Page 262 of At the Edge of Surrender

Except, it wasn’t just a name.

I saw him.

I saw him across the club.

It was him. I’d never been so sure of anything in my life.

I felt Kane flinch as he was taken to this point in time, both our hearts drumming as we prepared ourselves for what she would reveal.

There was something so inherently dangerous about him. The way he moved. The glint of something menacing when he grinned.

Maybe I’d been an idiot. Sidling up to his side to flirt with him. Giving him only half my name. But I thought it was the only way I might be able to get to know him. To see if he was as wicked as he looked or if he had any of the goodness I’d sworn he’d exhibited that night.

Honestly, I was terrified that I had made it all up. That maybe myconsciousness had turned a beast into a savior as a way to protect my heart and mind.

But what had compelled me forward was the idea that he might have information on Jana. Even if he knew she was gone, at least we’d have closure.

So I slept with him as a means to an end.

Not that he wasn’t gorgeous. But it wasn’t attraction that had brought me to him. It was the desperation to get close enough to him that I could find something.

Except, the man was a fortified fortress. A wall of secrets and easy grins.

I finally found myself alone in his office, so I searched for…anything.

I would never forget the chill that filled the room when he found me doing it. The steely rage that had emanated from him.

I wanted to blurt it. Tell him why I was really there, and a vacation fling wasn’t it. But I still wasn’t sure that I trusted him enough to do it.

Turmoil spun through Kane, and he held me closer as he released his regret. “I remember that. I found her hunting around in my office. It instantly put me on guard, and I kicked her out. Told her to never come back.”

“You didn’t know,” I whispered.

“But I should’ve looked closer. Should have given her a chance to explain.”

“I’m not sure she would have if she wasn’t confident about who you were.”

Which we both knew he wouldn’t have given her since he couldn’t let anyone in.

No one until me.

And then, when I found out I was pregnant, everything changed. My goals. The reason I was living. I thought to go to him and tell him, but I stillwasn’t sure. Wasn’t sure that he could be trusted. I should have left it at that. Went on and just cherished the gift I’d been given.

But every time there was a report of another young girl going missing? I couldn’t stop the clutch of my stomach. This sickness that I’d feel at the thought of someone else going through what we had. No way to stop myself from imagining the things that Jana must have suffered.

And then there were three college girls who went missing from an off-campus party in Los Angeles, and I looked at my little girl and thought…what if it was her?

What if it was her?

I asked you to watch Maci for a few days while I went to LA. You thought I was meeting with designers for a new clothing line I wanted to bring into the boutique.

But I was hunting. Hunting for any clue. The scenario that had been reported by the media was so close to what we’d been through that I couldn’t help but believe it was related.

That one of the monsters we’d been saved from was back. I don’t know if it was fate or horrible bad luck. But I found him. I found the guy in the same seedy bar in LA.

I found the one guy who I remembered most distinctly.

Our tormenter for those three days. The one they called Tyke.

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