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Ben rubbed his hands up and down her arms. “What happened?”

“He tied me up.” Her voice trembled and a nasty shiver shook her body until her teeth rattled. “He got a knife. Cut my arm when I fought him off. I can still see the blood and him pounding on me. The chair tipped over and he was right at me, kicking and yelling.”

The images flipped through her mind. Just thinking about it had the power to transport her back there. Curled in the fetal position and crying so hard it hiccuped out of her.

Her emotions whipped around but Ben’s gentle touch didn’t change. His face flushed and his scowl deepened but his anger soothed her. Something in his fury eased the memories. If he had been there, he would have believed her.

She rushed to tell the rest. It was like poison sitting inside her, bubbling up and pouring over everything. She refused to let it ruin this night.

“A neighbor called and this time the ambulance got there first. The police couldn’t hide it and the photos a fellow nurse took at the hospital helped buy my freedom. Even his partner stopped lying for him.” She shook off the fears that knifed through her insides whenever Ethan’s face swam before her. “He finally made a plea deal and I left.”

Ben’s hand inched into her hair as he caressed her scalp. “I’m so proud of you.”

“What?” She didn’t have the time or will to hide the tremor in her voice.

“You were amazing.”

A tear escaped and ran down her cheek to puddle on his chest. “I was terrified.”

“You survived. You figured out a way through it and took your life back.” His hold tightened as his voice grew raspier. “My fighter.”

All the pain and hurt broke loose inside her. The tears rolled but she didn’t break down in paralyzing sobs like she used to. This was a freeing cry. A letting go.

The whole time Ben held her, he whispered words into her hair. She didn’t even know what he said because it didn’t matter. This was about the soothing tone and gentle touching.

Most of the tale ended there except for the behaviors. She’d developed them after Ethan’s last attack. Her need for control and order. She’d been to the classes and talked with a therapist. She knew the subtle shift in what she could tolerate, the compulsive needs she had, had grown out of the attacks.

And being away from her house and her life ate away at her, but holding Ben washed some of the anxiety away. “I need everything just so.”

“The toiletries,” he said without judgment or surprise.

She lifted her head. “What?”

“I saw your bathroom. Your drawers back at the apartment when we were checking to see what was taken.”

That meant Joel saw and probably Connor. The whole police force probably knew, including that blowhard, Willoughby.

Heat hit her cheeks. “Oh.”

“One more way you overcame something horrible.” Ben brushed the hair off her face as he kissed her forehead. “Don’t be ashamed of it.”

“It’s under control. I use these behavioral techniques.” She was babbling now, sounding like a complete moron, talking about things she never discussed with anyone.

“Do whatever you need to do. Whatever works, and don’t apologize for it.”

For a man who’d had his name dragged through a scandal and even now fought for his reputation, his ready acceptance meant everything to her. “Sex with you seems to have worked to take my mind off every bad thing that’s happened the last few days.”

His mouth broke into a smile. “Has it, now?”

“Definitely.”

His hand skimmed down her back and traveled lower. “Then I say we keep doing it.”

Chapter Nine

Gary ran the computer simulation one more time. He needed to know the exact amount of time they had to make the transfer. The government put the money in the undercover agents’ accounts on a set day and time each month. During that short window, the pay would go in and the security protocols would relax. It was shorter than a second, but long enough for him to grab the information he needed.

No one had rushed to save his brother. Now they would know what it was like to be hunted.

“Sir, did you hear what I said?”

Gary looked up and saw Colin standing by the office door. Gary didn’t remember him coming in and had no idea how long he’d been standing there. “No.”

“We have an opportunity to catch Jocelyn Raine tomorrow.”

The banking thing. He’d been hearing this theory for days. “She will not keep to her usual schedule. Because that would be stupid, and everything I’ve read about this woman suggests she’s smart.”

Colin stepped farther into the room. He held a tablet and had something cued on it. “I say she will.”

The whole idea was ludicrous. That a woman who had been attacked would stroll into the bank to take care of bills and deposits didn’t make any sense. That she even used the bank the way people did twenty years ago instead of depending on online bill payments and other services was madness. He could only assume she had a reason to stay somewhat hidden and pay with cash.

But that didn’t change the commonsense facts. “She’s been shot at and chased in her home, in someone else’s home and now at the hospital.”

“You don’t understand what I’m telling you.”

The tone grated on Gary’s nerves. Difficult and disrespectful. He waited to smash his security head until he’d heard it all. It would be so much more satisfying to let him spell it out in great detail, thinking he’d won over the boss, then knock him down.

Gary leaned back in his oversize chair. “Enlighten me.”

“She sticks to a schedule.”

“I’m sure that’s true absent an emergency.” There was no need to hear more. “You’re wasting my time.”

“I’ve watched the video. She has a significant problem with change. She has to do things the same way all the time.” Colin set the tablet in front of Gary and turned it around to face him.

Time-lapse videos ran in the four corners. The times of day were close and the dates suggested the events spanned exactly four weeks to the day. Gary saw the so-called evidence but didn’t see the obvious connection. “Meaning what?”

