Rafe had killed David Belmont, because of her. She’d liked David a lot. He owned his own coffee-house and was proud of it. He was funny and smart, and he’d taken a chance on her. She liked Bernard as well. He wrote great poetry and lived in a fantasy world, another era, but still, he was a unique and wonderful man and he didn’t deserve to die at the hands of a madman. She didn’t know Jase, only that once he’d drunkenly made a pass at her and displayed incredibly bad judgment. Eli had taken care of the situation and that should have been the end of it. The man probably didn’t even know her last name, and he certainly hadn’t deserved to die just because he’d crossed paths with her.

If she didn’t help Jake and Eli bring Rafe’s business down, someone else would take his place. They wouldn’t hunt in the swamp, but they killed in their own ways, by running drugs, and arms. By beating up and cheating the prostitutes who worked for them. Or giving the women to men like Rafe who murdered them.

She had no choice. There was no other choice. Her heart ached and she felt guilty, but even if she was silly enough to think she could help Rafe by going back to him, she knew she couldn’t. He was too far gone. Whatever had happened to him in his childhood, whatever had transformed him into a monster had a hold of him and wouldn’t let him go. She couldn’t save him. Sacrificing her happiness and Eli’s wouldn’t solve anything at all.

She shifted on the path, needing Eli’s arms around her. Needing the solid weight of his body surrounding hers. She didn’t try to stand, the heavy male’s head still was over hers, but she felt no fear. His fur was slick with rain, but soft and comforting against her bare skin.

Then Eli was there, his body wrapped around hers. His chest was over her back and his breath was warm on the nape of her neck. One arm slid around her waist.

“What is it, Kitten?” he asked softly. “Tell me what you need.”

Tell me what you need. His voice was there to steady her. A soft whisper of truth. All she had to do was say it, want it, wish for it, and Eli moved heaven and earth to provide it for her.

“You. I need you, Eli,” she answered, staring out into the trees, into the dark. She should have been afraid, on her hands and knees there in the rain, out in the open on a narrow path, with lightning forking in the distance and thunder rolling loudly. She should have been cold, but she wasn’t.