"Summer, this is ridiculous," Aunjenue hissed as she moved to her side. "Not a single dance..."

"Don't." Summer shook her head, afraid to discuss it, to hear a lecture on it.

She didn't want to cry, and she could feel the tears building, tightening in her throat and dampening her eyes.

"I think I hate them," Aunjenue muttered, the warm weight of her hand settling against Summer's shoulders for a moment. "They're killing you."

She shook her head again. "It's the only way to let go, Auna," she told her sister.

She understood what they were doing, and why they were doing it. She had been so determined to find a husband, a family, that she had agreed to these parties. They weren't going to interfere, they were letting her go instead. And now, that husband, those children who weren't theirs ... she couldn't do it. She knew she'd never be able to do it.

"Daddy's so mad he's threatenin' to start to find a chew," Aunjenue told her. "That's bad, sis."

That was very bad. Her father hadn't practiced the disgusting habit of chewing tobacco since he'd been discharged from the military. To her knowledge, there were only a few times in the years since that he'd threatened to pick it back up.

"Everything will be okay," she promised her sister. "I promise. Daddy won't start chewing again, Momma won't let him."

"Momma's threatenin' to smoke, Summer," Aunjenue sighed.

Summer blinked back tears that almost refused to go away.

If her momma was threatening to smoke, then it really was bad.

"I'm sorry." She rubbed at the chill in her arms, hating what she was doing to herself and to those who loved her. "I'll get a handle on it, I promise."

"No one else probably knows," Aunjenue assured her. "They're all used to you bein' distant anyway. Momma and Daddy know you though. As do Caleb, Bowe, and Brody. We hate seeing you hurting like this."

She hated hurting, but she was going to have to find some way to bury it deeper than she was obviously burying it.

"I'll be okay, I promise." She found Raeg and Falcon again, her gaze meeting theirs, their expressions just as implacable as they'd been the night before.

"You should dance," Aunjenue snapped, her lips thinning as Summer faced her, anger gleaming in her deep blue eyes. "You should have fun. Show them they're not going to kill you."

"But it's killing them as well, Auna," she told her sister softly, her lips curving with a weary smile. "They just hide it better, that's all."

Her sister rolled her eyes, anger flashing in them as she shot Raeg and Falcon a fierce glare.

"If this is love, count my cute little ass out," her sister declared with a little wave of her hand. "Because I'm sure it just ain't worth the headache."

It was worth it, but that was something Aunjenue would have to learn for herself, she decided.

"Go find a dancing partner," Summer ordered her sister as she glanced at the large brick circle laid just for summer parties. "I'm having fun watching, I promise."

"And you are such a liar," Aunjenue accused her. "But Momma's demandin' my presence again." She rolled her eyes. "God save me, but that woman is makin' me crazy. I told her already I don't need a damned husband..."

Summer watched her sister stalk away, turned back, and started in surprise to see Falcon standing in front of her.

He held his hand out to her as a slow, incredibly sensual tune began filling the air.

"Dance with me, Belle," he demanded, his voice low.

Reaching out, she took his hand and let him lead her to the patio. Stepping into his arms, her breath caught at the sensation of belonging as he pulled her against him.

Summer rested her forehead against his chest, following his lead, swaying against him and feeling warm for the first time since they'd stepped from the limo the night before.

"We have to stop this," she told him as he bent his head to hers, his lips against her ear, his hand caressing her back beneath the cover of her hair. "You know we do."

The silence, the refusal to speak, the pain-filled nights they were spending alone all had to stop.

"Shh," he whispered, his hand stroking down her back again. "Just let me hold you, Summer. I need to hold you for a minute."

"I need to hold both of you," she objected. "And I'm tired of sleeping alone. This isn't over yet. I was supposed to have this time until Dragovich was dealt with, and you're cheating me out of my time, Falcon."

Don't beg, Steven had advised her. Summer wasn't very good at begging and she knew it. But she damned sure knew how to demand.

"This is the final night of this week's parties," he said, his voice remaining low. "The nights you're attending them there's no other choice. These men are here for you, we've heard it over and over again, Summer. And I swear to you, if I hear one more time how some son of a bitch wants to keep you barefoot and pregnant, I'm going to haul out my gun and shoot him in the dick."

Her lips twitched.

It really wasn't funny, she knew. He was actually mostly serious. He was furious over it. But he was also so dramatic when he was pissed off.

"You'll sleep with me tonight then?" she asked, feeling lighter, the shadow of agony easing enough to allow her to relax against him.

"We'll sleep with you," he promised, his lips brushing against her air. "Stop making me want to cry with those big, shadowed eyes of yours, and I promise we will hold you between us until this hell begins again."

Until the next party, that is, a week away.

She could do that.

The tension slowly eased away from her, part of the pain easing back, sliding from her senses, allowing her to breathe again.

"My sweet Summer," he sighed. "I would trade the world and all that is in it to take the pain from you."

She smiled, remembering another time he'd said that. In Russia, when she'd burned with fever from the bullet Dragovich had put in her shoulder.

He stopped moving.

Looking up, she saw he'd led her to the table where her family sat. Stepping back, his fingers stroked down her arm before he released her, nodded to her parents, then returned to stand next to his brother.

"Hey, Summer." Mike Taggart nodded to her as he stepped to the table. "Mr. McGillan asked me to find you and tell you he's getting ready to leave. He wanted to see you first though. He was in the foyer when I saw him."

He turned to Caleb then with some comment about one of the women bemoaning the fact that Caleb wasn't dancing.

