other women had suffered. But she could make certain that no more women had to endure what others had.

Calm descended. Peace, sweet and aching, filled her. Her jaw firm, she stared Eliza in the eyes, watching as Eliza’s own eyes widened in realization of what Ramie was about to do.

“Can you get me something the victim owned?” Ramie asked.

SIXTEEN

RAMIE’S words reached Caleb where he stood in the hallway and fear slammed into him, rocking him back on his heels.

“No!”

His reaction was explosive. He pushed his way back into the bathroom where Ramie and Eliza stood, shaking his head fiercely as he pinned Ramie with the full force of his stare.

“No way in hell,” Caleb bit out. “Don’t even think about it. Eliza. If you even try it, you’re fired. Your job is to protect Ramie, not expose her to more hurt.”

Eliza’s lips thinned but she remained silent. Instead she turned her head to Ramie, looking pointedly at her as if she expected Ramie to make Caleb stand down.

Ramie’s eyes were haunted. Her lips quivered and her nostrils flared. She had the look of prey being stalked by a predator. As though she knew she was about to be attacked.

“I have to, Caleb,” Ramie said tonelessly, resignation clear in her weary gaze.

“No,” Caleb said emphatically. “You don’t have to. Why would you put yourself through that kind of torture again?”

A tear slipped soundlessly down her cheek. Her eyes were dull as she stared back at him.

“I have to do this,” Ramie repeated. “You know I do, Caleb. There’s no other way. Eliza is right. I’m the only one who can take this guy down.”

Caleb exploded in fury, his anger directed at Eliza. “You weren’t supposed to say any such thing to her! That is not the job you were hired for. You’re off this case. You and Dane both. Get out of my house.”

Ramie saw Eliza’s lips thin even more and her cheek twitched in irritation. She bit her lips as though she desperately wanted to say something but held it in check. But there was something about Eliza that made Ramie pause. She didn’t come across as a brassy, uncaring, ball-busting woman only wanting to do her job. That wasn’t what Ramie had seen in Eliza at all.

“You may as well say it, Eliza,” Ramie encouraged. “If he’s firing you anyway, what have you got to lose by speaking your mind? And by all means, let Dane have his say so he doesn’t sink with your ship.”

Dane wasn’t pleased with Ramie’s statement of sinking on Eliza’s ship but at the same time it was apparent he was backing Eliza completely. He stood behind her in a gesture of support. Both he and Eliza stared at Ramie but then Dane shook his head.

“It’s not Ramie we have to convince, Lizzie,” he said in a low, affectionate tone. “She’s with us. It’s Caleb who wants our heads.”

One thing Ramie was fast learning about Eliza was that she was not the type of woman to simply bow out, take a more subservient route. Not when she knew her way of handling things was far more superior.

Eliza stomped right up to Caleb’s face, Dane right behind, but Ramie got the impression he wasn’t supporting Eliza so much as he was potentially protecting Caleb from the brunt of Eliza’s fury.

Eliza put a finger in front of Caleb’s nose, making him stumble backward until he was against the wall.

“Don’t talk to us about not forcing people to do things against their will. Or do you forget we know all about your very unexpected visit with Ramie St. Claire and that you wouldn’t take no for an answer and then you pushed her right into hell. Tori’s hell at that. So now you have two women suffering the same attack but only by one man and one instance.

“Sure, we can nail the bastard for what he did to Tori. We have evidence, DNA trace. He’ll go down. It’s just a matter of time. But we can’t do a damn thing about what he did to Ramie,” Eliza said in a black voice. “Not a single goddamn thing.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Ramie quietly interjected. “As long as he’s punished, it doesn’t matter who and what he’s punished for.”

“And can you live with that, Ramie?” Dane asked gently. “Knowing that there is no justice for what was done to you? For what you suffered?”

“I lived with that all my life. Nothing has changed. No one really knows the extent of my abilities. They leave, excited that they have hope. They never see what they leave behind so they have no way of knowing that more than one woman suffers.”

“I know,” Caleb roared. “I know exactly what is done to her and I will not allow her to go through that again. It’s demeaning. It’s degrading. No woman should ever have to endure such sick, twisted fantasies acted on them without their will, their consent, or their knowledge!”

Ramie shook her head adamantly, life flaring in her eyes for the first time. “But this time it will be with my will and consent, Caleb. I’m making a choice to fight back. It’s what I should have been doing all these months I spent cowering around every corner, terrified that I’d walk right into his arms. That’s no way to live. I can’t live that life anymore.”