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“You kno victims are,” Faith continued, and Sophie stiffened at her sympathetic tone “Flashbacks are common It’s—”

“I’ from some kind of post-traumatic stress,” Sophie snapped back “There was aover loves He touched me He…he had a knife”

“Did you see his face?”

“It was dark I just had an i” She reerous

“If he wore gloves, you knoon’t find any prints”

Sophie’s shoulders straightened Yes, she knew that

“And there’s no sign of any forced entry With the exception of the front door, all of your s and doors were locked when the cops arrived”

“He was here,” Sophie said and e

ven to her own ears, she sounded a bit desperate

Faith rocked back on her heels Her badge—clipped to her belt—gleaht on the porch “I’ll keep a patrol in the area tonight”

Forget that Sophie would be finding a hotel rooht She turned away from Faith and stared out into the darkness “He said that he planned to kill Daniel Duvato”

Silence

Sophie sed “He said that he orried about me That he had to make sure I was safe” Her hand dropped to her side Her pajama top had torn—no, not torn The knife had sliced it open She’d been lucky that the blade hadn’t sliced into her skin “But you don’t keep so a knife in the ht when you want to hurt someone

“I’ll ainst hiet my team to do another sweep”

But Sophie already knew that sould turn up nothing Her attacker had been too well prepared

Gloves A knife Just what all had he planned for me?

She looked over her shoulder at the detective

“When he spoke,” Faith said slowly, “did you recognize his voice?”

“He was ” And she had wondered if he was trying to disguise his voice Sophie shook her head “No, I didn’t recognize it”

“A woman in your position has probably made a lot of enemies over the years”

My position?

“Maybe one of those ene in” Faith took another step toward her The porch creaked beneath her “Getting yourself soht not be a bad idea At least, not until I can figure out what’s going on”

Protection Sophie eased out a slow breath “And let uess…you have a recommendation for me, don’t you?”

Faith nodded “I happen to know a few ht be able to help you out in a situation like this one”

She already knew exactly who those men were, even before Faith said—

“VJS Protection If Chance, Lex, or Dev are on the case, you’ll stay safe”

Her heart raced even faster in her chest She was familiar with VJS Protection, and with one of those h on their friend list”

“If you’re a paying client, they’ll take the job No matter what you’ve done in the past”

Ah, but Faith had no idea just what Sophie had done She didn’t know about all of the very twisted and deadly secrets that Sophie carried with her