"This is different." I looked up into Rawn's warm eyes and wished I could just live there in the comfort of his gaze. "He has secrets."

"Everyone has secrets."

"But his could hurt Annie."

"Is this about his drug addiction?" Rawn cocked his head slightly, referencing rumors that Logan was treated at a drug rehab center last year. "He doesn't seem to be struggling now."

I shook my head, wishing it was as simple as that.

"Then what? Did he tell you something yesterday at the hospital?"

I nodded, convinced I wasn't revealing anything that I shouldn't.

"But you promised you wouldn't tell anyone."

I nodded again.

Rawn groaned as he leaned in closer to me. "Annie's a big girl, Madison. I'm sure she'll be fine."

I wanted to agree, but I knew Annie better than I had known my own sister. She seemed tough on the outside, but she was like a child on the inside. She wasn't equipped to face what her future might hold for her if she got involved with Logan. She swore her interest was purely physical, but I knew that wasn't true either. For all her horror-loving, junk-food eating nonchalance, she was a romantic at heart. She wanted what they all wanted: a man to love her more than anyone else.

"I know you care about your friends, Madison. But sometimes you have to let them make their own mistakes." Rawn brushed his lips against the side of my face. "Everyone has to learn in their own way."

"She won't forgive me-"

"Forgive you for what? For being a friend to a guy who looks like he could use a few?" He sighed, his breath washing over me like the warmth of the sun after a long winter. "I think you should be more worried about us than what Annie might or might not do at some future point."

"Us?"

"Yeah. Do you know how long it's been since we've had any significant time alone together? Since the last time we walked into this building for a reason other than hiding or protecting one of your friends?" He kissed my cheek again, his lips sliding slowly down over the curve of my jaw. "If all this bullshit wasn't going on right now, I'd drag you in there and..."

But he didn't finish what he had been about to say. He stiffened, pulling back just slightly. I knew why, and it made tears come to my eyes. He had been about to say he wanted to tie me up. He wanted to tie me up and put a blindfold over my eyes...just like my kidnappers had done. It was a game we played before, before everything had changed. And we played it again in the aftermath, just so I could prove to myself that my ordeal hadn't changed anything. But it had. It changed everything. And the more time passed, the more difficult it was for me to submit to something that had once been as easy as breathing. And Rawn knew it.

My kidnappers had stolen my sense of security, my ability to trust even the man I loved. But what was worse, they'd taken it from Rawn, too.

For that, I hated them, each and every one of them, with a passion that rivaled the passion I felt for Rawn.

"We'll find the time," I said softly. "I want to."

"I know." He kissed me, his lips lingering a long few seconds. "It'll be okay."

But I wasn't as sure as he was.

Mellissa "Who were you talking to?"

The woman's eyes widened, as she stared at Conrad, her gaze jumping from him to me before falling to her lap.

It hadn't been difficult to arrange a meeting with the photographer's assistant, Terri Donatello. It only took a phone call. Conrad threw enough work the photographer's way that he was willing to do just about anything to keep their relationship friendly.

But she didn't seem too excited to share what she knew with us.

"You were seen out in the parking lot just after Logan Mitchell collapsed. What were you doing? Who were you talking to?"

"Maybe I called 911."

"Then, why did you go outside?"

Terri shrugged, her eyes still stuck to her lap. She wouldn't even look at us now. That couldn't be good.

Conrad opened his mouth to say something else. I could see by the tension in his shoulders and the muscle popping in his jaw that whatever he was about to say would not be calm. I touched his shoulder.

"Why don't you step out, let me have a go at her?"

Conrad's eyes narrowed slightly. He clearly didn't like the idea, but he didn't argue. He stood and walked out of the cavernous room that was the photographer's private work space.

"What is this? Good cop, bad cop?"

I shook my head, trying my best to offer a peaceful smile. "No. This is about trying to protect my friends." I leaned forward and rested my chin on my hands. "Was it a guy? Is that what all this is about?"

She glanced at me, and I knew I was right. But then she stood and wandered over to one of the many tables set up around the periphery of the room, picking up a camera and turning it over in her hands.

"You don't know anything about me."

"No. But I know that my friends were at that photoshoot and that one of them could have died from a bad reaction to whatever was in that water bottle." I walked up behind her but didn't touch her. "I also know that it seems like someone's targeting me and my friends, and I want to know why."

"I've never even heard of you," she said, spitting the words out like they tasted bad. "You or your boyfriend."

Boyfriend? Was it that obvious that Conrad and I were together?

Not now, Mellissa.

"Then who was your target?"

"It wasn't me," she said, spinning around. "I didn't give that poor guy the water bottle. That was Lena."

"Lena?"

Her eyes widened slightly as she realized she'd given a little too much information. She started to walk around me, but I stepped into her path, blocking her against the table.

"Lena who?"

She shook her head. "I don't know her last name; I just met her that day."

"But she knowingly handed out water bottle with drugs in them?"

Terri shrugged. "He told her to."

"Who?"