"I'll be right back," she told her parents. "Steven has to leave and I want to make certain to tell him good-bye."

She strode away from the table and headed inside, weaving through the guests and navigating the crowded dining room before moving through the rest of the house.

The dimly lit rooms past the dining room were silent and empty, the house quiet after the loud chatter from outside.

It took several minutes for her to reach the marble foyer, only to find it empty as well.

Frowning, she stared around, waiting impatiently, certain Steven would show up any minute. Glancing behind her she expected to see Raeg or Falcon, only to realize they hadn't followed her.

That was odd. They hadn't taken their eyes off her at any other time, but now they were nowhere to be seen?

Two more minutes, she thought silently, that was as long as she'd wait.

If she waited that long.

A chill eased down her spine. The hairs at the back of her neck lifted in primal warning and she swung around, determined to hurry back to the party, to Raeg and Falcon.

She hadn't taken two steps when the first broad male form stepped from the dark shadow of the curved staircase. In the next heartbeat, two more blocked her way, weapons gleaming dully in their hands.

"Dragovich is waiting for you," the heavily accented voice of the taller Russian stated malevolently. "We can take you to him as you are, or bleeding and weak. Your choice."

"Bleeding and weak" wasn't acceptable. But then, leaving to meet Dragovich wasn't exactly the answer as far as she was concerned either.

And where in the hell were Raeg and Falcon?

She was gone.

Falcon searched the crowd for her as he hurried across the distance to where her family sat-the last place he'd seen Summer before his view was blocked for precious seconds by half a dozen half-drunk guests asking him if he'd seen some blonde who had said she was going to dance with him or Raeg.

No blonde had approached them. It wouldn't have done her any good to do so either.

"Falcon." Cal and his sons came to their feet as he glared at them.

"Where is she?" he questioned her father. "She was here and then she disappeared."

"I thought she was with you," her father snapped as he and his sons hurried from the table.

"She wasn't with us." Fists clenched, he stared around the area again, fury beginning to build inside him.

Summer's brothers quickly began questioning guests, grabbing arms, stepping in front of laughing couples, demanding to know if they'd seen her.

"In the house," one of the hard-eyed Special Forces soldiers answered. "I saw her about five minutes ago. Everything okay?"

"Hell no," Caleb snapped as Falcon raced past them, Raeg close behind.

"Spread out!" Caleb yelled out to someone behind them. "Find her."

Pushing through the patio entrance, Falcon searched the crowd, ice beginning to fill his veins, the knowledge that she was in danger building by the second.

He was just turning to rush through the dining area when a gunshot exploded from deep within the house.

"No!" The denial burst from Falcon's lips as he began shoving guests out of his way, racing for the front of the house where the shot originated.

Dragovich had found a way to get to her. God, they were supposed to protect her. They were supposed to keep this from happening.

He was at a full run when he hit the foyer and came to a hard, agonizing stop.

Blood stained the marble. Too much blood.

Jerking the handgun from the small of his back, he moved quickly for the open doors and the shadowed entrance beyond.

The lights that had lit the area earlier were dark now, shattered glass on the landing attesting to the fact that they'd deliberately been blown.

Using hand signals, he directed Raeg to the blood trail leading from the house, then pointed to the rooms on each side of the entrance. Rushing into the room he chose for himself, he paused at the side of a window, crossed himself, then unlocked it and opened it just enough to ease through it, using the cover of the high shrubs to block his exit.

"Bastard..." He heard Summer curse from his right, somewhere from within the heavy growth of pine that grew along the edge of the house.

Checking for Raeg, he nodded toward the tree line.

"I hope you burn in hell..." Summer cried out.

Keeping to the cover of the trees, they moved quickly toward the sound. As they neared the side of the house he glimpsed Summer's brother Caleb and her father following, armed and obviously following the sound of her voice as well.

"They're heading for the swamp," Caleb snapped as he got close enough. "If they get her to an airboat, she's gone. We'll never find her."

It was night. The swamp was a primal, hungry creature at night, Summer's father had once told him.

He heard Summer cry out again and sprinted into the tree line, hoping his night sight adjusted quickly enough to allow him to avoid any of those damned alligators that seemed to lurk anywhere.

A light ahead of him pinpointed Summer's location. Spreading out, Caleb and his father moved in parallel to the glow of the flashlight.

"Caleb will kill you, Mike," Summer cried out, pain and fury filling her voice.

"You bitch. You deserve it." Mike Taggart's voice carried through the night air. "You fucking neutered me when you took that knife to me. Ruined my life!"

She cried out again as the sound of laughter met the crack of flesh against flesh.

He'd hit her.

He'd kill the bastard, Falcon told himself.

"You tried to rape me. I was thirteen," Summer yelled as Falcon caught sight of her struggling between Taggart and another, larger male.

"You deserved it, you stuck-up bitch," Mike snarled. "Always thinking you're better than everyone else. A little sedative to your daddy's drink, and he was out like a light. You shouldn't have fought me."

The fury building inside was a dangerous thing, Falcon thought distantly as he caught Raeg's eye and directed him behind the two men, Russians, one being supported by the other as they trailed Taggart and the silent captor as they dragged her through the trees, moving closer than ever to the water and no doubt an airboat waiting for them.

He was obviously wounded, Falcon thought with satisfaction. Trust Summer to shed blood. She was damned good at that.

"Mike." Caleb stepped out in front of Summer, Mike, and that bastard helping him drag Summer through the night. "Let her go."

Falcon glimpsed Mike's face as the other man laid the barrel of his gun against Summer's head.