“She walks in the same bank door every time. Walks up to the center console, straightens the pens and all those paper slips.” Colin pointed at the screen as he ran through the list. “She comes on the same day each week, around the same time. She uses the same teller.”

Gary couldn’t help but smile at that one. “Not anymore.”

What with Pamela being dead and all.

“I think the Raine woman’s got that disease.”

Gary glanced down at the screen. He blocked out the noise of Colin’s talking and watched the videos. Then he hit Play and watched them again. Same walk. Same amount of time at the counter. She even looked as if she wore the same outfit—hospital scrubs.

Maybe Colin had a point that was at least worth exploring. Gary almost congratulated him for holding on to his job for another day. But that was by no means assured yet. “You mean you think she has some sort of obsessive-compulsive issue.”

“Exactly.” Colin nodded. “She can’t help it.”

But there was still one problem. Ben Tanner, a man with nothing to lose, which made him very dangerous to Gary’s plans. Leave it to loner Jocelyn Raine to hook up with the pariah who took down the NCIS. It would be a funny pairing if it didn’t threaten everything Gary had set up and arranged.

Then there was the Corcoran Team, Ben’s new employer. On paper, they helped corporations with risk assessments. Wanted to fly your company executives into some country no one had ever heard of? Corcoran would help you decide if that was a good idea and arrange for bodyguards to watch over all of them. If all else failed, they’d storm in and get the executives out.

All fine and not too problematic, except that the confidential memo Gary received told another story. If you drilled down, Corcoran sat in the middle of everything. The team worked with the police and government agencies and appeared to have a great amount of leeway in how it operated. Weapons, locked-down buildings, no trace of team members’ properties.

And if Jocelyn was messed up with them, she very well could know what was happening and be planning to stop it. Didn’t look as if she had the funds to hire them, but with Gary’s luck they could have taken her case pro bono. That made her Gary’s top priority.

“I’m not convinced the boyfriend, Mr. Top Secret, lets her out to go to the bank.”

Colin pointed at the security-camera images and smiled. “She’ll be there.”

If it was even a possibility, Gary knew he had to follow the lead. “Set it up. This will be very public, during daylight.”

“I know what to do.”

Gary had seen Colin’s proposal for handling the issue, so he knew the plan. “I’ll call Kent.”

“Yes, sir.”

“And, Colin? No mistakes.”

* * *

B
EN
HAD
NO
IDEA
how he had let Jocelyn talk him into this. It was a desperately bad idea. Out in public, not far from the hospital where she worked. The Anne Arundel Medical Center’s Hospital Pavilion sat just a few blocks up. If he squinted he could see the lobby doors.

With a hand on her elbow and his gun close, Ben steered her toward the inside of the sidewalk as a group of businessmen passed them. He eyed the street, the cars passing by and the light up ahead of them. He never stopped scanning for trouble.

No wonder Connor had almost passed out when Jocelyn announced her intention this morning at breakfast to run one last errand. He’d said no. She’d said yes.

Ben had watched the heated exchange and finally stepped in to agree with Jocelyn. He still remembered her bright smile when he threw in the support behind her plan.

The one concession he got her to make was to move the timetable of her usual visit. She said no until he explained how having a habit made it easier for someone to track her moves. She wouldn’t pick another branch but the time bump happened.

He’d had to wait until she ran upstairs to shower, to explain about the compulsive behavior to Joel and Davis. Ben skipped over the facts about the policeman who had hurt her, telling just enough to give a flavor, because Ben still couldn’t think about that without his body going into a full-rage shakedown.

Good thing the guy was in jail, because Ben wanted to put him in the ground.

The warm breeze of summer had kicked up, taking the edge of her floral shirt and causing the soft material to dance against her waist as she walked. He stared longer than he should have. And he wasn’t alone. Two men passing by watched her walk and Ben almost growled.

This part of Annapolis consisted more of office complexes and buildings than waterfront. Everything was compact and tidy—hospital, bank, coffee shop and two restaurants, and that was just what he could see from this angle. Ben guessed the street grew up to serve the hospital and all the people shuffling in and out.

As far as urban planning went, it made sense. But not so great for protection. There were alleys and crisscrossing streets. Lots of places for someone to swoop in and get off a shot. Knowing Joel and Connor hovered nearby helped but none of them could stop a bullet. They’d all try if that was what it took to protect Jocelyn, but they had to see it coming.

“You haven’t said anything since we left the car.” There was a smile in her voice as she stepped off the curb and headed across the intersection.

He glanced back to where the vehicle was parked across the street, then looked up and down the road, searching the area for stray cars and trouble. “That’s only a block.”

“So, I’ll take that grumbly voice to mean you’re still moping.”

Part of him was. He wanted her back at the house. Really, he wanted her back in bed, wrapped around him and making those noises he was now addicted to. She was so sexy and beautiful that letting his mind wander for even a second to last night broke his concentration. He needed all of his wits and none of them thinking about her body, so he skipped the eye contact and tried to shut down his brain.

