He backed up, letting her enter the room, shutting the door behind her. She walked to the bed and sat down. The bed. The place he wanted her. He leaned against the wall, crossing his arms over his chest. “We picked up one of Carlos’s men today.”
She gave him a cautious look. “I assume that’s good, but you aren’t acting like it is.”
“He had some information. A message for me.” He hesitated, hating this so damn much. “About you.”
Her chin tilted downward. “And?”
“Anyone I get close to, he’ll kill. Starting with you.”
“No one knows about us.”
“You’re under my protection and have been. That’s enough for him.”
She blinked, swallowed and turned away. “And my family?”
“Alvarez wants this trial to end, so anything done to anyone that might cause a mistrial is still a risk. If something happened to your family, no doubt you’d have trouble going on. After this is over, Carlos will focus on me. That means he’ll come for you.”
She looked at him then. “But you can’t be certain he won’t go after my family.”
“Not one hundred percent.” He wished he could tell her otherwise. “You have no option but to go into a relocation program until Carlos is captured.”
Her eyes went wide. “Oh, no,” she said, rock-hard determination in her voice. “Not a chance.” She pushed to her feet. “If there is one thing I have learned from all of this, it’s that I’m tired of running. I ran to where I am now, to hide from what I was in the past. And I can’t ask my family to give up their lives. Not that they will. They could die while I’m off hiding.”
Uncrossing his arms, he pushed off the wall, going to stand in front of her, barely containing the urge to reach for her. “This is about staying alive, Nicole. I know it’s hard but—”
“Would you run?”
What could he say to that? “My job is to hunt down criminals and capture them.”
“Then do it now. Capture him. You said you’d make this go away.”
He had promised. “I’m stuck in here or I would. I will.” His hands went to her arms. “Nicole, baby—”
She shoved his arms away, a fierce frown on her face. “Don’t ‘Nicole baby’ me, now. You haven’t touched me in days. Don’t use our fling as a form of manipulation.”
“It’s not like that. I wouldn’t do that.”
“Not like that. Then how is it? We’ve hardly said two words to each other since we returned, and now that you want me to do something your way, you pull out the ‘baby’ stuff?”
“Everything I’ve done, I’ve done to protect you.”
She made a disbelieving sound. “This doesn’t feel like protection. It feels like…” Her words trailed off, her lashes lowered, a few seconds ticked by. Her lashes lifted again and she gazed directly into his eyes. “The bottom line here is this. I’m not running anymore. Not from my past, not from Carlos. Catch him. Use me as bait. Do whatever. But I’m not going into hiding.”
“I won’t use you as bait.”
“I want this over, Constantine. Even if I agree to hide, my family won’t. My father has some ‘man of steel’ complex—I can’t let them walk around with a bull’s-eye on their backs because of me. If you won’t use me to put an end to this, someone at the Bureau will.” She narrowed her eyes on him, throwing out her dare. “So you decide. Will you use me or let someone else?” She tried to walk past him, and he maneuvered in front of her.
“No,” he said. “I won’t allow it. No one is using you as bait. I got you into this and I’ll get you out.”
They stared at one another, her lips parted, the world somehow separating them, when only a few days before it had pulled them together.
“I got me into this by taking this case,” she finally said. “I’ll get me out of it.”
She sidestepped him and this time he let her go, turning around to watch her leave. “Nicole,” he said, as she reached for the door. Looking back over her shoulder, her gaze sought his, a question in her eyes.
“This isn’t over,” Constantine stated.
Tension charged the air, seconds passing by before she turned and left, the door shutting behind her.
Constantine sat down on the bed and pounded the mattress. Time and time again, those he cared about ended up hurt. He had to make this go away. Had to protect Nicole. The idea of something happening to her destroyed him. Damn it, he didn’t want to care about her. But he did. And no matter how hard he tried to run from that fact, he couldn’t. He was in love with Nicole.
***
THE NEXT AFTERNOON, Nicole finished up a long day in court. Nasty details that should have been revealed to the jury had been suppressed and then manipulated by the defense; Nicole’s frustration over the judge’s decision was high.