“Yes,” she said, wondering if her heart could take much more of this night. “That’s plenty.” She rushed away, checking on the closing team, thankful that Elizabeth had one heck of a volunteer team, many of whom Julie knew from past events.

***

Luke didn’t look at the note in the museum for a reason. He didn’t want to seem eager. The valet brought the truck to the door and Luke helped Julie inside.

Once they were in his truck, he still didn’t read it, afraid of watchful eyes. And they were being watched, he was sure of it.

At the first red light they came to he yanked the note from his pocket and unfolded it. He read in silence. Then he cursed running a hand through his hair.

“What?” Julie asked urgently.

Luke tucked the note back into his pocket, and then tugged his tie loose. He flicked a quick look her direction before refocusing on the road.

“I need to think before I can talk about this.”

“What does that mean? Luke, please. Tell me what’s going on.”

“It means I need to think. Give me a minute.” His tone was clipped, something she wasn’t used to from him and he knew it, but he wasn’t himself. In fact, he was someone else who made a stupid mistake that got people killed.

“Luke–”

“It says there’s a house party on Staten Island Friday night. The exact location to be disclosed later.”

“And you’re invited.”

His tone was clipped. “Yes.” He could feel her attention, her need for more.

“What aren’t you telling me?”

“I’m not going.”

She was silent a long moment, as if she was trying to read his mind, understand him. When she spoke, the anger was gone from her tone. “But you said children are dying and this was what you wanted?”

“Not only are children dying,” he said. “The one agent that was inside is now missing.”

“I still don’t understand what you’re telling me here.”

“There are conditions to the invitation that make the risk too high. The end.”

He felt her confusion, but for the fifteen-minute ride until he pulled his truck under the Walker building, and into the parking lot, she didn’t press him. He killed the engine and sat there, unmoving, staring into the darkness.

She touched his sleeve. “Luke? Talk to me.”

He let out a heavy breath and forced his gaze to hers. “My invitation is contingent on you coming with me.”

He watched her eyes go wide, the shock slide over her features. “I...see. Why would he want me there?”

“Perhaps to test me. To see if they pass you around I’ll flinch. These people are bastards who only want to deal with other bastards. It’s all part of their manipulation tactics.”

“Can you stop them from...passing me around?”

“We aren’t taking a chance that will happen at all. I’m not going. You’re not going.”

“This is bigger than both of us,” she said. “You know that or this wouldn’t be eating you alive. We have to do this.”

He pulled her to him. “I said no. You are not going.” His mouth closed down on hers, hot and demanding. He would not risk her life. He would not let anything happen to her. Luke wasn’t sure what happened to him then. He wasn’t someone to lose control, but he did now.

Luke had her flat on the seat, her soft curves beneath him, the thick ridge of his shaft pressed between her thighs in a matter of seconds. And he kissed her. God, he couldn’t stop kissing her. He thought of Blake, of his brother losing the woman he loved, of the danger of losing Julie. Love. He loved this woman. His mouth trailed down her neck, then lower, to the trim of her dress over her br**sts. His hand inched up her dress.

“Do you,” she panted, “know how terrified I was for you tonight?”

“Then you know,” he said, pulling down her top to tease her ni**les, and kissing his way back to her mouth, “why I’m not letting anything happen to you.” His mouth closed over hers, and the craving for her, the burn, seemed to expand. His hand slid under her and he lifted her hips, settling more fully in the warm heat he wanted to lose himself in. He had to have her. Here. Now. This instant.

A loud knock sounded on the window.

Chapter Eighteen

Luke looked up to find Hendrix staring at them from the window, and every instinct in him screamed with warning. Luke knew right then that he didn’t trust the man. Not even a little bit.

“Give us a minute,” he said, fighting the urge that told him to go for his gun. His brother appeared where Hendrix had just been. “Jezus,” Luke added. “I said give us a damn minute.”

“I’m not alone,” Blake called. “Just thought you would want to know.”

“Like we don’t know that already,” Luke mumbled under his breath and tugged at the top of Julie’s dress. “Our peeping Tom was one of the task force members. I’m sorry. I don’t know what got into me. I knew we’d have a parade chasing us tonight.”

“It got into me too, Luke,” Julie said, telling him that despite the hellish situation, she was with him for the good and the bad. It was something he wanted to deserve, to own, and not make her regret.

“This is so embarrassing,” Julie said. She sat up and reached for her coat where she’d slid out of it back at the valet area.

He adjusted her dress where a little too much of her breast remained in view. “Don’t be. You’re beautiful, and they’re just going to be jealous it was me and not them.”