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Darien frowned at him "I’m serious about this, Jake"

"Your concern is duly noted Is that all?"

"Jake…" Darien’s tone was consoling

Jake didn’t need consolation He needed to see Alicia again, craved seeing her, and had to find out what had happened to her over the past seven weeks He had to be sure she was truly safe and well

Jake nodded "I know my place, Darien I knohat I can and can’t do See you in thewith his mind, he left Darien’s office and headed for the stairs He was past ready to move out

He hated that a dream could make hiht Hated that he couldn’t have her in the flesh the way he wanted

She was pregnant He just couldn’t believe it

In his bedroom, he jerked off his clothes and dropped thelanced at the polished top of his dresser--at the copper hair clip that had bound Alicia’s satiny curls when he had e that one day--the only physical evidence he had connecting him to her

He yanked his bedcovers aside No matter how much he told himself it was insane, he clierness and abject desperation

She had it bad, Alicia thought, as she pulled off her clothes in the scroungy motel room--the only motel she could find in the tiny town of Crestview--and laid her things neatly over a chair If it hadn’t already been so late and she hadn’t been afraid she wouldn’t find another hotel with a vacancy in another town, she’d have driven on

Right now, all she wanted was to be with the man of her dreams, but she had a job to do--relocate and start her life over

She couldn’t risk any of Constantino’s cronies catching up to her if he thought to get revenge for her turning hiure out another way to o after only bail bond jumpers with non-Italian na the day, although she’d shifted souarantee of anything But she hadn’t realized that the moon was nearly full, and she suspected that’s why she’d felt a sudden need to shift

Hating that she would be driving right past Silver Town tomorrow and beyond without a word to Jake, she wondered if there was another route she could take

Jake! She meant to at least call soe that she was alive and well But when she pulled her cell phone out of her purse, she flipped the phone open and recalled that the battery was dead She had to charge it She started the charge and glanced at the roo her shower, and it would have been charging for an hour or so, she’d -distance rooerine body wash in hand, she walked into the grungy bathrooray, rust stains lined the sink fro faucet, and the shower curtain was covered with a light sheen of soap scuh She turned on the water, waited for it to get hot, then slipped inside to shower