He also ignored her comment. “That’s nothing compared to how unhappy Joel is right now sitting in a car nearby and listening in while pretending not to.”

Joel’s amused voice boomed into the little silver discs in their ears. “I love my job.”

“I can’t believe it takes three of you and an elaborate microphone intercom system to escort me to the bank.” She pressed her finger to her ear.

Ben touched her hand and lowered it again. Thought about holding it but discarded the idea. He needed his hands free. “Don’t make it obvious it’s there.”

She screwed up her nose and made a face. “It’s a weird sensation.”

“You’ll get used to it.” There were other parts of this sort of surveillance that took longer to adjust to. Ben always forgot the audience. More than once he’d entered into a conversation forgetting there were ears everywhere. “And technically there are four of us, since Pax is handling logistics back at the office.”

None of the other men said anything. That was the silent pact. The ones not directly guarding a client, in this case Jocelyn, stayed quiet. Or they did until one of them had something sarcastic to say and broke in anyway. That sort of thing was less likely with Connor on the line. The guy stressed protocol.

“It’s all here in case something goes wrong.” Because you never were prepared for when things went right. No need. All contingencies and all the practices were aimed at controlling the uncontrollable or at least finding a way to steer through it.

“You always assume things will blow up.”

“Have I been wrong so far?” But the truth of her words struck closer than he wanted to admit.

He’d always been careful but never been negative. He didn’t want to slip to that place. People fell there and wallowed. He knew because he’d lived with a man who excelled at it.

His father was an expert at measuring and finding everyone wanting. Nothing pleased him, not even his only son following him into the navy. Maybe things would have been different if his mother hadn’t died, but she had. The what-if game didn’t solve anything.

When they reached the front of the bank and walls of glass doors, Joel started talking. “Okay, kids. In and out. Let’s go.”

Ben headed for the closest set of doors but she shook her head and nodded toward the middle ones. This was her show, so he let her run it. The entry, anyway. The in-and-out and how fast they got to the car was up to him.

Those were the ground rules they’d set and Connor demanded. If Ben, or any of the rest of the team, heard or saw trouble, they moved out. She didn’t balk. She listened and obeyed.
Obeyed—
not a word she was fond of. She cringed when she heard it. He got that. The word didn’t do much for him on a personal level, but this was a life-and-death issue.

Even now, in the security of the bank, with its shiny marble floor and towering double-height walls, letting her get more than a few inches away from him made his moves jerky. She walked up to the table in the center of the room and skimmed her fingers over the edges of the piles. Well, they were loose pages of deposit slips when she started. Piles when she finished.

She looked around, shifting her weight from foot to foot. Not that he spent a lot of time watching her feet. The way her skirt swished kept grabbing his attention.

“Where’s Pamela?”

It took him a second to realize she was talking to him. He leaned down to hear her better. “Who’s Pamela?”

“My favorite teller.”

Ben didn’t even know the name of the guy who cut his hair. “Really?”

A man in his fifties dressed in a dark blue suit stepped up next to Jocelyn. He wore a broad smile and a name tag. Also carried a gun.

Ben almost jumped the guy. He settled for angling his body so he stood half in front of her.

The man smoothed his hand over his tie several times. “Good morning, Ms. Raine.”

“Hello.” What Ben really meant was
back off
.

“Ed Ebersole, head of security for Primetime Bank.” The older man made the introduction, then turned his attention back to Jocelyn. “You’re a little late today.”

She smiled. “Got tied up.”

“Understood.” He nodded at the cashier windows. “You picked a good time. Small crowd.”

“Where’s Pamela?”

Ben still didn’t know who the woman was or why Jocelyn cared so much. He did know this was taking too long. Someone on the other end of the intercom had taken to breathing heavy and not in a good way. As everyone’s impatience grew, they could get sloppy.

The older man’s face fell. “Pamela had to leave town.”

“I talked to her last week and she didn’t say anything.”

“Jocelyn, the line is moving.” Not that she had picked one, but Ben needed her to focus.

“Family emergency.” Ed waved to someone near the front door. “I see I’m needed and you would probably like to get moving.”

Ben was happy someone got the hint.

With a nod, Ed took off. “Nice to meet you.”

Ben wasn’t sure when that happened, but he was relieved the guy was moving on. “You too.”

“Sorry,” Jocelyn mumbled. “He’s usually not so chatty.”

Ben watched the man scurry over to the front of the bank and grab the door for some customers who were leaving. “Even the security guy knows you.”

“Apparently most people bank from home.”

“Count me as one of those.” Ben tried to remember the last time he’d walked inside a branch. “Ever think of trying the ATM?”

She picked a line with four people that ended with an older woman teller of about sixty. Ben nodded at the woman. “Do you know her name, too?”

“If I did I wouldn’t admit it.” Jocelyn glanced at him over her shoulder. “And for the record, I don’t have a card for the ATM.”