If he wanted to, Alex could learn the source, even with those sealed records. The news stories about kids hacking into major corporations and taking money were out there somewhere on the Internet even though she’d tried to erase them.

“You’re right. I have no tangible evidence, and it would just be a waste of time, and the clock is already ticking down. But more than that, I would have to give up my source and put him in danger and possibly destroy my own career because of our connection, with nothing really to go on but a cryptic message.”

And Nora’s palpable fear.

Alex dropped his head forward with a sigh, then angled his face to her. “This is going to seem out of nowhere, but I have dinner plans with friends, and you’re coming with me.”

Not “would you like to join me for dinner?” But “you’re coming with me.” In the middle of this, whatever this was, she couldn’t just—

Alex closed the distance and took her hand. “Please. Will you please come with me to dinner?”

Well, when you put it like that . . .

But with the way he’d cut off their serious discussion with talk of dinner, she couldn’t be sure if he was taking any of what she’d told him seriously, especially since she had no evidence. Maybe she had been wrong about coming to him for help.

It wouldn’t be her first mistake.

TEN

Even here at Stone Wolf Ranch, surrounded by a thousand acres of a working farm and ranch, cows, sheep and horses, equestrian therapy, and the friends he’d left behind when he fled Montana, Alex kept his protective instincts high. He wasn’t sure what to do about the warning signals going off in his brain when it came to Mackenzie Hanson.

Warning signals he had no practical knowledge of, even given his extensive experience as an RSO—regional security officer, the name given to DSS agents on foreign soil—in a high-threat region. He wished he hadn’t thought about that and took a few calming breaths to push those memories out of his mind. He had to focus on the here and now and be in the present.

With Mackenzie.

Protect Mackenzie.

He’d followed her back to the Hanson cabin and waited downstairs while she changed out of her cargo pants and T-shirt. When she returned, her hair was pulled high into a ponytail, the curled tresses hanging down her shoulders to reveal her long, elegant neck.

She stayed next to him as they approached the front door of the sprawling ranch house that sat in the shadows of Stone Wolf Mountain to the west.

She stopped. “Alex . . . are you sure about this?”

He angled toward her. She hugged herself, and her eyes flitted around. Anyone could see that she was nervous and edgy.