I looked across the car, and after his eyes flicked to the rearview mirror, he pulled off to the side of the road. My gut clenched. Damn it, why did I have to like him? Why couldn’t I like nice men? Why did the power and personal strength that attracted me always seem to translate into callous disregard for other people’s lives?

My body shifted forward and back when he came to a sudden halt. The car shook as traffic continued to pass us at eighty miles an hour, but here it was still. Kisten shifted in his seat to face me, reaching over the gearshift to cradle my hands in my lap. His day-old stubble glinted in the lights from the oncoming traffic across the median, and his blue eyes were pinched.

“Rachel,” he said, and I held my breath hoping he was going to tell me it had all been a mistake. “I arranged to have that bomb strapped to the boiler.”

I closed my eyes.

“I didn’t intend for those people to die. I called Saladan,” he continued, and I opened my eyes when a passing truck shook us. “I told Candice there was a bomb on his boat. Hell, I told her where it was and that if they touched it, it would detonate. I gave them plenty of time to get everyone off. I wasn’t trying to kill people, I was trying to make a media circus and sink his business. It never occurred to me he would walk away and leave them to die. I misjudged him,” he said, a bitter recrimination in his voice, “and they paid for my shortsightedness with their lives. God, Rachel, if I even guessed he would do that, I’d have found another way. That you were on that boat…” He took a breath. “I almost killed you….”

I swallowed hard, feeling the lump in my throat grow less. “But you’ve killed people before,” I said, knowing the problem wasn’t tonight but a history of belonging to Piscary and having to carry out his will.

Kisten leaned back though his hands never left mine. “I killed my first person when I was eighteen.”

Oh God. I tried to pull away, but he gently tightened his grip. “You need to hear this,” he said. “If you want to walk away, I want you to know the truth so you don’t come back. And if you stay, then it’s not because you made a decision based on too little information.”

Steeling myself, I looked at his eyes, gauging them sincere, and perhaps carrying a hint of guilt and past hurt. “You’ve done this before,” I whispered, feeling afraid. I was one in a string of women. They had all left. Maybe they were smarter than me.