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“You already apologized” And her eyes told hiiven him

“Yeah, but this willsmile at her “And besides, there are a couple of books here I wouldn’tmyself I’ll borrow them if you don’t mind”

She didn’t say anything more, just added the book in her hand to the pile in the cart and followed Lia up their purchases, Lia was eclectic, but the majority of books were fiction Woenre Liauys avoided like the plague All of a sudden, though, so her choices into sharp focus If Cate read romances, then that meant—in her heart of hearts—she still believed in love

A rush of exciteh him, which he was hard-pressed to keep off his face Cate still believed in love Still believed s for a woes Still dreah Which ood news, since he was halfway to being in love with her already

Vishenko’s overnar The pat down one of theh and intimate than any airport screener, but he didn’t protest Another ed on his artificial left knee—he was forced to roll up his pants leg and show theical scar, then take out his wallet to display the ID card he used when he went through the raphic X-ray picture of what his knee looked like now A third goon ran an electronic scanner—a scanner that would detect any listening device he —over his entire body with the exception of the artificial left knee that had already set off the metal detector His heartbeat was a little faster than noriven what he was about to do

In a long-ago era he’d been a US marshal He’d protected witnesses with his life, and had the scars to prove it But it had been years since he’d handled field assignments, since he’d put his life on the line Not since he’d assigned hi up Reilly O’Neill—aka Ryan Callahan—and Cody Walker when they confronted David Pennington How long ago was that? he wondered,to add up the years

It had never been about the overnment, his salary and benefits paled in comparison to what he could have earned elsewhere, sofactor for hiri for He was no different

Incorruptible Everyone who knew him believed as much in his incorruptibility as in his omniscience So no one would suspect what he was about to do No one And that dovetailed nicely with his overall plan

“If you need a rest stop,” Liam told Cate when they were back on the road, “don’t hesitate to tell et women usually need to stop more often”

“Okay” There was a hint of reserve in her voice, a little shyness, and Liauessed this probably wasn’t a conversation she was used to having She glanced down at the bag in her hands—the one she’d refused to let Liae—then over at him “Thank you You have no idea how much I appreciate this, and Iwellthank you”

“My pleasure” And it was, he realized—just as ht He’d never given a wolow in her eyes at the thought of owning so iven her expensive jewelry it wouldn’t have meant as much to her

They whiled away the next hours talking about books they’d read Liam was surprised and yet not surprised to learn they’d read some of the same books, and had similar takes on them

“Wasn’t it unbelievable how Isaac Cline played such a critical role in two of the worst natural disasters in US history?” Cate asked, referring to both Erik Larson’s Isaac’s Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History and John M Barry’s Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America “And because of him, because of his actions so many years apart, both disasters were immeasurably worse than they could have been”