If her father had had his way she'd still be living behind those protective barriers, protected from harm and from life in general.

"No,"

she whispered, as much to the memory as to Mac.

He leaned forward, his arms on his hard thighs, his face implacable.

"Yes. That's exactly what you're going to do, Raine, and you know why?

Because you put me in charge here, and until this thing is over, I'mcalling the shots."

He lifted a hand to stem her response. "You said you'd listen to my ideas once I'd a.s.sessed the situation.Well, here they are. Lady, you're in real trouble. You can't brush these threats off as the work of some crank. Cranks lose interest quickly--they don't keep hara.s.sing their targets indefinitely. And youcan't rely on the police to help you, because they don't have a thingto go on, especially without the envelopes. I doubt this case is a real high priority with them at this point, anyway. No one has actually been hurt."

His pause was full of.

meaning.

"Yet."

She sprang up from the couch.

"You're deliberately trying to scare me."

And he was succeeding admirably.

All the panic she'd managed to suppress from the time the threats began

was all too close to the surface now.

Which of course meant that she hadn't been suppressing it at all, hadn't been dealing with it, as Andre had insisted.

She'd been getting through the last few weeks by denying its

existence.

Until the nightmares had made even that feat impossible.

"You should be scared,"

he agreed bluntly.

"That's what I've b~n trying to tell you. Because all the alarms and

fences in the world can't make it impossible for someone to get to you, if that's what he really wants."

His words affected her like a dash of ice water.

She paced away from him, giving herself time to recover.

"Careful there, Macau-ley, or you'll talk yourself out of a job."

"Not quite,"

he returned tersely.

"Because the rest of my job is to make sure no one does get to you."

She whirled around then to face him, and her look of utter dismay was enough to tell him that she'd interpreted his meaning accurately.

"As I said, you could spend a fortune securing your home and propertyand still not be completely safe. You're taking the kind ofprecautions that would make wise choices for anyone living out here.The rest of the job will he up to me."

She interpreted his words correctly.

"How long... do you plan to stay?"

"As long as it takes,"

he said flatly.

"Until this nut is stopped, you're in danger."

After a pause, he added, "I've already informed your father."

"Great,"

she muttered.

She dug the tips of her fingers into the back pockets of her jeans,

feeling as tautly drawn as a wire.

There was definitely nothing calming about this man.

But in fairness to him, she had to admit that he didn't soft-pedal bad

news, either.

She grudgingly respected that.

She preferred to face reality head-on than to be coddled from it.

The knowledge that she hadn't been doing a particularly good job of

that recently wasn't too comforting.

"I should probably warn you to expect calls from my brothers, Williamand John. No doubt Dad has already filled them in, and they take theirroles of big brothers extremely seriously."

Mac didn't bother to inform her that he'd already spoken to William.

And she was right, her brother had been.

outraged that Raine hadn't taken action immediately.

Mac even agreed with William's description of his sister, up to a

point.

There was something almost otherworldly about Raine at times, as if she was detached from the details of life.

But he'd noticed that was usually when she was preoccupied with her

painting.

He was beginning to believe that.

her family tended to underestimate her.

There were other times when she could be unbelievably tenacious.

Especially when she was arguing with him.

He shrugged mentally.

Actually, this scene had gone better than he'd had a right to expect.

She'd hadn't been thrilled with his news, but she hadn't refused to

cooperate, either.

"This won't last forever, Raine. And it shouldn't interfere with yourpainting. I'll answer the phone and bring in the mail."That drew an arch look from her, which he chose to ignore."You'll need to keep your outside engagements to an absolute minimum, but if you do have to go anywhere, I'll go with you."

She was silent, surveying the floor in melancholy resignation.

His next words shattered that.

mood, however.

"Of course it will be necessary to restrict your visitors. The house

will be declared off-limits to guests."

At his words she could feel the walls from her childhood spring up and begin to close in around her.

"That is out of the question!"

Mac watched her from beneath hooded lids.

Her eyes were spitting golden sparks at him.

"You think so?"

"I draw the line right there."

She approached him and said fiercely, "Dammit, Macauley, I'm not going