“There isn’t time. With your cooperation, Miss Palmer, we can end this. Without it, it could take months.”

Months? she thought. Another day would be a lifetime. “I’ll do it.”

Jonas was beside her in a heartbeat, pulling her off the couch. “Liz—”

“My daughter comes home in two weeks.” She put her hands on his arms. “She won’t come back to anything like this.”

“Take her someplace else.” Jonas gripped her shoulders until his fingers dug into flesh. “We’ll go someplace else.”

“Where?” she demanded. “Every day I tell myself I’m pulling away from this thing and every day it’s a lie. I’ve been in it since Jerry walked in the door. We can’t change that. Until it’s over, really over, nothing’s going to be right.”

He knew she was right, had known it from the first moment. But too much had changed. There was a desperation in him now that he’d never expected to feel. It was all for her. “Come back to the States with me. It will be over.”

“Will it? Will you forget your brother was murdered? Will you forget the man who killed him?” His fingers tightened, his eyes darkened, but he said nothing. Her breath came out in a sigh of acceptance. “No, it won’t be over until we finish it. I’ve run before, Jonas. I promised myself I’d never run again.”

“You could be killed.”

“I’ve done nothing and they’ve nearly killed me twice.” She dropped her head on his chest. “Please help me.”

He couldn’t force her to bend his way. Two of the things he most admired in her were her capacity to give and her will to stand firm. He could plead with her, he could argue, but he could never lie. If she ran, if they ran, they’d never be free of it. His arm came around her. Her hair smelled of summer and sea air. And before the summer ended, he promised himself, she’d be free. They’d both be free.

“I go with her.” He met Moralas’s eyes over her head.

“That may not be possible.”

“I’ll make it possible.”

CHAPTER 11

She’d never been more frightened in her life. Every day she worked in the shop, waiting for Scott Trydent to approach. Every evening she locked up, went home and waited for the phone to ring. Jonas said little. She no longer knew what he did with the hours they were apart, but she was aware that he was planning his own move, in his own time. It only frightened her more.