She shook her head. "Look," she said, shoving her shoulder against mine as she brushed past me, "all I know is that this guy contacted me over a text message and asked if I'd be willing to take a video. He said he was playing a trick on a friend, but he needed video to win this bet with another guy. He said it was all harmless, that the drug was nothing more than an over-the-counter sedative. He just wanted video of this guy acting like he was high while he was at work."

I watched her move across the room, stopping to fiddle with something on another table. I believed her; I believed that she didn't think anything serious would happen. But it still didn't make a lot of sense to me.

"So, Lena put the drugs in the water bottles and offered one to Logan-"

"Logan wasn't supposed to get one."

Annie was right.

"Then who was?"

Terri shot me a look that suggested she thought I was an idiot.

"What happened to Lena? Do you know where she went?"

"She ran out of there the second Logan collapsed. She hadn't known that would happen...neither of us did. We didn't mean to hurt anyone. It was just supposed to be a joke."

"Who did you call?"

Terri turned around and sat back against the table. "My dad. He's a lawyer. I wanted to know if I could get arrested for killing Logan Mitchell.

"Annie doesn't have to go to LA now, then."

Rawn shook his head even as the words were slipping from Madison's lips. It made me wonder what was going on between her and Annie, why she was so set on keeping Annie from Logan.

"She needs to go. At the very least, it'll get her out of the way should this thing escalate."

Madison started to say something else, but Rawn shot her a look that shut her down.

Conrad moved up behind me and ran his hand slowly over the small of my back. I leaned back into him, grateful for his support as a wave of exhaustion washed over me. All of this cloak and dagger stuff was growing a little too heavy for my taste.

"But now we know that you and/or Madison was the real target," Conrad said. "Maybe that will help us narrow down whoever it is that's doing this."

Rawn poured himself a drink at the bar, but he never lifted it to his lips. He just stood there staring down into the glass, clearly lost in thought. Madison watched him, concern clear in her eyes.

"This has got to be about Cepheus," Rawn said slowly. "Someone trying to sabotage the company. I get that. I get how ruining me could serve a blow to the company. With Aurora's resignation, the development department would be a black hole if I was forced to leave too. But it could survive if the CEO was quick about finding a replacement or moved around existing personnel. There are several other department heads who could handle development for a while."

"Maybe it's a personal vendetta."

Rawn looked at Madison, a complex number of emotions racing over his face.

"Possible," he said quietly. "I have pissed off a lot of people since the beginning of my career. But I can't imagine that I did anything so bad as to warrant this kind of personal attack. I mean, kidnapping..."

"That wasn't your fault," I said. "That was about my secrets, not yours."

Conrad kissed my temple lightly, but no one argued.

And then...

"It might have ended that way, but it's beginning to look like it didn't start that way." Rawn sighed deeply as he crossed to his desk and sat on the edge. "I think someone just hired the wrong person to play out a scenario that clearly did not go as it was intended."

"What do you think was the original intention?" Conrad asked.

Rawn shook his head. "I don't know. But I think if we were able to figure that out, we would have a better idea of what the end game is."

A heavy silence fell over the room. We were all lost in our own thoughts, Rawn and I consumed with guilt; Madison and Conrad worried about the people they loved. It made my heart swell to feel Conrad's arm tighten around me, making my own secrets so much easier to deal with.

Soon...

Then Rawn's cellphone rang.

"Shit," he muttered, as he listened to whoever it was on the other end, never saying a word to that person before he shut the phone down.

"What?" Conrad asked before Madison could.

"Someone broke into my place."

"The apartment?" Madison asked.

"No. My house."

Madison I had never been to Rawn's home. We spent our nights together at the apartment that held our secret room, or we didn't. He had never suggested taking me to his home, and I had never really asked. So it was a little ironic that my first visit there included three police cruisers parked in the circular drive.

Rawn's home was surprisingly modest. It was a single story ranch, built in the center of a half-acre lot that was mostly consumed by a well-manicured lawn and that circular drive. Inside, the decor was modern and dark, like his office. It felt like it was mostly for show, not for comfort. I was anxious to see what his bedroom looked like, but he clung to my hand and refused to let go as he spoke with the police in the living room.

There was little sign of a break-in. The front door didn't appear to be damaged. The living room wasn't ransacked. In fact, it was so neat that I wanted to knock a magazine off the coffee table to give it a sense of normalcy. It looked like it had been cleaned recently-even smelled like pine furniture polish.

"A neighbor called it in," one of the uniform cops said. "They saw what they thought was a flashlight in the windows. When we got here, the front door was standing open."

Rawn glanced around the room. "Doesn't look like they had time to do much."

The cop gestured over his shoulder with his thumb. His partner nodded.

"There's a mess in the back. Looks like a study?"

Rawn tensed, but he just nodded at the cops.

"We'll write up a report, and you can pick it up in a few days to submit to your insurance."

"Thanks."

The cops shook Rawn's hand, then mine, before turning to go. Rawn immediately locked the door behind them and rushed down the hallway. I had to run to catch up.